Hebei officials retract overzealous COVID-19 notice

Officials in Chengde, Hebei province apologized on Tuesday for a notice threatening excessive consequences for those who don't cooperate with efforts in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic, according to a statement by local authorities.

The notice, quickly retracted, was released by the Office of Command for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 Epidemic in the Chengde High-tech Industrial Development Zone.

It alleged those who deliberately conceal travel and refuse to cooperate with epidemiological investigations will face grave consequences, including bearing medical expenses themselves if confirmed as infected with COVID-19 and proven to have been dishonest.

"We apologize for the distress caused by the notice," the statement by the zone's government read, adding further investigation is underway and those responsible will be punished according to the law.

The statement said the measures mentioned in the notice had been issued without approval, and there was insufficient foundation in terms of laws and national guidelines, thus the notice would be revoked.

The notice led to heated discussion online. It claimed if the persons responsible are relatives of Party members or government officials, they will bear joint responsibility for failure to manage and advise their relatives well.

If they are entrepreneurs, the notice said they will be put onto a blacklist of banks and will be not allowed to apply for several types of loans.

If they are ordinary private citizens, the notice added they will be punished for dishonest behavior, meaning they and their collateral relatives up to three generations will be forbidden from joining the army or the Communist Party of China, or applying for jobs as civil servants. They can only be removed from the list if they maintain a clean record for three years.

None of the punishments mentioned could be found in national policy directives.