BEIJING (REUTERS) - A district of Beijing was on a “wartime” footing and the capital banned tourism on Saturday (June 13) after a cluster of coronavirus infections centred on a major wholesale market sparked fears of a new wave of Covid-19.
Chu Junwei, an official of Beijing’s south-western Fengtai district, told a briefing on Saturday that the district was in “wartime emergency mode”.
Throat swabs from 45 people, out of 517 tested at the district’s Xinfadi wholesale market, had tested positive for coronavirus, though none of them showed symptoms of Covid-19, Chu said.
A city spokesman told the briefing that all six Covid-19 patients confirmed in Beijing on Friday had visited the Xinfadi market.
The capital will suspend sports events and inter-provincial tourism effective immediately, he said.
One person at an agricultural market in the city’s north-western Haidian district also tested positive for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 without showing symptoms, Chu said.
As part of measures to curb the spread of the virus, Fengtai district said it had locked down 11 neighbourhoods in the vicinity of the market.
The authorities closed the Xinfadi market at 3am on Saturday, after two men working at a meat research centre who had recently visited the market were reported on Friday to have been infected.
It was not immediately clear how the men had been infected.
“Preliminary judgment suggests these cases may have come into contact with a contaminated environment in the market, or were infected after being in contact with infected people. We cannot rule out subsequent cases in the future,” said Pang Xinghuo, an official at the Beijing Center for Disease Control.
Beijing authorities had earlier halted beef and mutton trading at the Xinfadi market, alongside closures at other wholesale markets around the city.
Reflecting concerns over the risk of further spread of the virus, major supermarkets in Beijing removed salmon from their shelves overnight after the virus causing Covid-19 was discovered on chopping boards used for imported salmon at the market, the state-owned Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Beijing authorities said more than 10,000 people at the market will take nucleic acid tests to determine coronavirus infections.
The city government also said it had dropped plans to reopen schools on Monday (June 15) for students in grades one through three because of the new cases.
Health authorities visited the home of a Reuters reporter in Beijing’s Dongcheng district on Saturday to ask whether she had visited the Xinfadi market, which is 15km away. They said the visit was part of patrols Dongcheng was conducting.
China reported 11 new Covid-19 cases and seven asymptomatic infections of the virus for Friday, the national health authority said on Saturday. All six locally transmitted cases were confirmed in Beijing.
The coronavirus was first detected at a seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, in December.
SHANGHAI: Eleven residential estates in south Beijing were locked down and a wholesale market shuttered due to a fresh cluster of COVID-19 cases, officials said on Saturday Jun 13).
Seven cases have so far been linked to Xinfadi wholesale market, six of them confirmed on Saturday, officials said. Nine nearby schools and kindergartens have been closed.
The closure of the market came after two men working at a meat research centre who had recently visited the market were reported on Friday as having been infected by COVID-19.
Concern is growing of a second wave of the new virus, even in many countries that seemed to have curbed its spread. It was first reported at a seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, in December.
People are wearing face masks inside the Jingshen seafood market which has been closed for business after new coronavirus infections were detected, in Beijing, China, June 12, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Beijing authorities had earlier halted beef and mutton trading at the Xinfadi market, alongside closures at other wholesale markets around the city.
The chairman of the Xinfadi market told state-run Beijing News that the virus was detected on chopping boards used to handle imported salmon.
Reflecting concerns over the risk of further spread of the virus, major supermarkets in Beijing removed all stocks of salmon from their shelves overnight.
People are wearing face masks inside the Jingshen seafood market which has been closed for business after new coronavirus infections were detected, in Beijing, China, June 12, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Beijing authorities said more than 10,000 people at the market will take nucleic acid tests to detect coronavirus infections. The city government also said it had dropped plans to reopen schools on Monday for students in grades one through three because of the new cases.
It also said restaurants would be inspected and checks made on seafood products and fresh and frozen meats.
A security guard wearing a face mask tries to block the camera outside the Jingshen seafood market which has been closed for business after new coronavirus infections were detected, in Beijing, China June 12, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
The first new case in Beijing after two months - who had no recent travel history outside the city - was reported on Thursday.
China reported 11 new COVID-19 cases and seven asymptomatic cases for Friday, the national health authority said on Saturday.
Five of the new confirmed patients were imported cases involving travellers from overseas, with the remaining six locally transmitted cases all in Beijing.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in China now stands at 83,075, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
China does not count asymptomatic patients, who are infected with the virus but do not display symptoms, as confirmed cases.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil on Friday (Jun 12) claimed the unenviable position of having the second-highest coronavirus death toll in the world behind the United States, where several states have posted record daily case totals, signalling the crisis is far from over.
Brazil's health ministry recorded 909 deaths in the past 24 hours, putting the total at 41,828 - meaning the country of 212 million people has surpassed Britain in terms of virus-linked fatalities.
Experts warn the actual number of cases in Latin America's biggest economy could be many times higher than the confirmed figure of 828,810.
Brazil has emerged as a new epicentre in the world's battle with the novel coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year.
The country's President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the deadly virus as a "little flu", and berated state officials for their virus lockdowns.
In Central and South America, more than 1.5 million people have been infected - and more than 70,000 of them have died - with no signs of the disease slowing.
But in the US, which has confirmed the most virus deaths at more than 114,000, more than a dozen states including two of the most populous, Texas and Florida, reported their highest-ever daily case totals this week.
"It's important that we remember that this situation is unprecedented. And that the pandemic has not ended," Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a media briefing on Friday.
Nevertheless, US President Donald Trump and many local officials are unbowed in their determination to get the world's biggest economy back on track.
The virus and resulting lockdowns have caused a spike in US unemployment - 44.2 million people have filed claims for jobless benefits since mid-March.
On Wall Street, stocks finished a topsy-turvy session solidly higher, following the European markets. But investors were still worried about increasing US case numbers.
Worldwide, the pandemic has killed more than 422,000 people and infected more than 7.5 million.
In the country's northern Lombardy region, an investigation has been launched into why a quarantined "red zone" was not enforced around two towns sooner.
And in Bergamo province, 50 family members of coronavirus victims filed complaints this week, the first such legal group action in Italy, over how the crisis was handled.
"All investigations are welcome. The citizens have the right to know and we have the right to reply," Conte said this week.
Elsewhere, British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair launched legal action against the British government over a "flawed" 14-day coronavirus quarantine system introduced this week.
EUROPE'S REOPENING
Europe is also pushing ahead with its exit from lockdown, with a number of countries preparing to reopen borders on a limited basis on Monday after the EU Commission urged a relaxation of restrictions.
French soldiers were deployed to help out during the virus lockdown. (Photo: AFP/Sebastien Bozon)
Greece said it would welcome tourists again, although Britons remain barred - and passengers from Italy, Spain and the Netherlands must undergo tests on arrival.
Germany said it would end land border checks on Monday.
And Italy said it would allow amateur contact sports - including team sports - from June 25.
'FIGHT IS NOT OVER'
Yet world health officials have warned that the virus is far from contained.
"The fight is not over," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.
"Most people remain susceptible to this virus and the threat of resurgence remains very real."
In China, Beijing said on Friday it would delay primary school students returning to class after three new cases emerged in the capital - the first after two months of no reported infections there.
China has largely brought domestic infections under control since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan, and the majority of cases in recent months have been among overseas nationals returning home.
In India, experts are warning the country is still a long way from reaching its virus peak.
Deaths from coronavirus in New Delhi are almost twice as high as official figures show, a city leader said.
SINGAPORE: Two months ago, when the most senior mainland official in Hong Kong openly urged that national security legislation be imposed “as soon as possible”, the writing was already on the wall.
On May 28, China’s highest lawmaking authority, the National People’s Congress (NPC), followed through. It voted for plans to draft legislation that would punish secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and acts that endanger “national security”.
All this was déjà vu for observers like myself. The last proposed security bill triggered unprecedented mass demonstrations in July 2003.
Hong Kong society had been deeply unhappy with the economic downturn and poor handling of the SARS epidemic earlier that year — perhaps an eerie parallel to recent events.
With about half-a-million people marching on the streets, a record-setting turnout at the time, the bill simply had to be withdrawn. It led to the exits of several top government officials, while sending then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa’s public standing into an irreversible decline.
The bill became so toxic, subsequent governments equivocated on the idea of pursuing it. That is until Beijing finally decided to take matters into its own hands.
The current security proposal appears to have expanded the scope set prior in the 2003 bill. Notably, it will outlaw not only “acts” but also “activities” deemed a security threat, applying to both organisations and individuals.
