Richard McGregor, The Guardian; The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the deep flaws of Xi’s autocracy
"The authoritarian strictures of the Chinese party state place a
premium on the control of information in the name of maintaining
stability. In such a system, lower-level officials have no incentive to
report bad news up the line. Under Xi, such restrictions have grown
tighter.
In Wuhan, Li and seven of his fellow doctors had been talking among
themselves in an internet chat group about a new cluster of viral
infections. They stopped after being warned by police. By the time the
authorities reacted and quarantined the city, it was too late.
Li was neither a dissident nor a pro-democracy activist seeking to
overthrow the Communist party. But he was risking jail to even discuss
the virus. For in Xi’s China, the professional classes – doctors,
lawyers, journalists and the like – all must subsume their skills and
ethics to the political directives of the moment."
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