Tag: Beijing

Baidu, Pony.ai start driverless robotaxi tests in Beijing

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Baidu Inc and Toyota Motor Corp-backed startup Pony. ai said on Friday they been granted the first licences to test fully autonomous vehicles without safety operators as a backup in Beijing.

Baidu and Pony.ai said they would begin testing 10 driverless vehicles each in a technology park developed by the Beijing government as a step towards commercial robotaxi services in China’s capital.

Beijing-headquartered Baidu, which generates most of its revenue from its internet search engine, has focused on self-driving technologies over the last five years as it looks to diversify.

It started to charge fees for its robotaxi service Apollo Go last year. It has predicted a robotaxi ride would eventually cost about half as much as one in a commercial car with a driver. The company said it would add another 200 robotaxis to its network across China in the coming year.

Apollo Go, which operates in Wuhan and Chongqing without a safety driver, delivered a total of 1.4 million driverless rides by end of the third quarter, Baidu has said.

Rival Pony.ai, which has operations in China and the United States, has been testing autonomous drive systems in Guangzhou, where it operates a taxi service. It is also testing autonomous drive vehicles in California and Arizona, where it employs safety drivers in the cars as a precaution.

While Chinese companies are pushing for self-driving cars, automakers outside China have retreated from the ambitious rollout schedule predicted a few years ago and regulatory roadblocks have appeared.

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Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” system requires a human behind the wheel ready to take control, three years after CEO Elon Musk predicted the company was on track to deliver a fleet of a million robotaxis.

Tesla has been under criminal investigation in the United States over claims that the company’s electric vehicles can drive themselves.

Cruise, General Motors Co’s robotaxi unit, has said it plans to add thousands of autonomous vehicles in the coming year and to expand its service across San Francisco and other US cities.

US auto safety regulators said earlier this month they had opened a safety investigation into the autonomous driving system used by Cruise after incidents where the vehicles braked inappropriately or became immobilised.

In October, Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG shut down their shared self-driving startup, Argo AI, after concluding that the mass deployment of a commercial autonomous drive system would take more time and money than the companies predicted when they joined forces in 2019.

In March, Pony.ai agreed to repair a version of its autonomous driving software in the United States after an informal inquiry by the National Highway Traffic Safety concluded a defect had caused a test vehicle to crash into a traffic median in California.

Also Read:From Renault Duster to Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai Santro, cars that got discontinued in 2022

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China likely to lose huge sums it has loaned to developing countries, warns analyst

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Three-fifths of the world’s developing countries are facing problems in repaying the vast sums of money they owe to China, one of the world’s largest single creditor nations, said an analyst.

As some developing countries fall behind on their debts, China stands the risk of never getting repaid the vast sums of money, columnist Federico Giuliani wrote in the InsideOver publication.

According to the analyst, over half the world’s poor countries owe more to China than to all Western governments combined, ANI reported.

Beijing has generously donated to some countries for their infrastructure projects like hydroelectric dams, airports and highways, making the country a lender of choice for many nations. However, the debt in countries such as Pakistan, Suriname and Kenya has grown massively.

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Giuliani said China provides loans to other countries at adjustable interest rates more than Western governments or multilateral institutions.

“However, with global interest rates rising swiftly, debt payments are soaring when nations can least afford to pay,” ANI quoted the analyst as saying.

Most of the countries that have taken loans from China realise that the money invested by Beijing generates jobs only for Chinese people. Even profits are booked mostly by Chinese enterprises, Giuliani said.

In the future, China will face problems as they will get a reduced return on debt, the analyst said.

In the past decade, China’s loans to lower and middle-income countries tripled from $40 billion in 2010 to $170 billion in 2020, BBC reported. However, the country is likely to have given more that the disclosed amount.

According to research by the international development body AidData, China does not report half of its lending to developing countries in official debt statistics.

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These are often loans given to state-owned companies and banks, joint ventures or private institutions and not directly from the government to the government.

As a result of this hidden debt, there were over 40 low and middle-income countries whose debt exposure to Chinese lenders crossed 10 percent of the size of their annual economic output (GDP).

The debt of countries like Djibouti, Laos, Zambia and Kyrgyzstan is at least 20 percent of their annual GDP, the BBC report said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here is why bus drivers in Beijing asked to wear emotion-sensing wristbands

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Beijing’s long-distance bus drivers have been given electronic wristbands with emotion-sensing technology to monitor their state of mind. The move was initiated by the state-run Beijing Public Transport Holding Group, to improve public safety as there had been several accidents in the recent past.

About 1,800 wristbands were distributed to bus drivers on cross-province and highway routes, as per a report by the official Beijing Daily. However, it is unclear how many drivers will be required to wear the devices.

The trial of the wristbands was performed on the bus drivers working in Beijing’s Tongzhou district and some central routes on June 1.

As per the report, the wristbands would monitor the drivers’ vital signs and emotional state in real-time. These bands would monitor body temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen levels, blood pressure and sleep to correlate data and determine emotions such as anxiety. This data can be accessed by the public transport company in real-time.

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The new requirement was introduced just weeks ahead of the ruling Communist Party’s five-yearly congress in Beijing for which the officials across China have been told to minimise social risks.

It also comes after several accidents including a recent incident in which 27 people were killed and 20 injured in a bus crash in the southern city of Guiyang in Guizhou.

However, the legality and the need for wristbands have been questioned by some social activists and experts. Many have argued that there is a need to collect so much personal information from bus drivers. Also, if these devices do detect drivers in distress, will there be time to intervene remains a crucial doubt.

ALSO READ: Wall Street banks prep for grim China scenarios over Taiwan

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India outlines risk for students planning to study medicine in China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India has issued a detailed advisory for prospective students wanting to study medicine in China, cautioning them of the pitfalls, including poor pass percentage, mandatory learning of official spoken language Putonghua and stringent norms to qualify to practice in India.

The advisory was issued as thousands of Indians studying in Chinese medical colleges are currently stuck at home for over two years due to Beijing’s COVID visa ban. According to official estimates, over 23,000 Indian students are currently enrolled in various Chinese universities. A vast majority of them are medical students.

After over two years of COVID visa restrictions, China has recently started issuing visas to a selected number of students to return. However, most of them struggled to return as there are no direct flights and the two countries are still in talks to work out limited flight facilities keeping in view Beijing’s quarantine restrictions. The Chinese medical colleges, meanwhile, began enrolment for new students from India and abroad.

Against this backdrop, the Indian Embassy in Beijing issued a comprehensive advisory on Thursday for students from India wanting to study medicine in China. The advisory has results of the studies, which outlined difficulties faced by Indian students in China and the stringent norms they face to qualify for practicing medicine in India.

A striking feature of the advisory is that only 16 percent of the students passed the required test between 2015 and 2021 to qualify to practice in India. Only 6,387 out of 40,417 students who appeared in FMG (Foreign Medical Graduate) Examination of the Medical Council of India (MCI) from 2015 to 2021 have cleared it.

The advisory underlined that the pass percentage of Indian students who have studied clinical medicine programmes in China in that period in 45 accredited universities was only 16 percent.

“The prospective students and parents may please note this fact while deciding on seeking admission in Chinese universities for clinical medicine programme,” it said.

On the costs, it said the fee structure is different for different universities and advised students to check from the university directly before taking admission.

The advisory listed 45 medical colleges designated by the Chinese government to provide medical degrees in five-year duration plus a one-year internship. Indian students are advised not to seek admission other than those 45 colleges.

The Chinese government has clearly mentioned in their official communication that foreign students can only join medical programmes in 45 universities in English language.

They cannot join the clinical medicine programme in China which is offered in the Chinese language. They have also clearly stated that any university offering clinical medicine programmes in bilingual mode (English and Chinese language) is strictly forbidden, the advisory said.

“However, learning the Chinese language is mandatory for clinical sessions. Hence, every student will also need to learn the Chinese language up to HSK-4 level. Any student who does not clear this minimum Chinese language skill will not be awarded a degree,” it said.

The advisory also highlighted that Indian students studying medicine in China have to obtain a license to practice in the country where they obtained the degree.

“After completion of the internship, students have to clear the Chinese Medical qualification examination and obtain a physician qualification certificate to practice in China,” the advisory said.

