A Chinese Doctor Goes Missing

Only a few major news outlets are covering the disturbing detention of Chinese medical doctor Jiang Yanyong and his wife, who's also a doctor, Hua Zhongwei. Dr. Jiang rose to prominence last year after he exposed the government coverup of Beijing's SARS epidemic. He and his wife were en route the U.S. embassy on June 1 to arrange their visas for a trip to visit their daughter in California when they were re-routed to an unknown place. Communication with the couple has been limited to a few notes stating that they're safe and well but will not be flying to California; the last communication was on June 10.

Human Rights in China reports that the doctors have visited their California daughter almost yearly. This month's intervention follows Dr. Jiang's public criticism of the government for its failure to admit that the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, was a mistake. As the WSJ news pages ($) state:

"A move to discipline Dr. Jiang would reflect the depth of vulnerability China's leadership still feels about its role in the events of 1989, and to public criticism in general. The surgeon, by virtue of his role in exposing cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome last year, is probably the most widely recognized government critic in China today, and an arrest or indictment would invite a flurry of criticism from overseas. Within China, Dr. Jiang, while not quite a household name, has nonetheless attained a hero's status within the medical community and among many people who support a faster pace of political liberalization in China."

The Journal's editorial page ($) argues correctly that the detention of such high-profile persons reveals the inability of Beijing to control the flow of information in the Internet age and that their actions will "fan contempt among the Chinese people for their Communist Party masters." Let's hope that fame is also fanned by the outrage of Westerners whose patience with dangerous dictatorships runs out.