Many Chinese internet users have spoken out in support of Lan Yuefeng, a doctor known as a whistleblower. They hope that this long-standing case can be revisited and that Dr. Lan’s reputation and employment-related benefits can be restored.
By Shi Gandang | October 23, 2026
Lan Yuefeng was formerly head of the Ultrasound Department at Mianyang People’s Hospital （绵阳市人民医院）. She was an experienced clinician who adhered to professional medical standards. In 2009, she discovered that the hospital planned to perform a surgical procedure without a clear medical indication and immediately objected. She subsequently filed repeated real-name reports alleging excessive medical treatment, revenue-generating targets imposed on hospital departments, and irregularities in medical equipment procurement.
Following her reports, Lan faced what she regarded as workplace retaliation. The hospital removed her from her clinical position, assigned her to non-clinical study, and took away her office. Beginning in 2012, she spent years sitting in the hospital’s outpatient corridor in her white coat, seeking redress for her grievances. She came to be known as the “Corridor Doctor.”
In 2014, a local joint investigation team issued a statement saying that it had been unable to substantiate the allegations she had reported. Lan rejected the findings and maintained that her reports were truthful. That same year, the hospital terminated her employment contract following a vote by the staff congress, citing prolonged unauthorized absence from work. As a result, she lost her position and formal employment status, along with her salary and related retirement benefits.
In the years that followed, two successive heads of the hospital who had been implicated in her earlier reports were investigated and disciplined for disciplinary and legal violations. Meanwhile, Lan was left without a stable income and lived in considerable financial hardship in her later years. She has continued to pursue legal remedies and administrative appeals, refusing public donations. What she has sought, she says, is simply a fair and just resolution.
Today, growing numbers of internet users are voluntarily speaking out in her support. They are calling on the relevant authorities to review the case in light of new information and findings that have emerged since the original investigation.
Many believe that Lan paid a heavy price for having the courage to expose problems in the medical sector and should not have had to endure twelve years of hardship. They are calling for a fresh review and, if her allegations are substantiated, for the authorities to pay her outstanding wages and restore her professional title, formal employment status, and retirement benefits.
Those who have the courage to stand by their conscience should not be abandoned.
