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Diplomacy: More Details about Africans Being Targeted in Guangzhou

The Guangzhou government has targeted Africans living there during the coronavirus containment, which led many African countries’ to protest. Here are more details about the incidents.

#1: A Nigerian’s refusing medical checkup and biting a nurse. On April 1, Okonkwonwoye Chika Patrick, male, 47, a Nigerian citizen, was confirmed to have the coronavirus infection and was isolated at the Guangzhou No 8 Hospital. He ignored Nurse Wang’s request for blood test and tried to walk out of the isolation room. Wang tried to stop him, but he pushed her to the ground and bit her face. The Guangzhou police came to investigate the case. (Caijing)

#2: Local people started discriminating against Africans. The biting nurse incident stirred up a wave of anti-African sentiment among Chinese. There was a rumor that “300,000 blacks in Guangzhou were causing the second epidemic outbreak” which was spreading. Five out of the eight confirmed infection cases in the Yuexiu District (nicknamed “Little Africa”), in Guangzhou were Nigerian. Local police ordered bars and restaurants not to serve Africans. The Local government also imposed forced-testing and forced-quarantine on people who had contacts with Africans. Some Africans were driven out of their homes and could not find a place to stay as every place was closed to them. (Epoch Times)

#3: A McDonald’s restaurant in Guangzhou posted a notice: “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health consciously notify the local police for medical isolation. Please understand the inconvenience caused.” McDonald China admitted the incident and later offered an apology. (Oriental Daily)

#4: In addition to protests coming from Nigeria and the Africa Union, Ghana summoned the Chinese Ambassador. In a public statement Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway condemned the “inhuman encounters suffered by Africans in Guangzhou.” She expressed “disappointment” to the Chinese government and asked China to take immediate action to solve this problem.

The Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that there was an irresponsible phenomenon against foreigners in Guangzhou. Many Guangzhou business owners targeted African citizens especially.

The Sierra Leone Embassy in Beijing also issued a statement to “expresses strong concern and condemnation for the disturbing and humiliating experience of our citizens.” It said that 14 citizens of the country had been put under 14 days of forced-quarantine. (Zhihu)

#5: A Twitter message said that the Guangzhou Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau issued “The Implementation Plan on Providing Basic Livelihood Services to Foreigners with Financial Stress during the Health Service Management Period.” The plan is said to provide a subsidy of 5,600 yuan (US $790) to every foreigner who has financial stress. (Twitter)

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Hot Topics | | April 18, 2020 | Social Stability

WHO: WHO Director-General Tedros Is the Leader of a Leftist Party Which, in the1990s, the U.S. Listed as a Terrorist Organization

A Hong Kong media, CUP Magazine, reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros is the leader of a leftist party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), in Ethiopia, which in the 1990s the U.S. government identified as a terrorist group.

TPLF was established as a guerrilla group which, in 1975, had its base in Tigray, Ethiopia. Over time, it formed an Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front with other groups and it took power in the nation in 1991. However, since Tigrayans were only 6 percent of the total population in Ethiopia, TPLF ruled by terror and arrested and killed many people with different political views. It also took over the land from the Oromo people (about 34 percent of Ethiopia’s population). In 2005, Human Rights Watch criticized TPLF for several crimes against human rights. In the 1990s, the U.S. listed TPLF as a terrorist organization. This can still be seen in the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland.

Tedros grew up in Tigray. After he obtained a PhD degree from the U.K. in 2001, he became the Director of Tigray’s Health Bureau. Then in 2005, he became the Minister of Health. In 2013, the Africa Report, a French media, mentioned that Tedros could become the next leader of the TPLF. When Tedros was elected as the Director-General of WHO, he still held a Politburo member position in the TPLF.

In 2018, local media Kichuu News criticized Tedros for ignoring the lives of millions of Oromos who the government was persecuting, accusing him of being unworthy of the position of Director General. The U.S. Fox News quoted a local Ethiopian reporter as saying that Tedros was one of the three most powerful leaders of the TPLF and thus he must be responsible for the government’s murder, torture, excessive arrests, and land grabbing.

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Hot Topics | | April 18, 2020 | Social Stability

Virus Origin: NIH Provided $3.7 Million to Wuhan Lab in 2015

#1: Fox News reported that, according to public documents compiled by the White Coat Waste Project, in 2015, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) provided $7.1 million worth of U.S. government grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The grants were for the lab to participate in projects in collaboration with U.S. institutions. One grant for research on the bat coronaviruses was $3.7 million and another grant of $3.4 million was for injecting viruses into the brains of mice. It is not clear exactly how much U.S. funding went directly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology because it worked in collaboration with other institutions on the projects funded by the American grants.

