China news roundup / Nachrichten 2022-01-10
China battles Omicron outbreak weeks before Winter Olympics
"In Anyang, Henan province, two Omicron cases were traced to a student who had arrived from Tianjin more than 300 miles (500km) away, officials said. There were 15 cases reported in Anyang for Monday"
--- That was quick. Looks like Omicron is already on the loose. We will see whether China's extreme lockdown system can cope with Omicron's extreme transmissibility. Will be particularly interesting to see how they will try to keep it away from Beijing & the Olympics. Authorities there are already getting nervous:
Beijing on high alert as China's first Omicron cluster edges closer weeks before the Olympics
"By Sunday evening, train tickets from Tianjin to Beijing could no longer be purchased online.
The center also ordered people who arrived in Beijing from Tianjin since December 23 to report to their residential communities, employers or hotels for health monitoring and Covid tests. Those who came from high-risk areas of Tianjin are required to self-isolate at home."
--- May already be too late.
"news about the cases and travel restrictions already sparked panic buying over the weekend, with residents snapping up groceries and other critical supplies at supermarkets"
--- Can hardly be called 'panic-buying'. After what happened in Xi'an, it's entirely reasonable to stock up.
Stay away in event of accident with Olympics vehicle, Beijing police warn
"If there is an accident with one of the vehicles, people should maintain a safe distance, avoid contact with those inside and wait for professionals to arrive at the scene"
--- 'Just let those dirty, foreign barbarians die.'
Crisis-hit Sri Lanka asks China to restructure its debt
"In September, Sri Lanka declared an economic emergency"
--- But, but, but ... weren't we told that Chinese development 'aid' was much better than the West's? This must be some evil Western plot to sabotage China's BRI.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com sets challenge to Amazon with first ‘robotic shops’ in Europe
"JD.com said that shoppers can use the Ochama app to order products from food to beauty and home furnishings. They can then go to the store where automated vehicles and robotic arms will pick and sort orders. When a shopper gets to the store, they can scan a barcode on their app and their orders will be carried to them via a conveyer belt."
--- Well, you should neither trust Chinese software, nor Chinese robots. Hence this is probably a shop to avoid.
China Evergrande moves from Shenzhen HQ building to cut costs
"Evergrande said it has moved out of Shenzhen's Excellence Centre, which is owned by another company, to a building that Evergrande owns in the city but gave no further details on the new set-up."
--- Not even enough money to pay the rent? Luckily, they have loads of empty buildings they can't sell, though.
China Urges Its Consumer Goods Firms to Make More 'Innovative' Products
"China's industry ministry on Monday proposed guidelines that it said it hoped could encourage its consumer goods enterprises to be more innovative with their products, giving examples such as smart rice cookers and robot vacuum cleaners"
--- Innovating by producing stuff that has already been developed? Must be innovation with Chinese characteristics.
Ex-Xinjiang paramilitary anti-terror chief appointed commander of China military’s Hong Kong garrison
China probes head of top life insurer in anti-corruption campaign
Ascension review – China’s bizarre descent into capitalist excess
--- China Uncensored: "5 Lies China Told the World"
--- DW News: "China's Tianjin tests 14 million residents for COVID after omicron cases surface"
--- Hudson Institute: "Is China Headed for an Economic Crisis?"
Omikron erreicht Chinas Milliardenvolk
"Täglich pendeln Zehntausende von Tianjin nach Peking, denn der Hochgeschwindigkeitszug braucht für die Strecke nur 34 Minuten. Um eine mögliche Ausbreitung zu verhindern, wurde am Montag der Ticketverkauf für diese Strecke ausgesetzt."
--- Sonntagabend schon. Aber vermutlich sowieso zu spät, da Omikron sich zumindest in Tianjin schon etwas länger ausbreitete.
"Über einen Studenten, der am 28. Dezember von Tianjin in die 500 Kilometer entfernte Stadt Anyang gereist war, hat sich die Omikron-Variante nun außerdem in der Provinz Henan ausgebreitet. Das zeigt, dass das Virus schon länger im Umlauf ist und die Infektionszahlen in den nächsten Tagen wahrscheinlich deutlich steigen werden."
--- So sieht es aus. Chinas extreme Lockdowns helfen anscheinend wenig gegen Omikron, da es sich einerseits sehr schnell verbreitet & andererseits von chinesischen Tests wohl erst erkannt wird, wenn es schon in der Ansteckungsphase ist.
"Aus Sorge vor einem stadtweiten Lockdown deckten sich viele Bewohner mit Lebensmitteln ein, nachdem es in der Stadt Xi’an in der vergangenen Woche bei einem Ausbruch der Delta-Variante zu Versorgungsengpässen gekommen war."
--- Nur vernünftig.
"Für das ganze Land meldete die Gesundheitskommission am Montag 157 Neuinfektionen. Weil 157 nicht null sind, nennt China seine Strategie inzwischen „dynamische Null“"
--- Die Null muss stehen. Der Erfolg der KPCh ist total & muss total bleiben. Basta!
"Bislang galt die Hauptsorge der Organisatoren der Frage, wie ein Entweichen des Virus aus der Olympia-Blase verhindert werden könne, in die sich Athleten, Betreuer und Berichterstatter aus aller Welt während der Spiele begeben müssen"
--- Wäre schon lustig, wenn Omikron sich in China weiter ausbreitet, & ausgerechnet in der olympischen Blase alle gesund bleiben.
"Am Montag wurden die Pekinger darüber informiert, wie sie sich im Fall eines Autounfalls mit einem der Olympia-Busse verhalten sollen, in denen die Sportler transportiert werden. Sie sollten auf keinen Fall aus ihrem Auto aussteigen, auf Abstand bleiben und darauf warten, dass „Fachleute“ eintreffen"
--- Die dreckigen, ausländischen Barbaren darf man ruhig verrecken lassen. Hauptsache, kein Chinese wird von denen infiziert. (Auch wenn das Wuhanvirus außerhalb der Blase aktiver ist als in ihr.)
Massentests nach 40 Corona-Fällen
"Die chinesische Staats- und Parteiführung will in der Wirtschaftsmetropole Tianjin nun offenbar Panikkäufe verhindern. Im Staatsfernsehen werden Bilder gezeigt von vollen Regalen und frischem Gemüse. Die Nachricht dahinter: Es ist genug vorhanden, die Preise sind stabil."
--- Unglücklicherweise sieht man in privaten Videos eine andere Wahrheit: leergekaufte Supermärkte.
Größtes schwimmendes Solarkraftwerk der Welt geht in China in Betrieb
"Der Grund, warum Solarkraftwerke schwimmend errichtet werden, sind mangelnde ausgedehnte Freiflächen, wie Xiao Fuqin, leitender Ingenieur des Kraftwerksbetreibers Sungrow Mitte 2017 erläuterte, besonders im Norden und in der Mitte Chinas."
--- Wer's glaubt... oder auch: Wahrheit mit chinesischen Charakteristiken. Gerade um Peking gibt es endlos dünn besiedelte Gebirge. Ich behaupte mal, es gibt genug unbebaute Südhänge, die sich für Solaranlagen gut eignen.
The video asking if China is "heading for" an economic crisis is way behind. I've been screaming from the rooftops since 2017 that China is ALREADY IN an economic crisis and is running out of ways to hide it.
Depends on how you define crisis. I'm not as negative about the situation as you are. For what I can see that economic growth has largely stalled for a while now (again depending on which numbers you rely on). But for most commoners not much seems to have changed. From pensioners in the south to some poor peasants in the north, & some former students in between, I haven't heard much about personal economic problems.
But emperor Xi is of course hard at work to change that.
Admittedly, my only source of information is middle-classers, but for them, there has been a major pinch since 2017 and it has been getting worse. Families that used to have enough disposable income to go on three or four international vacations per year now cannot afford one, and those same families that used to be able to spend as much as they like on extracurricular lessons now cannot spend more than a few hundred RMB per week.
Not what I would call an economic crisis, for my taste, because people can still make a decent living. But I agree that for some in the middle class life has become less luxurious. One friend of mine is a secondary school teacher & suffered huge income losses from the tutoring prohibition. Another one works in a software company & lost overtime income. Both can still live quite comfortably, though.
"Decent" is a point of view. My sources are largely confined to Beijing and the surrounding province (Hebei), but average incomes have dipped as much as 40% and everybody has had to make painful cutbacks to their standards of living. The government itself is running out of ways to hide that they don't even have any more money they can borrow.
Anyway, if your friends are living comfortably there then they are doing better than my clients. I'll just leave it at that, with the re-iterated disclaimer that my sources are largely limited to Beijing.