U.S. suspends travel from Europe as coronavirus forces Italy to tighten lockdown - Reuters

WASHINGTON/GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States will suspend all passenger travel from continental Europe on Friday to limit the spread of the coronavirus after the outbreak was formally declared a pandemic, sending global markets into a tailspin.

Trump announced the travel ban on live television along with emergency funds to boost the U.S. economy, saying: “This is not a financial crisis. This is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome together as a nation and as a world.”

Global markets plunged immediately after the announcement, with the U.S. S&P500 futures ESc1 down more than 3%, and Japan’s Nikkei and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 down more than 4%. The dollar lost 1% against the yen.

Trump’s announcement came after Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe, enacted the most severe controls on a Western nation since World War Two, shutting bars, hairdressers and restaurants along with other restrictions already in place.

Other countries closed schools and canceled sports events and other big gatherings. The National Basketball Association suspended the season after a Utah Jazz player tested positive.

U.S. actor Tom Hanks said he and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, had tested positive after they felt tired with slight fevers in Australia, where he is working on a film.

“To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the coronavirus and were found to be positive,” Hanks, 63, said in a tweet.

He said that he and Wilson, also 63, would be “tested, observed and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires.”

The virus sent the Dow into a bear market for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis as the massive financial stimulus promised by governments around the globe failed to reassure investors.

The United States, which has reported 1,281 cases and 37 deaths, has yet to enact any large-scale containment measures, but major sporting and music events have either been canceled or postponed.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City has been canceled, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday. The parade, usually held on March 17th, attracts millions of spectators along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland. The tradition dates back to 1762.

The U.S. travel restrictions on Europe would apply from midnight on Friday, Trump said, adding that similar restrictions on travelers from China and South Korea had helped limit the spread of the virus. The curbs would not apply to travelers from the United Kingdom nor to cargo from Europe.

“We are at a critical time in the fight against the virus. We made a lifesaving move with early action on China. Now we must take the same action with Europe. We will not delay,” said Trump, who had previously downplayed the risks from coronavirus.

There are 126,000 coronavirus cases globally, including more than 4,600 confirmed fatalities, according to a Reuters tally. There were almost 7,000 cases reported in the past day, far surpassing the average daily amount reported in China during the virus’ initial peak.

Wall Street stocks plunged almost 5% before Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, and already skittish investors awaiting details on U.S. measures were unnerved by news that the White House ordered federal health officials to treat dozens of virus-related meetings as classified.

Meanwhile in Europe, Denmark shut all schools and universities after a 10-fold rise in cases since Monday, and strain is mounting on Italy’s healthcare system despite all efforts to contain the outbreak.

The new restrictions in Italy came after confirmed cases rose to 12,462 on Wednesday, from a previous 10,149, with the death toll jumping by 196 in 24 hours to 827.

The country’s 60 million people are under lockdown. “We will only be able to see the effects of this great effort in a couple of weeks,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said.

People walk through the international terminal at LAX airport in front of a Korean Air plane in Los Angeles, California, U.S., amid reports of the coronavirus, March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said up to 70% of the population was likely to be infected as the virus spreads around the world in the absence of a cure.

Cuba confirmed its first case and, in the Middle East, Qatar reported 238 more coronavirus infections among expatriates under quarantine in a residential compound.

PANDEMIC

While China has seen its outbreak slow dramatically, the number of cases outside China has risen 13-fold in the past two weeks, and the number of countries affected tripled, with Iran and Italy the worst-hit countries in the Middle East and Europe.

“Italy and Iran are in the frontline and are suffering but other countries will be in that situation very soon,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) described the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic for the first time on Wednesday but use of the word pandemic does not change the agency’s response, said Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of the Geneva-based agency’s emergencies program.

He also said there was “a strong element of controllability” and “a real chance to blunt the curve... and reduce the number of cases”.

In Tokyo, the pandemic classification fueled concern over how the coronavirus will affect the Summer Olympic Games, scheduled to start July 24.

For now, cancellation remained unthinkable, Kyodo News quoted Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike as saying.

Slideshow (6 Images)

EMERGENCY SPENDING

Trump said he would provide financial relief for workers who are ill, quarantined or caring for others due to the illness, among other financial measures to prop up businesses and individuals affected.

He said more than $200 billion of additional liquidity to the economy would come from the Treasury Department deferring tax payments without interest or penalties for certain individuals and businesses negatively impacted by coronavirus.

