I’m a Chinese immigrant, so I’m sort of obsessed with what’s happening in my home country.

As an aspiring communications major I’m a bit dumbfounded how China’s version of information control has actually made dealing with the novel coronavirus of 2019 more difficult.

I want basic human rights and freedom of speech for the world. However even now, citizen journalists in Wuhan are going missing. China has a tricky relationship with being transparent to the world over novel virus figures and dealing with the online whispers of well over a billion people.

The situation in China in February is not easy, it’s stressful and panic is setting in as life comes to a stand-still.

However at the beginning of the novel virus, a few citizens were silenced and reprimanded and now one has died.

The doctor, Li Wenliang, who had been silenced by the police after warning about the new coronavirus that has killed hundreds in China and sickened thousands is now dead.

Additionally, Chinese citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin who have served as the world’s eyes and ears inside the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak are likely being silenced.

In a world of information control, even Chinese netizens are freaking out, there’s on WeChat widespread outcry in China over death of coronavirus Doctor Li Wenliang.

Li Wenliang died twice in China’s state media

The 34-year-old doctor who had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus died early Friday. This also goes against what China was saying that it’s the elderly and sick that are most vulnerable. Mortality rate inside the most infected area is close to 4% with an over-reporting of more serious cases, compared with the 2.2% mortality rate of the virus as a whole.

Li Wenliang essentially died twice. Netizens have posted videos of the Les Misérables song, “Do You Hear the People Sing.” They invoked article №35 of China’s Constitution, which stipulates freedom of speech. They tweeted a phrase from the poem “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

There’s something sad about a whistle blower who could have saved lives, dying himself. There’s a miserably irony in that situation.

People are obsessed over the virus in China and the social media outpouring has been immense and quickly morphed into greater frustration with the establishment and its handling of the coronavirus outbreak which has spread globally. Although from the outside, even that is censored.

The conflicting reports over his condition only exacerbated public grief among Chinese netizens who largely considered Li, 34, to be a hero for his early attempt to raise awareness of the coronavirus. Li’s actions caused him to be targeted by the local police, who tried to silence him.

It’s not like he did anything terribly wrong, he just warned some of his colleagues about the market where the virus first spread and his warning went viral in the form of a screenshot. He was only trying to help!

Essentially Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang sounded the alarm in December when he told a group of doctors on Chinese social media about seven cases he saw. He and seven other whistle-blowers were reprimanded by the Wuhan police in January for spreading “illegal and false” information. This virus likely started in China has early as October and slowly spread to become more serious while China did nothing until late January.

Li Wenliang stands for the good-hearted comrade who was only doing his duty to the public. The doctor was reprimanded for his views, and made to sign a letter that said he “was making false comments.” He warned his colleagues at a time when China was denying that there was any human-to-human transmission at all echoing the late actions and lack of transparency that occurred 17 years earlier with SARS.

Now entire cities are silenced in a lock-down, people are not going back to work, stores and factories are shut down, the world’s airlines have stopped many flights to China.

“I don’t think he was rumour-mongering. Hasn’t this turned into reality now?” his father, Li Shuying, told the BBC. “My son was wonderful.”

The 34-year-old had noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars — the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003. This article is my tribute to him, and the entire world now knows how serious the new coronavirus could become.

But we didn’t listen to Li Wenliang, we didn’t respect his professional judgement. On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection. That’s at least 3 weeks before China’s administration took decisive action.

But if you are an enemy of the state for being honest, that’s not good for China’s future. Think of it this way, it’s highly likely that mistrust, low pay, and a tradition of bribery in China’s healthcare system have crippled efforts to contain the Wuhan coronavirus. We have a cultural problem with being honest or transparent. Our society is based on authority, obedience and sacrifice for the collective.

But that sort of bias has a downside in emergencies like these. It took China many more weeks to even accept the help of the CDC. China likely has well over 100,000 real cases of infected Wuhan virus cases as of February 7th, 2020.

Li Wenliang is a martyr of the lack of freedom speech in China even in an age of WeChat, Weibo, Toutiao, Douyin and a hundred other such apps. The novel virus, called 2019-nCoV has exposed our Chinese problems, our methods that aren’t efficient, our pyramid of corruption. It’s embarrassing but we have to admit our faults to the world, this virus is a mirror of our problems of bureaucracy and information control. Censorship is not helpful when scientists in the world work better with transparency, collaboration and information freedom. That’s called Science.

The phrase “We want freedom of speech” begins to trend on Weibo, a Twitter-like website, before it is censored from the platform. Weibo users soon create another hashtag — “I want freedom of speech” — which quickly draws nearly 2 million views. I hope Li Wenliang didn’t die for nothing. I hope my home country can learn from this tragedy.

On the Chinese microblogging site Weibo Friday, the top two trending hashtags were “Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology”. But we won’t get apologies for China’s censorship. Donald Trump and the WHO keep praising China, even America doesn’t have information transparency. Government is profoundly corrupt, and China’s model is likely superior in many ways.

Authorities moved quickly to delete any posts that hinted at protest, for fear that the uproar would spill onto the streets, the Guardian reported. Censorship is very real in China, but some people know the truth. Li Wenliang and this novel virus have exposed many things in China that need to change.

It’s hard to see the current leadership of the Chinese Community Party taking a look at itself. The country’s anti-corruption body said it would open an investigation into “issues involving Dr Li”. China’s leadership had already faced accusations of downplaying the severity of the virus — and initially trying to keep it secret. Dr Li is a martyr and will be remembered.

In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January. People who go into healthcare are often people who want to help others and protect the common good. But in a crisis, anything can happen.

The #IWantFreedomOfSpeech hashtag was censored immediately. China is all about corruption and control, and this new virus has exposed us, it’s exposed us to the world. Most experts now openly question the official figures, and the WHO sound unprepared even as they urge others to get prepared.

China is emotional over Dr. Li because it’s a mirror into our society and the shortcomings of the censorship approach.

“Do not forget how you feel now. Do not forget this anger. We must not let this happen again,”

A photo circulating on Twitter reportedly sourced from messaging platform WeChat showed a message in Chinese saying “Farewell Li Wenliang” written in the snow on a riverbank. Poetic tragedies like this don’t happen very often, but they can be the start of a social awakening. Many believe the novel virus will change Chinese values, and not just be a temporary obstacles for its economy and national tragedy for its citizens.

I have to be honest about where I come from, I have to just remind the world that Beijing’s efforts to manage the coronavirus outbreak have laid bare the worst aspects of China’s command and control system of governance under President Xi Jinping. I could be jailed for saying this. It could impact my future.

Today the novel virus isn’t just a threat, it’s a battle we’ve already lost. It is widely accepted that the laboratory-confirmed cases are just the tip of the iceberg of a potential global pandemic.

“Good people don’t live long, but evil lives for a thousand years,” read another post mourning Li’s death.

Good people should leave China, not simply to escape the new virus, but to realize that censorship and authoritarian control is in part evil and limit human freedom. Meanwhile in my new country(ies) I recognize that I may face discrimination over the Wuhan virus.

The comments ranged from respect and sadness over the loss of a “hero.” A Martyr isn’t true if they didn’t change the hearts of the people. Whatever the destiny of the virus, life will go on. China will have to emerge better.

When a country cares more about “making false comments” or “severely disturbing the social order” than the truth, and being transparent, and good — we have a problem greater than a virus the world has never seen! If this touches you, let’s tell the story of Dr. Li.