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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaPolitics

Coronavirus: Heads roll in Hubei as Beijing’s patience runs out

  • Dismissals reflect public anger with local officials
  • But Beijing worried about bigger damage to economy

Reading Time:3 minutes
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A tribute to Dr Li Wenliang, who sounded an early alarm about the coronavirus outbreak, at his hospital in Wuhan. Photo: TNS
Cissy ZhouandWilliam Zheng
Beijing’s move to dismiss two top officials in Hubei province – epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak – and parachute in a central government fixer is another move to appease public anger over how the authorities responded to the virus crisis. It is also a measure to try and keep the economy on track.
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State broadcaster CCTV reported that Zhang Jin, the Communist Party secretary of Hubei’s health commission, and Liu Yingzi, director of the health commission, have both been axed – casualties of a botched response to the outbreak, which has now killed more than 1,000 people on the mainland.

“Beijing’s patience is wearing thin,” said a person familiar with the developments in Hubei who declined to be named because of the matter’s sensitivity. “The Lunar New Year holiday has ended and people are starting to go back to work in places like Guangdong and Shanghai, main engines of the country’s economy. If Hubei fails to contain the outbreak, China’s development plan this year will be jeopardised.”

The central government wants trusted people on the ground in Hubei to get better assessments of what the state of affairs really is and to turn it around, the person said. Removing the top Hubei health officials is just the beginning. “They are directly responsible for the handling of the outbreak. They clearly failed, but they are not the only ones,” the person said.

Wang Hesheng, deputy head of the National Health Commission, will fill both vacated positions. Photo: Simon Song
Wang Hesheng, deputy head of the National Health Commission, will fill both vacated positions. Photo: Simon Song
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Both posts of the dismissed officials will be filled by Wang Hesheng, the deputy head of China’s National Health Commission. Signs of the shake-up coming were evident last week when Wang was named a member of Hubei’s standing committee, the province’s top decision-making body.

Another Beijing heavyweight, Chen Yixin, was flown into Hubei last week. He is chief of the party’s top law enforcement body – the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission – and is now in charge of handling the outbreak. The virus is believed to have originated from a live animal and seafood market in Hubei’s capital city Wuhan.
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