Coronavirus origin research hit by political agendas, China’s ‘Sars hero’ says

Respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan says project with US epidemiologist Ian Lipkin to find source of virus is at risk

International scientific cooperation ‘vital’ to prevent future pandemics


Guo Rui in Guangzhou and Zhuang Pinghui in Beijing  27 May, 2020

Renowned Chinese respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan says international scientific cooperation is essential. Photo: Xinhua

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the Post, veteran Chinese infectious disease expert Zhong Nanshan shares his insights into the global battle to control the Covid-19 pandemic. In this third part of a four-part series, Zhong says the blame game between the US and China is putting important research at risk at a time when the world’s scientific community needs to join hands and work together.

The politicisation of the Covid-19 pandemic could stall vital global scientific cooperation into an investigation of its origins, according to China’s most respected respiratory expert.

Zhong Nanshan, 83, known as a “Sars hero” for his role in fighting the 2002-03 severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, said scientists around the world needed to team up to establish where the new coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, had come from.
Zhong, from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior adviser to the government in its drive against Covid-19, said he had been approached by
Ian Lipkin, the US epidemiologist, to use molecular tools to establish how the virus jumped to humans but the endeavour could be stalled for fear it would be distorted by political agendas.


Lipkin, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, was an adviser on the film Contagion and himself contracted Covid-19. His association with Zhong dates back 17 years when they worked together on the Sars outbreak in China.

Lipkin has been working since 2018 with professor Lu Jiahai’s team at Sun Yat-sen University’s public health school in Guangzhou, southern China, on emerging infectious diseases. They have been trying to establish the origin of the new coronavirus since February. Zhong, Lu and Lipkin met in Guangzhou in January and are in regular contact.

“Professor Lipkin has a very good technology, called molecular capture, which can capture and analyse the key gene to identify the source of the virus,” Zhong said. “It will be a large amount of work that involves not only drawing [human] blood but also blanket investigation into animals.”

But Zhong said US politicisation of the pandemic, which aimed to lay blame on China, was putting the project at risk. “[Origin tracing] should have been an important scientific issue that called for joint research and I am all for it but now, with the political labelling, it is very difficult to do so,” he said.

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have claimed, without evidence, that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan — the central Chinese city where the first cases were reported — and called for an investigation into the outbreak.

They have also blamed China’s initial handling of the outbreak for causing the spread of the disease around the world. China has rejected the claims and accused the US of spreading unfounded conspiracy theories.

Beijing has repeatedly said it opposes politically-driven investigations into the origin of the coronavirus and would accept objective and science-based probes within the framework of the World Health Organisation, when the epidemic has waned.

Zhong said the Chinese government had investigated the claims about the Wuhan laboratory and found no improprieties. “After the US made the allegations, the Chinese Centre of Disease Control and Prevention and the National Health Commission sent a special team to investigate the Wuhan Institute of Virology for two weeks,” he said.

“The investigators found nothing improper and there was nothing that could show [the coronavirus] was manufactured by the laboratory. We also know that, based on their manpower, technological capability, and finance, it is just impossible for them to have manufactured it (the virus).”

Available evidence suggests bats were the reservoir host for the new coronavirus which then possibly passed through an animal intermediary host to humans. Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market – where wild animals were traded and which was linked to 27 of the 41 early cases – was initially believed to be the source of infection.

However, epidemiologists had found only traces of the virus in samples taken at the market. In addition, Zhong said, the first known case of the coronavirus in Wuhan, as well as most of the 1,099 cases treated in the city, had no links to the market at all.

Zhong said investigations into the origins of the coronavirus were important for preparing for the next outbreak, as there had already been three this century – Sars in 2002, Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) in 2015 and now Covid-19. But, he said, investigations should cover other countries as well as China.

“We need to find out exactly how the virus transmitted,” he said. “It’s a process of evolution and that can happen anywhere. Data showed it happened in China, France and the United States. We really need to find out how this happened.”

Zhong said it was now established that the earliest cases had occurred in September and November. “It occurred in November in the US and also in France and Italy, so it’s a world problem that the virus might have existed long before [it was reported in China],” he said.

Zhong said that, even though animals at the market had been disposed of as part of the Wuhan government’s initial response to curb the spread of the virus, an investigation could still figure out it’s role in the pandemic if scientists joined hands and worked together.

Shao Yiming, chief expert on Aids at China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told the journal Science last week that, even though the market had been disinfected and animals disposed of, there were still ways investigate. Shao said records of where the animals had come from were still available and could be used to trace those sold in the market.


Guo Rui is a China reporter covering elite politics, domestic policies, environmental protection, civil society, and social movement. She is also a documentary filmmaker, recording modern Chinese history and social issues through film. She graduated from Nankai University with a master degree in Modern Chinese History.

Noam Chomsky’s take on America’s coronavirus response, in hands of ‘megalomaniac’ Trump

Left-wing thinker Noam Chomsky says we will recover from pandemic, but not deleterious effects of global warming
He warns of ‘enormous’ amount of potential control and surveillance in the future

Agence France-Presse 25 May, 2020

US linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky. File photo: AFP

The United States is on a chaotic path with no federal plan against the coronavirus pandemic as it reduces public health funding and ignores the advances of climate change, according to activist scholar Noam Chomsky, considered the founder of modern linguistics.

What follows are extracts, edited for clarity, from an AFP interview with the 91-year-old leftist intellectual:, who has authored more than 100 books and is currently a professor at the University of Arizona.

For two months he’s been confined in Tucson with his Brazilian wife Valeria, his dog and a parrot who can say “sovereignty” in Portuguese.

Question: How do you read the current situation in the United States, where coronavirus has killed more residents than any other nation in the world?

Answer: There’s no coherent leadership. It’s chaotic. The presidency, the White House, is in the hands of a sociopathic megalomaniac who’s interested in nothing but his own power, electoral prospects – doesn’t care what happens to the country, the world.

The president himself has said that it’s none of his business. He’s said that the federal government can’t do anything.

Nothing really matters except his personal power and gain. Of course he has to maintain the support of his primary constituency, which is great wealth and corporate power.

There’s 90,000 deaths and there will be a lot more … There’s no coordinated plan.


Q: How do you view the political landscape emerging from this crisis in the US and elsewhere?

A: As soon as Trump came in, his first move was to dismantle the entire pandemic prevention machinery. At the start, defunding the Centre for Disease Control, which would deal with this. And cancelling programmes that were working with Chinese scientists to identify potential viruses. So the US was singularly unprepared.



It’s a privatised society, very wealthy, with enormous advantages – far more than any other country – but it’s in the stranglehold of private control.

It doesn’t have a universal health care system … It’s the ultimate neoliberal system, actually.

Europe in many ways is worse, because the austerity programmes just amplify the danger, because of the severe attack on democracy in Europe, the shifting decisions to Brussels … So Europe has its own problems, but at least it has the residue of some kind of social democratic structure, which provides some support, which is what I think is lacking in the US.

As severe as this pandemic is, it’s not the worst problem. There will be recovery from the pandemic at severe cost … but there isn’t going to be any recovery from the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising of sea levels and the other deleterious effects of
global warming.

Q: Several countries are using technology to track citizens, storing DNA to fight the virus. Are we entering a new era of digital surveillance, and what does this mean for privacy?

A: There are now companies developing technology which make it possible for the employer … to look at what’s on your computer screen and to check your keystrokes and if you get up and walk away for a minute, they’ll send you a warning.

That’s being installed right now … It’s not the future.

The so-called Internet of Things is coming along. It’s convenient. It means if you’re driving home you can turn on the stove – but it also means that that information is going to Google and Facebook, to the government, the American government, the French government, it’s an enormous amount of potential control, surveillance and invasion. But this has happened. It’s not the future.

If we allow the huge tech companies, the state, to control our life that’s what will happen. They’ll turn it into something like China, where you have social credit systems and in some cities you get a certain amount of credits, there’s face recognition technology all over the place and everything you do gets monitored.

If you cross the street in the wrong place, you can … lose some credits, and so on.

It’s not inevitable, just like global warming, that it’s going to happen – unless people stop it.

Q: Could it be justified to halt the virus’ spread?

A: It might be – during the period of threat. There’s controls needed during wartime, you have rationing. But it doesn’t have to be permanent … ‘Yes, we’ll let you have this authority now, but it can be revoked at any time’.”

150,000 seafarers sign virtual global petition on crew stagnation

By Sulaimon Salau
27 May 2020 | 3:49 am

There is an ongoing global petition aiming to draw the attention of the general public to the problems of over 150,000 seafarers that cannot leave or cannot join ship crews due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The initiative is from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Goodwill Maritime Ambassador for Bulgaria Capt. Andriyan Evtimov.

The purpose is to have the document signed online by at least 150,000 people – the same number of seafarers locked in by the COVID-19, and then send it to the IMO member-state governments with an appeal for immediate and urgent measures to facilitate the movement of seafaring personnel.


Recalled that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), had issued a marine notice, designating seafarers as essential duty workers who should be granted free movement despite the lockdown in some states.

Currently, only a few countries permit crewmember exchange in their ports, which has a direct negative impact on seafarers’ wellbeing, on the safety of navigation, and the global supply chains.

The petition aims to draw the governments’ attention to the fact that the maritime industry is the backbone of world trade, and continuation of the restrictive measures currently in place against seafarers would lead to detrimental effects for the global economy.

More than 90 per cent of world trade takes place by the sea, and seafarers are those who constantly, and in personal deprivation, carry out their mission ensuring the operation of the supply chain, including such for medical supplies to combat the pandemic.


The petition insists that: designate seafarers and other maritime personnel as “key workers”, which should be done by the adoption of new and clear national definitions and rules and procedures duly notified to all national authorities – maritime, immigration, health, and port authorities.

It also seeks to ensure free access and movement of seafarers to and from the ships, as well as for persons employed in shipping-related activities; permit a sufficient number of airplane flights related to embarkation and repatriation of seafaring personnel and movement of maritime transport specialists.

It requested that IMO and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) member-states develop and implement a unified simplified plan for the realisation of the above measures as soon as possible, and not to subject seafarers to mandatory quarantine upon debarkation from ships where it is possible to promptly make COVID-19 tests and the test results are negative.

Nigerian Forces accused of torture and illegal detention of children – report

Amnesty International alleges that at least 10,000 died while being wrongly held – some of them in a centre part funded by the UK

BOKO HARAM NOT THE ONLY THREAT TO CHILDREN

Global development is supported byAbout this content


Emmanuel Akinwotu
Wed 27 May 2020

Nigerian soldiers guarding civilians who had fled the fighting in Bama in 2015. The country’s military had retaken the northeastern town from Boko Haram, but about 7,500 people were displaced by the fighting. Photograph: Nichole Sobecki/AFP

Widespread unlawful detention and torture by Nigerian security forces has aggravated the suffering of a generation of children and tens of thousands of people in north-east Nigeria, according to a new report.

At least 10,000 victims – many of them children – have died in military detention, among the many thousands more arrested during a decade-long conflict with jihadist groups, according to Amnesty International.

Many left their homes to flee violence from Boko Haram, whose deadly jihadist insurgency began in 2009. Yet displaced people were wrongly arrested by civilian militia forces and soldiers on suspicion of being connected to or supporting the insurgency, the report said.

In allegations strongly denied by the Nigerian army, victims suffered torture and years of detention without charge, trial or medical treatment, in “inhumane” conditions at three centres. One is the Giwa barracks detention centre where rights groups have for years reported endemic human rights abuses.


Another of the centres hosts a reintegration programme for alleged jihadists and their supporters, funded by the UK government and international donors, where conditions were not as severe but abuses were widespread, the report said.

Joanne Mariner, the acting director of crisis response at Amnesty International, called for authorities to investigate the “appalling” treatment of victims.

“From mass, unlawful detention in inhumane conditions, to meting out beatings and torture and allowing sexual abuse by adult inmates – it defies belief that children anywhere would be so grievously harmed by the very authorities charged with their protection,” she said.

“The past decade of bitter conflict between Nigeria’s military and Boko Haram has been an assault on childhood itself in north-east Nigeria,” Mariner added. “Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked schools and abducted large numbers of children as soldiers or ‘wives’, among other atrocities.”

Among the 230 people Amnesty interviewed was 10-year-old Ibrahim, who said his family had fled their village after an attack by Boko Haram when he was five and were arrested several days later by the military.

“We said we escaped from Boko Haram, but the military did not believe us,” he said. “They said that we were part of Boko Haram. They hit us children with a rope of animal skin and slapped our parents with the flat end of a long knife. They beat us every day.”

Nigeria detained children as young as five over 'Boko Haram links' – report
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/sep/11/nigeria-children-as-young-as-five-boko-haram-links-report

Another 14-year-old boy was also arrested after fleeing abduction by Boko Haram, and then detained at Giwa barracks: “The conditions in Giwa are horrible. They could make you die. There’s no place to lie down,” he said. “Up to now, nobody has told me why I was taken there, what I did, why I was in detention.”

Col Sagir Musa, the director of public relations for the Nigerian army, dismissed Amnesty’s report as “mere claims”.

“There is no basis for the accusation. The Nigerian army has strongly debunked such malicious claims and no group has convincingly refuted our position,” he said.

The findings add to a litany of abuse allegations that have dogged Nigerian security forces, intensifying during its war with Boko Haram and a jihadist offshoot, the Islamic State West African Province.

More than 36,000 people have died and almost two million are displaced within north-east Nigeria, in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Operation Safe Corridor, an army-run deradicalisation programme of mostly men and boys, which receives funding from the UK, has released thousands of jihadi suspects. Fourteen hundred Boko Haram suspects were released earlier this year.

Former detainees were positive about conditions at the Safe Corridor site yet said a number of human rights violations frequently occurred there.

Detainees were made to produce items such as shoes and soaps in training programmes which amounted to forced labour, Amnesty said. Some detainees suffered serious injuries working with caustic soda without protective equipment. At least seven detainees at the site died.

Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty International, said: “The UK’s support of a military-run detention centre that is unlawfully imprisoning people, including children, and subjecting them to unsafe conditions is particularly worrying.

“The UK government must work with the Nigerian authorities to ensure that the military is protecting the population, and that absolutely no UK support is contributing to the vile abuses taking place in the context of the conflict.”

The children left behind in West Africa's conflict-torn regions

Human rights groups say children in conflict regions aren't receiving enough support. Children who have escaped from Boko Haram are treated with suspicion in Nigeria, while schools are closing in Burkina Faso.



A generation of children in West Africa risk missing out on vital education and health care amid ongoing conflicts in the region, human rights organizations warn.

A new report released by Amnesty International on Wednesday detailed failure on the part of Nigerian authorities to protect and provide education to children in the country's northeast, which has been devastated by more than a decade of conflict between the Nigerian government and the Boko Haram armed insurgency.

Another report released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday found an increase in Islamist extremist attacks in Burkina Faso since 2017 has had a horrific impact on children's education. Armed groups aligned with al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State have repeatedly attacked teachers and schools in the country in opposition to Western-style education and government institutions, the report said.

Similarly, extremist-driven violence is rife in Mali and Niger, where schools are also being forced to close, leaving children without access to support and making them more vulnerable to recruitment by extremist groups.


A Nigerian soldier with women and girls rescued from Boko Haram in 2015

Boko Haram ravages northeastern Nigeria

Amnesty International's report, entitled 'We dried out tears': Addressing the toll on children of Northeast Nigeria's conflict, accuses Nigeria's military of unlawfully detaining children who escaped from the armed extremist group.

"The past decade of bitter conflict between Nigeria's military and Boko Haram has been an assault on childhood itself in Northeast Nigeria," said Joanne Mariner, Amnesty International's Acting Director of Crisis Response, in a press release.

"The Nigerian military's treatment of those who escape such brutality has also been appalling." 

The Nigerian military has been repeatedly accused by diverse rights groups of holding thousands of children in squalid conditions for years. In Amnesty's latest report, interviewees described being held in inhumane conditions while being subject to beatings, torture and sexual abuse by adult inmates. The vast majority of the children are never charged with a crime.

Nigerian authorities have consistently denied any allegations of mistreatment.

"The state government has been on top of the situation in ensuring that the [Boko Harm] insurgency does not destroy the dreams and aspirations of [these] children by providing adequate educational facilities, vocational training centers and free education centers to give them equal opportunities," Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo, the Borno State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, told DW.

Read more: Boko Haram – Nigeria moves to deradicalize former fighters


The training sketch drawn on a wall for new recruits to Boko Haram

An unwelcome return

Despite the trauma they have faced, many children who have escaped or been rescued from Boko Haram are treated with suspicion, with some classified as 'combatants' and transferred to military detention facilities, according to the report.

Former child soldier, 12-year-old Idris Muhammad, told DW how he and other boys were trained for potential combat by the extremist group.

"We were abducted form our village and they took us to their base in Sambisa Forest," he said. "Whenever they went to the battle field they normally carried us along. They taught us what they did on the battleground and they even killed people in front of us."

While the majority of girls are kidnapped to be used as brides for the fighters, 13-year-old Maryam Umar Kirawa says she and other girls were still trained to fight if necessary.

