Category: Pandemic Ties to CCP

CCP’s ‘No. 1 Designer’ Dies; Other High Profile Party Member Artists Die One by One

Since the death of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin in November 2022 and China’s abrupt U-turn on its “zero-COVID” policy amid a growing outbreak, a number of senior CCP members have passed away successively. Four painters with close ties to the communist party from China’s top arts academy all passed away with…


CCP’s ‘No. 1 Designer’ Dies; Other High Profile Party Member Artists Die 1 by 1

Since the death of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin in November 2022 and China’s abrupt U-turn on its “zero-COVID” policy amid a growing outbreak, a number of senior CCP members have passed away successively. Four painters with close ties to the communist party from China’s top arts academy all passed away with…


Marxist Scholar Who Helped to Cement Deng Xiaoping’s Rise to Power Dies

News Analysis In early January, headlines around the world noted the passing of Hu Fuming, professor of philosophy at China’s Nanjing University. Hu died on Jan. 2, as COVID-19 raged in China.  He was renowned for his role in writing “Practice Is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth,” a 1978 article that helped former leader…


China’s Top Military University Issues 19 Obituaries in 2 Weeks Amid COVID Outbreak

Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), a Chinese military university, released 19 obituaries from late December to early January, including an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, amid a recent surge in COVID-19 infections sweeping across China. From Dec. 24, 2022, to Jan. 5, 2023, 14 professors, two associate professors, two Communist Party branch heads,…


Russian Translators in China Die in Quick Succession During COVID-19 Outbreak

Two renowned Russian-to-Chinese translators in China recently died from COVID-19 as the coronavirus sweeps through the country. Long-time translators Lou Ziliang and Wang Zhiliang died in the first week of 2023. Both men had translated large amounts of Soviet and Russian literature. Their deaths come as observers have noted that China’s recent COVID-19 outbreak has…


‘It Doesn’t Make Sense,’ Experts Trying to Explain White Lungs in China

While the official data from China reports mild disease and low mortalities surrounding the latest COVID-19 outbreaks, Chinese social media is awash with reports of “white lung,” a form of pneumonia often seen in moderate to severe disease. Anecdotal accounts of deaths after infections, and overwhelmed hospitals and morgues, have flooded Weibo and Chinese short-form video…


China’s Top Scientific Institutions Decimated by COVID Deaths

As China reels from a major outbreak of COVID-19 following the lifting of zero-COVID policies in early December, the growing list of obituaries reads like a who’s who of Chinese scientists. Fifteen academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) passed away from Dec. 15 to 28, most of them members of the CCP. From…


Concerning Reports of White Lungs in China, Experts Weigh In

While the official data from China reports mild disease and low mortalities surrounding the latest COVID-19 outbreaks, Chinese social media is awash with reports of “white lung,” a form of pneumonia often seen in moderate to severe disease. Anecdotal accounts of deaths after infections, and overwhelmed hospitals and morgues, have flooded Weibo and Chinese short-form video…


Four Marxist Scholars Died in Four Days During the Recent COVID Outbreak

In the four-day period between Dec. 26 and Dec. 29, four Marxist scholars in China died one after another. On Dec. 26, Professor He Zikun, a professor of philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University, died in Guangzhou at the age of 90. His obituary stated that he had long been engaged in the study of “the…


Long List of Obituaries at Peking University as COVID Wreaks Havoc in China

Dozens of Chinese experts and scholars have died in the recent outbreak of COVID-19. On Dec. 22 alone, three obituaries were released by Peking University, a university renowned for its “important and unique contribution” to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In fact, it was through the unusually frequent obituaries released by Peking…