Patients gather at Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) in Stadium Melawati Shah Alam February 8, 2021. Dr Hishamshah Mohd Ibrahim said currently, the rising new cases in the country were due to new variants such as the Delta variant. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
PUTRAJAYA, Aug 6 ― The daily Covid-19 cases are expected to continue increasing before the country’s vaccination rate achieves 80 per cent by the end of the October, said deputy Health director-general (Research and Technical Support) Datuk Dr Hishamshah Mohd Ibrahim.
He said currently, the rising new cases in the country were due to new variants such as the Delta variant.
“Taking the example of the high vaccination rate in the Federal Territory of Labuan and Sarawak has shown new cases are dropping but over here (Labuan and Sarawak), admission into intensive care units (ICU) and the death rate have shown a drastic fall.
“So if we could do the same thing in the Peninsula, more so at the hotspots which are experiencing rising transmissions especially in the Klang Valley with higher vaccination rate, we will see a drop in cases.
“The decline in cases may take some time but more importantly we want to see a decrease in terms of serious patients admission into wards and those who died,” he said in a special media conference here today.
Also present were Health Ministry (MOH) secretary-general Datuk Mohd Shafiq Abdullah, Health deputy director-general (Public Health) cum Greater Klang Valley Special Task Force commander Datuk Dr Chong Chee Kheong and Selangor Health director Datuk Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman.
He said as at July 22, MOH had detected 409 cases of variants of concern (VOC) related to Cov id-19 virus in Malaysia which was 189 cases for Delta variant, 206 cases for Beta variant and 14 cases for Alpha variant.
“This month, we expect the number of genome sequencing to increase as we have established a consortium of seven laboratories in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and at universities.
“It will increase another 1,000 genome sequencing a month and thus we will be able to have more detailed information on the distribution of variants in our country,” he said. ― Bernama
Fort Detrick, UNC labs at center of virus origins controversy
A member of the Frederick Police Department Special Response Team peers out of a minivan before the team entered Fort Detrick on April 6. Photo: VCG
After hundreds of political parties and scientists around the world voiced concerns and firm opposition to the US-led politicization campaign on the COVID-19 origins tracing work, US politicians appeared to not give up their playbook of slandering China. But a growing number of questions linger over the US, including unexplained pneumonia outbreaks in the country: Why is the US reluctant to conduct mass testing on its early cases? What happened with its mysterious Fort Detrick and worrisome biolabs around the world? Why doesn't it release data concerning the sickened American military athletes who attended the world military games in Wuhan in 2019? and what happened in a biolab at the University of North Carolina that lately has become a new focus of public suspicions?
Over 300 political parties, social societies and think tanks in over 100 countries and regions opposed politicizing virus origins tracing in a joint statement sent to the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat recently after global scientists have been calling for a thorough and sincere international cooperation over the origins-tracing issue in which China has set an example.
It has become increasingly clear that Washington is turning the origins studies into a political maneuver as more Chinese diplomats spoke out in denouncing the Joe Biden administration for engaging in a "terror-making campaign" on the matter. US politicians also put the WHO in an awkward position as the US government has been pressuring it on origins tracing in recent months.
On the origins-tracing work, the Chinese Foreign Ministry recently said the US should start with four things, including publishing and examining the data of its early cases, inviting WHO experts to investigate Fort Detrick and its 200-plus biolabs overseas, inviting WHO experts to investigate the University of North Carolina and release the data concerning the sickened American military athletes who attended the world military games in Wuhan. Observers and experts said the US should do more amid rising doubts and suspicions, and react to those unanswered questions.
.Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
Clouds of suspicion
The international community clearly views the US, which has been hyping the "lab leak" theory and engaging in groundless attacks against China, as responsible for leaking the SARS-CoV-2, one insider told the Global Times.
A laboratory at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, led by the renowned US coronavirus expert Ralph Baric, is becoming, together with the infamous Fort Detrick lab, the focus of public suspicion in the search for the origins of the virus.
