Silent Apocalypse: Empty Homes, Dying Streets, and the Fall of a Nation

The COVID-19 storm has returned, or rather, it never truly left China, and now it has resurged like a never-ending nightmare. Hospitals in Guangdong, Hubei, and Yunnan are overwhelmed, with beds fully occupied and corridors thick with the stench of disinfectants. A report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, revealed that the positivity rate at outpatient clinics surged from 7.5% to 16.2% in just five weeks, while the number of severe respiratory cases requiring hospitalization rose from 3.3% to 6.3%. In Hong Kong, COVID-related deaths have increased tenfold compared to two months ago, with 30 deaths recorded in just the first four weeks of the month. However, the real figures could be even more alarming. A Wuhan-based blogger named Li Jianjun shared on Douyin, People are collapsing right on the streets, in parks, even while eating dinner. Last week, a 25-year-old man in my neighborhood suddenly died without explanation. Residents in Shenzhen reported that, Rural cemeteries have run out of space, and the price of burial plots has skyrocketed to 10,000 yuan, around 1,386 USD. An office worker in Yunnan whispered, They call it type A flu or unidentified pneumonia to fool us, but everyone knows it's COVID. Dr. Lin Su, an American virologist, warned that data from the Chinese CDC lacks transparency, with no confirmed case or death figures released, turning this into a concealed public health crisis. After three years of strict lockdowns, people live in fear, avoiding public places, leaving streets eerily deserted like scenes from a ghost town. China's economy is spiraling into recession, driving people into despair, surrendering to fate, abandoning spending, the dream of owning a home, getting married, or even having a decent meal. Retail sales in Beijing have plunged by 9.9%, while the food and beverage sector dropped by 3.1%. A clothing store owner in Shanghai lamented, Customers are only buying cabbage and radishes. Even rice sales have dropped by 30%. How can people survive if they're skipping meals? The taxi industry in Zhengjia teeters on the brink of collapse. Drivers slash prices and offer free snacks, yet still have no passengers, barely scraping by. Fast food chains like Seven Snack Stores are selling juice for just 1 yuan, 14 cents, but staff admitted, We still have to throw it away because no one buys it, even at that price. The bubble tea industry, a cultural icon among youth, has also crumbled, with 10,000 stores shutting down in just two months. A report from the Hakuhodo Institute shows that 80% of Chinese consumers have cut back on spending, 59% due to reduced income, and 47% due to social factors. A 40 yuan Starbucks latte now equals a can of milk, and a 200 yuan hotpot meal could feed an entire family for a week. Young people trapped in the grueling 9.96 work schedule, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, have neither the time nor the money to spend. A driver in Chongqing sighed, I drive all day just to pay for gas. If I take a day off, my whole family goes hungry. Yiwu City, once dubbed the World Supermarket, has now turned into a ghost town. The once-bustling streets are now deserted, with For Rent signs plastering every storefront. A local resident named Chen described, the shopping mall looks like an abandoned movie set. There are more staff than customers. Even KFC only has a few lonely diners. While official data lists Yiwu's population at 1.91 million, the International Trade Center and Weekend Night Market are as quiet as 3 a.m. A shoe store owner lamented, I can't even afford to pay the rent. Customers have vanished, and orders have fallen into a black hole. The U.S.-China trade war and the global economic downturn have strangled Yiwu, drying up foreign investment. Small business owners are drowning in debt, and local banks report a sharp rise in defaulted loans. A bitter loan broker remarked, Everyone in Yiwu is crying. Those with ambition have lost everything. Live-streaming booths that once buzzed with activity are now dark and silent. Mealtime has become the saddest part of the day. At fast food stalls in the new labor district, owners scroll through Douyin, waiting for customers who never come. Under the dim streetlights at 4 a.m. in Wuhan, people live in misery, like beasts pulling carts, struggling to survive beneath overpasses. A 2 yuan bowl of porridge becomes salvation for laborers in hardhats and cloth shoes, working tirelessly for meager wages. An elderly vegetable vendor broke down in tears after losing 50 yuan, his entire fortune. I live with my dog. There's no happiness, just waiting for this life to end, he said. A 25-year-old woman with terminal cancer still sells vegetables in the cold rain, earning nothing. A 68-year-old grandmother sweeps the streets, 14 hours a day, for just 56 yuan, with only the Lunar New Year off. A 41-year-old man works construction for 120 yuan a day, only daring to eat at the cheapest stalls and never taking a break