From March 26 to April 17, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military newspaper published 20 obituaries. All were for CCP members, including three lieutenant generals, one academician, and eight “Corps Leader” rank generals. The release of these obituaries was seriously delayed, as 18 died during the three weeks between Dec. 28, 2022, and Jan. 18, 2023, when COVID was in full swing throughout China.
Li Zhao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a former senior engineer of the Institute of Engineering Equipment of the Ministry of General Armaments, died in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, on Jan. 24 due to illness.
Li was born in February 1940 and joined the CCP’s army in August 1959. He served as deputy chief engineer, deputy director, and director of the institute and was promoted to major general in 1994.
The list of deceased included six scientists, a military strategist, and a Marxist scholar.
Chen Qizhi, a retired military cadre and former National University of Defense Science and Technology president, died in Changsha on Jan. 15 after a long illness. Chen was a professor of Applied Mechanics before taking office as the university president. He was awarded the rank of Major General in 1988 and promoted to Lieutenant General in 1993.
Zhang Weikang, who passed away on Jan. 18 this year in Wuhan, Hubei Province, was the director of the Department of Naval Engineering of the Naval Engineering University.
Shi Pan, who died on Jan. 18 this year in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, was the deputy director and chief engineer of the Survey and Mapping Institute of the General Staff Department.
Zhang Xumao, who died in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, on Jan. 17, was a researcher at the Institute of Survey and Mapping of the General Staff Department.
Yang Wenjun, who passed away on Jan. 13 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, was formerly a professor and chief physician of the First Affiliated Hospital of the First Military Medical University.
Jia Siguang, who passed away in Beijing on Jan. 1 this year, was the director of Department Two of the Institute of Aerospace Medical Engineering of the National Defense Science and Industry Commission.
Li Yijun, a Ph.D. advisor on military strategy, had served as the deputy director and director of the Office of the Central Military Commission of the CCP. He passed away in Beijing on Jan. 13 after a long illness.
Hou Shudong, former vice president of the National Defense University and director of the Marxist Theory Department, died on Jan. 13 in Beijing after a long illness.
Zhang Weikang, Shi Pan, Zhang Xumao, Yang Wenjun, and Jia Siguang were high-ranking civilian cadres of the Chinese Communist Army.
The 20 obituaries include eight Corps Leader rank generals and one Corps Deputy Leader rank general.
In the CCP’s military system, Corps Leader positions include group army commander and political commissar, provincial military district and military-level police district commander and political commissar; and Corps Deputy Leader positions include group army deputy commander, deputy political commissar, chief of staff and director of the political department, provincial military district deputy commander, deputy political commissar, chief of staff and director of the political department.
The regime’s military newspaper stopped issuing obituaries during the CCP’s Two Sessions in early March and resumed at the end of March.
Since the COVID-19 surge in December 2022, many Chinese celebrities have died, and it is widely believed that the CCP’s official numbers of the pandemic cases and deaths are a gross understatement.
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