The death of a doctor who was reprimanded for warning about China’s new virus triggered an outpouring Friday of praise for him and fury that communist authorities put politics above public safety.
   
In death, Dr. Li Wenliang became the face of simmering anger at the ruling Communist Party’s controls over information and complaints that officials lie about or hide disease outbreaks, chemical spills, dangerous consumer products or financial frauds.
   
The 34-year-old ophthalmologist died overnight at Wuhan Central Hospital, where he worked and likely contracted the virus while treating patients in the early days of the outbreak.
   
“A hero who released information about Wuhan’s epidemic in the early stage, Dr. Li Wenliang is immortal,” the China Center for Disease Control’s chief scientist, Zeng Guang, wrote on the Sina Weibo microblog service.
   
Police in December had reprimanded eight doctors including Li for warning friends on social media about the emerging threat. China’s supreme court later criticized the police, but the ruling party also has tightened its grip on information about the outbreak.
   
Weibo users have left hundreds of thousands of messages below Li’s last post.
   
A post by one of Li’s coworkers, an emergency room nurse, said the freezing Wuhan weather was “as gloomy as my mood.”
   
“To you, we are angels and so strong. But how strong a heart can watch the people around me fall one by one without being shocked?” wrote Li Mengping on her verified account.
   
Others placed blame for the deaths on Chinese officials, not an animal species from where the virus might have spread, and said those who made trouble for the doctor should face consequences. The most pointed online comments were quickly deleted by censors.
   
The ruling party has faced similar accusations of bungling or thuggish behavior following previous disasters. They include the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, a 2005 chemical spill that disrupted water supplies to millions of people in China’s northeast, sales of tainted milk that sickened thousands of children and the failure of private finance companies after the global economic crisis.
   
In each case, officials were accused of trying to conceal or delay release of information members of the public said they needed to protect themselves.
   
The party often responds by allowing the public to vent temporarily, then uses its control of media and the internet to stifle criticism. Critics who persist can be jailed on vague charges of spreading rumors or making trouble.
   
On the streets of Beijing, the capital, residents expressed sadness and said that China should learn from Li.
   
“He is such a nice person, but still didn’t pull through,” said Ning Yanqing. “Those left do not dare to speak out. Alas, I don’t know what to say.”
   
Some online comments Friday hinted at broader dissatisfaction with the party and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has tightened controls on society since taking power in 2012.
   
The most powerful Chinese leader since at least the 1980s, Xi gave himself the option of remaining president for life by changing the Chinese constitution in 2018 to remove a two-term limit.
   
Referring to one of Xi’s propaganda initiatives, a message that circulated on social media said, “My `Chinese Dream’ is broken.”
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download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyIn Wuhan, local leaders were accused of telling doctors in December not to publicize the spreading virus in order to avoid casting a shadow over the annual meeting of a local legislative body.
   
As the virus spread, doctors were ordered to delete posts on social media that appealed for donations of medical supplies. That prompted complaints authorities were more worried about image than public safety.
   
Li was detained by police after warning about the virus on a social media group for his former classmates.
   
The latest episode is unusually awkward for the ruling party because Li was a physician, part of a group who are regarded as overworked, underpaid heroes who are China’s line of defense against a frightening new disease.
   
“He showed a responsible attitude toward the society,” said Cai Lin, a Beijing resident.
“He is honest and faithful. So I think the whole society should reflect on this.”
   
The World Health Organization, which has complimented China’s response to the outbreak, said in a tweet that “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did on” the virus.
   
The official propaganda apparatus tried Friday to mollify the public.
   
“Some of Li Wenliang’s experiences during his life reflect shortcomings and deficiencies in epidemic prevention and control”’ said state television on its website.
   
The Chinese ambassador to Washington, Cui Tiankai, said in Twitter, a service the ruling party’s internet censorship blocks the public from seeing, “Really saddened by the death of Dr. Li Wenliang. He was a very devoted doctor. We are so grateful to him for what he has done in our joint efforts fighting against (hash)2019nCoV.”
   
The government announced a team from Beijing would be sent to Wuhan to investigate “issues reported by the masses involving Dr. Li Wenliang.”
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North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons even if sanctions are eased, according to experts who think increasing pressure and enforcing sanctions will lead Pyongyang to relent on its nuclear program.“I do not believe North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons if sanctions are lifted,” said Joseph Bosco, an East Asia expert at the Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS). “Instead, they would increase their demands.”Joshua Stanton, a Washington-based attorney who helped draft the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement and Policy Enforcement Act in 2016, said, “If there is any chance of denuclearizing North Korea, it is to put so much pressure on Kim Jong Un that he or the generals around him decide that denuclearization is their only alternative to the collapse of the state.”As talks on denuclearization between Washington and Pyongyang remain stalled, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) members are divided on whether sanctions imposed on North Korea should be relaxed.Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, permanent representative of Belgium to the United Nations, addresses a Security Council meeting, Sept. 18, 2019, at the United Nations, New York.Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, the Belgian ambassador to the U.N. who is currently serving as the president of the UNSC said Monday at a press conference that some Security Council members think sanctions on North Korea should be “a little bit eased.”At the same time, he said other members believe that sanctions “have to be maintained and really severely implemented in order to put pressure on North Korea to negotiate.”He did not name which member states support or oppose sanctions relief.Russia, China: Ease sanctionsIn December, FILE – This picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Jan. 1, 2020, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending a session of the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un apparently gave up on that demand as he said in January the country will now focus on building its economy through self-reliance without expecting sanctions to be lifted.Experts think relaxing sanctions at this point would do more harm than good because Pyongyang has not made new offers to move toward denuclearization.“In the absence of steps by North Korea on its nuclear program, easing sanctions unilaterally could send the wrong signal to Pyongyang — that if it continues to hold out, the international community will loosen sanctions further,” said Troy Stangarone, senior director of the Korea Economic Institute.Bruce Klingner, former CIA deputy division chief for Korea and current senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation said, “To ease sanctions without positive North Korean action would be to provide the regime with unique immunity for violating U.N. resolutions.”If sanctions are eased, Bosco thinks North Korea would pressure the U.S. for additional concessions such as a formal end to the Korean War, recognition of its status as a nuclear state, and increased aid to compensate for losses caused by sanctions.“They will conclude, as communist regimes always do, that Western concessions indicate weakness, and they become more adventurist and aggressive to extract more concessions,” Bosco said.Also, if sanctions were lifted, experts said re-imposing them would be difficult if North Korea refused to return to the negotiations.FILE – A man watches a TV screen showing a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 1, 2020.“A better approach would be an agreement not to increase sanctions if North Korea refrained from further tests and engage in substantive talks,” Stangarone said.William Brown, former U.S. intelligence official who heads the Northeast Asia Economics and Intelligence Advisory, said “It would be hard to put tough sanctions, like we have now, back in place without some other larger North Korean provocations.”An argument for reliefKen Gause, director for the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, thinks sanctions relief could get North Korea to freeze its nuclear weapons program and does not see the U.S.-led pressure campaign leading to denuclearization.“I don’t see any way forward with a pressure-only campaign to bring about the intended goal of the UNSC of curbing North Korea’s nuclear program,” Gause said. “In an ironic way, it might actually accelerate the program.”Gause added that without China and Russia enforcing sanctions, it would be difficult to bring about a change in North Korea’s position on nuclear weapons.China in particular has been helping Pyongyang evade sanctions that restrict fuel export to North Korea and prohibit coal imports from the country. Despite sanctions, Chinese merchants have been smuggling goods such as automobile and machinery parts across the border.Klingner sees that illicit smuggling will likely be reduced because of North Korea’s response to the coronavirus scare.“This will, indirectly, increase enforcement of required sanctions and put greater pressure on the regime,” Klingner said. “Reduction in smuggled fuel and other imports will impact the North Korean economy.”North Korea closes borderNorth Korea has temporarily closed the border it shares with China and banned all train and air links to and from China in an effort to keep the coronavirus at bay. [[ ]]  Pyongyang also imposed strict quarantine measures on foreigners entering and exiting the country, and set up medical checkpoints in the provinces that border China.Stangarone said China is an important source of food and intermediary goods for North Korea, and if North Korea is unable to import them from China for a prolonged time because the border is closed, its economy could be disrupted.“Reports indicate that cargo shipments have been stopped, which means that the closure could have a wider impact on the economy,” Stangarone said. “If it is closed for an extended period of time, and North Korea does not reopen its border to cargo shipments, the impact on the economy would be deeper.”Brown said if the epidemic continues, North Korean workers remaining in China, who were supposed to return home by Dec. 22, 2019, deadline, may end up staying there.“This may actually protect workers still in China for a short while,” Brown said. “But it may, in the end, make it harder for already returned workers to go back. So the net impact is likely to further push the North Korean and Chinese economies apart.”Oh Taek-song and Han Sang-mi contributed to this report, which originated in VOA’s Korean Service.
