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Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

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

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

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

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Infection Count: Official Numbers Do Not Include Asymptomatic Infections

At a news conference on February 14, Zeng Yixin, Deputy Director of National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that Beijing will not include an asymptomatic coronavirus infection in its infection count.

An asymptomatic coronavirus infection refers to people who are carriers of a the disease or infection, but experience no symptoms of being infected with the novel coronavirus. That is, although they have no symptoms, they are likely to be found to be infected in a pro-active test.

He stated that in accordance with the relevant regulations about the epidemic, only suspected and confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus will be reported to the public. An asymptomatic infection is not considered to be a case that needs to be reported. If a patient with an asymptomatic infection develops symptoms during the period of quarantine, then the government can report it as a confirmed case.

 

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Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

China’s Banks Will Disinfect Money Bills

Fan Yifei, Deputy Chairman of the People’s Bank, China’s Central Bank, announced on February 15, that commercial banks, after receiving money bills from customers, must disinfect the bills before re-circulating them and giving them back to customers. In regions that have severe novel coronavirus infections, bills must go through ultraviolet ray or high temperature treatment. Then they must be stored for 14 days before re-circulating them back to market. In regions with light infections, bills need to be disinfected and then stored for a week.

Guangzhou has gone one step further. It destroys bills received from hospitals, farmer’s markets, and the public transit system. Continue reading →

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Locust Plague, the Next Disaster to Hit China?

The desert locust (scientific name “Schistocerca gregaria”), the type of locust that is most destructive to human beings, has been spreading in Africa, the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has warned about a possible food crises in countries that they have invaded.

Two of China’s neighboring countries, Pakistan and India, are suffering from its attacks. Pakistan has entered a state of emergency; its government expressed that the country will end up with no harvest at all this year if it doesn’t get the pest under control. Some Indian scholars predicted the locust plague will cause a 30 to 50 percent reduction in India’s food growth this year.

Kang Le, an Ecologist and Entomologist, and an Academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Science News, during his interview with the newspaper, that the desert locusts will not impact China.

Kang said, “The current Locust plague is caused by the Schistocerca gregaria type. Its distribution region does not include China. Some scientists reported that the Schistocerca gregaria type was discovered in Yunnan Province in the early 1900’s but that claim was not confirmed. Therefore, Schistocerca gregaria will not create a severe threat to China.”

Kang also said that China has had a good experience in treating types of migratory locusts in China. However, that experience cannot easily be applied to the desert locust. “Since the desert locust has different characteristics and lives in a different environment from China’s types of locusts, it is not practical to apply China’s experience to the desert locust directly.”

On the other hand, Twitter has posted that the desert locusts have already arrived in Xinjiang.

Sources:
1. 163.com, February 15, 2020
https://news.163.com/20/0215/16/F5EJFM1M0001899O.html
2. Twitter

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

Chinese Foreign Minister: The United States is Threatening China

On February 14, 2020, in an interview with Reuters in Berlin, Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister since March 2013 and State Councilor since March 2018, responded to a questions about whether China poses a threat to the United States. Wang stated that the U.S. is actually threatening other countries.

Xinhua reported Wang’s remarks as follows:

“Wang Yi said that China is willing to follow the five principles of peaceful coexistence with the United States and establish and develop long-term stable friendly cooperative relations. This is China’s established policy, but the United States, on the contrary, is constantly putting pressure on China and frequently blaming and discrediting China. The facts are very clear as to who is threatening whom. For example, the National People’s Congress of China has never passed any resolution involving the domestic affairs of the United States. Nevertheless, the U.S. Congress has reviewed and passed, one after another, a number of resolutions that grossly interfere with China’s domestic affairs. Chinese warships and aircraft have never shown their strength around the United States. It is precisely the United States that has continuously dispatched warships and aircraft to China’s gate to show off its strength. China has never sanctioned any U.S. company and always welcomes U.S. companies to invest in China. It provides them with a good business environment, but the United States has done everything possible to impose so-called unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction on Chinese companies to restrict China’s rights to develop and grow. Therefore, when it comes to threats, it is not China that threatens the United States. It is exactly that the United States is threatening China. The problem to be solved is also how to eliminate this threat from the United States.

