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Hiding Information: Residents Shouted “Fake” When Sun Chunlan Visited a Residential Neighborhood

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China, it has been rare to see high-rank officials visiting people. Sun Chunlan, Vice Premier and the head the Central Government’s Supervisory Group to Hubei Province, visited a residential neighborhood on March 5, but she was greeted with the residents’ shouts of “Fake.”

According to a video that a local resident provided, when Sun and other officials entered the gate, the apartment residents, who had been forced to stay at home for several weeks, shouted things such as, “Fake, Fake, Everything is Fake.” “The vegetables that the public can buy are too expensive!” “Formalism!”

In the discussion at a WeChat group of the residents, one person concluded, “When Vice Premier Sun Chunlan and Wuhan Municipal Party Secretary Wang Zhonglin came to our building, the property management office didn’t allow us to go downstairs (to meet them). They arranged fake volunteers to deliver vegetables and meat to us.” (Editor’s Note: In Wuhan, people are forced to stay in their apartments and not allowed to go out. The government arranges for people to deliver food to them.)

Another posting said, “The Vice Premier and Wuhan municipal leaders left in the middle of their visit (to our community).”

The official media reported that, afterwards Sun scolded the local officials saying, “Do not hide the problems.” Global Times admitted that online postings regarding the visit were basically true. The Wuhan government then sent people to go to each apartment to gather the resident’s feedback.

People have been commenting, “This is a different kind of human rights appeal under the epidemic.” “We told the emperor to his face that he wasn’t wearing new clothes.” “So glad to shout out the truth!”

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Hiding Information: Xi’an Confirmed a Local Infection but Its Province Reported Zero

On March 5, the Xi’an Municipal High-Tech Zone Epidemic Prevention and Control Center in Shaanxi Province confirmed to the Paper, a news media in Beijing, that the Zhangba Street Epidemic Prevention and Control Center of the High-Tech Zone issued a “Notice on Conducting Strict Quarantine and Observation of the Second Unit of Building #1 at Rome Sicily Neighborhood.” (Rome Sicily Neighborhood is a residential neighborhood).

The Notice said that a patient there had been confirmed as having a novel coronavirus re-infection (the patient was healed but then later tested positive). The patient was taken to a hospital and his family members were also quarantined at a hospital. All other residents at the Second Unit are under strict quarantine measure.

However, from March 4 8 a.m. to March 5 a.m., Shaanxi Province reported zero new infection cases. Since then and for 14 days, the province has kept reporting zero cases.

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Xinhua: US Owes China an Apology and the World Owes China a Thank You

On March 4, Xinhua, the official state-run press agency of the People’s Republic of China, {which is, therefore the voice of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)} published a commentary stating that the U.S. should apologize to China and the world should thank China.

The article said that, as the novel coronavirus epidemic continues developing in the U.S., President Trump has changed his position to praise China. In a press conference, when asked whether the U.S. government would adopt some measures similar to those that China did, if the U.S. epidemic gets worse, Trump responded that he would adopt some Of China’s measures. He stated that China has achieved substantial progress.

The article said that it was obvious that Trump made these statements from his heart. While China’s coronavirus containment has made considerable progress, the U.S. is facing an outbreak.

People should know, when Wuhan had the coronavirus outbreak, the Trump administration was the first to announce that it would remove its citizens from Wuhan, which led many other countries to follow, putting China at an awkward position.

Not only that, the U.S. also restricted Chinese and people from other countries that entered China from coming to the U.S. This led the world to isolate China, which had a great impact on China’s economy.

Now, if China takes revenge on the U.S., besides restricting Americans from coming to China, China can also impose strategic control over remedial products and prohibit their sale to the U.S. That would place the U.S. in big trouble. Most of the face masks and medicines in the U.S. are manufactured in China.

Also, Dr. Zhong Nanshan said that though the novel coronavirus broke out in China, its origin may not have been in China. Therefore, China has no reason to apologize (to the world).

“Now we can righteously demand, the U.S. owes China an apology and the world owes China a thank you!” Continue reading

Resuming Production: Companies in Shenzhen Fight for Laborers

Jiemian Media reported that, as companies in Shenzhen City are resuming production, many face a hard time finding enough laborers to fill their positions. Foxconn, the major vendor for Apple, has less than half of the workers it needs for its factory; its low production volume led to the delay in introducing the new iPhone. The factories that manufacture BYD cars are short about 2,000 workers. Lenovo’s factory in Shenzhen interviewed 600 people in one day. Foxconn offered 7,000 yuan (US $1,000) as an employee referral bonus.

The pay for temporary workers increased from 16 to 18 yuan per hour and is now 22 yuan. Foxconn pays 30 yuan. A hidden rule was that manufacturers would only hire people from 18 to 40, but now many companies have increased the age limit to 45 or 50.

The main reason is that local government’s strict lockdowns and closures as they try to control the spread of coronavirus has resulted in people being unable to return to Shenzhen.

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Source: Jiemian Media, March 4, 2020
https://www.jiemian.com/article/4056399.html

Infection Count: Cured Patients Tested COVID-19 Positive Again

Both Guangzhou and Wuhan reported that after being released from hospitals patients who had healed from the coronavirus infection had re-tested as COVID-19 positive.

