With China attempting to combat the backlash from the world for allegedly creating the deadly novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, the spotlight is also on those who went missing for blowing the whistle on a coverup.  

Several 'whistleblowers' have gone missing in the country ever since the disease originated in Wuhan province and then slowly spread across the globe. But not before they blew the whistle and then chased by the secret police of the ruling Communist Party of China (CCP).

Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua (in images from left) shared dramatic pictures and videos from inside the quarantined city – the source of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by UK-based Metro.

They tried to show the truth of Wuhan. However, they are missing for the past two months.

All three citizen journalists were determined to expose what they could but their whereabouts have been a mystery since February. 

Their popular accounts on YouTube – which is banned in mainland China but can still be accessed through a virtual private network (VPN) – have all gone quiet, and the Chinese authorities have not commented on what has happened to them, reported Metro.

According to The Guardian, Li Zehua, 25, a citizen journalist in Wuhan, was being chased.

'Wearing a facemask underneath a baseball cap, he quickly records a video while driving. “I’m on the road and someone, I don’t know, state security, has started chasing me,” he says breathlessly. “I’m driving very fast. Help me.”, according to The Guardian report which is corroborated by the YouTube video posted above. 

“I don’t want to remain silent, or shut my eyes and ears. It’s not that I can’t have a nice life, with a wife and kids. I can. I’m doing this because I hope more young people can, like me, stand up,” he was quoted. 

Fang reportedly disappeared after showing a pile of bodies in a minibus outside a hospital, media reports said.

Fang, a seller of traditional Chinese clothing, filmed a testy exchange through the metal grill of his door with a dissent-quelling group of four or five officers, Fox News reported.

The footage posted on YouTube offered a glimpse into how the security apparatus is working overtime to keep a lid on public anger about the spread of the virus, the news channel said.

According to reports, he suddenly stopped posting videos or responding to calls and messages and then his phone was turned off, triggering questions on his sudden silence.

According to Fox News report, Chen Qiushi looked haggard and disheveled in his last online posts, an almost unrecognizable shadow of an energetic young man who had rolled into Wuhan on a self-assigned mission to tell its inhabitants’ stories this winter.

He was one of the key persons in the country who attempted to defy the ruling Communist Party that attempted to control the narrative of China.

His videos had earned remarkable views by netizens and even police attention.

Chen, a human rights lawyer, posted video of inside a hospital in Wuhan showing overwhelmed staff battling an influx of patients, reported The Sun.

In another video uploaded on January 29, he said he was "scared" and felt trapped between the authorities and the virus, reported the British newspaper.

His account on Weibo, a Chinese social network, was deleted on Feb 6.

His parents were informed he had been taken into quarantine - and since then there has been no sign of him, reported The Sun.

Pierre Haski, president of Reporters Without Borders,  said both men are in "the hands of the Chinese authorities", The Sun reported.

He added there is "very little" information about what happened to them, reports Le Parisian as quoted by the British newspaper.

Story of the Silenced Doctor:

China’s journalists say it all started with the death of Dr Li Wenliang – a whistleblower whose attempt to warn the country about the coronavirus outbreak was silenced by the government, according to a report by The Independent. 

After contracting the disease, he passed away on Feb 6.

The death of the doctor triggered a major outrage in China and in the social media platforms when citizens even initiated a short-lived online campaign demanding freedom of speech.

 Relevant posts were deleted by the Chinese government within hours, but the incident further strengthened citizens’ determination to preserve the truth of the coronavirus outbreak, reported the British newspaper.

“Li Wenliang was a normal guy with a good conscience and people see themselves in him,” Yaqiu Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The Independent. “His death illustrates that anyone could die in this system of deception, suppression and zero accountability," he told the newspaper.

US voices concern:

US congressman Jim Banks tweeted: "Scary to think about where we might be today if these hero whistleblowers hadn’t bravely come forward. The #CCP must assure us they are safe and not being punished for sharing the truth about this virus! #chenqiushi #UndisappearThem."  

Rights body questions China:

International rights body Human Rights Watch has questioned China's censorship issue specially at a time when the country fought against COVID-19 outbreak.

"For authoritarian-minded leaders, the coronavirus crisis is offering a convenient pretext to silence critics and consolidate power. Censorship in China and elsewhere has fed the pandemic, helping to turn a potentially containable threat into a global calamity. The health crisis will inevitably subside, but autocratic governments’ dangerous expansion of power may be one of the pandemic’s most enduring legacies," read an article posted by  executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth.

"The Chinese government illustrated the disastrous consequence of ignoring that reality. When doctors in Wuhan tried to sound the alarm in December about the new coronavirus, authorities silenced and reprimanded them. The failure to heed their warnings gave COVID-19 a devastating three-week head start. As millions of travelers left or passed through Wuhan, the virus spread across China and around the world," he wrote.

"Even now, the Chinese government is placing its political goals above public health," he said.

Reporters Without Borders also questioned China's stance on handling COVID-19 outbreak.

"As journalistic freedom has been reduced to the barest minimum within China’s traditional media, it is ordinary citizens who usually step into the breach in such cases," it said.

"With everything tidied up both at home and abroad, Beijing now just has to deploy its massive propaganda and disinformation apparatus with the aim of making everyone forget that it was in the centre of China that the virus first got out of control and that three deadly weeks went by before Beijing listened to the whistleblowers," it said.