BEIJING, Feb 15 — China’s government is purging unpopular local officials and commandeering heroic stories of doctors on the frontline as it tries to shield itself from public rage over the handling of the deadly coronavirus epidemic. Facing the biggest challenge of his presidency, Communist...
Saturday, 15 Feb 2020 12:23 PM MYT
Images of doctors and nurses in masks and full protective suits, leaving their families behind to care for patients, have dominated the airwaves. On Thursday, the political chiefs of Hubei and Wuhan were sacked and replaced with Xi loyalists with security backgrounds. The province’s top two health officials were also fired.
Authorities reacted quickly, sacking the local Red Cross vice president Zhang Qin for dereliction of duty.The death of Li Wenliang, a whistleblowing doctor punished in January by Wuhan police for sending text messages about the illness, prompted a national outpouring of grief and anger that Beijing was quick to redirect towards local officials.
Chinese ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming denied in a BBC interview that “Chinese authorities” had punished Li, emphasising it was local authorities who had done so.
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