Chinascope – Page 334

“World Leader”: The Coronavirus Testing Kits Czech Republic Bought from China Have an 80 Percent Error Rate

Xinhua reported that the Czech Republic bought 150,000 novel coronavirus testing kits and, on March 18, used its military plane to ship them back. “Czech Republic Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch said these kits would be sent to the locked down areas where the pandemic is severe. It can give results in 20 minutes.” Xinhua said that Czech’s traditional testing equipment needed 6 hours to give a result.

“The Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that they received considerable help from China’s Embassy to the Czech Republic in sending a military plane to China to bring the emergency medical supplies back.”

However, on March 23, the Czech news media iROZHLAS reported that 80 percent of China’s quick testing kits produced the wrong result in their testing.

Experts reported on this high error rate at a pandemic information meeting that a regional hygienist Pavla Svrcinova hosted. Svrcinova said that these test kits produced “fake positives” and “fake negatives” when they were compared with the traditional testing results. “It is fortunate that we took this forward-thinking action (to validate the testing kits).”

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Hot Topics | | March 26, 2020 | Social Stability

Propaganda and Lies: Mainland Chinese Calling the Returning Chinese “Flying Thousands of Miles to Poison Chinese”

To portray itself as the world leader in fighting the novel coronavirus, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been reporting an extremely low rate of infection cases or even a zero count in many provinces for many days.

However, this propaganda campaign has backfired. The propaganda lured many Chinese who were overseas, especially Chinese students who studied in other countries, to returned to China because it is a “safe haven” as the other parts of the world are reporting high rates of infection.

The CCP did not anticipate this and did not want them, since it was still fighting the coronavirus and had no energy to deal with returning Chinese. The CCP also worried about the potential for importing infections.

China’s official report showed 21 new infection cases on March 17, with 20 coming from overseas.

Beijing reactivated the Xiaotangshan Hospital, a hospital set up during the SARS outbreak in 2003 for the primary purpose of isolating the confirmed patients instead of treating them. Their actual death count was unknown but was guessed to be high. This time, the hospital, with over 1,000 beds, will primarily hold the people found to be at risk after a Custom’s check. It will include confirmed patients and suspected patients.

Postings criticizing the returning Chinese spread on China’s Internet, such as, “You were not here when we were developing the motherland, but you are the fastest to fly back thousands of miles to poison the Chinese here” or, “The motherland treated you as a child but you treated the motherland as a fool.”

A Weibo comment said, “Those overseas Chinese should know that you are coming back to take refuge, not to be our masters. The Chinese people are all suffering a hard time now. Go back if you can’t stand it.”

Another Weibo article made a call to move all people entering China to Wuhan. “Instead of returning to home to create the risk of getting your own family quarantined, why not go to Wuhan to pass the hard times with the people there?”

Many overseas Chinese felt hurt. “When the epidemic exploded in China,” a person said, “many people and I donated money and bought face masks and protective clothing to send to China. Now many of us are sad: we are discriminated against in foreign countries, but also cursed when we go back to China.”

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Hot Topics | | March 25, 2020 | Social Stability

IMF Managing Director Said 20 More Countries Seek Help

Well-known Chinese news Tencent News recently reported based on information provided by Reuters that Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) just revealed that an additional 20 countries have ask for help. She said the IMF is prepared to utilize its full lending power (around US$1 trillion) to support its member countries to combat the coronavirus crisis. She did not list the names of the countries seeking support. However, Iran indicated last week that it did ask the IMF for an emergency loan. Georgieva-Kinova also made it clear that a globally coordinated financial stimulus action is becoming more and more reasonable. She made the comments before attending the G7 teleconference and pointed out that the global action should be on a scale similar to the 2008 global financial crisis. She praised the easing policies that the U.S. Federal Reserve has led.

Source: Tencent News, March 18, 2020
https://new.qq.com/omn/20200318/20200318A096K200.html

Briefings | | March 25, 2020 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Propaganda and Lies: Overseas Chinese Fell for the Propaganda That China’s Epidemic Was Over

To portray itself as the world leader in fighting the novel coronavirus, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been reporting extremely low infection cases or even zero counts in many provinces for many days. Thus many Chinese overseas, thought that China’s epidemic was over and returned to China to seek a “safe haven” as other parts of the world are reporting high infections.