“It is important to clear the qualification exam to practice in India as the NMC (National Medical Commission) regulations dated November 18, 2021 state that any prospective student who seeks medical education abroad should necessarily have a license to practice in the country of a graduate after completion of his/her clinical medicine programme, before he/she can appear for FMG examination in India,” it added.

Also, the Indian students who are interested in taking a medical qualification from China are required to clear the NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate) exam, which is the entry examination for undergraduate medical education in India, as a prerequisite to pursue medical education abroad, the advisory said.

It also said that only those students who clear the NEET-UG for admission to undergraduate medical education in India will be eligible to appear for the screening test, namely, the Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE).

On the quality of clinical medicine undergraduate programmes in China, the advisory listed the feedback from past students. The Embassy has received several feedbacks from past students who have completed such programmes earlier. One of the most common challenges is the English language skills of Chinese teachers in these universities.

“Few students have also complained about lack of practical/clinical experience in terms of engaging with patients in certain universities,” the advisory said.

It advised prospective students and their parents to look at the study conducted by the National Board of Examination of the pass percentage of students who had studied in various Chinese universities.

It also advised the students who are planning to enrol in any university in China to ascertain themselves whether the university is in the list of 45 universities, the duration of the course (as it varies university to university), curriculum being offered, language of instructions, mode of education (online or offline), fee structure and visa requirements before proceeding to China.

Due to the Dynamic Zero Covid Policy’ of China, there are various restrictions and quarantine norms in China, which vary from city to city and are very strict and demand full compliance without exception. Moreover, these regulations are updated regularly.

Therefore, Indian students enrolled in Chinese universities are advised to take note of the latest regulations of the place of travel and make appropriate arrangements, the advisory said. The advisory noted that China’s Ministry of Education has not published any separate ranking of various Chinese universities which offer clinical medicine programmes.

However, the embassy prepared a table as per the pass percentage of Indian students in FMG Examination the link of which is provided in the advisory. The advisory said prospective students may wish to make their own judgement while making a decision to choose the university as the Embassy or the National Medical Council of India has not done any ranking or evaluation of the quality of education offered by these universities to foreign students in China.

Also Read: Distance learning degrees to be treated on par with conventional ones: UGC

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Beijing isolates thousands over COVID cluster at 24-hour bar

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Authorities in China’s capital Beijing on Monday raced to contain a COVID-19 outbreak traced to a raucous 24-hour bar known for cheap liquor and big crowds, with millions facing mandatory testing and thousands under targeted lockdowns.

The outbreak of nearly 200 cases linked to the city centre Heaven Supermarket Bar, which had just reopened as curbs in Beijing eased last week, highlights how hard it will be for China to make a success of its “zero COVID” policy as much of the rest of the world opts to learn how to live with the virus.

The re-emergence of COVID infections is also raising new concerns about the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy. China is only just shaking off a heavy blow from a two-month lockdown of Shanghai, its most populous city and commercial nerve centre, that also roiled global supply chains.

Dine-in service at Beijing restaurants resumed on June 6 after more than a month in which the city of 22 million people enforced various COVID curbs. Many malls, gyms and other venues were closed, parts of the city’s public transport system were suspended, and millions were urged to work from home.

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“We have to test every day now. It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s necessary,” said a 21-year-old resident surnamed Cao, who runs a convenience store in Beijing’s largest district Chaoyang, where the bar cluster was discovered. “The virus situation has hurt our business a bit, it’s down about 20-30 percent.”

Chaoyang kicked off a three-day mass testing campaign among its roughly 3.5 million residents on Monday. About 10,000 close contacts of the bar’s patrons have been identified, their residential buildings put under lockdown, and some planned school reopenings in the district have been postponed.

Queues snaked around some testing sites on Monday for more than 100 metres, according to Reuters’ eyewitnesses. Large metal barriers have been installed around several residential compounds, with people in hazmat suits spraying disinfectant nearby.

Last week, as dine-in curbs were lifted, Heaven Supermarket Bar, modelled as a large self-service liquor store with chairs, sofas and tables, reclaimed its popularity among young, noisy crowds starved of socialising and parties during Beijing’s COVID restrictions.

