Coronavirus Global situation
'China's Fauci' incurs wrath of netizens after social media post
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A child in Beijing getting a Covid-19 swab test earlier this month. The Delta variant of the coronavirus has breached China's defences, with record local cases in dozens of cites - albeit still in low numbers - leading the authorities to reintroduce travel curbs, mass testing and hyperlocal lockdowns.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
BEIJING • A top doctor in China's fight against the coronavirus is under investigation for plagiarism, weeks after making a social media post questioning the country's zero-tolerance strategy to control the pandemic.
Beijing has basked in its success in bringing to heel the virus that first emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, but was virtually extinguished through hard lockdowns, closed borders and massive test and trace campaigns.
But the Delta variant has breached China's defences, with record local cases in dozens of cites - albeit still in low numbers - leading the authorities to reintroduce travel restrictions, mass testing and hyperlocal lockdowns.
Dr Zhang Wenhong - a leading doctor described by state media as "China's Fauci", after the top United States infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci - has since said countries have to find a way "to learn to live with it".
"The way China will choose in future will... help establish communication with the world and a return to normal life, while protecting citizens from fear of viruses," Dr Zhang wrote on China's Twitter-like Weibo on July 29.
The suggestion of a softened approach to the country's zero-case stance has enraged nationalists who stalk China's social media. Dr Zhang now finds himself accused of "pandering to foreign ideas", with an apparent witch hunt targeting his academic credentials.
Posts on Weibo have accused Dr Zhang of plagiarising his doctoral thesis published two decades ago.
On Sunday, Fudan University in Shanghai said it was "aware of the online criticism and had launched an investigation into the degree it awarded Zhang in 2000".
Academics and scientists have rallied around Dr Zhang, in a country where all non-state sanctioned information linked to the pandemic is highly sensitive and has led to arrests and smear campaigns on social media.
In a sign of the risks, a teacher in east China's Jianxi province was detained by the police for 15 days after commenting last week on a news article saying the country can "coexist with the coronavirus", according to a local government notice.
China has reported 94,430 cases since the virus first emerged in Wuhan, and the death toll of 4,636 has been unchanged for nearly a year. But a recent flare-up at an airport in Nanjing spread to 18 provinces and infected 1,300 people in two months, although just 13 domestic transmissions were reported yesterday.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
