Shanghai outbreak; People's Leader Xi; Work relief program to bolster employment; Tencent and Sun Lijun
Summary of today’s top items:
Outbreaks - Caixin reports that Shanghai, with 378 cases across all 16 districts in the last 9 days, is reopening some centralized quarantine sites and that many neighborhood committees in Putuo, Hongkou and Xuhui districts have advised residents to prepare 14 days of food and medicine.
Ming Pao says Xi Jinping will get a third term, be named “People’s Leader 人民领袖” - Hong Kong's Ming Pao, which often gets leaks of PRC political news, though they are not always accurate, has a story today claiming that Xi will be re-elected to another term and after the 20th Party Congress Xi will be officially named as "People's Leader 人民领袖" and the propaganda formula around that title will be "One Leader/Lingxiu is essential". The article also says that official standards for Xi portraiture may be coming, just as Mao Zedong and Hua Guofeng's portraits had, which could suggest a campaign to push Xi portraits throughout the country.
More relaxation of Hukou restrictions - China is poised to scrap all Hukou restrictions in cities with a population lower than 3 million as well as relax such restrictions in cities with a population between 3 and 5 million, according to a plan unveiled by the National Development and Reform commission on July 12.
Infrastructure and work relief plans - The State Council has approved a plan “to carry out work-relief programs in major projects in order to boost employment and increase incomes for local people”, in yet another sign of how grim the employment situation must really be. And the NDRC and the Ministry of Transport just announced an “upgrade of the country's national highway plan released in 2013”.
South Pacific meetings - PRC officials must be both annoyed and amused by how much their recent efforts in the South Pacific have set the US and Australia scrambling. After years of neglect the US is opening new embassies and sending waves of officials. Now the US Vice President will speak virtually to the Pacific Islands Forum meeting. Let’s hope the PIF nations can reap some tangible, long-lasting benefits from all this sudden concern.
New book on Tencent - Bloomberg has an excerpt from Bloomberg reporter Lulu Chen’s new book Influence Empire: The Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition. The book sounds fascinating, the excerpt talks about how fallen former vice minister of Public Security Sun Lijun tried to use WeChat to surveil other officials, and some of the problems that caused Tencent and its founder Pony Ma.
Thanks for reading.
1. Outbreaks
Caixin reports that Shanghai, with 378 cases across all 16 districts in the last 9 days, is reopening some centralized quarantine sites and that many neighborhood committees in Putuo, Hongkou and Xuhui districts have advised residents to prepare 14 days of food and medicine.
Shanghai reports 54 new local asymptomatic COVID cases, 5 symptomatic for July 11 | Reuters
Shanghai reported 54 new domestically transmitted asymptomatic coronavirus cases for July 11, down from 63 a day earlier, while local symptomatic cases fell to five from six, the city government said on Tuesday.
Three new cases were reported outside quarantined areas, compared to one case a day before.
上海9天新增阳性378例涉全部16区 部分隔离点方舱重启_财新网_财新网
Caixin reports that Shanghai, with 378 cases across all 16 districts in the last 9 days, is reopening some centralized quarantine sites. The article also notes that there is more than one BA.5 outbreak source, all are from people returning from overseas, that the first case was from someone who arrived from the US on June 23, did their time in centralized quarantine than home self-observation, then tested positive July 6, 13 days after they arrived. So if the person arrived with BA.5 then this may lead officials to decide that the recently revised down to 7 days centralized quarantine needs to be reset back to a longer period. The article concludes by saying that many neighborhood committees in Putuo, Hongkou and Xuhui districts have advised residents to prepare 14 days of food and medicine 近日，普陀区、虹口区和徐汇区的许多街镇居委已建议居民，备好14天左右的食品和医药储备
A neighborhood committee in Putuo, Shanghai issued a notice suggested residents stock up food and medicine for 14 days just in case - 上海倡议做好14天左右食品和医药储备？居委回应|虹口区|居委会_网易订阅
Unnerved Shanghai residents brave stifling heat for mass COVID tests | Reuters
More than 200 buildings have been placed under lockdown across Shanghai, which reported 59 new cases for July 11, down from 69 the day before. All but three cases were already under isolation orders.
