On April 22, the news of the death of 38-year-old mainland Chinese “internet sensation foreign daughter-in-law Yang Qina” hit the top of the trending searches. In the early hours of April 20, Yang Qina’s parents flew from Argentina to China, crossing half the globe, to attend the funeral in Fujian. Upon the arrival of her in-laws at the airport, emotions overwhelmed Yang Cong, the husband, who knelt down and cried, apologizing to his parents-in-law.
Yang Qina had a TikTok account named “Argentina Qina” with 660,000 followers, and she even posted a video on April 1. At that time, she was seen working in the fields with her mother-in-law and husband, displaying good health with no signs of illness. She gained popularity among her fans as an internet sensation due to her foreign daughter-in-law identity, fluent Chinese, and her skills in cooking, farming, and housekeeping.
However, on April 2, the news of Yang Qina’s sudden death broke out. Her husband, Yang Cong, announced in an obituary that his wife passed away at the age of 38 due to a sudden hypoglycemia attack. Reports stated that Yang Qina was found collapsed in the living room, but the delay in discovering her hindered timely medical treatment, leaving many fans grief-stricken, pouring in tributes on her TikTok account.
On April 20, a video shared by Yang Cong showed him emotionally breaking down at the airport, kneeling and apologizing tearfully to his in-laws. He expressed his heartbreak, saying, “My parents-in-law have come, and when I saw them, I felt really sorry for them and for Qina.”
In the footage, Yang Qina’s mother was seen crying covering her face while seated in a wheelchair, displaying immense sorrow. Yang Cong was seen hugging his mother-in-law in tears, with his father-in-law comforting him, depicting a scene of deep grief.
According to mainland media reports, Yang Qina, originally named Viviana Cardozo, from Argentina, met and fell in love with Yang Cong, a student from Longyan County, Changting County, Fujian Province, China, in 2004. It was a love at first sight that led to this cross-national union.
The report mentioned that at that time, Yang Qina couldn’t speak Chinese, and her parents opposed her relationship with a foreign boy. Despite this, they stayed together. They had their first child in Argentina and moved to China in 2006. Yang Qina later gave birth to three more children for her husband, including one son and two daughters. In 2016, CCTV arranged a Hakka-style wedding for Yang Qina, boosting her popularity as a foreign daughter-in-law in China.
However, on social media, the frequency of sudden death cases reported by the mainland Chinese public appears to be much more severe than official reports. Reports of sudden deaths were frequently coming from Hebei, Henan, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Yunnan, and other regions. Locals revealed to media outlets that due to the increasing number of deaths, some hospitals in certain areas were overflowing, with long queues at crematoriums. Additionally, cemeteries and crematoriums were undergoing expansion.
As per mainland Chinese social media users, the sudden rise in unexpected deaths among friends and family in recent times has been alarming, with many cases involving people in their 50s, 40s, and even 20s. The rising costs of funerals have led to anxiety and grief among the grassroots society.
Despite lingering doubts among the public regarding the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is making efforts to conceal this issue. Firstly, it is concealing the number of deaths caused by the pandemic over the past three years, and secondly, it is forbidding any mention or explanation related to COVID-19 for those who died due to infection post the lifting of restrictions.