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Carrie Lam Plans to Use Coronavirus Containment to Boost the Establishments’ Position in Upcoming Election

Apple Daily reported that it obtained a copy of a report that Hong Kong Executive Carrie Lam sent to Beijing. In the report, Lam mentioned that the coronavirus containment could be used to create a favorable environment for the establishment in the upcoming Legislative Council election in September.

The report said:

From the election politics, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) hopes to obtain citizens’ recognition and support by using the effective control of the epidemic in order to create a favorable environment for the establishment. Therefore, we are requesting the Central government to continue to assist the Hong Kong SAR to solve two urgent issues:

1. Allow specified mask and protective equipment manufacturers to continue to deliver supplies to Hong Kong and provide machinery and raw materials to Hong Kong manufacturers who set up local mask production lines.

2. Allow the SAR government to discuss with the Hubei Provincial / Wuhan Municipal government to arrange for Hong Kong people stranded in the local area to return to Hong Kong in batches.

If the Central government can support the completion of these two works, the Hong Kong SAR could retain its administrative reputation and also let the Hong Kong people feel the central government’s care under the ‘one country, two systems’ structure. (We) believe it will be a rare opportunity to change the situation before the Legislative Election in September.

Hong Kong’s Establishment (pro-Beijing group) suffered a big loss in the District Council elections last year because the SAR government took a hardline position against the Hong Kong protests and refused to respond to the public’s demands.

Source: Apple Daily, February 23, 2020
https://hk.appledaily.com/local/20200223/AUBAU7W7CNESCJQTRZAS5MN7RY/

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World Outbreak: Are South Koreans Flying to China? Beijing Said This Is a Rumor

As the novel coronavirus outbreak continued in South Korea, news about South Koreans fleeing to China to seek a safe haven was spreading on China’s Internet. It would boost the confidence of the Chinese people in trusting the government’s handling of the epidemic.

The news said, “Due to the exploding number of novel coronavirus infections in South Korea, a large number of Koreans have rushed to Qingdao City, Shandong Province in China. Because the epidemic is under control in China and the treatment is free, many Koreans have fled to China. Airfare has jumped from a few hundred yuan to 6,000 yuan.”

Beijing News, a media based in Beijing, then inquired at the National Immigration Administration of China to verify the news. The office responded that, based on its statistics, airlines have cut some flights due to the coronavirus epidemic, which might have caused some increase in airfares, but overall, the number of people flying from Korea to China has increased only marginally and 70 percent of those people are Chinese citizens. “There is no sign that a large number of Koreans are rushing into China yet.”

SET News, a news media in Taiwan, reported this information.

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World Outbreak: Iran Vice President Confirmed with Coronavirus Infection

Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of the four Vice Presidents of Iran and the highest-ranking woman in the government, was confirmed as having the coronavirus infection and quarantined at home on February 27, 2020.

Ebtekar, was known to Americans as “Mary” during the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981. As a young revolutionary, she was a spokeswoman for the captors of the 52 Americans held at the United States Embassy.

Besides Ebtekar, six other high-ranking Iranian officials are also infected with the virus:

  • Mojtaba Zolnour, a member of Parliament from Qom and head of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee
  • Mahmoud Sadeghi, an outspoken member of Parliament from Tehran
  • Iraj Harirchi, the Deputy Health Minister who had been leading the effort to contain the coronavirus
  • Morteza Rahmanzadeh, the Mayor of a Tehran district
  • Dr. Mohamad Reza Ghadir, head of Coronavirus Management in Qom and Director of the city’s State Medical University
  • Hadi Khosroshahi, a prominent cleric and former Ambassador to the Vatican.

A search, revealed that Iran had total of 54 deaths from the coronavirus as of March 1, including Elham Sheikhi, who was in her early 20s, a professional athlete, and a member of the women’s national soccer team.

Source: New York Times, February 27, 2020

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Virus Origin: Zhang Wenhong Disagreed That Coronavirus Originated Outside China

After Zhong Nanshan, a high-profile doctor in China, suggested on February 27, 2020, that the Coronavirus could have originated from outside of China, another high-profile doctor, Zhang Wenhong, disagreed with that idea.

Zhang Wenhong is the Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, at Fudan University, Shanghai. He was tasked with leading the medical expert team to fight the novel coronavirus in Shanghai. Many Shanghainese call him, “Daddy Zhang” for his outspokenness and the care he has for people.

On February 28, 2020, China Daily, a state-controlled newspaper that publishes both Chinese and English versions, interviewed Zhang. In the interview, when responding to a question regarding claims that the virus was imported from elsewhere, Zhang said that he believed the virus originated in Wuhan. Zhang argued, “If that was the case (that the virus was imported), we should have seen patients emerging from different regions in the country around the same time rather than seeing their concentration in Wuhan.”

Sina republished the article from China Daily, which contains the Chinese following the English translation.

