Chen Qiushi is a Wuhan-based lawyer who has been regularly covering the coronavirus outbreak in China, regularly criticizing the governement for their handling of the pandemic. He is now missing.
The coronavirus has reportedly killed more than 1000 Chinese residents since the outbreak of a new coronavirus, restricting travel and forcing the quarantines. The Chinese government is under immense pressure to solve the crisis, and scientists are racing to find a way to contain the unnamed virus before it has global repercussions. In another disturbing, yet not altogether surprising, turn of events, persons who have been critical of the government’s handling of the virus outbreak are starting to disappear.
Many Chinese residents have taken to social media to
document how the virus is effecting their communities and how those communities
are effected by the government. Chen Qiushi is one of those citizens, a lawyer
who has been at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan. He started posting
about the virus on January 25 after the Chinese government locked the city down
in order to contain the virus. Chen Qiushi’s remarks regarding the government
and its handling of the outbreak have been—in a word—critical, citing lack of
medical supplies, crowded hospitals, and accusing the Chinese government of
incompetence and suppressing freedom of speech in discourse regarding the
pandemic.
Chen Qiushi’s latest update was last Thursday, February 6,
and no one has heard from him since. In a recent tweet, Chen’s friend Xu
Xiaodong, stated that Chen has been “taken away to quarantine by force.” He
went on to say that Chen has not had access to his personal cell phone. This is
interesting, because Chen’s Twitter account still appears to be active despite
his disappearance. In a statement
released by the Human Rights Watch, they stated that friends and family have
applied for an audience to speak with Chen, but their queries have not been
returned.
Another Chinese “citizen journalist” has also gone missing,
just days after the disappearance of Chen Qiushi. Fang Bin, a Wuhan-based
businessman, has also been documenting the devastation in his community via social
media. He had reportedly dared the Chinese government to come seize him for his
comments regarding their handling of the virus on the same day that he posted a
12-second video of a paper that read “resist all citizens, hand the power of
the government back to the people.” Authorities used the fire brigade to break
down his door and arrest him.
In China, government focus appears to be split between
containing the spread of the virus, and controlling the narrative surrounding
the containment. Yaqui Wang, a Cinhese researcher for Human Rights Watch,
commented on the government’s repeated pattern of censoring or controlling
narratives that concern disasters or pandemics, “authorities are as equally, if
not more, concerned with silencing criticism as with containing the spread of
the coronavirus.”
American watchdog organizations and lawmakers have called for the Chinese government to account for Chen Qiushi’s and Fang Bin’s whereabouts. Steven Butler, the program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists stated, “Authorities in Wuhan must disclose whether they are holding journalist Chen Qiushi. If they are, then he should be released immediately. China does not seem to have learned the clear lesson that bottling up the truth about a spreading illness will only make matters worse.”
For the past two weeks, the true-crime world has had its eyes fixated on missing minors, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, and the mysterious string of deaths that preceded their disappearance. This case of missing children has already taken so many unexpected turns, leaving family, friends, and journalists alike wondering what disturbing new detail will emerge yet.
The
last confirmed sighting of J.J. was back in September of 2019, when his
mother, Lori Vallow pulled him out of public school, citing
a new job offer out of state that would require her to move her children as
well. It was not entirely unexpected, as Vallow also cited the recent death of
J.J.’s father as another reason why their family life remained in flux. What
she failed to mention was the fact that J.J.’s father, Charles Vallow, had been
murdered the previous July when her own brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles in
self-defense. She swiftly remarried a man named Chad Daybell, who had also
recently lost his spouse, Tammy Daybell. Both Charles Vallow and Tammy Daybell’s
deaths are currently being investigated as “suspicious” by respective law enforcement
agencies. Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, also died in the weeks following the
shooting death of her husband, but his cause of death has yet to be released.
This spinning vortex of death and loss was further
compounded by the noticeable absence of 17-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old J.J.
It wasn’t until one of their grandparents called authorities requesting a welfare
check that a missing persons investigation was launched. Lori Vallow and Chad
Daybell fled the area following the execution of the search warrant and were
finally tracked down in late January on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Vallow
was instructed to produce her children by January 30th or face criminal
charges. January 30th came and went, and still no word from J.J. or
Tylee.
Now, additional warrants executed by authorities have revealed
another disturbing detail. According to the EastIdahoNews, investigators have discovered
a storage locker in Rexburg, Idaho listed in Lori Vallow’s name. The
storage locker contained items that law enforcement strongly believe belonged
to the two children, including photo albums, bicycles, scooters, and winter
clothing.
Seventeen-year-old Tylee’s cell phone was also found in Lori Vallow’s possession when authorities finally tracked them down in Hawaii, without their missing children. Police were able to determine that the phone had been used several times since September when the children were last seen, though it is difficult to say by whom.
J.J.’s autism required the use of a service dog, primarily
for sleeping soundly through the night. A dog trainer based in Arizona has come
forward with startling information, “I was surprised and shocked when I got the
call from Lori that she needed to re-home the dog.” Her only explanation was
that her husband had recently passed and the family was moving to Idaho.
J.J. is described as a white male with brown hair and brown eyes, standing at 4′0″ and weighing 50 pounds. He also goes by J.J. and may be in need of medical attention. Tylee is described as a white female with blonde hair and blue eyes, standing at 5′0″ and weighing 160 pounds.
Anyone with information about the children is asked to call
Rexburg police at 208-359-3000 or report it to the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children.
