Lu Haitao

In observance of the local government's pandemic health measures, the diocese of Shanghai cancelled all pilgrimages in May. Msgr. Taddeo Ma Daqin remains under house arrest in the seminary. In Sheshan, the “Valley of Happiness” park and the Golf club are always open. Churches still subject to stringent anti-Covid measures, but for Qingming, tourist spots in China have welcomed tens of thousands of visitors without problems.

The National People's Assembly and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference will face challenges related to coexistence with the virus, the economy, unemployment, domestic and foreign criticism. The "two sessions" open on May 21 and 22, almost two months late. China declares it has defeated the virus, but Jilin is in quarantine and the population of Wuhan is being tested. Xi's power deprived of "legitimacy".

Thousands clash with the police who repel people from Hubei over suspicions, they are still infected with the coronavirus. Authorities have lifted Hubei from isolation, but checkpoints and controls are still operative in many places. Mistrust in official propaganda, which proclaims that the epidemic has been eradicated.

During the epidemic, the dead were cremated immediately, without ceremonies and without specifying the cause of death. Now family members are waiting to bury the urns containing the ashes of their loved ones. About 45,000 urnes will be distributed in Wuhan alone. The number of coronavirus deaths in China is deliberately underestimated. In the days of the peak of the epidemic, the crematory ovens worked for 19 hours a day. Journalists Li Zehua, Fang Bin, Chen Qiushi have disappeared. Photos and videos of queues at Funeral Parlors and cemeteries are blocked on social media.

Police and security forces are deployed in the flats overlooking the streets visited by Xi Jinping. High school and college students forced to follow online political lessons that enhance Xi’s role. People are tired massive propaganda. A book on the Party's fight against coronavirus has been silently withdrawn from bookstores. Nurses have been used as propaganda tools. Nothing is being said about the doctors censored for reporting the epidemic.

Infections increase. More cities quarantined in Hubei. Authorities advise people to stay at home for treatment. Hospital facilities are overcrowded and lack medicine and masks. A new hospital center for infectious diseases is being built quickly in Wuhan. The party secretary general sends greetings to the nation, Hong Kong and Macao, but no word on the epidemic.

For the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state is preparing a military parade of the highest profile. Official religious groups are obliged to celebrate the anniversary with various events. New regulations make religious groups instruments of the propaganda apparatus of the Communist Party.

The government unleashes its propaganda machine: fake news, misinformation, ideology and patriotism. The reasons for the demonstrations are never explained. The official media call the protesters "rat droppings". Chinese from the mainland posing as tourists, in reality policemen and members of the secret services. Ban on sending helmets, umbrellas, masks, gloves to Hong Kong that demonstrators use to protect themselves from tear gas and rubber bullets.