Wuhan just revised its COVID-19 death toll up by 50%
Quartz, Apr 17 2020
Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, just revised its death toll up by 1,290 to 3,869, an increase of 50% from its previous count. Chinese authorities explained the revision by noting that some hospitals were overwhelmed early in the outbreak, leading to cases being incorrectly reported, delayed, or omitted. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported yesterday (link in Chinese) that the government was revising the numbers in accordance with the law, and quoted the special government operation team overseeing epidemic containment efforts in Wuhan as saying:
Coronavirus figures not only concern people’s health and lives, but also the credibility of the government. The revision of the figures not only protects citizens’ rights. It also shows the government’s respect for each individual.
The total case count in Wuhan went up by 325, to 50,333, a 0.65% increase. Many people, including Wuhan residents, have long been skeptical of the city’s low official death toll. Evidence of government cover-ups is rife, from the silencing of initial whistleblowers to the revelation that state leaders hushed up the crisis for at least six crucial days, so distrust of official tallies runs deep. Extrapolating from their experiences of long lines at city hospitals and being turned away when seeking medical care, Wuhan residents have spoken openly about their belief that the real case count and the death toll must be higher than currently reported. Some have also pointed to long lines at funeral homes, crematoriums operating overtime, and the thousands of urns being received by funeral facilities, as clues that the real death toll is much higher. Taking into account Wuhan’s revisions (link in Chinese), the national COVID-19 death toll for China now stands at 4,632, out of a total of 86,629 confirmed cases. Wuhan lifted its weeks-long lockdown last week, signalling the return of at least a modicum of normality to the hard-hit city. But as grim GDP figures released today can attest, the country’s road to recovery will be long, particularly as it battles to stave off a potential second wave of infections. Research by scientists at the University of Hong Kong has tracked China’s changing definitions of what counts as a case of COVID-19. The case definitions became broader and more flexible over time, leading to an increase in the proportion of infections that were detected. The researchers found that had a later case definition been used earlier in the epidemic, there would have been more than four times as many confirmed cases than officially reported by late February.
Pindostan ramps up attacks on China over COVID-19
Peter Symonds, WSWS, Apr 17 2020
Trump has followed his criminal decision to suspend funding to the WHO with a broadside against China, blaming it for the global COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Trump’s remarks are a transparent attempt to deflect attention from his own administration’s irresponsible actions in allowing the spread of the virus in Pindostan, which now has the highest number of cases and death toll in the world. More fundamentally, Trump is exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to ramp up the underlying agenda of trade war and military confrontation with China. In his press conference on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at China for its alleged lack of transparency. Asked why COVID-19 cases and deaths in Pindostan were far higher than China, he declared:
Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China? Does anybody really believe that?
He also gave credence to a far-right conspiracy theory that COVID-19 originated not in a so-called wet market in Wuhan, China but rather in a hi-tech virology laboratory in the same city. The claim has been flatly rejected by scientific experts, including the WHO which has declared there is no evidence that the virus was manufactured in a laboratory.
Asked about the theory, Trump did not dismiss it out of hand but declared:
More and more we’re hearing the story. We’ll see. But we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation that happened.
Speaking to Fox News after the press conference, Pompeo was more explicit, declaring:
We know they have this lab. We know about the wet markets. We know that the virus itself did originate in Wuhan. So, all those things come together.
Neither Pompeo nor Trump has provided a shred of evidence to back their allegations, in the face of overwhelming scientific opinion to the contrary. Trump’s attacks make clear that the chief target is China, not the WHO which he has accused of being a pawn of Beijing. Moreover, it is a signal for a far broader offensive to blacken China’s name. Two Thug Senators have sponsored legislation this week aimed at punishing China for its alleged mishandling of the pandemic. Ted Cruz announced his intention to introduce the “Ending Chinese Medical Censorship and Cover Ups Act of 2020” to penalize Chinese officials who allegedly suppressed information about the virus. At the same time, Josh Hawley proposed a “Justice for Victims of COVID-19 Act,” which would enable victims to sue the CCP for withholding information. He said:
There is overwhelming evidence that the CCP’s lies, deceit, and incompetence caused COVID-19 to transform from a local disease outbreak into a global pandemic.
