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☆ Data released by China suggests COVID-19 virus may have come from raccoon dogs and 'strengthens' Wuhan wet-market theory
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Newly released genetic data from Wuhan has found raccoon dog DNA blended with the COVID-19 virus. Since the first COVID-19 death in Wuhan on January 11, 2020, the virus has killed 6,873,477 people worldwide. This suggests that the virus may have infected the animals, according to the scientists. "We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results. Since the first COVID-19 death — which was recorded in Wuhan, China, on January 11, 2020 — the virus has killed 6,873,477 people around the world, according to WHO data.

☆ Former Taiwan president Ma to visit China in landmark trip
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TAIPEI, March 19 (Reuters) - Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China this month, his office said on Sunday, the first time a former or current Taiwanese leader has visited since the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island in 1949. Ma, who remains a senior member of Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) opposition party, held a landmark meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in late 2015, shortly before current Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was elected. Ma's office said that he would visit China from March 27 to April 7 and go to the cities of Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing and Shanghai. Reporting by Ben Blanchard Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ WHO, advisors urge China to release all COVID-related data after new research
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Access to the information was subsequently restricted “apparently to allow further data updates” by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). WHO officials discussed the matter with Chinese colleagues, who explained that the new data were intended to be used to update a preprint study from 2022. "We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results," he said. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was shut down by Chinese authorities after the novel coronavirus emerged in the city in late 2019. The market has since been a focus of study of whether the virus had infected several other species before jumping to humans.

The closed Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, the site of the first known Covid case cluster, in January 2020. Chinese authorities are withholding genetic evidence that could provide clues about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said, pointing to data temporarily posted online by Chinese scientists, and then removed, that indicated the presence of wild animals at a Wuhan market. China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention in late January briefly published genetic sequences done in 2020 that appear to show the presence of raccoon dogs and other animals at China’s Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, site of the first known Covid case cluster, WHO officials said Friday.

☆ Baidu wins permit to offer driverless robotaxi service in Beijing city
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Baidu Inc FollowSHANGHAI, March 17 (Reuters) - Chinese search engine giant Baidu (9888.HK), said on Friday it had won a permit to provide a fully driverless ride-hailing service in the Chinese capital of Beijing. With the permit, Baidu's Apollo service will deploy 10 fully autonomous vehicles in a technology park developed by the government of Beijing, it said in a statement. The permit marks a step forward from December, when Baidu said it had been granted a license to test the service. Baidu will now operate driverless robotaxi services in three Chinese cities including Wuhan and Chongqing. The Beijing-headquartered company, which generates most of its revenue from its internet search engine, has been focused on self-driving technologies over the past five years as it looks to diversify.

☆ WHO calls on China to release data linking Covid origin to raccoon dogs at Wuhan market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The World Health Organization on Friday called on China to release new data linking the Covid pandemic's origins to animal samples at Wuhan Market after the country recently took down the research. Researchers from several countries downloaded and analyzed the data before it was removed, and presented their findings to the WHO last weekend. But she said it does establish that animals who can carry Covid were sold at the market, which is "new information." The WHO is pushing for studies to be conducted in other markets in Wuhan and across China, according to Van Kerkhove. She added that the WHO "won't be able to remove different hypotheses" until China reuploads its data.

☆ Baidu stock rebounds after falling sharply in wake of demo of ERNIE chatbot, its ChatGPT-style service
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN —Shares in Chinese search giant Baidu rebounded sharply a day after it unveiled ERNIE Bot, its answer to the ChatGPT craze. Its Hong Kong shares fell 6.4% after a public demonstration of its bot failed to impress investors. The reversal came after the company said more than 30,000 businesses had signed up to test out its chatbot service within two hours of its demonstration. Baidu Chairman and CEO Robin Li presenting the company's AI chatbot, ERNIE Bot, in Beijing on March 16. But its stock slumped on Thursday because the demo was “pre-recorded, and not live, which makes investors skeptical about the robustness of the ERNIE Bot,” according to Pau.

☆ Chinese Doctor Who Sounded the Alarm on SARS Dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Liyan Qi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Military surgeon Jiang Yanyong, who challenged China’s official line about SARS, has died at age 91. Jiang Yanyong , a military surgeon who sounded the alarm on Chinese authorities’ efforts to cover up the extent of a 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, died over the weekend at age 91, according to people close to Dr. Jiang and his family. Unlike Li Wenliang , a Wuhan doctor who was initially punished for circulating an early warning about the spread of Covid-19 before his death from the disease in 2020, Dr. Jiang wasn’t penalized for drawing attention to the impact of SARS in 2003. Both doctors were eventually hailed as folk heroes in state media.

