Good morning. We’re covering President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to the U.N., a modification to Shanghai’s controversial family Covid policy and political tensions ahead of the French presidential election. Zelensky addresses the U.N. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a fiery speech to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, a day after visiting Bucha, where images have surfaced of civilian bodies in the wake of Russia’s retreat. Zelensky said that more than 300 people had been tortured and killed in the town north of Kyiv and that soldiers raped women in…
Day: April 5, 2022
Russia’s Stalled Invasion of Ukraine: Lessons for China’s Leaders
Advertisement More than a month has passed since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. Contrary to expectations, the Russian military massively underperformed against Ukrainian resistance. The invading forces lost momentum after the second week and at present are making few noteworthy territorial gains. On March 25, the Russian high command announced the goals of the conflict’s first phase were accomplished and the Russian military would focus on the Donbas region’s “liberation” – a scaled-down war objective from the initial “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine, or the overthrow of Ukraine’s government…
Is Taiwan Inching Away From Its Zero-COVID Policy?
Advertisement Taiwan has managed to remain free of COVID-19 for most of the pandemic to date. The country has experienced only one major outbreak of COVID-19, which began in May 2021, peaked at over 500 cases a day in June 2021, and resulted in over 800 deaths. The outbreak of summer 2021 began after a year in which Taiwan was mostly COVID-free, some scares notwithstanding, due to quick action by authorities to close borders with China. A 14-day quarantine was mandated for new arrivals and a QR code system was…
Shanghai Extends Lockdown Amid ‘Extremely Grim’ COVID Outbreak
Advertisement The COVID-19 outbreak in China’s largest metropolis of Shanghai remains “extremely grim” amid an ongoing lockdown confining around 26 million people to their homes, a city official said Tuesday. The director of Shanghai’s working group on epidemic control, Gu Honghui, was quoted by state media as saying that the outbreak in the city was “still running at a high level.” “The situation is extremely grim,” Gu said. China has sent more than 10,000 health workers from around the country to aid Shanghai, including 2,000 from the military, and is…
China’s Ukraine Response Is All About the US (Not Russia)
Advertisement Beijing increasingly faces hard choices and high stakes as Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is mired in miscalculations. Xi Jinping raised the stakes of China’s strategic cooperation with Russia with the characterization of relations with “no limits” at their February 4 meeting. China’s partnership with Russia, short of a formal alliance, serves Beijing’s long-term strategic priorities. China’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, confirmation of bilateral relations as “rock-solid,” and criticism of the West’s sanctions on Russia exert Beijing’s dominant leadership position in China-Russia relations. Moreover, China’s superior…
Shanghai puts whole city on lockdown as Covid cases surge
Shanghai has put all its 26 million residents under lockdown in China’s single-biggest city-wide imposition of the restrictions since the pandemic began as authorities admitted the difficulty in containing the fast-spreading Omicron variant. Until this week, the megacity – also China’s most populous – adopted an approach of phased lockdown. Initially, the eastern side of the Huangpu River went into lockdown between 28 March and 1 April, then the western side followed suit for another four days. But that approach has not worked as case numbers continued to rise. On…
Shanghai Covid lockdown extended to entire city
So the lockdowns continue and it’s not only Shanghai closed right now. Jilin City (3.6 million people), Changchun (nine million), Xuzhou (nine million), the steel city of Tangshan (7.7 million) and various other towns and villages are keeping their residents indoors. BBC
Inside Shanghai’s Covid-19 Lockdown
I told my husband that I would be happiest if we happened to fall under the third scenario: Our apartment complex would be locked down, but we could go out to enjoy the air, the community gardens, hedges and paths. I realized that my thinking was very Chinese: to enjoy freedom within strict borders, albeit with a virus raging rampant outside. The fourth option, the freedom to move around Shanghai, felt too large, too precarious. I have, over the past couple of years, become more and more isolationist — within…
Ukraine war to slow growth and drive up poverty in Asia, World Bank warns
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further dampened the economic prospects for developing countries in east Asia and the Pacific, meaning lower economic growth and higher poverty in the region this year, the World Bank has warned. The Ukraine factor came on top of the existing risks that the region – home to 2.1 billion people and stretching from China to Papua New Guinea – has been facing in recent years. They included the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the financial tightening in the US, and the pandemic resurgence amid China’s zero-Covid policies.…
A Flight Over China in Clear Skies, Followed by a Nosedive
BEIJING — China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 was at 29,100 feet in clear afternoon skies over the hills of southern China, seemingly ready for a smooth landing in Guangzhou. The plane, a Boeing 737-800 NG, was only seven years old. One of China’s most experienced aviators was among the three pilots in the cockpit. But then, at 2:20 p.m. on March 21, the aircraft plummeted. Air traffic controllers made frantic calls that went unanswered. The pilots sent no Mayday messages. The plane fell more than 20,000 feet in less than…