‘Sars hero’ given top award as Covid-19 dominates China’s civilian honours

Respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan gets Medal of the Republic and is praised for warning of human-to-human transmission and backing strict control measures
Two senior doctors, and a military scientist leading work on a vaccine candidate, are awarded the title ‘people’s hero’

Coronavirus China

Linda Lew

Published: 9:47pm, 11 Aug 2020

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China’s top civilian honours this year all went to people credited with leading the country’s efforts to contain its Covid-19 outbreak, including top respiratory diseases expert Zhong Nanshan and Major General Chen Wei, who is leading the work on one of the Chinese vaccine candidates.

The National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s top lawmaking body, confirmed on Tuesday that it had awarded the Medal of the Republic to Zhong, the only nominee. Chen and two frontline doctors, Zhang Boli and Zhang Dingyu, were given the honour of “people’s hero”, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

“Many health care workers, researchers, People’s Liberation Army commanders … and more have achieved strategic results and made significant contributions to the people’s fight … against the new coronavirus epidemic,” the announcement by the Standing Committee said.

Although China continues to experience outbreaks of Covid-19, most recently in Xinjiang in its far west, life in most of the country has returned almost to normal.

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Li Wenliang, a Wuhan doctor who had tried to raise the alarm last December about a new mystery illness only to be disciplined by the police, died of Covid-19 in February. He was later exonerated and in April was recognised as a martyr.

After eight people received the Medal of the Republic last year, Zhong – dubbed a “Sars hero” in China for his role in helping to contain the 2002-03 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome – was this year’s sole recipient.

“He bravely treated [patients] and bravely spoke out, raising human-to-human transmission [to the public], and emphasised strict prevention and control measures,” read the nomination for Zhong, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Zhang Boli and Zhang Dingyu, the lesser-known doctors who received the title “people’s hero”, were involved in treating Covid-19 patients on the front line, Xinhua said.

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Zhang Boli, president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, went to Wuhan to support local health care workers for 81 days. He championed treatments that incorporated traditional Chinese medicine – in which he is a specialist – as well as Western medicine, according to the report.

Zhang Dingyu is the director of Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, the first facility that was designated to handle Covid-19 patients. He had been working on the front line since the end of December, when coronavirus patients first arrived at his hospital. He and his colleagues had since treated more than 2,800 patients, Xinhua reported.

However, some Covid-19 awards’ nominees have attracted debate.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying was last week nominated for an award recognising Communist Party members who have contributed to anti-epidemic work, according to the party website Qizhiwang.

Her nomination angered some users on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, who thought medical workers were more deserving.

“Seeing this news, I feel real unfairness for the frontline Wuhan nurses and doctors,” one person commented.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: ‘Sars hero’ awarded top civilian honour

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