Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News on Taiwan, disease control, CCP, U.S., Myanmar
News (1)
Lai Ching-te: Pragmatically believes that Taiwan is already a sovereign and independent country and there is no need to declare independence
Reporter : Chen Yun / https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/4188869 / Image : Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Lai Ching-te took the oath of office today, emphasizing that Taiwan is already a sovereign and independent country, there is no need to declare Taiwan independence, and President Tsai Ing-wen's cross-strait approach will continue in the future. (Photo by reporter Tu Jianrong)
Chairman Lai Ching-te of the DPP was sworn in today and handed over to the acting chairman Chen Chi-mai. As an independent country, there is no need to declare Taiwan's independence, and President Tsai Ing-wen's cross-strait approach will continue in the future.
Lai pointed out that he has pragmatically determined that Taiwan is already a sovereign and independent country, and there is no need to declare Taiwan's independence again. The sovereignty of the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China is not subordinate to each other. Stand firmly on the four standpoints and continue President Tsai Ing-wen's cross-strait line,
When asked how to resolve differences between the two sides of the Strait, Lai Qingde said that the international community generally believes that the deadlock between the two sides of the Strait is due to CCP China’s cultural and military threats to Taiwan and not changes in the status quo across the Taiwan Strait that will succeed.
Lai Ching-te said that he very much hopes that CCP China will take into consideration the common people first. Both sides of the strait have a common goal, which is to improve the well-being of the people. The common enemy on both sides of the strait is natural disasters and infectious diseases. If the CCP can change its mind and focus on the common people, it is believed many things can be easily solved.
News (2)
Received the visiting delegation of international youth ambassadors Lai Ching-te: I hope Taiwan will become a better country
Reporter : Chen Yun / https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/4186594 / Image : Vice President Lai Ching-teh expressed his hope that Taiwan will become a better country in the future when receiving the "Visiting Delegation of the 111 Years International Youth Ambassador Exchange Program". (Photo provided by the Presidential Palace)
Vice President Lai Ching-te received the "Visiting Delegation of the 111 Year International Youth Ambassador Exchange Program" today, and highly affirmed the successful completion of a major diplomatic work by the youth ambassadors. He praised the excellent performance of the young ambassadors during their visit to Palau, and also mentioned that his previous trip to Palau had opened his eyes, and he had higher expectations for Taiwan, "We can do better and make Taiwan a better country."
On behalf of the President, Lai Ching-te first highly praised the young ambassador, who successfully completed a major national diplomatic work. He said that after seeing the highlights of the youth ambassador’s visit to the Republic of Palau, everyone got in touch with the President of the Republic of Palau (Surangel S. Whipps, Jr.) to students and people in the community, including agriculture, climate change and various aspects of the community. The topics and overseas performances in Palau are very good.
Lai pointed out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs promotes the international youth exchange and visit program, hoping to use the talents and enthusiasm of young ambassadors to participate in national diplomacy, so that more countries can see Taiwan, understand Taiwan's culture and characteristics, and also allow young ambassadors to contact the world, broaden horizons and meet more international friends. This youth ambassador delegation visited Palau in August 2022. This is the first time since the epidemic that the overseas visit program has been resumed. It represents that the government has not given up on promoting this program during the epidemic, and it also demonstrates the government's ability to act.
Lai Ching-te mentioned that in November 2022, he was ordered by the President to the Republic of Palau to promote a tourism exchange plan. Because Surangel came to Taiwan to participate in the National Day activities, he expressed the hope that Taiwan can assist Palau in the development of tourism. Therefore, the President specially asked him to organize a delegation to represent Taiwan to Palau. It was his first visit to Palau, and he was very impressed.
Lai Ching-te pointed out that although Palau is small, its persistence in addressing climate change is admirable. Climate change has caused the sea level to rise continuously, which makes the people of Palau feel a sense of crisis and take action. It is estimated that by 2023 or 2024, all electricity consumption in Palau will be changed to green energy. In addition, Palau's conservation spirit for conservation animals and endangered animals is also admirable.
Lai said that Palau is God's aquarium and a paradise for snorkeling, because the buildings are not so high, the skyline is vast, and the air is very good. It is a place worth sightseeing. In addition, President Hui Shuren also told him that Palau belongs to the Austronesian language family and is related to the aborigines of Taiwan. This has also brought the distance between them closer.
Lai added that he has learnt a lot from the trip to Palau. Therefore, he has higher expectations for Taiwan. He hopes that Taiwan will be able to cope with climate change, various cultural and environmental protection challenges in the future, do better and make Taiwan (Republic of China) a better country.
Accompanied by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Hikari Tanaka and Executive Director of the International Affairs Association of Non-Governmental Organizations Wang Xuehong, the visiting guests visited the Vice President at the Presidential Palace.
News (3)
Lai Ching-te was elected as the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party. Wang Dan: Come on, Chairman Lai! Come on Taiwan!
Image : Vice President Lai Ching-te. (file photo)
The results of the by-election for the chairman of the DPP were released on 15 January 2023. China democrat activisit Wang Dan expressed congratulations to the chairman of the DPP, "Come on, Chairman Lai! Come on, Taiwan!"
Wang Dan congratulated Vice President Lai Ching-te on being elected as the new chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party in a post on Facebook. Wang Dan bluntly said, "This is a crisis moment when the Democratic Progressive Party is facing challenges and Taiwan is facing challenges. Therefore, this is not an easy job. This is a daunting challenge. But only when the challenge is tough enough can we have the motivation to change. I believe that all those who wish for Taiwan to be better hope that the DPP can stand up and start again. Come on, Chairman Lai! Come on, Taiwan!"
Netizens left messages after seeing the post, "Thank you, as a Taiwanese, it is our duty to protect Taiwan and work hard together", "I believe that the ability and wisdom of Vice President can lead the DPP to a better future!", "Come on, Taiwan is united Unanimous", "He shoulders a heavy responsibility, and may also fight for Taiwan."
News (4)
Cai Qichang: Taiwan’s sovereignty is independent and means the Republic of China actually exists
Reporter : Zhang Xuanzhe / https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/4188662 / Image : Vice President of the Legislative Yuan Cai Qichang (first from right) attended the opening ceremony of Wuqi Elementary School. (Photo by reporter Zhang Xuanzhe)
Vice President of the Legislative Yuan Cai Qichang participated in the opening ceremony of the new school building at Wuqi Elementary School this morning and was interviewed. In response to foreign media reports, Vice President Lai Ching-te’s idea of Taiwan independence will make the United States doubt him. Cai Qichang expressed this, the existence of the Republic of China is the bottom line of all Taiwanese, and it is also a consensus that no matter who is the president or who wants to be elected as president, he must defend the existence of the Republic of China. He does not know what Taiwan independence advocates are. Taiwan's sovereignty is independent, and means the Republic of China actually exists.
Cai Qichang said that this is the consensus shared by Taiwanese and the people of the Republic of China. If the Republic of China is gone, will the president, system, and laws of the Republic of China still exist? He said that the existence of the Republic of China is the bottom line for all Taiwanese, and is also a consensus.
Cai Qichang emphasized that no matter who is the president, whoever chooses the president must defend the existence of the Republic of China, so that Taiwanese can live a life of democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law. Under this framework, we should think about who can defend and defend The existence of the Republic of China is the issue that Taiwanese should think about together in the presidential election.
