(Minghui.org) The high infection rate, the severity of symptoms, and the death toll in China’s recent COVID surge were unexpected. The symptoms are nothing like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s propaganda claims—“as mild as the common cold.” The explosion of cases in China is also unlike what happened in other countries when they decided to relax COVID measures and learn to live with the virus.
The COVID situation has drawn wide attention from the international community, with experts in many countries trying to make sense of what’s going on in China. As the number of severe cases and deaths has skyrocketed, even the CCP-approved experts have failed to provide an explanation. With the healthcare system under enormous strain, medicines running out of stock, and crematoriums at capacity, the CCP continues to repeat its empty political slogans while opening up borders for the disease to spread to the rest of the world.
We need to step back and see the full picture to understand the complexity of this chaotic situation. Since the CCP seized power in 1949, it has followed Mao Zedong’s dictum: “Man must conquer nature (heaven).” In its fight with heaven, the CCP has caused the deaths of untold numbers of its people. Finally, the CCP is paying a price for its terrible deeds, which also serves as a warning to those who side with the regime.
First Irregularity: From One Extreme to Another
After three long years of imposing draconian zero-COVID policies, the CCP suddenly did away with all such measures on December 7. Beginning on December 25, 2022, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) stopped its daily briefing on the COVID situation. The CCP’s going from one extreme to another came at a hefty price.
The number of infections soared. On December 29, Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist at China’s CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), estimated that 18 million people in Beijing (80% of the population) had been infected. Zeng said the real number could be even higher.
Did the surge in Beijing occur after NHC made a 10-point announcement on December 7 to end the zero-COVID policy? It does not seem so. During an interview with RFA, a senior Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) official in Beijing said the outbreak had already started around the CCP’s 20th National Congress (October 16-22, 2022). For instance, Chaoyang District of Beijing had already become a high-risk district by mid-October with more nucleic acid testing personnel dispatched to colleges.
This explains why Yin Li, a former public health official and SARS firefighter, was appointed the Party secretary in Beijing on November 13. After Beijing announced 371 new cases of infection on November 15, Yin talked to Beijing CDC that same day. During a COVID prevention and control meeting in the Chaoyang District, he acknowledged the situation was serious and stressed the importance of curbing the rise. At that time, the CCP’s zero-COVID policy was still as solid as a rock.
The rising COVID cases and public anger forced the CCP to drop its peremptory zero-COVID policy—without a backup plan. But the three-year-long zero-COVID policy has cost a fortune. Between January and November 2022, Beijing cumulative revenue was 533.1 billion yuan while expenses came to 653.3 billion yuan, a deficit of over 120 billion. Among the expenses, health expenditures increased by 19.8% to 65.9 billion yuan. Expenses for education, as well as science and technology, also increased by 7.8%. Most of these funds went to bolstering the zero-COVID mandate on prevention, control, education, logistics, and more.
Similarly, the total cost of zero-COVID nationwide over the past three years is an astronomical figure, which will eventually be paid off by the Chinese people as a whole.
Many Chinese citizens have seen the CCP’s true colors in its handling of the pandemic. They realize that the CCP has total disregard for human life and only cares about holding onto power.
Second Irregularity: Rapid Transmission, Severe Symptoms, and a High Death Toll
Zhang Wenhong, Infectious Diseases Director at Huashan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai, estimated that the infection rate could reach 80% (1.1 billion people) around the Chinese New Year (January 22, 2023). A survey of different provinces indicated an average infection rate of more than 60% across all provinces. For example, the infection rates were 63.52% for Sichuan Province and 50% for Hainan Province. Other places such as Chongqing, Anhui, Shanghai, Hubei, and Hunan had similar infection rates.
Such rapid spreading of the virus was not seen in Western countries where orderly relaxation of COVID measures and reopening resulted in small waves of outbreaks, each with an infection rate of around 30%.
Most of the infected in China had symptoms, many severe, which is drastically different from what Chinese officials claimed earlier: that 90% of infections were asymptomatic.
Among the 1,500 people who visited the emergency department of Renji Hospital East Campus in Shanghai on December 28, about 80% had COVID, half of whom were non-elderly. News reports said 50% of COVID patients who visited Beijing hospitals were severely ill. Local residents said the percentage was even higher than 50%. It is also odd that young people, such as those in their 30s, experienced bad fatigue and coughing. One netizen said his entire family got infected even though they had not left home for more than three weeks.
Aside from high rates of infection and severe symptoms, the death toll is also astonishing. The UK-based health data firm Airfinity estimated on December 29 that the daily COVID deaths in China were around 9,000. But netizens said the real numbers could be higher. One Beijing resident tweeted that the city was losing 8,000 lives per day on average, with 10,700 dead on December 21 alone. Not every deceased was elderly; some were as young as 20. The 12 crematories in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, are also busy again, déjà vu for many who still remembered what happened in early 2020 when the pandemic first broke out there.
All this evidence makes frontline doctors and patients alike suspect this is not the regular Omicron variant; it could be Delta or new variants. Chinese authorities have denied that the white lung seen in some COVID patients was caused by the original variant. Zhang said the prevailing variants in Shanghai are Omicron subvariants BA.5 and BF.7 Italy tested China arrivals and did not find non-Omicron variants.
Facing this situation, Zhang, who was also appointed by NHC as director of the National Center for Infectious Disease Medicine in September 2021, vaguely said the Omicron variant could damage lungs in the vulnerable population, too. But this cannot explain the high number of severe cases among younger people, like half of the COVID patients seen at Renji Hospital mentioned above.
Because Chinese hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients, doctors and nurses often work at full capacity even if they are also infected; some retired elderly doctors were hired back. But there are no reports about the retired doctors’ COVID situation. There are many nursing homes and care centers in China, and they house over 100,000 seniors in Shanghai alone. No large number of deaths has been reported for this highly vulnerable group, either. In March and April 2022 while zero-COVID was still in place, domestic and overseas media paid close attention to the cases of infection and deaths at nursing homes in Shanghai. The scarcity of reports of this kind right now, with cases soaring all over China, indicates something has changed.
Some may attribute this to antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) side effects of vaccines. But this is not convincing because a) many high-ranking officials received imported vaccines, which were more effective and had fewer side effects than domestic vaccines, but a large number of them died, too and b) through bridgebeijing.com, the CCP claims to have sold 1.85 billion vaccines to other countries in south Asia, southeast Asia, and Africa. But the situations in those countries are not nearly as devastating as what China is experiencing.
The medical and scientific communities have not yet been able to explain the unusual infection rate, symptoms, and deaths in China. Of course, the lack of transparency by the CCP could be one factor that has hindered their investigation and research. But as analyzed above, it is likely even the top CCP officials cannot understand why.
Third Irregularity: Broken Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
Over the past three years, the totalitarian CCP restricted the sales of fever medications, leading to a broken drug supply chain. When the CCP reversed its zero-COVID policy on December 7 with no warning, the drug companies had no time to catch up, and pharmacies ran out of fever medications almost instantly.
To make things worse, the lack of moral standards and dishonesty in China has led to counterfeit drugs and unreliable distribution. Chinese media reported that the country has a production capacity of over 200 million fever tablets a day, but ordinary people do not have access to them due to hoarders and privileged takers. RFA reported that after some people ordered medicine online, the packages were empty when they opened them— someone had opened the package and taken out the pills during shipment.
During the three-year zero-COVID era with mandatory testing and nucleic acid testing, the manufacturers of those testing kits made a fortune. Now, with the soaring number of death, cremation services are in high demand. With the high number of deaths in Beijing, it can cost as much as 130,000 yuan (US $18,800) to cut in line. Since the privileged are concentrated in Beijing, even the family of a deputy commander of the Second Artillery surnamed Wang could not secure a spot in line to be cremated after he died in the 310 Military Hospital. His son eventually used his connections and had him cremated at a private crematory in the suburban Fangshan District.
Zhong Nanshan, former head of NHC, declared on December 8 that the death rate of this new wave was less than 0.1%. In response, one netizen wrote in a post, “We have underestimated COVID and overestimated the experts’ honesty.”
Fourth Irregularity: Refusing External Aid and Continuing to Glorify the CCP
Despite the strained healthcare system, the CCP refused aid from Western countries, such as vaccines, drugs, and other forms of support. Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained this decision was made based on the CCP’s “institutional advantages.” In addition, China now only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure as COVID deaths. Even under this new reporting system, many local authorities have instructed doctors to avoid diagnosing people with pneumonia.
Despite the chaos, officials continue to praise the Party as usual. CCTV announced on December 26 that the theme for this season’s Chinese New Year Gala would be: “A thriving new era of China, a better life with each passing day.”
“Countless ordinary people waited and waited, but still no ambulance came... There are long lists of obituaries with names densely printed,” wrote an article on the NetEase news platform summarizing people’s response to the Gala announcement. “As Beijing residents, if there is still a trace of humanity left, who would be shameless enough to show off the so-called ‘Beijing festival fireworks?!’” But this article was soon taken down.
Causalities Among CCP Members and Its Followers
Behind the COVID chaos, one can see that what the CCP did has led to so many problems. To show its superiority over other countries, the CCP imposed three years of zero-COVID, exhausting resources on testing, tracking people’s whereabouts, and lockdowns. The draconian measures failed to defeat the virus and sparked public anger. The CCP then suddenly ditched its zero-COVID policy and opened up everything in hopes of getting the most people infected the quickest and achieving herd immunity so as to return to normal.
With no warning or exit plan, the lifting of the zero-CVOID policy was followed by unprecedented numbers of infections, severe symptoms, and deaths that overwhelmed the healthcare system.
Among those who died of COVID recently were many on the frontlines who had devoted themselves tirelessly to the CCP, including people in the arts, industry, academia, the scientific community, senior officials, and the military. Many of them died relatively young.
Peking Opera actress Chu Lanlan died at 39 on December 18. Jiang Hualiang, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who claimed Chinese medicines could treat COVID, died at 57 on December 23. Li Junlong, a missile expert at the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry, died at 58 on December 29. Fu Dayong, former CCTV host, died at 42 on December 30.
The long list also includes Yang Lin, 60, a playwright responsible for the pro-CCP drama “Red Flag Canal;” Zhao Qing, renowned red drama dancer; and Zhang Mu, a first-class actor who once played the role of Mao Zedong. Some celebrities who defamed the peaceful meditation practice of Falun Gong also died, such as Yang Lianghua, a reporter for People’s Daily, and Lu Xiaogaung, a television director who slandered Falun Gong on multiple programs. The entire family of He Zuoxiu, the CCP’s political pawn in framing Falun Gong, was infected.
Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, wrote,
“But a pandemic like the current Chinese Communist Virus (or “Wuhan Virus”) comes with a purpose behind it, and it has targets. It is here to weed out members of the Party and those who have sided with it.…
“What people should do, instead, is to repent to the divine with all due sincerity, admit to their faults, and pray for a chance to change their ways. That is the way to go, and that is the magic cure.”…
“People should distance themselves from the CCP and stop siding with the Party. Behind it is the red Devil, while outwardly it looks and acts like a thug who stops at no evil. So now that the divine is starting to eradicate it, all who still stand by it shall perish. Those who doubt this can wait and see.” (“Stay Rational”)
The CCP: A Track Record of Brutality, Killing, and Lies
Communism has cost humanity at least 100 million lives, according to journalist and Hudson Institute Senior Fellow David Satter in his 2017 article “100 Years of Communism – and 100 Million Dead.” Compared to its predecessors, the CCP went even further. In the Great Famine (1959-1961) alone, at least 45 million Chinese died, according to Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikotter, Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong.
In numerous political campaigns, the CCP targeted select groups. For instance, it targeted landlords (Land Reform, 1950), business owners (The Three-Antis in 1951 and The Five-Antis in 1952), and intellectuals (The Anti-Rightists, 1957-1959). It systematically destroyed 5,000 years of traditional Chinese values in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and suppressed the democratic movement (the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989).
Most recently and reprehensibly, the CCP and its former leader Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide campaign to wipe out Falun Gong in July 1999. Since then, tens of millions of practitioners have been discriminated against and persecuted for their belief in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They have been detained, imprisoned, and tortured, some even becoming victims of forced organ harvesting. With the entire state apparatus attacking innocent Falun Gong practitioners with slander, lies, and brutality, officials became even more corrupt, the justice system became a sham, moral standards slid down further, and counterfeit goods and violence became commonplace—then came the pandemic.
Something similar happened in ancient Rome when the Christians were persecuted. The Antonine Plague (165 to 180 AD), for example, caused up to 2,000 deaths a day in the city of Rome, affecting one-quarter of its population. The total deaths were estimated at 5-10 million, about 10 percent of the population of the entire empire. During the Plague of Cyprian (AD 249 to 262) 5,000 people died per day at the peak time in Rome alone. Historians calculated that the population of Alexandria dropped from 500,000 to 190,000 during the plague.
John of Ephesus, bishop and historian, witnessed the Justinian plague and described it in Part 2 of Chronicle. “(But) then I thought that it was right that through our writings we should inform our successors and transmit to them (at least) a little from among the multitude (of matters) concerning our chastisement,” he wrote. “...perhaps (during) this remainder of the world which will come after us they will fear and shake because of the terrible scourge with which we were lashed through our transgressions and become wiser through the chastisement of us wretches and be saved from (God’s) wrath here (in this world) and from future torment.”
The CCP officials always advocate the communist system’s “institutional advantages.” But in reality, it is a well-oiled machine pumping out brutality, death, and lies. It has not only harmed ordinary Chinese, including its officials themselves, but is also endangering the rest of the world. With over 400 million citizens having quit the CCP organizations, and more people around the world rejecting the regime, this machine will soon cease to function.
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Category: News Commentary
