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COVID Is on a Rampage in China

China recently loosened its COVID control policy after people took to the streets to protest the extreme, inhumane lockdown measures. As a result, COVID has  spread widely throughout the country.

On December 13, the authorities reported only 7,451 infection cases for the entire nation, which the public just did not accept as a number they could trust.

A video posted by a Beijing resident showed that an entire subway station, which used to be fully packed, had only three people in it, including the recorder himself.

Many doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are infected. They are asked to continue work if they can. Work units informed their employees to stay at home and not go to hospitals as hospitals had already “run beyond their full capacity.”

Radio Free Asia quoted an Internet posting that the author called 911 but was told that there were already 4,000 people ahead of him in the queue. Its reporter called Beijing’s hotline 120. The operator told him there were already 40 people waiting for an ambulance, and suggested the caller go to the hospital himself, so he would not be putting a wrong hope on an ambulance.

Funeral homes worked at full speed to cremate bodies. A Beijing resident posted on social media that after his father passed away, he could not find a funeral home to take in his father’s body. A doctor posted on social media that there was a five to seven day wait for cremation and his hospital did not have an empty morgue any longer. Radio Free Asia reported that four elderly people died in the Emergence Room of the Beijing University Hospital. Other patients stayed and waited with the corpse in the same room.

In addition to the present danger to the elderly, this COVID is also claiming young lives. Three children, at the ages of 13, 8, and 2, respectively, died after they had a high temperature.

Source: Epoch Times, December 13, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/12/13/n13884197.htm

China Canceled Video Speech by EU Council President at Shanghai Trade Expo

The Chinese authorities blocked a video by European Council President Charles Michel. It was not allowed to be shown on November 4 at the opening ceremony of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), a major trade expo in Shanghai. Beijing had planned to show Michel’s speech along with those from other foreign dignities, including the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, and the presidents of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Belarus.

However, in his pre-recorded video speech, the European Council president asked China to take the right side on the Russia-Ukraine war. Michel said, “China has a role in using its influence to stop Russia’s brutal war … through your so-called ‘no-limits’ partnership with Russia.” “You, China, can help put an end to this.”  His video also warned about Europe becoming overly dependent on Russia or China. “In Europe, we want balance in our trade relations  … in order to avoid over-dependencies,” Michel said. “This is also true of our trade relations with China.”

Michel’s office asked China for an explanation.

Source: China News, November 8, 2022
https://news.creaders.net/china/2022/11/08/2544742.html

The CCP Conducted More Interference in Canada’s Election Than any Other Country

According to the Canadian media, the Global News’ report on November 7, Canadian intelligence officials warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that China has allegedly interfered in Canada’s elections, including funding a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reported that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) efforts in interfering in Canada’s election included payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the CCP, placing their agents into the offices of Members of Parliament (MPs) in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the CCP views as threats to its interests.

The intelligence report asserts that China conducts more foreign interference than any other nation.

In 2019, China’s Consulate in Toronto directed a large clandestine transfer of funds to a network of at least eleven federal election candidates and to numerous Beijing operatives who worked as the candidate’s campaign staffers. The funds were allegedly transferred through an Ontario provincial MPP and a federal election candidate staffer. Separate sources who are aware of the situation said a CCP proxy group, acting as an intermediary, transferred around $250,000 to these candidates and staffers.

Some, but not all, members of that alleged network were willing affiliates of the CCP.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the same day, apparently in response to the Global News’ report, that China and other countries are finding ways to interfere with the Canadian democratic system. The Canadian government has taken strong measures to prevent this. The government established a special committee of senior officials to handle foreign interference during the two federal elections in 2019 and 2022.

Sources:
1. Global News, November 7, 2022

Canadian intelligence warned PM Trudeau that China covertly funded 2019 election candidates: Sources


2. Radio Canada, November 8, 2022
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/zh-hans/新闻/1931263/中国-干涉-资助-加拿大候选人-政府措施

Researcher: China May Have Inflated Its GDP By 30 Percent

Luis Martinez, Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, published a research paper with a model to analyze a country’s economy. He used the brightness of lights at night from satellite images as a proxy indicator of economic activity. Martinez reasoned that more economic development leads to more infrastructure development, including more streetlights and buildings and more lights. He then compared the stable and credible democracy countries to authoritarian regimes and found that the latter overstate their economy by 30 to 35 percent.

Martinez’s model showed that China’s might have exaggerated its GDP by one-third.

A 2019 report by the Brookings Institution was in agreement with Martinez’s conclusion. It suggested that China overstated its economic growth by 2 percent each year and thus its actual economic volume was 12 percent smaller than the official number.

Source: VOA, November 1, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/satellites-shed-light-on-dictators-lies-about-economic-growth-20221031/6813568.html

After the Confucius Institute, the CCP Switched to Promoting the Lu Ban Workshop

The Chinese Communist Party has been promoting the “Lu Ban Workshop (鲁班工坊)” in countries along the path of its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).

Launched by the Tianjin Municipal Government, the Lu Ban Workshops are named after Lu Ban, a famous Chinese craftsman. They provide vocational education, from mechatronics to applied electronics, and from automation to robotics, to residents of hosting countries, with a focus on local needs.

Xi Jinping has personally promoted the Lu Ban Workshop on several occasions, including at his meetings with presidents from the target countries.

The first workshop was established in Thailand in 2016. There are now 25 Lu Ban Workshops in 19 countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Portugal, and in Central Asian countries.

The Lu Ban Workshop has essentially the same export model as the Confucius Institute: Chinese vocational and technical schools seek local partners in targeted countries and offer courses in those local schools to teach skills related to Chinese standards.

There has been growing concern over the Confucius Institutes as they promote the CCP ideology and impose CCP policy at the local partner school. In the past few years, there has been a wave of interest in closing Confucius Institutes and 104 of the 118 Confucius Institutes at U.S. universities have been closed.

Source: VOA, November 6, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/luban-workshop-china-2022-11-06/6821047.html

 

Student Informer Reported on Chinese University Professor

On October 27, Xu Songyan, a professor at China’s Southwest University (SWU) located in the city of Chongqing, posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese microblogging platform, that a student informer who, after secretly sitting in his class, told him that Xu will be questioned (by the authorities). The post, which was subsequently deleted from Weibo, received attention from millions of Chinese netizens.

Chinese universities have what are called “information officers,” who are students appointed by the school to collect information on teaching activities, and who regularly file reports with the university. These student “informers” also report faculty members’ views and opinions to the university’s Communist Party and administrative authorities. The academic fields are under close watch including programs of literature, history and philosophy.

Xu Songyan is currently a professor at SWU’s School of History and Culture, where he teaches ancient Greek and Roman history. Recent years have seen criticism of the promotion of ancient Greek culture in mainland China, as ancient Greece was known as the birthplace of western democracy. Communist Party chairman Xi Jinping once said that the “path to socialism with Chinese characteristics must be deeply rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese culture, that one should have a firm confidence in Chinese culture, and that one should not ‘always talk about Greece.’”

This is not the first time that a student “information officer” reported a professor. In May 2018, Zhai Juhong, a professor at the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, was reported by a student informer and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by the CCP Committee of the university. She was also dismissed from her position and disqualified as a teacher because of her comments on constitutional amendments, the state-owned enterprises and the institution of the People’s Congress.

Source: Ming Pao (Hong Kong), October 28, 2022
https://news.mingpao.com/pns/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B/article/20221028/s00013/1666895213286/