News (5)
Japan is also short of medicine! Covid and influenza are raging, and there is even a shortage of prescription drugs
Image : The 8th wave of Wuhan pneumonia (covid, COVID-19) in Japan is heating up, and the number of flu patients has also begun to increase, and the local pharmacy has also begun to appear "drug shortage". Schematic diagram. (Reuters)
The 8th wave of covid in Japan is heating up, and the number of flu patients has also begun to increase. The local pharmacy has also begun to appear "drug shortage". Prescription drugs are also facing shortages, and some medical institutions and pharmacies are even more "hard to find."
According to "NHK" reports, in addition to covid, influenza is also becoming more and more serious. Some pharmacies only have enough stock for one person for a week. Most of the drugs that are out of stock are to suppress throat inflammation, reduce phlegm and relieve cough and other types of drugs, pharmacist Takako Ihara said: "A few days ago, I couldn't prepare the dose that met the prescription, so I refused the prescription for the first time. As a pharmacist, I am really sorry."
Many pharmacies have checked with pharmaceutical factories and wholesalers to ensure inventory, and even contacted nearby pharmacies to see if they can adjust the goods. If there is really no way, they will also discuss with doctors and patients whether they can change the same effect. Doctors on the front line also called on the government to help improve this situation.
In this regard, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has provided supporting measures. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has set up a consultation window for medical institutions and pharmacies that have difficulty obtaining medicines to consult pharmaceutical factories and wholesalers who can supply medicines, and stated that "we will take necessary measures to ensure the smooth supply of medicines.”
News (6)
WHO urges Beijing to monitor excess deaths, Reuters finds CCP's concealed evidence
Reporter : Liming / Editor : Lin Qing / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/17/a103627114.html / Image : On 28 December 2022, a deceased person lay on a gurney in the aisle crowded with waiting patients and their families in Tianjin First Central Hospital, China. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)
On Monday (16 January 2023), the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had advised Beijing to test covid excess deaths so that the organization has a more complete picture of the impact of the surge in covid cases in China. Reuters disclosed on Tuesday (17 January 2023) that the media found evidence that the CCP deliberately concealed the number of covid deaths.
The WHO made the statement in response to a Reuters query on the outbreak in China on Monday. The organization also emphasized that the detection of excess deaths is particularly important "in times of surges in cases where the health system is overwhelmed".
Previously, experts from the WHO publicly criticized the Beijing authorities for not candidly explaining the scale of the epidemic to the organization, and urged the Chinese Communist Party to provide the organization with true and credible statistical data on severe cases and deaths. Afterwards, CCP officials released new figures on the number of deaths from the virus last Saturday, claiming that nearly 60,000 people have died in China since the lockdown was lifted in December.
Although the figure provided by the Beijing authorities is 10 times higher than the number of cases it had previously reported, international public health experts still believe that the actual number of deaths from the epidemic in China this year has been seriously underestimated. Experts have urged the Chinese authorities to release the complete genetic sequence data (GSD) of the virus circulating in China, so as to facilitate the monitoring of possible new variants of the covid virus.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that there is evidence that the CCP authorities deliberately lowered and concealed the number of deaths from the epidemic in China through "no trace" operations.
According to the report, a doctor at a private hospital in Beijing saw a printed notice in the emergency room when he was working at the peak of the recent epidemic in Beijing, which clearly asked the doctor to "try to avoid" filling in the cause of death column of the death certificate "novel coronavirus resulting in respiratory failure".
According to the disclosure, the notice clearly stipulates that if the deceased had an underlying disease, the underlying disease should be called the main cause of death; if the doctor believes that the death was entirely caused by the novel coronavirus pneumonia, they must report it to the superior, and then the superior will arrange two levels. The "consultation" by experts and the approval of those experts can then only confirm the death of the novel coronavirus infection.
In addition, six doctors from public hospitals across China also confirmed in an interview with Reuters that they had received verbal instructions to try not to attribute the cause of death to the covid virus, and they realized that this was the policy of their hospitals. Several of the doctors said the notices and instructions came from "the government," but no one knew which government department it came from.
The report explained that in China, once such politically sensitive instructions are conveyed, the practice known as "governance without trace" is usually adopted, that is, no trace is left and no record is left.
A doctor at a large public hospital in Shanghai told Reuters: "Since the lockdown was lifted in December, we have stopped counting COVID-19 deaths, which is meaningless because almost everyone has tested covi-positive."
Michael Baker, a public health scholar at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said bluntly: "Most countries have found that the vast majority of deaths from the epidemic are caused by infection, rather than underlying diseases combined with novel coronavirus infection, but the majority (90%) of China's reported deaths were COVID-19 combined with other diseases, suggesting that China is still underreporting and underreporting direct deaths from the epidemic.”
News (7)
Shanghai and Hangzhou cremation reservations over two weeks, CCP fabricated the death toll and was seen through
Reporter : Zhu Ying / Editor : Zhu Xinrui / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/18/a103627378.html / Image : On 22 December 2022, a large number of hearses transporting the remains of the deceased lined up outside the gate of a crematorium in Beijing waiting to enter. (STF/AFP via Getty Images)
The CCP authorities declared that the peak of the epidemic in Beijing and other major cities has passed. However, even if all the crematoriums in Shanghai and Hangzhou were “fully turned on”, the appointment time for cremation was more than two weeks. Based on the current situation of crematoriums, foreign media have estimated that the recent death toll in Beijing and Shanghai is about 10 times higher than in normal times. There are obviously huge loopholes in the epidemic data fabricated by the CCP.
At present, the epidemic situation in the mainland is still expanding, and a large number of infected people have died in various places. The funeral parlors and crematoria are still overwhelmed by the full firepower. This Tuesday (January 17), people from many places were interviewed by Radio Free Asia, telling about the difficulties they faced in dealing with the funeral of relatives and friends who died of the epidemic.
Mr. Zhao (pseudonym), a person from Hangzhou who works in Shanghai, disclosed that his grandfather and the elderly in his friend's home in Shanghai have recently died of infection with the new crown, so he has a relatively full understanding of the current situation of funeral homes in Hangzhou and Shanghai.
"There are about eight or nine funeral homes in Hangzhou, all of which are full, and the cremation must be arranged for at least two weeks," Mr. Zhao said. But come. Parking in the cold storage and queuing up is also an expense every day."
Mr. Zhao said that the staff of the funeral home told him that the cold storage is now full of dead bodies, and the funeral homes have stopped all memorial activities and only gave the family members of the deceased a few minutes to say goodbye to the body in the square.
Hu Liren, a Chinese private entrepreneur living in the United States, also revealed that after the mother of a friend of his died in Jinqiao Town, Pudong, Shanghai on 11 January, he had to wait in line until 29 January before she could be cremated.
Hu Liren said that in the past, funeral homes operated for about 8 hours a day, and generally the remains would be cremated 3 to 4 days after entering the funeral homes but now the funeral homes are cremating 24 hours a day, and there are still queues for about two and a half weeks. According to the current operating conditions of funeral homes, the recent death toll in Shanghai may be 12 times the normal number in the past.
This situation is highly consistent with the cremation of corpses in funeral parlours and crematoria in Beijing a month ago.