Residents in some compounds which are not on the official list of targeted lockdowns say they have also been told not to leave their homes for at least two days because close contacts of an infected person lived in those buildings.
The latest testing campaign involves more than half of the city's 16 districts and will take place from Tuesday to Wednesday, with residents asked to test twice over the period.
Rumors going around:
China tells local governments to drop COVID tests on some goods | Reuters
Local governments no longer need to test ambient foods or other goods for the virus, said the National Health Commission on its website, but it was not clear if the products would still be subject to checks at customs.
Chilled and frozen foods will continue to be tested, however, but exporters will not face import suspensions when their goods test positive at customs checks, added the NHC.
Xi Jinping’s Covid-Zero Policy Meets Red Line at Vaccine Mandates - Bloomberg
Wu Liangyou, deputy director of the National Health Commission’s Disease Control Bureau, pledged in October that vaccination should be voluntary -- something social media users in Beijing reminded officials of last week. An article posted on “Wuyou Zhixiang,” a prominent online platform for China’s Maoist leftists, questioned whether authorities would somehow profit from a mandate, suggesting without evidence there was collusion with manufacturers.
Shanghai Tells Employers Not to Reject Recovered Covid-19 Job Seekers - Caixin
The government’s public response comes as online anger swirl over discriminatory practices from employers against recovered patients, especially in the case of reports of migrant workers sleeping on the city streets or in underpasses after losing their source of income for months.
To deal with too-strict anti-epidemic policies imposed by local authorities, the State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism has established a platform on the website of the National Health Commission for people to report controversial regulations.
According to media reports on Tuesday, as of July 7, the platform had received 13,862 clues and 11,609, or 83.7 percent of them, had been dealt with. Another 2,253 cases were still being dealt with.
A theater in South China's Guangdong Province on Tuesday apologized and said it had revised an admission notice which prohibited the entry of visitors who were once infected with COVID-19, amid an outcry against discrimination.
Caixin In Depth: Lockdowns Expose Covid’s Cost on Mental Health in China
When Shanghai lifted most of its restrictions to free movement on June 1, long lines were seen outside the Shanghai Medical Health Center’s branch in Xuhui district, Caixin learned. Long queues also formed outside the mental health center of Jing’an district, said Zhou Zhou, secretary of the center’s Communist Party branch. On June 1 and 2, more than double the usual number of patients visited the center, Zhou said.
The lack of access to health care and drugs was one problem to emerge this spring in Shanghai, but many Covid patients from around China also developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or suffered other mental health issues such as severe anxiety and feelings of stigma, leading experts to call for change.
2. Ming Pao says Xi Jinping will get a third term, be named “People’s Leader 人民领袖”
Hong Kong's Ming Pao, which often gets leaks of PRC political news, though they are not always accurate, has a story today claiming that Xi will be re-elected to another term and after the 20th Party Congress Xi will be officially named as "People's Leader 人民领袖" and the propaganda formula around that title will be "One Leader/Lingxiu is essential". The article also says that official standards for Xi portraiture may be coming, just as Mao Zedong and Hua Guofeng's portraits had, which could suggest a campaign to push Xi portraits throughout the country.
Mao Zedong was titled “伟大领袖 Great Leader” and Hua Guofeng was called “英明领袖 Wise Leader”, but I do not believe any leader since Hua has gotten the “lingxiu” title. Until Xi.
This could be a bad rumor, it could be a leak by someone to test the waters, and/or create more urgency for pushing back, though given the sensitivities in Hong Kong these days I will guess Ming Pao is fairly confident in the sourcing for this.
We have been here before. This is what I wrote in the August 26, 2020 newsletter:
Long-time readers know I have a bit of an obsession with Xi and the title “People's Leader 人民领袖”, as over the last couple of years he has several times seemed to be on the cusp of getting it and then it kind of faded away. This is what I wrote in the January 6, 2020 Newsletter: