07/04/2020
- Buying and paying for meals and supplies online was already second nature for many Chinese before the Covid-19 lockdown
- The supply and delivery networks that were already in place were able to work with the authorities in cities like Wuhan
China’s established home delivery system played an important role in getting food and other necessities to residents during the Wuhan lockdown. Photo: EPA-EFE
When Liu Yilin, a retired middle schoolteacher in Wuhan, first heard rumours of a
spreading in the central Chinese city he started to stock up on supplies such as rice, oil, noodles and dried pork and fish.
These preparations spared the 66-year-old from some of the early panic when
and shoppers flooded to the markets and malls to snap up supplies.
But as time went on and with residents banned from leaving their homes, he became increasingly concerned about getting hold of fresh supplies of vegetables, fruit and meat until the nation’s vast network of delivery drivers came to the rescue.
“It was such a relief that several necessity purchasing groups organised by community workers and volunteers suddenly emerged on WeChat [a leading social media app] days after the lockdown,” Liu said. “China’s powerful home delivery service makes life much easier at a time of crisis.”
Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based independent political economist said: “Home delivery played a very important role amid the coronavirus outbreak. To some extent, it prevented people from starving especially in cases when local governments took extreme measures to isolate people.”
According to Liu, people in Wuhan during the lockdown had to stay within their residential communities, with community workers guarding the exits.
Human contact was limited to the internet. Residents placed orders online with farmers, small merchants or supermarkets to buy daily necessities, and community workers helped distribute the goods from deliverymen.
Every morning, Liu passed a piece of paper with his name, phone number and order number to a community worker who would collect the items from a courier at the gate of the residential area.
Thanks to a high population density in urban areas, affluent labour force and people’s openness to digital life, China has built a well-developed home delivery network.
Extensive funding from technology companies has been invested in hardware infrastructure, software to improve logistics and big data and cloud computing to help predict consumers’ behaviour.
Mark Greeven, professor of innovation and strategy at IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, said: “Whether it is delivery of products, air parcels or fresh food or even medicine or materials for medical use, China has a very well developed system. Much better developed than I think almost any other places in the world.
“Well before the crisis, China had started to embrace digital technology in daily life whether it is in consumption, business, government and smart cities and use of third party payments. All of these things have been in place for a long time and the crisis tested its agility and capability to deal with peak demand.”
China’s e-commerce giants help revive sales of farm goods from Hubei
According to e-commerce giant
JD.com, demands for e-commerce and delivery services spiked during the outbreak of Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
It sold around 220 million items between January 20 and February 28, mainly grains and dairy products with the value of beef orders trebling and chicken deliveries quadrupling compared with a year ago.
Tang Yishen, head of JD Fresh, its fresh foods subsidiary, said: “The surge of online demand for fresh merchandise shows the pandemic helped e-commerce providers further penetrate into the life of customers. It also helped upstream farm producers to know and trust us.”
Meituan Dianping, a leading e-commerce platform, said its grocery retail service Meituan Instashopping reported a 400 per cent growth in sales from a year ago in February from local supermarkets.
The most popular items ordered between January 26 and February 8 were face masks, disinfectant, tangerines, packed fresh-cut fruits and potatoes.
The food delivery service Ele.me said that, between January 21 and February 8, deliveries of frozen food surged more than 600 per cent year on year, followed by a nearly 500 per cent growth in delivery of pet-care products. Fresh food deliveries rose by 181 per cent while drink and snack deliveries climbed by 101 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively. Ele.me is owned by Alibaba, the parent company of the South China Morning Post.
Chinese hotpot restaurant chain adapts as coronavirus fears push communal meals off the menu
E-commerce providers used the opportunity to show goodwill and improve their relationship with customers and partners, analysts say.
Sofya Bakhta, marketing strategy analyst at the Shanghai-based Daxue Consulting, said the food delivery sector had made significant headway in reducing physical contact during the outbreak.
Delivery staff left orders in front of buildings, in lifts or temporary shelters as instructed by the clients as most properties no longer allowed them inside.
Some companies also adopted more hi-tech strategies.
In Beijing, Meituan used self-driving vehicles to deliver meals to contactless pickup stations. It also offered cardboard boxes to be used as shields aimed at preventing the spread of droplets among its clients while they ate in their workplaces. In Shanghai, Ele.me employed delivery drones to serve people under quarantine in the most affected regions.
Some companies even “shared” employees to meet the growing labour demand in the food delivery industry that could not be satisfied with their ordinary workforce, Bakhta said.
More employees from restaurants, general retail and other service businesses were “loaned” to food delivery companies, which faced manpower shortages during the outbreak, according to Sandy Shen, senior research director at global consultancy Gartner.
“These arrangements not only ensured the continuity of the delivery service but also helped businesses to retain employees during the shutdown,” she said.
A delivery man takes a break between orders in Wuhan, central China, during the lockdown. Photo: AFP
Mo Xinsheng became one such “on-loan” worker after customers stopped coming to the Beijing restaurant where he worked as a kitchen assistant.
“I wanted to earn some money and meanwhile help people who are trapped at home,” said Mo, who was hired as a delivery man.
But before he could start work he had to go through lengthy health checks before he was allowed into residential compounds.
He also had to work long hours battling the wind and cold of a Beijing winter and carrying heavy loads.
“I work about 10 hours every day just to earn several thousand yuan [several hundred US dollars] a month,” he said.
“Sometimes I almost couldn’t breathe while my hands were fully loaded with packages of rice, oil and other things.
“But I know I’m doing an important job, especially at a time of crisis,” Mo said, “It was not until then that I realised people have become so reliant on the home delivery system.”
Woman uses remote control car to buy steamed buns amid coronavirus outbreak in China
The delivery system has been improved by an effective combination of private sector innovation and public sector coordination, said Li Chen, assistant professor at the Centre for China Studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“[In China,] government units and the Communist Party grass roots organisations have maintained fairly strong mobilisation capabilities to cope with emergencies, which has worked well in the crisis,” he said.
However, Liu, the Wuhan resident, said prices had gone up and vegetables were three times more expensive than they had been over Lunar New Year in 2019.
“There were few varieties that we could choose from, apart from potatoes, cabbage and carrots,” he said.
“But I’m not complaining. It’s good we can still get fresh vegetables at a difficult time. Isn’t it? After all, we are just ordinary people,” he said.
Source: SCMP
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05/04/2020
- Pictures of packed trails over the weekend highlight difficulties in maintaining social distancing while trying to get back to normal
- Attraction in Anhui province said it would be forced to close on Sunday after exceeding its 20,000-visitor limits
== PICTURE CAPTURED FROM WEIBIO
Huangshan Mountains in China’s Anhui province was forced to close after tens of thousands of people flocked to the popular mountain range over the weekend, highlighting the difficulties in getting the country’s social life back to normal while keeping the coronavirus outbreak under control. Huangshan, or the Yellow Mountains, located in southern Anhui province in eastern China, said in a notice today that it had to close because the number of visitors had reached its limit of 20,000 for the day. Tourists are advised to visit the site on other days or try travelling to other sites. Since April 4, the Anhui government has been offering free access to 29 tourist sites in the Huangshan region, including the Yellow Mountains, to local residents for 2 weeks, in a bid to drum up more business since its reopening in late February as it seeks to get its economy back to normal. Photo: WEIBIO
A popular mountain range in southeast China was forced to close after tens of thousands of people flocked to its trails over the weekend.
The crowds flocking to the Huangshan, or Yellow Mountains, in Anhui province highlight the difficulties the country may face in future as it tries to get back to normal while keeping Covid-19 under control.
Starting from Saturday, the Anhui provincial government had been offering free entry to 29 sites, including Huangshan, to boost visitor numbers.
Visitors were asked to show their health status on an app, wear surgical masks and their body temperatures had to be checked before entering the site.
But on Sunday the park authorities said it would have to close because the number of visitors had reached its daily limit of 20,000 and urged people to visit other sites or come to the mountains at another time.
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Pictures and video circulated on the social media platform Weibo showing packs of visitors walking up the mountain range over the three-day Ching Ming festival.
“Tourism has been hit hard, and also its related industries,” said one Weibo comment. “But the epidemic isn’t over. If you must open the sites, you have to restrict the flow [of tourists], and those visitors from outside.”
As of Sunday, the number of confirmed cases being treated in the country had fallen to 2,382, according to the National Health Commission, but the total number of imported cases rose to 913.
Police try to hold back visitors to the mountain range. Photo: Weibo
“I think China is keeping a close eye on Covid-19 detections and may need to tune the social distancing measures that are needed to keep Covid-19 contained. For now, it may be OK to relax some measures, but those measures should be tightened if case numbers pick up,” said Benjamin Cowling, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hong Kong University.
“I would not be surprised if most countries continue to prohibit mass gatherings for the rest of 2020,” said Cowling, adding that temperature checks at entrances would be a good idea, but it might not be sufficient to protect visitors.
Coronavirus: Beijing’s ban on foreign travellers comes into force months after it criticised other countries for ‘isolating China’
Anhui, which shares its western border with Hubei province, the initial centre of the outbreak, last reported a new infection on Feb 27, according to official figures. The province reported a total of 990 cases of Covid-19, including six deaths.
China’s tourism and cultural sectors are among the worst hit as a result of the outbreak.
A number of Shanghai’s popular tourist spots, including the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Jinmao Tower had to close again last week only two weeks after reopening.
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, a research institute under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, told a forum in February that he expected domestic tourism would contract as much as 56 per cent in the first quarter and 15.5 per cent for the whole year.
Dai also estimated that annual income loss from tourism could hit 1.2 trillion yuan (US$169 billion) this year.
Source: SCMP
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05/04/2020
- The philanthropic foundations of Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, two of China’s wealthiest technology entrepreneurs, have donated 23 million face masks, 2,000 ventilators and 170,000 pieces of protective gear to New York
- The donation, the biggest by private citizens to the epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic, was described by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as ‘really good news’
A shipment of 1,000 ventilators donated by Jack Ma Foundation and Joe Tsai Foundation, has arrived in New York. Photo: Handout
Chinese philanthropists are stepping up their
donation of protective gear, essential medical and diagnostic kits to the United States, Europe and Asian countries, despite rising acrimony between diplomats and government officials looking to pin blame amid the world’s worst pandemic in decades.
The private foundations of Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, co-founders of this newspaper’s owner Alibaba Group Holding and two of China’s wealthiest technology entrepreneurs, have donated a combined 23 million face masks, 2,000 medical ventilators and 170,000 pieces of protective gear to New York city.
The first 1,000 medical ventilators arrived today, with another 1,000 on the way, for a total donation valued at US$50 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Delivery of the essential materials, made possible by behind-the-scene manoeuvres by the donors and officials from both the Chinese and US sides due to import and export regulatory hurdles, highlights the role of civil diplomacy in dealing with the global public health crisis.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo thanks the Chinese government for the 1,000 ventilators donated by Jack Ma Foundation and Joe Tsai Foundation, which arrived in New York on Saturday. Photo: Handout
The gesture comes as diplomats of both countries, and even government officials including the US president and his secretary of state, have engaged in a tit-for-tat war of words, as they attempt to pin the blame for the worlds worst pandemic in decades on each other.
Confirmed cases in the US have soared and surpassed China as the new global epicentre. In the US there are nearly 310,000 cases and nearly 8,500 people have died so far from the Covid-19 disease.
Jack Ma is a friend of mine and he’s made it very possible to get about 1,000 ventilators from China. But that was from him and my other friend [Tsai] that was really a gift – Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, thanked the Chinese government for easing the transfer of the ventilators to the hard-hit state, the current epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in the US.
He said the donations were “really good news”, as the state pushes up against the apex of the outbreak, which is likely to hit in about seven days.
“This is a big deal, and this is going to make a significant difference for us,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday.
“Jack Ma is a friend of mine and he’s made it very possible to get about 1,000 ventilators from China. But that was from him and my other friend [Tsai] that was really a gift. And we appreciate it very much.”
One of the challenges in making the donation possible was the fact that the US had previously blocked China-made “KN95” standard masks, only allowing “3M N95” masks to be used. Although the two masks have different standards, they essentially have the same performance. On Friday, the US Food and Drugs Administration issued an emergency use authorisation for KN95 masks.
Alfred Wu, associate professor in Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore, said that what China is doing with its so-called masks diplomacy is very clear. “But given the emergency situation in New York, whatever channel – private or public sources – the equipment comes from, should not matter, especially those for medical workers,” he said.
Separately, the western state of Oregon has also said that it would send 140 ventilators to New York.
The state, like other areas of the US, is facing shortages of medical gear, including masks and ventilators.
“We are not yet at the apex. We are getting closer,” Cuomo said, adding that this was good as it gave the authorities more time to prepare.
A tweet from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo thanking the Chinese government for the 1,000 ventilators donated by Jack Ma Foundation and Joe Tsai Foundation. Photo: Twitter
Cuomo said 113,704 people in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus, with 15,000 having been hospitalised The state’s death toll saw a significant spike on Saturday to reach 3,565, up from 2,935 the previous day.
The White House has been criticised for not better coordinating the supply of medical goods to states, who are competing with each other on the open market.
NUS’ Wu said that tussle between the federal and state governments in the US on key decisions on acquiring medical supplies was not helping the fight against the pandemic. “Unlike in China, where the central government has the say over local governments, in the US, when it comes to public health provision, the power belongs to the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cuomo acknowledged that he asked the White House and others for help negotiating the ventilators.
Trump said he would like to hear a more resounding “thank you” from Cuomo for providing medical supplies and helping quickly to add hospital capacity.
Source:SCMP
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04/04/2020
- Lockdown may have been lifted, but shops, bars and restaurants remain empty in Beijing, showing struggle facing economic recovery
- Controls have been returning in other parts of China, where cinemas and tourist attractions shut amid fears of new wave of infections
The nearly two month-long lockdown has changed the consumption behaviour of Chinese residents, many of whom have turned to home cooking to cut their spending. Photo: AFP
China’s urban lockdown may have eased, but deserted streets and stores in the capital Beijing this week suggest that for the services sector, the impact of the coronavirus outbreak could be deeper and longer than expected.
Many restaurants, cafes and pubs remained closed in the city, where vigilance remains high about a second wave of infections. Among those that were open, there were few customers to be seen.
The usually crowded Wangfujing shopping street was quiet on Wednesday, with just a few shoppers patronising what is usually the heartbeat of the city’s commerce and tourism. There were more staff than consumers at the Apple store, while everyone wore a mask. Shops along the pedestrianised zone closed their doors before sunset, but many did not open at all.
In a downtown food court, a handful of people dined during what would usually be the lunch rush hour, each restricted to their own small table to maintain social distancing, in great contrast with the usual frantic dash for seats.
Coronavirus: What impact will the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic have on you?
While China has largely stemmed the domestic spread of Covid-19, threats of imported cases, with the virus having infected over one million people worldwide, and asymptomatic carriers continue to hamper the recovery in China’s
A survey published on Friday showed that in March, sentiment among small service sector firms remained depressed. The Caixin / Markit services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was 43.0 for last month, with a number below 50 meaning the sector is shrinking. “There are too few people now. We only sold about a hundred bowls of noodles, that was just half of our normal level,” said one Beijing street vendor, who had also cut many items from the menu due to insufficient demand.
A bookstore in the city centre held an official opening ceremony after a soft opening followed by a two and a half month-long forced shutdown, but received only four visitors on a morning, one of which was the South China Morning Post reporter. All four were required to go through a body temperature check and write down their personal contact details before entering.
Service sector workers said the situation was surreal and that they were worried that there was no end in sight.
“I have never seen KFC look like this,” said an employee of the fast food chain restaurant at Wangfujing, pointing to the virtually empty dining hall.
A grocer at a nearby food market continually shook her head when talking about the decline in customers, but said she felt lucky that she could come back to Beijing from her hometown before the 14-day mandatory quarantine requirement was imposed on February 14.
This situation is not restricted to Beijing. When the Chinese government reopened around 500 cinemas nationwide in March, each one attracted on average
per day.
Now, many places across China are reimposing controls amid fears of a new spike in infections, the same fear leading people to stay home instead of going to those venues which have reopened.
Shanghai has closed tourist attractions while Sichuan has again closed karaoke lounges. Cinemas have also been reclosed across the country.
President Xi Jinping said during a visit to Hangzhou last Sunday that China must remain alert. “If you want to watch a movie, rather than going to a cinema, you can watch it online,” Xi said.
Services account for 60 per cent of China’s economy and the majority of employment. The slowness of the sector’s recovery is placing huge pressure on the world’s second
at a time when manufacturers are seeing export orders nosedive.
Liang Zhonghua, chief macro analyst at Zhongtai Securities, a brokerage, said that China’s damaged consumption alone could drag economic growth down by 4.5 per cent in the second quarter.
“(Chinese) residents’ fear of the epidemic is not over,” he wrote in a note this week.
Beijing’s malls still empty after coronavirus lockdown lifted
In Beijing all travellers entering the city are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine, while mass gatherings are still forbidden.
The containment measures have stopped many migrant workers from getting back to
, if they still exist. Many local residents still choose to work from home, even though authorities had been trying to encourage people to go out and spend money.
On April 1, the traffic flow on Beijing’s subway system was 3.05 million passengers a day, less than a third of the level a year ago, according to the operator, while car traffic was still about 15 per cent less than it was last year, government data showed.
I will keep cooking for myself, even when everything goes back to normal, it is much healthier and cheaper – Beijing resident
The nearly two month-long lockdown has changed the consumption behaviour of Chinese residents, many of whom have turned to home cooking to cut their spending.
“I will keep cooking for myself, even when everything goes back to normal, it is much healthier and cheaper,” said a Beijing lawyer whose family name is Li.
The effect of this behavioural shift is borne out in the 17.9 per cent drop in retail sales in the capital over the first two months of the year, only slightly better than the nationwide drop of 20.5 per cent.
Beijing businesses have clubbed together to issue some 150 million yuan in
to lure customers in since March 18. But with more economic hardship ahead, businesses and consumers alike are hunkering down for the storm.
Source: SCMP
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31/03/2020
- Despite PMI data showing a return to growth in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors, China’s economic activity is still far from normal
- Headwinds include the threat of global recession, a second wave of coronavirus infections and a property slump, analysts warn
China’s economy has shown signs of recovery after a dismal start to the year. Photo: Xinhua
China’s economy showed signs of a recovery in March after a nationwide lockdown paralysed business in February, but analysts warned that it is not yet out of the woods.
Despite
stronger-than-expected government data released on Tuesday, a series of threats lying ahead could derail China’s fragile recovery, including a second wave of infections, a global recession, worsening deflation due to plunging oil prices and a potentially sharp fall in the property market.
“While the lowest point is behind us, it’s not the time to celebrate,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Bank.
For now, March’s figures suggest that business conditions are improving considerably, as more people are able to return to work and coronavirus cases continue to fall.
While the lowest point is behind us, it’s not the time to celebrateLarry Hu
The official purchasing managers’ index (PMIs) surveys showed that both the manufacturing and services sectors returned to growth in March, with many factories and retailers reopening as mainland authorities got the pandemic under control.
It will be welcome news for Beijing after a series of economic data plunged to all-time lows in January and February – including February’s PMIs, which are viewed as leading indicators of the state of the economy for the month ahead.
The manufacturing PMI, a survey of sentiment among factory owners, bounced back to 52.0 in March from 35.7 in February, which was an all-time low by some distance.
China’s non-manufacturing PMI – including both the services and construction sectors – was even weaker in February at 29.6, but its recovery to 52.3 was more marked.
Coronavirus: What impact will the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic have on you?
A number above 50 signifies growth in sector activity, while a number below indicates contraction.
Both indices were significantly higher than expected and produced the V-shaped recovery in sentiment that policymakers had been so desperately pursuing.
But analysts warned that this may be short-lived as virus containment measures are set to sap demand
across the globe, hitting China’s exports hard.
This was perhaps reflected in the fact that while many key components of the PMIs returned to growth in March, new export orders remained negative at 46.4.
Coronavirus: Chinese companies cut salaries and staff in industries hit hardest by Covid-19
“We would like to emphasise that the 52 reading [for manufacturing PMI] actually means a weak business resumption,” said Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura.
“We view the jump in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs in March as one-off gains from the very low comparison bases in February.”
The dramatic collapse of the economy in the second month of the year meant March’s economic data was always likely to show a positive spike, with PMIs highly sensitive to short-term fluctuations in business conditions due to the way they are collated. Researchers simply ask respondents if things are better or worse than they were the previous month.
“This does not mean output is now back to its pre-virus trend,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, in a note. “Instead, it simply suggests that economic activity improved modestly relative to February’s dismal showing, but remains well below pre-virus levels. This is consistent with what the daily activity indicators show.”
It simply suggests that economic activity improved modestly relative to February’s dismal showing, but remains well below pre-virus levelsJulian Evans-Pritchard
Even the Chinese government urged caution against reading too much into the figures.
“We cannot say China’s economy has fully returned to normal levels based on a single month. We need to continue observing changes in the following months,” said a National Bureau of Statistics spokesman, adding that 96.6 per cent of large and medium-sized businesses were back to work as of March 25.
The official PMI survey, which is produced by the National Bureau of Statistics, is weighted more towards larger companies, including state-owned firms that have been the focus of government efforts to review production.
The Caixin-Markit manufacturing PMI data set to be published on Wednesday is weighted more towards smaller, private-sector firms and could show a less buoyant result given their struggles to resume operations.
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Officials in Beijing have been vocal in recent days about their concerns of a possible
. At a press conference in the capital on Monday, vice-minister of industry and information technology Xin Guobin said that small businesses and exporters might “struggle to survive” in the months ahead, due to global economic turbulence.
That was reflected in a new study by investment firm Fidelity International that showed while more than half of restaurants in China have reopened, daily turnover was 40 to 50 per cent below levels seen before the outbreak. Hotel occupancy figures, meanwhile, remain in single digits.
“Expect further slack in quarters three and four, which means the authorities will have to postpone their target to double gross domestic product growth levels to the first half of 2021,” said Carlos Casanova, Asia-Pacific economist at insurer Coface.
Source: SCMP
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30/03/2020
- Dutch inquiry follows recall of 600,000 face masks
- Ambassador rejects concerns China has a political agenda alongside medical support
In early March, China’s daily output of face masks reached 116 million units. Photo: Xinhua
China’s embassy in the Netherlands said on Monday that it was closely following a Dutch investigation into
reportedly defective masks imported from China and called for the issue not to be politicised.
Xu Hong, China’s ambassador to the Netherlands, made the comment after Dutch officials recalled more than 600,000 face masks which were found to be unsuitable for intensive care medical staff.
“The embassy paid high attention to the March 28 news about the ‘defective’ masks that Dutch government purchased from China, and contacted the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health in the first time to verify the information,” Xu said, according to a statement published on the embassy’s website.
Xu said he had spoken by telephone with the Dutch Minister for Medical Care and Sport Martin van Rijn, on Sunday about the issues and said “if necessary” China would help the Dutch investigation into the quality of the masks.
Netherlands recalls 600,000 face masks from China due to low quality
According to the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the masks did not fit well and the filters did not function properly. It was not immediately clear whether the batch in question was given to the Netherlands as a donation or had arrived through a commercial transaction.
“The Netherlands is still looking into the situation, and if there is any further information, it will inform the Chinese side in the first time,” Xu said.
China has ramped up medical assistance abroad where the novel coronavirus pandemic has shown no signs of easing, but China’s efforts have run into rising concerns about the poor quality protective gear and test equipment it offered.
In early March, China’s daily output of face masks reached 116 million units. Picture: Xinhua
Xu also rejected concerns that China had a political agenda accompanying its medical support. He called for its assistance in not to be politicised.
“The reason why China supports the Netherlands and other countries to fight the pandemic is very simple: we are trying to save lives,” Xu said.
“There is no ‘geopolitical consideration’ as a few claimed. It is normal if some problems arise during the cooperation. These problems can be solved in an objective manner, but should not be politicised.”
It is not the first time European countries have had problems with coronavirus-related medical equipment manufactured in China.
Why China’s ‘mask diplomacy’ is raising concern in the West
The company said it would replace the test kits sent to Spain.
On Thursday, the Chinese embassy in Spain said on Twitter that the Bioeasy test kits had not been approved by China’s National Medical Products Administration and were not included in the medical supplies sent by the Chinese government to Spain.
Separately, the Philippines’ health department on Sunday apologised for comments it had made a day earlier that two batches of coronavirus test kits provided by China were substandard, and acknowledged that the quality of the test kits did meet global standards.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Ambassador, apologised, approved, ‘mask diplomacy’, Bioeasy test kits, China’s, Chinese embassy in Spain, closely following, coronavirus, coronavirus test kits, defective masks, Dutch inquiry, Dutch Minister for Medical Care and Sport, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, face masks, health department, investigation, medical support, Ministry of Health, National Medical Products Administration, Netherlands, Philippines, political agenda, recall, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, Spanish government, Twitter, Uncategorized |
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28/03/2020
- Mainland China’s coronavirus outbreak exposed a huge digital divide, with some students from poorer regions lacking resources for online learning
- Access to the internet is not considered a daily necessity at China’s policy level, unlike in European countries such as Norway and Iceland
Chinese children attend a computer class in Beijing to learn how to properly use the internet. Those in poorer parts of the country lack sufficient access to the internet, as the switch to online teaching during the coronavirus outbreak in China showed. Photo: AFP
The coronavirus outbreak in mainland China highlighted the huge digital divide that exists between richer and poorer regions.
When schools shut and online learning was made compulsory, many students living in remote areas found they didn’t have sufficient internet access.
There were 1.6 billion mobile phone subscribers in China in 2019, with many people having more than one subscription, and optical fibre and 4G covered 98 per cent of the population, according to official data.
These figures fail to show the large regional disparity between the country’s rich and poor provinces, says Jack Chan Wing-kit, associate professor of the school of government at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou province.
“In poor areas, a family [often] has to share one mobile phone among all members,” says Chan, who has done extensive research on China’s social problems.
It is easier for service providers to offer blanket coverage in densely populated cities where most people live in high-rise buildings, Chan explains.
“In rural areas, people live in bungalows that are widely spread out. It is not economically efficient for phone service providers like China Mobile to install transmission stations there, which explain their spotty coverage,” he says.
While the universal social security net in China covers people including the old and disabled, access to the internet is not considered a daily necessity at the policy level. That’s unlike European countries such as Norway and Iceland, who see the internet as a basic human right and ensure their entire populations have proper access to it.
Though some wealthier coastal cities within the Pearl River Delta recently conducted local surveys to identify less-well-off households and handed out tablet computers, inland provinces in central and western China cannot afford these measures, Chan says.
The Chinese government does not encourage [the setting up of] charities – Erwin Huang, founder of WebOrganic and EdFuture
Philanthropic efforts could help address this problem, as shown by Hong Kong’s experience in tackling the digital divide.
About 900,000 kindergarten, primary and secondary students in the city have been affected by school suspensions that are likely to last until at least April 20.
While families of disadvantaged students have received support from the government through Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and other welfare schemes, many children still lack digital resources as their parents don’t see it as a priority, says Erwin Huang, founder of both WebOrganic, a charity promoting computer access to such youngsters, and education alliance EdFuture.
That has left it up to charities to make sure all students have enough resources at home for online learning, Huang says. For instance, this month EdFuture worked with local mobile service provider SmarTone to give out free phone data SIM cards lasting two months to 10,000 students.
“It’s for those who live in subdivided flats and those who have to go to McDonald’s for Wi-fi access,” says Huang, who is also associate professor of engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Many students in China’s poorer regions have been left at a disadvantage by the shift to online learning. Photo: Getty Images
The Hong Kong Jockey Club also recently launched a HK$42 million (US$5.4 million) scheme to provide free mobile internet data to 100,000 underprivileged primary- and secondary-school students to help with online learning while schools are closed.
Huang says while such charities help fill gaps in the provision of digital resources in Hong Kong, a similar philanthropic culture is lacking in China.
“The Chinese government does not encourage [the setting up of] charities,” he says.
Huang initiated several digital resources projects in China after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, but says frequent media reports of scandals involving charities such as China’s Red Cross have made it harder for NGOs to operate in the country, with the government preferring to provide social services through its own departments.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Access to the internet, any time soon, Beijing, China’s, Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, computer class, coronavirus crisis, coronavirus outbreak, departments, Digital divide, earthquake, EdFuture, European countries, exposed, going away, Guangzhou province, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Iceland, Internet, lacking resources, Mainland China’s, NGOs, Norway, online learning, poorer regions, professor of engineering, Red Cross, Sichuan, social services, students, Sun Yat-Sen University, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Uncategorized, WebOrganic, Wi-fi access |
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27/03/2020
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump during a phone call on Friday that he would have China’s support in fighting the coronavirus, as the United States faces the prospect of becoming the next global epicentre of the pandemic.
The United States now has the most coronavirus cases of any country, with 84,946 infections and 1,259 deaths. Hospitals in cities like New York and New Orleans struggle to cope with the wave of patients.
Xi’s offer of assistance came amid a long-running war of words between Beijing and Washington over various issues including the coronavirus epidemic.
Trump and some U.S. officials have accused China of a lack of transparency on the virus, and Trump has at times called the coronavirus a “China virus” as it originated there, angering Beijing.
In the call, Xi reiterated to Trump that China had been open and transparent about the epidemic, according to an account of the conversation published by the Chinese foreign ministry.
Trump said on Twitter that he discussed the coronavirus outbreak “in great detail” with Xi.
“China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the virus,” Trump said. “We are working closely together. Much respect!”.
The World Health Organization has said the United States, which saw 17,099 new coronavirus cases and 281 deaths in the past 24 hours, is expected to become the epicentre of the pandemic.
CHINA CUTS FLIGHTS
Like U.S. hospitals now, China’s medical system struggled to contain the coronavirus just two months ago, but draconian city lockdowns and severe travel restrictions has seen China dramatically ease the epidemic.
Mainland China on Friday reported its first local coronavirus case in three days and 54 new imported cases, as Beijing ordered airlines to sharply cut international flights, for fear travellers could reignite the coronavirus outbreak.
The 55 new cases detected on Thursday were down from 67 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said on Friday, taking the tally of infections to 81,340. China’s death toll stood at 3,292 as of Thursday, up by five from a day earlier.
The central province of Hubei, with a population of about 60 million, reported no new cases on Thursday, a day after lifting a lockdown and reopening its borders as the epidemic eased there.
The commercial capital of Shanghai reported the most new imported cases with 17, followed by 12 in the southern province of Guangdong and four each in the capital Beijing and the nearby city of Tianjin.
Shanghai now has 125 patients who arrived from overseas, including 46 from Britain and 27 from the United States.
In effect from Sunday, China has ordered its airlines to fly only one route to any country, on just one flight each week. Foreign airlines must comply with similar curbs on flights to China, although many had already halted services.
About 90% of current international flights into China will be suspended, cutting arrivals to 5,000 passengers a day, from 25,000, the civil aviation regulator said late on Thursday.
From Saturday, China will temporarily suspend entry for foreigners with valid visas and residence permits, in an interim measure, the foreign ministry added.
Before the new curbs, foreign nationals made up about a tenth of the roughly 20,000 travellers arriving on international flights every day, an official of China’s National Immigration Administration said last week.
As commercial flights dwindle, Chinese students from wealthy families are paying tens of thousands of dollars to fly home on private jets.
International demand for chartered and private flights into China increased 227% in March from a year earlier, said Shanghai-based private jet service provider iFlyPlus.
Notably, requests for flights from the United States to China rose 10-fold in late March, iFlyPlus told Reuters.
Source: Reuters
Posted in airlines, Beijing, borders, Britain, China’s, Chinese President Xi Jinping, city lockdowns, coronavirus, coronavirus epidemic, coronavirus outbreak, draconian, epicentre, fighting, Guangdong, hospitals, hubei province, iFlyPlus, international flights, lockdown, Mainland China, National Health Commission, New Orleans, New York, pandemic, patients, phone call, private jet service provider, reignited, Reuters, Shanghai, struggle, support, Tianjin, travellers, Twitter, U.S. President Donald Trump, Uncategorized, United States, Washington, World Health Organization |
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23/03/2020
- The spring session of China’s Canton Fair has been postponed due to fears about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, authorities in Guangdong province say
- Premier Li Keqiang had insisted early this month that the fair’s spring session would go ahead as it was crucial for efforts to ‘stabilise’ the global economy
The spring session of China’s Canton Fair has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Xinhua
The spring session of China’s largest trade expo, the Canton Fair, has been suspended over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, Chinese authorities said on Monday.
The announcement comes amid reports that regular foreign buyers were scrapping plans to attend the event, which was due to open on April 15. The fair has held its spring session in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, between mid-April and early May since 1957.
The decision was made after considering the current development of the pandemic, especially the high risk of imported infections, Ma Hua, deputy director of Guangdong’s department of commerce, was quoted as saying on Monday by the official Nanfang Daily.
Guangdong will assess the epidemic situation and make suggestions to the relevant departments of the central government, Ma said at a press conference.
No new date for the fair was announced, but veteran traders who regularly attend the event said the Guangdong government is talking with Beijing about a new time, possibly in May.
Premier Li Keqiang had insisted early this month that the fair’s spring session would go ahead despite the virus outbreak, as it was an important part of Beijing’s efforts to
.
Authorities of Guangdong, China’s main export and manufacturing hub, joined other large cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, in introducing new restrictions on Saturday that require all foreign visitors be isolated for 14 days at their own expense.
The containment measures, which come as China braces for a
second wave
of imported coronavirus cases, would have applied to tens of thousands of foreign merchants attending the fair.
Coronavirus: Chinese companies cut salaries and staff in industries hit hardest by Covid-19
The Canton Fair occurs twice a year and is China’s oldest and largest exhibition. The spring session last year attracted 195,454 foreign buyers from 213 countries and regions across the world. The top five sources of buyers were from Hong Kong, India, the United States, South Korea and Thailand.
But a growing number of regular attendees have recently cancelled plans to take part in this year’s spring session, Chinese exporters said, as concerns mount about possible infection and extra expenses due to a mandatory two week quarantine after arrival.
“About 80 per cent of our firm’s veteran clients told us last month they won’t come this time,” said Jason Liang, a sales manager at a Guangzhou-based exporter of electronic products, who did not want his company identified. “Plus with this new [quarantine], I think at least 90 per cent or almost all of them would drop the trip.
“The costs – time, security and expense – are totally uncontrollable for international travel currently. We also have no plans to attend any exhibition before the summer.”
About 80 per cent of our firm’s veteran clients told us last month they won’t come this time … The costs – time, security and expense – are totally uncontrollable for international travel currently. Jason Liang
Felly Mwamba, a leader of the Congolese community in Guangzhou who has been in the city since 2003, said China’s quarantine measures made it hard for people to visit Guangzhou.
Xie Jun, a furniture and fabric exporter from Zhejiang, said buyers from developing countries that were part of the Belt and Road Initiative would be hard hit if they were forced to pay for quarantine and treatment.
“In February before the pandemic occurred, to cushion the impact some local governments in China’s exporting trade hubs, such as Yiwu and Jinhua, introduced subsidies to attract foreign merchants,” he said. “But now all the subsidies policies are cancelled from what I know.”
Coronavirus and the ‘war economy’: the US and China bicker as the shop goes down
Chinese exporters, traders, and even local residents in Guangdong, have previously voiced concern about authorities’ decision to press on with the even due to the growing number of imported cases to China.