However, most of the Chinese media that reported Zhang’s disagreement saw that his comments were taken down afterwards.

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China Conducted First Lung Transplant on a Patient with the Coronavirus

On February 29, 2020, China conducted its first lung transplant on a patient with the novel coronavirus. Chen Jingyu, Director of the Lung Transplant Section, China-Japan Friendship Hospital and Vice President of People’s Hospital in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, led his team to complete the operation of transplanting both lungs in five hours.

The patient, 59, was confirmed to have the COVID-19 infection on January 26. Both of his lungs had been severely injured and could not recover.

The Chinese Communist Party has been condemned for conducting live organ harvesting against political and religious dissidents, including Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Continue reading →

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Hiding Information: Liaoning Province Ordered to Destroy Files Regarding Epidemic

Epoch Times, an independent Chinese language media, reported that it has obtained an internal document from the Chaoyang Municipal Health Commission of Liaoning Province regarding the destruction of documents related to the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The document was issued on February 23, 2020, and submitted to the Liaoning Provincial Health Commission. The document read:

Provincial Health Commission:

After receiving the “Emergency Notice on Safely Handling Relevant Information,” our city government immediately notified the Chaoyang Public Security Bureau, Lingyuan City government, and Longcheng District government to destroy files and data. We also identified and listed every person who had access to the data and required each of them to sign a ‘Confidentiality Commitment.’ The three offices have destroyed the data.

Attachment:

1. List of work units that received the file

2. Confidentiality Commitment

Signed by Chaoyang Municipal Health Commission, on February 23, 2020

The attached “Confidentiality Commitment” form required the signer to promise the following:

  1. Immediately destroy any data file, picture, and records that are stored on any computer, thumb-drive, and mobile phones.
  2. Absolutely do not use any reason or any means to duplicate, use, or send the above data to any other people.
  3. Except when required by law, do not release this information to any other institute or individual.

The Epoch Times reporter searched Liaoning Province and Chaoyang City news on February 21. The Liaoning Provincial Health Committee announced zero new coronavirus infection cases on February 21, but Chaoyang reported six confirmed cases.

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National Internet Emergency Center, Which Enforces Internet Censorship, Has 11 Coronavirus Cases

The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on February 26 that Beijing had 10 new confirmed coronavirus cases, all from the same work unit. These patients were all infected by a person who was confirmed to have the coronavirus infection on February 24.

The address of the work unit is Chaoyang District Anzhen Street Yumin Road A-3 (朝阳区安贞街道裕民路甲3号). People searched the location and found that it is the National Internet Emergency Center, which enforces internet censorship in China.

1. Excerpt in Chinese:

新京报快讯（记者 沙雪良）2月26日0时至24时，北京市新增10例新冠肺炎确诊病例。北京市疾控中心副主任庞星火在27日北京市召开的新闻发布会上介绍，这10例均为2月25日北京市公布病例的密切接触者发病后诊断，经现场流行病学调查，判断该起疫情为输入性单位聚集性疫情。

此前，据北京市疾病预防控制中心2月25日消息，2月24日，北京市新发新冠肺炎1例。该病例活动小区或场所为朝阳区安贞街道裕民路甲3号。

庞星火介绍，2月23日，北京市接到一例新冠肺炎疑似病例报告，2月24日4:00，该病例确诊，将其密切接触者均集中隔离医学观察，截至2月26日，在其密切接触者中共确诊10例，故这起聚集性疫情共涉及确诊病例11例，其中10例是在京某事业单位外购服务的物业管理公司员工，1例是餐饮公司员工，11名病例发病前都住在所服务单位的集体宿舍，或在集体宿舍旁物业办公室办公。所有病例均已转至市级定点医院隔离治疗，目前病情稳定。该起疫情已判定密切接触者178人，市、区疾控中心对该单位进行了全面消毒，并实施了健康监测等综合防控措施。

Source: Beijing News, February 27, 2020
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/02/27/695794.html

2. Excerpt in Chinese:

外界很快搜索发现，朝阳区裕民路甲3号疑似中共网信办相关部门的地址.

大纪元搜索发现，2019年3月30日，中共网信办曾发布“第一批境内区块链信息服务备案编号”的公告，其中公布了第一批共197个区块链信息服务名称及备案编号。提出“任何单位或个人如有疑议”，将相关意见“通过电子邮件发送至bc_beian@cert.org.cn，或邮寄至北京市朝阳区裕民路甲3号国家互联网应急中心，邮编：100029”。

Source: Epoch Times, February 27, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/2/27/n11901041.htm

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Virus Origin: Southern Medical University Found the Coronavirus Is Unlikely to Evolve from Bats

Caixin reported that a research paper from the Southern Medical University Biosafety Level 3 (P3) Lab stated that the novel coronavirus is unlikely to have evolved from RaTG13, the bat coronavirus, which shares the most similar genome. It also suggested that the coronavirus was likely to have started between September 23, 2019 and December 15, 2019.

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