Inside China’s Push to Turn Muslim Minorities Into an Army of Workers
The Communist Party wants to remold Xinjiang’s minorities into loyal blue-collar workers to supply Chinese factories with cheap labor.
KASHGAR, China — The order from Chinese officials was blunt and urgent. Villagers from Muslim minorities should be pushed into jobs, willing or not. Quotas would be set and families penalized if they refused to go along.
“Make people who are hard to employ renounce their selfish ideas,” the labor bureau of Qapqal, a county in the western region of Xinjiang, said in the directive last year.
Such orders are part of an aggressive campaign to remold Xinjiang’s Muslim minorities — mostly Uighurs and Kazakhs — into an army of workers for factories and other big employers. Under pressure from the authorities, poor farmers, small traders and idle villagers of working age attend training and indoctrination courses for weeks or months, and are then assigned to stitch clothes, make shoes, sweep streets or fill other jobs.
These labor programs represent an expanding front in a major effort by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to entrench control over this region, where these minorities make up about half the population. They are crucial to the government’s strategy of social re-engineering alongside the indoctrination camps, which have held one million or more Uighurs and Kazakhs.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/worl ... 3053091231
ASIA
Secret Video Offers Rare Look Inside Chinese Labor Program
Video:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asi ... 3053090101
Video:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asi ... 3053090101
Asia’s hunger for sand is harmful to farming and the environment
The miners usually prefer to work under cover of darkness. This dredger is more brazen. It is not yet sunset when the boat’s crew begin hoovering sand up from the riverbed and pumping it onto a nearby bank, where it will be collected and sold. At least seven barges are doing the same thing on this stretch of the Red River, about an hour’s drive from Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Such teams often work without the right permits, but the rewards outweigh the risk. Whereas the average Vietnamese makes $269 a month, miners can earn between $700 and $1,000 for every boatload they scoop up. The teams working here have deposited so much sand on the bank that dunes have formed.
There has probably never been a better time to be in the sand business. The world uses nearly 50bn tonnes of sand and gravel a year—almost twice as much as a decade ago. No other natural resource is extracted and traded on such an epic scale, bar water.
Demand is greatest in Asia, where cities are growing fast (sand is the biggest ingredient in cement, asphalt and glass). China got through more cement between 2011 and 2013 than America did in the entire 20th century. Since the 1960s Singapore—the world’s largest importer of sand—has expanded its territory by almost a quarter, mainly by dumping it into the sea. The oecd thinks the construction industry’s demand for sand and gravel will double over the next 40 years. Little wonder then that the price of sand is rocketing. In Vietnam in 2017 it quadrupled in just one year.
In the popular imagination, sand is synonymous with limitlessness. In reality it is a scarce commodity, for which builders are now scrabbling. Not just any old grains will do. The United Arab Emirates is carpeted in dunes, but imports sand nonetheless because the kind buffeted by desert winds is too fine to be made into cement. Sand shaped by water is coarser and so binds better. Extraction from coastlines and rivers is therefore surging. But according to the United Nations Environment Programme (unep), Asians are scooping up sand faster than it can naturally replenish itself. In Indonesia some two dozen small islands have vanished since 2005. Vietnam expects to run out of sand this year.
All this has an environmental cost. Removing sand from riverbeds deprives fish of places to live, feed and spawn. It is thought to have contributed to the extinction of the Yangzi river dolphin.
More...
https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/01/ ... a/382825/n
The miners usually prefer to work under cover of darkness. This dredger is more brazen. It is not yet sunset when the boat’s crew begin hoovering sand up from the riverbed and pumping it onto a nearby bank, where it will be collected and sold. At least seven barges are doing the same thing on this stretch of the Red River, about an hour’s drive from Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Such teams often work without the right permits, but the rewards outweigh the risk. Whereas the average Vietnamese makes $269 a month, miners can earn between $700 and $1,000 for every boatload they scoop up. The teams working here have deposited so much sand on the bank that dunes have formed.
There has probably never been a better time to be in the sand business. The world uses nearly 50bn tonnes of sand and gravel a year—almost twice as much as a decade ago. No other natural resource is extracted and traded on such an epic scale, bar water.
Demand is greatest in Asia, where cities are growing fast (sand is the biggest ingredient in cement, asphalt and glass). China got through more cement between 2011 and 2013 than America did in the entire 20th century. Since the 1960s Singapore—the world’s largest importer of sand—has expanded its territory by almost a quarter, mainly by dumping it into the sea. The oecd thinks the construction industry’s demand for sand and gravel will double over the next 40 years. Little wonder then that the price of sand is rocketing. In Vietnam in 2017 it quadrupled in just one year.
In the popular imagination, sand is synonymous with limitlessness. In reality it is a scarce commodity, for which builders are now scrabbling. Not just any old grains will do. The United Arab Emirates is carpeted in dunes, but imports sand nonetheless because the kind buffeted by desert winds is too fine to be made into cement. Sand shaped by water is coarser and so binds better. Extraction from coastlines and rivers is therefore surging. But according to the United Nations Environment Programme (unep), Asians are scooping up sand faster than it can naturally replenish itself. In Indonesia some two dozen small islands have vanished since 2005. Vietnam expects to run out of sand this year.
All this has an environmental cost. Removing sand from riverbeds deprives fish of places to live, feed and spawn. It is thought to have contributed to the extinction of the Yangzi river dolphin.
More...
https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/01/ ... a/382825/n
World Bank to provide $406.6m loan to Pakistan for KPEC project
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and World Bank on Friday signed loan agreement of $406.6 million for Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC) Project.
In another separate grant agreement, Pakistan and Germany signed grant agreement for Hydropower and Renewable Energy Phase-II worth Rs2145.29 million.
According to official announcement made by Economic Affairs Division, Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Hammad Azhar witnessed the signing ceremony of financing and project agreement of Khyber Pass Economic Corridor Project (KPEC) worth US $406.6 million with the World Bank, held today in Economic Affairs Division.
The project aims to construct 48 km long 4-Lane, dual carriageway high-speed access controlled motorway, from Peshawar to Torkham. This project will promote economic development and uplift areas adjoining expressway falling in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The project envisages the use of PPP and private financing to develop clusters of economic activity, economic zones and expressways. The connecting transport infrastructure and economic zones will provide a strong foundation for private businesses to invest in these zones.
The global integration of South and Central Asia is intertwined with the Khyber Pass and has served as the key node in trade for hundreds of years. The expressway between Peshawar and Kabul through the Khyber Pass represents a section of Corridors 5 and 6 of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC). Corridor 5, which runs through Pakistan, has the potential to provide the shortest link between the landlocked countries of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Arabian Sea. Corridor 6 provides access to Europe, Middle East and Russia. The KPEC will finance Peshawar-Torkham expressway portion of Corridor-5. The Peshawar-Torkham expressway will reduce transit time and costs for regional and international trade transiting the Khyber Pass and extend till Karachi - Lahore - Islamabad - Peshawar Trans-Pakistan Expressway System. It will form as an integral part of the planned Peshawar - Kabul - Dushanbe Motorway. The improved regional connectivity through this corridor will not only facilitate the commercial traffic and expand economic activities between Pakistan and Afghanistan but also promote private sector development along the corridor. It is expected to generate up to 100,000 new jobs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In another agreement with Germany, Muhammad Hammad Azhar Federal Minister for Economic Affairs witnessed the signing of Financing Agreement for Hydropower Renewable Energy-II. Dr. Syed Pervaiz Abbas, Secretary Economic Affairs Division and Wolfgang Moellers, Country Director German Development Bank (KfW) signed the agreement.
Under the agreement, KfW will provide grant assistance worth €12.5 million to the government of Gilgit-Baltistan and Aga Khan Rural Support programme.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/583330 ... 25c8c5fc8d
******
Book
Belt and Road
A Chinese World Order
Bruno Maçães
What does the biggest geopolitical project of our time tell us about China’s global ambitions?
Description
China’s Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most ambitious geopolitical initiative of the age. Covering almost seventy countries by land and sea, it will affect every element of global society, from shipping to agriculture, digital economy to tourism, politics to culture. Most importantly, it symbolises a new phase in China’s ambitions as a superpower: to remake the world economy and crown Beijing as the new centre of capitalism and globalisation.
Bruno Maçães traces this extraordinary initiative’s history, highlighting its achievements to date, and its staggering complexity. He asks whether Belt and Road is about more than power projection and profit. Might it herald a new set of universal political values, to rival those of the West? Is it, in fact, the story of the century?
More....
https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/be ... 25c8c5fc8d
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and World Bank on Friday signed loan agreement of $406.6 million for Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC) Project.
In another separate grant agreement, Pakistan and Germany signed grant agreement for Hydropower and Renewable Energy Phase-II worth Rs2145.29 million.
According to official announcement made by Economic Affairs Division, Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Hammad Azhar witnessed the signing ceremony of financing and project agreement of Khyber Pass Economic Corridor Project (KPEC) worth US $406.6 million with the World Bank, held today in Economic Affairs Division.
The project aims to construct 48 km long 4-Lane, dual carriageway high-speed access controlled motorway, from Peshawar to Torkham. This project will promote economic development and uplift areas adjoining expressway falling in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The project envisages the use of PPP and private financing to develop clusters of economic activity, economic zones and expressways. The connecting transport infrastructure and economic zones will provide a strong foundation for private businesses to invest in these zones.
The global integration of South and Central Asia is intertwined with the Khyber Pass and has served as the key node in trade for hundreds of years. The expressway between Peshawar and Kabul through the Khyber Pass represents a section of Corridors 5 and 6 of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC). Corridor 5, which runs through Pakistan, has the potential to provide the shortest link between the landlocked countries of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Arabian Sea. Corridor 6 provides access to Europe, Middle East and Russia. The KPEC will finance Peshawar-Torkham expressway portion of Corridor-5. The Peshawar-Torkham expressway will reduce transit time and costs for regional and international trade transiting the Khyber Pass and extend till Karachi - Lahore - Islamabad - Peshawar Trans-Pakistan Expressway System. It will form as an integral part of the planned Peshawar - Kabul - Dushanbe Motorway. The improved regional connectivity through this corridor will not only facilitate the commercial traffic and expand economic activities between Pakistan and Afghanistan but also promote private sector development along the corridor. It is expected to generate up to 100,000 new jobs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In another agreement with Germany, Muhammad Hammad Azhar Federal Minister for Economic Affairs witnessed the signing of Financing Agreement for Hydropower Renewable Energy-II. Dr. Syed Pervaiz Abbas, Secretary Economic Affairs Division and Wolfgang Moellers, Country Director German Development Bank (KfW) signed the agreement.
Under the agreement, KfW will provide grant assistance worth €12.5 million to the government of Gilgit-Baltistan and Aga Khan Rural Support programme.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/583330 ... 25c8c5fc8d
******
Book
Belt and Road
A Chinese World Order
Bruno Maçães
What does the biggest geopolitical project of our time tell us about China’s global ambitions?
Description
China’s Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most ambitious geopolitical initiative of the age. Covering almost seventy countries by land and sea, it will affect every element of global society, from shipping to agriculture, digital economy to tourism, politics to culture. Most importantly, it symbolises a new phase in China’s ambitions as a superpower: to remake the world economy and crown Beijing as the new centre of capitalism and globalisation.
Bruno Maçães traces this extraordinary initiative’s history, highlighting its achievements to date, and its staggering complexity. He asks whether Belt and Road is about more than power projection and profit. Might it herald a new set of universal political values, to rival those of the West? Is it, in fact, the story of the century?
More....
https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/be ... 25c8c5fc8d
Why Did the Coronavirus Outbreak Start in China?
Let’s talk about the cultural causes of this epidemic.
The new coronavirus disease has a name now: COVID-19. That took a while. The virus’s genome was sequenced within two weeks or so of its appearance, but for many weeks more, we didn’t know what to call it or the disease it causes.
For a time, in some quarters, the disease went by “Wuhan pneumonia,” after the city in central China where the first human infections were detected. But guidelines from the World Health Organization, which christened COVID-19 recently, discourage naming diseases after locations or people, among other things, to avoid “unintended negative impacts by stigmatizing certain communities.”
Indeed. On Jan. 29, an Australian tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch featured on its front page a red face mask stamped with “Chinese Virus Pandamonium”: The emphasis on “panda” was the paper’s doing, so the misspelling it highlighted presumably was deliberate, too. A Chinese student in Melbourne protested in an op-ed in another paper, “This virus is not ‘Chinese.’”
Of course, the virus isn’t Chinese, even if its origin eventually is traced back to a cave in China; nor is the disease that it causes.
Epidemics, on the other hand, are often societal or political — much like famines are usually man-made, even though droughts occur naturally.
As far as the current outbreak goes, two cultural factors help explain how the natural occurrence of a single virus infecting a single mammal could have cascaded into a global health crisis. And now for the controversial aspect of this argument: Both of those factors are quintessentially, though not uniquely, Chinese.
The first is China’s long, long history of punishing the messenger.
-----
A second cultural factor behind the epidemic are traditional Chinese beliefs about the powers of certain foods, which have encouraged some hazardous habits. There is, in particular, the aspect of Chinese eating culture known as “jinbu,” (進補) meaning, roughly, to fill the void. Some of its practices are folklorish or esoteric, but even among Chinese people who don’t follow them, the concept is pervasive.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opin ... 0920200220
Let’s talk about the cultural causes of this epidemic.
The new coronavirus disease has a name now: COVID-19. That took a while. The virus’s genome was sequenced within two weeks or so of its appearance, but for many weeks more, we didn’t know what to call it or the disease it causes.
For a time, in some quarters, the disease went by “Wuhan pneumonia,” after the city in central China where the first human infections were detected. But guidelines from the World Health Organization, which christened COVID-19 recently, discourage naming diseases after locations or people, among other things, to avoid “unintended negative impacts by stigmatizing certain communities.”
Indeed. On Jan. 29, an Australian tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch featured on its front page a red face mask stamped with “Chinese Virus Pandamonium”: The emphasis on “panda” was the paper’s doing, so the misspelling it highlighted presumably was deliberate, too. A Chinese student in Melbourne protested in an op-ed in another paper, “This virus is not ‘Chinese.’”
Of course, the virus isn’t Chinese, even if its origin eventually is traced back to a cave in China; nor is the disease that it causes.
Epidemics, on the other hand, are often societal or political — much like famines are usually man-made, even though droughts occur naturally.
As far as the current outbreak goes, two cultural factors help explain how the natural occurrence of a single virus infecting a single mammal could have cascaded into a global health crisis. And now for the controversial aspect of this argument: Both of those factors are quintessentially, though not uniquely, Chinese.
The first is China’s long, long history of punishing the messenger.
-----
A second cultural factor behind the epidemic are traditional Chinese beliefs about the powers of certain foods, which have encouraged some hazardous habits. There is, in particular, the aspect of Chinese eating culture known as “jinbu,” (進補) meaning, roughly, to fill the void. Some of its practices are folklorish or esoteric, but even among Chinese people who don’t follow them, the concept is pervasive.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opin ... 0920200220
Pakistan doctors beaten by police as they despair of 'untreatable' pandemic
Doctors in Pakistan have warned of “deplorable” conditions on the frontlines of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, describing the pandemic as untreatable in one region and accusing police of brutally suppressing protests over working conditions.
One doctor who took part in a sit-in on Monday to protest against a lack of personal protective equipment said he had been “beaten and humiliated” by police.
“In the beginning, I thought, ‘How could police use violence against the frontline fighters of Covid-19 when some days ago the same officers had saluted us for leading during the pandemic?’” said Amanullah, speaking from the police station where he was being held in Quetta, in the Balochistan region.
“But we were wrong. Sticks and butts of AK-47 rifles rained down on us. We were dragged through the street and thrown into trucks.” He and about 60 other doctors were held in police detention overnight and only released at midnight on Tuesday.
In the hospital where Amanullah works in the emergency ward, 16 doctors, including the head of the cardio department, have already been diagnosed with Covid-19. “We can’t say that how many patients they spread the disease to,” he added.
Many of the patients who he and other emergency ward doctors had treated for non-coronavirus issues have since tested positive for the virus.
However, doctors in the state-run hospital still have not been provided with PPE and in facilities that have not been designated as Covid-19 hospitals there are no isolation wards for doctors who have been infected.
More and photos:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... e-pandemic
Doctors in Pakistan have warned of “deplorable” conditions on the frontlines of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, describing the pandemic as untreatable in one region and accusing police of brutally suppressing protests over working conditions.
One doctor who took part in a sit-in on Monday to protest against a lack of personal protective equipment said he had been “beaten and humiliated” by police.
“In the beginning, I thought, ‘How could police use violence against the frontline fighters of Covid-19 when some days ago the same officers had saluted us for leading during the pandemic?’” said Amanullah, speaking from the police station where he was being held in Quetta, in the Balochistan region.
“But we were wrong. Sticks and butts of AK-47 rifles rained down on us. We were dragged through the street and thrown into trucks.” He and about 60 other doctors were held in police detention overnight and only released at midnight on Tuesday.
In the hospital where Amanullah works in the emergency ward, 16 doctors, including the head of the cardio department, have already been diagnosed with Covid-19. “We can’t say that how many patients they spread the disease to,” he added.
Many of the patients who he and other emergency ward doctors had treated for non-coronavirus issues have since tested positive for the virus.
However, doctors in the state-run hospital still have not been provided with PPE and in facilities that have not been designated as Covid-19 hospitals there are no isolation wards for doctors who have been infected.
More and photos:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... e-pandemic
China signals plan to take full control of Hong Kong, realigning city’s status
China’s ruling Communist Party gave its clearest signal yet that it plans to bring Hong Kong under its full control, with a top official saying Thursday that Beijing wants to “improve” the system that has allowed the territory to enjoy a level of autonomy for the past 23 years.
After steadily eroding Hong Kong’s freedom of assembly and expression, and independent legal system, the party now appears to be readying to change the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.
“We will ensure the long-term stability of ‘one country, two systems,’” Wang Yang, a top party official and head of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said at the opening of the annual meeting of the country’s top political advisory body. The meeting is the first part of the “Two Sessions,” which will continue Friday with the opening of the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament.
“We will continue to support the improvement of the implementation of the systems and mechanisms of the constitution and Basic Law,” Wang, the fourth most senior leader in the Communist Party, said in his “Work Report” to the meeting.
He did not elaborate on what “improve” meant, and Wang also referred to the Chinese territory of Macao, a gambling hub whose leaders have hewed much more closely to Beijing’s line.
Analysts said it was clear that Beijing wanted to gnaw away at Hong Kong’s relative freedoms compared with the mainland.
Under the agreement Britain signed with China before it handed back control of Hong Kong in 1997, the territory is supposed to enjoy 50 years of semi-autonomy from Beijing.
While being “one country,” they were supposed to enjoy “two systems” until 2047. This arrangement helped Hong Kong to flourish as a global financial center even after returning to Beijing’s overall control.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ch ... ailsignout
China’s ruling Communist Party gave its clearest signal yet that it plans to bring Hong Kong under its full control, with a top official saying Thursday that Beijing wants to “improve” the system that has allowed the territory to enjoy a level of autonomy for the past 23 years.
After steadily eroding Hong Kong’s freedom of assembly and expression, and independent legal system, the party now appears to be readying to change the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.
“We will ensure the long-term stability of ‘one country, two systems,’” Wang Yang, a top party official and head of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said at the opening of the annual meeting of the country’s top political advisory body. The meeting is the first part of the “Two Sessions,” which will continue Friday with the opening of the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament.
“We will continue to support the improvement of the implementation of the systems and mechanisms of the constitution and Basic Law,” Wang, the fourth most senior leader in the Communist Party, said in his “Work Report” to the meeting.
He did not elaborate on what “improve” meant, and Wang also referred to the Chinese territory of Macao, a gambling hub whose leaders have hewed much more closely to Beijing’s line.
Analysts said it was clear that Beijing wanted to gnaw away at Hong Kong’s relative freedoms compared with the mainland.
Under the agreement Britain signed with China before it handed back control of Hong Kong in 1997, the territory is supposed to enjoy 50 years of semi-autonomy from Beijing.
While being “one country,” they were supposed to enjoy “two systems” until 2047. This arrangement helped Hong Kong to flourish as a global financial center even after returning to Beijing’s overall control.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ch ... ailsignout
China Approves Plan to Rein In Hong Kong, Defying Worldwide Outcry
Beijing ordered that a new law be written to extend many of mainland China’s security practices to Hong Kong, creating broad powers to quash unrest.
BEIJING — China officially has the broad power to quash unrest in Hong Kong, as the country’s legislature on Thursday nearly unanimously approved a plan to suppress subversion, secession, terrorism and seemingly any acts that might threaten national security in the semiautonomous city.
As Beijing hashes out the specifics of the national security legislation in the coming weeks, the final rules will help determine the fate of Hong Kong, including how much of the city’s autonomy will be preserved or how much Beijing will tighten its grip.
Early signals from the Chinese authorities point to a crackdown once the law takes effect, which is expected by September.
Activist groups could be banned. Courts could impose long jail sentences for national security violations. China’s feared security agencies could operate openly in the city.
Video and more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/worl ... ogin-email
Beijing ordered that a new law be written to extend many of mainland China’s security practices to Hong Kong, creating broad powers to quash unrest.
BEIJING — China officially has the broad power to quash unrest in Hong Kong, as the country’s legislature on Thursday nearly unanimously approved a plan to suppress subversion, secession, terrorism and seemingly any acts that might threaten national security in the semiautonomous city.
As Beijing hashes out the specifics of the national security legislation in the coming weeks, the final rules will help determine the fate of Hong Kong, including how much of the city’s autonomy will be preserved or how much Beijing will tighten its grip.
Early signals from the Chinese authorities point to a crackdown once the law takes effect, which is expected by September.
Activist groups could be banned. Courts could impose long jail sentences for national security violations. China’s feared security agencies could operate openly in the city.
Video and more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/worl ... ogin-email
New Security Law Gives China Sweeping Powers Over Hong Kong
The law, approved in Beijing with speed and secrecy and signed off by Xi Jinping, will tighten the Communist Party’s grip on Hong Kong after last year’s protests.
China unveiled a contentious new law for Hong Kong late Tuesday that grants the authorities sweeping powers to crack down on opposition to Beijing at home and abroad with heavy prison sentences for vaguely defined political crimes.
The law’s swift approval in Beijing signaled the urgency that the Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, has given to expanding his control over Hong Kong to quash pro-democracy protests that evolved last year into an increasingly confrontational challenge to Chinese rule.
The Hong Kong government issued the text of the legislation at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, after weeks of unusual secrecy surrounding the drafting of the law in Beijing. The law took effect immediately, even though the public was seeing it in full only for the first time.
The text provided a far-reaching blueprint for the authorities and the courts to suppress the city’s protest movement and for China’s national security apparatus to pervade many layers of Hong Kong’s society.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/worl ... 778d3e6de3
The law, approved in Beijing with speed and secrecy and signed off by Xi Jinping, will tighten the Communist Party’s grip on Hong Kong after last year’s protests.
China unveiled a contentious new law for Hong Kong late Tuesday that grants the authorities sweeping powers to crack down on opposition to Beijing at home and abroad with heavy prison sentences for vaguely defined political crimes.
The law’s swift approval in Beijing signaled the urgency that the Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, has given to expanding his control over Hong Kong to quash pro-democracy protests that evolved last year into an increasingly confrontational challenge to Chinese rule.
The Hong Kong government issued the text of the legislation at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, after weeks of unusual secrecy surrounding the drafting of the law in Beijing. The law took effect immediately, even though the public was seeing it in full only for the first time.
The text provided a far-reaching blueprint for the authorities and the courts to suppress the city’s protest movement and for China’s national security apparatus to pervade many layers of Hong Kong’s society.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/worl ... 778d3e6de3
As India Struggles With Coronavirus, Bollywood’s Biggest Star Tests Positive
Amitabh Bachchan, whose face is everywhere in the country, checked into a hospital with mild symptoms. His son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter have also become infected.
NEW DELHI — When this country’s biggest film star, Amitabh Bachchan, announced Saturday night that he had contracted the coronavirus, a loud alarm bell rang across India.
Mr. Bachchan, known as Big B, is not simply an enormously successful actor. He is one of India’s most revered figures. His face and rich, avuncular voice, dripping with gravitas, are everywhere, deployed in ads for household products, voice-overs at museums and countless public service campaigns. He was recently roped into doing a campaign on — what else? — the coronavirus.
The worry was that if Big B could catch the virus, anybody could, and with India getting walloped by Covid-19, Mr. Bachchan, 77, said on Twitter on Saturday: “All that have been in close proximity to me in the last 10 days are requested to please get themselves tested!”
India is now racking up more new reported infections each day — about 30,000 — than any other country except the United States and Brazil — and it is rapidly catching up to Brazil. India now has the third-highest total cases after the United States and Brazil.
The authorities in several big Indian cities and states are reinstating quarantines after attempting to loosen things up to stimulate a critically wounded economy. The borders between states are again being rigorously patrolled, with visitors shunted off to isolation centers.
International travel is still blocked. Hospitals are overflowing with the sick. Even emergencies are being turned away. One pregnant woman was left to die in the back of an ambulance a few weeks ago after being rejected from eight hospitals in 15 hours.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been trying to lift spirits by saying in televised speeches that India is still doing better than richer countries, especially when it comes to the death rate. India has reported about 16 coronavirus-related deaths per million people, while the United States, Brazil, Spain and Italy have all lost hundreds per million.
Experts think this might be for a few reasons. India’s average age, around 28, is younger than that of other countries. Obesity is less prevalent, too, and many doctors believe that obesity creates a greater vulnerability to the coronavirus. Some medical professionals also believe that Indians have strong immune systems because of their constant exposure to microbes, living in cities that are not as clean as cities in the West.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/worl ... 778d3e6de3
******
To ‘Protect Young Minds,’ Hong Kong Moves to Overhaul Schools
China’s leaders have pushed the territory to revamp an education system they see as having bred young rebels who have helped drive pro-democracy protests.
Excerpt:
The party’s goal for the territory is clear: to foster a new generation of loyal and patriotic Hong Kong youth. It is a strategy of ideological control that it has wielded to great effect in the mainland, but could rapidly erode Hong Kong’s reputation for academic freedom.
“Young kids will be brought up to understand and believe that without the Chinese Communist Party they have no future, that anything they have is because of the party,” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/worl ... ogin-email
Amitabh Bachchan, whose face is everywhere in the country, checked into a hospital with mild symptoms. His son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter have also become infected.
NEW DELHI — When this country’s biggest film star, Amitabh Bachchan, announced Saturday night that he had contracted the coronavirus, a loud alarm bell rang across India.
Mr. Bachchan, known as Big B, is not simply an enormously successful actor. He is one of India’s most revered figures. His face and rich, avuncular voice, dripping with gravitas, are everywhere, deployed in ads for household products, voice-overs at museums and countless public service campaigns. He was recently roped into doing a campaign on — what else? — the coronavirus.
The worry was that if Big B could catch the virus, anybody could, and with India getting walloped by Covid-19, Mr. Bachchan, 77, said on Twitter on Saturday: “All that have been in close proximity to me in the last 10 days are requested to please get themselves tested!”
India is now racking up more new reported infections each day — about 30,000 — than any other country except the United States and Brazil — and it is rapidly catching up to Brazil. India now has the third-highest total cases after the United States and Brazil.
The authorities in several big Indian cities and states are reinstating quarantines after attempting to loosen things up to stimulate a critically wounded economy. The borders between states are again being rigorously patrolled, with visitors shunted off to isolation centers.
International travel is still blocked. Hospitals are overflowing with the sick. Even emergencies are being turned away. One pregnant woman was left to die in the back of an ambulance a few weeks ago after being rejected from eight hospitals in 15 hours.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been trying to lift spirits by saying in televised speeches that India is still doing better than richer countries, especially when it comes to the death rate. India has reported about 16 coronavirus-related deaths per million people, while the United States, Brazil, Spain and Italy have all lost hundreds per million.
