Taiwanese Businessman’s Death in China Allegedly Due to Delay in Medical Treatment

A child has a swab taken for nucleic acid test for COVID-19 in Xiamen, Fujian Province, on March 15, 2022. STR/AFP via Getty Images

China’s draconian zero-COVID policies have resulted in delayed medical treatment, and caused many deaths across the country since the COVID-19 outbreak.

A Taiwanese businessman working in China was reported to have died on Sept. 18 in Xiamen, a city in China’s eastern coastal province of Fujian, after he was isolated in a quarantine facility near the Xiamen Xiang'an International Airport.

According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA), Mr. Chen Xin, worked for a Taiwanese energy technology enterprise in China’s Kunshan City, about 43 miles west of Shanghai. Chen had earlier returned to Taiwan to see a doctor due to a chronic health issue.

On Sept. 17, Chen flew from Taiwan to China, and was quarantined at the Xiamen International Health Station, an isolation facility 20 minutes from the airport.

Xiamen, a city in Fujian Province, China, is close to Taiwan. Google Maps

On Sept. 18, Chen died of a massive hemorrhage.

The 34-acre Xiamen International Health Station, that cost 2.2 billion yuan ($309 million) to build, is exclusively for the quarantine of inbound passengers, according to Xiamen Daily, a state-run local mouthpiece, on March 30.

Xiamen Daily said that the health station has its own medical center that offers onsite medical services to “meet one-stop health management requirements” of inbound travelers isolated in the facility. The health station, upon its completion, will have nine buildings with 6001 rooms as quarantine facilities for inbound international travelers and four dormitory buildings with 1624 rooms for staffers working in the complex.

Chen called for help seven times, and it took over an hour for an ambulance to arrive at the health station, according to the CNA, citing a Taiwanese businessman, by then, Chen had vomited a lot of blood. He was taken to a hospital in Xiamen, but didn’t survive, the CNA reported.

At a regular press conference of the Chinese regime’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Sept. 28, a reporter with Taiwan’s UDN (United Daily News Group) queried the spokeswoman about what effective help the Taiwan Affairs Office offers Taiwanese when they encounter problems after entering China. He also asked the spokeswoman to explain whether Chen’s death was due to the pandemic control measures delaying his medical treatment.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman of the Taiwan Affairs Office, replied that Xiamen’s local medical emergency personnel “arrived in time” and that Chen died “despite efforts to save [Chen].” She said that both the isolation facility and the hospital did their best to rescue Chen, adding that Chen’s family members “expressed their recognition.” She asked that Taiwanese people “fully understand various requirements [of entry to China]” before their departure.

Zhu’s explanation of Chen’s death was removed from the Taiwan Affairs Office official website, but the full transcript of her answers at the press conference is still available on Netease, a news portal in China, and on the Taiwan channel of the state-run People’s Daily of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Deaths Reported in Shanghai and Xinjiang

In April, when Shanghai was under stringent lockdown measures, residents were confined to their homes, and hospitals mandated PCR tests had to be done before any medical treatment would be given to patients.

A city street during a COVID-19 lockdown in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China, on May 30, 2022. Liu Jin/AFP via Getty Images

Larry Hsien Ping Lang, a well-known Hong Kong-based economist and commentator, wrote a post on his Weibo account on April 11, saying that his mother had to wait for a PCR test result before she could be treated for kidney failure. She waited in the Emergency Department for four hours and died there without seeing a physician or getting any medical treatment.

Lang had to “spend a lot of time communicating with relevant departments” before he was allowed to go to the hospital, as Shanghai strictly banned its residents from leaving their homes. He could not get any transportation, as all public transport systems and taxis were suspended. His mother passed away before he got to the hospital.

Lang wrote that he was “deeply shocked” by the long time taken to complete PCR tests and that he “hoped this tragedy would not happen again.”

A 17-month-old toddler died in August in Yining city, Xinjiang. The boy became sick, but his father couldn’t leave their house, which had been locked from the outside by the local authorities. In the end, the desperate father called the police and forced a government car to take the child to a nearby hospital. But it was too late. Doctors told the father that if he had come ten minutes earlier, the baby might have been saved.

The father’s online posts were removed from China’s social media platforms.

Li Jing contributed to the article.