Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
A pedestrian waits to cross a street in Brussels, Belgium, May 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)
— New single-day COVID-19 deaths continue to drop in France
— Italy sees fewer COVID-19 patients, number of active infections falls to 70,187
— New deaths from COVID-19 keep falling in Spain as PM seeks final extension of State of Alarm
— Deaths from coronavirus top 9,000 in Belgium
BRUSSELS, May 16 (Xinhua) — The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries.
A man makes a phone call near the Eiffel Tower at the Trocadero Palace, Paris, France, May 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)
PARIS — France had registered 96 new deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, fewer than the previous two 24-hour periods, while the balance of the coronavirus-related hospitalization remains negative, France’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.
According to the ministry, the 96 new single-day deaths were lower than 104 registered on Friday and 351 on Thursday. So far, 27,625 people have succumbed to the coronavirus-caused disease across France.
Meanwhile, France is now the world’s fourth worst-hit country in terms of human loss caused by COVID-19 after the United States, Britain and Italy.
As of Saturday, the country had recorded 142,291 confirmed cases, a single-day increase of 372, slower than Friday’s 563. A total of 61,066 patients had recovered and returned home since early March.
People wait in line outside a cocktail bar in Rome, Italy, May 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Tingting)
ROME — The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care (ICU) patients dropped in Italy over the past 24 hours, according to the latest tally posted by the Civil Protection Department on Saturday.
Recoveries rose by 2,605 from a day earlier, bringing the total to 122,810.
Nationwide, the number of active infections fell to 70,187, down from 72,070 on Friday.
Of those who tested positive for the new coronavirus, 775 are in intensive care, down by 33 from Friday, and 10,400 are hospitalized with symptoms, down by 392.
The death toll on Saturday was 153, bringing the total to 31,763 since the outbreak was first recorded in Italy’s northern Lombardy region in February.
The total number of COVID-19 cases combining infections, fatalities and recoveries has risen to 224,760, up from 223,885 on Friday.
A security guard offers disinfectant gel to a woman at the entrance of a building in Barcelona, Spain, on May 11, 2020. (Photo by Sergi Camara/Xinhua)
MADRID — The Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare confirmed on Saturday falls in the number of new deaths from COVID-19 as well as new cases.
The total number of deaths in Spain rose to 27,563 after 102 people lost their lives to COVID-19 in the 24-hour period until 21:00 hours local time on Friday.
This was the lowest number of deaths in a 24-hour period since March 16, with 50 of the deaths in the regions of Madrid and Catalonia.
The same period also saw a slight fall in the number of new cases. The Health Ministry reported 539 new infections, down from 549 reported 24 hours earlier, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 230,698.
Also on Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he will seek a fifth and final extension of the State of Alarm, which was imposed on March 15 to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Speaking in a televised speech, Sanchez said the upcoming final State of Alarm, which will come into effect on May 24 if approved, will be “different” from others.
“It is expected to be the last State of Alarm. We are going to request in the Congress of Deputies that it should last for a month,” he said. All the previous four extensions have been 15 days.
Few people are seen at the Saint-Hubert Royal Galleries shopping street in Brussels, Belgium, May 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)
BRUSSELS — With an increase of 47 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the novel coronavirus had caused a total of 9,005 deaths in Belgium since the beginning of the epidemic, said the public health institute Sciensano on Saturday.
Of the 9,005 deaths, 48 percent took place in hospitals, 51 percent in nursing homes, and about 0.6 percent elsewhere, according to Sciensano. Deaths in hospitals were all confirmed COVID-19 cases. Of the fatalities in nursing homes, 23 percent were confirmed by test while the other were presumed by symptoms.
Also in the past 24 hours, 345 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, raising the cumulative cases to 54,989 in Belgium.
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.
The United States suffered the most from the pandemic, with 1,305,199 cases and a death toll of 78,469.
NEW YORK, May 9 (Xinhua) — Global confirmed COVID-19 cases topped 4 million on Saturday, reaching 4,004,224 as of 4:32 p.m. (2032 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
According to the CSSE, a total of 277,860 people worldwide have died of the disease.
Police officers walk past closed retail stores along Broadway in New York, the United States, on May 8, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)
The United States suffered the most from the pandemic, with 1,305,199 cases and a death toll of 78,469. Countries with over 150,000 cases included Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and Germany, according to the CSSE data.
A customer buys products at a time-honoredfood store in east China’s Shanghai Municipality, April 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)
Twelve cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported in Jilin Province and the other one in Hubei Province.
BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) — Chinese health authority said Sunday that it received report of 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Saturday, of which two were imported cases reported in Shanghai.
Twelve cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported in Jilin Province and the other one in Hubei Province, the National Health Commission said in a daily report.
One new suspected case imported from abroad was reported in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
No deaths were reported Saturday on the mainland, according to the commission.
On Saturday, 74 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by two to 13.
As of Saturday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 82,901, including 148 patients who were still being treated, and 78,120 people who had been discharged after recovery.
Altogether 4,633 people had died of the disease, the commission said.
By Saturday, the mainland had reported a total of 1,683 imported cases. Of the cases, 1,568 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 115 remained hospitalized with three in severe conditions. No deaths from the imported cases had been reported.
The commission said four people, all from overseas, were still suspected of being infected with the virus.
According to the commission, 5,840 close contacts were still under medical observation after 427 people were discharged from medical observation Saturday.
Also on Saturday, 20 new asymptomatic cases were reported on the mainland. One case was re-categorized as a confirmed case, and 61 asymptomatic cases, including 16 from overseas, were discharged from medical observation, according to the commission.
The commission said 794 asymptomatic cases, including 48 from overseas, were still under medical observation.
By Saturday, 1,044 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 45 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 440 in Taiwan including six deaths.
A total of 967 patients in Hong Kong, 40 in Macao, and 361 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospitals after recovery.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, holds talks with Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), in Pyongyang, DPRK, June 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) — General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a verbal message of thanks to Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), in reply to an earlier verbal message from the latter.
Saying he was very glad to receive Kim’s warm and friendly message, Xi recalled that in February this year, Kim sent him a letter of sympathy over the COVID-19 outbreak and provided support for China’s prevention and control efforts.
That has fully reflected the profound bond of amity Kim as well as the WPK and the DPRK government and people share with their Chinese counterparts, and vividly illustrated the solid foundation and strong vitality of the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK, said Xi, who also conveyed his deep gratitude and high appreciation.
Xi pointed out that after the coronavirus disease broke out, China, under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee and with strong support from various sides, has achieved significant strategic results in COVID-19 prevention and control through arduous efforts.
Senior students walk into Wuhan No. 6 High School in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, May 6, 2020. Senior students in 121 high and vocational schools returned to campus on Wednesday in Wuhan City. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)
He added that he pays great attention to the epidemic prevention and control situation in the DPRK and the health of its people, and noted that Kim has guided the WPK and the DPRK people to carry out a series of epidemic prevention and control measures, which are leading to positive progress. The Chinese president said he is gratified and pleased with that.
China, Xi added, is willing to enhance anti-epidemic cooperation with the DPRK and provide as much support as its capacity allows for the DPRK in line with the latter’s needs.
He also expressed his confidence that with the joint efforts of China and the DPRK as well as the international community, a final victory will be won in the fight against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Xi said he highly values the development of China-DPRK relations and stands ready to work with Kim to guide relevant departments of the two parties and countries to effectively implement the important consensuses between the two sides, strengthen strategic communication, and deepen exchanges and cooperation.
In so doing, the two neighbors can promote the continuous development of China-DPRK relations in the new era, bring more benefits to both countries and their people, and make positive contributions to regional peace, stability, development and prosperity, added the Chinese president.
In his verbal message sent to Xi on Thursday, Kim congratulated Xi on leading the CPC and the Chinese people to splendid achievements and great victories in the battle against the unprecedented epidemic, saying he highly appreciates that.
Kim expressed his firm belief that under Xi’s leadership, the CPC and the Chinese people will surely further consolidate and expand the successes made so far and win a final victory.
He also wished Xi good health, sent greetings to all CPC members, and expressed his hope that the relationship between the WPK and the CPC will grow closer and enjoy sound development.
Buffett’s Berkshire posted a record quarterly net loss of nearly US$50 billion
Company sells entire stakes in US airlines, Buffett says ‘world has changed’
Warren Buffett speaks during the virtual Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting. Photo: Bloomberg
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday he’s confident the US economy will bounce back from its pummelling by the coronavirus pandemic because “American magic has always prevailed”.
The 89-year-old made the sanguine prediction about the world’s largest economy as his holding company Berkshire Hathaway reported first-quarter net losses of nearly US$50 billion.
Buffett also announced Saturday that his company had sold all its stakes in four major US airlines last month, as the pandemic clobbered the travel industry.
“It turns out I was wrong,” he said of his acquisitions of 10 per cent stakes in American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.
Berkshire Hathaway had paid US$7 billion to US$8 billion, and “we did not take out anything like that,” he said.
Between the purchases that took place over months, and the sale, “the airlines business I think changed in a very major way” and could no longer meet Berkshire criteria for profitability, he said.
Buffett’s announcement may further hurt airlines already pushed to the brink by coronavirus lockdown measures, now looking to the US government for US$25 billion in relief funds.
Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, Nebraska, called its first-quarter setback “temporary” but said it could not reliably predict when its many businesses would return to normal or when consumers would resume their former buying habits.
Warren Buffett (left) and vice-chairman Charlie Munger at the annual Berkshire shareholder shopping day in Omaha, Nebraska in 2019. Photo: Reuters
“We’ve faced great problems in the past, haven’t faced this exact problem – in fact we haven’t really faced anything that quite resembles this problem,” Buffett said in a lengthy speech on the country’s economic history.
“But we faced tougher problems, and the American miracles, American magic has always prevailed and it will do so again.”
“We are now a better country, as well as an incredibly more wealthy country, than we were in 1789 … We got a long ways to go but we moved in the right direction,” he said, referencing the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage.
Warren Buffett has traded his old flip phone for Apple’s iPhone
25 Feb 2020
“Never bet against America.”
Buffett is considered one of the savviest investors anywhere. His fortune of US$72 billion is the fourth-largest in the world, according to Forbes, and in normal years, the company’s annual gathering in Omaha is a high-point of the calendar for investors, a “Woodstock for capitalists”.
But the devastating economic impact of the pandemic has hit hard at Berkshire Hathaway’s wide range of investments, and the need for social distancing forced it to hold the annual meeting online.
Buffett addressed his shareholders in a live-stream flanked only by Gregory Abel, who is in charge of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations.
His business partner for six decades, 96-year-old Charlie Munger, did not appear.
China’s first-quarter GDP shrinks for the first time since 1976 as coronavirus cripples economy
Buffett, in a statement, played down his company’s bleak-looking net figure. He said a better measure of the company’s performance was its operating earnings, which exclude investments and are less subject to sharp fluctuations.
By that measure, Berkshire Hathaway saw growth to US$5.9 billion from US$5.55 billion a year earlier.
The brutal drop in the net – to a loss of US$49.75 billion from a profit last year of US$21.7 billion – resulted primarily from the virus-related decline in value of its broad investment portfolio, which ranges from energy to transport to insurance and technology.
Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire finally sits down to eat with Warren Buffett
7 Feb 2020
The annual meeting often has an almost carnival atmosphere, as thousands of fans and investors flock to Nebraska to hear from the celebrated “Oracle of Omaha”. Buffett, famous for his relatively modest lifestyle, turns 90 on August 30.
In documents filed Saturday, Berkshire noted that until mid-March many of its companies were posting “comparative revenue and earnings increases” over the same 2019 period.
Many of its companies – including in rail transport, energy production and some manufacturing and service businesses – are deemed essential and are able to continue working amid the far-reaching confinement orders.
But their turnover slowed considerably in April, the company statement said.
Moves taken by those companies such as employee furloughs, salary cuts and reductions, and capital spending reductions are “necessary actions” and “temporary,” it said.
MADRID, May 3 (Xinhua) — A Boeing 777 plane carrying 56 tons of sanitary material from China for Community of Madrid, one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain, landed at Madrid-Barajas Airport late on Saturday night, the regional government has informed.
Among the equipment on the aircraft, which came from Shanghai, were 315 multi-parameter monitors, which are used in intensive care units.
The material was shipped to Pavilion 10 at the IFEMA exhibition center in Madrid, which is being used as a warehouse for sanitary equipment during the ongoing coronavirus crisis, and will subsequently be distributed among the region’s hospitals.
Saturday’s arrival was the sixth shipment of sanitary material which has arrived in Madrid from China since April 2, bringing a total of 18 million items, such as facemasks, protective gowns and shoe coverings.
Apart from the monitors, Saturday’s arrival contained 1.5 million face masks (including 560,000 FFP2 masks), 560,000 gloves and 158,000 protective gowns.
Madrid is the worst-hit region of Spain by the pandemic with over 62,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 8,332 deaths.
BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) — A Chinese health official on Saturday urged people to wear masks correctly and avoid travel during peak hours over coronavirus concerns in the May Day holiday.
Travelers are encouraged to reserve visiting slots in advance, and pay attention to their temperatures, said Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission, at a press conference in Beijing.
Some tourist attractions have seen large crowds of tourists not wearing masks Friday, the first day of the five-day May Day holiday, Mi said.
China recorded more than 23 million domestic tourist trips Friday, with the domestic tourism revenue reaching over 9.7 billion yuan (about 1.38 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
SHANGHAI, May 2 (Xinhua) — Shanghai’s 130 main tourist attractions have received over 1 million visitors in the first two days of the five-day May Day holiday.
The scenic sites received 456,000 visitors on Friday and 633,000 more on Saturday, marking a growing travel and leisure demand, according to the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.
The city requires reservations for tours of all tourist attractions to prevent crowding while tourist sites should not exceed 30 percent of their daily or real-time visitor capacity.
Tourists are also required to wear face masks, show their health QR codes and have their body temperatures taken for their safety.
“I feel safe and confident with the new reservation measures,” said Li Zhi, who has booked tours to the Zhujiajiao ancient town and Shanghai Oriental Land.
Under the reservation system, tourist sites are also better prepared to prevent crowding and provide better tour experiences to customers, according to Huang Ying with Shanghai Oriental Land.
BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) — The number of China-Europe freight trains hit a record monthly high of 979 in April, up 46 percent year on year, the China State Railway Group said Saturday.
A total of 88,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of cargo were transported by the trains, up 50 percent from a year earlier.
From January to April, a total of 2,920 China-Europe freight trains transported cargo of 262,000 TEUs, up 24 percent and 27 percent from a year earlier, respectively.
The number of departing trains rose 36 percent year on year to 1,638 during the first four months, while the number of returning trains climbed 11 percent to 1,282.
China-Europe cargo train services have become an important logistics channel to ensure smooth trade as air, sea and road transportation have been severely affected by the novel coronavirus epidemic, the company said.
The freight trains have also been playing a crucial role in helping with the fight against the pandemic in Europe as massive quantities of medical supplies were sent by them.
From March 21 to the end of April, anti-epidemic supplies totaling 660,000 items and weighing 3,142 tonnes were sent by the freight trains to European countries such as Italy, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic.
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
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