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03/03/2020

Coronavirus: will China’s economy shrink for the first time since the Cultural Revolution in 1976?

  • Plunges in official and private sector purchasing managers’ indices amid the coronavirus outbreak prompted sharp revisions of economic forecasts
  • Analysts expect China to enact additional fiscal and monetary stimulus but stop short of massive support enacted after the global financial crisis in 2008
Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the once unthinkable scenario in which China’s economy posts a zero growth rate or even an absolute contraction compared to the previous quarter is now seen as a real possibility. Photo: AP
Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the once unthinkable scenario in which China’s economy posts a zero growth rate or even an absolute contraction compared to the previous quarter is now seen as a real possibility. Photo: AP

The odds are rising that China will report a sharp deceleration in growth – or even a contraction in the first quarter as a result of the impact of the coronavirus epidemic.

The outbreak has paralysed the country’s manufacturing and service sectors, putting Beijing in the difficult position of either forgoing its economic growth goal for 2020 or returning to its old playbook of massive debt-fuelled economic stimulus to support growth.
The larger-than-expected deterioration in the official and private sector purchasing managers’ indices for both the manufacturing and services sectors to all-time lows in February – the first available economic indicators showing the extent of the economic damage done by the epidemic – has prompted economists to slash their Chinese growth forecasts.
Several are even expecting the once unthinkable scenario in which China’s economy posts a zero growth rate or even an absolute contraction compared to the previous quarter, even though the weakness is likely to be only short-lived.

A contraction in first quarter growth would be the first since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.

A report published by the East Asian Institute at the National University Singapore noted that China could report a contraction of 6.3 per cent in the first quarter from the first quarter of 2019, while the growth rate for 2020 is set to fall well short of the 5.6 per cent needed by Beijing to meet its economic goal.

If China still wants to achieve an average 5.6 per cent growth for 2020, it would have to engineer a growth rate of as high as 12.7 per cent in the second half of the year, according to the report by Bert Hofman, Sarah Tong and Li Yao.

“The question is whether this is feasible and whether the consequences in terms of increased debt and potentially less productive investment are worth the price,” according to the report.

What is gross domestic product (GDP)?
China’s headline year-over-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has hovering in a narrow range between 6 per cent and 7 per cent for 18 consecutive quarters until the end of 2019, but a sharp dip in the otherwise steady growth trajectory in the world’s second largest economy would send fresh warning signs about the risks of relying excessively on China as a production base and consumption market, particularly for large multinationals from Hyundai to Apple.
An official recognition of an economic contraction, even a brief one, would break a long tradition of China reporting consistent growth to prove the Communist Party’s ability to manage the economy and to rally the whole country to achieve one historical milestone after another.
President Xi Jinping

insisted last week that China would realise the vision of building up a “comprehensively well-off” society by 2020, an inheritance from China’s former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and a major gauge of progress to realise Xi’s grand “Chinese dream” by the middle of the century.

One key but loosely defined parameter for achieving a “comprehensively well-off” society is that the size of the economy at the end of this year will be double that of 2010.
To achieve that, economists calculate that China must achieve a 5.6 per cent growth this year, although Beijing has been vague about the specific target, although this now seems out of reach barring massive stimulus or a redefinition of the goal.
Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, said his group has cut its forecast for the year-on-year growth rate to 2.3 per cent for the first quarter and 4.8 per cent for 2020 overall, adding that it would be next to impossible for China to make up the lost ground during the reminder of the year given the impact of the coronavirus
on the rest of the world, particularly South Korea, Japan and Italy, who are all major trading partners.

It will be extremely difficult, to say the least, to meet the annual growth targets for 2020 set previously. It would require massive, unreasonable amounts of stimulus, if it is at all possible, given the headwinds Louis Kuijs

“It will be extremely difficult, to say the least, to meet the annual growth targets for 2020 set previously. It would require massive, unreasonable amounts of stimulus, if it is at all possible, given the headwinds,” Kuijs said.

Instead, it would “make much more sense” for the Chinese leadership to play down the need to literally meet the previously set economic target,” he added.

Beijing’s social and economic development targets for this year have not yet been made public, even though Xi has pledged that the government would still achieve them despite the challenge posed by the virus outbreak.

The full-year targets covering growth, employment and inflation are usually released at the National People’s Congress, the ceremonial gathering of China’s legislature in early March, but this key annual event has been postponed due to the threat of the coronavirus, which has infected over 80,000 people and killed more than 2,900 in the country as of Tuesday.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics is due to publish first quarter GDP growth data in mid-April, with combined industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment data for January and February due next week.

They will offer a clearer picture of how much the coronavirus epidemic has damaged China’s growth in the first two months of this quarter, although the damage it has caused in China and the rest of the world is hard to measure because the epidemic is still evolving.

Production among manufacturing companies across China, except in the virus epicentre of Wuhan, Hubei province, have been gradually returned to normal, with firms that have close ties to local governments and access to financial resources resuming production faster than the much larger number of small businesses.

Chinese diaspora fights coronavirus discrimination in the US
The latest data from China’s industry ministry showed that only 32.8 per cent of 
small and medium-sized enterprises

had restarted production as of the middle of last week, an increase of just 3.2 percentage points from three days earlier. But even among the larger enterprises the government is trying to help, many are not running at full capacity due to disrupted logistics that have impeded the delivery of raw materials to factories and finished products to customers.

A shortage of workers due to travel barriers erected to stem the spread of the virus, or local regulations that prevent factories from resuming full operations until they have implemented sufficient health safeguards, are also hampering efforts.

Foxconn, which assembles most of Apple’s iPhones in China, said normal production is not expected to resume until the end of March.

China, though, has limited its economic aide policies to “targeted” fiscal and monetary moves, avoiding the massive stimulus it undertook in 2008 in response to the global financial crisis that led to the negative side-effects of high debt and unproductive investments.

[China] will be cautious about the scale of any intervention. The size of the stimulus will likely depend on how quickly economic activity recovers on its own Andy Rothman

Andy Rothman, a San Francisco-based strategist for investment fund Matthews Asia and a long-time watcher of the Chinese economy, said China will report a sharp fall in economic activity in the first quarter and that it “is prepared to implement a stimulus”.