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The bar, where patrons check aisles to grab anything from local heavy spirits to Belgian beer, is known among Beijing revellers for its tables plastered with empty bottles, and customers falling asleep on sofas after midnight.

With the almost 200 COVID cases linked to the bar since June 9, authorities described the outbreak as “ferocious” and “explosive” – people infected live or work in 14 of the capital’s 16 districts, authorities have said.

Officials have not commented on the exact cause of the outbreak, nor explained why they are not yet reinstating the level of curbs seen last month.

The bar cluster was caused by loopholes and complacency in epidemic prevention, state-backed Beijing Evening News wrote in a commentary piece on Monday.

“At a time when normality in the city is being restored, the fall of Heaven Supermarket Bar means the hardship and effort of countless people have been in vain,” the newspaper wrote. If the outbreak grows, “consequences could be serious, and would be such that nobody would want to see,” it added.

Stuck in Paradise

Heaven Supermarket Bar, and other businesses nearby, including the Paradise Massage & Spa, were under lockdown, with police tape and security staff blocking the entrances.

A handful of customers and staff at the parlour would be locked in temporarily for checks, authorities said. In all, Beijing reported 51 cases for Sunday, versus 65 the previous day, in line with a national trend of falling cases.

Shanghai, which completed mass testing for most of its 25 million residents at the weekend after lifting its lockdown and many of its curbs at the start of the month, reported 37 cases, up from 29.

As Beijing authorities wrestled with new COVID cases in April, retail sales in the capital shrank 16 percent year-on-year, while property sales nosedived 25 percent. Data for May, due later this month, is expected to be dire as well.

Before the bar cases, there had been high hopes for a rebound in June.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Hemmed in by COVID-19 curbs, Beijing residents seek respite in urban outdoors

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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On a hot, sunny day, children and adults splashed in the cool run-off of the Yongding River in a park on the western outskirts of Beijing, a city under near-lockdown in China’s head-on battle with COVID-19.

While gatherings are discouraged and many parks in the sprawling city of 22 million are shut, Beijingers – like others across China with limited travel options – have taken up outdoor pursuits such as camping and picnicking after more than two years of strict and often claustrophobic pandemic curbs.

Li Xiaoming, manager of Sanfo Outdoor, the largest outdoor equipment store in west Beijing, told Reuters sales of camping products had quadrupled from a year earlier since the Tomb Sweeping holiday in early April.

Customers, typically middle class urbanites, snap up camp chairs, canopies and tents, which range in price from 800 to 2,000 yuan ($120-$300), Li said.

One customer surnamed Wang tried on camping hats during a recent shopping expedition. “I’m longing to be closer to nature to get relaxed. Camping may gradually become a way of life for me,” she said.

ALSO READ | Beijing extends work-from-home order as COVID-19 cases rise

Research firm iiMedia Research predicts that China’s camping industry will grow 19 percent this year to 35.46 billion yuan ($5.3 billion). The number of camping-related businesses grew by 22,000 in 2021, an increase of 55 percent, according to Travel China, a government website.

Near the banks of the Yongding, high school student Huang Xiaowen played guitar and sang as she and two friends sat on a plaid picnic cloth before getting up to play volleyball.

Huang, whose classes have moved online, said she often visits the park on weekends to relax with her classmates to escape hemmed-in city quarters and enjoy the quiet.

ALSO READ | China’s Beijing ramps up COVID-19 quarantine, Shanghai residents decry uneven rules

“We cannot have sports classes so there is no balance between schoolwork and rest,” she said.

Nearby, families and groups of friends ate lunch under the shade of trees, some with camping gear including tents, tables and chairs. Children caught tiny fish in pails as trains rumbled past on a nearby elevated track.

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Beijing resident Teng Fei was picnicking with his family.

“Because of the pandemic, both young and old people in the city are in a depressed mood,” he said.

“Camping makes everyone relax a little bit.”

($1 = 6.6670 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China’s Beijing ramps up COVID-19 quarantine, Shanghai residents decry uneven rules

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Beijing stepped up quarantine efforts to end its month-old COVID outbreak as fresh signs of frustration emerged in Shanghai, where some bemoaned unfair curbs with the city of 25 million preparing to lift a prolonged lockdown in just over a week.

