Warning of discoloration of Henan health code
China Economic Weekly reporter Shi Qingchuan Zhang Yuxuan
With the announcement of the survey results, the "Red Code Incident" of Henan Health Code has come to an end temporarily, but the warning and reflection brought by this incident will have a far-reaching impact.
Back to the beginning and end of the incident: Recently, after several depositors from rural banks who entered Henan from outside the province arrived in Zhengzhou, Henan’s health code changed from green to red, and they could not participate in social activities normally. It is reported that due to the "difficulty in withdrawing money" in several local village banks earlier, the purpose of these depositors’ trip is to communicate withdrawal matters. In addition to the rights-defending depositors who arrived in Zhengzhou from outside the province, some depositors who did not go to Zhengzhou also experienced the situation that Henan health code was inexplicably "red".
The issue that rights-defending depositors have been given a red code has not subsided, and there have been cases where local rights-defending owners of uncompleted residential flats have been given a red code. Many rights owners reported to the reporter of China Economic Weekly that they had encountered the same situation of "red code blocking the road" as rights depositors.
Many days after the "Red Code" incident of Henan Health Code was fermented, local authorities successively investigated the matter. On June 17th, Zhengzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection "Qingfeng Zhengzhou" WeChat WeChat official account released a message saying that the supervision committee of Zhengzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection initiated the investigation and accountability procedure in view of the problem that some rural bank depositors’ health codes were given red codes recently.
On June 18th, police in Xuchang City, Henan Province informed that Henan New Fortune Group Investment Holding Co., Ltd., which was involved in the current "Code Red" incident, had been put on file for investigation in April this year, and preliminary investigation progress has been made.
On June 22nd, the Zhengzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection released the investigation report again, and announced the investigation results of the "Red Code Incident". Many responsible persons, including Feng Xianbin, executive deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Zhengzhou Municipal Committee, and Zhang Linlin, secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee, were dismissed, warned and recorded.
After depositors, rights owners were given a red code. Respondents | Photo courtesy
Community:
Departments with greater authority are not allowed to turn green.
Ms. Wu told the reporter of China Economic Weekly that her Yukang code turned red inexplicably, and then turned green inexplicably, and she had no idea what was going on. Ms. Wu believes that her Yukang code may turn red because of a rights protection in April this year.
According to Ms. Wu, there are still many people around her who have become red inexplicably, and what they have in common with the depositors of the above-mentioned rural banks is that they have all gone to the Henan Banking Insurance Regulatory Bureau to defend their rights.
Ms. Wu bought the house of Sunac Zhongyuan Daguan Phase II, but the building has been shut down since October last year, and the whole building shows no signs of resuming work so far. Therefore, Ms. Wu, together with other owners, put forward a request for returning to work to the petition department. Because she suspected that the supervision funds of the property might be illegally transferred, Ms. Wu and other owners went to the Henan Banking Insurance Regulatory Bureau to make a complaint.
Ms. Wu believes that it was this complaint that made her Yukang code "red" on June 12, which restricted her freedom of travel. The red Yukang code showed that the reason for its redness was "returning from abroad". Ms. Wu said that she has never been out of Henan Province during this time, and it is even more impossible to leave the country.
The same thing happened to Qin Hong, who was a colleague when Ms. Wu complained, and her Yu Kang code turned red on June 12th. Qin Hong’s family not only has a seriously ill old man who is about to undergo surgery, but also has a student who needs to take an important exam. The red Yukang code has undoubtedly caused a lot of trouble to this family. Qin Hong can’t send the elderly at home to the hospital for medical treatment, nor can he send his children to take the exam.
During this process, the local epidemic prevention and control department did not contact Qin Hong. She repeatedly called 12320 to try to find out what was going on. After many contacts, Qin Hong finally conducted two nucleic acid tests according to the requirements of the community, and signed a "guarantee" as required before transcoding.
Qin Hong told the reporter of China Economic Weekly that in this "guarantee", the signer should guarantee that he did not deposit money in the village bank and that he would not petition online or offline. Subsequently, the community staff uploaded the nucleic acid results and "guarantee" in their system, and her Yukang code was successfully restored to green.
But Qin Hong’s green code turned red again an hour later. After seeing the Yukang code turn red again, she came to the community to try to explain the situation. But this time, the reply given by the community staff made her unable to understand: "The community told me that it is estimated that the department with greater authority will not allow us to change the green code for the time being, and they dare not operate in this case."
Shanshan, who is also the owner of Sunac Zhongyuan Grand View, also suffered from the reddening of Yukang code. She also found another strange thing: "This red code may be changed according to the household registration book. Our family accounts are all together. After I turned red, all three of our families became red codes. But there is an owner whose household registration is independent. After he turns red, the family he lives with is still green. " This situation has also been confirmed by Ms. Wu, who said that her family members in the same household registration book have also become red codes.
When Shanshan applied for transcoding, it was also "strange". She tried to apply for transcoding on her mobile phone, but the mobile phone showed that she didn’t need to apply for transcoding. Later, she came to the community to apply for transcoding, and the community staff also told her that the system showed that it was a green code and could not apply for transcoding.
Left: Some owners of red code can’t apply for transcoding by themselves. Right: The big data travel card of owners of red code and the results of nucleic acid test show normal respondents | Photo courtesy
Space-time intersection of rights protection between owners of uncompleted residential flats and depositors of rural banks
The red code immediately caused an uproar among the owners. Some owners posted relevant information to social media platforms, but they were warned by a staff member who claimed to be Sunac. The chat record that the owner showed to the reporter showed that the "staff member" said that the owner of the red code was a depositor of a village bank, and his Yukang code turned red has nothing to do with other things, so he was advised to be rational and delete relevant information in time.
However, Ms. Wu, Qin Hong and Shanshan all denied this statement: they have never handled the savings business in the relevant village banks, and they have never had business contacts. They have to talk about the contact with village banks. They only visited the Henan Banking Insurance Regulatory Bureau in April when defending their rights, and this time happened to meet the depositors of village banks. The reporter immediately contacted the Henan Banking Insurance Regulatory Bureau through public channels, but the department did not answer the phone.
This kind of situation is also not a case. Shanshan told the reporter of China Economic Weekly that she had met other real estate activists during the process of complaining to the banking insurance supervision department. An owner of the Kangqiao Jiuxi Garden project also showed his record that Yukang code turned red.
The owner of the Kangqiao Jiuxiyuan project said that on June 8, he and other owners went to the relevant banks and government departments to reflect the project funding problems, during which personal information such as name, contact information and ID card were registered.
Hu Qi, the owner of the Grand View of the Central Plains, also told the reporter of China Economic Weekly that in his circle of friends, three other owners of the famous Cuiyuan also appeared the situation that Yukang code turned red due to complaints.
So far, according to the reporter of China Economic Weekly, at least eight owners have been given a red code for defending the rights of uncompleted residential flats.
It is worth noting that with the concern that depositors were given red codes, these rights owners turned red codes into green codes on the afternoon of June 14.
Qin Hong and Shanshan said that because their lives were greatly affected, they were very anxious at that time. They had a nucleic acid test and reported to the community. After two days of red code, they saw that Yukang code returned to normal at around 1 pm on the 14th.
Ms. Wu, on the other hand, said that since no department had contacted her for isolation, she had been in her home isolation state and did not do anything, but on the afternoon of the 14th, her Yukang code automatically returned to normal.
At present, although the Yukang codes of these owners have returned to normal, the fact that Yukang codes have turned red has left a shadow in their hearts. Although Hu Qi’s Yukang code has not become red, he said that he was a little scared when he remembered it, and he didn’t know who else he could turn to for help when the building he bought stopped working.
How should the personnel entering Henan assign codes?
"Entering Henan means giving yellow code", which is the local health code management regulation for foreigners entering and returning to Henan since March this year. The Henan Provincial Health and Health Commission once issued a propaganda message saying, "Be careful when traveling in an epidemic situation ‘ Line ’ — — When you land, you will be given a yellow code. "
According to the report of Henan Daily in March this year, the Office of Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters in COVID-19, Henan Province issued a notice, requesting that from March 22nd, health management measures such as assigning yellow codes to health codes in Henan Province, twice-daily nucleic acid testing and so on should be adopted for those who have returned to Henan from outside the province. Follow the principle of "provincial coding, territorial control and convenient decoding".
However, this batch of defenders who entered Henan was "given a red code when they landed". The management policies of red code and yellow code are very different, and the coding rules of red code are also different from those of yellow code.
According to the document "Henan Province Health Code Coding Rules (Second Edition)", the coding rules of red code are related to confirmed cases, asymptomatic infected persons, close contacts and sub-close contacts, overseas visitors to Henan, residents in high-risk areas, time and space companions, etc.
In addition, according to the definition description of the red-code personnel in the information of Henan Provincial People’s Government Network, the red-code personnel also include suspected cases, people who have lived in medium-and high-risk areas in China in the past 14 days, and other high-risk personnel who need emergency tracking and isolation management during the emergency response to the epidemic.
However, in this incident of being given a red code, it is obviously not in compliance with the above provisions to give a red code to the parties who have entered Henan at home and abroad. These people who are given the red code are not only difficult to enter Henan through conventional channels, but even if they are given the red code when they land in Henan, according to the relevant regulations, these people are faced with a situation where they are unable to move and need to be isolated for medical observation.
Who gave the red code?
Staff: The large-scale red code assignment should be operated by the superior epidemic prevention and control command department.
According to public data, the health code of Henan Province is guided by the provincial administrative examination and approval and government information administration (formerly Henan Big Data Administration, hereinafter referred to as the Information Administration).
According to the staff of the bureau, the Information Management Bureau is only a technical support unit for health codes, and business-level issues such as the coding and transcoding of health codes do not belong to the functional scope of the bureau.
