Being a “News Smuggler,” living in fear and hope, during the coronavirus outbreak in China

Working and living in Hong Kong, I have been constantly “smuggling” news between mainland China and the rest of the world since the Covid-19 outbreak, hoping to get around the Great Firewall to pass important information to Chinese citizens who desperately need it, at the same time, translating what happens in China to the global audience.

自从Covid-19爆发以来，我一直在中国大陆与世界其他地区之间“走私”新闻，希望绕过防火墙，将重要信息传递给急需咨讯的中国公民，同时，将中国发生的事情传达给全球观众。

In the middle of January when the Chinese New Year was approaching, I had such high hopes on my return to mainland China to spend time with my family. I didn’t expect that my plan would be disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak. I didn’t expect that the country would be in grip of a public health and trust crisis. People are living with the dread of Covid-19 all around them and have no idea of how it will all turn out.

在1月中旬春节临近的时候，我寄予厚望，希望能回到中国大陆与家人共度时光。我没想到我的计划会因冠状病毒爆发而中断，没想到国家会陷入公共卫生和信任危机。人们都对周围的Covid-19感到恐惧，不知道结果如何。

Several cases of unknown pneumonia were reported to both Hubei province’s and national Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) early in December but not much was known by the public. In early January, 41 cases were found with one death. China reported the cases to the World Health Organization and researchers shared the genome sequence of the novel virus to a global virus research platform.[1] On Jan.1 and Jan.3, the two health authorities ordered researchers to destroy the virus samples, Caixin News reported on Feb.27 (but the article was censored in China later).[2]

12月初，湖北省和国家疾病预防控制中心（CDC）均报告了几例未知的肺炎病例，但公众知之甚少。 1月初，发现41例病例，其中1人死亡。中国向世界卫生组织报告了病例，研究人员将这种新型病毒的基因组序列分享给了全球病毒研究平台。[1]  2月27日，《财新新闻》报道，1月1日和1月3日，两个卫生部门命令研究人员销毁病毒样本（但该文章随后在中国受到审查）。[2]

Until Jan. 20, Beijing warned low-level officials not to cover up the outbreak. The number of confirmed cases surged to hundreds overnight.[3] Before that, the public had not been informed of the outbreak and what they can do to protect themselves.

直到1月20日，北京警告地方官员不要掩盖疫情。一夜之间确诊病例激增至数百例。[3] 在此之前，他们没有向公众告知疫情以及告诉他们如何保护自己。

As the number shot up, I decided to cancel my flight tickets, knowing that the reported number was just an iceberg. Since then, I have been calling my parents each night to make sure they are fine.

随着人数激增，我决定取消机票，因为知道上报的数字只是冰山一角。从那时起，我一直每晚打电话给父母，以确保他们状况良好。

I started to send the research by microbiologists at the Imperial College London[4] on Chinese social media. The research predicted that at least a thousand people would be infected. My post was blocked. So I flipped the screenshots vertically and sent them out. Unblocked. Some Chinese netizens forwarded my post. Some questioned the math models the experts used. Some believed the Western experts were just trying to make China look bad.

我开始在中国社交媒体上发送伦敦帝国学院微生物学家的研究报告[4]。研究预测，至少有一千人将被感染。我的帖子被墙了。因此，我垂直翻转了屏幕截图并将其发送出去。畅通。一些中国网友转发了我的帖子，有人质疑专家使用的数学模型，一些人认为西方专家只是想让中国看起来不好。

In late January, Chinese state-owned media stood up to criticize the local governments in Hubei province for cover-up, saying that if people were told earlier, the outbreak would not get as bad as it was, the only cure to the public panic is information transparency, and anyone who deliberately hides the reporting of cases would be “nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity.” [5]

1月下旬，中国大陆的媒体站起来批评湖北省的地方政府进行掩盖，说如果人们早点被告知，疫情不会像现在那样严重，这是唯一解决公众恐慌的方法是信息透明，任何故意隐瞒案件报告的人都会“被钉在永恒耻辱的支柱上”。 [5]

The fact that Chinese media could get its calls out signaled that the Chinese authorities began to intentionally loosen the control over information. This is a common practice of soothing public anger after disasters such as the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008 and the Tianjin factory explosions in 2015.

中国媒体大声疾呼的事实表明，中国当局开始有意放松对信息的控制。这是在2008年汶川地震和2015年天津工厂爆炸等灾难后缓解公众愤怒的普遍做法。

I wouldn't miss this opportunity. Apart from my daily formal job of covering stories in Asia for readers outside China, I also share news unavailable in China on my Chinese social media. I wrote an article on my personal WeChat blog, explaining how the outbreak developed, how the Wuhan government missed the best time to contain it and what we can do to hold the officials accountable. I wrote, “The crisis is a test not only of the ability of citizens’ oversight but also of governance in China.”

我不会错过这个机会。除了我的日常工作是为中国以外的读者报道亚洲的故事外，我还通过中国的社交媒体分享中国没有的新闻。我在自己的微信博客上写了一篇文章，解释了疫情如何发展，武汉市政府如何错过控制疫情的最佳时机以及如何使官员承担责任。我写道：“这场危机不仅考验公民的监督能力，也考验中国的治理能力。”

At the same time, I “smuggled” the latest clinical data published on Lancet, but unavailable in China, to my Chinese friends. The English screenshots of the data could get around online surveillance of sensitive words and be translated through mobile apps after my friends received them. But some experts’ prediction, reported by Nature, of the worst scenarios, in which about 190,000 would be infected, couldn’t get through the Firewall.[6]

同时，我将“柳叶刀”上发布的最新临床数据“走私”给了我的中国朋友。数据的英文屏幕快照可以绕过敏感单词的在线监视，并在我的朋友收到它们后通过移动应用程序进行翻译。但是，据《自然》杂志报道的一些专家的预测，最糟糕的情况下大约有190,000人将被感染的信息，无法绕过防火墙。[6]

After the lockdown of the city of Wuhan on Jan.23, panic buying happened in mainland China. My parents in the city of Wenzhou believed these people overreacted, though they couldn’t get any masks at drug stores either. My parents optimistically believed the outbreak was under control. But from Jan.23 to Jan.29, about 33,000 Wenzhou residents doing business in Wuhan returned to Wenzhou, which became one of the most affected cities outside Hubei province. I sent epidemiological estimates to my parents every day and shouted at them, “It will get worse! Stay at home!”

在1月23日武汉市封锁之后，中国大陆发生了恐慌性购买。我在温州的父母相信这些人反应过度，尽管他们在药妆店也没有得到任何口罩。我的父母乐观地认为疫情已得到控制。但是从1月23日至1月29日，约有33,000名在武汉经商的温州居民返回了温州，温州成为湖北省以外受影响最严重的城市之一。我每天将流行病学评估结果发送给父母，并对他们大喊：“情况会越来越糟！呆在家里！”

In Hong Kong where only a few Covid-19 cases were confirmed, people also started panic buying[7] as the Hong Kong government declined to shut down its border with China.[8] In my neighborhood, disinfectant, hand sanitizers, surgical masks were all sold out. Senior ladies rushed to the supermarkets and bought any noodles, rice, and toilet papers they could find. During the outbreak, these necessities worth more than currencies.

那时，在仅确认了少数病例Covid-19病例的香港，由于香港政府拒绝关闭与中国的边界，人们也开始恐慌性购买[7]。[8]在我附近，消毒剂，洗手液，口罩都卖光了。高级女士们赶到超市，买了他们能找到的任何面条，米饭和厕纸。在爆发期间，这些必需品的价值超过了货币。

After the news company that I work for issued notice of working from home, I filled up my fridge with food that I could eat for a week. This gave me a sense of security. I tried to not got out often to save my surgical masks. I felt like a billionaire, with groceries, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and 40 masks.

