Pro-Beijing Businessman Exposes Chinese Authorities’ COVID-19 Quarantine Extortion

A street in New York's Chinatown is empty, the result of citywide restrictions calling for people to stay indoors and maintain social distancing in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, in New York on March 28, 2020. Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo

An online post warning Chinese travelers about extortion in the guise of COVID-19 testing and isolation when transiting through China’s Fujian Province went viral recently. The message was posted on Chinese social media on Sept. 5 by Wang Lizhi, a pro-Beijing businessman who currently resides in New York.

Wang said: “Relevant departments of Fujian Province make a fortune by deliberately giving false test results and transferring healthy people to Fuzhou Pulmonary Hospital for a comprehensive examination. Even when no disease is found and everything is normal, you must be isolated in the hospital for 14 days.”