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Propaganda: CCP Organized Chinese Olympics Athletes to Vow to Compete for Its Superior Leader

On January 25, Beijing organized over 170 athletes competing in the Beijing Winter Olympics Games to come to Tiananmen Square to make a vow. The vow was in the strong style of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda that was rare to see in China these days but common during Mao Zedong’s era.

Their vow consisted of five sentences:

“For the sake of the motherland – rush, rush, rush (为了祖国冲冲冲)

To live up to the people’s expectations – fight, fight, fight (不负人民拼拼拼)

To repay the Superior Leader I will spare no effort (报答领袖豁出去)

Always compete for first place and never give up (永争第一不认怂)

Follow the (CCP’s) General Secretary to go to the future (跟着总书记一起向未来)”

Chinese netizens criticized that some sentences in the vow were so flagrant in order to please the communist party leader Xi Jinping and that nowadays, people can only see this style of communication in North Korea’s propaganda. Some state media avoided mentioning some sentences. Youth Daily  (a newspaper under the Shanghai Communist Youth League Committee) posted a title of the event with a blank page. CCTV reported the event, but its video cut out the third and fourth sentences.

The full vow can be seen here: https://twitter.com/GaoFalin/status/1486366103060336644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1486366103060336644%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.secretchina.com%2Fnews%2Fgb%2F2022%2F01%2F28%2F996347.html

CCTV’s news video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVSzU0vXX4g

Source: Epoch Times, January 28, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/1/28/n13535794.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Government/Politics

Economy: 200,000 People in China Stopped Paying their Mortgage

Recently a message was widely discussed on the Internet. On January 14, Professor Han Fuling of the Central University of Finance and Economics obtained some “insider information” and posted it: When 2022 started, over 200,000 people had stopped making their mortgage payments and were sued by the four major banks in China. The next day, Professor Han posted a message from an attorney in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province: “So many people have stopped their mortgage payments. We were exhausted after sending (that many) attorney letters.”

Recently China’s real estate prices in certain cities have dropped. Many people lost their jobs last year. Thus, people may be unable or are unwilling to make their mortgage payments. However, China does not have a way to protest if individuals decide to go bankrupt. If the person defaults on his mortgage payment, he will not only lose his down payment, but he is still responsible for (and thus, has to pay) the financial loss to the bank. If the bank auctions off the house but can’t fully recover the money, then that the person still owes the bank.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 21, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/zhuanlan/jingmaorediansaomiao/econ-01212022154111.html

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources

Pandemic: Eight Provinces and Municipalities in China Reported COVID-19 Cases

On January 25, eight provinces and municipalities in China reported COVID-19 cases, including Beijing, Henan, Hebei, Tianjin, Shanghai, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Xinjiang.

Beijing has seven high risk or medium risk regions. The Beijing government reported 15 infection cases on January 25. Xu Hejian, Vice Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee said, “The current pandemic situation in Beijing is serious and complicated.”

The Chinese Communist Party is known to hide the COVID-19 information. So, the actual infection situation is unknown.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source: Epoch Times, January 25, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/1/25/n13528036.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Economy: Beijing’s Foreign Exchange Settlement Surplus Is Due to Drop in Chinese Tourists Who Go Overseas

In January 2022, China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange published data showing that the total foreign exchange settlement in 2021 had a surplus of US $267.6 billion, an increase of $110 billion from the $158.7 billion surplus in 2020.

Epoch Times pointed out that this surplus was mainly due to the drop in Chinese tourists’ spending overseas. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 20 million Chinese traveled abroad, a drop of 87 percent from a year earlier. Chinese tourists’ spending overseas was $116 billion. It was less than what the foreign tourists spent in China.

In 2021, an estimated 25.6 million Chinese went abroad. The total tourists’ spending difference has not been released, but in the first half of 2021, Chinese tourists’ spending overseas was US $44.4 billion less than what the foreign tourists spent in China. Following this trend, the annual tourists spending gap will be around US $100 billion. Therefore, China’s foreign exchange settlement surplus may just come from Chinese tourists spending less overseas.

Source: Epoch Times, January 25, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/1/25/n13529285.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources

Pandemic: Beijing Winter Olympics Will Not Sell Tickets

On January 17, the authorities in China announced the decision not to sell tickets to the Beijing Winter Olympic Games to the general public. Instead, it will give tickets free to those people the government trusts. This is due to the continuous spread of the COVID-19 virus in several cities in China, including Beijing.

The earlier plan was to sell the game tickets to Chinese citizens only. Foreign visitors were not allowed to watch the games.

Some sources suggested that Beijing might give tickets to government employees or employees of companies listed on stock exchanges.

