TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A declaration of "Hunan independence" has been widely shared on Chinese social media over the past week, as Chinese citizens question the validity of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its bungled handling of the massive Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

On Feb. 10, an image surfaced on the overseas Chinese online forum Pingcong Rocks (品蔥網) which read, "Hunan Independence Declaration. Hunan Provisional Government. Feb. 10, 2020. Changsha." The post announces the province is declaring independence, with a provisional government based in the city of Changsha and calls on all provinces to revolt and overthrow the CCP, establish a democratically elected congress, and rebuild a federal republic.

By Feb. 13, the image also appeared on the Chinese dissident news site Conscience Media and included more details about the group's manifesto. The authors of the declaration wrote that whenever a disaster occurs, "The totalitarian autocracy can only maintain its tyranny by cursing people's lives, blocking people's ears, and (binding) people's hands and feet repeatedly, so that people lose the opportunity and ability to alert themselves and rescue themselves."

According to the manifesto, the number of people infected with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Hunan province is officially listed as 800, but the exact number could be much higher. They write that, "The Xiangjiang River is in a state of emergency, Yuelu [district of Changsha] is in danger, and we Hunan people can only rely on ourselves for help."

The document then states that, in the past, the people of Wuhan in Hubei Province called on all walks of life to rise up and establish a temporary government in Wuhan 108 years ago. Hunan was the first region to respond to the Wuchang Uprising by declaring itself independent, with Changsha as its capital, according to the manifesto's writers.

The declaration stressed the people of Hunan should follow the example of the pioneers of the Republic of China: "In response to the declaration of independence by Hubei Province on Feb. 2, 2020, the Gengzi Insurrection establishes the Hunan Interim Government, declares the independence of Hunan Province, and breaks away from the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party."

The manifesto pointed out that in 1920 Mao Zedong (毛澤東) put forward the concept of the "Republic of Hunan." Now, "The people of all the counties and villages in our province, the elite and professionals in all walks of life, the people with lofty ideals who yearn for for freedom, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, act to save themselves and save our country."

The authors then added: "We earnestly appeal to people with lofty ideals from all over the country to take this opportunity to respond to Hubei, to rise up to save themselves, to gather together as a torrent, to finish this task, and to overthrow tyranny. Afterward, all the provinces should gather together, re-enact laws, build a democratically elected parliament, and re-establish a constitutional democracy and a free federal republic!"

The Conscience Media post was shared on Feb. 13, on the Twitter account CCP is Over.