CHINA-LEADERSHIP: UNCONFIRMED REPORTS STATE CORONAVIRUS INFECTS COUPLE OF HIGH RANKING CCP LEADERS' RELATIVES
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i) An unconfirmed Internet posting (Rolia.net on February 21, 2020) stated that Cai Erjin, who is the son of Cai Qi (蔡奇), Beijing Communist Party Secretary is infected with the Coronavirus. It claimed that Cai Erjin’s lover was infected with the coronavirus and later transmitted it to Cai Erjin and his wife. Cai Qi and his wife have been put under 14 days of quarantine.
ii) A separate unconfirmed tweet on February 25, 2020 said that Chua Hwa Por, son-in-law of Li Zhanshu (栗战书), Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and member of the CCP CC Politburo Standing Committee, was infected with the coronavirus. Chua Hwa Po is a citizen of Singapore and lives there. The report added that Li Zhanshu sent a private plane to bring his son-in-law back to Beijing. Li Zhanshu tried to get him to stay in the military No 301 Hospital, which provides healthcare to the high-ranking officials, but the retired officials who currently stay at the hospital uniformly rejected it. Li Zhanshu then put him in the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, where Cai Qi’s son Cai Erjin also stayed. Xi Jinping was unhappy with bringing a coronavirus patient back to Beijing. |