Dr. Li-Meng Yan graciously agreed to speak with UncoverDC for two hours on Tuesday about President Xi's terrifying grip on mainland China. Dr. Yan says Xi is, for all intents and purposes, now the "Emperor" of China, a "sociopath" who has been consolidating power for many years. Dr. Yan flew to the U.S. from Hong Kong, where she worked in a prominent virology lab at the University of Hong studying coronaviruses and other emerging viral diseases under Malik Peiris on April 28, 2020. Yan says she has a "duty" to inform the world about the dangers of Communist China under Xi Jinping.
Peiris is a powerful, CCP-linked virologist at The University of Hong Kong. In 2003, Professor Peiris and his research team "discovered SARS-CoV, a novel coronavirus, as the etiological agent for SARS." Through her trustworthy network of mainland China friends and colleagues, Dr. Yan began to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2. She is exposing how Xi purposely allowed the highly transmissible virus to travel outside China, crushing Western economies and killing many people unnecessarily. She claims the virus was well-coordinated by the PLA in China and was not limited to the lab in Wuhan. Yan communicated anonymously with a Chinese broadcaster based in the West whose channel is Lude media. He helped her get the word out through his broadcasts.
Ultimately, Dr. Yan flew to the U.S. under duress because her own husband threatened her with death if she didn't stop talking about the truth. She says he was afraid of CCP reprisal. In China, says Yan, many people are "disappeared" for speaking up. Her Sri Lankan husband is now also working in the U.S. as a research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. He continues to coordinate with Peiris and is trying to help the CCP track down Dr. Yan. Dr. Yan is being hunted by the CCP in coordination with a program called Operation Fox Hunt. She has bravely spoken out on the topic of the virus and now has her own podcast on AmericaOutloud.com called "The Voice of Dr. Yan." Her mission is to help Westerners better understand the culture and politics of mainland China, especially Xi Jinping and his oppressive regime. The focus of today's column will be the protests in China and why she believes they are historically significant for the people of China and the world at large.
Dr. Yan says there is no doubt that the pandemic is indirectly responsible for the current protests in response to the lockdowns in China. However, she clarifies that while the press—both in China and in Western countries—are reporting the lockdowns are because of reinstated COVID policies, she says the lockdowns have "nothing to do with COVID." During the pandemic, it became brutally clear to the mainland Chinese that President Xi's draconian Zero Covid policies were "anti-human" and really had very little to do with protecting the people of China. Rather, she says Xi used the pandemic as a way to further extend and tighten his grip on the country. Dr. Yan explains:
"It is not COVID at all. SARS-CoV-2 is a weapon, a weapon more powerful than traditional bioweapons. So you see that it was released to foreign countries. It created a lot of social problems and chaos, and when it happened in China, it actually gave Xi great pretext to launch this very strict policy to restructure China's society, its culture, and its people.
I believe Xi Jinping is using the People's Liberation Army now to transform China from a peaceful time to wartime policies. It is a period of reformation. He is reinforcing his power with policies to control people, minimize people's living standards, concentrate the money in his favor in places like the biomedical technology and weapons industry. He is training people to become obedient to listen to these ridiculous anti-human rules. This type of policy has been adopted by emperors in China going back 2000 years. Xi Jinping is using it in a modern way. "
These policies have made the Chinese people "exhausted, poor, hungry, and stupid," Yan continued. Yan explained, "If they do not listen, he can just kill them." In many cases where cities are locked down, the only access to food is through local delivery controlled by the Party. The food delivered is often "very costly and rotten." The Party makes money off the backs of the Chinese people.
Xi's social credit system is used masterfully to control the movement of citizens. It is a "digital cuff." Those who have cell phones are tracked and monitored no matter where they go. They are forced to use a "traffic light system," red for no-go zones, or to indicate an individual does not have permission to move. Green means you are free to move about based on whether you have been tested or, many times, whether you "know the right local authorities." It is human-tracked, which means there are people, local police, volunteers, and Party members who monitor and control all movement. Elderly people who do not know how to use the digital system are tracked on paper at checkpoints. Cameras are collecting biometric data everywhere. The tracking system is everywhere, not just in big cities. This policy is a "national strategy," just like the "one-child policy."
Big Whites/AFP/https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/shanghai-whiteguards-05292022070418.html
Additionally, President Xi recruited people all over China who wear white PPE-type uniforms. These enforcers are called "Big Whites," and they enforce the lockdowns and movement of Chinese citizens. Big Whites are civilians hired with the promise of "big salaries" during the pandemic. Few have been compensated, and local CCP officials are now punishing many for asking to be paid. According to Yan, "Big whites are allowed to legally break into people's homes. They can rape girls, kill their pets, take their possessions, and people are not allowed to get help. If the people call to get help, the message will be deleted, and the police will come and tell them to shut up."
Yan says the protests are much more widespread than in the days of Tiananmen Square. Over 170 Universities country-wide have organized protests simultaneously, and it is not just the young protesting. Yan referenced a December 3, 2022, column by the New York Post that documented four Chinese citizens and their reasons for protesting. Many protested because of a deadly apartment fire in northwestern China's Xinjiang region that allegedly killed ten people. These people were locked in the building from the outside because of the Zero COVID policy. One resident said, "Xinjiang is an open-air prison." The Post column closely reflects Yan's perspective on what is happening in China right now.
Yan is speaking out because she knows that many Westerners have difficulty understanding how repressive the CCP is. The protestors know they risk their lives by speaking up. They are desperate, but they hope their efforts will be noticed by the world. The mainland Chinese, says Yan, "want freedom," and their only hope now is to "remove the regime." The regime is feeling the pressure too. One of China's top health experts and CCP member Zhang Wenhong is asking the Party to rethink its Zero COVID policy due to the widespread protests.
