China's Propaganda Machine in Overdrive

Medical staff in full suits looking after coronavirus patients in Wuhan

The Chinese government is anxious to show it is doing everything to battle the coronavirus, which means all hands on deck in the propaganda department.

There are video clips of mostly men who are seen dashing into police stations or government offices and dropping off boxes of masks or lots of cash and then running away.

It's meant to show people's selflessness, that they are willing to give away their life savings to the authorities to fight the coronavirus. If they ran away, how would they know all these details? Or maybe these people just robbed a bank beforehand?



The first video seemed shocking but sweet, but now there are about 41 different video clips which makes them even more staged. Why would so many people run into a police station or government office, dump bricks of cash on the counter and then run off again? It boggles the mind.

Then today CCTV has a clip of apparently two nurses decked out in full hazmat gear complete with plastic shields and blue suits yellow shoe covers in a coordinated dance outside of the hospital. Apparently they were trying to make light of the situation and enjoying a fun moment.



Really? From the clips I've seen of nurses having mental breakdowns, them dancing like children is completely off the wall and ridiculous. It's so obvious this clip was begging for sympathy.

But then there are uncomfortable video clips of more than a dozen nurses in Gansu province having their heads shaved, calling them "the most beautiful warriors!" in a bid to show their devotion to fighting the coronavirus. These women are crying, which seems to indicate they were coerced into doing this. Why didn't the men go bald too?



And there are horrific stories of nurses being forced to take birth control pills so they wouldn't menstruate (as going to the bathroom would be too much trouble), and they were chastised for asking for sanitary pads and tampons, saying they "lacked the spirit of devotion".

While the propaganda army was hoping these clips of the nurses would make the public sympathize with them, it actually enraged people that the women were being treated this way and vented their wrath online.

Young people in particular have had enough of the propaganda machine, as they can access a lot of information and clips via WeChat or going over the Great Firewall to see what people outside of China are saying about the coronavirus in their own country.

People are still very angry about Dr Li's Wenliang's death

They were particularly angry following the death of Dr Li Wenliang, who tried to warn his former classmates about the coronavirus, and were angry that the police accused him of spreading rumours.

"In the past month, many young people have been reading a lot of firsthand information and in-depth media reports about the epidemic on the internet," says Stephanie Xia, a 26-year-old in Shanghai in The New York Times. She says they are angry and confused about what they learned.

"There's some gap between what the young people are really like and what the government believes what they're like," Xia adds.

For young people today, this coronavirus and how they experienced it is much like other seminal events, like the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, the Wenzhou train crash in 2011, the downfall of Bo Xilai in 2013.

How China's next generation is influenced by how they went through this year's coronavirus crisis will forever shape their perceptions of the Communist Party of China and their trust in the government.

One gets the feeling it's not going to be very solid...

Coronavirus Spikes, Hong Kong's Leash Tightens

The number of coronavirus cases is now over 60,000 worldwide

Every morning turning on the computer and seeing the latest coronavirus numbers is a necessary but dreaded task. But this morning it was even more shocking because the number of cases was over 15,000, almost tenfold the day before to a total of over 60,000. The number of deaths increased by 254 to over 1,300.

That's because China decided to broaden the definition of cases to not only those who have been tested and confirmed to have the coronavirus, but also include those who show symptoms that make them highly suspect of having the coronavirus, or COVID-19 to enable these patients to get the necessary care and hopefully hospital bed they need.

Zhang Xiaoming has been demoted one rung down

Previously Wuhan would only get a certain number of test kits per day in a bid to slow down or make the number of cases seem smaller. But someone has somehow persuaded China that to better control the outbreak, a more realistic show of numbers is necessary so that enough aid and help gets there.

It's hard to understand -- Wuhan doctors and nurses are working around the clock -- have the PLA doctors and nurses helped relieve them? Or are they too busy manning the newly-built hospitals?

In any event, everyday the numbers are only going to keep growing -- and these are only the cases that China is willing to tell us. There could be many more they have yet to reveal...

In the midst of the release of these shocking numbers, Beijing has demoted Zhang Xiaoming from director to deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.

The new HKMAO director is now Xiao Baolong

The top position has been taken over by Xia Baolong, a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference and was previously Zhejiang party chief; most importantly he is a Xi Jinping loyalist.

And what is Xia known for? During his leadership in Zhejiang, he apparently issued the order to remove some 2,000 crosses from churches in Wenzhou, which is considered the centre of Christianity in China.

So... one can imagine Xia will be taking a harder line on Hong Kong than Zhang... Hong Kong's protesters will have a formidable opponent to conquer or charm.

China watchers conclude this latest move indicates Xi has changed the puppeteers, but the puppet (Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor) remains. It shows that Beijing is going to take more control over the city, than depend on the puppet to do the dirty work...

Chinese Food in Rome

Italian sea bass steamed Cantonese style in a Chinese restaurant in Rome!