Britain launched a 30 billion-pound ($38.54 billion) economic stimulus plan as new finance minister Rishi Sunak said the economy faced a “significant impact” from the spread of the virus, even if it was likely to be temporary.

Australia’s government said it would pump A$17.6 billion ($11.4 billion) into the economy, about 1.2% of GDP, to prevent the coronavirus outbreak from pushing the country into its first recession in nearly 30 years.

Additional reporting by Kate Kelland, Paul Sandle and David Milliken in London; David Lawder, Alexandra Alper and Steve Holland in Washington; Dan Whitcomb and Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, Chris Gallagher in Tokyo; Thomas Escritt and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Giuseppe Fonte and Giulia Segreti in Rome; Ryan Woo in Beijing; Renju Jose in Sydney; Writing by Lisa Shumaker and Stephen Coates; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and XX

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2020-03-12 06:35:17Z
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Sixteen more years? Russian parliament backs move to keep Putin in power - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through both houses of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday, raising the prospect he could clock up over three decades in the Kremlin.

FILE PHOTO: Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a session of the lower house of parliament to consider constitutional changes in Moscow, Russia March 10, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Putin, 67, who has dominated Russia’s political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, made a dramatic appearance in the lower chamber a day earlier to argue that term limits were less important in times of crisis.

A former KGB officer, Putin is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. But the amendment which he backed would formally reset his own presidential term tally to zero. Successors would face a two-term limit however.

The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday backed the term reset for Putin, along with other amendments to the constitution, by 383 votes, in a third and final reading. Nobody voted against; 43 lawmakers abstained.

Hours later, the 170-seat Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, gave its approval by 160 votes to one with just three abstentions.

If, as Putin critics expect, regional parliaments and the constitutional court now give their blessing and the overall changes are backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin would have the option to run again for president in 2024.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could potentially stay in office for another two back-to-back six-year terms until 2036 at which point he would be 83 and have spent 36 years at the top of Russian politics.

Such a scenario would see him wield power longer than Soviet leader Josef Stalin, but still leave him well short of Tsar Peter the Great, who reigned for 43 years.

PRESIDENT FOR LIFE?

Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he believed Putin was trying to become president for life.

Putin has not spelled out his plans after 2024, but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of leaders remaining in place until they die.

Opposition politician and former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov said on Wednesday he thought the changes had dealt a mortal blow to the country’s constitution.

“Russia has lost its constitution, which didn’t work anyway,” Gudkov wrote on social media. “The fig leaf has fallen off the regime and we can see who turned out to be beneath it.”

Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin billed as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But Putin’s critics say the reform was merely a smoke screen to give the country’s ruling elite a way to keep Putin in power after 2024.

Opposition activists have said they plan to organize protests as early as Friday. Their plans are complicated however by an order from Moscow’s government which has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people until April 10 due to coronavirus-related risks.

Putin remains popular with many Russians, who see him as a welcome source of stability, even as others complain that he has been in power for too long.

Slideshow (5 Images)

Two people staged lone pickets outside the State Duma on Wednesday. One of them Gleb Tumanov, 31, said he was a member of the Yabloko party, and held a banner calling the move “an usurpation of power.”

“I’m here because of Vladimir Putin’s desire to stay for a fifth term or even maybe a sixth,” said Tumanov.

“It just feels sad. And reminiscent of the Soviet Union. I didn’t spend very much time living in the Soviet Union obviously but neither do I have any desire to do so.”

Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin, Alexander Marrow, Anton Zverev and Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-11 14:40:05Z
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Beijing to quarantine all international arrivals as coronavirus cases rise - New York Post

Beijing on Wednesday ordered people arriving from all other countries into a 14-day quarantine as China — where the coronavirus outbreak first began — is now seeing an increase in imported cases.

Zhang Qiang, a city government official, said at a Wednesday press conference that even those landing from “non-epidemic countries” will need to go into a 14-day quarantine.

The sprawling capital city had already required quarantine for people arriving from hard-hit countries including South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan.

China’s President Xi Jingping visited Wuhan — the original epicenter of COVID-19 — on Tuesday and declared that it had “basically curbed” the spread of the disease.

The number of new infections had been on the downturn in recent weeks, but saw a slight uptick Wednesday because of an increase in imported cases.

Travelers arriving in Beijing for business trips must stay in a designated hotel and undergo a nucleic acid test for the virus, Zhang said.

People flying into Beijing Capital International Airport from high-risk countries are now handled separately from other arrivals, state media reported Tuesday.

Flights from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan will arrive at a designated area of the terminal, an airport staff member told Agence France-Presse Wednesday.

Travelers needing to be quarantined will be sent to the nearby New China International Exhibition Center, the staffer said.

Cases in Wuhan fell to a new low Wednesday, with 13 infections reported Wednesday, and only one other non-imported case recorded elsewhere in the country.

Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei have been under lockdown since late January in an unprecedented effort to keep 56 million people from traveling to other parts of China.

Twenty-two more deaths and 24 new cases were reported nationwide Wednesday, according to the National Health Commission.

Ten of those cases came from abroad — the majority from Italy, which has seen the greatest number of infections outside China.

In total, China has now reported 79 coronavirus cases imported from abroad.

Overall, 81,000 people have been infected in China since the start of the outbreak, with a large majority already recovered. A total of 3,158 people had died by Wednesday.

The outbreak has spread to over 100 countries, and killed more than 4,000 worldwide.

With Post wires

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2020-03-11 13:06:00Z
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Russian parliament backs changes allowing Putin to run again for president - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, opening the way for him to potentially stay in power until 2036.

Screens display the vote results during a session of Russia's lower house of parliament, which give an approval to constitutional changes in a final reading in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Putin, 67, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, made a dramatic appearance in the chamber a day earlier to argue that term limits were less important in times of crisis.

Putin, a former KGB officer, is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. But the amendment which he backed would formally reset his presidential term tally to zero.

The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of the change, along with other amendments to the constitution, by 383 votes, in a third and final reading. Nobody voted against, but 43 lawmakers abstained. Twenty-four lawmakers were absent.

If, as Putin critics expect, the constitutional court now gives its blessing to the amendment and it is backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin would have the option to run again for president in 2024.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could potentially stay in office for another two back-to-back six-year terms until 2036 at which point he would be 83 and have spent 36 years at the top of Russian politics.

Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he believes Putin will now try to become president for life.

Putin has not spelled out what his plans for the future are after 2024, but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

PROTEST PICKETS

Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin billed as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But Putin’s critics say the reform was merely a smoke screen to give the country’s ruling elite a way to keep Putin in power after 2024.

Opposition activists have said they plan to organize protests as early as Friday against the move to allow Putin to stay on. Their plans are complicated however by an order from Moscow’s government which has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people until April 10 due to coronavirus-related risks.

Two people staged lone pickets outside the State Duma on Wednesday. One of them Gleb Tumanov, 31, said he was a member of the Yabloko party, and held a banner calling the move “an usurpation of power.”

“I’m here because of Vladimir Putin’s desire to stay for a fifth term or even maybe a sixth,” said Tumanov.

“It just feels sad. And reminiscent of the Soviet Union. I didn’t spend very much time living in the Soviet Union obviously but neither do I have any desire to do so.”

The changes backed by the State Duma on Wednesday will now be reviewed by other parts of the Russian legislative branch, including by Russia’s upper house of parliament later on Wednesday. No significant opposition is expected.

Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin, Alexander Marrow and Anton Zverev; editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-11 11:40:59Z
52780655478142

Russian parliament backs changes allowing Putin to run again for president - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, opening the way for him to potentially stay in power until 2036.

Screens display the vote results during a session of Russia's lower house of parliament, which give an approval to constitutional changes in a final reading in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Putin, 67, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, made a dramatic appearance in the chamber a day earlier to argue that term limits were less important in times of crisis.

Putin, a former KGB officer, is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. But the amendment which he backed would formally reset his presidential term tally to zero.

The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of the change, along with other amendments to the constitution, by 383 votes, in a third and final reading. Nobody voted against, but 43 lawmakers abstained. Twenty-four lawmakers were absent.

If, as Putin critics expect, the constitutional court now gives its blessing to the amendment and it is backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin would have the option to run again for president in 2024.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could potentially stay in office for another two back-to-back six-year terms until 2036 at which point he would be 83 and have spent 36 years at the top of Russian politics.

Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he believes Putin will now try to become president for life.

Putin has not spelled out what his plans for the future are after 2024, but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

PROTEST PICKETS

Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin billed as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But Putin’s critics say the reform was merely a smoke screen to give the country’s ruling elite a way to keep Putin in power after 2024.

Opposition activists have said they plan to organize protests as early as Friday against the move to allow Putin to stay on. Their plans are complicated however by an order from Moscow’s government which has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people until April 10 due to coronavirus-related risks.

Two people staged lone pickets outside the State Duma on Wednesday. One of them Gleb Tumanov, 31, said he was a member of the Yabloko party, and held a banner calling the move “an usurpation of power.”