Baric's team is the authority when it comes to [coronavirus] research with widely recognized capability in synergizing and modifying coronaviruses, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian. He urged the US to invite WHO experts to investigate the UNC facility. "A probe into Baric's team and lab would clarify whether coronavirus research has created or will create SARS-CoV-2," Zhao said on Friday.
With a more mature environment of lab virus synthesizing and operating, as well as more virus leakage cases in history, the virus was obviously more likely leaked from the US labs if the "lab leak" claim is true, said Chinese biosecurity specialist Li (pseudonym), who works at a research institute in eastern China.
"We appeal to the WHO to put US labs, including the one located at UNC, into its Phase-II investigation," Li told the Global Times on Tuesday.
While the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese scientists have called on the US to release data and medical records of US military personnel who fell ill during the world military games in Wuhan, some US media and people also raised concerns that the Pentagon did not test their soldiers attending the Wuhan games.
According to an opinion article in the Washington Post, athletes from countries including France, Germany and Italy have publicly claimed that they had contracted what they believed to be COVID-19 at the military games in Wuhan.
"In Washington, military leaders either dismissed it or weren't aware of it. Meanwhile, no one performed any antibody tests or disease tracing on thousands of athletes. No one even attempted to find out whether the games in Wuhan were, in fact, the first international pandemic super spreader event," read the opinion piece.
A Pentagon spokesperson said in an email that there was no screening because the Wuhan military games - held from October 18 to 27, 2019 - "was prior to the reported outbreak." The spokesperson cited December 31, 2019 as the critical outbreak day, the US political magazine American Prospect reported on June 30, 2020. Since that email, Pentagon officials have repeatedly declined to speak on or off the record on the subject.
In addition to suspicions on US biolabs and untested athletes, whether some of the patients of the mysterious vaping-related lung disease that swept through all of the 50 US states in 2019 also sparked more doubts, after Chinese scientists found that 16 e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury (EVALI) patients were involved in viral infections, which indicates that they could have had COVID-19. Five of the cases were determined as "moderately suspicious."
"Why does the US remain silent? What's hidden there?" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying asked in a tweet on Wednesday, after more and more voices called for an investigation in the US, especially at its Fort Detrick lab.
Some US labs preserve samples of the viruses they uncover instead of reporting them, said Yang Zhanqiu, a virologist at Wuhan University. "Some samples are even held for decades," Yang told the Global Times.
Reject US-led politicization
On the next phase of origins study, the WHO said recently that member states agreed that the origins tracing should not be politicized and the WHO is having positive consultations with a large number of states, including China.
Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference on Friday that the next stage origins study is building on the report of the Phase-I mission, in which many studies were proposed to go forward.
He said Chinese colleagues are implementing some of the studies raised in the report, and "we look forward to updates from colleagues from China and we expect to continue in China and a number of countries from around the world."
The Chinese health authority rejected WHO's Phase-II COVID-19 origins study in mid-July, calling it lacking respect to common sense and being arrogant to science amid rising politicized moves of the US government on the matter, as the WHO's plan was proposed when the US-led West intensified the politics-driven conspiracy about a "lab leak" theory and exerted political pressure on international scientists to give up their scientific position on the origins issue.
"We want to reassure colleagues in China that the process is and has always been driven by science," Ryan said, noting that everybody is calling for this.
There's widespread agreement among all our member states, let's not politicize the process, Ryan noted.
Malaysia today reported a new all-time high for the most Covid-19 daily infections in 24 hours, with the Health Ministry recording 19,819 cases.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 1,183,110 since the start of the pandemic.
Dr Noor Hisham said Selangor remains the state with the highest number of infection at 8,377 cases followed by Kuala Lumpur which recorded 2,467 cases.
This was followed by Kedah (1,371), Johor (1,162), Kelantan (1,003), Sabah (949), Penang (867), Negri Sembilan (800), Perak (662), Pahang (558), Sarawak (552), Melaka (508), Terengganu (481), Putrajaya (46), Perlis (11) and Labuan (5).
