Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
City at centre of outbreak finally able to declare itself clear of disease after months in lockdown and thousands of deaths
Risk of infection remains, however, with some patients testing positive for coronavirus that causes disease without showing symptoms
Ferries and other public transport services resumed in Wuhan last week. Photo: Xinhua
The city of Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, no longer has any Covid-19 patients in hospital after the last 12 were discharged on Sunday.
Their release ended a four-month nightmare for the city, where the disease was first detected in December. The number of patients being treated for Covid-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus, peaked on February 18 at 38,020 – nearly 10,000 of whom were in severe or critical condition.
“With the joint efforts of Wuhan and the national medical aid given to Hubei province, all cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan were cleared as of April 26,” Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission said on Sunday afternoon.
The announcement came only one day after the city discharged the last patient who had been in a severe condition. That patient also was the last severe case in Hubei province.
The last patient discharged from Wuhan Chest Hospital, a 77-year-old man surnamed Ding, twice tested negative for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and was released at noon on Sunday.
“I missed my family so much!” Ding told Changjing Daily.
Another unidentified patient exclaimed as he left the hospital: “The air outside is so fresh! The weather is so good today!”
Wuhan faced a long journey to bring its patient count down to zero.
The city of 11 million, the capital of Hubei province and a transport hub for central China, was put under a strict lockdown on January 23 that barred anyone from entering or exiting the city without official approval for 76 days until it was officially lifted on April 8.
Coronavirus: Wuhan, Los Angeles officials discuss getting back to work after lockdown
22 Apr 2020
Residents were ordered to stay in their apartments as the city stopped public transport and banned private cars from city streets. As the epidemic worsened, more than 42,000 medical staff from across the country were sent to the city and to Hubei province to help ease the burden on the local health care system.
Wuhan was the hardest hit city in China, accounting for 50,333 of the 82,827 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases recorded in China. More than 4,600 died in the country from the disease.
On March 13, the city reported for the first time that there were no new suspected cases of the infection, and five days later there were no confirmed cases.
The number of discharged patients bottomed out at 39.1 per cent at the end of February, gradually climbing to 92.2 per cent by last Thursday.
“Having the patients in the hospital cleared on April 26 marks a major achievement for the city’s Covid-19 treatment,” the Wuhan Health Commission said in a statement.
However, having no severe cases in hospital does not mean all the discharged patients will require no further treatment as they may still need further care.
“Clearing all the severe cases marks a decisive victory for the battle to safeguard Wuhan,” health minister Ma Xiaowei told state broadcaster China Central Television on Saturday.
“Some patients who have other conditions are being treated in specialised hospitals. It has been properly arranged.”
Coronavirus: Chinese writer hit by nationalist backlash over diary about Wuhan lockdown
18 Apr 2020
Ten patients aged between 42 and 85 who have been declared coronavirus-free are still in intensive care at the city’s Tongji Hospital where they are being treated for kidney problems and other complications arising from Covid-19. Some still need ventilators to help them breathe.
These 10 patients are under 24-hour care, with 190 nurses on four-hour rotations. There are other patients in a similar condition in two other hospitals in Wuhan, according to the Hubei Broadcasting and Television Network.
However, the discharge of the last batch of Covid-19 patients does not mean that the risk of infection is gone.
The city reported 20 new cases of people testing positive for Sars-CoV-2, the official name for the coronavirus that causes the disease, but who do not yet show symptoms.
There are 535 such carriers under medical observation. Past data shows some of these asymptomatic carriers will develop symptoms, and so will be counted as Covid-19 patients under China’s diagnosis and treatment plan.
China’s coronavirus infection curve has flattened out with about 694 imported cases of Covid-19 on top of about 800 locally transmitted ones now under treatment.
The national health commission spokesman warned that people still need to be on high alert as the virus is continuing to spread around the globe, with no sign yet of a slowdown.
“[We] must not drop our guard and loosen up. [We] must discover cases in time and deal with them quickly,” Mi said, citing the continued pressure from cases imported by people returning from overseas.
“The next step will be to implement the requirements of the central government and continue to guard against imported cases and a rebound of domestic transmitted cases.”
ZHENGZHOU, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) — Archaeologists have unearthed a number of circular foundations at a Neolithic site of Longshan Culture dating back about 4,000 years in Huaiyang, central China’s Henan Province, and believe they are one of China’s earliest granaries.
The Shizhuang Site was discovered when workers built a factory. According to an archaeological survey, the site covers 30,000 square meters with the main living area of 5,000 square meters surrounded with rammed earth walls. The ground bases of the granaries are located inside the ancient settlement.
The Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology began excavation of the site in July.
Cao Yanpeng, an associate researcher at the institute, said the Longshan Culture represents a gradual transition from a primitive society to a civilized era. The cultural sites were discovered in places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, including the current provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong.
The main artifacts from the culture are characterized by black pottery.
“Granaries from that period, especially circular ones, were rarely found in previous discoveries,” said Lei Xingshan, secretary of the Party Committee of Peking University’s School of Archaeology and Literature.
