Beijing initially 'covered up' COVID-19 outbreak that sparked current death wave
""A relative of mine had been recuperating in hospital [from something else], but the hospitals back then basically weren't discharging anyone, because the 20th Party Congress was on at the time, and they said it was because they feared having them test positive once they got out," the person said.
"Actually, the virus was already ripping through the hospital by then ... and they weren't allowing anyone to report these cases to higher levels of government," he said. "Also, they weren't allowing COVID-19 to be treated as such, just describing it as a ‘fever' in patients' notes."
"My relative was being treated for a so-called urinary tract infection ... They did a test for COVID-19 only because my family has some influence, and it came back positive,""
--- Interesting. That confirms the system started to break long before that great 'easing'. & when they couldn't hide it anymore, they said, 'Hey, Covid is not so bad, & therefore we can open up again.'
Too bad, that the Wuhan virus still is quite bad though:
""We started out at a fairly good private hospital, then we went to Tiantan Hospital, and to Ditan Hospital after that," he said. "In all of these hospitals, we saw that the deaths were of elderly people who had been infected with COVID-19 both before and after the relaxation [of the zero-COVID policy]." "What we saw was really appalling," he said. "All of the hospital morgues were full, and they were stacking dead bodies on the ground, on top of each other.""
--- Memories of Wuhan 2020.
"An employee who answered the phone at the Mentougou Funeral Home in a northwestern suburb of Beijing said they were currently dealing with five times the usual number of cremations.
"There is no space here ... our cold storage is full and there is nowhere to put [any more bodies]," the employee said. "We only have three or four furnaces and we're cremating 180 people a day."
They said they are now taking bookings for cremations from Dec. 31 at the earliest.
An employee who answered the phone at a funeral parlor in Beijing's Fangshan district said they're no longer taking bookings at all.
"I can't book you in, and we can't even pick up and transport [bodies] across districts right now," the employee said. "You'll need to look at other funeral homes.""
--- Everything is fine under emperor Xi's heaven.
If they are booked out till at least end of December, then it seems to be even worse than my calculations from yesterday. Instead of a 3 week wave with some 3000 deaths per day, it will be more like a month or even longer (considering that acc. to this article dead bodies were already stacked before the official 'easing'). That would mean more than 100,000 Covid deaths in Beijing alone.
China officially reports first COVID deaths in weeks as virus wave swells
"Officially China has suffered just 5,237 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, including the latest two fatalities, a tiny fraction of its 1.4 billion population and very low by global standards."
--- & very much a joke.
"The NHC also reported 1,995 symptomatic infections for Dec. 18, compared with 2,097 a day earlier."
Worries about China's COVID-19 outbreak spark run on medicines in Australia
"Concerned Chinese Australians have begun sending over-the-counter cold and flu medication to family members in China amid a surge there in COVID-19 cases that has depleted local stocks.
Sydney resident Fan Yi told the ABC she had bought dozens of packets of painkillers and sent them to her parents, who are in their 70s, in Shanghai"
--- More memories of early 2020. Again Chinese are buying up medication overseas. It's not only Australia, also Taiwan & you can bet that the same is going on everywhere where Chinese live & can easily buy such medication.
"Cold and flu medicines have been sold out in many domestic pharmacies and online platforms since last week.
On Alibaba, China's largest online shopping platform, the price of regular paracetamol tablets has increased tenfold in the past week from $4 to $40 for 20 tablets."
--- Welcome to China, where the benevolence of salespeople knows no bounds.
China bets on private sector to boost Covid-hit economy
" Stabilizing economic growth is the top priority for 2023, according to an official readout following the conclusion of the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), a key annual meeting of top leaders, which ended Friday.
“We need to encourage and support the private sector economy and private enterprise in terms of policy and public opinion,” the statement said. “We must protect the property rights of private enterprise and the interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law.”"
--- This time it's true! Trust us!
& CNN does trust the CCP:
"The comments from China’s top leaders are a strong signal that policymakers will be relaxing their ironclad grip on the country’s private sector"
--- Phhh... Even if emperor Xi relaxes his grip a little bit, it will only be temporarily, because the economy is crashing. If it stabilises, we will see renewed crackdowns.
"The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think tank, issued a report last week recommending the government set the growth goal at “above 5%” for next year.
Citi analysts on Monday gave the same estimate.
[...] The views were echoed by analysts at Goldman Sachs."
--- When Wall Street analysts agree with the CCP, you know how reliable they are.
Chinese business confidence plunges to its lowest in nearly a decade, says survey
"“The survey suggests strongly that the growth rate of the Chinese economy has slowed quite dramatically, and may be heading for a recession in 2023,” said World Economics. It added that while “lights may not have gone out, prospects for economic growth in 2023 have certainly dimmed.”
Furthermore, the survey also noted that business activity plunged this month as almost all component Indexes in both the Manufacturing and Service Sectors are now below the 50 level. This comes after the recent dismantling of China’s zero-Covid policy"
--- Sounds way more realistic than the 5% growth mentioned above.
Japan on high alert as PLA Navy vessel enters its territorial waters
"Chinese media said the PLA Navy vessels “sailed beyond the first island chain” to send a signal “amid Japan’s recent militaristic moves.”"
--- So, China essentially admits that it is using its navy to intimidate other countries about their interior politics. But it's the USA 'stirring up trouble' when it sends its ships on freedom of navigation exercises.
Australia seeks direct resolution of trade dispute with China ahead of WTO ruling
TikTok denies setting up ‘illegal operations’ in Taiwan
--- China Uncensored: "Chinese State Media Promotes Soft Porn"
--- CNA: "'New normal' of China's military pushing across Taiwan Strait could spin out of control"
--- WION: Gravitas: China stares at 3 Covid waves in 3 months
Peking meldet erstmals wieder Covid-Tote
"Die chinesischen Gesundheitsbehörden haben zum ersten Mal seit dem 4. Dezember wieder Todesfälle im Zusammenhang mit Covid-19 bekanntgegeben. Die beiden Sterbefälle betrafen jeweils die Hauptstadt Peking."
--- Nur 2 Tote. Ein Witz:
"Nach ausländischen Presseberichten verzeichnen Krematorien in Peking einen starken Anstieg von Toten - zum Teil vier- bis fünfmal so viel wie normalerweise."
--- Von wegen. Sieht eher so aus, als wenn es 10x soviele sind. & nach neuesten Berichten soll die Welle in Peking auch schon früher angefangen haben, schon während des Kongresses. Anfang Dezember stapelten sich in einigen Krankenhäusern schon die Toten.
Dürfte dann wohl auch der Hauptgrund gewesen sein, daß man Null-Covid aufgab. Man hatte die Lage eh nicht mehr unter Kontrolle.
"Zahlreiche Geschäfte, Restaurants und Unternehmen sind geschlossen, weil Mitarbeiter fehlen."
--- & deshalb:
"Eine Folge dieser veränderten Sichtweise: In Chongqing im Süden des Landes können Menschen jetzt sogar mit Corona-Symptomen wieder zur Arbeit gehen."
--- Eine veränderte Sichtweise liegt da eher nicht zugrunde, sondern Arbeitskräftemangel.
Erstmals können Menschen in China auch mit Coronasymptomen zur Arbeit gehen
"Andere Städte, darunter die Hauptstadt Peking, haben laut Medienberichten an einige Einwohner kostenlose medizinische Kits verteilt"
--- Schöne Propaganda. Die Realität sieht etwas anders aus. Medikamentenmangel allerorten (& wie in China so üblich, Wucher). Weshalb Auslandschinesen frei verkäufliche Medikamente (von Erkältungs- bis zu Schmerzmitteln) aufkaufen & nach China schicken.
Russland und China halten Flottenmanöver vor Japan und Taiwan ab
China und sein russisches Raumfahrtproblem
