Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.63/No.13 i Beijing Review

BANGLADESH Firefighters and local people spray water to extinguish a fire at a slum in Dhaka on March 11. The massive blaze swept through one of the largest slums in Dhaka, destroying hundreds of shanties and leaving thousands homeless INDONESIA A worker uses a mosquito fogger in a school playground in Jakarta on March 15 to kill aedes mosquitos that cause dengue fever. The country has detected over 17,000 dengue fever cases since January GREECE Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, in the role of an ancient Greek high priestess, lights the Olympic torch during the flame lighting ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Olympia on March 12 AUSTRALIA Hot air balloons are released during the annual Canberra Balloon Spectacular festival in Canberra on March 10 INDIA Youngsters celebrate…

As a senior manager at a training institution in north China, Chang Qing used to have a hectic schedule, which left her no time for cooking. But since the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has forced people to stay indoor till it is brought under complete control, she has transformed into a chef. She cooks regularly at home now and often posts photos of the dishes on social networking platforms. “I follow a healthier diet now,” Chang, who used to eat out or order food online in the past, told Shijiazhuang-based Hebei Daily. “I am going to maintain a healthy diet even after the epidemic is over and I go back to my normal work schedule.” Like Chang, many people are cooking more often at home as many restaurants still remain…

It’s March and the temperature is rising in Shannan, Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China. It’s time for planting trees. Farmers are busy leveling their fields, mulching, digging holes and planting saplings. Tashi Palden and his men are among them. The 27-year-old is president of Axinglang Seedling Nursery in Gonggar County, Shannan, a city 151 km to the southeast of the regional capital Lhasa. Tashi Palden comes from a village in Gyixong Township, which is on the bank of the middle reach of the Yarlung Zangbo River, the longest river in Tibet. Every winter, the river dries up with parts of the riverbed exposed. The sand on the dry riverbed and elsewhere on the land is tossed around by the strong winter wind, creating frequent sandstorms. In the past, the…

Usually, the first three months of the year are the high season for the insurance industry. But this year, because of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, most insurance firms’ meetings with their clients have been canceled. “I’ve been selling products via WeChat or on the phone, and most of the policies sold now are short-term products,” Wang Shuo, an insurance agent, told Financial News. On February 3, when China’s financial industry resumed work, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued a guideline for insurance agents. It prohibited agents from gatherings and group visits and insurance companies from holding group activities such as meetings and trainings to minimize the possibility of virus transmissions through this industry. Wang said without face-to-face communications with clients, he can’t gauge their demands…

Transit Center A staff member registers an inbound passenger’s information at the New China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on March 17. Beijing has converted the exhibition center into a transit center for inbound passengers from countries with high risks of COVID-19. The center, divided into different zones according to the destinations of passengers, is used for people showing no fever, cough or other symptoms during the health inspection at the airport. Hospital Reopens Over 600 medical workers from 22 Beijing hospitals have been assigned to work at the Xiaotangshan Hospital, which reopened on March 16 to treat patients with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) amid the capital’s mounting pressure to handle imported cases. On March 16, the hospital tested 35 travelers transferred from the Beijing Capital International Airport, with…

As the novel coronavirus situation in the U.S. worsens, President Donald Trump’s March 16 tweet calling the virus “Chinese virus” inflamed an already rampant xenophobic sentiment in the country. The racist tweet put the large Asian community in a dangerous position, and experts warned that racism could hamper the global efforts to curb the spread of the disease. “During the swine flu epidemic of 2009 in California, a lot more people died, but there was no demonization of Californians or Americans,” Joan Kaufman, former associate professor of health policy and management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said. Wan Yang, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, warned that racism will discourage people with early-stage mild symptoms to seek testing and treatment. “We want people to feel comfortable to talk…

Pan Xubin, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine in Beijing, uses the fall armyworm as an example to demonstrate why that plant quarantine is so important. The insect originated in the Americas and has spread to Africa and Asia, devouring rice, corn and vegetables. The peril has aroused people’s awareness of biosafety, Pan told Beijing Review. Plant quarantine is necessary to prevent plant diseases, dangerous insects and weeds from spreading from one country to another. It is conducted by inspecting all imported plant products, packages and their means of transport. Plant quarantine is part of a draft biosafety law, the first of its kind, being reviewed by Chinese legislators. The law is to protect biological resources, promote the healthy development of biotechnology and prevent biological threats,…

At dawn on March 17, Jiang Jia tenderly kissed her sleeping son goodbye and headed out the door quietly. She was flying out from southeast China on a special mission to Wuhan in Hubei Province in central China and wouldn’t see him again for 14 days at least. The day before, a leading group of China’s novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response announced a phased withdrawal of medical workers from Hubei, a sign that the epidemic had been brought under control in the hardest-hit region. As the crew chief of MF8765, a charter flight of Xiamen Airlines, Jiang’s mission was to escort 138 doctors and nurses in Wuhan back to their home city Tianjin near Beijing. The 1 p.m. flight on March 17 was the first of the 21 charter flights…

In a hospital in Jingmen City, Hubei Province in central China, Xu Peifeng intently watched the monitor of a ventilator, which was pulsing with waves and graphics. He needed to adjust the ventilator to provide patients with oxygen when they were unable to breathe on their own. “We must fully understand the condition of patients’ lungs before we set the parameters to help them,” Xu said. The respiratory therapist from the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital affiliated with Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Zhejiang Province in east China came to Jingmen as a member of a medical team to support local hospitals amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). These therapists have provided life support in the treatment of COVID-19. At present, a large number of respiratory…

A video posted on the Internet on March 17 showed an unusually intense farewell. People crammed their balconies in a community in Wuhan, Hubei Province, waving and mouthing their gratitude through their masks: “Thank you for reaching out to us.” “Thank you for your hard work.” The appreciation was for the medical workers who had come from Tianjin in north China to help out with the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment and prevention and were leaving as the infection had been brought under control. On their way to the bus that would take them to the airport, the overwhelmed visitors waved back and said their farewell. “Please stay strong,” urged one of them. “I will come back to see this city when the disease is eradicated,” said another. It…

The Chinese authorities are planning stronger macro policies to shore up the economy and keep employment stable as the latest data on industrial output, retail sales and investment showed across-the-board contraction in the first two months due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, fell 13.5 percent year on year during the January-February period. Fixed assets investment went down 24.5 percent, while retail sales of consumer goods dropped 20.5 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Early epidemic control efforts by the government had kept most people indoors and factories, shops and restaurants shut. It proved key to the anti-virus battle but also resulted in disruptions in economic activities and supply chains. But the impacts are largely “short-term, external and controllable,”…

‘Dear friends, welcome to Lhasa, I’m your tour guide today,” said a blithe Tsering Drolkar, bringing an aura of faraway magic with her green chuba, the long sleeveless Tibetan tunic worn by women over a blouse. The place where she was standing was even more so—the foot of the Potala Palace, one of the dream destinations of tourists all over the world and a UNESCO-recognized World Heritage Site in Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China. The unique thing about the tour guide’s introduction to the 1,300-year-old palace first built by Tibetan King Songtsa Gambo (617-650), the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was that she was not leading the usual group of tourists that day. Instead, she was speaking to the camera that was livestreaming her narration of the landmark’s history to present…

Many businesses offer membership cards to clients, promising that they will enjoy discounts, and the more they use the cards, the bigger the discounts will be. This is a common practice to attract and retain regular customers. By providing quality products or services at reasonable prices, businesses can indeed achieve this goal. However, in recent years, consumers trying to book flights or hotels on certain websites have discovered that prices were actually higher for frequent users than for newcomers. They found that they could pay less by opening up a new account rather than using an old one. Unfortunately, these businesses are using information gathered through big data on clients’ preferences and purchasing habits to take advantage of them, which amounts to targeted price discrimination. There have been numerous cases…