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On April 15, BILD, a German newspaper, published an article, ‘What China Already Owes Us,” presenting an “accounting” for the German “corona invoice,” (which the German government did not endorse and called “illusory”) with an amount of nearly €150 billion (US $163 billion) to China, including a €24 billion bill for lost tourism, €1 million per hour for Lufthansa and €50 billion for small businesses affected by the standstill.

The Chinese embassy responded with a furious letter which accused the paper of “stirring up nationalism” and prejudice towards China.

(reference #1)

Your report is not only missing crucial facts and exact timings but also any modicum of journalistic diligence and fairness.

Anyone who makes calculations like this is stirring up nationalism and prejudice as well as xenophobia and animosity towards China.

It does not live up to either the traditional friendship between our people or to a serious understanding of journalism.

Against this background, I ask myself where in your newsroom this dislike of our people and our country has come from?”

BILD editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt responded to the Chinese embassy’s accusation with an open letter addressed to Xi Jinping, titled “You are endangering the world”

(reference #2)

Dear President Xi Jinping

Your embassy in Berlin has addressed me in an open letter because we asked in our newspaper BILD whether China should pay for the massive economic damage the corona virus is inflicting worldwide.

Let me respond:

1. You rule by surveillance. You wouldn’t be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country.

You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them – and with them, the rest of the world.

2. Surveillance is a denial of freedom. And a nation that is not free is not creative. A nation that is not innovative, does not invent anything. This is why you have made your country the world champion in intellectual property theft.

China enriches itself with the inventions of others, instead of inventing on its own. The reason China does not innovate and invent is that you don’t let the young people in your country think freely. China’s greatest export hit (that nobody wanted to have, but which has nevertheless gone around the world) is Corona.

3. You, your government and your scientists had to know long ago that Corona is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn’t respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan.

You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace.

4. The “Washington Post” reports that your laboratories in Wuhan have been researching corona viruses in bats, but without maintaining the highest safety standards. Why are your toxic laboratories not as secure as your prisons for political prisoners?

Would you like to explain this to the grieving widows, daughters, sons, husbands, parents of Corona victims all over the world?

5. In your country, your people are whispering about you. Your power is crumbling. You have created an inscrutable, non-transparent China. Before Corona, China was known as a surveillance state. Now, China is known as a surveillance state that infected the world with a deadly disease.

That is your political legacy.

Your embassy tells me that I am not living up to the “traditional friendship of our peoples.” I suppose you consider it a great “friendship” when you now generously send masks around the world. This isn’t friendship. I would call it imperialism hidden behind a smile – a Trojan Horse.

You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later.

Yours sincerely

Julian Reichelt

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• World Against CCP: Call The Coronavirus “CCP Virus”
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1. Source: Daily Mail, April 22, 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8244487/China-blasts-Bild-newspaper-demanding-coronavirus-reparations.html

2. Source: BILD, April 17, 2020
https://www.bild.de/politik/international/bild-international/bild-chief-editor-responds-to-the-chinese-president-70098436.bild.html

The Epoch Times reported that it has obtained provincial documents from China that supported the evidence the Associated Press (AP) reported earlier: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knew of the severity of the coronavirus and the likelihood of person-to-person transmission on January 14, 2020; it passed down instructions to local health officials to take cautious measures immediately but did not disclose the information to the public until January 20, six days later. (See Chinascope post: Hiding Information: Document Showed the CCP Hid Information for Six Critical Days of Virus Containment).

The Epoch Times obtained eight documents from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (AR), which the government marked as secret, including the “Notice on Participating in the National Video Conference Training on the Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control Work,” and the “Urgent Notice on the (Inner Mongolia) AR Video Conference Training on the Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control Work.”

The documents showed that the government passed the coronavirus training from the central government down to local healthcare practitioners in teleconferences, but informed participants that the information in the teleconferences were “not allowed to be released to public.”

On January 15, the China’s National Health Commission held a confidential national teleconference with provincial health officials on coronavirus treatment. (AP reported the date as January 14, 2020).

On January 17, the Inner Mongolia Health Commission held an AR-level teleconference with the healthcare officials from the AR’s cities and Leagues (an administrative region under the Inner Mongolia AR, similar to Prefectures in the other provinces of China), to provide training on infection case identification and monitoring, management of suspected infectors and people who have had close contact with infected patients, the epidemiological investigation plan, the pneumonia laboratory test plan, etc.

