More On China's Sudden Population Decline

 Back on April 1, 2025, I posted a piece entitled "How Many Died Because Of Covid In China?" which collected some videos noting that China appears to have suffered a massive and abrupt decline in its population, possibly due to Covid. I note that a few days ago, the See More Rocks substack by Robin Westenra had a similar post entitled "Hundreds of Millions Dead? What Is China Hiding?" addressing the same issue, but linking to additional material including an interview with someone named Dr. Andrew Kaufman and articles from the Epoch Times. Quoting from an April 15 article by Alex Wu, Westenra relates:

    Chinese residents across the country continue to reveal on social media and to The Epoch Times that amid ongoing respiratory infections and overcrowding at local hospitals and crematoriums, China’s villages, towns, and even streets in the big cities are looking eerily empty.

    Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in China’s Wuhan, a wave of mass respiratory infections has appeared across China almost every year. Because of the regime’s record of publishing unreliable data, including its underreporting of COVID-19 infections in early 2020, analysts and the public often rely on anecdotal stories and evidence.

    Mr. Chen, a truck driver in Fujian Province in southeast China who only gave his last name for safety reasons, told The Epoch Times that in the past two years, many people he knows have died. He said he has heard from many of his acquaintances that the situation is similar all over the country.

    Early in the pandemic, the nation’s funeral homes were operating at full capacity but unable to keep up with demand. The authorities then expanded and renovated the nation’s funeral homes, and the speed of cremating corpses increased after the renovation, Chen said.

    He said that two or three years ago, there were too many bodies waiting for cremation and not enough furnaces to cremate them. “At that time, when sending off relatives, you had to queue for several days, or even half a month to a month.”

    In the last few years, Chen said, the number of deaths seen in China remains concerning. Now, many of his relatives and friends have passed away.

    He compared it with the past. “Only one friend died in ten to twenty years,” he said. “In recent years, I have seen funerals happening everyday. I often drive outside and [always] see hearses.”

    Regarding the claim by China’s ruling communist party (CCP) that China has a population of 1.4 billion, Chen said that the official data is not credible.

    Mr. Li, a villager in Zhoukou of Henan Province in north China who only gave his last name for safety reasons, told The Epoch Times that in recent days, local hospitals have all been overcrowded with patients and that many people have died from conditions like pneumonia, heart attack, and ischemic stroke.

    Most of the deceased were otherwise healthy-appearing individuals in their thirties or forties, he said.

    He said that in recent years, local villages with populations of around 500 to 600 people have reported many deaths. Some people died before they could be sent to the hospital, he said of their condition.

    “Poor people are like ants, they die and are buried quietly. Their families cannot afford the cremation. This kind of situation is too common nowadays,” he said.

It continues with other anecdotes and data. Westerna also includes other articles and videos, some dating back several years, contending that the deaths in China have been far worse than the CCP has admitted. 

    What the 4/15/2025 Epoch Times article suggests, however, is that there is some really nasty bug currently (or very recently) circulating in China.