However, after landing in China, they soon realized that things were much different from what they thought. The “motherland” did not want them.

Media reported China’s airports were packed with Chinese returning “home.” They were all tested. If they tested clean they were put under 14 days of quarantine. Some people complained about the forced-quarantines and the violation of human rights. It was a concept that overseas Chinese had, but people in the mainland had already yielded to the CCP’s rule

Some complained about the living conditions of the quarantine, which ranged from no pure water to drink and no water to take a shower or wash clothes, to the room not being cleaned from the previous quarantine use and the windows and doors being locked from the outside (thus, people quarantined inside could not get out).

Some also complained that they were forced to pay high quarantine fees to the hotels.

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Hot Topics | | March 24, 2020 | Social Stability

Propaganda and Lies: The Truth about the Video “An American Spread Virus in Wuhan Subway”

To defuse its accountability, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried to blame the United States for sending the coronavirus to China. One of its accusations was that U.S. soldiers brought it to China during the Military World Games in Wuhan in October 2019.

Since March 16, a video of an American spreading the virus on the Wuhan subway train during the Military World Games has widely spread on Weibo and WeChat, the two most popular Chinese social media platforms. In the video, a foreigner pulled out his face mask, licked his fingers, and then wiped his hands on the handles of the subway cart. The video displayed the Chinese subtitle “During the Military World Games, Americans were spreading the virus. Please watch it. The U.S. is so awful!” Many Chinese netizens criticized the United States out of anger after watching the video.

The rumor creator also said, “The U.S. delegation, after the Military World Games was over, went to visit shopping centers, supermarkets, and trains. What if they were to spread the virus?”

The video was originally posted by account “Souf” on Twitter on March 10. According to a report by a British media, the scene happened in Brussels. The Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company said, “This man was drunk and had been arrested by the police and the staff from our security department. The train cart was disinfected and taken out of service.”

The Chinese characters in the video were added by Weibo account Miaoxiangbuyi, whose holder was certified to be Xu Xibiao, working for the Kaili City government, Guizhou Province. Xu’s job was to monitor and exercise Internet control.

The website of Chinese Information at Phoenix published the news and then summarized the CCP’s method of creating the rumor as: starting with netizens’ “bold speculation” that U.S. biochemical soldiers set the virus in Wuhan, following with a media rumor of a “maybe” accusation, then an official rumor “it might be the U.S. soldiers who brought the virus to Wuhan,” and finally sealing the case with an official/private mixed rumor (a government staff member sent an individual posting) of the video, “U.S. soldiers deliberately spread the virus during the Military World Games.”

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Hot Topics | | March 23, 2020 | Social Stability

China Economy: Offshore RMB Fell Nearly 900 Points

China Economy recently reported that, on March 19, Chinese currency RMB fell 865 base points, against the US Dollar, in offshore trading. At the same time, the RMB fell 938 base points onshore. This is the first time since October 2019 that the Chinese RMB fell below 7.16 Yuan for one US Dollar. The U.S. Dollar has seen strong growth recently, with high demand across the globe. It is becoming the core asset for managing risks because of its nature of being fully exchangeable with full global circulation. Experts expressed their belief that the significant decline of the Chinese RMB is typical for a market full of volatility. At the same time, China is facing high pressure on interest rate reduction. Some investment organizations pointed out that the Chinese currency is looking at further devaluation in the near term and in the foreseeable future. Offshore RMB (CNH) is RMB that circulates outside Mainland China. CNH settlements are typically done in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Luxembourg.

Source: China Economy, March 19, 2020
http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/202003/19/t20200319_34527615.shtml

Briefings | | March 23, 2020 | Economy/Resources

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

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

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”

The CCP’s Performing Arts Troupes in the U.S.

IMF Managing Director Said 20 More Countries Seek Help

China Economy: Offshore RMB Fell Nearly 900 Points

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