Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.63/No.6-7 i Beijing Review

The novel coronavirus outbreak reported in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province in central China, in late December has spread far wider since then. Cases have been reported in nearly two dozen countries and regions as of early February and the first death outside China was recorded in the Philippines. The World Health Organization (WHO) determined it to be a public health emergency of international concern on January 31 and is offering assistance to countries, especially those with a weak public healthcare system. This is a time for the international community to unite in their efforts. The virus is the common enemy of all, like the H1N1 flu epidemic that broke out in Mexico and south of the United States in April 2009 and the Zika virus outbreak reported in…

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that was first reported in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province in central China, is a new strain that was not previously identified in humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses circulating in animals have not yet infected humans. Common signs of infection include fever, cough and difficulty in breathing. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, kidney failure…

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on January 31, it was not an unprecedented measure, nor does it have any political overtone. WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made it clear at the ensuing press conference on that day that the declaration was “not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries.” “Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems and which are ill-prepared to deal with it,” Dr. Tedros said. The PHEIC declaration was intended to draw global attention and help countries with a relatively underdeveloped healthcare system to cope with potential spread of the virus. In accordance…

Mu Xiaolong, a 31-year-old from the Derung ethnic group, took part in an online Spring Festival gala in January. Unlike the grand gala broadcast live by China Central Television on Lunar New Year’s Eve, which was January 24 this year, this online gala was recorded days before. For the recording, Mu traveled all the way from Dulongjiang Township in Yunnan Province in southwest China to Langfang, a city in Hebei Province neighboring Beijing. The trip took him about three days. Mu carried local specialties including herbs, honey, mushroom, ethnic clothes and craft items to the gala from his township. Appearing in traditional Derung clothes, he demonstrated and promoted the specialties in the program. The Derung, an ethnic group unknown to many before, has drawn increasing attention since 2018 for creating…

• Yi Huiman, Chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), announced nine policies and measures to further the opening up of the capital market at the 11th Lujiazui Forum on June 13, 2019. • The Shanghai-London Stock Connect scheme was launched on June 17, 2019. • China and Japan initiated cross-listing of exchange-traded funds based on the schemes of qualified institutional investors on June 25, 2019. • The Office of Financial Stability and Development Committee under the State Council announced on July 20, 2019, 11 policies and measures to further open up the financial industry. • The CSRC convened a symposium on comprehensively deepening reform of the capital market and listed 12 priorities on September 9-10, 2019. One of the highlights was to accelerate high-level opening up of the capital…

VIRUS FIGHTER RETURNS Zhong Nanshan, born in 1936, is a specialist on respiratory diseases. Heading a National Health Commission expert panel, he is conducting research on the novel coronavirus. He was the first to report that the virus can transmit between people on January 20. Since graduating from the Beijing Medical College (today the Peking University Health Science Center) in 1960, Zhong has been engaged in clinical practice, teaching and scientific research on respiratory health. Appointed as the head of an expert task force, Zhong made great contribution to the fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Guangdong Province, south China, in 2003, and became a household name across China. He was president of the Chinese Medical Association from 2005 to 2009. Now, he is the head of…

February 6: A total of 107 medical teams with 10,596 members have arrived in the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) hard-hit Hubei Province in central China to assist epidemic control, Yang Yunyan, Vice Governor of Hubei, says at a press conference. They came from 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, as well as the People’s Liberation Army. February 6: After 10 days’ work, the Leishenshan Hospital, the second makeshift hospital for treating 2019-nCoV patients in Wuhan, Hubei, starts to be delivered after passing the check by the city’s urban construction and health departments. February 4: The Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan’s first makeshift hospital, begins accepting 2019-nCoV patients. The hospital with 1,000 beds was delivered on February 2 after 10 days’ construction. February 3: The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist…

With the world’s eye on the havoc caused by the novel coronavirus, there can never be too much space given to the ordinary men and women who have shown extraordinary courage and dedication to duty to keep life going for others. They range from people working in supermarkets and drugstores to security guards and transport workers who always turn up for work during the worst weather and crisis. Doctors and other medical workers, who are at the forefront of the ongoing battle against the virus, have once again shown the exemplary mettle that has made China re-emerge from being one of the poorest nations in the world. They willingly gave up their Spring Festival holiday to rush back to work, many of them going to Wuhan, the epicenter of the…

