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

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Patients of Coronavirus Ended Their Lives to Avoid Infecting Family Members

As the Wuhan hospitals are packed and short of medical supplies, many patients of coronavirus who weren’t able get a hospital bed had to go back home for self-quarantine. Out of the fear that they would pass the virus on to their beloved ones at home, some of them chose to end their lives.

An eyewitness saw a patient crying on a bridge in great grief and desperation. The patient left home for fear of infecting his wife and child. The hospital had no room for him, so he rented a room where he could stay. He had to walk a long distance between his rental place and hospital when seeking treatment as the public transportation has stopped. He had no energy to walk anymore and had no food. He jumped off the bridge. Police came and told the eyewitness not to mention it on the Internet.

Another person posted on WeChat that her neighbor, an older gentleman, was diagnosed as a suspect of the coronavirus, without confirmation. He hanged himself so as not to trouble others.

Another person revealed on WeChat that an older woman in his classmate’s community had a fever for a few days. The hospital couldn’t confirm her case and just asked her to go home for self-quarantine. Worrying she might infect her family, she jumped off of the building.

Source: Secret China, February 3, 2020
https://www.secretchina.com/news/gb/2020/02/03/921721.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China’s Ambassadors Failed to Raise Money from German Businesses for a Pro-China Portal

German national television recently reported that two of China’s Ambassadors to Germany asked German businesses for money to finance a portal supporting Beijing.

The idea of the portal, named “China reporter,” was from Wolfgang Hirn, editor of Manager magazine and Georg Blume, a free-lance writer for Times and Der Spiegel. Both are viewed as “experts on China” in the German media circle.

Shi Mingde, the previous Chinese Ambassador to Germany, had been trying to raise money for this project. On February 28, 2019, his last day as Ambassador, he even wrote fund-raising letters to large foundations and companies listed on Dax.

His successor Wu Ken sent his letter on December 4, 2019, a few days after the media exposed the Communist regime’s systematic arrests of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. “Since the German media did one-sided reporting (criticizing the CCP), it has become a more urgent need to spread a full and better image of China.”

According to the German media’s investigation, none of the foundations or companies that received the Ambassador’s letters provided funds. However, it is quite shocking that the CCP even asked German businesses for money for it to influence public opinion in Germany.

Source: Epoch Times, January 21, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/1/20/n11808274.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics

Virus Origin: Genome Analysis of the New Wuhan Coronavirus Found Viral Sequences Suspicious of Laboratory Engineering

Dr. Lyons-Weiler, the founder and CEO of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge (IPAK), published an article stating that medical research found evidence that might suggest the novel coronavirus in China could come out from a laboratory-induced event. He listed possibilities of the origin as either a vaccine or a biomedical weapon.

Dr. Lyons-Weiler has written many articles and three books, many of them are on medical related topics.

“There is, however, clear evidence that the novel sequence, which I will refer to henceforth as INS1378, is from a laboratory-induced recombination event. Specifically,

(1) The sequence similarity to other coronavirus sequences is lower to its most similar sequences in any coronavirus than the rest of the genome (IPAK finding)

(2) The high sequence similarity of INS1378 to a SARS spike protein (2; IPAK Confirmed).

(3) We also found significant sequence similarity of INS1378 to a pShuttle-SN vector that was in use in the 1980’s in China to create a more immunogenic coronavirus (IPAK finding, details below, Option 4).”

He gave four options on the origins of virus:

Option 1. Natural coronavirus related to bat coronaviruses, Not a Recombined Virus. He concluded that this option is a “falsified hypothesis.”

Option 2. A recombined virus that naturally picked up a SARS-like spike protein in its N-terminus of the viral genome. He concluded this option as “speculative hypothesis and unlikely.”

Option 3. A recombined virus made in a laboratory for the purpose of creating a bioweapon.

“Both China and the US hinted at the other side’s potential liability in playing a role in bringing about a novel coronavirus in the lab specifically for the purpose of being used as a bioweapon. To add to the intrigue, a Chinese Scientist had her security access revoked from a BSL-4 laboratory in Manitoba, Canada for violating protocols, allegedly sending samples of deadly viruses to mainland China. On January 26, The Washington Times published an article citing an Israeli defense expert who claimed that China has likely proceeded with a bioweapons program.”

He called it a “rumor” but didn’t reject it from the angle of possibility.

Option 4. A recombined virus made in a laboratory for the purpose of creating a vaccine.

