Tag: coronavirus impact

Samsung poised to benefit from China virus woes afflicting Apple, other rivals

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

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Samsung Electronics stands to be a major beneficiary of the China production problems announced by rival Apple Inc on Monday, reaping the rewards of a decade-long bet on low-cost smartphone manufacturing in Vietnam.

Half of Samsung’s smartphones are now made in Vietnam, where the coronavirus that has crippled the China operations of Apple and many other firms has so far had only a limited impact on its production.

Apple said on Monday it would not meet its revenue guidance for the March quarter due to the coronavirus impact on both production and sales in China, where most iPhones are made. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp last week also flagged a hit to its March quarter sales.

Huawei, another major Samsung rival, has not announced any production problems, but analysts expect it will also be hit hard due to its heavy reliance on Chinese manufacturing and parts. Many Chinese and foreign firms have begun to re-open China factories that were idled for weeks, but shortages of workers and other problems have in many cases kept output to a minimum.

Samsung has also largely ceded the China market to its rivals in recent years, meaning it won’t suffer from the store closures and drop in demand that is hitting Apple and others.

“Samsung is better positioned to weather the virus fallout than its formidable rivals such as Huawei and Apple,” a person with knowledge of Samsung’s supply chain told Reuters.

“The virus exposed China risks. We feel fortunate that we were able to escape the risks,” he said.

Another person familiar with Samsung’s thinking told Reuters: “Samsung does not say it publicly. But it is relieved.”

Still, two sources familiar with Samsung’s Vietnam operations cautioned that should the virus outbreak be prolonged, Samsung would feel the impact, as the company sources many components from China.

Problems with cross-border shipments also cropped up in the early phases of the virus outbreak as Vietnam imposed stricter border controls, according to Hong Sun, vice chairman of Korea Chamber of Business in Vietnam. The issues have since been resolved, Sun said, but risks remain if Chinese parts suppliers cannot get back to work.

Samsung also relies on Chinese contract manufacturers for some low-end models.

In a statement to Reuters, the company said: “We are making our best effort to minimize any impact on our operations.”

TrendForce recently cut its first quarter production forecasts for Huawei by 15 percent and Apple by 10 percent. It cut projections for Samsung Electronics by a smaller 3 percent.

Since starting phone production in Vietnam in 2009, Samsung has aggressively boosted output through cheaper labour and generous government incentives. A number of South Korean suppliers followed suit, powering its breakneck growth.

Samsung ended its own smartphone production in China last year as its market share plunged to nearly zero.

Apple makes most of its iPhones in China via Taiwanese company Foxconn.

Last week, Samsung unveiled a trio of flagship Galaxy s20 smartphones as well as its new foldable phone. Sources said the virus could delay new product launches by rivals.

But the woes of Apple and Chinese rivals are not necessarily good for Samsung, as the South Korean tech giant also supplies memory chips and displays for Apple’s iPhones and other smartphones. Samsung counts Apple and Huawei among its top five customers.

“The virus outbreak is positive for Samsung’s mobile division, but negative for Samsung’s chip and display businesses,” Greg Roh, an analyst at Hyundai Motor Securities, said.

“Samsung will not be completely immune from the virus,” he 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

Coronavirus fallout: Prices of paracetamol, raw materials for key antibiotics soar in India

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

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Prices of raw materials of key drugs such as paracetamol and antibiotics have seen a spike owing to the Coronavirus outbreak. The viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 71,000 people globally.

According to industry heads, raw materials of key drugs used to manufacture painkiller paracetamol and common antibiotics such as Azithromycin and Amoxicillin have seen prices spike anywhere between 20 percent to over 50 percent since the outbreak. Prices of paracetamol raw material has moved up to Rs 450 per kg versus Rs 250 kg earlier, Azithromycin has risen to Rs 12,500 per kg versus Rs 7,800 per kg earlier and Amoxicillin prices have moved to Rs 1,800 per kg versus Rs 1,500 per kg earlier, industry sources say.

One of the key reasons for this increase is that many of the starting materials or raw materials to manufacture these drugs are sourced from China. For example, most fermentation-based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) such as cephalosporin, penicillin and erythromycin are imported from China, with the country being either the largest or the only source globally for these supplies. Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak and a hub for API supplies, has not seen manufacturing restart and supplies from other regions in China are also slow, says the head of an API manufacturing company on condition of anonymity. Supplies from other regions in China are mainly impacted by logistic issues such as slow government clearances.

