High-Profile Deaths in China Spike in December 2022

The COVID pandemic once again swept across China in late 2022. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been covering up the true extent of the outbreak, there is no way to know the true number of deaths in China. However, based on statistics made public by some academic institutions and obituaries of some Chinese celebrities, the average death toll of Chinese celebrities in December 2022 is many times higher than in the past.Peking University Health Department Deaths From 2017 to November 2022 (71 months in total), Peking University Health Science Center issued 130 obituaries, or an average of 1.83 deaths per month, according to a statement released by the Center’s retirement office. Peking University Health Science Center announced 18 deaths in December 2022, nearly 10 times the previous monthly average. It is 12 times higher than the average monthly death rate of 1.5 in 2019 (18 in total). Chinese Academy of Engineering Deaths According to the list of deceased engineering academicians released by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, from 1995, when complete data was available, to the end of 2021, a total of 255 academicians died, or an average of 0.787 academicians died every month for 27 years (324 months). In December 2022, a total of 16 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering died, 20 times the monthly average from 1995 to 2021. It is nine times the monthly average of 1.82 academicians in the first 11 months of 2022 (20 in total). A building of the Chinese Academy of Science. (The Epoch Times) Academy Member Deaths A total of 27 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences passed away in 2022, according to data compiled by Chinese media and Chinese celebrity obituaries compiled by Wikipedia. In December 2022 alone, nine academicians died, six times the monthly average of 1.5 academicians in the first 11 months of 2022. Celebrity Obituaries Statistics At least 322 celebrities died in China in December 2022, according to Chinese celebrity obituaries compiled by Wikipedia. This is five times the number of celebrity deaths in November 2022 (70) and more than 10 times the number of celebrity deaths in December 2021 (31). The above-mentioned academicians, retired professors and staff of Peking University Health Science Center, as well as celebrities in science and technology, art, politics, enterprises, sports, medicine, journalism, publishing, military, and other fields, usually enjoy far more medical resources than ordinary people. Therefore, the overall death toll in China in December is estimated to be even worse. The uptick in deaths of Chinese elite, many of whom were affiliated with the CCP, indicates that the COVID outbreak in China is targeting the communist regime and its supporters, an Epoch Times editorial pointed out. The ancients believed that plagues punished humankind when its sins became too great, the editorial said, pointing to the myriad atrocities committed by the regime. “In Eastern thought, specifically, there’s the concept of karma, which is acquired as a result of committing bad or immoral deeds,” reads the editorial on Jan. 20. “Most recently, the CCP has engaged in a whole-of-society persecution targeting an estimated 100 million practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong. The persecution was launched in 1999 by then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin, who died in November last year.” “History has shown us previous examples of this. In ancient Rome, the persecution of Christians resulted in four plagues, and the powerful Roman Empire declined and eventually perished. In China’s history, a change of dynasty often occurred when the court became corrupt and social morality degraded; plagues frequently resulted.” “Ultimately, the best cure for this plague is to reject the CCP.” Anne Zhang is a writer for The Epoch Times with a focus on China-related topics. She began writing for the Chinese-language edition in 2014.