Tensions between Shanghai residents and China’s Covid enforcers are on the rise again, amid a new push to end infections outside quarantine zones to meet President Xi Jinping’s demand for achieving “dynamic zero-Covid”. Videos shared on China’s social media platforms showed suspected Covid-positive patients forcibly quarantined in central facilities. In some neighbourhoods a single positive case could lead to residents in the entire apartment building be sent for quarantine. Censors have been taking down many of these videos, but determined residents have continued to post them. Past speeches by top…
Day: May 9, 2022
Shanghai’s covid-19 lockdown is not even close to over
THE 25M RESIDENTS of Shanghai could be forgiven for not recognising their own city in the pages of the local press. Most have been locked in their homes for weeks because of an outbreak of covid-19. Yet an article published on May 9th in a state-owned rag noted how residents in some districts are happily returning to their local markets. Another explains that, with covid on the wane, interest in Shanghai from global investors is picking up again. The People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of the Communist Party, referred to the…
A Coming Fall Surge?
Expecting a fall surge The Biden administration is preparing for the possibility that 100 million Americans will be infected with the coronavirus this fall and winter, according to an administration official. That’s lower than the number of Americans who were infected during the Omicron wave in December and January, but still amounts to roughly 30 percent of the U.S. population. Should that scenario play out, my colleague Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports, the administration’s goal is to prevent a spike in hospitalizations and deaths. One way that might be accomplished would…
Your Tuesday Briefing: A Marcos Victory?
Good morning. We’re covering the Philippines presidential election, the resignation of Sri Lanka’s prime minister and a pandemic pivot in Taiwan. Another Marcos for president? With more than 90 percent of election returns counted in a preliminary tally, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appeared sure to win the country’s presidential election early Tuesday morning. He has a huge lead over Leni Robredo in the Philippines’ most consequential vote in recent history. Here are live updates. Marcos, the son of the former dictator who was ousted 36 years ago, appealed to a public…
Will China Learn From Its Biggest COVID-19 Mistake?
Advertisement The Omicron outbreak in Shanghai has become the most daunting challenge to the Chinese government and its zero-COVID policy since the Wuhan outbreak in early 2020. The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in Shanghai has reached nearly 600,000. In mid-April, at the height of COVID-19 spread in Shanghai, daily cases surpassed 27,000. As a result, Shanghai recorded more than 500 deaths since the start of this Omicron wave in March, making this outbreak the deadliest in China since the Wuhan outbreak. The Shanghai outbreak has received the greatest…
Hong Kong Leader Says China Patriots Now Firmly in Charge
Advertisement Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Monday that Chinese patriots are now firmly in charge of the city following the election of its new leader, who ran unopposed in a process controlled by Beijing. Lam’s comments came a day after a carefully vetted election committee voted overwhelmingly to approve John Lee, a hard-line security chief who oversaw a crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement after massive protests turned violent in 2019. The protests led to the imposition by Beijing of a sweeping National Security Law and the reorganization of…
Car T-cell therapy shows early promise in treating gastric cancers
An experimental cancer therapy that infuses designer immune cells into patients has shown early promise in a clinical trial by shrinking tumours in the digestive system. Interim results from the first phase of the clinical trial found that nearly half, or 48.6%, of the 37 patients treated so far responded to the infusions with their tumours reducing in size after the therapy. While the findings come from an initial safety assessment of the approach, researchers running the trial in Beijing believe it demonstrates the potential for genetically-altered immune cells to…
Taiwan Pivots From ‘Zero Covid’ as Beijing Doubles Down
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Until recently, China and Taiwan were among the last places on earth to pursue a “zero Covid” policy of eliminating infections. For two years, they mostly succeeded in keeping the coronavirus out with tough border controls and rigorous contact tracing. Then came the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Faced with surging coronavirus cases, the two governments are now taking vastly different approaches. In China, the authorities are doubling down. They have imposed stringent lockdowns, mass testing and centralized quarantines for confirmed cases and close contacts. The glittering financial…
China trade: export growth slowed to lowest level in almost 2 years in April, imports flat
China’s imports remained flat in April from a year earlier, up slightly from a fall of 0.1 per cent in March, while exports grew by 3.9 per cent last month compared with a year earlier, down from 14.7 per cent growth in March, data released on Monday showed. Photo: AFP South China Morning Post