Yuan Longping died, the official media CGTN “rush” to report the news of his death was criticized

China’s official media Xinhua News Agency reported that Yuan Longping, the famous Chinese agricultural scientist and “father of hybrid rice”, died of multiple organ failure at 1:07 p.m. Saturday (22) at Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, at the age of 91. China Global Television Network (CGTN) reported Yuan Longping’s “death” early Saturday morning, and Yuan’s secretary Yang Yaosong then dispelled the rumor to the Punch News, saying that Yuan was in the intensive care unit of the hospital at the time, saying that the death news was The news is “fake news” and CGTN later apologized for the incident. Xinhua News Agency and CCTV reported that Yuan Longping’s death was only confirmed in the afternoon.

CGTN posted on its official microblogging site at around 10 a.m. Saturday that “Yuan Longping, the ‘father of hybrid rice’, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and recipient of the ‘Order of the Republic’, died on May 2021 Beijing time due to medical treatment. He died at the age of 91 in Changsha on the morning of May 22, 2021 Beijing time”, the message is available in English.

The propaganda department of China’s Hunan Provincial Party Committee and the secretariat of academician Yuan Longping confirmed at around 11 a.m. that the online news about “Yuan’s death” was false and that Yuan was in the hospital receiving treatment.

CGTN then immediately deleted the post “Yuan Longping died of illness” and issued a “verified that academician Yuan Longping is currently receiving treatment in hospital, we apologize for the carelessness of the previous report.”

The Punch News reported that Yuan’s doctor said he fell and became unwell on March 10 this year while inspecting research at the Sanya hybrid rice research base in Hainan Province, and was taken to Sanya Hospital and then to Changsha Hospital in Hunan Province, where he died on Saturday afternoon.

He was awarded the Order of the Republic in September 2019. He has received international awards such as the UN Science Prize, the Wolf Prize and the World Food Prize, and has published six monographs in English and Chinese and more than 60 papers.