China Change » Covid-19

‘A Madman’s Diary’ in the Age of the Pandemic: The Case of Zhang Zhan

Ai Xiaoming, December 27, 2020 Zhang Zhan (张展), a lawyer who practiced in Shanghai, went to Wuhan in early February, determined to document the coronavirus outbreak in the city that was the epicenter of what would soon become a pandemic around the world. In the three months she stayed in the city, she made 122 posts on YouTube. It was not a coi [...] Keep reading »

No Access to the CIA Report? Let’s DIY: Estimating Total Infections and Death Toll in Wuhan, the Epicenter of Covid-19

Yaxue Cao, April 12, 2020 Summary: Whereas Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported a total 50,008 Covid-19 cases and 2,575 deaths as of April 9, 2020, by my estimates, the total cases are between 400,000 and 600,000, and the death toll is between 22,000 and 30,000. According to Bloomberg, the U.S. intelligence community recently briefed [...] Keep reading »

Beijing Has Nothing But Good News for You in the Coronavirus Epidemic

Chang Ping, March 6, 2020 A friend asked me: “I wouldn’t dare to believe the official figures. Are things really under control outside of Hubei?” I said, “From now on, they’ll have nothing but good news for you. Whether you believe it or not is up to you.” Needless to say, the subject was China’s novel coronavirus epidemic [...] Keep reading »

A Social Media Profile of the Late Dr. Li Wenliang: From a Liberal-leaning Student, to a Party Adherent, to a Whistleblower Who Believes a Society Should Have More Than One Voice

Ye Du, February 26, 2020 In 2009, the late Dr. Li Wenliang registered a Twitter account (@xiaolwl) in 2009 when he was working on a master’s degree at Wuhan University, making him one of the earliest Twitter users in China. He browsed the site by circumventing the Great Firewall, but made few comments of his own, preferring to lurk. He was someon [...] Keep reading »

The Regret of Wuhan: How China Missed the Critical Window for Controlling the Coronavirus Outbreak

By Li Xiangyu (李想俣), Li Mingzi (李明子), Peng Danni (彭丹妮), and Du Wei (杜玮), in the February 10 issue of China News Weekly Out of mountains of reports about the coronavirus epidemic, we at China Change have taken a keen interest in two areas: the origins of the virus, and the decision making process. The cover story of China News [...] Keep reading »

Going Around Coronavirus-Stricken Wuhan With Fang Bin, Visiting Hospitals, and Being Visited by Police, on February 1, 2020

China Change, February 3, 2020 Fang Bin (方斌) is a middle-aged man and a Wuhan native. His friends told China Change that he used to run an interior design business in Beijing, but moved back to Wuhan some time ago and started a garment business specializing in “Han clothes” (汉服), but it’s going pretty badly. When the lockdown on the c [...] Keep reading »