On April 1, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen announced that, out of concern for humanity, Taiwan would donate 10 million face masks to the medical staff of the countries that are suffering severe coronavirus infections, including 2 million to the U.S., 7 million to Europe, and 1 million to countries that maintain diplomatic relationship with Taiwan.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission thanked Taiwan in her personal Tweet. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the U.S. diplomatic mission in Taiwan, thanked Taiwan in its post, and said, “Taiwan is indeed a true friend!”

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• “World Leader”: Netherlands Found China’s Face Masks Defected
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China is facing a severe economic slowdown and massive unemployment because the coronavirus hit it so badly.

#1: Caixin published a model that forecasted 150 to 200 million people will lose their jobs. Using the step-by-step estimation method, 200 million people (including 180 million in the service industry) will lose their jobs. Using the aggregation estimation method, 150 million (including 110 million in the service industry) will lose their jobs. (Caixin)

#2: According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by March 30, 76 percent of small or mid-sized companies resumed operation. That means 24 percent, or nearly a quarter of the companies did not resume yet. (HK01)

#3: The South China Morning Post reported that more than 460,000 companies in China stopped their operations in the first quarter. (Radio France International)

#4: Western buyers have canceled many orders they placed with Chinese companies. The only hot orders are medical supplies. There will be 9 million college students graduating this summer. However, the number of possible jobs for those college graduates has dropped 30 percent from a year ago. Peng Airao, the Chief Economist of the Great China Regions of the ING Bank, predicted that China’s unemployment rate may rise to 10 percent by the end of this year. (Voice of America)

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China has implemented a Health “Code” (健康码), installing it on each individual’s mobile phone. The Health Code has three colors: green, yellow, and red. Different locales may implement the color system differently, but in general, green means the phone holder is healthy; yellow means the person needs to quarantine himself at home; and red means the person needs to go to the hospital for quarantine and treatment.

People are required to install the Health Code app on their phone and show the status when entering places.

Wuhan recently mandated that when riding the bus or subway, people must use their phone to scan the bus or subway car barcode when getting on and scan it again when getting off. This will allow the government to track who rides the bus or train and from which station to which station. When one person is confirmed as having the coronavirus infection, the Health Code of other people who also rode the same bus or train car will change to yellow, meaning they need to quarantine themselves at home.

Radio Free Asia reported that it received a notice that a residential community management office sent to the residents. The notice stated: “According to the notice from the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, if citizens went out for a non-business reason and had contact with a novel coronavirus patient, or was suspected or confirmed as having the coronavirus infection, they would be responsible for all expenses, including the quarantine cost, examination cost, treatment cost, and living expenses.” The notice stated that the 14-day quarantine and medical exam cost is about 8,000 yuan (US $ 1,120) and the treatment cost for a confirmed patient is 400,000 yuan (US $56,000).

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Globalization has resulted in the manufacturing of many medical products and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) moving to China. During the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is able to control the export of medical materials to support countries that are its “friend” and also to force other countries to reduce their criticisms of the CCP.

#1: On March 4, Xinhua published a commentary on U.S.-China relationship, stating that it can send the U.S. to “the hell of the novel coronavirus pandemic” by banning the export of medical supplies.

“If China retaliates against the U.S. at this time, in addition to announcing a travel ban on the U.S., it can also announce the strategic control of medical products and a ban on exports to the U.S. Then the U.S. will be fully trapped in the novel coronavirus.

“According to the public statements of officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most of the face masks in the U.S. are manufactured in and imported from China. If China prohibits the export of masks to the U.S., the U.S. will fall into a mask shortage. Then it won’t even be able to take the most basic measures to prevent the novel coronavirus.

“Also, according to the public statement of the CDC officials, most of the drugs in the U.S. are also imported. Though some drugs are imported from Europe, their production bases are still placed in China. Therefore, more than 90 percent of imported drugs in the U.S. are related to China. This means that, at this time, as long as China declares to keep its medicines for domestic demand and ban exports, the U.S. will fall into the hell of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”

#2: An article from the Washington Times, back on March 17, said the coronavirus is a “wake-up call” to the U.S. that it is overly dependent on China for its pharmaceutical supplies. “With the coronavirus crisis threatening to strain the U.S. government’s large stockpiles of such drugs, health experts warn that China’s own outbreak and related societal shutdown could mean major shortages ahead as Chinese factories struggle to keep up production of the APIs.”

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Though the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had been reporting zero infection cases in Hubei and, on March 25, removed the lockdown in Hubei Province for all cities except Wuhan, other cities in China are still suspicious of Hubei people and do not want to take them in.

Voice of America (VOA) reported that, at a bridge between Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, police from both sides engaged in a fight since Jiangxi wanted to block Hubei people from coming in. On March 27, police from Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province went to the bridge to set up roadblocks to prevent automobiles from Hubei from crossing the bridge. Hubei police objected. Both sides engaged in a fight which they then further reinforcement. It escalated when Jiangxi’s special police and hundreds of Hubei people joined in. Police cars were even flipped upside down.

QQ reported that many provinces and cities required that, for Hubei people to go in, in addition to a health certificate, they must also provide the local community’s acceptance certification (to accept the Hubei people to live in the local area). However, it is hard for Hubei people to obtain such a certificate.

Media also reported that buses carrying Hubei people from cities of low coronavirus risk were told, when they arrived at their destination city at other provinces, to go back home. Some people were forced to sleep in the bus. Some were even told to use plastic bags when they needed to go to bathroom, so that “they would not get off the bus to spread the virus.”

Beijing has announced that it does not want any people from Hubei (whether they traveled there or lived there) to come to Beijing. Bao Liqun, Deputy General Manager of China Railway’s Wuhan Bureau Group, said that there were nearly 200,000 people stuck in Hubei who needed to go to Beijing.

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