The growing number of Chinese public figures whose deaths are being made public is prompting people to question the official death toll from Covid.
The death last month of Chu Lanlan, a 40-year-old opera singer, came as a shock to many given how young she was.
Her family said they were saddened by her “sudden departure” but did not provide details of the cause of her death.
In December, China lifted its strict zero-response policy against COVID-19 and saw a sharp spike in infections and deaths.
There are reports that hospitals and crematoriums are full.
But the country has stopped publishing daily figures on cases and has announced only 22 Covid deaths since December, using its own strict criteria.
Currently, only those who died from respiratory diseases such as pneumonia are counted.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that China was underrepresenting the true impact of Covid on the country – particularly in terms of mortality.
But the deaths of Chu Lanlan and others have led to speculation of higher losses than those reported in official reports.
According to the specialist news website Operawire, Chu Lanlan was a soprano who specialized in Peking Opera – a theater art in which performers use language, song, dance and martial arts to tell stories – and was also involved in charitable causes.
On New Year’s Day, the news of actor Gong Jintang’s death shocked many Chinese netizens.
Gong, 83, was familiar to many households thanks to his role in the country’s longest-running television series, Sons-in-Law, Outlaws. His portrayal of Father Kang has captivated fans for more than two decades since the show first aired in 2000.
The cause of his death is unknown, but many social media users are linking it to the recent deaths of other elderly people.
“Please, God, please treat the elderly better,” his colleague Hu Yanfeng wrote on the Chinese social network Weibo.
“RIP Father Kahn. This wave has really taken the lives of many elderly people, let’s make sure we protect the elderly in our families,” one user wrote on Weibo.
Renowned screenwriter Nie Zhen was also among the latest deaths. The 84-year-old actor rose to fame for his work on the 1991 film Rise of the Red Lantern, which critics consider one of the best Chinese films.
Meanwhile, Hu Fuming, a former journalist and retired Nanjing University professor, died on January 2 at the age of 87.
He was the main author of a famous commentary published in 1978 that marked the beginning of China’s “Boluan Fanzheng” period, a time of elimination of chaos and a return to normalcy after the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution under the country’s first Communist leader Mao Zedong.
According to Chinese media, 16 scientists from the country’s leading science and engineering academies died between December 21 and 26.
None of these deaths were linked to Covid in the obituaries, but that didn’t stop the internet from speculating.
– Did he also die of the “bad flu”? said one of the top comments on the news of Mr Ni’s death.
“Even if you dig all over the internet, you can’t find any reference to the cause of his death,” said another netizen.
But there has also been criticism from demonstrators who took to the streets in November in rare political protests calling for an end to leader Xi Jinping’s zero-sum policy against COVID-19.
“Are those people now happy to see the old… now paving the way to their freedom?” – asked one user of the social network.
In his New Year’s address, Mr Xi appeared to make an oblique reference to the protests, saying that in such a large country it was natural for people to have different opinions.
But he urged people to come together and show unity as China entered a “new phase” in its approach to Covid.
Chinese authorities are aware of the widespread skepticism, although they continue to play down the seriousness of this Covid wave that has swept the country.
In an interview with state television, the director of the Beijing Institute of Respiratory Diseases acknowledged that the number of elderly deaths this winter was “definitely higher” than in past years, and stressed that critical cases remain a minority of the total. of Covid cases.
This week, the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, called on citizens to work towards a “final victory” over Covid and rejected criticism of the previous zero-Covid policy.
