Posted on 08/29/2023 1:17:48 PM PDT by lightman
More than three years since the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, which became ground zero in the worldwide pandemic, the virus is seeing a resurgence in the communist country.
As the fast-spreading Omicron variant dubbed “Eris”—named for the Greek goddess of strife and discord—takes hold in China, the country is again seeing a spike in deaths among members of the regime’s top echelons, despite their special access to medical care and drugs that are denied to ordinary citizens.
Among those who have died in the latest wave are dozens of Chinese officials, senior executives, prominent academics, and scientists, some in their 20s and 30s. The spike in deaths seems reminiscent of that seen in late December 2022, when the country was grappling with another huge upsurge in cases that saw hospitals and crematoriums pushed beyond breaking point.
Recent obituaries of prominent figures published by Chinese media, state-owned entities, and Chinese universities have highlighted their CCP affiliations, using descriptors such as “outstanding Communist Party member.”
Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 26 that the virus is directed at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), along with those who blindly follow the Party, defend it, and give their lives to it.
In January, Mr. Li said that more than 400 million people in China had died of COVID-19 and that the Party has been covering up the true situation of the pandemic since it broke out more than three years ago.
At the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Mr. Li described plagues as an inevitability when moral values deteriorate.
“When humans become corrupt in their hearts, they will generate karma, fall sick, and suffer calamities,” Mr. Li wrote in an article titled “Rationality.”
“But a pandemic like the current 'CCP Virus' (Wuhan Pneumonia) has come with a purpose and with a target. It has come to eliminate the followers of the evil Party and those who go along with the evil CCP.”
Mr. Li's advice is that people “stay far away from the evil CCP and don’t align with the evil Party because what lies behind it is the red demon. Its behavior and actions are thuggish, and it stops at no evil.”
In China, almost everyone has joined a Party-affiliated organization at some point in their life. Demonstration of loyalty to the Party is a necessary condition for holding a high political office.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a discipline rooted in traditional Chinese beliefs on moral and spiritual development. Incorporating meditative exercises and a set of moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, the discipline is practiced in more than 100 countries worldwide.
The practice gained an estimated 100 million adherents in China by 1999. The communist regime, fearing this popularity, launched a violent persecution of the faith that has caused the deaths of an untold number of practitioners.
A Historical Perspective
Over the past 3 1/2 years, the world has learned to live with the virus while China’s ruling regime aggressively pursued its draconian "zero-COVID" campaign aimed at eliminating every potential case.
Eris, now a dominant variant driving up infection rates in the United States and elsewhere, so far appears no more dangerous than previous strains, according to health experts.
While officials in China have played down the public health risk and on Aug. 28 dropped COVID-19 testing requirements for inbound international travelers, some observers have taken the deaths of Chinese elites as a sign that the situation in the country might not be as rosy as authorities are seeking to project.
The death toll in China vastly exceeds that of any other country during the pandemic, noted Heng He, a U.S.-based analyst of Chinese political affairs.
Mr. Heng observed that throughout history, natural disasters have tended to surge around a time when China was experiencing a dynastic change.
“In traditional Chinese culture, there’s a prevalent belief that disasters are a reflection of the state of morality,” he told The Epoch Times.
A case in point, he said, was a bubonic plague during the last phase of the Ming Dynasty. During the 1640s, that deadly epidemic wiped out hundreds of thousands of people and contributed to the collapse of the dynasty. The plague disappeared when China entered the succeeding Qing Dynasty, its last imperial era.
What’s happening today appears to mirror this, he said.
“The CCP’s rule, from what I see, is approaching its end,” Mr. Heng said.
What goes around...
Falun Gong = Epoch Times
Yeah, didn’t see that coming did ya?
About ten days ago I posted that I wouldn’t be all that
shocked if China sees unrest and radical change over the
next five to ten years.
A lot of Chinese students come to the U. S., and I don’t
think they are as sold on the CCP as the officials over
there think.
The trade they all thought would be the answer to all their
problems, has turned out to be a pipe dream that some are
not all that happy to have been left behind by.
They had it good for a while, and now growth and promise
is hard to come by.
China is not full of bliss these days.
I think you’re accurate in many Chinese students coming here and having a change in heart of American freedom vs CCP suppression. But even the ones who come to dislike the CCP fear what the CCP can do to their family back home.
despite their special access to medical care and drugs that are denied to ordinary citizens."
I think I understand the problem now, it is all because of a lack of Remdesivir and other wonder drugs
Sounds like an upgraded Stalinist Wuhan flu.
Sounds like there is another Presidential election to steal.
More than 400 million Chinese dead in the last three years?
According to the Pope of Eff Gong?
I am skeptical
Mr. Li said that more than 400 million people in China had died of COVID-19
—
400,000,000 dead ...
I wonder if the original purpose the COVID research was being conducted was to find a virus that attacked everyone except Chinese.
Seems....unlikely.
“a lack of Remdesivir”
Load the plane ... we need to rush those boys some aid.
(it’s not the covid that kills ...it’s the cure...shhhh)
Yes, I agree. No, it’s going to have to be internal.
Did they also have a bullet hole in them?
There was an old video where the Chinese were presenting their virus research and that they would, eventually, be able to target specific DNA - e.g. non-Chinese. I distinctly remember watching it.
The problem with such initiatives is that in the process of trying to accomplish this you may inadvertently succeed in the opposite. After all, you must _experiment_ to figure out how to do this....with a high likelihood that along the way of figuring out how things work that you create something specifically dangerous to your own by mistake.
That said, I have a hard time believing 400 million are dead - so believing anything here is suspect.
I don't know. I'll file this story under: 'unlikely - sounds like a tall tale; but what goes around, comes around, if true'.
I still like the Epoch Times - a very good paper.
400 million deaths is a tough statistic to believe.
“The trade they all thought would be the answer to all their
problems, has turned out to be a pipe dream that some are
not all that happy to have been left behind by.”
Yeah, becoming a leader in world trade doesn’t really benefit the average Chinaman when the party still controls everything. It just makes the party elites get richer, while everyone else gets a cheap smartphone so they can be controlled easier.
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