Beijing City Is Underreporting the Number of CCP Virus Cases: Chinese Official

A worker wearing a face mask looks out from an entrance of a hospital toward the Wuhan centre for disease control and prevention in Wuhan, China's central Hubei province, China, on Feb. 1, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinese authorities on Feb. 2 only announced new CCP virus infections in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.

But an official in Beijing told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak in the capital was out of control and that authorities were covering up new COVID-19 diagnoses there.

In Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, residents said the regime underreported the outbreak and they were worried about the situation due to the authorities’ lack of transparency.

Meanwhile, Chinese cities began allowing people to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday, following a new policy issued by China’s State Council. But citizens complained that it is still difficult to travel due to the different requirements enacted by local governments.

Underreporting

Wang is an official working in the Beijing government. She revealed that the real outbreak is worse than what the official announcements have described. “Xihongmen [township in Daxing] has an outbreak which started on Jan. 23. [As a result,] we have locked down the Xingguang community since day one.”

Wang said that though the city government said on Feb. 1 that there was only one area, the Ronghui community, designated as a high-risk region for virus spread, and no medium-risk regions, there were in fact another five communities in Daxing district that were being treated as medium-risk regions.

In Harbin city of northeastern China, resident Wang Fang (pseudonym) said that the Rongyao Tiandi residential compound where she lives was fully locked down on the morning of Feb. 2, after a resident was diagnosed with COVID-19 on the day prior.

“We have about 1,700 families in our compound. They moved all residents from the first floor to the 30th floor of one building [to a quarantine center], and sealed off all the others, including my family,” Wang Fang said.

The Harbin government didn’t announce any virus cases from Rongyao Tiandi.

Harbin netizens posted scores of online videos in recent days, which showed newly sealed-off residential compounds in areas where authorities have not yet announced any infections.

Travel Ban

The Lunar New Year falls on Feb. 12, and is the most important festival in China. Schools have two to four weeks winter break around Lunar New Year, while companies and governments are issuing a seven-day public holiday from Feb. 11 to Feb. 17. People normally travel to reunite with their families.

But amid a resurgence in virus cases, the CCP Central Committee’s General Office had issued a policy mandating citizens to stay in the areas where they live and not travel for the Lunar New Year.

Then, on Jan. 31, China’s State Council did an about-face and encouraged people to travel for the Lunar New Year. Local governments were told to lift their travel bans. China analysts commented that the central government likely wanted to increase consumption and stimulate the economy.

In the past two days, Chinese people told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that their local governments allowed them to travel under certain conditions, but it was very difficult to get permission.

“Shijiazhuang [in northern China’s Hebei Province] government asked us to present three certifications before leaving the city,” Li Tong (pseudonym) said on Feb. 2. “But we couldn’t get them all.”

Shijiazhuang authorities announced on Jan. 30 that residents could leave the city with three certifications: a negative nucleic acid test result that was taken within seven days; a permission slip issued by the local community office; and a permission slip issued by the government authorities in one’s destination.

Li is a postgraduate student at a university in Shijiazhuang. Her hometown is Wu’an in Hebei, a city that is located about 120 miles away from Shijiazhuang. She eagerly wants to return to her hometown.

“I always spend the New Year with my parents,” Li said. “I’m alone and feel lonely in Shijiazhuang.”

Li said the community office would not issue certification if she did not have a permission slip from the destination government. But the Wu'an government said it couldn’t issue any certification because Hebei Province does not have such a policy.

Wang, the Beijing official, said that the city government allows people to leave, if they have a negative nucleic acid test result that was taken within three days and a leaving permit issued by the local community office.

Wang said, “Who dares to issue the leaving permit? The permit means the official can guarantee the resident won’t get infected during the trip...Who can guarantee a person won’t be infected? If this person is later diagnosed, you will lose your position.”