Experts think this might be for a few reasons. India’s average age, around 28, is younger than that of other countries. Obesity is less prevalent, too, and many doctors believe that obesity creates a greater vulnerability to the coronavirus. Some medical professionals also believe that Indians have strong immune systems because of their constant exposure to microbes, living in cities that are not as clean as cities in the West.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/worl ... 778d3e6de3
******
To ‘Protect Young Minds,’ Hong Kong Moves to Overhaul Schools
China’s leaders have pushed the territory to revamp an education system they see as having bred young rebels who have helped drive pro-democracy protests.
Excerpt:
The party’s goal for the territory is clear: to foster a new generation of loyal and patriotic Hong Kong youth. It is a strategy of ideological control that it has wielded to great effect in the mainland, but could rapidly erode Hong Kong’s reputation for academic freedom.
“Young kids will be brought up to understand and believe that without the Chinese Communist Party they have no future, that anything they have is because of the party,” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/worl ... ogin-email
No One Knows What Thailand Is Doing Right, but So Far, It’s Working
Can the country’s low rate of coronavirus infections be attributed to culture? Genetics? Face masks? Or a combination of all three?
BANGKOK — No one knows exactly why Thailand has been spared.
Is it the social distancing embedded in Thai culture — the habit of greeting others with a wai, a prayer-like motion, rather than a full embrace — that has prevented the runaway transmission of the coronavirus here?
Did Thailand’s early adoption of face masks, combined with a robust health care system, blunt the virus’s impact? Was it the outdoor lifestyle of many Thais, or their relatively low rates of pre-existing conditions?
Is there a genetic component in which the immune systems of Thais and others in the Mekong River region are more resistant to the coronavirus? Or is it some alchemy of all these factors that has insulated this country of 70 million people?
One thing is certain. Despite an influx of foreign visitors early in the year from countries badly hit by the coronavirus, Thailand has recorded fewer than 3,240 cases and 58 deaths. As of Thursday, there had been no cases of local transmission for about seven weeks.
Thailand’s low rate of infection appears to be shared by other countries in the Mekong River basin. Vietnam has not recorded a single death and has logged about three months without a case of community transmission. Myanmar has confirmed 336 cases of the virus, Cambodia 166 and Laos just 19.
Yunnan, the southwestern Chinese province through which the Mekong flows before meandering to Southeast Asia, had fewer than 190 cases. None are active now.
“I don’t think it is about immunity or genetics alone,” said Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin, the Covid-19 spokesman for Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health. “It has to do with culture. Thai people do not have body contact when we greet each other.”
“This is how the countries in the Mekong region greet each other as well,” Dr. Taweesin added.
Photos and more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Can the country’s low rate of coronavirus infections be attributed to culture? Genetics? Face masks? Or a combination of all three?
BANGKOK — No one knows exactly why Thailand has been spared.
Is it the social distancing embedded in Thai culture — the habit of greeting others with a wai, a prayer-like motion, rather than a full embrace — that has prevented the runaway transmission of the coronavirus here?
Did Thailand’s early adoption of face masks, combined with a robust health care system, blunt the virus’s impact? Was it the outdoor lifestyle of many Thais, or their relatively low rates of pre-existing conditions?
Is there a genetic component in which the immune systems of Thais and others in the Mekong River region are more resistant to the coronavirus? Or is it some alchemy of all these factors that has insulated this country of 70 million people?
One thing is certain. Despite an influx of foreign visitors early in the year from countries badly hit by the coronavirus, Thailand has recorded fewer than 3,240 cases and 58 deaths. As of Thursday, there had been no cases of local transmission for about seven weeks.
Thailand’s low rate of infection appears to be shared by other countries in the Mekong River basin. Vietnam has not recorded a single death and has logged about three months without a case of community transmission. Myanmar has confirmed 336 cases of the virus, Cambodia 166 and Laos just 19.
Yunnan, the southwestern Chinese province through which the Mekong flows before meandering to Southeast Asia, had fewer than 190 cases. None are active now.
“I don’t think it is about immunity or genetics alone,” said Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin, the Covid-19 spokesman for Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health. “It has to do with culture. Thai people do not have body contact when we greet each other.”
“This is how the countries in the Mekong region greet each other as well,” Dr. Taweesin added.
Photos and more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Battle in the Himalayas
China and India are locked in a tense, deadly struggle for advantage on their disputed mountain border.
China and India have stumbled once again into a bloody clash over some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth.
A deadly brawl last month killed 20 Indian border troops and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers, punctuating a decades-old border dispute that has become one of the world’s most intractable geopolitical conflicts. It has inflamed tensions at a time when the world is consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, and it has scuttled recent efforts by the two Asian powers to set aside their historical differences.
In the weeks since, the two sides have tried to walk back from the brink, with military commanders and senior diplomats negotiating quietly to disengage. By late last week, satellite photographs indicated that Chinese troops had pulled out of one disputed area where a brawl sparked the latest tensions.
Even so, the broader dispute between the world’s two most populous nations, both armed with nuclear weapons, remains unresolved and dangerous. It involves a region called Ladakh, a sparsely populated area, high in the Himalayas, with close historical and cultural ties to Tibet. It was divided in the years after India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and the Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China two years later.
Multi media illustrations and more....
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... ogin-email
China and India are locked in a tense, deadly struggle for advantage on their disputed mountain border.
China and India have stumbled once again into a bloody clash over some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth.
A deadly brawl last month killed 20 Indian border troops and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers, punctuating a decades-old border dispute that has become one of the world’s most intractable geopolitical conflicts. It has inflamed tensions at a time when the world is consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, and it has scuttled recent efforts by the two Asian powers to set aside their historical differences.
In the weeks since, the two sides have tried to walk back from the brink, with military commanders and senior diplomats negotiating quietly to disengage. By late last week, satellite photographs indicated that Chinese troops had pulled out of one disputed area where a brawl sparked the latest tensions.
Even so, the broader dispute between the world’s two most populous nations, both armed with nuclear weapons, remains unresolved and dangerous. It involves a region called Ladakh, a sparsely populated area, high in the Himalayas, with close historical and cultural ties to Tibet. It was divided in the years after India gained independence from Britain in 1947 and the Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China two years later.
Multi media illustrations and more....
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... ogin-email
OPINION: Can India replace China as the manufacturing and tech hub
China is facing an unprecedented global backlash currently and many are advocating to look at India as its alternative.India has sensed an opportunity and is keen to make inroads to a space China is likely to vacate.
The GDP/capita of India is $2000,similar to China in 2005. So will India replace China? One needs to understand fundamentals key to manufacturing to predict the outcome.
India has 1.2 billion people, and 65% of the population is below 35 years of age. English also seems to be an advantage of India. However, the literacy rate of India in 2019 is only 69% v/s 77% in China in 2005 and 96.8% in 2019. While this loophole makes Indian human resources cheaper it also reflects the lack of
skilled or educated labour in the market.
In 1990, the economic level of India and China were almost the same. However, in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in China, the EU imposed an arms embargo on China, followed by US economic sanctions,absteniations from the international banks, suspension of export licences etc.China hence called a truce with Taiwan, Japan, US, and made allies by getting in trade agreements with them.
China is aware that in case of a recap of previous years its maritime lifeline can easily be cut off. So in 2001, China strived to join WTO and fostered deeper international trade ties. Which in effect helped China gain more volume ( > US and equal to EU) in trade.
India has a better geo-political standing however it has not fully harnessed these relationships for the political (including resolving issues with Pakistan) or economic advancement. India has joined WTO since its foundation, but even now its total trade volume is less than Hong Kong.
Post 1990 China dedicated its resources to the low skilled manufacturing and ousted competitors such as Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.In the early 21st century US, EU and Japan fought each other in the upscale market while China became a leader for primary and ordinary products.
China has now reevaluated its strategy and is eyeing the upscale high tech market.The Chinese government has launched “Made in China 2025,” a state-led industrial policy that seeks to make China dominant in global high-tech. The program aims to use government subsidies, mobilize state-owned enterprises, and pursue intellectual property acquisition to catch up with—and surpass—Western technology across industries. This actually leaves room for India to undertake the industrial transfer from
China. India can certainly take the baton from China in the low cost, low skilled manufacturing space with least effort.
Lastly, China is 3 times the size of India and ranks first or at the forefront of the world in many resources.
Example : Extensive deposits of coal, oil and gas. Yet with increased demands China imported 12% of the global coal and 20% of global oil imports in 2019. India is not abundant in coal, oil or gas. India imports 80% of its oil from OPEC nations and is unlikely to be self-sufficient e anytime soon.
From this it seems like Manufacturing or economic growth of India would come at a higher cost than that of China, making it less competitive in pricing.
All in all, it looks like with a lack of a proper internal policy infrastructure and stronger geopolitical play, India will only settle to be a low cost manufacturing hub to replace China.
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/economy/2020 ... ee9d77dc9f
China is facing an unprecedented global backlash currently and many are advocating to look at India as its alternative.India has sensed an opportunity and is keen to make inroads to a space China is likely to vacate.
The GDP/capita of India is $2000,similar to China in 2005. So will India replace China? One needs to understand fundamentals key to manufacturing to predict the outcome.
India has 1.2 billion people, and 65% of the population is below 35 years of age. English also seems to be an advantage of India. However, the literacy rate of India in 2019 is only 69% v/s 77% in China in 2005 and 96.8% in 2019. While this loophole makes Indian human resources cheaper it also reflects the lack of
skilled or educated labour in the market.
In 1990, the economic level of India and China were almost the same. However, in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in China, the EU imposed an arms embargo on China, followed by US economic sanctions,absteniations from the international banks, suspension of export licences etc.China hence called a truce with Taiwan, Japan, US, and made allies by getting in trade agreements with them.
China is aware that in case of a recap of previous years its maritime lifeline can easily be cut off. So in 2001, China strived to join WTO and fostered deeper international trade ties. Which in effect helped China gain more volume ( > US and equal to EU) in trade.
India has a better geo-political standing however it has not fully harnessed these relationships for the political (including resolving issues with Pakistan) or economic advancement. India has joined WTO since its foundation, but even now its total trade volume is less than Hong Kong.
Post 1990 China dedicated its resources to the low skilled manufacturing and ousted competitors such as Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.In the early 21st century US, EU and Japan fought each other in the upscale market while China became a leader for primary and ordinary products.
China has now reevaluated its strategy and is eyeing the upscale high tech market.The Chinese government has launched “Made in China 2025,” a state-led industrial policy that seeks to make China dominant in global high-tech. The program aims to use government subsidies, mobilize state-owned enterprises, and pursue intellectual property acquisition to catch up with—and surpass—Western technology across industries. This actually leaves room for India to undertake the industrial transfer from
China. India can certainly take the baton from China in the low cost, low skilled manufacturing space with least effort.
Lastly, China is 3 times the size of India and ranks first or at the forefront of the world in many resources.
Example : Extensive deposits of coal, oil and gas. Yet with increased demands China imported 12% of the global coal and 20% of global oil imports in 2019. India is not abundant in coal, oil or gas. India imports 80% of its oil from OPEC nations and is unlikely to be self-sufficient e anytime soon.
From this it seems like Manufacturing or economic growth of India would come at a higher cost than that of China, making it less competitive in pricing.
All in all, it looks like with a lack of a proper internal policy infrastructure and stronger geopolitical play, India will only settle to be a low cost manufacturing hub to replace China.
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/economy/2020 ... ee9d77dc9f
Hundreds of Police Killings in India, but No Mass Protests
Despite evidence of widespread police brutality, no significant grass-roots movement has arisen. For many Indians, day-to-day crime is the more pressing issue.
NEW DELHI — A father and son were hauled into a small police station in the southern Indian town of Sathankulam in June after arguing with police officers. When friends and family members went to the station, they heard screams emanating from inside, growing louder as night fell.
The next afternoon, the two men, Ponraj Jeyaraj, 58, and Beniks Jeyaraj, 31, stumbled outside surrounded by officers, blood dripping down the backs of their legs. They had clearly been tortured in police custody, family members and lawyers in the town said.
“Please, find a way to get us bail,” Ponraj Jeyaraj begged his sister, Jaya Joseph, as he was taken to a hospital, she recalled. She said her brother’s last words to her were: “We will not survive another day.”
Father and son died hours apart, from severe internal injuries, a few days later. Police officials in charge of the station declined to comment, saying the case was now under federal investigation.
For decades, India has absorbed case after case of police brutality, torture and extrajudicial killings. Every year, scores of Indians are killed in what activists call “fake encounters,” and many more, activists say, are tortured to death in police custody.
Many of these killings have been extensively covered in the Indian news media, and some have set off a few strikes and demonstrations. But rarely have they provoked widespread protests calling for change.
Around the world, the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis in May unleashed searing examinations of police abuse, racism and injustice — but not in India, where no large grass-roots movement has emerged to take on police brutality. For many Indians, day-to-day crime is the more pressing issue, and they often side with the police, even when there is voluminous evidence that they have abused their power. There is also a fear of speaking against the police.
According to a lengthy report by the National Campaign Against Torture, an Indian rights group based in New Delhi, the capital, at least 1,731 people were killed in custody last year. The majority of the victims, the report said, were the usual victims of abuse: Muslims and lower-caste Hindus.
Police killings here rarely result in punishment. From time to time, a few officers are arrested, but convictions come few and far between.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/worl ... ogin-email
Despite evidence of widespread police brutality, no significant grass-roots movement has arisen. For many Indians, day-to-day crime is the more pressing issue.
NEW DELHI — A father and son were hauled into a small police station in the southern Indian town of Sathankulam in June after arguing with police officers. When friends and family members went to the station, they heard screams emanating from inside, growing louder as night fell.
The next afternoon, the two men, Ponraj Jeyaraj, 58, and Beniks Jeyaraj, 31, stumbled outside surrounded by officers, blood dripping down the backs of their legs. They had clearly been tortured in police custody, family members and lawyers in the town said.
