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How Hongkongers fight coronavirus on their own

Given Carrie Lam and Her Government have again and again shown a high degree of incompetence, Hongkongers have trusted the puppets no more, especially in this #epidemic time.

Hong Kong citizens have organized their own #coronavirus countermeasures since January 2020, when the mysterious viral pneumonia was circulating in Wuhan. Hongkongers initiated to wear #facemasks when they went to public places, and they paid particular attention to personal hygiene. Meanwhile, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's Chief Executive handpicked by Beijing, was staying in Switzerland without a sense of crisis.

Although more than 7,000 medical workers staged an unprecedented strike, Carrie Lam dragged her feet in closing the city’s borders, and never fully closed down the land border with Mainland China -- the most hazardous source of coronavirus.

Furthermore, Lam wavered on facemasks, and even ordered civil servants not to wear them. Meanwhile, public and private hospitals were facing shortage of personal protective equipment. The incompetent government also ignored the empty shelves in stores and shortage of crucial supplies such as rice, noodles, and toilet rolls.

In response, Hongkongers created their own websites to track local information of COVID-19, including the resources of protective equipment and track cases of COVID-19. They get used to looking up instant notification and critically analyzing information through anonymous channels in Telegram, which had been initially used to protect human rights activists from government repression.

For the shortage of facemasks, an “army of volunteers” spread among the intensely crowded and often decrepit tenement buildings to install and keep filled hand-sanitizer dispensers.

Realtime digital maps were not just confined to track police blockades and clashes, they were also used to keep track of outbreak locations and hand-sanitizer distribution points. Moreover, there were volunteers sanitizing subdivided flats with affordable UVC lights.

Lam’s government eventually responded, but it was always a step behind the people.

The Government coped with the epidemic in their way, for example, setting up quarantine centers in dense neighborhoods without public consultation, or even worse, against public opinions.

Hongkongers' self help was not in vain. In early February, the financial outlet Bloomberg ran an opinion piece that compared Hong Kong to a “failed state”. And yet there is no unchecked, devastating COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong. Hongkongers, on their own, beat back the original wave, and also beat back a second resurgence due to imported cases.

This success should be attributed to the self-disciplined Hongkongers, who seared with the memory of SARS in 2003 and evolved into a united group during the movement in 2019. Hongkongers act swiftly, collectively, and efficiently. Besides, thanks partly to its history of fighting epidemics, Hong Kong has some of the world’s most prominent experts in infectious diseases.

Now that life returns to normal in Hong Kong, it also means that Hongkongers have to return to the life of protesting: fighting for the release of pan-democracy protesters, and fighting against the bad popo and oppressive legislation such as the "Article 23 Enactment".

The road ahead is certainly challenging, #Hongkongers know that, but they will not yield.

Further reading:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/05/how-hong-kong-beating-coronavirus/611524/

#Coronavirus #SelfHelp #Hongkongers
#Newspaper

One of WeChat public account claimed the U.S. to conceal the information of epidemic and make hamburgers with corpses; More than a million people read on average; the account was banned permanently

(26 May) WeChat public account in China called “ZhiDao School” had more than a million followers, it was even the top of the most influential public account in April. However, recently Tencent banned this account permanently because of making up fake news.

Before banning, the last article was to criticize the U.S. hiding the epidemic information and making hamburgers with dead bodies. They could solve the issue of food shortage and handling corpses. Another article was about China’s military has advantage over the US’s military. It is because due to time zone difference, if China firedmissile today, US would have got attack yesterday. The U.S. couldn’t defence such kind “hyperspace attack”.

Many similar types of articles were published by “ZhiDao School”, for example, English was a low-level language, Olympics was sex party, people outside the Great Wall of China were refugees or boars. But recently this public account made rare criticism towards Chinese, it insinuated Zhong Nanshan, a fellow of engineering academy, as a beneficiary of “multinational drugs corporation”.

Tencent banned WeChat public account of “ZhiDao School” since Monday. However, its website and Sina Weibo still functioned well, and announced that it got complaints by “internet marketer” on a large scale. That’s why the account was blocked temporarily. After seeing the announcement, some netizens left messages saying that they were upset since they couldn’t read the article at once, they also asked whether there would be a new [public] account.

Mass communication scholar of Zhang Jiang pointed out the government allowed these types of self-media to exist. A ban this time was only because it was too over. He said patriotic was business now. “It is politics behind the business. But politics is changeable. The voice of against the West may be strong today. But if tomorrow the trend is to improve the relationship with the West, they will be sacrificed. These self-medias are just like tissue paper, being used when wiping is needed. Otherwise, they are thrown away.” However, Zhang reminded no matter how popular these articles are, it still couldn’t be used to judge the primary trend in China, because all the information that the rest of the world could see is all censored by the authority.