for fear of going hungry. All of them utter the same words. In my next life, I don't want to be human. Meanwhile, CCP officials are served organic food from private gardens, rigorously tested for safety. A farmer supplying China's elite revealed, We use vinegar and rice wine as natural pesticides. Their food is completely different from what ordinary people eat. A food safety crisis has left Chinese citizens fearing every meal. Cucumbers growing at unnatural speeds, oranges oozing chemicals, and meat so rotten that even dogs turn away. A man in Guangxi filmed a restaurant using toilet water for cooking, calling it clean. A study by Harbin Institute of Technology found 20 types of pesticides in the blood and urine of urban residents. Eggs rejected by Europe for antibiotic residues are still sold domestically. One angry citizen asked, Why do we have to eat things that not even Africans would touch? China's cancer rate is three times higher than India's, leading the world in new cases and deaths, while the elite remain detached from the public's grim reality. Amid the crisis, rumors about Xi Jinping's health are spreading in Beijing. After a visit to Russia, he was taken directly from Nanyuan Military Airport to the Shisanling Medical Center, bypassing the usual route home. Peng Liwan waited for hours, only to be told, There's an emergency. Please wait. Insiders revealed that Xi showed signs of mental fatigue and exhaustion on the flight. A special medical vehicle sped away with flashing lights, and the area was locked down by the military. A post about the incident vanished from the internet within seconds, sparking speculation about turmoil at the top of the CCP. Commentator Chen Pocong remarked, He may have been sidelined, or his grip on power is unraveling. Personnel shifts, such as an ally of Hu Jintao taking over the CCP's Central Organization Department, suggest the party is losing control. Activist Wang Dan has called 2025 the Year of Seven Grey Rhinos, looming threats capable of toppling the First, economic decline, stock market crashes, and cash-strapped local governments. Second, soaring youth unemployment, with only 66.8% of graduates finding work. Third, the state is running out of money to pay civil servants. Fourth, rising social unrest, with 19 random acts of violence recorded in 2024. Fifth, escalating US-China tensions, with tariffs of 125% and 145%. Sixth, growing military tensions in the Taiwan Strait as military aid increases. Seventh, cracks in the China-Russia relationship are leaving China increasingly isolated. Wang warns that one misstep could trigger a domino effect and bring down the regime. The white paper protests and growing public discontent show that people are beginning to awaken. Under CCP rule, China has become a vast prison. Writer Jun Jing described how three years of COVID lockdowns turned cities into jails, residential buildings sealed shut, residents left starving. Now, borders are tightly controlled, and mass surveillance monitors thought. A staff member at a foreign company in Shanghai was denied a passport renewal simply for having translated an environmental report a decade ago. We just want our child to study abroad. Is that a crime? She cried. A university professor lamented, I have to self-censor when teaching. This isn't protection, it's paranoia. A young programmer whispered in a cafe, it's becoming like North Korea. High-rise buildings still shine brightly, but behind the lights lies a silence born of fear and despair. And yet even in the darkness, a flicker of hope remains. The deathly silence enveloping China is the death knell of a crumbling system. The pandemic, economic collapse, and iron-fisted control have erased millions from death, exile, or withdrawal from public life. But within the shadows, sparks of hope ignite. People raise blank sheets of paper, whisper about freedom, and begin to question in their hearts. History has shown that tyranny can never forever suppress the yearning for freedom. Will you dare to speak out, tell your story, spread the truth, and help light the flame of hope? China stands at a crossroads, and change may come sooner than we think. Another zero lockdown? It is reported that Shanghai trucks were sealed, and drivers were not allowed to get off. The Chinese Communist Party officially claimed that the number of COVID-19 infections in April exceeded 160,000. Recently, it was reported online that trucks at a construction site in Pudong, Shanghai were sealed again due to epidemic prevention and control, and drivers were sealed in the car and were not allowed to get off. The news caused netizens to question whether the CCP's zero-COVID lockdown policy has made a comeback. According to the video and screenshots released by the ex-platform Wu Wang Wu Di on May 22, trucks at a construction site in Pudong, Shanghai were sealed, and the truck driver was not allowed to get off. The driver confirmed that it was due to epidemic prevention and control, and the time was May 21, 2025. The horror is coming again. The