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Pandemic: One Doctor Serves Nine Villages

China Newsweek reported, “A doctor who graduated from a secondary vocational school is responsible for the medical care for nine villages and a total of 1,400 people. When the COVID epidemic wave hit there, he had only a few boxes of fever reduction medicine and 30 antigen test kits.” In the past three years, his villages didn’t treat any patient who had a fever or store any medicine, nor would COVID medicine be shipped there since they were in remote mountains. This doctor spent 3,000 yuan (US$440), of his own money to buy an oxygen machine for his patients.

Normally China’s village hospitals do not have enough medical staff members, medical beds, ventilators, or extra-corporeal life support devices. However, many elderly people in villages do not have regular medical checkups and they often had some different illnesses already before COVID hit. Thus such villages face a much tougher fight against the COVID infection wave.

Even the county level hospitals are short of ventilators: only half of the beds have them.

Source: China News Agency, January 16, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202301160242.aspx

Hot Topics | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

Henan Province Announced It Has Passed The COVID Pandemic Peak

The Henan Provincial government announced on January 9 that the province has passed the peak of the COVID infection. At a news conference, the government stated that, by January 6, 89 percent of people in the province had been infected with the COVID virus; and that, according to the data of patients seeking fever treatment, the peak of the infection was reached on December 19, 2022. Since then, the count of the infected  has continuously been decreasing.

The Chinese Communist Party has been hiding the COVID infection count in China. Using the province’s population in 2021 – 98.83 million people – it means 88 million people in Henan, one province alone, had been infected with COVID.

Source: Zhengzhou Daily, January 9, 2023
https://www.zzrbnews.com/kangyi/202210/content-e9c1f68b86ac869b.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Chinese Created a New Term: “Human Mine”

The Chinese have recently created a term to describe themselves: the term is: “human mine” (人矿). Some people created a term “huminerals.” It means that an individual human is treated as a mine; whereas the authorities (the communist regime) take the valuable resources from the mine and then dispose of it when its  resources are used up and it becomes useless.

An article discussed ten points that this term reveals to people. The following are some excerpts from the article:

1. You are a resource, not a subject; you are means, not an end goal. (You are) exhausting your whole life’s energy in order to benefit someone else, not for your own life goals.

2. The life of a human mine has three stages: Mining, Use, and Waste Treatment. The first dozen years of education were an investment in you to turn you into a usable mine. In the middle few decades, you are consumed. Eventually, when you are no longer usable, you will be disposed of in a way that is as non-polluting as possible.

5. The value of a human mine is similar to coal, oil, or other natural resources. It is cheap when there is an ample supply and expensive when there are few.

7. A related concept to “human mine” is the “mine owner.” The mine owner mines the human mine and gives that person (the human mine) a chance to “dedicate himself” to (the owner). [Note: the Chinese Communist Party has a propaganda slogan to ask people to “dedicate themselves” to the over-all society.]

10. The awakened human mine feels the pain if he cannot change anything. To reduce this pain, he has to muddle through and pretend he is asleep. So, when you see a group of silent man-mines, you don’t know how many are actually awake until a particular moment (when people finally speak or act out).

Source: China Digital Times, January 2, 2023
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/691612.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability

Dalian University of Technology Posted 25 Obituaries in One Day; Quickly Deleted after Netizens Discovered Them

Taiwan news media Newtalk reported that China’s 2023 seems to be the “year of obituaries.” Dalian University of Technology in Liaoning Province issued 25 obituaries on January 3. All of the deceased were teachers and professors who died around New Year’s Day. After attracting attention from the outside world, the obituaries were immediately removed from the website, leaving the latest news as the ones posted before December 31 of last year.

According to the information available on the website, 33 party members and professors died in December, far more than in the past. This may be related to the authorities’ relaxation of the epidemic prevention policy.

Last month, some Chinese media found that Beijing University and Tsinghua University had a lot of recent obituaries. From the end of October to mid-December, 21 professors from Peking University passed away. 18 professors over 65 from Tsinghua University died between mid-November and early December.

Source: New Talk, January 5, 2023
https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2023-01-05/851770

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Chinese Are Protesting for Unpaid Wages

Thousands of workers at Zybio, a pharmaceutical company in Chongqing City, held a protest inside the factory and even clashed with the special police force which came to suppress them.

Zybio designs and manufactures medical diagnostic reagents and instruments. According to an interview with a Zybio employee, the company hired around seven thousand temporary workers in early December, promising to pay them 1,000 yuan (US$146) as a bonus on top of their hourly pay if they would work until January 21 and another 2,000 yuan bonus if they worked until February 15.

On January 6, the company announced it would lay off 8,000 people. Most of them were those temporary workers. The company said they lost orders. It used to produce COVID nucleic acid extraction testing kits, which were in high demand when Beijing carried out the “zero-COVID” policy. It switched to producing antigen testing kits after the government stopped that policy. However, workers suspected that Zybio had enough orders but used a lack of orders as an excuse to avoid paying a bonus to the workers.

A smaller group of people started protesting on the evening of January 6. Since the company executives hid themselves and only let the factory manager arrange the layoff, people got furious and started smashing things. Several thousand workers gathered at the company on the next day. A few more company executives were found and beaten.

Special police came to the factory. Some videos posted online showed the clashes between the workers and the police, including a video showing that a small group of policemen retreated while the workers were chasing and throwing things at them.

