Society

Researchers possibly withholding information about human-to-human transmission, or publishing papers using someone else's research data... These are just a few of the controversies of the Chinese research system highlighted by the Covid-19 outbreak. How can the scientific community break out of the cycle of alleged unscholarly conduct?

Stories of race-related incidents have crawled out of the woodwork and spread almost as fast and venomously as the coronavirus itself. Zhou Ruirui of the Centre of Globalisation and Governance at Hamburg University says it’s time for some self-reflection.

First it was Wuhan residents expressing their indignation at food delivered to them in rubbish trucks. Now, residents of neighbouring city Xiaogan show that they will not stay quiet if monopolistic practices see them paying sky-high prices for daily necessities.

Texts written in reverse, replaced with emojis, and encrypted in morse code... Netizens demonstrated their creativity in resurrecting an interview with Ai Fen, director of The Central Hospital of Wuhan's emergency department, after it was removed by the authorities from the internet in China. ThinkChina traces how Chinese citizens banded together to keep an article alive, and shares a story of the "404 Building" written by a netizen.

While it may seem that the Chinese government single-handedly dealt with the Covid-19 crisis in its initial stages, Chen Kang opines that it is the voluntary involvement of the people, social organisations and enterprises that made and continues to make life under lockdown liveable. This process has provided invaluable lessons on public governance that the Chinese government and society should continue to learn from and work on.

Wuhan party secretary Wang Zhonglin’s suggestion that people should be educated to be grateful to the authorities drew strong backlash, prompting Hubei party secretary Ying Yong to come forward with comments of his own to ease the anger. Zaobao correspondent Edwin Ong weighs the strategy.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has been winning praise for her team’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. Premier Su Tseng-chang who calls himself “capable”, is said to be leading a group of capable government officials; Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, has become the darling of the media and of the people of Taiwan. What have they done to garner such support?

Angry netizens suggest that Wuhan party secretary Wang Zhonglin’s call for gratitude for the CCP shows where officials’ allegiance truly lies. The testy mood of the public portends the zero tolerance of further grandstanding behaviour.

In his first creative writing class of the semester, acclaimed Chinese author Yan Lianke addresses the Covid-19 milieu of the times. He urges his students to remember what they have seen and heard as memory separates man from beast; memory begets truth. He says if one cannot speak loudly or even whisper, at least remember.