One of India’s largest manufacturers of paracetamol on condition of anonymity has said shortages have risen. For example, there is currently a 20-30 percent shortage of a key raw material used to manufacture paracetamol. In this case, alternate supplies are unusually tough, according to the company head, as China provides 80 percent of supplies for it. Traders are also taking advantage of the situation and hiking prices of inventory, says Zydus Cadila Chairman Pankaj Patel.

While prices of these key raw materials have surged, the industry doesn’t expect it to filter down to the finished product, as many of these drugs are under price control. Any decision on a hike in prices will have to be taken by the Centre.

Looking for secondary sources

However, the manufacturers remain worried. Most companies currently have inventory for 1 or 2.5 months only. A few have raw materials to meet their needs until Q1FY21 as most companies stocked up on inventory ahead of the Chinese New Year, which is a normal industry practice. But if the current situation lasts beyond April, the raw material shortage will become an issue, Patel noted.

Furthermore, the industry could brace itself for further price hikes. Many companies are already looking for secondary sources of API supplies, buying at higher prices in the spot market and trying to backward integrate as much and as quickly as possible.

While the spike in prices of key raw materials is negative for most pharmaceutical companies, it is an opportunity for some. IOL Chemicals, which manufacturers APIs for pain drug ibuprofen and exports 50 percent of it, says they are receiving more queries from Latin America and countries such as Vietnam. Currently, around 30 percent of global ibuprofen supplies are impacted, as per the company, because one of the key suppliers of ibuprofen API is Hubei Biocause, which is impacted as it is based in Wuhan region.

On the other hand, US-based chemical company BASF is currently facing technical issues and expected to restart supplies only in March. The impact is already seen on ibuprofen API prices. From around $15 the prices have moved up to $18 and expected to rise to $20 as per IOL Chemicals. The company expects its capacity utilization, which is currently at 80 percent, to increase due to the expectant incremental order inflows.

But are incremental supplies an opportunity for the rest of the industry? The likes of Glenmark believe so. In their Q3 earnings conference call, Glenmark said the developments in China are a significant opportunity and it expects flows to come to India from China. Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Patel also echoed this view, saying that the time is ripe to ramp up API supplies irrespective of the price as the shortage of APIs is a long term opportunity for India if the government offers support.

According to Patel, to combat the present shortage, in the near term the industry must ramp up indigenous API capacity whilst for the long term, fresh investments are imperative.

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

Coronavirus impact: Indian buyers of Chinese metal products seek damages over delays in delivery

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

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Indian buyers of Chinese metal products are seeking damages due to a failure to deliver on time amid the coronavirus outbreak, a China trade body said on Tuesday.

Indian companies are seeing that Chinese companies cannot deliver on time and are requesting damage payments, the Metallurgical Council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade said on its website.

The state-backed body did not name any of the firms or the specific products involved.

Other overseas buyers of Chinese metal products have stopped accepting shipments. Companies in places such as Russia, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa have informed Chinese suppliers they are not accepting deliveries, or asked if they can suspend purchases.

China is the world’s biggest metals consumer but also the top exporter of some industrial metals, such as steel and aluminium.

The country’s metal output is set to drop sharply as large numbers of staff are unable to go to work due to quarantine requirements in the wake of the epidemic. Companies also are struggling to secure raw materials or ship out products amid transport curbs aimed at stopping the spread of the virus.

Steel exporters face a dilemma of whether to ship product via sea or rail and cannot guarantee delivery in light of the epidemic, the council said, noting that inland transportation costs had surged and seaports were operating at low efficiency, which is also affecting deliveries.

“Some countries have started to close border crossings, making customs clearance very difficult,” it added.

An official from the metallurgical council told Reuters the group’s annual International Steel Market and Trade Conference, which was due to take place in eastern China’s Shandong province in late March, has been postponed due to the epidemic, joining a long list of major events to have been cancelled or delayed.

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

How Coronavirus outbreak is fuelling Sinophobia and racism

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

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You can leave China but the coronavirus follows you everywhere. At a wedding that I went to recently, there were either a lot of jokes about the coronavirus. Some people took two steps away from me when they heard that I had returned to wait out the epidemic. In my yoga class, a teacher spoke about her friend who went to China saw a monkey’s head being split so that the blood could form a delicate soup. She heard of it, so it must be true of course. People are almost disappointed when they turn to me for confirmation of their biases and I tell them that I have only faced kindness in China.