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As concerns about China’s virus outbreak spread, universities are scrambling to assess the risks to their programs, and some are canceling study-abroad opportunities and prohibiting travel affecting hundreds of thousands of students.From Europe to Australia and the United States, universities in countries that host Chinese students have reconsidered academic-related travel to and from China. In the U.S., the cancellations add to the tension between two governments whose relations were already sour.The scare threatens to cause lasting damage to growing academic exchange programs that reached new heights over the last decade and a half, experts say.The travel restrictions also complicate planning for conferences and campus events in the U.S. that scholars from China might attend.“That door has been, if not slammed shut, certainly closed for the immediate future,” said Michael Schoenfeld, Duke University’s vice president for public affairs and government relations.After U.S. officials recommended against nonessential trips to China, many universities limited travel there, including Duke, which also operates a campus in China in a partnership with Wuhan University, which is in the city at the center of the outbreak.Duke Kunshan University closed its campus in Kunshan to nonessential personnel until Feb. 24. The school also helped students who had recently applied for Chinese residency get their passports from local officials so they could travel home and started developing online learning plans for them.One diagnosis iss confirmed at ASU and another at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, which said the infected student had recently traveled to Wuhan.Two of the 12 confirmed U.S. cases are linked to college campuses. One diagnosis was confirmed at Arizona State University and another at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, which said the infected student had recently traveled to Wuhan.The virus represents an unprecedented disruption for the academic ties between the U.S. and China, said Brad Farnsworth, vice president of global engagement at the American Council on Education.He recalled the SARS crisis in 2002 and 2003, when the severe acute respiratory syndrome that originated in China killed nearly 800 people.“The whole higher education relationship was not nearly as complex as it is now,” Farnsworth said. “We have many, many more students going in both directions.”Many academic collaborations could be rescheduled if the crisis is resolved quickly, but the longer it lasts, the deeper the damage will be, he added.China sends far more students to the United States than any other country _ more than 369,000 in the last academic year, according to the Institute of International Education. The U.S. typically sends more than 11,000 students to China annually. Lately, the relationship has been strained by visa difficulties, trade conflicts and U.S. concerns about security risks posed by visiting Chinese students.“This doesn’t help the current situation, which is very tense right now,” Farnsworth said. “This is a low point in U.S.-China higher education relations, there’s no question.”China’s consul general in New York, Huang Ping, said Tuesday at a news conference that students who returned to the U.S. from Hubei province, which includes Wuhan, should report to health officials so they can be monitored. He urged the international community to work together to combat the illness, saying the “virus is the enemy, not the Chinese.”In Germany, the Berlin Free University and Berlin Institute of Technology each said they would not allow visits from China or approve trips to China until further notice. Paderborn University said it was reviewing any China travel plans made by students or doctoral candidates.A spokesman for Silesian University in the Czech Republic said the school postponed exchange programs for 38 Chinese students. Several other schools issued similar cancellations, but Masaryk University in the Czech city of Brno said it was still ready to accept 24 students from China who are expected in two weeks.Tens of thousands of Chinese students enrolled in Australian universities are stranded in their home country. Monash University has extended its summer break to give students and staff more time to return. Classes had been scheduled to begin on March 2.Most Chinese students studying in the U.S. were already in place for classes when the virus emerged, but worries about the illness have led many schools to cancel plans to send Americans to China for an upcoming semester.At the University of Arkansas, where China has been a popular study-abroad destination, especially for business students, about 60 students who had been planning to travel there beginning in May saw their programs canceled.The university made the decision a week ago, before students had to make financial commitments, and it has been working to arrange opportunities in other parts of the world for the affected students, said Sarah Malloy, the university’s director of study abroad and international exchange.One Arkansas student, Lancaster Richmond, had been planning to visit Beijing and Shanghai to fulfill a requirement of her MBA program. Now the 24-year-old is planning to visit Chile this summer instead.