Jiemian Media reported that, as companies in Shenzhen City are resuming production, many face a hard time finding enough laborers to fill their positions. Foxconn, the major vendor for Apple, has less than half of the workers it needs for its factory; its low production volume led to the delay in introducing the new iPhone. The factories that manufacture BYD cars are short about 2,000 workers. Lenovo’s factory in Shenzhen interviewed 600 people in one day. Foxconn offered 7,000 yuan (US $1,000) as an employee referral bonus.

The pay for temporary workers increased from 16 to 18 yuan per hour and is now 22 yuan. Foxconn pays 30 yuan. A hidden rule was that manufacturers would only hire people from 18 to 40, but now many companies have increased the age limit to 45 or 50.

The main reason is that local government’s strict lockdowns and closures as they try to control the spread of coronavirus has resulted in people being unable to return to Shenzhen.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Resuming Production: After Issuing Direction for Movie Industry to Resume Operations, Beijing Said Not to Resume
• Resuming Production: By February 26, One Third of Small or Mid-Sized Companies Resumed Work
• Resuming Production: China’s Pollution Level Declined Due to Less Production and Travel
• Resuming Production: Xi Jinping Said Half of China’s Counties Do Not Have Coronavirus
• Resume Production: Hangzhou City Direction: Companies Can Punish Employees Refusing to Return to Work

Source: Jiemian Media, March 4, 2020
https://www.jiemian.com/article/4056399.html

Both Guangzhou and Wuhan reported that after being released from hospitals patients who had healed from the coronavirus infection had re-tested as COVID-19 positive.

On February 25, Li Yueping, Director of the ICU at Guangzhou No 8 People’s Hospital said, when they conducted a follow-up with the patients who had their coronavirus healed, they found 13 patients tested positive for coronavirus again.

On March 4, a supervisor from the Jiang’an Modular Hospital at Wuhan told The Paper that Jiang’an Modular Hospital issued an emergency notice, stating that, according to the Wuhan Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, recently quite a few patients who had their coronavirus cured re-developed the virus and therefore were hospitalized again.

A supervisor at Guobo Modular Hospital in Wuhan, in his phone interview with Jiemian Media, said, “The municipal CDC issued a notice to temporarily stop releasing cured patients to go home. The notice was sent to all modular hospitals in Wuhan. In the past, my modular hospital released 30 or 40 patients a day.”

The National Health Commission also changed its policy on the “Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Retreatment Plan (Trial Version 7)” from “14 days of self-health monitoring” to “14 days of quarantine management and health monitoring” for the patients released from hospitals. Continue reading →

On February 26, 2020, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a “Direction on Epidemic Prevention When the Beijing Movie Industry Resumes Operations during the Time  when the Novel Coronavirus Is Spreading” (hereinafter the “Direction”). The Direction said that during the initial stage of resuming operations, movie theaters should sell tickets for every other seat on every other row, employees and audience members must wear face masks and be tested for their temperature, and the ticket office must record each audience member’s information.

The Direction made people wonder if Beijing would open movie theaters for business.

However, on February 27, Chen Bei, Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal Government, stated at a press conference that it was not the right time to re-open movie theaters and the movie industry would not resume operations.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Resuming Production: By February 26, One Third of Small or Mid-Sized Companies Resumed Work
• Resuming Production: China’s Pollution Level Declined Due to Less Production and Travel
• Resuming Production: Xi Jinping Said Half of China’s Counties Do Not Have Coronavirus
• Resume Production: Hangzhou City Direction: Companies Can Punish Employees Refusing to Return to Work
• Resuming Production: Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Sichuan Working on Resuming Production

Continue reading →

On March 2, the spokesperson of the National Health Commission said at a press conference, “The rapid escalation of the Wuhan epidemic is under control. In addition to Wuhan, the regional outbreak in other places in Hubei Province is also under control.”

On March 3, the Hubei Provincial government held a press conference on the status of the control of the province’s epidemic. Yang Yunyan, the Deputy Hubei Governor, said, “The situation of the epidemic in Hubei is still very severe. In the whole province, over 20,000 patients are still in the hospital and 6,000 patients are in a severe or critical condition. The risk of a large infection is still not under fundamental control.”

