On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese authorities have intensified stability maintenance measures during the National Day holiday period. Gao Yu, a former senior media person in Beijing, revealed that many of her friends were monitored and controlled by the authorities from before the National Day holiday until October 28th, as October 27th marks the anniversary of the death of former Chinese premier Li Keqiang.
In a post on an overseas platform on October 24th, Gao Yu stated, “Several of my friends, during this year’s National Day holiday, were either on duty or tracked. After the long holiday, because of Zhao Ziyang’s 105th birthday and burial date, some were on duty for 2 days, and some were on duty for 3 days. After the 24-hour duty ended, some were even informed by the local police station that they had to keep reporting in until the 28th.”
Gao Yu mentioned that everyone initially didn’t understand why they had to remain vigilant until the 28th, but later realized it was because October 27th marked the one-year anniversary of Li Keqiang’s passing. In the most extreme cases, some individuals in Beijing have been on duty since September 27th and have not been relieved yet.
She shared that her own situation was unique, with her phone lines cut off, national security personnel knocking on her door where she couldn’t hear them from the front, so they had to go around to the back and knock on the iron grille of the rear window with a stick.
Gao Yu indicated that it seems that in the future, the month of October could be referred to as the “duty month,” exceeding even the significance of the Communist Party’s “Two Sessions” and the “June Fourth” events.
October 27th marked the first anniversary of Li Keqiang’s passing. Events that were scheduled to take place that day in Henan, where he had worked, including a large marathon race and competitions at his ancestral home in Anhui, were all “postponed for unforeseen reasons.” The organizing committees did not provide specific reasons for the postponement. Many mainland Chinese athletes who had registered to participate expressed dissatisfaction on social media and demanded to know the exact reasons for the event delays.
On October 27, 2023, Li Keqiang, the then 68-year-old former Chinese premier, suddenly passed away in Shanghai. Authorities claimed he died of a heart attack, but speculations arose about his death being related to power struggles within the top ranks of the Chinese Communist Party. Following Li Keqiang’s death, spontaneous large-scale mourning activities took place in locations like his former residence in Hefei, Anhui, his ancestral home in Dingyuan, and Zhengzhou in Henan where he had worked.
On February 17th this year, a photo circulated online showed that the gate plaque of Li Keqiang’s former residence at 80 Hongxing Road in Hefei, Anhui, marking it as a museum staff dormitory, had disappeared and was completely covered by a local government propaganda painting. A mainland Chinese source confirmed to a reporter from Epoch Times that this indeed happened, orchestrated quietly by the local neighborhood committee.