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.
Media caption Americans are taken from the docked ship to Haneda airport in Tokyo
Two planes carrying hundreds of US citizens from a coronavirus-hit cruise ship have left Japan, officials say.
One plane has landed at a US Air Force air base in California, and its passengers will be isolated at military facilities for 14 days.
There were some 400 Americans on board the Diamond Princess. The ship with some 3,700 passengers and crew has been in quarantine since 3 February.
Meanwhile, China reported a total of 2,048 new cases on Monday.
Of those new cases, 1,933 were from Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak.
More than 70,500 people across China have been infected by the virus. In Hubei alone, the official number of cases stands at 58,182, with 1,692 deaths. Most new cases and deaths have been reported in Wuhan, Hubei’s largest city.
In other developments:
In Japan, a public gathering to celebrate the birthday of new Emperor Naruhito later this week has been cancelled, due to concerns over the spread of the virus while organisers of the Tokyo marathon due to take place on 1 March are considering whether to cancel the amateur part of the race, reports say
In China, the National People’s Congress standing committee said it would meet next week to discuss a delay of this year’s Congress – the Communist Party’s most important annual gathering – because of the outbreak
At the weekend, an American woman tested positive for the virus in Malaysia after leaving a cruise liner docked off the coast of Cambodia
A Russian court has ordered a woman who escaped from a quarantine facility to go back and stay there until she is confirmed to be disease-free, Fontanka news agency reports. Alla Ilyina has until Wednesday to return
What’s happening on the Diamond Princess?
The cruise ship was put in quarantine in Japan’s port of Yokohama after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was found to have the virus.
On Monday, Japanese officials said there were 99 new cases of infections on board the ship, bringing the total to 454 confirmed cases. It is the largest cluster of cases outside China.
A Russian woman who was on board and tested positive is thought to be the first Russian national to contract the virus after the two previous cases found in Russia were Chinese nationals, Reuters news agency reports.
She will be taken to a hospital for treatment, the Russian embassy in Japan said.
At least 40 US citizens who were on board are infected and will be treated in Japan, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told US broadcaster CBS.
Image copyright AFPImage caption Those bound for the US left from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport
The two aircraft chartered by the US government left Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in the early hours of Monday. The second flight was due to land at another base in Texas.
More than 300 passengers are being repatriated voluntarily, the US state department said. Fourteen of them were reported during transit to have tested positive for the virus and were being kept separate from the other passengers, it said.
we would like to just finish the quarantine on the ship as planned, decompress in a non-quarantine environment in Japan for a few days, then fly back to the U.S. pursuant to our own arrangements. What’s wrong with that?
The smartphones were distributed so people could use an app, created by Japan’s health ministry, which links users with doctors, pharmacists and mental health counsellors. Phones registered outside of Japan are unable to access the app.
Other evacuation flights have been arranged to repatriate residents of Israel, Hong Kong and Canada. On Monday, Australia announced that it would evacuate 200 of its citizens too.
What is happening in China?
According to official figures for 16 February, 100 people died from the virus in Hubei, down from 139 on Saturday.
The Chinese authorities are tightening curbs on movement to combat the outbreak. People in Hubei province, which has 60 million people, have been ordered to stay at home, though they will be allowed to leave in an emergency.
In addition, a single person from each household will be allowed to leave the building or compound they live in every three days to buy food and essential items.
On housing estates, one entrance will be kept open. It will be guarded to ensure that only residents can enter or leave.
All businesses will stay closed, except chemists, hotels, food shops and medical services.
“The effects of epidemic prevention and control in various parts of the country can already be seen.”
The proportion of infected patients considered to be in a “serious condition” has dropped nationwide from more than 15% to just over 7%, according to China’s State Council.
Taiwan has reported a death from the illness – a taxi driver, 61, who had not travelled abroad recently but had diabetes and hepatitis B, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said.
The minister said many of his passengers had come from China.
Outside China, there have been more than 500 cases in nearly 30 countries. Four others have died outside mainland China – in France, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.