The protesters shouted one appeal: “We just want our salaries.”

Zybio proposed a resolution: It would pay every worker their December salary on January 7 and their January salary on January 8. In addition, it would pay 1,000 yuan to those who left as their severance pay, or to those who stayed as a bonus.

Since people got the money they demanded, they accepted the proposal. The protesters all left the company immediately.

Demanding unpaid wages has been a big issue when the Chinese New Year has approached. The government has demonstrated the habit of delaying payments to its contractors and companies. It has also had the habit of delaying payment to, or not paying in the end, its subcontractors or workers. Since migrant workers usually go home for Chinese New Year, they started a protest to demand their money before the Near Year.

This year has been even harder as some companies have struggled to survive due to the bad economy in China.

A netizen posted 40 videos about people at different places, including Beijing, Guangdong,  Shandong, Hebei, and other locations, demanding the payment of their wages on either January 4 or January 5.

The authorities somehow belittled the workers who tried to defend their own rights, as their actions interrupted society’s stability. Sometimes the government uses force to drive the workers away. Some officials came up with a term “malicious wage collection” to defame those workers who were actually victims.

Recently an online posting showed a banner hanging at a company, saying, “Fiercely crack down on malicious wage collection actions; defend the company’s illegal action of not paying wages.”

It is yet to be seen how the salary demand protest will continue its development in China.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, January 7, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/7/n13901673.htm
2. Radio Free Asia, January 5, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/kw-01052023132119.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Social Stability

CNA: First Day of Spring Festival Travel Recorded 30 Million Travelers

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that China’s Covid prevention policies have been downgraded. Many people are having their first return home reunion in three years. On the 7th, the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush, a total of 34.736 million passengers were transported by railways, roads and airways in China. This represents an increase of 38.9 percent over the same period in 2022. China’s Spring Festival travel is known to be the largest population movement on the surface of the Earth. The 2023 Spring Festival travel period is from January 7th to February 15th, a total of 40 days. Xu Chengguang, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transportation, said that the total passenger flow during the Spring Festival travel period this year is estimated to be about 2.095 billion, an increase of 99.5 percent over the same period last year, and returned to 70.3 percent of the same period in 2019. Among them, visiting relatives accounted for about 55 percent of the passenger flow, work accounted for about 24 percent, plus tourism and business travel accounted for about 10 percent respectively. However, this year’s Spring Festival travel peak is superimposed with the Covid peak, which made this Spring Festival travel the most uncertain and the most complicated one. The situation introduces the greatest difficulties and challenges in recent years. At this moment, it is hard to find train tickets, and many popular routes have been sold out. In addition, there is also an increase in demand for flights. According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, during the Spring Festival travel season, an average of 11,000 passenger flights will be arranged daily.

Source: CNA, January 8, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202301080129.aspx

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

COVID Death Revealed CCP Officials Transplant Organs so They Can Live Longer

Gao Zhanxiang, a former Deputy Party Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, died of COVID on December 9, 2022.

Zhu Yongxin, a Standing Committee member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy (a decorative party that the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has allowed to exist in China to show it has “democracy”), wrote an article to pay tribute to Gao.

The last paragraph said, “Over the years, Gao Zhanxiang had been tenaciously fighting diseases. He had replaced many organs and jokingly said that many parts in his body were not his anymore. However, before the COVID epidemic, he was still hale and hearty, quick-thinking and loud, not like a patient at all. I didn’t expect that he would leave us so soon.”

This is a revelation that the CCP officials transplant other people’s organs into their own bodies in order to live longer.

The article has been removed. But a screenshot is still existing and has been spread around.

Source: Epoch Times, January 4, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/4/n13898904.htm

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics Social Stability

A “Firecracker Revolution” Took Place in China

After the blank-sheet paper protest, also called the “A4 Revolution” where A4 refers to the paper size, Chinese people started a new protest on the rights to set off firecrackers – some people called it the “Firecracker Revolution.”

Setting off firecrackers is a Chinese tradition to celebrate the new year. It had been a must-have activity for many years. However, in the past decade, the authorities banned it in the cities due to the risk of causing fires.

On Near Year’s eve, people in Xuchang City, Henan Province gathered at a central square. Some set off firecrackers. Police tried to arrest the “offenders,” but were blocked by other people. More and more people set off firecrackers at different spots on the square. In the end, the police gave up and let people enjoy their celebration.

A similar firecracker “offense” took place in Luyi County, Zhoukou City of the same province in central China on the next night. Police came and started arresting people. According to an  online video, a large group of people surrounded the police car, demanding the release of those who had been arrested. People and police officers pushed each other. Some young people smashed the police car, breaking its front windshield. Eventually people flipped the police car upside down. Special police came and arrested six people.

The “Firecracker Revolution” also happened in several cities and provinces including Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Guangxi, and Chongqing.

Some cities loosened their restrictions on firecrackers. Dalian City, Liaoning Province announced certain districts that could set off firecrackers on Chinese Near Year’s Eve (January 21 this year). Dongying city and Binzhou City in Shandong Province also announced firecrackers were allowed in certain regions and at certain times.

Some commentators felt that from the A4 revolution to the firecracker revolution, the Chinese people showed that they are no longer so afraid of the authorities. They have started to demand their rights.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, January 4, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/4/n13899249.htm
2. New Talk, January 5, 2023
https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2023-01-05/851861

Briefings | | |   @CS Government/Politics Social Stability