Recently, the Chinese Communist authorities have suddenly issued news of the escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak. At the same time, the frequent “unexplained pneumonia prevention and control drills” held across China this year have attracted attention, triggering memories of the fear associated with the “big white.” Experts believe that the official drills are actually aimed at COVID-19, with “unexplained pneumonia” just being a changed name. However, some analyses suggest that it cannot be ruled out that the authorities are aware of other new viruses.
In various parts of China, emergency drills named “clusters of unexplained pneumonia outbreaks” have been successively conducted, with overseas media referring to it as the “first time after the three-year (2020 to 2022) epidemic.”
However, according to a report by China’s First Financial News, scrutiny of information from various regions shows that such drills have been ongoing since February this year, with even more taking place after June, covering multiple provinces and cities including Hunan, Jiangsu, Hainan, Jilin, Liaoning, Shanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Beijing, and Gansu. The official response to the media was that this is “normal drills” and “not caused by any special reasons.”
A search by reporters at Dajiyuan found that on April 17, authorities in Chengdu, Sichuan, held the 2024 National Emergency Response to Infectious Diseases Work Conference, where it was mentioned to “continuously enhance emergency drills for infectious disease outbreaks.”
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in 2019, the Chinese Communist Party has been strictly imposing control measures, setting up makeshift hospitals, conducting nucleic acid testing, and deploying a large number of epidemic prevention personnel under the name of “big white.” Initially, the CCP allowed the virus to spread overseas, then boasted of the effectiveness of its prevention and control measures. However, their epidemic containment efforts under the name of dynamic eradication ultimately failed. By the end of 2022, the outbreak was still spreading, and the sudden lifting of control measures by the authorities caused overcrowding in hospitals across the country and led to a significant number of deaths. The true death toll has been consistently concealed.
In the emergency drills for epidemic prevention and control in 2023, the Chinese authorities focused on “sudden acute infectious diseases,” but this year’s large-scale drills are focused on “unexplained pneumonia,” causing concern among netizens.
Some mainland Chinese netizens questioned: “What signal are they trying to send?” “What are they up to?” Other netizens criticized the authorities for wasting money, saying, “Spending 400,000 yuan on this?”; “No one is taking the vaccine, no need for nucleic acid tests, but they will find ways to make money.” “Are they trying to profit at the cost of lives again?” “Claiming to have no money but busy making profit from creating troubles.” “After relaxing restrictions, now getting ready to cause trouble again.”
Based on frontline interviews conducted by Dajiyuan reporters and disclosures from netizens on Weibo, it is evident that the COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread on the mainland, with frequent incidents of sudden deaths. However, mainstream Chinese media have barely reported on these developments.
However, recently, official sources have begun releasing data indicating an increase in the severity of the epidemic. Monitoring data released by Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, shows a significant increase in COVID-19 infections since July: the number of reported cases in the 30th week (July 22 to July 28) increased by 89.19% compared to the 29th week (July 15 to July 21).
Data released by the authorities in Guangdong Province shows that the number of confirmed cases in June was 8,246, which increased by over 10,000 cases in July.
On August 15, the “more noticeable symptoms of COVID-19 infection in young people in Guangdong” became a hot topic on Weibo. A Guangdong official media reporter visited the Guangzhou New City Hospital. The interviewed expert stated: “From July to August this year, there has been an upward trend in COVID-19 infections, with a significant increase.” The expert further mentioned that the symptoms vary among different age groups, with young people experiencing pain and fever, while symptoms are less obvious in elderly people with underlying health conditions.
The Chinese authorities stated that the current circulating variants nationwide are mainly the JN.1 lineage and the XDV.1 variant, and compared to the JN.1 variant, the XDV and KP lineage variant strains have not shown significant changes in transmissibility, pathogenicity, or immune evasion capabilities.
Dr. Jonathan Liu, a professor at the Canadian Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and director of the Kangmei Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, told Dajiyuan that with the sudden surge of over 10,000 cases in Guangdong, it signifies another peak in China’s COVID-19 epidemic. This may be the main reason for the unexplained pneumonia drills conducted in various regions in recent months. However, the authorities avoid using the term “COVID-19.”
“(The CCP says) COVID-19 is over, we have achieved great victory. If there is another infectious disease, it will be called unexplained pneumonia or another name, and it won’t be our responsibility. For a new virus, we will find new ways to deal with it. In reality, it is still COVID-19,” Dr. Liu explained.
Many Beijing residents recently revealed on social media that hospitals no longer conduct tests for COVID-19, and even if tested positive, they are not provided with medications for COVID-19. Doctors only mention viral infections, never mentioning COVID-19, and repeatedly ask about symptoms of a cold in other family members. It is clear that many hospitals in Beijing avoid mentioning the term “COVID-19.”
Dr. Yanzhong Huang, senior research fellow on global health issues at the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States, told Radio Free Asia that the COVID-19 virus is still prevalent in different countries such as Japan, Europe, and the United States. “China also has cases, but I haven’t seen any patterns indicating any fundamental changes or significant differences from those overseas,” he added.
Regarding the clusters of unexplained pneumonia emergency drills conducted across China, Dr. Jingyuan Tang, a China expert with a background in Western medicine, stated that these exercises indicate that COVID-19 has never disappeared in China; it has only fluctuated in severity at different times.
Xiaoxu Lin, a former virologist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the United States, told Radio Free Asia that given the extremely dire economic and unemployment situation, this could be a special political signal, suggesting that the authorities are attempting to exert more control over society under the guise of health concerns.
Many overseas netizens find it baffling why the Chinese authorities are conducting such large-scale emergency drills. On X, discussions surfaced:
“It’s 2024, unnecessary to do that.” “Those in power have tasted the benefits of the epidemic and are addicted.” “They are preparing for chaos when they feel unstable.” “Is the replay of the historical drama about to begin? This way, they can establish a wartime system, right? But if they do it again, the CCP will collapse itself.” “The government is practicing how to deal with pneumonia, while we are practicing how to deal with the government’s responses.”
In reality, in the CCP’s epidemic prevention rhetoric, the term “unexplained pneumonia” was already used during the 2003 SARS outbreak and in the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019. At the end of 2019, an internal notice from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission circulated online, referring to “unexplained pneumonia” cases in Wuhan. On January 1, 2020, Wuhan Public Security Bureau reported cracking down on eight netizens for spreading so-called “false information about the epidemic.”
Numerous public reports have revealed that the Chinese authorities were aware of the Wuhan novel coronavirus early on. In September 2019, ahead of the “World Military Games” in Wuhan, an emergency drill was conducted at the Wuhan Tianhe Airport, simulating the entire process of handling a confirmed case of novel coronavirus infection at the airport port of entry.
After enduring three years of the epidemic, people are still filled with fear, yet new dangers seem to be lurking. In July last year, Shi Zhengli, the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, suspected by the outside world as the source of the virus, suddenly warned in a paper that it is “highly likely” that an outbreak caused by a coronavirus could occur again.
Former Deputy Director of the Taiwanese Department of Health, Longteng Li, told Dajiyuan at the time: “She (Shi Zhengli) knows for herself and of course can predict that it will definitely happen again.”