What is involved in all these claims is a staggering level of lies, distortions and hypocrisy. Whatever the Chinese regime might have done to keep a lid on what for it was an unknown disease whose characteristics were not immediately understood, it acted with speed to warn the public and the world once the dangers were recognised. The lack of action by governments internationally, particularly the Trump administration, to a known danger, a lethal and easily transmittable disease, is the real cause of the global death and suffering. Significantly what has to date been largely confined to the anti-China far right has now been taken up and amplified by the Pindo MSM. AP published a lengthy report this week claiming that Chinese boxtops suppressed information about the virus for six days between Jan 14 and Jan 20 that led to an accelerated spread of infections. The report has been picked up and reproduced repeatedly as evidence of the Chinese regime’s withholding of crucial data about the disease. Yet, what emerges from the report is a government struggling to understand the nature of a disease that first emerged in December, that appeared to be spreading rapidly and led to the first death on Jan 9. The COVID-19 genome was posted on Jan 13, and the WHO kept apprised of developments. As the AP report explained, on Jan 15, the CDC in Beijing initiated the highest-level emergency response setting up working groups to obtain funds, train health workers and carry out further investigations. The National Health Commission sent a set of instructions to provincial health officials to set up fever clinics, identify suspected cases and provide protective gear for medical staff. On Jan 20, Pres Xi Jinping announced that the outbreak must be taken seriously. As the AP report admitted, estimates as to what might have happened if emergency measures had been taken six days earlier are “retrospective,” that is, made with the benefit of hindsight. Moreover, as the article also pointed ou:
In the two months he had to prepare Pindostan, Trump ignored the warnings of his own staff and dismissed the disease as nothing to worry about, while the government failed to bolster medical supplies and deployed flawed testing kits.
Even more significantly, the WaPo has published an opinion article giving credence to the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan virology laboratory. Once again, the allegations are based on insinuations rather than evidence: visits by Pindo boxtops to the laboratory in 2018 which found that safety could be improved and recommended additional Pindo funding, which was not forthcoming. Yet it cites uncritically a senior Trump admin boxtop saying:
The idea that it was just a totally natural occurrence is circumstantial. The evidence it leaked from the lab is circumstantial. Right now, the ledger on the side of it leaking from the lab is packed with bullet points, and there’s almost nothing on the other side.
That is, except the opinion of scientific experts that an examination of the virus itself reveals that it was not produced in a lab. The article is forced to acknowledge “conclusive evidence is yet to emerge.” It is not just “conclusive evidence” that is lacking, but any evidence at all. The fact that Trump’s crude attacks on China are now being given credence in the broader media is another sign of a broad agreement in Washington that Beijing cannot be allowed to take advantage of the decay of Pindo capitalism that has been revealed by the COVID-19 crisis. Far from the pandemic fostering international cooperation, the plunge of the global economy towards depression is accelerating the geo-political antagonisms that were developing apace before its outbreak. Mired in the worst crisis since the Great Depression, Pindo imperialism is determined to use all available means to prevent any challenge to its global position by China. As in the 1930s, this is the road to trade war and war.
Biggest Trump super PAC test drives #BeijingBiden campaign
Alayna Treene, Axios, Apr 16 2020
A leading pro-Trump super PAC is testing a new ad campaign to paint Joe Biden as soft on China and redirect criticism of President Trump’s coronavirus response. Beginning Friday, Pindostan First Action will spend $10m in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to brand the presumptive Demagog nominee as “Beijing Biden” and see what sticks. These states all have been impacted economically by China in terms of jobs, manufacturing or steel. The ads come as Trump campaign boxtops lay plans to try to make the general election campaign more about the former vice president’s past approaches to China than Trump’s response to the coronavirus, or Trump’s own approaches to China. Beijing’s flawed coronavirus response has exacerbated public outrage toward China. The ads are slightly different for each state, to target different audiences. They attack Biden for “his weakness” on China and globalist ideals, which the group charges led to “hundreds of thousands of jobs” being sent overseas. Each ad shows a clip of Biden speaking at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, in 2011:
I believed in 1979, and I believe now that a rising China is a positive development.