Source: iCable China Team

#China #US #Wechat #FakeNews #Coronavirus #Epidemic #hamburgers
#Newspaper

China's state council's white paper propagandises anti-
epidemic "achievements" without acknowledging whistleblower Dr Li Wenliang

(7 Jun)Today, China's State Council Information Office released a white paper entitled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action", which declared China a "victim nation" of COVID-19 that deserved fair treatment and was "not to be blamed". It expressed firm opposition against the stigmatization and politicization of the pandemic. The white paper claimed that when the pandemic began, China "provided clear and explicit information to the international community". However, it blatantly omitted the fact that Chinese provincial officials prevented hospitals from reporting cases of the virus. It also neglected to mention ophthalmologist Dr Li Wenliang being exposed to the epidemic and reprimanded by Wuhan authorities. This is an obvious cover-up of the situation's reality.

The white paper consists of 35,000 words and is divided into four sections [with the following titles]: "China's Fight against the Epidemic: A Test of Fire", "Well-Coordinated Prevention, Control and Treatment", "Assembling a Powerful Force to Beat the Virus" and "Building a Global Community of Health for All."

//Xu Lin, deputy minister of the Central Propaganda Department, responded to external criticism during the press conference for the [white paper's] announcement. He said that the Chinese media's reports on the epidemic were impartial and based on facts; accusations of false propaganda were inaccurate and totally ill-founded. Xu criticized the foreign politicians and media that politicised the pandemic and sensationalised theories of its "Chinese origin" and "China's cover-up", among others, without any scientific backing.

Full translation:
https://telegra.ph/Chinas-state-councils-white-paper-propagandises-anti-epidemic-achievements-without-acknowledging-whistleblower-Dr-Li-Wenliang-06-21

Source: Apple Daily

#LiWenliang #WHO #Coronavirus #VirusOrigin #WhitePaper #Epidemic #ChinesePropaganda
#Newspaper

State propaganda promotes "Xi's Art of War", Chinese state media endorses Xi Jinping as match to history’s greatest strategist

(12 Apr) Leading up to April, as the pandemic was devastating the world, Chinese state media heavily touted the article, "Xi Jinping's 'Epidemic' Art of War - Know yourself, know your enemy, come unscathed through a hundred battles", lauding Xi for "leading Wuhan's war on the epidemic as 'commander-in-chief'". It not only declared "complete victory" over the epidemic but also portray Xi as on par with the author of the art of war*. Sun Tzu's Art of War existed in ancient history, Xi's Epidemic Art of War exists today. Some netizens commented, "(We need to teach) students how to discern against evil cultish tricks."

"From 'encountering war' to 'halting war', from 'highest priority' to 'the people's war', from 'high priority events' to 'complete victory'... the General Secretary personally commanded the people's war by observing the situation, strategizing, and making decisions. His many countermeasures and tactics were highly compatible with the principles of China's ancient School of the Military." The state media program "The People's Leader" launched a special series called "Xi Jinping's 'Epidemic' Art of War" to share the essence of its understanding with everyone.

Editor's Note:
* Hundred Schools of Thought were philosophies and schools that flourished from the 6th century to 221 B.C. in China. The School of the Military was among them, of which Sun Tzu was an influential leader.


Source: RFI

Further reading:
Beijing steps up coronavirus measures as dozens of cases emerge from a food market
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Beijing-steps-up-coronavirus-measures-as-dozens-of-cases-emerge-from-a-food-market

#Xi #ChinesePropaganda #Victory #Coronavirus #Epidemic #SubTzu #PersonalWorship #GodMaking
#Newspaper

[Wuhan Pneumonia] Rejected by the Court to prosecute the Chinese government for concealing the epidemic, a Chinese family member of the deceased is being harassed and under surveillance.

(22 Jun) More than 80,000 people have been diagnosed with Wuhan pneumonia in China so far. A family member of the deceased in Wuhan, China had filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government for covering up the epidemic, claiming about 2 million RMB and demanding an investigation into the officials' dereliction of duty. That family member was immediately harassed at their front door and placed under surveillance. Recently, he confirmed to the media that the court had decided to refuse to accept his case.

A family member of the deceased, Xhang Hai, confirmed to Taiwan's “The Liberty Times” on June 17 that he had received a phone call from the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court saying that his case is not filed because it did not meet the conditions without further explanation. Xhang Hai queried the lack of fairness and justice in the law, saying "(The rule of law in China is) too dark". Apple Daily today also published an interview with Zhang Hai, who stated that he would not give up, despite the court's verbal notification that the case would not be filed, saying that “my father was killed by someone, by the murderer, and (if) you're the murderer who killed my father, I am sure I won't let you go, and I don't care who you are.”

