Former CCP Adviser Questions Number of Deaths in China

Lew Mon-hung, a former member of the Chinese Communist Party's political advisory body, in Hong Kong on Jan 10. 2023. (Choi Pui Man/The Epoch Times）

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced that the number of deaths in China from COVID-19 had increased from 30 as of Jan. 7, to 60,000, on Jan. 14. Lew Mon-hung, a former member of the CCP political advisory body, questioned the figures and revealed that there was a coffin shortage.

On Jan. 7, a month after the CCP scraped all its COVID-19 quarantine measures for travelers. China’s National Health Commission (NHC) reported that 120,000 had been confirmed infected with COVID-19, with 30 deaths.

On Jan. 14, the CCP’s Prevention and Control Mechanism held a press conference at which Jiao Yahui, director general of the Medical Department of the NHC, said that from Dec. 8, 2022, to Jan. 12, there were 59,938 deaths related to COVID-19 infections that occurred in medical institutions nationwide.

Lew urged the CCP to “tell the truth and stop ruling the country with lies.” He questioned the Jan. 7 numbers, saying the 120,000 confirmed cases and 30 deaths due to COVID-19 were “completely ridiculous and with no credibility at all.”

Ruling the Country with Lies

Lew criticized that China was not well-prepared before lifting the quarantine measures for international travelers. He says during the three-year lockdown and clearance, China did not acquire adequate medical products or facilities and has not prepared any extra negative pressure rooms for patients with infectious illnesses, ventilator machines, wonder drugs, vaccines, and oral drugs.

Last month, the medical system of China nearly collapsed. Lew said, “all outpatient departments and emergency departments of hospitals are crowded with people and with no beds left for people to stay in the hospital. The funeral homes are overwhelmed, and the dead bodies pile up.” According to a funeral home owner, the death rate is eight to ten times the historical peak.

He pointed out that the daily infection rate has increased to one million in Zhejiang Province. Officials in Qingdao city admitted its daily infection rate has increased to 500,000. The confirmed cases in Dongguan city in central Guangdong province increased by 250 million to 300 million. The densely populated provinces of Sichuan and Henan have recorded an infectious rate of over 80 percent.

Lew said his friends in Beijing are also getting infected one after another. “Except one former member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection not being infected, all of my friends in every department, including the Department of International Cooperation of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Foreign Affairs Committee, were all infected.” Therefore, many relevant departments were not able to convene a meeting, “as many of those were tested positive.”

‘Purgatory on Earth’

He also revealed that his relatives in China were infected. “My relatives, my brother and sister, and my mother in Guangzhou were all infected. A one to two kilometers queue (approximately 1-1.2 miles) was outside the Guangzhou Galaxy Martyr Cemetery, waiting to register for the cremation. Not only did the people form long queues outside the funeral homes in different places in China, but they also needed to wait half a month, or even over a month, to get their relatives to be cremated.”

He said there is currently a coffin shortage in China. “When General Yu Yongbo, a former head of the People’s Liberation Army General Political Department passed away, no proper coffin was arranged for him. He could only use a paper coffin instead. He was cremated through his relationship with the bureau of retired veteran cadres. For those normal civilians, who needed help from the scalpers, they had to pay 38,500 yuan ($5,700)to move the body to a funeral home.”

Lew said he felt desperately sad as the pandemic caused many civilians to experience what he called “purgatory on earth.” People cannot contact the relevant departments to render assistance. According to the Law on Prevention And Treatment Of Infectious Diseases, the body of a person who dies of an infectious disease shall immediately be sent to the funeral home and be cremated to avoid the spread of infection. Lew said, no one came to pick up the body, no matter how many emergency calls they made. They were completely ignored.

‘Treating 1.4 Billion People as Fools’

Lew condemned the NHC for announcing  a deceiving number of confirmed and deaths. “How can you turn a blind eye to your lies? Are you treating the 1.4 billion people in China as fools? Do you think eight billion people all over the world are idiots?” He said.

Lew said the lies would make the government lose credibility like a “Tacitus trap.” He explained, “tacitus Trap is a political theory meaning that an unpopular government is hated no matter what it does and whether it is right or wrong, as it had already lost the people’s trust.”

Lew said that countries imposing COVID-19 measures on travelers coming from China is “significantly related to the attitude of governmental authorities, such as the DHC, neglecting the truth, and the lack of transparency in information. In other words, “the country will collapse if the people do not have trust in it. This is putting the country’s long-term stability at a serious disadvantage.”