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Opinion | How the coronavirus crisis has brewed a ‘revolt of the professionals’ in China
- Doctors, scientists, lawyers and journalists are pushing back against Communist Party structures in a rare backlash against suppression of information
- If Beijing can learn to leave them to do their jobs, that would be real reform, akin to a mini-revolution
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The handling of the outbreak of the coronavirus in the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, and then its spread around the country and then the world, have been notable for many things.
China’s response, which was late, and then overwhelming, quarantining overnight cities of more than 10 million people and constructing field hospitals in barely a week, displayed both the strengths and weaknesses of the party-state.
The reaction of the rest of the world has been instructive as well, wary at first, perhaps out of fear of offending Beijing, before moving into high gear, with some countries trying to seal their borders with China by banning flights and keeping Chinese nationals out.
But there has been another, less remarked upon, phenomenon – call it the “revolt of the professions” – which in the longer term may be the most significant outcome of the entire episode.
The ruling Communist Party, as it does with any potential alternative power centre in the country, has inserted itself deep inside the professional bodies governing the legal and medical professions.
Legal offices, courts and hospitals all have party committees, often headed by senior law partners and doctors, which give the Communist Party a presence inside institutions with a key role in public life.
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