COVID-19 Reinfections on the Rise in China | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. A spike of COVID-19 infections appears in China. We look at why the health situation inside the nation is different from the West. Many people did not pay enough attention and did not take enough precaution. Fake goods, forced labor and fentanyl. A new bill is taking on China and looking to stop counterfeit goods and dangerous drugs from hitting U.S. shores. An unsettling call for a public witch hunt. Beijing releasing a list of 10 Taiwan officials it sees as die-hard separatists and calling on the public to expose even more. And floods in China are wreaking havoc on the agriculture sector and residents are reporting huge losses in crops. China is seeing a rise in COVID-19 infections. This as other countries around the world also experience an unexpected surge. Here's a closer look at the latest situation inside China. A growing number of Chinese residents reporting they've been infected with the CCP virus which causes COVID-19. Folks, I've been infected again. Yesterday, all of my family members tested positive for the virus. Data from China's CDC also says infections are on the rise. A report released last Thursday said the country's COVID-19 infection rate more than doubled in July. NTD can't independently verify the information. The Chinese regime has a long history of covering up infection cases and death tolls. In China's southern Guangdong, officials recorded over 18,000 new infections in July, more than double the month before. A local doctor told Chinese media that his COVID-19 patients are mostly young people with symptoms such as a sore throat, fever and muscle pain. A physician in Anhui province also said he had seen more patients coming in with COVID. The report comes as virus infections are surging around the globe. In recent months, regardless of the season, many countries have experienced surges of COVID-19, including at the Olympics. Currently, there are at least 40 athletes who have tested positive. Zhang Lin is a former microbiologist for the U.S. Army. He said the immunity of people inside China has weakened. Plus, Beijing's lack of transparency may worsen the situation. I think many people become repeatedly infected by COVID. And the government did not report consistently, so many people did not pay enough attention and did not take enough precautions. So I think that's the main reason causing, you know, more and more outbreak in different cities. And people don't know about the true situation unless they have a severe fever. And when they visit the hospital, they may see hospital is loaded with respiratory infected patients. Officials say current new cases are caused by sub-variants of Omicron, a variant of the CCP virus which causes COVID-19. A bipartisan effort in Washington is looking to call out China and stop the Chinese Communist Party from flooding the U.S. with fentanyl, plus counterfeit products made by forced labor. Senator Sherrod Brown says China is, quote, exploiting the de minimis loophole to cheat our trade laws and flood our country with packages containing fentanyl and other illicit substances. He's along with other senators, Ron Wyden, Cynthia Loomis, Susan Collins, and Bob Casey in introducing the Fighting for America Act. It's a two-pronged approach to tighten rules that allow low-value imports to avoid taxes, tariffs, and inspections. And the bill also targets the CCP's role in the fentanyl crisis by requiring CBP to get more information on commercial packages with the goal of, quote, targeting and seizing illicit goods and increasing penalties on bad actors. The Pentagon is reportedly taking Chinese LiDAR giant HSI Tech off its blacklist. HSI Tech was blacklisted in January by legislation to restrict the operations of Chinese military linked groups in the U.S. The Chinese embassy in D.C. said it's pleased with the decision, but some U.S. officials are worried about potential national security risks if those companies gain too much influence in America. We sat down with Steve Yates, former deputy national security advisor at the White House, to talk more about the sudden U-turn. Steve Yates, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. My pleasure. Thank you. China's HSI, which makes LiDAR sensors used in smart cars, has been removed from the U.S. Defense Department blacklist. Now, what do you make of this U-turn, if you will? What does this signal in terms of the Pentagon's decision-making? Well, first, there's a bit of a constitutional issue that I'm a little murky about. When you are looking at non-U.S. citizens and non-U.S. entities, what right-to-do process do they have in the United States? If we have a judgment that there's a national security concern and our Defense Department's procurement process expresses that concern and imposes a sanction or some other hurdle, I am unaware of a legal process for them to seek redress. And that is where I think this is on the shakiest of grounds. I thought that it was important in all of the areas of American interaction and supply chains with China that anything that is in the defense procurement area, we should basically have those that come from the People's Republic of China as guilty until proven innocent. That is the standard when you're dealing with national security and an entity that has been willing to challenge us, our allies, not just in military affairs, but on our own homeland and otherwise. So I'm a bit baffled by this reversal. I think it's an unfortunate two steps back in the progress we've made in recent times on bipartisan support for a more sensible approach to China and national security. Now, on the other hand, what does this move mean for HSI's global market expansion, given that it is already one of the world's top makers of LiDAR sensors? Well, I hope that this is part of the kind of commentary and news cycle that provokes American entrepreneurs and allied entrepreneurs to grow this international space of sensitive technology and technologies that are vital to our way of life being controlled by, manufactured by, like-minded nations. We have to find a way so that we're not dependent on this being a node in the supply chain. If they're going to continue to manufacture and play in this space, that's one thing, but we have to, I think, become much less dependent on that being the dominant provider of this kind of technology. And expanding on that, in your view, what are the strategies the U.S. should implement to best tackle the China threat, whether that's policy, the economy, or national security? Well, I think the first most important step is American revival and renewal. I think that begins with a really hard look at our education system and making sure that we're educating and preparing a workforce that is capable of onshoring or developing the newest, best technology ourselves where possible. So it begins at home. We also have to have deregulation to make us a competitive and attractive place to invest, manufacture, and export. So that is an important prerequisite to doing this well. But second, I think we have to rebalance with our allies in ways that looks at collaboration. This really is about the free world and the civilized world that's willing to make reasonable standards that protect individual dignity, human dignity, and ethical transparency, and those that don't. And those that don't cannot be involved in sensitive supply chains, cannot