By Philip Sherwell
Additional reporting Clara Ip
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES
China came to a halt for three minutes at 10am yesterday to honour the dead
KEVIN FRAYER
It should have been tomb-sweeping day in China yesterday, a time when families converge on cemeteries to honour the dead, tend their graves, burn offerings of paper money and picnic together.
Instead, the country came to a halt for three minutes at 10am as the government held a national day of mourning for the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic — however many there may be. Some saw it as yet another attempt to cover up the real figure.
President Xi Jinping, who has been cast as leading the “people’s war” to defeat the virus, took centre stage as flags flew at half-mast, air-raid sirens wailed and cars, trains and ships sounded horns in honour of the dead.
The officially sanctioned national mourning was conducted as the regime encourages hurried burials and seeks to restrict public expressions of grief amid widespread doubt about the official death toll.
READ FULL VERSION HERE
Комментарии