“But [China] will be cautious about the scale of any intervention. The size of the stimulus

 will likely depend on how quickly economic activity recovers on its own,” Rothman said.
China’s ruling Communist Party has never reported a contraction in economic growth since the country started the reform and opening up movement in 1978.
Even in 1990, when China was hit by Western sanctions following the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement, the country still reported an annual growth of 3.8 per cent.

The larger-than-expected fiscal and monetary policy stimulus will help make meeting the targets for 2020 less challengingLiu Li-Gang

In the history of quarterly GDP growth rates – China started to report such data in 1994 going back to 1992 – the lowest growth rate on record of 6.0 per cent was in the third and fourth quarters of 2019.
The most recent year that China admitted to an economic contraction was 1976, the final year of the Culture Revolution and the year when chairman Mao Zedong died.
Liu Li-Gang, the chief China economist for Citigroup Global Markets Asia in Hong Kong, said Beijing has the policy reserves to keep economic growth on track, including increasing the fiscal deficit and loosening monetary policy.
“The lower GDP growth [in the first quarter] means that larger fiscal and monetary policy easing will be needed,” Liu said. “The larger-than-expected fiscal and monetary policy stimulus will help make meeting the targets for 2020 less challenging.”
Source: SCMP

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29/02/2020

Afghan conflict: US and Taliban sign deal to end 18-year war

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar shake hands after signing a peace agreementImage copyright AFP
Image caption US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban’s Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar shook hands on the deal

The US and the Taliban have signed an agreement aimed at paving the way towards peace in Afghanistan after more than 18 years of conflict.

The US and its Nato allies have agreed to withdraw all their troops from the country within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Taliban leaders attended the signing ceremony in Doha in Qatar.

Talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban are due to follow.

Under the agreement signed in Doha, the militants also agreed not to allow al-Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate in the areas they control.

The US invaded Afghanistan weeks after the September 2001 attacks in New York by the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda group.

More than 2,400 US troops have been killed during the conflict. About 12,000 are still stationed in the country. President Trump has promised to put an end to the conflict.

What happened in Doha?

The deal was signed by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar with Mr Pompeo as a witness.

In a speech, Mr Pompeo urged the militant group to “keep your promises to cut ties with al-Qaeda”.

Meanwhile US Defence Secretary Mark Esper was in the Afghan capital Kabul alongside Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani – whose government did not take part in the US-Taliban talks.

Mr Esper said: “This is a hopeful moment, but it is only the beginning. The road ahead will not be easy. Achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan will require patience and compromise among all parties.” He said the US would continue to support the Afghan government.

What’s in the agreement?

Within the first 135 days of the deal the US will reduce its forces in Afghanistan to 8,600, with allies also drawing down their forces proportionately.

The move would allow US President Donald Trump to show that he has brought troops home ahead of the US presidential election in November.

The deal also provides for a prisoner swap. Some 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 Afghan security force prisoners would be exchanged by 10 March, when talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are due to start.

The US will also lift sanctions against the Taliban and work with the UN to lift its separate sanctions against the group.

Presentational grey line

Landmark deal rife with uncertainties

Analysis box by Lyse Doucet, chief international correspondent

This historic deal has been years in the making, as all sides kept seeking advantage on the battlefield.

The agreement is born of America’s determination to bring troops home and a recognition, at least by some Taliban, that talks are the best route to return to Kabul.

It’s a significant step forward, despite deep uncertainty and scepticism over where it will lead. When the only alternative is unending war, many Afghans seem ready to take this risk for peace.

Taliban leaders say they’ve changed since their harsh rule of the 1990s still seared in the memory of many, and most of all Afghan women.

This process will test the Taliban, but also veteran Afghan leaders of the past, and a new generation which has come of age in the last two decades and is hoping against hope for a different future.

Presentational grey line

How did US-Taliban talks come about?

Since 2011, Qatar has hosted Taliban leaders who have moved there to discuss peace in Afghanistan. It has been a chequered process. A Taliban office was opened in 2013, and closed the same year amid rows over flags. Other attempts at talks stalled.

In December 2018, the militants announced they would meet US officials to try to find a “roadmap to peace”. But the hard-line Islamist group continued to refuse to hold official talks with the Afghan government, whom they dismissed as American “puppets”.

Media caption The view from Lashkar Gah province on whether peace with the Taliban is possible

Following nine rounds of US-Taliban talks in Qatar, the two sides seemed close to an agreement.

Washington’s top negotiator announced last September that the US would withdraw 5,400 troops from Afghanistan within 20 weeks as part of a deal agreed “in principle” with Taliban militants.

Days later, Mr Trump said the talks were “dead”, after the group killed a US soldier. But within weeks the two sides resumed discussions behind the scenes.

A week ago the Taliban agreed to a “reduction of violence” – although Afghan officials say at least 22 soldiers and 14 civilians have been killed in Taliban attacks over that period.

Media caption Meet Fatima and Fiza, some of the women removing landmines in Afghanistan

What’s the background to the Afghan war?

It began when the US launched air strikes one month following the 11 September 2001 attacks and after the Taliban had refused to hand over the man behind them, Osama bin Laden.

Media caption Tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers have been killed and injured. This is their story

The US was joined by an international coalition and the Taliban were quickly removed from power. However, they turned into an insurgent force and continued deadly attacks, destabilising subsequent Afghan governments.

The international coalition ended its combat mission in 2014, staying only to train Afghan forces. But the US continued its own, scaled-back combat operation, including air strikes.

The Taliban has however continued to gain momentum and last year the BBC found they were active across 70% of Afghanistan.

Media caption Zan TV presenter Ogai Wardak: “If the Taliban come, I will fight them”

Nearly 3,500 members of the international coalition forces have died in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

The figures for Afghan civilians, militants and government forces are more difficult to quantify. In a February 2019 report, the UN said that more than 32,000 civilians had died. The Watson Institute at Brown University says 58,000 security personnel and 42,000 opposition combatants have been killed.

Why has the war lasted so long?

There are many reasons for this. But they include a combination of fierce Taliban resistance, the limitations of Afghan forces and governance, and other countries’ reluctance to keep their troops for longer in Afghanistan.

At times over the past 18 years, the Taliban have been on the back foot. In late 2009, US President Barack Obama announced a troop “surge” that saw the number of American soldiers in Afghanistan top 100,000.

Media caption The BBC was given exclusive access to spend a week with ambulance workers in Afghanistan.

The surge helped drive the Taliban out of parts of southern Afghanistan, but it was never destined to last for years.

The BBC World Service’s Dawood Azami says there are five main reasons the war is still going on now. They include:

  • a lack of political clarity since the invasion began, and questions about the effectiveness of the US strategy over the past 18 years
  • the fact each side is trying to break what has become a stalemate – and that the Taliban have been trying maximise their leverage during peace negotiations
  • an increase in violence by Islamic State militants in Afghanistan – they’ve been behind some of the bloodiest attacks recently

There’s also the role played by Afghanistan’s neighbour, Pakistan.

Source: The BBC

Posted in 18-year, Afghan conflict, Afghanistan, BBC World Service, deal, Doha, end, NATO, Qatar, sign, Taliban, The Watson Institute, Uncategorized, US, US Secretary of State, war | Leave a Comment »

29/02/2020

Chinese, Chilean presidents discuss COVID-19 epidemic, bilateral ties over phone

BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Chilean counterpart, Sebastian Pinera, held a telephone conversation on Friday night to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic and how to further deepen bilateral ties.

Xi said the COVID-19 outbreak is a major public health emergency that features the fastest speed of transmission, the most extensive range of infection and the highest level of containment difficulty in the country since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“Since the outbreak of the epidemic, I have been personally commanding the work and making arrangements. The whole country has become a nation of one mind sharing the same boat, and has taken the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough prevention and control measures,” said Xi, adding that the positive trend in preventing and controlling the epidemic is gaining momentum thanks to the hard work.

“We have full confidence, capacity and certainty to win the battle against the epidemic,” he added.

In this anti-epidemic fight, he stressed, China has always adhered to the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and an attitude of openness, transparency and responsibility, sharing information with the WHO and the international community in a timely fashion as well as actively responding to the concerns of various sides and strengthening international cooperation, so as to prevent the epidemic from spreading around the world.

The WHO and the international community have spoken highly of China’s prevention and control work, he said, adding that the governments and people of many countries, including Chile, have offered China strong support in various ways, for which China is sincerely grateful.

Xi pointed out that the Chinese nation has experienced many ordeals in its history, but has never been overwhelmed, and that the impact of the epidemic on China’s economy is temporary and generally manageable, and the fundamentals of China’s long-term sound economic growth remain unchanged.

While making unrelenting, solid and meticulous efforts in epidemic prevention and control, China will roll out a series of policies and measures to gradually restore orderly production and life and ensure realization of this year’s economic and social development goals, he added.

With China and Chile being comprehensive strategic partners, their relationship has long been taking the lead in China-Latin America relations, Xi said, recalling that Pinera’s China visit last year bore rich fruit.

Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations, Xi urged the two sides to take it as an opportunity to maintain close high-level exchanges and ensure the success of celebration events.

He also called on the two sides to expand cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, technological innovation and infrastructure construction by promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

At the same time, the two sides should work together to firmly safeguard multilateralism, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and tackle such global challenges as climate change, he added.

In so doing, Xi said, the two countries can carry forward their friendship, ensure a sound development of bilateral cooperation and bring more benefits to both peoples.

Pinera, on behalf of the Chilean government and people, extended sincere sympathies to the Chinese people over the COVID-19 outbreak and offered firm support to the Chinese people for their united efforts in fighting the epidemic.

He said that under the strong command of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, the Chinese side has taken very effective measures to deal with the epidemic, whose spread has been gradually put under control.

Noting that China is a great country that has gone through numerous hardships and difficulties, Pinera said he believes that under the strong leadership of Xi, China will surely achieve a complete victory over the epidemic at an early date.

The Chilean side stands ready to strengthen cooperation with the Chinese side to jointly tackle the challenge of infectious diseases and safeguard global public health security, he added.

Chile, he said, has always regarded its relations with China as a foreign policy priority, and is willing to take the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties as an opportunity to join hands with China to further bolster collaboration in various fields, promote Belt and Road cooperation, safeguard multilateralism, and strengthen coordination in international affairs, so as to lift Chile-China relations to a new level.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in Chile, Chile-China relations, Chilean President, China-Latin America relations, chinese government, Chinese president, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Communist Party of China, COVID-19 epidemic, Uncategorized, WHO | Leave a Comment »

29/02/2020

Coronavirus: cost to China’s economy may be larger than Beijing hopes as February manufacturing and service sectors plunge

  • Purchasing managers’ indexes for both manufacturing and service sectors drop to all-time lows
  • Steep falls raise questions over extent of damage epidemic has caused to China’s economy and how long it will take the country to recover
Many Chinese factories have faced a labour shortage as migrants have been unable to return to work because of the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: AFP
Many Chinese factories have faced a labour shortage as migrants have been unable to return to work because of the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: AFP
The damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak to China’s US$14 trillion economy could be much worse than Beijing hoped, as official measures for the country’s factory and service activity indicated on Saturday, threatening President Xi Jinping’s vision for 2020 and underscoring his urgent appeal to get production back to normal.
Monthly economic indicators for February sank to all-time lows as the coronavirus halted China’s manufacturing machine and froze activity in the service sector – from retailing to recycling – painting a bleak picture of the world’s second-biggest economy and challenging Beijing’s repeated assurance that the impact would be manageable and short-lived.
Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus – was first reported in Wuhan in December. Since then it has spread to more than 50 countries and more than 85,000 people have been infected. The outbreak has disrupted travel and cargo shipments, and caused stock markets to slump.

China’s official February purchasing managers’ indexes (PMI) for both manufacturing and services, released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday, confirmed fears that China’s economy was in bad shape and fanned speculation that it may even contract in the first quarter.

Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital in Hong Kong, said in a note that Beijing might report negative growth for “the first time since the Cultural Revolution”.

The manufacturing PMI, which measures factory activity, dropped to 35.7 in February – below the previous all-time low of 38.8 set in November 2008 during the global financial crisis – from 50 in January when the impact of the epidemic was not apparent.

A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in activity.

The February PMI figures confirmed fears that China’s economy was in bad shape. Photo: AFP
The February PMI figures confirmed fears that China’s economy was in bad shape. Photo: AFP
All of the sub-indexes of the PMI pointed to the difficult situation facing Chinese factories. Output plummeted, new orders vanished, exports and imports stopped, and logistics were badly disrupted. Input prices, which reflects the costs factories must pay, was the only sub-index that remained above 50.

The non-manufacturing PMI – a gauge of sentiment in the services and construction sectors – also dropped, to 29.6 from 54.1 in January. This was also the lowest on record, beating the previous low of 49.7 in November 2011, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which produces the index with the National Bureau of Statistics.

The declines in the February reflect the difficulties businesses are having in bringing production back online due to shortages of labour as well as difficulties receiving supplies or shipping goods to market because of transport restrictions enacted to contain the spread of the virus.

An extended slump would put upwards pressure on unemployment, especially among small, private sector service firms. Beijing, which worries that rising joblessness could cause social unrest, has called on local governments to remove unnecessary restrictions to get businesses back to work.

The employment sub-index in the manufacturing PMI fell to 31.8 in February.

“It is not because factories have stopped hiring migrant workers, it is because the flow of migrant workers to factories has been blocked,” said Hua Changchun, an analyst at brokerage Guotai Junan Securities. “There’s no point talking about resuming production if workers can’t return to their jobs.”

Zhang Qiqun, a researcher with the Development Research Centre of State Council, said in a statement that the major economic indicators for this quarter would see “obvious drops” and China must “be prepared”.

The employment sub-index in the manufacturing PMI fell to 31.8 in February. Photo: AFP
The employment sub-index in the manufacturing PMI fell to 31.8 in February. Photo: AFP
How quickly China can dig itself out of the coronavirus hole is a matter of debate.
According to the PMI survey, about 90 per cent of medium and large-sized manufacturers are expected to resume production in March, meaning about 10 per cent will still be closed four weeks from now.
As for small firms, the industry ministry said this week that two-thirds would still be closed at the end of February.
China’s production difficulties have resulted in economic problems for nations around the world that rely on supply chains that begin or pass through the country. The global spread of the coronavirus will only exacerbate the problem.
Barclays and Nomura forecast China’s first-quarter growth at 2 per cent, while Capital Economics said it would contract in year-on-year terms.
“The sharp drop in China’s manufacturing PMI in February reinforces our view that the normalisation in economic activity will be delayed,” said Xing Zhaopeng, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group.
“There’s scant chance for a V-shaped rebound – the authorities are using targeted aids more than stimulus to stabilise the economy and that will lead to a gradual bounce.”
The National Bureau of Statistics tried to put a brave face on the data, saying there would be a substantial improvement in March.
“The resumption of work is ramping up and market confidence is steadily recovering,” said Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at the NBS.
“Although the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic has caused a larger impact on production and operations of Chinese enterprises … currently the epidemic has come under initial containment, and the negative impact on production is gradually weakening.”
Source: SCMP

Posted in Beijing, China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, China’s economy, coronavirus, cost, COVID-19, Cultural Revolution, Development Research Centre, Hong Kong, larger, manufacturing and service sectors, national bureau of statistics, plunge, purchasing managers’ indexes (PMI), State Council, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

26/02/2020

Chinese state councilor holds talks with Serbian first deputy PM

CHINA-BEIJING-WANG YI-SERBIAN-IVICA DACIC-TALKS (CN)

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi holds talks with Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) — Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic Wednesday in Beijing.

Wang said that China and Serbia are like-minded brothers who stick with each other through thick and thin, good partners in jointly promoting the Belt and Road Initiative and good friends in advancing China-Europe cooperation.

He called on both sides to uphold the open and inclusive multilateralism, oppose any kind of bullying, and work together with the international society to build a community of shared future for mankind.

Noting that the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries has been operating at a high level, Dacic said the novel coronavirus epidemic has not affected bilateral pragmatic cooperation in all fields.

The Serbian side openly and firmly supports the one-China principle, as well as China’s core interests and major concerns on Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong issues, he said.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in Beijing, Belt and Road Initiative, China-Europe cooperation, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Hong Kong, open and inclusive multilateralism, Serbia, Serbian, Taiwan, Uncategorized, Xinjiang | Leave a Comment »

24/02/2020

China’s green zombie fungus could hold key to fighting East Africa’s swarms of locusts

  • An insect-killing fungus has been turned into a mass-produced biopesticide that will face its biggest challenge in East Africa
  • Current swarm has put 13m people at risk of famine and this will be the first large-scale test of its effectiveness
Young locusts in Somalia, where the fungus will be used to try to kill them. Photo: AP
Young locusts in Somalia, where the fungus will be used to try to kill them. Photo: AP

Chinese factories are producing thousands of tonnes of a “green zombie fungus” to help fight the swarms of locusts in East Africa.

Metarhizium is a genus of fungi with nearly 50 species – some genetically modified – that is used as a biological insecticide because its roots drill through the insects’ hard exoskeleton and gradually poisons them.

In China it was named lu jiang jun, which means green zombie fungus, because it gradually turns its victims in a green mossy lump.

There are now dozens of factories across the country dedicated to producing its spores and despite the curbs introduced to stop the spread of Covid-19, many of them have resumed operations and are shipping thousands of tonnes to Africa.

Plague fears as massive East Africa locust outbreak spreads

11 Feb 2020

These factories are set up in a similar way to breweries, growing the spores on rice which is kept in carefully controlled conditions to ensure the correct temperature and humidity.

Each plant can produce thousands of tonnes of fungi powder per year, each gram of which contains tens of billions of spores.

“I am sending off a truckload right now. Our stock is running out,” said the marketing manager of a production plant in Jiangxi province. “Some customers need it urgently. They need it to kill the locusts.”

The need is particularly pressing in East Africa at the moment, where abnormally high levels of rainfall during the dry season allowed hundreds of billions of locusts to hatch in recent months.

So far the swarms have devastated crops in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and are moving on to neighbouring countries.

Up to 13 million people face the risk of famine in East Africa. Photo: AFP
Up to 13 million people face the risk of famine in East Africa. Photo: AFP
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned the situation could be the “worst in decades” and the resulting famine may affect 13 million people and cause international food prices to soar.

Last week, Science magazine reported that the Somalian government, working with the FAO, was preparing to a metarhizium species that only kills locusts and grasshoppers in what it described as the largest ever use of biopesticides against the insects.

Scientists do not believe that the fungus will be enough to solve the problem – monitoring the outbreak and targeting their breeding grounds will be more important in the long-run – but if it proves effective it could be an important weapon to target future outbreaks.

It will take time to gauge the effectiveness, partly because each fungus will take several days to take effect and partly because of the sheer scale of the challenge; a single swarm in Kenya was estimated to contain between 100 billion and 200 billion locusts.

By fair means or fowl: how Chinese herdsmen are planning to stop a locust invasion

17 Apr 2018

The locusts have also swept eastward into the Middle East, travelling up to 150km (90 miles) a day, and are moving closer to China now that they have now reached some of its neighbours, including India and Pakistan.

At present China’s agriculture ministry believes some locusts may follow the monsoon into the country but “the chances of them causing damage is very small”.

Most scientists agree the swarms will not have lasting effect on food production but say developing countries can tap into China’s cutting-edge anti-locust technology.

Radar stations have been set up all the way along China’s western and southern borders to detect possible clouds of locusts, while unmanned devices lure the insects into traps to collect data about their species population and size.

A locust being eaten inside out by the metarhizium fungi. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Maryland
A locust being eaten inside out by the metarhizium fungi. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Maryland
The data is streamed to the ministry’s programme command, which is responsible for the planning and coordination of the national efforts to prevent an outbreak.
The scientists also said that planes loaded with biological and chemical sprays were standing by.
Today, most locust outbreaks happen in developing countries that do not have advanced monitoring networks and some of them are unable to produce pesticides on a mass scale, according to Li Hu, an associate professor with the China Agricultural University in Beijing.
The Chinese locust treatment technologies were highly advanced, and usually cheaper than competing solutions from the West, he said.

Chinese researchers are now working with colleagues in other countries to help them solve the problem.

One disadvantage of the Chinese research is that it is mostly focused on local species, or the East Asia migratory locust. The desert locusts currently swarming East Africa have different genes and behaviour, and Li warned that some methods that work in China might not work elsewhere.

A giant indoor farm in China is breeding 6 billion cockroaches a year. Here’s why

26 Apr 2018

There were some sightings of the species reported in Yunnan and Tibet in the past, but they did not build up to large colonies, Professor Kang Le, lead scientist of the locust research programme with the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told China Science Daily last week.

The vast west China region of Xinjiang, which shares a border with eight countries, is currently too cold for a locust migration, but once temperatures start to rise in the spring it could see locusts swarming across the border with Afghanistan.

Shi Wangpeng, a senior government locust expert, told China Business Network on Sunday that China should be on high alert because many Afghan farms had already been affected.

“These areas share a long border with us, there are almost no barriers,” he was quoted as saying by the Shanghai-based magazine.

China has a long and bitter history of locust swarms, with more than 840 being recorded in the official records over the past 2,700 years.

One famine, in the year 628 was so devastating that even the Tang dynasty emperor Taizong was reported to have run short of food and resorted to eating the insects to survive.

China has a long and bitter history of locust swarms. Photo: AFP
China has a long and bitter history of locust swarms. Photo: AFP
This, in turn, means that China’s rulers have long been looking for innovative ways to solve the problem
In the past farmers tried remedies such as building huge fires, burying the insects in ditches or trying to kill them with sticks.
In one campaign organised by prime minister Yao Chong in 715, the farms collected 9 million sacks of dead locusts and managed to save a significant proportion of their crops, according to historic text.
In more recent times more sophisticated technologies have been deployed to tackle the menace.
Some researchers have spent decades chasing locust colonies and studying their individual and collective behaviour everywhere from coastal areas to inland deserts, and in 2014 Chinese scientists released the world’s most comprehensive genetic map of locusts.
Researchers have also developed chemical agents that can disorient swarms of locusts and disperse them.

Chinese scientists first became interested in the green zombie’s potential in the 1980s after discovering that South Pacific islanders had been using them to kill insects on coconut trees.

Research by US scientists confirmed its effectiveness in the 1990s and the Chinese started importing the fungus from the United States and Britain.

Their experiments led to the development of newer and deadlier strains and mass production started in the past decade.

Other fungi or bacteria can be used to fight locusts, and some laboratories are working with agricultural technology companies to modify their genes to turn them into more deadly or precise killers.

One genetically engineered species of microsporidia, another type of insect-killing fungus, for instance, can generate three times as many as the spores to those produced by nature species, according to a document from the China Association of Agricultural Science Societies last year.

While it remains to be seen whether the current swarms will reach China, these treatments have been effective in the past and there has not been a locust outbreak in China for a decade.

Source: SCMP

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22/02/2020

Trump in India: A brief history of US presidents’ trips

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and US President Donald Trump shakes hands as they speak during a bilateral meeting in Biarritz, south-west France on August 26, 2019.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Mr Trump is making his first official visit to India

US President Donald Trump is expecting a raucous welcome on his first official state visit to India on Monday and Tuesday.

He follows a long line of leaders who have made the journey. Some of his predecessors were greeted enthusiastically; others stumbled through diplomatic gaffes; one even had a village named after him.

Can history be a guide to how this diplomatic tryst might go? Here’s a brief look at past visits, ranked in order of how they went.

The good: President Eisenhower

Let’s begin at the beginning.

Dwight D Eisenhower, the first US president to visit India, was greeted with a 21-gun salute when he landed in the national capital, Delhi, in December 1959. Huge crowds lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the World War Two hero in his open-top car – Mr Trump is expecting a similar reception in Ahmedabad city, where he will be doing a road show.

President Eisenhower (L) with Prime Minister Jawaharlal NehruImage copyright US EMBASSY ARCHIVES
Image caption Dwight D Eisenhower, pictured with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first US president to make the trip

The warmth between President Eisenhower and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru helped during what was a rocky phase in US-India ties. This was early in the Cold war, when the US and Pakistan had become become close allies, and India insisted on staying neutral or “non-aligned”. Like today, relations with China were at the core of the India-US equation, with Washington pressuring Delhi to take an aggressive stance with Beijing on the issue of Tibet.

But, on the whole, Eisenhower’s four-day trip was billed a success. And nearly every US president on a state visit to India has emulated his itinerary: he laid flowers at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial, took in the splendour of the Taj Mahal, addressed parliament and spoke at Delhi’s iconic Ramlila grounds, which, according to one news report, attracted one million people.

When he left, Nehru said he had taken with him “a piece of our heart”.

President Eisenhower drove in open car to small village to get a glimpse of rural India on December 13, 1959.Image copyright US EMBASSY ARCHIVES
Image caption President Eisenhower was greeted by large crowds
Presentational white spaceThe game-changer: Bill Clinton

If there was a game-changing visit, it would be Bill Clinton’s in March 2000 with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mr Clinton’s arrival came after a two-decade lull – neither Ronald Reagan nor George Bush Snr made the journey East. It came at a tricky time as Washington had imposed sanctions on Delhi following its 1999 test of a nuclear bomb.

But, according to Navtej Sarna, a former Indian Ambassador to the US, the five-day trip was “a joyous visit”. It included stops in Hyderabad, a southern city that was emerging as a tech hub, and Mumbai, India’s financial capital. “He came and saw the economic and cyber potential of India, and democracy in action,” says Mr Sarna.

US President Bill Clinton shakes hands with local villagers after touring Nayla Village 23 March 2000.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Bill Clinton’s visit was described as “joyous”
Mr Clinton also danced with villagers, took a tiger safari and sampled Delhi’s famously creamy black dal (lentils) at a luxury hotel that has since been associated with the president.

The country’s reaction is perhaps best expressed in this New York Times headline: “Clinton fever – a delighted India has all the symptoms.”

The nuclear deal: George W Bush

George W Bush, as Forbes magazine once put it, was the “best US president India’s ever had”. His three-day visit in March 2006 was a highlight in the two countries’ strategic relationship – especially in matters of trade and nuclear technology, subjects they have long wrangled over. His strong personal dynamic with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was hard to miss – after he left office, Mr Bush, a keen artist, even painted a portrait of Mr Singh.

The two leaders are credited for a historic but controversial nuclear deal, which was signed during Mr Bush’s visit. It brought India, which had for decades refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), out of isolation. Energy-hungry India got access to US civil nuclear technology in exchange for opening its nuclear facilities to inspection.

George W Bush (L) with Manmohan Singh (R)Image copyright US EMBASSY ARCHIVES
Image caption George W Bush and Manmohan Singh had a very good relationship
However, while the visit was substantive, it was not as spectacular as others – there was no trip to the Taj, nor an address to parliament. But the timing was important. Anti-US sentiment over the invasion of Iraq was running high – left-wing MPs had staged a protest against Mr Bush’s visit, and there were demonstrations in other parts of India.

Double visit: Barack Obama

Barack Obama was the only president to make two official visits. First, in 2010 with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and then in 2015 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On his first visit – in a break from the past – he landed in Mumbai, instead of Delhi, with a large trade delegation. This was not just about economic ties but a show of solidarity following the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, which killed 166 people. Mr and Mrs Obama even stayed at the Taj Mahal hotel, one of the main targets.

It was significant that the US president declared support for India to join a reformed and expanded UN Security Council, says Alyssa Ayres, a former US deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia. “That all these years later nothing has changed in the UN system is another matter, but that was a major policy shift for the United States.”

US President Barack Obama paying floral tributes at the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in Delhi.Image copyright US EMBASSY ARCHIVES
Image caption Barack Obama visited India twice
Mr Obama returned in 2015 as chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations, at PM Modi’s invitation. Trade, defence and climate change were at the heart of the talks. The trip also emphasised an Indo-Pacific strategy, where both leaders expressed unease over Beijing’s provocations in the South China Sea.

The not-so-good: Jimmy Carter

Although Jimmy Carter’s two-day visit in 1978 was a thaw in India-US relations, it was not free of hiccups.

With some 500 reporters in tow, Carter followed a packed itinerary: he met Prime Minister Morarji Desai, addressed a joint session of parliament, went to the Taj Mahal, and dropped by a village just outside Delhi.

The village, Chuma Kheragaon, had a personal connection: Carter’s mother, Lillian, had visited here when she was in India as a member of the Peace Corps in the late 1960s. So when Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, made the trip, they gave the village money and its first television set. It was even renamed “Carterpuri”, a moniker it still holds.

Jimmy Carter being greeted by villagers of 'Carterpuri'Image copyright US EMBASSY ARCHIVES
Image caption Jimmy Carter being greeted by villagers of ‘Carterpuri’
But beyond the photo-ops, India and the US were sparring. India was building its nuclear programme, and had conducted its first test in 1974. The US wanted India to sign the NPF, which sought to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. But India refused, saying the agreement discriminated against developing countries.

In a leaked conversation that made headlines and threatened to derail the visit, Mr Carter promised his Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, a “very cold and very blunt” letter to Desai. The two leaders signed a declaration, promising greater global co-operation, but Carter left India without the assurances he had hoped for.

The ugly: Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon was no stranger to India when he arrived in August 1969 for a day-long state visit. He had been here as vice-president in 1953, and before that on personal trips. But, by all accounts, he wasn’t a fan.

“Nixon disliked Indians in general and despised [Prime Minister] Indira Gandhi,” according to Gary Bass, author of Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide. And, he adds, the feeling was said to be mutual.

This was also at the height of the Cold War, and India’s non-alignment policy “appalled” American presidents. Mr Bass says that under Gandhi, India’s neutrality had turned into a “noticeably pro-Soviet foreign policy”.

President Richard Nixon waves to crowds as he rides in open car with the acting president of India, Mohammad Hidyatullah, in motorcade from airport upon arrival here July 31.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Richard Nixon waves to the crowds alongside Mohammad Hidyatullah, India’s acting president
The relationship only turned frostier after the trip as India backed Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in its fight for independence from Pakistan, a close American ally. The differences were laid bare when Gandhi visited the White House in 1971. Declassified state department cables later revealed that Nixon referred to her as an “old witch”.

And the future: Donald Trump

The US and India have certainly had their ups and downs, but during the last official visit in 2015, Mr Obama and Mr Modi signed a declaration of friendship: “Chalein saath saath (Let’s move forward together)…” it began.

President Trump’s visit will take the relationship forward, but it’s unclear how.

Students paint on canvas faces of US President Donald Trump (R) and India"s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the street in Mumbai on February 21, 2020, ahead of the visit of US President in IndiaImage copyright AFP

His arrival in Ahmedabad, the main city in PM Modi’s home state of Gujarat, followed by a big arena event, is expected to draw a massive crowd. It will echo President Eisenhower’s rally in Delhi years ago, perhaps cementing the personal ties between the two leaders.

But while Mr Trump’s trip will be packed with pageantry, it could be light on policy. Unlike other presidential visits, this one is not expected to yield concrete agreements, with the trade deal Mr Trump so badly wants looking unlikely.

Source: The BBC

Posted in "a joyous visit", "a piece of our heart", "best US president India's ever had", "Carterpuri", "Clinton fever - a delighted India has all the symptoms.", "non-aligned", "noticeably pro-Soviet foreign policy", Ahmedabad, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bangladesh, Barack Obama, Beijing, Beijing's, Bill Clinton, brief history, celebrations, China, Cold War, creamy black dal (lentils), Delhi, diplomatic gaffes, diplomatic tryst, Donald Trump, East, East Pakistan, energy-hungry, financial capital, Forbes magazine, Forgotten Genocide, game changer, George Bush Snr, George W. Bush, Gujarat, headline, Hyderabad, independence, India, India-US equation, Indian Ambassador, Jimmy Carter, journey, Kissinger, luxury hotel, Mahatma Gandhi's memorial, Morarji Desai, mumbai, national capital, neutral, New York Times, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nuclear technology, official visit, out of isolation, Pakistan, parliament, Peace Corps, President Eisenhower, Prime minister, prime minister manmohan singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, provocations, Ramlila grounds, raucous welcome, Republic Day, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, South China Sea, Taj Mahal, Taj Mahal hotel, Tibet, tiger safari, Trade, trips, Trump, UN Security Council, Uncategorized, US, US President Donald Trump, US presidents', US-India ties, Washington, White House, World War Two hero | Leave a Comment »

20/02/2020

Coronavirus: how Diamond Princess cruise ship became a ‘super spreading’ site

  • It started with a cough by a passenger who had visited China, leading to the two-week quarantine of some 3,700 passengers and crew
  • At least 218 cases have been detected on board the Diamond Princess, which has been described as ill-equipped to prevent the spread of infections
Passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess cruise liner are under quarantine until February 19, 2020. Photo: Reuters
Passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess cruise liner are under quarantine until February 19, 2020. Photo: Reuters
For almost a fortnight and counting, the Diamond Princess has resembled a floating hospital more than a luxury cruise liner, as 3,711 passengers and crew have remained under quarantine in Japan due to an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus on board.
The UK-flagged vessel, which set out on a 29-day voyage from Singapore to Yokohama on January 6, has been in lock-down since arriving at the Japanese city on February 3, after an elderly passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive for the virus, which causes the respiratory disease officially known as Covid-19.
Along the way, the ship had stopped at 14 ports, including Ho Chi Minh City in 
Vietnam, 

Kobe and Osaka in Japan, and Taipei in Taiwan, with repeat visits to a number of destinations, including Hong Kong.

How did the outbreak start?

While the exact source of the outbreak on the Diamond Princess is yet to be determined, it is suspected to be linked to a 80-year-old man from Hong Kong who had recently made a brief visit to mainland China.

The man boarded the ship on January 20 in Yokohama before disembarking five days later in Hong Kong, where he tested positive for the virus after seeking medical attention for symptoms including a cough.
Coronavirus: 44 more cases on Diamond Princess cruise ship
13 Feb 2020

How many people have tested positive for the coronavirus on board?

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato announced on Thursday that 44 new cases
of the virus had been detected on the Diamond Princess, including a quarantine officer who tested positive, bringing the total number of infections on board to at least 218.
The hike in infections came after officials announced 40 fresh cases on Wednesday. Authorities have so far tested 713 people on board, fewer than one-fifth of the total, but the outbreak already ranks as the largest single cluster of infections outside mainland

China.

Japan has confirmed 247 cases overall since the virus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December.

Passengers are allowed short visits above deck for fresh air. Photo: Reuters
Passengers are allowed short visits above deck for fresh air. Photo: Reuters

What has it been like for passengers on board?

Passengers who have not been diagnosed with the coronavirus have been asked to stay in their cabins, except for short visits above deck for fresh air, until the quarantine period ends on February 19.

Those who have tested positive have been evacuated to onshore medical facilities. Health officials announced on Thursday that they intended to move elderly people and those with pre-existing conditions off the ship in the coming days even if they tested negative.

Many of those on board have described the tedium of being confined to their cabins and anxiety about the virus spreading further, or expressed frustration at the lack of timely information about the outbreak coming from Japanese authorities.

“It’s getting tougher by the day, and certainly for passengers with the inside cabins, it’s not easy,” said British passenger David Abel in a Facebook live-stream on Thursday.

The sorry state of Hongkongers stuck aboard quarantined cruise ship in Japan

11 Feb 2020

Some passengers have praised the efforts of the crew to keep up people’s spirits, including putting together videos featuring magic tricks and dance and stretching routines.

Matthew Smith, a passenger from the United States, has racked up thousands of followers on Twitter with his regular upbeat appraisals of the ship’s food.

“Don’t believe the honeymooners who would rather be in an American hospital,” he wrote in one post last week. “You might have to drag me off the ship when the quarantine ends.”

The event on the Diamond Princess cruise would fit the description of a super spreading event. David Hui, infectious diseases expert

Why has Japan’s handling of the outbreak been so controversial?

Some medical experts have questioned the wisdom of placing the passengers and crew in quarantine in the close confines of a ship, rather than removing them to dedicated facilities on the shore.

“Ideally, the crew members and the passengers should be quarantined at holiday camps,” said David Shu-Cheong Hui, the director of the Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infections Diseases in Hong Kong. “The event on the Diamond Princess cruise would fit the description of a super spreading event.”

Panic buying, mistrust and economic woes as Japan reels from coronavirus

12 Feb 2020

Kumar Visvanathan, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Melbourne, said a cruise liner such as the Diamond Princess would be ill-equipped to prevent the spread of infections.

“It seems that though isolation in individual cabins is somewhat effective, the increasing numbers of symptomatic infections seems to suggest active infections even with the best precautions are occurring,” Visvanathan said.

“It is clear that cruise ships and their individual cabins are not made for isolation purposes and depend heavily on individual participation in the isolation procedures, including respiratory hygiene, cough etiquette and hand hygiene,” he said.

Japanese city encourages travellers in coronavirus quarantine after return from China

Visvanathan said, however, that gauging the correct response was difficult as authorities had to consider the welfare of both the general public and those on the ship.

“I think the way to look at it is there are two disparate concerns that need to be balanced,” he said. “The first is the protection of the outside community which I think the Japanese government is taking as most important, and in this case isolation on board is the most efficient way to prevent infection of the Japanese population.”

Criticism has also been levelled at authorities for not testing all of those on board from the start. After initially insisting that they did not have the resources to test everyone on board, health officials said on Thursday that they were now aiming to test 1,000 people a day.

The World Health Organisation, however, has defended Japan’s handling of the situation, saying the country was ensuring those who were ill received proper treatment, the most important consideration during such an outbreak.

Source: SCMP

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19/02/2020

Coronavirus: China expels Wall Street Journal journalists for article it deemed racist

Three journalists with the Wall Street Journal have been told to leave China in five daysImage copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption The Wall Street Journal said the journalists were ordered to leave China in five days

China has ordered three foreign journalists of the Wall Street Journal to leave the country over an opinion piece it said was “racist”.

The article published on 3 February criticised the country’s response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The Chinese foreign ministry said it had asked the newspaper to apologise several times but it had declined.

The newspaper said the journalists – who had not written the opinion piece – were given five days to leave China.

The article called the authorities’ initial response “secretive and self-serving” and said global confidence in China had been “shaken”.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the article was “racist” and “denigrated” China’s efforts to combat the outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people in the country.

“The Chinese people do not welcome media that publish racist statements and maliciously attacks China,” Mr Geng said, without naming the journalists being expelled.

The Wall Street Journal identified the reporters as two US citizens – Josh Chin, who is the deputy bureau chief, and Chao Deng – as well as Australian citizen Philip Wen. The newspaper has not yet commented.

It is the first time in more than two decades that journalists holding valid credentials have been ordered to leave China, the BBC’s John Sudworth in Beijing reports.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China called the decision “an extreme and obvious attempt by the Chinese authorities to intimidate foreign news organizations”.

The measure comes a day after the US said it would begin treating five Chinese state-run media outlets that operate in the country in the same way as foreign embassies, requiring them to register their employees and properties with the US government.

The decision affects the Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network and China Daily Distribution Corp.

Presentational grey line

Press freedom in China

Presentational grey line

Last year, the government declined to renew the credentials – necessary for the work of foreign journalists in the country – of another Wall Street Journal reporter.

The journalist, a Singaporean national, had co-written a story that authorities in Australia were looking into activities of one of China’s President Xi Jinping’s cousins suspected of involvement in organised crime and money laundering.

And in 2018, the Beijing bureau chief for BuzzFeed News Megha Rajagopalan was unable to renew her visa after reporting on the detention of Muslim minority Uighurs and others in China’s Xinjiang region.

Meanwhile, two Chinese citizen journalists who disappeared last week after covering the coronavirus in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak in Hubei province, remain missing.

Fang Bin and Chen Qiushi had been sharing videos and pictures online from inside the quarantined city.

Media caption Footage appearing to show people held in quarantine in a makeshift facility in Wuhan, has been shared across social media

Source: The BBC

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19/02/2020

China threatened to harm Czech companies over Taiwan visit – letter

(Reuters) – Beijing threatened to retaliate against Czech companies with operations in China if a senior Czech lawmaker went ahead with a planned visit to Taiwan, according to a diplomatic letter seen by Reuters.

The Jan. 10 letter, which was sent by China’s embassy in Prague to the Czech president’s office, suggested that Czech companies operating in mainland China, such as Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) subsidiary Skoda Auto or lender Home Credit Group, would suffer if Senate speaker Jaroslav Kubera visited the self-ruled island.

Kubera died unexpectedly on Jan. 20, before his trip had been due to take place, but the letter, written in Czech, reveals how explicit Beijing was about the possible consequences if the visit had gone ahead.

“Czech companies whose representatives visit Taiwan with Chairman Kubera will not be welcome in China or with the Chinese people,” the letter said.

“Czech companies who have economic interests in China will have to pay for the visit to Taiwan by Chairman Kubera,” the letter added, noting that “China is the largest foreign market for many Czech companies like Skoda Auto, Home Credit Group, Klaviry Petrof and others”.

Chinese officials in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Czech president’s spokesman confirmed the office had received the letter but did not comment on its content.

The Foreign Ministry in Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province, criticised China’s warning to Prague.

“China’s business pressure on the Czech Republic proves that ‘one belt one road’ is a predatory policy tool, bringing only counter-effects to the global business order,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said.

‘SERIOUS BREACH’

As speaker of the Czech Republic’s Senate, Kubera was the country’s second-most senior official after President Milos Zeman.

Zeman and Prime Minister Andrej Babis had expressed concern that Kubera’s plans to visit Taiwan would lead China to retaliate against the Central European country’s business community.

The Senate’s office said Kubera had been aware of the letter and its content after receiving a copy at a regular meeting of top Czech foreign policy officials.

The Chinese letter warns that Kubera’s trip would be seen as a “serious breach” of the so-called one China policy on Taiwan, under which Beijing insists it is the sole representative of China.

Babis’s government, which has the main say on foreign policy, has said repeatedly it adheres to the one China policy.

However, diplomatic ties cooled last year when city authorities in Prague showed support for Tibet and demanded changes to an intercity partnership agreement with Beijing over a reference to China’s policy on Taiwan.

The agreement was eventually cancelled, and Prague instead signed a cooperation deal with Taiwan’s Taipei, further infuriating Beijing.

Another upset to bilateral relations took place in December 2018 when the Czech cyber-security watchdog warned about the risks of using network technology provided by Chinese telecoms equipment makers Huawei and ZTE.

A Home Credit spokesman said he had not been aware of the letter, while Skoda could not be reached immediately for comment.

Czech senators elected a replacement for Kubera as speaker on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters

Posted in Beijing, China, Chinese, companies, Czech, Czech lawmaker, Czech Republic, Foreign Ministry, harm, Home Credit, Home Credit Group, Huawei, lender, network technology, One Belt One Road, policy tool, Prague, predatory, President Milos Zeman, Prime minister, Skoda Auto, subsidiary, Taipei, Taiwan, telecoms equipment makers, threatened, Uncategorized, visit, ZTE | Leave a Comment »

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