be allowed access to the world's most advanced technology. Our allies together with the United States comprise an immense proportion of the world economy. And this is a doable proposition with the right leadership. And that's the last variable that has to happen. We have to see clearly that the Chinese Communist Party is an adversary. It is not a trusted partner for cooperation and problem solving. Only if we get to that point can we establish the right kind of cooperation and rebalancing with our allies to do this right. Steve Yates, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Four U.S. lawmakers are visiting Taiwan and meeting with the island's top leaders. The trip comes as China ramps up its military pressure around the island. Here's Representative Marilyn Strickland on Tuesday. And while our conversations are often about economic opportunities and defense, we know that we want to deter anything that will come across the cross strait and create a situation where we have to get involved in a conflict. That is not what we want to do. But we do that by projecting strength, power, and unity. Taiwanese President William Lai also spoke today. He said Taiwan seeks to enhance cooperation with the U.S. in the face of authoritarian aggression and to boost democracies around the globe. The delegation will stay in Taiwan for five days. According to the Taiwanese government, officials will exchange views on U.S.-Taiwan relations and regional peace and security. Beijing is lashing out at a group of what it calls die-hard separatists. They gave the label to a list of 10 current and former Taiwanese officials. All because the Chinese regime says these people have pushed for Taiwan independence. Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office asked the public to report any information on the 10 officials and to expose people the regime would consider separatists that haven't been discovered. The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as part of its territory. Worth noting, it has never ruled a self-governing democratic island. Back to the list, it includes Taiwan's Vice President Xiaobei Kim, the head of Taiwan's Security Council Joseph Wu, and senior officials from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. In June, Beijing set new rules for punishing strong supporters of Taiwan independence. The rules allow for the death penalty and trials in absentia when the accused person is not present while tried in court. Taiwan pushed back on the apparent intimidation tactic, stating that Taiwanese citizens are not legally bound by the CCP's so-called laws and regulations. A leading mobile payment service in South Korea, KakaoPay, has denied allowing a massive data leak to China. The South Korean government's financial department is now investigating the issue. Joining us now is NTD's Flora Hua. Flora, what have you learned so far? That's right, Tiff. The payment tool shared the credit information of about 40 million users with China's fintech group Alipay, without asking for consent. This is according to a South Korean Financial Supervisory Service investigation released on Tuesday. The findings come from the agency's recent inspection of the app's overseas activities. The leaked data allegedly includes users' names, phone numbers, email addresses, balances and transaction records. The investigation shows the massive leak of over 40 million users has occurred since at least April 2018, six years ago. It's worth noting that Alipay's Singapore subsidiary holds over 32% of Kakao's stocks, making it the second top shareholder. Flora, thanks for that. China seeing record numbers of foreign funds pulling out of the country in the second quarter. But by contrast, German direct investment to China is skyrocketing. According to Germany's central bank, investment in China almost doubled in the second quarter compared to the first, rising by over $2.5 billion. That's a big jump even when looking at the year-to-year data. German direct investments to China in the first half of this year have already surpassed those from all of last year. The data came after Berlin recently announced the U.S. has replaced China as Germany's largest trading partner. It's the first time it's happened in eight years. Tensions between China, Europe and the U.S. are high right now as tons of cheap China-made electric vehicles overflow Western markets. Despite warnings from European lawmakers, German carmakers have still been investing heavily in China, driving the steep increase. Next, heavy rainfall is causing problems in northern China. Residents there report that their houses and crops are taking severe damage or even getting destroyed by flooding. According to China's official reports, at least six million acres of crops were damaged in the floods. Besides the heavy rainfall, local reports also said that authorities have been releasing water from reservoirs to protect the facilities. But residents say they were unaware until they saw the strong surges of excess water that worsened the flooding. The pouring rain has lasted for almost a week in the Inner Mongolia region, coming down since last Monday. Water levels in some rivers there have risen by nearly four inches. Many fields and farms along the river banks are now submerged, leaving crops in ruins. Tianjin, a major city in China, also suffered a heavy downpour last week. Villages and towns in low-lying areas were flooded, and transportation and mobile services were temporarily cut off. China's central bank pledged 14 billion dollars in aid on Tuesday to help the disaster areas. Coming up, the Philippines is gearing up for a formal protest against Beijing. It comes after a close aerial encounter in the South China Sea where Chinese jets fired flares dangerously close to a Philippine patrol plane. A global scandal. As a former UN official from Canada is detained in Switzerland on charges of espionage, the suspect has made frequent trips to China as an environmental consultant. But was there more to his visits? Amid severe flooding in North Korea, Kim Jong-un is turning away aid from even his closest allies. Instead, state TV showcases him arriving in the disaster zone aboard his bulletproof train packed with supplies. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. That's all for today's China In Focus on YouTube. We're now sharing a shortened version of our program here after being demonetized for three years. If you'd like to support us, consider donating. Find us at donorbox.org slash china-in-focus. Or subscribe to our partner platform, Epic TV, where you can watch our full episodes. Just click the link down below. Here's how to look out for in our second half. The Philippines is gearing up for a formal protest against Beijing. It comes after a close aerial encounter in the South China Sea where Chinese jets fired flares dangerously close to a Philippine patrol plane. A global scandal. As a former UN official from Canada is detained in Switzerland on charges of espionage, the suspect has made frequent trips to China as an environmental consultant. But was there more to his visits? Amid severe flooding in North Korea, Kim Jong-un is turning away aid from even his closest allies. Instead, state TV showcases him arriving in the disaster zone aboard his bulletproof train packed with supplies. More on that after the break here on China In Focus. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you tomorrow.