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China names Covid-19 experts as new members of political advisory body
- Infectious disease specialist Zhang Wenhong and China CDC chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou will join the CPPCC
- They are among health experts who have become targets of public anger on social media as the virus rips through the country
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Beijing has named two top Covid-19 experts as new members of the national political advisory body, endorsing their efforts despite polarised public views on the country’s pandemic response.
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Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai-based infectious disease expert, and Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, are among the 96 new members from the health and medical sector joining the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
The CPPCC now has more than 2,000 members drawn from a wide range of sectors and deemed valuable by Beijing for their expertise and loyalty.
They include entrepreneurs, scholars, religious leaders, artists and former officials, and as CPPCC members they are expected to offer policy suggestions.
But unlike the National People’s Congress – China’s legislature – the CPPCC has no legal power to endorse or veto government appointments or plans.
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Shan Wei, a senior fellow on Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore, noted that Zhang was one of the few experts who had raised the prospect of “living with the virus” at a time when Beijing was firmly sticking with the zero-Covid policy.
But he said Zhang had never criticised or challenged the government directly.
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