Fuzhou, capital of China’s eastern Fujian Province, is offering up to 500,000 yuan ($71,000) in reward for anyone who reports clues on illegal immigrants as part of an effort to curb the transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus from imported cases, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Global Times reported on Wednesday.
According to a notice issued recently by Fuzhou’s coronavirus prevention and control command center, informants can receive 10,000 yuan ($1,418) for each person caught illegally entering the city and 300,000 yuan ($42,457) for reporting a group of ten to 30 people. Reporting a group larger than 30 people can yield a 500,000 yuan ($71,000) reward. People who report a smuggler or person sheltering illegal immigrants can reportedly receive 100,000 yuan ($14,152).
A command center staff member confirmed the notice’s authenticity to the government propaganda outlet without providing any further information on how many people have reported clues to Fuzhou police and customs authorities.
During a video conference on Monday, Fujian provincial Party Chief Yu Weigo encouraged village officials to screen households to find illegal immigrants who may have coronavirus, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.
According to the Global Times, several cities in Fujian Province have issued similar notices to that of Fuzhou recently, encouraging residents to provide clues about illegal immigration amid an increasing number of imported coronavirus cases in China.
On March 28, officials in another Fujian city, Quanzhou, said those who help coronavirus carriers enter China illegally will face severe punishment, threatening human traffickers with life sentences. Quanzhou is home to 9.5 million Chinese living overseas in over 170 countries and regions, with 90 percent in Southeast Asia, according to Chinese state media. Fujian Province — in eastern China, where Quanzhou is located — has the second-longest coastline in China, which authorities fear leaves it vulnerable to illegal immigrants arriving by sea, a common problem in the region.
On March 21, six of 31 suspected Vietnamese stowaways aboard a Taiwanese fishing boat in waters off Taiwan’s Pingtung County who were arrested escaped from a quarantine center in Taichung, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said on March 24. Taichung is located along Taiwan’s western coast, directly opposite China’s Fujian Province coastline.
Taiwanese coast guard officials, acting on a tip-off, seized the Taiwanese boat carrying 31 Vietnamese nationals and arrested two Taiwanese citizens on charges of being involved in a human smuggling ring. The 31 Vietnamese were sent to two government quarantine facilities in Taichung as part of Taiwan’s efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus on the independent island. However, six of the Vietnamese being held in the quarantine center escaped, according to Hsu Ji-ling, deputy head of the CGA.
China’s official count of new coronavirus cases doubled on Tuesday, while new asymptomatic infections more than quadrupled, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday. The high number of asymptomatic cases is partially the result of China simply not counting “mild” coronavirus cases in its official tallies between February and last week. New confirmed cases rose to 62 on Tuesday from 32 on Monday, China’s National Health Commission said, the most it had claimed to document since March 25. Beijing called most of the new cases “imported,” though it did not specify if these were Chinese citizens returning home or foreign nationals entering the country.
Many recent media reports have cast doubt on China’s coronavirus numbers. On Sunday, China claimed that in Wuhan — the epicenter of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic — just 2,500 people had died, while the death toll is much higher in Europe and the United States. The death rate per one million people in Spain and Italy is about 250. China claims its official death rate per one million is just two. In the United States, deaths per one million were 26 as of April 4.
At the end of March, Radio Free Asia published a report in which it estimated there had been 46,800 deaths in Wuhan alone, based on information drawn from projected cremations at local funeral homes.
At press time on Wednesday, China’s official coronavirus numbers stood at 82,809 infections and 3,337 deaths.
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