Letters | Coronavirus: China’s silencing of citizen journalists only hurts its reputation

I am writing to respond to “Missing citizen journalists highlight coronavirus reporting risks” (February 15).

The Chinese government’s initial cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak is bad enough. That the central government is silencing those telling the truth to the world is worse.

It is true the Chinese leadership has been trying to control the situation to make up for its mistakes, such as in its handling of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003, to improve its international image. Suppressing information about the spread of the virus will not help this cause and instead tarnish the country’s reputation and hinder efforts to contain the virus.

This would be the ideal time for the Chinese government to allow its people more freedom of speech. Chinese officials’ overconfidence will only drag them further down the path of pain.