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.
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BEIJING/WUHAN, China (Reuters) – China on Saturday mourned the thousands of “martyrs” who have died in the new coronavirus outbreak, flying the national flag at half mast throughout the country and suspending all forms of entertainment.
The Chinese national flag flies at half-mast at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, as China holds a national mourning for those who died of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the Qingming tomb sweeping festival, April 4, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
The day of mourning coincided with the start of the annual Qingming tomb-sweeping festival, when millions of Chinese families pay respects to their ancestors.
At 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) Beijing time, the country observed three minutes of silence to mourn those who died, including frontline medical workers and doctors. Cars, trains and ships sounded their horns and air raid sirens wailed.
In Zhongnanhai, the seat of political power in Beijing, President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders paid silent tribute in front of the national flag, with white flowers pinned to their chest as a mark of mourning, state media reported.
More than 3,300 people in mainland China have died in the epidemic, which first surfaced in the central province of Hubei late last year, according to statistics published by the National Health Commission.
In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and the epicentre of the outbreak, all traffic lights in urban areas turned red at 10 a.m. and all road traffic ceased for three minutes.
Some 2,567 people have died in Wuhan, a megacity of 11 million people located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze river. The Wuhan deaths account for more than 75% of the country’s fatalities.
Among those who died was Li Wenliang, a young doctor who tried to raise the alarm about the disease. Li was honoured by the Hubei government earlier this week, after initially being reprimanded by police in Wuhan for “spreading rumours”.
Gui Yihong, 27, who was among thousands of Wuhan locals who volunteered to deliver food supplies to hospitals during the city’s months-long lockdown, recalled the fear, frustration and pain at Wuhan Central Hospital, where Li worked.
“If you weren’t at the frontlines you wouldn’t be able to experience this,” said Gui, as he laid some flowers next to Wuhan’s 1954 flood memorial by the Yangtze.
“I had to (come) and bear witness. For the last 80 days we had fought between life and death, and finally gained victory. It was not easy at all to come by.”
While the worst was behind Wuhan, the virus has spread to all corners of the globe since January, sickening more than a million people, killing more than 55,000 and paralysing the world economy.
Wuhan banned all tomb-sweeping activities in its cemeteries until at least April 30, curtailing one of the most important dates in the traditional Chinese lunar new year calendar which usually sees millions of families travel to tend to their ancestral graves, offer flowers and burn incense.
They have also told residents, most stuck at home due to lockdown restrictions, to use online streaming services to watch cemetery staff carry out those tasks live.
ASYMPTOMATIC CASES
Online, celebrities including “X-Men: Days of Future Past” star Fan Bingbing swapped their glamorous social media profile pictures for sombre photos in grey or black, garnering millions of “likes” from fans.
Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent (0700.HK) suspended all online games on Saturday.
As of Friday, the total number of confirmed cases across the country stood at 81,639, including 19 new infections, the National Health Commission said.
Eighteen of the new cases involved travellers arriving from abroad. The remaining one new infection was a local case in Wuhan, a patient who was previously asymptomatic.
Asymptomatic people exhibit few signs of infection such as fevers or coughs, and are not included in the tally of confirmed cases by Chinese authorities until they do.
However, they are still infectious, and the government has warned of possible local transmissions if such asymptomatic cases are not properly monitored.
China reported 64 new asymptomatic cases as of Friday, including 26 travellers arriving in the country from overseas. That takes the total number of asymptomatic people currently under medical observation to 1,030, including 729 in Hubei.
Move will help air force with patrols and combat-readiness near Taiwan and in the East and South China seas, according to observers
Markings including national flag and service insignia will also be standardised under new guidelines
Chinese military aircraft will get “low observable” coatings and standardised markings. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese military aircraft are to be painted with “low observable” coatings and standardised markings under new guidelines, a move observers say will assist with operations near Taiwan and in the East and South China seas.
The guidelines require markings including the national flag and service insignia to be gradually standardised on both active and future warplanes, the official PLA Daily newspaper said earlier this month.
The move comes two years after the Chinese navy started experimenting with its J-16 strike fighter, using a dark grey low-visibility coating instead of blue-grey, and replacing its service insignia with a new design, according to military magazine Ordnance Industry Science Technology.
