Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Analysts say epidemic poses gravest threat to authorities since Tiananmen Square – and Beijing’s tight control could backfire
The coronavirus crisis in China has posed unprecedented political challenges to the authorities and prompted them to further crack down on speech freedom and tighten control over people in a desperate move to bolster the regime, say analysts and activists.
After President Xi Jinping ordered “resolute efforts” to curb the spread of coronavirus in his first public remarks on the disease on 20 January, Wuhan was swiftly placed under lockdown. Millions of communities across China also began to implement draconian epidemic control measures.
Beijing’s draconian measures to contain outbreak have delayed global transmission
The World Health Organization is having to perform a diplomatic balancing act over the new coronavirus outbreak, caught between China – whose draconian measures to contain the disease have delayed transmission to the rest of the world –and China’s critics, who say its behaviour is typical of its disregard for human rights.
At every press briefing, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has defended China’s handling of the epidemic in the face of critical questions, very often from US journalists. At the end of January, when Tedros declared a public health emergency of international concern – having put it off a week earlier under what was assumed to be pressure from Beijing – he praised China for protecting the rest of the world.
The Italian luxury fashion house Prada has postponed a fashion show due to take place in Japan in May.
In a statement, the company said:
Due to the current uncertainty related to the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Prada Resort fashion show originally scheduled for May 21 in Japan will be postponed.
Repatriating passengers from the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship in Japan is not without risks, a medical expert has said.
Paul Hunter, professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said:
Considerable care needs to be made to ensure that the passengers do not transmit infection between themselves or to cabin crew during the flight home and once back on home soil they do not act as a focus for the spread of the disease into their home countries – any returning passengers may be put in quarantine on their return.
It is well known that certain infections such as influenza and norovirus can spread rapidly on board cruise ships. Cruise ships take passengers and crew from all over the world, often passengers are relatively elderly, they spend most of their time on board indoors mixing with others.
The most likely [infection] route is direct person-to-person transmission when people are close to an infected person, but with currently publicly available information it is not possible to rule out other issues at this stage.
Company hit by shutdown in China and says it will fail to meet quarterly revenue target
Apple has warned of global “iPhone supply shortages” resulting from its Chinese factories being shut because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Californian company told investors on Monday night it would fail to meet its quarterly revenue target of $63-67bn (£48-52bn) because of the “temporarily constrained” supply of iPhones and a dramatic drop in Chinese shoppers during the virus crisis. Apple did not provide a new forecast for its second-quarter revenue.
People who flout new order in Xiaogan city in central Hubei face detention for 10 days as global death toll reaches 1,775. Follow live news and latest updates
Shares in China have posted strong gains after the country’s central bank cut the interest rate on its medium-term lending to try to cushion businesses from the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. The bank also injected another 200bn yuan of liquidity into the system.
The move is expected to pave the way for a reduction in the country’s benchmark loan prime rate on Thursday, Reuters reports, to lower borrowing costs and ease financial strains on companies hit by the epidemic.
China CSI 300 erases Covid-19 slump.
Why? * Short selling ban (in China this means the Gulag!) * Funds need gov't approval to sell (prove an outflow) * Record repo injections by the PBoC, rate cuts * Xi - will cut taxes and record fiscal stimulus
PBOC cut the rate on MLF to 3.15%, from 3.25% in the previous operation. https://t.co/EXAEiLHayq
A reporter is asking about Australians onboard the MS Westerdam cruise ship that docked in Cambodia last Thursday. An American passenger on that ship was subsequently diagnosed with Covid-19, after testing in Malaysia. The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne answers:
There were some Australians on the vessel Westerdam. 39 of those have remained in Phnom Penh after the ship finally docked. They have been provided with hotel accommodation in the capital.
Chinese ambassador says consumers not being served well by ‘politically motivated’ ban on tech firm’s entry into 5G network
The Australian government’s ban on Huawei’s participation in building the nation’s 5G network remains a “sore point or thorny issue” between the two countries, the Chinese ambassador said on Monday, as he criticised the government for discriminating against a Chinese company.
Cheng Jingye dismissed concerns Huawei may pose a threat to Australia’s national security given its links to the communist Chinese government, and said Australia’s ban was “politically motivated”.
Top diplomats disagreed over the global relevance of the west at the Munich security conference
The chosen theme of the Munich security conference – once a party for Nato and now a Davos for the world’s diplomats – was “westlessness”. The organisers wanted to capture the fear that the west is now so divided and challenged by the rise of China its whole existence has become imperilled.
It was not a concept that won universal acclaim. Margrethe Vestager, the EU vice-president, hit back in one session: “I never thought about ’westlessness’ before. Are we here discussing our own depression and asking the rest of the world to join in as a sort of collective mindfulness exercise? I don’t really don’t get this.” European values – the rule of law and the integrity of the individual – had spread across the world, she insisted.
US, Canada and Hong Kong offer citizens on Diamond Princess flights home as death toll inside China reaches 1,665
A further 70 people on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 355, as three countries say they will fly their citizens on the ship home. It comes as China’s National Health Commission announced the death toll inside the country had risen to 1,665, with 68,500 infections.
The US embassy in Japan announced on Saturday that more than 400 US nationals would be flown home from the quarantined Diamond Princess, currently docked in the port of Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
Pressure is growing on the British government to airlift citizens stranded on a cruise ship stricken by coronavirus, after a Chinese tourist in France became the first person to die from the disease in Europe.
The US announced late on Friday that it would be evacuating more than 400 nationals from the quarantined ship, which has had nearly 300 confirmed coronavirus cases, and British travellers called on their government to do the same.
Europe has recorded its first coronavirus fatality, a Chinese tourist in France, it has been confirmed.
The death of the 80-year-old man, who was visiting Paris with his daughter when he was taken to hospital three weeks ago after falling ill, also marks the first coronavirus mortality outside Asia since the start of the outbreak.
Mark Esper says countries using Chinese technology will put intelligence cooperation at risk
The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, warned that US alliances including the future of Nato were in jeopardy if European countries went ahead with using Chinese Huawei technology in their 5G networks.
Esper also warned future intelligence cooperation would be at risk, as the US would no longer be certain its communications networks were secure.
Covid-19 cases pass 66,000 in China as residents in capital who flout new restrictions told they will be ‘held accountable under the law’
Beijing has ordered people returning to the city from holidays to quarantine themselves for 14 days to try to contain the coronavirus spread, as the death toll in China from the outbreak passed 1,500.
On Saturday, the country’s National Health Commission said 2,641 new cases were confirmed in the previous 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed infections across mainland China to 66,492. There were also 143 deaths in the 24 hours to midnight on Friday, taking total fatalities from the virus to 1,523.
It is estimated that more than 30,000 pets have been left stranded after the Chinese government sealed off Wuhan following the coronavirus outbreak.
In response, people trapped in Wuhan have been volunteering and checking in on the animals whose owners are stuck outside the city. Here's Ye Jialin's story of helping those who are currently not allowed to return home
A Channel 4 employee was taken to hospital to be tested for coronavirus on Thursday after being met at the channel’s London headquarters by health officials in protective clothing, it has emerged.
The person is understood to have been on holiday recently in China in the last month and had some concerns about feeling unwell. They are not a journalist and had not been to Wuhan, the Chinese region at the centre of the outbreak.
“On Thursday a member of staff at Channel 4 who had travelled to Asia within the last month felt unwell.”
“As a precautionary measure they decided to seek medical advice and, in line with the latest public health advice regarding the Coronavirus, they were taken to hospital for a precautionary test. We have informed our staff of this and continue to follow all the latest public health guidance.”
Singapore has reported nine new coronavirus cases – its biggest daily increase, according to the Straits Times. The new cases take Singapore’s virus tally to 67.
Six of the new cases are linked to the Grace Assembly of God church which is now the biggest cluster of cases in Singapore with 13 in total.
Coronavirus: 9 new cases confirmed in Singapore, 6 of these linked to Grace Assembly church which has become the biggest cluster https://t.co/eybB3Xrpwp
Larry Kudlow, the National Economic Council director, said the US was 'disappointed' in the response of China to the coronavirus outbreak. He said it was a concern for the wellbeing of people in China, adding that the virus had been contained in the US. The senior White House official called on Beijing to be more transparent over its handling of the outbreak amid moves by Chinese authorities to expand 'wartime' measures to limit its spread
A senior White House official has called on Beijing to be more transparent over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak as Chinese authorities expanded “wartime” measures to limit its spread.
“We are a little disappointed that we haven’t been invited in and we’re a little disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese,” said Larry Kudlow, the director of the US National Economic Council.
The true scale of the epidemic caused by the new coronavirus in Hubei province has been thrown into doubt after the Chinese authorities reported more than 13,300 extra cases going back over an unknown number of days or weeks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the huge jump in cases in Hubei, bringing the total to more than 60,000 worldwide, was due to a change in the way Chinese authorities was counting them.
A hardliner notorious for the demolition of thousands of Christian crosses on churches has been appointed the new head of China’s office in Hong Kong, a sign that Beijing aims to further tighten control over the semi-autonomous city, analysts say.
Xia Baolong, an ally of president Xi Jinping, has been appointed director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office under the State Council, replacing Zhang Xiaoming, State media reported on Thursday. His appointment came amid a purge of officials in Hubei, the province wracked by the coronavirus outbreak.
Zhang has become the most senior Beijing-appointed official to lose his job in the wake of months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong. The city has been roiled by more than seven months of protests over an extradition bill that would have allowed suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.
As our story makes clear, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the huge jump in cases in Hubei – bringing the total to more than 60,000 worldwide – was caused by a change in the way Chinese authorities were counting them.
The WHO is now working hard to get further details on when the extra cases of “Covid-19” occurred to paint a true picture of the development of the epidemic in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei.
Reuters reports that Donald Trump has praised China over its handling of the outbreak, adding that the United States was working closely with Beijing.
“I think they’ve handled it professionally, and I think they’re extremely capable,” Trump, who has previously been at loggerheads with the Chinese authorities over trade issues, said in a podcast broadcast on iHeart Radio on Thursday.
The World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a briefing on Wednesday that although the number of newly confirmed cases of coronavirus reported from China had stabilised over the past week, the outbreak 'could still go in any direction'. He also confirmed that Cambodia has agreed to accept the Westerdam cruise ship, which has been stranded at sea for several days over virus fears