Crematoriums Have Been Overwhelmed; After Data Leaks, China Stopped Releasing COVID Statistics

China stopped providing daily COVID statistics after a leaked memo revealed hundreds of millions of cases. Overloading caused three crematoriums in Zhejiang to fail. People exclaimed, hell on earth! Are you blind? A female medical staff member asked Chinese experts. Chinese people flocked to Macau and Hong Kong to get foreign vaccines. Despite the COVID crisis, China sends a record number of fighter jets to Taiwan. TikTok has admitted to snooping on journalists. It's all covered in today's China Truths. After data leaks, China stopped releasing daily COVID data. China's National Health Commission said on December 25th that it will no longer provide daily COVID-19 case or death numbers. This happened after leaked data revealed that hundreds of millions of people were suspected of being infected in December for unknown reasons. China has also narrowed its definition for reporting COVID-19 deaths, counting only those who died as a result of COVID-caused pneumonia or respiratory failure, which has surprised health experts. Furthermore, China has been accused of regularly concealing the actual number of infections and deaths. These actions raise concerns about how the country's actual epidemic situation has gotten out of control. On its last day of providing statistics, the NHC figures contrast greatly with those from local sources. The typical case occurs in Zhejiang, a province with a population of 65 million people. The local health commission in Zhejiang said on Sunday that there have been more than one million infections in the area recently and that the daily total could exceed two million in the days leading up to New Year's Eve. However, on Sunday, the NHC only reported 30 new confirmed cases for Zhejiang each day while excluding the reporting of asymptomatic infections. Some mainland netizens mocked the CCP's decision to discontinue providing COVID data. If there is an announcement, no one will believe it. They feel ashamed of themselves for deceiving people with fake data, therefore they no longer release it. Finally, NHC stopped spreading rumors. Overloading caused three crematoriums in Zhejiang to fail. The CCP's sudden lifting of the lockdown without any preparation has caused an unprecedented wave of infections across the mainland. Crematoriums in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities have been overwhelmed by the number of mass fatalities. On December 21st, a mainland netizen posted on Twitter, attaching an announcement from a funeral home in Zhejiang on December 13th stating that three crematoriums had been damaged due to the recent continuous operation. As a result, they will cease cremations in Zhejiang city on December 14th and will not inform the public until the equipment is repaired and operable again. Many people responded to this post. One of them said, That's just the tip of the iceberg. China has 1,301 counties, 394 county-level cities, 293 provincial-level cities, and 4 centrally-run cities. Let's do the math. Hell on earth, we also heard that a lot of people died. According to NTDTV, in footage taken at a funeral home in Wuji, Zhejiang, on December 14th, the funeral home was overloaded, with people queuing for cremation for hours, even all day. According to the video recorder, it's not his turn until 8pm. According to a video posted on Twitter showing a conversation between doctors, the epidemic in Beijing has entered hellish phase. The number of new deaths has increased dramatically. There is a month-long wait for cremation, and the cost has risen to 30,000 yuan, about 4,309 US dollars. A female member of the medical staff slammed the Chinese experts, asking angrily, Are you blind? Recently, two videos circulated on the internet showing a female medical staff member in China angrily criticizing Chinese experts for making many suggestions without considering the people. After the CCP loosened its zero-Covid policy, the narrative about the virus changed accordingly. Medical experts have all agreed that Omicron is no longer dangerous, so the infection isn't as bad as it used to be because 99% of infected people recover completely within 7-10 days. It also emphasized that mainland Chinese must adapt to the current situation. Chinese people flock to Macau and Hong Kong to get foreign vaccines. According to the Epoch Times Chinese edition, the massive rise of Covid-19 cases in mainland China, along with Beijing's refusal to approve any foreign Covid-19 vaccines, has driven Chinese people to fly abroad in search of more effective Western vaccines. Macau and Hong Kong are quickly becoming their top choices. According to the Financial Times, people from the mainland quickly filled vaccination quotas in Macau on December 26. A customer service representative at the Macau hospital said his phone had been ringing non-stop since the epidemic began in China in early December. As we all know, Beijing has only approved Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, rejecting any foreign Covid-19 vaccines. According to analysts, these domestic vaccines produce lower levels of immunity than Western alternatives that use mRNA technology. According to Lancet Research published this month, people who received three doses of the Sinovac or Sinopharm shots, which are based on older technology that utilizes inactivated virus to elicit an immune response, were nearly twice as likely to develop severe Covid as those who received three mRNA shots. Those who received the Chinese shots were also 50% more likely to be hospitalized. At the same time, the lack of transparency in China's vaccination trial data is also raising concerns. According to the Epoch Times, Beijing has pledged additional resources to fill vaccination coverage gaps. However, Yin Zhonghuang, a senior fellow in global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes that those efforts may be too late. He said, according to previous experience, it will take about four or five months to complete a round of vaccination. This epidemic wave will probably be over by then. Despite the Covid crisis, China sends a record number of fighter jets to Taiwan. The slumping economy or the Covid tsunami engulfing China do not appear to be deterring CCP President Xi Jinping's desire to invade Taiwan. After a short period of silence, Taiwan's defense ministry announced on December 26 that China's military had sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force directed at the island, marking the biggest incursion yet as Beijing protested against collusion and provocation by the self-ruled island and the United States. According to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense, 47 Chinese jets crossed the Taiwan Strait median between 6 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday. Taiwan said it tracked Chinese movements using land-based missile systems as well as naval ships. In response to U.S. government support of Taiwan, China's military has frequently used large military drills as a show of force. TikTok has admitted to snooping on journalists. According to an internal email obtained by Forbes, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is using its popular app to spy on U.S. and U.K. journalists. Christina Criddle, a Financial Times reporter, and three Forbes reporters who previously worked at BuzzFeed, Emily Baker-White, Catherine Schwab, and Richard Nevum, are among them. Reporters Baker-White and Criddle have written a series of articles criticizing TikTok's activities. In response to the reports, ByteDance started an internal investigation into any leaks by staff. Four members of ByteDance's audit team tracked the Forbes reporters' TikTok accounts to see if they were close to any ByteDance employees. However, there were no leaks discovered. According to Forbes and the Financial Times, all four staff members have been fired. Mr. Chris Lepetak, the head of internal audit at ByteDance, has also been fired. Mr. Song Yi, the company's Beijing-based CEO, has also resigned. Forbes' chief content officer, Randall Lane, said, This is a direct assault on the idea of a free press and its critical role in a functioning democracy. TikTok became the most visited website in the world in 2021, but the app's ownership by Chinese tech giant ByteDance has raised serious concerns about the company's access to millions of U.S. residents' personal information, as well as its capability to manipulate and influence user content. In June 2022, BuzzFeed reporter Baker-White wrote an article titled, Leaked audio from 80 internal TikTok meetings shows that U.S. user data has been repeatedly accessed from China. After this report, Mr. Brendan Carr, an FCC commissioner who has called on Apple and Google to ban TikTok, said, At the precise moment when TikTok is trying to convince U.S. officials that it can be trusted, when it has every incentive to ensure the security of user data, its Beijing-based parent company abused its systems to obtain data on reporters that are covering TikTok. This should be the final nail in the coffin for the idea that U.S. officials can trust TikTok. 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