Chinese authorities under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership are scrambling to control what citizens are saying about a fresh wave of COVID-19 cases that broke out in the southern province of Guangdong, which is the country's manufacturing hub and largest province by economic output.
The Chinese government was taken by surprise when a surge of new COVID-19 cases broke out in the region, with more than 110 confirmed cases since May 21. Now, the CCP is trying to maintain the idea that they have it all under control.
According to Reuters, 90% of the confirmed cases are in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, which is why the CCP is boosting its testing capabilities among its 18 million and more citizens. Since May 26, Guangzhou has collected more than 28 million nucleic acid samples, resulting in 40 confirmed cases, a spokesperson for the city said this week. But aside from handling the spread of the virus, the CCP is also handling the spread of information.
Radio Free Asia reported that there has been "considerable public skepticism" about CCP's handling of the new COVID-19 outbreak and whether they are under-reporting the statistics.
In fact, a Wuhan resident by the name of Guo questioned why the Chinese government ordered 6,500 medical staff to be transferred into Guangzhou despite it already having about 170,000 medical staff. Guo admitted that anyone in the healthcare system would refrain from speaking out or else "they will get detained even if they just say a few words."
Meanwhile, the Shantou Daily newspaper recently reported that two Chinese men were accused of "rumor-mongering" and held under "administrative detention" by Chaonan police, who "investigated and dealt with two rumors involving the pandemic," the paper reported.
One of the two people who made comments about COVID-19 on social media was surnamed Zhuang and was detained on June 1 after he made what the Chinese media calls "inappropriate comments" on WeChat. He was accused of "spreading rumors and disrupting public order" and was held for five days.
The second man who was detained was surnamed Zhou and was captured on June 5 for claiming that he was positive for COVID-19. He was then sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention. A Beijing resident with the surname Liu told RFA that Chinese citizens are "not allowed to tell the truth in this pandemic" and that if anyone does and it gets retweeted or seen by the authorities, "you're finished."
"This goes to show how afraid the government is of the truth; it's very strict now," Liu said.
Legal scholar Li Lin adds that the CCP implements a one-way flow of information in which only the Chinese government is allowed to disseminate information. Any discussions on the release of information from the government is not allowed and dissenters will be reprimanded and detained.
CNBC reported that CCP authorities are also cracking down on those who have violated COVID-19 restrictions after the government reported a discovery of the Delta variant of the virus that was first identified in India. They now have 115 positive cases of the highly transmissible COVID-19 variant. According to the report, violations include refraining from wearing a mask in public spaces, refusing a COVID-19 test, defying quarantine and isolation orders, and spreading false information.
