China’s CCP Holds Emergency Drills for Unidentified Pneumonia Outbreak
In recent months, local health authorities in China have been conducting emergency infection disease response drills.
On August 15, emergency drills for the outbreak of “pneumonia of an unknown cause” were carried out in Dingxi City in Gansu Province, a district in Yancheng City in Jiangsu Province, and Lingchuan County in Shanxi Province, as stated in an official notice.
A staff member from the Gansu provincial government’s health hotline informed the media on August 15 that national-level authorities had instructed officials in 10 provinces to conduct emergent infectious disease drills by the end of August.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) first used the term “pneumonia of unknown cause” in 2003 during the SARS outbreak and again during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in late 2019.
Since June, drills have been carried out in over a dozen provinces and regions, including Beijing, marking the first official annual infectious disease emergency drill since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Notices around China stated that these responses were based on the “Notice from the National Disease Prevention and Control Bureau on Preparing for Emergency Drills for Infectious Diseases in 2024,” which was issued in April following the “2024 National Infectious Disease Emergency Response Conference” held in Chengdu, Sichuan, on April 17.
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The sudden lifting of the three-year COVID-19 lockdown and all restrictions by the CCP in December 2022 led to a massive outbreak and numerous deaths in China. Despite international concerns and criticism from the World Health Organization, the communist regime declared COVID-19 defeated in February 2023.
COVID-19 Cases Surge
In a recent update, China’s CDC reported on August 8 that the number of COVID-19 cases spiked from 8.9 percent in early July to 18.7 percent in late July. The main prevalent strains were JN.1 series variants and XDV series variants.
Furthermore, the Health Commission of Guangdong Province reported 18,384 COVID-19 cases in July, a significant increase from the 8,246 cases in June.
Since late 2019, when COVID-19 first emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, there have been suspicions that the CCP has been downplaying and hiding the true extent of COVID-19 infections and deaths due to lack of transparency.
Dr. Jonathan Liu, a professor at the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Canada and director of Kangmei Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, mentioned that the recent drills across China indicate preparation for another potential COVID-19 outbreak.
He believes that if there is a resurgence of infections, it will likely be labeled as “pneumonia of unknown cause” since the CCP has already declared victory over COVID-19.
Other experts like Tang Jingyuan, a China affairs observer and medical doctor based in the U.S., emphasized that COVID-19 is still a prevalent issue in China, with fluctuating severity over time.
Sean Lin, a microbiologist and assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College, suggested that these drills serve as a political signal to exert more control over society under the pretext of health, especially in the current economic and unemployment challenges.
Luo Ya contributed to this report.
