China's Xi urges more policing as COVID-19 toll rises

A group of people wearing face masks visit a park in Beijing on Feb 15, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Wang Zhao)

Xi's remarks were made public as the authorities have faced rare bouts of public anger over the handling of an epidemic that has killed more than 1,500 people and infected some 66,000 across the country.

Censors had allowed some online criticism of local officials in central Hubei - the epicentre and origin of the crisis - but calls for freedom of speech and political reform were scrubbed after the death of a whistleblowing doctor from the virus.

The government must "strengthen the management and control of online media", and "crackdown on those who seize the opportunity to create rumours" on the internet, Xi said in the Feb 3 speech published by state media.

Simultaneously, "it is necessary to increase use of police force and strengthen the visible use of police", Xi said, calling for a crackdown on behaviour that "disrupts social order" including hoarding medical supplies.

Xi urged party members to "dare to criticise" those who had failed to carry out the Communist Party central committee's instructions, and warned "those who fail to perform their duties shall be punished according to discipline and law".

Local officials in Hubei have already begun to feel the force of Xi's orders.

On Thursday, the political chiefs of Hubei and its capital, Wuhan, were sacked and replaced by Xi loyalists with security backgrounds.

The province's top two health officials have also been fired.

Xi also called for the government to emphasize effective actions it has taken and "vividly describe touching deeds" from the frontlines of the fight against the virus.

"Let positive energy fill the cyberspace from start to end," Xi said in the speech, given earlier this month at a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's ruling council.

Xi initially kept a low profile in the early weeks of the crisis but has stepped up his public rhetoric in recent days on what he has called a "people's war" against the virus.