The Closing of 21 Million Cell Phone Accounts in China May Suggest a High CCP Virus Death Toll

Over 21 million cell phone accounts in China were canceled in the past three months while 840,000 landlines were closed, Beijing authorities announced on March 19. Deaths due to the CCP virus may have contributed to the number of account closings.

Cell phones are an indispensable part of life in China.

“The digitization level is very high in China. People can’t survive without a cell phone,” Tang Jingyuan, a U.S.-based China Affairs commentator told The Epoch Times on March 21. “Dealing with the government for pensions and social security, buying train tickets, shopping… no matter what people want to do, they are required to use cell phones.”

“The Chinese regime requires all Chinese use their cell phones to generate a health code. Only with a green health code are Chinese allowed to move in China now,” Tang said. “It’s impossible for a person to cancel his cell phone.”

Furthermore, Chinese people have to bundle their bank accounts and social security account with their cell phone because all these service’s Apps can detect the phone’s SIM card and then check with the state’s database to make sure the number belongs to the person.

Beijing claimed that the health code is for preventing the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

The number of cell phone users decreased from 1.600957 billion to 1.579927 billion, which is 21.03 million less. Landline users dropped from 190.83 million to 189.99 million, which is 0.84 million less.

According to the operation data of all three Chinese cell phone carriers, cell phone accounts increased in December 2019, but dropped steeply in 2020.

China allows each adult to apply for at most five cell phone numbers. Since Feb. 10, the majority of Chinese students have taken online classes with a cell phone number due to their schools being ordered to keep closed. These students’ accounts are under their parents’ names, which means some patients needed to open a new cell phone account in February.

“It’s possible that some migrant workers had two cell phone numbers before. One is from their hometown, and the other is from the city they work in. In February, they might close the number in the city they work in because they couldn’t go there,” Tang said. Typically, migrant workers would have gone to their home city for the Chinese New Year in January, and then travel restrictions would have prevented their returning to the city where they held a job.

However, because there is a basic monthly fee to hold a cell phone account in China, the majority of migrant workers—the lowest income group—likely only have one cell phone account.

If both the number of migrant workers and the level of employment are accurate, more than 90 percent of migrant workers have gone back to work.

The economic dislocation caused by shutdowns in China may have also led some people who have an extra cell phone to cancel it. With business poor or stopped, they may not want to carry the extra expense.

“At present, we don’t know the details of the data. If only 10 percent of the cell phone accounts were closed because the users died because of the CCP virus, the death toll would be two million,” Tang concluded.

The reported death toll in China has not matched what can otherwise be known about the situation there.

Lacking data, the CCP virus’ death toll in China is a mystery. The cancellation of 21 million cell phones provides a data point that suggest the real number may be far higher than the official number.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party's coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.