Shanghai pushes ahead with mass COVID tests as new cases spike

SHANGHAI - The Chinese commercial hub of Shanghai is pushing ahead with a mass testing initiative as it tries to curb a new spike in COVID-19 infections, but some districts were easing lockdown rules in an effort to minimize disruptions.

The city, home to about 25 million people, saw symptomatic local community infections hit 57 on March 17, with another 203 domestically transmitted asymptomatic cases, up from eight and 150 respectively a day earlier.

Shanghai, which has up to now remained relatively unscathed by the coronavirus, has shut schools and launched a city-wide testing program that has seen dozens of residential compounds sealed off for at least 48 hours.

China has been battling its worst COVID outbreak since the virus first emerged in Wuhan in 2020. It reported 2,388 new local cases with confirmed symptoms on March 17, almost double the count a day earlier.

The outbreak is small by international standards and analysts have been debating how much China's uncompromising "zero-COVID" response will hurt the economy at home and in the world at large. 

President Xi Jinping signaled late on Thursday that the "dynamic clearance" policy to contain the outbreak would not be ditched. 

"Victory comes from perseverance," Xi told a Politburo standing committee meeting while calling for more effective measures and efforts to minimize the economic impact, state media reported.

MIXED SIGNALS

The Shanghai government, while stressing there would be no city-wide lockdown as in other cities, said it would test residents on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, and order 48-hour lockdowns while they waited for their results.

On Friday, there were some signs it was easing up on its restrictions, with some compounds no longer required to go into a 48-hour lockdown while residents were tested.

The head of one residential committee in Changning district said her compound would not be sealed off this weekend as originally planned. At least two other compounds also said testing would be postponed.

While officials said on Thursday that Shanghai has ramped up its testing capacity to 3 million per day and planned to increase it to 5.5 million in the near future, some districts also reported shortages of qualified testing personnel.

Some residents complained about the lack of clarity when it came to the rules. One family quarantined in the district of Hongqiao said they were still locked in despite two negative tests.

Users of China's Weibo microblogging platform also slammed a decision to seal rented accommodation used by outpatients at the Shanghai Cancer Hospital, making it impossible for them to receive treatment.

"Shanghai used to brag the whole day long about its precise epidemic prevention and control... even mocking others for excess prevention and for having inadequate officials," said one user posting under the name BayMax XX. "It's not so great now?"

As of March 17, mainland China had reported 126,234 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and those arriving from outside the mainland. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.

(Reporting by David Stanway, Brenda Goh, Engen Tham and the Shanghai newsroom; Additional reporting by Roxanne Liu and Albee Zhang; Editing by Sam Holmes and Lincoln Feast)

-reuters-

Tencent pledges $7.7 billion to support China poverty, environment initiatives

Chinese tech giant Tencent on Monday pledged to invest 50 billion yuan ($7.68 billion) in environmental and social initiatives, a move that comes as China's internet heavyweights come under intense scrutiny from antitrust regulators.

Tencent, China's biggest social media and video games company, said its investment would fund initiatives in areas including basic science, education innovation, rural revitalisation, carbon neutrality, food, energy, and water provision, assistance with public emergencies, technology for senior citizens and public welfare.

It also said it is forming a corporate development group to spearhead such initiatives. It did not provide a time frame for its investment.

"Tencent should continue to respond to the ever-changing needs of the public and of the era, so as to develop and prosper together with society as a whole," Pony Ma, founder and chairman of Tencent, said in a statement.

Last week, China's market regulator warned the country's biggest internet companies to eradicate any banned practices, two days after slapping Alibaba with a record $2.75 billion fine after an investigation found it had abused its dominant market position for several years.

President Xi Jinping has made poverty alleviation one of his key priorities.

-reuters

'Tiananmen Square' crackdown in Hong Kong would harm trade deal — Trump

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Sunday warned China that carrying out a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters would harm trade talks between the two countries.

"I think it'd be very hard to deal if they do violence, I mean, if it's another Tiananmen Square," Trump told reporters in New Jersey. "I think it's a very hard thing to do if there's violence."

The months-long trade dispute between the US and China has been blamed for setting world financial markets on edge amid signs of a possible global economic slowdown.

Trump's comments came as Washington and Beijing look to revive pivotal talks aimed at ending their trade war.

Phone calls between both countries' deputies are planned for the next 10 days, and if those are successful, negotiations could resume, Trump's chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Sunday.

Hong Kong has meanwhile been dealing with more than two months of protests and on Sunday saw a crowd that organizers said numbered some 1.7 million people march peacefully in the city despite rising unrest and stark warnings from Beijing.

Chinese state media has run images of military personnel and armored personnel carriers in Shenzhen, across the border from the semi-autonomous city.