Fox News also mentioned that the Washington Post reported earlier this week that State Department officials had expressed grave concerns in recent years about the safety of the Chinese lab. A January 2018 State Department cable that the Washington Post obtained reads, “During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to operate this high-containment laboratory safely.” (Fox News)

#2. At the White House briefing on April 17, when asked about the NIH grant to the Wuhan lab, President Trump said that he has instructed to stop the funding if it has not been given out. “The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million and we have instructed that if any grants are going to that area, we are looking at it literally about an hour ago and also early in the morning. We will end that grant very quickly, but it was granted quite a while ago.” (Washington Examiner)

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1. Source: Fox News, April 16, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/u-s-canada-have-funded-chinese-lab

2. Source: Twitter, Washington Examiner account on April 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/search?q=who%20was%20president%20then%3F&src=typed_query

Hot Topics | | April 18, 2020 | Social Stability

Leadership: Xi Warned to Prepare for Changes in the External Environment

On April 8, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee held a meeting on the coronavirus pandemic situation and the economic situation both in China and outside of China. Xi Jinping gave a speech stating, “Everyone must adhere to bottom-line thinking (thinking about the worst scenario) and have the mental and work preparation to deal with changes in the external environment for a long period of time. The coronavirus prevention and control work against importing the virus from abroad and reinfection internally must not be relaxed.”

Xi’s statement of preparing to “deal with changes in the external environment for a long period of time” caused the media to have a number of discussions. Chinese media focused on the virus containment and on importing the virus from abroad. (Qiushi, #1)

Media outside of the CCP’s control said that the CCP’s worries about external changes, including the international community suing it for the virus pandemic and the external impact on its economy.

Radio Free Asia (#2) commented that it is very rare for Xi to warn about “changes in the external environment.” Even during the toughest time during the U.S.-China trade war, Xi and other CCP officials did not make such a statement. The article quoted Zhang Lifan, an independent historian, who stated that China is worried about international lawsuits against the CCP for coronavirus damage. “Many people said that 120 years ago, in 1900, eight countries sent a joint army to China (and forced the Qing Dynasty to pay a huge indemnity). This time it might be 80 countries that join forces to hold China accountable.”

One article from Radio France International (#3) agreed with the thought. “Xi was giving a warning. What he didn’t speak about directly is a very severe issue that, after the pandemic is over, other countries will hold the CCP accountable for the damages from the virus. Initially, this issue was not that urgent, but Beijing’s series of actions in attempt to cleanse itself from the liability have backfired and led to the international community’s great vigilance and condemnation.”

Radio France International (#4) said in another article that Xi’s warning could be linked to the economic crisis in China. On April 10, at a press conference on maintaining foreign trade, Ren Hongbin, the Assistant Minister of Commerce stated that China is willing to expand its cooperation with the U.S. and other trade partners. Ren said that China’s trading companies are facing severe situations, including reduced orders, increasing costs, a poor international logistics process, and the blocking of supply chains.

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Hot Topics | | April 18, 2020 | Social Stability

Diplomacy: France Called in China Ambassador Because of Chinese Embassy’s Remarks

Radio France International reported that France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called in China’s Ambassador Lv Shaye for publishing articles criticizing France and Western countries for slandering China.

The Foreign Minister said that he expressly disagrees with some of the recent remarks of the People’s Republic of China’s Ambassador to France. He said that some publicly expressed opinions are not in line with the good bilateral relations between France and China. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs said that some comments were related to the containment of the new coronavirus.

On April 12, China’s Embassy in France published an article, “Reverse the facts that had been reversed – the observations on the novel coronavirus epidemic by a Chinese diplomat in France.” The article praised China because it had implemented the most comprehensive, most complete, and most strict measures to contain the coronavirus. It also criticized “certain self-claimed objective media, experts, and politicians in the West who did not contribute ideas to contain the virus in their country or the world, but spent their time on slandering and attacking China.”

The article said, “We see that, in Western countries, politicians attack each other for their votes; (some country) proposed a ‘group immunization’ strategy to leave the public to resist the slaughter of the virus on their own; (some countries) grabbed other’s epidemic prevention materials; (some countries) bought epidemic prevention materials with public money and sold them to private companies for profit; (some countries) let the elderly in nursing homes sign the ‘Consent to Give up Emergency Rescue;’ nursing home staff members collectively fled from their duties without permission, causing many elderly to starve and to die; (one country) fired an aircraft carrier captain for requesting that infected sailors be permitted to land ashore for treatment… But we didn’t see any major Western media reports on them or provide in-depth investigations that reveal the truth. Where is the conscience of these fair and objective media and experts? Where are their professional ethics?”

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Hot Topics | | April 18, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend Social Stability

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