在我所工作的单位发布了在家工作的通知后，我在冰箱里装满了可以吃一周的食物。这给了我安全感。我试图不经常离开以保存我的口罩。我觉得自己像个亿万富翁，有杂货，一瓶酒精和40个口罩。

After Wuhan’s lockdown, a series of problems were exposed. Thousands of cases were confirmed, the overburden hospitals in Wuhan ran out of beds, testing kits, and other medical supplies, asking for donations. Those ill desperately asked for help online could not get diagnosed.[9]

武汉封锁之后，出现了一系列问题。数以千计的病例得到确认，武汉市负担沉重的医院用完了床，检测试剂和其他医疗用品，要求捐赠。那些迫切需要在线帮助的病人无法得到诊断。[9]

A friend of mine living in Xiangyang, a city close to Wuhan sent me a message, saying that she was worried about her mom working as a nurse in a hospital without any N95 respirator or protective clothing and that her relatives couldn’t get diagnosed in hospitals in Wuhan.

我的一个住在武汉附近城市襄阳的朋友给我发了一条消息，说她担心妈妈在医院里当护士时没有戴N95防毒面具或穿防护服，她的亲戚在武汉的医院无法得到诊断。

Chinese around the world sourced tons of protection gears and shipped them to Wuhan. My friends who study in the U.S. worked with other Chinese international students to send medical supplies back to China. Every friend of mine shared on social media the list of items that hospitals in Wuhan need.

世界各地的中国人开始采购数吨的防护装备，然后运到了武汉。我在美国学习的朋友与其他中国留学生一起将医疗用品运回中国。我的每个朋友在社交媒体上分享了武汉医院需要的物品清单。

But the hospitals didn’t receive many supplies, because the Ministry of Civil Affairs required all donations go through government-backed charities and forbade any grassroots organizations and private logistics companies to ship the supplies into the city. The government-backed Red Cross was under fire. With only about 20 staff and an outdated logistics system in Wuhan, it couldn’t handle such a large amount of supplies and discrepancies were found in its reporting of donations. Chinese state media CCTV even caught a local official who took away a box of 3M masks at Red Cross’ warehouse.[10]

但是医院没有收到很多物资，因为民政部要求所有捐赠都必须经过政府支持的慈善机构，并禁止任何基层组织和私人物流公司将物资运到城市。政府支持的红十字会遭到抨击。武汉仅有约20名员工，物流系统已经过时，无法处理如此大量的物资，并且在捐赠报告中发现了数字错误。中国官方媒体央视甚至在红十字会仓库发现了一名当地官员私自拿走了一框3M口罩。[10]

The public burst with anger. Medical workers were risking their lives at the front lines, and Red Cross, which has records of embezzling funds over the past decades [11], still had not distributed equipment to medics.

公众怒不可遏。医务人员冒着生命危险冒着生命危险，过去几十年有挪用资金记录的红十字会[11]仍未向医疗人员分发设备。

In early February, I made a vlog about the trust crisis of China’s Red Cross, explaining how it handled the supplies, the history of its corruption, and how it became the monopoly of charities. Surprisingly, my video passed the check, and was viewed 67,000 times on Bilibili, a Chinese video platform, within a day. Hundreds of viewers commented, supporting me to keep up speaking out and saying, “Sister, please protect yourself.”

2月初，我做了一期有关中国红十字会信任危机的视频博客，解释了中国红十字会如何处理物资，腐败的历史以及它如何成为慈善机构的垄断。令人惊讶的是，我的视频通过了审查，并在一天之内在中国视频平台Bilibili上观看了67,000次。数百名观众发表了评论，支持我继续开口说话，并说：“姐姐，请保护好自己。”

A few days later, pressured by billions of Chinese netizens, the Red Cross Society let a logistics company take over its job. The professional team sorted out and delivered the supplies within four hours.[12]

几天后，在数十亿中国网民的压力下，红十字会让物流公司接管了工作。专业团队整理并在四个小时内交付了物资。[12]

The overall trust crisis wasn’t over.

