Wuhan Whistleblower Flees China to US After Terrifying Experience

Qing Tao, a COVID outbreak whistleblower from Wuhan, China, speaks to The Epoch Times in Los Angeles about her experience of police interrogation during the 2019/2020 Wuhan outbreak on Feb. 17, 2023. Shawn Ma/The Epoch Times

A police summons changed Qing Tao’s life forever: She had unknowingly blown the whistle on the initial outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus (also known as COVID-19, or the Wuhan virus) in the outbreak’s epicenter of Wuhan, China. Her innocent text messages warning family and friends about the risks associated with going to the hospital there brought her police interrogation and suppression. Every aspect of her life was affected.

Now residing in Los Angeles, California, Qing Tao told The Epoch Times about the evening three years ago when the police took her away from her home.

A Brewing Storm

On the evening of Jan. 3, 2020, two policemen came and knocked on her door. Her parents had gone out for some exercise, and her husband had taken their child out to play, so Qing Tao felt that she had no choice but to leave with the police, who had arrived at her home with a summons. She had no idea why the police wanted to question her.

At the police station, she said the rough treatment of the police made her feel like a criminal. She was immediately searched and handcuffed to a chair facing a table, with a scorching interrogation light shining right in her face.

Looking back today, Qing Tao says she realizes that she was a witness to great global changes—the genesis of a storm that was about to sweep the world.

In the following 24 hours, she nearly collapsed due to the unceasing waves of police interrogation. She says she was so afraid that she lost all sense of thirst, hunger, or even the need to use the restroom.

The police accused her of “spreading rumors” and “destroying social stability”—despite her explanations. “I have not concealed anything,“ she said to the police. ”I have not done anything … I have told you everything.”

As the questioning progressed, she finally realized that the summons was due to her sending text messages to her family and friends in the area on the Chinese social media platform, WeChat.

A Warning Shared

In late December, a doctor friend of the family who worked at Wuhan Central Hospital had told her husband not to go there if not absolutely necessary. “There’s an outbreak,” the doctor had warned. Qing’s husband had a lucrative job supplying goods to local hospitals, so he knew many people in the medical profession in that area.

On Jan. 2, however, her elderly father fell ill with prostatitis, and he wanted to go to the hospital. Despite their warnings, her father insisted on going there. “Why not?“ he asked. ”[If] there’s an outbreak, why didn’t the government say it?” The couple decided to take him to hospital.

At Wuhan Central Hospital, they met the doctor who had sent her husband the warning. The doctor looked worried, and gave them N95 masks to wear, saying: “I’ve told you—If it’s not fatal, don’t come here.” They began to realize their mistake and the seriousness of the situation. After undergoing a B-scan ultrasound examination and receiving some medication, they left the hospital quickly.

A woman wearing a face mask carries a baby in her arms in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, on Jan. 22, 2021. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

An Unlikely Whistleblower

When she got home, Qing Tao quickly wrote a few words to friends and family in the area in a WeChat group. “There’s a serious outbreak. Take care of yourself. Wear a mask, and avoid gatherings,” she wrote.

When the police later questioned the veracity of her statements, she replied: “That’s what the doctor told me.” But the police countered her statements. “Are you an expert? Do you have any proof there’s an infectious disease?” they asked.

Qing Tao says she felt wronged. “Is there an infectious disease going around? They should prove whether it’s true or not, not me!” she said. She cried multiple times under the police interrogation, where she remained handcuffed and was deprived of sleep for 24 hours.

The police finally released her the following evening, Jan. 4, 2020, and issued a letter of reprimand for her to sign.

Whistleblower Interrogation

The day the police summoned her, Jan. 3, was the same day that whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang at Wuhan Central Hospital was threatened with prosecution at the police station.

What did Li experience at the hands of the police? Qing believes that his experience was likely similar to hers.

Shortly before that, Dr. Ai Fen (director of the emergency department of the same hospital), Dr. Xie Linka (attending physician at the Tumor Center of Wuhan Union Hospital), and Dr. Liu Wen (neurologist at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital) were reprimanded for their warnings of a “SARS-like” outbreak in December, 2019.

During the early stages of the outbreak at the epicenter of Wuhan, police summoned eight Wuhan residents for “spreading rumors.” They did not expect that among the earliest whistleblowers would be an ordinary citizen with no medical experience—Qing Tao.

Within days of her experience at the police station in the first week of 2020, Wuhan Fifth Hospital was packed with fever patients, with many entire families among them. While it was clear that the virus was transmissable, the Wuhan CDC still claimed it was “not transmissable,“ and that there were ”no new cases, no health workers were infected.” Meanwhile, the “whistleblowers” continued to be threatened and harassed.

It was not until Jan. 20 that top Chinese medical expert, Zhong Nanshan, admitted the transmissibility of the illnesses and, three days later, Wuhan was locked down.

Did the regime apologize to the whistleblowers? Not according to Qing.

A worker wearing a face mask looks out from the entrance of a hospital toward the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on Feb. 1, 2021. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Banned From School

Qing Tao did not say much to her family when she returned home. But her nightmare continued, as the authorities continued to put pressure on her.

Her company manager summoned her the next day, and said her annual bonus and a planned promotion at work had been canceled. Being a law major, she knew how Chinese law worked: Those in power are above the law.

Some months later, just before her child was due to start elementary school, she was sent notification: Her child had not “qualified” for the local public school. The family’s only choice: pay high tuition fees for a private school.

Even though her child was later admitted to another school, Qing knew too well that she now belonged to a different class of people in China. Though well-educated—she had earned a master’s degree in the UK—and with a good job at a Sino-western joint venture, Qing knew that her career would be stymied, and that her suppression at the hands of the CCP would have no end. She knew that the persecution would continue for her and her family as long as they stayed in China.

Farewell to Motherland

Qing and her husband lost two close friends, Dr. Li Wenliang and Dr. Hu Weifeng, to the pandemic. Both male doctors left young families behind them.

Hu was the 6th doctor at Wuhan Central Hospital to die in the earliest viral outbreak.

Altogether, Qing has lost six friends and family members to the outbreak.

After their family arrived in Los Angeles, their child registered at a bilingual school.

Their now peaceful life in the U.S. has calmed Qing’s heart. She said, “A healthy society should allow more than one voice; but in a society ruled by the CCP, only one voice is allowed, and that is their voice.”

Qing says the Chinese police forced her to sign a guarantee document that she would not “spread rumors and create rumors” about the outbreak. However, rumors about her were circulated to her parents, at her workplace, and even in her child’s school. She relied on sleeping pills to fall asleep at night. Qing said, “Honestly, it was shocking, and that’s why we didn’t feel we could stay in China anymore.”

She doesn’t hate China, however. “I just don’t care for the ruling Party,“ she said. ”I don’t believe their words, I don’t believe their declarations, I don’t believe what they do in the name of the people.”

Shawn Ma contributed to this report.