Meanwhile, a plane carrying 175 evacuated Nepalis, mostly students, has arrived in Kathmandu from Wuhan.
More than 1,300 people are now known to have died from the virus.
The latest figures show 122 new deaths in China, bringing the toll to 1,381.
The total number of infections has jumped to 63,922 cases, according to the National Health Commission.
The World Health Organization said there was no major shift in the virus’s pattern of mortality or severity, despite a spike in cases in Hubei, the epicentre of the disease, on Tuesday.
Most of this was down to Hubei using a broader definition to diagnose people, said Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies programme.
There was also no significant rise in cases outside China, the WHO said.
However, a cruise ship docked in Japan, the Diamond Princess, saw 44 new cases, bringing the total there to 218.
What is the situation with medical workers?
Zeng Yixin, vice minister of China’s National Health Commission, said 1,102 medical workers had been infected in Wuhan, where the outbreak began, and another 400 in other parts of Hubei province.
He said the number of infections among staff was increasing.
Media caption Medics in Wuhan resort to shaving their heads in a bid to prevent cross-infection of the coronavirus
“The duties of medical workers at the front are indeed extremely heavy; their working and resting circumstances are limited, the psychological pressures are great, and the risk of infection is high,” Mr Zeng said, quoted by Reuters.
Local authorities have struggled to provide protective equipment such as respiratory masks, goggles and protective suits in hospitals in the area.
One doctor told AFP news agency that he and 16 colleagues were showing possible symptoms of the virus.
On 7 February the plight of medical workers was highlighted by the death of Li Wenliang, a doctor at Wuhan Central Hospital who had tried to issue the first warning about the virus on 30 December.
Image copyright LI WENLIANGImage caption Li Wenliang contracted the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital
He had sent out a warning to fellow medics but police told him to stop “making false comments”.
A wave of anger and grief flooded Chinese social media site Weibo when news of Dr Li’s death broke.
Image copyright AFPImage caption Asian airlines have been hard hit by the virus outbreak
Economic impacts of the virus
Global airline revenue expected to fall by $4bn (£3.1bn) to $5bn this year
China’s car sales likely to fall more than 10% in first half of year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers tells Reuters
Singapore’s economy could fall into recession as a result of the outbreak, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says
Malaysian finance minister says a stimulus package will be announced for aviation, retail and tourism industries
What is happening on the Diamond Princess?
The vessel is in quarantine in Yokohama, in southern Japan. Not all the 3,700 people on board have been tested yet.
People with the virus are taken to hospitals on land to be treated, while those on board are largely confined to their cabins.
Image copyright AFPImage caption The Diamond Princess has 3,700 people on board – not all of whom have been tested
However on Thursday Japan said it would allow those aged 80 or over who have tested negative for the coronavirus to disembark.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said they could be allowed off the ship as early as Friday but would have to stay in accommodation provided by the government, the Japan Times reported.
Meanwhile another cruise ship – the MS Westerdam, carrying more than 2,000 people – docked in Cambodia after being turned away by ports in Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand despite having no sick patients on board.
Media caption The Westerdam was finally able to dock in Sihanoukville, Cambodia
In other developments:
Outside China there have now been two deaths and 456 cases in 24 countries
Singapore health ministry reports nine new cases, bringing the total number there to 67
Australia has extended its ban on people coming from mainland China for another week, to 22 February
China said it would stagger the return of children to school – several provinces have closed schools until the end of February
In Vietnam, which borders China, thousands of people in villages near the capital, Hanoi, have been put under quarantine after several cases were discovered. Vietnam has now confirmed at least 16 cases
The Red Cross has called for sanctions relief for North Korea, which would allow the aid agency to transfer funds to buy equipment. Testing kits and protective clothing are urgently needed to prepare for a possible outbreak, it says
A Russian woman – who was put into a coronavirus quarantine but escaped – is resisting attempts by officials to bring her back to hospital by force. Alla Ilyina, 32, has been refusing to open the door of her St Petersburg apartment to police
The Eyes of Darkness features a Chinese military lab in Wuhan that creates a virus as a bioweapon; civilians soon become sick after accidentally contracting it
In fact, the one lab in China able to handle the deadliest viruses is in Wuhan and helped sequence the novel coronavirus the world is currently battling
The Eyes of Darkness, a 1981 thriller by bestselling suspense author Dean Koontz, tells of a Chinese military lab that creates a virus as part of its biological weapons programme. The lab is located in Wuhan, which lends the virus its name, Wuhan-400. A chilling literary coincidence or a case of writer as unwitting prophet?
