China Fabricates COVID Data: Commentator

Medical staff of the COVID-19 testing centre near the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport wait for travellers from China in Roissy, outside Paris, on Jan. 1, 2023. France and Britain on, Dec. 30, 2022, joined a growing list of nations imposing COVID tests on travellers from China after Beijing dropped foreign travel curbs despite its surging cases, and amid questions about its data reporting. (Julien de Rosa/AFP) Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images

The huge number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 in China seem to differ from what the rest of the world is experiencing. However, the regime’s lack of transparency, coupled with the sudden opening of its borders, has pitted Beijing against the rest of world.

Former Chinese CDC chief epidemiologist Zeng Guang said the infection rate in Beijing may exceed 80 percent. The minutes of an internal meeting released by the National Health and Medical Commission showed that the number of people infected with COVID in China reached 248 million in the first 20 days of December.

Wang He, a regular contributor to The Epoch Times, indicated that even such population-dense countries as India and Indonesia have not seen such a high infection rate.

This shows that what’s happening in China is very different from what the omicron and other variants have caused outside of China. “Firstly, the transmission rate is extremely high; and secondly, the number of severe cases and deaths is much higher than what Beijing has published. But the regime will only recognize the first point,” Wang said.

Rampant Infections

The Epoch Times has learned from various sources that many crematoriums in China have been working constantly, mobile wards have been converted into mortuaries, and large open-air crematories have been built.

In Beijing alone, at least 4,000 corpses are burned every day NTD TV reported on Dec. 15. A crematorium staff member at Chaoyang District said the crematoriums are operating 24 hours a day but still plenty of bodies are lying on the ground. He said, “I haven’t slept for three days.”

A similar situation is occurring in Shanghai.

Shanghai’s two largest funeral homes, Baoxing and Longhua, are handling up to 500 and 400 corpses a day, respectively. On Dec. 29, a staff member at the funeral home said the number used to be around 90 a day.

There are 15 crematoriums in Shanghai with an annual burning capacity of 100,000, or 274 bodies daily. But one crematorium alone is now handling twice as many as the entire city’s former daily volume.

From Shanxi in northern China, to Fujian in the south, Beijing, Shanghai, and so forth, hospitals and ERs are crowded with patients.

Numerous online posts indicate that people see those around them suddenly becoming sick with fevers. Other posts said that ambulances were fully booked, and thousands of patients were waiting in a queue to see a physician.

Patients on stretchers are seen at Tongren hospital in Shanghai on Jan. 3, 2023. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Burner Requisition

A Jan. 2 online video showed Miyun County, Beijing, was hurrying to build simple incinerators.

The Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times called the civil affairs bureau in Beijing to confirm that the incinerators were being built.

The person who answered the call was not familiar with the matter, and said that cremations are handled by funeral homes, but “the city is in the process of burner requisition.”

The Chinese online recruitment platform showed 1,122 new positions were added under the category of incineration design engineers on Jan. 3. It’s not clear if the incineration is related to handling corpses. New hires were seen in Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Zhejiang, and other cities.

Propaganda

On Jan. 4, Chinese reports, citing expert opinions, indicated that the peak of the first wave of infections has passed in multiple cities, such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Chongqing, and in provinces such as Zhejiang and Sichuan.

Chinese experts predicted the rural areas would be the next epidemic prevention challenge due to the large volume of traffic anticipated during the Chinese New Year.

Wang said there’s no substantial data supporting the regime’s claim of the “passing” of a first-wave peak, it’s all about propaganda.

After three years of following a strict zero-COVID policy, China suddenly eased the prevention measures and announced it was allowing travel into and from China, while a widespread a COVID outbreak was hitting China almost concurrently.

Wang said it’s clear the world is hitting back. Many countries started mandatory COVID testing of travelers from China.

However, China insisted that the restrictions imposed by the international community were not “science based,” but were for “political purposes.”

A patient on oxygen is wheeled on a gurney into a busy emergency room at a hospital in Beijing, China, on Jan. 2, 2023. Getty Images

The World Wants Data

Wang said the regime has been obviously “systematically manipulating” its COVID data.

Starting on Dec. 20, China’s COVID death tally only included deaths caused by COVID-related respiratory failure and did not include the death of any patients who also had any other underlying diseases in the numbers. The move has made it even harder to assess the pandemic situation inside China.

The lack of transparency about the severity of the infections and the genetic data of the variants in China, along with the huge disparity between societal phenomena and the Chinese data, have the international community worried, Wang said.

To better prepare the world for future pandemics, WHO member states will discuss a “zero draft” of an international pandemic treaty agreement in February.

Wang said that the West has treated the epidemic as essentially a medical issue that ought to be addressed with medical procedures in accordance with consensus norms and international practices. This approach has been operating in the world for more than 100 years and is a mature system.

However, the Chinese regime violated this system and insisted on using its domestic propaganda. “It will only lead to confrontation between China and the United States, between China and the world,” he said.

The confrontation will only persist as long as the outbreak continues in China, Wang stated.

Luo Ya and Cheng Jing contributed to this report.