A spate of celebrity deaths in China has led to fans openly questioning whether the Communist Party is covering up the Covid death toll.
A 40-year-old opera singer, a famous screenwriter and the man who designed the Olympic mascot have all died in recent weeks, with state-controlled media attributing some of the deaths to “severe colds”.
Obituaries make no mention of Covid despite China going through a huge surge in infections, which has led to bodies stacking up in morgues and crematoria.
One highly rated online comment posted under an obituary read: “Did he also die of ‘bad flu’?”
“Even if you trawl through the whole internet you can’t find any reference to his cause of death,” said another internet user under a story of the death of Ni Zhen.
Ni, 84, was an acclaimed scriptwriter, famous for the 1991 film Raise the Red Lantern, which critics consider to be one of the best Chinese films.
Patients receive intravenous drips at the emergency ward of a hospital in Beijing. Photo / AP
Chu Lanlan, a 40-year-old opera singer, also passed away in December. Her family did not give details of the cause of her death. However, Sima Nan, a well-known social commentator, suggested that she died of Covid, in a tribute on social media.
Wu Guanying, China’s top Tsinghua University professor, died at 67 in late December. Local media reported the cause was “infection with a severe cold”.
Wu, was also a Beijing 2008 Olympics mascot designer. Many people online remarked that death in Covid times does not appear to count.
On Thursday, China denied the country was covering up the true death toll, which stands at just 22 since December, when China dropped its zero-Covid policies.
Officials claimed China had transparently and quickly shared Covid data with the World Health Organisation and said China’s “epidemic situation is controllable”.
Under China’s narrow definition of Covid deaths, only those who die from respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia are counted.
Workers loading a body onto a cart at a crematory in the southwestern city of Chongqing, China. Photo / Getty Images
But the official death toll increasingly contradicts what people are witnessing on the ground, a growing problem for the authorities.
Aside from the celebrities, state media counted that 16 scientists from the country’s top science and engineering academies died between December 21 and 26.
“Science is only one field, there are people from many other fields who have died too, not to mention more ordinary elderly people who have no voice,” a user wrote on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
On Wednesday, the WHO criticised that China was under-reporting virus deaths. Hours later US President Joe Biden raised concern about China’s handling of a Covid outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes.
On Thursday more images emerged of patients, mostly elderly, laid on stretchers in hallways of Shanghai hospitals.
Videos of people queueing for crematoria and wards were also widely circulated online.