Even as China’s drastic attempts to eradicate COVID entirely – its “zero-COVID” approach – bite into prospects for the world’s second-biggest economy, new reported infection numbers remain well below levels seen in many Western cities. The capital reported 48 new cases for Monday among its population of 22 million, with Shanghai reporting fewer than 500.

Still, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan called for more thorough measures to cut virus transmission and adhere to the nation’s zero-COVID policy during an inspection tour in Beijing, state agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

The situation in Beijing was manageable, but containment efforts cannot ease, she said, according to Xinhua.

In one example of the stringency of Beijing’s approach, around 1,800 people in one city neighbourhood were relocated to Zhangjiakou city in the nearby Hebei province for quarantine, the state-backed Beijing Daily reported.

Still in place are instructions for residents in six of the capital’s 16 districts to work from home, while a further three districts encouraged people to follow such measures, with each district responsible for implementing its own guidelines.

Beijing had already reduced public transport, requesting some shopping malls and other venues to close and sealing buildings where new cases were detected.

In Shanghai, authorities plan to keep most restrictions in place this month, before a more complete lifting of the two-month-old lockdown from June 1. Even then, public venues will have to cap people flows at 75 percent of capacity.

‘LET’S STRIKE’

With Shanghai officially declared to be a zero-COVID city, some authorities allowed more people to leave their homes for brief periods over the past week, and more supermarkets and pharmacies were authorised to reopen and provide deliveries.

ALSO READ | China GDP grew 4.8% in Q1 amid COVID surge; below 5.5% target set for 2022

But other lower-level officials separately tightened restrictions in some neighbourhoods, ordering residents back indoors to cement progress achieved so far during the city’s final lap towards exiting the lockdown.

That has led to frustration and complaints of uneven treatment among some residents.

While the zero-COVID status describes the entire city, and residents in some compounds have been allowed to move in and out of their homes freely, others have been told they can only go out for a few hours, and many of those stuck indoors were told nothing.

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Videos circulating on social media this week showed residents arguing with officials to be let out of their residential compounds.

The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

One resident told Reuters people in his compound decided on the WeChat social media platform to go out in groups.

“Let’s strike at our gate tonight to demand that we be allowed to go out like many of other compounds in the neighbourhood,” he quoted one of his neighbours as saying in the group chat.

ALSO READ | Shanghai to gradually reopen malls, hair salons from Monday after weeks of strict COVID-19 lockdown

A video he shared then showed a group of people arguing at the entrance of the compound with a man who described himself as a sub-district official, who asked the residents to go back inside and discuss the situation.

“Don’t bother with him,” one person said as some people were socialising outside the compound.

People in at least two other compounds were planning to try going outside despite not being told they were allowed to do so, residents said.

ALSO READ | COVID-hit Beijing keeps up guard to avert Shanghai-like misery

ECONOMIC RESPITE?

At a time when most other countries are moving to models of living with the virus, China’s COVID measures are inflicting damage on its economy, as well as disrupting global supply chains.

Many analysts expect the economy to shrink in the second quarter, even if the overall COVID situation across China and economic activity has improved this month when compared with April.

To support the economy, China will broaden tax credit rebates, postpone social security payments by small firms and loan repayments and roll out new investment projects among other steps, state television quoted the cabinet as saying.

In one positive signal for Shanghai, electric vehicle giant Tesla plans to reach on Tuesday production levels similar to those before the lockdown at its plant in the city, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Nomura analysts estimate 26 Chinese cities were implementing full or partial lockdowns or other COVID measures as of May 23, accounting for 208 million people and 20.5 percent of China’s economic output. That would be down from 271 million the week before and 27 percent of output.

“But to us, this is merely a respite instead of a turning point,” the analysts wrote in a note. They said passing a turning point would depend exclusively on an exit from the zero-COVID strategy, and not so much on daily case numbers and monthly activity data.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Beijing extends work-from-home order as COVID-19 cases rise

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Beijing extended orders for workers and students to stay home and ordered additional mass testing Monday as cases of COVID-19 again rose in the city.

Numerous residential compounds in the Chinese capital have restricted movement in and out, although conditions remain far less severe than in Shanghai, where millions of citizens have been under varying degrees of lockdown for two months. Beijing on Monday reported an uptick in cases to 99, rising from a previous daily average of around 50.