“I’m here because of Vladimir Putin’s desire to stay for a fifth term or even maybe a sixth,” said Tumanov.

“It just feels sad. And reminiscent of the Soviet Union. I didn’t spend very much time living in the Soviet Union obviously but neither do I have any desire to do so.”

The changes backed by the State Duma on Wednesday will now be reviewed by other parts of the Russian legislative branch, including by Russia’s upper house of parliament later on Wednesday. No significant opposition is expected.

Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin, Alexander Marrow and Anton Zverev; editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-11 10:52:12Z
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Russian parliament backs changes allowing Putin to run again for president - Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Constitutional changes allowing Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2024 sailed through Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, opening the way for him to potentially stay in power until 2036.

Screens display the vote results during a session of Russia's lower house of parliament, which give an approval to constitutional changes in a final reading in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Putin, 67, who has dominated the Russian political landscape for two decades as either president or prime minister, made a dramatic appearance in the chamber a day earlier to argue that term limits were less important in times of crisis.

Putin, a former KGB officer, is currently required by the constitution to step down in 2024 when his second sequential and fourth presidential term ends. But the amendment which he backed would formally reset his presidential term tally to zero.

The 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of the change, along with other amendments to the constitution, by 383 votes, in a third and final reading. Nobody voted against, but 43 lawmakers abstained. Twenty-four lawmakers were absent.

If, as Putin critics expect, the constitutional court now gives its blessing to the amendment and it is backed in a nationwide vote in April, Putin would have the option to run again for president in 2024.

Were he to do that, and his health and electoral fortunes allowed, he could potentially stay in office for another two back-to-back six-year terms until 2036 at which point he would be 83 and have spent 36 years at the top of Russian politics.

Kremlin critic and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said he believes Putin will now try to become president for life.

Putin has not spelled out what his plans for the future are after 2024, but has said he does not favor the Soviet-era practice of having leaders for life who die in office.

PROTEST PICKETS

Putin in January unveiled a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin billed as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.

But Putin’s critics say the reform was merely a smoke screen to give the country’s ruling elite a way to keep Putin in power after 2024.

Opposition activists have said they plan to organize protests as early as Friday against the move to allow Putin to stay on. Their plans are complicated however by an order from Moscow’s government which has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000 people until April 10 due to coronavirus-related risks.

Two people staged lone pickets outside the State Duma on Wednesday. One of them Gleb Tumanov, 31, said he was a member of the Yabloko party, and held a banner calling the move “an usurpation of power.”

“I’m here because of Vladimir Putin’s desire to stay for a fifth term or even maybe a sixth,” said Tumanov.

“It just feels sad. And reminiscent of the Soviet Union. I didn’t spend very much time living in the Soviet Union obviously but neither do I have any desire to do so.”

The changes backed by the State Duma on Wednesday will now be reviewed by other parts of the Russian legislative branch, including by Russia’s upper house of parliament later on Wednesday. No significant opposition is expected.

Additional reporting by Andrey Kuzmin, Alexander Marrow and Anton Zverev; editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-11 10:39:46Z
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China wants to take a victory lap over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak - CNN

Speaking Friday, Wang Zhonglin, party chief of Wuhan, the virus-hit capital of Hubei province, said that people in the city -- much of which remains on lockdown -- were not appreciative enough.

It is necessary, Wang reportedly said, "to carry out gratitude education among the citizens of the whole city, so that they thank (President Xi Jinping), thank the Chinese Communist Party, heed the party, walk with the party, and create strong positive energy."

His comments attracted widespread criticism online, and have since been mostly scrubbed by the censors, though some state media reports including the quote remain accessible. Yet while Wang appears to have gone too far in the eyes of many -- creating a public relations headache the propaganda apparatus had to clean up -- the sentiment he was expressing is nevertheless widely shared.

As the coronavirus spreads around the world, China has been increasingly vocal about what it appears to feel is a lack of appreciation from the global community for its efforts to contain the outbreak, and preventing the crisis from being even worse than it may turn out to be.

The first cases of the virus were reported in Wuhan late last year, and since then China has borne the brunt of the outbreak, with almost three quarters of the more than 110,000 or so confirmed global cases in mainland China. More than 3,000 people have died due to the virus in China, with the majority in Hubei province. Hundreds of millions of people have also been placed under lockdown, while others have been unable to return to work due to travel restrictions.

Those containment efforts do appear to have been successful, with the number of new cases slowing to a trickle in recent weeks, as new outbreaks continued to emerge worldwide.

Underlining how much a corner has been turned in China, Xi himself arrived in Wuhan Tuesday for an inspection tour, his first since the outbreak began. While other senior officials have visited the city previously, it was thought that it was too risky for Xi to go himself until now, emphasizing how confident the government is that the outbreak is under control.

'A responsible country'

State media and top officials have begun pushing back hard on external criticism of Beijing's handling of the virus, both the seemingly flippant -- like Fox News host Jesse Watters demanding China apologize for the virus itself -- to the more substantial, such as widespread concerns over the government's apparent mishandling of the virus when it emerged in Wuhan.

"In its efforts to fight off the epidemic, China has conducted itself as a responsible country," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said last week in response to the Watters video. "China's signature strength, efficiency and speed in this fight has been widely acclaimed. To protect the health and safety of people across the world, the Chinese people have made huge sacrifice and major contributions."

Zhao pointed to the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which "broke out in the US" (the first cases were actually in Mexico) before spreading to hundreds of other countries, killing hundreds of thousands of people. "I don't remember anyone asking the US to apologize," he said.

State broadcaster CGTN also linked coronavirus to the US swine flu outbreak, while Global Times, a state-backed tabloid, accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of attempting to "pass the buck" to China by criticizing Beijing's handling of the virus.

"As the chief US diplomat, Pompeo insisted on speaking of the 'Wuhan virus' despite the opposition of (the World Health Organization) and international public opinion, in an attempt to arouse resentment among those affected countries against China," the paper said in an editorial. "Pompeo's move not only exposes malicious US intentions toward China without regard to common sense, but also hits a new low in his personal conduct."

Pompeo told CNBC last week that it had been "incredibly frustrating" to work with the Chinese government to obtain data on the coronavirus, "which will ultimately be the solution to both getting the vaccine and attacking this risk."

He blamed the initial response to the virus -- during which Chinese officials appeared to downplay information about its severity -- as putting the US "behind the curve" in coming up with a response.

Controlling the narrative

The angry response to Fox News host Watters and Secretary of State Pompeo, as well as the expulsion last month of three Wall Street Journal reporters over the headline of an opinion piece about the virus, highlights Beijing's sensitivities over how it is perceived to be handling the outbreak.

Only a month ago, Beijing was dealing with widespread public anger over the death of whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang. Li had attempted to warn university classmates about a new SARS-like virus spreading in Wuhan, only to be reprimanded by police for spreading "rumors." He later died of the virus after contracting it while helping with relief efforts.

China's massive censorship and propaganda apparatus struggled to contain the reaction, and eventually several top Wuhan and Hubei officials were fired.

The public anger over Li's death and the authorities' response remains close to the surface, as the reaction to the comments made by Wang, the Wuhan party chief, showed (he eventually backtracked, thanking the "heroic Wuhan people" for their sacrifice Sunday). This week, the censors have again struggled to contain a story about another Wuhan doctor, who reportedly informed colleagues like Li about a spike in cases caused by a coronavirus.

An interview with Dr. Ai Fen in a prominent Chinese magazine was scrubbed shortly after publication, but on major Chinese social media platforms, users have reposted it over and again as censors try to delete it, including coming up with creative ways to display it in an attempt to avoid automatic deletion, such as writing the text backwards or vertically, or in braille or emojis. Some users described it as a "relay race" to try and stay one step ahead of the censors.

This shows the major challenge Beijing is facing over the coronavirus even as the caseload itself comes under control. By externalizing criticism, China's government may be able to further rally the country behind its leaders.

Given that sentiment in the US already appears hostile towards China, off the back of a drawn-out trade war and military rivalry, Beijing could also be worried about its initial mishandling of the outbreak becoming an election year issue.

And in setting out its line on where blame should lie, or not, China is potentially getting ahead of any future criticism as the virus spreads worldwide, killing hundreds more and sending global markets into a dangerous negative spiral.

The Chinese people have paid a tremendous cost in the past few months, that any gratitude owed by the world is to them, and not the government, is not something many officials seem willing to contemplate.

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiVGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAyMC8wMy8xMC9hc2lhL2NoaW5hLWNvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXByb3BhZ2FuZGEtaW50bC1obmsvaW5kZXguaHRtbNIBWGh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmNubi5jb20vY25uLzIwMjAvMDMvMTAvYXNpYS9jaGluYS1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1wcm9wYWdhbmRhLWludGwtaG5rL2luZGV4Lmh0bWw?oc=5

2020-03-11 04:44:00Z
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