“We strongly call on the government to cancel the spring session of the Canton Fair,” said Zhu Yinghua, a retired teacher in Guangzhou, said before the announcement.
“It’s too dangerous for us local residents if dozens of thousands of foreigners to flock into Guangzhou.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in 'war economy', Beijing, Belt and Road Initiative, Canton Fair, China, China’s, Congolese community, coronavirus, coronavirus cases, Coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, cut salaries, fair, falls foul, foreign, guangdong province, Hong Kong, imported, India, largest, merchants, pandemic, postponed, Premier Li Keqiang, quarantine, second wave, Shanghai, South Korea, spring session, staff, Thailand, trade expo, Uncategorized, United States, US, zhejiang province |
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20/03/2020
- The country’s only new infections confirmed in the past two days have been imported from overseas, suggesting containment measures worked
- But there are still likely to be infected people with mild or no symptoms, and questions over how the data was compiled, experts say
A makeshift hospital in Wuhan, converted from a sports arena, closed on Sunday after its last patients were discharged. Photo: Xinhua
China reached an apparent milestone this week in the fight against the
Covid-19 pandemic, announcing zero new non-imported infections on Thursday and Friday, but experts said the figures needed to be treated with caution.
After reporting thousands of daily new infections for much of February, China had a sharp decline this month while the wider world experienced the opposite trend as the coronavirus spread.
As China closes makeshift coronavirus hospitals in the outbreak’s initial epicentre of Wuhan because of a lack of patients, and eases some quarantine restrictions in the city and the broader Hubei province, there is consensus that its unprecedented measures changed the direction of the epidemic, offering hope for other countries.
But there are concerns over whether China’s rock-bottom case numbers reflect the full picture in the country. The high incidence of mild cases of Covid-19 is one reason, health experts said, warning that there could be infected people who were not counted but still able to spread the disease.
Coronavirus: More people have now died from Covid-19 in Italy than in China
“It is important that China is doing a good job testing and screening throughout the country to ensure that there are no pockets of infection remaining,” virologist Jeremy Rossman, of Britain’s University of Kent, said, adding that the news was “exciting” but needed to be “treated with caution”.
“With many of these cases having mild to no symptoms, ensuring that the whole country remains prepared and is actively looking for new cases is essential,” he said. “While it is possible there are no new cases, it is also very possible that somewhere in the country there are mildly infected people.”
Missing mild cases, and those infected but showing no symptoms, are a “legitimate concern”, according to Xi Chen, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health.
Unconfirmed cases ‘may be behind rapid spread of coronavirus in China’
19 Mar 2020
“Eighty per cent of cases have mild symptoms, so zero cases is a milestone, but not the end of the epidemic in China,” he said. Patients with mild symptoms or who are asymptomatic can still spread the disease to others, he added, and this needed to be monitored carefully in the coming weeks.
Are medicines to prevent and cure the coronavirus disease within reach?
China has come under scrutiny for how it treats asymptomatic cases. The National Health Commission excludes patients who test positive yet show no symptoms from its number of confirmed cases, although it monitors those cases when it knows of them.
The extent to which asymptomatic carriers contribute to spreading the disease is yet to be understood by scientists.
In addition, Hubei province in mid-February changed how it classified its confirmed cases, which caused a surge in infection numbers. This decision, which allowed doctors to diagnose a person by a clinical examination, not only by a positive laboratory test, was later reversed, leaving confusion about the true extent of the disease.
China must focus on keeping out imported cases, expert says
Other commentators said it could not be ignored that political considerations may play a part as China looks to highlight its communist governance model and portray itself as a global leader in combating the disease.
“We are in the midst of the most intensive propaganda operation of the [Communist] Party state in living memory, in trying to project its success in dealing with the virus,” Steve Tsang, director of the University of London’s SOAS China Institute, said. “That narrative requires statistical backup.
Coronavirus: China starts getting back on track after being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic
“I’m not saying [the zero number] is necessarily wrong; I’m simply saying we don’t know. What we do know is that there is now a political imperative for the statistics to be [low], and now we have statistics that serve the political imperative.”
Data can be trusted when it comes with transparency about how it was collected, so that it can be independently evaluated, Tsang said.
Nis Gruenberg, an analyst with Berlin-based independent think tank the Mercator Institute for China Studies, said that the numbers could be viewed as an “indicator” of a reduction of cases in China.
China’s economy slowly emerging from lockdown with power, transport gains
“Some [Western critics] have been saying China and its system are ill-equipped to handle this outbreak, and now the Chinese government is trying to invert that argument and say, ‘Look at you, you are not doing it well enough,’” Gruenberg said.
The message from the Chinese government that it has succeeded in containing the virus may “politicise” the figures and is a potential driver for under-reporting around the country, according to Gruenberg.
“If history is any guide in China then there is a massive history of under-reporting for various reasons, both within the system and internationally,” he said. “I’m sceptical that this is the true number, or that anyone really knows the true number.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in caution, China’s, chinese government, communist governance model, coronavirus infections, COVID-19, Covid-19 pandemic, hubei province, Italy, makeshift hospital, new, optimism, sports arena, The National Health Commission, Uncategorized, University of London’s SOAS China Institute, Why, Wuhan, Yale School of Public Health, zero |
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 