In The Eyes of Darkness, a grieving mother, Christina Evans, sets out to discover whether her son Danny died on a camping trip or if – as suspicious messages suggest – he is still alive. She eventually tracks him down to a military facility where he is being held after being accidentally contaminated with man-made microorganisms created at the research centre in Wuhan.
If that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, read this passage from the book: “It was around that time that a Chinese scientist named Li Chen moved to the United States while carrying a floppy disk of data from China’s most important and dangerous new biological weapon of the past decade. They call it Wuhan-400 because it was developed in their RDNA laboratory just outside the city of Wuhan.”
In another strange coincidence, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which houses China’s only level four biosafety laboratory, the highest-level classification of labs that study the deadliest viruses, is just 32km from the epicentre of the current coronavirus outbreak.
The opening of the maximum-security lab was covered in a 2017 story in the journal Nature, which warned of safety risks in a culture where hierarchy trumps an open culture.
Koontz has written more than 80 novels and 74 works of short fiction. Photo: Douglas Sonders
Fringe conspiracy theories that the coronavirus involved in the current outbreak appears to be man-made and likely escaped from the Wuhan virology lab have been circulated, but have been widely debunked. In fact the lab was one of the first to sequence the coronavirus.
In Koontz’s thriller, the virus is considered the “perfect weapon” because it only affects humans and, since it cannot survive outside the human body for longer than a minute, it does not demand expensive decontamination once a population is wiped out, allowing the victors to roll in and claim a conquered territory.
It’s no exaggeration to call Koontz a prolific writer. His first book, Star Quest, was published in 1968 and he has been churning out suspense fiction at a phenomenal rate since with more than 80 novels and 74 works of short fiction under his belt. The 74-year-old, a devout Catholic, lives in California with his wife. But what are the odds of him so closely predicting the future?
Albert Wan, who runs the Bleak House Books store in San Po Kong, says Wuhan has historically been the site of numerous scientific research facilities, including ones dealing with microbiology and virology. “Smart, savvy writers like Koontz would have known all this and used this bit of factual information to craft a story that is both convincing and unsettling. Hence the Wuhan-400,” says Wan.
British writer Paul French, who specialises in books about China, says many of the elements around viruses in China relate back to the second world war, which may have been a factor in Koontz’s thinking.
The Eyes of Darkness, by Koontz.
“The Japanese definitely did do chemical weapons research in China, which we mostly associate with Unit 731 in Harbin and northern China. But they also stored chemical weapons in Wuhan – which Japan admitted,” says French.
Publisher Pete Spurrier, who runs Hong Kong publishing house Blacksmith Books, muses that for a fiction writer mapping out a thriller about a virus outbreak set in China, Wuhan is a good choice.
“It’s on the Yangtze River that goes east-west; it’s on the high-speed rail [line] that goes north-south; it’s right at the crossroads of transport networks in the centre of the country. Where better to start a fictional epidemic, or indeed a real one?” says Spurrier. (Spurrier works part-time as a subeditor for the Post.)
Albert Wan runs the Bleak House Books store in San Po Kong, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong crime author Chan Ho-kei believes that this kind of “fiction-prophecy” is not uncommon.
“If you look really hard, I bet you can spot prophecies for almost all events. It makes me think about the ‘infinite monkey’ theorem,” he says, referring to the theory that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text.
“The probability is low, but not impossible.”
British writer Paul French.