Our hotel in Rome was located near the train station, and so there was a constant stream of travelers walking by our hotel, dragging their luggage to and from the station. To cater to their stomachs, there were various kinds of restaurants.

Many of them were Italian of course, serving pizzas and pastas, and Indian ones serving curries -- 3 euros for a bowl of rice!

Pretty decent potstickers called "ravioli"

But around the corner and down the street from our hotel was Huaweiju, Ristorante Cinese serving Chinese food. We were curious and wondered how good the food was and decided to give it a shot.

Most of the other Italian restaurants in the area seem small at first, but they actually have massive basements and can host large groups. However, Huaweiju was really tiny, so it was better to go earlier otherwise the wait would be long.

The owner of the restaurant had no shame in squeezing in one or two more customers around a tiny temporary table not even as big as a mahjong table if they didn't mind...

It's a bare restaurant, with not much decor except for a bar/service area that had rows of bottles behind, along with kitsch Chinese-style pictures, and a typical Chinese calendar.

However the menu is choc full of dishes, some slight variations on say stir-fried noodles and rice, but what draws a lot of people to this place are the prices. They are about half of what the nearby Italian restaurants charge, so for many, Huaweiju is a no brainer.

The restaurant owner is originally from Wenzhou

Oh and a bowl of rice costs 1 euro.

We tried several dishes on the menu and many of them were not bad, like #52 spaghetti di riso or stir-fried vermicelli, while #009 ravioli are pretty decent potstickers. We also had #40, fried rice called riso cantonese, and #114, a sizzling beef platter, with the name manzo all griglia.

The most impressive dish was #167 pesce, or steamed Italian sea bass. It was cooked just right, with spring onions, finely sliced carrots and light soy sauce. We cleaned up the bones very nicely.

The restaurant is run by a capable and unflappable Chinese woman. Although her service system was very disorganized, she didn't let customer demands bother her too much -- she knew her clientele were not regulars. So we had to wait for plates, chopsticks and tea. They came... eventually.

In the kitchen in the back is a Chinese chef, and some migrant workers. She spoke to the Chinese chef in Mandarin, the others easily in Italian and to customers a bit of English.

Very good stir-fried vermicelli though portions are small

Finally when were getting the bill I asked her where she was from. She said Wenzhou and I asked how long she had been here, and she replied 18 years.

Some of the customers are Chinese -- curious like us -- while the rest are visitors looking for an inexpensive meal. Oh and the restaurant even makes French fries -- 2.50 euros if you were wondering.

Huaweiju Ristorante Cinese
Viap Filippo Turati 9-11
Rome
(06) 8923 9537

Lack of Trust Pervades

People remember the victims of the Tianjin blasts

In Hong Kong there's lots of skepticism of what is really being told about the Tianjin explosions, particularly the number of dead.

As of today the total is 104, but many question the figure, saying that because the blasts on Wednesday were the equivalent to 24 tonnes of TNT, that there should be dozens more if not hundreds who perished in the disaster.

But it sounds like crews are still trying to contain the fires and figure out what chemicals exploded and which ones are still left lying around in the massive warehouse. Apparently the records of the chemicals were destroyed in the blast -- a big lesson there -- and now the authorities are going through the tedious task of going through transport records.

However, relatives of loved ones who are missing after the blast want to know what happened. Today some tried to barge in on a press conference, but were unable to enter, and they could be heard shouting from outside.

Anxious relatives want to know where their loved ones are

"Nobody has told us anything, we're in the dark, there is no news at all," screamed a middle-aged woman, as she was dragged away by security personnel.

Earlier Tianjin residents wondered if the government is telling them the truth, saying the air was fine to breathe, but many reported having headaches and dizziness; some resorted to wearing masks to try to mitigate breathing in possibly toxic chemicals.

But now those who were living within 3km of the warehouse were told to evacuate the area because the winds changed direction from moving towards Bohai Bay, to now back inland.

Xinhua also reported seven or eight fresh blasts that caused new fires to break out at the facility, but did not give further details.

There was another bright spot today, after a firefighter was found alive yesterday, a many in his 40s was found in a shipping container, 50m from the blast "core zone".

Fires are still smouldering in the warehouse facility

Staff from sodium cyanide producers were brought to the site to best determine how to deal with the situation, and an army of 200 nuclear and biochemical experts from the Chinese military were deployed to the area.

Unless someone is an expert in chemical reactions and can easily analyze what chemicals were involved in the explosions, 200 experts aren't going to be of much help if they only know theoretical equations.

It will take several more days to figure out what just happened in this warehouse facility and also possibly find human remains of those missing.

If the government is not transparent about how the explosion happened and punish those involved, this will be yet another thorn in its side as it tries to brush the incident under the carpet, like Tiananmen Square, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the Wenzhou train collision in 2011 and now this.

How much more can people bear?