The site also contains cultural remains from the Spring and Autumn period (770 B.C.- 476 B.C.), and Han (202 B.C.-220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties.
A visitor views an exhibit at the Erlitou Relic Museum in Luoyang, central China’s Henan Province, Oct. 19, 2019. The Erlitou Relic Museum, which exhibits the history of ancient China’s first recorded dynasty of Xia (2070-1600 B.C.), opened Saturday in Luoyang. It exhibits over 2,000 items, including bronze wares, pottery wares and jade wares. Covering an area of 32,000 square meters, the museum exhibits the history of the Xia Dynasty, the first dynasty recorded in ancient China. Construction of the museum cost 630 million yuan (about 89 million U.S. dollars). The Erlitou Relics date back to 3,500 to 3,800 years ago in ancient China’s late Xia or early Shang (1600-1046 B.C.) dynasties. (Xinhua/Li An)
ZHENGZHOU, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) — The Erlitou Relic Museum opened Saturday in Luoyang city in central China’s Henan Province, unveiling the history and culture of ancient China’s first recorded dynasty of Xia (2070-1600 B.C.).
Covering an area of 32,000 square meters, the museum exhibits over 2,000 items, including bronze wares, pottery wares and jade wares.
Construction of the museum cost 630 million yuan (about 89 million U.S. dollars).
The Erlitou Relics date back to 3,500 to 3,800 years ago in ancient China’s late Xia or early Shang (1600-1046 B.C.) dynasties.
Discovered in 1959 in Luoyang by historian Xu Xusheng, Erlitou was identified by Chinese archaeologists as the relics of the capital city of the middle and late Xia Dynasty.
Over the past 60 years, archaeologists have excavated over 10,000 items out of a total area of 40,000 square meters from the site.
Zhao Haitao from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Erlitou archaeological team, said that China’s earliest palace complex, bronze ware workshop and urban road network were all found at the site.
The museum has three display areas where visitors can experience and better understand the archaeological achievements of the Xia Dynasty, and probe into the history and culture of the Xia Dynasty via various kinds of projects, such as virtual reality, embossment and sand tables.
Li Boqian, a professor with the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University, said the Erlitou Relic Museum presents daily utensils, manufacturing tools and decorations for visitors to understand the social development, history and culture of the Xia Dynasty.
The museum will help people around the world learn about ancient Chinese history and culture, said Liu Yuzhu, director of China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration, at the opening ceremony.
In addition, the museum will become a demonstration site for the protection, preservation and exhibition of China’s major cultural heritage sites and a research center for the origin of Chinese civilization.
Image copyright HAMPSTEAD THEATREImage caption “Speaking out cost me my job, my marriage and my happiness at the time,” Dr Wang said
A whistleblower who exposed HIV and hepatitis epidemics in central China in the 1990s, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives, has died aged 59.
Dr Shuping Wang lost her job, was attacked, and had her clinic vandalised after she spoke out.
She died in Utah in the US, where she moved after the scandal.
A play inspired by her life is currently running in London, with the playwright calling her a “public health hero”.
Dr Wang never returned to China after leaving, saying it did not feel safe.
Why did Dr Wang speak out?
In 1991 in the Chinese province of Henan, Dr Wang was assigned to work at a plasma collection station. At the time, many locals sold their blood to local government-run blood banks.
It wasn’t long before she realised the station posed a huge public health risk.
Poor collection practices, including cross-contamination in blood-drawing, meant many donors were being infected with hepatitis C from other donors.
Undeterred, she reported the issue to the Ministry of Health. As a result, the ministry later announced that all donors would need to undergo hepatitis C screening – reducing the risk of the disease being spread.
But because of her whistleblowing, Dr Wang said, she was forced out of a job.
Her seniors said her actions had “impeded the business”. She was transferred, and assigned to work in a health bureau. But in 1995, she uncovered another scandal.
Image copyright HAMPSTEAD THEATRE
Dr Wang discovered a donor who had tested HIV positive – but had still sold blood in four different areas.
She immediately alerted her seniors to test for HIV in all the blood stations in Henan province. Again, she was told this would be too costly.
She decided to take things into her own hands, buying test kits and randomly collecting over 400 samples from donors.
She found the HIV positive rate to be 13%.
She took her results to officials in the capital, Beijing. But back home, she was targeted. A man she described as a “retired leader of the health bureau” came to her testing centre and smashed her equipment.
When she tried to block him, he hit her with his baton.
‘I’m not a man. I’m a woman’
In 1996, all the blood and plasma collection sites across the country were shut down for “rectification”. When they re-opened, HIV testing was added.
“I felt very gratified, because my work helped to protect the poor,” she said. But others were not happy.
At a health conference later that year, a high-ranking official complained about that “man in a district clinical testing centre [who] dared to report the HIV epidemic directly to the central government”.
“I stood up and said I’m not a man. I’m a woman and I reported this.”
Later that year, she was told by health officials that she ought to stop work. “I lost my job, they asked me to stay home and work for my husband,” Dr Wang said.
Her husband, who worked at the Ministry of Health, was ostracised by his colleagues. Their marriage eventually broke down.
