Translator of Mao’s Writings Among Peking University Academics Who Have Died of ‘Illness’ During COVID Surge

A woman sits on her scooter in front of the Wanliu campus of Peking University in Beijing on May 16, 2022. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

As COVID-19 sweeps through China, more than a dozen of professors at Peking University are reported to have died of “illnesses.”

Fan Hefang, an associate professor at the Institute of Foreign Languages at Peking University, is among those who passed away. According to an obituary released by the academic institution on Dec. 21, Fan died in Beijing two days before at the age of 93 after his illness failed to respond to medical treatment.