Covid Whistle Blower Dr Li Wenliang Remembered

Scores of people flooded mainland social media on Saturday to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of doctor Li Wenliang, a whistle blower who sought to raise awareness of early Covid-19 infections in Wuhan before dying from the virus himself.

On Weibo, it showed that posts with a hashtag about Li's death were read by some 100 million people, and discussed more than 10 thousand times. Users flooded to his old account to leave messages.

Some described Li, who was 33, as "an ordinary hero", with others saying that people won't forget him and wishing his family well.

Zhang Qianfan, a legal scholar from Peking University, said the day should be the first anniversary for commemorating free speech. He was among scholars who co-signed a public letter to the authorities calling for such freedoms soon after Li's death.

A mainland journalist who said he witnessed Li being rescued wrote on WeChat that although the authorities said the doctor died in the early hours of February the 7th, from what he saw, the doctor actually died the night before.

Another Wuhan resident said he was warned by the authorities after he posted a picture of Li's statue, with the quote from the late doctor saying "a healthy society can't just have one voice".