It is a great honor for me to accept the Oxi Courage Award on behalf of the Whistleblower Doctors in Wuhan, the Chinese central city where I was born, raised, and had worked.
While the whole world remembers Wuhan as the ground zero of this global pandemic, few know that the city was the site for the uprising that toppled China’s two thousand-year imperial rule in October 1911, and ushered in the Republic of China, the first republic in Asia.
Eighty years ago, today, when the Greek people courageously stood up to the seemingly invincible Nazi forces, the city of Wuhan also put up fierce resistance against the foreign invaders.
Knowing Wuhan’s glorious past, one is not surprised by what the Wuhan whistleblower doctors did early in this year. From the first day of this global outbreak, the doctors began their daily battle on the front lines courageously and selflessly to save others More importantly, when the government suppressed and censored the information about the coronavirus outbreak, they risked their careers and well being in exposing the Communist Party’s cover-ups, and alerted the rest of the world against the deadly potential of this threat.
One of those whistleblowers, Dr. Li Wenliang, died from Covid-19, but the others continued to fight and refuse to be silenced. “I AM a big mouth. No matter what pressures are, I’m going to talk about the virus to whoever and wherever I could,” said a doctor to her suppressor.
Just as the Greeks said OXI to the Nazis, the Wuhan whistleblowers not only said OXI! to COVID but also OXI! to disinformation, censorship, and political suppression. They are the true heroes. By recognizing them, the Oxi Courage Award inspires all of us io follow their footsteps and say Oxi to any virus and evils from nature and human society.