In the bloody 1989 crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China deployed tanks to end student-led protests, resulting in an estimated death toll of hundreds if not thousands.


If such a situation was repeated in Hong Kong, "I think there'd be... tremendous political sentiment not to do something," Trump said, referring to the trade negotiations with China.

Creeping authoritarianism

Under a deal signed with Britain, China agreed to allow Hong Kong to keep its unique freedoms when the former crown colony was handed back in 1997.

But many Hong Kongers feel those freedoms are being chipped away, especially since China's hardline president Xi Jinping came to power.

Trump stopped short of endorsing the protesters, saying, "I'd love to see it worked out in a humane fashion," and calling on Xi to negotiate with the dissidents.

Last week, China's state-run daily The Global Times said there "won't be a repeat" of Tiananmen Square in a rare reference to the crackdown.

Analysts say any intervention in Hong Kong by Chinese security forces would be a disaster for China's reputation and economy.

The weeks of demonstrations have plunged the financial hub into crisis, with images of masked, black-clad protesters engulfed by tear gas during street battles against riot police stunning a city once renowned for its stability.

The unrest was sparked by widespread opposition to a plan for allowing extraditions to the Chinese mainland, but has since morphed into a broader call for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city.

Sunday's march, billed as a return to the peaceful origins of the leaderless protest movement, was one of the largest rallies since the protests began about three months ago, according to organizers the Civil Human Rights Front.

source: philstar.com

Asian markets surge as Trump fuels China trade deal hopes

HONG KONG — Asian markets enjoyed another rally on Friday after Donald Trump hailed positive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and a report said he had asked officials to draw up a draft bill as he eyes a potential trade deal between the two.

Hong Kong jumped almost four percent in the afternoon, while Shanghai and the yuan soared as dealers seized on the news, hoping for a breakthrough in a standoff that has rocked global equities and fuelled warnings about global growth.

The gains follow a third straight advance on Wall Street as a sense of optimism returns after a diabolical October, with riskier, higher-yielding currencies enjoying a bounce against the dollar, and the pound holding on to most gains.


The day had already started with a bang after Trump tweeted that he had held positive talks with Xi, which was a rare sign of hope in the months-long stand-off between the world's top two economies.

"Just had a long and very good conversation with President Xi Jinping of China. We talked about many subjects, with a heavy emphasis on Trade," he wrote.


He added that trade talks were "moving along nicely" and meetings were "being scheduled" at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of the month.

The comment comes days after Trump warned he would impose tariffs on all China's shipments to the US before saying he thought he could "make a great deal with China" but it was not yet ready.

Later, Bloomberg News, citing unnamed sources, reported that the president has requested key cabinet secretaries put together an outline deal to call a ceasefire in the painful row. It said several agencies had been called in to help with putting the plan together.

Hong Kong and Shanghai were already buoyant after Beijing said it would introduce measures to kickstart the stuttering economy following a string of weak data, including growth at its slowest pace in nine years during the third quarter.

The yuan also rallied to 6.9080 to the dollar, having hit 6.9302 earlier in the morning and is well off the 10-year lows around 6.97 on Thursday.

'Still cautious'

The optimism spread across the region. Tokyo was up 2.7 percent in the afternoon, Singapore 1.3 percent and Seoul piled on three percent, while Sydney reversed early losses to sit 0.1 percent higher.

Taipei, Bangkok, Mumbai and Jakarta also posted healthy gains.

"Positive comments from President Trump over US-China trade tension are cheering the market in the short term," said Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia Pacific at JP Morgan Asset Management.

"Dollar moderation, the stabilising trade relationship between US and China and more stimulus from Beijing will be the key ingredients to revive market confidence in Asia.

"While we are still cautious over a full resolution of recent tensions in the medium term, resumption of dialogue between Washington and Beijing would be good enough to investors for now."

Oil prices recovered after Thursday's plunge of more than two percent on oversupply worries, with US sanctions on Iran due within days but other major producers ready to pick up the slack.

The commodity has lost around 15 percent from four-year highs at the start of last month as Russia and OPEC said they would bolster output and dealers grew concerned about the impact on demand from a trade war between China and the US.

On currency markets high-yielding units were well bought. The Australian dollar climbed 1.1 percent, South Korea's won strengthened 1.5 percent and the South African rand was 1.6 percent higher.

India's rupee, which has been hammered this week by a standoff between the government and central bank, climbed almost one percent.

The pound dipped but held most of its gains after a report that British Prime Minister Theresa May had reached a post-Brexit deal with Brussels securing access to the EU for Britain's key finance sector.

Sterling jumped almost two percent on the report despite London and Brussels officials' reservations.

source: philstar.com