This week, a friend from Hong Kong was turned away from a hotel in Chennai because they were worried about “panicking their guests”. When I called the hotel, the manager said that his staff had refused to serve anyone from China because they were worried about “health concerns”. After rounds of frustrating conversations, Treebo finally apologised and compensated my friends for their stay. But this is not an isolated incident. On an Indigo flight last week, a traveller refused to sit next to a person from Arunachal Pradesh because they suspected the other of having the coronavirus.

Racist tropes in the media

Around the world, Chinese people are facing xenophobia under the guise of concerns over health. A Norwegian cruise did not allow a Chinese woman aboard even though she had lived in Canada for fifteen years. In Britain, people of Chinese origin have been assaulted and even pelted with eggs. In Italy, which declared a health emergency over the virus has seen a rise in racism with the banning of Chinese people from shops and restaurants. In America, Chinatowns are empty. In Sydney, a man died of a heart attack in Chinatown because bystanders did not perform CPR on him as they were afraid of contracting the disease. In France, the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus is trending because of the rise in racist tropes in the media that feed into xenophobia. Across the world, there is a drop in businesses at Chinatowns even prompting Jeremy Corbyn to visit one in a show of solidarity. But it is not enough. This racism has clear roots in Sinophobia and can’t be easily dismissed as panic over a health crisis.

The incident with the hotel in Chennai made me frustrated because I depend on the kindness of friends, and strangers alike when I am in China. From simple to complex tasks, the people I have met in China have only exuded warmth. This week, I was ashamed that we in India, with our values of Athithi Devo Bhava, remain racist against anybody who doesn’t look like a Bollywood cutout. And my friends from Hong Kong? They’re just telling everyone that they’re from Singapore for the rest of their stay here.

Hamsini Hariharan is the host of the States of Anarchy podcast and is currently based in Beijing.

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

Coronavirus outbreak: All it takes is a virus to divide us

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

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On February 14, 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it was passing Neptune, turned its camera for one last time towards the Earth, the planet of its origin, and snapped a shot. Unlike the Earthrise that had been captured by Apollo, astronauts showing the Earth in glory and beauty, the snap by Voyager was anything but grand. Titled as the “pale blue dot,” the picture showed how almost inconsequential is our existence in this vast cosmos — how fragile and how vulnerable we are. And yes, how fortunate too, in the 4 billion miles between the Earth and the Voyager, there was no other planet where life existed.

The pale-blue dot was a poignant reminder of how humanity was essentially one, despite all its differences of caste, creed, and nationalities, how we were just pale-blue dotters, and not much more.

And exactly three decades later, humanity is facing a global-crisis in terms of an outbreak of influenza virus, and our collective response is anything but a unified one.

Let’s start with the facts first, the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, has infected over 64,000 people and killed over 1400. A vast majority of those infected and dead are from mainland China, the country where the virus emerged. The infections have taken a pandemic scale, and every day the numbers are spiking. In fact, by the time you read this piece, the numbers would have changed for the worse.

The impacts of the current outbreak are there for all to see. There’s anxiety bordering on panic everywhere. Flights have been cancelled to China, travellers from the country are being quarantined. Passengers of three cruise ships with thousands of passengers are stranded, as there is no country allowing them to disembark. The case with the Diamond Princess cruise is especially sad, where some 3500 passengers and crews are stranded outside the port of Yokohama, Japan.

At the start, only a few of the passengers had tested positive for the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19 infection leading to a forced quarantine by the Japanese authorities. In a matter of fortnight, the number of infected people on-board has increased dramatically, over 200 infected on-board. This has freaked out the passengers that are forced to stay on-board; many of them have been pleading and beseeching authorities to let them off while they are still healthy and unaffected.

In the name of greater good

China is under tremendous pressure to deal with the outbreak. For a country aspiring to be a global power, its inability to deal with the viral epidemic is not merely a loss-of-face globally but also internally. China has so-far painted itself in a picture of grandeur, a country of great resource whose time had come. From the Belt-road initiative across Asia to ports in Srilanka, from railways in Tanzania to launch a communication satellite for Bolivia, China has aspirations, nothing less of a global empire. Not wanting to disturb the apple-cart, Chinese officials downplayed the impact of COVID-19, when the first case was reported on December 1, 2019. Rather than dealing with the medical evidence, the authorities seemed more agile in curbing the news about the instance. Take the case of Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist from Wuhan Central Hospital, who was one of the first to talk about the similarities between the new Coronavirus strain and SARS. The authorities acted quickly, not by examining the linkage, but giving a stern warning to Wenliang for “spreading rumours.”

