Independence-minded Taiwan residents and politicians are in an uproar after officials at a university forced a professor to apologize to his class for saying he is from the ROC (Republic of China), using Taiwan’s official name.It was the second apology demanded of the professor, who earlier had been required to apologize to a Chinese student for remarks he made about the outbreak of COVID-19 on the mainland.The seemingly minor classroom tiff has fueled deep-rooted hostility between citizens of Taiwan and China, according to Yen Chien-fa, vice president of Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.Deepening resentmentIt has also exacerbated tensions between those in Taiwan who favor closer relations with China and those who favor independence for the island, while drawing attention to the growing reliance of Taiwan universities on tuition fees from well-heeled mainland Chinese students.“In face of a declining birthrate in Taiwan, some schools may have to turn to mainland students [for tuition incomes], which allows these [Chinese] students to ride the high horse,” Yen told VOA. “But I think the clash will only worsen private-sector relations across the Strait and deepen resentment against each other.”Yen said it remains to be seen if Taiwan-China relations will be affected. Gai Xiaokang, a student from China’s Jiangsu province, set off the dispute when he complained to officials at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taoyuan about a pre-recorded lecture delivered by Chao Ming-wei, an associate professor of biotechnology.’Attacked and discriminated’In the lecture, recorded in March, Chao had commented on a Chinese milk powder scandal that hospitalized more than 50,000 babies in 2008, and had questioned China’s reported death toll from what he called the “Wuhan pneumonia.”Chao – a recognized expert on toxicology with a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in the United States – turned to the camera at one point during his lecture and teased, “I was referring to you all from across the Strait.”In his complaint, Gai described the remarks as “racist” and said he felt he was “being attacked and discriminated” against.The university sided with the mainland student and asked Chao to publicly apologize.But matters only worsened when Chao delivered his first apology in early April, telling the class that as “a professor from the ROC,” he only looks at science and facts — regardless of politics, religion, nationality or race.A video recording shows he also said he would never discriminate against any student, especially in Taiwan’s inclusive and democratic society.’Smart, but unwise’Gai took offense at the mention of “ROC,” given that mainland officials maintain there is only one China, with its capital in Beijing.The new complaint prompted two university officials to reprimand Chao, calling him “smart, but unwise.” “Do you want all mainland students to get out?” one official yelled in an audio recording that has become public, and Chao was directed to extend yet another apology.Chao told a press conference this week that, while he accepts criticism from students, he was disappointed with the university’s response. He said the school has failed to respect academic freedom, speech freedom, students’ right to education and teachers’ right to work. He also defended having said the coronavirus came from the Chinese city of Wuhan and having expressed doubts about the death tolls released by Chinese authorities.Divided reactionTaiwan politicians and netizens quickly drew up sides in the dispute.Mark Ho, a legislator with the independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party, accused the university of “having trampled on Taiwan’s dignity and Chao’s personal integrity” by criticizing his use of the name Republic of China.“Also, it’s really devastating [to] Taiwan’s democracy, too. I believe that Professor Chao, he is not the first one to be treated like this. I hope he’s going to be the last one,” Ho told VOA. He said the university’s demand for two apologies was “beyond ridiculous and out of proportion.”But members of the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) party disagreed. Local media cited KMT legislator Chen Yu-jen as saying that Chao used speech freedom and national identity to hide some of his “inappropriate” remarks.On Facebook, some netizens questioned why Chao had to be “so sarcastic about mainland students” and said his behavior was “a shame.” Others agreed that Chao’s remarks were “mostly fact-based” and demanded an apology from the student and the university.Some of Chao’s class also posted comments, accusing Gai of being the bigger bully. Students said Gai was touchy whenever they made negative comments about China.Denying any wrongdoing, the university said it reserves the right to legal recourse against Chao.Taiwan’s education ministry has said it will launch an investigation into the controversy. The ministry said no university teacher in Taiwan needs to apologize for stating in class that they are from the ROC, and Taiwan should not be demeaned during academic exchanges.
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Category: East
East news. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise. The practice of praying towards the East is older than Christianity, but has been adopted by this religion as the Orient was thought of as containing mankind’s original home
Hong Kong Leader Rejects Protesters’ Call for Independent Police Probe
The Beijing-backed leader of Hong Kong on Friday ruled out an independent inquiry into allegations of police brutality against pro-democracy protesters, though she did accept a watchdog’s recommendations on tear gas and training.”I disagree and won’t do it,” Carrie Lam said of the demonstrators’ demand for an independent probe, speaking at a news conference against a backdrop of pictures of blazing protests and a banner saying: “The Truth About Hong Kong.”Months of often-violent protests since mid-2019 against China’s control of the former British colony ebbed during the coronavirus crisis, though arrests of activists in recent days have revived frictions.Demonstrators accuse police of excessive force, while authorities say protesters have been riotous and provocative.Lam said an independent inquiry would weaken police powers, though the government will accept recommendations from a police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC).In its long-awaited, 999-page report, the Lam-appointed IPCC on Friday called for a review of guidelines on use of tear gas and public order training for police.The report said police acted within guidelines though there was room for improvement. Accusations of police brutality must not be used as “a weapon of political protest,” the IPCC added.On one of the most controversial episodes, the IPCC said it did not find evidence of police collusion with gang members during a July 21 mob attack in Yuen Long district.The report did, however, identify deficiencies in police deployment during the incident, when a mob of white-shirted men beat protesters and others with sticks and poles.The Yuen Long attack intensified a backlash against police who some accused of deliberately responding slowly.’Turning a blind eye’Opposition politicians were unimpressed.”The report has turned a blind eye to disproportional police brutality,” pro-democracy lawmaker Fernando Cheung said. “This report has eliminated what little credibility is left of the IPCC.”Another lawmaker Kenneth Leung, a former member of the IPCC, said many recommendations “are really piecemeal, superficial and general” and were insufficient to resolve the issues.Rights groups including Amnesty International have backed protesters’ complaints over disproportionate police force and the arrest of more than 8,000 people.Police have repeatedly said they were reactive and restrained in the face of extreme violence. The IPCC report said Hong Kong risked being dragged into an “era of terrorism,” echoing comments by senior Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.During the most intense clashes, protesters, many clad in black and wearing masks, threw petrol bombs at police and central government offices, stormed the Legislative Council, trashed metro stations and blocked roads.Police responded with tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and several live rounds in the air, in many cases warning crowds beforehand with colored signal banners.On the July 1 storming of the Legislative Council, the IPCC said police could have stopped it with stronger barriers.The protests started as a campaign against a now-shelved extradition bill that would have let criminal suspects be sent to mainland China for trial but evolved into broader calls for greater democracy.Members of the IPCC, which reviews the work of the Complaints Against Police Office, an internal police department, are appointed by Lam. In December, five foreign experts quit from advisory roles because of doubts about its independence.Police handling of protests came under fresh scrutiny at the weekend when officers pepper-sprayed journalists and made some kneel in a cordoned-off area. In a rare move, the police chief said on Tuesday his officers should have acted more professionally.
