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Liberty Times : Beijing Ordered Strictly to Prohibit Interviews and Filming at Funeral Homes

China quickly relaxed the epidemic prevention policy on Covid. It has also continued to cover the death numbers in a number of different ways. Recently, an announcement from a funeral home in the eastern suburbs of Beijing has been circulating on the Internet. It reads, “In order to enforce the work discipline strictly, urgent notification is given of  the following relevant requirements: 1. It is strictly forbidden for anyone to be interviewed by any media or organization. 2. It is strictly forbidden for anyone to discuss, answer or disclose the data or the operation of any funeral homes. 3. It is strictly forbidden for anyone to shoot, edit, or send (forward) anything related to the situation of the funeral homes, whether in the form of text messages, WeChat, email, Weibo or other media. Any violations will be dealt with seriously.”

A media reporter called the Beijing Dongjiao Funeral Home on the 27th, but the Home declined to reveal a single word, only saying that they would report to their superiors, who would give a unified reply.

Source: Liberty Times, December 29, 2022                                                                                                                                                                                                   https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/4168457

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China’s COVID Infection Count

At present, three years after the Wuhan outbreak of COVID, China is suffering a nationwide outbreak. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hides the actual infection numbers to pretend the pandemic is still under control.

A leakage occurred about a social media chat among officials at Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. Wuxi city held an internal meeting to inform its officials that the provincial leaders criticized the city for being “too slow to get people into positive (people are not infected fast enough).” The province wants “the majority of the people (of Wuxi) to catch (COVID)” by March, 2023, so that its economy “can resume to a normal rate of operation” afterward.

Another leakage revealed that a social media chat (among officials at Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province) showed that Wuxi city held an internal meeting to inform its officials that the provincial leaders criticized Wuxi for being “too slow to report positive results (having fewer people infected).” The province wants “a majority of the people (of Wuxi) to catch (COVID) once” by March, 2023, so that its economy “can resume to a normal rate of operation.”

Ji’nan Times reported that, on December 23, Bo Tao, Director of the Health Commission of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, stated that each day, there were 490 to 530 thousand people in the 10-million-population of the city who got infected. He predicted the number would increase by 10 percent each day starting on December 24 and 25 and said “the peak is yet to come.”

On the other hand, the CCP’s official count is unbelievably low. It reported 4,103 total infection cases throughout the whole nation on December 23, with only 31 new cases in Shangdong Province.

An Internet posting showed a notice posted at the reception desk of one funeral home. The notice requires people to write and sign a  statement saying: “I confirm that the deceased (insert name) did not pass away due to COVID. I take full responsibility for hiding any information.”

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, December 22, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/22/n13889954.htm
2. Epoch Times, December 25, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/25/n13891448.htm
3. Radio Free Asia, December 27, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/gt2-12272022045848.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Social Stability

China’s Funeral Homes Are Running at Full Capacity

The rampage of COVID in China has taken many people’s lives. As a result, China’s funeral homes are running all day long to cremate bodies.

A Shanghai funeral home appealed for the public to fill openings in three areas: staff members to pick up corpses, people to assist the staff members who are picking up corpses, and workers handling the corpse pickup service on China’s social media WeChat.

A Hangzhou funeral home also posted that it had six positions to fill.

A Beijing citizen posted on Microblog (another Chinese social media) that in an emergency room in a hospital on December 26, he had witnessed over ten COVID deaths in 12 hours.

In Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, people lined up at 4:30 am for cremation appointments at the Yinheyuan Funeral Home (the facility gave out a limited number of tickets each day). Some people said that they came for 3 days but were still not able to get a number. The Guangzhou Funeral Service Center announced that, due to the high volume, it would not handle memorial services inquiries until January 10. It would still offer cremation services.

Anshan City, Liaoning Province turned an underground parking area into a morgue. Many coffins lined up in that area.

Some online videos showed a long line of cars waiting in front of a funeral home in Tianjin City. People packed a Wuhan funeral home. Also due to continuous use, a cremation furnace exploded in Tangshan City, Hebei Province.

In Beijing, the Tongzhou Funeral Home that cremated 40 bodies at the beginning of December quadrupled the number to around 160 bodies on December 19. An Internet video showed another funeral home – The Dongjiao Funeral Home – relied on police to direct traffic to the facility and some cars stayed in line for 12 hours but still hadn’t entered the facility. The funeral home also issued an emergency notice to its employees, prohibiting them from taking any media interviews or discussing or disclosing any numbers at the funeral home.

Source: Epoch Times, December 28, 2022
https://hk.epochtimes.com/news/2022-12-28/62561470

Briefings | | |   @CS Social Stability

COVID Is on a Rampage in China

China recently loosened its COVID control policy after people took to the streets to protest the extreme, inhumane lockdown measures. As a result, COVID has  spread widely throughout the country.

On December 13, the authorities reported only 7,451 infection cases for the entire nation, which the public just did not accept as a number they could trust.

A video posted by a Beijing resident showed that an entire subway station, which used to be fully packed, had only three people in it, including the recorder himself.

Many doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are infected. They are asked to continue work if they can. Work units informed their employees to stay at home and not go to hospitals as hospitals had already “run beyond their full capacity.”

Radio Free Asia quoted an Internet posting that the author called 911 but was told that there were already 4,000 people ahead of him in the queue. Its reporter called Beijing’s hotline 120. The operator told him there were already 40 people waiting for an ambulance, and suggested the caller go to the hospital himself, so he would not be putting a wrong hope on an ambulance.

