China is a country in lockdown.

About 60 million people have been in forced quarantine in the central province of Hubei for nearly two months, as the government tries to fight the coronavirus outbreak that began in its provincial capital of Wuhan late last year.

By taking drastic and what some have called 'draconian' measures, China appears to have slowed down the coronavirus, but experts and advocacy groups worry it has come at a high cost.

"The case of Li Wenliang is a tragic reminder of how the Chinese authorities' preoccupation with maintaining 'stability' drives it to suppress vital information about matters of public interest," Amnesty International's Regional Director Nicholas Bequelin said in a statement.

"China must adopt a rights-respecting approach to combating the epidemic. Nobody should face harassment or sanctions for speaking out about public dangers, just because it may cause embarrassment to the government."

READ | China shuts down Everest over coronavirus

Doctor who died

Li, a 34-year-old eye doctor, was one of the first to raise the alarm about what was then a mysterious new virus, expressing his concerns with other medics in a private online chat.

After the post was shared more widely, he was reprimanded by police.

Last month, he died from the disease, triggering a public outcry and demands for freedom of speech.

People attend a vigil in Hong Kong on 7 February, 2020 for novel coronavirus whistleblowing doctor Li Wenliang (pictured C), 34, who died in Wuhan after contracting the virus while treating a patient. (Anthony Wallace/AFP).

The virus that causes the disease, also known as COVID-19, is thought to have emerged in one of Wuhan's food markets late last year, but even as Dr Li wondered about the new illness with his friends, the local government appeared to downplay what was happening.

It was only a few days before the Lunar New Year in January that decisive action was taken.

'Disappeared'

Sharon Hom, executive director of China Human Rights in China, an international NGO, says access to information along with restrictions on content and dissemination of information, remain as key tools of social control in China.

READ | Last victim pulled from rubble of China virus quarantine hotel

Since the outbreak began her organisation has tracked a number of cases where people who posted critical reporting of the authorities' "inadequate responses" to the handling of the epidemic appear to have been "disappeared".

The Chinese human rights lawyer, Chen Qiushi, was taken away on 7 February and apparently "put under quarantine" for 24 days. There is no publicly available information on his situation. Quishi became well known for his coverage of the Hong Kong protests as well as the coronavirus.

Another citizen journalist, Fang Bin, a businessman from Wuhan, has not been heard from since he disappeared in February, while Li Zihua, a former CCTV7 journalist, disappeared on 26 February when a group of unidentified men came to his home and took him away.

READ | Iran's vice president and two ministers test positive for coronavirus

Ambassador Zhou Jian, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Qatar, said in a statement: "Every measure we take is to prevent the people from the virus, and save people's lives to the best we can. The only principle is that nothing is more important than people's lives and interests. Prevention and control became the top priority of all levels of governments."

The statement further said: "The WHO has said that China has adopted the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history. UN Secretary General Guterres also praised the Chinese people for sacificing normal lives and contributed to the world."

The second chapter of the 1982 Chinese Constitution - "The Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizens" - includes freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of demonstration, the right to education, freedom of religious belief." The privacy of correspondence is also respected.

READ | European officials were blindsided by Trump's announcement of a travel ban

Article 38 of the Constitution states: "The personal dignity of citizens of China is inviolable."But according to Amnesty's Bequelin, the Chinese constitution, unlike other constitutions, is not a bedrock document. Constitutional law cannot be invoked in judicial proceedings, he says.

According to the Chinese government, the declaration of an epidemic is all that is needed to justify human rights violations flowing from the management of the outbreak, he says.

Teng Biao, a legal academic and human rights activist currently based at Hunter College in New York, says that human rights exist only "on paper" in China.

According to Biao, human rights have occasionally been recognised by the lower courts in China but only in matters that are not political in nature and that do not threaten the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

ALSO READ | FIFA Congress postponed until September due to coronavirus

The courts play an important role in upholding the position of the Chinese government. According to Bequelin the absence of judicial independence in China is a major obstacle to the recognition of human rights by the courts.

Crackdown continues

China has continued a crackdown on critics that had been accelerating under Xi.

Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai was given a 10-year jail term at the end of last month for "providing intelligence overseas".Gui, a Swedish citizen, published and sold books critical of Xi from his shop in Hong Kong before he was disappeared from Thailand in 2015, appearing in China a few months later to "confess" his alleged crimes on state television.

ALSO READ | Italy shuts stores across country to fight virus

After being freed he was then taken from a train on which he was travelling with two Swedish diplomats.

On Sunday, the UN subcommittee on prevention of torture issued an advisory on the treatment of people who have been put under compulsory quarantine because of the coronavirus.

The committee says that while quarantine is for the public benefit, it should not result in the ill-treatment of those affected or restrictions on movement that appear to have no end.

Fewer cases are being reported in Hubei with each passing day.

But while the time was considered right on Tuesday for Xi to make his first visit to Wuhan, the people of Hubei still do not know when the quarantine that has governed their daily lives for nearly two months will be eased.