On January 20, the Xilingol League Health Commission held a League-level teleconference with its own healthcare officials, to provide the related training.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Hiding Information: Document Showed the CCP Hid Info for the Critical Six Days in Virus Containment
• Hiding Information: Wuhan Central Hospital Did Not Allow Staffs to Talk About Coronavirus
• Hiding Information: Wuhan Newspaper Said Doctor Reported Infection Cases in December and Authorities Took Actions Immediately
• Hiding Information: Expert Group Members Suggest Hubei Officials Hiding Information
• Hiding Information: Shanghai Authorities Closed a P3 Lab for Publishing Coronavirus Genome

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It is hard to get true coronavirus infection information from China as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hides it from the public. Recently, information from media inside and outside of China seems to indicate that some places in China are facing the threat of the coronavirus outbreak again.

#1: Some provinces have treated Guangzhou and a few other Chinese cities as high risk regions.

• On April 14, Hainan Province issued a “Notice on Strengthening the Prevention of Infection from Outside of the Province,” which listed Suifen City, Heilongjiang Province (a neighboring area with Russia); Manzhouli City, Inner Mongolia (also a neighboring Russia); and three cities in Guangdong Province including Jieyang, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as mid-level or high risk regions. In order to be allowed to enter Hainan, any people who traveled to these places in the past 14 days must provide a negative result of a coronavirus test, which must have been taken within the past seven days,.
• People also received a computer notice when they bought airline tickets online that “people from Guangzhou or Wuhan coming to Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (AR), will first be quarantined for 14 days in a centralized location.”
• Some communities in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province posted a notice that people coming from “epicenters (Wuhan, Guangzhou, and overseas)” should register with the community management group and conduct self-quarantine at home for 14 days. (Oriental Daily)

#2: Wang Dingyu, a Legislative member of Taiwan, published a few documents from mainland China on his Facebook account warning of the danger of a second wave of the Wuhan Pneumonia which might occur in China. His documents showed that around mid-April:

• Gaoqiao Town, Hong’an County, Hubei Province restarted temperature testing and disinfection throughout the town after a farmer resident was confirmed because of a coronavirus infection.
• Businesses in Luo Village, Foshan City, and Guangdong Province entered lockdown management after an occurrence of group infection there.
• Qiu County, Hebei Province also resumed its epidemic control measures. (Liberty Times)

#3: On April 10, Wuchang District Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control Command Center issued a notice to search for any un-quarantined asymptomatic carriers, suspected infectors, confirmed patients, and people with close contacts with the confirmed patients, and to award 200 yuan (US $30) to people reporting information. (China Business Network)

#4: On April 15, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province held an education system meeting and decided to lock down all senior high school students and their teachers inside their schools for over 80 days until they finish the National College Entrance Examination, which is scheduled for July 7 and July 8 of this year. (United Daily News)

#5: In April, the Chongqing Health Commission issued a “Notice on Re-sending the National Emergency Medical Rescue Team” to 17 recipients, most of which were the major hospitals in Chongqing. The notice requires each institute to ensure that the team members, automobiles, and equipment are always ready in an “on-call” state and can be dispatched quickly. (Epoch Times)

#6: On April 1, Jia County, Henan Province announced the lockdown of villages and community neighborhoods throughout the county after three doctors at People’s Hospital were identified as asymptomatic carriers. (Apple Daily)

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Infection Count: Coronavirus Is Spreading in Harbin City, Heilong Jiang Province
• Infection Count: Heilongjiang Awards 3,000 Yuan for Reporting People Crossing Border
• Infection Count: Heilongjiang Is Preparing for Epidemic Outbreak
• Infection Count: China Started Reporting Count of Asymptomatic Virus Carriers
• Infection Count: Hubei Was Unlocked, But Beijing Does not Want Anyone from Hubei to Come

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It is hard to get true coronavirus infection information from China as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hides it from the public. Recently, news media in China reported that the epidemic situation may have gotten out of control in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province.

#1: Harbin had an infection case when a Chinese student returned from the U.S. on March 19. She was doing self-quarantine at home first and during that time she transmitted the virus to a neighbor. The neighbor passed it to her boyfriend and her mother; her mother passed it to her boyfriend. When having meal with another family, both her mother and her boyfriend passed it to them. Mr. Chen, 87, of that family went to Harbin No 2 Hospital and later the No 1 Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University to treat some non-coronavirus diseases, which further infected 26 people in both hospitals.

The infection also spread to another province. On April 16, a woman in Fushun City, Liaoning Province was confirmed as having the infection. It was traced back to her having contact with people in the No 1 Hospital Affiliated with Harbin Medical University. Later she had dinner with her mother and several relatives, which might have led to the spread to other people.

As of April 18, the Heilongjiang Health Commission reported 32 infection cases and 19 asymptomatic cases, related to this chain of transmissions.

Harbin issued a public notice to look for all people who had stayed in, were released from, transferred from, accompanied patients at, visited patients at, or went into those two hospitals – from April 2 to April 6 at the Harbin No 2 Hospital and from April 6 to April 9 at the Department of Respiratory Medicine (12th floor), No 1 Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University.

The official website of the Heilongjiang Provincial CCP Commission for Discipline Inspection posted a notice to reprimand 18 officials including Harbin Deputy Mayor Chen Yuanfei and Harbin Health Commission Director Ding Fengshu, for poorly handling the epidemic containment work. They were given either party warnings or administrative reprimands. (Central News Agency)

#2: By April 11, Harbin had traced the infection to 456 people who had close contact with infected patients. The city imposed a lockdown and applied disinfection to the residential neighborhood of the people infected.

The government also postponed the school reopening date for the graduating middle school students (they need to prepare for the upcoming high school entrance exam), which was planned for April 17. (QQ)

#3: Genhe City, Inner Mongolia closed its transportation with Heilongjiang Province. The Genhe Novel Coronavirus Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center issued its 39th Notice, stating to control all its checkpoints with Heilongjiang strictly, including train stations and bus terminals, completely close the traffic, persuade any people trying to enter Genhe from Heilongjiang to go back, and also stop any people from Genhe from entering Heilongjiang in order to ensure that “not a single car is missed and not a single person is missed.”

The notice also called for a thorough check at each community at Genhe, to identify anyone who had traveled to Heilongjiang, especially Harbin, in the past 14 days. Each community must arrange and manage a 14-day self-quarantine for people who travelled to Heilongjiang on or after April 5. (Central News Agency)

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Infection Count: Heilongjiang Awards 3,000 Yuan for Reporting People Crossing Border
• Infection Count: Heilongjiang Is Preparing for Epidemic Outbreak
• Infection Count: China Started Reporting Count of Asymptomatic Virus Carriers

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Tan Jun, a Hubei Citizen, filed a lawsuit against the Hubei Provincial government for concealing the epidemic information and causing the loss of people’s lives and assets. He is the first Chinese who sued the government for its liability for the coronavirus pandemic.

In his filing, Tan said that the Hubei Provincial government had known about the Wuhan Pneumonia epidemic and the person-to-person transmission by December 2020, but it still organized two major political conferences and a “ten thousand family feast” in January, causing the large-scaled, fast spread of the epidemic. Tan asked the Hubei Provincial government to post an apology on Hubei Daily newspaper for a day.

Tan first handed his lawsuit paper to Xiling District Court, Yichang City, Hubei Province on April 13. But he was told the district court does not have authority to process this administrative case. Then on April 15, he mailed it to the Wuhan Intermediate Court.

On the afternoon of April 13, the Domestic Safety Team of the Xiling District Police Department called Tan Jun to a police station, asking him to write a promise statement “not to publish any words or pictures related to the administrative lawsuit case on the Internet.”

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Justice: India Sued China for 20 Trillion Dollar
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• Justice: U.S. Law Firm Sued Beijing over Its Role in Coronavirus Pandemic

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As the coronavirus outbreak continued spreading globally and many countries questioned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its handling of the pandemic and its bid for global leadership, an Australian Member of Parliament (MP) became a casualty for supporting the CCP.

New South Wales (NSW) Member of Parliament (MP) Shaoquett Moselmane of the Labor Party has resigned as Assistant President of the Legislative Council, after coming under fire for repeatedly praising China’s response to the coronavirus crisis, including extolling Xi Jinping’s “unswerving leadership.”

Moselmane lauded President Xi in a post on his personal website, where he stated that a nation needed “tough, unswerving leadership, focused on the mammoth task ahead” in order to contain the virus’ spread. “For the People’s Republic of China, President Xi stepped up and provided that leadership. He mustered the resources of the nation and together with the great people of China – fought it and contained it,” Moselmane wrote.

In a separate opinion piece for the East China Normal University, published in February, Moselmane praised the “serious attention and timely and effective countermeasures” taken by the Chinese authorities. He also claimed “the obsolete scum of ‘white Australia’, in conjunction with ‘some mainstream media,’ were fueling anti-Chinese sentiments.”

Moselmane gave a speech at a restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown earlier this year, where he declared the “Chinese government should be commended for the immediate action it took.”

Moselmane caused controversy in 2018 when he declared: “The only way for China to reach its potential is for China to force a change to the rules and create a new world order.”

In 2019, he was in the spotlight again after his political staffer, John Zhang, was reported for having completed a CCP propaganda training course in Beijing in 2013.

Labor Party leader Jodi McKay has described his comments as “appalling,” and said he would “never be in the shadow cabinet” but ruled out expelling him from the party.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, April 7, 2020
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/labor-mp-quits-his-position-in-nsw-upper-house-20200407-p54hr3.html

The Guangzhou government has targeted Africans living there during the coronavirus containment, which led many African countries’ to protest. Here are more details about the incidents.