It took almost a month for China to apprise the World Health Organisation about the new Coronavirus, it was done on December 31, 2019. But by then, the things had gone out of hand.

To control the spread, China has imposed unprecedented restrictions on travel, forcing cities in quarantines — affecting over 170 million people. That’s more than the population of Bangladesh, which happens to be the 8th most populous country on our planet.

A divided planet

Never before have such many people forced to live under isolation. Indeed, back in 2014, at the height of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone had imposed a mass quarantine in the vast forest areas. Still, these were sparsely populated, unlike Wuhan or the Hubei province in China. While quarantine is supposedly the best option, its efficacy has not been honestly assessed, especially in this case of COVID-19, when the virus has spread far and wide.

While the origin and the outbreak of the virus are in China, any person living in any part of the planet is at risk. Take the case of British national Steve Walsh, who is dubbed as the “super-spreader” for having infected numerous people, after contracting the virus in Singapore and then travelling to a French ski chalet. By the sheer manner in which our world is interconnected, it’s almost impossible to deal with the outbreak in primitive ways. The only nation that seems safe from the outbreak at the moment is the hermit nation of North Korea, and we will never honestly know.

Rather than uniting for a response, the global community has behaved in a very sectarian way. The first response by the different countries was to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan. Japan, India, the United States, France, Australia, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Thailand were among the first to send in the charters to evacuate. Second, came the isolation, the closing of borders, the imposing of restrictions on travel, and then the mandatory quarantines. This was somewhat similar to the reaction to the Ebola outbreak in 2014, or SARS in 2003.

These measures have only instilled panic and fear and in the lay populace stoking racism and xenophobia. Take the case of a French newspaper, Le Courier Picard, that carried a headline, “yellow alert,” and “yellow peril” in its coverage of the virus outbreak. The Yellow is associated with the pale-color of South Asians, especially Chinese. There are numerous videos on YouTube, where you have people misbehaving with Asian-looking individuals. News reports talk of even Uber drivers are refusing to ferry ”Chinese-named” customers for fear of contracting the disease. And then there are the bizarre and fakes pieces floating on the social media, right from belaboring noodles to stop-buying Chinese goods.

Rather than getting united and dealing with this on a global scale, we are dealing in a fissured manner. Right now, China needs support in terms of food supplies, medications, masks, doctors, but that is not what we are hearing. Indeed, the Chinese administration is haughty and controls with an iron-hand, for it to admit that needs help would be akin to admitting defeat.

Yet, the least we can do is to stand in support of the Chinese. We need to remember when a fire rages, it does not matter whose house it started from, your home is in danger of the fire is not brought in control. This virulent strain of Coronavirus needs to be confronted with bravery and unity. On a global scale, not with a national or regional purview.

In the end, we need to remember; we are not white, brown, or even yellow, people, we are just a bunch of pale-blue dotter living on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. That’s how the Voyager-1 had captured us and that’s how we forever will be.

Shashwat DC is Founder Editor at Sustainabilityzero.com. With deep interest in history, and mythology, he is also a passionate champion of the environment & bio-diversity. Using his keyboard, he highlights issues related to sustainability, ESG, CSR, and sustainable development.

Read Shashwat’s columns here.

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

Coronavirus impact: India’s dependence on Chinese APIs may lead to drug price rise, shortage

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

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The dependence of pharmaceutical companies on China when it comes to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), intermediates and other key starting materials is well documented. As per the USFDA, as of August 2019, up to 13 percent of manufacturing sites for APIs for drugs in the US market are located in China, 18 percent in India and 13 percent in the rest of the world.

While the amount of API manufacturing sites is limited to only 13 percent in China, experts say a bulk of US drugs are linked to API imports from that country. This dependence is either via final drug manufacturers or directly via API suppliers to US drug manufacturers. As per Gary Cohn, a former economic adviser to Donald Trump, China produces 97 percent of antibiotics used in the US.

For India, as of FY19, China accounted for 67 percent of total imports of bulk drugs and intermediates. Heads of pharma companies point out that almost 80 percent of India’s key starting material for the production of cephalosporin, a type of antibiotic, is from China. The supply chain, according to pharma companies, runs deep and is complicated. For example, as Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma explained on its Q3 earnings conference call, while the company’s formulations business is not so dependent on China, the companies from whom it sources raw materials could have some dependence on Chinese intermediates. So one might think they are buying from India but there is a link to China.

