Question of the day: why do the Chinese keep silence about the causes of the pandemic?

An interesting appeal to the readers of his blog was made by political scientist and journalist Sergei Medvedev:

“Friends and followers, I have a request. Now I’m preparing a broadcast about China after the coronavirus pandemic, and unexpectedly me and the correspondents faced the fact that the Chinese, including those who live in Russia and the West, flatly refuse to talk in front of the camera about what is going on in the country. Already two dozen people have refused, even those who are living in Europe. I have come across a similar closeness of the Chinese before, but for the first time I see such total silence.

If you have a reader or a contact who is ready to share the opinion via Skype, please write me about it in private messages, I will be extremely grateful. If I don’t find anyone, this is also the result. And one more confirmation that we will never know the whole truth about Wuhan and how the epidemic began..."

Of course, many readers have doubted that Medvedev will be able to find the Chinese who are ready to tell “the whole truth,” however, it turns out that this is not only a matter of fear. Here's what people write about this issue.

For example, Olga Birman notes:

“My close friends visited my parents in Shanghai for 10 days on the Chinese New Year and after, that is, right at the height of the epidemic. Then they returned back home. So they gave two answers to my questions: one detailed - about how to disinfect everything correctly, and the second short - that China is a huge country, and the epidemic was very localized and felt little by the rest of the population ... "

And Kirill Nikiforov, who lives in China, confirmed:

“The very formulation of the question is strange. 1. What truth do you want to learn from Chinese people living in other regions? 2. In China, a lot of provinces with different rules. We didn’t have a lockdown, and from mid-February we started to open businesses. And someone sat at home for 2 months. Therefore, the story will be more about a city or province, but not about China. 3. Access in China to local information is very limited - there is more information on the same twitter. Therefore, what can a local tell you? Either rumors or official information. 4. Even if someone knows some special truth - they will not tell it to you. Because personal data is flowing out very simply, and local people somehow live with it. Everything that flowed out of China has long been published.

PS I can tell you how it was in our province. But you will be bored, because Starbucks was never closed at the house, the exit to the street was unlimited, it was officially allowed to go without masks, except for airports, etc."