Some of the navy’s only active aircraft carrier-based fighter jets, the J-15s, have also been given new coatings and markings, according to the People’s Liberation Army’s official website.
PLA Daily said the move aimed to give Chinese warplanes a combat advantage as they “will be less likely to be detected by both the naked eye and military radar”. It said the new guidelines would be gradually implemented this year.
Some of the aircraft carrier-based J-15 fighter jets already have the new coatings. Photo: AFP
Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong said the move would help the air force improve patrols and combat-readiness as it carried out more drills near the Taiwan Strait and in the East and South China seas.
China’s air force and navy have sent warplanes including Su-35 fighter jets, H-6K strategic bombers and advanced KJ-2000 airborne early warning aircraft to conduct “encirclement” drills around Taiwan since 2018, as Beijing applies pressure on the self-ruled island that it sees as part of its territory. But none of the aircraft seen in photographs of the exercises had low-visibility coatings or standardised markings, as used on the navy’s J-16s and J-15s.
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“Aircraft used by the PLA Air Force have different coatings and markings because they are still in a transitional period,” Wong said. “Its counterparts like Taiwan have learned from Western countries like the United States to standardise coatings and markings and designs [since the 1990s].”
Beijing insists that Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, remains part of China and they will eventually be reunited – by force if necessary.
The PLA also regularly sends aircraft to monitor freedom of navigation operations by the US Navy in the South China Sea. Beijing has territorial disputes in the resource-rich waterway with countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
A military insider in Beijing said the US move to send hundreds of its new-generation F-35 stealth fighter jets to South Korea and Japan had also pushed the PLA to upgrade the coatings on its aircraft.
“These coatings are a highly technical area, and China puts a tremendous amount of resources into research on this every year,” said the insider, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “The coating that’s used on China’s first stealth fighter jet, the J-20, is more advanced than they used on the Lockheed Martin F-22s, but it’s not yet at the level of the F-35s.”
Hong Kong-based military expert Song Zhongping said military aircraft used to have a bright red national flag and service insignia that made them more detectable on radar systems, or even with the naked eye.
“The red they used is striking, but it’s not in line with the ‘low observable’ requirement for all fighter jets,” said Song, who is a military commentator for Phoenix Television.
“All fighter jets must have stealth and low-visibility capabilities, and the coatings and markings on them are part of how they can do this and meet requirements for combat.”
J-20 stealth fighters make a flight demonstration during an activity celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air force in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, Oct. 17, 2019. It’s the first time that J-20 stealth fighters and Y-20 transport aircrafts make a flight demonstration at the northeastern China during the activity. (Xinhua/Lin Hong)
CHANGCHUN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — China’s J-20 stealth fighters Thursday joined an air show held to celebrate the 70th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air force.
The airshow in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, was kicked off by three parachutists carrying the national flag, the flag of the PLA and the flag of the PLA air force, respectively.
The J-20 stealth fighters, Y-20 large transport aircraft, J-16 fighters and the new training plane JL-10 treated the audience to a performance of demonstration flights.
Two J-11BS, China’s third-generation fighters, carried out a simulated air battle, and China’s airborne troops showcased anti-terrorist operations to display the air force’s achievements in real combat training.
Three aerobatic teams of the PLA air force also performed aerobatic flights, and the air force selected 71 pieces of equipment for static display in the five-day air show.
Three films that opened on Monday morning rake in US$76.6 million by midday
Palme d’Or winner Chen Kaige heads bill with ensemble that has movie-goers in tears
My People, My Country looks at seven events in the past 70 years through the eyes of seven Chinese directors. Photo: Baidu
Three films that paid tribute to the People’s Republic of China on the eve of its 70th anniversary grossed a total of 546 million yuan (US$76.6 million) at the box offices hours after opening on Monday, Maoyan Entertainment, China’s largest movie ticketing app, said.
My People, My Country, consisting of seven short stories by seven directors led by Cannes Palme d’Or winner Chen Kaige, recounted major events since 1949. It took in 225 million yuan.
Milestones including the detonation of China’s atomic bomb in 1964; the handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China in 1997, and the staging of the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, brought back many memories and stirred feelings of national pride, film-goers said.
“I went to see the movie today and saw many primary school students with their parents. Tears welled in my eyes, and I felt touched and proud at the same time. Go China!” one Weibo user wrote.
True-life drama The Captain has proved to a big screen hit with mainland cinema-goers. Photo: Baidu
“This movie used directors of commercial movies, and most of those born in the 1960s and 1970s lived through these moments. I think young people will bring their parents to see the film,” another Weibo user wrote.
True-life drama The Captain, directed by Hong Kong director Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, ran in second with a box office take of 175 million yuan by noon on Monday. The film was based on events in May 2018, when the cockpit window of a Sichuan Airlines flight was shattered at 30,000 feet over the Tibetan Plateau in western China. The decompression pulled the co-pilot halfway out of the cabin as the pilot fought to land the flight safely.
Big-budget film The Climbers, directed by Hong Kong’s Daniel Lee Yan-Kong and featuring stars such as Wu Jing and Zhang Ziyi, retraced the steps of two generations of Chinese mountaineers who scaled Mount Everest by the perilous North Ridge in 1960 and 1975. The film posted earnings of 146 million yuan.
Tencent’s homage to modern China tops gaming charts on eve of 70th anniversary celebrations
Patriotic feelings have been running high this week as the celebration of the 70th anniversary draws near.
My People, My Country’s theme song, Me and My Mother Country, an oldie recorded by Hong Kong’s Faye Wang, has been heard in shops, restaurants and workplaces all across the mainland.
The Climbers was directed by Hong Kong’s Daniel Lee Yan-Kong. Photo: Baidu
Last week, 200 million WeChat users responded to a campaign by internet company Tencent to add a national flag or Happy National Day sticker to their social media profile picture, The Beijing News reported. Demand was so heavy Tencent’s servers were overwhelmed for a short time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening ceremony of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 at the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube, in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 30, 2019. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)
BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Friday at the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) in Beijing.
When Xi stepped into the Olympic Hall of the Water Cube with FIBA President Horacio Muratore, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis and visiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the audience gave a warm welcome with a standing applause.
After the national flag of the People’s Republic of China was raised and the national anthem being performed and sung, Muratore delivered a speech.
He said the 2019 edition will be the largest and most-watched Basketball World Cup in history, and will feature the greatest ever number of host cities.
He highly commended the preparation China has made for the competition and said he believed that this Basketball World Cup would be a tremendous success.
At Muratore’s invitation, Xi declared the opening of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.
Artistic performances unveiled after the rising of the flags of the FIBA and the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.
Yao Ming, chairman of the China Basketball Association, escorted the trophy of the Basketball World Cup into the center.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup is the top national-level basketball competition held by FIBA every four years. This year’s competition will be held from Aug. 31 to Sept. 15.
People from all walks of life take part in a rally to voice their opposition to violence and call for restoring social order, expressing the people’s common will to protect and save the city at Tamar Park in south China’s Hong Kong, Aug. 17, 2019. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)
HONG KONG, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) — “Anti-violence!”, “Save Hong Kong!” Over 470,000 people gathered on Saturday in a rally held at Tamar Park, Admiralty of Hong Kong, to voice out their demand for peace and stability in Hong Kong.
At around 4 p.m. local time, the metro station near Tamar Park was swarming with people. An hour later, the rally started as the Chinese national anthem was ringing out.
Waving the Chinese national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and holding signs written with slogans including “Stop Riots”, “Anti-violence” and “Save Hong Kong”, the crowd was enthusiastic and impassioned despite the rain. They chanted the slogans to express their views.
At the beginning of the rally, a video was played, featuring a recording of a policeman’s wife who spoke, choking back sobs, of how violent protesters stormed the police stations and attacked the police. She appealed to the public to support the police and Hong Kong during this difficult time. “Police, keep it up!”, “Save Hong Kong!” the crowd cried out at the end of the video.
Tam Yiu-chung, a member of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, called upon people from all walks of life to firmly oppose violence.
The national flag and emblem represent the dignity of the country, and those who insult the national flag and emblem are turning themselves into enemies of the people in the whole country, Tam added.
Rebuking the recent illegal assemblies and violent acts at Hong Kong International Airport as “the ugliest riot in the world”, Maria Tam Wai-chu deputy director of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Basic Law Committee from Hong Kong, stressed that everyone should respect the freedoms of others and the exercise of freedom does not include wanton destruction of public properties or obstruction of public transport.