lockdown is back. According to the video, a male driver is suspected to be filming in a truck. A seal with red words on white paper and no getting off is posted on the door of the truck, and May 21, 2025 is written in black under the seal. The driver said, Shanghai Pudong. Now they are putting up seals again, not allowing people to get off the bus, not allowing drivers to get off the bus. I don't know if they are breaking the law. Screenshots show that some people speculated, Is it a dangerous area, or is it because the safety measures are not up to standard that people are not allowed to get off the bus? The video publisher replied, It's epidemic prevention and control. In response, some netizens said, Suffer twice. Suffer twice. If you don't wake up and save yourself this time, you're done. If you still accept it this time, then the Chinese deserve to be slaves. The CCP is in a dangerous situation, and it really comes to mess with the epidemic lockdown again. It's too much. Some netizens commented, Although the CCP has long declared victory in the fight against the epidemic, similar extreme control has appeared again, triggering panic of zero clearance and restoration. Is China repeating the mistakes of the epidemic lockdown? Is it voluntary again? Look at this driver, he really doesn't dare to get off the bus. It's hell on earth. The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission announced the epidemic situation of statutory infectious diseases in April on May 22, showing that Shanghai reported a total of 20,691 cases of Class A, B, and C infectious diseases under statutory management and 16 deaths. Among them, 14 types of Class B infectious diseases were reported, with 15,871 cases and 16 deaths. The top five diseases in terms of incidence are COVID-19 infection, syphilis, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and scarlet fever. On May 8, the data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the positive rate of COVID-19 testing in outpatient and emergency flu-like cases in sentinel hospitals across the country from the end of April to the beginning of May in the 18th week increased to 16.2 percent, more than double the proportion of 7.5 percent in early April. Among hospitalized severe acute respiratory infection cases, the positive rate of COVID-19 also increased from 3.3 percent to 6.3 percent in early May. Moreover, COVID-19 has ranked first in outpatient flu cases for three consecutive weeks. These figures are merely official numbers released by the government. In reality, according to reports from analysts and Chinese netizens, the number of deaths is very high across many different age groups. The surge is not only due to the epidemic, but also to strokes, cancer, lung diseases, and more. The overall death toll has skyrocketed. On May 24, Zhang Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Guangzhou Science and Technology Week through a cloud connection that the current COVID-19 epidemic is still at its peak. Li Dongzhen, chief physician of the Department of Infection, Beijing Yuan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, also told China Business News recently that this wave of the epidemic is expected to peak in late May. In April, China reported nearly 170,000 new cases of COVID-19 infection. On May 23, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention released the National COVID-19 Infection Case Report, showing that in April, 168,507 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported nationwide, including 340 severe cases and 9 deaths, and the epidemic showed a fluctuating upward trend. The report also showed that a total of 8,588 local cases of COVID-19 genome sequences were reported nationwide in April, all of which were Omicron variants. The main epidemic strains are X-DV series variants, mainly the sixth generation sub-branch NB.181. Is an epidemic coming? Zhang Nanshan talks about a case of On Saturday, May 24 local time, Zhang Nanshan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Guangzhou National Laboratory, delivered a speech via the internet at the opening ceremony of the Guangzhou Science and Technology Activity Week. His remarks sparked an uproar. Zhang Nanshan stated that, the recent wave of the COVID-19 epidemic is still at its peak, and that from early March to early May, testing data from Singapore, France, Brazil and other regions show a rising trend in COVID-19 infections. In addition, he mentioned that actress Big S, Xu Shiwan, had passed away due to influenza in February this year. As a so-called leading respiratory and public health expert during the last wave of the CCP virus outbreak, Zhang Nanshan's decision to raise the topic again, and to reference Xu Shiwan's passing, has inevitably raised concerns. Has a new wave of the epidemic already begun to spread widely? Our reporter learned through interviews with mainland Chinese residents, that the number of infections has surged recently, while the CCP continues to remain vague and silent on terms like COVID-19 and mortality rate.