“Please, find a way to get us bail,” Ponraj Jeyaraj begged his sister, Jaya Joseph, as he was taken to a hospital, she recalled. She said her brother’s last words to her were: “We will not survive another day.”
Father and son died hours apart, from severe internal injuries, a few days later. Police officials in charge of the station declined to comment, saying the case was now under federal investigation.
For decades, India has absorbed case after case of police brutality, torture and extrajudicial killings. Every year, scores of Indians are killed in what activists call “fake encounters,” and many more, activists say, are tortured to death in police custody.
Many of these killings have been extensively covered in the Indian news media, and some have set off a few strikes and demonstrations. But rarely have they provoked widespread protests calling for change.
Around the world, the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis in May unleashed searing examinations of police abuse, racism and injustice — but not in India, where no large grass-roots movement has emerged to take on police brutality. For many Indians, day-to-day crime is the more pressing issue, and they often side with the police, even when there is voluminous evidence that they have abused their power. There is also a fear of speaking against the police.
According to a lengthy report by the National Campaign Against Torture, an Indian rights group based in New Delhi, the capital, at least 1,731 people were killed in custody last year. The majority of the victims, the report said, were the usual victims of abuse: Muslims and lower-caste Hindus.
Police killings here rarely result in punishment. From time to time, a few officers are arrested, but convictions come few and far between.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/worl ... ogin-email
In China, Where the Pandemic Began, Life Is Starting to Look … Normal
Markets, bars and restaurants are crowded again. Local virus transmissions are near zero. But some worry that people are letting their guard down too soon.
In Shanghai, restaurants and bars in many neighborhoods are teeming with crowds. In Beijing, thousands of students are heading back to campus for the fall semester. In Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged eight months ago, water parks and night markets are packed elbow to elbow, buzzing like before.
While the United States and much of the world are still struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, life in many parts of China has in recent weeks become strikingly normal. Cities have relaxed social-distancing rules and mask mandates, and crowds are again filling tourist sites, movie theaters and gyms.
“It no longer feels like there is something too frightful or too life-threatening out there,” said Xiong Xiaoyan, who works at a paint manufacturer in the southern province of Guangdong.
Ms. Xiong, who described the restrictions put in place to combat the virus as “suffocating,” recently visited a movie theater for the first time since the outbreak.
“When the lights turned dark, I felt I had returned to my normal life,” she said. “I could forget about everything outside and have my own spiritual world.”
The return to normalcy has made China an outlier in the global economy.
The United States is facing a potentially long and painful recession, as some places have reimposed restrictions to contend with a surge in cases this summer. Several countries in Europe have been experiencing fresh outbreaks, putting additional pressure on an already weak economy. By contrast, China has been slowly recovering in recent months and its factories are humming again, although its growth is still weaker than before the pandemic and job losses are significant.
It is a stark turnabout from the early days of the pandemic, when China was the epicenter of the outbreak and the authoritarian government imposed sweeping lockdowns. Across the country, life came to a halt and the economy cratered, as people were forced to stay at home and shops largely shut down, except those selling essential goods.
In Wuhan, the streets were all but deserted, except for government vehicles and delivery drivers ferrying food and supplies. Hospitals were overrun with patients, as nervous residents with coughs and fevers sought treatment. A sense of anger and anxiety permeated the city while residents grappled with a rapidly mounting death toll and uncertainty about when the lockdown would end.
Despite a delayed response and early missteps by the government, the recovery in China points to the success of the extreme tactics. After months of travel restrictions and citywide testing drives, locally transmitted cases of the virus in China are near zero, according to official data.
On Sunday, China reported no new locally transmitted cases for the seventh consecutive day. The 12 new infections it reported were all imported, bringing China’s total number of confirmed cases to 84,951, with at least 4,634 deaths. In the United States, nearly 5.7 million people have been infected and at least 176,200 have died.
Now, many Chinese cities are once again hosting large events, though with some limits on crowd sizes, after months when such gatherings were banned entirely.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Markets, bars and restaurants are crowded again. Local virus transmissions are near zero. But some worry that people are letting their guard down too soon.
In Shanghai, restaurants and bars in many neighborhoods are teeming with crowds. In Beijing, thousands of students are heading back to campus for the fall semester. In Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged eight months ago, water parks and night markets are packed elbow to elbow, buzzing like before.
While the United States and much of the world are still struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, life in many parts of China has in recent weeks become strikingly normal. Cities have relaxed social-distancing rules and mask mandates, and crowds are again filling tourist sites, movie theaters and gyms.
“It no longer feels like there is something too frightful or too life-threatening out there,” said Xiong Xiaoyan, who works at a paint manufacturer in the southern province of Guangdong.
Ms. Xiong, who described the restrictions put in place to combat the virus as “suffocating,” recently visited a movie theater for the first time since the outbreak.
“When the lights turned dark, I felt I had returned to my normal life,” she said. “I could forget about everything outside and have my own spiritual world.”
The return to normalcy has made China an outlier in the global economy.
The United States is facing a potentially long and painful recession, as some places have reimposed restrictions to contend with a surge in cases this summer. Several countries in Europe have been experiencing fresh outbreaks, putting additional pressure on an already weak economy. By contrast, China has been slowly recovering in recent months and its factories are humming again, although its growth is still weaker than before the pandemic and job losses are significant.
It is a stark turnabout from the early days of the pandemic, when China was the epicenter of the outbreak and the authoritarian government imposed sweeping lockdowns. Across the country, life came to a halt and the economy cratered, as people were forced to stay at home and shops largely shut down, except those selling essential goods.
In Wuhan, the streets were all but deserted, except for government vehicles and delivery drivers ferrying food and supplies. Hospitals were overrun with patients, as nervous residents with coughs and fevers sought treatment. A sense of anger and anxiety permeated the city while residents grappled with a rapidly mounting death toll and uncertainty about when the lockdown would end.
Despite a delayed response and early missteps by the government, the recovery in China points to the success of the extreme tactics. After months of travel restrictions and citywide testing drives, locally transmitted cases of the virus in China are near zero, according to official data.
On Sunday, China reported no new locally transmitted cases for the seventh consecutive day. The 12 new infections it reported were all imported, bringing China’s total number of confirmed cases to 84,951, with at least 4,634 deaths. In the United States, nearly 5.7 million people have been infected and at least 176,200 have died.
Now, many Chinese cities are once again hosting large events, though with some limits on crowd sizes, after months when such gatherings were banned entirely.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Coronavirus Crisis Shatters India’s Big Dreams
The country’s ambitions to become a global power, lift its poor and update its military have been set back by a sharp economic plunge, soaring infections and a widening sense of malaise.
SURAT, India — The hit that India’s dreams have taken from the coronavirus pandemic can be found in the hushed streets of Surat’s industrial zone.
You can see it in textile mills that took generations to build but are now sputtering, eking out about a tenth of the fabric they used to make.
You can see it in the lean faces of the families who used to sew the finishing touches on saris but, with so little business, are now cutting back on vegetables and milk.
You can see it in the empty barbershops and mobile phone stores, which shoppers have deserted as their meager savings dwindle to nothing.
Ashish Gujarati, the head of a textile association in this commercial hub on India’s west coast, stood in front of a deserted factory with a shellshocked look on his face and pointed up the road.
“You see that smokestack?” he asked. “There used to be smoke coming out of it.”
Not so long ago, India’s future looked entirely different. It boasted a sizzling economy that was lifting millions out of poverty, building modern megacities and amassing serious geopolitical firepower. It aimed to give its people a middle-class lifestyle, update its woefully vintage military and become a regional political and economic superpower that could someday rival China, Asia’s biggest success story.
But the economic devastation in Surat and across the country is imperiling many of India’s aspirations. The Indian economy has shrunk faster than any other major nation’s. As many as 200 million people could slip back into poverty, according to some estimates. Many of its normally vibrant streets are empty, with people too frightened of the outbreak to venture far.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/worl ... ogin-email
The country’s ambitions to become a global power, lift its poor and update its military have been set back by a sharp economic plunge, soaring infections and a widening sense of malaise.
SURAT, India — The hit that India’s dreams have taken from the coronavirus pandemic can be found in the hushed streets of Surat’s industrial zone.
You can see it in textile mills that took generations to build but are now sputtering, eking out about a tenth of the fabric they used to make.
You can see it in the lean faces of the families who used to sew the finishing touches on saris but, with so little business, are now cutting back on vegetables and milk.
You can see it in the empty barbershops and mobile phone stores, which shoppers have deserted as their meager savings dwindle to nothing.
Ashish Gujarati, the head of a textile association in this commercial hub on India’s west coast, stood in front of a deserted factory with a shellshocked look on his face and pointed up the road.
“You see that smokestack?” he asked. “There used to be smoke coming out of it.”
Not so long ago, India’s future looked entirely different. It boasted a sizzling economy that was lifting millions out of poverty, building modern megacities and amassing serious geopolitical firepower. It aimed to give its people a middle-class lifestyle, update its woefully vintage military and become a regional political and economic superpower that could someday rival China, Asia’s biggest success story.
But the economic devastation in Surat and across the country is imperiling many of India’s aspirations. The Indian economy has shrunk faster than any other major nation’s. As many as 200 million people could slip back into poverty, according to some estimates. Many of its normally vibrant streets are empty, with people too frightened of the outbreak to venture far.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/worl ... ogin-email
Beijing’s assault on privacy goes global
The Trudeau government’s selection of a Chinese state-owned company to install X-ray scanners in its embassies and high commissions around the world beggars belief.
In July, the National Post reported that the tender for these scanners in our missions was awarded to Nuctech, a firm founded by the son of former Chinese president Hu Jintao and which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s “red aristocracy.”
If that standing offer proceeds, there would be a serious risk that all comings and goings would be recorded and logged in Beijing. Chinese dissidents, asylum seekers and defectors would steer clear of Canada’s embassies.
While the decision is now under review, that we’re even here is, on its own, a disappointing move on Ottawa’s part. That’s because a savvier approach to Beijing was expected from François-Philippe Champagne, who has been in the role of Foreign Affairs Minister for nine months – but also because it reflects how little the federal government appears to have learned from the crisis involving Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
Huawei’s potential subservience to the Chinese government, of course, is at the heart of the pitched international battle over the building of 5G infrastructure. Despite its chief executive officer’s insistence that it is a private company, the autocratic nature of the Chinese state makes that impossible to believe; it is part of national law that if Beijing requests companies to provide data, the companies must comply.
The Huawei debate is effectively over among Western countries; their fears were borne out last month, when an expert report commissioned by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs found that Huawei deliberately installed encryption software in a new data centre for the government of Papua New Guinea, allowing Beijing to hoover up secret government files at its leisure. But Canada is a notable exception to this thinking. Indeed, even after four of its fellow Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance countries came out strongly against the potential risk of companies such as Huawei or Hikvision, which produces CCTV cameras, the federal government still has not publicly announced a decision on its 5G infrastructure.
Meanwhile, as Beijing works to surveil other parts of the world, President Xi Jinping is turning the country into a panopticon where every Chinese citizen’s every move is being watched.
The Australian newspaper reported in August that China has deployed real-time facial-recognition technology to grant access to buildings. Residents returning to their homes must have their faces recognized by a camera linked to computers at the local security office. Only those whose faces match those in the database are allowed in. This means that the government would know every person’s every movement.
This building-access system is already operating in Tongren, a city in central-southern China. There, all residents have their faces recorded by the local security agency, along with personal information such as age, gender, family, registered home address, employment and phone number. They are also classified as normal or abnormal.
If the state security system, which is networked to a central database in Hangzhou on the other side of the country, flags that you have done something wrong, you can be denied entry to your own home. The system also monitors and records everyone visiting your apartment: friends, lovers or members of a faith group. And Tongren, as it so happens, is also made up of a high proportion of ethnic minorities who are disproportionately Christian.
In the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state, home has been the last refuge for Chinese people seeking privacy. That’s now gone in Tongren, and it’s only a matter of time before the whole country is monitored by a vast “neighbourhood watch” powered by artificial intelligence.
When confronted with such privacy violations, some in the West might shrug; after all, Google and Facebook also collect massive amounts of our personal information, so what’s the difference?
Well, you don’t need to ask Google for permission to get into your own house or to bring your girlfriend or boyfriend home. Facebook cannot stop you from hosting a meditation group in your apartment.
In the West, we have privacy protections and laws; incursions against that right are a bug, not a feature. The Chinese government, on the other hand, does not value or protect the privacy of people in China or anywhere else. Quite the opposite: If Beijing instructs Nuctech to send data on who has entered Canada’s embassies, then Nuctech is legally obliged to obey. That’s the risk that most of the world understands about Chinese companies with state entanglements – with the glaring exception, it seems, of Canada.
There’s not much we can do if Beijing stations Big Brother at every building entrance in China. But we’d be foolish to allow it to happen in the West.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... VgMaFxFnIY
The Trudeau government’s selection of a Chinese state-owned company to install X-ray scanners in its embassies and high commissions around the world beggars belief.
In July, the National Post reported that the tender for these scanners in our missions was awarded to Nuctech, a firm founded by the son of former Chinese president Hu Jintao and which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s “red aristocracy.”
If that standing offer proceeds, there would be a serious risk that all comings and goings would be recorded and logged in Beijing. Chinese dissidents, asylum seekers and defectors would steer clear of Canada’s embassies.
While the decision is now under review, that we’re even here is, on its own, a disappointing move on Ottawa’s part. That’s because a savvier approach to Beijing was expected from François-Philippe Champagne, who has been in the role of Foreign Affairs Minister for nine months – but also because it reflects how little the federal government appears to have learned from the crisis involving Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
Huawei’s potential subservience to the Chinese government, of course, is at the heart of the pitched international battle over the building of 5G infrastructure. Despite its chief executive officer’s insistence that it is a private company, the autocratic nature of the Chinese state makes that impossible to believe; it is part of national law that if Beijing requests companies to provide data, the companies must comply.
