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Resuming Production: Cities Are Handing Out Money to Encourage Consumption

Xinhua Daily, a newspaper under the Nanjing Party Committee, Jiangsu Province, reported that the Nanjing government announced, on March 13, that it is handing out coupons worth a total of 318 million yuan (US $45 million) to encourage the service industry’s recovery.

The coupons, with a monetary value of 50 yuan or 100 yuan, included a dining coupon, a book coupon, a village tour coupon, an information consumption coupon, a living subsidy, and a labor union coupon.

The article pointed out that many cities have tried the monetary encouragement method to encourage people to consume, including:

  • On February 13, Macao announced it would issue a MOP$ 3000 (US $375) electronic coupon to each resident.
  • On February 26, Hong Kong announced HK $120 billion (US $15.4 billion) in financial support, including giving out HK $10,000 to each person over 18 years old.
  • On March 2, Ji’nan City, Shandong Province announced 20 million yuan in cultural consumption coupons.
  • On March 5, De City, Zhejiang Province announced 10 million yuan in travel coupons.
  • On March 12, Zhejiang Provincial Culture and Tourism Department announced that Zhejiang will provide 1 billion yuan to stimulate cultural and tourism consumption and 100 million yuan in gifts directly to people.
  • On March 13, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province announced it would give out 100 million yuan in coupons.

To encourage people to go out to spend money, several major leaders in Jiangsu Province went to restaurants or stores to demonstrate consumption, setting an example for citizens.

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Hiding Information: Wuhan Central Hospital Did Not Allow Staff to Talk about Coronavirus

Southern Weekly, a newspaper based in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, reported in detail on how,  in early January, the Wuhan Central Hospital hid the Coronavirus from the public and forced its medical staff not to talk about it.

Ai Fen, Director of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Wuhan Central Hospital, saw the reports giving the diagnosis of some patients as “SARS Coronavirus.” She took picture of a report and sent it to a few doctors including Dr. Li Wenliang who then posted it on a WeChat group and was thus called the whistle blower for the coronavirus.

At midnight on the New Year of 2020, Ai Fen received a message from the Monitor Section of the hospital, asking her to attend a meeting the next day. At the meeting, she was criticized for spreading rumors, creating social fear, and impacting Wuhan’s development and stability.

Another doctor said that it was not just Wi Fen and Dr. Li Wenliang who were called to the meeting. Many other people were also called to meeting and told not to release information.

An employee recalled, “We were told not to talk about it and not to mention there were no protection materials. Many doctors and nurses were infected during that period. I was very desperate. There was no help and we were not allowed to report.”

Two people showed a WeChat screenshot, that on December 30, 2019, each department’s WeChat group received a forwarded message from the Wuhan Health Commission, “Do not release information about the unknown cause pneumonia. … Otherwise, the Municipal Health Commission would take serious measures to investigate and deal with it.”

A doctor said that in the early days, the hospital required of them: “Do not talk about it. Do not wear a face mask so as to avoid public fear.”

The hospital leaders told each section’s chief to call every staff member, one by one, to inform them they should never leak the information about the virus.

Many staff members confirmed that they had received the same order. All had been passed down orally.

Qian Xuejiang, Director of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, wore a face mask to a meeting. The hospital leader criticized him. After that, he stopped wearing a face mask. Sadly, he was infected with the virus a few days later. It was confirmed and he eventually died.

A picture of Qian’s meeting notes said, “Unknown cause viral pneumonia, no evidence of person-to-person transmission. Ten disciplinary regulations: Confidential discipline, never talk about it. …”

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Propaganda and Lies: U.S. Responded to China’s Accusation

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 who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent!”

On March13, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell summoned China’s Ambassador Cui Tiankai to the State Department. Stilwell gave a very “stern representation” of the facts to the Chinese Ambassador, who, according to a senior State Department official, was “very defensive.” Stilwell did not issue any threats, but the two diplomats had a frank diplomatic discourse, the official said.

On March 13, Senator Josh Hawley posted the following on Twitter:

“I’m pleased to report this #China Foreign Ministry clown has blocked me for daring to challenge his outrageous lies that the US is responsible for #coronavirus #Covid_19. Fact is, Chinese Communist Party lied to its citizens & the world about this virus. They are responsible.”

Senator Rick Scott posted on Twitter:

“This is unhinged. Communist China will say and do anything to avoid responsibility for their role in allowing the Chinese #Coronavirus to spread.

They lied about it. Covered it up. Silenced doctors who were sounding the alarm. They let their own people die. Shameful.”

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Sources:

1. CNN, March 13, 2020
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/13/politics/state-department-chinese-ambassador-coronavirus/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

2. Twitter

3. Twitter

Public Opinion: People Creatively Protested Government’s “Be Grateful” Campaign

After Wuhan Party Secretary Wang Zhonglin gave an order to Wuhan citizens to conduct a “Be Grateful” education campaign to teach them to “be grateful to Xi Jinping and be grateful to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” the public overwhelmingly denounced it.

Some people dug out a People’s Daily article published back on November 18, 2013, which criticized certain officials for having a wrong mentality of “being grateful,” and re-circulated it with the title “People’s Daily: Be Vigilant about the Wrong ‘Be Grateful’ Mentality.” Some even modified the content but still referred to People’s Daily as the source. They were making fun of the CCP: even the party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily is against the “be grateful” campaign.

Beijing later removed articles reporting Wang’s “Be Grateful” order and sent Wang and Ying Yong, the Hubei Provincial Party Secretary, to thank the people of Wuhan and Hubei instead.

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Resuming Production: Hubei Airport Group Gets Ready for Operations

As China pushes for resuming production, Wuhan City and Hubei Province sent out a signal to move towards lifting the “lockdown” controls.

On March 8, the Hubei Airport Group issued a notice to prepare for resuming operations. The notice said, according to arrangements by the Hubei Provincial and Wuhan Municipal Novel Coronavirus Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center, each unit of the Hubei Airport Group should resume work starting March 10, each regional airport should complete preparation for resuming operations by March 12, each company should complete preparations for resuming flights and operations by March 16, and the group company and relevant government offices should inspect the preparations on March 17.

A reporter from e Company obtained information from someone close to the airport group, “Now it is just in the preparation stage. Whether to resume flights is dependent on how the epidemic develops from March 15 to March 20.”

[Editor’s Note: There had been several incidents in the past few weeks in which a local government planned to lift the “lockdown” but then reverted back, including: Wuhan allowed people to leave the city for few hours, Beijing rescinded a plan to resume operations for the movie industry, and Qianjiang City, Hubei Province retracted an announcement to unlock the city.]

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World Leader: Taiwan Set an Example for the World

As the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic continued, Radio France International and Deutsche Welle published separate articles praising Taiwan for taking effective measures to contain the virus and set a good example for the world.

Though located across a strait from mainland China, Taiwan, with a population of 23.5 million, managed to have only 42 cases of infection and one death.

As they mentioned, Taiwan, with a democratic system and a history of resisting the Chinese Communist Party, set an example to show the “difference between a democratic country and an autocratic regime in handling the pandemic.”

The two articles listed the following factors that resulted in success in Taiwan:

  1. Stopped people from mainland China from entering Taiwan and quarantined non-Chinese citizens who traveled from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao to Taiwan.
  2. Established a “unified command” system in 2004, a year after the SARS outbreak. The key to this mechanism is to include multiple agencies, including transportation, customs, and education, together. At the beginning stage, the  government conducted a big data analysis with citizens’ health records and the National Immigration Agency’s data, to provide travel history to the medical staff members to better identify the coronavirus infection.
  3. Implemented quarantine measures with full respect for individual rights. “They let the people under quarantine feel that the government cares about their safety. Thus the people with suspected infections come forward to the government for a further check. This is the biggest difference between a democratic country and an autocratic regime in handling the pandemic.” Many people in China are afraid to admit that they have been infected because they don’t know what the government might do to them afterward.

Also, the Communist regime reduced the number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan as a punishment to Taiwan for re-electing Tsai Ing-Wen as the President. This helped Taiwan to contain the pandemic.

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Propaganda and Lies: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Said Virus Was from the US

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 who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent!”

On his Twitter account @zlj517, Zhao posted in both Chinese and English:

During the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, “1/2 CDC Director Robert Redfield admitted some Americans who seemingly died from influenza in the posthumous diagnosis, had tested positive for the novel #coronavirus. #COVID19

“2/2 the CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in the US? How many people have been infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the U.S. army that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! The US owes us an explanation!”

Zhao also posted:

“Some #influenza deaths were actually infected with #COVID-19, Robert Redfield from the US #CDC admitted to the House of Representatives. The US reported 34 million cases of influenza and 20,000 deaths. Please tell us how many are related to COVID-19?”

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World Outbreak: Many Iranian Officials Have Died or Been Infected with the Coronavirus

The Novel Coronavirus is taking a severe toll in Iran. Iran government reported 9,000 infected cases on March 11, though many people suspected the actual number is much higher.

Jerusalem Post reported that the virus is spreading among the country’s elites, particularly the religious establishment and Islamic Revolutionary Gard Corps (IRGC) circles. It listed the following officials and clerics as being impacted by the virus:

Infected:

  • Massoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President
  • Iraj Haririchi, Deputy Health Minister
  • Mustafa Pourmohammadi, a former Justice Minister and Deputy at the Intelligence Ministry
  • Pirhossein Kolivand, a top official of the Emergency Medical Services
  • Esmail Najjar, an official of the “Crisis Management” Department, Interior Ministry
  • At least 24 Members of the Parliament
  • Mojtaba Rahmanzadeh, a local mayor of district 13 in Tehran
  • Mojtaba Zonnour, a cleric and National Security Official from Qom
  • Mojtaba Fazeli, an adviser to a senior cleric

Died:

  • Fatemeh Rahbar, Member of Parliament from Tehran
  • Mohammad Ali Ramezani, Member of Parliament from Gilan.
  • Seyyed Mohammad Mir Mohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council and former Chief of Staff for Ayatollah Khamenei.
  • Hossein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to the Foreign Minister
  • Ahmad Toyserkani, an adviser to judiciary member Ebrahim Raisi
  • Reza Pourkhanali, an Agriculture Ministry official
  • Mohammed Reza Rachamani, politician
  • Hamed Jalali Kashani, an activist
  • Mohammad Haj Abolghasemi, IRGC’s Basij Force
  • Ramezan Pourghassem, IRGC ground forces
  • Abdollah Jafarzadeh, a high-ranking officer of the IRGC
  • Farzad Tazari, IRGC official
  • Rasoul Azizi, head of Gilan’s police inspection unit
  • Akbar Dehghan, cleric of Qom
  • Ayatollah Mohsen Habib
  • Ali Khalafi, cleric
  • Ayatollah Reza Mohammadi Langroudi
  • Mousa Torabzedeh from Astaneh-ye Ashhrafiyeh in Gilan
  • Ali Hosseini, cleric of Aliabad-e-Katul in Golestan
  • Mostafa Amini, cleric
  • Nematollah Javadi Bamiani, cleric
  • Reza Modarresi, cleric

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Source: Jerusalem Post, March 11, 2020
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/How-many-Iranian-officials-have-died-of-coronavirus-620510