Xi leads China in national mourning
Print Edition
CHINA paused in silence on Saturday to mourn the lives lost to the coronavirus outbreak.
President Xi Jinping led the national mourning, which paid tribute to martyrs who sacrificed their lives fighting the outbreak and fellow Chinese who died.
The nation, with its 1.4 billion people, came to a halt for a full three minutes, from 10am to 10:03am.
Xi led other Party and state leaders to attend the national mourning.
Inside the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in central Beijing, they stood in silence, had white flowers pinned to the chest, and paid a silent tribute in front of a national flag, flying at half-mast outside the Huairen Hall.
A black banner hung over the doorway of the hall, with white characters “deeply mourn for martyrs and compatriots who died in COVID-19 outbreak.”
In Beijing, flags were lowered to half-staff from Tian’anmen Square to the compounds of the central leadership organs of the Party, the national legislature, central government, national political advisory body, military, court and top procuratorate.
Across the nation, air raid sirens blared. Cars, trains and ships honked horns. Public recreational activities were suspended for the day. Across the world, flags also flew half-mast at Chinese embassies and consulates.
The National Health Commission yesterday said 81,669 confirmed cases had been reported on the Chinese mainland, with 3,329 deaths.
Global coronavirus cases, meanwhile, have topped 1 million, with more than 60,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
The COVID-19 outbreak is considered a major public health emergency that is the fastest spreading, most widely affecting and most difficult to contain since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
A certain number of health professionals, cadres and staff members, as well as community workers, died on duty fighting the outbreak.
On Saturday, these heroes received the highest form of commemoration by the state.
In Wuhan, the hardest-hit city in central China’s Hubei Province, a commemoration was held at a large outdoor public square.
People bowed in the square on the bank of the Yangtze River, with the siren sounding in the sky. Police stood by their vehicles at a nearby bridge and took off their caps.
Pedestrians, sanitation and factory workers, and even children stopped what they were doing and stood in silence for the moment.
“Today, I’m bidding in my heart a final farewell to the deceased,” said community worker Deng Linghao. “We, who are alive, must stay strong.”
Subway trains in big cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, briefly suspended operations. Passengers stood up in subway cars. Station staff observed a moment of silence on the train platforms.
Commemorations were also held in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, as well as in overseas Chinese communities.
By Saturday, a total of 862 confirmed cases, including four deaths, had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 44 confirmed cases in the Macau Special Administrative Region, and 355 in Taiwan, including five deaths.
“The compatriots on the mainland have made a huge sacrifice to defeat the epidemic, which also showed how great we Chinese people are,” said Huang Zhi-xian, a Taiwan-based journalist.
Black was the color of the day. Many people, including national leaders, dressed in black. Newspapers, websites, news app interfaces, social media images were turned black-and-white.
Hunan Satellite TV, a leading Chinese channel known for entertainment content, took all dramas, entertainment and variety programs off-air for Saturday.
Tomb-sweeping online
Saturday was also China’s Tomb-sweeping Day, known as the Qingming Festival, an important occasion for the Chinese to visit cemeteries, sweeping tombs and mourning their ancestors.
This year, tomb sweeping was done virtually on the Internet and mourning for coronavirus victims was a main theme.
Nearly 13.4 million people in China used online platforms to mourn the deceased, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
Many people mourned the coronavirus martyrs and victims online, posting images of candles and chrysanthemums against black backgrounds.
The topic “National Mourning” was trending on Sina Weibo, attracting over 2 billion reads by Saturday afternoon.
“Farewell to heroes, and may those who died rest in peace,” said a widely shared message on social media.
To pay tribute to their loved ones, people set up commemorative space and wrote messages online instead of visiting tombs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 7,729 funeral facilities was also opened for on-site mourning on Saturday, receiving about 5.7 million visitors.
Over 8,500 charitable mourning ceremonies were held on behalf of groups who were not present and 220,000 ceremonies held for individuals in the same situation, the ministry said.
People can watch the ceremonies live online or via mobile phones.
This also led to dropping traffic flow on Saturday, the first day of a three-day Tomb-sweeping Day holiday.
As of 4pm, the volume of traffic for the past 24 hours dropped by 16 percent year on year based on statistics from 200 monitoring sites across the country, said the traffic management bureau under the Ministry of Public Security.
According to the NHC, though more than 76,964 patients — or 94 percent of all confirmed cases — have been discharged, there were still 1,376 patients being treated in China.
“We still have a few patients. We can’t relax,” said Zhang Jianchu, a respiratory disease doctor in Wuhan. “We will wipe our tears and fight to secure the ultimate victory of this battle.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