信任危机尚未结束。

The public anger and grief reached the climax on Feb.6 when the whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang died from the coronavirus and more than 20,000 people were infected. On Dec.30, Dr. Li warned his fellow doctors about the Sars-like virus in a private WeChat group. On Jan.3, the Wuhan police silenced and reprimanded him for “spreading rumors.”[13] Before his death, he said to Caixin News, “There should be more than one voice in a healthy society.”[14]

2月6日，举报人李文亮博士死于冠状病毒，截至那一天，病毒已感染了2万多人。公众的愤怒和悲伤达到了高潮。 12月30日，李医生在一个私人微信小组中警告他的医生同事有关类Sars病毒的信息。 1月3日，武汉警方以“散布谣言”为由对他进行了禁言和谴责。[13] 在他去世前，他对《财新》说：“在一个健康的社会中应该有多个声音。” [14]

Chinese millennials, who were seen as apathetic towards politics, burst out fury and mourned the hero. As the beneficiaries of China’s economic growth and globalization, they used to be proud of their homeland though they know China’s model is not perfect.

被视为对政治冷漠的中国千禧一代爆发出愤怒并为英雄哀悼。作为中国经济增长和全球化的受益者，他们曾经为自己的祖国感到自豪，尽管他们知道中国的模式并不完美。

But at that night, on Weibo, Twitter-like Chinese social media, hashtags of “Dr. Li Wenliang has passed away” had 670 million views, and about 2.7 million posts with hashtags of “we want the freedom of speech” appeared. Many young people cried and started to think about how come their government’s reactions to disasters are always hiding information, and why the Chinese officials are only accountable to the top rather than the general public. But on the next morning, all the posts disappeared.

但是那天晚上，微博上发布的“李文亮去世了”标签有浏览量6.7亿，还出现了约270万个带有“我要言论自由”标签的帖子。许多年轻人哭了，开始思考他们的政府对灾难的反应如何总是隐藏信息，以及为什么中国官员只对高层负责，而不对公众负责。但是第二天早上，所有帖子都消失了。

These are the systemic questions that have not been answered for years, hidden behind the applauded economic miracle. While China has achievements in terms of mobilizing resources to alleviate poverty and build infrastructure via its top-down system, the bottom-up channels have been missing. All of us are paying the price of late alarm and long-term censorship.

这些是多年来未被回答的系统性问题，这些问题隐藏在鼓掌的经济奇迹背后。尽管中国在调集资源以通过其自上而下的体系来减轻贫困和建设基础设施方面取得了成就，但自下而上的渠道一直缺失。我们所有人都为迟到的警报和长期的审查付出了代价。

That night was a sleepless night for many Chinese. Having been inundated with a large amount of bad news for weeks, being angry about all the chaos going on in China, hearing my father was coughing on the phone, and knowing Yueqing, the county in the city of Wenzhou where my grandparents live was under lockdown, I couldn’t fall asleep.

对许多中国人而言，那天晚上是一个不眠之夜。数周以来一直被大量坏消息淹没，对中国的所有混乱状况感到愤怒，听到我父亲在打电话咳嗽，并且知道我的祖父母居住的温州乐清县锁定，我无法入睡。

Then, Dr. Li’s death motivated hundreds of academics to sign an online petition calling Beijing to set up laws to protect the freedom of speech.[15] To pacify the public, Beijing took a rare action by sending a team from its top anti-corruption agency to investigate the death of Li.[16] But no results have been released yet.

然后，李医生的去世激励数百名学者签署在线请愿书，呼吁北京制定法律保护言论自由。[15] 为了安抚公众，北京采取了罕见的行动，从其最高的反腐败机构派出了一个小组调查李文亮之死。[16] 但是尚未发布任何结果。

On Feb.17, President Xi’s speech at the top officials’ internal meeting was published, “This outbreak is a big test of the country's governance system.” [17] Yep, if the epidemic can’t be dealt with properly, it will threaten the government’s ruling legitimacy. Throughout the world history, pandemics changed the fate of many civilizations.

