Wuhan

Description

The definitive account of the Chinese government's response to the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which began as an outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, has claimed millions of lives and caused unprecedented disruptions. Despite its generation-defining significance, there has been a surprising lack of independent research examining the decisions and measures implemented in the weeks leading up to the Wuhan lockdown, as well as the missteps and shortcomings that allowed the novel coronavirus to spread with minimal hindrance.

In Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, Dali L. Yang scrutinizes China's emergency response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, delving into the government's handling of epidemic information and the decisions that influenced the scale and scope of the outbreak. Yang's research reveals that China's health decision-makers and experts had an excellent head start when they implemented a health emergency action program to respond to the outbreak at the end of December 2019. With granular detail and compelling immediacy, Yang investigates the political and bureaucratic processes that hindered information flows and sharing, as well as the cognitive framework that limited understanding of the virus's contagiousness and hampered effective decisions.

Yang's research uncovers that urgent warnings from sources outside Wuhan helped shift the Chinese health leadership's focus towards epidemic control. Once this shift occurred, China's party-state mobilized resources and enforced a lockdown in Wuhan. This lockdown was divided into two phases: providing additional medical resources and enforcing community-level lockdowns and home confinement. The 76-day lockdown contained the virus within China's borders, but the leadership and public later faced the challenge of reopening China in a world still grappling with SARS-CoV-2.

Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control also critiques the Chinese authorities for prioritizing dominance and control in their response to the Wuhan outbreak. This preoccupation led to the suppression, distortion, and neglect of crucial disease information, fostering an atmosphere of organized silence. The punishment of whistleblowers and the banning of the immediate release of research findings on the novel coronavirus further contributed to this silencing. Yang emphasizes the importance of retaining public trust during a pandemic and underscores the need for transparency, openness to new information, and direct communication of risk with the public.

About the author:

Dali L. Yang (Ph.D. 1993, Princeton) is the William C. Reavis Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He has been a faculty member at the university since 1992. Yang's research primarily focuses on China's development, governance, and global influence. He has authored several notable books, including Calamity and Reform in China (Stanford, 1996) and Remaking the Chinese Leviathan (Stanford, 2004). In addition to his academic accomplishments, Yang has held various leadership positions at the University of Chicago. He was the founding Faculty Director of the Center in Beijing, chair of the Department of Political Science, and Senior Advisor on Global Initiatives.

Reviews

"This is a careful, detailed look at the Chinese response to Covid-19 that sheds much light on what happened. It also uncovers many lessons not only for China but for every country-and we can only hope the world learns them." - John Barry, Author of The Great Influenza

"In Wuhan, Dali Yang provides a riveting and comprehensive account of how SARS-CoV-2 emerged and evolved into a global pandemic. By focusing on the dynamics that led to the initial outbreak spiraling out of control, the book highlights the bureaucratic-pathological tendencies in China's policy process. Wuhan will undoubtedly capture the interest of students of public health, public policy, and Chinese politics, while also holding relevance for anyone deeply concerned about the future of our planet." - Yanzhong Huang, Council on Foreign Relations

"In this remarkable book, Dali Yang offers a gripping account of the outbreak of Covid-19 in China: day by day, and even hour by hour. It will be the definitive account of the outbreak and the Chinese government's mishandling of it." - Bruce Dickson, George Washington University

"Dali Yang has been one of very top scholars of Chinese bureaucratic politics over the past 30 years. Now, he offers a comprehensive, straightforward, and accessible analysis of the recent era's most spectacular breakdown of Chinese bureaucracy during the early days of Covid. Looking at the granular unravelling of information gathering, inconsistency in messaging and ideological framing, and the shifting dynamics of central-local relations, he provides a compelling account of how China's most tragic governance failure in 40 years allowed the worst pandemic in a century to spiral out of control." - William Hurst, University of Cambridge

"Dali Yang has made a career of thinking dispassionately and insightfully about the Chinese Communist Party and the governance of China. This deeply informed and meticulous analysis of the vexed question of what happened in Wuhan in 2019-2020 is a priceless contribution to a heated debate." - Paul Monk, former head of the China desk in Australia's Defence Intelligence Organisation

"Dali Yang has given us the most detailed look yet at the early stages of the COVID outbreak in China. It is a book that only he could write, drawing on extensive primary evidence and decades of expertise on the politics of public health. This is one of the most important books on Chinese politics ever written." - Rory Truex, Princeton University

"Dali Yang has produced an urgent, compelling, readable account of how the COVID-19 crisis unfolded in China, and beyond. He pulls from a wide range of sources, including official communiques, lab reports, revealing social media threads that outran Chinese censors, and from first-hand accounts by many players close to the action. Yang's account of the crisis in China offers universal lessons and warnings on how people and governments process and use information during crises. In all, it makes for a kind of forensic/policy thriller that is also a tour de force of scholarship and reporting." - Ted C. Fishman, Bestselling author of China, Inc.

"Thorough and thoughtful, Wuhan details the conflicts over information and between institutions that ultimately spiraled into the global COVID-19 pandemic. Dali Yang's deeply researched volume sheds new light on the early actions of the doctors, bureaucrats, officials, and politicians facing the novel coronavirus over these crucial weeks, deepening our understanding of its origins and politics in the country where it originated." - Jeremy Wallace, Cornell University

"A book for public health experts, politicians, academics, students and the interested public, Wuhan is a page-turner not to be missed." - John P. Burns, Emeritus Professor Honorary Professor, Dept. of Politics and Public Administration, The University of Hong Kong

"Unless Chinese archives are opened or leaked, this is likely to be the definitive account of the early phase of the Covid outbreak in China. Yang is an even-handed but strict interpreter of events; he won't pull punches but will also stick close to the facts." - Ian Johnson, senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (via X/Twitter).

"By far the most detailed, convincing social scientific "origin story" of COVID." - Bin Xu, Associate Professor of Sociology, Emory University

"This is a unique combo of public health, governmental strategy, and pandemic response that is needed to help us respond better next time." - Benjamin F. Pierce, Head of Data Analytics and Partnership, Imperial College Health Partners

"[Wuhan] builds a very human picture of pockets of individual heroism mingled with flawed decision-making and deliberate obfuscation as doctors, epidemiologists, lab workers, and local and national politicians grappled with the appearance of a mysterious "pneumonia of unknown etiology" in real time." - Nicola Smith, The Telegraph

"An exceptionally lucid and meticulous analysis of how medical authorities reacted when the virus first appeared in Wuhan." - Paul Monk, The Australian

Table of contents

1. Thinking About China's Response to the Covid-19 Outbreak
2. The Party-State, Fragmented Authoritarianism, and the Health Emergency Response Regime
3. The Wuhan Alarm: Unusual Pneumonia Cases and a SARS-Like Coronavirus
4. The New Year's Eve Meeting: The Huanan Seafood Market and the Health Emergency Action Program
5. The Stability Imperative and the Silencing of Doctors
6. The NHC, Pathogen Verification, and Laboratory Regulation
7. China CDC, the Huanan Seafood Market, and Epidemiological Tunnel Vision
8. Fragmented authoritarianism, Inclusion-Exclusion Criteria, and Suppression of Case Submissions
9. The Wall of Silence Surrounding Health Worker Infections
10. Conducting Public Health Emergency Response in Stealth
11. The Decision to Seal Wuhan Off
12. “The Battle for Wuhan”
13. The Wuhan Lockdown: The Party-State and Community Enforcement of Home Confinement
14. Conclusion: How Did It Happen? What Could Have Been?