CHINA, CENSORSHIP & COVID-19

The shocking story of Dr Li Wenliang - who tried to warn medics about the Coronavirus in December and was promptly silenced by the Chinese government, and later died of the disease himself - will be one that is spoken about, written about and discussed by ethics students for many decades to come.

It is a shocking, heartbreaking and anger-inducing story. Dr Li Wenliang had tried to issue the first warning about the coronavirus to his fellow medics back in December 2019. The doctor had tried to warn his fellow doctors on WhatsApp about the contagious nature of the virus, telling them to wear protective clothing in order to avoid infection.

China's authorities quickly hauled him in and forced him to sign a letter agreeing with the Chinese government's assessment that he had been "making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order", according to a BBC report on the story. He was one of eight people the authoritarian authorities were investigating for supposedly "spreading rumours".

China's government is well known for its authoritarian and heavy-handed censorship of its citizens. Posts on social media that the government does not like are quickly removed by a team of censors, and those who write articles either questioning or daring to criticise the country's leadership - especially President Xi - are quickly punished for their actions.

The silencing of Dr Li cost not only his life but the lives of countless others. 10 days after he had desperately tried to warn his fellow doctors - and the world - about the dangers of the coronavirus, he caught the virus himself whilst working at Wuhan's Central Hospital. His condition quickly deteriorated and he died of the coronavirus.

Even in the aftermath of Dr Li's death, the Chinese authorities were determined to continue their censorship of his warning and his story. On China's heavily-censored social media platform Weibo, the hashtag 'Wuhan government owes Dr Li Wenliang and apology' was soon trending. The hashtag - along with hundreds of comments from outraged members of the public demanding freedom of speech in the aftermath of the doctor's death - were quickly removed from the site by government censors.

An analysis by the BBC's correspondent Stephen McDonell concluded that the incident 'lays bare the worst aspects of China's command and control system of governance under [President] Xi Jinping...if your response to a dangerous health emergency is for police to harass a doctor trying to blow the whistle, then your structure is obviously broken'.

This shocking and devastating incident highlights the wider issue of free speech and state censorship in China. If a doctor is unable to warn his colleagues about a public health crisis - that would turn into a global health pandemic - then how can liberal and democratic governments continue to do business with the Chinese leadership? The Chinese government's disregard for free speech, human rights and even basic respect for a man who had dedicated his life to helping the most sick in society must surely raise serious questions about the relationship President Xi's government has with the western world.

Huawei - a Chinese government owned technology giant - is currently building 5G infrastructure in the UK, having been awarded the contract despite pleas from fellow Western nations such as the United States for the UK to not grant the Chinese government such unprecedented access to UK communications data and infrastructure programmes. Serious questions must now be asked about the relationship with China, its role in the Coronavirus outbreak, and what it means to live in a world where free-speech, human rights and censorship remain massively contentious issues.