☆ Chinese doctor who blew the whistle on SARS dies at 91
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Laurie Chen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIJING, March 15 (Reuters) - A Chinese military doctor who exposed the full extent of the SARS epidemic when it ripped through Beijing in 2003 has died at the age of 91, according to his friends and local media reports. Jiang Yanyong accused the government of deliberately underreporting the spread of the respiratory disease in an open letter sent to state media in 2003. News of his death was not reported in Chinese state media, as is the norm with politically sensitive public figures. Some media including the South China Morning Post said he died on Saturday of pneumonia, citing sources. SARS infected 8,908 people worldwide after emerging in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, eventually killing 774, according to World Health Organisation data.

China's four new vice premiers:Ding Xuexiang, 60, is the first-ranked vice premier who also sits in the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, China's top echelon of power. Wang Zhigang, 65, remains minister of science and technology. Huai Jinpeng, 60, remains minister of educationPan Yue, 62, remains head of the National Ethnic Affairs CommissionWang Xiaohong, 65, remains minister of public securityChen Yixin, 63, remains minister of state security. Considered a Xi ally, he had worked with Xi when the latter was party chief of Zhejiang province from 2002-2007. Tang Dengjie, 63, remains minister of civil affairsHe Rong, 60, remains minister of justiceWang Xiaoping, 59, remains minister of human resources and social securityWang Guanghua, 59, remains minister of natural resourcesHuang Runqiu, 59, remains minister of ecology and environmentNi Hong, 60, remains minister of housing and urban-rural developmentLi Xiaopeng, 63, remains minister of transportLi Guoying, 63, remains minister of water resourcesTang Renjian, 60, remains minister of agriculture and rural affairsHu Heping, 60, remains minister of culture and tourismMa Xiaowei, 63, remains head of the National Health CommissionPei Jinjia, 59, remains minister of veterans affairsWang Xiangxi, 60, remains minister of emergency managementHou Kai, 60, remains auditor-general of the National Audit OfficeReporting by Yew Lun Tian, Ziyi Tang, additional reporting by Albee Zhang; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Finding COVID-19's origins is a moral imperative: WHO's Tedros
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, March 12 (Reuters) - Discovering the origins of COVID-19 is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, the head of the World Health Organization said, in his strongest comments yet that the U.N. body remains committed to finding how the virus arose. "Understanding #COVID19's origins and exploring all hypotheses remains: a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks (and) a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with #LongCOVID," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitterlate on Saturday. loadingHe was writing to mark three years since the WHO first used the word "pandemic" to describe the global outbreak of COVID-19. Since then, the WHO has set up a scientific advisory group on dangerous pathogens but it has not yet reached any conclusions on how the pandemic began, saying key pieces of data are missing. (This story has been refiled to add the day the comments were made)Reporting by Emma FargeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ House Votes 419 to 0 for Declassification of Intelligence on Covid-19 Origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Lindsay Wise | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The House on Friday voted 419 to 0 to pass a bill requiring the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and the Covid-19 pandemic. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) ), the COVID Origins Act of 2023 passed the Senate by unanimous consent last week. It now heads to President Biden’s desk for his signature. The White House hasn’t issued a formal position on the bill.

Since the Senate on March 1 passed the bill - by unanimous consent - it now goes to the White House for Biden to sign into law or veto. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his intentions. The debate was refueled last month, when the Wall Street Journal first reported that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies. Four other U.S. agencies still judge that COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided. Representative Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said as he urged support for the measure.

☆ Congress sends bill to Biden requiring his administration to declassify intelligence on COVID-19's origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The House passed a bipartisan bill that would require the Biden administration to declassify information related to COVID-19's origins. The origins of COVID-19 have long been debated and theorized. The House of Representatives unanimously approved the bill, titled the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, in a 419-0 vote on Friday. The bill comes after the US Energy Department recently concluded with "low confidence" that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak. Indeed, lawmakers could likely override a potential veto with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.

☆ House votes unanimously to declassify intelligence on origins of Covid pandemic, sending bill to Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The House of Representatives on Friday unanimously voted to declassify information on possible links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Covid-19 pandemic, sending the bill to President Joe Biden. The Senate also voted unanimously earlier this month to require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify such information. President Joe Biden ordered the intelligence community in 2021 to provide an updated analysis of how the pandemic emerged. The intelligence agencies were divided on how Covid started spreading among humans, though they said a natural original and a lab leak were both plausible. The intelligence community agreed that Covid was not developed as biological weapon, and most agencies assessed that the virus was not genetically engineered.

