Deaths
- January 3 – Li Zuopeng, 94, Chinese general and politician.
- January 22 – Liang Yusheng, 85, Chinese novelist, natural causes.
- February 3 – Sheng-yen, 79, Chinese-born Taiwanese Buddhist Zen master, kidney disease.
- February 5 – Xiangzhong Yang, 49, Chinese-born American stem cell scientist, cancer.
- March 5 – Hung-Chang Lin, 89, Chinese-born American inventor, lung cancer.
- June 2 – Kai Lai Chung, 92, Chinese-born American mathematician.
- June 5 – Luo Jing, 48, Chinese news presenter, lymphoma.
- June 30 – Shi Pei Pu, 70, Chinese opera singer, gender-bending spy who was basis for M. Butterfly.
- July 11 – Ji Xianlin, 97, Chinese linguist, paleographer, historian and writer, heart attack.
- July 16 – Thomas Dao, 88, Chinese-born American physician, expert in breast cancer treatment, Pick's Disease.
- July 27 – Domingos Lam, 81, Chinese Roman Catholic bishop of Macau.
- July 29 – Zhuo Lin, 93, Chinese consultant, widow of Deng Xiaoping.
- September 14 – Jing Shuping, 91, Chinese businessman, founder of Minsheng Bank.
- October 4 – James Lin Xili, 91, Chinese underground first Bishop of Wenzhou (since 1992), Alzheimer's disease.
- October 13 – Lü Zhengcao, 104, Chinese general, last survivor of the original Shang Jiang.
- October 29 – Bei Shizhang, 106, Chinese biologist and educator.
- October 31 – Qian Xuesen, 97, Chinese scientist and co-founder of the JPL.
- October 31 – Chen Lin, 39, Chinese pop singer, suicide by jumping.
- November 2 – Nien Cheng, 94, Chinese author and political prisoner.
- November 5 – Peter Chen Bolu, 96, Chinese Roman Catholic Bishop of Daming.
- November 23 – Yang Xianyi, 94, Chinese translator.
- December 4 – Matthew Luo Duxi, 90, Chinese Roman Catholic Bishop of Jiading.
- December 23 – Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, 99, Chinese politician, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (1964–1968; 1981–1983).
- December 30 – Leon Yao Liang, 86, Chinese bishop.
- December 31 – Qian Xinzhong, 98, Chinese politician, Minster of Health (1965–1973, 1979–1983).
Read more about this topic: 2009 In The People's Republic Of China
Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“I sang of death but had I known
The many deaths one must have died
Before he came to meet his own!”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes,
they waste their deaths on us.”
—C.D. Andrews (1913–1992)
“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)