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China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

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Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

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Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

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Government: Office Document Shows Jilin Plans to Impose Lockdown with No Advanced Notice

The Epoch Times reported that an internal government document revealed that the authorities in Jilin Province have decided not to provide notice in advance to all of the residents before locking down a city or a region.

The document referred to the provincial COVID control meeting on April 15, where both the Provincial Party Secretary and Governor attended and spoke. The meeting requested, “After the current lockdown is over, residents should store at least a month-long supply of meat, eggs, and milk and a two weeks-long supply of vegetables. In the future, there won’t be any advanced notice before a lockdown takes place. [The Authorities] will impose a lockdown immediately to avoid close contact [and COVID infections] due to people’s rushing out to buy supplies.”

However, people are questioning if it is realistic for them to store such a big volume of supplies of perishable goods since  they have limited living space and only a small amount of room in their refrigerators.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source: Epoch Times, April 16, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/4/16/n13713245.htm

Hot Topics | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability

Pandemic: Shanghai Adopted Implication Measure to Force People to Go to Modular Hospitals

Shanghai reported 26,330 COVID cases (1,189 confirmed infection cases and 25,141 asymptomatic cases) on April 13. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding COVID information, so the actual infection count is unknown.

One of the methods the Shanghai authorities use to hide the COVID count is the way they handle those people who test positive. The authorities still report them as negative on official records but verbally notify them that they are positive. Then when authorities come to take them to the modular hospitals to isolate them, the infected people refuse to go since their official records show they are negative.

The Shanghai police announced that they will “strictly handle” any actions that COVID patients take in refusing to be placed in isolation. The police  listed ten prohibited actions, including people leaving their apartment while being quarantined and intentionally destroying the seal on their door in order to get out.

A residential committee in Hongkou District issued a notice on April 12 saying, “For those confirmed patients (from official testing), even if their self-test showed negative (which might mean they have healed), they must go to modular hospitals for treatment and obtain a paper stating they are released from quarantine. If residents refuse to go, they will be permanently marked as red in their Health Code application (thus they will have a hard time going out, entering facilities, or traveling); and the whole building in which they live will be put on lockdown. In other words, residents in the entire building will be implicated.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source:
1. Voice of America, April 13, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/shanghai-vows-punishment-for-covid-lockdown-violators-as-cases-hit-25-000-20220413/6527652.html
2. Radio Free Asia, April 13, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/ql1-04132022042018.html

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Government: Beijing Criticized Shanghai Officials for Passively Resisting COVID Control

Shanghai’s COVID continues spreading causing many humanitarian problems to occur. Beijing blames Shanghai officials for their inaction in the control of COVID .

People’s Daily, the CCP’s central media, published a commentary on April 10 to stress that the country persevere in the “Zero-COVID” strategy. It criticized certain officials’ for not putting in their best effort. “The antonym of ‘persevere’ is to ‘give up.’ Surrendering or giving up in front of the pandemic means to give up the previous success of COVID prevention and control.” “Any thought of lying down or waiting or relying on [the central government] or any thought of taking it lightly is greatly irresponsible to the big picture of pandemic prevention and control.”

From April 7 to April 9, Shanghai removed eight local officials for their poor performances .

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, April 10, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/4/10/n13707998.htm
2. People’s Daily, April 10, 2022
http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0410/c223228-32395450.html

Hot Topics | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability

Beijing Planned to Build Naval Base in Solomon Islands in As Early As 2020

Recently Australia and New Zealand expressed security concerns over Communist China’s working with the Solomon Islands government on treaties having to do with economic development, police training, and a military base (see Chinascope briefing: China and the Solomon Islands Deepen their Police and Military Ties.

Sky News Australia obtained a letter from a large state-owned enterprise in China. It showed that Beijing planned to build a naval base in the Solomon Islands. It was dated back as early as 2020. The letter, dated September 29, 2020, was from China’s Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) International (AVIC-INTL) to former Governor of Isabel Province Leslie Kikolo. The first paragraph of the letter read:

“We, AVIC-INTL PROJECT ENGINEERING COMPANY, in partnership with CHINA SAM ENTERPRISE GROUP LTD, present this letter to demonstrate our intention to study the opportunity to develop naval and infrastructure projects on leased land for the People’s Liberation Army Navy in Isabel Province with exclusive right for 75 years.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, April 7, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/paper-04072022072039.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military Geo-Strategic Trend

Emerging Drug Crisis in Shanghai due to COVID-19 Lockdown

In addition to the difficulty of buying groceries during the Shanghai lockdown, people are facing a major problem in obtaining medication. According to the mainland Chinese media Caixin.com, after Shanghai was locked down for many days, the demand for medicine in the sealed zone increased. Patients who cannot  get their medicine in a timely manner are facing a drug crisis.

Wu Jinglei, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said that, for medications for common and chronic diseases, the community volunteers would help pick up the medication on the patients behalf from the local community health service centers. However, many people are still not able to get their medication.

According to the government’s arrangement, patients would submit their medication information and health insurance cards to the community committee, which is China’s grassroots level government body in urban areas. The community committee would then aggregate the information and go to the hospital for drug dispensing. However, many of the steps may encounter difficulties and render the process unsuccessful. The difficulties include the quota restriction for the community committee, lack of local couriers for delivery, the unavailability of medication at the hospital, and the long waiting time for dispensing.

Weibo, the Chinese microblogging platform, is flooded with Shanghainese seeking help. One poster’s family member was diagnosed with tuberculosis in December 2021 and was once hospitalized. However, because of the epidemic control, he was unable to go out to refill the prescriptions and was refused help from the local community committee. Another netizen said that an elderly family member has years of coronary heart disease. As the medication is not available from nearby pharmacies, the community committee tried and failed to get the drugs.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), April 12, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202204120170.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Taiwan Government Issues Wartime Survival Handbook

On April 12, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense released a National Defense Handbook, a wartime survival manual that provides the necessary information in the event of an impending war or other disasters. The move highlights Taiwan’s determination to improve its defense capabilities against the backdrop of continued tensions across the Taiwan Strait and growing voices inside mainland China calling for an armed attack on the island.

Liu Tai-yi, an official of the ministry’s All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency, said that the Handbook follows the practices of Sweden, Japan and other countries. It includes sections such as “Emergency Response QR Code,” “Air Raid Alert and Fire Evacuation,” “Building Collapse and Fire Response,” “Power Failure Response,” “Water Failure Response,”  “Medical Emergency,” “Shortage of Necessities Response,” “Disaster Prevention (War Preparedness) Materials and Rescue Preparation,” “Basic Knowledge of Survival,” “Emergency Reporting Line,” and “Reserve Military Mobilization Information.”

The handbook contains illustrations and references that suit people of different age groups. It also provides Q&A with the design of various wartime real-life scenarios, as well as the division of responsibilities of the central and local governments.

Source: Deutsche Welle (Chinese channel), April 12, 2022
https://p.dw.com/p/49pcD

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend