During our first week of remembering those members of the Chinese Labour Corps who died we have remembered 36 men. Of those 36, 23 died after the Armistice – that’s a staggering 64%. The most common surname of those who died was Liu (simplified 刘, traditional 劉）who accounted for 11% of the deaths -Liu is the Mandarin pronunciation of the same Chines character that is pronounced Lau in Cantonese, and happens to be the surname of the Chair of the Strategic Partnership.

In fact 36 deaths falling on the same day over a seven day period is slightly below average, and in this regard, and perhaps this alone, it is an unremarkable number.