In mid-December 2022, the staff who answered the phone at Beijing Babaoshan Funeral Home told Radio Free Asia that all the cremation furnaces in the funeral home were already working 24 hours a day, and the cremation of the remains sent to the funeral home had to be scheduled for at least 5 or 6 days later. The funeral home in Tongzhou District, Beijing is also in the same situation: the cremation furnace is open 24 hours, and the cremation of the remains needs to be made 6 days in advance.
According to public information, Beijing Babaoshan Funeral Home has 19 new high-efficiency incinerators, which can incinerate a corpse every 30 minutes. Based on this calculation, each incinerator can process up to 48 corpses per day. There are 12 funeral homes in Beijing with about 90 incinerators. If fully activated, more than 4320 corpses can be processed every day. Considering that some incinerators may need maintenance during operation, it can be roughly estimated that 3,600 remains are cremated every day.
According to the above basic data, it can be estimated that within 36 days from 8 December 2022 to 12 January 2023, there will be nearly 130,000 corpses cremated in funeral parlours in Beijing alone (3,600 people X 36 days = 129,600 people).
However, the number of natural deaths in Beijing during the same period in previous years should be 11,900 (330 people X 36 days = 11,900). A comparison of the two shows that during this period, the number of deaths due to the epidemic in Beijing alone should have been at least 117,700 (129,600‒11,900=117,700).
If we also take into account that many family members of the deceased were forced to transfer the remains to other counties and cities around Beijing for cremation because they could not be cremated in time, the actual death toll in Beijing within the above 36 days will be even higher.
However, the National Health Commission of the Communist Party of China announced on 14 January that from 8 December 2022 to 12 January 2023, there were 59,938 deaths related to the novel coronavirus infection in hospitals nationwide according to the statistics of medical institutions across the country.
In this regard, current affairs commentator Zhong Yuan pointed out in the article "What Flaws Are Revealed in the CCP's Compilation of the Death Toll of the Epidemic?" Half of the death toll reported by the institution, such blatantly fabricated data may not be believed.
In addition, an analysis of an article signed by Ye Shengzhou recently published by the British "Financial Times" pointed out that there are obviously serious omissions in the latest death cases announced by the National Health Commission of the Communist Party of China. The data collected by the Health Commission has two restrictions: 1. In hospital; 2. Nucleic acid covi-positive.
The article bluntly stated: "This means that the death cases that were not hospitalized were not counted, and the death cases that were not tested covi-positive for nucleic acid (even if they were antigen positive) were not counted."
News (8) to (10) / Reporter : Luo Tingting / Editor : Wen Hui / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/18/a103627646.html
News (8)
How many people died when the CCP let go in December? Statistical Director: No data
Image : On 22 December 2022, workers at a funeral home in Chongqing rolled out a body. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)
中共12月放开死了多少人？ 统计局长：没有数据
The National Bureau of Statistics of the Communist Party of China announced on 17 January 2023 that China's population will experience negative growth for the first time in 2022, a decrease of 850,000 people compared to the previous year. However, regarding the death toll in December after the CCP relaxed its control over the epidemic, the head of the Statistics Bureau claimed that it was not within the scope of the statistics and there was no relevant data.
News (9)
Official data questioned, death toll in December a mystery
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Communist Party of China on January 17, by the end of 2022, the national population will be 1.41175 billion, a decrease of 850,000 from the end of 2021, and the natural population growth rate will be -0.60‰. This is the first time the CCP has acknowledged China's population decline since 1961.
Yi Fuxian, a population expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (University of Wisconsin-Madison), tweeted on the 17th, "China's population began to decline 9-10 years earlier than China's (Communist) official and United Nations forecasts, which means that China's real China's population crisis is beyond imagination, and all of China's past economic, social, defense, and foreign policies were based on wrong population data."
At the press conference, some media asked about the number of deaths in December 2022 after the CCP loosened control. Kang Yi, director of the National Bureau of Statistics of the Communist Party of China, claimed that the time point of this population sampling survey was at 00:00 on 1 November 2022, so there is no relevant data for December.
For more than a month, China has been hit by a tsunami of epidemics. Hospitals and clinics everywhere are full, funeral parlors are piled up with corpses, and cremation cannot be completed within 24 hours. Including Beijing and other places are rushing to build crematoriums and add cremation furnaces.
A large amount of private first-hand information collected by NTDTV, The Epoch Times, and Clean World websites shows that the number of deaths due to the epidemic in China is huge. However, the CCP officials have covered up the truth about the epidemic. Not only have they given up statistics related to the epidemic, but they have also banned the writing of "new crown" on patients' medical records. The outside world cannot obtain accurate data.
The official initially claimed that only 37 people died of the epidemic in one month after the restrictions were lifted. After being strongly questioned at home and abroad, the death toll was raised to nearly 60,000, but this figure is still seriously inconsistent with the facts.
Some analysts pointed out that there are more than 2,800 counties in China. According to official data, no one died in each county in a day.
News (10)
Expert analysis: 400 million deaths in China's epidemic are very likely
According to a report by The Epoch Times on 16 January 2023, Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, revealed for the first time the mystery of the death toll from the epidemic in China. Master Li said that the CCP has been covering up the epidemic for more than three years. The epidemic in China has killed 400 million people. When this wave of epidemic ends, 500 million people will die under CCP's control.
Master Li also said that when SARS appeared last time, 200 million people died in China. Many years later, the CCP discovered that the population had decreased, and immediately released the two-child and three-child system.
One year after the outbreak in Wuhan, the CCP officially announced in May 2021 that the 2020 census will be 1.41 billion people. However, Yi Fuxian, an internationally renowned demographer, estimates that China's population in 2020 will only be 1.28 billion.
Li Jun, a senior TV producer, said in the "Elite Forum" that Master Li mentioned that China's epidemic has killed 400 million people, which shocked him and made him think. Looking back on some news and information he saw before, 4 It is very possible that hundreds of millions of people will die from the epidemic.
For example, he said that the 2021 census is known as the most difficult census in Chinese history, and it took 6 months to release the data. Some people joked that the 1990 census was calculated with an abacus, and it took three months to come out; in 2020, it took hundreds of millions of computer calculations, and it took six months to come out. Artificial intelligence cannot keep up with the abacus.
Li Jun said that Yi Fuxian pointed out at the time that the reason was that the data did not match. He believes that the 2021 census results have at least 130 million errors.
Li Jun analyzed that why the 2021 census data cannot be released is probably related to the Wuhan epidemic, because the virus had been spreading for a year at that time, and the real death toll may far exceed the official data reported by the CCP. "The official used artificial intelligence to fill in the hole for 6 months before filling up the hole. From this matter, it can explain a certain problem."
In addition, in July 2022, the data and police records of 1 billion Chinese citizens in the Shanghai Public Security Bureau system of the Communist Party of China were stolen by hackers and publicly sold online. Many experts, including Yi Fuxian, confirmed that this data has certain accuracy.
Gao Zitan, a financial expert, said in the [Elite Forum] that these data are said to be downloaded from Alibaba Cloud, which contains personal information of 970 million Chinese citizens, and some children without ID card information, adding up to a total of 1 billion people, 400 million fewer than the 2021 census data.
Gao Zitan believes that this data is consistent with the 400 million deaths during the epidemic in China.
