TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s methodology for denoting the cause of death among those who have contracted COVID-19 is masking the true death toll of its latest Omicron wave, according to health experts interviewed by the Financial Times.

The country has recorded a mere two deaths from more than 443,000 cases since March 1, both of which occurred in Jilin – a province bordering North Korea. Yet, according to a report, several people directly informed the Finanical Times directly that their relatives in Shanghai had passed away after contracting the disease.

The gap in reporting comes down to how Chinese authorities classify deaths.

If someone dies after contracting COVID-19 but had, for example, cancer, heart disease or diabetes at the time, Chinese hospitals would not classify the death as resulting from COVID-19, but the chronic illness instead, said Jin Dong-yan (金冬雁), a virologist at Hong Kong University.

“The numbers are not accurate, but Shanghai hospitals are not necessarily doing this on purpose. From the start, China had this method of recording deaths,” he added.

Official underreporting risks triggering another wave of criticism of Beijing’s handling of the pandemic similar to the backlash over its mismanagement of the virus’ initial outbreak when it first appeared in Wuhan in 2020.

Simmering discontent over Xi’s war on Omicron is beginning to boil over from Shanghai to other parts of China. This is an even bigger issue for China’s leader than COVID-19 infections itself, according to Bloomberg.

One of the many signs of growing online anger is the surge in links to “Do You Hear the People Sing?” a Les Miserables chorus number which became a protest song in Hong Kong in 2019. The next year the tune was adopted by agitated netizens in China amid the initial outbreak of the virus in 2020.