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US Intensifies Crackdown on China Intellectual Property Theft
The U.S. Justice Department is aggressively forging ahead with a clampdown on Chinese economic espionage even as the coronavirus pandemic has shuttered much of the country’s criminal justice system.In recent days, the Justice Department has obtained a guilty plea from a former Atlanta-based university professor and has charged two others in connection with their work for China’s talent recruitment programs.The charges came as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned this week that hackers tied to the Chinese government are attempting to steal U.S. research related to coronavirus vaccines, treatments and testing.While the coronavirus pandemic has shut down federal courts and forced most federal employees to telework, law enforcement officials say the work of combating Chinese intellectual property theft — as well as other investigations — continues, with more cases likely to be announced in the coming months.FILE – Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, Nov. 1, 2018.“The Department of Justice remains vigilant over programs such as the Thousand Talents Program that recruits professors and researchers to work for China,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.The Thousand Talents Program is the best known of more than 200 Chinese recruitment plans that target U.S. and other foreign academics and researchers to work in China.Chinese officials have made no secret about what they aim to accomplish through these programs: access to critical intellectual property. But the U.S. says the programs have a nefarious purpose: stealing U.S. technology and trade secrets.While the three cases announced this week do not allege outright intellectual property theft, they involve researchers at American institutions who hid their work for the Chinese, raising the risk of unauthorized intellectual property transfer.Arkansas professorLast Friday, Simon Saw-Teong Ang, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Arkansas, was arrested for failing to disclose his ties to the Chinese government and Chinese businesses in a grant application to NASA. The university suspended Ang after his arrest.Also last Friday, Dr. Xiao-Jiang Li, a former professor at Emory University, was sentenced to one year of probation in connection with his work with the Thousand Talents Program, which he hid from the federal government.Then on Wednesday, Dr. Qing Wang, a former researcher at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, was arrested on fraud charges for failing to disclose in a $3.6 million grant application to the National Institutes of Health that he received money for conducting similar research in China. The clinic said it had fired the professor.”We’re hearing about some of these more high-profile investigations, mainly for the deterrent value so that China and Chinese state actors are aware that the U.S. is continuing to monitor this kind of activity,” said Paul Chan, the managing principal at the Bird Marella law firm in Los Angeles.Chan said the three cases underscore U.S. law enforcement agencies’ growing focus on academia as a target of Chinese intellectual property theft.“One of the ways in which China historically has sought to obtain intellectual property from the United States is through academic research institutions,” Chan said.’Principal IP infringer’According to the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, intellectual property theft costs the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually, and China is “the world’s principal IP infringer.”Chan said China’s use of nontraditional actors such as students and scholars makes it particularly challenging for law enforcement to combat theft of trade secrets.“They successfully recruit a fair number of laypeople, academics, professors or students who might not start out necessarily working for the Chinese government, but are eventually recruited and encouraged and incentivized to become a conduit,” Chan said.Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department has increased its focus on combating Chinese economic espionage.In 2018, the department launched a “China Initiative” with the aim of prioritizing Chinese espionage cases. Since then the department has announced charges in nearly 24 economic espionage and intellectual property theft cases.FILE – FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Feb. 5, 2020 in Washington.In February, FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency was conducting about 1,000 investigations into suspected Chinese theft of U.S. technology involving every sector of the U.S. economy.The investigations are time-consuming – sometimes they can take years – but they’ve led to notable prosecutions in recent months.In January, Charles Lieber, a prominent Harvard University professor, was arrested on charges of lying about receiving research funding from the Chinese government. In March, a former West Virginia University professor pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with working for China’s Thousand Talents Program.The China Initiative has also involved an aggressive outreach campaign, with federal prosecutors and FBI agents regularly meeting with academia and the private sector about the threat of Chinese espionage.”The U.S. is worried about the leakage of intellectual property,” said Dean Cheng, a senior fellow for Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation. “The bigger issue here with these professors is that by not declaring that they are taking Chinese money, to what extent is this allowing the flow of intellectual property to China?”
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Typhoon Vongfong Kills at Least One, Damages Homes in Philippines
Officials in the Philippines say strong winds and rain from Typhoon Vongfong killed at least one person and damaged hundreds of homes and coronavirus isolation facilities when the storm made landfall in the southeastern part of the nation. Gov. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar province, where the typhoon slammed ashore, told the Associated Press distraught residents wept after their houses were destroyed or blown away in the towns he inspected. The governor said one villager who lost his home slashed his wrist but was treated in time. Evardone said a man bled to death after he was hit by glass shards in a school building, where he was trying to take shelter. In the outlying region of Bicol, northwest of Eastern Samar, more than 145,000 people were riding out the weakening typhoon in emergency shelters on Friday after a mass evacuation that was complicated and slowed by the coronavirus. Forecasters with the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii say Vongfong weakened into a severe tropical storm after hitting land and was blowing northwest toward the populous main northern island of Luzon. Its maximum sustained wind speed dropped to 110 kilometers per hour with gusts of 150 kilometers per hour but it remained dangerous, especially in coastal and low-lying villages, forecasters said. Vongfong was expected to blow out of the country’s north on Sunday. The typhoon’s arrival comes as the Philippines struggles to deal with coronavirus outbreaks, largely with a lockdown in Luzon that is to be eased this weekend, except in metropolitan Manila and two other high-risk areas. The rest of the country will be placed in less restrictive quarantine, and crucial businesses will partially reopen starting next week. The Philippines has reported more than 12,000 cases, including 806 deaths, among the highest in Southeast Asia.
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US Pilot Jailed in Singapore for Breaking Quarantine Order
An American cargo pilot who admitted to “poor judgment” in breaking a quarantine order to buy medical supplies became the first foreigner imprisoned in Singapore for breaching its restrictions meant to curb the coronavirus, his lawyer said Friday.
FedEx pilot Brian Dugan Yeargan, 44, of Alaska, was sentenced to four weeks Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to leaving his hotel room for three hours to buy masks and a thermometer, defense lawyer Ronnie Tan said.