He also said that the CCP government has been deliberately promoting that China has 1.4 billion people, so that people will form an inertial illusion that China has a demographic dividend and cheap labor, so as to attract foreign investment. The statistics department of the CCP has been setting smoke bombs, not providing real data for external reference, but serving the CCP regime and preventing people from knowing the truth.
News (11)
A corner of rural China under the epidemic: 5 people died in a day in a village with less than 3,000 people
Reporter : Li Li / Editor : Lin Qing / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/17/a103627103.html / Image : Relatives of a cremated deceased attend a funeral at the Xishuangbanna Prefecture Funeral Home in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, 10 January 2023. (Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)
The epidemic in China is out of control, and the death toll is huge. However, because the CCP has been covering up the truth, it is difficult for the outside world to know the real death toll. However, through the Internet, the videos and photos circulated by the people show that hospitals and crematoria are overwhelmed. Compared with cities, rural areas with weak medical resources also have a huge death toll. On the microblog platform in mainland China, netizens shared their personal experiences one after another, and glimpsed the tip of the iceberg in rural areas amid the epidemic.
The information shows that in some villages more than a dozen people died a month, in some villages two died a day, and in a small village with less than 3,000 people, five elderly people died a day. In addition to the elderly, there are also college students and even elementary school students who died because of covid. Some netizens lamented, "I wake up in mourning and joy every day."
On 11 January 2023 a netizen with the screen name "Qingtao 0328" said that in a small village of about 200 households, (as of that day) 11 people died in a month, and on 11 January, two people died at the same time.
"I went back to my hometown today to visit my grandpa's first anniversary grave. I met two old people in the village who had passed away. The paper boy boy and girl in the town said that 11 people died in our village in the past month. In a small village of about 200 households, there are very few people of the same age. The situation of the funeral today, so when my dad went to one of the houses to distribute "Fengrenqing" (that is, the money and paper for funerals in the countryside), it turned out that the bookkeeper was working in another house. There are only a few old people in the village who handle funerals. Today they run both ways."
Image : Network screenshot
Making "paper boys and girls" refers to some funeral customs in rural China, that is, family members spend money to buy paper "boys and girls" for the deceased, and burn them at the funeral.
On 13 January 2023, a netizen with the online name "Xincuffed Small" said, "Our village is relatively small, and the three nearby villages are not that big, so this place is commonly known as Shangxiasancun. Last week, my mother said that we should go to Shangxiasancun. I lost two people. Both are in their 70s. My relatives called tonight. My grandmother’s village is bigger. Ten people have already left. They are all old people. Our county is also run by a crematorium. .”
Netizen "Sister Feng Shui Loves Young" introduced that not only old people died, but also college student died because of covid, "In our village, there are more than 20 old people, probably between 70 and 90 years old, that have died of covid. The most embarrassing thing is that a college student in the next village never returned to college after the school holidays because he died of a high fever after getting covi-positive."
Image : Network screenshot
On 14 January 2023, a netizen named "redmodelworker-floria" said, "Seven people died in our village this time, including my classmates and two barefoot doctors,"
A netizen with "careful eyes" said, "I seldom go back to our village now. But my parents still live in the village. I won't say much in the past three years. In the past ten days, three people have died in the village."
Netizen "Jinjiu Heard" said, "On 26 December 022, after returning to my hometown from the city for ten days, five elderly people died in a row in a small village. Five old people died in one day."
Image : Network screenshot
On 16 January 2023, a netizen named "Meimeng is a balloon longing for the blue sky" wrote, "In our village, more than 10 old people passed away last week. There are banquet tables everywhere in the village. Those who died are all my father's elders. I only know that he has something to do outside. When I asked him where he was going, he only said that he was going to the village below. Maybe it was because he had taken care of him a few years ago. A few years ago, an old man who was very good to me when I was young passed away ...."
On 17 January, a netizen named "Gem_yep" said, "The elderly in our village died one after another due to the epidemic, and they wake up in mourning and joy every day."
Netizen "tomhong12" wrote, "I went to participate in an old man's funeral this morning. To be honest, this wave, the old man walked a lot. Take our village as an example, the number of deaths is already fifteen or sixteen, more than in previous years. Yes. Some families spent more than 10,000 RMB just to eat tofu rice. Many people just wait for cremation after death.”
Eating tofu rice is a folk funeral custom popular in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. After the funeral, the locals hold a banquet (commonly known as "bean feast") to reward relatives, friends and neighbors who came to the funeral.
On 15 January, Li Chun (pseudonym) from a certain place in Hunan told The Epoch Times that “a lot of people (infected by the epidemic) died in rural areas, most of them were old people with underlying diseases, and some were young. Some of my clients reported that their neighbours were 40, 30, and an 11-year-old elementary school student passed away, saying it was covid, and died.”
In addition, a netizen in Shaanxi mentioned that a relative passed away a few days ago, and when he went through the formalities to cancel the account at the police station, the relative who worked at the police station informed that the quota for canceling accounts was very strict, and the higher authorities demanded that the peak number of deaths be kept down.
Image : Network screenshot
The satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies of the United States cited by the Washington Post on 10 January showed that from Beijing to Nanjing, from Chengdu to Kunming, the activities of funeral parlours in different locations in China's southeast and northwest are all abnormal and busy.
An employee of a funeral home in Shanghai was interviewed by The Epoch Times and disclosed that they process about 400 to 500 corpses every day, most of them are infected by the epidemic. In the past, the maximum was 90; if counting 400, it would be about 12,000 a month. There are 15 funeral homes in Shanghai, and it is estimated that the number of deaths in Shanghai this month will reach 100,000.
This is the death toll information reflected by funeral homes and crematoriums in Chinese cities. In China's vast rural areas, about half of the areas do not promote cremation but choose traditional burial.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Communist Party of China, in 2019, the cremation rate in China was 52.4%, and nearly half of the deceased were not cremated or went to crematoriums.
Therefore, the number of covid deaths in rural areas is more difficult to predict.
News (12)
The CCP concealed the largest death incident in history, and the outside world kicked it out from the cremation data
The National Health Commission of the Communist Party of China announced that from 8 December 2022 to 12 January 2023, the death toll from the CCP epidemic was 59,000. A large number of experts analyzed and discussed with the self-media. It is estimated from the data of cremation furnaces that 35 million people should have died in China in the past two months.
Self-media person Zhenfei: "60,000 deaths, this death figure is not so outrageous compared to the 0, 1, 3, and 5 cases officially reported by the (CCP) after more than a month before the full liberalization. So, is this data closer to the real number of deaths from the epidemic? Or is it still a thousand miles away?
According to data released by the Statistics Bureau of the Communist Party of China, there will be 10.14 million deaths nationwide in 2021, and the number of cremated remains is 5.963 million according to the Civil Affairs Bureau, so the cremation rate is nearly 59%. How many cremation furnaces are there in China? According to official data, as of the end of 2020, there were 6,619 cremation furnaces across the country. The CCP requires that cremation furnaces be added on a regular basis. After those two years, we estimate that the number of cremation furnaces will reach 7,000.
