Fact Check #2: Chen Qiushi Missing

The recent outbreak of the Coronavirus has sparked fear throughout the world as more and more cases have been confirmed daily. After searching Google News to find information on the virus, I stumbled upon an article from New York Post titled “Citizen journalist Chen Qiushi covering coronavirus outbreak in China goes missing”. The title alone sparks concern in readers who are already aware of the seriousness of this pandemic. The idea of a Chinese journalist suddenly “gone missing” leads to suspicion that the disappearance may be linked to the Chinese government attempting to hide information from the rest of the world.

After clicking on the link to the article, I began to observe its content. It had been published on February 8, 2020 and had several links embedded into the article itself that were directed to primary sources. At the very bottom there was another link to a Bloomberg News article claiming another journalist had also gone missing. Thanks to these links embedded in the article it was not difficult to access the original videos these claims were based off of.

Directly below the title was a You Tube video of Qiushi’s friend, Xu XiaDong, filming him explaining why he believed Qiushi had gone “missing”. Before viewing this raw footage, I followed a link to Chen Qiushi’s original video posted on You Tube January 29^th. However, Chen himself did not post the video but someone named James Wood. Once viewing Wood’s profile I discovered he only had 40 subscribers and a few uploaded videos about the virus. Although this video was not the original upload posted by Chen himself, it us because the Chinese government had shut down his original account after the post revealing truths behind the crisis.

Before actually watching the video, I used Wikipedia to learn more about Chen Qiushi. The page listed Qiushi as an activist, citizen journalist and lawyer who had been detained by Beijing authorities for criticizing the government for implementing raw footage of the recent Hong Kong protestors. At the bottom of the page there was a brief write-up mentioning friends being unable to contact him and believe he is “forcibly quarantined”. I then went ahead and watched Chen’s video where he spoke about things he observed while visiting different Chinese hospitals inquiring information abut the recent outbreak. In the footage he exposed how there were no enough test kits, beds, doctors and also that there were a large amount of people in Wuhan choosing not to visit hospitals since they did not see the point of going if there were not enough resources to assist them. At the end of the video he mentioned, “I am scared. I have the virus in front of me. Behind me is China’s law enforcement” before breaking down in tears ensuring viewers he would continue to expose the truth and that he was not afraid of the government.

After watching the video I went ahead and watched Xu XiaDong’s post. In his post he played a recording of Qiushi’s mom mentioning the government asking questions about his whereabouts and how it was unusual that he had not been answering his phone calls. He also showed footage of Qiushi’s apartment completely empty when a well check took place. I then turned to the Bloomberg article. According to this article from February 7^th, another citizen journalist Fang Bin had released a video of individuals in HAZMAT suits forcing him into quarantine.

I tried to look further into the story by searching both Chen Qiushi and Xu XiaDong on Snopes and Politifact but both searches turned up zero results. The only other search engine that provided any sources was DuckDuckGo, which led me to the articles I had already facet checked.

Therefore I was able to view the original sources this author used to draw the conclusion that Chen Quishi has gone missing. After reviewing these sources, it is difficult to conclude whether or not Quishi has gone “missing” after being arrested by Chinese authorities, or whether or not he has been placed in a quarantine facility. It is only confirmed that he has been unreachable for a period of time.