Chan points to the 1898 novella Futility, which told the story of a huge ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. Many uncanny similarities were noted between the fictional ship – called Titan – and the real-life passenger ship RMS Titanic, which sank 14 years later. Following the sinking of the Titanic, the book was reissued with some changes, particularly in the ship’s gross tonnage.
“Fiction writers always try to imagine what the reality would be, so it’s very likely to write something like a prediction. Of course, it’s bizarre when the details collide, but I think it’s just a matter of mathematics,” says Chan.
Many of Koontz’s books have been adapted for television or the big screen, but The Eyes of Darkness never achieved such glory. This bizarre coincidence will thrust it into the spotlight and may see sales of this otherwise forgotten thriller jump.
Hong Kong crime author Chan Ho-kei.
Amazon is currently offering it on Kindle for just US$1. Perhaps, like Futility, it will also be reissued with some updates to make it really echo the current outbreak.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Friday said production at all of its China plants would remain suspended through Feb. 16, joining a growing number of automakers facing stoppages due to supply chain issues as the coronavirus spreads.
The Japanese automaker, which operates 12 vehicle and components factories in China, said it would extend its production stoppage “after considering various factors, including guidelines from local and region governments, parts supply, and logistics.
“For the week of Feb. 10, we will be preparing for the return to normal operation from Feb. 17 and beyond,” it said in a statement.
The decision extends Toyota’s initial plans to suspend operations through Sunday, and comes as the threat from the coronavirus crisis closes in on the global auto industry.
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and affiliate Kia Motors (000270.KS) said on Friday that they plan to restart production at their Chinese factories on Feb. 17, from a previously planned Feb.9.
“We will take preventive measures against infection at factories,” a spokeswoman said.
A growing number of car makers, including those who do not make cars in China, are flagging the possibility that their global operations could take a hit if they cannot access parts supplies from the country, where there are transportation bans to stop the virus spreading.
Suzuki Motor Corp said it was looking at the possibility of procuring “made in China” car parts from other regions if it cannot access parts due to ongoing stoppages.
The Japanese automaker does not produce or sell any cars in China, but procures some components there for its plants in India, where it controls around half of the passenger vehicle market via its local unit Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MRTI.NS).
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI) on Thursday said one of its European plants could close within two to four weeks if Chinese parts suppliers cannot get back to work soon, while Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) earlier this week suspended production at its South Korean plants due to a shortage of China-made parts.
Parts made in China are used in millions of vehicles assembled elsewhere, and China’s Hubei province – the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak – is a major hub for vehicle parts production and shipments.
To limit the spread of the virus, Chinese authorities have announced an extended holiday period in Hubei and 10 other provinces, which account for more than two-thirds of the country’s vehicle production.
IHS Automotive projects plant closures through Feb. 10 would result in a 7% cut in vehicle production in China for the first quarter.
In a note, its analysts said extended closures into March may result in lost production of over 1.7 million vehicles for the period, a decline of roughly one-third of pre-virus output expectations.
“If the situation lingers into mid-March, and plants in adjacent provinces are also idled, the China-wide supply chain disruption caused by parts shortages from Hubei, a major component hub, could have a wide-reaching impact,” they said.
Other industry experts said suppliers had built up a cushion of parts in inventory and in-transit ahead of the long Lunar New Year holiday in late January. Those will start to run out if factories cannot get back to work next week, or if flights to and from China remain limited.
Toyota said its plants outside China were operating as normal for the moment but it has said it was also considering the possibility of manufacturing parts commonly made in China in other regions.
Some residents of the coastal Chinese province are being locked inside their homes while others must present a ‘passport’ to go out every two days for supplies
Weddings and funerals discouraged as ‘unessential’ venues are also shut down
Cured coronavirus patients leave hospital in Hangzhou, one of four cities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang which has adopted draconian quarantine measures for its residents. Photo: Xinhua
In the Chinese coastal province of Zhejiang, some 560km (350 miles) east of where the new coronavirus originated, at least four cities have introduced measures that mirror the draconian rules established by Hubei province – epicentre of the outbreak – to keep the virus from spreading.
Authorities in Zhejiang, which neighbours the port city of Shanghai, have closed “unessential” public venues, banned funerals and weddings, limited the number of times people can go out and quarantined families at home, sometimes by locking them in.
In the Zhejiang cities of Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Taizhou – which have a combined population of more than 30 million – each household is being issued a “passport”, usually a piece of paper that carries one’s name, home address and an official stamp. Only one person per household is permitted to leave their home every two days.
The rules were announced on state media and the governments’ social media accounts, and families have already received their “passports”.
Some people have been locked inside their homes, including Allen Li and his family in Hangzhou. Photo: Handout
To enforce the new travel rules, community officers have been stationed at the entrance of some residential compounds. Every time a resident leaves their compound, an officer at the entrance marks the time and date on the “passport”. People from the same household are then barred from going out again for the next two days.
With 954 coronavirus patients, the province of Zhejiang is the hardest hit region outside Hubei, which has about 19,665 of the more than 28,000 total cases.
Hangzhou, the provincial capital and home to some of China’s biggest tech companies, has reported 151 confirmed cases. The port city of Wenzhou has reported 396 cases.
Yao Gaoyuan, mayor of Wenzhou, said in an interview with CCTV on February 2 that the city had decided to impose the restrictions to contain the spread the coronavirus. “This could reduce the transmission to the greatest extent possible,” he said.
One neighbourhood in Wenzhou introduced a mobile technology system to enforce the stay-at-home rules, according to the state-run Wenzhou Daily, with residents using their phones to scan a QR code at the checkpoints every time they leave the compound. Only those who have not been out for two days will be allowed through.
In Hangzhou, the government on Tuesday banned all weddings and demanded that funerals, which traditionally involve family gatherings and banquets, be held frugally.
All public venues deemed “unessential” were ordered to close. Underground train services are running at 30-minute intervals. Factories need special permission to resume work during the extended Lunar New Year holiday.
Some families have also been confined to their homes because they have travelled to places with large numbers of confirmed cases.
No, the coronavirus can’t be kept away by saltwater gargling or cow dung
6 Feb 2020
Allen Li, 26, who is now living with his parents in Hangzhou, said the family had been told to stay home for 14 days after they returned from Wenzhou.
Community workers put up a sign saying “quarantined at home, no visitors allowed” on their door. On Wednesday, they locked the flat with a metal chain from the outside despite the family’s protest.
“We argued with them, but they said it’s a decision from above,” Li said. “We understand we should not go out. But this is not humane. What if there’s a fire at our home at midnight, and we can’t get anyone to unlock it?”
China scrambles to deliver food to coronavirus epicentre Wuhan amid lockdown
Some social media users have applauded such measures as ways to contain the virus, but others have criticised the quarantine as essentially “house arrest”.
Wuhan party official apologises for failures in coronavirus outbreak
6 Feb 2020
Some Hangzhou residents have complained online that they were barred from entering their rented homes after having spent the Lunar New Year holiday elsewhere.
The coronavirus was first reported in December in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei that has been sealed off since January 23.
In a sign of the rising fear of contagion, regional authorities across China have imposed travel restrictions on residents that mirror the draconian measures in Hubei province.
But officials said about 5 million people had already travelled out of the city during the Lunar New Year travel season, contributing to the spread of the virus to other Chinese provinces and at least 24 countries.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption A model displays a car at the annual Indian Auto Expo
Chinese attendees are not welcome at India’s Auto Expo next week due to concerns about the coronavirus.
Chinese guests are prevented from attending the show because of “government policy” an Indian Society of Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) spokeswoman said.
Yet Chinese cars will be on display.
Other events across Asia will be missing the large delegations that usually come from Chinese firms because of travel restrictions.
Changing car markets
India and China have much at stake in spurring domestic car sales as well as exports, making such industry events vital to drum up business.
New Indian car sales fell 16% last year and China, the world’s largest car market, saw an 8% dip as both markets saw increased turnover in used cars. However there is interest in newer models in the electric vehicle segment, according to Chinese market consultancy LMC Automotive and SIAM figures.
India’s Tata Motors, owner of the Land Rover and Jaguar brands, has developed electric car models for sale at home and abroad, while China’s SAIC Motor and Great Wall Motor also offer electric vehicles for the domestic and export markets. That makes auto shows like the one in India next week important venues to showcase the newest models.
Ripple effect
With hotels and conference fees paid in advance and lunch and dinner meetings arranged months earlier, missing a big industry show has a major ripple effect on economic activity. Events like the Auto Expo in suburban New Delhi, or the Singapore air show due to take place next week draw thousands of out-of-town guests.
In China, the conference circuit has come to a standstill with over 20,000 infections and more than 420 people dead as the virus spreads from the epicentre of the city of Wuhan.
In the case of the Singapore Airshow organisers have faced cancellations by vendors from China, including aircraft maker Comac, and reduced attendance by companies from elsewhere in the world concerned about the spread of the virus outside of China. Singapore has reported 24 cases. India to date has seen three coronavirus cases.
To mitigate the impact, both events have highlighted plans to screen throngs of guests for fever and ensure thorough sanitation measures as well as access to medical care to ensure they can carry on even at reduced attendance.
BEIJING (Reuters) – A plane carrying 83 British and 27 foreign nationals flew out on Friday from China’s central city of Wuhan, the centre of a virus epidemic that has killed more than 200 people and infected more than 9,000, the British government said.
The civilian aircraft chartered by the Foreign Office left Wuhan at 9.45 a.m. (0145 GMT), the government said in a notice on its website.
It is due to arrive at 1 p.m. (1300 GMT) in Britain later on Friday, before continuing on to Spain, where the home countries of European Union citizens will take responsibility for the remaining passengers.
“We know how distressing the situation has been for those waiting to leave,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, according to the notice. “We have been working round the clock to clear the way for a safe departure.”
The flight had been expected to depart Wuhan on Thursday morning with around 150 British citizens and 50 non-British nationals, but its departure was blocked by Chinese officials.
The reasons for the delay by Chinese officials and the lower-than-expected number of passengers were not immediately clear.
The UK embassy in Beijing and the UK Foreign Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some British citizens have spoken of being told they could not take family members with Chinese passports out of the city.
Those returning to Britain will be quarantined for 14 days at a National Health Service facility.
A British government spokesman said any citizens who were eligible for the flight would be given a seat but nationals already infected would not be allowed to leave Wuhan.
The U.S. government warned Americans not to travel to China as the death toll from the new coronavirus reached 213 on Friday and the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency.
Comic crusader Priya, a gang-rape survivor who earlier campaigned against rape and acid attack, is back in a new avatar. This time she is fighting the trafficking of girls and women for sex.
The “modern-day female superhero” was first launched in December 2014, exactly two years after the horrific gang rape of a young woman on a bus in Delhi, to focus attention on the problems of gender and sexual violence in India.
In the latest edition – Priya and the Lost Girls – she takes on the powerful sex-trafficker Rahu, the evil demon who runs an underworld brothel city where he has entrapped many women, including Priya’s sister Lakshmi.
Indian-American actor and writer Dipti Mehta, who wrote the script of the comic, draws on ancient Indian mythology to create larger-than-life fantastical characters and delivers a powerful feminist statement.
The story of Lost Girls begins when the protagonist returns home to find that there are no girls in her village.
She then mounts her flying tiger Sahas (Hindi for courage) and arrives in Rahu’s den. It’s a city ruled by greed, jealousy and lust, where women exist only to serve and please men – and those who resist are turned into stone.
Image copyright PRIYASHAKTI
Priya is threatened and attacked, a woman who works for Rahu tries to lure her into the sex trade saying: “If you work for us, you’d serve only five to six men and not 20”, but in the end, good wins over evil and she manages to vanquish Rahu and liberate her sister and all the other trafficked girls.
But victory still eludes her. The families of rescued girls refuse to take them back. The survivors are treated like “lepers”, facing stigma, scorn and ridicule.
