China's response to Wuhan virus outbreak is a stunning exercise in mass mobilisation

Click HERE

If can't access above link, click HERE

Most remarkable of all, China pulled off the largest quarantine exercise in history when it put Wuhan and nearby cities under lockdown, isolating over 50 million people.

That Beijing could do all this, and be praised by the World Health Organisation and others for its formidable political will, organisation and execution, comes primarily down to its top-down, authoritarian model.

Not only is it able to order a draconian move such as this, it can also execute it with little overt opposition from its citizens.

"The authoritarian model is relevant in at least two ways. One, it mobilises the bureaucracy and society for one united objective. Two, it casts aside ethical and legitimate concerns that will not be possible in a liberal democracy, such as the lockdown of a city of 11 million people. "It's an infringement of rights, and a public policy trade-off between public health concerns and rights of the city's residents."

Censors have been unable to keep a lid on the growing online resentment over officials dragging their feet or downplaying the outbreak in its early days.

China's highest court last week took Wuhan police officers to task for silencing a group of doctors who had alerted a chat group on messaging app WeChat in late December about a spate of pneumonia infections. Health authorities announced the outbreak only on Dec 31. The eight people were sanctioned for supposedly spreading rumours, but the court said if those "rumours" had been allowed to circulate, that might have helped in making people more vigilant.

Qns:

1. Consider the view that efficient government is more important than democracy. (Cam. 2011)

2. To what extent does the state have the right to interfere in the freedom of its citizens?

3. Is regulation of the press desirable? (Cam. 2017)