“I was obviously disappointed, but I also understand the university is doing whatever they can in our best interest,” she said. “It made my parents a little more comfortable as well. They’d obviously been following the news.”Worries about the virus have altered some rhythms of campus life, including cancellations of Chinese New Year events at the University of Akron and the University of Arizona. But many universities say they are emphasizing precautions such as frequent hand-washing.Andrew Thomas, chief clinical officer at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, said the university is monitoring the situation but trying not to be “over the top to the point that we’re causing more concern and fear than is warranted in the community.”The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which enrolls over 5,500 students from China, said some of its students from Wuhan who traveled home during winter break opted to self-quarantine or wear masks while going to class to protect others. Several institutions urged anybody returning from China to isolate themselves for two weeks as a precaution.At Northeastern University, graduate student Lele Luan said that while some fellow Chinese students have taken to wearing masks around campus in Boston, he does not feel the need.“They told me it’s very safe here,” he said. “So I don’t do anything special to protect myself.”At the University of California, Berkeley, the Tang Center for health services tried last week to share tips on managing anxiety about the virus. But it faced backlash for a list suggesting that “normal reactions” might include xenophobia and “fears about interacting with those who might be from Asia.”Asian Americans quickly expressed outrage on social media. The center apologized for “any misunderstanding it may have caused” and changed the wording. 
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China on Thursday finished building a second new hospital to isolate and treat patients of a virus that has killed more than 560 people and continues to spread, disrupting travel and people’s lives and fueling economic fears.A first group of patients was expected to start testing a new antiviral drug, as China also moved people with milder symptoms into makeshift hospitals at sports centers, exhibition halls and other public spaces.The health care system in the central city of Wuhan, where the outbreak was first detected in December, has been overwhelmed with the thousands of ill patients. A new, 1,500-bed hospital specially built for virus patients opened days after a 1,000-bed hospital with prefabricated wards and isolation rooms began taking patients.Other treatment centers had tight rows of simple cots lining cavernous rooms. And Wuhan had another 132 quarantine sites with more than 12,500 beds, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.Chinese health authorities reported 563 deaths and another sharp jump in the number of confirmed cases to 28,018. Outside mainland China, at least 260 cases have been confirmed, including two deaths in Hong Kong and the Philippines.A security guard wears a face mask as he sweeps snow along a pedestrian shopping street during a snowfall in Beijing, Feb. 5, 2020.Hospital workers in Hong Kong demanding a shutdown of the border with the mainland were on strike for a fourth day. Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam announced a 14-day quarantine of all travelers entering Hong Kong from the mainland starting Saturday, but the government has refused to seal the border entirely.A Hong Kong medical union warned that its 20,000 members could resign en masse if the city’s Hospital Authority refuses to speak with them over their demands. It estimated 7,000 were on strike and said those who were working were worried about their safety.The outbreak of the new type of coronavirus has also ensnared two cruise ships, with the passengers and crew now quarantined on the docked vessels in Hong Kong and Japan.Officials in protective suits talk near the cruise ship Diamond Princess anchored at the Yokohama Port in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Feb. 6, 2020.Ten passengers confirmed to have the virus were escorted off the Diamond Princess at a port near Tokyo, after 10 others were taken off the previous day. The group taken to hospitals Thursday are mostly passengers in their 60s and 70s, four of them Japanese, two Americans, two Canadians, one New Zealander and one Taiwanese. Tests are still pending on others on board who had symptoms or had contact with infected people.More than 3,600 passengers and crew on the Hong Kong ship, the World Dream, were being screened after eight passengers from a voyage that began Jan. 19 were diagnosed with the virus. Hong Kong health authorities said more than 5,000 passengers traveled on that cruise and two others before the ship was quarantined Monday.Xinhua said clinical trials for the antiviral drug Remdesivir have been approved and the first group of patients are expected to start taking the drug on Thursday. Word of the trials had boosted the stock price of the drug’s maker, American biotechnology company Gilead Sciences Inc.Antivirals and other drugs can reduce the severity of the virus, but “so far, no antivirals have been proven effective,” said Thanarak Plipat, a doctor and deputy director-general of Thailand’s Disease Control Department of the Health Ministry. He said there were a lot of unknowns, “but we have a lot of hope, as well.”China’s National Health Commission said the number of infected patients who were “discharged and cured” stood at 1,153 as of Thursday. Details weren’t given, but milder cases have been seen in younger, healthier people. The new virus is in the coronavirus family that includes MERS and SARS, and it causes fever, cough and shortness of breath, and in severe cases, pneumonia.China has strongly defended its epidemic control measures, including locking down several cities in central Hubei province, where the outbreak has been concentrated. More than 50 million people are under virtual quarantine in Hubei, but outlying cities, towns and villages have enacted varying restrictions and other countries have severely restricted travel to and from China.
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