Funeral homes worked at full speed to cremate bodies. A Beijing resident posted on social media that after his father passed away, he could not find a funeral home to take in his father’s body. A doctor posted on social media that there was a five to seven day wait for cremation and his hospital did not have an empty morgue any longer. Radio Free Asia reported that four elderly people died in the Emergence Room of the Beijing University Hospital. Other patients stayed and waited with the corpse in the same room.

In addition to the present danger to the elderly, this COVID is also claiming young lives. Three children, at the ages of 13, 8, and 2, respectively, died after they had a high temperature.

Source: Epoch Times, December 13, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/13/n13884197.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Social Stability

After Public Protests, China Published “Ten New Measures” to Ease COVID Control

China’s National Health Commission announced ten new COVID measures to soften its strict COVID control policies, It was done in an effort to soothe the public anger that was demonstrated in a string of protests throughout China a week ago. Some key features include:

  • People with COVID, with either mild symptoms or no symptoms, can choose to isolate either at home or at a state controlled (centralized) facility. In the past, the authorities quarantine in centralized facilities not only those who were infected, but also people who were in the same building.
  • The designation of high-risk area should be “precise.” This was in reference to the individual building, the floor, or even the apartment. It should not be broadly applied to the entire residential neighborhood, street, or other area. (as the local authorities had done in the past)
  • The authorities should not mobilize (require) all residents to take COVID tests.
  • Venues, except those with the elderly, children, or patients, will not check visitors’ COVID test results. In the past, all visitors had to provide negative COVID results before being allowed to enter the facility.
  • People travelling do not need to show negative COVID test results at the new city, either.
  • It is strictly prohibited to use any method to block a fire emergency exit, a buildings door, etc. (This was in response to the Urumqi fire that claimed dozens of people’s lives. This happened because the authorities sealed apartment doors and fire exits.)
  • If no new cases are found, “high-risk” areas should come out of lockdown in five days. In the past, several cities in China had locked down the entire city for months even with though there were only a handful of cases.

These new measures represent a major change from the communist regime’s previous “Zero-COVID” policy, which aimed to control and quarantine anyone who either had contact or was in a vicinity close to a COVID patient.

The authorities had in fact issued 20 measures in November in an attempt to ease the policy, but apparently it was not enough and the public didn’t buy it.

Source: Chinese Government Official website, December 7, 2022
http://www.gov.cn/fuwu/2022-12/07/content_5730470.htm.

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China’s Number of First Marriages Fell Below 12 Million Last Year

China.com recently reported that, according to data just published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in 2021, the number of first marriages in China was 11.578 million, a decrease of 708,000 from the previous year. This is also the first time in 37 years that the number of first marriages has fallen below 12 million. It represents a new low since 1985. In the past 8 years, the number of first marriages has dropped by 51.5 percent. Data also shows that in 2021, there were 7.643 million marriage registrations. This is the first time since 2003 that the number of marriages has fallen below the 8 million mark. In recent years, the age of the first marriage of young people has been greatly delayed. According to the China Census Yearbook-2020, the average age of a first marriage in 2020 was 28.67 years old, an increase of 3.78 years from the average age of first marriages in 2010 (24.89 years old). Marriage registration data includes the number of first marriages and the number of remarriages. The number of first marriages is more closely related to the number of births than the number of remarriages. The decline in the number of marriages will also have a greater impact on future population development. First, the number of births will decrease even more and the birth rate will continue to decline. Second, the natural growth rate of the population will also be affected. Third, the average life expectancy of people will continue to increase and the population structure will further age. Data shows that in 2021, the proportion of China’s population aged 65 and over reached 14.2 percent. With reasons such as the decrease in the number of first marriages, this ratio is expected to continue to increase.

Source: China.com, December 2, 2022
http://guoqing.china.com.cn/2022-12/02/content_78548985.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

The CCP Tries to Cool Down the Blank Sheets of Paper Protest

As protests against the authorities’ extreme COVID control policy are mushrooming throughout China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been attempting to douse the fire with what appears to be both carrots and sticks. Blank sheets of paper have become a symbol of resistance among those protesting Beijing’s COVID lockdown policies. They are showing up at protests across the nation. In a nation where a protest message could get a person jailed, opponents of the Chinese regime are innovating by using a a blank page to call for change. Thus, the blank sheet of paper has become a symbol of resistance

The CCP issued a tough message through the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), the top CCP organ in charge of domestic security, and through the judicial system, with a meeting on November 28 to announce it would “resolutely crack down on the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces, and resolutely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that disrupt the social order.”

Truckloads of armed police have been dispatched to Shanghai and Beijing. In Guangzhou, the police have clashed with protesters. Demonstrators have thrown glass bottles at the police, and the police have used tear gas to disperse the protestors.

On the other hand, the central government has also made a conciliatory gesture regarding COVID restrictions. The National Health Commission stated on November 29 that “COVID control should lock down quickly and open up quickly (afterwards)” and “wherever it can open up, it should open up.”

Some local authorities have yielded to protesters’ demands and relaxed COVID controls in certain regions. The Guangzhou government ended the lockdown in Haizhu District on Nov 16 after the public protest. Urumqi in Xinjiang released several residential neighborhoods on Nov 26 after people took to the streets and the Shanghai government announced that on Dec 1, it would end the control in 24 high-risk regions.

Whether the CCP’s “hard and soft” strategy will completely quiet down the protest remains to be seen.

Sources:
1. Chinascope, November 29, 2022
http://chinascope.org/archives/31170
1. The Paper, November 29, 2022
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_20945808
2. China Outlook, November 30, 2022
https://news.creaders.net/china/2022/11/30/2552449.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability