17/02/2020
- Communist Party mouthpiece releases internal speech given to Politburo Standing Committee on February 3 with presidential orders to contain disease
- Xi makes ‘rare’ disclosure move as he comes under heavy domestic and international pressure, analyst says
President Xi Jinping presides over a meeting and listens to report on epidemic prevention and control work in Beijing on February 10. Photo: Xinhua
President Xi Jinping told the Communist Party’s top echelon to tackle
an outbreak of a previously unknown coronavirus almost two weeks before Chinese authorities announced that there had been human-to-human transmission of the disease, according to an internal speech released on Saturday.
In the speech to the party’s most powerful body, the Politburo Standing Committee, Xi outlined a contingency plan to respond to a crisis that he said could not only hamper the health of people in China, but also jeopardise the country’s economic and social stability – even its open-door policy.
The speech was delivered on February 3 and published in the party’s bimonthly journal Qiushi on Saturday. It was also featured on state television and other official mouthpieces.
The release comes as Xi tries to rally support to counter the biggest crisis in his tenure, including an outpouring of public anger over the death a week ago of ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded by police for alerting his friends about the virus in its early days.
In his speech, Xi also accused local officials of not carrying out edicts from the central government, vowing to punish incompetent officials.
“I issued demands during a Politburo Standing Committee meeting on January 7 for work to contain the outbreak. On January 20, I gave special instructions about the work to prevent and control the outbreak and I have said we have to pay high attention to it,” he said.
The document did not say whether the Politburo was aware of human-to-human transmission of the disease at the time but research published by Chinese scientists said such infections occurred as early as December.
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The speech by Xi also indicated his desire to win international understanding and support through propaganda and diplomacy.
“We have to liaise and communicate with other countries and regions, to share information about the outbreak and containment strategies to win international understanding and support,” he said.
In terms of domestic stability, Xi stressed the need to stabilise food and energy supplies to boost public confidence. He also ordered police to increase their presence on the streets.
“[We must] ensure societal control and security by stepping up law enforcement, mobilising public security and armed police in joint efforts,” Xi said.
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The authorities should also update the public on their efforts to help boost public confidence, he said.
“[We must] inform the people of what the party and government is doing and what is our next step forward to strengthen the public’s confidence,” he said.
He said the government would encourage companies and scientific institutes to speed up research on drugs and vaccines for the outbreaks and they should share their information with the science sector.
At the same time, Xi stressed that national economic goals set for this year, such as achieving “moderate prosperity”, would remain.
This would be achieved by resuming production, boosting consumption and investment in infrastructure, particularly 5G communications.
“There should not be any thought that we can wait a bit [because of the epidemic],” he said.
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Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based political analyst who specialises in analysing Xi’s speeches, said the president’s address was a “rare and interesting” shift from the past.
“The speech was made at a time when Xi is facing heavy domestic and diplomatic pressure,” Wu said.
“This is unprecedented. It sounds like he is defending and explaining how he has done everything in his capacity to lead epidemic prevention.”
Meanwhile, a panel of experts from the World Health Organisation began to arrive in Beijing on a trip that will take in three provinces.
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National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said the panel’s mission would include inspecting outbreak prevention work in urban and rural areas, and assessing viral analytics work before making recommendations to China.
Speaking publicly for the first time since being sent to Wuhan, NHC deputy director Wang Hesheng said he would make sure that there “would not be another Wuhan” in Hubei province. Nine medical centres with a combined capacity of nearly 7,000 beds had opened in the city and the province was planning to open more to treat patients with mild symptoms.
Various cities near Wuhan have stepped up quarantine. On Saturday, the small centre of Wuxue announced that with the exception of people working to contain the epidemic, anyone seen walking the streets would be sent to a stadium for “study sessions”.
Beijing has also appointed two senior firefighting commanders to the Ministry of Emergency Management’s leading group – Xu Ping, head of the ministry’s Forest Fire Bureau, and Qiong Se, director of its Fire and Rescue Bureau.
Zhou Xuewen and Liu Wei, two of the ministry’s existing leading party members, have been appointed deputy ministers for emergency management.
Source: SCMP
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17/02/2020
- Experts to visit Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan but no word on whether Hubei is on the itinerary
- Specialists say visit must include a trip to the outbreak’s epicentre to get a full picture
A nurse cares for a 14-month-old baby infected with the novel coronavirus in an ICU isolation ward of Wuhan Children’s Hospital in Wuhan, at the epicentre of the outbreak. Photo: Xinhua
A team of medical experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), including specialists from the US, will visit Beijing and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Sichuan from Monday to assess the country’s efforts to contain the spread of
a deadly coronavirus, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
But the ministry did not say whether the team would go to Wuhan or any other parts of Hubei, the central Chinese province at the epicentre of the outbreak, raising concerns among medical experts about the transparency of the mission.
The death toll from the coronavirus had risen to 1,770 on mainland China as of Sunday, infecting 70,548 people, including more than 1,700 medical workers. Most of those confirmed with the disease, now known as Covid-19, are in Wuhan.
China has repeatedly said it welcomes international cooperation to contain the outbreak, but the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that it had not yet received an invitation to send experts to the country.
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the WHO delegation would include Americans, but gave no further details.
The announcement came as a commentary in Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily accused Washington of dragging its feet on a funding pledge to help with the epidemic, saying it had a “dark mentality and taken dangerous action” during the outbreak.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that the mission to China included 12 international medical specialists, and they would, with 12 Chinese experts, learn more about the transmission of the virus and the effectiveness of the measures in a bid to work out the next containment steps for China and the world.
An advance team of WHO medical experts arrived in Beijing last Monday, led by Canadian emergency expert Bruce Aylward, Tedros said.
China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said all of the delegation’s members arrived in Beijing over the weekend, and held talks with Chinese medical experts, public health officials and other government departments.
They exchanged views on virus containment, wildlife management and vaccine development, the NHC said.
Experts said the international team would be left with an “incomplete picture” of the outbreak if it did not go to Wuhan or Hubei.
“Unfortunately, this feeds into a narrative that China is trying to hide the true nature of the outbreak, so it would seem to be shortsighted and counterproductive to China’s efforts to say to the world that it is doing everything it can to contain this outbreak,” said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a specialist in global health security and international relations at the University of Sydney.
“We have seen in the past when we have external teams, they are often able to identify areas for improvement or to make recommendations for measures that national authorities may not have thought of – we’ve seen that through other examples where external expertise can be valuable in times of crisis.”
He said any impression of a cover-up would likely further strengthen the resolve of countries that had taken strict measures, including travel bans, to keep them in place or tighten them further.
“China has got a public relations campaign that it also needs to be mindful of in engaging with the international community, so there are the actual measures that the government needs to take in order to control the outbreak, but the government also needs to be seen to be doing everything that it can,” he said.
Source: SCMP
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12/08/2019
- Chief executive Rupert Hogg says staff who ‘support or participate in illegal protests’ would face disciplinary action that ‘may include termination of employment’
- Airline’s shares down 4.37 per cent on Monday morning to lowest level in 10 years, despite it complying with orders on Friday from China’s aviation authority
Cathay Pacific moved over the weekend to comply with new orders from China’s aviation authority. Photo: Bloomberg
Cathay Pacific has warned that it would sack staff taking part in illegal protests in Hong Kong, saying it would take a “zero tolerance” approach, as its shares slumped to their lowest level in 10 years in morning trading on Monday.
In a note to staff on Monday, chief executive Rupert Hogg said staff who “support or participate in illegal protests” would face disciplinary action that “could be serious and may include termination of employment”.
His warning indicated an escalation by the company, under pressure to crack down on employees after China’s civil aviation regulator said on Friday that airline staff supporting the Hong Kong protests would be barred from flights going to, from or through mainland China.
