China drops cremation data from quarterly report, raising questions about key #Covid death indicator | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3224233/china-drops-cremation-data-quarterly-report-raising-questions-about-key-covid-
China’s ‘two sessions’: US$24 billion to be spent on coronavirus control despite end of zero #Covid policy | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3212440/chinas-two-sessions-us24-billion-be-spent-coronavirus-control-despite-end-zero
China eases Covid entry restriction to allow transit via third country | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3183901/china-eases-covid-entry-restriction-allow-transit-third-country
China eases Covid entry restriction to allow transit via third country
A notice from the Chinese embassy in the US says travellers can now get health codes needed to board flights when travelling to China via third countries. News is likely to reduce burden on businesses and follows a move to reduce quarantine requirements earlier this week
He HuifengUpdated: 7:30pm, 2 Jul, 2022
China is preparing to further relax its entry requirements, allowing international arrivals to transit via a third country.According to a notice published on Friday on the website of the Chinese embassy in the United States, from July 1 the embassy will issue a health code for passengers who fly from the US and enter via a third country, or who transit through America.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#etatsunis#sante#restrictionsanitaire#circulation#frontiere#economie
Covid-19 in China: Shenzhen, Beijing and Tianjin in Omicron containment race ahead of Lunar New Year and Winter Olympics | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3163571/covid-19-china-beijing-and-tianjin-racing-contain-omicron
Covid-19 in China: Shenzhen, Beijing and Tianjin in Omicron containment race ahead of Lunar New Year and Winter Olympics. The Chinese capital has recorded its first Omicron case, while the neighbouring city has recorded more positives
The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen reported its first locally transmitted case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 on Sunday, joining Tianjin and Beijing in battling to bring the strain under control before the Lunar New Year holiday and Winter Olympics. Shenzhen reported two new community cases on Sunday, bringing the city’s total to 17 in this outbreak. The city reported no cases for Saturday.State media reported that a woman from Longgang district handling frozen overseas chemical reagents was confirmed with the Omicron variant. The other case is a Delta infection.
Across China, 119 cases were reported as of midnight Saturday, of which 65 were locally transmitted, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. Among these cases, 33 were in Tianjin, 29 in Henan province, one in Beijing, one in Guangdong and one in Shaanxi’s provincial capital Xian.
On Saturday, Beijing reported its first case of Omicron, a woman from Haidian district who reported having a sore throat and fever in the past few days.The woman had not left the city in the previous two weeks and had not been in contact with confirmed cases. Two people living with her tested negative but some environmental samples in her home were positive.
The local health authorities have tracked her movements over the past two weeks and alerted close contacts. People who have visited the same public places as her were told to get tested. Covid outbreaks loom over world’s biggest human migration as China braces for Lunar New Year rush
Chen also said she has given up any hope of travelling home to the eastern province of Anhui, some 1,000km (600 miles) from the capital, for the holidays, especially with the Winter Olympics opening in a few weeks.
A series of preventive measures have been put in place for the Games, which will be held inside an isolation bubble. On Saturday, Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing municipal government, said that all departments had to ensure the safety of the capital and the Olympics.Meanwhile, Vice-Premier Liu He warned of growing uncertainty surrounding the capital’s pandemic controls during the holidays and Winter Games, and called on officials to strengthen their contingency plans.Tianjin, a major port city to the east of the capital, is still battling to contain its outbreak but the NHC said the risk of it spreading to other cities was falling. Tianjin’s most recent cases have been detected in locked down parts of the city.
