China continues to flood the world with defective medical suppliesâŚbut thatâs only because they want us to die and because they think itâs funny.
Chinese internet users who uploaded coronavirus memories to GitHub have been arrested
A group of volunteers in China who worked to prevent digital records of the coronavirus outbreak from being scrubbed by censors are now targets of a crackdown.
Cai Wei, a Beijing-based man who participated in one such project on GitHub, the software development website, was arrested together with his girlfriend by Beijing police on April 19. The couple were accused of âpicking quarrels and provoking trouble,â a commonly used charge against dissidents in China, according to Chen Kun, the brother of Chen Mei, another volunteer involved with the project. Chen Mei has been missing since that same day. On April 24, the coupleâs families received a police notice that informed them of the charge, and said the two have been put under âresidential surveillance at a designated place.â There is still no information about Chen Mei, said his brother.
It is unclear whether the arrest of the couple and the disappearance of Chen are directly linked to their GitHub project, named âTerminus2049.â The Beijing police could not be reached for comment.
The project, named after a planet in Isaac Asimovâs series Foundation, has been preserving censored news stories, videos, and articles from individuals shared on messaging apps like WeChat since January 2018. The purpose of the project was to âencourage the public to resist â404,ââ referring to the error message displayed when a webpage has been deleted or banned by authorities, according to a 2018 post (link in Chinese) on Terminus2049.
During the outbreak, the project shifted its focus to storing articles including a Chinese magazineâs interview (link in Chinese) with Wuhan doctor Ai Fen, who said she was the first to reveal the existence of the epidemic but who was later reprimanded. The article, first published in March, was taken down within hours of publication, spurring a race among internet users who used various creative ways, including coded language and emojis, to keep the article alive. Terminus2049 also preserved a strongly worded critique (link in Chinese) aimed at Chinese leader Xi Jinping penned by outspoken professor Xu Zhangrun. In the essay, Xu attacked Beijingâs social controls and censorship. He was later reportedly placed under house arrest and his account has been suspended on WeChat.
Chinese citizens had been turning to Microsoft-owned GitHub after the outbreak began, as it remains one of the few major foreign websites that can still be accessed in China. Now, volunteers linked to these GitHub pages are facing the growing risk of reprisals from authorities. Another GitHub page, #2020 nCov memory, which was initiated by seven volunteers around the world to chronicle personal accounts and news stories of the outbreak, is no longer publicly available. In an email (link in Chinese), the team behind the page said that its members decided to make the page private to avoid âpotential risks,â according to a screenshot of the email shared on social network Weibo.
In addition to the GitHub volunteers, three journalists have also disappeared since February while reporting from Wuhan, the city where the outbreak was first discovered. Among them, only Li Zehua, a former employee of the state broadcaster, recently resurfaced, and said in a video that he had been detained and placed under quarantine by police for âdisrupting public order,â but also praised the actions of the police. The whereabouts of citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Fan Bin remain unknown.
Europe prepares to roll back Covid-19 restrictions
The governments of France, Italy and Spain are releasing plans this week for an easing of lockdowns imposed to curtail the spread of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic as other EU nations are monitoring how the continentâs hardest-hit countries handle the lifting of restrictions.
âExporting the virusâ: Migrants deported by U.S. make up 20% of Guatemalaâs coronavirus cases
When it unveiled an unprecedented order last month to swiftly expel virtually all unauthorized migrants from the U.S. southern border, the Trump administration said potentially infected foreigners could spread the coronavirus in the U.S., prompt outbreaks in immigration jails and strain public health resources along border communities. But in a paradoxical twist, Guatemala fears the U.S. is exporting the virus there through its deportation policy.
Guatemala has been the largest source of migration to that border in recent years.
At least 99 migrants recently deported to Guatemala by the U.S. had tested positive for coronavirus as of Sunday, according to the nationâs public health ministry. Deportees from the U.S. make up nearly 20% of the 500 coronavirus cases in Guatemala, which has had 15 pandemic-related deaths.
EU âwatered downâ report on Chinese disinformation about Covid-19
Foreign policy chief urged to explain claims that report was altered under pressure from Beijing
The European Unionâs foreign policy chief is facing questions over allegations that a report about Chinese disinformation over Covid-19 was watered down in response to pressure from Beijing.
In a letter to Josep Borrell, the Dutch MEP Bart Groothuis calls for a âformal and full explanation to the European parliamentâ about the evolution of an EU report on disinformation, amid emerging evidence it was altered under Chinese pressure.