A spox for Pindostan First Action tells Axios that the PAC has already poll-tested these themes, and as the ads air will continue monitoring their performance. The group is simultaneously unveiling a new website, “BeijingBiden.com,” carrying opposition research that highlight’s Biden’s ties to China and China’s failures in addressing the pandemic. Andrew Bates, a spox for the Biden campaign, told Axios:
Joe Biden called on Donald Trump to lead. He publicly urged him not to believe China’s spin about the worst public health crisis in over 100 years, and to insist that our CDC experts be given access there. Instead, despite repeated warnings from our intelligence agencies and medical experts, Trump spent vital weeks praising China’s response as successful and transparent while deceiving the Pindo creeple about the extreme threat we faced and failing to prepare our country.
The digital, cable, broadcast and mail campaign will continue until through the end of May.
Michigan: $2m spent in the Traverse City, Flint and Grand Rapids media markets. This ad states that Biden “attacked” Trump over his January ban on travel to China, and shows Biden accusing Trump of “xenophobia and fearmongering.” fact-checkers have pointed out that Biden made no reference to the China travel restrictions when making these comments and never said he opposed them.
Wisconsin: $2.7m spent in the Wausau, La Crosse and Green Bay media markets. It has a greater focus on Pindo manufacturing jobs and how “Pindostan must stop” Chinese growth.
Pennsylvania: $5.5m spent in the Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Johnstown, Erie and Wilkes-Barre media markets. It states that “China is killing our jobs, stealing technology, putting Pindostan’s health in danger,” juxtaposed against a clip of Biden saying “They’re not bad folks.”
China Rejects Pindo Allegations of Nuclear Testing
Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com, Apr 16 2020
Wednesday’s allegations out of the State Dept that China may have violated the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty with low-yield tests are being rejected by Chinese boxtops, who say that they remain committed to the treaty and a moratorium on tests. Chinese boxtops said the whole Pindo statement was a “complete distortion of the facts” and that they had no need to conduct nuclear tests, since they’d already gotten all the data needed in tests in the 1980s and 1990s. China’s refutation is very non-specific, because the Pindo allegations did not offer any direct incident claims, nor any evidence of any wrongdoing by the Chinese. Chinese boxtops say new nuclear research is strictly focused on civilian use, and there appears to be no reason to doubt that, given the facts available. Pindo allegations of CTBT violations, without evidence, are nothing new, as in 2019 Pindostan similarly claimed Russia was “probably” violating the CTBT, and again offered no evidence.This is widely believed to be an untrue charge, despite Pindostan occasionally repeating it. Why Pindostan keeps making allegations without evidence on the CTBT is not clear, as these are very important allegations about a vital treaty, and even the accusations are dangerous and potentially costly, all the more so if they are plainly false. With the large nuclear powers, Pindostan in particular, developing new low-yield weapons, some research does continue, though this research is being done via computer simulation, or in sub-critical experiments which are not covered by the CTBT and are considered “zero yield.” Since the world has large monitoring arrays to direct underground nuclear explosions, it would be virtually impossible for any nation to conduct such tests in secret without being immediately found out. This further makes evidence-free claims tests may have happened particularly improbable.
China Under Mounting Pressure Over Virus Origins
AFP, Apr 17 2020
China on Thursday came under mounting pressure over the coronavirus pandemic from Western powers led by Pindostan, which said it was probing whether the virus that has infected more than 2.1 million people actually originated in a Wuhan laboratory. Trump has been attacking China for weeks and appeared to gain support after a videoconference among leaders of the G-7. Britain’s Raab told reporters there could be no “business as usual” with China, saying:
We’ll have to ask the hard questions about how it came about and how it couldn’t have been stopped earlier.
Macron warned not to be “naive” in believing China has handled the outbreak well, telling the Financial Times:
There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about.
COVID-19 first emerged late last year in Wuhan, with China saying it was suspected to have been transmitted to humans at a meat market that butchered exotic animals. The WaPo and Fox News reported there were growing suspicions the virus in fact slipped out of a sensitive laboratory in Wuhan that studied bats, blamed for the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003. Neither outlet suggested the virus was spread deliberately. Pompeo said China should have been more transparent about the laboratory, telling Fox News:
We’re doing a full investigation of everything we can to learn how it is the case that this virus got away, got out into the world and now has created so much tragedy, so much death.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone and called efforts to blame Beijing counter-productive. Xi said:
These attempts to politicize the pandemic are detrimental to international cooperation.