A cremation furnace burns a corpse every half an hour. Since the beginning of December, it has been reported that the crematorium has been operating continuously for 24 hours. If calculated according to 24 hours of work, the number of corpses burned every day in the country is 336,000. If counting from the beginning of December to the end of January, the total number of corpses burned is more than 20 million, which is the number of cremations. According to the previously calculated cremation rate, the death toll is 34.17 million. "
Before 2020, a funeral home in Wuhan revealed that a large number of unowned mobile phones were piled up. Outsiders started associated them with the whereabouts of the owners of these unclaimed mobile phones. The Epoch Times reported on the 16th that the epidemic in China has killed 400 million people. Some Chinese netizens also discussed that 400 million people died in three years, which is equivalent to more than 100 million people dying every year, or 360,000 people every day; more than 2,800 people across the country. In county-level administrative regions, there are average 130 deaths per day, and many people may be numb.
News (13)
Interview with Lai Mingzhao, the "Father of Coronavirus"
Editor :Shang Yan / Reporter : Chang Chun / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/17/a103627045.html / Image : Video Screenshot
In response to the current blowout epidemic situation in China, as well as issues such as "white lung" and "secondary infection" that have attracted much attention, we interviewed Taiwan, known as the "father of coronavirus" Academician Lai Mingzhao, a scholar of microbiology and virology.
The outbreak of the epidemic in China has caused many infected patients to develop severe "white lung" pneumonia, which even panicked the doctors.
Mainland doctor: "More than 1/3 of the patients are seriously ill, more than forty people, and there are more than a dozen or twenty big "white lungs". The big white lungs are not only the elderly, they are in their twenties and forties. , There are also those in their sixties, which makes me a little panicked."
The death rate from the epidemic in China has soared, and crematoria everywhere have long queues and are overloaded.
Crematorium staff: "No. 397, No. 397, No. 398."
In other countries in the world, the main manifestation of the Omicron virus strain is damaging the upper respiratory tract of the human body, and rarely directly damaging the lungs. Why is the virus behaving so differently in China, and is it the Omicron strain that is currently circulating in China?
Images of interview with Lai Mingzhao : Video Screenshots
Professor Lai Mingzhao, a scholar of microbiology and virology in Taiwan: "The information from mainland China is incomplete. For example, which strain of coronavirus is not known yet. Then it is possible that in China the virus strains in mainland China are different from those in other places, and there is not enough data to judge this, so it causes different symptoms, that is, its different virus variants.”
In addition to white lung, "fuyang" and "secondary infection" are also special cases in the epidemic in China. As the New Year approaches, whether returning home will be re-infected has become a hot topic on Weibo.
Professor Lai Mingzhao: "(Fuyang) is not normal, but there are many reports that it is like this, and you will continue to be infected. It is that immunity cannot completely block the infection of the virus. But it is likely that the mutant strain in China is a bit different. We still have to wait until we have enough data before we can make a judgment.”
Professor Lai Mingzhao pointed out that the crux of the problem is whether the virus circulating in China is the same as before?
Professor Lai Mingzhao: "A little change in its amino acid and gene sequence will change its immune properties and become a new mutant strain. The new mutant strain will not be defeated by the original immune system, so the new virus reinfection."
The CCP also concealed the number of deaths from the epidemic. The World Health Organization has repeatedly pointed out that the CCP underreported death data.
On 16 January 2023, the WHO issued a statement again, advising the CCP to monitor the excess deaths caused by the covid virus.
Professor Lai Mingzhao: "People still don't dare to believe the data (deaths from the epidemic), because there is no clear news about the internal situation in China, so it is difficult to judge whether it is true or not. But it is conceivable that there are so many Many people died, the epidemic situation must be very serious. Because the policy of dynamic clearing said that every infection has strict isolation, but suddenly all of them are released after one night and they claim all these infections are not important. Such a reaction has repeatedly made people doubt which data is correct, so I don't believe it."
After the outbreak of the epidemic, the Chinese Communist Party officially promoted the so-called "covi-positivity", quickly crossed the peak, trying to sacrifice some people, and achieved herd immunity in two months.
Professor Lai Mingzhao: "It means preparing to sacrifice some people to defend others. I don't think this is feasible in medical ethics. We should not have such an idea. We must protect everyone."
The CCP reopened the country to travel abroad when the epidemic was blowing out. On 17 January 2023, an official from the National Immigration Administration stated that the daily average number of entry and exit personnel checked increased by 48.2%.
Professor Lai Mingzhao: "The virus strains that are prevalent in China are likely to spread to the whole world. We just need to see which virus strain it is. Some mutant strains will escape the immune system, and some virus strains will infect them, causing more serious disease. Disease-wise I found that this virus strain is spreading very quickly, so people all over the world are very worried. We must prevent this virus strain from becoming a pandemic that overwhelms the world."
Academician Lai Mingzhao has been devoted to virus research for a long time and founded the first research laboratory for coronavirus. After the outbreak of SARS, domestic and foreign media respected him as the "father of coronavirus".
News (14)
After being released, she was arrested again. The girl of the White Paper Movement sent a video to ask for help before being arrested
Reporter : Zheng Gusheng / Editor : Lin Qing / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/17/a103627060.html / Image : On 24 December 2022, Cao Zhixin, who had participated in the "White Paper Movement" in Beijing, filmed a video asking for help before being arrested. (Internet video screenshot)
After the "White Paper Movement", the CCP settled accounts after autumn and arrested a large number of participants. A few days ago, a friend of a girl who was arrested in Beijing released a video of her taken before she was arrested, asking the public to pay attention and not let them "disappear out of thin air".
According to a report by the online media "China Digital Times", on 16 January, the Twitter account "@WOMEN我们" released a video on its Youtube channel.
"@WOMEN我们" stated that Cao Zhixin is a master graduated from Renmin University of China and is currently an editor at Peking University Press.
In the evening of 27 November 2022, Cao Zhixin and her five friends came to the banks of the Liangma River in Beijing to mourn the victims of the Urumqi fire with candles, flowers, notes and blank paper with poems written on them.
On 30 November, the six were summoned and released 24 hours later. But since December 18, they have been detained in criminal detention one after another.
On 24 December, Cao Zhixin found out that her other companions had lost contact and had a premonition that she might also be arrested, so she recorded this distress video.
Cao Zhixin said in the video:
——
Hello everyone, I am Zhixin, and now I am entrusting some friends to make this video public after I disappeared
That said, by the time everyone saw this video, I had already been taken away by the police, just like several of my other friends
On November 27, after the fire broke out in Urumqi, several friends and I saw the message of condolences to our compatriots in Liangmahe, Beijing
With a heavy heart, we joined the crowd who mourned at the Liangma River that night
But starting in the early morning of the 29th, the police took us away one after another in the name of summons
Several of my friends and I stayed at the police station in the area for about 24 hours and received police education
The police found us innocent and let us go
Just when we thought the matter was over, on December 18, the police took several of my friends away quietly in the name of criminal arrest.
When they were asked to sign the arrest warrant, the crime column was blank
The police also refused to inform them of their detention location, time and charges.
By the time I recorded this video, four of our friends had been taken away without notice
(Li) Yuanjing, Yang Liu, Dengdeng (Zhai Dengrui), (Li) Siqi
Now our mothers have to run for us amidst the chaos of the pandemic
They wanted to know what we were being taken from and where we were being held
Beijing has arrived at the coldest season, and it is coming soon to various reunion festivals at the end of the year
But our mother, even if she wants to send us a piece of clothing to keep out the cold, she can't know our whereabouts
They don't know why we're being treated like this
They don't know when we'll get home
I guess now my mother is traveling thousands of miles from the southern counties to Beijing to ask about my whereabouts
I am 26 years old now, I have just graduated for a year and a half, and I am working as an editor in a publishing house. My friends are also my peers
We have our own jobs, we care about this society, and when our compatriots are killed, we have reasonable emotions to express. Our sympathy for those who lost their lives is why we went to the scene
In this mourning event attended by tens of thousands of people, we observed the order at the scene and did not have any conflicts with the police. Afterwards, we were identified as frustrated students protest (frustrated students protest)
Why did you take us away quietly?
