Chinese leader Xi Jinping is unwilling to accept western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with Covid-19, and while recent protests there are not a threat to Communist party rule, they could affect his personal standing, US director of national intelligence Avril Haines said. Although China’s daily Covid cases are near all-time highs, some cities are taking steps to loosen testing and quarantine rules after Xi’s zero-Covid policy triggered a sharp economic slowdown and public unrest opposing Covid-19 lockdowns. Haines, speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in…
Tag: Science
Scientists develop motion-powered health monitors for cows
Cows on farms could soon have their health, reproductive readiness and location monitored by smart technology powered by the kinetic energy of the animal’s movements. Devices that monitor the health of each cow or keep them within invisible fences are already used on farms but these smart tools are often powered by chemical batteries, which add to energy used by an emissions-intensive industry. Alternatives such as solar-powered monitors – deployed in Britain to create fenceless grazing for cows – may depend on the weather. But researchers from China writing in…
China targets older people in Covid-19 vaccination drive
Chinese health officials have announced a drive to accelerate vaccinations of older people against Covid-19, as police patrolled major cities to stamp out protests against the country’s strict zero-Covid policy. The low vaccination rate among older people is one of the major hurdles to easing the zero-Covid policy, which has eroded economic growth, disrupted the lives of millions, and sparked three days of unprecedented protests. At a regular press conference on Tuesday, officials said just 76.6% of people over 80 had received two vaccine doses, compared with more than 90%…
Zero-Covid policy: why is China still having severe lockdowns?
China’s strategy of controlling Covid-19 with lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines has provoked the greatest show of public dissent against the ruling Communist party in decades. Initially, China succeeded in suppressing the virus, but then more transmissible variants emerged, and in recent weeks the outbreak has grown with record numbers of cases reported. Global health experts have criticised China’s methods as unsustainable, so with both cases and public discontent rising, why is China still pursuing its zero-Covid strategy? Vaccines Almost three years on from when Covid-19 was first detected in…
China iPhone factory quadruples bonuses to workers amid anger over Covid curbs
Apple supplier Foxconn said it has quadrupled bonuses on offer for workers at its Zhengzhou plant in central China as it seeks to quell discontent over Covid curbs and retain staff at the giant iPhone manufacturing site. Daily bonuses for employees, who are part of a Foxconn unit responsible for making electronics including smartphones at the site, have been raised to 400 yuan ($55) a day for November from 100 yuan, according to the official WeChat account of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant. Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry, is Apple’s biggest…
Reports of teenager dying in Covid quarantine cause outcry in China
Reports that a 16-year-old girl has died in a Covid quarantine centre after pleas from her family for medical help were ignored have caused anger in China, where ongoing tight pandemic controls have started to take their toll on a weary population. Videos of the girl have spread across Chinese social media in the last 24 hours. The distressing footage, which the Guardian has not been able to independently verify, shows the teenager ill, struggling to breathe and convulsing in a bunk bed at what is purported to be a…
Terrawatch: why is sea level rising faster along China’s coast?
Sea level along the Chinese coast is rising faster than the global average, with some regions experiencing an increase of nearly 5mm a year, according to tide gauge and satellite data. A new study investigates what is causing the localised rise, and identifies which communities are most vulnerable. Global heating is causing sea level rise around the world, with the average rate now 3.6mm a year (compared with 1.4mm a year for most of the 20th century). Oceans are interconnected and water sloshes between them, but the rate of sea…
HRT: inside the complex global supply chain behind a $20bn market
In the centre of the factory stand 31 reactors: giant metal globes that can hold up to 10,000 litres of liquid each. Every week, gleaming stainless steel drums arrive by truck at this plant on the outskirts of Oss, in the Netherlands. Their contents are poured into the reactors through a funnel, dissolved, and then heated to boiling point. Standing by one of the vast containers, the factory manager, Robert Dam, compares it to a “cooking pot”. Peering inside, we can see the light liquid bubbling away. At Dam’s factory,…
Monkeypox: don’t touch foreigners, says China health chief, as first case reported
A senior Chinese health official has advised people to avoid physical contact with foreigners to prevent possible monkeypox infection after the first known case of the virus on mainland China was reported on Friday. “To prevent possible monkeypox infection and as part of our healthy lifestyle, it is recommended that 1) you do not have direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted on his official Weibo page on Saturday. Wu also called for people to avoid “skin-to-skin contact”…
Xinjiang lockdown: Chinese censors drown out posts about food and medicine shortages
Chinese censors have reportedly been ordered to flood social media with innocuous posts about Xinjiang to drown out mounting complaints of food and medication shortages in a region under lockdown for more than a month. The Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture, also known as Yili, is home to about 4.5 million people, and is believed to have been first put into lockdown in early August, without official public announcement, after an outbreak of Covid-19. In recent days social media has hosted reams of post about food shortages, delays or refusals of…