Source: Xinhua, February 15, 2020
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-02/15/c_1125578363.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Local Government: On February 13, a Few Cities in Hubei Issued “Wartime Control Orders”

At midnight on February 13, 2020, Zhangwan District in Shiyan City, Hubei Province implemented the first “Wartime Control Order” (战时管制令) . Dawu County of Xiaogan City, Hubei Province also implemented a “Wartime Control Order” later on the same day.

The order by the Zhangwan District, Shiyan City required that every building in the district must be locked down. Any resident or other person, if not medical staff, epidemic control staff, public utility staff, telecom staff, or food supplier staff, is prohibited from entering or leaving the building. All residential communities must strictly follow “wartime control.” The government organs, including the township, street, or neighborhood community (a government controlled organization to manage a community) will provide food of certain fixed kinds at a fixed time. They will also buy urgently needed medicine for the people who are locked in.

Anyone who breaks the rule will be detained for at least 14 days. Continue reading →

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Local Government: On February 13, Beijing CDC Issued a “Wartime Status Order”

On February 13, 2020, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Party Committee issued a “Wartime Status Order” (战时状态令). Any mid-level party cadres and Party Branch managers whose actions have a big impact and a bad influence will be put on suspension or removed from the job immediately.

The order asked all Party members and cadres to understand fully the urgency and importance of the current “emergency,” “critical moment,” and “crisis point,” establish an “unusual mentality” and enter into a “wartime status.”

Everyone should unconditionally obey the “wartime status” Party Committee’s decision and serve the current epidemic control work.

Everyone should also strengthen their political security, ideology security, Internet information security, secret information security, laboratory animal security, and food security. Resolutely prevent any information leaks or any confidential security incident. Continue reading →

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability

Stability Control: Four Internet Police Officers Had to Work around the Clock for Seven Days

The website of Dongying City, Shandong Province, reported a story on January 28, 2020, on how dedicated the Internet police officers were to their work.

Guo Qiqi, an Internet police officer told the news reporter, “Since January 22, (the Dongying government) has been using the emergency response plan. Four female Internet police officers have been stationed to work around the clock for 7 days. When they got really tired, they would go take a nap. They kept their mobile phones with them at all times.”

“One WeChat message can impact a few hundred people in that group. If it is reposted to other groups, it can reach thousands or tens of thousands of people very quickly.” Guo said that the public opinion control plan requires them to resolve (remove) “untruthful” information from identifying it, to verifying it, to declaring it is a rumor, all in 30 minutes.

The four Internet police officers’ achievement was that, “They monitored over 3,000 public opinion messages, filtered and deleted nearly 100 poisonous messages, declared and clarified 10 rumors, and provided positive guidance to the senders of 38 messages.”

Guo said, “Rumors will mislead the public. Please go to the official media to get information.” In addition, she expressed that the Internet is also governed under the law and, according to the law, the “police will go after, ” anyone who creates rumors or spreads rumors on the Internet.

Many people were shocked after reading the article, as it gave a live example of the Communist regime’s Internet censorship.

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Public Opinion: Fang Bin, a Volunteer News Reporter Was Arrested

Since the government filters out a lot of information, many people in China try to post information on the Internet on their own. Fang Bin was an example.

Fang’s most famous posting was the YouTube video that he posted on February 1, 2020, when he drove to several hospitals to observe the situation there. In the video, he saw a car from the Wucang Funeral House parked outside of the Wuhan No 5 Hospital. When he arrived (at 28:00 minutes), there were three corpses inside the car. After he went inside the ER room and came out, by then (at 32:00 minutes) he saw the car had eight corpses. A person (possibly someone from the funeral house) also showed anger toward the authorities: “They only report a dozen deaths a day!”

After that, the police stayed outside of his apartment building to monitor him. Fang had reported every day on the Internet that he had not been arrested yet and thanked the public for their attention that was keeping him safe. On February 9, sources confirmed that police broke into his apartment and took him away.

Source:
1. YouTube

2. Liberty Times, February 11, 2020
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3065116

Hot Topics | | |   Social Stability