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People’s Lives: Tragic Deaths in Xi’an

Since December 23, 2021, Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province has been locked down for 20 days due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) fierce Internet monitoring and constantly deleting postings that did not follow the party’s main theme, some people in Xi’an still managed to post videos or texts to report on the tragedies due to the authorities’ inhumanity.

A video reported that a woman who was eight-months pregnant went to a hospital in Xi’an, but the hospital refused to treat her since her COVID test result (though negative) expired four hours earlier.

A netizen wrote,“My auntie sat on the chair, using her hands to support her body with great difficulty (as shown in a video).” “Blood flowed down the chair and her pants and the floor was covered with blood.” She was admitted for hospitalization two hours later. By then, the eight-month-old fetus had died.

Another lady who was six weeks pregnant reported a similar experience on January 5. She saw blood in her discharge and went to the hospital. Several hospitals refused to take her. Her husband called several public hospitals and they all rejected her. He called 120 (China’s emergency phone number which is like 911 in the United States) and received no answer either. She was finally accepted by a hospital six hours later, but it was too late. The hospital aborted the baby due to her heavy bleeding.

In another case, on December 31, 2021, a 39-year-old man suddenly had chest congestion. Since he had not had COVID test within the last 48 hours, 120 (China’s 911) refused to help him. He had no choice but to take the test. Even after he got a negative result, three hospitals still refused to take him. The fourth one took him, but it was too late. He died at the hospital.

Another citizen said that his mother needed to have a hemodialysis treatment three times a week, but people enforcing the lockdown wouldn’t let her go through, despite the fact that she showed her proof. However, if she didn’t take the hemodialysis treatment on time, her life could be in jeopardy. So she had no choice but to climb over the highway to go to the hospital for treatment.

The CCP intensified Internet control. On January 10, the CCP controlled media reported that the Xi’an police had processed 30 fake news cases on the Internet and detained 23 people. The authorities didn’t disclose what information those people posted.

Xi’an people also suffered from a severe lack of food. Many people posted on the Internet that the authorities didn’t deliver food to them after the lockdown. A netizen posted on January 9 that she received only one delivery of vegetables during the 20 days of lockdown, which included 2 potatoes, 2 onions, 1 cabbage, and 2 radishes. She asked, “What are we supposed to eat? Exept for the COVID test, we are not allowed to go out. Should we just die out of hunger at home?”

Her second post said, “Today our door was sealed off (we are not allowed to open it anymore). Last evening, I cooked a quarter pound of steak for my six-year-old son, my 61-year-old mother, and me. I took one bite, mother took two bites, and my son had the rest. I was so heartbroken. Both mother and I cried … In such a prosperous time, it is unbelievable that we can’t buy and eat food due to the pandemic.”

Another netizen posted some pictures, showing that the vegetables that other cities sent to Xi’an were left alone in one spot for four or five days. No authorities came to process them.

Taiwan: The CCP Interfered with a Taiwan Referendum

On December 18, Taiwan held four referendums. The Kuomintang, the opposition party, proposed all four of them to challenge the current administration’s decision. The voting result, though close between yes and no, rejected all proposals.

The Information Operations Research Group (IORG), a Taipei-based research group focusing on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) information manipulation and influence over Taiwan, found that the CCP conducted a heavy information war on one of the referendum topics: whether to ban imports of pork containing the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine.

Researchers pointed out that the CCP took on the ractopamine pork issue to ruin the Taiwan-U.S. relationship. The Taiwan government approved the pork imports last year, to remove a block for a free trade deal with the U.S. where ractopamine is widely used.

The IORG report found that from April to November this year, there were eight main hot discussions on the referendums and all of them could be traced back to the CCP. Among them, seven were about the ractopamine pork. On April 10, Beijing’s media started spreading a rumor that “the U.S. gets money from Taiwan by selling ractopamine pork and weapons.” In May, when COVID cases increased in Taiwan, the CCP’s media said, “Even after buying the U.S. ractopamine pork and weapons, Taiwan still cannot get COVID vaccine from the U.S.” After the U.S. announced that it would donate 750,000 doses of vaccine to Taiwan, the CCP changed its story line to, “Because Taiwan bought the American ractopamine pork and weapons, it should get the American vaccines.”

Other CCP information manipulation on ractopamine pork included spreading incorrect or fake news without scientific backing. Some examples follow: “Hong Kong detected Taiwan pork with ractopamine severely exceeding the standard.” “Taiwan soldiers ate the American ractopamine pork,” “Over 160 countries banned ractopamine pork,” “Following netizen’s words, China’s media called the ractopamine pork ‘drugs.’”

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