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There has been a climate of fear since Beijing announced it had defeated the coronavirus within the boundaries of China. Any voice that hints a criticism of Xi Jinping's actions during the outbreak has been duly dealt with in post-pandemic China. In extreme cases, there have been reports of house arrests and missing persons.

The courageous citizen journalists Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua, who tried to report freely about the situation in Wuhan, are now missing. Property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang was reported missing by friends after writing an essay criticising President Xi and the Chinese government for silencing coronavirus whistleblowers, with the latest reports suggesting he is being detained in Chinese government custody. Ren Zhiqiang wrote that “without a media representing the interests of the people by publishing the actual facts, the people’s lives are being ravaged by both the virus and the major illness of the system". Doctor Ai Fen, a whistleblower who criticised Beijing’s censorship of information about the coronavirus epidemic now remains barred from communicating with media. At this difficult time for frontline doctors and nurses, sign up here to show your support now to our brave NHS Heroes.

The race is on to find a vaccine for coronavirus

This dramatic post-pandemic purge, coupled with the particularly negligent and conceitful circumstances around the reprimanding of the late Doctor Li Wenliang, who tried to warn authorities when Covid-19 was first detected, has drawn many academics to take a stand. A call for change within China was poignantly pronounced by Doctor Li on his deathbed, when he said, "there should be more than one voice in a healthy society." China, which operates under one-party government rule, has faced substantial criticism from western leaders and human rights groups for its early efforts to suppress information about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. The letter pointed out the systematic failures of the Chinese authorities and lack of transparency in the face of what has become a world-changing crisis. The letter stated: "The roots of the pandemic are in a cover-up by CCP authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province. DON'T MISS: World War 3: How border dispute threatens war between India and China

The race is on to find a vaccine for coronavirus

President Xi Jinping

The letter was in response to a carefully constructed declaration made by 100 hand-picked scholars from within China who, at the behest of the CCP regime, issued a statement that framed the origin and spread of coronavirus with a new narrative. This new, airbrushed narrative that calls into question the origins of the virus befits Xi Jinping's efforts to capitalise on his victory over the pathogen that may have come from outside China. On April 2 2020 a group of one hundred Chinese establishment scholars wrote an open letter decrying the "many critical voices politicising the COVID-19 pandemic". They stated that "at this stage of the pandemic, the exact source and origin of COVID-19 remain undetermined, but these questions are unimportant and finger-pointing is demeaning and hurtful to everyone". By claiming the origin of the virus is still unknown reinforces Beijing's recent nuances that the virus did not come from China. The letter from the Chinese scholars added: “Political bickering does nothing to contribute to the healthy development of Sino-US relations, nor will it help the people of the world to rationally and accurately understand and cope with the pandemic. “In the end we will all respect the final determination of scientists. “Like many other countries, China is a victim of the virus, but also a success story overcoming it, and it is willing to work with people of other countries to stop the spread of the pandemic.”

The race is on to find a vaccine for coronavirus

Xi Jinping President of China

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