He also disclosed that since the establishment of the legal advisory group in early March this year, the group had received enquiries from more than 20 families. However, the families were under surveillance by the authority, many of were "greeted" by phone calls from the police. In the end, only Zhang Hai was willing to file a lawsuit.

The father of Zhang Hai, a native of Wuhan China, was a veteran of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in charge of nuclear weapons. He suffered a bone fracture this January in Shenzhen. The unit to which he belongs said that medical expenses would be reimbursed only if he was treated in Wuhan, but did not mention the Wuhan epidemic. Zhang Hai sent his father back to Wuhan for an operation, whom died of Wuhan pneumonia in the hospital.
Zhang Hai later found that the hospital had an isolation ward for the treatment of Wuhan pneumonia patients, but the hospital did not inform him of the risks and did not provide proper protection against the virus. He also believed that if the Chinese government had not covered up the epidemic, he would not have returned to Wuhan with his father and therefore decided to seek compensation through legal means. He recently filed a lawsuit with the Wuhan Intermediate Court against the Wuhan Municipal Government, the Hubei Provincial Government and the Wuhan General Hospital of PLA, asking the court to confirm that the Wuhan and Hubei governments broke the law by concealing the epidemic from the public. He also requested that the two city governments should apologize publicly and he claimed about 2 million RMB in compensation.

Source: Stand News
https://bit.ly/2O1Z4KV

Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#coronavirus #China #Epidemic #Surveillance #Wuhan #Censorship #RuleOfLaw
#Survey #Epidemic
What do Hongkongers think..?

“It is believed that the recent epidemic outbreak is mainly caused by the government's failure in immigration quarantine policy.” How much do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Diagram:
64% Agree(yellow); 15% Half-and-half(lime); 19% Disagree(pine) I ; 2% Don’t know(turquoise)

#HongKongPublicOpinionResearchInstitute
#WeHongkongers

Source: Facebook
Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#FailedState #SelfHelp
#NetizensVoice

Discovery in Fairwood: HIKVISION thermal camera

What is HIKVISION?

//“The Courier” reported HIKVISION manufactures surveillance facilities used by the CCP in suppressing Tibetan and Uyghur populations and installed in detention camps in Xinjiang. Their products have already been banned from sale in the US.//
(Fairwood wanna make people happy?)

//“The Mercury”, which is owned by a Media tycoon of Rupert Murdoch and the editorial department is in Hobart, reported on 15 August with the heading of “Concern over Chinese ‘spy’ cameras near parliament”.

In the report, O’Connor, leader of United Tasmania Group and councillor of House of Assembly, stated that HIKVISION communication products not only have a security concern but also the company has deliberately created loopholes.”//
(For just to dine, do I have to have my data sent to the neighboring country?)

//HIKVISON SSD is in crisis lately. A famous KOL in China alleged NAND Flash chips in its high-end SSD model, “C200, has been changed to inferior parts. In another model of consumer-grade, “C160 SSD”, it was used-NAND collected from a Western Digital (WD) drive. Many chinese users have made videos on this debacle. So, its image in mainland China has been blemished.

It’s not the first time for HIKVISION to have an integrity issue. Customers have complained about suspicious false advertisement of HIKVISION C2000 SSD. The promotion material mentioned Toshiba Memory Chips, but Micron Chips was used in products. After videos circulate on the internet, HIKVISION removed its products and amended product information rapidly. All wordings of “Toshiba Chips” have been completed removed and replaced by “3D TLC.//
(Really make the best possible use of the epidemic, responds to comrade Xi’s call long time ago)

Source: Facebook
Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#Fairwood #Surveilance #HIKVISION #BodyTemperature #Epidemic
#Newspaper

AC2 Canteen newly installed thermometer has facial recognition function, and raises concerns for safety and privacy

(18 Aug) AC2 Canteen reopened on 13 Aug, and has thermometer installed at the entrance, to check the body temperature of visitors.

Different from the other thermometers in the campus, this thermometer checks and indicates visitors’ body temperature by taking photos. When the thermometer is in operation, the monitor displays the below message, ‘Welcome, face recognising.’ as it is testing body temperature. After temperature checking is completed, the message ‘Permission to the access.’ is shown. In addition, the hardware setting, ie height and distance of thermometer, is fixed. Thus it might not effectively check the temperature of people of various heights and distance. People who have meal in the canteen expressed the inconvenience of not having any indication of where to stand or distance to keep for such temperature checking. 