Singapore has one of the largest outbreaks in Asia, with 26,000 cases. More than 90% of those infected are foreign workers living in crowded dormitories, while the government recently began easing restrictions for the local population.
The tiny city-state has strict penalties for those who breach quarantine rules, don’t wear masks in public or fail to adhere to social distancing measures. Quarantine violators face up to six months in jail, a fine of up to 10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,000) or both.
Tan said Yeargan and his two co-pilots were taken to an airport hotel to serve 14-day quarantines upon arriving from Sydney on April 3. It was required because they stated in their health declarations they had visited China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and the United States in the two-week period before their arrival, Tan said.
Health officials checking on Yeargan found him missing from his room on April 5. Yeargan told the court he took the metro downtown to buy a thermometer and a few boxes of masks before he was to fly home on April 6.
Tan said Yeargan needed the items because they were in short supply back home and his wife has been ill. Yeargan’s wife had breathing difficulties but tested negative for the coronavirus in March, he said.
Tan said Yeargan lost his daughter in a tragic incident four years ago and the possibility of another death frightened him. Yeargan told the court his two co-pilots had flown out on April 6 as scheduled but he had been held back in his room. He also said he had to give up an assignment to fly a humanitarian aid mission to COVID-19-hit countries for the U.S. Air Force due to his blunder in Singapore.
“In his address in court, Yeargan said he was sorry, he made a poor judgment and that he shouldn’t have gone out,” Tan said. The American also said he has “the highest regard for the Singapore people and its laws,” Tan added.
The court said in its ruling that Yeargan should have asked someone to obtain the items for him.
Tan said Yeargan was relieved because prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to eight weeks. He said he will apply for a remission for good behavior, which could see the American being released in three weeks.
The Anchorage Daily News reported Yeargan is from the Eagle River community and serves with the Alaska Air National Guard. It said he last spoke to his parents on Mother’s Day. “He’s taking care of himself,” Jim Yeargan was quoted as saying.
FedEx spokeswoman Davina Cole told the newspaper the company adhered to all regulations from government authorities related to containing the virus.
Yeargan was the first foreigner sentenced for violating quarantine orders, but several Singaporeans have been jailed for between five and six weeks for leaving their homes.
Singapore imposed a partial lockdown on April 7 and loosened restrictions Tuesday, with food manufacturers, barbers and laundry shops opening doors three weeks before the lockdown ends June 1.
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Communist Rebels Fight Hard as Ever in Philippines As COVID-19 Distracts Government
Armed communist rebels are exploiting the Philippine government’s fight against COVID-19 to launch attacks, intensifying a violent 50-year-plus struggle with no solution in sight.The New People’s Army, active for 51 years in impoverished rural parts of the archipelago, has sustained the ambushes for which it’s best known while publicly condemning President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration over its handling of the disease outbreak.“That’s part of their basic doctrine. Wherever they have a chance to strike on the enemy, they do it,” said Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia specialist researcher at the Taiwan Strategy Research Association.“That’s basically how they operate. COVID is a strategic opportunity,” he said.Insurgencies in 218 townsIn late March and April, 18 New People’s Army fighters and 31 government soldiers were killed in clashes, domestic media outlet Rappler.com reported. On May 1, the rebel army’s broader organization, the Communist Party of the Philippines, officially ended its own “ceasefire” and ordered attacks, Rappler.com said.Insurgencies were taking place in 219 towns in 31 of the country’s 81 provinces as of April 10, the Communist Party said on its website.The rebels are stepping up verbal criticism too. Their website condemns Duterte’s government over food distribution and a perceived failure to test, trace and isolate people who might have the deadly respiratory disease.“It may be in their interest to try to exploit the situation to show that government is not doing enough, because of course they can tap into the dissatisfaction of a lot of people, particularly those who have not been getting support from various levels of government,” said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.As of last month, about 18 million poor households hadn’t received government cash subsidies of $98 as pledged in March, the ASEAN Post online reported.The Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army say they hope to overthrow the government and let working-class Filipinos lead their country. The organization also hopes to eliminate U.S. influence from the Philippines.The group, with an estimated 4,000 combatants, has killed about 30,000 people total.Duterte says he will ‘not hesitate’Today’s fighting is unlikely to earn the rebels much sympathy outside poor regions where people believe in their cause, analysts say. They should take a “more orthodox path” to push their causes, Cau said.Duterte, though, is taking time to hit back at the rebels. He will “not hesitate” to declare martial law if the rebels keep attacking soldiers, presidential office spokesperson Harry Roque said last month.Duterte decided in April against renewing peace talks because the rebels had attacked soldiers who were part of a food delivery mission, domestic media reports say.His government declared martial law over the southern island Mindanao from mid-2017 through last year to help soldiers and national police fight Muslim rebels gaining ground there.Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabayan alliance of leftist political organizations, said Duterte should say more about COVID-19 and less about the rebels.“It’s just Duterte who thinks the problem of the insurgency is more important than the COVID crisis,” Reyes said. “He devotes a significant time of his weekly speeches to mentioning the NPA.”
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COVID Emerges in Rohingya Refugee Camp in Bangladesh
A Rohingya refugee in the massive Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh has tested positive for COVID-19.A local resident has also tested positive for the virus.World Health Organization spokesperson Catalin Bercaru told AFP, the French news agency, that rapid investigation teams have been deployed and the contacts of both men “are being traced for quarantine and testing.”Both patients have been placed in quarantine.“Now that the virus has entered the world’s largest refugee settlement . . . , we are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from COVID-19,” Dr. Shamim Jahan, Save the Children’s health director in Bangladesh, said in a statement. “This pandemic could set Bangladesh back by decades.”Aid workers had warned that if the virus emerged in the vast camp it would spread rapidly because of the settlement’s unsanitary conditions.The refugee camp is home to almost a million people.The Rohingya fled to Cox’s Bazar more than two years ago, following a military offensive that targeted them in Myanmar.Before the emergence of the virus in the refugee camp, Bangladesh was already engaged in a battle against COVID-19. The South Asian nation has nearly 18,000 confirmed cases of the virus, with almost 300 deaths.
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Myanmar Migrants Rescued in Thailand
Twenty Myanmar trafficked migrants stranded at the Thai-Malaysia border for two months have been rescued, according to an official of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok.U Sai Aye, the official interpreter of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, told VOA Burmese that the victims had languished in one room after an agent, who had promised them jobs in Malaysia, abandoned them in the face of travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.When the embassy received a call from the group, none of the migrants knew where they were. The Myanmar Embassy requested assistance from the Thai military.The Thai military, with the help of immigration police, rescued the group in Sungai Kolok, a town in Narathiwat province, near the border with Malaysia, according to Sai Aye. The Thais handed over the victims to Myanmar authorities.Myanmar nationals who were rescued by Thai military in Sungai Kolok, near the border with Malaysia on May 13, 2020, after the group had been abandoned by a labor agent. (Courtesy photo)The labor agent, who was trafficking the Burmese, had charged each 1 million Myanmar kyats ($1,000) and promised to take them from Myanmar to Malaysia via Bangkok, according to Sai Aye. The agent told the victims they did not need passports for the trip, which was routed through illegal border crossings.When all border crossings became difficult because of heightened security designed to contain the spread of COVID-19, the agent abandoned the group, according to Sai Aye.The group eventually managed to contact the embassy, which gave the GPS information from their call to the Thai military.”They were rescued this morning and are safe under military care,” Sai Aye said Tuesday. He added that the victims will be handed over to Thai Immigration for repatriation.There is no information on the agent’s whereabouts.Late last month, Thai authorities in the same Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat arrested seven Myanmar nationals, Department of Special Investigation deputy director-general Traiyarit Temahiwong told the Bangkok Post. The youngest person arrested was 15 years old, according to the newspaper.Trafficking reportMyanmar “is not making significant efforts” to eliminate trafficking, according to the 2019 U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report. Although the State Department credits the government with raising awareness of trafficking, the report states that “there were reports that government officials were complicit in both sex- and labor-trafficking, including by hindering law enforcement efforts against the perpetrators.”The State Department report found that Thailand “is making significant efforts” to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”These efforts included identifying more victims, sentencing convicted traffickers and complicit officials to significant prison terms, developing several manuals in partnership with civil society to standardize anti-trafficking trainings and policies,” according to the report. “Labor inspectors, for the first time, identified and referred potential victims to multidisciplinary teams, resulting in the identification of labor trafficking victims.”The report pointed out problems in Thailand, where “the government restricted the movement and communication of victims residing in government shelters, official complicity continued to impede anti-trafficking efforts, and officials did not consistently identify cases of trafficking, especially labor trafficking.”Malaysia is “making significant efforts” to eliminate trafficking, according to the State Department report. Malaysia has “continued to overhaul its foreign worker management system.” However, the report added that the “government’s victim protection efforts remained largely inadequate and some rehabilitation services such as medical care, telephone calls, freedom of movement, and the issuance of work permits were inconsistently implemented, if at all.”
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Asia Democracies Show Alternatives to Beijing’s Heavy-Handed COVID Strategy
China is touting its success in curbing its outbreak of COVID-19 that has now spread to the rest of the world. But the so-called success came at a steep price: The state’s massive surveillance network now intrudes even further into people’s lives, with more crackdowns on speech and more government critics in prison. Beijing argues the hard-line measures are needed, but other countries show such extreme measures may not be necessary. VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching reports.
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Trump Eyes China Crackdown as Coronavirus Retribution
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he is eyeing ways to crack down on China as retribution for the way it handled the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.”There are many things we could do,” Trump told Fox News. “We could cut off the whole relationship.””Now, if you did, what would happen?,” Trump asked rhetorically. “You’d save $500 billion if you cut off the whole relationship,” although it was not clear how Trump arrived at such a figure.The Trump administration has been considering ways it could punish Beijing for what it believes was its withholding of information about the virus late last year and into early 2020 as it spread from the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China across the globe.The U.S. could give Americans to right to sue China for the damage COVID-19 has caused to the world-leading American economy and to human life. The U.S. already has recorded 84,000 deaths, by far the biggest national total, with 147,000 expected to die by August. An employee works in a research and development lab of Beijing Applied Biological Technologies, a firm which is developing COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test kits, during a government organized tour for journalists in Beijing,May 14, 2020.The U.S. could also impose sanctions and travel bans, while restricting U.S. businesses from making loans to Chinese companies.“I’m very disappointed in China,” Trump said.The U.S. could force Chinese companies to follow U.S. accounting standards before their securities are listed on U.S. exchanges, which they currently are not required to do. That has led to some investor losses.The president acknowledged that if the U.S. were to impose such an accounting requirement on Chinese companies many of them would leave for exchanges in Hong Kong or London.As of early 2019, 156 Chinese companies worth $1.2 trillion were listed on American stock exchanges.Earlier this week, the Trump administration ordered a retirement fund for U.S. government workers to divest $4 billion of equity stakes in Chinese companies, claiming China poses investment and national security risks.
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Why Open a store? Chinese Merchants Go Livestreaming Instead
At the height of China’s coronavirus outbreak, the skincare-products maker Forest Cabin closed more than half of its 300 stores across the nation as shoppers stayed home. With sales plunging, founder Sun Laichun decided it was time to reach his customers more directly.
“We knew it was time for us to focus on an online strategy to survive,” Sun said. But the company didn’t launch an online ad blitz or announce big giveaways. Instead, it trained hundreds of its salespeople to begin hosting live video streams where viewers could get skincare tips and buy products without ever cutting away from the online patter. Within just a month, Sun said, Forest Cabin’s February sales were up by 20% compared to a year earlier, despite a plunge in store sales.
These days, shoppers are making their way back to once deserted malls and shops as China emerges from its long winter of coronavirus shutdowns. But so many of the region’s retailers ended up embracing livestreaming that they’ve kicked off a new boom in Chinese “shoppertainment” that lets retailers interact with distant customers in real time.
Some of China’s largest e-commerce companies are betting big on livestreaming. Alibaba’s Taobao Live platform saw more than a sevenfold increase in first-time business customers in February, while Pinduoduo’s livestreaming sessions grew fivefold from February to March. Overall, livestreaming e-commerce revenue will likely double this year to 961 billion yuan ($136 billion), according to Chinese market intelligence firm iiMedia Research.
Livestreaming has also created a profitable new niche for existing livestream stars who are now reaping hefty commissions as their shows draw millions of viewers. The trend might even suggest alternatives for battered retailers in the U.S. and Europe as those regions cope with stay-at-home orders and customers remain wary of crowds.
Commercial Chinese livestreaming goes well beyond the American formula pioneered by the Home Shopping Network and QVC, which play infomercials around the clock, said Michael Norris, research and strategy manager at the marketing firm AgencyChina.
In China, “there’s actually education about products and how to use them, and elements of entertainment wrapped up in the livestreaming,” he said. That plus instant sales makes livestreaming an excellent marketing tool, he added.
Some Chinese retailers host their own streams. Others hire livestreaming celebrities with large followings. Viya Huang and Li Jiaqi, for instance, are full-time livestreamers with tens of millions of followers who boast hundreds of millions of dollars in sales via livestreaming each year.
Both go live on the platform for about four hours, five to six nights each week. Millions of viewers tune in to catch their suggestions on skincare, snacks and household products.
On a recent evening, Huang’s live online audience had reached nearly 20 million people when she lifted a box of spicy duck necks — a specialty of Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus was first reported. “These will be prepared fresh and shipped to you, it’s the most popular flavor,” Huang said, holding up a piece to the camera before biting into one.
Within seconds, viewers snatched up 70,000 boxes, their purchases benefiting a Wuhan recovery charity initiative. By the end of her four-hour stint, Huang had hawked everything from sugar-free cookies and Hello Kitty-branded mints to sanitary napkins and pairs of white Skechers sneakers, almost all of which sold out their limited inventories.
For viewers, the fast pace of celebrity livestreams provide a constant sense of urgency that they’d be missing out on great deals if they don’t act quickly.
“It’s really exciting to watch,” said Coco Lu, a civil servant in Chongqing, a city roughly 400 miles (643.74 kilometers) west of Wuhan, who is still avoiding stores. “The hosts are very persuasive and there are giveaways, plus deals are only available for a very short period of time.”
Adam An, who works in marketing in Hangzhou, finds them a relaxing form of retail therapy. Watching a Li livestream “feels almost as if a friend is chatting with me, recommending me great products to buy,” he said.
Livestream sales are a godsend for small entrepreneurs like Dou Ma, who sells discount clothing, mostly costing less than 50 yuan ($8), from the comfort of her home in the southwestern city of Kunming. After putting her two young children to bed, she hops online and streams from her living room for about three hours.
All Dou needed to get started was her mobile phone. Her earliest streams in late March drew fewer than 20 viewers a night, but recently, they’ve begun drawing more than 100. Dou streams at a leisurely pace, warmly welcoming every viewer who joins and thanking them for their support.
“It’s okay if you don’t buy anything from me today, you’re welcome to just chat with me if you want,” Dou told nearly 100 viewers in a recent stream, as she held up a winter coat priced at just 59.90 yuan (about $8.50) with shipping.
When a viewer asks about the sizing of a dress via the comments section, Dou whips out her measuring tape, rattling off measurements. During her streams, she chats with her viewers, talking about everything from parenting tips to previous vacations she’s taken.
“Because of this pandemic, livestreaming has become a good option,” she said. “It’s no longer practical for newcomers like me to open an offline store anymore.”
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Japan Lifts COVID State of Emergency for Much of Country
A nationwide state of emergency imposed in Japan to blunt the coronavirus pandemic has been lifted with the exception of Tokyo and several other regions.
Thursday’s announcement by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came after a special coronavirus task force approved a plan to lift the decree for 39 of 47 prefectures.
Abe initially declared a 30-day state of emergency on April 7 for Tokyo and six other prefectures, including the central port city of Osaka, as the number of COVID-19 infections began to rise. He extended the measure nationwide just a few days before it was set to expire.
The prime minister said he was lifting the decree for most of the nation as the number of new infections are on the decline, but will keep it in force for Tokyo, Osaka, Hokkaido and the three other prefectures. The decree expires on May 31.
Japan has reported just over 16,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections with just over 680 deaths, a situation that has overwhelmed the country’s healthcare system, hobbled its economy and forced it to postpone the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games for a year.
The emergency declaration gives local authorities the legal power to call on its citizens to stay at home and to ask schools and businesses to close, but stops short of imposing a legally binding nationwide lockdown. Japan’s post-World War II constitution, which weighs heavily in favor of civil liberties, does not empower the government to impose a mandatory quarantine.
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Australian Parliamentary Committee Debunks 5G COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory
An Australian parliamentary report has debunked a conspiracy theory linking COVID-19 to 5G technology. Anti-lockdown protesters in Australia and beyond have claimed a connection between the new coronavirus and the rollout of the mobile communications standard.The COVID-19 pandemic has brought disparate groups of conspiracy theorists together. Some believe the disease was deliberately spread around the world to force vaccines on to the population as a form of control. Others assert that a Harvard University professor was arrested for creating and selling the coronavirus to China. Still others insist that 5G technology is the true cause of COVID-19. It was a view that was reportedly first promoted in a social media video in March and has been shared widely on the internet.However, linking the new coronavirus to radio waves simply is not true, according to a report by an Australian parliamentary communications committee. It found that 5G technology was safe. E-communications experts said linking COVID-19 to radio waves “has no basis in science” and is “biologically and physically impossible.” This is a view shared by the World Health Organization and other authorities. They have found that 5G radiation can’t penetrate skin or allow a virus to penetrate skin.In Australia, New South Wales state health officials have asserted that COVID-19 was not spread through mobile networks or wireless technology but through infected droplets from coughing or sneezing, or by contact with contaminated hands, surfaces or objects.Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, has also dismissed a link between 5G networks and the disease.“There is unfortunately a lot of very silly misinformation out there,” Murphy said. “There is absolutely no evidence about 5G doing anything in the coronavirus space. I have unfortunately received a lot of communication from these conspiracy theorists myself. It is complete nonsense. 5G has got nothing at all to do with coronavirus.”Academics say that fake news and misinformation seem to be spreading as fast and as far as the virus itself. Uncertainty and fear breed confusion, and, as one expert said, “conspiracy theories offer an emotionally satisfying narrative” if even they are not true.There have been small protests in Australia by groups angry at lockdown measures, and at the government’s coronavirus mobile phone tracing app. Demonstrators in Melbourne also sought to link an outbreak of the virus at a meat plant to a nearby telephone tower.Efforts are being made to sort the truth from the misinformation. YouTube has said it will do more to remove content linking 5G technology to COVID-19.
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Malaysia Postpones No-Confidence Vote Against Prime Minister
A parliamentary no-confidence vote against Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will not take place next week as previously scheduled.Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusoff accepted a motion filed last week by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad against his successor and scheduled it for a vote for Monday. However, the speaker said Wednesday that he received a letter from Muhyiddin saying that because the coronavirus pandemic has not eased, the only item on the agenda will be an opening address from the king.The 94-year-old Mahathir stepped down suddenly in February after his ruling coalition collapsed. Muhyiddin, who served in Mahathir’s cabinet as home affairs minister, filled his government with several members of the United Malays National Organization, which had ruled Malaysia since its independence from Britain in 1957 until it was defeated by Mahathir’s coalition in 2018.The party was driven from office by voters weary of corruption, especially a scandal involving former Prime Minister Najib Razak and the looting of state-owned investment bank 1MDB.
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Poll: Majority of Taiwanese Support Closer Ties With US Over China
The majority of Taiwanese citizens reject mainland China and hold positive views of the United States, a U.S. poll indicates.The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center in October-November 2019 prior to Taiwan’s general elections, shows that the Taiwanese favor strengthening economic and political ties with the United States over China by a ratio of 2-to-1.The poll also shows many Taiwanese don’t think of themselves as Chinese.Sixty-six percent of respondents view themselves as Taiwanese, 28% as both Taiwanese and Chinese, and 4% as only Chinese.But despite rejecting political ties with mainland China, many Taiwanese are willing to consider reinstating economic relations with Beijing.Fifty-seven percent of those who call themselves both Chinese and Taiwanese hold positive views of mainland China, compared with 23% of people who say they are Taiwanese.FILE – Students protesting against a China-Taiwan trade pact occupy the legislature floor, in Taipei, Taiwan, March 20, 2014.Those who self-identify as solely Taiwanese are more likely to express interest in closer relations with the U.S. than those who identify as both Taiwanese and Chinese.According to the Pew survey, young adults are more likely to favor increased U.S.-Taiwan relations, with 73% of 18-to-29-year-olds having favorable views of the U.S., and 82% of the same population wanting to see more political cooperation between Taipei and Washington. Among those 50 and older, 55% say they agree with increased relations with mainland China.Those who identify as Taiwanese-Chinese tend to favor normalizing relations with China, in addition to holding largely positive views of mainland China, the poll found.The survey found members of the KMT party are four times as likely to align with pro-China stances than members of the ruling DPP party, which espouses independence. The survey also revealed that the majority of adults who do not closely affiliate with either party do not possess positive views of mainland China.Even though the U.S. diplomatically recognizes mainland China, the U.S. has maintained informal ties with Taiwan.The telephone survey of 1,562 people, conducted last fall, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
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US Should Give ASEAN Alternatives to Chinese Loans, Ex-Envoy Says
As China emerges from the COVID-19 crisis earlier than most nations, it has the time and resources to switch focus to other priorities, such as its relations in Southeast Asia. But for those who worry that Beijing will outspend other world powers to buy influence, there’s still time for the U.S. to counter that influence, according to a former U.S. economic envoy to China. And it might not be as hard or as expensive as some think.In a new The nation that Dollar views to be most at risk of Chinese debt distress in the region is Laos, a small landlocked nation that borders China. The focus on the Belt and Road impact on Southeast Asia is relevant not only because of the region’s proximity to China but also because three of the 20 biggest borrowers in the program are in ASEAN: Cambodia, Indonesia and Laos. A fourth recommendation from Dollar may have a harder time getting traction: the U.S. could work more closely with China and join its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The U.S. opposed the development bank when it was founded in 2015, urging allies like South Korea not to join, citing concerns about transparency, environmental rules and other standards. “What we don’t want to see happen is some kind of race to the bottom where the standards are diluted,” Antony Blinken, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said at the time. Washington has softened its stance since then, but still has yet to join the China-led bank. Such cooperation is needed, particularly as COVID-19 tears through ASEAN economies and increases their financing needs, Dollar said. “U.S. accusations of China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ do not resonate with much of the developing world and make the United States seem insecure,” he said, adding one more recommendation: “Dial down the anti-China rhetoric.”
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New Zealand Reports No New COVID Cases for 2nd Straight Day
Officials in New Zealand announced no new cases of COVID-19 were detected for the second straight day Wednesday as most businesses in the country begin reopening.Speaking to reporters Wednesday in Wellington, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Ministry of Health Director-General Ashley Bloomfield announced the total number of confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus stands at 1,497.Bloomfield said that was encouraging news as most businesses, including malls, retail stores and sit-down restaurants, will be able to reopen as of midnight Wednesday, though social distancing rules will remain in place and gatherings will be limited to 10 people.He said it is vital New Zealander’s “continue to model the personal behaviors that are going to keep COVID-19 out of New Zealand.”Prime Minister Ardern said the country faced the most challenging economic conditions since the Great Depression because of the virus. She noted New Zealand is about to enter a “very tough winter but every winter eventually is followed by spring, and if we make the right choices, we can get New Zealanders back to work and our economy moving quickly again.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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Homophobia Hampers South Korea’s Virus Campaign
As South Korea grapples with a new spike in coronavirus infections thought to be linked to nightspots in Seoul, including several popular with gay men, it’s also seeing rising homophobia that’s making it difficult for sexual minorities to come forward for diagnostic tests.
The first confirmed patient in the new coronavirus cluster was a 29-year-old man who visited five nightclubs and bars in Seoul’s Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in a single night before testing positive for the virus last Wednesday. Further investigation has since found more than 100 infections that appear linked to the nightspots.
A Christian church-founded newspaper, Kookmin Ilbo, reported last week that the places the man visited in Itaewon on May 2 included a gay club. The report was followed by a flood of anti-gay slurs on social media that included blaming the man and those at the club for endangering the country’s fight against the pandemic.
Views on sexual minorities in South Korea have gradually improved in recent years, but anti-gay sentiments still run deep in the conservative country. Same-sex marriages aren’t legal and there are no prominent openly gay politicians or business executives, though some have risen to stardom in the entertainment world.
Activist groups have criticized the Kookmin Ilbo report, saying that it was irrelevant that some of the nightspots the man went to were popular with gay people and the newspaper should not have disclosed it.
It’s not even known how big role the man played in the new outbreak, with officials saying that local infections in Itaewon may have already begun before he contracted the illness. Authorities have been trying to track down and test thousands of people who may have come in contact with those infected, a process activist say has been made more difficult now that there is a sexual stigma attached to the new outbreak.
Lee Jong-geol, general director of the gay rights advocacy group Chingusai, said dozens of sexual minorities who had recently visited Itaewon clubs called his office and expressed worry about being outed or disadvantaged at work if they are placed under quarantine.
While there have been no reports hate crimes or physical attacks linked to the fresh surge of homophobia, Lee said “anxiety and fear have flared inside of sexual minority communities.”
The new cluster threatens South Korea’s hard-won gains in its virus fight, which were the result of aggressive contact tracing and mass testing. The roughly 30 new cases reported daily the past three days are higher than single-digit increases the country had been reporting recently. Still, it is far lower than the hundreds of cases recorded each day in late February and early March.
Alarmed by the sudden spike, authorities in Seoul and most other South Korean cities ordered the temporary closing of all nightlife establishments, and the education ministry delayed the opening of schools by another week.