On February 25, Li Yueping, Director of the ICU at Guangzhou No 8 People’s Hospital said, when they conducted a follow-up with the patients who had their coronavirus healed, they found 13 patients tested positive for coronavirus again.

On March 4, a supervisor from the Jiang’an Modular Hospital at Wuhan told The Paper that Jiang’an Modular Hospital issued an emergency notice, stating that, according to the Wuhan Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, recently quite a few patients who had their coronavirus cured re-developed the virus and therefore were hospitalized again.

A supervisor at Guobo Modular Hospital in Wuhan, in his phone interview with Jiemian Media, said, “The municipal CDC issued a notice to temporarily stop releasing cured patients to go home. The notice was sent to all modular hospitals in Wuhan. In the past, my modular hospital released 30 or 40 patients a day.”

The National Health Commission also changed its policy on the “Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Retreatment Plan (Trial Version 7)” from “14 days of self-health monitoring” to “14 days of quarantine management and health monitoring” for the patients released from hospitals. Continue reading

Resuming Production: After Issuing Direction for Movie Industry to Resume Operations, Beijing Said Not to Resume

On February 26, 2020, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a “Direction on Epidemic Prevention When the Beijing Movie Industry Resumes Operations during the Time  when the Novel Coronavirus Is Spreading” (hereinafter the “Direction”). The Direction said that during the initial stage of resuming operations, movie theaters should sell tickets for every other seat on every other row, employees and audience members must wear face masks and be tested for their temperature, and the ticket office must record each audience member’s information.

The Direction made people wonder if Beijing would open movie theaters for business.

However, on February 27, Chen Bei, Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal Government, stated at a press conference that it was not the right time to re-open movie theaters and the movie industry would not resume operations.

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Leadership: Conflicting Messages Between National Health Commission and Hubei Province

On March 2, the spokesperson of the National Health Commission said at a press conference, “The rapid escalation of the Wuhan epidemic is under control. In addition to Wuhan, the regional outbreak in other places in Hubei Province is also under control.”

On March 3, the Hubei Provincial government held a press conference on the status of the control of the province’s epidemic. Yang Yunyan, the Deputy Hubei Governor, said, “The situation of the epidemic in Hubei is still very severe. In the whole province, over 20,000 patients are still in the hospital and 6,000 patients are in a severe or critical condition. The risk of a large infection is still not under fundamental control.”

[Editor’s Note: Another political controversy was that, on February 28, Ma Xiaowei, Director of National Health Commission, praised Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang despite the fact that Zhou had openly challenged the Chinese Communist Party Central Leadership by stating that, until January 20, he was not “authorized” to release information to the pubic and take action. Zhou also claimed that he made the decision to lock down Wuhan, while Xi Jinping was also said to be the person who made that decision. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: A Political Controversy: Head of National Health Commission Praised Wuhan Mayor)

Ying Yong, Xi’s loyalist and the newly appointed Hubei Provincial Party Secretary, is in charge of Hubei’s epidemic control.]

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Leadership: A Political Controversy: Head of National Health Commission Praised Wuhan Mayor

After Beijing replaced the Hubei Provincial Party Secretary and Wuhan Municipal Party Secretary for ineffective control of the coronavirus in Wuhan and Hubei, the media rarely mentioned the Wuhan Mayor, Zhou Xianwang.

However, HK01, a media in Hong Kong, reported that, on February 28 at a press conference, Ma Xiaowei, a member of the Central government’s Supervision Group at Hubei and Director of the National Health Commission, called Zhou Xianwang out and praised him for “directing work on the front line, mobilizing people in person, and organizing (hospital) construction work around the clock.” One of Zhou’s achievements was building 16 modular hospitals with 13,000 beds that host 12,000 patients.

New Tang Dynasty (NTDTV), a New York based independent Chinese language Television media, pointed out that this news was special because, in the past, Zhou Xianwang openly challenged the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) central leadership, which is very rarely  seen in China’s political system.

In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) on January 27, 2020, Zhou said that, until January 20, he had not been “authorized” to release information to the public or to take action. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: Wuhan Mayor Not “Authorized” to Release Epidemic Information to the Public Before)

Then on February 11, 2020, Changjiang Daily, the official newspaper under the Wuhan Communist Party Committee, published an article to defend Zhou as he was not authorized to take action. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: Wuhan Municipal Website Defended Its Mayor)

In his CCTV interview, Zhou also stated that he made the decision to lock down Wuhan. However, on February 20, Ding Xiangyang, the Deputy Chief Secretary of the State Council and a member of the Central government’s Supervision Group at Hubei, stated that it was Xi Jinping who ordered the Wuhan lockdown. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: Xi Jinping Ordered Wuhan Lockdown)

Therefore, the praise of Zhou Xianwang may have a number of political messages behind it.

The Director of the Central government’s Supervision Group at Hubei is Vice Premier Sun Chunlan. The Deputy Director is Chen Yixin, Party Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee Political and Legal Affairs Committee, who is said to be a Xi Jinping loyalist.

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