Is Coronavirus China’s Chernobyl?

By Matthew Henderson

In December 2019 a young doctor, working in Wuhan Central Hospital noticed something strange going on with his patients. Their coughing and fevers weren’t just the normal flu. They were reminiscent of a deadly coronavirus outbreak that burst out of China almost 20 years earlier. Four days after Dr Li Wenliang sent messages warning his colleagues, he was detained. A month later he was dead. His death caused uproar in China, with many comparing the government’s handling of coronavirus with the Soviet Union’s handling of the Chernobyl disaster.

So is COVID-19 China’s Chernobyl?

Matthew Henderson, a former British diplomat in China and the Director of Asia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson society launches a new series with The Sun called ‘Hot Takes’.