[Editor’s Note: Another political controversy was that, on February 28, Ma Xiaowei, Director of National Health Commission, praised Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang despite the fact that Zhou had openly challenged the Chinese Communist Party Central Leadership by stating that, until January 20, he was not “authorized” to release information to the pubic and take action. Zhou also claimed that he made the decision to lock down Wuhan, while Xi Jinping was also said to be the person who made that decision. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: A Political Controversy: Head of National Health Commission Praised Wuhan Mayor)

Ying Yong, Xi’s loyalist and the newly appointed Hubei Provincial Party Secretary, is in charge of Hubei’s epidemic control.]

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Leadership: A Political Controversy: Head of National Health Commission Praised Wuhan Mayor
• Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: Xi Jinping Ordered Wuhan Lockdown
• Leadership: Wuhan Municipal Website Defended Its Mayor
• Leadership: Wuhan Mayor Not “Authorized” to Release Epidemic Information to the Public Before

Continue reading →

After Beijing replaced the Hubei Provincial Party Secretary and Wuhan Municipal Party Secretary for ineffective control of the coronavirus in Wuhan and Hubei, the media rarely mentioned the Wuhan Mayor, Zhou Xianwang.

However, HK01, a media in Hong Kong, reported that, on February 28 at a press conference, Ma Xiaowei, a member of the Central government’s Supervision Group at Hubei and Director of the National Health Commission, called Zhou Xianwang out and praised him for “directing work on the front line, mobilizing people in person, and organizing (hospital) construction work around the clock.” One of Zhou’s achievements was building 16 modular hospitals with 13,000 beds that host 12,000 patients.

New Tang Dynasty (NTDTV), a New York based independent Chinese language Television media, pointed out that this news was special because, in the past, Zhou Xianwang openly challenged the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) central leadership, which is very rarely  seen in China’s political system.

In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) on January 27, 2020, Zhou said that, until January 20, he had not been “authorized” to release information to the public or to take action. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: Wuhan Mayor Not “Authorized” to Release Epidemic Information to the Public Before)

Then on February 11, 2020, Changjiang Daily, the official newspaper under the Wuhan Communist Party Committee, published an article to defend Zhou as he was not authorized to take action. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: Wuhan Municipal Website Defended Its Mayor)

In his CCTV interview, Zhou also stated that he made the decision to lock down Wuhan. However, on February 20, Ding Xiangyang, the Deputy Chief Secretary of the State Council and a member of the Central government’s Supervision Group at Hubei, stated that it was Xi Jinping who ordered the Wuhan lockdown. (See Chinascope posting: Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: Xi Jinping Ordered Wuhan Lockdown)

Therefore, the praise of Zhou Xianwang may have a number of political messages behind it.

The Director of the Central government’s Supervision Group at Hubei is Vice Premier Sun Chunlan. The Deputy Director is Chen Yixin, Party Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee Political and Legal Affairs Committee, who is said to be a Xi Jinping loyalist.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Leadership: Wuhan Mayor Not “Authorized” to Release Epidemic Information to the Public Before
• Leadership: Wuhan Municipal Website Defended Its Mayor
• Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: Xi Jinping Ordered Wuhan Lockdown

Continue reading →

The China Media Project, according to the description on its website, is a Hong Kong based independent research, fellowship and exchange program in partnership with the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong.

The China Media Project published a lengthy analysis of a special propaganda series that People’s Daily has been running called “The General Secretary Came to My Home” (总书记来过我的家). It has been in the newspaper as a front page story. This series, with its feel-good reminiscences has been extolling Xi Jinping as a man of the people.

The first article in this series appeared on January 5. There were five front pages that the series dominated up until January 20, the day that marked a key turning point in the epidemic. On that day, Xi Jinping made his first major statement on China’s response, which confirmed the outbreak of the coronavirus and asked governments to take action.

It then published another 12 articles, each on a different day, between January 31 and February 18. Each article in the series is very similar in style, with its tone triumphant and pleasant at turns, conveying a fulsome sense of happiness and gain, treating Xi Jinping’s every step as a miracle.