Both Kelantan and Penang’s numbers were new record highs.
Dr Noor Hisham said there were 12,704 recoveries recorded, bringing the total number of those discharged to 962,733.
Meanwhile, 35 new Covid-19 clusters have been detected by health authorities in the past 24 hours.
Dr Noor Hisham said 20 of these were community clusters, 14 were workplace clusters and one was linked to religious activity.
The clusters were detected in Kelantan, Sarawak, Perak, Sabah, Selangor, Terengganu, Johor, Melaka and Kuala Lumpur.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today announced a new record high for both the daily Covid-19 fatality rate and patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU) nationwide at 257 and 1,069 respectively.
The previous record for the Covid-19 daily death rate stood at 219 on August 2, while the record for highest cases receiving treatment in ICU was 1,066, which was yesterday.
Dr Noor Hisham said today’s deaths have taken the cumulative total to 9,855 since the pandemic arrived in Malaysia.
Officials in various countries call for investigating the U.S. Fort Detrick lab in the global #COVID19 origin tracing, opposing the politicization of the tracing. #GLOBALinkpic.twitter.com/QAfm5PK3Nh
Beijing's sincerity big contrast to US hypocrisy: observers
Officials in various countries call for investigating the U.S. Fort Detrick lab in the global #COVID19 origin tracing, opposing the politicization of the tracing. #GLOBALinkpic.twitter.com/QAfm5PK3Nh
Is this the anti-pandemic record of success that Washington has been boasting about?
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Photo: fmprc.gov.cn
Ahead of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's series of Foreign Minister's Meetings on East Asia Cooperation via videoconference, China stressed the "practice of true multilateralism and to reject exclusive cliques or zero-sum games" in the Foreign Ministry's Monday statement, which was seen by observers as a clear message to the US amid its recent unprecedented busy efforts to court Southeast Asia against China and create divisions in the region.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry published the spokesperson remarks on its official website on Monday, as Wang is scheduled to attend the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting, the ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum to be held via videoconference from Tuesday to Friday.
The spokesperson's remarks highlighted regional hotspot issues such as the battle against COVID-19, vaccines in particular, and boosting economic recovery among others, hinting furthering cooperation with the bloc over these topics could be on top of the agenda of the meetings, observers said.
"As a responsible major country, China will continue to play its role and do its best to meet regional countries' demand for vaccines. We support joint efforts to build a regional vaccine manufacturing and distributing center to promote vaccine accessibility and affordability in the region," the spokesperson said.
"We should work for the early implementation of the RCEP Agreement, keep regional industrial and supply chains stable and unobstructed and boost an early economic recovery in all countries," the remarks continued.
Regardless of the US sending Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to virtually meet ASEAN officials for five consecutive days this week, there is a huge contrast between China's sincerity in deepening cooperation with ASEAN to contribute to the region's peace and prosperity and US hypocrisy as the US' ASEAN foreign policy is centered on and determined by to what extent the region could play to contain China, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Monday.
Reuters on Saturday pointed out in recent years top US officials have not always attended ASEAN meetings and have sometimes sent more junior officials to the region's summits.
To reverse the Biden administration's image of paying little attention to the region of more than 600 million people, apart from Blinken's busy schedule this week, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand in May and June, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Vietnam and the Philippines this week, and Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit Singapore and Vietnam.
The US State department official said that donations of COVID-19 vaccines to the region had been a "game changer in terms of how our image is perceived." By mid-next week the US will have donated 23 million doses to countries in the region, Reuters reported, while noting none of the doses will go to Myanmar.
However, in a big contrast, according to Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Deng Xijun on July 20, China has supplied more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the bloc, taking up more than 70 percent of global vaccine aid to the region.
US foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region is very clear, and it is never about safeguarding the interests of ASEAN, and everything including vaccines could be used as political tools to court the region to help contain China, Li said.
Judging from trade statistics between the US and ASEAN, trade in goods has been sluggish since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Even though trade rebounded significantly by gaining more than 20 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year as a result of the vaccination rollout, this momentum has still been overshadowed by that of trade between China and ASEAN.