“IPAK researchers found a sequence similarity between a pShuttle-SN recombination vector sequence and INS1378. It turns out that the sequence from pShuttle is most closely related to the Spike protein from SARS coronavirus. This particular technology was used in 2008 to attempt to develop a more immunogenic vaccine against coronavirus.”

Studies reported “serious immunopathology in animals – rats, ferrets, and monkeys – in which animals vaccinated against coronaviruses tended to have extremely high rates of respiratory failure upon subsequent exposure in the study when challenged with the wild-type coronavirus.”

He thinks Option 4 is “most likely.” The Chinese government might have conducted human trials with this vaccine, or this vaccine might have escaped from a lab. “The available evidence most strongly supports that the 2019-NCoV virus is a vaccine strain of coronavirus either accidentally released from a laboratory accident, perhaps a laboratory researcher becoming infected with the virus while conducting animal experiments, or the Chinese were performing clinical studies of a Coronavirus vaccine in humans.”

Sources:
1. Principia Scientific International, January 31, 2020

On the Origins of the 2019-nCoV Virus, Wuhan, China


2. Washington Times, January 26, 2020
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/26/coronavirus-link-china-biowarfare-program-possible/
3. James Lyons-Weiler website

James Lyons-Weiler, PhD

Hot Topics | | |   Defense/Military Social Stability

Why WHO Praised Beijing’s Response to the Coronavirus

On January 28, when the situation of the Wuhan coronavirus continued to worsen, the World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, traveled to Beijing to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping and other Chinese Communist Party leaders. Tedros gave high praise to the commitment of the Chinese government to combat the transmission of the virus very highly.

As multiple governments, including the U.S., France, Japan, South Korea, and Russia, have implemented or planned to evacuate their citizens from Wuhan, WHO advised against it, expressing full confidence in the Chinese government’s capabilities.

Earlier on January 23, WHO decided not to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC. On January 28, WHO admitted an error in its risk assessment. The Geneva-based UN agency said in a situation report that the risk was “very high in China, high at the regional level and high at the global level,” and that it had stated things “incorrectly” in its previous reports on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday that the global risk was “moderate.”

Records of donations of WHO member states (to Who) show China’s payments rose from sixth place in 2016-2017 with a share of 5.14 percent, to the third place in 2018-2019 with a share of 7.92 percent, second only to the 22 percent from the U.S. and 9.68 percent from Japan.

Lin Shih-chia, Chief Executive Officer of the non-government organization Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan (FMPAT), told Radio Free Asia that it was not surprising that the WHO gave priority to politics over professional judgment. Lin, who has been advocating Taiwan’s participation in WHO for 25 years, recalls that, although the mission of the WHO should prioritize the health of all human beings, Taiwan’s experience over the past few years has shown that WHO placed politics high on its agenda. From 2009 to 2016, Taiwanese delegates were able to attend the World Health Assembly as an observer. However, after Tsai Ing-wen, a leader unfavorable to Beijing, was elected, Taiwan was no longer qualified as an observer.

According to Chen Chien-jen, Taiwan’s vice president and epidemiologist, during the SARS epidemic in 2003, Taiwan was blocked from immediate notification of the situation because Taiwan was not a WHO member state. 37 Taiwanese died from SARS.

Jessica Drun, a researcher at the Project 2049 Institute, told RFA that, “China’s influence in the United Nations and international organizations is ubiquitous. … When political considerations are given priority (over public health considerations), health care across the region and the world is at risk.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 28, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/jt-01282020122829.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Revised Down Its 2018 GDP Numbers to Show Growth in 2019

Recently Beijing “uniformly” arranged its work to review and revise its 2018 economic data fully, so that the GDP number in 2019 could still show growth.

On January 22, the Tianjin Statistics Department published Tianjin’s GDP in 2019 as 1.41 trillion yuan (US $200 billion). It also had a small footnote: “According to the National Statistics Bureau’s uniform arrangement, Tianjin’s GDP in 2018 is revised to 1.34 trillion yuan.” That was a dramatic cut of 29 percent from the previously claimed number of 1.88 trillion yuan. This revision gave Tianjin 5.5 percent GDP growth in 2019. (Editor’s note: However, the sharp drop in the 2018 number would mean Tianjin’s GDP growth from 2017 would be quite negative, unless the authorities revised down the 2017 number, and then as a chain reaction, revised down the 2016 number. … Anyhow, this showed that China’s GDP number and its impressive high growth could just be a mirage that the communist regime created.)

