DEEP BACKGROUND ON CHINA’S CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC: StrategyPage’s StrategyTalk podcast China Battles the Democracy Virus (bumped). Though recorded January 31, the podcast has the history and context for understanding the origin, spread and political implications of the epidemic. If you like it subscribe.

RELATED: My review of Chinese Communist Espionage. Since the column was written (February 4) Dr. Li has died after he contracted the virus. I’ve asked the webmaster to add an update sometime today.

This paragraph remains accurate, for he was indeed a political victim of the dictatorship:

Li was a victim of China’s Ministry of Public Security and its Social Credit Rating system. The system accumulates data on individuals using cellphones, video, internet and travel activity, and gossip. Security clerks cull the data for niggling signs of anti-government behavior.

Li’s anti-government behavior was using a private internet chat group to tell a handful of doctors and medical students that he was seeing signs of a viral epidemic.