When nearby neighbourhoods went into lockdown, Liu Li started stocking up. The 42-year-old Chinese magazine worker bought vegetables, fruit, medicine and other supplies, adding to stores of basics she had maintained since the pandemic began. Last Sunday a resident in the community where Liu lives with her mother, in Changchun city, Jilin, tested positive. Everyone was ordered inside. The fresh lockdown has, so far, been OK. “I live a normal life,” she says. “I work when there are tasks for me. If there aren’t any, I talk to my mother,…
Month: March 2022
The Unintended Consequences of China’s Stance on Ukraine
Advertisement Within hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s social media platforms saw many pro-Russian comments treating the war as a joke or an opportunity to “chigua” (吃瓜, a slang term for rubbernecking or watching a disaster from afar). Such comments have once again led the world to believe that the Chinese people are inseparable from their government and contributed to negative perceptions of China in countries that are strongly against the war. The Chinese people who wrote such words stand in sharp contrast to those Russians who protested the…
China reports first coronavirus deaths in over a year amid omicron surge
China’s national health authorities reported two Coronavirus deaths on Saturday, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January last year, as the country battles an omicron-driven surge. The deaths, both in north-eastern Jilin province, bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638. China reported 2,157 new community transmissions on Saturday, with the majority in Jilin. The province has instituted a travel ban, with people needing permission from police to travel across borders. China has continued to impose a “zero-Covid” strategy since the initial outbreak in Wuhan. The strategy…
In Rare Rebuke, Chinese Denounce Russia’s War in Ukraine
When Hu Wei, a politically well-connected scholar in Shanghai, warned that China risked becoming a pariah if it didn’t denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he ignited a war of words on China’s internet. Some readers praised Mr. Hu’s article, which spread online last week, seeing its gloomy prognosis about China becoming isolated behind a new Iron Curtain of hostility from Western countries as a welcome challenge to official Chinese soft-pedaling of President Vladimir V. Putin’s aggression. Many others denounced him as a stooge of Washington, unduly critical of Russia’s war…
Omicron is changing China’s covid strategy
Mar 19th 2022 FOR MOST of the covid-19 pandemic, a bargain based on tough love has bonded China’s rulers and people. Leaders have imposed tight controls on an unlucky minority—meaning anyone hapless enough to cross paths or live near someone with covid, or even to be a close contact of these close contacts. Such unfortunates face being quarantined for days or weeks. Right now mainland China is enduring its first big outbreak of the Omicron variant, and the ranks of the unlucky have grown rapidly. At least 40m people are…
Biden Warns China
Good evening. This is your Russia-Ukraine War Briefing, a weeknight guide to the latest news and analysis about the conflict. Bidens warns China: Don’t help Russia During a two-hour video call today, President Biden told Xi Jinping, China’s leader, that there would be “consequences” if China provided aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine. U.S. intelligence agencies have said that Russia has already requested military and economic aid from Beijing. Biden “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against…
Confusion and Chaos in Hong Kong as Leaders Fumble Virus Response
HONG KONG — From week to week as infections barreled through the city, residents in Hong Kong watched the government’s coronavirus policies change. First, officials said they didn’t have plans for social distancing in January, then promptly shut down bars and gyms and banned flights from eight countries. In February, the officials vowed to test every resident, then appeared to abandon those plans this month. And on Thursday, public beaches were closed just three days after Carrie Lam, the city’s leader, raised the possibility of relaxing Covid-19 restrictions. As Hong…
China Weighs Exit From ‘Zero COVID’ and the Risks Involved
Advertisement Even as authorities lock down cities in China’s worst outbreak in two years, they are looking for an exit from what has been a successful but onerous COVID-19 prevention strategy. A study, interviews with Chinese public health staff, and recent public messaging by government-affiliated experts indicate that China is exploring ways of slowly easing its zero-tolerance approach — with the emphasis on slowly. The latest sign came Monday in an essay published by Zhang Wenhong, an infectious disease specialist who is part of Shanghai’s COVID-19 response team and known…
Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 23 of the invasion
Russia’s bombardment in the east of Ukraine continued on Friday. In the streets of Mariupol, where 350,000 civilians have been stranded with little food or water, Russia’s armed forces were “tightening the noose” around the city, a spokesperson for the Russian defence ministry said. In the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s state emergency service said a multistorey teaching building had been shelled on Friday morning, killing one person, wounding 11 and trapping one other in the rubble. The Guardian
China Continues to Underdeliver in Its Plans to Combat the Low Birth Rate
Advertisement In 2021, China reported a new low in the number of newborn babies: 10.61 million. According to figures from the Chinese National Statistics Bureau, China continues to face a decreasing trend in births due to social changes, increasing costs of childcare and education, and an aging population. The low number of newborns further diminished the net population growth in China, with the country reporting only a 480,000 net growth in 2021. It was the fifth consecutive year for China to see a decreasing birth rate, despite abolishing its long-standing…