"They taught us how to kill a person with a knife, or a gun with bullets," she told DW. "They also taught us their own type of religion. In fact, they told us they were going to teach us all the methods of war before we escaped."

More support needed

Zariyatu Abubakar, a children's rights activist in northeastern Nigeria, says returnee children should be given more protection and support by authorities.

"They are only children, so somebody has to take responsibility to support them, educate them, feed them and provide shelter for them," she told DW. "We need to place these children into homes to that they will feel secure and protected."


Children abducted by extremist groups require support and education to recover from a traumatic past

UNICEF official Geoffrey Ijumba says the children need to be viewed first-and-foremost as victims if they are to be properly rehabilitated.

"We need to make sure they are integrated [back into society] because this is the only way they will rediscover their dreams and be able to contribute positively to their own personal development and to the development of [Nigeria]," he told DW.

Education suffers in Burkina Faso

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch finds attacks by armed extremists on schools are on the rise in Burkina Faso, severely damaging children's long-term access to education.

Since the emergence of the Burkinabe Islamist group, Ansar ul Islam in 2016, violence has steadily increased, primarily in the country's northern and eastern regions, according to report by the organization entitled 'Their War Against Education': Armed Group Attacks on Teachers, Students, and Schools in Burkina Faso.


Many children in Burkina Faso are missing out on an education due to extremist violence

A surge in attacks in 2019 forced more than 830,000 people from their homes.

The extremist groups have abducted and killed education professionals, including teachers, and damaged or destroyed existing schools, the report says.

"Armed Islamist groups targeting teachers, students and schools in Burkina Faso are not only committing war crimes, but are undoing years of progress in improving children's access to education," said HRW's children's rights researcher, Lauren Seibert, in a press release.

"The Burkinabe government should investigate these attacks, ensure children regain access to schooling and provide needed support to education workers who experienced attacks."

Watch video02:57

Thousands flee violence in Burkina Faso

While some positive steps have been taken, such as reopening some schools and expanding distance-learning programs alongside its COVID-19 response, observers say the traumatic impact of the attacks will be compounded if the conflict continues.

"Armed Islamist groups have cost teachers their lives, livelihoods and physical and mental health, and they are costing hundreds of thousands of children their futures," said Seibert. "These attacks need to stop."

Children without access to education or social services are also at higher risk of being recruited by extremist groups, perpetuating the cycle even further.

Children also affected in Mali and Niger

Ongoing attacks by Islamist extremists in the Sahel region have also spilled over into Mali and Niger. UNICIEF says over 8 million children have been forced out of school.

Almost 3,000 schools were forced to close in the region between April 2017 and December 2010, including 1,261 in Mali and 354 in Niger.

Once considered a buffer zone against violence in neighboring Nigeria and Libya, the tri-border region, which includes Burkina Faso, has devolved into a hotbed of conflict, despite international military support.

According to UNICEF, the crisis in the Lake Chad region has forced over 3 million people to flee their homes.



FREED BOKO HARAM HOSTAGES: 'THE PAIN IS STILL THERE'
Traumatic experiences
"You notice one thing straightaway - the children here hardly ever laugh," says a helper at Malkohi camp, close to the Nigerian city of Yola. The camp now accommodates almost 300 people who were liberated in early May from Boko Haram captivity. About half are under 18 years old. Every third child is malnourished.
MORE PICTURES 12345678

Mohammad Al-Amin contributed to this article.


Date 27.05.2020
Author Ineke Mules
Related Subjects The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Human Rights, Boko Haram, Niger, Nigeria, Amnesty International
Keywords Africa, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, West Africa, Boko Haram, Islamic extremists, child soldiers, Borno State, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), UNICEF, human rights

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3coTc

Between old and new empires, Hong Kong’s fate exposes stakes in Covid-19 era

Issued on: 26/05/2020

Anti-government protesters march again Beijing's plans to impose national security legislation in Hong Kong, May 24, 2020. REUTERS - Tyrone Siu
Text by:Leela JACINTO

China’s latest move to impose a new security law for Hong Kong has exposed Britain’s weakness on the international stage. But now all eyes are on the US response as the future of the semi-autonomous territory is once again caught in the geopolitical wrangling between the world’s dominant powers.


On December 21, 1984 – just days after she signed a historic treaty with China on Hong Kong’s future status – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was asked how did she really “feel” about the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Thatcher was in Hong Kong, where the reactions to the agreement were less ebullient than in Beijing, where the British prime minister had toasted her Chinese counterpart at a champagne ceremony in the Great Hall of the People following the signing of the historic deal. Small, but symbolic protests had greeted Thatcher’s arrival on the British territory hugging China’s southern coast, with demonstrators denouncing the “sell-out” of the people of Hong Kong.

So when Thatcher was asked about the treaty setting the terms for China’s 1997 takeover, she was on the defensive. “I feel we have done a good job for the people of Hong Kong,” she told reporters. “Just consider what sort of questions you would be asking me now had there been no agreement and a totally unknown future.”

More than 35 years later, the international treaty, which was registered at the UN, establishing the “one country, two systems” principle, is back under the spotlight.


Last week, when China announced plans to impose a new national security law for Hong Kong that, critics say, breaches the territory’s autonomous status, the 1984 Joint Declaration was a talking point on the news agenda.

“One point that many, many Hong Kong people have been rather angry about is that the [British] Foreign Office, and the entire UK government, should be opposing more strongly the way China has been breaching the provisions of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. China has effectively declared that particular document null, void, it doesn’t serve any purpose anymore,” Claudia Mo, a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, told the BBC over the weekend.

It’s a view echoed by Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong who handed over the territory to China in 1997. “I think the Hong Kong people have been betrayed by China, which has proved once again that you can’t trust it,” said Patten in an interview with the British daily, The Times. “The British government should make it clear that what we are seeing is a complete destruction of the Joint Declaration.”


