in China, five years later, the epidemic remains more taboo than ever

For the Chinese authorities, the Covid-19 epidemic remains a taboo that should no longer be talked about. Five years after the official announcement of the first death from this virus originating in Wuhan in the province of Hubei, the Chinese regime has completely blocked all media that have not said a word about this sad anniversary. has forgotten, testifies a high school teacher in the large coastal city of Hangzhou, but the Communist Party wants to eradicate this Chinese and global drama from our memories. Too sensitive and dangerous.”A long silence from Chinese authoritiesOn January 11, 2020, health authorities in the city of Wuhan, in central China, announced that a 61-year-old man had died from complications of pneumonia caused by a previously unknown virus. The revelation came after authorities reported dozens of infections over several weeks with the pathogen later called SARS-CoV-2 and believed to be the cause of Covid-19 disease. followed by a global pandemic that, to date, has killed more than seven million people and profoundly changed lifestyles around the world, including in China. On Saturday January 11, the official media in Beijing, tightly controlled, did not carry out any commemoration in their columns. The ruling Communist Party has locked down public debate, and has avoided any reflection on the draconian restrictions since it radically abandoned them at the end of 2022. On social media, many users appeared to ignore the anniversary. Some videos circulating on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) mention the date but repeat the official version of events. A number of deaths probably underestimated On the popular Weibo platform, users who gravitate around Li Wenliang’s old account ( the whistleblower doctor who was the subject of a police investigation for spreading early information about the virus) did not directly refer to the anniversary. “Doctor Li, another year has passed,” read a comment on Saturday. “Time flies so quickly.” Online commemorations have also been few in Hong Kong, where Beijing largely silenced opposition voices when it imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020. Unlike Unlike other countries, China has not erected large monuments to those who lost their lives during the pandemic. According to the WHO, China has officially reported nearly 100 million Covid cases and 122,000 deaths to date, although the true number, much larger, will likely never be known.China criticized for covering up the realityLittle information has been given on the identity of the first victim of Covid, except that she assiduously frequented a seafood market in Wuhan where the virus is believed to have circulated. In the days following his death, other countries reported their first cases of the disease, showing that official efforts to contain its spread had failed. China was later criticized by Western governments for covering up transmission of the virus and erased evidence of its origins, although Beijing has vehemently maintained that it acted decisively and with complete transparency. Against all evidence.



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