The Jilin Provincial Statistics Department reported a GDP of 1.17 trillion yuan in 2019. It cut its 2018 GDP number down by 25 percent to 1.13 trillion yuan, so that it could show a 4.2 percent increase in 2019.

Shandong Province revised down its 2018 number by 13 percent. The Liaoning Province reduction was 7 percent. Heilongjiang Province was down 21.5 percent.

Source: Epoch Times, January 23, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/1/23/n11815506.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics

Wuhan Epidemic Highlights Deficiency of China’s Political System

A World Journal editorial commented on the problem of China’s political system as reflected in the Wuhan epidemic.

“First, there is a huge problem in the top-down system: On the evening of the 20th, Xi Jinping delivered a speech on CCTV regarding the new coronavirus, requiring local governments to do a good job of prevention and control to maintain stability. After his speech, great changes took place in the entire Chinese officialdom. Wuhan and other parts of the country immediately released the information on new infections, and the figures kept jumping every day. It was in sharp contrast with the downplay and cover-up of the epidemic that was in place before Xi’s speech.”

“Xi Jinping spoke because the truth could no longer be covered up. Why was there such a huge change before and after the speech? It is because the central government exercises strict control and implements a top-down system. Any major event must be reported level by level. Lower-level officials have no decision-making power and must report to higher authorities in order to obtain approval. Wuhan’s municipal health bureau has no right to declare the epidemic situation and must report to the provincial government; the governor and the Party chief of the province then report to the central authorities and finally the report reaches Xi Jinping’s confidants. Xi’s confidants have to be well prepared before deciding how to inform Xi. Usually the lower-level officials choose to report what their superior like to hear. Such a top-down system and lengthy reporting process is the reason why Xi was briefed a month after the outbreak of the virus. This shows how the delays in the decision-making process have caused the epidemic to spread rapidly.”

“Second, the politicization of health care is an issue. In a free and equal society, physicians and nurses each have their own specialties and make their own judgments about conditions. However, under the Chinese Communist system, professional judgments on medical care must give way to politics. Officials should first consider whether the news will cause social unrest. Then they have to consider whether the news will cause their superiors to be dissatisfied. That would affect their careers. When the medical process is politicized, the facts of the situation are not the basis for decision making. Hence all decisions will go bad. This is the reason why the Wuhan municipal government downplayed and covered up the epidemic before Xi Jinping’s speech.”

Source: World Journal, January 26, 2020
https://www.worldjournal.com/6753001/

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Reuters Chinese: Global Commercial Aviation Industry on High Alert

Reuters Chinese Edition recently reported that the global airlines are all on high alert regarding the developing Wuhan Pneumonia situation. They are assessing the potential impact on the aviation business. According to the statistics that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) published, at the SARS peak time in April of 2003, Asian business declined by 45 percent. At that time, Cathay Pacific reduced their flights by 40 percent, and so did Singapore Airlines, JAL and ANA. The airline industry depends more on Chinese passengers now than it did in 2003. According to Moody’s, today in Australia, 15 percent of the country’s total international visitors are from China. The same number was 3 percent in 2003. Based on the data that the Civil Aviation Administration of China provided, there were 6.8 million Chinese who took international flights in 2003. The same number was 63.7 million in 2018. Since the local authorities closed down the city, multiple airlines have cancelled their flights out of Wuhan.

Source: Reuters Chinese, January 23, 2020
https://cn.reuters.com/article/global-airliners-wuhan-coronavirus-impac-idCNKBS1ZM13R

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Social Stability

Survey Showed Republicans Won Top Ten Best Governors in U.S.

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that, according to a U.S. poll that Morning Consult did, the top ten most popular governors in the United States are all Republicans. The re-elected Republican Governor Hogan of Maryland, Republican Governor Gordon of Wyoming, and Republican Governor of Massachusetts Baker are among the most eye-catching, due to the fact that they all obtained a 69 percent approval rating. Morning Consult surveys 5,000 registered voters every day and publishes aggregated data on a quarterly basis. The newly released data was for the fourth quarter of 2019. Among the top ten most unpopular governors, Democrats took six and four were republican. The ‘Worst” governor was Hawaiian Democratic David Ige. Among the top ten most unpopular governors, West Virginia Republican Governor Justice is the only one set for re-election in 2020. In the period from October to December, the survey received a total of 493,000 responses from registered voters.

Source: Sina, January 21, 2020
https://dailynews.sina.com/gb/international/chinanews/2020-01-21/doc-ifzsufpq2099762.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations