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.
BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) — Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been proven effective in curing patients of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a Chinese health official said Monday.
For example, a TCM decoction named “Qingfei Paidutang” has been used in treating 701 confirmed cases in 10 provinces, of which 130 have been cured and discharged, said Li Yu, an official with the National Administration of TCM.
Symptoms have disappeared in 51 cases and improved in 268, with another 212 remaining in stable condition, said Li, adding that the decoction was recommended to medical institutions nationwide on Feb. 6 after data analysis on 214 cases.
Li also shared the analysis and statistics cases with detailed clinical records, as 94.6 percent of the 112 patients restored to normal body temperature, and 80.6 percent of 214 patients stopped coughing after using the decoction for six days.
The data showed the decoction’s good clinical effect and treatment prospect on COVID-19, said Li.
The central government’s joint prevention and control mechanism on the situation has called for stronger cooperation between TCM and Western medicine in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, requiring local authorities to promote the use of TCM in the whole process of diagnosis and treatment.
As of Monday, more than 3,100 medical personnel from over 630 TCM hospitals across the country have been sent to aid Hubei Province in the fight against the epidemic, said Jiang Jian, another official of the national administration.
TCM has been used in treating 60,107 confirmed cases in China, or 85.2 percent of the total, according to Jiang.
Communist Party mouthpiece releases internal speech given to Politburo Standing Committee on February 3 with presidential orders to contain disease
Xi makes ‘rare’ disclosure move as he comes under heavy domestic and international pressure, analyst says
President Xi Jinping presides over a meeting and listens to report on epidemic prevention and control work in Beijing on February 10. Photo: Xinhua
President Xi Jinping told the Communist Party’s top echelon to tackle an outbreak of a previously unknown coronavirus almost two weeks before Chinese authorities announced that there had been human-to-human transmission of the disease, according to an internal speech released on Saturday.
In the speech to the party’s most powerful body, the Politburo Standing Committee, Xi outlined a contingency plan to respond to a crisis that he said could not only hamper the health of people in China, but also jeopardise the country’s economic and social stability – even its open-door policy.
The speech was delivered on February 3 and published in the party’s bimonthly journal Qiushi on Saturday. It was also featured on state television and other official mouthpieces.
The release comes as Xi tries to rally support to counter the biggest crisis in his tenure, including an outpouring of public anger over the death a week ago of ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded by police for alerting his friends about the virus in its early days.
In his speech, Xi also accused local officials of not carrying out edicts from the central government, vowing to punish incompetent officials.
“I issued demands during a Politburo Standing Committee meeting on January 7 for work to contain the outbreak. On January 20, I gave special instructions about the work to prevent and control the outbreak and I have said we have to pay high attention to it,” he said.
The document did not say whether the Politburo was aware of human-to-human transmission of the disease at the time but research published by Chinese scientists said such infections occurred as early as December.
How China-US mistrust pushed the WHO into a coronavirus corner
15 Feb 2020
The speech by Xi also indicated his desire to win international understanding and support through propaganda and diplomacy.
“We have to liaise and communicate with other countries and regions, to share information about the outbreak and containment strategies to win international understanding and support,” he said.
The disease has spread to multiple continents, including Africa, which reported its first case – in Egypt – on Friday and France, which reported the first death in Europe.
In terms of domestic stability, Xi stressed the need to stabilise food and energy supplies to boost public confidence. He also ordered police to increase their presence on the streets.
“[We must] ensure societal control and security by stepping up law enforcement, mobilising public security and armed police in joint efforts,” Xi said.
1,716 frontline Chinese medics infected with Covid-19 in battle against coronavirus
The authorities should also update the public on their efforts to help boost public confidence, he said.
“[We must] inform the people of what the party and government is doing and what is our next step forward to strengthen the public’s confidence,” he said.
He said the government would encourage companies and scientific institutes to speed up research on drugs and vaccines for the outbreaks and they should share their information with the science sector.
At the same time, Xi stressed that national economic goals set for this year, such as achieving “moderate prosperity”, would remain.
This would be achieved by resuming production, boosting consumption and investment in infrastructure, particularly 5G communications.
“There should not be any thought that we can wait a bit [because of the epidemic],” he said.
Coronavirus: infected Chinese tourist in France dies, in Europe’s first death
16 Feb 2020
Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based political analyst who specialises in analysing Xi’s speeches, said the president’s address was a “rare and interesting” shift from the past.
“The speech was made at a time when Xi is facing heavy domestic and diplomatic pressure,” Wu said.
“This is unprecedented. It sounds like he is defending and explaining how he has done everything in his capacity to lead epidemic prevention.”
Meanwhile, a panel of experts from the World Health Organisation began to arrive in Beijing on a trip that will take in three provinces.
Fang Bin is second Chinese citizen journalist to vanish while reporting from coronavirus epicentre
National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said the panel’s mission would include inspecting outbreak prevention work in urban and rural areas, and assessing viral analytics work before making recommendations to China.
Speaking publicly for the first time since being sent to Wuhan, NHC deputy director Wang Hesheng said he would make sure that there “would not be another Wuhan” in Hubei province. Nine medical centres with a combined capacity of nearly 7,000 beds had opened in the city and the province was planning to open more to treat patients with mild symptoms.
Various cities near Wuhan have stepped up quarantine. On Saturday, the small centre of Wuxue announced that with the exception of people working to contain the epidemic, anyone seen walking the streets would be sent to a stadium for “study sessions”.
Beijing has also appointed two senior firefighting commanders to the Ministry of Emergency Management’s leading group – Xu Ping, head of the ministry’s Forest Fire Bureau, and Qiong Se, director of its Fire and Rescue Bureau.
Zhou Xuewen and Liu Wei, two of the ministry’s existing leading party members, have been appointed deputy ministers for emergency management.
Experts to visit Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan but no word on whether Hubei is on the itinerary
Specialists say visit must include a trip to the outbreak’s epicentre to get a full picture
A nurse cares for a 14-month-old baby infected with the novel coronavirus in an ICU isolation ward of Wuhan Children’s Hospital in Wuhan, at the epicentre of the outbreak. Photo: Xinhua
A team of medical experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), including specialists from the US, will visit Beijing and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Sichuan from Monday to assess the country’s efforts to contain the spread of a deadly coronavirus, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
The death toll from the coronavirus had risen to 1,770 on mainland China as of Sunday, infecting 70,548 people, including more than 1,700 medical workers. Most of those confirmed with the disease, now known as Covid-19, are in Wuhan.
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the WHO delegation would include Americans, but gave no further details.
The announcement came as a commentary in Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily accused Washington of dragging its feet on a funding pledge to help with the epidemic, saying it had a “dark mentality and taken dangerous action” during the outbreak.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that the mission to China included 12 international medical specialists, and they would, with 12 Chinese experts, learn more about the transmission of the virus and the effectiveness of the measures in a bid to work out the next containment steps for China and the world.
An advance team of WHO medical experts arrived in Beijing last Monday, led by Canadian emergency expert Bruce Aylward, Tedros said.
China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said all of the delegation’s members arrived in Beijing over the weekend, and held talks with Chinese medical experts, public health officials and other government departments.
They exchanged views on virus containment, wildlife management and vaccine development, the NHC said.
Experts said the international team would be left with an “incomplete picture” of the outbreak if it did not go to Wuhan or Hubei.
“Unfortunately, this feeds into a narrative that China is trying to hide the true nature of the outbreak, so it would seem to be shortsighted and counterproductive to China’s efforts to say to the world that it is doing everything it can to contain this outbreak,” said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a specialist in global health security and international relations at the University of Sydney.
“We have seen in the past when we have external teams, they are often able to identify areas for improvement or to make recommendations for measures that national authorities may not have thought of – we’ve seen that through other examples where external expertise can be valuable in times of crisis.”
He said any impression of a cover-up would likely further strengthen the resolve of countries that had taken strict measures, including travel bans, to keep them in place or tighten them further.
“China has got a public relations campaign that it also needs to be mindful of in engaging with the international community, so there are the actual measures that the government needs to take in order to control the outbreak, but the government also needs to be seen to be doing everything that it can,” he said.
Media caption Americans are taken from the docked ship to Haneda airport in Tokyo
Two planes carrying hundreds of US citizens from a coronavirus-hit cruise ship have left Japan, officials say.
One plane has landed at a US Air Force air base in California, and its passengers will be isolated at military facilities for 14 days.
There were some 400 Americans on board the Diamond Princess. The ship with some 3,700 passengers and crew has been in quarantine since 3 February.
Meanwhile, China reported a total of 2,048 new cases on Monday.
Of those new cases, 1,933 were from Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak.
More than 70,500 people across China have been infected by the virus. In Hubei alone, the official number of cases stands at 58,182, with 1,692 deaths. Most new cases and deaths have been reported in Wuhan, Hubei’s largest city.
In other developments:
In Japan, a public gathering to celebrate the birthday of new Emperor Naruhito later this week has been cancelled, due to concerns over the spread of the virus while organisers of the Tokyo marathon due to take place on 1 March are considering whether to cancel the amateur part of the race, reports say
In China, the National People’s Congress standing committee said it would meet next week to discuss a delay of this year’s Congress – the Communist Party’s most important annual gathering – because of the outbreak
At the weekend, an American woman tested positive for the virus in Malaysia after leaving a cruise liner docked off the coast of Cambodia
A Russian court has ordered a woman who escaped from a quarantine facility to go back and stay there until she is confirmed to be disease-free, Fontanka news agency reports. Alla Ilyina has until Wednesday to return
What’s happening on the Diamond Princess?
The cruise ship was put in quarantine in Japan’s port of Yokohama after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was found to have the virus.
On Monday, Japanese officials said there were 99 new cases of infections on board the ship, bringing the total to 454 confirmed cases. It is the largest cluster of cases outside China.
A Russian woman who was on board and tested positive is thought to be the first Russian national to contract the virus after the two previous cases found in Russia were Chinese nationals, Reuters news agency reports.
She will be taken to a hospital for treatment, the Russian embassy in Japan said.
At least 40 US citizens who were on board are infected and will be treated in Japan, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told US broadcaster CBS.
Image copyright AFPImage caption Those bound for the US left from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport
The two aircraft chartered by the US government left Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in the early hours of Monday. The second flight was due to land at another base in Texas.
More than 300 passengers are being repatriated voluntarily, the US state department said. Fourteen of them were reported during transit to have tested positive for the virus and were being kept separate from the other passengers, it said.
we would like to just finish the quarantine on the ship as planned, decompress in a non-quarantine environment in Japan for a few days, then fly back to the U.S. pursuant to our own arrangements. What’s wrong with that?
The smartphones were distributed so people could use an app, created by Japan’s health ministry, which links users with doctors, pharmacists and mental health counsellors. Phones registered outside of Japan are unable to access the app.
Other evacuation flights have been arranged to repatriate residents of Israel, Hong Kong and Canada. On Monday, Australia announced that it would evacuate 200 of its citizens too.
What is happening in China?
According to official figures for 16 February, 100 people died from the virus in Hubei, down from 139 on Saturday.
The Chinese authorities are tightening curbs on movement to combat the outbreak. People in Hubei province, which has 60 million people, have been ordered to stay at home, though they will be allowed to leave in an emergency.
In addition, a single person from each household will be allowed to leave the building or compound they live in every three days to buy food and essential items.
On housing estates, one entrance will be kept open. It will be guarded to ensure that only residents can enter or leave.
All businesses will stay closed, except chemists, hotels, food shops and medical services.
“The effects of epidemic prevention and control in various parts of the country can already be seen.”
The proportion of infected patients considered to be in a “serious condition” has dropped nationwide from more than 15% to just over 7%, according to China’s State Council.
Taiwan has reported a death from the illness – a taxi driver, 61, who had not travelled abroad recently but had diabetes and hepatitis B, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said.
The minister said many of his passengers had come from China.
Outside China, there have been more than 500 cases in nearly 30 countries. Four others have died outside mainland China – in France, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.
Meanwhile, a plane carrying 175 evacuated Nepalis, mostly students, has arrived in Kathmandu from Wuhan.
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s parliament and its top political consultative body are both considering delaying annual meetings set for March, state media said on Monday, as the country battles a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 1,700 people.
The meetings of the parliament, or National People’s Congress (NPC), and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) were both due to begin early next month.
The gatherings see more than 5,000 delegates descend on Beijing, the capital, from all over China, for at least 10 days, to pass legislation and unveil the year’s key economic targets.
A postponement would be the first since China adopted the current March schedule in 1995 for the meeting of parliament.
The standing committee of the NPC will meet on Feb. 24 in Beijing, the official Xinhua news agency said.
“The upcoming session is … expected to deliberate a draft decision on postponing the third annual session of the 13th NPC,” it said. The session was due to have begun on March 5.
The proposal was made in the belief it was important to focus on reining in the epidemic, Xinhua said. China has imposed transport curbs to halt the spread of the virus, which has killed 1,770 and infected nearly 71,000 in mainland China.
The CPPCC is also studying whether to postpone its annual meeting, state-run CCTV said, due to have begun two days earlier, on March 3.
Five people familiar with the matter told Reuters this month that China was considering delaying the meetings as Beijing grapples with the epidemic.
The parliamentary committee will also consider a proposed law banning wildlife trade and discuss government changes, Xinhua said, without elaborating.
Image copyright MUKHTAR ZAHOORImage caption Muneeb Ul Islam can no longer afford to work as a journalist in Kashmir
Journalists in Indian-administered Kashmir are struggling to make ends meet amid a months-long communications blockade that has only partially been lifted. The BBC’s Priyanka Dubey visited the region to find out more.
Muneeb Ul Islam, 29, had worked as a photo-journalist in Kashmir for five years, his pictures appearing in several publications in India and abroad.
But the young photographer’s dream job vanished almost overnight in August last year, when India’s federal government suspended landline, mobile and internet services in Kashmir.
The government’s move came a day before its announcement that it was revoking the region’s special status – a constitutionally-guaranteed provision, which gave Kashmir partial autonomy in matters related to property ownership, permanent residency and fundamental rights.
The controversial decision catapulted the Muslim-majority valley into global news – but local journalists like Mr Islam had no way to report on what was going on. And worse, they had to find other things to do because journalism could no longer pay the bills.
By January, the region had not had access to the internet for more than 150 days, India’s longest such shutdown.
Media caption The silenced YouTube stars of Indian-administered Kashmir
“I chose journalism because I wanted to do something for my people,” Mr Islam explains. “I covered this conflict-ridden region with dedication until the loss of Kashmir’s special status put a full stop on my journey.”
In January, the government eased restrictions and allowed limited broadband service in the Muslim-majority valley, while 2G mobile coverage resumed in parts of the neighbouring Jammu region. But mobile internet and social media are still largely blocked.
India says this is necessary to maintain law and order since the region saw protests in August, and there has also been a long-running insurgency against Indian rule. But opposition leaders and critics of the move say the government cannot leave these restrictions in place indefinitely.
Meanwhile, journalists like Mr Islam are struggling.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Kashmiri journalists protested after 100 days of no internet in the region
For months, Mr Islam says, he kept trying to report and file stories and photos.
In September, he even spent 6,000 rupees ($84; £65) of his own money to make two trips to the capital, Srinagar, for a story. But he soon ran out of funds and had to stop.
He then tried to file his stories on a landline phone: he would call and read them aloud to someone on the other side who could type it out. But, as he found out, his stories didn’t earn him enough money to cover the cost of travelling for hours in search of a working landline.
And Mr Islam was desperate for money because his wife was ill. So he eventually asked his brother for help, finding work carrying bricks on a construction site in his neighbourhood in Anantnag city. It pays him 500 rupees a day.
Mr Islam is not the only journalist in Kashmir who has been forced to abandon their career for another job.
Another journalist, who did not want to reveal his name, says he had been working as a reporter for several years, but quit the profession in August. He now plans to work in a dairy farm.
Image copyright MUKHTAR ZAHOORImage caption Internet is available in some government offices
Yet another reporter, who also also wished to remain anonymous, says he used to earn enough to comfortably provide for his family. Now, he barely has money to buy petrol for his motorcycle.
“I have no money because I have not been able to file any story in the last six months,” a third reporter, who spoke to the BBC on the condition of anonymity, says. “My family keeps telling me to find another job. But what else can I do?”
In December, people were given limited access to the internet at a government office in Anantnag, but this hasn’t helped local journalists. The office, Mr Islam says, is always crowded and there are only four desktops for a scrum of officials, students and youngsters who want to log on to respond to emails, fill exam forms, submit job applications or even check their social media.
“We have access for only for a few minutes and the internet speed is slow,” he explains. “We are barely able to access email, forget reading the news.”
What’s more, Mr Islam says those who work at the office often ask customers to show them the contents of emails. “This makes us uncomfortable, but we don’t have a choice.”
Image copyright MUKHTAR ZAHOORImage caption Basheer Manzar runs Kashmir Images, a local newspaper
Many journalists say that they have been completely cut off from their contacts for months now, making it hard to to maintain their networks or sources.
They also speak of how humiliating it is to beg for wi-fi passwords and hotspots at the cramped media centre in Srinagar, which has less than two dozen computers for hundreds of journalists.
This has left publishers in the lurch too. “My reporters and writers are not able to file,” says Basheer Manzar, the editor of Kashmir Images.
He still publishes a print edition, he says, because if he doesn’t do so for a certain number of days in the month, he will lose the license.
But the website continues to struggle, he adds, because most of the readers in Indian-administered Kashmir have no access to the internet.
“I know what is happening in New York through news on the TV, but I don’t know what’s happening in my hometown.”
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will meet executives of large Indian companies with interests in the United States as he looks to drum up investments during his visit to New Delhi this month.
Executives of some of the companies expected to attend the meeting include Indian oil & gas company Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), diversified group Tata Sons and auto sector companies such as Bharat Forge (BFRG.NS), Mahindra and Mahindra (MAHM.NS) and Motherson, industry and business sources told Reuters.
Trump is scheduled to make his first visit as president to India on Feb. 24-25 during which he will travel to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat followed by talks in New Delhi. The two countries are trying to sign a trade deal during his visit.
On Feb. 25, a meeting is being planned between Trump and Indian executives, especially those focussing on job creation and manufacturing in the United States, the sources said.
The meeting, which will be held in New Delhi, was unlikely to include executives of U.S. companies, they said.
Creating new jobs and boosting manufacturing is critical for Trump in his re-election bid later this year. U.S. factory activity rebounded in January but only after it contracted for five straight months.
“President (Trump) is keen on acknowledging Indian companies which are focussing on manufacturing in the United States,” said a Washington-based source aware of the plans.
United States is a key market for several Indian firms.
Mahindra last year said it will invest another $1 billion (£767.64 million) in the United States and was committed to creating American jobs, while Bharat Forge has announced plans to invest $56 million to set up a new plant in North Carolina.
The $100-billion Tata Group says it is one of the largest Indian-headquartered multinationals in North America, with 13 companies and more than 35,000 employees.
The Confederation of Indian Industries and U.S.-India trade groups have suggested several Indian executives for the Trump meeting and the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi was reviewing that, one source said, adding the final list was yet to be finalised.
The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi declined to comment.
Other than his meeting with Indian business leaders and Modi, Trump is expected to attend an event at a stadium in Gujarat along the lines of the “Howdy Modi” extravaganza held in Houston last September during which the two leaders made a joint appearance.
Authorities say a foreigner tested positive without any symptoms and has been isolated in hospital in stable condition
WHO is racing to equip laboratories so they can test for the virus and avert an outbreak on the continent, which has close ties with China
Egyptian quarantine officers prepare to screen travellers arriving at Cairo’s airport. The country has reported its first coronavirus case. Photo: AFP
Africa has reported its first case of the new coronavirus that has so far claimed more than 1,600 lives, with Egypt’s health ministry confirming that a foreigner had tested positive there.
Health experts and African leaders have expressed concern that poorer countries may struggle to cope if the virus spread to the continent. Fears for nations with weaker health systems prompted the World Health Organisation to declare the outbreak of the virus – which originated in China – a global public health emergency in January.
Its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week said the WHO was racing to equip laboratories in vulnerable African countries with the “capacity to rapidly diagnose cases” to avert an outbreak.
The WHO and Egypt’s health ministry on Friday confirmed the country’s first case was a foreign national who had been isolated in hospital and was in stable condition. Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said the patient had tested positive for the virus without any symptoms, and the WHO had been informed and measures taken to limit its spread.
The WHO said its Egypt office was working closely with health officials in the North African nation, taking “outbreak investigation and response actions”.
The country’s Eastern Mediterranean neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, had reported eight cases, the WHO said.
The Chinese medical workers on the front line of the coronavirus fight in Wuhan
The virus, which causes a disease known as Covid-19, has infected more than 68,000 people since the outbreak began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, and it has spread to more than 20 countries.
The first case in Africa comes as countries on the continent have stepped up screening at border checkpoints to prevent the spread of the pneumonia-like illness. Many countries have imposed restrictions on travel to and from mainland China, while six out of eight African airlines with Chinese routes have halted flights until the virus is contained, including EgyptAir.
Egypt has suspended all flights to and from China until the end of the month and has evacuated more than 300 Egyptians from Wuhan.
Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed waits with a medical team at Alexandria’s airport to meet passengers evacuated from Wuhan on February 3. Photo: Reuters
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the Addis Ababa-based organisation was “on standby to work closely with the government of Egypt to rapidly contain the spread of the virus”.
How to lower the risk of catching a virus while on a flight
15 Feb 2020
African nations are also equipping laboratories so that they can test for the virus, with the help of the WHO and others.
Until about two weeks ago, there were only two laboratories in the continent of 54 countries – in Senegal and South Africa – with the reagents needed to test for the coronavirus.
That meant dozens of countries that had quarantined suspected patients were sending samples to South Africa or Senegal to be tested. Since then, four more labs have been equipped – in Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar and Sierra Leone – to test for the virus, according to the WHO.
The global health body has also sent testing kits to Cameroon, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia.
Tedros on Monday said the WHO’s immediate “objective remains containment. We call on all countries to use the window of opportunity we have to prevent a bigger fire”.
The Africa CDC has trained health workers from 12 countries in early detection and prevention in Senegal, using testing kits sent by the WHO. Further training would take place in South Africa next week, Tedros said.
“Without vital diagnostic capacity, countries are in the dark as to how far and wide the virus has spread – and who has coronavirus or another disease with similar symptoms,” Tedros said.
Coronavirus: desperate times drive some Chinese to take desperate measures
15 Feb 2020
Many countries in Africa are still reeling from the 2014-16 outbreak of Ebola, which killed 11,325 people and infected 28,600. The deadly virus is yet to be contained, with new cases reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo last week.
China disinfects entire cities to fight coronavirus outbreak, some twice a day
There are concerns that Africa’s close links with China put it at high risk for the spread of the new coronavirus. Africa has become home to millions of Chinese since Beijing started looking to the continent for raw materials for its industries and markets for its products, and China has been Africa’s largest trading partner since 2009, after it overtook the United States.
Ethiopian Airlines refuses to bow to pressure to halt flights to China
14 Feb 2020
China is also a major trading partner of Egypt, with two-way trade standing at US$13.8 billion in 2018, according to the China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Beijing is pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects in the country, including building a business district in its new administrative capital, 50km east of Cairo. Chinese firms are also investing billions of dollars in the Egyptian Suez Canal Economic Zone, a project under Beijing’s sprawling trade and infrastructure scheme the Belt and Road Initiative.
The measures China has taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus are starting to have an impact, Mi Feng, a spokesman at the National Health Commission, said on Sunday.
In other developments:
The number of people who have tested positive on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is being held in quarantine in Japan, has risen to 355. The US and Canada are sending planes to evacuate their citizens
A Chinese tourist has died in France – the first fatality outside Asia
An 83-year-old American woman has tested positive after disembarking another cruise ship that was turned away by a number of countries before being allowed to dock in Cambodia
In the UK, all but one of nine people being treated have been discharged from hospital
On Saturday, World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Beijing’s response to the outbreak.
“China has bought the world time. We don’t know how much time,” he said. “We’re encouraged that outside China, we have not yet seen widespread community transmission.”
How is China coping?
Tens of millions of Chinese still face heavy restrictions on their day-to-day life as part of the government’s efforts to halt the spread of the disease, which causes a disease named Covid-19.
Much of the response has focused on the hard-hit province of Hubei and its capital Wuhan, where the outbreak began. The city is all but sealed off from the rest of the country.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that along with a drop in infections within Hubei there had also been a rapid increase in the number of people who had recovered.
China’s central bank will also disinfect and store used banknotes before recirculating them in a bid to stop the virus spreading.
Media caption Medics in Wuhan resort to shaving their heads in a bid to prevent cross-infection of the coronavirus
In another development Chinese state media published a speech from earlier this month in which Chinese President Xi Jinping said he said he had given instructions on 7 January on containing the outbreak.
At the time, local officials in the city of Wuhan were downplaying the severity of the epidemic.
This would suggest senior leaders were aware of the potential dangers of the virus before the information was made public.
With the government facing criticism for its handling of the outbreak, analysts suggest the disclosure is an attempt to show the party leadership acted decisively from the start.
LONDON (Reuters) – The British government has not talked to China about helping build High Speed 2, the major rail project given the green light last week despite being billions of pounds over budget, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Sunday.
A report in the Financial Times said China had offered to build the rail line, known as HS2, in five years and for less money.
“I’ve certainly had no advice on the subject, obviously I will be asking to see what the communication has been,” Shapps told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday.
“This has not been a discussion with the department, it’s been a discussion with HS2 as I understand it.”
Shapps said he wanted to push ahead with major projects more quickly.
“There are things we can do to speed this up and I want to learn from everyone but I also want to make sure the British ingenuity and skills and apprentices and all the rest of it come through on this massive project,” he said.
Shapps also told Marr the resignation of finance minister, or chancellor, Sajid Javid on Thursday could result in a delay to the budget planned for March 11.
“This is a matter for the new chancellor Rishi (Sunak),” he said.
“I don’t think we’ve said it will definitely go ahead on the same date that was mentioned before in March, that will be a matter for the chancellor.”
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 