Image copyright HAMPSTEAD THEATREImage caption A scene from The King of Hell’s Palace
In 2001, Dr Wang moved to the US for work, where she took the English name “Sunshine”.
Henan, the province that Dr Wang had worked in, was one of the worst hit.
The government later announced that a special clinic had been set up to care for those suffering from Aids-related illnesses.
Several years later, Dr Wang re-married and moved with her husband Gary Christensen to Salt Lake City, where she began working at the University of Utah as a medical researcher.
But her past followed her. In 2019, she said, Chinese state security officers made threatening visits to relatives and former colleagues in Henan, in an attempt to cancel the production of a play inspired by her life.
She refused, and the play titled “The King of Hell’s Palace” premiered at London’s Hampstead Theatre in September.
Dr Wang died on 21 September while hiking in Salt Lake City with friends and her husband. It’s thought she may have had a heart attack.
Image caption Dr Wang with playwright Frances Ya-Chu
“Speaking out cost me my job, my marriage and my happiness at the time, but it also helped save the lives of thousands and thousands of people,” she had told the Hampstead Theatre website in an interview just one month before her death.
“She was a most determined, relentless optimistic and most loving woman,” wrote her friend David Cowhig after news of her death.
“She chose the English name Sunshine for a reason. Perhaps her exuberance and love for the outrageous – made possible [the] perseverance she had.”
Two people from the circus have been detained after the animal managed to get out of its cage and run towards nearby cornfields on Friday evening
It was found the next morning and police used a tranquilliser to subdue the tiger but it died on the way to the zoo, which believes it had been hit by a car
Video footage shows circus handlers using sticks to try to coax the tiger back inside the cage after it escaped on Friday night. Photo: Thepaper.cn
A circus tiger that escaped from its cage during a show in central China was captured by police after an overnight search, but died while it was being transported to a nearby zoo, according to media reports.
Two people from the circus where the tiger was raised in the county of Yuanyang, Henan province, have been detained, Beijing Youth Daily reported, without elaborating. It said the tiger escaped during the circus’ first public show, which had not been registered with the local authorities.
The tiger was part of a performance for a local school on Friday evening when it managed to get out of its cage and run towards nearby cornfields.
A video posted by news site Thepaper.cn shows the moment it escaped from the cage, with its handlers using sticks to try to coax the animal back inside. The scene is chaotic, as people scream and run from the venue.
A tranquilliser dart was used to subdue the tiger on Saturday morning and it was transported to a zoo in Xinxiang. Photo: Thepaper.cn
The police were called in, and officers used drones, police dogs and thermal imaging equipment to hunt for the tiger, according to the local government.
The authorities also put out an emergency advisory telling residents to stay indoors and contact police if they had any information on the tiger’s whereabouts.
It was spotted the following morning, and a tranquilliser dart was used to subdue the animal at about 10.30am on Saturday. The tiger was then transported to a zoo in the city of Xinxiang.
According to one of its zookeepers, the animal had already died by the time it was delivered to the zoo, China Youth Daily reported on Sunday.
The \jsq, surnamed Feng, said the tiger was hit by a car after it escaped and may have sustained internal injuries. The zoo is conducting an autopsy.
Chinese circus tiger attacks two children after breaking out of cage in middle of performance
Thousands of social media users expressed their sympathy for the tiger’s plight, saying it must have suffered greatly, with many people calling for animal circuses to be banned in China.
“Tigers don’t belong in cages, they belong in the wilderness,” one person wrote on microblog site Weibo.
Chinese circus defends using rare animals in its acts despite poor crowds at shows and criticism of its methods.
Motorist kills six as he ploughs into passers-by, before being shot dead by police
A man drove a car into a crowd on Friday morning, killing six and injuring seven in Hubei province. Photo: Thepaper.cn
Police in central China shot dead a man who drove a car into a crowd on Friday morning, killing six and wounding six others, including children, Chinese media reported.
The police received calls at around 6am about someone driving into pedestrians in the township of Taiping in Hubei province. Officers shot the driver dead, taking the death toll to seven.
The Zaoyang municipal government, which administers Taiping, said the motorist was 44-year-old restaurant owner Cui Lidong.
The government said Cui attacked his wife and daughter that morning before driving his car into the crowd.
One child was among those killed and four children, including the daughter, were wounded.
A police investigation into the incident was under way.
A video published by news portal Thepaper.cn shows several people lying on the ground as an ambulance arrives at the scene.
One witness identified only as Wang said the car ploughed randomly into pedestrians and other vehicles, the Beijing News reported.
Another witness said: “There were bodies everywhere on the street.”
The reports prompted debate online about whether the incident was yet another case of “revenge on society”, where the suspect lashes out at the public to settle personal scores or draw attention to a dispute.
There have been several such revenge cases in recent years, including car crashes, knife attacks and bombings in which the victims were mostly pedestrians or schoolchildren.
In March, police in Tangshan, Hebei province, arrested a man for attacking several pupils outside a primary school. In September 2018, a driver crashed a car into a crowd in central China before attacking pedestrians with a knife and shovel, killing 11 and wounding 44.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 