Epoch Times - China Treats Asymptomatic Patient Like a Criminal | Epoch News | China Insider
Aired: 2021-02-03
Duration: 05:32


=== Cover-Up and Punishment (05:31) ===

[00:00:00]  The recent epidemic in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, has spread rapidly.
[00:00:05]  The authority reported on January 28th that an asymptomatic infected patient had infected more than 140 people leading to the outbreak.
[00:00:13]  The Public Security Bureau and the Prosecutor's Office of Tonghua City announced that they would start an investigation into this patient.
[00:00:20]  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.
[00:00:29]  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.
[00:00:37]  The announcement said that the 45-year-old man, surnamed Lin, is an asymptomatic infected patient and the main source of the local outbreak.
[00:00:45]  According to the announcement, the patient is a native of Hulan district, Habin city, Heilongjiang province.
[00:00:52]  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.
[00:01:03]  Days earlier, the Gillian Provincial Procuratorate's official WeChat account also released similar information.
[00:01:10]  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.
[00:01:22]  The Procuratorate also intervened in advance to initiate a public prosecution guiding the investigating authorities to obtain evidence.
[00:01:33]  This is very, very absurd.
[00:01:35]  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.
[00:01:45]  He himself did not know beforehand whether he had been infected, so he simply did not have the motive subjectively to commit a crime.
[00:01:54]  Lai Jianping noted that this case is a typical example of the politicization and administration of legal issues under an authoritarian system.
[00:02:09]  Everything is based on political needs, whether it is a crime or not, and what kind of crime it constitutes.
[00:02:16]  These are not according to the general principles of law.
[00:02:20]  No penalty without a law is a basic legal principle.
[00:02:24]  But in authoritarian countries, criminal offenses are politicized and convicted according to political needs.
[00:02:32]  Mr.
[00:02:33]  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.
[00:02:43]  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.
[00:02:55]  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.
[00:03:09]  This patient himself is also a victim.
[00:03:11]  He himself is very helpless, and yet you treat him as a criminal.
[00:03:16]  So this is ridiculous to the extreme.
[00:03:19]  The government's approach is very unpopular.
[00:03:22]  On the Chinese social media platform Weibo, netizens also questioned whether the government's approach was reasonable.
[00:03:29]  A netizen said, Isn't this a normal business activity?
[00:03:32]  Why is it a crime?
[00:03:34]  So being sick will be sentenced.
[00:03:36]  Another said, Can you be more specific?
[00:03:38]  Why is it a crime for a person from Heilongjiang to go to Tonghua to do sales promotion?
[00:03:44]  Did he sneak to Tonghua knowing he was infected, or by escaping from a quarantine site?
[00:03:50]  None of this is clear.
[00:03:51]  How can he be convicted?
[00:03:52]  This is unreasonable.
[00:03:57]  If such patients should be punished, I think the leaders of the central government should punish themselves first.
[00:04:02]  The patient committed no crime.
[00:04:04]  How could he know that?
[00:04:04]  Even you didn't know.
[00:04:06]  You controlled everything so strictly, yet one person may it should infect so many people.
[00:04:10]  If this person should be punished, will you also punish people who died of other diseases?
[00:04:14]  Mezhuang, a mainland Chinese, believes that the problem in Tonghua is not the patient zero.
[00:04:20]  But the serious dereliction of duty by the local government agencies.
[00:04:25]  This is the case.
[00:04:26]  The case of the situation is how to do it.
[00:04:28]  Do you have a case of the situation?
[00:04:30]  You've even been hiding how exactly the epidemic came about.
[00:04:33]  The person infected is a victim himself.
[00:04:36]  Once there were infected patients, you began to seal off buildings and lock down cities.
[00:04:40]  You do not treat people as human beings.
[00:04:43]  You control the whole city for your political achievements, put healthy and infected people together.
[00:04:48]  Healthy people also got infected.
[00:04:50]  You do not even think about your own crimes.
[00:04:53]  What qualifications do you have to convict a patient of crimes?
[00:04:57]  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.
[00:05:05]  Instead of providing support, the government is frighteningly adding insult to injury.
[00:05:10]  Now, Jilin Province is taking an even more brutal approach to suppressing these grassroots people who are struggling to survive and make ends meet.
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