#1: A Nigerian’s refusing medical checkup and biting a nurse. On April 1, Okonkwonwoye Chika Patrick, male, 47, a Nigerian citizen, was confirmed to have the coronavirus infection and was isolated at the Guangzhou No 8 Hospital. He ignored Nurse Wang’s request for blood test and tried to walk out of the isolation room. Wang tried to stop him, but he pushed her to the ground and bit her face. The Guangzhou police came to investigate the case. (Caijing)

#2: Local people started discriminating against Africans. The biting nurse incident stirred up a wave of anti-African sentiment among Chinese. There was a rumor that “300,000 blacks in Guangzhou were causing the second epidemic outbreak” which was spreading. Five out of the eight confirmed infection cases in the Yuexiu District (nicknamed “Little Africa”), in Guangzhou were Nigerian. Local police ordered bars and restaurants not to serve Africans. The Local government also imposed forced-testing and forced-quarantine on people who had contacts with Africans. Some Africans were driven out of their homes and could not find a place to stay as every place was closed to them. (Epoch Times)

#3: A McDonald’s restaurant in Guangzhou posted a notice: “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health consciously notify the local police for medical isolation. Please understand the inconvenience caused.” McDonald China admitted the incident and later offered an apology. (Oriental Daily)

#4: In addition to protests coming from Nigeria and the Africa Union, Ghana summoned the Chinese Ambassador. In a public statement Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway condemned the “inhuman encounters suffered by Africans in Guangzhou.”  She expressed “disappointment” to the Chinese government and asked China to take immediate action to solve this problem.

The Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that there was an irresponsible phenomenon against foreigners in Guangzhou. Many Guangzhou business owners targeted African citizens especially.

The Sierra Leone Embassy in Beijing also issued a statement to “expresses strong concern and condemnation for the disturbing and humiliating experience of our citizens.” It said that 14 citizens of the country had been put under 14 days of forced-quarantine. (Zhihu)

#5: A Twitter message said that the Guangzhou Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau issued “The Implementation Plan on Providing Basic Livelihood Services to Foreigners with Financial Stress during the Health Service Management Period.” The plan is said to provide a subsidy of 5,600 yuan (US $790) to every foreigner who has financial stress. (Twitter)

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Diplomacy: France Called in China Ambassador for Chinese Embassy’s Remarks
• Diplomacy: Germany Refused to Chinese Diplomats Lobby Request to Praise China
• Diplomacy: China Asked Wisconsin Senator for Praise, But Got Condemnation in Return
• Diplomacy: Nigeria and African Union Protested China for Targeting Nigerian Citizens
• Diplomacy: CCP Changed to Hawk Style in Its Diplomacy

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A Hong Kong media, CUP Magazine, reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros is the leader of a leftist party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), in Ethiopia, which in the 1990s the U.S. government identified as a terrorist group.

TPLF was established as a guerrilla group which, in 1975, had its base in Tigray, Ethiopia. Over time, it formed an Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front with other groups and it took power in the nation in 1991. However, since Tigrayans were only 6 percent of the total population in Ethiopia, TPLF ruled by terror and arrested and killed many people with different political views. It also took over the land from the Oromo people (about 34 percent of Ethiopia’s population). In 2005, Human Rights Watch criticized TPLF for several crimes against human rights. In the 1990s, the U.S. listed TPLF as a terrorist organization. This can still be seen in the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland.

Tedros grew up in Tigray. After he obtained a PhD degree from the U.K. in 2001, he became the Director of Tigray’s Health Bureau. Then in 2005, he became the Minister of Health. In 2013, the Africa Report, a French media, mentioned that Tedros could become the next leader of the TPLF. When Tedros was elected as the Director-General of WHO, he still held a Politburo member position in the TPLF.

In 2018, local media Kichuu News criticized Tedros for ignoring the lives of millions of Oromos who the government was persecuting, accusing him of being unworthy of the position of Director General. The U.S. Fox News quoted a local Ethiopian reporter as saying that Tedros was one of the three most powerful leaders of the TPLF and thus he must be responsible for the government’s murder, torture, excessive arrests, and land grabbing.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• WHO: G7 Countries Seek a Review and Reform at the WHO
• WHO: China Sent Its Internet Army to Help Tedros on His Attack on Taiwan
• WHO: WHO Official’s React to Taiwan Question and Response from U.S. and Hong Kong Afterward
• WHO: Criticisms Over Tedros for Being Too Supportive to the CCP
• WHO: Official Went to Wuhan but Didn’t Go to “Dirty Area”

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