Putin denounced “attempts by some people to smear China.” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian quoted the WHO as saying there was no evidence the virus was produced in a lab. Zhao said:
Many well-known medical experts in the world also believe that the so-called laboratory leak hypothesis has no scientific basis.
Trump has also gone on the attack against the WHO, cutting Pindo funding for the UN body because it did not press China harder on initial statements that the virus could not be spread among people. That Trump offensive has drawn little international support. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose aggressive response is credited with limiting deaths in Europe’s largest economy, voiced “full support” for the WHO in the Group of Seven talks. Merkel’s spox said:
The Chancellor emphasized that the pandemic can only be defeated with a strong and coordinated international response.
The WHO has been in the forefront of international efforts to fight the virus and is seen as especially vital for developing nations with creaky health systems. In an assessment Thursday for Europe, the WHO said positive signs in Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Switzerland were overshadowed by sustained or increased levels of infections in other countries such as Britain, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia. Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said:
We remain in the eye of the storm. It is imperative that we do not let down our guard.
Britain, whose daily death toll spiked to 861 on Thursday, will extend its lockdown for “at least the next few weeks,” Raab said. Trump has voiced growing impatience to reopen Pindostan. He faces re-election in November and had hoped to campaign on a booming economy. New data showed Pindostan shedding an incredible 22 million jobs in the last month, with 5.2 million workers seeking unemployment benefits last week. But Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York said he was extending the shutdown until May 15, despite signs of progress. Reporting that 606 people had died in the last day, the lowest number in 10 days, Cuomo said:
I would like to see that infection rate get down even more.
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe expanded his state of emergency until May 6, allowing local leaders to urge people to stay at home but with no legal force. Japan has seen a relatively small outbreak, with 136 deaths, and Abe is also worried about the impact on the world’s third-largest economy which was already on the brink of recession.
Three coronavirus whistleblowers still missing after two months
Joe Roberts, Metro-co.uk, Apr 16 2020
Three whistleblowers who wanted to show the ‘truth’ of Wuhan have still not been seen for two months. Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua shared dramatic pictures and videos from inside the quarantined city, the source of the coronavirus pandemic. All three citizen journalists were determined to expose what they could but their whereabouts have been a mystery since February. Their popular accounts on YouTube have all gone quiet, and the Chinese authorities have not commented on what has happened to them. Wuhan businessman Fang disappeared after releasing a video claiming to show a pile of bodies in a minibus outside a hospital. His short video also appears to show medics in hazmat suits attempting to treat patients as others wait moaning in pain. He then approaches one of the medics, asking:
So many people just died? When did this happen? Yesterday? There are so many bodies.
The footage surfaced after being shared by Chinese journalist Jennifer Zeng on Twitter. Fang claimed officers barged into his home and took him away after he posted the video on Feb 1. He was released but his account went silent on Feb 9 after he posted a short video with the words:
All people revolt, hand the power of the government back to the people.
Activist Chen, 34, is a human rights lawyer turned video journalist who arrived in Wuhan before the city went into lockdown. Chen said his coverage during the Hong Kong protests in August led to him being harassed by the authorities, who reportedly deleted his social media accounts when he returned to mainland China. In his first YouTube video from Wuhan, he said:
I will use my camera to document what is really happening. I promise I won’t cover up the truth.
One of his reports claimed to show a woman sitting next to a dead relative in a wheelchair as she tries to call her family on the phone. But then it all went quiet and Chen has not been heard from since Feb 6. The last post on his Twitter account, which the BBC reports is managed by a friend, calls for his safe return:
Who can tell us where and how Chen Qiushi is right now? When will anyone get to speak with him again? Chen Qiushi has been out of contact for 68 days after covering coronavirus in Wuhan. Please save him!!!
Journalist Li Zehua, 25, used to work for the state broadcaster CCTV and was reporting from Wuhan independently. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Li was targeted after visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology, an extremely sensitive venue for the Chinese authorities. Conspiracy theories have suggested the killer virus originated from the institute. Li has not been seen since Feb 26. Earlier this month, Pindo Rep Jim Banks called on the government to urge China to investigate the disappearance of the three Chinese citizen journalists. Banks wrote:
All three of these men understood the personal risk associated with independently reporting on coronavirus in China, but they did it anyway, and the Chinese government imprisoned them or worse.
Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow mount legal challenge over warrants obtained by police to search phones and Facebook office
Chris Lau, Brian Wong, SCMP, Apr 17 2020
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung and an associate mounted a legal challenge on Thursday, complaining that four court warrants earlier granted to police to access their phones and personal information at the city’s Facebook office had trampled on their privacy. Wong and Agnes Chow Ting also argued that because of the vague wording in the warrants, police could exploit a loophole that would lead to more than 3,700 phones belonging to other protesters being searched, causing wider breaches. According to a court document made available on Thursday, their lawyers argued that the pair’s privacy should have been protected by the Bill of Rights and the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
It named three magistrates who signed off on the warrants as defendants along with the commissioner of police. A Facebook spokesman denied offering any personal data to police, saying:
To our knowledge, Hong Kong police have not attended Facebook offices in relation to this matter.
The address listed on the warrant was also not the present one of the social media firm. The two activists had their phones seized when they were arrested on Aug 30 last year for offences relating to an unauthorised assembly outside Wan Chai police headquarters on Jun 21, in a precursor to the anti-government protests that later gripped Hong Kong for months and which were sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill. Wong and Chow have since been charged with organising an unauthorised assembly, inciting others to take part and participating in it themselves. The court document said between September and November, police had applied for three warrants to search their Wan Chai headquarters, where the phones were kept, and one for Facebook’s office in Quarry Bay, to access records of Chow’s account and a post on her page. The pair argued the magistrates should not have granted the warrants because police had failed to specify details of the offence, including alleged location, during their applications. They added that because police had not provided the identities of the suspects, they could possibly use the warrants to access 3,721 mobile phones that police had seized from other protesters and stored with theirs at the force’s headquarters. The warrants also failed to define the scope of the search to limit the number of times police were allowed to examine the devices, unlike conventional ones which were issued each time physical premises were searched. the document said:
The violation of privacy rights is all the more pronounced.
The lack of a purview also meant police could go beyond what was kept on the phone and access information the pair stored in the internet through “cloud” services. The pair urged the High Court to rule that the warrants were unlawful. The court has yet to set a date for the case to be heard. The Department of Justice would not comment on the case, a spokesman said. In January, a 22-year-old photographer, Lee Wing-ho, lodged an almost identical challenge, arguing that two magistrates had failed to perform their “gatekeeping function” when granting two warrants to search police headquarters, where his phone, along with another 50 devices belonging to others, was stored. He was initially charged over an unlawful assembly in Mong Kok, but the charge was later withdrawn. In another controversial case involving access of suspects’ mobile phones, the Court of Appeal ruled earlier this month that police should be allowed to tap into digital devices without a warrant when they decided an immediate search was necessary but obtaining a court order was not immediately practicable. It overturned the lower court’s ruling that police could only carry out such searches without a warrant under “exigent circumstances”.
A coronavirus betrayal: Even friends shun mainland protesters in Hong Kong
Sarah Wu, Reuters, Apr 16 2020
Minnie Li and Nannan were nervous as they walked into a Hong Kong restaurant with several friends offering donations of masks and hand sanitizer in the middle of a pandemic. They weren’t worried about catching the novel coronavirus. They were afraid of the reception they might get as mainland Chinese. As the virus was spreading from the mainland to Hong Kong, the restaurant chain’s pro-democracy owner had banned Mandarin speakers in a post on Facebook:
You won’t seal the border, so I’m sealing my shop.
It didn’t matter that Li and Nannan were pro-democracy protesters themselves, risking the wrath of CCP authorities back home to join the demonstrations that rocked the city last year. The restaurant’s owner condemned their outreach as “a sting operation,” in the latest sign of rising anti-mainland sentiment in the city, even against those who have been fighting on the same side. That experience brought home an uncomfortable reality: that the city they cherish for the freedoms they didn’t have back home may not cherish them in return. Since Hong Kong reported its first coronavirus patient in January, the young women say they’ve been castigated as “oppressors” and “colonizers,” including by friends who once rallied with them through clouds of tear gas.
Tensions between Hong Kongers and mainlanders have always run as a strong undercurrent to the protests. But for many locals in the pro-democracy camp, the political threat from the mainland has now been compounded by a physical threat, also emanating from the mainland. Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunities Commission said it has received around 600 complaints and enquiries related to discrimination against mainlanders or Mandarin speakers since the outbreak began, compared with “very few” before. More than 100 restaurants have warned against mainland or Mandarin-speaking patrons. One hair salon said it would only cut “Hong Kongers’ hair.” After police found suspected bombs on a train near the border with the mainland in early February, an anonymous group claimed responsibility on the messaging app Telegram, warning “mainland zombies” that “we can close our checkpoints ourselves.” The prejudice has been hard to bear for the few mainlanders who joined last year’s pro-democracy movement and tried to help protesters and mainlanders better understand each other. They had faced suspicion then, but it felt like they were united with Hong Kongers in the cause against encroaching Communist Party rule. Now, one of them said bitterly, it felt like she was trapped in a “one-sided romance,” one that had become unhealthy. Before visiting her family’s village in Jiangxi province for the Lunar New Year holiday in late January, Nannan worried the Hong Kong police might raid her flat. She hid any incriminating evidence: spray paint, protective gear, pro-democracy posters. When she arrived at her parents’ home in the mainland, spending time in their vegetable garden was a welcome change from the crowded towers of tiny flats in Hong Kong, where she had moved eight years ago for postgraduate study. Trekking in the mountains with her parents, cooking, going to bed early, made her feel “cordoned off from the world.” But the 31-year-old curator at an arts and culture nonprofit couldn’t talk politics with her family, most of whom are CCP members. Nannan had learned her lesson in 2014, during previous pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. At the time, her father threatened to sever ties, and her mother concluded she had been “brainwashed.”
Nannan, who asked to be identified by her nickname because mainlanders who openly support the Hong Kong protests have faced interrogation and risk arrest if they return home, said she knew her parents were trying to suppress her beliefs “in the name of love and worry.” And at least she felt safe back home. But she hadn’t been in the village long before medical staff in Hong Kong went on strike, demanding the full closure of the mainland border as the epidemic spread. Fearing getting stuck in her village for a long time, she bought a ticket on the next train back. Determined to get back to Hong Kong virus-free, she didn’t take her mask off to eat or drink during the 10-hour journey. But when she contacted her flatmates, they asked her not to come back. A local friend offered to host her for a few weeks so she could self-isolate as a precaution. An hour after she arrived, neighbors reported a Mandarin speaker to the landlord. She was from Singapore, her friend lied. It worked. Once settled, Nannan started checking Facebook. A friend shared a meme about a man who once pitied mainlanders living under Communist Party rule but now thought it would be better if they were all dead. She scrolled: “diseased mainlanders are at our doorstep!” And again: “colonizers.” Outside the flat, the feeling of isolation lingered. She said that for the first time she’s considering leaving Hong Kong. She said:
They think mainlanders are not human beings and should die. Under this virus, discrimination has been much more open. My friends never excluded me before. When I pronounced something wrong, it became a joke. Now, if I say something wrong in Cantonese, it won’t be a happy moment, it will be a dangerous moment. Now, I suddenly feel very lost.
Minnie Li, a sociology lecturer at the Education University of Hong Kong, is well known as a protester. At a million-strong march last June, she walked with about 60 mainlanders behind a banner reading, “On the road to democracy, let’s walk side by side.” Days later, she staged a hunger strike with other activists for 90 hours until an ambulance took her to the hospital. Li, who was born in mainland China, moved to Hong Kong 12 years ago. She says she wanted to visit her ill grandmother back in the mainland in January, but her friends and husband urged her to stay because she could have been in danger there. Her picture had circulated on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, with the caption:
Remember her face and attack her because she’s betraying her own country.
Now she’s facing recrimination in the Hong Kong she loves. Even some of her fellow hunger strikers have joined the chorus of fear against mainlanders. Li has a large Facebook following and received hundreds of negative comments after writing about the trip with Nannan to the Hong Kong restaurant. Trying to summarize the remarks, she said:
You’re provoking people. No matter what you do, you are a colonist. You benefit from the national policy that protects the interests of Mandarin speakers. Even if you aren’t consciously supporting them, you are bearing original sin. When I spoke Mandarin to a mainland student who needed stitches at a hospital recently, other patients shot us terrified stares, as if they saw the virus. Hong Kong’s fight for democracy has become more exclusionary. When you say, ‘support the movement,’ you don’t know what you’re supporting now. You have to de-mainland yourself. It’s like some disease.
Niqnaq 