The row escalated last week after the New York Times reported that EU officials had delayed and then rewritten the report after China tried to block its release. âThe Chinese are already threatening with reactions if the report comes out,â Lutz GĂźllner, head of communications at the EU foreign service, wrote to colleagues last Tuesday, in an email seen by the paper.
The report was published on the EUâs monitoring website EU vs Disinfo on Friday. A survey of disinformation and misinformation about Covid-19 around the world, the report largely summarises and analyses publicly available information. It notes a âcontinued and coordinated push by some actors, including Chinese sources, to deflect any blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and highlighting bilateral assistanceâ, as well as âsignificant evidence of covert Chinese operations on social mediaâ.
Groothuis told the Guardian that the EU appeared to have âcaved in on substanceâ, as he said an earlier version of the report had provided details of false Chinese government claims. For instance, he said, it reported untrue claims from China that 80 French politicians had signed a statement using a racist slur to denigrate the head of the World Health Organization.
Groothuis, a former analyst at the Dutch ministry of defence, said it was extremely important for the EUâs senior management to back independent factual analysis. âChina will become stronger, more prosperous and powerful, also militarily. It wonât be the last time they will try to intervene in internal politics of the EU.â He said it was time for the EU to send a clear signal: âIf this is true, this canât happen again in the future.â
Borrell, an outspoken former Spanish foreign minister, said last month that Europe needed to defend itself in the âglobal battle of narrativesâ over Covid-19, amid âa struggle for influence through spinning and the âpolitics of generosityââ.
The EUâs latest disinformation report, covering 2-22 April, is equally concerned by false claims and conspiracy theories from Kremlin-backed media. It states that âRussia and â to a lesser extent â China, have continued to widely target conspiracy narratives and disinformation both at public audiences in the EU and the wider neighbourhoodâ. Last month a leaked EU report concluded that pro-Kremlin media had been spreading disinformation with the aim of âaggravatingâ the public health crisis in the west.
China envoy threatens Australia boycott over virus inquest demand
SYDNEY: Chinaâs ambassador in Australia has warned that demands for a probe into the spread of COVID-19 could lead to a consumer boycott of Aussie wine or trips Down Under.
Australia has joined the United States in calling for a thorough investigation of how the virus transformed from a localised epidemic in central China into a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people, forced billions into isolation and torpedoed the global economy.
In a thinly veiled threat, ambassador Cheng Jingye warned the push for an independent inquest into the origins of the outbreak was âdangerousâ.
âThe Chinese public is frustrated, dismayed and disappointed with what Australia is doing now,â he claimed in an interview with the Australian Financial Review published on Sunday (Apr 27).
âIf the mood is going from bad to worse, people would think âwhy should we go to such a country that is not so friendly to China?â The tourists may have second thoughts,â he added.
âIt is up to the people to decide. Maybe the ordinary people will say âWhy should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?ââ
Cheng also threatened the flow of Chinese students to Australian universities, a key source of revenue that is already under threat from pandemic travel restrictions.
âThe parents of the students would also think whether this place which they found is not so friendly, even hostile, whether this is the best place to send their kids here,â he said.
The comments mark a significant escalation in tensions between Beijing and Canberra, whose relations are already strained.
They also reflect the willingness of a new generation of Chinese diplomats to aggressively and publicly push Communist Party interests, using Chinese economic might as leverage if necessary.
Experts have said a full investigation into the COVID-19 outbreak could prompt scrutiny of Chinaâs rulers and their response to the crisis, and open the door for the type of criticism of the Party that is rarely tolerated.
Cheng also accused Australia of echoing talking points from the United States.
âSome guys are attempting to blame China for their problems and deflect the attention,â he said.
âItâs a kind of pandering to the assertions that are made by some forces in Washington.â
Then that is 99 illegals we donât have to pay to care for.
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I found the headline by CBS to be intentionally misleading and completely irresponsible as those of illegals could have infected countless Americans. They are citizens of another country and they are not our responsibility. They belong in their own country and in this case it is Guatamalaâs problem, not ours.
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Totally agree. They shouldnât have been here in the first place. They wouldnât have been deported if they were âmigrantsâ. They were illegals. Not only that, but we are deporting those with criminal history, so good riddance.
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It may cost us monetarily to live without goods and services from China, but it will be worth the price. I have read the 95% of the deaths worldwide could have been prevented had China been honest and forthcoming from the beginning.
200,000 x 0.95 = 190,000
What is the worth of 190,000 lives?
Screw the Chinese government. Let the country try to live in isolation. Send them NOTHING! Pay our debt to them with a thank you note and a letter of admonition. Do not travel to China. Do not allow tourists from China.
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