The analysis commented that, from a purely design standpoint, the series is unappealing. Every installment is designed in exactly the same way, with the series title against an orange banner, a bold vertical headline, and a gold-shaded box at the top including an inspirational quote from Xi. The series is pushed so intensely and regularly that it seems it can only fatigue the reader. The more serious problem is, however, that the series has little newsworthiness at all – at a time when everyone knows there is plenty to report, plenty to talk about, plenty to decide and to act upon.

It then asked, “Do the editors not understand that these choices will actually have an adverse impact on the image of the CCP and the image of Xi Jinping?”

[Editor’s Note: There is a Chinese term “witty sarcasm” (高级黑), meaning that someone uses praise or other seemed-to-be-supportive methods to actually ridicule another person. The overly boring praise of Xi Jinping may bring bad a public opinion to Xi. Also, to keep saying, “The General Secretary Came to My Home” may lead people to realize that Xi has not visited the epicenter of Wuhan or Hubei since the coronavirus outbreak in China.]

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Leadership: The Hype and Stop of the Book “The Great Power Fighting Epidemic”
• Leadership: Chinese Leaders Are Planning Hide-out Place While Fighting the Coronavirus
• Leadership: “Turning Point Has Not Come Yet”
• Leadership: Ding Xiangyang: Xi Jinping Ordered Wuhan Lockdown
• Leadership: Some Chinese Media Showed Voices of Discord

Continue reading →

The Citizen Lab, according to the description on its website, “is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. It focuses on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.”

On March 3, the Citizen Lab published a report indicating that Beijing has intensified internet censorship and blocked many internet postings containing words related to the coronavirus, Xi Jinping, and the Communist Party, to prevent people from making negative comments about the regime.

Its key findings include:

“YY, a live-streaming platform in China, began to censor keywords related to the coronavirus outbreak on December 31, 2019, a day after doctors (including the late Dr. Li Wenliang) tried to warn the public about the then unknown virus.

WeChat broadly censored coronavirus-related content (including critical and neutral information) and expanded the scope of censorship in February 2020. Censored content included criticism of government, rumors and speculative information on the epidemic, references to Dr. Li Wenliang, and neutral references to Chinese government efforts on handling the outbreak that had been reported on state media.

Many of the censorship rules are broad and effectively block messages that include names for the virus or sources for information about it. Such rules may restrict vital communication related to disease information and prevention.”

It also found that Beijing has also blocked messages containing several words, for example, “习近平+疫情蔓延” (Xi Jinping + Epidemic spread), “武漢+中共+危機+北京” (Wuhan + CCP + Crisis + Beijing), “封城+部隊” (Lockdown of a city + Military).

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Hiding Information: Coronavirus Infection at Wuhan Women’s Prison Was Not Reported Until Feb 21
• Hiding Information: Shanghai Authorities Closed a P3 Lab for Publishing Coronavirus Genome
• Hiding Information: Liaoning Province Ordered to Destroy Files Regarding Epidemic
• Hiding Information: Media Not Allowed to Report Coronavirus Outside Party Messages

Source: The Citizen Lab, March 3, 2020

Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Propaganda Department created a book called, “The Great Power Fights the Epidemic” (“大国战“疫”——2020中国阻击新冠肺炎疫情进行中”) and was ready to publish it.

According to Xinhua’s report, this book, “with over 2 million Chinese characters, selected materials from (China’s) mainstream media and integrated them together to show the care for the people, the mission, the strategic vision, and the excellent leadership of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the CCP and leader of a great power. … It objectively tells the truth and the story that China has forcefully and effectively contained the coronavirus epidemic …” The plan was to translate the book into five languages, including English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic.

However, Radio Free Asia reported that people said that it was too early for the CCP to declare victory. Some criticized the CCP for attempting to glorify itself even before it was able to control the coronavirus.

Then, Radio France International reported that people found that the book was taken out of China’s major online stores such as JD, Taobao, and Suning. When inquiries were made to those bookstores the answer received was, “The book is temporarily unavailable.”

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Leadership: (Unconfirmed) Two High-Rank Officials’ Family Members Are Infected
• Leadership: Wuhan Unlocked the City for Three Hours and Then Re-closed It
• Leadership: China Postponed “Lianghui” (“The Two Conferences”)
• Leadership: Chinese Leaders Are Planning Hide-out Place While Fighting the Coronavirus
• Leadership: “Turning Point Has Not Come Yet”

Continue reading →