What a vaccine designed in China looks like
The China Letter: January 5, 2021
Welcome to another year of rounding up the news from China that its own citizens aren’t able to see for themselves. It’s easy to share this newsletter on social media, in a group chat, or by forwarding it to a friend:
Knowing these vaccines
China gave its first COVID-19 vaccine approval to Sinopharm, while promising free shots for all citizens. Sinovac, another Chinese firm, has racked up orders for its vaccine in other countries despite piecemeal data about its efficacy. A third made-in-China vaccine from CanSino has entered late-stage trials towards worldwide approval.
But the first anniversary of the novel coronavirus revived the discussion about where it all began: Matthew Pottinger, the U.S. deputy national security adviser says the “most credible” source of the outbreak remains a laboratory leak in Wuhan, and not a wet market. World Health Organization investigators will be headed there soon.
Beijing Jiankangbao is a mobile app that records the health status of residents in the Chinese capital, including celebrities whose data was hacked until the bug was fixed.
Jack Ma off the radar
The high-profile founder of Alibaba wasn’t publicly seen in more than two months when reports circulated about his absence from Africa’s Business Heroes. Jack Ma has faced increased scrutiny from China since criticizing its government. Speculation that he’s missing escalated when another Alibaba executive appeared on the TV show instead.
Meet a huge new tycoon
Zhong Shanshan made more than US$70 billion in 2020 thanks to bottled water and non-coronavirus vaccines, which vaulted the 66-year-old from China to the position of richest person in Asia—and the 11th-richest on Earth—according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. Meanwhile, a different billionaire ended the year back behind bars:
Jimmy Lai was ordered back into custody one week after being released on bail, after Hong Kong’s top court decided the charges of colluding with foreign forces meant he had to stay behind bars. Also continuing to make worldwide headlines is Zhang Zhan, who was jailed for four years due to sharing her viral social media dispatches from Wuhan.
Australia looking around
BBC News reports on how Australian citizens with Chinese ancestry are now facing greater suspicion and scrutiny based on their heritage as tensions escalated between the nations. At year’s end, some economists were suggesting that Australia’s economy was irrevocably damaged, although it stands to motivate industries to turn elsewhere:
The factories in the camps
The fourth part of a detailed investigation brings satellite images of more than 100 new facilities in Xinjiang adjacent to the camps where Muslim minorities are held. Beijing has called them educational and vocational, although China admitted jailing a medical doctor whose American family members were protesting the internment of Uighurs.
The last words, for now
Female egalitarians became a stand-up comedian trend of 2020 in China, as they helped to illuminate a lack of societal progress by poking fun at their relationships with men. But this performance style was also bound to confound the targets—and one of those comics faced an attempt to censor her routine about the ways of the opposite sex:
The China Letter is produced by the Canadian Freedom Institute, a think tank based in Canada. We produce the China Letter every week to keep you informed and to press the ideas of free markets and free people not only in China but around the world. Please consider donating to keep this newsletter running!