11/05/2020
KOLKATA (Reuters) – Indian and Chinese troops on border patrol duties had a brief skirmish in Sikkim, a northeastern Indian state bordering China, the Indian Defence Ministry said on Sunday, blaming both sides for the incident.
“Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops. The two sides disengaged after dialogue and interaction at the local level,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Indian daily Hindustan Times, citing a military source, said four Indian soldiers and seven Chinese troops were injured when some of the soldiers exchanged blows during the confrontation, which it said took place on Saturday and involved some 150 soldiers.
The Defence Ministry said the incident took place in the Nakula area but did not give details of how it started, or what caused the injuries.
China’s Ministry of Defense could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday.
India and China have often accused each other of intrusions into each other’s territories, but clashes are rare.
There is still deep mistrust between the two countries over their festering border dispute, which triggered a brief war in 1962.
Hundreds of troops from both sides were deployed in 2017 on the Doklam plateau, near the borders of India, Bhutan, and China after India objected to Chinese construction of a road in the Himalayan area, in the most serious standoff in years.
Source: Reuters
Posted in 1962, 2017, accused, aggressive, behaviour, Bhutan, blaming, border, bordering, both, brief, China, China’s, Chinese, citing, clashes, comment, confrontations, Construction, countries, daily, deep, defence ministry, deployed, details, dialogue, disengaged, dispute, duties, festering, four, Himalayan, Hindustan Times, hundreds, immediately, incident, India, Indian, Indian soldiers, injured, injuries, interaction, intrusions, involved, Kolkata, level, local, Military, ministry, Ministry of Defense, minor, mistrust, Nakula, Northeast, Northeastern, patrol, rare, reached, resulted, roads, Saturday, serious, seven, sides, Sikkim, skirmish, source, standoff, state, statement, Sunday, territories, triggered, troops, two, Uncategorized, war, years |
Leave a Comment »
02/05/2020
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A northeastern Chinese city of 10 million people struggling with currently the country’s biggest coronavirus cluster shut dine-in services on Saturday, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease.
Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang and its biggest city, said it temporarily suspended dine-in services for all eateries, reported the official CCTV citing an emergency epidemic prevention notice.
Catering services operating in the city, such as barbecue eateries and those selling skewers, shabu shabu, and stew, shall suspend dine-in meals until further notice and in accordance with changes in the epidemic situation, the notice said.
While mainland China reported only one case on Saturday and crowds returned to some of its most famous tourist attractions for the 5-day May holiday, the northern province of Heilongjiang is hunkering down to prevent further clusters from forming.
Of the 140 local transmissions in mainland China, over half have been reported as from Heilongjiang, according to a Reuters tally.
Heilongjiang province borders Russia and has become the frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic, with many new infections from citizens entering from Russia.
The province has already banned entry to residential zones by non-locals and vehicles registered elsewhere. It had also ordered isolation for those arriving from outside China or key epidemic areas.
On the back of the outbreak, deputy secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Wang Wentao said at a Friday meeting “we deeply blame ourselves”, according to local media.
“We had an inadequate understanding of epidemic prevention and control,” said Wang, adding that the failure to carry out testing in a timely manner contributed to the clusters.
Source: Reuters
Posted in 5-day, accordance, arriving, banned entry, Barbecue, Beijing, biggest, biggest city, borders, Catering services, CCTV, changes, China, Chinese city, citing, Citizens, cluster, coronavirus, coronavirus epidemic, country’s, crowds, curbs, currently, deputy secretary, designed, Disease, ease, eateries, elsewhere, emergency, entering, epidemic areas, epidemic prevention, epidemic prevention and control, epidemic situation, fight, forming, Friday, frontline, hamper, Harbin, Heilongjiang, Heilongjiang province, hunkering down, inadequate understanding, isolation, key, local transmissions, Mainland China, May holiday, meals, meeting, million, most famous, new infections, non-locals, Northeastern, northern province, notice, Official, operating, ordered, outbreak, outside, People, prevent, provincial capital, Provincial Party Committee, registered elsewhere, reported, residential zones, rest of, restrictions, resurgence, returned, Reuters tally, Russia, Saturday, selling, Shanghai, shut, shuts, skewers, spread, stew, struggling, suspended, temporarily, tourist attractions, Uncategorized, vehicles |
Leave a Comment »
19/04/2020
- Faced with a backlash from the West over its handling of the early stages of the pandemic, Beijing has been quietly gaining ground in Asia
- Teams of experts and donations of medical supplies have been largely welcomed by China’s neighbours
Despite facing some criticism from the West, China’s Asian neighbours have welcomed its medical expertise and vital supplies. Photo: Xinhua
While China’s campaign to mend its international image in the wake of its handling of the
coronavirus health crisis has been met with scepticism and even a backlash from the US and its Western allies, Beijing has been quietly gaining ground in Asia.
Teams of experts have been sent to Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Pakistan and soon to Malaysia, to share their knowledge from the pandemic’s ground zero in central China.
Beijing has also donated or facilitated shipments of medical masks and ventilators to countries in need. And despite some of the equipment failing to meet Western quality standards, or being downright defective, the supplies have been largely welcomed in Asian countries.
China has also held a series of online “special meetings” with its Asian neighbours, most recently on Tuesday when Premier Li Keqiang discussed his country’s experiences in combating the disease and rebooting a stalled economy with the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Japan and South Korea.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang speaks to Asean Plus Three leaders during a virtual summit on Tuesday. Photo: AP
Many Western politicians have publicly questioned Beijing’s role and its subsequent handling of the crisis but Asian leaders – including Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe – have been reluctant to blame the Chinese government, while also facing criticism at home for not closing their borders with China soon enough to prevent the spread of the virus.
An official from one Asian country said attention had shifted from the early stages of the outbreak – when disgruntled voices among the public were at their loudest – as people watched the virus continue its deadly spread through their homes and across the world.
“Now everybody just wants to get past the quarantine,” he said. “China has been very helpful to us. It’s also closer to us so it’s easier to get shipments from them. The [medical] supplies keep coming, which is what we need right now.”
The official said also that while the teams of experts sent by Beijing were mainly there to observe and offer advice, the gesture was still appreciated.
Another Asian official said the tardy response by Western governments in handling the outbreak had given China an advantage, despite its initial lack of transparency over the outbreak.
“The West is not doing a better job on this,” he said, adding that his government had taken cues from Beijing on the use of propaganda in shaping public opinion and boosting patriotic sentiment in a time of crisis.
“Because it happened in China first, it has given us time to observe what works in China and adopt [these measures] for our country,” the official said.
Experts in the region said that Beijing’s intensifying campaign of “mask diplomacy” to reverse the damage to its reputation had met with less resistance in Asia.
Why China’s ‘mask diplomacy’ is raising concern in the West
“Over the past two months or so, China, after getting the Covid-19 outbreak under control, has been using a very concerted effort to reshape the narrative, to pre-empt the narrative that China is liable for this global pandemic, that China has to compensate other countries,” said Richard Heydarian, a Manila-based academic and former policy adviser to the Philippine government.
“It doesn’t help that the US is in lockdown with its domestic crisis and that we have someone like President Trump who is more interested in playing the blame game rather than acting like a global leader,” he said.
Shahriman Lockman, a senior analyst with the foreign policy and security studies programme at Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic and International Studies, said that as the US had withdrawn into its own affairs as it struggled to contain the pandemic, China had found Southeast Asia a fertile ground for cultivating an image of itself as a provider.
China’s first-quarter GDP shrinks for the first time since 1976 as coronavirus cripples economy
Beijing’s highly publicised delegations tasking medical equipment and supplies had burnished that reputation, he said, adding that the Chinese government had also “quite successfully shaped general Southeast Asian perceptions of its handling of the pandemic, despite growing evidence that it could have acted more swiftly at the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan”.
“Its capacity and will to build hospitals from scratch and put hundreds of millions of people on lockdown are being compared to the more indecisive and chaotic responses seen in the West, especially in Britain and the United States,” he said.
Coronavirus droplets may travel further than personal distancing guidelines
Lockman said Southeast Asian countries had also been careful to avoid getting caught in the middle of the deteriorating relationship between Beijing and Washington as the two powers pointed fingers at each other over the origins of the new coronavirus.
“The squabble between China and the United States about the pandemic is precisely what Asean governments would go to great lengths to avoid because it is seen as an expression of Sino-US rivalry,” he said.
“Furthermore, the immense Chinese market is seen as providing an irreplaceable route towards Southeast Asia’s post-pandemic economic recovery.”
Aaron Connelly, a research fellow in Southeast Asian political change and foreign policy with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore, said Asian countries’ dependence on China had made them slow to blame China for the pandemic.
“Anecdotally, it seems to me that most Southeast Asian political and business elites have given Beijing a pass on the initial cover-up of Covid-19, and high marks for the domestic lockdown that followed,” he said.
“This may be motivated reasoning, because these elites are so dependent on Chinese trade and investment, and see little benefit in criticising China.”
China and Vietnam ‘likely to clash again’ as they build maritime militias
The cooperation with its neighbours as they grapple with the coronavirus had not slowed China’s military and research activities in the disputed areas of the
South China Sea – a point of contention that would continue to cloud relations in the region, experts said.
Earlier this month an encounter in the South China Sea with a Chinese coastguard vessel led to the sinking of a fishing boat from Vietnam, which this year assumed chairmanship of Asean.
And in a move that could spark fresh regional concerns, shipping data on Thursday showed a controversial Chinese government survey ship, the Haiyang Dizhi 8, had moved closer to Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone.
The survey ship was embroiled in a months-long stand-off last year with Vietnamese vessels within Hanoi’s exclusive economic zone and was spotted again on Tuesday 158km (98 miles) off the Vietnamese coast.
Source: SCMP
Posted in 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 1976, 27, 44, 50%, 54, according, across the world, again, against, April, areas, arriving, ASEAN, Asian, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), ASYMPTOMATIC CASES, at, authorities, avoid, ‘mask diplomacy’, battling, Beijing, Beijing’s, biggest, blame, blame game, borders, Britain, build, burnished, cabinet, cases, cautioning, central, central district, chairmanship, China, China's, China’s National Health Commission, Chinese capital, chinese government, Chinese market, City, clinical, closer, closing, coast, coastguard vesse, coastguard vessel, combating, compensate, confirmed, confirmed cases, considered, contain, contention, control, controversial, coronavirus, coronavirus cases, cough, countries, country’s, COVID-19, COVID-19 outbreak, cripples, crisis, criticism, cross infections, Data, day, deadly spread, death toll, deaths, declines, delegations, despite, destabilising, Disease, disputed areas, districts, domestic, down, earlier, eastern, economic recovery, economically, economy, elsewhere, embroiled, epicentre, epidemic, everybody, exclusive economic zones, experiences, eyes, facing, fall, family gatherings, fever, first time, fishing boat, flare-up, foreign policy and security studies programme, Friday, from, GDP, global leader, global pandemic, Government, Guangzhou, Haiyang Dizhi 8, handling, Hanoi’s, Harbin, health commission, Heilongjiang, high-risk, Home, hospitals, However, hubei province, hundreds, imported, imported infections, including, infected, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, interested, International Institute for Strategic Studies, investigations, irreplaceable, Japan, Japanese Prime Minister, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Jiaozhou, km, last, leaders, local, locally, lockdown, low-risk, lowest, mainland, Mainland China, Major, Malaysia’s, March, medical equipment and supplies, medium-risk, miles, military and research activities, millions, months-long, moved, narrative, new, nine, Northeastern, Notably, now, number, off, Official, officials, on guard, outbreak, patients, People, perceptions, Philippine, playing, political, politicians, Post, post-pandemic, pre-empt, Premier Li Keqiang, present, President Trump, prevent, previous, province, provincial capital, provincial government, publicly, published, punished, quarantine, questioned, quickly, quoted, reached, rebooting, rebound, recent, reluctant, remaining, reported, reporting, reputation, research fellow, reshape, resurgence, role, route, Russia, Saturday, saying, scratch, seen, senior analyst, shandong province, shipping data, showed, shrinks, since, Singapore, sinking, Sino-US rivalry, slow, social media, socially, soon enough, South China Sea, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian political change and foreign policy, southern city, spotted, spread, squabble, stalled, stand-off, State Council, statement, stood, stop, subsequent, Suifenhe, Sunday, surge, survey ship, symptoms, tally, task, test positive, Three, Thursday, Total, towards, transmitted, Transparency, travellers, Tuesday, two, Uncategorized, United States, vice governor, vice mayor, Vietnam, Vietnamese, Vietnamese vessels, virtual summit, Virus, Washington, website, weeks, were, Western, within, Wuhan, year |
Leave a Comment »
13/04/2020
SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) – China’s northeastern border with Russia has become a frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks – with more than 90% involving people coming from abroad.
Having largely stamped out domestic transmission of the disease, China has been slowly easing curbs on movement as it tries to get its economy back on track, but there are fears that a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of COVID-19.
A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier, marking the highest daily tally since March 5.
Imported cases accounted for a record 98. Half involved Chinese nationals returning from Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, home to the city of Vladivostok, who re-entered China through border crossings in Heilongjiang province.
“Our little town here, we thought it was the safest place,” said a resident of the border city of Suifenhe, who only gave his surname as Zhu.
“Some Chinese citizens – they want to come back, but it’s not very sensible, what are you doing coming here for?”
The border is closed, except to Chinese nationals, and the land route through the city had become one of few options available for people trying to return home after Russia stopped flights to China except for those evacuating people.
Streets in Suifenhe were virtually empty on Sunday evening due to restrictions of movement and gatherings announced last week, when authorities took preventative measures similar to those imposed in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the pandemic ripping round the world first emerged late last year.
The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China now stands at 82,160 as of Sunday, and at the peak of the first wave of the epidemic on Feb 12 there were over 15,000 new cases.
Though the number of daily infections across China has dropped sharply from that peak, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 because of the rise in imported cases.
Chinese cities near the Russian frontier are tightening border controls and imposing stricter quarantines in response.
Suifenhe and Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, are now mandating 28 days of quarantine as well as nucleic acid and antibody tests for all arrivals from abroad.
In Shanghai, authorities found that 60 people who arrived on Aeroflot flight SU208 from Moscow on April 10 have the coronavirus, Zheng Jin, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a press conference on Monday.
Residents in Suifenhe said a lot of people had left the city fearing contagion, but others put their trust in authorities’ containment measures.
“I don’t need to worry,” Zhao Wei, another Suifenhe resident, told Reuters. “If there’s a local transmission, I would, but there’s not a single one. They’re all from the border, but they’ve all been sent to quarantine.”
Source: Reuters
Posted in 10, 12, 28, 60, 99, abroad, Aeroflot, against, April, authorities, Back on track, become, becomes, border, border crossings, capital, central, China, China's, Chinese city, Chinese nationals, City, confirmed cases, contagion, coronavirus, coronavirus cases, coronavirus epidemic, COVID-19, daily cases, daily tally, days, Disease, domestic transmission, easing curbs, economy, emerged, epidemic, evacuating, evening, Far Eastern, Fears, Feb, Federal District, fight, first wave, flight, flights, found, frontline, gatherings, Harbin, Heilongjiang province, highest, Home, imported cases, imposed, infections, land route, local transmission, Mainland China, mandating, Monday, Moscow, movement, Northeastern, pandemic, People, press conference, preventative measures, quarantine, quarantines, re-entered, reported, residents, restrictions, resurgence, returning, Reuters, ripping, Russia, Russia's, Russian, second, second wave, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, six, Spark, stamped out, streets, Suifenhe, Sunday, the world, Uncategorized, virtually empty, Virus, virus efforts, Vladivostok, wave, weeks, Wuhan, year |
Leave a Comment »
11/04/2020
BEIJING (Reuters) – China reported on Saturday a rise in new coronavirus cases, as authorities try to head off a second wave of infections, particularly from imported and asymptomatic cases, as curbs on cities and travel are lifted.
The National Health Commission said 46 new cases were reported on Friday, including 42 involving travellers from abroad, up from 42 cases a day earlier.
In its statement the commission added that 34 new asymptomatic cases were reported, down from 47 the previous day.
Mainland China’s tally of infections now stands at 81,953. The death toll rose by three to 3,339.
Tough curbs imposed since January helped rein in infections sharply from the height of the pandemic in February. But policymakers fear a second wave triggered by arrivals from overseas or asymptomatic patients.
Northeastern Heilongjiang recently reported a spike in new cases because of Chinese nationals entering the province from Russia, which has seen a surge of cases.
Provincial health officials said it had 22 new imported cases on Friday, all Chinese nationals coming from Russia, and one new local case, in its capital of Harbin.
Inner Mongolia had a daily tally of 27 new imported cases by Saturday morning, all from Russia, the region’s health authority said.
The central province of Hubei, where the virus emerged late last year, reported no new cases for a seventh successive day.
A rise in virus infections has prompted authorities in Guangzhou to step up scrutiny of foreigners, ordering bars and restaurants not to serve clients who appear to be of African origin, the U.S. consulate in the southern city said.
Anyone with “African contacts” faces mandatory virus tests followed by quarantine, regardless of recent travel history or previous isolation, it said in a statement.
It advised African-Americans or those who feel they might be suspected of contact with nationals of African origin to avoid the city.
Since the epidemic broke out in the provincial capital of Wuhan, it has spread around the world, infecting 1.6 million people and killing more than 100,000.
Source: Reuters
Posted in 100,000, 42, 46, abroad, advised, African, African Americans, Anyone, around the world, Arrivals, asymptomatic, authorities, “African contacts”, bars, capital, cases, central province, China, China’s, Chinese nationals, cities, clients, commission, coronavirus cases, curbs, day, death toll, earlier, emerged, entering, epidemic, February, followed by, Foreigners, Friday, from, Guangzhou, Harbin, head off, Health officials, Heilongjiang, History, Hubei, imported, infecting, infections, Inner Mongolia, isolation, January, killing, late last year, lifted, Mainland China, mandatory, million, morning, National Health Commission, new, Northeastern, ordering, origin, overseas, pandemic, particularly, People, policymakers, previous, province, Provincial, provincial capital, quarantine, recent, regardless, reported, reports, restaurants, rise, Russia, said, Saturday, scrutiny, second wave, seventh, southern city, spike, spread, statement, successive, surge, tally, travel, travellers, triggered, try, U.S. consulate, Uncategorized, up from, Virus, virus tests, Wuhan |
Leave a Comment »
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 
Indian, Chinese border troops in brief skirmish on northeast Indian border, India says
KOLKATA (Reuters) – Indian and Chinese troops on border patrol duties had a brief skirmish in Sikkim, a northeastern Indian state bordering China, the Indian Defence Ministry said on Sunday, blaming both sides for the incident.
“Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops. The two sides disengaged after dialogue and interaction at the local level,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Indian daily Hindustan Times, citing a military source, said four Indian soldiers and seven Chinese troops were injured when some of the soldiers exchanged blows during the confrontation, which it said took place on Saturday and involved some 150 soldiers.
The Defence Ministry said the incident took place in the Nakula area but did not give details of how it started, or what caused the injuries.
China’s Ministry of Defense could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday.
India and China have often accused each other of intrusions into each other’s territories, but clashes are rare.
There is still deep mistrust between the two countries over their festering border dispute, which triggered a brief war in 1962.
Hundreds of troops from both sides were deployed in 2017 on the Doklam plateau, near the borders of India, Bhutan, and China after India objected to Chinese construction of a road in the Himalayan area, in the most serious standoff in years.
Source: Reuters
Posted in 1962, 2017, accused, aggressive, behaviour, Bhutan, blaming, border, bordering, both, brief, China, China’s, Chinese, citing, clashes, comment, confrontations, Construction, countries, daily, deep, defence ministry, deployed, details, dialogue, disengaged, dispute, duties, festering, four, Himalayan, Hindustan Times, hundreds, immediately, incident, India, Indian, Indian soldiers, injured, injuries, interaction, intrusions, involved, Kolkata, level, local, Military, ministry, Ministry of Defense, minor, mistrust, Nakula, Northeast, Northeastern, patrol, rare, reached, resulted, roads, Saturday, serious, seven, sides, Sikkim, skirmish, source, standoff, state, statement, Sunday, territories, triggered, troops, two, Uncategorized, war, years | Leave a Comment »