Wong Kam-leung, chairman of Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, said that the violence in Hong Kong has been escalating over the past two months and he was distressed to see young people using force and violating laws.
He called on the young people to “stop and think twice” before engaging in violent or illegal acts.
A 57-year-old gardener surnamed Chan said sometimes she could not go to work because radical demonstrators disrupted the traffic, “which was very annoying.”
“Hong Kong has always been a peaceful society. I hope the extremist radicals stop violent acts so that people can return to peaceful life,” she said.
A finance professional surnamed Lee said his business has been badly hit by the illegal demonstrations since many of his clients are too concerned to invest in Hong Kong.
“The common aspiration of the overwhelming majority of people in Hong Kong is that the violence and chaos will stop soon. Our community has been torn apart and can not afford any more of it,” he said. “We urge the demonstrators and mobs to stop it immediately; otherwise, the whole community has to pay for the consequences.”
A local resident, Wendy, a mother of a young boy, told the reporter that her life was largely affected by the violent protests going on in the recent two months.
“For the sake of our future generations and Hong Kong getting back on track, we refuse to be in silence, we must let the world hear our voice,” she said firmly.
The assembly ended at around 6 p.m. local time, with the participants singing the chorus Below the Lion Rock, a famous song in Hong Kong that represents the spirit of unity and hard-working.
Security forces shown tackling ‘demonstrators’ wearing black shirts
‘Anti-mob’ tactics prepare forces for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic
Shenzhen police broadcast live footage of a security exercise involving 12,000 officers rehearsing anti-riot drills. Photo: Weibo
More than 12,000 police officers assembled in Shenzhen in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on Tuesday for a drill that included anti-riot measures similar to those seen on the streets of Hong Kong.
The drill was part of security preparations for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, Shenzhen police said on the force’s Weibo newsfeed.
“A drill will be held to increase troop morale, practise and prepare for the security of celebrations, [and] maintain national political security and social stability,” police said.
China mobilises 190,000 police officers to prepare for 70th anniversary celebrations
In live videos of the police drills shown on the Yizhibo network, officers in body armour, helmets and shields confronted groups of people in black shirts and red or yellow construction safety helmets – similar to those worn by Hong Kong protesters – who were holding flags, banners, batons and wooden boards.
Global Times
✔@globaltimesnews
Shenzhen #police drill attracted unusual attention as it features scenarios that resemble the ongoing riots in #HongKong. #香港http://bit.ly/2YobnJc (Video: Shenzhen News Radio)
One of the banners read “return my hard-earned money” – a slogan often used by migrant workers in protest against unpaid salaries.
“The practice is complete with mature anti-mob tactics. The police forces can present an anti-mob formation, which is flexible, suitable for different situations, with accurate aim and effective control,” a narrator said during the live broadcast.
As the drill escalated and more “rioters” were deployed, police fired tear gas and smoke covered the training ground.
A few minutes later, the rioters fired home-made gas bombs then set bogies alight and drove them at the police lines. The officers changed formations and pressed the rioters, making arrests. Police handlers and their dogs were also on the scene.
A blazing bogie is driven towards police lines during Shenzhen police’s anti-riot exercise. Photo: Weibo
Other drills included anti-smuggling and search-and-rescue exercises involving personnel from the People’s Liberation Army.
The drill was presented as preparation for the 70th anniversary celebrations but it came amid continued violence in the streets of Hong Kong and two incidents of the Chinese national flag being thrown into Victoria Harbour.
Hong Kong has been engulfed in two months of turmoil stemming from opposition to the now-suspended extradition bill.
Police handlers and their dogs were deployed against people dressed like Hong Kong demonstrators. Photo: Weibo
“Is this hinting at Hong Kong?” a commenter on the Shenzhen police Weibo thread asked.
“We are doing drills today, and they can enter into real practice in Hong Kong in the future. We can send thousands of anti-mob squads over and strike hard at the radical traitors, those Hong Kong independence supporters,” another user said.
Since protests escalated in Hong Kong, Beijing has reiterated its “unflagging support” for embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her administration to take lawful action to restore order, and warned that the city was entering “a most dangerous phase” with violence on the streets.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 