According to Seoul’s city government, as of Monday authorities were unable to reach more than 3,000 people who visited Itaewon nightspots in recent days. Heath Ministry official Yoon Taeho said Tuesday that police were trying to track down club and bar patrons who officials haven’t been able to contact.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and several health officials expressed worry that the surge in homophobic sentiment could hurt the virus fight.
“At least under the viewpoint of quarantine, denunciation of a certain community isn’t helpful,” Chung said in televised remarks Sunday. “If contacts avoid diagnostic tests in fear of criticism, our society has to shoulder its entire consequences.”
Kim Jyu-hye, who doesn’t identify as strictly male or female and lives in a rural town, said that people there, when talking about what happened in the Itaewon clubs, often said that “gays like roaming around all night long and sleeping with many men.”
“These days, I feel more isolated and I’m afraid about my relationships with other people because they are shifting their anger about new coronavirus outbreaks onto sexual minorities,” Kim said.
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Trump Administration Moves To Halt Pension Fund Investment in Chinese Stocks
The Trump administration is pressing a board charged with overseeing billions in federal retirement dollars to halt plans to invest in Chinese companies that Washington suspects of abusing human rights or threatening U.S. security.
On Monday, U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow sent a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia opposing plans by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) to allow a pension fund it oversees to track an index that includes some China-based stocks of companies under scrutiny in Washington.
The same day, Scalia wrote to Board Chair Michael Kennedy, urging him to “halt all steps” associated with the investment change, according to documents seen by Reuters and previously reported by Bloomberg and Fox Business News.
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Australian Police Make Arrest in 1988 Death of Gay American Man
Police in Australia have made an arrest in the death of a gay American man more than 30 years ago.The suspect is an unidentified 49-year-old man who was arrested Tuesday in Lane Cove, a suburb of Sydney, and formally charged with the murder of Scott Johnson, whose body was found at the base of Sydney’s North Head cliff in the suburb of Manly in 1988.The death of the 27-year-old mathematician, who was in Australia studying for his doctorate degree, was initially ruled a suicide, but a coroner’s report in 2017 determined that Johnson death was the result of a hate crime.An investigation into the deaths of 88 men in Sydney between 1976 and 2000 uncovered that anti-gay gangs roamed the city looking for gay men to attack, often at so-called “beats” where gay men would often meet. The probe determined that at least 27 of the deaths were anti-gay hate crimes, and that police failed to properly investigate the deaths because of anti-gay bias.Scott Johnson’s brother, Steve, whose efforts pushed authorities to reinvestigate his brother’s death, said in a statement that the arrest was an “emotional” moment for him and his family “who loved Scott dearly.”
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Shanghai Disneyland Reopens
Thousands of visitors in face masks Monday streamed into the Shanghai Disney Resort, the first of the Disney theme parks to reopen since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Disney is taking precautions to protect visitors and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The number of visitors is limited. Face masks are required, and temperatures are checked at the gate. Guests are also required to show government-issued identification and use a smartphone app issued by the Shanghai city government that tracks their health and contacts with anyone who might have been exposed to the virus. Andrew Bolstein, senior vice president of Disney operations in Shanghai, says maintaining social distance has been a high priority in the park. They have added markers to show guests where to stand, as well as where not to — outside restaurants, shops and all attractions, anywhere people will congregate. Visitors line up following social distancing markers at Shanghai Disney Resort as the Shanghai Disneyland theme park reopens following a shutdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, in Shanghai, China, May 11, 2020.China, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, was the first country to reopen factories and other businesses after declaring the disease under control in March, even as infections rose and controls were tightened in other countries. Tourism was hit especially hard by restrictions imposed around the world that shut down airline and cruise ship travel, theme parks and cinemas. Disney’s latest quarterly profit fell 91%, and the company said virus-related costs cut pretax profit by $1.4 billion. Shanghai Disneyland and Disney’s park in Hong Kong closed in late January, as China isolated millions of people to try to contain the virus outbreak. Tokyo Disneyland closed in February, and parks in the United States and Europe closed in March. Headquartered in Burbank, California, Disney has yet to set a date for reopening its other parks worldwide.
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‘Tale of 2 Outbreaks’: Singapore Tackles Costly Setback
Weeks after two of his roommates were diagnosed with COVID-19, Mohamad Arif Hassan says he’s still waiting to be tested for the coronavirus. Quarantined in his room in a sprawling foreign workers’ dormitory that has emerged as Singapore’s biggest viral cluster, Arif says he isn’t too worried because neither he nor his eight other roommates have any symptoms.
Still, the 28-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker couldn’t be blamed if he were more than just a bit concerned.
Infections in Singapore, an affluent Southeast Asian city-state of fewer than 6 million people, have jumped more than a hundredfold in two months — from 226 in mid-March to more than 23,800, the most in Asia after China, India and Pakistan. Only 20 of the infections have resulted in deaths.
About 90% of Singapore’s cases are linked to crowded foreign workers’ dormitories that were a blind spot in the government’s crisis management. Arif’s dorm complex, which has 14,000 beds, accounts for 11% of total infections, with over 2,500 cases.
This massive second wave of infections caught Singapore off guard and exposed the danger of overlooking marginalized groups during a health crisis. Despite warnings from human rights activists as early as February about the dorms’ crowded and often unsanitary living conditions, no action was taken until cases spread rampantly last month.
Singapore’s costly oversight was also an important lesson to other countries in the region with large migrant populations. Neighboring Malaysia recently announced mandatory coronavirus testing for its more than 2 million foreign workers after dozens were diagnosed with COVID—19.
The slip-up highlighted Singapore’s treatment of its large population of low-wage foreign workers, who play an integral part in the economy but live on the fringes in conditions where social distancing is impossible. The misjudgment was also an embarrassment for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s government ahead of a general election anticipated in the next few months that is expected to be the last for Lee, who has led Singapore since 2004 and is planning to retire soon.
Singapore’s nanny state government, which won global praise for its meticulous contact tracing and testing in the early stages of the crisis, quickly moved to contain the problem by treating the flare-up in the dorms as a separate outbreak from that in the local community, a policy that some say is discriminatory.
The government shut schools and nonessential businesses island-wide on April 7. So-called “safe distancing ambassadors” were recruited to remind people to wear masks and stay at least a meter apart from each other in public places, or face heavy penalties.
Meanwhile, all construction sites and dorms were locked down and foreign workers largely confined in their rooms. More than 10,000 foreign workers in essential services were moved to safer sites to reduce crowding, and testing was ramped up to include people with no symptoms.
In Arif’s S11 Punggol dorm — advertised as the cheapest in Singapore — police have mounted a 24-hour patrol of the 13 multicolored housing blocks located in the island’s northeast.
Arif, who was sharing a room with 11 other workers, said one of them was moved to an army camp in early April to help ease overcrowding. Shortly afterward, another roommate was hospitalized with a fever, and on April 17 another was isolated with light symptoms, with both testing positive for the coronavirus.
Arif said he hasn’t been tested yet because thousands of residents of his dorm will probably have to be tested. But he said he was comforted by Singapore’s top-notch medical facilities and its relatively low number of deaths from the virus.
He gets food delivered to his room, free Wi-Fi on his cellphone and, most importantly, he said the government has pledged that the workers’ salaries will be paid.
“I am not worried because the government is taking good care of us like Singaporeans,” said Arif, who has lived in Singapore for seven years. “Right now, we take our temperature twice a day, try to stay a meter apart from each other and constantly use hand sanitizer.”
Once belittled as a tiny red dot on the global map, Singapore has relied on overseas workers to build infrastructure and help power its growth into one of the world’s wealthiest nations.
Some 1.4 million foreign workers live in the city-state, accounting for 38% of its workforce. At least two thirds are low-wage, transient migrants from across Asia performing blue-collar jobs that locals shun, such as construction, shipping and maintenance, as well as working as maids.
Roughly 250,000 of the migrants live in 43 privately run dormitories mostly tucked away in the outskirts far from Singapore’s stunning skyscrapers and luxury malls. Workers sleep in bunk beds in rooms usually packed with 12 people, sometimes up to 20, with a required minimum living space of 4.5 square meters (48 square feet) per person.
Another 120,000 migrant laborers live in factory-converted hostels or temporary facilities at work sites, where conditions are sometimes even more dismal.
Most of Singapore’s migrants earn between 500 and 1,000 Singapore dollars ($354-$708) a month.
Since last month, the government’s infection data has separated foreign workers’ cases from those among the general population. Although cases continue to rise among foreign workers, infections have decreased in the local community. The government plans to gradually reopen the economy on Tuesday before island-wide restrictions end June 1, eager to show that it has remedied the situation and that measures have worked.
“The larger narrative that cannot be missed is the tale of two outbreaks in Singapore,” said Eugene Tan, law professor at Singapore Management University. “The outbreak that Singaporeans should pay attention to is the local community. The other outbreak of foreign workers is getting its due attention from the government, but it should not be one that Singaporeans should be unduly concerned about.”
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South Korea Delays School Reopening as New Coronavirus Cases Rise
South Korea is extending school closures by an additional week as new COVID-19 infections are on the rise. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.Students in their third and final year of high school were scheduled to return to classrooms on Wednesday, but the country’s Education Ministry has now pushed back the date to May 20.Park Baeg-beom, vice minister of education, said during a press briefing on Monday the postponement was meant to “guarantee the safety of students,” according to the Yonhap News Agency.He said other grade levels will gradually return to schools in the weeks going into June.The start of the school year, which typically commences in early March, was delayed by several weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic and courses have been taught online since last month.The rescheduling announced Monday is in response to a new group of infections that appears to be spreading across Seoul and other regions.The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Monday that at least 86 COVID-19 cases have been traced to a man in his 20s who visited a popular Seoul nightlife district earlier this month. Officials warn that thousands of patrons of several bars and clubs in this area could have been exposed and should get tested.A man wearing a face mask takes pictures of a temporary closed dance club in Seoul, South Korea, May 10, 2020.On Saturday, Seoul’s mayor, Park Won-soon, ordered all of the city’s bars and clubs to close down until further notice and criticized those who did not wear masks while inside these venues, saying their “carelessness” risked the health of others.Prior to this recent spike, new coronavirus cases in South Korea had been on a steady decline with the number of community transmissions remaining in the single digits for much of the past few weeks.Last week, Seoul eased social distancing measures that allowed for the planned re-opening of schools and other public facilities, including libraries; but, pressure began to build on the government to again change the start date following the KCDC’s disclosure of the new outbreak.By the time the Education Ministry announced its decision, more than 15,000 people signed a petition on the presidential Blue House’s web page that called for another delay.Some high school seniors feel the back and forth over the safety of reopening schools only makes more difficult their efforts to prepare for exams and complete other requirements for entry into a university.“My distrust of starting school is deepening,” Jung Ujin, 18, wrote in a text message to VOA. “I even think that the opening of school in September, which was considered the worst, would be better. It’s meaningless to stay trapped at home in constant anxiety.”People stand in a line at a testing center for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Seoul, South Korea, May 11, 2020.Jung said she and many of her classmates feel they have “fallen behind” due to the school closures and online classes have not been an effective substitute for in-classroom learning.Education officials had issued various guidelines to schools and students on how to practice proper hygiene and implement social distancing protocols once classes resume.In messages sent to a student from her school and shown to VOA, authorities notified pupils that their temperature would be checked upon arrival each day, masks were to be worn at all times and during lunch break in the cafeteria, students would be required to sit at a distance and minimize talking to one another. Those who presented symptoms, such as a fever or sore throat, would be sent home.But, the push to get students back to the classroom now might have been rushed to begin with, suggests a high school teacher, who spoke with VOA on the condition of anonymity because he did not have permission from his employer.“I think it is dangerous to reopen now,” the 33-year old said. “In light of the recent infection outbreak, students are at risk since many take public transportation to school and come into contact with so many people.”“Classrooms already have limited space, so we can’t practice social distancing well as it is,” he said.South Korea experienced a large COVID-19 outbreak in February but is credited with mitigating the spread of the disease, due to rapid testing and technology-based contact tracing.As of Monday, the total number of coronavirus cases stood at 10,909 with 256 deaths attributed to the disease, according to the KCDC.
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China Reports Spike in New COVID-19 Cases
China’s health commission is reporting a spike in new COVID-19 cases in several provinces, prompting health officials to urge citizens to use personal protection. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.At a Beijing news conference, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said 17 new cases were reported Monday, up from 14 the day before. This marked the first double-digit increase in new cases in 10 days.The spokesman said seven of the new cases were listed as “imported” into the inner-Mongolia region from overseas, while five were in the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic, where a strict lockdown was lifted last month.Another five cases were spread across three northeastern provinces, including Jilin, where authorities suspended train service in and out of a county after a cluster was recently detected. China state television reports a team of experts was being sent to the area to investigate the situation.According to the Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus dashboard, China currently has more than 84,000 confirmed infections, and 4,637 deaths.
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