No Cause Given for Deaths of High-Ranking Officials and Celebrities in China

Patients lie on beds in a hallway in the emergency department of Zhongshan Hospital, amid a COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 3, 2023. Staff/Reuters

Between Aug. 22, 2023, and Sept. 8, 2023, at least 19 high-ranking officials and celebrities passed away in China in just 18 days. All of them were members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The Chinese regime has largely stopped the customary practice of mentioning the cause of death in obituaries, as the actual death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic is being kept as a state secret.

Meanwhile, the EG.5 variant of COVID-19 has become the dominant strain in most provinces of China. Netizens from across the country have been sharing instances of themselves or people they know are contracting the virus for the third time.

CCP’s Continued Coverup

Since the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the CCP has been under fire for withholding information about the outbreak from the public.

Recent research has revealed that in the span of just two months, from December 2022 to January 2023, nearly 2 million excess deaths were recorded in China. This alarming surge in fatalities followed the nation’s decision to lift its COVID lockdowns after their stringent control measures failed to effectively halt the virus’s spread.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open on Aug. 24, utilized obituary data from staff at three major Chinese universities during the two-month period. The researchers then constructed a model using the observed rise in death rates in Beijing and Heilongjiang, and extrapolated it to estimate the mortality rate across the entirety of China.

Using the model, the researchers estimated 1.87 million excess deaths occurred among people 30 years and older, far exceeding the Chinese regime’s official figure which claimed that nearly 60,000 people had died from COVID-19 in January.

At the beginning of this year, the CCP officially stated that only 37 people had died nationwide due to the COVID pandemic from Dec. 7, 2022 to Jan. 8, 2023, sparking public discontent.

It was a blatant lie as many foreign journalists witnessed overcrowded hospitals and funeral homes in major Chinese cities at the time.

Then, on Jan. 14, after the World Health Organization (WHO) criticized Beijing for heavily underreporting COVID deaths, the Chinese National Health Commission announced 60,000 in-hospital deaths between Dec. 8, 2022, and Jan. 12, 2023.

This figure represents an increase of over a thousandfold from the original claim, yet the public remains skeptical.

Earlier this year, several Chinese citizens told The Epoch Times that the authorities ordered doctors and community workers to make false statements on death certificates, so as not to list COVID as the cause of death.

Recent Deaths

The growing number of public figures and celebrities who recently passed away has since become a key indicator of China’s actual death toll from the pandemic.

The list of recently deceased officials from Aug. 22, 2023, to Sept. 8, 2023, included Xie Hua, former deputy director of the Rural Policy Research Office; Zou Entong, former vice minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs; Shi Wanpeng, former deputy director of the National Economic and Trade Commission; Luo Jianqing, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Yang Minzheng, an official at the Office of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial People’s Congress, and Chen Zhimu, former director of the Nantong City Urban Construction Bureau.

Several corporate executives also passed away during this 18-day period, including Li Jiping, chairman of the Supervisory Board of State-owned Key Large Enterprises; Lu Liangsheng, independent director of Hunan Abru Environmental Protection Technology Co. Ltd; Li Jiguang, an oncologist and former dean of the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University; and Zhong Zhenhua, former deputy party boss of Hangzhou Medical College.

Additionally, top researchers and university cadres on the list include: Wang Bu Zheng, former deputy party boss of Beijing Agricultural University; Situ Zhaodun, former head of the Department of Directing and Acting at the Beijing Film Academy; Yu Shunzhang, a renowned epidemiologist and dean of the School of Public Health of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University; Zhang Peiyu, an astronomical historian and retired researcher from the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Science; Hu Ying, academician of the CAS and professor of chemical engineering; Xu Mengxia, professor at Peking University’s School of Electron; Yu Xixian, historical geographer and professor at the School of Urban and Environmental Sciences of Peking University; Su Erhuang, a top expert in hydraulic machinery and fluid transmission; Yi Kai, a retired teacher from the Student Work Department and Youth League Committee of Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT); and Gao Jinghua, former teaching secretary of the Department of Precision Instruments.