The Huawei debate is effectively over among Western countries; their fears were borne out last month, when an expert report commissioned by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs found that Huawei deliberately installed encryption software in a new data centre for the government of Papua New Guinea, allowing Beijing to hoover up secret government files at its leisure. But Canada is a notable exception to this thinking. Indeed, even after four of its fellow Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance countries came out strongly against the potential risk of companies such as Huawei or Hikvision, which produces CCTV cameras, the federal government still has not publicly announced a decision on its 5G infrastructure.
Meanwhile, as Beijing works to surveil other parts of the world, President Xi Jinping is turning the country into a panopticon where every Chinese citizen’s every move is being watched.
The Australian newspaper reported in August that China has deployed real-time facial-recognition technology to grant access to buildings. Residents returning to their homes must have their faces recognized by a camera linked to computers at the local security office. Only those whose faces match those in the database are allowed in. This means that the government would know every person’s every movement.
This building-access system is already operating in Tongren, a city in central-southern China. There, all residents have their faces recorded by the local security agency, along with personal information such as age, gender, family, registered home address, employment and phone number. They are also classified as normal or abnormal.
If the state security system, which is networked to a central database in Hangzhou on the other side of the country, flags that you have done something wrong, you can be denied entry to your own home. The system also monitors and records everyone visiting your apartment: friends, lovers or members of a faith group. And Tongren, as it so happens, is also made up of a high proportion of ethnic minorities who are disproportionately Christian.
In the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state, home has been the last refuge for Chinese people seeking privacy. That’s now gone in Tongren, and it’s only a matter of time before the whole country is monitored by a vast “neighbourhood watch” powered by artificial intelligence.
When confronted with such privacy violations, some in the West might shrug; after all, Google and Facebook also collect massive amounts of our personal information, so what’s the difference?
Well, you don’t need to ask Google for permission to get into your own house or to bring your girlfriend or boyfriend home. Facebook cannot stop you from hosting a meditation group in your apartment.
In the West, we have privacy protections and laws; incursions against that right are a bug, not a feature. The Chinese government, on the other hand, does not value or protect the privacy of people in China or anywhere else. Quite the opposite: If Beijing instructs Nuctech to send data on who has entered Canada’s embassies, then Nuctech is legally obliged to obey. That’s the risk that most of the world understands about Chinese companies with state entanglements – with the glaring exception, it seems, of Canada.
There’s not much we can do if Beijing stations Big Brother at every building entrance in China. But we’d be foolish to allow it to happen in the West.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... VgMaFxFnIY
China Gives Unproven Covid-19 Vaccines to Thousands, With Risks Unknown
Drug company workers, government officials and others have been injected outside the usual testing process. More will be soon, bewildering experts who worry about potential ill effects.
First, workers at state-owned companies got dosed. Then government officials and vaccine company staff. Up next: teachers, supermarket employees and people traveling to risky areas abroad.
The world still lacks a proven coronavirus vaccine, but that has not stopped Chinese officials from trying to inoculate tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people outside the traditional testing process. Three vaccine candidates are being injected into workers whom the government considers essential, along with many others, including employees of the pharmaceutical firms themselves.
Officials are laying out plans to give shots to even more people, citing emergency use, amounting to a big wager that the vaccines will eventually prove to be safe and effective.
China’s rush has bewildered global experts. No other country has injected people with unproven vaccines outside the usual drug trial process to such a huge scale.
The vaccine candidates are in Phase 3 trials, or the late stages of testing, which are mostly being conducted outside China. The people in those trials are closely tracked and monitored. It is not clear that China is taking those steps for everyone who is getting the shots within the country.
The unproven vaccines could have harmful side effects. Ineffective vaccines could lead to a false sense of security and encourage behavior that could lead to even more infections.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/busi ... 778d3e6de3
Drug company workers, government officials and others have been injected outside the usual testing process. More will be soon, bewildering experts who worry about potential ill effects.
First, workers at state-owned companies got dosed. Then government officials and vaccine company staff. Up next: teachers, supermarket employees and people traveling to risky areas abroad.
The world still lacks a proven coronavirus vaccine, but that has not stopped Chinese officials from trying to inoculate tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people outside the traditional testing process. Three vaccine candidates are being injected into workers whom the government considers essential, along with many others, including employees of the pharmaceutical firms themselves.
Officials are laying out plans to give shots to even more people, citing emergency use, amounting to a big wager that the vaccines will eventually prove to be safe and effective.
China’s rush has bewildered global experts. No other country has injected people with unproven vaccines outside the usual drug trial process to such a huge scale.
The vaccine candidates are in Phase 3 trials, or the late stages of testing, which are mostly being conducted outside China. The people in those trials are closely tracked and monitored. It is not clear that China is taking those steps for everyone who is getting the shots within the country.
The unproven vaccines could have harmful side effects. Ineffective vaccines could lead to a false sense of security and encourage behavior that could lead to even more infections.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/busi ... 778d3e6de3
Reports of Hong Kong’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
The democracy movement may be quiet. But it is alive and it will survive.
As of a couple of weeks ago, Hong Kong no longer has a formal political opposition. The entire pro-democracy camp resigned from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in protest over a resolution by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in Beijing that legalized the removal of four opposition legislators — a decision Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, had essentially requested.
Is that what Mrs. Lam had in mind on Wednesday when in her latest annual policy address, she claimed that she “seeks to restore Hong Kong’s constitutional order”? Or when she reaffirmed a “steadfast determination to implement ‘one country, two systems’” — the governance system that is supposed to protect the city’s semi-autonomy from Beijing — only then to chide that “some people’s awareness of the ‘one country’ principle has yet to be enhanced”?
Claudia Mo, one of the LegCo members who resigned recently (and a good friend of mine), said that the disqualifications were an attempt to sound a “death knell” for “Hong Kong’s democracy fight.” She was as defiant as ever, but for many of her colleagues and supporters, the government’s move was downright painful.
Yet to say that Hong Kong’s democracy movement is now dead would be only half true. In fact, the movement is only half dead — or only half of it is dead. The other part of it is here for the long haul.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/opin ... 778d3e6de3
The democracy movement may be quiet. But it is alive and it will survive.
As of a couple of weeks ago, Hong Kong no longer has a formal political opposition. The entire pro-democracy camp resigned from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in protest over a resolution by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in Beijing that legalized the removal of four opposition legislators — a decision Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, had essentially requested.
Is that what Mrs. Lam had in mind on Wednesday when in her latest annual policy address, she claimed that she “seeks to restore Hong Kong’s constitutional order”? Or when she reaffirmed a “steadfast determination to implement ‘one country, two systems’” — the governance system that is supposed to protect the city’s semi-autonomy from Beijing — only then to chide that “some people’s awareness of the ‘one country’ principle has yet to be enhanced”?
Claudia Mo, one of the LegCo members who resigned recently (and a good friend of mine), said that the disqualifications were an attempt to sound a “death knell” for “Hong Kong’s democracy fight.” She was as defiant as ever, but for many of her colleagues and supporters, the government’s move was downright painful.
Yet to say that Hong Kong’s democracy movement is now dead would be only half true. In fact, the movement is only half dead — or only half of it is dead. The other part of it is here for the long haul.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/opin ... 778d3e6de3
In India, Second Wave of Covid-19 Prompts a New Exodus
Low-paid workers are starting to flee the cities en masse, just like a year ago. Their hometowns, often in far-flung places, may once again be ill prepared to test arrivals and treat the sick.
NEW DELHI — As dawn broke over Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, Kaleem Ansari sat among a crowd of thousands outside the central rail station waiting for his train to pull in. Mr. Ansari, a factory worker, carried old clothes in his backpack and 200 rupees — not quite $3 — in his pocket.
His factory, which makes sandals, had just closed. Mumbai was locking down as a second wave of the coronavirus rippled through India. Mr. Ansari, originally from a small village nearly 1,000 miles away, had been in Mumbai a year ago when it first went into lockdown, and he had vowed not to suffer through another one.
“I remember what happened last time,” he said. “I just have to get out of here.”
Cities in India are once again locking down to fight Covid-19 — and workers are once again pouring out and heading back home to rural areas, which health experts fear could accelerate the spread of the virus and devastate poorly equipped villages, as it did last time. Thousands are fleeing hot spots in cities as India hits another record, with more than 200,000 daily new infections reported on Thursday. Bus stations are packed. Crowds are growing at railway stations.
And in at least some of their destinations, according to local officials and migrants who have already made the journey, they are arriving in places hardly ready to test arrivals and quarantine the sick.
“We are less prepared,” said K. Srinath Reddy, the president of the Public Health Foundation of India, who is part of the national Covid-19 task force. “The speed and scale is catching us off-balance.”
India risks repeating the traumatic mass movement that occurred last year after it enforced one of the world’s toughest national lockdowns, eliminating millions of jobs virtually overnight. That lockdown fueled the most disruptive migration across the Indian subcontinent since it was split in two between India and Pakistan in 1947.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Low-paid workers are starting to flee the cities en masse, just like a year ago. Their hometowns, often in far-flung places, may once again be ill prepared to test arrivals and treat the sick.
NEW DELHI — As dawn broke over Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, Kaleem Ansari sat among a crowd of thousands outside the central rail station waiting for his train to pull in. Mr. Ansari, a factory worker, carried old clothes in his backpack and 200 rupees — not quite $3 — in his pocket.
His factory, which makes sandals, had just closed. Mumbai was locking down as a second wave of the coronavirus rippled through India. Mr. Ansari, originally from a small village nearly 1,000 miles away, had been in Mumbai a year ago when it first went into lockdown, and he had vowed not to suffer through another one.
“I remember what happened last time,” he said. “I just have to get out of here.”
Cities in India are once again locking down to fight Covid-19 — and workers are once again pouring out and heading back home to rural areas, which health experts fear could accelerate the spread of the virus and devastate poorly equipped villages, as it did last time. Thousands are fleeing hot spots in cities as India hits another record, with more than 200,000 daily new infections reported on Thursday. Bus stations are packed. Crowds are growing at railway stations.
And in at least some of their destinations, according to local officials and migrants who have already made the journey, they are arriving in places hardly ready to test arrivals and quarantine the sick.
“We are less prepared,” said K. Srinath Reddy, the president of the Public Health Foundation of India, who is part of the national Covid-19 task force. “The speed and scale is catching us off-balance.”
India risks repeating the traumatic mass movement that occurred last year after it enforced one of the world’s toughest national lockdowns, eliminating millions of jobs virtually overnight. That lockdown fueled the most disruptive migration across the Indian subcontinent since it was split in two between India and Pakistan in 1947.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/worl ... 778d3e6de3
India’s Health System Cracks Under the Strain as Coronavirus Cases Surge
At least 22 people died from loss of oxygen in a hospital accident. Infections hit a daily record. And the government faced criticism for allowing an enormous Hindu festival to continue.
NEW DELHI — India’s health care system shows signs of buckling under the strain of a second wave of coronavirus infections, as the authorities reported nearly 300,000 new cases on Wednesday and an accident at a Covid-19 hospital killed more than 20 people.
The accident happened at a hospital in the western state of Maharashtra after a leak in the hospital’s main oxygen tank stopped the flow of oxygen to dozens of critically ill people. Televised images showed family members wailing in the wards and nurses frantically pounding on the chests of some patients.
All week, hospitals across India have been warning about an acute oxygen shortage. Many hospital officials said they were just a few hours away from running out.“Nobody imagined this would happen,” said Subhash Salunke, a medical adviser to the Maharashtra government.
India is now home to the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 crisis, reporting 294,000 new infections on Wednesday and more than 2,000 deaths. As supplies of hospital beds, oxygen and vaccines run low, criticism of the government is building.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to be more careful but said that lockdowns were a last resort. States and cities are increasingly going into lockdown on their own, and critics say the government’s mixed messages are making matters worse.
As examples, they point to recent political rallies held by Mr. Modi that have drawn thousands, as well as the government’s decision to allow an enormous Hindu festival to continue despite signs that it has become a superspreader event. A few days ago, Mr. Modi indicated that he wanted Hindu worshipers to stay away from this year’s festival, called the Kumbh Mela, which is held on the banks of the Ganges river considered sacred by many Hindus.
But the worshipers keep coming — 70,000 showed up on Wednesday for a holy dip, bringing the total to more than 10 million since the festival began in January — and government officials on the ground are doing little to stop them.
Event organizers said that worshipers were required to produce a negative coronavirus test result or be tested on the spot, but they also acknowledged that with such huge crowds, some participants could have slipped in without being tested. Photographs show a sea of worshipers packed together in the gray waters of the river, many without masks. More than 1,000 tested positive at the site in just 48 hours, according to reports by the Indian news media.
Leaders of India’s political opposition and religious minorities say that Mr. Modi’s government, which is firmly rooted in a Hindu-first worldview, is giving preferential treatment to Hindus.
“It is a clear example of double standards,” said Khalid Rasheed, chairman of the Islamic Center of India, a nonprofit religious organization.
He compared the government’s apparent endorsement of the Kumbh to the way it handled a much smaller gathering of a few thousand Islamic preachers in New Delhi last March. Not only was the seminary that hosted it shut down, but hundreds of people were also detained. Officials from Mr. Modi’s party blamed the seminary for spreading the virus.
Worshipers at the Kumbh Mela festival in Haridwar this month.Credit...Karma Sonam/Associated Press
That spurred an anti-Muslim campaign across India in which Muslims were attacked with cricket bats and run out of their neighborhoods. Many of the Muslims arrested at the seminary a year ago are still awaiting trial.
Government officials have defended the Kumbh festival as safe even as the virus infects some of its most high-profile attendees, including the former king of Nepal and his wife.
Another visitor who was infected is Tirath Singh Rawat, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, which as the state hosting this year’s festival stands to make millions in revenue from the pilgrims and vendors. Mr. Rawat mingled freely in the crowds without a mask, and told those who questioned him that “faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus.”
Shailesh Bagauli, a state official, said the timing of the festival had been determined by “optimal astrological conditions” and that the government had implemented measures like mask wearing and social distancing.
On Wednesday, news of the hospital oxygen leak quickly spread around the country, raising fears that the health care system here, which is chronically underfunded, was about to collapse.
Indian news channels showed images of the oxygen leak at Zakir Hussain Hospital in the city of Nashik.
“When we reached the spot, it was all foggy,” said S.K. Bairagi, a fire chief in the city. He said it took about 30 minutes to repair the tank.
The dwindling oxygen supply is becoming one of the most alarming aspects of India’s second wave. To expedite its delivery to hospitals, India’s railway service has begun running what it calls “oxygen express” trains across the country.
India’s health ministry has said that the daily demand for oxygen at hospitals has reached about 60 percent of the country’s daily production capacity of just over 7,000 metric tons. Government officials countered news reports this week that said India had increased oxygen exports as the second wave of infections was approaching, saying those exports amounted to less than 1 percent of daily production capacity.
But the health ministry also said that it was looking to import 50,000 metric tons of medical oxygen from abroad, a sign that India’s government may be concerned about the domestic supply.
On Tuesday night, more than a dozen hospitals in New Delhi, the capital, put out an alert saying they were hours away from running out of oxygen.
In Lucknow, another major city in northern India, the Mayo Medical Center warned on Wednesday that it was down to a 15-minute backup supply and that “oxygen is not available anywhere in Lucknow.”
Later in the day, hospital officials said they had received 40 oxygen cylinders. But medical experts said that with so many people falling sick, it was a dangerous time to be running low.
“There is definitely an oxygen shortage across the country,” said Shashank Joshi, an endocrinologist and member of the Covid task force in Maharashtra. “The situation is grim.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/worl ... 778d3e6de3
At least 22 people died from loss of oxygen in a hospital accident. Infections hit a daily record. And the government faced criticism for allowing an enormous Hindu festival to continue.
NEW DELHI — India’s health care system shows signs of buckling under the strain of a second wave of coronavirus infections, as the authorities reported nearly 300,000 new cases on Wednesday and an accident at a Covid-19 hospital killed more than 20 people.
The accident happened at a hospital in the western state of Maharashtra after a leak in the hospital’s main oxygen tank stopped the flow of oxygen to dozens of critically ill people. Televised images showed family members wailing in the wards and nurses frantically pounding on the chests of some patients.
All week, hospitals across India have been warning about an acute oxygen shortage. Many hospital officials said they were just a few hours away from running out.“Nobody imagined this would happen,” said Subhash Salunke, a medical adviser to the Maharashtra government.
India is now home to the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 crisis, reporting 294,000 new infections on Wednesday and more than 2,000 deaths. As supplies of hospital beds, oxygen and vaccines run low, criticism of the government is building.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to be more careful but said that lockdowns were a last resort. States and cities are increasingly going into lockdown on their own, and critics say the government’s mixed messages are making matters worse.
As examples, they point to recent political rallies held by Mr. Modi that have drawn thousands, as well as the government’s decision to allow an enormous Hindu festival to continue despite signs that it has become a superspreader event. A few days ago, Mr. Modi indicated that he wanted Hindu worshipers to stay away from this year’s festival, called the Kumbh Mela, which is held on the banks of the Ganges river considered sacred by many Hindus.
But the worshipers keep coming — 70,000 showed up on Wednesday for a holy dip, bringing the total to more than 10 million since the festival began in January — and government officials on the ground are doing little to stop them.
Event organizers said that worshipers were required to produce a negative coronavirus test result or be tested on the spot, but they also acknowledged that with such huge crowds, some participants could have slipped in without being tested. Photographs show a sea of worshipers packed together in the gray waters of the river, many without masks. More than 1,000 tested positive at the site in just 48 hours, according to reports by the Indian news media.
Leaders of India’s political opposition and religious minorities say that Mr. Modi’s government, which is firmly rooted in a Hindu-first worldview, is giving preferential treatment to Hindus.
“It is a clear example of double standards,” said Khalid Rasheed, chairman of the Islamic Center of India, a nonprofit religious organization.
He compared the government’s apparent endorsement of the Kumbh to the way it handled a much smaller gathering of a few thousand Islamic preachers in New Delhi last March. Not only was the seminary that hosted it shut down, but hundreds of people were also detained. Officials from Mr. Modi’s party blamed the seminary for spreading the virus.
Worshipers at the Kumbh Mela festival in Haridwar this month.Credit...Karma Sonam/Associated PressThat spurred an anti-Muslim campaign across India in which Muslims were attacked with cricket bats and run out of their neighborhoods. Many of the Muslims arrested at the seminary a year ago are still awaiting trial.
Government officials have defended the Kumbh festival as safe even as the virus infects some of its most high-profile attendees, including the former king of Nepal and his wife.
Another visitor who was infected is Tirath Singh Rawat, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, which as the state hosting this year’s festival stands to make millions in revenue from the pilgrims and vendors. Mr. Rawat mingled freely in the crowds without a mask, and told those who questioned him that “faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus.”
Shailesh Bagauli, a state official, said the timing of the festival had been determined by “optimal astrological conditions” and that the government had implemented measures like mask wearing and social distancing.
On Wednesday, news of the hospital oxygen leak quickly spread around the country, raising fears that the health care system here, which is chronically underfunded, was about to collapse.
Indian news channels showed images of the oxygen leak at Zakir Hussain Hospital in the city of Nashik.
“When we reached the spot, it was all foggy,” said S.K. Bairagi, a fire chief in the city. He said it took about 30 minutes to repair the tank.
The dwindling oxygen supply is becoming one of the most alarming aspects of India’s second wave. To expedite its delivery to hospitals, India’s railway service has begun running what it calls “oxygen express” trains across the country.
India’s health ministry has said that the daily demand for oxygen at hospitals has reached about 60 percent of the country’s daily production capacity of just over 7,000 metric tons. Government officials countered news reports this week that said India had increased oxygen exports as the second wave of infections was approaching, saying those exports amounted to less than 1 percent of daily production capacity.
But the health ministry also said that it was looking to import 50,000 metric tons of medical oxygen from abroad, a sign that India’s government may be concerned about the domestic supply.
On Tuesday night, more than a dozen hospitals in New Delhi, the capital, put out an alert saying they were hours away from running out of oxygen.
In Lucknow, another major city in northern India, the Mayo Medical Center warned on Wednesday that it was down to a 15-minute backup supply and that “oxygen is not available anywhere in Lucknow.”
Later in the day, hospital officials said they had received 40 oxygen cylinders. But medical experts said that with so many people falling sick, it was a dangerous time to be running low.
“There is definitely an oxygen shortage across the country,” said Shashank Joshi, an endocrinologist and member of the Covid task force in Maharashtra. “The situation is grim.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/worl ... 778d3e6de3
‘This Is a Catastrophe.’ In India, Illness Is Everywhere.
As India suffers the world’s worst coronavirus crisis, our New Delhi bureau chief describes the fear of living amid a disease spreading at such scale and speed.
NEW DELHI — Crematories are so full of bodies, it’s as if a war just happened. Fires burn around the clock. Many places are holding mass cremations, dozens at a time, and at night, in certain areas of New Delhi, the sky glows.
Sickness and death are everywhere.
Dozens of houses in my neighborhood have sick people.
One of my colleagues is sick.
One of my son’s teachers is sick.
The neighbor two doors down, to the right of us: sick.
Two doors to the left: sick.
“I have no idea how I got it,” said a good friend who is now in the hospital. “You catch just a whiff of this…..” and then his voice trailed off, too sick to finish.
He barely got a bed. And the medicine his doctors say he needs is nowhere to be found in India.
I’m sitting in my apartment waiting to catch the disease. That’s what it feels like right now in New Delhi with the world’s worst coronavirus crisis advancing around us. It is out there, I am in here, and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before I, too, get sick.
India is now recording more infections per day — as many as 350,000 — than any other country has since the pandemic began, and that’s just the official number, which most experts think is a vast underestimation.
New Delhi, India’s sprawling capital of 20 million, is suffering a calamitous surge. A few days ago, the positivity rate hit a staggering 36 percent — meaning more than one out of three people tested were infected. A month ago, it was less than 3 percent.
The infections have spread so fast that hospitals have been completely swamped. People are turned away by the thousands. Medicine is running out. So is lifesaving oxygen. The sick have been left stranded in interminable lines at hospital gates or at home, literally gasping for air.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/worl ... 778d3e6de3
As India suffers the world’s worst coronavirus crisis, our New Delhi bureau chief describes the fear of living amid a disease spreading at such scale and speed.
NEW DELHI — Crematories are so full of bodies, it’s as if a war just happened. Fires burn around the clock. Many places are holding mass cremations, dozens at a time, and at night, in certain areas of New Delhi, the sky glows.
Sickness and death are everywhere.
Dozens of houses in my neighborhood have sick people.
One of my colleagues is sick.
One of my son’s teachers is sick.
The neighbor two doors down, to the right of us: sick.
Two doors to the left: sick.
“I have no idea how I got it,” said a good friend who is now in the hospital. “You catch just a whiff of this…..” and then his voice trailed off, too sick to finish.
He barely got a bed. And the medicine his doctors say he needs is nowhere to be found in India.
I’m sitting in my apartment waiting to catch the disease. That’s what it feels like right now in New Delhi with the world’s worst coronavirus crisis advancing around us. It is out there, I am in here, and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before I, too, get sick.
India is now recording more infections per day — as many as 350,000 — than any other country has since the pandemic began, and that’s just the official number, which most experts think is a vast underestimation.
New Delhi, India’s sprawling capital of 20 million, is suffering a calamitous surge. A few days ago, the positivity rate hit a staggering 36 percent — meaning more than one out of three people tested were infected. A month ago, it was less than 3 percent.
The infections have spread so fast that hospitals have been completely swamped. People are turned away by the thousands. Medicine is running out. So is lifesaving oxygen. The sick have been left stranded in interminable lines at hospital gates or at home, literally gasping for air.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Covid Desperation Is Spreading Across India
Infections, deaths and breakdowns that began in big cities a few weeks ago are rapidly advancing into rural areas, unleashing deep fear in places with little medical safety net.
NEW DELHI — Dozens of bodies washed up on the banks of the Ganges this week, most likely the remains of people who perished from Covid-19.
States in southern India have threatened to stop sharing medical oxygen with each other, fiercely protective about holding on to whatever they have as their hospitals swell with the sick and infections skyrocket.
And at one hospital in Andhra Pradesh, a rural state in southeastern India, furious relatives went on a rampage in the intensive care unit after lifesaving oxygen suddenly ran out — the latest example of the same tragedy repeating itself, of patients dying while gasping for air.
The desperation that engulfed New Delhi, India’s capital, over the past few weeks is now spreading across the entire country, hitting states and rural areas with many fewer resources. Positivity rates are soaring in those states, and public health experts say that the rising numbers most likely fall far short of giving the true picture in places where sickness and deaths caused by Covid-19 are harder to track.
It seems the crisis is reaching a new phase. Cases in New Delhi and Mumbai may be leveling off. But many other places are getting bowled over by runaway outbreaks. The World Health Organization now says that a new variant of the virus detected in India, B.1.167, may be especially transmissible, which is just adding to the sense of alarm.
Every day the Indian media delivers a heavy dose of turmoil and grief. On Tuesday, it was televised images of distraught relatives furiously beating the chests of loved ones who had died after the oxygen ran out, and headlines including “Bodies of Suspected Covid-19 Victims Found Floating” and “As Deaths Go Up 10 Fold, Worrying Signs from Smaller States.”
This was always the burning question: If New Delhi, home to the country’s elite and scores of hospitals, couldn’t handle the surge of coronavirus cases from a devastating new wave, what would happen in poorer rural areas?
The answer is now coming in.
On Monday night, the Sri Venkateswara Ramnarain Ruia Government General Hospital, in Andhra Pradesh, was running low on medical oxygen. More than 60 patients were in critical condition, oxygen masks strapped to their faces. Doctors frantically called suppliers for help.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Infections, deaths and breakdowns that began in big cities a few weeks ago are rapidly advancing into rural areas, unleashing deep fear in places with little medical safety net.
NEW DELHI — Dozens of bodies washed up on the banks of the Ganges this week, most likely the remains of people who perished from Covid-19.
States in southern India have threatened to stop sharing medical oxygen with each other, fiercely protective about holding on to whatever they have as their hospitals swell with the sick and infections skyrocket.
And at one hospital in Andhra Pradesh, a rural state in southeastern India, furious relatives went on a rampage in the intensive care unit after lifesaving oxygen suddenly ran out — the latest example of the same tragedy repeating itself, of patients dying while gasping for air.
The desperation that engulfed New Delhi, India’s capital, over the past few weeks is now spreading across the entire country, hitting states and rural areas with many fewer resources. Positivity rates are soaring in those states, and public health experts say that the rising numbers most likely fall far short of giving the true picture in places where sickness and deaths caused by Covid-19 are harder to track.
It seems the crisis is reaching a new phase. Cases in New Delhi and Mumbai may be leveling off. But many other places are getting bowled over by runaway outbreaks. The World Health Organization now says that a new variant of the virus detected in India, B.1.167, may be especially transmissible, which is just adding to the sense of alarm.
Every day the Indian media delivers a heavy dose of turmoil and grief. On Tuesday, it was televised images of distraught relatives furiously beating the chests of loved ones who had died after the oxygen ran out, and headlines including “Bodies of Suspected Covid-19 Victims Found Floating” and “As Deaths Go Up 10 Fold, Worrying Signs from Smaller States.”
This was always the burning question: If New Delhi, home to the country’s elite and scores of hospitals, couldn’t handle the surge of coronavirus cases from a devastating new wave, what would happen in poorer rural areas?
The answer is now coming in.
On Monday night, the Sri Venkateswara Ramnarain Ruia Government General Hospital, in Andhra Pradesh, was running low on medical oxygen. More than 60 patients were in critical condition, oxygen masks strapped to their faces. Doctors frantically called suppliers for help.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/worl ... 778d3e6de3
China’s Mars Rover Mission Lands on the Red Planet
The success establishes China as a principal contender in what some see as a new era of space competition.
An artist’s concept of the Chinese Mars lander released by China’s space agency in 2016.Credit...Xinhua, via Associated Press
The United States now has company on Mars.
A Chinese spacecraft descended through the thin Martian atmosphere and landed safely on a large plain on Saturday morning, state media reported, accomplishing a feat that only two other nations had before. (In the United States, it was still Friday — 7:18 p.m. Eastern time — when the spacecraft touched down.)
The landing follows China’s launch last month of the core module of a new orbiting space station, as well as a successful mission in December that collected nearly four pounds of rocks and soil from the moon and brought it to Earth. Next month, the country plans to send three astronauts into space, inaugurating what could become a regular Chinese presence in Earth’s orbit.
Just by arriving at Mars and orbiting it in February, China’s space program confirmed its place among the top tier of agencies exploring the solar system. Now that it has executed a landing — with the deployment of a rover still to come — it has established itself as a principal contender in what some view as a new era of space competition.
“China’s successful Mars landing demonstrates to the world that there is another country with advanced interplanetary space capacities,” said Namrata Goswami, an independent analyst and co-author of a new book on space exploration, “Scramble for the Skies.”
More photos, illustrations at;
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/scie ... 778d3e6de3
The success establishes China as a principal contender in what some see as a new era of space competition.
An artist’s concept of the Chinese Mars lander released by China’s space agency in 2016.Credit...Xinhua, via Associated Press
The United States now has company on Mars.
A Chinese spacecraft descended through the thin Martian atmosphere and landed safely on a large plain on Saturday morning, state media reported, accomplishing a feat that only two other nations had before. (In the United States, it was still Friday — 7:18 p.m. Eastern time — when the spacecraft touched down.)
The landing follows China’s launch last month of the core module of a new orbiting space station, as well as a successful mission in December that collected nearly four pounds of rocks and soil from the moon and brought it to Earth. Next month, the country plans to send three astronauts into space, inaugurating what could become a regular Chinese presence in Earth’s orbit.
Just by arriving at Mars and orbiting it in February, China’s space program confirmed its place among the top tier of agencies exploring the solar system. Now that it has executed a landing — with the deployment of a rover still to come — it has established itself as a principal contender in what some view as a new era of space competition.
“China’s successful Mars landing demonstrates to the world that there is another country with advanced interplanetary space capacities,” said Namrata Goswami, an independent analyst and co-author of a new book on space exploration, “Scramble for the Skies.”
More photos, illustrations at;
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/scie ... 778d3e6de3
Subdued but Not Silenced, Hong Kong Tries to Remember Tiananmen Massacre
Officials banned the annual June 4 vigil, as a new security law looms over commemorations of the 1989 crackdown. Hong Kongers wonder how long the memory will remain.
Excerpt:
The significance of the annual vigil comes from Hong Kong’s unique position: The territory is part of China but was promised civil liberties unheard of in the mainland after its return from British colonial control.
In the mainland, the Chinese Communist Party has enforced widespread public amnesia of the 1989 killings, which left hundreds, if not thousands dead. But in Hong Kong, the massacre was a watershed moment in the city’s political consciousness, intensifying fear about Chinese control. For 30 years afterward, the Victoria Park vigil was a marquee event on many Hong Kongers’ calendars.
The vigil also came to signify more than the historical event itself, as it became a barometer of public sentiment toward the government. Interest had ebbed in recent years among some young people, who increasingly rejected the mainland and distanced themselves from its tragedies. But in times of political turmoil, turnout surged, including in 2019, when anti-government sentiment was on the verge of erupting into mass protests.
Then, in 2020, the government banned the vigil for the first time, citing public health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands turned out anyway.
The reason for this year’s ban was ostensibly public health again. But the national security law, which went into force last June 30, looms large over the anniversary.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Officials banned the annual June 4 vigil, as a new security law looms over commemorations of the 1989 crackdown. Hong Kongers wonder how long the memory will remain.
Excerpt:
The significance of the annual vigil comes from Hong Kong’s unique position: The territory is part of China but was promised civil liberties unheard of in the mainland after its return from British colonial control.
In the mainland, the Chinese Communist Party has enforced widespread public amnesia of the 1989 killings, which left hundreds, if not thousands dead. But in Hong Kong, the massacre was a watershed moment in the city’s political consciousness, intensifying fear about Chinese control. For 30 years afterward, the Victoria Park vigil was a marquee event on many Hong Kongers’ calendars.
The vigil also came to signify more than the historical event itself, as it became a barometer of public sentiment toward the government. Interest had ebbed in recent years among some young people, who increasingly rejected the mainland and distanced themselves from its tragedies. But in times of political turmoil, turnout surged, including in 2019, when anti-government sentiment was on the verge of erupting into mass protests.
Then, in 2020, the government banned the vigil for the first time, citing public health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands turned out anyway.
The reason for this year’s ban was ostensibly public health again. But the national security law, which went into force last June 30, looms large over the anniversary.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/04/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Opinion Q. and A.: Imran Khan Urges a New U.S.-Pakistan Bond
The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is at a watershed moment. The two countries have been locked in an uneasy embrace for the last 20 years, with the United States providing much-needed support to Pakistan in exchange for Islamabad’s assistance in the war on terror. While it hasn’t been smooth (see Pakistan’s harboring of militant groups and U.S. drone strikes that killed Pakistani civilians), the relationship has more or less endured.
With U.S. forces leaving Afghanistan by Sept. 11, Pakistan faces urgent questions. What strategic clout does it have now? Where does it fit in the great power confrontation between the United States and China? Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, who took office in 2018, is trying to navigate those waters now, but it’s very unclear how his country will fare: The pandemic has taken a toll on the economy, the military still has an iron grip on the country and the relationship with India is as bad as it’s ever been.
President Biden has yet to have a conversation with Mr. Khan. Mr. Biden is meeting with the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, on Friday to discuss the U.S. withdrawal. It’s likely that Pakistan will come up in the conversation. Mr. Khan has made it clear to Axios recently that he would not accept C.I.A. bases in the country for missions in Afghanistan. (Saying otherwise in public would be political suicide). So what is the future of Pakistan’s relationship with America?
We spoke with Mr. Khan on Wednesday via video call about the way forward for Pakistan. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
An interesting interview covering many issues pertaining to Pakistan's position in Asia....
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/opin ... 778d3e6de3
The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is at a watershed moment. The two countries have been locked in an uneasy embrace for the last 20 years, with the United States providing much-needed support to Pakistan in exchange for Islamabad’s assistance in the war on terror. While it hasn’t been smooth (see Pakistan’s harboring of militant groups and U.S. drone strikes that killed Pakistani civilians), the relationship has more or less endured.
With U.S. forces leaving Afghanistan by Sept. 11, Pakistan faces urgent questions. What strategic clout does it have now? Where does it fit in the great power confrontation between the United States and China? Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, who took office in 2018, is trying to navigate those waters now, but it’s very unclear how his country will fare: The pandemic has taken a toll on the economy, the military still has an iron grip on the country and the relationship with India is as bad as it’s ever been.
President Biden has yet to have a conversation with Mr. Khan. Mr. Biden is meeting with the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, on Friday to discuss the U.S. withdrawal. It’s likely that Pakistan will come up in the conversation. Mr. Khan has made it clear to Axios recently that he would not accept C.I.A. bases in the country for missions in Afghanistan. (Saying otherwise in public would be political suicide). So what is the future of Pakistan’s relationship with America?
We spoke with Mr. Khan on Wednesday via video call about the way forward for Pakistan. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
An interesting interview covering many issues pertaining to Pakistan's position in Asia....
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Hong Kong’s Last Gasp
It took just six days to shut down Apple Daily.
It’s a measure of the brutality of the crackdown on Hong Kong that the end could come so swiftly for Apple Daily, a brash, 26-year-old pro-democracy tabloid that had never shied away from criticizing Beijing.
On Thursday, June 17, 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s offices, arresting five staff members on suspicion of collusion with foreign nations over articles that called for sanctions on Hong Kong and China. By the next Wednesday, the paper was printing its final issue, unable to operate because the government had frozen its accounts.
And just like that, another of Hong Kong’s institutions was gone.
The closure of Apple Daily represents a tremendous narrowing of press freedom. As the journalist Daisy Li Yuet-wah put it, there are no longer just red lines for the news media, but a red web, or even a red sea.
That red sea is now swamping Hong Kong. On June 21, a man who hung a flag with a banned protest slogan outside his home was taken away with a bag over his head, on suspicion of uttering seditious words. Books have disappeared from library shelves, a new film censorship system is being introduced, and textbooks are being rewritten with a national security focus.
Hong Kongers have experienced a litany of loss over the past year, as a sweeping national security law imposed last June has undermined cherished institutions. The prized independence of the judicial system is no more, because the legislation supersedes the common law. In an ominous move, pro-Beijing politicians this month effectively blocked a judicial appointment for the first time.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/opin ... 778d3e6de3
It took just six days to shut down Apple Daily.
It’s a measure of the brutality of the crackdown on Hong Kong that the end could come so swiftly for Apple Daily, a brash, 26-year-old pro-democracy tabloid that had never shied away from criticizing Beijing.
On Thursday, June 17, 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s offices, arresting five staff members on suspicion of collusion with foreign nations over articles that called for sanctions on Hong Kong and China. By the next Wednesday, the paper was printing its final issue, unable to operate because the government had frozen its accounts.
And just like that, another of Hong Kong’s institutions was gone.
The closure of Apple Daily represents a tremendous narrowing of press freedom. As the journalist Daisy Li Yuet-wah put it, there are no longer just red lines for the news media, but a red web, or even a red sea.
That red sea is now swamping Hong Kong. On June 21, a man who hung a flag with a banned protest slogan outside his home was taken away with a bag over his head, on suspicion of uttering seditious words. Books have disappeared from library shelves, a new film censorship system is being introduced, and textbooks are being rewritten with a national security focus.
Hong Kongers have experienced a litany of loss over the past year, as a sweeping national security law imposed last June has undermined cherished institutions. The prized independence of the judicial system is no more, because the legislation supersedes the common law. In an ominous move, pro-Beijing politicians this month effectively blocked a judicial appointment for the first time.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/opin ... 778d3e6de3
A Digital Manhunt: How Chinese Police Track Critics on Twitter and Facebook
Authorities in China have turned to sophisticated investigative software to track and silence obscure critics on overseas social media. Their targets include college students and non-Chinese nationals.
When Jennifer Chen traveled back to her hometown in central China last winter for Lunar New Year, she thought little about Twitter. She had around 100 followers on an account she believed to be anonymous.
While living in China, she retweeted news and videos, and occasionally made comments censored on Chinese platforms, like voicing her support for Hong Kong’s protesters and her solidarity with minorities who have been interned.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough for the authorities to go after her. The police knocked on her parents’ door when she was visiting. She said they had summoned her to the station, questioned her and then commanded her to delete her Twitter posts and account. They continued to track her when she went overseas to study, calling her and her mother to ask if Ms. Chen had recently visited any human rights websites.
The Chinese government, which has built an extensive digital infrastructure and security apparatus to control dissent on its own platforms, is going to even greater lengths to extend its internet dragnet to unmask and silence those who criticize the country on Twitter, Facebook and other international social media.
These new investigations, targeting sites blocked inside China, are relying on sophisticated technological methods to expand the reach of Chinese authorities and the list of targets, according to a New York Times examination of government procurement documents and legal records, as well as interviews with one government contractor and six people pressured by the police.
To hunt people, security forces use advanced investigation software, public records and databases to find all their personal information and international social media presence. The operations sometimes target those living beyond China’s borders. Police officers are pursuing dissidents and minor critics like Ms. Chen, as well as Chinese people living overseas and even citizens of other nations.
The digital manhunt represents the punitive side of the government’s vast campaign to counter negative portrayals of China. In recent years, the Communist Party has raised bot armies, deployed diplomats and marshaled influencers to push its narratives and drown out criticism. The police have taken it a step further, hounding and silencing those who dare to talk back.
With growing frequency, the authorities are harassing critics both inside and outside China, as well as threatening relatives, in an effort to get them to delete content deemed criminal. One video recording, provided by a Chinese student living in Australia, showed how the police in her hometown had summoned her father, called her with his phone and pushed her to remove her Twitter account.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/busi ... 778d3e6de3
Authorities in China have turned to sophisticated investigative software to track and silence obscure critics on overseas social media. Their targets include college students and non-Chinese nationals.
When Jennifer Chen traveled back to her hometown in central China last winter for Lunar New Year, she thought little about Twitter. She had around 100 followers on an account she believed to be anonymous.
While living in China, she retweeted news and videos, and occasionally made comments censored on Chinese platforms, like voicing her support for Hong Kong’s protesters and her solidarity with minorities who have been interned.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough for the authorities to go after her. The police knocked on her parents’ door when she was visiting. She said they had summoned her to the station, questioned her and then commanded her to delete her Twitter posts and account. They continued to track her when she went overseas to study, calling her and her mother to ask if Ms. Chen had recently visited any human rights websites.
The Chinese government, which has built an extensive digital infrastructure and security apparatus to control dissent on its own platforms, is going to even greater lengths to extend its internet dragnet to unmask and silence those who criticize the country on Twitter, Facebook and other international social media.
These new investigations, targeting sites blocked inside China, are relying on sophisticated technological methods to expand the reach of Chinese authorities and the list of targets, according to a New York Times examination of government procurement documents and legal records, as well as interviews with one government contractor and six people pressured by the police.
To hunt people, security forces use advanced investigation software, public records and databases to find all their personal information and international social media presence. The operations sometimes target those living beyond China’s borders. Police officers are pursuing dissidents and minor critics like Ms. Chen, as well as Chinese people living overseas and even citizens of other nations.
The digital manhunt represents the punitive side of the government’s vast campaign to counter negative portrayals of China. In recent years, the Communist Party has raised bot armies, deployed diplomats and marshaled influencers to push its narratives and drown out criticism. The police have taken it a step further, hounding and silencing those who dare to talk back.