But Priya and the other girls stand up to confront patriarchy, says Ms Mehta, “just as women have broken their silence to talk about MeToo”, the campaign against sexual harassment and abuse that started in Hollywood in October 2107 and later spread to many other parts of the world.
“I was very clear from the start that Lost Girls can’t be just another comic book where good guy wins and evil dies, it had to be much more than that,” Ms Mehta says.
Image copyright PRIYASHAKTI
Ram Devineni, the Indian-American creator of the comic series, told the BBC that he had decided to focus on sex trafficking in this edition after visiting Sonagachi, India’s largest red-light area in the eastern city of Kolkata, where he met several women engaged in sex work.
“Half of them told me they had been tricked into coming there and, once there, they were forced into the sex trade. The other half said they’d agreed to do this for a living because they were dirt poor and they had no alternative.
“Often there were two to three women sharing a small dingy room, many of them had young children who lived with them, and some of them said their children slept in the same bed where they serviced clients.
Mr Devineni says that from his conversations with them, he realised that many of the women there could leave, but chose not to.
“Most believed in the idea of sacrifice, for the sake of their families, their children. The shackles that hold them back are mostly emotional and psychological coercion.”
Some of their stories, he says, have found their way into the Lost Girls, which will be launched digitally on Monday to coincide with the start of United Nation’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence.
Image copyright PRIYASHAKTIAccording to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, human trafficking is the second largest organised criminal business in the world after the arms trade. It is even ahead of the drugs trade.
“It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry,” anti-trafficking activist Ruchira Gupta told the BBC on the phone from New York.
Ms Gupta, who supports trafficked girls and women in India through her charity Apne Aap Women Worldwide, says there are 100 million people trapped in human trafficking globally, of which 27 million are in India alone, and most of the trafficking is in girls and young women.
India, Bangladesh and Nepal, she says, make up “the epicentre” of global sex trafficking.
Ms Gupta, who collaborated on Priya and the Lost Girls, says she plans to take the comic to schools and colleges in India and the US to use it as a talking tool, “as a conversation starter on what is a very difficult topic”.
The only way to fight trafficking, she believes, is to “de-normalise” sex trade – and cinema, art and pop culture are tools that can help do that.
The comic is made to appeal to young people. After its launch, it can be downloaded for free anywhere in the world; it also has “augmented reality features”, which means people can see special animation and movies by scanning the artwork with their smartphones.
Image copyright PRIYASHAKTI
“People often make flippant comments to say that prostitution is the oldest occupation in the world, but they don’t realise that trafficking is not some poor woman getting money in exchange for having sex with a man. It is the extreme exploitation of most vulnerable girls,” Ms Gupta says.
To stop this “commodification” of girls, she adds, we need to create revulsion in men’s minds about sex trade – and it’s best to catch them young.
“We must work with young boys and teenagers, 13 to 14 year olds, through storytelling and pop culture. They learn about sex from porn sites which portray sex workers as happy hookers, and no-one sees the girl behind her.
“I want to demolish that myth of the happy hooker. I want to ensure that people see the girl behind her.”
Artwork by Syd Fini and Neda Kazemifar
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Authorities report roads closed and 10,000 buildings damaged after magnitude 6.0 quake on Monday night
More than 100,000 people affected
Residents gather in the open in Changning county on Monday night after a magnitude 6.0 hit the area. Photo: Xinhua
The death toll from a strong earthquake which hit the southern Chinese province of Sichuan late on Monday night has risen to 12, with 134 people injured.
More than 100,000 people were affected – mostly in the epicentre at Changning county in Yibin, while more than 10,000 buildings were damaged, according to a statement by the local government on Tuesday.
Land subsidence and a landslide caused by the magnitude 6.0 quake, blocked a highway, several major roads and numerous village roads, the statement said, while a major bridge in the area was also at risk.
The Yixu highway in Changning had been closed and authorities were assessing the Dongdi Bridge. The Yibin government statement also said workers had been sent to clear the affected village roads.
