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The China Health Qigong Association, under the joint supervision of the General Administration of the Sports and Civil Affairs Ministry, advised people to do qigong exercise, as people must stay at home due to China’s fight against the novel coronavirus.

Qigong is an ancient system of coordinated body-posture, movement, breathing, and meditation used for the purposes of health, martial-arts, and spiritual exercise.

The most famous qigong exercise in China was Falun Gong which the Chinese Communist Party banned and has persecuted since 1999. Continue reading →

Caixin is a Beijing-based media group providing financial and business news and information. Hu Shuli (胡舒立), who is known for her outspoken style, founded it in 2010.

Caixin reported that 11 elderly people from the Wuhan Social Welfare Institute (武汉社会福利院) had died from the coronavirus.

On February 21, the Wuhan Network Information Office released a notice from the Wuhan Civil Affairs Bureau saying that Caixin’s report was a rumor. Only one elderly person had died there.

On February 24, Caixin countered that the social welfare institute only counted people who died between February 11 and February 19. According to its news reporters’ findings, from late December 2019 to February 19, 2020, several elderly people there had developed coronavirus symptoms and then died.

Caixin further published a death list from the institute which stated that 15 people died from December 23, 2019 to February 11, 2020 and another 4 died from February 11 to 18.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Infection Count: Changjiang Daily Reported a Coronavirus Case on a Day That the Government Reported Zero
• Infection Count: Over 230 Staffs at Wuhan Central Hospital Have Been Infected
• Infection Count: On February 13, Caixin Questioned Wuhan Infection Number
• Infection Count: Official Numbers Do Not Include Asymptomatic Infections
• Infection Count: Wuhan Epidemic Control Command Center Ordered 100,000 Patient Beds

Continue reading →

Liu Jinxing, a Taiwan Legislator (Member of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan), posted a letter from a Taiwan businessman on Facebook.

The letter said:

“I am a Taiwan citizen stuck in mainland China. I am sending this posting for no other reason than to ask President Tsai Ing-wen to increase the Wuhan Pneumonia control level in Taiwan and to deny entrance to Taiwan for any people from the mainland .

Beijing is having a severe (epidemic) situation, but Taiwan still has five airports open to China. Though where I stay still is some distance from Beijing, three corpses have been removed from around my community…

The main reason that I don’t leave China is that I am concerned about bringing the virus back to Taiwan or even transmitting it to my family. President Tsai, please temporarily close the door. If it is my destiny to die out of my hometown, I will take it. President Tsai, please take care of my family in Taiwan. If the worst thing happens to me, I will not, and I have no reason, to blame the government (of Taiwan).

Not every Taiwanese in mainland China is so afraid of death. Even if there are 1 million Taiwanese in mainland China, there are 20 million on the island of Taiwan. Each Taiwanese businessman understands clearly which is more important. Don’t worry about us.

If everyone in Taiwan is kept safe, that is the biggest comfort to me because I am away from home.”

Liu also posted an explanation from a friend at the Interior Ministry saying that the number of people from mainland China who have travelled to Taiwan has decreased significantly. Completely cutting any entry from China might lead people to try to enter via a third country which would make it even harder to track or monitor them.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Taiwan: Controversy about the First Evacuation Flight – February 3
• Taiwan: Commentary – Why Beijing Does Not Allow Taiwan to Evacuate Its Citizens
• Taiwan: Beijing Rejected Taiwan’s Evacuation Request – January 28

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The Wuhan Epidemic Control Command Center issued its No. 17 Order on February 24, stating, “People from other places stuck in Wuhan can leave the city.” The city was temporarily opened.

Three hours later, the Command Center issued its No. 18 Order to declare the previous order invalid. It stated that the No. 17 order “was issued by the Transportation Control Team of the municipal Command Center, without the Command Center’s review and main leadership approval.” Thus, the city’s lockdown was reinstated.

The previous order was said to have been signed by a Deputy Mayor of Wuhan.

The Paper criticized the Wuhan government for issuing an order and nullifying it shortly thereafter. It asked for an investigation of the incident.

[Editor’s Note: Ding Xiangyang, the Deputy Chief Secretary of the State Council, stated on February 20 that Xi Jinping gave the direction to lock down Wuhan (see post Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: It Was Xi Jinping Who Ordered the Wuhan Lockdown). It is not very clear who made the decision to unlock it and who rejected it. Rationally speaking, it would need someone at a position much higher than a Deputy Mayor to decide to end the Wuhan lockdown. Then someone in a high position rejected that decision after it was announced.]