‘Death sentence for Hong Kong’s freedoms’

Patten has led a group of more than 230 prominent parliamentarians and policymakers in 25 countries – including former prime ministers and foreign ministers – who have signed a letter decrying “the unilateral introduction of national security legislation by Beijing in Hong Kong” and calling on governments to “unite to say that this flagrant breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration cannot be tolerated.”

Responding to the initiative by Hong Kong’s last British governor, Dorian Malovic, Asia editor of French daily La Croix, and author of several books on China, conceded, “It’s better than nothing, but it sounds a little desperate. Chris Patten tried his best to push through a more democratic system as much as possible before 1997, but he failed,” noted Malovic in an interview with FRANCE 24.

Back in 1984, the news coverage of the Joint Declaration focused on Britain's failure to take more steps before the handover to secure democracy for Hong Kong’s citizens. These days, an agreement once regarded as a weak compromise is cited in world capitals as a demonstration of Beijing’s disregard for legally binding treaties and the international community’s failure to hold China accountable for its breaches.

Beijing maintains the new law – which bans treason, subversion and sedition – is necessary after months of often-violent pro-democracy protests last year. Chinese authorities portray the protests as a foreign-backed plot to destabilise the motherland and have warned that other nations have no right to interfere in how the international business hub is run.

Critics, however, say the new security measure contravenes the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution adopted under the terms of the Joint Declaration. Article 23 of the Basic Law, states that the “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government”.

An earlier attempt to pass a national security act was dropped in 2003 when it became clear the bill would not pass Hong Kong’s Legislative Council – popularly dubbed “LegCo” – following massive protests.

Beijing has long wanted a security law that would curtail dissent and protests in Hong Kong. But this time, the process adopted by Chinese authorities, by submitting a draft bill on the opening session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing last week, caught everyone by surprise.

“It was a shock. It came directly from Beijing, a draft law before the National People’s Congress is basically rubber-stamping a communist party directive. What frightened lawyers and activists is that it’s a violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law that’s disregarding Hong Kong’s LegCo,” explained Malovic. “That’s a huge breach of the semi-autonomy of Hong Kong. It’s a death sentence for Hong Kong’s freedoms.”

Defying Covid-19 social distancing measures, protesters took to the streets in Hong Kong on Sunday as law enforcement officials braced for further unrest as the security bill makes its way through an unprecedented legislative process. The National People’s Congress (NPC) is expected to approve the bill on Thursday after which it moves to the NPC’s Standing Committee for approval.

The timing of the move was also noteworthy. “This came as foreign countries are busy coping with the coronavirus and are not looking into the Hong Kong situation. Beijing is giving a signal, ‘we don’t care about anything coming from foreign countries’. China knows it’s strong enough to do what it wants with Hong Kong,” said Malovic.

Freedom, money, but no democracy

Asian and Western democracies have condemned China’s moves to implement the new security law. Following a muted initial reaction, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Friday issued a joint statement with his Australian and Canadian counterparts that declared, “We are deeply concerned at proposals for introducing legislation related to national security in Hong Kong”.

The statement also noted that the “legally binding Joint Declaration, signed by China and the UK, sets out that Hong Kong will have a high degree of autonomy”. But it offered no details or warnings of action if China breached its legally binding agreement.

The response by Hong Kong’s former colonial power failed to impress pro-democracy activists and analysts. “The UK has done very, very little, even nothing concretely to support people in Hong Kong, to support democracy in Hong Kong,” said Malovic. “Britain is in a mess in the shadow of Brexit. The thinking in London has been, we need Chinese investments, we need deals with the US, we don’t need Europe. Hong Kong people are aware of the cowardice of Britain, they’re under no illusions.”

Hasty, ill-planned exits that set the stage for crises and conflicts for future post-colonial generations have been the legacy of British colonialism. But Malovic notes that the people of Hong Kong also share some responsibility for a long-feared scenario. “The British were very smart. Everybody was free in Hong Kong except there was no democracy – and people didn’t care. I was in Hong Kong a lot in those days and I used to tell my friends people selfishly only care about making money.”

Political consciousness emerged in Hong Kong after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, according to Malovic. But by then, the Joint Declaration underpinning Hong Kong’s handover and future administration was already signed, and Beijing proved to be an unyielding negotiating partner on democratic protections such as universal suffrage for Hong Kong’s residents.

British diplomats have acknowledged the negotiations over enshrining democratic principles that would secure Hong Kong were difficult since London was struggling to maintain close diplomatic and trade ties with Beijing.

"In a case like this in Hong Kong where there is such a disparity in strength between the two sides, between Britain and China, you go for the best you can get, and I take the simple view that half a loaf is better than no bread," Percy Cradock, the UK’s chief negotiator and a former British ambassador to China, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

A double-edged sword

The onus of international responsibility, as ever, falls on the US and with it, the criticisms of failing to respond or overreaction, as the case may be.

Washington’s reaction has been tougher than London’s, with the US forcefully “condemning” China’s move and urging “Beijing to reconsider its disastrous proposal”. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has threatened to respond “very strongly” if China follows through with the new law.

The US also has a new law, the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which was passed by Congress in November amid last year’s pro-democracy protests. The law requires the US State Department to determine whether Hong Kong maintains a sufficient degree of autonomy to justify it retaining its special trade status.

“That would be a blow for Hong Kong if the US raised tariffs if it considers Hong Kong another Chinese city. But it’s a double-edged sword since US companies are also making billions in Hong Kong,” said Malovic.

Around 85,000 US citizens lived in Hong Kong in 2018, according to State Department figures, and more than 1,300 US companies operate there, including nearly every major US financial firm. The territory is also a major destination for US legal and accounting services.