AFP  (Agence France-Presse) said that, last week, Beijing introduced the concept of a closed ring concept , which will isolate the athletes, officials, volunteers, drivers, and cooks completely from the general public in China.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source: Radio France International, January 17, 2022
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/中国/20220117-北京冬季奥运会-不卖票但测选观众

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Pandemic: Beijing Reported COVID Cases

China reported COVID-19 cases including the Omicron mutant. Beijing reported an Omicron case on January 15. It also reported 5 COVID cases on January 19. The Beijing government spokesperson said the Omicron and Delta variants were cross spreading in Beijing and created a higher risk for COVID prevention. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding COVID information, so the actual infection situation is unknown.

Beijing reported that two patients in Fangshan District (counted in the January 19 infection cases) had not left Beijing in the past 14 days. This made people wonder if they got the virus from other people in whom the infection had not yet been detected.

However, the CCP blamed the international mail and the international supply chain. The authorities said that the patient in the January 15 case received an international mail that had been sent from Canada on January 7, going through the United States and Hong Kong, and then arriving in Beijing on January 11. Chinese medical experts found the Omicron virus on that international mail.

Other Chinese cities also blamed international shipping for spreading the COVID virus. Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province said an Omicron patient in their city received an international mail on January 12.  Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province said a COVID patient in their city worked in the international supply chain field.

However, experts outside of China questioned the possibility of the mail spreading COVID. Some argued that the virus trace on the mail could have been from the patient who might have already caught COVID  by the time he received the mail. The Wall Street Journal also quoted a London doctor, Martin Hibberd, who stated that there is not much evidence to support the theory that COVID can spread over an object’s surface. The virus might only live for 10 minutes on the surface, but shipping can take several hours or even several days.”

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. BBC, January 18, 2022
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-60035864
2. Economic Daily, January 20, 2022
http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/202201/20/t20220120_37273365.shtml

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Pandemic: Xuchang Police Accused a COVID Testing Company of Spreading the Virus

On January 12, the  Xuchang Police in Henan Province published a short announcement. The police claimed that manager Zhang of the KingMed Diagnostics’ office in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, “violated the provisions of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act and committed acts that caused the spread of the (COVID-19) virus or which had a serious risk of causing such a spread.” The police started an investigation into the case.

In early January, Xuchang found COVID cases in its affiliated city Yuzhou and locked down Yuzhou. Last month, it became the second city in the province to be locked down after Xi’an.

KingMed Diagnostics is the largest medical lab testing COVID-19 in China. By November 2011, it had completed 220 million COVID tests, which was the highest number among all labs in the world.  Zhong Nanshan, a communist regime endorsed COVID-19 expert doctor, who speaks for the government from time to time, created the company.

Since the police didn’t disclose what Zhang did, there were rumors on the Internet about what happened. One guess was that KingMed spread the virus and in the meantime collected money from the government for testing it. Another guess was that KingMed received many testing samples but couldn’t complete them in the required time-frame; then the manager reported the test results were ALL negative and discarded the samples that they didn’t have time to test. However, later the government found there were positives cases.

The next day, January 13, KingMed published a statement that the Zhengzhou KingMed office received the Xuchang City’s request to participate in the COVID testing. Zhang and five other people formed a supporting team and came to Yuzhou. They worked on the testing from January 2 to 9. The company’s statement also denied the rumors of “actively spreading the virus,” “faking test results,” and “hiding infection numbers.” The company said that it reserves the right to go after those who spread rumors.

Other postings on Chinascope:
Pandemic: Omicron Appeared in China and One More City Locked Down
Pandemic: COVID Spread to Henan and Zhejiang Province
Pandemic: Xi’an Locked Down

Sources:
1. BBC, January 13, 2022
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-59976287
2. China News Agency Finance, January 13, 2022
http://www.jwview.com/jingwei/html/01-13/457207.shtml

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Pandemic: Omicron Appeared in China and One More City Was Locked Down

By January 10, six cities in China reported Omicron cases, including Tianjin, Guangzhou (Guangdong Province), Shenzhen (Guangdong Province), Changsha (Hunan Province), Anyang (Henan Province), and Wuxi (Zhejiang Province).

Tianjin reported two cases on January 8. So far, the city has not been locked down, but started COVID testing of all 14 million residents in the city.

On January 10, Anyang reported that its cases were from Tianjin. The city, with 5.5 million residents, locked itself down, becoming the third city that was locked down in China. The first two cities were Xi’an, Shaanix Province (13 million people) and Yuzhou, Henan Province (1.1 million people).

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. SINA, January 11, 20222
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2022-01-11/doc-ikyakumx9563836.shtml
2. Deutsche Welle, January 10, 2022
https://www.dw.com/zh/奥密克戎案例增-中国再封城影响两千万人/a-60384737

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability