Tag Archives: WorldNews

China gives fresh details of virus response, denies cover up

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BEIJING  (BLOOMBERG) – China said it did not know until Jan 19 how infectious the new coronavirus is, pushing back against accusations that it intentionally withheld information about the severity of the outbreak in Wuhan from the world. 

While Chinese officials knew that there were signs of human-to-human transmission earlier, it was hard to ascertain the new virus’s level of contagiousness, said Zeng Yixin, vice-minister of the National Health Commission, at a press briefing in Beijing on Friday (May 15).

There are diseases like HIV that while infectious, are not easily transmitted from person to person, he said. 
It was only on Jan 19 that Chinese scientists concluded  the virus spreads easily among people and China released that information to the world the next day, said Zeng. 

The accounting of events from top officials came as China faces growing blame for a delay in sounding the alarm about the coronavirus, which allowed people to spread it unwittingly for some time.

Zeng was responding to an Associated Press report in April that cited confidential documents showing Chinese officials waited six days before President Xi Jinping warned the public of the dangers of the virus outbreak. 

The alleged delay resulted in millions of people travelling from Wuhan to elsewhere in the country and the world, seeding a pandemic that has now sickened over 4.4 million people and killed over 300,000. 

Giving a rundown of events since the crisis began, Zeng said that China concluded on Jan 9 that it was dealing with a novel coronavirus and began developing test kits the next day. On Jan 12, it informed the World Health Organisation (WHO) about the outbreak. On Jan 14, a national meeting of provincial health officials was held. 

“Many uncertainties remained. We understood there’s more research needed on human-to-human transmission and we couldn’t rule out the chance of a further spread of the virus,” said Zeng. “But we couldn’t reach conclusions to many questions.” 

Besides its alleged delay in disclosing information on the virus outbreak at an earlier stage, China has also faced skepticism about its official tallies of deaths and infections. 

The pandemic has revived tensions between the world’s two largest economies. China and the United States are escalating disputes from visas to supply chains as the two countries continue blaming each other regarding the origins of the virus, a mystery that global experts are trying to unravel. 

While the number of infections has dropped dramatically in China, the nation still faces the threat of a second wave after a new cluster emerged in its north-eastern region ahead of high-profile political meetings scheduled to convene next week in Beijing. 
Xi on Thursday called for stronger measures to contain any risk that could undermine the country’s success so far.

In Wuhan, officials have been directed to prepare for mass testing the entire population of 11 million after new cases were reported for the first time since the city’s lockdown lifted in April. 

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Trump says doesn’t want to talk to Xi right now, could even cut China ties

He and his supporters think thumbing your nose at real or made-up enemies proves you are strong – all it really does is show you have a runny nose and no honor.

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U.S. President Donald Trump signaled a further deterioration of his relationship with China over the novel coronavirus, saying he has no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping right now and going so far as to suggest he could even cut ties with the world’s second largest economy.

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Russian hacking attack on Bundestag damaged trust, says Merkel

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Chancellor says she was pained to learn outcome of inquiry pinning blame on Fancy Bear

Angela Merkel has said Russian hacking attacks on the Bundestag in which her emails were seized harmed efforts to build a trusting relationship with Moscow.

Merkel told the German parliament on Wednesday that she had been pained to learn of the 2015 hack and the perpetrator.

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Twitter announces employees will be allowed to work from home ‘forever’

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The company said those who want to return to the office won’t likely do so until at least September and reopening will be ‘careful’

Twitter will allow its employees to work from home “forever”, chief executive officer Jack Dorsey said in a company-wide email Tuesday.

A spokesperson from Twitter confirmed the decision to the Guardian, saying the company was “one of the first companies to go to a work-from-home model” due to Covid-19, but does not anticipate being one of the first to return to its offices.

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US, China should remember the enemy is the virus: Yomiuri Shimbun

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TOKYO (THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – The confrontation between the United States and China has disrupted international cooperation indispensable for dealing with the new coronavirus.

Unless the world’s two major powers join hands, it cannot be expected that infections will be contained and the world economy will be revived.

What is important now is for each country to share information on the virus and establish an international cooperative framework for the development of vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

Controversy between the United States and China over the source of the infection has hindered such moves.

Of course, China bears the greatest responsibility.

The first place in the world where the virus spread was the Chinese city of Wuhan.

At the end of last year, a local doctor who had promptly warned of an emergency was punished by the local government. It cannot be denied that China’s tendency to conceal information has led to the outbreak in Wuhan and its spread worldwide.

When, where, and how did the virus originate and spread? Deeper discussions based on scientific data would be effective in preventing a recurrence. The World Health Organisation plans to send experts to China to investigate.

China should accept the investigation as soon as possible. It is necessary for Beijing to provide all materials useful for the research, while not limiting what is subject to the investigation.

US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continue to argue with China, claiming that a laboratory in Wuhan is the source of the disease.

China denies the claim, saying there is no scientific evidence, thus continuing tit-for-tat accusations.

The United States is the most infected country in the world and has a long way to go before the situation settles.

It is important to determine the source of the virus, but Trump should focus on domestic measures first.

He can’t complain if people accuse him of using the tactic of criticising China, while hinting at taking measures of retaliation such as imposing tariffs, as a way of drumming up support.

The global supply chain has already been hit.

The world is not in a situation for the United States and China to continue their trade friction.

Officials in charge of the two countries’ trade talks held a phone conversation on Friday.

It is said to be the first official talks in about four months. They should deal with the matter more swiftly.

Trump calls himself a “wartime president,” while Chinese President Xi Jinping also calls the situation a “people’s war.”

They may have likened the current state to a war, regarding it as a crisis that requires broad cooperation from the public.

Trump compared the pandemic with the Imperial Japanese forces’ attack on Pearl Harbor and the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, saying the new virus is “really the worst attack we’ve ever had.”

Infectious diseases are not conflicts between countries.

No military power is used.

Expressions such as “attack” and “war” can cause people to lean toward condemnation of other countries, forgetting that the enemy is a virus. Leaders should avoid such easy analogies.

The Yomiuri Shimbun is a member of The Straits Times media partner Asia News Network, an alliance of 24 news media titles.

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South Korea raises age of consent from 13 to 16

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SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea has raised the age of consent for sex to 16 from 13 as it seeks to strengthen protection for minors following accusations the existing law on sex crimes was too weak.

Under the revised law, adults who have sex with under-16-year-olds will be prosecuted for child sexual abuse or rape regardless of any alleged consent.

Previously, teenagers aged 13 or older were held to be legally capable of consenting to sex, resulting in controversial cases and critics saying that sex offenders were escaping without punishment due to the low benchmark.

In 2017, a 42-year-old man was found not guilty of raping a then 15-year-old on the grounds she had consented, provoking outrage and calls for the age limit to be raised.

Despite its economic and technological advances, South Korea remains a traditional and patriarchal society, where victims of sexual assault have been shamed for coming forward.

The age of consent was raised to 16 in order to “protect teenagers from sex crimes at a fundamental level”, the South’s Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The amended law also eliminated statutes of limitation for sexual crimes against minors under 13.

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