Hot, tense summer

Beijing has warned that it would fight back if the US tries to oppose China on the issue, with foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian stating, “The issue of national security legislation for Hong Kong is an internal affair of China. Other nations cannot interfere.”

Zhao is considered an “alpha male” among Beijing’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomats, named after a Chinese blockbuster about a commando who kills American baddies with his bare hands. He has also been on the frontline of a Washington-Beijing war of words that deepened since the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan spiralled into a global pandemic.

 Read more about China’s ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats

Trump has turned China into a campaign issue ahead of the November US presidential election, but it’s a strategy, Malovic warned, that may not serve Hong Kong’s interests.

“It’s useful for Trump and Beijing, but Hong Kong will be the victim because it will be used as a cheap bargaining chip in the US-China war [of words],” said Malovic. “You have the world’s two biggest powers, with two different ideologies, but they are both acting in the same way. The Trump campaign is fed by the common enemy of China just as Beijing uses the US enemy. Trump is using the perfect enemy to ramp up patriotic, nationalist sentiments and Beijing is doing the same. It’s so childish, it would be funny if it was not so dangerous,” said Malovic.


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The prospect of escalating unrest and tensions are high in the weeks and months to come. Beijing’s uncompromising positions on Hong Kong have hardened resolve in the pro-democracy camp, fueling a vicious circle of state crackdowns spurring hardliners within the protest movement. It’s a strategy long favoured by autocratic states looking to crush peaceful dissent. Beijing has not yielded on calls by pro-democracy leaders for an independent investigation into the violence during last year’s protests, while Chinese state media focuses on what it calls “terrorist” acts.

The Hong Kong political calendar, meanwhile, is packed with anniversaries and events that draw demonstrations, raising the prospect of a hot, tense summer. These include the June 4 Tiananmen massacre anniversary and the July 1 marches that mark the territory’s 1997 handover. Elections for the Hong Kong Legislative Council are scheduled for September, by which time, the US is expected to move into campaign high gear.

The Covid-19 crisis has already put China under the international spotlight with news headlines on the unmasking of Beijing’s “mask diplomacy,” the aggressive tactics of “wolf warrior” diplomats and exposés on China’s attempts to hijack UN institutions.

The Hong Kong crisis adds another impetus for democratic powers in America, Asia and Europe to act amid mounting public frustration in the Covid-19 era over economic inequalities and big business interests dominating political agendas. The price of inaction, Malovic warns, will be historic. “If nothing happens against China, if the world doesn’t react, the takeover of Hong Kong by China will be a turning point in contemporary history, like the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. It would engrave in stone the fact that China can do anything it wants.”

Mink pass coronavirus to humans in the Netherlands
IT CALLED ZOONOSIS FOR A REASON
At least two people have caught the coronavirus from mink in the Netherlands, in probably the first mink-to-human transmission cases. The risk of infection outside mink farms is "negligible," Dutch officials said.


The Dutch government on Monday said that it was "highly likely" that a person had been infected with the coronavirus by a mink, following a similar case last week.

Mink are bred for their fur at some 155 farms across the country. The authorities detected infected animals at four such locations, Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten said in a letter to parliament. At three out of four farms, a sick human was thought to be the source of the infection among the animals, while officials were still investigating the cause at the fourth one, the minister said.


Several mink farms in the Netherlands have noted human-to-mink transmission, the reverse is rarer

The mink farms are set to close in 2023 due to a law passed before the coronavirus outbreak. Amid the latest developments, some veterinarians accused Schouten of trying to downplay the risk of the animal-to-human infection and pressured the government to clear out heavy-hit farms. However, Schouten has so far rejected the push. Addressing Dutch lawmakers on Monday, Schouten said the risk of humans getting infected outside farms was "negligible."

Dutch pets confirmed infected

Reports of humans infecting their animals, particularly cats and dogs, have appeared in various countries across the world since the beginning of the current pandemic. At least four house pets tested positive in the Netherlands last month. Minister Schouten has urged COVID-19 patients to "avoid contact with their animals."

However, the latest mink-to-human transmission was virtually unique, said the head of the country's health insitute, Jaap van Dissel, on Monday.

"This is the first time we've found, at least we've shown that it's likely, that in two cases the infection has gone from animal to human," he said. "Of course the original source of infection in China was also very likely animals," he added.

dj/msh (dpa, Reuters)

Amazon denies outbreaks at German warehouses

Two virus outbreaks have now been traced to Amazon warehouses in Germany. The company says it has introduced over one hundred new safety measures, which a major workers’ union says is still too little, too late.


In a time when many sectors of the economy have been left devastated, online shopping has logged record-breaking returns as people have been faced with no other way to procure certain products. Retail giant Amazon has fared particularly well, with profits rising a staggering $46 billion (42 billion euros) in the first quarter of 2020, earning $75 billion in the first three months of the year compared to $35.8 billion during the same period in 2019. The company's shares have hit their highest-ever value.

Amazon Germany hails its workers as "heroes" who have helped supply the country with necessary goods during a nationwide lockdown. However, despite a promise of wage increases from CEO Jeff Bezos — currently the richest man in the world — workers have not seen a penny of the company's staggering new profits. Moreover, it has emerged that the conditions at the company's colossal warehouses may be putting employees at risk, with many of those who have fallen ill the very people who sort and package goods that enable others to stay home in safety.

On Tuesday, it became public that 53-68 cases of COVID-19 were traced to the Amazon warehouse in the town of Winsen in the western state of Lower Saxony. At least another seven have been discovered at another location in the city of Pforzheim in southern Germany.

German labor unions have long been protesting working conditions at Amazon warehouses

Amazon under fire

For years, Amazon warehouses around the world have come under fire for their inhumane working conditions. Workers' every task is timed by the electronic scanner workers use to locate items, leading to them being penalized for small delays; their breaks are notoriously short, older workers are expected to spend the same 8-10 hours running around on their feet as their much-younger colleagues, and the company actively suppresses attempts by workers to unionize, punishing those who go public with their grievances.

Since the coronavirus crisis began, Amazon has seen dozens of strikes and an International Workers' Day boycott on May 1, which included Germany. However, the retail behemoth disputes that the conditions in its warehouses led to the outbreak in Winsen. "There was no real outbreak," Amazon claimed in response to a DW request for comment.

But the company's response jars with the fact that any rapid and unusual spread of disease is considered an outbreak. Just recently in slaughterhouses across Germany, similar incidents with dozens of cases prompted a much more strict and swift response.

Read more: Modern slavery at the heart of German slaughterhouse outbreak

Amazon floated the idea that Winsen could be a "hotspot" with a lot of coronavirus infections, but this was not borne out by the official data from its county, Harburg. According to government figures, the area of over 250,000 inhabitants has had 531 cases total since the pandemic began, 53-68 of which can be traced back to the Amazon warehouse. Of the total, 491 have been cured and 13 have died. That leaves 21 active cases, far below the 50 cases per 100,000 people that Germany considers the threshold for a COVID-19 "hotspot".

"Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our workers. We are doing everything in our power to protect them as much as possible," Amazon told DW, adding that it has implemented a raft of safety measures including mandatory face masks, closing its cafeteria, adding more shuttles to the premises so that fewer workers travel on each bus, creating "one-way" walkways throughout the building, and mandatory temperature checks for each employee as they arrive at the building.

Union says some measures make things worse

However, according to workers' union Verdi, not only are many of these regulations too little, too late — some of them actually increase the health risks to employees and make their already miserable working conditions even worse.

Read more: Workers' rights in Germany

"In Poland, for example," a Verdi spokeswoman told DW, "employees at an Amazon warehouse have had to sue the company after a woman couldn't breathe under her mask and died." The woman, like many others, was not offered an alternative or allowed to stay home without fear of being fired.

"In Winsen, yes they have more shuttle buses — but there are still big crowds of employees who have to stand close together and wait for the next bus to arrive… the "one-way" walkways make it harder to get around the building and make workers' already short breaks even shorter…They have also said that the changing rules have to be clear and transparent, and that pressure to work quickly at the cost of their own well-being is even higher than it was."

Moreover, the union said, early in the pandemic, when many of the cases at the Winsen warehouse occurred, workers were offered a bonus for showing up — encouraging the ill to come to work regardless of how they felt or if the risk they might pose to colleagues. Workers' groups have also had to intervene multiple times as Amazon appeared to be using the pandemic to impose higher surveillance and more unnecessary restrictions on its employees' lives, including the use of facial recognition technology.

Will Amazon face the same reckoning as the meat industry?

After four major coronavirus outbreaks were traced back to slaughterhouses across Germany, lawmakers have finally begun addressing decades-long complaints about working conditions and the treatment of mostly foreign workers in meat processing plants. It remains to be seen if the same kind of regulations will come for Amazon, a company known for its heavy-handed lobbying in one of the few industries actually adding jobs during a crisis that has driven many national governments, including Germany's, to constantly weigh the risks to citizens' health against the risks of an increasingly stagnating economy.

Date 26.05.2020
Author Elizabeth Schumacher
Related Subjects Amazon
Keywords Amazon, COVID-19, Verdi

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cnBR

Virgin Orbit's first rocket launch fails over Pacific Ocean

The company attributed the failure to an anomaly in the first stage of the flight. Richard Branson hopes to cash in on future commercial satellite launches by launching them from the underside of an airborne jumbo jet.


Virgin Orbit, British billionaire Richard Branson's satellite launch company, confirmed on Monday that its first test launch of a new rocket had failed over the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the US state of California. The rocket was carrying a test satellite.

The company said that the LauncherOne rocket faced an "anomaly" in the first stage of the flight, right after it was dropped from the refitted carrier Boeing 747 the company calls "Cosmic Girl." Virgin Orbit didn't reveal further details about the anomaly.

The rocket has been in development for five years, as Virgin tries to master sending satellites into earth orbits by launching them on a rocket mounted on the underside of an airborne jumbo jet.


The LauncherOne rocket launches from the bottom of the wing of this 747 while it is in flight

Virgin Orbit said that it would use the data from the launch for future operations. "Our next rocket is waiting. We will learn, adjust and begin preparing for our next test, which is coming up soon", Dan Hart, the company's chief executive, said in a press release.

Virgin Orbit's rocket launch is part of an attempt to gain a market share in the small satellite launch market. The company has already signed up clients such as the UK's Royal Air Force and the US Space Force. The firm is also looking to set up launch bases in the UK and Japan. The venture is separate from, but notably similar to, the company's so-called "space tourism" venture, Virgin Galactic.

Failure at a difficult time

The failure of the rocket launch comes at a time when Richard Branson's broader business empire has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Branson's flagship airline, Virgin Atlantic, faces restructuring and possible bailout.

Virgin Atlantic's suggestion in March that its staff voluntarily take eight weeks of unpaid leave prompted fierce criticism in the UK.

Read more: Virgin's Richard Branson accused of double standards during coronavirus crisis

The airline is seeking a financial rescue package of over $611 million (€560 million) after business took a hit following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The billionaire's other businesses have also taken a hit. On March 14 the Virgin Voyages cruise ship operation postponed the launch of its Scarlet Lady cruise line.

am/msh (dpa, Reuters)

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Date 26.05.2020

Keywords Virgin Orbit, satellite, LauncherOne, commercial satellite launch

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3ckzX

Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit fails to launch rocket to space during first test flight

The rocket fell from the plane and then some kind of issue occurred

By Loren Grush@lorengrush Updated May 25, 2020

Virgin Orbit’s 747 Cosmic Girl and rocket LauncherOne Image: Virgin Orbit

Update May 25th,  Virgin Orbit’s test flight ended in failure shortly after LauncherOne dropped from under the company’s carrier 747 airplane. Virgin Orbit confirmed that the drop was successful and that the rocket’s main engine ignited. But then it quickly suffered some kind of anomaly at the beginning of the flight. The company says no one was hurt during the test and the team will be digging into the data to learn what went wrong.

I’ll go to bed tonight smarter than I was when I woke up. I’m grateful for that, and proud of the team. Today, we tackled the biggest technical risk of the program. There’s a lot more to learn, but that is huge!!! pic.twitter.com/5keyW4r8Lr

— William Pomerantz (@Pomerantz) May 26, 2020

Original Story: Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit — the sibling company to Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic — plans to conduct the first test launch of its rocket today. The company has been developing and testing its vehicles for the last six years, but now it’s ready to finally send a rocket to orbit.

Virgin Orbit’s primary rocket is called LauncherOne, capable of launching small to medium payloads, roughly the size of washing machines, to space. And the rocket takes a unique path to get there. Rather than launching upright from the ground — as the majority of rockets do these days — LauncherOne actually takes off from underneath the wing of a Boeing 747 airplane. Nicknamed Cosmic Girl, the 747 is designed to carry LauncherOne up to 35,000 feet. There, the plane pulls up, angling the rocket toward the sky, and then LauncherOne drops away. Its main engine ignites, propelling LauncherOne the rest of the way to orbit.

“WE CAN FLY TO SPACE FROM ANY PLACE THAT CAN HOST A 747.”

“We’re a very unique system in that we are air launched,” Dan Hart, the CEO of Virgin Orbit, said during a press conference. “And what that gives us is incredible flexibility. In fact, we have mobility; we can fly to space from any place that can host a 747, which is almost any place, and we can go to any orbit.”

At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. Virgin Orbit has yet to actually put LauncherOne in to orbit, though the company has done a fair amount of testing on all of the hardware to make it happen. Engineers at Virgin Orbit have conducted numerous ignition tests with LauncherOne’s engine, called NewtonThree, at the company’s test facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Virgin Orbit’s main pilot, Kelly Latimer, has been routinely flying Cosmic Girl, going through the maneuvers she’ll need to do during an actual launch. And the team has done various tests with LauncherOne in the air, rehearsing everything but the part where the rocket’s engines ignite. The company has carried the rocket underneath the wing of Cosmic Girl a few times, and the team even dropped a dummy LauncherOne from the plane, to see if the rocket fell as they expected.

Getting to this launch has taken slightly more time than Virgin Orbit had anticipated. Originally, the company had hoped to fly LauncherOne as early as last summer, but the team wound up doing more work to develop the rocket. “We did add some tests along the way as we looked at the overall verification program,” Hart said. “And so we adjusted accordingly. The internal focus of the team was really to move through a methodical development process.” Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the company to pause operations briefly this year and rework how people operate in the Virgin Orbit factories in Long Beach.

But now, it’s finally time to fly. LauncherOne is loaded up with a weighted dummy payload that the company has treated like an actual customer’s satellite. That means the team has been handling it with care and even cleaning it, as if it were the real thing. “In itself, it is not a terribly exciting thing,” Will Pomerantz, vice president of special projects at Virgin Orbit, said during the press conference. “You know, it is essentially a nice-looking inert mass that allowed us to practice all those things we really wanted to practice.”

To get this mass into orbit, the plan is for Latimer to take off from the Mojave Air and Space Port with LauncherOne. She’ll then fly Cosmic Girl out over the Pacific and position the plane over the rocket’s drop point. Latimer will release the rocket and a few seconds later, the engines should ignite and start LauncherOne’s trip to space. Virgin Orbit has a four-hour launch window for this mission that begins at 1PM ET on Monday. Originally, the company had hoped to launch Sunday, but had to postpone due to the discovery of a sensor acting funny. The company will only launch if all the weather criteria and other restrictions are met, but so far, Hart says weather is looking good.

Virgin Orbit is prepared to learn from this flight and is realistic about the possibility of something going wrong. “History is not terribly kind necessarily to maiden flights,” Pomerantz said, noting that about half of inaugural launches of new rockets fail. The team is also prepared to do another test launch if necessary after this one.

“HISTORY IS NOT TERRIBLY KIND NECESSARILY TO MAIDEN FLIGHTS.”

But if all goes well, the goal is for the company to move rapidly to commercial service. Its first customer flight is for NASA, launching up to 10 small satellites developed mostly by universities on a mission called ELaNa XX. That should be one of a handful that Virgin Orbit does this year. “We expect to get to one or two more flights this year, as we understand and mature the system,” Hart said. That cadence may increase next year.

Once commercial operations get into full swing, Virgin Orbit will become one of just a handful of US companies with an operational rocket dedicated to launching small payloads into orbit. However, the company has a lot of competition coming up quick, with numerous startups developing similar types of launch vehicles to capitalize on the small satellite revolution. And other major players, like SpaceX, are trying to get in on the market too, by offering to pack multiple small satellites on their larger rockets to get numerous tiny vehicles into space at once.

Virgin Orbit is optimistic, though, claiming to have customer contracts from commercial companies, NASA, the Department of Defense, and even international partners, that add up to hundreds of millions of dollars. The company also set its pre-launch price for rides on LauncherOne at $12 million, but the company says that will evolve over time. “Our pricing obviously will follow the market as we get into full operations,” Hart said. “And we’ll adjust accordingly.”

Above all, Hart thinks that launching from a plane instead of a fixed launchpad will make the company more attractive to prospective customers. “We are really completely unique in the field in that we have this flexibility and that we’re not launching out of a congested range,” said Hart.