“We are all obliged to abide by law at all times,” Hogg said. “Cathay Pacific Group has a zero-tolerance approach to illegal activities. Specifically, in the current context, there will be disciplinary consequences for employees who support or participate in illegal protests. These consequences could be serious and may include termination of employment.”
By noon in Hong Kong, the stock had fallen 4.37 per cent to HK$9.85 (US$1.26), its lowest level since June 2009. Losses dragged the carrier’s parent company Swire Pacific down 5.4 per cent to HK$77.50, making it the worst performer on Hong Kong’s stock market during morning trading.
This was the lowest price since October 2018 for Swire, which owns 45 per cent of the airline. Air China, which owns 22.7 per cent of Cathay, also fell 1.53 per cent in Hong
On Friday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told Hong Kong’s flagship carrier that any staff members who had taken part in what it called “illegal protests”, “violent actions” and “overly radical activities” would not be allowed to fly to or from the mainland, in a first warning shot at a Hong Kong-based corporate giant.
The CAAC also said that the airline would have to submit identification details of all crew operating all services using mainland China airspace, and that flights with unapproved crew lists would be barred. It gave the airline until Thursday to submit a detailed plan to improve its procedures.
Anti-extradition bill protesters join a sit-in protest at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday. Photo: Reuters
Cathay Pacific had earlier said it would not stop staff members from taking part in demonstrations.
On Wednesday, Cathay Pacific chairman John Slosar said the company would not rein in staff for openly supporting the protests. “We certainly wouldn’t dream of telling them what they have to think about something,” Slosar said.
But in his second statement in two days in relations to the CAAC’s sanctions, Hogg said the “actions and words” of staff outside of work hours could have a “significant effect on the company”, adding that the actions of a few of Cathay’s 34,000 employees would be seen as a company position.
He also asked staff to not “support or participate” in the illegal protest at the airport, saying the carrier was concerned that the protests could become disorderly and violent.
No flights by Cathay Pacific, nor by its subsidiaries Cathay Dragon or HK Express, were delayed or cancelled on Saturday or Sunday, the company said.
The CAAC’s move was widely seen as a clear warning to Hong Kong’s business community to toe Beijing’s line to pressure ongoing anti-government protests in the city that have been taking place for over two months.
Despite the airline acting over the weekend to comply with the rules, Chinese state media continued to put pressure on the company.
Global Times, a tabloid associated with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, said on Sunday the airline had still not allayed all concerns despite its adjustments to comply with the ruling.
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“These are only small steps [showing] that Cathay Pacific is heading towards the right direction, and their sincerity will need to be tested over time,” the tabloid said in an opinion article on Sunday.
It said 2,000 company staff joined citywide strikes last Monday, and cited the case of a pilot who was arrested and charged with rioting during a demonstration on July 28.
“Cathay Pacific has touched on this behaviour lightly, which has a huge impact on the trust the industry and the public have towards the company,” the article said.
State broadcaster CCTV published a short video on Weibo on Monday morning of its anchor issuing further warnings to the airline, saying there were reports of staff continuing to join “illegal gatherings” and asking tourists not to go to Hong Kong.
“If this continues, it’s not a matter of whether or not people would still want to come to Hong Kong, but whether they would still want to be on your airline,” Kang Hui said in a one-minute video.
“Let me send a friendly reminder: one would not be in trouble had one not asked for it,” Kang said, in Mandarin and then in English, translating the popular Chinese internet meme phrase “No zuo no die” and claiming some Cathay Pacific staff pretended not to understand Mandarin. Cantonese is the dominant language in Hong Kong.
Elsewhere, the company announced that two of its airport employees
for leaking passenger information about a Hong Kong police soccer team who had been on a flight to mainland China. It has also suspended the pilot who was among 44 people charged with rioting on July 28.
Although the company does not clearly specify its country-by-country performance, China and Hong Kong produced half of all its 2018 revenue – HK$57 billion of a total of HK$111 billion. A fifth of all the carrier’s flight are to and from the mainland.
Source: SCMP
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