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Beijing regains control of information
Coronavirus Chinese power imposes strict control on the population and the media in the "battle against the epidemic".
Zhifan Liu
Beijing
ABO +
02/06/2020
The President of China has whistled for the end of recess. After a period of relative openness, conducive to criticism, Xi Jinping called earlier this week to "strengthen control" online of information. In the viewfinder, the reproaches of the population who initially focused on the attitude of the local authorities of Wuhan and Hubei province, the focus of the epidemic. Subsequently, the discontent went to the central authorities, an unacceptable step for the Chinese authorities. Since Xi Jinping's announcement, several WeChat accounts of citizens complaining about their government have been suspended, both in China and abroad.
The other victim is the Chinese press. Muzzled since the arrival of the president at the head of the country in 2012, it had found some of its letters of nobility, with in chief the financial magazine "Caixin", founded in 2010. Considered independent, the newspaper has sent his reporters to Wuhan to cover the start of the epidemic. The latter decided to remain in the city at the dawn of its quarantine. On the ground, its reporters uncovered the loopholes in the local health system, interviewed critical experts in the management of the crisis by the Chinese authorities and relayed the cases of people with coronavirus who were not treated for lack of available medical equipment.
Freedom of your fleeting
In a forum of rare freedom of tone, "Caixin" even called for more transparency in the disclosure of information. "President Xi Jinping said," The epidemic is a devil, and we must not let it hide. "But the devil is in the details and, if the process is not transparent, it will inevitably have a hiding place. ”A citizen journalist, Fang Bin, was arrested and then released by police officers dressed as medical staff, for having posted videos of dead patients online in the corridors of a hospital in Wuhan.
State media has taken over and is now spreading the good news, while stubbornly beating up the United States and its restrictive measures against Chinese travelers. Xinhua, the official news agency, called on the propaganda to focus on "touching achievements from the front lines in preventing the epidemic" and to "show the unity and spirit of the Chinese people in moments difficult ". In the process, more than 300 journalists from official bodies were sent to the field by the Central Propaganda Department.
This recovery shows a certain tension at the head of the state, while Xi Jinping has shone by his absence last week. If his name still appeared in the propaganda articles, his face was missing from the front page of the "People's Daily", China's main newspaper. He reappeared Wednesday during the visit of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. An ally of China, whom he considers a "friendly country", the authoritarian leader boasted that he had not suspended travel to China and even offered to visit the center of the epidemic, as a sign of good will.
In Wuhan, some 50 million citizens are still subjected to forced isolation. Drones watch the city and remind the reckless daring to go out on the street to return home "for their own safety". Other regions are subject to similar quarantines. In the east of the country, the cities of Hangzhou, Ningbo, Taizhou and Wenzhou (27 million people in all) have put restrictions on their inhabitants. In each household, only one member can go out every two days to go shopping.
A panic-stricken population
In Beijing, no official quarantine, but the streets are deserted by a panic-stricken population, while the death toll of the coronavirus in the capital amounts to 274 cases for one death. Despite extended holidays until next Monday, some Beijingers have returned to their city. Upon their return, they had to submit to a temperature control outside their residence. Many impose isolation to protect themselves from the virus. “I came back this weekend from Liaoning Province. Since then, I have been confined to my home for fourteen days as a precaution, ”explains Qiang, a young Pekingese who has been teleworking since the start of the week.
Some residences require residents of foreign provinces to remain in solitary confinement for two weeks, the incubation period for the coronavirus. At the entrance to the subdivisions, guards monitor the temperature of each resident. People who do not have an apartment are prohibited from crossing the gates. Afraid of being contaminated, people have little choice but to accept all of these drastic measures, while dissonant voices are being stifled by Chinese power.
Created: 06.02.2020, 19h58
https://www.tdg.ch/monde/pekin-reprend-controleinformation/story/10478404