The village of Nanyu in Baoding City, Hebei Province in north China is only two hours’ drive from capital Beijing. Yet in 2015, the distance seemed to be over-whelming, especially in terms of income. The average annual income of the villagers was about 2,000 yuan ($285) that year. Nearly 26 percent of the families were impoverished and more than 100 people lived below the national poverty line. In sharp contrast, the per-capita annual income for rural residents in China was 10,772 yuan ($1,536) in the same year. But by 2018, the village had undergone a transformation with its average income jumping to 7,000 yuan ($997). The change is primarily due to one industry that has cashed in on the beautiful natural scenery of the village and its proximity to Beijing:…

Every January, Chinese central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) hold dozens of work conferences to map out plans for the new year. Employee stock ownership, mixed-ownership reform, reshuffling, innovation and reform are the buzzwords at this year’s meetings. ChemChina and the Sinochem Group, two central SOEs, announced the merger of their agricultural assets on January 5. The move is expected to not only integrate the two SOEs’ industrial chain, but also change the landscape of China’s agricultural and chemical industry. China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI), a scientific enterprise under the state-owned electric utility company State Grid, started a dividend policy in 2017, a year after the government issued a document to encourage corporate dividends in scientific research-related areas. “The incentive stabilized the researchers as the retention rate of core talent has…

For a middle-aged man, accompanying his mother on a train trip for six consecutive days with no connection with the outside world is a challenge. Chinese director and actor Xu Zheng presented this bitter-sweet journey in his latest movie Lost in Russia screened during the Spring Festival, which is treated as a rare opportunity for family gathering in a year. “This idea came out of the reality that many Chinese people are trapped in the controlling love of their mothers,” the 48-year-old director said. Mothers tend to interfere in children’s life because of care and love. China’s annual migration around the Spring Festival shows how important families are, but the weeklong holiday often adds pressure on kinship, too. “It’s hard to speak out or fill the gap which turns family…

When I moved to Beijing’s Haidian District in August 2019 to begin my studies at Peking University, I hadn’t foreseen how my lifestyle would be so fundamentally altered by the city’s deep technological interconnection. Yet only a few months later, the thought of handling payments with cash or debit/credit cards instead of WeChat, China’s popular multipurpose app, via a QR code seems practically arcane. In the United States, we often still use chip readers and sign our receipts, drawing puzzled looks from Chinese tourists. I wasn’t entirely ignorant to the innovations propagated in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, but rather unprepared for how central these technologies would become in my daily life. After all, my childhood was spent in Palo Alto, California, the center of Silicon Valley and…

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), China has carried out close cooperation with international organizations and governments on many fronts, including data-sharing, information notification and citizen evacuation, to curb the virus’ global spread. Its efforts and transparency were lauded by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said that Chinese officials have shown they are committed to combating the transmission of the virus and demonstrated cooperation with other countries to stem its global spread. During President Xi Jinping’s meeting with Dr. Tedros in Beijing on January 28, Xi said that China looks forward to continuing positive cooperation with WHO in sharing information about the emergency. Pragmatic and transparent Since this strain of coronavirus was never seen before in human history, the whole world is keeping…

Since the beginning of globalization, in what’s now an interconnected world, the vow “for better, for worse… in sickness and in health” is no longer just for couples wishing to get married. Today, it applies to all nations, rich or poor, large or small, as countries around the world join China in the fight against the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Diseases know no boundaries, color, ethnicity or gender. An infectious disease originating in one country can rapidly spread to many others with far-reaching international consequences. The death toll in China has been rising while cases of overseas infections have been confirmed in over 20 countries and regions. These include top destinations for Chinese tourists like Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Germany, Malaysia, the U.S., Canada and France.…

Ma Shuang, an ear and throat disease expert, has worked at the Zigong No.4 People’s Hospital in Sichuan Province in southwest China since she graduated five years ago. In these years, she has never spent the Spring Festival, the most important traditional Chinese festival, with her family in her hometown. “This is not overtime work for me, it is part of my normal duties,” she told Beijing Review. As doctors, Ma and her colleagues are on shift duty all year round, including during the Spring Festival period, making it impossible for them to enjoy any holiday completely. Ma was on duty for 24 hours, from 8 a.m. on January 24, Lunar New Year’s Eve, to 8 a.m. the next day. It is something not many people can do. Within the…

The author is an associate researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation China has been accelerating the opening up of its capital market in recent years. To further facilitate investment by foreign institutions through different channels, China lifted restrictions on foreign ownership in some industries one year in advance, originally scheduled for 2021. It scrapped foreign ownership limits on futures companies on January 1, and will further lift restrictions on foreign ownership of fund management and securities companies nationwide on April 1 and December 1, respectively. Toward high-quality growth The opening up of the capital market is necessary for driving high-quality economic development. As China pushes ahead with economic restructuring, it has advanced domestic reforms and widened opening up to address problems caused by structural adjustments…