"Most luxury retailers don't think Hong Kong will return to the dizzy levels of 2014 when the market here peaked," said Simon Smith, Savills' senior director of research and consultancy in Hong Kong. Morgan Stanley (MS.N) forecast Hong Kong visitor numbers this year will reach just 70% of 2018 arrivals. It estimates retail sales will grow 15%, holding at around 80% of retail trade from the pre-COVID year. That outstripped total Hong Kong retail sales from a peak hit in 2013 at HK$494.5 billion ($63.0 billion), according to the city's statistics department. ($1 = 6.8510 yuan)($1 = 7.8498 Hong Kong dollars)Reporting by Farah Master, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, Angel Woo and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong, Sophie Yu in Beijing, and Mimosa Spencer in Paris; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Why Scientists Got the Covid Lab Leak Wrong
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Tim Trevan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

He asked if I thought China should be allowed to have such a lab and whether it could operate it safely. Such transparency, and the ability of junior employees to challenge superiors, runs against the grain of both communism and China’s hierarchical traditional culture. My skepticism looked prescient when news of Covid broke in 2020, setting off speculation about a leak from the Wuhan lab. Some were surprised that my initial response was that the virus probably didn’t come from the lab. Many prominent scientists and public-health officials said the same.

☆ China's Li Keqiang announces lowest GDP target in decades amid major economic leadership overhaul
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Hong Kong CNN —China’s outgoing Premier Li Keqiang has announced the country’s lowest GDP growth target in decades, highlighting the domestic and global challenges the world’s second largest economy still faces despite its decision late last year to ditch draconian anti-Covid measures. It fell well short of the official growth target of “around 5.5%.”“Having declared the end of pandemic, the leaders are sticking to the slowing GDP growth path in the long term by lowering annual GDP target gradually,” said Ken Cheung, chief Asian foreign exchange strategist at Mizuho Bank. “Moreover, China has been downplaying the numeric GDP target and shifted to balance the quality since President Xi’s era,” he said. Premier Li also said the government would only raise fiscal spending by 5.6% this year, which is lower than the growth of 6.1% in fiscal spending in 2022. “After three years of pandemic [measures], it could be more than desirable for governments, especially the local governments, to restore fiscal resilience,” said Citi analysts.

☆ WHO still working to identify the origins of COVID-19
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) is still working to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, its director general said on Friday, after a U.S. agency was reported to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by a Chinese laboratory leak. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies. "I wish to be very clear that WHO has not abandoned any plans to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic," Tedros said. Four other U.S. agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still think COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided, the Journal reported. On Friday, she urged countries, institutions and research groups that might have any information on the origins of the pandemic to share it with the international community.

☆ FBI Director Says Covid Pandemic Likely Caused by Chinese Lab Leak
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Warren P. Strobel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the Chinese government has been trying to ‘thwart and obfuscate’ the investigation. WASHINGTON—FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the Covid pandemic was probably the result of a laboratory leak in China, providing the first public confirmation of the bureau’s classified judgment of how the virus that led to the deaths of nearly seven million people worldwide first emerged. “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Mr. Wray told Fox News. “Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”

☆ China scoffs at FBI claim that Wuhan lab leak likely caused COVID pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - The FBI has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic, director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday, a claim China said had "no credibility whatsoever". "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News. His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported. The virus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019 before spreading round the world and killing nearly 7 million people.

☆ FBI director says China lab leak likely caused COVID pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic. "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News. His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department has assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported. China's foreign ministry, asked to comment on the Wall Street Journal report, which was confirmed by other U.S. media, referred to a WHO-China report that pointed toward a natural origin for the pandemic, rather than a lab leak.

☆ China spent years angrily trying to shut down the theory that COVID-19 came from its labs. It failed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

China has pushed another theory, suggesting the COVID-19 may have jumped to humans from frozen food shipped from elsewhere in the world. Lab leak theory initially dismissedThe suspicion that COVID-19 may have leaked from a Wuhan lab has circulated since the earliest days of the pandemic. Trump sought to use the pandemic to discredit China, using the xenophobic term "China virus" to describe the disease. A group of scientists criticised the WHO for dismissing the lab leak thesis too hastily, and pointed to gaps in the report's evidence. Yet the lab leak theory has continued to gain credibility, despite China's efforts, and scientists who once dismissed it now think it's a credible explanation.

Wray's comments Tuesday came after Baier noted that the Energy Department had cited the FBI's earlier findings in its report. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said earlier Tuesday that China has "always been open and transparent" about Covid. In its assessment, the Energy Department also described the "likely" laboratory-related leak as an "accident," the official added. The Energy Department is one of 18 government departments and agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said, "China obviously is very threatened by this," but "the lab leak story is not anti-Chinese.

[1/7] Farmer Wang Zhanling sits next to his wife in their house in Quansheng village, Heilongjiang Province, China, February 8, 2023. The state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences sees the pension system running out of money by 2035. "If the pension system does not change, this is unsustainable," said Xiujian Peng, senior research fellow in the Centre of Policy Studies at Victoria University in Australia. The province has the lowest birth rate in China, with just over 100,000 births in 2021 and 460,000 deaths. Many experts, including Macquarie's chief China economist Larry Hu, suggest implementing a unified national pension system, backstopped by the more resourceful central government rather than cash-strapped local administrations.

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