Fang Bin: China Covid whistleblower returns home to Wuhan after jail

Fang Bin, who documented the initial Covid outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has been freed from jail after three years, sources told the BBC. Mr Fang is one of several so-called citizen journalists who disappeared after sharing videos of scenes in Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic. After disappearing in February 2020, he […]

Apple: Chinese workers flee Covid lockdown at iPhone factory

silver iphone x with airpods

Workers have broken out of Apple’s largest iPhone assembly factory in China after a Covid outbreak forced staff to lockdown at the workplace. Video shared online showed about 10 people jumping a fence outside the plant, owned by manufacturer Foxconn, in the central city of Zhengzhou. Chinese people and businesses are continuing to grapple with […]

China New, Potentially Fatal Langya Virus Detected … Cause For Alarm Overseas

China

China New, Potentially Fatal Langya Virus Detected … Cause For Alarm Overseas No, this isn’t deja-vu … China has discovered a new, potentially fatal virus within its borders, which experts say could trigger yet another pandemic. The Langya Henipavirus, referred to as “Langya,” has already infected 35 people, according to Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control […]

China’s Anhui Province Reports 231 New Cases in Covid Flareup

China

China reported more Covid-19 infections in its current epicenter, putting pressure on authorities to tame the outbreak before it spills over into some of the country’s most economically important areas.  The eastern province of Anhui reported 231 Covid cases for Monday, with the tally since late June topping 1,000 infections. Authorities locked down Si county […]

Shanghai emerges from lockdown – but how lasting will the damage be?

Shanghai, China Map

At the end of March people in Shanghai were told to prepare for a lockdown of five days. The city was to be divided into two halves, each half would lock down, one after the other. Two months later the entire city is only just emerging from, what for many, has been a longer lockdown […]

‘The pandemic won’t stop us’: the Beijingers skirting Covid rules

China

Mothers hosting playdates near cordoned-off parks, mahjong maestros huddled in streets and youngsters slugging night-time beers on barricaded sidewalks — Beijingers are making the most of the small spaces available as China’s coronavirus controls close in. Meanwhile in Shanghai, a growing number of residents are being allowed to briefly venture outside as the city gradually […]

This is how China rounds up thousands of people for quarantine

Quarantine Zone

Thousands of people in a village near the Chinese port city of Tianjin were ordered into government quarantine, with videos circulated on social media showing residents being marched through streets and onto buses as officials continue to deploy the country’s strict COVID-Zero playbook on new outbreaks. Residents of Liuanzhuang village in northern Tianjin were ordered […]

Students protest, discontent grows over China’s COVID policy

Beijing, China

BEIJING (AP) — Administrators at an elite Beijing university have backed down from plans to further tighten pandemic restrictions on students as part of China’s “zero-COVID” strategy after a weekend protest at the school, according to students Tuesday. Graduate students at Peking University staged the rare, but peaceful protest Sunday over the school’s decision to […]

Xi Jinping moves to silence Covid Zero critics in sign of brewing tumult

Xi Jinping

BEIJING: China’s top leaders warned against questioning Xi Jinping’s Covid Zero strategy, striking a more defensive tone as pressure builds to relax virus curbs and protect the economic growth that has long been a source of Communist Party strength.The Politburo’s supreme seven-member Standing Committee pledged Thursday during a meeting led by Xi to “fight against […]

How Hong Kong went from ‘zero-COVID’ to the world’s highest death rate

Hong Kong

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s worst outbreak of the pandemic didn’t come until 2022, but the scenes are right out of 2020. Hospitals and morgues are overflowing, with bodies left unattended in hallways and in rooms with living patients. Health care workers report burnout and low morale as they work 80 hours a week. And […]