In total, China reported 802 new cases Monday, marking a steady decline interrupted only by small-scale localized outbreaks. Despite that, the government has hewed to strict quarantine, lockdown and testing measures under its zero-COVID approach, even while the outside world is opening up.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Chinese economy takes a hit as Beijing, Shanghai reel under lockdown

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Battling the worst coronavirus outbreak since it emerged in Wuhan two years ago, China on Monday acknowledged that its economy was hit by the Omicron variant leading to lockdowns of several cities as data showed the economy shrank dramatically in April, with experts warning that the decline is yet to bottom out.

China, which prides itself on stamping out COVID-19 after it broke out at Wuhan in December 2019 before it became a pandemic causing havoc around the world with millions of deaths, struggled to deal with the Omicron Tsunami in the last few months resulting in lockdowns of several cities including its business hub Shanghai besides capital Beijing, which is currently under semi-lockdown.

Officials in Shanghai on Monday announced that they will gradually open up Shanghai, China’s largest city of over 25 million people, from June 1, ending a two-month lockdown which brought the business-industrial hub to a grinding halt. Shanghai has cut off the community transmission of COVID-19 in 15 out of its 16 districts, the local health commission said on Monday.

The city reported 69 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 869 local asymptomatic cases on Sunday. From June 1 to mid-late June, Shanghai will fully restore the normal order of production and life across the city with standard epidemic prevention and control measures, while strictly preventing any resurgence of the epidemic, Zong Ming, Vice Mayor, told the media.

The city which witnessed vocal public protests over the handling of the crisis by the government reported 582 deaths since March with thousands of people treated in make-shift hospitals. Meanwhile, Beijing, which is under semi-lockdown, began 3-day third round testing of its 21 million people on Monday as the city remained in semi-lockdown for the third week to break the chain of the virus.

The lockdowns were meanwhile impacting the Chinese economy which is reeling under the Ukraine war and trade tensions with the US and the EU. China’s economy is expected to recover gradually as the country achieves major anti-epidemic outcomes and pro-growth policies take effect, Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday as the 2nd largest economy took a hit from the three-month-long run of the Omicron variant of the COVID shutting several cities.

The economy is expected to improve in May with the accelerating resumption of work and production in Shanghai and Jilin as well as the implementation of pro-growth measures, Fu was quoted as saying by the official media. According to the official data, China’s April industrial production contracted by 2.9 per cent year-on-year, while retail sales were down 11.1 per cent, as the effects of Omicron flare-ups’ disruptions on the economy further deteriorated.

This led to calls for a fine-tuning of China’s coronavirus policies, especially the firmly imposed zero-COVID policy and increased stimulus have grown louder as the April data showed the economy shrank dramatically. Major indicators measuring China’s economy fell short of expectations with industrial production, retail sales, fixed-asset investment and the surveyed jobless rate falling to their weakest levels in more than two years.

China’s economic activity contracted in April and was the most severe since the first quarter of 2020 during the first wave of the COVID outbreak, Tommy Wu, lead China economist at Oxford Economics said. Wu expects a contraction in the second quarter before returning to growth in the second half of the year.

The risks to the outlook are tilted to the downside, as the effectiveness of policy stimulus will largely depend on the scale of future COVID outbreaks and lockdowns, he told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. The surveyed jobless rate of unemployment in China, which does not include figures for the nation’s tens of millions of migrant workers, rose to 6.1 per cent in April, which is the second-highest record 6.2 per cent in February 2020.

The headline figures mean that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by around three per cent from a year earlier in April, Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered said. China’s economy grew at 4.8 per cent in the first quarter, falling below the 5.5 per cent target set for this year by the ruling Communist Party. Cao Heping, an economist from Peking University, told state-run Global Times that the poor data in April reflected the drag caused by the epidemic, which was already shown in March and became more serious in April.

The epidemic’s impact on Hong Kong and Shanghai as well as a large spillover was clear to see, as the two most dynamic economic regions in China, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, were impacted, Cao said, noting the impact was carried over into May, he said. Cao said the dual impacts meant that the downward pressure China faced in April is the most serious challenge since the first quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak first hit Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow