Chinascope – Page 337

Propaganda and Lies: Pompeo Called Yang Jiechi

On March 12, Zhao Lijian, Spokesman & Deputy Director General of the Information Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused the United States of being the origin of the novel coronavirus, stating, “It might be the US army that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent!”

On March 16, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of the United States called Yang Jiechi, Director of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He asked that the CCP put a halt to spreading disinformation through its propaganda outlets claiming that the U.S. Army first spread the novel coronavirus in China.

According to a statement that the State Department issued, Secretary Pompeo “conveyed strong U.S. objections to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) efforts to shift blame for COVID-19 to the United States.” “The secretary stressed that this is not the time to spread disinformation and outlandish rumors, but rather a time for all nations to come together to fight this common threat.”

Reuters reported that, according to China’s state-run television, Yang told Mr. Pompeo that any attempt to smear China for its efforts to counter the coronavirus “would not succeed.” The Chinese senior diplomat also threatened unspecified retaliation about what he said were U.S. politicians’ efforts to denigrate China’s efforts to fight the virus.

Xinhua: China Developed Facial Recognition Even with Masks

Xinhua recently reported that China Railway Science Research Institute just developed a new technology that can perform facial recognition even when the individual wears a regular mask and a helmet. The system will also measure the body temperature at the same time. Many industrial workplaces plan to deploy this new technology to monitor their locations where work resumed. The new technology focuses on characterizing eyes and eyebrows for pattern matching and does not require a hardware change to existing systems. With a large amount of data, current system accuracy reached 99.9 percent. It can also remind workers to wear a helmet if one is not recognized. The new technology development started before the coronavirus was a threat. The Chinese government has deployed a facial recognition monitoring system nationwide. Named Sky Eye, it has run into many issues related to suspects wearing masks to avoid identification. The new system is now improving image resolution for data collection; the goal is to reduce the number of cameras everywhere.

Source: Xinhua, March 11, 2020
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-03/11/c_1125694796.htm

Briefings | | March 18, 2020 | Information/Technology

Justice U.S. Law Firm Filed Class Action Lawsuit against Beijing over Its Role in Coronavirus Pandemic

The Berman Law Group, a law firm in Boca Raton, Florida, filed a class-action lawsuit on March 12, to hold the Chinese government accountable for the deadly coronavirus now sweeping America.

The lawsuit, which names five plaintiffs from Florida, seeks class-action status for any American injured or affected by the coronavirus.

None of the plaintiffs have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the law firm said.

The suit alleges that the Chinese government “knew that COVID-19 was dangerous and capable of causing a pandemic, yet officials acted slowly, proverbially put their heads in the sand, and/or covered it up for their own economic self-interest.”

“No nation, particularly a rich world superpower like China, should be able to get away with what it has done,” said Jeremy Alters, chief strategist at Berman Law Group and father of plaintiff Logan Alters. “It suppressed information from the global medical community that could have averted or minimized the damage that has been done.”

Among other claims, the suit is alleging negligence on the part of the Chinese government and is requesting a jury trial.

While the Chinese government could ignore the suit, a consultant with the Berman Group told reporters there are economic ways to ensure the Chinese government comply with the court process, including targeting various bank accounts and relying on treaties between the U.S. and China.

Sources:
1. Palm Beach Post, March 13, 2020
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200313/coronavirus-boca-law-firm-sues-chinese-government-over-its-role-in-pandemic

2. CBS, March 13, 2020
https://cbs12.com/news/local/boca-firm-sues-chinese-government-over-handling-of-coronavirus

Hot Topics | | March 17, 2020 | Social Stability

Propaganda and Lies: Major Negligence Resulted in the Virus Spreading in the U.S. and China

After reporting extremely low numbers of cases of the coronavirus infection in China for many days, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to report on imported cases to show that China is “clean” but the world is “a mass,” and that China is able to treat the coronavirus but the world is not.

Beijing seemed to be making a “perfect” case against the United States.

On March 13, the Beijing Health Commission reported a confirmed case of infection of a patient traveling from the United States to Beijing. Ms. Li, who lived in Boston, said that she attended a company meeting on February 26 and 27 and a colleague at the meeting was later confirmed to have the Coronavirus. On March 1, she started to feel cold and later had a fever and a high temperature of 39 Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit). She went to the hospital four times but was not admitted for hospitalization. She requested a nucleic acid test three times but her requests were all denied.

Therefore, she and her husband and son took a plane to fly back to China via Los Angles for diagnosis and treatment. Upon arriving in Beijing on March 13, she was confirmed to have the infection. Her husband and son were suspected cases.

However, this “exemplar” case started to show some flaws. On March 15, Zhang Yun, General Manager of Air China’s Product Service Department, disclosed more information about Ms. Li’s travels. During the boarding process, the CA988 flight attendants measured every traveler and found no one had a high temperature. An hour after the plane took off, Ms. Li, who was in seat 40B told the flight attendant that she felt shortness of breath and had a lack of energy. She claimed that she was traveling by herself, didn’t take any medicine before boarding the plane, and had a short period of fever a week ago. Her temperature test was 36.4 Celsius (97.5 Fahrenheit). She was moved to the end row and given a designated bathroom for quarantine purpose. Flight attendants tested her temperature four more times. All showed it was below 37 Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit).

Two hours before landing in Beijing, she told the flight attendants that colleagues in her company in the U.S. had been confirmed to have the coronavirus infection. She said she had a fever in the U.S. She also said she took antipyretics to reduce her temperature before boarding the plane and that her husband and son were also on the plane in seats 54K and 54L.

The flight attendants immediately moved her husband and son to the same quarantine area with her.

The Paper reported this story, with the title “Speechless! A Lady Took Antipyretics to Fly with Family to Beijing and Told Major Lies on the Flight!”

Epoch Times reported that there were more lies in the story. According to people in the U.S. who know Ms. Li, she had already been confirmed to have the Coronavirus infection. Since her symptoms were mild and she did not meet the standard for hospitalization, she was asked to self-quarantine at home. Instead she flew back to China and lied that she had not been confirmed to have the infection in the U.S.

She was an employee at Biogen Inc., whose meeting at the end of February had resulted in massive infections. By March 14, among the 138 confirmed cases in Massachusetts, 104 cases were related to Biogen.

One person commented, “How many more people might have been infected because of her? From her home to Boston, at the Boston Airport, on the plane to LA, at the LA Airport, and then on the plane to Beijing!”

U.S. Dollar Shines in Market Free Fall

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the U.S. Dollar Index has frequently reached highs when the financial market saw free falls across the globe. Key non-U.S. currencies suffered most, including the Euro, the British Pound, the Canadian Dollar, and the Australian Dollar. The Japanese Yen followed the U.S. Dollar’s growth, but with heavy fluctuations. With this background, central banks like the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have been lowering interest rates and pushing new easing plans. However, these activities have not made much of a difference. The U.S. Dollar remained outstanding among all of this bad news and appears to be able to hold its position to serve as a safe harbor for money looking for a place to park. The coronavirus situation continues to spread fear in financial markets globally. That, coupled with the Saudi-Russia oil price war, means that the future remains uncertain for the time being. Major economies are expected to have a new round of announcements regarding their poor economic data.

Source: Sina, March 14, 2020
https://finance.sina.com.cn/money/forex/hbfx/2020-03-14/doc-iimxyqwa0445356.shtml

Briefings | | March 16, 2020 | US-China Relations

Apple Smartphone Chinese Sales Saw a Sharp Decline in February

Shanghai-based Chinese financial news site East Money recently reported that, according to statistics that the China Academy of Information and Communication Technologies just released, the Chinese smartphone market declined by 54.7 percent, year-over-year. Apple iPhone sales in China saw a 61 percent decline during the same period of time. Apple announced its first quarter sales will miss its earlier projection, mainly due to the public health situation in China, which has impacted both manufacturing and market demand. Although Apple’s Chinese factories resumed their work, yet the pace of restoring capacity has been slower than expected. This will impact Apple’s global sales. Some Apple suppliers like Qorvo also reduced their forecasts. Also worth noting is that, the International Data Group (IDC) projects that the first quarter global smartphone sales will decline by 40 percent, year-over-year.

Source: East Money, March 9, 2020
http://finance.eastmoney.com/a/202003091411529178.html

Briefings | | March 16, 2020 | Economy/Resources Information/Technology

Public Opinion: Refusing to Remain Silent Any Longer, a Wuhan Young Man Decided to Speak for the Dead

Voice of America (VOA) reported a story of a young man in Wuhan, in his twenties, with the pseudonym “Tulong,” who decided not to remain silent in front the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda and thought control, but to speak out for the people who died from the coronavirus.

“I know how sinister this regime is,” Tulong said, “but before, I just told myself not to look at these things.”

His dream was to be a news reporter. He studied at the top journalism department in China, but soon he found that his dream would never come true.

“My school is the place where they train people to control public opinion. More than once, I heard my teachers’ brag about how they controlled public opinion.”

After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Tulong said that he might have been infected with the virus and even been cremated had he not broken the firewall blockade to visit websites outside of China and not heard the truth from friends overseas.

“When they drove the ‘low-end’ people out of Beijing, I told myself that I was not a low-end person and would not be cleaned out (see Chinascope’s report: Beijing Official: Take Real, Rough, and Quick Action to Demolish Buildings). When they set up a “reform” campus in Xinjiang, I thought I was not a Uyghur and didn’t have a religion, so I would not be put in the camp; I am sympathetic to Hong Kong people, but I felt that I wouldn’t go to the streets to protest, so still it had nothing to do with me. This time, it happened in my hometown. Many people around me were infected and some had passed away, so I could not tolerate it anymore.”

“Most of the Chinese, including myself, are not innocent because we have condoned (the CCP) for doing evil, and many have even done evil together with the CCP.”

A friend once told him that, to live in China, a person has to be able to do at least one of two things and both things would be better. First, let go of one’s own rationality; and second, let go of one’s conscience.

However, Tulong felt that he couldn’t do either.

“I survived in the epidemic,” Tulong told the VOA, “I am lucky. However, as a survivor from Wuhan, I have a responsibility to speak out, for the rest of my life, for the people who died.”

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.

Xinhua: China Developed Facial Recognition Even with Masks

U.S. Dollar Shines in Market Free Fall

Apple Smartphone Chinese Sales Saw a Sharp Decline in February

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