documentary “Wuhan Lockdown,” planned by Wang Dan, director of the Dialogue China Institute, will be released worldwide on December 30, 2023. The main venues are the June 4th Memorial in New York and Taipei, with simultaneous screenings in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Toronto in Canada, and Tokyo in Japan.
Tokyo, Japan will be hosted by the Japan branch of Dialogue China, on December 30, 2023, at 14:00 (※The originally scheduled premiere event for December 30, 2023 has been postponed; further notice will be given after the event time is confirmed.) ) Premieres and seminars will be held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Association, conducted in Mandarin. Participants must register in advance. The registration method is as follows:
Contact person: Dong Peng
Email：freevoicetokyo@gmail.com
Address: 5th Floor, Marunouchi Nijubashi Building, 3-2-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan).
The
documentary “Wuhan Lockdown” has its world premiere
This documentary was planned by Wang Dan and produced by a team of entrepreneurs, directors, writers, photographers, music producers, and other volunteers. The documentary attempts to document public opinion and censorship during Wuhan’s lockdown period and will be screened free of charge as a public service film.
From December 30, 2019, when Dr. Li Wenliang from Wuhan Central Hospital issued his first public warning in a WeChat group to April 8, 2020, when Wuhan officially reopened, the outbreak lasted 101 days. During these 101 days, the CCP’s propaganda and surveillance system issued at least 131 propaganda directives, deleted 44 media reports and 229 self-media articles, and created at least 638 literary inquisitions, making the Wuhan lockdown not only a rare humanitarian disaster in human history but also a rare disaster of speech.
British writer George Orwell said, whoever controls history controls the future.
In China’s official narrative, the lockdown of Wuhan is described as a great power war against the epidemic.
In the narrative ofthe Chinese people, the lockdown of Wuhan is a struggle against freedom of speech.
During the secret production of the documentary, it faced immense pressure from the Chinese government. In February 2023, one of the documentary interviewees, Zhang Hai, went missing and was officially arrested in April. In June 2023, another key creator announced their departure from China. That same month, another interviewee, Yang Min, went into exile in Amst, Netherlands.
Follow-up to the documentary:
1 Yang Min — One of the interviewees for the documentary “Wuhan Lockdown.” During the Wuhan lockdown, when Yang Min woke up from the intensive care unit, she found that her beloved daughter had long since been killed by the Wuhan virus. From then on, she began seeking justice for her daughter’s death, believing that the government had concealed the epidemic and caused her daughter’s death. However, as a result, Yang Min began to be closely monitored and cracked down on by the Chinese government. In the spring of 2023, she began fleeing with Wuhan rights activists, and after many twists and turns, she went into exile in the Netherlands in June. Currently living in the Netherlands, she carries two death certificates for her daughter because they are evidence of the Chinese government’s lies.
2. Zhang Hai — One of the interviewees for the documentary “Wuhan Lockdown.” After Zhang Hai’s father passed away, Zhang Hai kept seeking an explanation for his father’s death, even writing open letters to Xi Jinping three times. As a result, Zhang Hai became one of the most active rights defenders, not only defending his father but also actively advocating for vulnerable groups. In February 2023, Zhang Hai was arrested at his home in Shenzhen for supporting Wuhan’s retirees opposing the “medical reform.” He was arrested in April.
3 Lu Yuyu — In early 2023, after completing the initial work on the documentary, Lu Yuyu, the main producer of the documentary “Wuhan Lockdown,” began planning his escape. Without a passport, he had to cross the border, crossing mountains from Guangxi to the Laos border, then to Thailand to enter an international refugee camp. In September 2023, he went into exile in Canada.
4 Fang Bin — one of the citizen journalists in the documentary. A citizen of Wuhan. After the outbreak in Wuhan, he went to the hospital to film the truth about the death from the Wuhan epidemic. In February 2020, after multiple videos were filmed and posted, he disappeared and has been missing ever since. In April 2023, news broke that Fang Bin had been sentenced to three years in prison and has now been released. But he remained under house arrest.
5 Zhangzhan — one of the citizen journalists in the documentary. In May 2020, he was arrested by Shanghai police across provinces and sentenced to four years in prison in September. He had been on hunger strikes in prison, and there were multiple reports of his life being in critical condition.
6 HY — Fang Bin’s friend, helped Fang Bin shoot videos, volunteered at Dr. Li Wenliang’s Wuhan Central Hospital during the lockdown, and also recorded quite a few videos. Therefore, it is under close surveillance. In 2023, he escaped China with Yang Min, flew to South America, and ‘took the line’ to the United States, and is now in California, USA.
7. Zhang Hongyuan—Son of Zhang Yi, one of the interviewees in the documentary ‘Wuhan Lockdown.’ Zhang Yi was once imprisoned for June Fourth. A well-known democrat in Wuhan, whose son has been assisting him in foreign media interviews to reveal the truth about the pandemic, both father and son have been closely monitored, threatened, harassed, and subjected to tourism by the CCP. In early 2023, Zhang Hongyuan assisted Yang Min in fleeing the country and then seeking political asylum in the Netherlands. Zhang Yi remains under border control.
Wuhan lockdown
This documentary was planned by Wang Dan and completed by a group of volunteers. The documentary attempts to record public opinion and censorship during the lockdown of Wuhan, and will be screened as a public welfare film for free.
From December 30, 2019, when Li Wenliang, a doctor at Wuhan Central Hospital, first sounded an alarm in a WeChat group to April 8, 2020, when Wuhan officially lifted the lockdown, the epidemic in Wuhan had lasted for 101 days.
During these 101 days, the CCP’s propaganda censorship system issued at least 131 propaganda instructions,deleted 44 media reports and 229 self-media articles, and created at least 638 cases of literary inquisition,making the lockdown of Wuhan not only a rare humanitarian disaster but also a rare disaster for free expression in human history.
The British writer George Orwell said that whoever controls the history controls the future.
In China’s official narrative, the Lockdown of Wuhan is an “epidemic” of a great power war.
In the Chinese popular narrative, the Lockdown of Wuhan was a struggle for freedom of speech.
The documentary was under tremendous pressure from the Chinese government during the secret production process. In February 2023, Zhang Hai, one of the interviewees of the documentary, disappeared and was formally arrested in April. In June 2023, the main creator announced that he had fled out of China. In the same month, another interviewee, Yang Min, went into exile in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.