Who are we to have to use to cross missions? What is this revenge for? Why use the lives of ordinary young people like us as the price?
We don't want to disappear
We wonder why are we going to be convicted? What is the evidence to convict us?
Why can we be taken away so easily without any evidence of guilt?
If only because we went to the memorial out of sympathy
So how much space does this society have to accommodate our emotions?
hope you help us
If you want to convict us, please show the evidence!
Don't let us disappear into this world indistinctly
Don't let us be taken away or convicted at will
——
At the end of the film, the video producer also listed the names, identities and dates of disappearance of 13 people who have been confirmed missing.
The CCP’s reckoning with the “white paper movement” is still going on. On 5 January 2023, "Human Rights Defenders Network" issued a statement saying that there are currently more than 100 people arrested, of whom 32 are known, including Cao Zhixin, Huang Hao, Yang Liu, Yang Bauhinia, Li Kangmeng, etc. As time goes by, those arrested will continue to emerge.
At the end of November, protests against the authorities' blockade broke out in several cities in China, known as the "white paper movement". Protesting students in many places chanted the slogan of "freedom and democracy", and the people in Shanghai also chanted "Communist Party step down" and "Xi Jinping step down".
After the protest ended, many participants were secretly arrested all over the place. Human rights lawyer Wang Shengsheng and others who provide free services to the arrested people revealed that some of these arrested people have been released on bail pending trial, some have been criminally detained, and the whereabouts of some are still unknown.
Some analysts believe that because the "white paper movement" aroused the attention of international public opinion at that time, the authorities did not immediately launch a large-scale arrest, but chose to settle accounts after the fall and suppress them secretly. Some analysts pointed out that the CCP suppressed the "White Paper Movement" because it wanted to use the protesters as "scapegoats" for the large-scale outbreak of the epidemic, and shift the responsibility for the sudden lifting of the lockdown by the authorities to this protest.
News (15) to (20) / Reporter : Xia Yu / Editor : Ye Ziwei / https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/23/1/18/n13909744.htm
News (15)
Analysis: Xi Jinping's third term faces challenges from Generation Z
Image : On 27 November 2022, protesters held up blank papers against censorship and China's strict "dynamic clearing" epidemic prevention measures in Beijing. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
In late November 2022, Chinese young people held up a blank sheet of paper across the country and launched activities to protest the zero-covid policy and demand freedom. The white paper movement has become the largest public outrage Xi Jinping has encountered since he came to power. In Xi Jinping's third term, he is also facing the challenges brought about by China's Generation Z, which is increasingly pessimistic about the future.
After three years of lockdown, covid, economic hardship and isolation, many of China's Generation Z (280 million people born between 1995 and 2010) have found new political voices, dismissing them as nationalist keyboard warriors or the stereotype of the apolitical loafer.
News (16)
Young people no longer have blind trust in CCP leaders
Reuters reported on January 17 that how to appease Generation Z, which faces record youth unemployment in China and the slowest economic growth in nearly half a century, is a decision-making challenge for Xi Jinping's third term. Improving the livelihoods of young people without abandoning an export-led economic growth model is inherently conflicting for a government that aims to maintain stability.
Surveys show this generation is the most pessimistic of all age groups in China. Some analysts say that while the protests hastened the end of the zero-clearing measures, the hurdles China's youth face in achieving a better standard of living will be more difficult to overcome.
"As young people's road ahead becomes narrower and more difficult, their hopes for the future are dashed," Wu Qiang, a former political science lecturer at Tsinghua University and now an independent commentator in Beijing, told Reuters. Young people no longer have "blind trust and flattery" in Chinese leaders, he added.
Some Chinese youths interviewed by Reuters also expressed frustration.
"If they (the CCP) don't change their policies, then there will be more protests, so they have to change." Alex, 26, told Reuters that she declined for fear of reprisals from the Chinese authorities. Reveal last name.
"But I don't think young people will look back and think that nothing bad happened in China," she said.
News (17)
Generation Z hold the most pessimistic view of China's economic progress
Some analysts said that China's Generation Z has its own characteristics, posing a dilemma for Xi Jinping.
With the three-year cleanup of the CCP and the severe damage to the Chinese economy, many Chinese young people choose to "lay flat". Although there is no data on the number of "lying flat". Yet there is one consistent factor brewing the White Paper movement: growing dissatisfaction with the economic outlook among young people.
A survey of 4,000 Chinese by consulting firm Oliver Wyman found that of all age groups, Generation Z had the most pessimistic view of China's economic prospects. By contrast, American peers are more optimistic than most previous generations of Americans, according to a McKinsey study.
According to an Oliver Wyman survey conducted in October 2022 and released in December, about 62 percent of China's Generation Z worry about job security, and 56 percent worry about the prospect of a better lifestyle, far more than the older generation.
"It's educated pessimism. Based on the facts and reality of what they've seen," Zak Dychtwald, founder of the Young China Group, a research firm that examines trends among Chinese youth, told Reuters.
"I don't think these protests would have happened 10 years ago, but this generation of young people thinks they should have their voices heard in a way that older generations didn't."
News (18)
Xi Jinping faces a challenge to improve prospects for China's young adults
In his New Year speech, Xi acknowledged the need to improve prospects for China's youth, but made no mention of the anti-zeroing protests against him. "The prosperity of the youth leads to the prosperity of the country," Xi said, without elaborating on possible policies to help young people.
According to a Reuters report, for the CCP, which is obsessed with "maintaining stability," it is unimaginable to give Generation Z more political power.
Meeting Gen Z’s expectations for higher wages will make Chinese exports less competitive for the Xi Jinping regime amid a slowing economy. Making housing more affordable could mean crashing real estate, which has accounted for a quarter of China's economic activity in recent years.
Xi’s crackdown on technology and other private-sector industries during his second term has also led to mass unemployment and fewer job opportunities for young people, especially high-paying opportunities.
China's economy has grown by 3% in 2022, a sharp slowdown from 8.1% growth in 2021, China's National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. In addition to growing just 2.2% in 2020, last year saw China's slowest GDP growth since the end of the decade-old Cultural Revolution in 1976, according to the World Bank. The surveyed unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was 16.7% in December, after peaking at nearly 20% last July.
News (19)
Generation Z do not benefit from "common prosperity" unless there is fair play
Fang Xu, an urban sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Reuters that even though the government has been talking about "common prosperity," it seems impossible to level the playing field for the new generation.
"Their parents were able to accumulate wealth from the real estate market, from private businesses, and this situation is unlikely to be repeated," Fang said.
"Fair play means it's not impossible to devalue the property market enough for younger people to buy, but it would be a huge blow to older generations," he said.
News (20)
Increase in immigration intention among Chinese youths
Given the risk of arrest, most of those involved in the White Paper movement kept a low profile. It's unclear what their hopes and plans are for the future, but some young people feel motivated to pursue their ambitions elsewhere.
Deng, a 19-year-old university student who spoke to Reuters on the condition of partial anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, felt that her hopes for success in China were slim.
"If I want to stay in China, I have two options: stay in Shanghai to work and do an ordinary office job, or listen to my parents and go back to my hometown, take the civil service exam and lie flat," Deng said. She added that she intends to immigrate.
During Shanghai's two-month lockdown last year, online searches for study abroad were five times higher than the 2021 average, according to Baidu. Another spike came during the white paper protests in November.
WeChat’s official public opinion monitoring function “WeChat Index” shows that the number of searches for “immigration” reached 116.72 million on 6 December 2022, and the overall index value reached 112.51% month-on-month, the highest in a week.
The "China Observer" column of "Politician" quoted a source from a California immigration company on December 8 last year, saying that in the days after the white paper protests, Chinese citizens' interest in asylum applications in the United States increased sharply. 10 times more consultation requests than usual.
Both Deng and Alex see more dissent in the near future.
"You either accept the system or leave China," Alex said.
News (21) to (25) / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/18/a103627565.html
News (21)
Shaanxi villagers: Almost all the elderly in the village have died
The epidemic in China has spread, and the number of infections and deaths has surged. The situation in some big cities has attracted a lot of attention, and the situation in remote villages may be even more serious.
On 16 January 2023, a villager from Chisha Town, Chencang District, Baoji, Shaanxi Province told The Epoch Times that there were many deaths from the epidemic in their area, and the remains were buried in their own fields, and dead people were buried everywhere in the area.
The lady said that almost all the people in their 70s, 80s and 90s in the village had died, and in her village alone there were more than a dozen dead. Some retired public officials in the village also died. Their remains were taken to the funeral parlor in Baoji City, but they could not be cremated, and they were all taken back to the village for burial.
The villager also revealed that the villagers can't buy medicine now, and the hospitals and pharmacies have run out of medicines, so those who are infected can only carry it at home.
News (22)
Urgent purchase of cremation furnaces in many places, Shantou requires three-day delivery
At the same time, urban funeral homes are urgently purchasing additional cremation furnaces due to the accumulation of corpses and too little time to deal with them.
On 6 January 2023, the funeral home in Shantou, Guangdong Province issued a tender announcement through the government website, "emergency purchase of 2 cremation furnaces". The bidding announcement also clearly states that the delivery will be made within 3 days after the signing of the contract, and the installation will be completed and ignited for use within 10 days. The bidding budget is 2.824 million RMB.
Shantou is not an isolated case. According to incomplete statistics, since January, there have been at least 37 tenders related to cremation furnaces in the bidding announcements published on the government websites of many provinces in mainland China. (Funeral Home in Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, Funeral Home in Yongcheng Civil Affairs Bureau, Henan Province, No. 2 Funeral Home in Yuanjiang, Hunan Province, Kangping County, Liaoning Province, Jining City Funeral Home in Shandong Province, Funeral Home in Ninghai County, Yishui County, Jiayuguan City Funeral Home in Gansu Province, etc.)
News (23)
Jet Li's martial arts teacher "Shaolin Temple" actor Yu Hai is dead
A new round of the epidemic is raging in China, the number of infections and deaths has increased sharply, and a large number of experts and celebrities have died together. On January 16, Yu Hai, one of the main actors of the movie "Shaolin Temple", passed away suddenly. Known as the "Praying Mantis Boxing King", Yu Hai has appeared in many martial arts films. Kung Fu star Jet Li once cooperated with him in filming and worshiped him as his teacher. He is also the master of Wolf Warrior Wu Jing.
The family did not mention Yu Hai's cause of death in the obituary. But some netizens said: "Why did I fall, and then I got the new crown." It is suspected to be related to the epidemic.
News (24)
Hawk Faction Representative Li Jijun, Former Director of the General Office of the CCP Military Commission, died
Recently, many members of the CCP military have died of illness. On January 12, Li Jijun, former commander of the 38th Group Army and director of the General Office of the Central Military Commission, died of illness. Li Jijun is considered to be the first representative of the CCP military hawks. Author of "China's Military Strategic Thinking" and other CCP military theory books.
On 9 January 2023, Xiao Jian, former director of the Political Department of the Kunming Military Region, died of illness. On December 27 last year, Song Qingwei, the former political commissar of the Jinan Military Region of the Communist Party of China, died of illness.
News (25)
The death of playwright Zhao Huan has created many brainwashing scripts
Recently, there has been a sharp increase in the number of deaths from the epidemic, including CCP officials and celebrities from all walks of life. Most of them are CCP members or people who stand for the CCP. On 15 January 2023, the famous playwright Zhao Huan died of illness. Zhao Huan used to be the director and creative team leader of the Guangzhou Military Region Drama Troupe. During his lifetime, he wrote many drama scripts praising the CCP and brainwashing the people for the CCP, including "Dong Cunrui".
News (26) to (27) / Editor : Li Hong / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/18/a103627620.html
News (26)
Pompeo's memoir: Secret meeting with Kim Jong-un opens with assassination joke
Image : On 9 May 2018, then US Secretary of State Pompeo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Former U.S. Secretary of State and former CIA Director Pompeo wrote in his new memoir that his secret meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018 was based on a " Jokes About Assassinations" began.
Fox News obtained a copy of Mike Pompeo's memoir. It opened the meeting with Kim Jong-un: "This small, sweaty vicious man tried to break the deadlock of silence with all the charisma you could expect from a mass murderer." He began : 'Mr. Chief, I didn't expect you to show up. I know, you've been trying to assassinate me'."
Pompeo recalled: "My team and I prepared for this meeting moment, but 'joke about the assassination' was not on the list of 'things he might say when he greets you.' But I am CIA after all. Director of the CIA, so maybe his joke was on point."
Pompeo's memoir, Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, will be released 24 January 2023. The outside world speculates that the former Trump cabinet secretary may announce his participation in the 2024 presidential election. Pompeo said last month he would announce his 2024 plan this spring.
In the first chapter of the memoir, obtained by Fox News, Pompeo wrote that his meeting with Kim was "completely confidential." His goal is to "correct past failed efforts to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons of mass destruction." After the North Korean leader opened with an assassination joke, Pompeo said he responded in kind.
Pompeo said in his memoir: "I decided to start the conversation with a little humor of my own too. I said, 'Mr. Chairman, I still want to kill you right now.' As you can see in the photo taken seconds after the conversation, Kim Jong Un is still smiling. He seems to believe I'm joking."
Pompeo served as director of the CIA during the Trump administration. In 2018, the President appointed him Secretary of State.
News (27)
Two other potential Republican President candidates' memoirs exposed
Pompeo is not the only potential Republican presidential candidate to have published a memoir about his time in the Trump administration.
Former Vice President Mike Pence published his memoir "So Help Me God" in November. It details his relationship with former President Trump.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is also seen as a strong contender for the 2024 presidential election. He's also about to publish his memoir, The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival. The book will be published in February this year.
News (28)
Department of Justice: Biden's lawyers can search confidential documents without supervision
Reporter : Li Zhaoxi / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2023/01/18/a103627750.html / Editor : Lin Qing / Image : On 12 January 2023, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate President Biden's confidential documents. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
Recently, U.S. President Joe Biden has faced investigations for mishandling classified documents. The investigation "complicated" and did not interfere with the work of special counsel Hull, which the Justice Department ultimately decided not to do.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday (17 January) that Biden's personal lawyer has been given permission by the Justice Department to visit the president's residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach. Search for classified documents and notify the department of any found so law enforcement can take custody of them as quickly as possible.
The Justice Department's decision was partly due to the fact that Biden's lawyers were quick to hand over the first batch of classified documents found on Nov. 2 in the former private office of a Biden think tank in Washington, D.C. .
Since then, Biden's lawyers have found more confidential documents at Biden's home in Wilmington: an unknown number of documents were found in the garage on 20 December 2022; One document was found; five more were found in the study on 12 January. So far, Biden's personal lawyers have uncovered a total of 25 classified documents, some of which are top secret.
Republican lawmakers demanded an answer from the White House on the classified documents incident, alleging double standards in the Justice Department's handling of classified documents related to Biden and those related to former President Trump.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer called on the White House to release visitor records at Biden's Delaware home but the White House and the Secret Service say no such records are kept.
Critics have questioned why Biden's personal attorney sought the classified documents in the first place. Questions have also been raised about why the president's legal team has continued to search his home for classified documents even after the appointment of a special counsel.
Jonathan Turley, a lawyer and professor at George Washington University School of Law, said: "It is strange that Biden did not use security personnel or the FBI to conduct further searches. The president has a large number of people who often deal with classified materials. Then why use a lawyer?"
CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang posed the same question to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at a briefing before the Journal's story was published.
"Just like what you did today, you repeatedly emphasized the need for the independence and integrity of the Justice Department's investigation," Jiang Weijia said, "so I wonder why the White House counsel went to Wilmington to assist in the transfer of the documents to the Justice Department."
"I appreciate the questions. I know there might be dozens more today, and I would say contact the White House Counsel's office," Jean-Pierre said. "That's something they're going to answer."
“It has to do with what you’ve been telling us, how important it is for the White House to separate the White House from the Justice Department’s investigations,” Jiang Weijia pressed, “but the White House lawyers are the ones who process the documents, find them.”
"They have been working closely with the Justice Department," Jean-Pierre responded, and if you want to know more about their actions, especially what they are doing, you should ask the White House Counsel's Office.
"Listen, guys, you can ask me 100 times, 200 times if you want. I'll keep saying the same thing," Jean-Pierre added.
Biden has so far refused to commit to being questioned by special counsel Robert Hur, and Jean-Pierre has been wrestling with the president's cooperation with Hur's investigation.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Li Zhaoxi/Editor in charge: Lin Qing)
News (29)
Myanmar arms industry sees growth after coup
Sources : Voice of America, The Associated Press / https://www.voachinese.com/a/myanmar-arms-industry-grows-20230116/6921377.html / Image of the Myanmar Junta military planes : The Irrawaddy
Independent international experts have found that companies from at least 13 countries contribute to Myanmar's ability to produce the weapons to carry out atrocities following the 2021 military coup.
The report released Monday by the Special Advisory Committee on Myanmar details how Myanmar has stepped up arms production since the military coup.
The Burmese military coup reversed nearly a decade of progress toward democracy in Myanmar after five decades of military comradeship. Opponents of military rule took up arms after security forces used deadly force against peaceful protesters. Some UN experts believe Myanmar is in the midst of a civil war.
APP recorded the deaths of more than 2,700 civilians in the violence, including 277 children, and the detention of more than 13,000 people. The real figure is believed to be higher.
Companies in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East are supporting supply chains for the Myanmar military, the report said. The report urges those companies to ensure they do not contribute to human rights abuses.
Some countries have imposed arms embargoes or sanctions on individuals and companies involved in arms trade or manufacture.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned businessman Aung Moe Myint in October for conducting arms deals on behalf of the military. His brother, Hlaing Moe Myint, and the trading company they founded, Dynasty International Company Ltd, were also sanctioned. Company director Myo Thitsar was also sanctioned.
The United States imposed sanctions on the military's aircraft supplier in November, citing deadly airstrikes on civilians.
There are no private arms manufacturers in Myanmar and any such companies are regulated by the Ministry of Defense and the Directorate of Defense Industries, the report said.
Local factories can still rely on licensed technology and overseas supply chains, technical and other support, sometimes sending weapons to Singapore and Taiwan for maintenance, the report said.
In a statement, committee expert Chris Sidoti urged governments to investigate and, if evidence emerged, take action against companies that allow the Burmese military to manufacture weapons that are used "to strike civilians indiscriminately".
"Foreign companies that profit from the suffering of the Burmese people must be held accountable," Sidoti said.
Companies from Russia, China, Ukraine, Israel, Singapore and the Philippines have helped Myanmar, according to a report last year by the UN Human Rights Office.
A major reason for strengthening the domestic arms manufacturing industry is the risk of being cut off by embargoes or sanctions from imports of arms, military aircraft and other weapons, the report said. The military is now able to produce its own small and light weapons.
The report said that Myanmar's weapons manufacturing capabilities include rifles, machine guns, mortars, anti-tank, missiles, artillery and anti-aircraft systems.
Myanmar is producing landmines and sea mines, reports said, and photos of the weapons have been displayed at the Defense Security Exhibition in Bangkok.
The report said the Defense Industries Directorate's weapons factories used fuzes, optical sights and detonating caps imported from India and China. They also have computer numerical controls, machine tools and cutting units produced in Austria, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and the United States.
The exact number of factories is unclear, but analysis of satellite imagery and other information has identified dozens of such facilities.
Before the military coup, most of the technology used in the weapons manufacturing industry was converted to civilian use.
More research is needed on the complex web of suppliers, technology licensees and other details of weapons manufacturing, the report said.
Armed conflict between Myanmar's central government and ethnic minorities in border areas seeking greater autonomy has been going on for decades.
(This article is based on a report by The Associated Press.)
News (29)
Myanmar's Civilian Government calls on neighbours to deny Junta jets airspace access
Source : The Irrawaddy
Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG) has called on neighbouring countries to stop junta warplanes from using their airspace following last week’s air raids along the Indian border.
On 10 and 11 January junta fighter jets attacked Camp Victoria, the headquarters of the Chin National Front (CNF), near the border, killing five Chin fighters, injuring many others and damaging a health clinic and civilian houses.
The NUG’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on Tuesday that CNF and other sources reported seeing the jets entering Indian airspace during the attack amid claims that some bombs landed in Indian territory.
“This is not the first time the illegal junta has used the airspace of its neighbors while committing atrocities, with Bangladesh and Thailand earlier examples. Nor is it the first time that junta bombs have struck foreign soil during such air raids,” the shadow ministry said.
“The NUG calls on Myanmar’s neighbors, in the interests of regional peace and security and the protection of civilians, to block junta use of their airspace for attacks,” it said.
The statement referred to the United Nations Security Council’s condemnation of attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in resolution 2669 while demanding an end to violence.
Junta aircraft have also intruded into Thai and Bangladeshi airspace while launching airstrikes on resistance forces in Karen and Rakhine states.
International human rights watchdog Fortify Rights last week called on India to prevent junta jets from accessing its airspace and take measures to protect Chin and Indian civilians along the border.
No comments:
Post a Comment