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Stability Control: Facial Recognition Even If Wearing a Face Mask

As almost every Chinese has been wearing a face mask amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus, Beijing has been actively working on enhancing its capability to monitor people’s faces.

Hanwang Technology Co, a high-tech intelligent pattern recognition company headquartered in Beijing, announced that it has developed a new facial recognition technology to use against people who are behind face masks. The company started the project in January and finished it in about a month.

Hanwang claimed a 95 percent accuracy against people wearing face masks and 99.5 percent accuracy against people without face masks.

Hanwang offers two products based on this technology. One is a single channel product that can be used at the entrance of an office building. The other is a multi-channel recognition system that can be connected with multiple monitoring cameras; it can identify each face instantly from a group of over 30 people.

The primary customer for these products is the Ministry of Public Security.

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“World Leader”: Beijing Released a Documentary “The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan”

China Global Television Network (CGTN), a television outlet that the United States defined as a foreign mission for promoting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda, recently released a documentary in English “The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan.”

According to CCTV, this 33-minutes-long documentary covered the development of the novel coronavirus’ from its rapid outbreak in Wuhan through its gradually being brought under control. It fully covered each major measure the Chinese government took under the CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s direct leadership; recorded the great sacrifices of the medical staff members; and it depicted the determination of Wuhan’s citizens, including community workers, volunteers, and the delivery staff, to fight the epidemic.

On February 28, CGTN broadcasted it on the CGTN’s English channel and posted it on CGTN’s website, mobile apps, and social media accounts on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. By March 4, the documentary had a viewership of 16.89 million, with 1.46 million views from YouTube and 1.16 million from Facebook. 165 TV channels and new media platforms in 21 foreign countries and regions utilized the video.

The CCTV article stated, “As an English documentary with story and depth, ‘The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan’ used the format that Westerners are accustomed to, to describe a touching epidemic-fighting story of the medical staff and of normal Wuhan citizens.”

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Leadership: Xi Jinping’s Fake Wuhan Show

Xi Jinping visited Wuhan on March 10. He had a tele-conference with the medical staff working at the Huoshenshan Hospital and also visited a local community.

Radio France International reported that Xi’s visit to the local community, the East Lake Courtyard Community, was a fake show.

Postings on social media reported that police officers came to residents’ homes and sat on the balconies, to prevent residents from watching Xi’s visit, leaving the apartment, or shouting from the apartment. A posting on a social media group of the East Lake Courtyard Community was an “Emergency Notice” to the First Unit and Second Unit of the 29th Building in the community. The notice said, “Today, the Wuhan Police Department will send police officers to enter each home on or above the 9th floor for a security check. They will stay inside the home for an hour. Police officers will wear protection uniforms and disinfect themselves in advance. Everyone please support the work of the police.”

The Wuhan police did this because when Sun Chunlan, the Vice Premier, visited a residential neighborhood on March 5, people shouted “Fake” to greet her. (See Chinascope posting: Hiding Information: Residents Shouted “Fake” When Sun Chunlan Visited a Residential Neighborhood)

Another video on Internet showed that Xi Jinping’s car slowly entered into the community. Then Xi came out. A female voice in the video asked, “Can we shout now?” No response. A little bit later, an official came to greet Xi and raised his arm to signal the start. The female voice asked again, “Can we shout now?” Another female voice answered, “Yes.” Then came the two females’ voices shouting, “Hello Chairman Xi! Hello Chairman Xi! Go Wuhan! Go China!” Xi answered, “Good, Hello!” Netizens pointed out that these two women could have been actresses staged to play residents there.

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Leadership: Political Signs of Xi Jinping’s Visit to Wuhan

Xi Jinping visited Wuhan on March 10. He had a tele-conference with the medical staff working at the Huoshenshan Hospital and he also visited a local community.

Radio Free Asia published a few commentators’ views on Xi’s trip. According to their comments, Xi’s visit to Wuhan indicated that Xi thinks the fight against the epidemic has come to a point where he could claim victory for the first phase and take credit for his leadership. It is time to convert the plague to his personal victory and deal with any news against Xi that is spreading in China. Xi probably wants to use his Wuhan trip to get rid of the criticism, both from within the Chinese Communist Party and outside of the party.

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World Outbreak: Four Countries Account for 93 Percent of World’s Infections

The novel coronavirus outbreak is rapidly spreading around the world. The virus has spread to over 100 countries, with a total of more than 110,000 confirmed infection cases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that, among the 110,000 cases, 93 percent of them come from four countries (China, Italy, Iran, and South Korea).

According to Worldometers’ statistics, on March 11, China had 80,778 cases, Italy had 10,149, Iran had 8,042, and South Korea had 7,755. The fifth country on the list, France, has 1,784, about 6,000 lower than South Korea, the country in the fourth position .

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Hiding Information: Wuhan Newspaper Said Doctor Reported Infection Cases in December and Authorities Took Action Immediately

[Editor’s Note: People are trying to find out who is responsible for the government’s not taking action to prevent or contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan until January 20. Although the SARS-like pneumonia cases had already been reported to the local government and the central government in late December and early January, both the Hubei government and the Wuhan local government, as well as the Central government each tried to clear their own name and to hold the other parties accountable.]

Changjiang Daily, the newspaper under the Wuhan Party Committee, represented that Dr. Zhang Xijian first reported the pneumonia cases to her hospital leadership and then to the Hubei and Wuhan Health Commissions, which then took proper actions.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection website republished the story.

According to this story, Dr. Zhang works at the Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine (TCM-WM) Integrated Hospital.

  • On December 26, 2019, Dr. Zhang encountered four patients with pneumonia that was different from other viral pneumonia.
  • On December 27, she reported the cases to the hospital leadership. The hospital immediately reported the cases to the Jianghan District Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Wuhan City.
  • On December 28 and 29, the hospital received three more patients. Out of the seven cases, four were linked to the South China Seafood market.  Dr. Zhang reported to the hospital leadership again and suggested that there be a joint diagnosis involving multiple departments of the hospital.
  • On December 29, the hospital held a joint diagnosis. They also found two more similar cases at Tongji Hospital and Wuhan Union Hospital, also linked to the South China Seafood Market. So the hospital reported the cases to both the Hubei Provincial Health Commission and the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.
  • On December 29, both the Hubei and the Wuhan Health Commissions immediately responded, requesting the Wuhan CDC, the Jianghan District CDC, and the Jinyintan Hospital that is specialized in treating infectious diseases go to the TCM-WM Integrated Hospital.
  • On the evening of December 29, Jinyintan Hospital came and transferred six patients over. One patient refused to go, so he stayed with Dr. Zhang and was cured and released on January 7.

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Local Government: Hubei People Struggle to Live in Other Provinces

Apple Daily, a Hong Kong media, reported that people from Hubei Province are experiencing difficulties trying to live in other provinces after the outbreak of the coronavirus, as local governments have carried out efforts to gather and quarantine people who came out of Hubei.

Xiao Jun, a Hubei citizen who came to work at Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province a year ago and has stayed there since then, has been unable to find a job, simply because he is from Hubei. In the Hubei folks WeChat group that he joined, which has over 200 members, people shared their experiences of not being able to find a job in other provinces. They have also not been able to go home either (because their hometowns are locked down); many people can’t find a place to live and thus have to stay homeless at train station or on the street. Someone also shared a picture with the WeChat group: an industry region in Guangzhou erected a sign that said “Cars and People from Hubei Are not Allowed to Enter.”

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Hiding Information: Expert Group Members Thought Hubei Officials Hid Information

[Editor’s Note: As people have been trying to find out who is responsible for the government not taking any action to prevent or contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan until January 20, though the SARS-like pneumonia cases had already been reported to the local government and the central government in late December and early January, the Hubei and Wuhan local governments and the Central government have been trying to clear their own names and to hold the other party accountable.]

Recently, Caixin reported two members of the National Health Commission’s high-level expert groups were sent to Wuhan spoke and indicated that Wuhan officials had hidden information during their visits.

The first expert remained anonymous and was a member of the second expert group. He said that they were particularly concerned if any medical staff had been infected because a “Yes” answer would mean the virus could transmit from person to person and could be highly contagious.

They asked about it at every hospital they visited and always got “No” as the answer. They suspected the result and asked hospitals to tell the truth.

A local Health Commission official countered back, “Do you think that I am lying to you?”

The expert said, “Based on the true situation (that we now know), he was lying.”

Caixin’s article was deleted. United Daily News, a media based in Taiwan covered Caixin’s report.

The second expert was Yuan Guoyong, a Professor at the Department of Microbiology, the University of Hong Kong. As a member of the third high-level expert group, he went to Wuhan from January 17 to January 19. He said in an interview with a Caixin reporter:

“I want to give a true account. The places that we visited in Wuhan were probably the ‘demo units.’ Whatever we asked, they gave an answer as if they had already prepared the answer. Zhong Nanshan kept asking ‘Are there more cases?’ ‘Are there truly just these many cases that you told us about?’

“They said that they were conducting testing to confirm cases. However, the Hubei Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not receive testing kits until January 16.

“Under our questions, they said that there seemed to be a case in which a patient infected 14 medical staff members, but they said those medical personnel had not been confirmed to have the  coronavirus infection yet.

“They are the people from the Wuhan Health Commission, Wuhan CDC, Wuhan local hospitals, and Hubei Provincial Health Commission.

“They kept emphasizing that the testing kits were just given to Wuhan and without the testing kits they could not have confirmed the cases.”

1. Excerpt in Chinese:

財經雜誌微信公眾號「財經E法」2月26日發布一則第二批專家組成員的專訪。這位不願具名的專家指出,他們當時掌握兩起家庭聚集性病例,但未能排除是因「共同暴露」所造成。而醫護人員和病人通常沒有密切接觸,因此只要醫護人員遭感染,一定是「人傳人」,而且病毒傳染性非常強。

所以,這位專家表示,專家組特別關心是否有醫護人員被傳染,每到一間醫院就問,但答案都是否定。他表示,當時專家組也懷疑這個說法,要對方如實報告,而當地衛健委的官員當場反問:「你們是不是覺得我瞞報啊?」

專家表示,當時收到的指示是「屬地管理,地方為主」,救治工作還是由湖北和武漢的專家組負責,國家衛健委的專家組只是協助。

而據媒體後來披露,當時已經有武漢的醫護人員遭感染,住院救治。這名專家說:「從現在的真實情況看來,他(官員)在說謊。」

這兩篇報導指出中國官方在防疫上存在延誤和隱匿,而報導在刊登不久後,也已陸續遭到刪除。

Source: United Daily News, February 29, 2020
https://udn.com/news/story/120936/4379889

2. Image of Caixin Report:

Source: Caixin, March 8, 2020
http://china.caixin.com/2020-03-08/101525508.html