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China Cracking Down on Those Critical of COVID-19 Response

Xiao Yu

   WASHINGTON - Itwasa familiarphonenumber,fromsecret police officerSun.

   "Where are you? Send me aGPSlocation,"saidSun,a member oftheguobao,an
   armof China'sdomestic securityforcetasked with monitoring dissidentsand
   keeping them in line,said.

   Gao Fei, 32,a native of Huanggang, Hubeiprovince, wasa welder in
   Guangdong province. He got in troubleand met Sun in 2014for
   participating inhuman rightsactivities.

   Gaohas returnedfromZhongshan, Guangzhou provinceto his hometownat the
   end of last year, just as the first cases of a mysterious,
   pneumonia-like virus were showing up at local hospitals.Likeother small
   citiesnear Wuhanwhere COVID-19 originated, Huanggangquickly becameone
   oftheareashardest hitbythe coronavirus.

   Gao knewthe police would cometo himsooner or later.On Jan. 28,the day
   beforeSuncalled, Gao had"climbed the wall"--usedavirtual private
   network(VPN)---to circumvent the Great Firewallthat China uses to
   controlits citizens' access toonline content.

   Beyondthe reach ofBeijing's censoring
   technologies,GaotweetedthatHuangganghospitalswere facingserious supply
   shortages,andthis provedPresidentXi Jinping did not take ordinary
   people's lives seriously. Xi was"anti-human,"asGaoput it.

   "This tweetwas said to havealarmed high-level officials," he told VOA
   Mandarinlast month."County policetold me thatthe Ministry of Public
   Security hadissued instructions toarrest me."

   For seven daysafter Sun called,Gaowasdetained, a step that often
   beginstheformal process that ends with an official arrest,once approved
   by an administrative official.

   "It's completelytherule of man now, there's norule of law," he told
   VOA.'¯"No one'spersonal safety is guaranteed."

   Clamping down

   The COVID-19 pandemic emerged late last year in Wuhan. As ofMarch
   31,Chineseauthorities have reportedroughly 81,000cases and3,300deaths.
   Globally, thecoronavirusraged throughmore than 200 countries and
   territories, sickened809,608and killed39,544as ofthe end of March.

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