China cancels penalty for late doctor who warned about coronavirus

The National Monitoring Commission also warned against popular efforts to commemorate Dr. Li as a symbol of resistance against the ruling Communist Party of China and its suppression of freedom of expression. Li Wenliang was a member of the Communist Party, not a so-called anti-establishment figure, said a commission official in comments made by state media.

The commission also said it had asked the authorities in central Wuhan city where the pandemic started and where Dr. Li was based to revoke the reprimand that the local police had sent to the doctor and to hold those responsible to account. .

The Wuhan Police Station said separately that it had canceled the reprimand, imposed administrative penalties on two police officers, and apologized to the family of Dr. Lis.

News of the commission’s findings quickly spread to Chinese social media, where a hashtag on the report garnered more than 250 million views on the Weibo microblogging platform on Thursday evening. At one point, the volume of views increased by more than a million per minute.

While some Weibo users hailed Dr. Lis’ rehabilitation, many others expressed disbelief and anger at what they saw as the scapegoat of local authorities. That’s it? many wrote in response, apparently dissatisfied that the survey did not answer questions about broader government failures.

The local police and Dr. Li Wenliang are the same, wrote a Weibo user. Carry the box for erroneous judgments and decision-making of certain services!

Wuhan police interrogated Dr. Li a few days after warning his former classmates on December 30 of a new pathogen. They accused the doctor of spreading rumors and made him write a statement acknowledging illegal behavior.

Dr. Li, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, was later infected with the coronavirus and died in early February. His fate captivated China and sparked an extraordinary wave of emotion while he was sick.

His death sparked widespread anger on Chinese social media, where users accused the Communist Party of silencing whistleblowers and mismanaging its response to the coronavirus.

Millions of Chinese people mourned Dr. Li and celebrated him as a hero who symbolized the public’s determination to seek transparency and free speech from their government.

Beijing sought to quell such a feeling. One day after Dr. Li’s death, the monitoring commission said it was sending a task force to investigate the circumstances surrounding his treatment and death. Earlier this month, authorities named Dr. Li on an honor roll of 506 leading medical workers who have distinguished themselves in epidemic control efforts.

Central government officials and state media also blamed authorities in Hubei Province and its capital Wuhan for the first missteps in their response to the epidemic, and replaced senior officials there.

The commissions’ investigation culminated in a lengthy report on Thursday detailing his findings on how Dr. Li received and transmitted information about a coronavirus spreading to Wuhan, his subsequent punishment, as well as details of how he got contracted the virus and died.

In a separate interview with the official Xinhua news agency, an unidentified Commission official sought to dispel speculation that medically unnecessary interventions were used to prolong Dr. Lis’ life for political ends.

The official acknowledged the conflicting media reports and announcements from the hospital regarding the timing of Dr. Lis’ death. The official time of his death was in the early hours of February 7, more than five hours after the first reports of his death.

The medical staff treating Dr. Li said at the time that they wanted to do their best to resuscitate him, so they performed resuscitation for a very long time, said the official.

The commission also dismissed Dr. Li’s public perceptions as a whistleblower, claiming that he had disseminated inaccurate information about the new virus without verifying it.

In trying to attack the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government, some hostile forces have given Dr. Li Wenliang anti-establishment labels as a hero and a revival, the official said. These efforts to stir up the flames, cloud people’s minds and arouse social emotions are doomed to failure.

Such remarks did not prevent a new wave of emotion on social media, where users gathered on Dr. Lis Weibo’s account to post tributes and lament what they saw as an inadequate government response.

Dr. Li, tonight’s results may be a little comfort to you, wrote one user. But it’s still far from enough to let you rest in peace.

Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com