Thermometer from SenseTime, a Chinese enterprise with multiple projects with Chinese government

Our journalists investigated and reported that such thermometer is manufactured by SenseTime. And products in the same same series can be coupled with its door lock system.

SenseTime is an Artificial intelligence startup company established by Prof Tang Xiaoou and his team in the CUHK School of Engineering.

The Company was founded in Beijing at the end of 2014, with full name ‘SenseTime Group Limited’. Its business involves graphical processing, facial recognition, auto-pilot, augmented reality, deep learning, and big data analysis, etc. 

SenseTime is also a well known Chinese IT enterprise, and has consistently supported and worked with the government on the social credit / surveillance system in China. Surveillance examples include banning smoking in Metro, identifying people who violate traffic rules or have outstanding loans, etc. The US government has blacklisted this corporation under Export Administration Regulations. Unless endorsed by the US government, the enterprises on this Entity List are forbidden from trading with any US enterprise.

In some cities in China, the metro stations have such facial recognition terminals installed at the metro entrances, to assist passengers to use metro service. Such service is dubbed as the ‘metro Face credit’ and with aim to reduce service time compared with using ordinary metro cards.

Resources:
https://www.hk01.com/社區專題/388516/內地-人臉識別-漸普及-帶個頭出街便可吃飯坐車-驗證僅需10秒
https://www.it-square.hk/archives/11979
https://www.sensetime.com/cn/product-detail?categoryId=132

#CityUniversity #CityU #CityBroadcastingChannel #HongKongSnitchingUniversity #TheMostInternationalisedUniversity

Source: City Broadcasting Channel
Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#AC2 #CityU #Surveillance #BigData #SocialCreditSystem #CUHK #metro #SenseTime #TangXiaoou #Epidemic #Thermometer #FacialRecognition
Man From China Diagnosed with COVID-19 after Clandestine Entry to Vietnam, Identified Before Causing Community Infection.

The Vietnamese government announced a confirmed case of COVID-19 from a Chinese who enter the country illegally. The local police arrested the 27-year-old man, who entered northern Vietnam with seven other compatriots on the 27th of last month and travelled to Ho Chi Minh City by car, upon arrival and sent to quarantine. He was confirmed a confirmed case on the 12th of this month after nucleic acid tests.

According to VnExpress, the Vietnamese government announced 18 new cases on July 14, including a Chinese illegal entrant who crossed the border from northern Vietnam with seven other people on July 27. They went to Ho Chi Minh City on a three-day car ride. Police found him and arrested the day after, then took him to the city's District 7 Hospital for quarantine and test, where he was finally diagnosed with COVID-19 on 12 August and is currently being treated at Cu Chi Field Hospital.

The Ho Chi Minh City Disease Control Unit said it was fortunate that the case was discovered in time; otherwise, this person would have become a source of infection and spread the virus in the community. As of Sunday (16th), Vietnam reported a total of 962 confirmed cases and 24 deaths. This illegal migrant is case #912.

The epidemic has led the Vietnamese government to close the border since March this year, but incidents of illegal entry of foreigners continue to occur. 152 illegal entrant has been arrested since May, mainly Chinese (72%), followed by Cambodians.

#COVID19 #Epidemic #Vietnam #IllegalEntry #Infection #Chinese

Source: Stand News #Aug16
Confidential document says Beijing refuses to fund local CDC, bureaucracy causes collapse of the medical system and loss of epidemic prevention and fighting function

The initial outbreak of Wuhan COVID-19 in China has spread globally. The leaked documents received by CNN not only reflect China's mishandling of the epidemic but also reveal that China's health care system has been riddled with problems for a prolonged period of time and that when the epidemic escalated, officials and medical personnel generally took it lightly, further contributing to the global outbreak of the virus.

After SARS in 2003, the Chinese authorities spent 167 million USD (about 1.3 billion HKD) to set up a notification system. Theoretically, the system allows regional hospitals or disease prevention centres to directly report outbreaks to the central government and share relevant information with the entire country. However, according to a report in the paper, the system itself slowed down, and other bureaucratic constraints have further impeded information flow.

Compared to major cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, Wuhan's medical system received relatively few resources. An audit report completed last October pointed out that Hubei Province's disease prevention centre was underfunded. The lack of proper testing equipment and motivated medical staff, especially in the early stages of the outbreak when they still used SARS-era equipment, was completely neglected by the Chinese Bureaucracy.

#China #SARS #COVID19 #Pandemic #Epidemic #WuhanVirus #CNN #MedicalSystem #MedicalStaff

Source: Apple Daily #Dec01

https://hk.appledaily.com/international/20201201/BPEWL3L7FZC3RFGNWLBEWQ5P7M/