Why is China masking useless health supplies?
The China Letter: April 29, 2020
Sticking up for Beijing
Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates defended the communist Chinese response to COVID-19 saying that the regime’s “did a lot of things right in the beginning.” He made this statement during an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and went on to say that criticizing China’s handling of the pandemic response is “a distraction.”
Failing the virus help test
Rapid coronavirus test kits made in China were found to be faulty after they were used in some states in India, although the embassy disputes this assessment. But this followed Beijing’s internal confiscation of 89 million face masks that fell short of standards. Some of the substandard N95 masks seemed to surface in Canada.
The claim from White House adviser Peter Navarro that China sent the U.S. low-quality and even counterfeit coronavirus test kits have contributed to questions surrounding “mask diplomacy.” Taiwan has stepped in by making its own mask donations around the world, as the self-ruled island is seeking to distinguish itself from its isolation by China.
Wandering about Wuhan
The lockdown has officially ended in Hubei province, with factories back to working around the clock amid many limitations—although few residents want to go out for dinner. Wuhan has reportedly discharged its last 12 coronavirus patients from hospital.
China’s wealthiest man
The billionaire entrepreneur who founded Alibaba is on a mission that includes wanting to deliver medical supplies to every country around the world. “Has this bold venture into global philanthropy unveiled him as the friendly face of China’s Communist Party?” asks the BBC in its profile of Jack Ma. “Or is he an independent player who is being used by the Party for propaganda purposes?”
Caught in virtual crossfire
False claims about the COVID-19 “patient zero” have spread far and wide enough to turn Maatje Benassi and her family’s life upside down. As for where accusations like this originate, research has found central sources in Russia and China. But when the final report was rewritten with fewer critical words, it raised some different questions:
Post-lockdown protesting
The anticipated revival of protests in Hong Kong began, despite a ban on public gatherings of more than four people. China is now prosecuting its first foreign national over a previous really. Meanwhile, a dissident Hong Kong bookseller, who was arrested after returning to mainland China, figured out how to reopen his store in Taipei, Taiwan.
The last words, for now
Fifty years to the day of the launch of China’s first satellite, its National Space Administration announced July 2020 as the month when the Tianwen-1 orbiter, lander and rover is scheduled to lift off. A landing on Mars is expected within the year, to fulfill a “quest for heavenly truth” that poet Qu Yuan had been contemplating two millennia ago:
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