Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.63/No.10 i Beijing Review

After a month of control measures, regions outside Hubei Province in central China have begun to report fewer or even zero novel coronavirus infections while the number of cured patients discharged from hospitals is increasing. Businesses and other organizations are restarting work in an orderly and secured way amid strengthened epidemic control. Even in Hubei, the most affected province during the outbreak, the number of newly confirmed and suspected cases is decreasing. However, while the situation in China is improving, there are signs of alarm in other countries. More countries and regions have reported increasing COVID-19 cases. The number of confirmed cases in Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Italy and Iran has been rising despite lesser known links with the outbreak in China. Though COVID-19 broke out…

The author is a law professor at Renmin University of China While China is progressing in its battle against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), China and the Chinese people are being stigmatized in some parts of the world. Some Chinese and Asians are being discriminated against, harassed and even physically assaulted in some countries. These behaviors are contemptible, as China is making huge sacrifices to guarantee people’s health and safety and prevent the epidemic from spreading outside. Right to life and health The Chinese Government regards its epidemic control as a blocking action against the virus, implementing plans and measures to isolate and contain the virus and ultimately eliminate it. Since no effective medicine has been found for this new virus yet, the most effective way to control the disease…

More than a month of intense prevention and control measures have borne fruit in China: Both new confirmed and suspected cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are dropping, so is the fatality rate and the number of cured and discharged patients keeps growing. The final victory against the disease in the country seems within sight. However, confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been found in dozens of countries and regions and the number is growing. Under these circumstances, China’s measures can serve as a reference for other countries to save lives and offset costs due to lack of experience. China is able to pool its resources together to focus on one major mission. All resources can be arranged and deployed in a unified and orderly manner. But some have a…

There is an old Chinese saying, “Heroes emerge in bad times.” Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), tales of heroic acts are heard from all corners. Medical workers are fighting at the forefront, deliverymen shuttling from place to place and community staff inspecting from door to door. They are not of iron and steel, but ordinary people who have their own feelings and fears. But when they are needed, they rose to become plebeian heroes, reassuring the country in the midst of trouble. There are also people running across streets and lanes, from remote villages to overseas, collecting and delivering supplies for the people, who have been termed the “ferrymen” in the epidemic. Their jobs may be ordinary, but their contribution is not, and they are as…

NEW MFA SPOKESPERSON On February 24, Zhao Lijian, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department, debuted as the 31st MFA spokesperson and hosted the daily press conference. Born in November 1972 in Hebei, north China, Zhao worked in the Department of Asian Affairs in the ministry and embassies in the U.S. and Pakistan, and has accumulated a high level of diplomatic expertise and communication skills during his diplomatic career spanning 24 years. He was appointed deputy director general of the ministry’s Information Department in 2019. Zhao became a celebrity on Twitter when he worked in the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan from 2015 to 2019, due to his measured clarifications on China on several occasions on the social media. He became famous as a “wolf warrior” diplomat…

At the Jiangxia Hospital, a hospital converted from the Dahuashan Outdoor Sports Center in Jiangxia District in Wuhan, a national team of over 200 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) experts are using TCM to treat mildly infected patients. Among the converted hospitals in Wuhan, the city where the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic has been the most severe, the Jiangxia Hospital is the only one to provide mainly TCM treatments. Every morning, TCM experts, after examining patients’ pulse and tongue, give them decoctions to treat COVID-19. Patients are also given granulated medicine for fever, cough, anxiety and insomnia. Auxiliary treatments are used as well, such as auricular therapy, stimulating of pressure points on the ear, and moxibustion, burning moxa, a cone or stick made of ground mugwort leaves, on or near…

Olivier Guyonvarch, Consul General of France in Wuhan, Hubei Province in central China, was on vacation back in France when the city was put under lockdown due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at the end of January. “I was heartbroken when I knew that so many people were confirmed with COVID-19 and the city was not as bustling as it was normally,” Guyonvarch told Beijing Review. Special flights from different countries, including two from France, were sent to Wuhan to evacuate their nationals. But Guyonvarch made a bold and surprising choice: going back to Wuhan and keeping the consulate open. “I love Wuhan very much. It’s an important part of my life,” he said. Wuhan is the first stop in Guyonvarch’s diplomatic career. When the French Consulate General was…

The author is director of the EU-China Program at the Centre International de Formation Européenne When Donald Trump was elected president of the U.S., the general sentiment in Europe was negative. Trump’s new path of unilateralism, his support for Brexit and his indifference to the European integration project raised concerns about the future of transatlantic relations. The concerns were vindicated. Since the beginning of 2017, relations between the U.S. and the EU have entered a period of tension. Disagreements on the Paris climate change accord, the Iran nuclear program and the trade war brought the two almost at odds. While Brussels had closely collaborated with Washington during the years of the Barack Obama administration, it finds itself in an awkward position to defend basic norms such as globalization, multilateralism and…

A scooter, a sack full of parcels and a hand on the throttle bumping up the speed—these are the characteristic traits of the Chinese deliveryman. In the age of e-commerce and digital purchases, they have become a face of today’s China. Once a familiar sight as they weaved in and out of the bustling traffic on high streets and crowds in back lanes, this tribe has recently come under the spotlight due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Wang Yong is one of the first couriers to become a public figure after he volunteered to pick up medical workers from designated hospitals in Wuhan, the epidemic center in the central province of Hubei that has been placed under a lockdown since January 23, and drop them at their home to solve…

The world should be grateful to China because no other nation could have coped with the novel coronavirus epidemic with the decisiveness and courage that China has shown, said William N. Brown, a professor with Xiamen University. “As soon as the government was indeed certain, it reacted quickly and decisively—even sacrificially,” Brown said. “China’s actions are costing the nation billions of dollars, but the nation and the people accept this stoically as the price of protecting not only China but the rest of the world as well.” In a recent letter to the Foreign Languages Press (FLP), Brown said he found it ironic that the Western media keep comparing this virus to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that broke out in China in 2003, but they don’t talk about…

In an opinion article by its editorial board on February 19, Banished in Beijing, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) obliquely questioned China deserving to be treated as a great power after China’s Foreign Ministry revoked the press credentials of three WSJ reporters over an insensitive article it published, titled China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia. At a press conference on February 24, the Foreign Ministry’s new spokesperson Zhao Lijian repeated the demand for an apology, saying China won’t be a “silent lamb.” Was the Chinese Government overreacting? You need to know the whole picture to understand that. On February 3, in the midst of China’s grim battle against the novel coronavirus, the WSJ ran the op-ed article and put it on its Twitter account. On February 6, the…

President Xi Jinping on February 23 stressed the need for unremitting efforts in the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic and coordination in advancing economic and social development. Xi, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a meeting in Beijing. The Chinese nation has experienced many ordeals in its history, but it has never been overwhelmed. Instead, it has become more and more courageous, growing up and rising up from the hardships, Xi said. The epidemic situation remains grim and complex and it is now a most crucial moment to curb the spread, he said. Xi asked CPC committees and governments at all levels to continue to make unremitting efforts…

During normal times, Hua Yuchen is a music teacher. But since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 in Wuhan in Hubei Province in central China, she has become adept at juggling multiple tasks. Working as one of the army of volunteers who are complementing the authorities’ work to prevent and control the epidemic and keep life going in the locked-down city, the 30-year-old takes up whatever assignment she is given. “I have worked at a toll station to take people’s body temperature, as a volunteer driver to transport medical staff, and a porter to deliver supplies. Now I am an announcer at a temporary hospital,” she said at a recent press conference to introduce Wuhan’s non-clinical frontline workers. “I play music on the public address system, give the…

The author is a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and adjunct senior fellow at the Charhar Institute, Beijing U.S. President Donald Trump’s maiden visit to India on the last leg of his presidency has been a momentous event for both sides. This showcasing of his popularity in a country with the second largest population and fifth largest economy could improve his popularity in the presidential election with a large number of Americans being of Indian origin. It is certainly going to bring some excitement to India’s economic slowdown in recent times. The driving force of this high-on-optics visit was the two leaders highlighting their strategic convergence and their partnership in managing regional and global challenges like terrorism, energy security and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. What was…

Though auto sales and production have taken a hit from the novel coronavirus outbreak, industry insiders expect a rebound in April if the epidemic is brought under control. The retail sales of passenger vehicles plunged 92 percent on an annual basis in the first 16 days of February, according to a report from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The industry association attributed the fall to the delayed consumption demand due to the earlier start of the Lunar New Year holiday when consumers shop less, and also due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has prevented people from going out to public spaces. “The impact on the auto market is temporary, while the progress of the recovery relies on the measures taken by the government,” the CPCA said. The government…