For these people who were given the red code, the staff member said: "If Zhengzhou pushes data, it should be pushed from Zhengzhou Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters. If these data meet the red code trigger conditions in the system, they will automatically turn into red codes, and the Information Administration will not intervene manually."
The reporter has repeatedly contacted the relevant departments of local epidemic prevention and control. According to an epidemic prevention and control staff in shangjie district, Zhengzhou City, the epidemic prevention and control command department does have the authority to assign codes manually, but such large-scale red codes should be operated by the provincial or municipal epidemic prevention and control command department.
The staff member said that the manual coding is based on the flow information of the personnel and the contact with the confirmed cases, and the number is small; Batch coding is generally automatically generated by the system, "after all, the amount of data is huge, which is not handled by human kinetic energy." There is a precedent before the situation that foreigners are given a red code before they arrive in Henan. The system judges that people have arrived in Henan, so they are given a red code. There may be such a mechanism in the system.
On June 22nd, the Zhengzhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection issued a circular through the WeChat WeChat official account certified by "Qingfeng Zhengzhou", which put an end to this series of speculations.
According to the notification information, after the investigation of the "Red Code Incident", Feng Xianbin, executive deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Zhengzhou Municipal Committee, director of the social control and guidance department of the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control headquarters, secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee and deputy director of the social control and guidance department of the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control headquarters, Zhang Linlin decided to come to Zheng Fuhong for depositors of some village banks without authorization, and arranged for Zhao Yong, director of the stability and guidance department of the Political and Legal Committee of Zhengzhou Municipal Committee, member of the Municipal Big Data Bureau, leader of the health code management group of the social control and guidance department of the municipal epidemic prevention and control headquarters, and deputy general manager
Health code is abused.
Does it constitute a crime of abuse of power?
According to the statistics of Zhengzhou Discipline Inspection Commission, a total of 1,317 depositors of rural banks were given red codes in the "Red Code Incident", of which 446 were given red codes when they entered Zhengzhou and 871 were given red codes when they were not in Zhengzhou but sent by others.
However, the situation that the rights owners of uncompleted residential flats were given a red code did not appear in this investigation report. Many netizens questioned that the responsible person of the local government used the health code red code to stop these defenders from going to the local area and restrict the activities of defenders in the local area.
According to the investigation report of Zhengzhou Discipline Inspection Commission, Feng Xianbin, Zhang Linlin, Chen Chong, Yang Yaohuan, Zhao Yong and other comrades have a weak awareness of the rule of law and rules. They violate the Management Measures for Health Codes in COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention and Control in Henan Province and the transcoding rules for health codes, and arbitrarily assign red codes to people who do not meet the conditions for assigning codes, which seriously damages the seriousness of the regulations on the management and use of health codes and causes serious adverse social impact. It is a typical disorderly act, and Comrade Feng Xianbin and Comrade Zhang Linlin are respectively responsible for this.
According to "Regulations on Disciplinary Actions in the Communist Party of China (CPC)" and "Law on Administrative Actions of Public Officials in People’s Republic of China (PRC)", it was decided through research that Comrade Feng Xianbin was dismissed from his post in the Party and removed from his post in government affairs; Give Comrade Zhang Linlin a serious warning within the party and demotion of government affairs; Give Comrade Chen Chong a greater punishment for government affairs; Give Yang Yaohuan and Zhao Yong a demerit in government affairs.
In addition to disciplinary action, is it suspected of violating the criminal law for the relevant responsible person to give a red code to defenders without authorization? This has also triggered widespread discussion in society.
After the epidemic in COVID-19, there has been a more targeted judicial interpretation of illegal and criminal acts related to epidemic prevention and control. According to the relevant provisions of "Opinions on Punishing Illegal Crimes that Hinder the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia in novel coronavirus" published by the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Justice, in the prevention and control of the epidemic situation, if the staff of state organs who are responsible for organizing, coordinating, directing, disaster investigation, control, medical treatment, information transmission, transportation and material support abuse their powers or neglect their duties, resulting in heavy losses to public property, the state and people’s interests, it shall be in accordance with the relevant criminal law.
Wei Jingfeng, deputy director of Beijing Hehong Weiyu Law Firm, analyzed in an interview with China Economic Weekly that if there is subjective intention in the event that defenders are given a red code, and the consequences are serious, it may constitute a crime.
Wei Jingfeng believes that the behavior of the responsible person should at least be an abuse of power by setting obstacles to defenders through the means of assigning red codes to health codes, and whether it constitutes a crime should be determined in combination with the actual judicial situation. According to the current information, the specific losses in this incident can’t be identified for the time being, but there may be circumstances in the relevant laws that "seriously damage the national reputation or cause bad social impact" and "other circumstances that cause heavy losses to public property, the state and the people’s interests", which need to be judged in combination with the detailed investigation results.
(Except Wei Jingfeng, at the request of the interviewee, all the others are pseudonyms. )
(This article was published in China Economic Weekly, No.12, 2022)
The cover of the 12th issue of China Economic Weekly in 2022.