2月17日，习近平主席在高级官员内部会议上的讲话被发表：“这次爆发是对该国治理体系的重大考验。” [17] 是的，如果无法正确处理这一流行病，它将威胁到政府的统治合法性。在整个世界历史上，大流行改变了许多文明的命运。

China has been stepped up measures to fight against the virus to make up its irresponsiveness at the beginning of the outbreak. Massive checkpoints have been set up, possible virus carriers have been tracked down, and mandatory 14-day quarantines have been implemented.[18]

中国已采取措施与该病毒作斗争，以弥补疫情爆发初期的反应迟钝。已经建立了大规模的检查站，已经找到了可能的病毒携带者，并实施了强制性的14天隔离。[18]

The number of newly confirmed cases in China excluding those in Hubei province has been declining for two weeks. But nobody knows if the declining number is true or not, as local officials are facing the dilemma of containing the outbreak or resuming production to save the country’s economy.

除湖北省外，中国新确诊病例数连续两周下降。但是没人知道下降的数字是否准确，因为地方官员正面临控制疫情爆发或恢复生产以挽救经济的困境。

At the same time, the leadership tightens control on internet. On March 1, the new, harsher Chinese internet regulations started to be implemented. Many popular blogs that, in the eyes of the readers, are not political but informative, were shut down on that day. After that, less news and no posts asking for help in Wuhan has come out. Only information that has “positive energy” and is aligned with the thoughts of the authorities is allowed to go online. The rest of the information is deemed as “improper” or “illegal.”

同时，领导层加强了对互联网的控制。 3月1日，新出的更严的中国互联网法规开始实施。在读者看来，许多受欢迎的博客在那天都被关闭了，这些博客不是政治性的，而是很有启发性的。此后，在武汉的新闻很少，没有求助的帖子。只有具有“正能量”并与当局的思想保持一致的信息才可以上网。其余信息被视为“不当”或“非法”。

As of March 5, more than 95,000 people around the world have been infected and more than 3200 died from the virus. Infections have been found in about 80 countries outside China. South Korea, Japan, Italy, and Iran are going through similar situation that Wuhan had. For many countries, it would be much harder to carry out the same containment efforts that China has made.

截至3月5日，全球已有95,000多人受到感染，并且有3200多人死于该病毒。在中国以外的大约80个国家中发现了感染。韩国，日本，意大利和伊朗正经历与武汉类似的情况。对于许多国家而言，要进行与中国相同的遏制工作将更加困难。

During the outbreak, many journalists including my colleagues in Hong Kong and mainland China have been risking their health and safety, reporting from Hubei province. Although many Chinese investigative stories were forcibly deleted after publishing, some Chinese news outlets still find ways around the restrictions — while censorship is massive in China, there is always a grey area, though small.

疫情暴发期间，很多记者包括我在香港和中国大陆的同事冒着健康和安全风险的去一线报道。尽管许多中国的调查报道在发布后被强行删除，但一些中国新闻媒体仍在寻找绕开这些限制的方法-尽管中国的审查制度规模庞大，但总会有一个灰色地带，尽管很小。

Since Hong Kong’s autonomy is guaranteed under the one country two systems principle, getting information and publishing stories about China in Hong Kong is much easier. This allows many “news smugglers” like me to get the important information out, shuttling back and forth across the Great Firewall.

由于一国两制原则保证了香港的自治，因此在香港获取有关中国的信息和发表新闻要容易得多。这样，许多像我这样的“新闻走私者”就可以获取重要信息，并在防火墙中来回穿梭。

What do I earn as a “news smuggler”? The profit for me is growing public awareness of what is happening to us, empathy towards those who are affected, and difference made to the society we live in. Hopefully, these smuggling efforts might be turned into better decision-making tools for my country and fellow citizens. And most importantly, I hope I can help keep documenting our collective memories, preventing them from being erased by those in power. 