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Leadership: China Postponed “Lianghui” (“The Two Conferences”)
• Leadership: Chinese Leaders Are Planning Hide-out Place While Fighting the Coronavirus
• Leadership: “Turning Point Has Not Come Yet”
• Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: Xi Jinping Ordered Wuhan Lockdown
• Leadership: Some Chinese Media Showed Voices of Discord

Continue reading →

The “Lianghui,” or the “Two Conferences,” is a common Mandarin Chinese abbreviation for the national or local People’s Congress and the national or local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. It’s a rubber stamp process to show that representatives of the people in the country or in a local region review and approve the work of the central or local government and make decisions on the personnel in the committees of the People’s Congress and the People’s Political Consultative Conference.

The national level of the “Lianghui” was scheduled to be held in Beijing in early March. There had been reports that Beijing would postpone them due to the coronavirus outbreak. On February 24, Beijing officially announced the suspension decision without a specific date for when the meetings would be rescheduled.

Ming Pao, a Hong Kong based media with ties to Beijing, reported on February 20 that Xi Jinping did not want to postpone the meetings. Most of the Politburo Standing Committee members preferred to do so. There were three reasons against holding the conferences:

• Gathering over 10,000 people in Beijing presents a big risk of coronavirus infection.
• Li Keqiang strongly requested that the meeting be postponed because he needed to rewrite the government work report to re-adjust for the impact of the epidemic .
• Officials are tied to fighting the coronavirus and do not have time to prepare for the two conferences.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Leadership: Chinese Leaders Are Planning Hide-out Place While Fighting the Coronavirus
• Leadership: “Turning Point Has Not Come Yet”
• Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: Xi Jinping Ordered Wuhan Lockdown
• Leadership: Xi Stressed Biosafety as Part of National Security System

Continue reading →

Beijing admitted that, by February 20, over 500 people in five prisons had been infected with the coronavirus.

• Wuhan Women’s Prison – 230 cases
• Hubei Provincial Hanjin Prison – 41 confirmed cases and 9 suspected cases
• Hubei Juvenile Correctional Institute – 1 suspected case
• Rencheng Prison, Shandong Province – 200 confirmed cases and 10 suspected cases
• Shilifeng Prison, Zhejiang Province – 34 cases.

To respond to the incidents, Guo Shenkuo, Communist Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee which oversees the prison systems visited a detention center and a prison on February 23. He called for “wartime state” prison management. Continue reading →

According to South China Morning Post, China has cancelled or postponed many conferences due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. At least 177 exhibitions set for February had been called off and another 262 exhibitions scheduled in March, are likely to be cancelled or rescheduled. Some high-profile events are:

• Annual National People’s Congress
• Annual Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
• Canton Trade Fair, China’s largest and oldest trade expo
• The Boao Forum for Asia, a Davos-style gathering of regional business and political elites
• The China Development Forum, a gathering of global business executives organized by the Development Research Center of the State Council
• Shanghai International Industrial Automation and Robot Exhibition
• Prolight and Sound Fair in Guangzhou
• International Equipment Machinery Exhibition in Jinan city
• 2020 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition

Source: South China Morning Post, February 21, 2020
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3051725/coronavirus-china-postpone-tropical-davos-outbreak-derails

Hangzhou Daily newspaper, under its Weibo account, reported that the government of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, gave companies directions that they should get employees to return to work and can punish those who refused to come back.

At the city’s coronavirus epidemic control press conference, Liu Zhiyong, a Party member from the Hangzhou Municipal Human Resources and Social Affairs Bureau stated, “For those employees who are concerned with the coronavirus and do not want to return to work, companies and labor unions should tell them the epidemic control requirements and the importance of resuming production, to persuade them to report to work. For those who do not listen or use improper excuses to refuse to return work, companies can handle them according to the law.”

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Resuming Production: E-Commerce Company Dangdang Found an Infection Case after Resuming Work
• Resuming Production: Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Sichuan Working on Resuming Production
• Resuming Production: Jiangxi and Guizhou Provinces Working on Fully Resuming Production
• Resuming Production: Companies Discover Coronavirus Cases after Resuming Work – February 16

Continue reading →