The image shows a representation of the CCP Virus (COVID-19 virus). (Pixabay)
[People News] By 2024, Wuhan will have regained its former vibrancy, with busy streets and flowing traffic, as if the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic has completely lifted. However, for those of us who lived through it, that dark period in early 2020 has not truly faded. The lives lost in that catastrophe, particularly those students who went unreported and were deliberately concealed, continue to haunt our memories. Behind those silent deaths lies not only the rampant virus but also human indifference and cover-ups.
Darkness and Helplessness on Campus
As a master's student at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, I remained on campus when the epidemic erupted. At that time, Wuhan suddenly went into lockdown, with all transportation suspended, isolating the city from the outside world almost instantaneously. We, who were on campus, should have received the school's support and care, but instead found ourselves trapped in a dire situation with scarce medical resources. Many classmates began to experience fevers and coughs, with their conditions rapidly worsening, but due to overcrowded hospitals, the campus medical station was nearly incapacitated. There were no available beds, no medications, and patients could only self-isolate in their dorm rooms.
I still vividly remember a classmate from outside the area whose symptoms persisted for several days. Eventually, he was unable to get out of bed, yet no one dared to approach him, and even his breathing became faint. All calls for help went unanswered, and the emergency hotline was perpetually busy. After enduring several days of such agony, he never woke up again.
The Mysterious Soldiers in the Middle of the Night
On the night that the student passed away, urgent footsteps suddenly echoed across the campus. Through the dormitory window, I saw a group of mysterious figures in military uniforms entering the dorm building. They took the student's body away without any explanation. At that moment, everyone was ordered to remain in their rooms, with curtains drawn and doors tightly shut. My roommates and I secretly observed everything through the gaps in the curtains.
Even more shocking was the warning left by these uniformed personnel as they left. They knocked on the doors of several dorm rooms and told us, 'Anyone who dares to speak about what happened tonight will be immediately expelled and will never be allowed to return to school.' The fear we felt at that time was indescribable, and many people chose to remain silent out of fear. After that night, no one in the dorm dared to mention the name of that student, nor did anyone have the courage to disclose the death situation on campus.
The vanished life, the vanished truth.
In the days that followed, I noticed that more students gradually disappeared. There were no official announcements or explanations, and the corridors of the dormitory were eerily silent. We understood that those students might no longer be alive, but no one dared to discuss it openly. The school seemed to have transformed into a 'silent island,' where all fear, despair, and death were quietly concealed. The disappearance of those lives felt as if they had never existed, ruthlessly erased from history.
During the peak of the pandemic, the campus was eerily quiet, with the cafeteria closed and supply points nearly out of food. Many students were left to survive on their stockpiled instant noodles and biscuits. We tried to request assistance from the school administration, but all we received were indifferent responses and neglect. The distribution of essential supplies felt like a dark 'privilege game,' where only a select few high-ranking officials and their families could access adequate food and medicine, while we, ordinary students, were completely abandoned.
The transfer of supplies and the selfishness of the higher-ups
Meanwhile, we discovered that school leaders had secretly moved a significant amount of medical and essential supplies to their private homes. They claimed it was 'to combat the pandemic for the students,' but in reality, these supplies never reached the students; instead, they were used to secure their own safety. I personally witnessed the vehicles of school leaders entering and leaving the campus at night, quietly transporting large quantities of essential goods.
What is most infuriating is that many students' deaths have not received the recognition they deserve, and they were not even included in the official pandemic death toll. Those lives seemed to have never existed, and the school and government have never released any real data about deaths on campus to the public. The families of the deceased have still not been given a clear cause of death; they were only informed of vague 'pandemic reasons,' but no one has genuinely investigated the causes of their loved ones' deaths.
The history is concealed by the higher-ups.
As the pandemic gradually comes under control, the senior leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has started to craft a narrative of 'victory over the pandemic,' attempting to downplay that dark chapter of history as a 'great people's war.' However, behind this so-called 'victory' lies the tragic loss of countless innocent lives, the bodies quietly taken away in the night, and the students who perished due to a lack of timely medical care.
The high-level cover-up of this history is being carried out systematically. All data related to deaths during the pandemic are subject to strict scrutiny, and any facts that contradict the 'victory' narrative are quickly deleted or altered. Even when we try to remember these lost lives, all official records have become obscured. This represents a deliberate act of forgetting, and we survivors can only watch helplessly as it unfolds.
Remembering the nameless
As a firsthand witness, I cannot forget those abandoned classmates. They were once filled with dreams and hopes just like me, yet their lives quietly faded away in this disaster. I am determined to speak out for them, hoping to raise awareness of their stories and ensure that the hidden truths are not completely buried.
The history of Wuhan must not be forgotten, especially regarding those innocent victims who were neither reported nor mourned. Their lives are equally significant and deserve to be remembered. This history serves not only as a testament to the pandemic but also as a reflection of how we confront crises and the challenges of our humanity.
—— Pan Xuanhao, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Source: Independent Chinese PEN Centre △
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