作为“新闻走私者”，我能获得什么？对我来说，最大的好处是，公众日益意识到我们正在发生的事情，对任何受此疫情影响的人的同情心以及对我们所生活的社会的改变。希望这些“走私”努力能帮助我的国家和人民作出更好的做决定。最重要的是，我希望我能继续记录下我们的集体记忆，以防止被抹去记忆。

[1] Coronavirus: How Disease X, the epidemic-in-waiting, erupted in China. South China Morning Post. https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/china/article/3052721/wuhan-killer/index.html

[2] Genetic sequencing of the new coronavirus: when the alarm went off. Feb.27, 2020. Caixin News. https://archive.is/untHJ#selection-499.0-499.22

[3] Warning against cover-up as China virus cases jump. Jan.21, 2020. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51185836

[4] Estimating the potential total number of novel Coronavirus cases in Wuhan City, China. Jan.17, 2020. Imperial College London. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/2019-nCoV-outbreak-report-17-01-2020.pdf

[5] China’s credibility on the line as it tries to dispels fears it will cover up spread of Wuhan virus. Jan.21, 2020. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3046984/china-warns-cadres-cover-spread-virus-and-be-nailed-pillar

[6] Coronavirus outbreak: what’s next? Jan.31, 2020. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00236-9

[7] Coronavirus: Hongkongers in panic buying of rice, toilet paper and essentials as government stays mum on impending quarantine measures. Feb.6, 2020. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3049410/coronavirus-hongkongers-panic-buying-rice-toilet

[8] Coronavirus: why won’t Carrie Lam shut Hong Kong’s border with mainland China? Feb.5, 2020. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3049111/coronavirus-why-wont-carrie-lam-shut-hong-kongs-border

[9] Coronavirus Pummels Wuhan, a City Short of Supplies and Overwhelmed. Feb.2, 2020. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/world/asia/china-coronavirus-wuhan.html

[10] China's Red Cross is under fire for not getting supplies to hospitals fighting coronavirus. That's a problem for the government. Feb.7, 2020. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/06/asia/red-cross-china-donations-intl-hnk/index.html

[11] Does Anyone Trust the Chinese Red Cross? May 2, 2013. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/05/does-anyone-trust-the-chinese-red-cross/275508/

[12] 九州通：红会受捐物资非常复杂 调拨流程正加快. Feb.2, 2020. Yicai News. https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/2020-02-02/doc-iimxyqvy9751566.shtml

[13] Coronavirus: Whistle-blower Dr. Li Wenliang confirmed dead of the disease at 34, after hours of chaotic messaging from hospital. Feb.7, 2020. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3049411/coronavirus-li-wenliang-doctor-who-alerted-authorities-outbreak

[14] Whistleblower Li Wenliang: There Should Be More Than One Voice In A Healthy Society. Feb.6, 2020. Caixin Global. https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-02-06/after-being-punished-by-local-police-coronavirus-whistleblower-vindicated-by-top-court-101509986.html

[15] Coronavirus: Li Wenliang’s death prompts academics to challenge Beijing on freedom of speech. Feb.12, 2020. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3050086/coronavirus-hundreds-chinese-sign-petition-calling-freedom

[16] National supervisory commission sends group to investigate issues involving Dr. Li Wenliang. Feb.7, 2020. Xinhua News. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/07/c_138763561.htm

[17] 疫情防控——国家治理体系和治理能力面临的一次大考、一堂大课. Feb.17, 2020. Guangming News. http://www.china.com.cn/opinion/theory/2020-02/17/content_75714264.htm

[18] As China Fights the Coronavirus, Some Say It Has Gone Too Far. Feb.20, 2020. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/business/economy/china-economy-quarantine.html