China is a country in lockdown.

About 60 million people have been in forced quarantine in the central province of Hubei for nearly two months, as the government tries to fight the coronavirus outbreak that began in its provincial capital of Wuhan late last year.

By taking drastic and what some have called 'draconian' measures, China appears to have slowed down the coronavirus, but experts and advocacy groups worry it has come at a high cost.

"The case of Li Wenliang is a tragic reminder of how the Chinese authorities’ preoccupation with maintaining 'stability' drives it to suppress vital information about matters of public interest," Amnesty International's Regional Director Nicholas Bequelin said in a statement.

"China must adopt a rights-respecting approach to combating the epidemic. Nobody should face harassment or sanctions for speaking out about public dangers, just because it may cause embarrassment to the government."

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Doctor who died

Li, a 34-year-old eye doctor, was one of the first to raise the alarm about what was then a mysterious new virus, expressing his concerns with other medics in a private online chat.

After the post was shared more widely, he was reprimanded by police.

Last month, he died from the disease, triggering a public outcry and demands for freedom of speech.







People attend a vigil in Hong Kong on 7 February, 2020 for novel coronavirus whistleblowing doctor Li Wenliang (pictured C), 34, who died in Wuhan after contracting the virus while treating a patient. (Anthony Wallace/AFP).

The virus that causes the disease, also known as COVID-19, is thought to have emerged in one of Wuhan's food markets late last year, but even as Dr Li wondered about the new illness with his friends, the local government appeared to downplay what was happening.



It was only a few days before the Lunar New Year in January that decisive action was taken.

Transport links were cut, roadblocks appeared, and the province's 56 million residents were effectively sealed off from the outside world. They were ordered to wear masks, stay indoors and report their body temperatures every day.



Sharon Hom, executive director of China Human Rights in China, an international NGO, says access to information along with restrictions on content and dissemination of information, remain as key tools of social control in China.





Since the outbreak began her organisation has tracked a number of cases where people who posted critical reporting of the authorities' "inadequate responses" to the handling of the epidemic appear to have been "disappeared".



The Chinese human rights lawyer, Chen Qiushi, was taken away on 7 February and apparently "put under quarantine" for 24 days. There is no publicly available information on his situation. Quishi became well known for his coverage of the Hong Kong protests as well as the coronavirus.

Another citizen journalist, Fang Bin, a businessman from Wuhan, has not been heard from since he disappeared in February, while Li Zihua, a former CCTV7 journalist, disappeared on 26 February when a group of unidentified men came to his home and took him away.