Although ZeroHedge and others had been posting on the rumors and stories coming out of China in late 2019, this was the tweet and the story that got me to start paying attention.
Police in Central China's Wuhan arrested 8 people spreading rumors about local outbreak of unidentifiable #pneumonia. Previous online posts said it was SARS. https://t.co/oVpk4EIYM7 pic.twitter.com/JXbK9pmq8v
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 1, 2020
Global Times being the Communist Party's outward-facing propaganda organ.
And the article to which it linked:
Seafood market closed after outbreak of ‘unidentified’ pneumonia
Source:Global Times Published: 2020/1/1 15:33:30
A seafood wholesale market in Central China's Hubei Province was shut down Wednesday after 27 people were hospitalized in December with an unidentified pneumonia.
Seven remained in critical condition, two are recovering and the others were in stable condition, the People's Daily reported on Tuesday, noting that most of them were vendors at Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, capital of Hubei.
Tests, quarantine and treatment were being conducted, the paper said.
The market will be closed for environmental and sanitation control according to public health regulations on pneumonia epidemic controls, the Wuhan Evening News reported, citing a notice posted outside the market by health authorities on Wednesday.
The notice asked vendors to cooperate, saying another notice would indicate when the market will reopen.
Vendors were busy preparing for the closure and began to leave early Wednesday morning, the paper said.
Chinese internet speculations on Tuesday suggested a return of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus, but the People's Daily cited doctors saying that was unlikely.
If it was SARS, China possesses a mature prevention and treatment system, the newspaper noted, and urged people not to panic....
...Late December 2019 – Early January 2020Authorities report no new infections or deaths. “. . . in Wuhan, local cadres were focused on a days-long Communist Party conclave that was scheduled to run from Jan. 11 to Jan. 17. During that time, the Wuhan Health Commission each day claimed there were no new infections or deaths,” the Washington Post‘s Gerry Shih, Emily Rauhala, and Lena H. Sun would later report from Beijing. (They would later be banned for their reporting.)
January 1, 2020
Doctors are investigated and punished. Chinese state media report that eight people in Wuhan are investigated for spreading “misinformation” about the virus and “exaggerating” the seriousness of the outbreak. Wuhan officials say they punished eight people for “publishing or forwarding false information on the internet without verification.” All eight people are physicians.
Dr Li is accused of spreading false stories. Other reports later confirm that the eight included Dr. Li, who were accused of “spreading rumors.”
Regime warns others not to spread doctors’ warnings. “The police followed up in the state-run Xinhua gency with a chilling warning. ‘The police call on all netizens to not fabricate rumors, not spread rumors, not believe rumors,’ the Wuhan authorities said, adding that they encouraged Web users to ‘jointly build a harmonious, clear and bright cyberspace,'” the Washington Post reports from Beijing.
Lab ordered to stop testing and to destroy samples. Official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission orders a laboratory to stop testing samples of the new virus from Wuhan, to destroy all existing samples, and “to immediately cease releasing test results and information about the tests.”
Early January
Hashtag censorship. CCP officials censor the hashtag #WuhanSARS and investigate eight Wuhan residents who spread “misleading information” about the virus on social media.
January 3
Dr Li is forced to sign a confession that he made false statements. Dr. Li Wenliang, who had warned fellow physicians at the Wuhan Central Hospital about the virus, is brought before the Public Security Bureau and forced to sign a letter that accused him of “making false statements” that “severely disturbed the social order.”
The Public Security Bureau warns Dr. Li in the letter he is forced to sign, “We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice – is that understood?” Dr. Li writes underneath, “Yes, I do.”
Chinese government health leaders issue orders for censorship and forensic destruction. China’s National Health Commission, a cabinet-level institution in Beijing and the regime’s top health organization, “ordered institutions not to publish any information” relating to the Wuhan virus, and “ordered labs to transfer any samples they had to designated testing institutions, or to destroy them.”
Chinese regime rejects US offers of immediate assistance. The Chinese central government officially rejects US government offers to send medical assistance to China.
Foreign Ministry in Beijing creates false narrative starting on this date. January 3 becomes a date on which the Chinese government starts the narrative that it was open with the US quickly, as of that date. Later, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying will criticize US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, in the following Twitter exchange:
- PRC: “China has been updating the US on the coronavirus and its response since Jan. 3. On Jan. 15 the US State Department notified Americans in China US CDC’s warning about the coronavirus. And now blame China for delay? Seriously?”
- USA: “By Jan. 3, Chinese authorities had already ordered #COVID19 virus samples destroyed, silenced Wuhan doctors, and censored public concerns online. @SpokespersonCHN is right: This is a timeline the world must absolutely scrutinize.”....
Covid-19 Timeline: December 31, 2019
