China: Celebrity Deaths Spark Fears over Coronavirus Death Toll

No one, inside or outside of China, seriously believes the absurd claim from the duplicitous Communist regime that virtually no one has died during the massive wave of coronavirus infections sweeping the country.

The BBC noted on Thursday that the pretense is growing more difficult to sustain now that some high-profile Chinese celebrities are dying from the coronavirus.

Strictly speaking, the regime claims a remarkable number of Chinese public figures coincidentally died for no particular reason just as the worst outbreak of the entire pandemic is hitting every corner of the enormous Asian nation. For example, famed opera singer Chu Lanlan experienced an “abrupt departure” from the mortal world in December despite being a healthy 40-year-old woman.

What an actual Covid-related coverup might look like: https://t.co/p5qDJrUCV2

— mike wendling (@mwendling) January 5, 2023

On New Year’s Day, a beloved actor named Gong Jintang, star of a TV show that ran for 20 years, died abruptly at the age of 83. Chinese social media was flooded with tearful tributes from fans convinced he was killed by the Omicron coronavirus wave – which, as usual for Chinese coronavirus, is more dangerous for older people.

“Please God, please treat the elderly better,” Gong’s longtime co-star Hu Yanfen said when his death was announced, rather clearly implying Gong did not die from natural causes.

“R.I.P Father Kang. This wave have really claimed many elders’ lives, let’s make sure we protect the elderly in our families,” said a fan on social media quoted by the BBC, referring to the character Gong became famous for playing.

Other celebrity deaths from the past month included Ni Zhen, 84-year-old screenwriter of the 1991 classic Raise the Red Lantern; younger director Wang Jingguang, whose biggest hit was 2013’s Never Come Back; art professor Wu Guanying, who designed the 2008 Olympic mascot; and 87-year-old former journalist Hu Fuming.

Hu later became an author and professor at Nanjing University, so Chinese media counted him as one of 16 noted scientists and engineers who died during Christmas week.

Chinese commentators were incredulous that the cause of death was not made public for any of them, fueling speculation that they died from the “bad flu,” as some refer to the Wuhan coronavirus.

Among the few celebrity deaths China has admitted were coronavirus-related was 37-year-old former soccer star Wang Ruoji. Some of the other fatalities were officially attributed to “severe illness” or a “bad cold.”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) cited the Chinese Academy of Engineering’s announcement that 20 of its members died between December 15 and January 4, which is considerably more than the prestigious organization normally loses in an entire year.

Top engineers and scientists dying at an unprecedented rate in China after lifting of Covid controls https://t.co/Z95rZRQvAi

— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) January 6, 2023

“The youngest academy member to die was Ti Tianchu, 77, a physicist who specialized in atomic clocks, while the oldest was 102-year-old Zhang Jinzhe, who established China’s first pediatric surgery department at Peking University Hospital in 1950,” the SCMP noted.

The academy did not specify how any of its members died, but a Beijing doctor told the SCMP that all are revered superstars of the Chinese scientific firmament who would receive the kind of top-quality health care normally reserved for high Communist Party officials. 

The doctor also said that top-quality health care is a little different these days, since the coronavirus tidal wave has left Chinese hospitals so overcrowded that patients must linger in hallways and lobbies.

The SCMP cited some other evidence of prominent deaths calling the regime’s zero-fatality claims into question, such as Tsinghua University posting so many obituaries last month that it drew notice on social media, and a few younger, highly-active scientists dying while working on high-profile projects, including a pharmacologist who died while working on coronavirus treatments.

The UK Guardian noticed angry Chinese social media users citing these celebrity deaths to question the official claim of only 22 coronavirus deaths nationwide since December. One hashtag on China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform Weibo quickly accumulated 220 million views by citing the prominent deaths as evidence the regime is deliberately undercounting fatalities.

“I beg those adults who can’t see the ants on the ground to see how many people have passed away due to [Chinese coronavirus]. Just how many people who have great contributions to the country have died? And these were all celebrities,” a Weibo user said.