Deaths
- January 7 – Wei Wenhua, 41, Chinese blogger, beaten.
- January 16 – Chen Xilu, 80, Chinese Roman Catholic Bishop of Hengshui, organ failure.
- January 26 – Zhang Hanzhi, 72, Chinese diplomat and linguist, English tutor for Mao, Nixon interpreter for 1972 visit, lung-related illness.
- February 21 – Tian Bao, 92, Chinese government official, one of the first ethnic Tibetans to join Mao Zedong's army and embrace Communism.
- February 25 – Charles Chan, 93, Chinese patriarch, father of actor Jackie Chan, prostate cancer.
- April 4 – Wu Xueqian, 87, Chinese politician, foreign minister (1982–1988).
- April 5 – Wang Donglei, 23, Chinese footballer, car accident. (Chinese)
- June 24 – Shao Hua, 69, Chinese photographer, PLA major general, daughter-in-law of Mao Zedong.
- August 20 – Hua Guofeng, 87, Chinese premier (1976–1980), chairman of the Communist Party of China (1976–1981).
- August 24 – Wei Wei, 88, Chinese poet and writer, liver cancer.
- September 14 – Mu Tiezhu, 59, Chinese basketball player, heart attack.
- September 23 – Li Shiming, c. 60, Chinese official, stabbed.
- October 5 – Kim Chan, 93/94?, Chinese-born American actor.
- October 18 – Xie Jin, 84, Chinese film director.
- October 24 – Xiao Ke, 101, Chinese general in the People's Liberation Army, illness.
- October 28 – Kung Te-cheng, 88, Chinese-born Taiwanese 77th generation descendant of Confucius, heart and respiratory failure.
- November 1 – Tan Jiazhen, 99, Chinese geneticist, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.
- November 10 – Li Ximing, 82, Chinese leader of Beijing Communist Party.
- November 26 – Yang Jia, 28, Chinese mass murderer, executed.
- November 28 – Wo Weihan, 59, Chinese biochemist, executed.
- December 15 – John W. Powell, 89, Chinese-born American journalist tried for sedition, complications from pneumonia.
Read more about this topic: 2008 In The People's Republic Of China
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)
“This is the 184th Demonstration.
...
What we do is not beautiful
hurts no one makes no one desperate
we do not break the panes of safety glass
stretching between people on the street
and the deaths they hire.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)