Further, critics argue the legislation will cast aside existing restrictions over the presence of mainland security agents in Hong Kong. Chinese security agencies may set up permanent branches to operate in the name of national security.
But much will ride on the details of the legislation, and the NPC Standing Committee has been charged with formulating them.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam wearing a face mask following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak attends the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China May 22, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
The timing of the national security bill unfortunately coincided with an important date for Hong Kong’s civil society, rousing many sensitivities. Many had been gearing up for the annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the Jun 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.
Despite police banning vigils this year out of COVID-19 fears, thousands gathered in Victoria Park to pay their respects.
In any normal year, approving such a controversial bill so close to the Tiananmen anniversary would be tempting fate. So why is Beijing pursuing this now, of all times?
With the virus situation slowly improving and summer holidays on the horizon in Hong Kong, protesters are bound to head back to the streets. Frustration over the extradition bill and police action to protesters in 2019 has not subsided.
In the previous Legislative Council poll in 2016, buoyed by a historic turnout, voters elected several young, radical Beijing sceptics to power. Similarly, pro-Beijing parties suffered landslide losses in last November’s district council election. There are worries of a repeat of events.
Another round of summer protests that risk stoking lasting public anger could reshape the pivotal Legislative Council election set to take place in September.
Indeed, thousands have already turned up in the last few weeks to protest the proposed security bill, as well as another that seeks to criminalise those who insult the Chinese national anthem.
Police have responded with tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons, and arrests — a scene Hong Kongers are familiar with by now.
In Beijing’s eyes, Hong Kong has been a base for foreign subversion and subterfuge. Last year’s chaos was proof of hostile activities by foreign elements that have it out for China, or so the story goes.
Chinese state media and government spokespersons have consistently maintained that “Western ideologues” and “black hands” are seeking to engineer a “colour revolution” in the special administrative region.
About a million people took to the streets of Hong Kong on June 9, 2019 to protest a proposed bill that would allow extradition to mainland China AFP/Philip FONG
More importantly, the anti-extradition bill demonstrations last year have reaffirmed Beijing’s diagnosis that Hong Kong can be an easy entry point for foreign forces to hurt China’s standing by instigating unrest.
To Chinese top leaders, US responses to the protests, such as criticisms of police brutality, meetings with Hong Kong activists and the passing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, as well as its recent decision to strip the city of its US economic privileges confirm that narrative.
Exacerbating China’s siege mentality is the worsening geopolitical outlook. US President Donald Trump has taken aim at China for the coronavirus outbreak.
The China-US trade war is increasingly bruising, while tensions are rising in the South China Sea, not to mention the Taiwan angle coming into play with strong statements made by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
With the world economy failing, domestic unemployment on an uptick, and fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections lingering, it looks likely that Beijing will be extra-vigilant about perceived sources of instability.
Hence, a quick tried-and-tested fix has been prescribed for the “Hong Kong problem,” the city that threatens “the dam of national security”.
Earlier this year, Beijing had set the stage to enhance greater controls over the city and strengthen its pulse over the situation there.
Personnel reshuffles and the reorganisation of Beijing’s liaison office to Hong Kong, including appointing an ally of President Xi Jinping as head and elevating the rank of the party group overseeing the city’s affairs, show that Beijing is paying greater attention to affairs there.
HONG KONGERS’ CONCERNS
Hong Kong’s traditional long-drawn legislative process tends to offer opportunities for public protests. Activists have often turned the legislative building and its surrounding districts into the locus of fierce protests for the reversal of controversial proposals, occasionally successfully.
This happened with the 2003 security law, the 2014 to 2015 electoral reform, and last year’s amendments to the extradition law.
Pro-democracy demonstrators march holding their phones with flashlights on during a protest to mark the first anniversary of a mass rally against the now-withdrawn extradition bill, in Hong Kong, China June 9, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
While going through the NPC to pass such a law is within Beijing’s remit, Hong Kongers are concerned Beijing had chosen to bypass the city’s legislature, removing the possibility of sustained large-scale public opposition.
Hong Kongers are worried about what this bodes for the territory’s relationship with China looking to 2047 when it is fully returned to China.
Many have previously taken Beijing at its word that nothing changes till 2047. More are viewing recent developments as Beijing playing the long game as it prepares the political ground for a smooth and complete takeover.
Plans are also already afoot on the economic and cultural front. The recently unveiled Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area initiative, for instance, would not only pave the way for Hong Kong’s economic and cultural integration with the mainland, it would remind Hong Kongers of their “historic responsibility” to their “motherland”.
To continue pressing their cause in a post-pandemic terrain, protesters are likely to hold fast to the “be water” organising philosophy.
Being diverse and tactically flexible seems to have contributed to the unexpected enduring momentum behind the anti-extradition bill movement.
It will be tremendously difficult for ongoing demonstrations to reach the heights of those in 2019. The possible spread of COVID-19 will dampen the enthusiasm of prospective demonstrators.
Social distancing measures and curbs on large-scale gatherings will remain in some form, limiting the scale of any planned assemblies.
A woman waves a black Hong Kong flag during a candlelight vigil ahead of the 31st anniversary of the crackdown of pro-democracy protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, after police rejects a mass annual vigil on public health grounds, in Hong Kong, China June 3, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Moreover, many Hong Kongers have been disappointed with and demoralised by the government’s response to the protests. Some are even considering voting with their feet and migrating, as the future of Hong Kong becomes ever more uncertain.
With stakes so high on both sides, protests and their consequences in 2020 will probably be bloodier, messier, and more violent.
Yet, there remains a sizable number of moderates committed to peaceful protest. They believe this yields favourable results, but their success remains to be seen.
It is unlikely that public opposition will fizzle out easily.
Upcoming traditional protest events, such as the Jul 1 annual rally, will provide clues on how things are shaping up. They should reveal any shifts in protesters’ persistence and the city authorities’ threshold of tolerance.
But if both Beijing and Hong Kong leaders choose to close off more channels for public expression of demands, some protesters may feel more cornered and more willing to contemplate drastic action.
In that event, overt calls for Hong Kong independence, a hitherto marginal position, may appear at growing frequency and with greater appeal.
Even if claims for independence are unrealistic and lack legal basis (Article 1 of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, states clearly that the city constitutes an “inalienable part” of China), the underlying symbolic vision for a defence of status quo may well catch fire.
Looking beyond, an indirect casualty of this drama is “one country, two systems” as a model for talks of Taiwan’s reunification with mainland China. As it becomes less appealing and less viable for both sides, Beijing’s attempts at reclaiming Taiwan will likely be more forceful.
If so, threats to Chinese national sovereignty could then be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Yew Wei Lit is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale-NUS College.
BEIJING: Zoom has gained a following in China in recent months from users ranging from underground churches to feminists who saw it as a rare way to connect with the world beyond the reach of state censors.
Some fear that window may be closing.
On Friday, Zoom said it had suspended accounts of three US and Hong Kong activists at Beijing's request after they tried to commemorate the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, but that they had since been reactivated. The US company also said it was developing technology to enable it to remove or block participants based on geography.
The Chinese government heavily regulates the Internet, in a system widely dubbed the Great Firewall, saying this is needed to maintain social stability. All Chinese social media platforms are required to censor public posts deemed illegal.
"For us, the biggest challenge has been how to reach people within China because of the firewall, and Zoom for a while looked like a ray of hope," said US-based Humanitarian China founder Zhou Fengsuo, whose account was suspended.
Tiananmen survivor Zhou Fengsuo found himself locked out of Zoom. (Photo: AFP/Don Emmert)
The conferencing tool, originally designed for business use, saw Chinese user numbers surge in tandem with its global popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a rare feat given how Western peers such as WhatsApp, Google Meet and Facebook are blocked in China's cyberspace.
Zoom's mobile app has been downloaded 5.4 million times from Apple's China store since Jan 1, 11 times the number over the same period in 2019, according to research firm SensorTower.
While most Chinese users turn to Zoom for conference calls and casual chats, some have seized the chance to discuss potentially sensitive topics, from patriotism to feminism.
Some state-approved and underground churches use Zoom to hold services.
"Zoom is not the only software, but we feel it's rather more accessible," said Xiao Meili, a feminist activist who held a Zoom talk in April on the #MeToo movement.
"Before, some friends recommended Tencent conference ... but everyone would feel like you shouldn't say anything that's slightly sensitive," she said, referring to a tool offered by the Chinese tech giant behind WeChat.
In March, Youth Lectures kicked off a series of Zoom talks, the first of which was led by Chinese University of Hong Kong professor Chow Po Chung, on freedom of speech in China. Chow's mainland China account on the Twitter-like platform Weibo has been deleted multiple times.
Other anonymous groups hosted lectures from a #MeToo activist and a gender-activist on their work in mid-May.
New York-based Lu Pin, whose influential Feminist Voices accounts on Weibo and WeChat were shut by authorities in 2018, said Zoom was a way to connect a Chinese audience to the outside world.
"You don't have to climb the firewall, people in China and outside of China both can connect to it," she said.
There are few alternatives, she said.
"This is not a multiple-choice question. If you're a Chinese person, if you don't use this, what will you use?"
Zoom's China users had already been subject to new constraints since last month when the company announced that free users would no longer be able host meetings, and new registrations were limited to some enterprises.
US President Donald Trump (R) meets with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) at the start of their summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018 -- two years on, Pyongyang says any hopes for better ties have turned to feelings of "despair"
North Korea criticised Donald Trump in a stinging denunciation of the United States on Friday, the second anniversary of a landmark summit in Singapore where the US president shook hands with leader Kim Jong Un.
It was the latest in a series of vitriolic statements from Pyongyang aimed at both Washington and Seoul, and came a day after the North implicitly threatened to disrupt November's election if the US did not stay out of inter-Korean affairs.
In recent days, Pyongyang has excoriated the South over defectors launching leaflets criticising Kim into the North and announced it was cutting all official communication links with Seoul.
Friday's broadside contained some of the harshest criticism Pyongyang has sent Washington's way in recent months, and casts doubt over the future of the two sides' long-stalled nuclear talks process.
In the onslaught, the North's foreign minister Ri Son Gwon accused Washington of hypocrisy and seeking regime change, saying that the hopes of 2018 had "faded away into a dark nightmare".
Trump and Kim were all smiles in front of the world's cameras in Singapore as a North Korean leader met a sitting US president for the first time, and afterwards Trump proclaimed on Twitter that "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea."
But a second meeting in Hanoi last year to put meat on the bones of the North's vaguely worded Singapore pledge to "work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" collapsed over what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in exchange for sanctions relief.
- 'Hypocritical' -
US diplomats insist that they believe Kim promised in Singapore to give up its arsenal, something Pyongyang has taken no steps to do.
The North is under multiple international sanctions over its banned weapons programmes.
It believes it deserves to be rewarded for its moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and the disabling of its atomic test site, along with the return of jailed US citizens and remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War.
"Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise," Ri said in his statement, carried by the official KCNA news agency.
Trump has made much of his connection with Kim -- at one point declaring that they had fallen "in love" through their exchanges of letters.
But Ri said Pyongyang now believed there was no hope for an improvement "simply by maintaining personal relations between our Supreme Leadership and the US President".
He stopped just short of criticising Trump by name, but referred to comments that "the master of the White House" had "reeled off time and time again as a boast".
"Never again will we provide the US chief executive with another package to be used... without receiving any returns."
Pyongyang's latest comments were not an empty threat, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former North Korea analyst for the US government.
"North Koreans know they will not be getting what they want either from South Korea or the US," she told AFP. "Diplomacy no longer seems to be in the cards."
North Korea's chief diplomatic ally China urged Washington to acknowledge Pyongyang's "legitimate concerns", with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying insisting the North had taken denuclearisation measures that merited a commensurate US response.
- Deadline passed -
Trump and Kim met a third time in June 2019 in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean peninsula, when Trump stepped onto North Korean soil -- a first for any American president.
But the meeting produced little in terms of tangible progress.
Subsequently, the North repeatedly demanded that the US offer it fresh concessions by December 31, but the deadline came and went.
Kim declared the North no longer considered itself bound by its unilateral testing moratoriums.
It has not yet carried out any such actions, but analysts believe it has continued to develop its arsenal throughout the discussions.
Ri accused Washington of seeking regime change and said the North had decided to bolster its nuclear deterrent "to cope with the US unabated threats of nuclear war".
Pyongyang has carried out a series of tests of shorter-range weapons in recent months -- often describing them as multiple launch rocket systems, although Japan and the United States have called them ballistic missiles.
The process leading to the Singapore summit was brokered by the South's President Moon Jae-in, but his office said Friday it had no comment to make on the anniversary.
