Beijing’s waiting game A new coronavirus outbreak in China’s capital has raised concerns that Beijing may become, after Shanghai, the next Chinese megacity to put life on hold to contain the spread of the Omicron variant. Seventy people have tested positive in Beijing since Friday. In the capital’s fashionable Chaoyang district, home to most of those cases, the government initially ordered all 3.5 million residents to take three P.C.R. tests over the next five days. Bloomberg later reported that mass testing would take place in 11 of the city’s 16…
Day: April 25, 2022
Beijing residents stock up on food amid Covid lockdown fears – video
Beijing residents have rushed to buy food, emptying supermarket shelves, as Covid-19 cases rise and fears grow that a strict lockdown could be imposed. China reported 3,266 symptomatic cases on Monday and 20,454 asymptomatic cases, with Beijing registering 19 cases, including 14 symptomatic. Some fear a lockdown similar to Shanghai’s, which is in its fourth week and has led to food shortages and delivery delays The Guardian
Worried About Economic Growth, China Promotes Coal
Advertisement China is promoting coal-fired power as the ruling Communist Party tries to revive a sluggish economy, prompting warnings Beijing is setting back efforts to cut climate-changing carbon emissions from the biggest global source. Official plans call for boosting coal production capacity by 300 million tons this year, according to news reports. That is equal to 7 percent of last year’s output of 4.1 billion tons, which was an increase of 5.7 percent over 2020. China is one of the biggest investors in wind and solar, but jittery leaders called…
A Veterans’ Group Is Pushing the KMT Into Irrelevance
Advertisement When the Kuomintang-led Nationalist Army lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan, millions of soldiers who had been forcefully drafted found themselves forced to accept a new home. These soldiers and their descendants have lived on the island ever since. The century-old KMT continues to rely on this population as the backbone of its support, even as the cohort ages. As a result, only 3 percent of KMT party members are below the age of 40, making it the oldest political part in Asia in two senses.…
China’s Covid Lockdowns Stir Memories of a Planned Economy
Yang Wenhui should be a proud example of China’s rise from economic rubble to global powerhouse. Growing up poor, he ate so much cabbage that he didn’t touch it again for many years. He worked as a farmer and a construction worker before joining the country’s nascent logistics industry. In 2003, he started his own freight logistics company, striking gold as online shopping took off in the 2010s and products moved swiftly between provinces. Then the Omicron variant started spreading in China. In the government’s zealous pursuit of its “zero…
Covid lockdown fears spark panic buying in Beijing as largest district begins mass testing
Beijingers were flooding supermarkets to stock up on food on Monday, hoping to avoid Shanghai-style shortages in the case of a city-wide lockdown as the capital records a growing number of Covid infections. Authorities in Beijing have ordered 3.5 million residents and workers in the biggest district of Chaoyang to report for three coronavirus tests this week, after the area recorded 26 of Beijing’s 47 symptomatic cases since Friday. On Monday, China reported 3,266 symptomatic cases and 20,454 asymptomatic cases. The majority were in Shanghai, where 19,455 were reported. Beijing…