Coronavirus: mother of whistle-blower Li Wenliang demands answers for his treatment by Wuhan police
- Ophthalmologist died on Friday after becoming infected while fighting the outbreak on the medical front line
- Li’s wife issues statement thanking public for their messages of support, disavowing fake online appeals for financial aid
In footage published on Pear Video, Li’s mother, whose full name was not given, said Li was asked to go to the police station and sign a letter of reprimand for spreading inaccurate information about the outbreak before the matter had been thoroughly investigated.
“Before the facts were set straight, he was called to the Wuhan police station in the middle of the night,” she said.
“We will not be OK if they do not give us an explanation.”
On December 30, Li sent a message to his friends in a private WeChat group saying there were seven cases of Sars being treated in Wuhan hospitals, but later clarified that it was an unidentified form of coronavirus.
A screenshot of the chat was leaked and Li was reprimanded by the local police.
Li’s death sparked a public outpouring of grief and anger, prompting the Communist Party to send a delegation from the party’s disciplinary watchdog to Wuhan to fully investigate the “matters raised by the public in relation to Dr Li Wenliang”.
Ren Yi, a prominent Chinese blogger who writes under the name “Chairman Rabbit” and is a grandson of party reformer Ren Zhongyi, wrote on Sunday that while some public discussions surrounding Li maybe emotional, the outpour of criticism towards the authorities underscored the public’s expectations of the government.
Li’s mother said if they could do it all over again, she and her husband would still support Li’s decision to work on the medical front line combating the coronavirus outbreak.
“We of course would let him go back to the front line, that was his wish and the family must support it, since Wuhan’s outbreak was devastating and he was a doctor,” she said.
She described her son as someone who was kind to both family and colleagues. In setting the schedule for his department, Li would offer to take shifts for colleagues if they needed time off.
“He sometimes took on two night shifts a week, when others usually did it once a week,” she said.
“He was very considerate. The same to us, he often asked us if we had enough tea or if we were taking our medications on time.”
Fu Xuejie, Li’s widow, made her first public statement on Saturday to thank people for the love they had shown to Li and her family, and to disavow fake appeals made in her name for financial donations.
Several appeals appeared on social media soon after Li’s death. One included a letter, supposedly signed by Fu, that asked for the public’s help to “save my almost destroyed family”. It even included a mobile phone number.
Other unverified social media posts said Fu was also infected by the coronavirus and had a fever.
However, Fu, 32, issued a statement on Weibo saying she had not made any such posts nor had she authorised others to do so.
“I am Li Wenliang’s wife, Fu Xuejie. Thank you very much to everyone’s continued care and love for Li and our family,” the statement said.
Fu said she would only accept official compensation from the government, her husband's workplace, payments from her husband’s insurance policy, or donations from government-recognised charities.
She also urged everyone to stop posting messages about her personal situation that she had not first confirmed or authorised.
The couple have a five-year-old son and Fu is expecting her second child in June.
