| Time | Text |
|---|---|
|
Cover-Up and Punishment
00:05:31
|
|
| The recent epidemic in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, has spread rapidly. | |
| The authority reported on January 28th that an asymptomatic infected patient had infected more than 140 people leading to the outbreak. | |
| The Public Security Bureau and the Prosecutor's Office of Tonghua City announced that they would start an investigation into this patient. | |
| However, it is believed that a cover-up by local officials led to the spread of the epidemic and the responsibility was shifted to an ordinary citizen. | |
| On January 28th, an official announcement on the patient zero who led to the outbreak in Tonghua became a hot topic on Chinese social media. | |
| The announcement said that the 45-year-old man, surnamed Lin, is an asymptomatic infected patient and the main source of the local outbreak. | |
| According to the announcement, the patient is a native of Hulan district, Habin city, Heilongjiang province. | |
| In early January, he was invited by a store in Dongchang district, Tonghua city, To promote products for sale, resulting in the infection of more than 140 people. | |
| Days earlier, the Gillian Provincial Procuratorate's official WeChat account also released similar information. | |
| The Gillian Procuratorate's notice said that the public security authorities had opened a case on the 17th to investigate his crime of obstructing the prevention and control of infectious diseases. | |
| The Procuratorate also intervened in advance to initiate a public prosecution guiding the investigating authorities to obtain evidence. | |
| This is very, very absurd. | |
| If this person is on a normal business trip, no matter what the situation is, visiting friends or relatives, traveling, this is basic human freedom. | |
| He himself did not know beforehand whether he had been infected, so he simply did not have the motive subjectively to commit a crime. | |
| Lai Jianping noted that this case is a typical example of the politicization and administration of legal issues under an authoritarian system. | |
| Everything is based on political needs, whether it is a crime or not, and what kind of crime it constitutes. | |
| These are not according to the general principles of law. | |
| No penalty without a law is a basic legal principle. | |
| But in authoritarian countries, criminal offenses are politicized and convicted according to political needs. | |
| Mr. | |
| Liu, a local source in Tonghua, confirmed to Radio Free Asia that the store owners involved in this case were not only arrested, but their store was also sealed by the government. | |
| The impact on the surrounding area now is even greater, and how many people were taken away by the authorities is unknown to the public. | |
| There are some local officials who are inept in controlling the epidemic, and they take an ordinary citizen, a sick person, to report to their superiors or to pacify public opinion and shift the focus of conflict. | |
| This patient himself is also a victim. | |
| He himself is very helpless, and yet you treat him as a criminal. | |
| So this is ridiculous to the extreme. | |
| The government's approach is very unpopular. | |
| On the Chinese social media platform Weibo, netizens also questioned whether the government's approach was reasonable. | |
| A netizen said, Isn't this a normal business activity? | |
| Why is it a crime? | |
| So being sick will be sentenced. | |
| Another said, Can you be more specific? | |
| Why is it a crime for a person from Heilongjiang to go to Tonghua to do sales promotion? | |
| Did he sneak to Tonghua knowing he was infected, or by escaping from a quarantine site? | |
| None of this is clear. | |
| How can he be convicted? | |
| This is unreasonable. | |
| If such patients should be punished, I think the leaders of the central government should punish themselves first. | |
| The patient committed no crime. | |
| How could he know that? | |
| Even you didn't know. | |
| You controlled everything so strictly, yet one person may it should infect so many people. | |
| If this person should be punished, will you also punish people who died of other diseases? | |
| Mezhuang, a mainland Chinese, believes that the problem in Tonghua is not the patient zero. | |
| But the serious dereliction of duty by the local government agencies. | |
| This is the case. | |
| The case of the situation is how to do it. | |
| Do you have a case of the situation? | |
| You've even been hiding how exactly the epidemic came about. | |
| The person infected is a victim himself. | |
| Once there were infected patients, you began to seal off buildings and lock down cities. | |
| You do not treat people as human beings. | |
| You control the whole city for your political achievements, put healthy and infected people together. | |
| Healthy people also got infected. | |
| You do not even think about your own crimes. | |
| What qualifications do you have to convict a patient of crimes? | |
| It is believed that the Chinese Communist Party's cover-up caused the epidemic to get out of control and deteriorate the people's livelihoods. | |
| Instead of providing support, the government is frighteningly adding insult to injury. | |
| Now, Jilin Province is taking an even more brutal approach to suppressing these grassroots people who are struggling to survive and make ends meet. | |
| Due to the new restrictions on social media our channel may be affected. | |
| If you'd like to stay tuned to our channel and receive notifications and updates please provide us with your email by clicking the link below. | |