Trade between China and ASEAN rose over 85 times in the past three decades, with ASEAN becoming China's largest trading partner in 2020.
However the US is trying to woo ASEAN, the bloc will not blindly follow the US, nor will it betray China's interests in the region. A strong and increasingly stronger China is irresistibly the favorable choice for pragmatic and independent ASEAN, Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
Chinese analysts also said that a search for a diplomatic solution to address political turmoil in Myanmar and bring stability back to the country will be another main topic in the multilateral meetings this week. However, there is hardly common ground where Beijing and Washington could work together in the sphere.
Six months after the political upheaval in Myanmar, ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to meet on Monday to appoint a special envoy tasked with promoting dialogue between the military leaders and opponents.
It will become a sticking point between Beijing and Washington, although they both prefer stability in Myanmar and agree on ASEAN to spearhead diplomatic efforts to restore stability in Myanmar, Xin Qiang, a deputy director of the Center for US Studies at Shanghai-based Fudan University, told the Global Times.
The question is will the US turn the issue into a proposition to create conflict with China and create chaos in ASEAN and to interfere in Myanmar affairs in the name of human rights and ideology awaits further observation, Xin noted.
If the US targets harming China's interests in Myanmar, there will be no room for cooperation for China over the matter, Li warned.
On Oct 24 2020 during the Bund Summit in Shanghai, Jack Ma delivered his
keynote address where he criticised China’s regulators’ saying
“outdated supervision” of financial regulation was stifling innovation
and its global banking rules were like an “old people’s club.”
.
PEOPLE who have invested heavily on China stocks in the past two years must be wondering when did it all start to go wrong? After all, China did celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party recently on July 1.
Usually on such momentous occasions, one would expect China’s government to prop up financial markets and show the world its economic strength. Ironically, most Chinese stock market indexes are down year to date giving up the strides made for the better half of the year as seen in table 1.
So, did it all start with Jack Ma? On Oct 24 2020 during the Bund Summit in Shanghai, Jack Ma delivered his keynote address where he criticised China’s regulators’ saying “outdated supervision” of financial regulation was stifling innovation and its global banking rules were like an “old people’s club.”
He called for change and said that Chinese banks had a “pawnshop mentality which affects many entrepreneurs.” Many suspected that this led to regulators scuttling Ant Group’s Us$37bil (Rm156mil) mega initial public offering (IPO) and the eventual three-month-long disappearance of Jack Ma.
Before Jack Ma, there was Dalian Wanda Group’s Wang Jianlin, once Asia’s richest man with a net worth of Us$46bil (Rm194bil).
He owned the largest cinema chain AMC (one of the popular Reddit meme stock in 2020/21) and had ambitions to overtake Disney but was hit hard when regulators embarked on capital controls to rein in capital outflow from China.
Businessmen who were taking on debts buying assets all over the world outside of China became a target.
When regulators flexed their muscles, Wang tried to avoid the same fate as HNA Group (one of China’s largest assets buyers which filed for bankruptcy) by immediately disposing foreign assets to comply. Wang then, was among one of the well-connected tycoons to Beijing’s political elites and at one point he was even bidding for the Bandar Malaysia project.
If we were to look back at history, Jack Ma or Wang Jianlin were definitely not the early precedents where China’s government had intervened in businesses.
During the Qing Dynasty, legendary “red-topped hat” businessman Hu Xueyan, the only merchant to be given a second ranked grade official position and control the economy with businesses ranging from banks, pawnshops, silk trade to daily essentials; met with a tragic end despite his fairytale-like rags to riches journey and contribution to the struggling nation then.
This raises the question, what causes the conflict between the China’s government and the business sector?
History have shown us that China is a country where public interests takes precedent over corporate profits.
There are no person or entities that are too big to fail.
This is a complete opposite to United States’s capitalist system. In addition, based on historical literature, the traditional social class structure of China dating back to the imperial periods, consist of four main categories; namely scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants.