On Saturday, Shenzhen reported zero new local cases, raising hopes that the outbreak will be over by Lunar New Year on February 1. But the newly reported cases on Sunday are expected to cast shadow over those holiday plans.The nearby cities of Zhuhai and Zhongshan are continuing mass screening and have imposed travel restrictions since Omicron was detected in both cities last month. The authorities in Macau have also tightened their border controls in response.The National Development and Reform Commission said on Sunday that local governments should refrain from “simplified” and “one-size-fits-all” Covid-control measures during the upcoming holiday to minimise the impact on people’s lives.The state planner urged governments to allow people in low-risk areas to make short trips and encourage measures to boost consumer spending.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#sante#jeuxolympiques#deplacementinterne#omicron#delta#economie#zerocovid#confinement#tracking#frontiere#controle
Universities tell stranded international students to prepare for return to campus in China | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3155587/universities-tell-stranded-overseas-students-prepare-return
Universities tell stranded international students to prepare for return to campus in China. Duke Kunshan University and New York University Shanghai have both sent out emails saying they could be allowed back in time for next semester. Borders have been closed to most foreigners since March 2020 and no official announcement has been made on reopening to international students
New York University Shanghai told international students it is confident they will be able to attend campus next semester. Photo: Shutterstock New York University Shanghai told international students it is confident they will be able to attend campus next semester. Two international universities in China have told their overseas students to prepare for a return to campus as early as March, after they were shut out of the country because of the pandemic.While there has been no official announcement on when China’s borders will reopen to foreign students, Duke Kunshan University in Suzhou and New York University Shanghai have both sent out emails saying they could be allowed back on campus in time for the next semester. China’s borders have been closed to most foreigners since March 2020, with special exemptions granted for work or family reasons, as part of its zero-tolerance strategy to Covid-19. That has left many of the country’s half a million international students stranded overseas and unable to attend classes in person. International students have taken to social media to appeal to Chinese authorities to grant them visas so they can return to the country to continue their university studies, including via the Twitter campaign #TakeUsBackToChina. But at present, the only international students receiving China visas are from South Korea, after the two countries agreed in July last year to resume issuing student visas. South Koreans make up about 10 per cent of China’s international students.
The email from DKU, addressing students and parents, advised students to get vaccinated and prepare their visa applications.“The DKU leadership understands that China is now working on a detailed plan to facilitate international students’ safe entry to the Chinese mainland. Early indications suggest that this procedure, once finalised, will allow students to enter gradually in groups over time to ensure suitable and sufficient quarantine measures,” according to the email, which was posted on Twitter on Monday by a reporter with Duke University’s student newspaper, The Chronicle.
There was no date for when students might be able to start applying for visas or when they might be able to enter China, but the email said the progress was “encouraging”.
International students received a similar email from NYU Shanghai on Monday, saying it was confident they would be able to attend campus next semester. Sent by David Pe, the dean of students, it said they should work with their academic advisers in the coming month to register for classes in Shanghai, get vaccinated, and begin looking at direct flights. The email, which was also posted on Twitter, said students would have to complete a 21-day quarantine period before the end of January.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#sante#etudiantinternational#retour#vaccination#quarantaine#economie#politiquemigratoire#circulation#frontiere
Coronavirus: China wants permanent quarantine centres built for inbound travellers | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3150796/coronavirus-china-wants-permanent-quarantine-centres-built
Coronavirus: China wants permanent quarantine centres built for inbound travellers. City governments have been told to provide 20 rooms per 10,000 people in dedicated facilities by the end of October. Guangzhou is already making the shift away from using hotels with a new facility due to open with more than 5,000 rooms
Health authorities have ordered cities in China to build or convert facilities into permanent quarantine centres for overseas arrivals, as Beijing pushes ahead with its zero-tolerance policy on Covid-19. City governments have been told to move away from using hotels for quarantine and instead provide dedicated facilities. There should be 20 quarantine rooms per 10,000 people available by the end of October, according to National Health Commission official Cui Gang. “Centralised quarantine of inbound travellers plays a key role in preventing the spread of Covid-19 to China. Implementing quarantine measures has always been an epidemic prevention task of the utmost priority,” Cui said at a briefing on Wednesday. Large port cities that see a high number of international arrivals – and potentially Covid-19 cases – have been urged to build large-scale facilities, or “health stations”, that could be used for regular health care as well as emergency needs, Cui said.Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist from the University of Hong Kong, said the question was how long the government was planning to continue the current strategy and require on-arrival quarantine in China.
“It would make sense to construct specialised facilities, and the larger the better. The suggested ratio of 20 beds for 10,000 people sounds reasonable,” Cowling said.Drones and robots will deliver meals and disinfect rooms at the Guangzhou International Health Station, according to a government document. China has banned entry to most foreigners since March 2020, with returning nationals mandated to go through at least two weeks of hotel quarantine, followed by at least one week of at-home observation. Some cities, such as Beijing, have even more stringent rules, requiring 21 days of quarantine for some cases, followed by seven days of observation.
Cui’s comments came as the first of the large-scale quarantine facilities
– with more than 5,000 rooms – was due to open in the southern city of Guangzhou, with a second phase also planned. The Guangzhou International Health Station will offer contactless service, with digital check-ins and health and temperature updates, and drones and robots delivering meals and disinfecting the rooms, according to a city government document.The rooms all have their own air conditioning, ventilation and sewerage systems to prevent cross-infection and the facility includes 2,000 beds for staff to live on-site, it said.But the facility is just a start for Guangzhou to meet the new requirements – the city is home to 18.68 million people, meaning it will need about 37,350 quarantine rooms.
Leading respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan has said that using hotels for quarantine would not be enough to contain highly infectious strains such as the Delta variant.Almost 80 per cent of mainland China’s international arrivals enter through Guangzhou and nearby Shenzhen, so there are plans to build a similar “health station” in Shenzhen, according to Zhong. Even without such facilities, Shanghai has managed to contain outbreaks quickly and the National Health Commission and Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have called on other places to learn from its experience. Wu Jinglei, director of the city’s health commission, was invited to share tips at a briefing on Wednesday.“Speed is a very important factor in outbreak control. Shanghai has introduced a flat command hierarchy … and cross-office collaboration remains activated since the start of the pandemic. These ensure we can respond quickly to new outbreaks,” Wu said.
China has managed to stamp out at least two Delta variant outbreaks, in Guangdong and separately in Nanjing, and remains committed to a zero-tolerance strategy, with authorities using measures like mandatory testing, stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions to contain the spread of the virus.The mass vaccination drive is also part of that strategy, with 1.05 billion out of the 1.41 billion population fully inoculated as of Tuesday, and a third shot now being administered to high-risk and vulnerable groups to boost waning immunity.Guangdong, Henan and Zhejiang provinces have all announced a booster programme for medical and frontline workers, border staff, as well as elderly people and those with underlying conditions. But the Chinese CDC has said booster shots for the general population are still being studied.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#sante#quarantaine#variant#centredequarantaine#santepublique#circulation#frontiere#territoire
Coronavirus: border city chief dismissed for Covid-19 failures as Ruili continues to report new cases | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3128727/coronavirus-border-city-chief-dismissed-covid-19-failures-ruili
Coronavirus: border city chief dismissed for Covid-19 failures as Ruili continues to report new cases. Gong Yunzun was demoted to first-level researcher after three outbreaks in city on Myanmar border, say Yunnan authorities Gong Yunzun was dismissed from the top Communist Party job in Ruili because of his handling of coronavirus outbreaks and prevention measures. Photo: Handout Gong Yunzun was dismissed from the top Communist Party job in Ruili because of his handling of coronavirus outbreaks and prevention measures.
The top Communist Party official of Ruili, the Chinese city bordering Myanmar, has been dismissed from his post over “serious dereliction of duty” after failing to prevent Covid-19 outbreaks in recent months.
“Three Covid-19 outbreaks within half a year in Ruili, especially the epidemic in March, have severely undermined the epidemic control efforts in the country and the province, and seriously hurt the province’s economic and social development,” authorities in the southwestern province of Yunnan said in a statement on Thursday.It said the dismissal of Gong Yunzun, the city’s party chief who bore the main responsibility for leading Covid-19 control efforts, should serve as a warning to other officials.
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#myanmar#sante#circulation#frontiere
China’s internet was hailed as a path to democracy but the Communist Party reshaped it in its own image | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3125128/chinas-internet-was-hailed-path-democracy-communist-party
Le gouvernement contrôle Internet de plus en plus fortement
Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has built and used the so-called Great Firewall
, a sophisticated system that prevents people from accessing unwanted foreign websites and social media, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and most mainstream Western news outlets. The South China Morning Post website is also blocked on the mainland.
Zhuang is deputy director of the party’s publicity department and head of the Cyberspace Administration of China.
“Very few ruling parties in the world are as active as the Communist Party of China in adapting to the information revolution trend and emphasising the development and governance of internet,” he said.
La population semble être peu sensibilisée ou concernée
But for many people, any concerns about how content on the internet could be shaped or filtered by political forces are secondary to its entertainment value. Tang Feng, a 32-year-old food delivery worker, said that other than the fact that his job relied on the internet – which facilitates everything from receiving food orders to navigating to restaurants – he watched “funny videos” on his phone to pass the time between deliveries.
China working on data privacy law but enforcement is a stumbling block | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3008844/china-working-data-privacy-law-enforcement-stumbling-block
En Chine des scientifiques s’inquiètent de la collection de données sans limites et des abus possibles par le gouvernment et des acteurs privés. Au niveau politique on essaye d’introduire des lois protégeant les données et la vie privée. D’après l’article les véritables problèmes se poseront lors de l’implémentation d’une nouvelle législation en la matière.