With growing frequency, the authorities are harassing critics both inside and outside China, as well as threatening relatives, in an effort to get them to delete content deemed criminal. One video recording, provided by a Chinese student living in Australia, showed how the police in her hometown had summoned her father, called her with his phone and pushed her to remove her Twitter account.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/busi ... 778d3e6de3
How Beijing Has Muted Hong Kong’s Independent Media
Citizen News, a small but aggressive online publication, is the latest outlet to fold amid relentless pressure from the authorities.
HONG KONG — Citizen News, a small online news site in Hong Kong known for its in-depth coverage of courts and local politics, said it would stop publishing on Monday night, deepening concerns about the collapse of the city’s once-robust media.
Just days earlier, another independent online media outlet, Stand News, closed after hundreds of police raided its offices and arrested seven people. Two former senior editors at Stand News and the publication itself were charged with conspiracy to publish seditious materials.
The latest closures are the final chapters in the demise of independent media in Hong Kong, a city that once had some of the freest and most aggressive news media in Asia. Now, as Beijing continues a sweeping crackdown on the city, the journalists who once covered the city’s protests and politics are increasingly either under arrest or out of work, without anywhere to publish.
“What’s happening is not just another closure of a media outlet,” said Lokman Tsui, a former journalism professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This is part of a larger project by the government of dismantling all critical media, of all independent media in Hong Kong.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/article/hong-ko ... 778d3e6de3
Citizen News, a small but aggressive online publication, is the latest outlet to fold amid relentless pressure from the authorities.
HONG KONG — Citizen News, a small online news site in Hong Kong known for its in-depth coverage of courts and local politics, said it would stop publishing on Monday night, deepening concerns about the collapse of the city’s once-robust media.
Just days earlier, another independent online media outlet, Stand News, closed after hundreds of police raided its offices and arrested seven people. Two former senior editors at Stand News and the publication itself were charged with conspiracy to publish seditious materials.
The latest closures are the final chapters in the demise of independent media in Hong Kong, a city that once had some of the freest and most aggressive news media in Asia. Now, as Beijing continues a sweeping crackdown on the city, the journalists who once covered the city’s protests and politics are increasingly either under arrest or out of work, without anywhere to publish.
“What’s happening is not just another closure of a media outlet,” said Lokman Tsui, a former journalism professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This is part of a larger project by the government of dismantling all critical media, of all independent media in Hong Kong.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/article/hong-ko ... 778d3e6de3
Revolt in Kazakhstan: What’s Happening, and Why It Matters
As protests in the oil-rich Central Asian country gain momentum, the events threaten to reverberate across the region.
Protests in Kazakhstan sparked by anger over surging fuel prices have intensified into something more combustible and bloody: clashes over the future direction of the country that have prompted a Russian-led military intervention and the killing of dozens of antigovernment demonstrators. Hundreds more have been injured.
The thousands of angry protesters who have taken to the streets of Kazakhstan have created the biggest crisis to shake the autocratic Central Asian country since it gained independence in 1991. City Hall in Almaty, the country’s largest city, was set ablaze. An angry mob took over the airport. Protesters set fire to police vehicles and to the regional branch of the ruling Nur Otan party.
The police, in turn, accused demonstrators of being responsible for the death of 13 officers and leaving 353 injured.
The events are a stark challenge to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev less than three years into his rule and are destabilizing an already volatile region where Russia and the United States compete for influence.
The protests also reflect widespread discontent about Kazakhstan’s suffocating authoritarian government and with endemic corruption that has resulted in wealth being concentrated within a small political and economic elite.
What led to the protests?
Anger boiled over when the government lifted price caps for liquefied petroleum gas — frequently referred to by its initials, L.P.G. — a low-carbon fuel that many Kazakhs use to power their cars. But the protests have more deep-seated roots, including anger at social and economic disparities, aggravated by a raging pandemic, as well the lack of real democracy. The average salary in Kazakhstan is the equivalent of $570 a month, according to the government’s statistics, but many people earn far less.
What do the protesters want?
As the protests have intensified, the demands of the demonstrators have expanded in scope from lower fuel prices to a broader political liberalization. Among the changes they seek is an election system for regional leaders, who are currently appointed by the president.
In short, protesters are demanding the ouster of the political forces that have ruled the country without any substantial opposition since 1991.
Why does unrest in Kazakhstan matter to the region and the world?
Sandwiched between Russia and China, Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country, bigger than the whole of Western Europe, though with a population of just 19 million.
The latest demonstrations matter because the country has been regarded until now as a pillar of political and economic stability in an unstable region, even as that stability has come at the price of a repressive government that stifles dissent.
The protests are also significant as Kazakhstan has been aligned with Russia, whose president, Vladimir V. Putin, views the country — a body double of sorts for Russia in terms of its economic and political systems — as part of Russia’s sphere of influence.
The intervention by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian version of NATO, is the first time that its protection clause has been invoked, a move that could potentially have sweeping consequences for geopolitics in the region.
For the Kremlin, the events represent another possible challenge to autocratic power in a neighboring country. This is the third uprising against an authoritarian, Kremlin-aligned nation, following pro-democracy protests in Ukraine in 2014 and in Belarus in 2020. The chaos threatens to undermine Moscow’s sway in the region at a time when Russia is trying to assert its economic and geopolitical power in countries like Ukraine and Belarus.
The countries of the former Soviet Union are also watching the protests closely, and the events in Kazakhstan could help energize opposition forces elsewhere.
Kazakhstan also matters to the United States, as it has become a significant country for American energy concerns, with Exxon Mobil and Chevron having invested tens of billions of dollars in western Kazakhstan, the region where the unrest began this month.
Although it has close ties with Moscow, consecutive Kazakh governments have also maintained close links to the United States, with oil investment seen as a counterweight to Russian influence. The United States government has long been less critical of post-Soviet authoritarianism in Kazakhstan than in Russia and Belarus.
How has the government responded to the protests?
Mr. Tokayev, the Kazakh president, has called the protesters “a band of terrorists,” declared Kazakhstan under attack and asked the Russian-led military alliance to intervene. The government has also tried to quell the demonstrations by instituting a state of emergency and blocking social networking sites and chat apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and, for the first time, the Chinese app WeChat. Public protests without permits were already illegal. It also initially conceded to a few of the demonstrators’ demands, dismissing the cabinet and announcing the possible dissolution of Parliament, which would result in new elections. But its moves have so far failed to tame discontent.
Image
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan in New York in 2019.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan in New York in 2019.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Who are the main political players in the country?
Less than three years ago, Kazakhstan’s aging president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, now 81, resigned. A former steelworker and Communist Party leader, he rose to power in Kazakhstan in 1989, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. During his rule, he attracted enormous investments from foreign energy companies to develop the nation’s oil reserves, which, at an estimated 30 billion barrels, are among the largest of all the former Soviet republics.
The last surviving president in Central Asia to have steered his country to independence after the Soviet Union collapsed, he handed power in 2019 to Mr. Tokayev, then speaker of the Upper House of the Parliament and a former prime minister and foreign minister.
Mr. Tokayev is widely perceived as the handpicked successor of Mr. Nazarbayev, who until recently was thought to wield considerable power, holding the title “Leader of the Nation” and serving as chairman of the country’s Security Council. But the revolt could be a decisive break with his rule. On Wednesday Mr. Tokayev dismissed Mr. Nazarbayev from his post as chairman of the council.
The new president, until now a loyalist, has been trying to carve out a stronger role for himself. That, in turn, has disoriented Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy and elites, and contributed to the government’s slow reaction to the protesters’ demands, analysts say.
Is the Kazakh government stable?
During his three-decade long rule, Mr. Nazarbayev won repeated elections with nearly 100 percent of the vote each time, often jailing political opponents or journalists who criticized him. Kazakhstan elected Mr. Tokayev in June 2019, but with lopsided election results in a tightly controlled vote marred by hundreds of detentions of demonstrators.
The election was denounced as unfair by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The result and the heavy-handed police action against peaceful protesters at the time suggested that while the country’s veteran leader had relinquished the presidency, the system he established during his long rule remained firmly in place.
Since coming to power, Mr. Tokayev has sought to promote a somewhat softer image than his predecessor and mentor. But human rights advocates say the autocratic structure built by his predecessor has proved resilient — until now, at least.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/worl ... 778d3e6de3
As protests in the oil-rich Central Asian country gain momentum, the events threaten to reverberate across the region.
Protests in Kazakhstan sparked by anger over surging fuel prices have intensified into something more combustible and bloody: clashes over the future direction of the country that have prompted a Russian-led military intervention and the killing of dozens of antigovernment demonstrators. Hundreds more have been injured.
The thousands of angry protesters who have taken to the streets of Kazakhstan have created the biggest crisis to shake the autocratic Central Asian country since it gained independence in 1991. City Hall in Almaty, the country’s largest city, was set ablaze. An angry mob took over the airport. Protesters set fire to police vehicles and to the regional branch of the ruling Nur Otan party.
The police, in turn, accused demonstrators of being responsible for the death of 13 officers and leaving 353 injured.
The events are a stark challenge to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev less than three years into his rule and are destabilizing an already volatile region where Russia and the United States compete for influence.
The protests also reflect widespread discontent about Kazakhstan’s suffocating authoritarian government and with endemic corruption that has resulted in wealth being concentrated within a small political and economic elite.
What led to the protests?
Anger boiled over when the government lifted price caps for liquefied petroleum gas — frequently referred to by its initials, L.P.G. — a low-carbon fuel that many Kazakhs use to power their cars. But the protests have more deep-seated roots, including anger at social and economic disparities, aggravated by a raging pandemic, as well the lack of real democracy. The average salary in Kazakhstan is the equivalent of $570 a month, according to the government’s statistics, but many people earn far less.
What do the protesters want?
As the protests have intensified, the demands of the demonstrators have expanded in scope from lower fuel prices to a broader political liberalization. Among the changes they seek is an election system for regional leaders, who are currently appointed by the president.
In short, protesters are demanding the ouster of the political forces that have ruled the country without any substantial opposition since 1991.
Why does unrest in Kazakhstan matter to the region and the world?
Sandwiched between Russia and China, Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country, bigger than the whole of Western Europe, though with a population of just 19 million.
The latest demonstrations matter because the country has been regarded until now as a pillar of political and economic stability in an unstable region, even as that stability has come at the price of a repressive government that stifles dissent.
The protests are also significant as Kazakhstan has been aligned with Russia, whose president, Vladimir V. Putin, views the country — a body double of sorts for Russia in terms of its economic and political systems — as part of Russia’s sphere of influence.
The intervention by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian version of NATO, is the first time that its protection clause has been invoked, a move that could potentially have sweeping consequences for geopolitics in the region.
For the Kremlin, the events represent another possible challenge to autocratic power in a neighboring country. This is the third uprising against an authoritarian, Kremlin-aligned nation, following pro-democracy protests in Ukraine in 2014 and in Belarus in 2020. The chaos threatens to undermine Moscow’s sway in the region at a time when Russia is trying to assert its economic and geopolitical power in countries like Ukraine and Belarus.
The countries of the former Soviet Union are also watching the protests closely, and the events in Kazakhstan could help energize opposition forces elsewhere.
Kazakhstan also matters to the United States, as it has become a significant country for American energy concerns, with Exxon Mobil and Chevron having invested tens of billions of dollars in western Kazakhstan, the region where the unrest began this month.
Although it has close ties with Moscow, consecutive Kazakh governments have also maintained close links to the United States, with oil investment seen as a counterweight to Russian influence. The United States government has long been less critical of post-Soviet authoritarianism in Kazakhstan than in Russia and Belarus.
How has the government responded to the protests?
Mr. Tokayev, the Kazakh president, has called the protesters “a band of terrorists,” declared Kazakhstan under attack and asked the Russian-led military alliance to intervene. The government has also tried to quell the demonstrations by instituting a state of emergency and blocking social networking sites and chat apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and, for the first time, the Chinese app WeChat. Public protests without permits were already illegal. It also initially conceded to a few of the demonstrators’ demands, dismissing the cabinet and announcing the possible dissolution of Parliament, which would result in new elections. But its moves have so far failed to tame discontent.
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President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan in New York in 2019.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan in New York in 2019.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Who are the main political players in the country?
Less than three years ago, Kazakhstan’s aging president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, now 81, resigned. A former steelworker and Communist Party leader, he rose to power in Kazakhstan in 1989, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. During his rule, he attracted enormous investments from foreign energy companies to develop the nation’s oil reserves, which, at an estimated 30 billion barrels, are among the largest of all the former Soviet republics.
The last surviving president in Central Asia to have steered his country to independence after the Soviet Union collapsed, he handed power in 2019 to Mr. Tokayev, then speaker of the Upper House of the Parliament and a former prime minister and foreign minister.
Mr. Tokayev is widely perceived as the handpicked successor of Mr. Nazarbayev, who until recently was thought to wield considerable power, holding the title “Leader of the Nation” and serving as chairman of the country’s Security Council. But the revolt could be a decisive break with his rule. On Wednesday Mr. Tokayev dismissed Mr. Nazarbayev from his post as chairman of the council.
The new president, until now a loyalist, has been trying to carve out a stronger role for himself. That, in turn, has disoriented Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy and elites, and contributed to the government’s slow reaction to the protesters’ demands, analysts say.
Is the Kazakh government stable?
During his three-decade long rule, Mr. Nazarbayev won repeated elections with nearly 100 percent of the vote each time, often jailing political opponents or journalists who criticized him. Kazakhstan elected Mr. Tokayev in June 2019, but with lopsided election results in a tightly controlled vote marred by hundreds of detentions of demonstrators.
The election was denounced as unfair by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The result and the heavy-handed police action against peaceful protesters at the time suggested that while the country’s veteran leader had relinquished the presidency, the system he established during his long rule remained firmly in place.
Since coming to power, Mr. Tokayev has sought to promote a somewhat softer image than his predecessor and mentor. But human rights advocates say the autocratic structure built by his predecessor has proved resilient — until now, at least.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/worl ... 778d3e6de3