neier61_Photo by Anthony KwanGetty Images_coronaviruschinadoctorvigil

Čínský velký skok do epidemie

Feb 20, 2020 Aryeh Neier

NEW YORK – Ještě než svět vůbec něco tušil o novém koronaviru, který vyvolal celosvětovou paniku, všiml si wuchanský oftalmolog Li Wen-liang u několika pacientů čehosi zvláštního. Zdálo se mu, že se nakazili neznámým virem připomínajícím těžký akutní respirační syndrom (SARS), který o generaci dříve ochromil Čínu. Když po pár dnech zaslal tento 34letý lékař varovný vzkaz několika kolegům ve skupinovém chatu, obdržel předvolání na policii, která ho donutila podepsat dopis, v němž se přiznává k „šíření falešných poznámek rozvracejících společenský řád“. Li už dnes nežije; stal se obětí viru, kvůli němuž začal burcovat na poplach – viru označovaného dnes jako COVID-19.

Liova smrt – spolu s dalšími odhaleními snahy čínských orgánů umlčet osoby upozorňující na COVID-19 – právem vyvolala po celém světě rozhořčení. Kdyby se vláda více zajímala o ochranu veřejného zdraví a méně o zamlčování nepříjemných informací, možná mohla zabránit šíření viru. Dosud se virem COVID-19 nakazilo pouze v Číně přes 74 000 osob, z nichž více než 2000 zemřelo.

Navíc to není poprvé, kdy odepírání svobody projevu přímo souviselo se smrtelnou zdravotnickou krizí v Číně. Když v roce 2002 vypukla epidemie SARS, čínské úřady se ji rovněž zpočátku snažily ututlat.

We hope you're enjoying Project Syndicate.

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Already have an account? Log in

Support High-Quality Commentary

For more than 25 years, Project Syndicate has been guided by a simple credo: All people deserve access to a broad range of views by the world's foremost leaders and thinkers on the issues, events, and forces shaping their lives. At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, that mission is more important than ever – and we remain committed to fulfilling it.

But there is no doubt that we, like so many other media organizations nowadays, are under growing strain. If you are in a position to support us, please subscribe now.

As a subscriber, you will enjoy unlimited access to our On Point suite of long reads and book reviews, Say More contributor interviews, The Year Ahead magazine, the full PS archive, and much more. You will also directly support our mission of delivering the highest-quality commentary on the world's most pressing issues to as wide an audience as possible.

By helping us to build a truly open world of ideas, every PS subscriber makes a real difference. Thank you.

Subscribe Now

new comment has been posted. new comments have been posted.

0 Comments on this paragraph, 1 in all 1 Comments on this article

Godfree Roberts Feb 21, 2020

"Between 1958 and 1962, the inability to criticize bad policy led to a famine that killed an estimated 36 million Chinese."

Rubbish. In 1958, Mao wrote, To all cadres at all levels: "I want to address a problem with our agriculture. Please ignore top-down crop targets and stick to what is feasible. Thirty percent, even sixty percent higher yield than last year would be excellent, but what’s the point of boasting about four hundred percent when that’s simply impossible? As for dense planting, let old, middle-aged and younger farmers discuss it and decide it within your own production teams. Save your food! Preserve it well, build a reserve for future emergencies. We can’t afford boasting or empty talk for at least ten years. Make high yields in small fields your immediate goal because mechanization will take at least ten years so, for next three years, we must simply farm more acreage. Plant on large scale. Set up research institutes for farming tools. Fertilizer is very important. So many lies are caused by pressure from superiors who boast and pressure those below them and they’re difficult to deal with. Speak the truth. Promise only the number you can really deliver. Don’t pretend you can ‘do it with effort’ when you actually can’t. Just report how much the harvest really is. If the reality is not as low as I predict–if a real, high outcome makes me a look like an out-of-touch conservative–I’ll thank heaven and earth. – Mao Zedong, Chairman.

The author of this allegation is a member of Human Rights Watch, front for the US Government, George Soros and associated other criminals that regularly supports U.S.-backed right-wing coups.

For example: Bolivia is currently in turmoil after President Evo Morales was deposed in a U.S.-supported coup d’état on November 10. The new coup government forced Morales into exile, began arresting politicians and journalists while pre-exonerating security services of all crimes committed during the “re-establishment of order,” effectively giving them a license to kill all resistance to their rule. Dozens have died and massacres of indigenous protesters have occurred in the city of Cochabamba and the small town of Senkata.
In confusing and alarming situations such as these, millions of people around the world look to international human rights organizations for leadership and guidance. However, far from standing up for the oppressed, Human Rights Watch has effectively endorsed the events. In its official communiqué, it refrained from using the word coup, insisting Morales “resigned”, its Americas Director José Miguel Vivanco claiming the President stepped down “after weeks of civil unrest and violent clashes” and does not even mention opposition violence against his party or the role of the military in demanding, at gunpoint, that he resign. Therefore, Morales mysteriously “traveled to Mexico,” in the organization’s words, rather than fleeing there to escape arrest. Instead, it tacitly endorses the new government, advising it to “prioritize rights.”
Human Rights Watch Director Kenneth Roth went further, presenting the elected head of state fleeing the country at gunpoint as a refreshing step forward for democracy, claiming that Morales was “the casualty of a counter-revolution aimed at defending democracy…against electoral fraud and his own illegal candidacy,” noting that Morales had ordered the army to shoot protesters. –November 20th, 2019 By Alan Macleod
A new reply to this comment has been posted.

https://prosyn.org/pkzoFD7cs

Cookies and Privacy

Čínský velký skok do epidemie

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Support High-Quality Commentary

New Comment

Email this piece to a friend

Contact us

Log in/Register

Cookies and Privacy

Čínský velký skok do epidemie

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Support High-Quality Commentary

Edit Newsletter Preferences

Set up Notification