Interestingly, merchants have always had the lowest standing in the social class structure.
In the case of Ant Group’s failed IPO, setting aside individual politics and ego, there were justifications for regulators to step in specifically on Ant Financial past lending practices at exorbitant rates.
It was able to bypass regulators’ scrutiny where a financial entity such as banks would otherwise be subjected to. This is rather similar to Malaysia where banks are subjected to regulatory supervision by Bank Negara, whereas money lending entities are subjected to supervision by Ministry of Housing & Local Government (KPKT), allowing it to charge interests as much as 18% per annum.
With regards to Didi Global Inc’s troubled Us$4.4bil (Rm18.6bil) IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the back story was Didi went ahead with its IPO, ignoring Cyberspace Administration of China’s (CAC) order to conduct a thorough examination of its network security. CAC was worried Didi’s massive data will fall into foreign hands due to greater public disclosure associated with a US listing. Clearly, in the interest of its shareholders, many of whom were foreign venture capital and private equity funds, Didi prioritised the listing over national interest.
In the latest regulatory clampdown on the private tutoring education sector, the Chinese government directed that companies in this space to operate as a social enterprise instead of a for profit model.
These new rules barred for-profit tutoring in core school subjects to ease financial pressures on families. The policy change further restricts foreign investment in the sector through merger and acquisition (M&A), franchises and others.
Historically, education is of paramount importance in Chinese’s culture. By doing this, China’s government is seeking to ensure affordable education to a majority of the people in expense of the profiteers.
From table 2, you can see how the best names in each sector have been impacted by China’s new regulatory framework changes in recent times.
Of course there are argument in terms of merits and weaknesses for each governance model. The US model spurs creativity and innovation but it also leads to wide inequality and disparity for the majority of the people. The Chinese model, whilst authoritarian and lacks transparency, does protect the welfare of the masses especially those who may fall through the cracks of society.
Neither one is perfect. It all comes down to different priorities. China have done very well eradicating poverty and lifting the people from hardcore poor to a burgeoning middle class society in the past twenty years.
No matter the propaganda painted in western media to shed China in a negative light, there is no denying that they have accomplished what many countries can only dream of – taking care of the majority of the people.
I am by no means a pro-china hawk as I have undergone western education my whole life. However, with my years of experience working with one of the largest Fortune 500 Corporation in China and being in the inner circle of decision-makers, I have learnt much about their fears, concerns and how they navigate the business, political and social spheres while building a fortune.
Every stock market has its nuances
There is a Chinese character “jing wei” when read together means respect and fear. This word aptly describes how China companies operate at all times.
If you are a Chinese company, wherever you may be, you will bend the knee if China’s government wants you to. It is not easy to be successful in China due to the intense competition. It is even harder to be successful and not attract government attention.
Many retailers often lament, “It is hard to make money from Bursa, better to invest in China and Hong Kong stocks.”
I think it is imperative to first understand that every stock market has its own nuances. Unless one has thorough understanding of the local investment climate, latest news flow and even culture, investing in overseas market is not as simple as just buying big brand names or familiar companies.
It is true that good companies in foreign stock markets is part of a bigger ocean with more opportunities and growth runway due to a larger addressable market.
Similarly there are bigger operators, syndicates or scandals lurking around the corner.
Who would have thought that a company like Luckin Coffee, listed on Nasdaq with a market cap of Us$12bil (Rm50.7bil), once the largest coffee chain in China and touted to be the biggest threat to Starbucks, would turn out to be a fraud?
Having said that, as a fundamentalist, I believe this regulation wave causing the sell down provides a great investment opportunity for these companies due to my belief in the long term prospect of China’s economy.
We must remember that very few people in the world are like Robert Kuok. Some have argued the reason for his success is his early entry into China. I beg to differ. I believe strongly his success in China is because he always placed the interests of China before his own corporate and personal interests.
So entrepreneurs who aspire to do well in China, may consider taking a leaf from Robert Kuok’s playbook and the easiest place to start, is to remove the “I” in the equation of things.
Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