Echo Xie 5 May, 2019 - Biometric data in particular needs to be protected from abuse from the state and businesses, analysts say
Country is expected to have 626 million surveillance cameras fitted with facial recognition software by 2020
In what is seen as a major step to protect citizens’ personal information, especially their biometric data, from abuse, China’s legislators are drafting a new law to safeguard data privacy, according to industry observers – but enforcement remains a major concern.
“China’s private data protection law will be released and implemented soon, because of the fast development of technology, and the huge demand in society,” Zeng Liaoyuan, associate professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, said in an interview .
Technology is rapidly changing life in China but relevant regulations had yet to catch up, Zeng said.
Artificial intelligence and its many applications constitute a major component of China’s national plan. In 2017, the “Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan” called for the country to become the world leader in AI innovation by 2030.
Biometrics authentication is used in computer science as an identification or access control. It includes fingerprinting, face recognition, DNA, iris recognition, palm prints and other methods.
In particular, the use of biometric data has grown exponentially in key areas: scanning users’ fingerprints or face to pay bills, to apply for social security qualification and even to repay loans. But the lack of an overarching law lets companies gain access to vast quantities of an individual’s personal data, a practice that has raised privacy concerns.
During the “two sessions” last month, National People’s Congress spokesman Zhang Yesui said the authorities had hastened the drafting of a law to protect personal data, but did not say when it would be completed or enacted.
One important focus, analysts say, is ensuring that the state does not abuse its power when collecting and using private data, considering the mass surveillance systems installed in China.
“This is a big problem in China,” said Liu Deliang, a law professor at Beijing Normal University. “Because it’s about regulating the government’s abuse of power, so it’s not only a law issue but a constitutional issue.”
The Chinese government is a major collector and user of privacy data. According to IHS Markit, a London-based market research firm, China had 176 million surveillance cameras in operation in 2016 and the number was set to reach 626 million by 2020.
In any proposed law, the misuse of data should be clearly defined and even the government should bear legal responsibility for its misuse, Liu said.
“We can have legislation to prevent the government from misusing private data but the hard thing is how to enforce it.”
Especially crucial, legal experts say, is privacy protection for biometric data.
“Compared with other private data, biometrics has its uniqueness. It could post long-term risk and seriousness of consequence,” said Wu Shenkuo, an associate law professor at Beijing Normal University.
“Therefore, we need to pay more attention to the scope and limitations of collecting and using biometrics.”
Yi Tong, a lawmaker from Beijing, filed a proposal concerning biometrics legislation at the National People’s Congress session last month.
“Once private biometric data is leaked, it’s a lifetime leak and it will put the users’ private data security into greater uncertainty, which might lead to a series of risks,” the proposal said.
Yi suggested clarifying the boundary between state power and private rights, and strengthening the management of companies.
In terms of governance, Wu said China should specify the qualifications entities must have before they can collect, use and process private biometric data. He also said the law should identify which regulatory agencies would certify companies’ information.
There was a need to restrict government behaviour when collecting private data, he said, and suggested some form of compensation for those whose data was misused.
“Private data collection at the government level might involve the need for the public interest,” he said. “In this case, in addition to ensuring the legal procedure, the damage to personal interests should be compensated.”
Still, data leaks, or overcollecting, is common in China.
A survey released by the China Consumers Association in August showed that more than 85 per cent of respondents had suffered some sort of data leak, such as their cellphone numbers being sold to spammers or their bank accounts being stolen.
Another report by the association in November found that of the 100 apps it investigated, 91 had problems with overcollecting private data.
One of them, MeituPic, an image editing software program, was criticised for collecting too much biometric data.
The report also cited Ant Financial Services, the operator of the Alipay online payments service, for the way it collects private data, which it said was incompatible with the national standard. Ant Financial is an affiliate of Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post.
In January last year, Ant Financial had to apologise publicly for automatically signing up users for a social credit programme without obtaining their consent.
“When a company asks for a user’s private data, it’s unscrupulous, because we don’t have a law to limit their behaviour,” Zeng said.
“Also it’s about business competition. Every company wants to hold its customers, and one way is to collect their information as much as possible.”
Tencent and Alibaba, China’s two largest internet companies, did not respond to requests for comment about the pending legislation.