Coronavirus: Chinese human rights lawyers repeat campaign to honour Wuhan whistle-blower Li Wenliang
- Online campaign urges members of the public to speak out about their experiences of the past year and the importance of telling the truth
- Li, who died from Covid-19, was hailed as a national hero after he was disciplined for warning medical colleagues about disease
A group of Chinese human rights lawyers have revived a campaign to honour the Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, who was disciplined for warning colleagues about the Covid-19 outbreak before dying of the disease.
The group, a loosely organised online chat group which called itself “Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Group”, has published an open letter asking individuals and groups to send in stories about their experiences over the past year and why people should follow Li’s example to speak the truth.
The group made a similar call about a year ago.
Li, who died on February 6 last year, has been hailed as a national hero for warning his friends in a private messaging group about the discovery of a “Sars-like” illness in the city in late December 2019. He was later reprimanded by his supervisors and warned by police for raising the alarm.
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The group, which claimed it has about 200 members, called on “every Chinese to tell the truth in their personal capacity” and let the commemoration serve as a public warning of the consequence of losing the right to free speech, according to Liu Shuqing, one of the advocates and a former lawyer in Shandong province.
“This is not about the right to criticise the government but rather about inspiring people to speak up like Li Wenliang did,” Liu said.