Five years ago today (February 7, 2020), Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, passed away according to the official announcement by the Chinese Communist Party. He was one of the medical professionals who first disclosed the outbreak of the Wuhan pneumonia (COVID-19) epidemic to the outside world and was hailed as a “whistleblower” of the epidemic. On the fifth anniversary of Li Wenliang’s passing, numerous netizens have left messages mourning his loss.
Many netizens on the Chinese social media platform Weibo have expressed their thoughts on Li Wenliang’s Weibo account: “Five years have passed in the blink of an eye, in remembrance of the unforgettable.” “Death is not the end, forgetting is.” “Five years have flown by; coming to see you. I am doing well, striving to keep living.”
Some netizens commented, “Today is the anniversary of Dr. Li Wenliang’s passing; it marks the fourth year since he left us. He was a torchbearer for the public, and we will forever cherish his memory and remember the warmth he brought to this world.”
“I am concerned, and I want to know, how are Dr. Li’s family members doing? His parents, are they in good health? His wife and two sons, how are they now?”
On the overseas social media platform X (Twitter), many Chinese netizens have also left messages mourning Dr. Li Wenliang.
Beijing senior media personality Gao Yu wrote, “Today is the official fifth anniversary of the passing of Dr. Li Wenliang. On the evening of February 6, 2020, Global Times and Xinjing Bao reported: ‘Dr. Li Wenliang’s heartbeat stopped at 9:30 pm that night.’ Although it was reported a few hours late, the Year of the Rat’s Spring Festival had not yet passed. What kind of Spring Festival was that? ‘Dining together is seeking death, visiting for the New Year is harming people, masks are essential for every household.'”
Gao Yu said, “Dr. Li Wenliang lived for only 34 years. His final life experience in the short month and a half between the transition from the Year of the Pig to the Year of the Rat constituted a dark blueprint of the autocracy’s comprehensive control of speech that triggered an outbreak starting from Wuhan like a tsunami, revealing a very complete picture of a totalitarian regime. Chinese people have experienced the devastating 1960 Year of the Rat where people starved and resorted to cannibalism, and then the extremely tragic 2020 Year of the Rat.”
Just a week ago, mainland Chinese TikTok account “Uncle Zhou Visits Villages” released a video of his visit to Dr. Li Wenliang’s parents on January 19. The title and description of the video did not mention Li Wenliang’s name, and the subtitles in the video used the abbreviation “LWL” to replace Li Wenliang’s name.
The video shows the blogger visiting Dr. Li Wenliang’s hometown in Wuhan to meet his parents. Li’s mother emotionally recounted that they were not aware he was hospitalized until their child “lost his pulse.” The hospital sent a car to bring them, but throughout the ordeal, they were never allowed to see their son one last time. “They wouldn’t even let us see through the glass,” she said. “We didn’t know where they were trying to save him,” “They just let us wait there.”
Li Wenliang’s mother rebuked the authorities, saying, “Why did you bring us here if we can’t even see our son?” “During the epidemic, no one can go in, I couldn’t go in, couldn’t we at least see through the window? This is so inhumane!”
The elderly couple also mentioned that officials promised they could see the body at the funeral home, but they were only shown the ashes in the end. Li Wenliang’s mother said, “I am really getting angry, what kind of leadership is this, deceiving people like this!”
According to public records, Li Wenliang was born in Jinzhou, Liaoning in 1985 and worked at Wuhan Central Hospital since 2014. On December 30, 2019, Dr. Ai Fen from Wuhan Central Hospital’s department group issued a test report showing a patient tested highly positive for SARS coronavirus. Li Wenliang shared this message in a group chat with his classmates, advising caution, and the message quickly spread.
In the early hours of December 31, 2019, Li Wenliang was called by the hospital’s leadership to the Wuhan Health Commission to inquire about the situation, and then called in by the hospital’s monitoring department when he returned to work, where he was required to write a “reflection and self-criticism on spreading false information.” On January 3, 2020, Li Wenliang was reprimanded by the Wuhan police for “spreading false information on the internet.”
On January 23, 2020, Wuhan announced a city lockdown due to the outbreak. However, Wuhan Central Hospital only allowed medical staff in emergency, respiratory, and ICU departments to wear N95 masks, while other departments, including Li Wenliang’s ophthalmology department, were not permitted to wear masks. On February 1, 2020, Li Wenliang was confirmed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus. In the early hours of February 7, 2020, Wuhan Central Hospital announced Li Wenliang’s passing.
The next day, World Health Organization officials expressed sorrow over Dr. Li Wenliang’s passing. Faced with domestic and international public pressure, the Chinese Communist authorities changed their tone, with official departments expressing condolences to Li Wenliang, awarding him various honorary titles, and Wuhan Public Security Bureau issuing a notification announcing the withdrawal of the reprimand letter to Li Wenliang and apologizing to his family. By this time, the epidemic had spread throughout the country and beyond.