According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was centred at a fairly shallow depth of 10km (6 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage to buildings and infrastructure.
An aftershock measuring magnitude 5.2 later hit the same area, the USGS said.
More than 300 firefighters were sent to the scene overnight, as well as rescue personnel with 5,000 tents, 10,000 folding cots and other emergency supplies, according to state news agency Xinhua.
In 2008, China’s worst earthquake in recent years struck the mountainous western portion of Sichuan province, leaving 87,000 dead, 370,000 injured and 5 million people homeless. That earthquake was about 400km (249 miles) from Monday’s earthquake.
A 1976 earthquake centred in the northeastern city of Tangshan killed at least 250,000 people.
Quake hits area around Hualien at 1.01pm, followed by aftershocks
Tremors send residents fleeing and rattle buildings more than 100km away in Taipei
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit the area around Hualien in Taiwan on Thursday. Photo: CNA
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake rocked eastern Taiwan at 1.01pm on Thursday, sending panicked residents rushing onto the streets and shaking buildings 115km (71 miles) away in the island’s capital, Taipei.
The quake’s epicentre was just over 10km northwest of the city of Hualien, at a depth of 18.8km, the island’s Central Weather Bureau said, adding that a 4.1 quake was reported 17 minutes later.
At least 17 people were injured, and a 12-storey building in Taipei was left leaning to one side, but there were no reports of major property damage.
Two Malaysian tourists – a man and a woman – were injured by falling rocks at Taroko National Park in Hualien county, with both being airlifted to a hospital in the city. Ten people in Taipei and five in New Taipei City also suffered injuries.
Train services on Taipei’s subway were suspended as were the airport subway to Taoyuan International Airport and most other metro and train systems in various parts of Taiwan, especially those around eastern and northern Taiwan, for safety inspections, the island’s cabinet said.
Taiwan Power Company said operations were normal at the island’s first and second nuclear power plants in northern Taiwan and asked the public to stay calm.
Debris outside the Legislative Yuan, in Taipei, after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit the area around Hualien. Photo: CNA
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The strong quake sent high-rise buildings swaying in Taipei, with a number of households and offices reporting fallen objects.
“I was so panic and tried to find some place for shelter after the quake rocked for a moment. It seemed like the building was going to collapse. All the books were shaken off the shelves and glasses shattered all over the floor,” a resident of Taipei’s bustling Ximending district said.
The Daan District Office in Taipei reported that a ceiling had fallen into the middle of its office, but nobody was injured.
The quake damaged a bathroom in a men’s dormitory at Taiwan Normal University. Photo: Handout
A building on Changan East Road in Taipei was reported to have tilted to one side, prompting residents to flee into the street.
Taiwanese television stations ran footage showing overturned furniture in homes and offices and at least one landslide along the mountainous and lightly populated east coast.
A bathroom at a Taiwan Normal University dormitory in Taipei was damaged in Thursday’s quake. Photo: Handout
Elsewhere in Taiwan, part of the Suao-Hualien Highway collapsed but there were no injuries, the National Fire Agency said.
Near the epicentre in Hualien, more cases of damage were reported, including several supermarkets where items were shaken off shelves.
A resident said he was taking an afternoon nap when the earthquake shook.
“I felt as if my heart was spilling out of my mouth and was so panicked that I could hardly move, but I managed to rush to the street,” he said, adding that aftershocks were rocking the area.
Workers at Hualien’s main railway station were struggling to clear a flooded lobby after several water pipes burst in the quake, county authorities said.
Operations remain unaffected at Taiwan’s hi-tech industrial estates, including Hsinchu Science Park.
A landslide near Hualien. Photo: Handout
Taiwan is on the string of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean known as the “Rim of Fire” and is frequently rocked by tremors, including a 1999 quake that killed more than 2,300 people.
An earthquake in Hualien in February last year killed 17 people when four buildings partially collapsed. That quake hit two years to the day after a residential building in the southwestern city of Tainan collapsed in an earthquake, killing 115 people.
Image copyright AFP
Matthew Smith@mjswhitebread
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