Reports of sudden deaths are rising across China—and many of them involve young people. From collapsing in public, to crowded hospitals, to funeral home lists showing unusually young ages, a pattern is beginning to emerge. But with limited transparency and restricted data, the full picture remains unclear. This episode pieces together the fragments—viral videos, eyewitness accounts, and on-the-ground reports—to examine what may really be happening, and why so many questions still have no answers.
In recent years, the number of deaths appears to have risen significantly, and notably,
some reports suggest that this increase is not limited to the elderly or to China's aging society.
There have been growing discussions among the public pointing to a rise in death among
young individuals. Reports of sudden death among young people appear to be increasing.
Now, just a few days ago, news of, actually, someone asked me during my live stream,
I believe a week ago, about the death of someone named Mao Xinyu. It briefly trended online,
and many people initially believe it referred to Mao Zedong's grandson, the Major General Mao
Xinyu. However, the Chinese state media later clarified that it was a police chief in a county,
Zhuxi County in Hubei Province, who shared the same name as the grandson of Mao.
So, the picture on the right that you're looking at is actually taken from the surveillance footage
showing him, well, he actually sat at his desk, putting down his mouth, standing up to get a cup
of water, then suddenly bracing himself against the desk as his body began to shake violently,
and then he collapsed onto the ground and lost consciousness. So, he was only 45 years old and
he died. And then on April 21st, an 11-minute video circulated online, showing more than 40
individuals collapsing in various public settings in China. But many appeared to lose consciousness
suddenly, and the scenes were described as alarming. And there are many young and middle-aged
people, and some appear to be students. And for the cause, there is an ongoing public debate as
to what has caused this wave of sudden death among young people. Some attribute it to overwork
and extreme stress. Others point to concerns about food safety. There are also voices linking it to
COVID-19 or potential vaccine-related effects. At the same time, residents from different parts
of China have told overseas Chinese-language media that hospitals recently have seen overcrowded
patients, and there is a sudden increase of respiratory diseases. And there are a lot of
severe cases and a lot of sudden death, though such claims are difficult to verify independently.
Now, starting in 2026, reports of sudden death have appeared more frequently on social media.
What we have seen are fragments. For example, images have circulated online showing electronic
display screens inside county-level funeral homes, and these screens list the names and
gender and ages of the deceased. I'm going to share some of them with you.
So take a look at this. This was released on March 22nd. A user with an IP address in Sichuan
posted that a friend had started working at a funeral home in a small county, and according
to that friend, the electronic display inside the facility, which is used to show information
about the deceased, contained numbers that were, in their words, deeply unsettling. You can see the
ages highlighted in red. So one image, dated March 18th, I believe it's the one on the right,
shows that within just one hour, seven deceased individuals were processed. The oldest was 90
years old. The youngest, just 17. The others were 39, 40, 60, 80, and 55. And another list, dated
February 24th, I believe it's on the left. This one is striking. Everyone listed was under 45.
The youngest, 15. Others included 18, 25, 28, 30. And in another example, there are three older
individuals. Yeah, this one showed three older individuals. 99, 68, and 80. But the rest are in
their 30s and 40s. There's a list dated, this one is dated April 15th of this year. It shows every
deceased individual was under the age of 33. And that's alarming. Take a look at the age.
And there's another long list. This one, I don't know the date. It can be older. This list may come
from last year. And except the top two, aged 100 and 101, everyone else is under 47. And notably,
most of them appear to be men. And then I have another one. There is one 76-year-old, but the
rest are in their 20s, 40s, and 50s, including one teenager. Now, to be clear, because there's no
publicly verifiable data, and because official mortality figures have been restricted since the
COVID period, we can't independently verify these claims. But these are not isolated reports.
Similar screenshots have surfaced from different regions prior to 2026. And there's another one.
This one was January last year, January 2025. It was taken from a screen in a funeral home
in Dongguan, Guangdong. It showed a relatively high proportion of younger death. Among eight
individuals listed, only two were over the age of 60. The rest were younger, with the youngest
being just 14. You have 28 and 31. Again, all listed were male. So some observers have raised
questions. Are men more prone to sudden death, possibly due to higher stress levels? But at this
stage, such conclusions remain speculative. We don't know. But we do see a higher percentage of
young men dying. Since the COVID outbreak in 2020, pressure from respiratory infectious diseases
in mainland China has never fully subsided. After restrictions were abruptly lifted at the end of
2022, infections surged on a large scale, along with increases in severe cases and death.
Since then, new variants have continued to emerge, and there have been repeated reports
of overcrowded hospitals and overwhelmed funeral homes. So when you put all of this together,
a pattern begins to emerge. Scenes of overwhelmed hospitals and long queues at funeral homes
are no longer isolated incidents. They are becoming cyclical.
