Chinese Ambassador: "Wuhan Death Toll Statistics Are Accurate... The Large Number of Urns Has Different Reasons"

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] A Chinese diplomat has refuted claims that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 infection in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, is much higher than the government’s announced figures.

According to the Global Times on the 2nd, Lu Xie, the Chinese ambassador to France, stated in an interview with French BFM TV that the long lines formed by bereaved families in front of funeral homes in the Wuhan area to collect urns have causes other than COVID-19.

Ambassador Lu said, "About 10,000 people died in Wuhan over the past two months, but for other reasons," and added, "It is correct that just over 2,000 people died from COVID-19."

He explained, "In 2019, the total number of deaths in Wuhan was 51,200, with an average of over 4,000 deaths per month, and more deaths occurred in winter," and continued, "Wuhan was locked down from January 23 due to COVID-19, so for the past two months, bereaved families could not collect urns. Since March 23, regulations were eased to allow families to collect urns, which caused them to gather all at once, forming long lines in front of funeral homes."

Ambassador Lu’s claims came amid Western media expressing distrust in the COVID-19 confirmed cases and death statistics announced by the Chinese government, raising suspicions that the actual number of deaths in the Wuhan area might be much higher than reported. Videos and photos showing long lines of bereaved families waiting to receive urns at funeral homes in Wuhan have been spreading on the internet.

There have also been revelations that many people died without symptoms or were unable to receive proper COVID-19 testing due to a shortage of hospital beds. Additionally, a funeral urn transport truck driver told a media outlet in an interview that he transported as many as 5,000 urns over two days, on the 25th and 26th of last month. According to the Chinese government’s announcement, since the first infection occurred at the end of last year, 2,535 people have died from COVID-19 in Wuhan.

Ambassador Lu questioned the possibility that the leaked photos related to urns in the Wuhan area were not subject to government censorship, asking, "If they had been censored, where could such photos and videos have been obtained?"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.