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For the CCP, even grief is a potential threat to stability that needs to be controlled. In Wuhan, officials are pushing families to bury the dead quickly & quietly, to forget & move on. But many are fighting to preserve the memory of their loved ones. 1/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/world/asia/coronavirus-china-grief-deaths.html
Officials sent minders to follow Liu Pei'en as he picked a burial plot & collected his father's ashes. They took photos during the burial. “My father devoted his whole life to serving the country and the party...Only to be surveilled after his death," Liu told @wywapple. 2/
Two days later, Liu sneaked back into the cemetery by himself to see his father's grave. The official funeral had been 20 min long, but this time he spent an hour. “Wait for me and Mom,” he told his father. “One day we will all live together in your new home.” 3/
Liu's father, Liu Ouqing (left), had been a loyal CCP cadre since 1965. As he lay dying in a hospital from the coronavirus, he told his son to look in the bedside drawer. His son cried when he saw the notes on his finances and recipes for his granddaughter’s favorite dishes. 4/
Lately I've been thinking a lot abt this quote from an Italian official: Italy had seen China not as a practical warning, but as a “science fiction movie that had nothing to do with us.” That made so sad. The rituals & politics may be different, but life - & grief - are the same.
Link to the story, with my amazing reporting partners @wywapple @caocli @albeezh @jotted https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/world/asia/coronavirus-china-grief-deaths.html