China exports bulk drugs from regions such as Hubei, Jiangsu and Shandong amongst others. However, drug manufacturers and analysts point out that the majority of pharma ingredient production is in the Hubei province which is the capital of Wuhan, the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak. In fact, reports point out that 60-70 percent of bulk drugs used to manufacture common antibiotics is from this region. The fear then is that if production stoppage prolongs in regions such as Hubei, the industry will eventually suffer from a spike in prices and possible shortages. But as of now, big pharma companies are not pressing the panic button as they have inventory on an average for 1-3 months. Aurobindo, for example, said their average stock is 2-3 months. Cipla and Lupin too told analysts and investors on their earnings conference call that they have stock available.

Impact on the supply chain

However, the situation is being monitored closely by companies and they fear an impact on the supply chain if the problem persists beyond a few weeks. According to Scott Gottlieb, former USFDA chief, the fear is not just generic drugs facing shortages. Branded drugs use Clinical Research Organisations (CROs) in China and clinical trials could be put on hold. Also, drug firms could see delayed filings on new drugs if they have to shift work outside China.

The next few weeks hence will be crucial, the head of a pharma company said on condition of anonymity. Many Chinese companies are expected to restart operations this week and a gradual ramp-up is expected. Pharma companies with dependence on Chinese APIs are monitoring the situation on a daily basis with their suppliers. Analysts, on the other hand, are not perturbed. While they expect a temporary disruption and spike in prices to impact margins in the near term, they are not changing estimates for the longer term.

While this situation could return to normalcy, the larger picture of dependence on Chinese APIs cannot be ignored and one has to ask if there is an opportunity for India? Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson and CMD of Biocon, who expressed concern that the current situation could extend to 6-9 months, said there is an opportunity for Indian companies to ramp up production to meet the global needs.

Gottlieb also pointed out that unutilised manufacturing capacity can be brought on stream. India has about 1500 API plants which are running at 40 percent capacity and regulators can work closely with the industry too. On the other hand, cost competitiveness has been a problem for Indian API companies. However, according to Shaw, this is not the time to think of prices but focus on production as inventories will soon run out. In fact, the government according to Shaw needs to look at this opportunity and offer support such as the rapid release of credit.

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

Coronavirus: Death of a whistle-blower doctor in Wuhan an example of courage in bounded spaces

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

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The death of a doctor from coronavirus in Wuhan has led to the outpouring of public grief on Chinese social media.

Li Wenliang, a doctor who was disciplined for trying to tell his school friends about the coronavirus in January died from the same disease last week. His death has led to a flood of solidarity across Chinese social media for the whistle-blower who did not set out to be one.

The ophthalmologist who worked in Wuhan Central hospital was one of eight people who were “reprimanded” for spreading rumours about the virus in early January. He was admonishmed for posting patients who exhibited similar symptoms at the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in a group of former classmates. However, he continued his work in the hospital until his own tests came back positive for the virus. His death was first announced by state media, then redacted and finally released after Wuhan Central Hospital officially announced it on February 7.

Within hours, hashtags such as “Wuhan Government Owes Li an Apology”, “I Want Freedom of Speech” and “Can you manage? Do you understand?” went viral on Chinese twitter. The last is a reference to the statement that Li Wenliang was forced to sign by the Wuhan Police when disciplined for disturbing public order. But these hashtags have disappeared from wechat and weibo with innumerable accounts suspended. In a country where over a billion people use mobile payments, the suspension of such services, particularly in crimes of crises is not a mere inconvenience.

Lapse of local officials 

On the other hand, the Central government has pointed out that this is a lapse of the local officials. The State Administration announced that a team was dispatched to enquire into Li Wenliang’s death. The editor-in-chief of the Global Times, Hu Xijin wrote a post on Weibo asking local officials to apologise for their mistakes. If Li Wenliang is too big to be censored then it is possible that he will be co-opted into the official narrative.

The Global Times also published a piece alleging that “Hong Kong and anti-China groups were enlisting people to help sensationalise the story on Chinese social media in efforts to spread negative publicity on the mainland and incite the so-called democratic movement.” To be fair, it is precipitous to overstate the public grief as translating into anything else politically or socially.

An interview of Li’s, published when he was still sick, revealed that he was paying for treatment by himself, and that he hoped to go back to the frontlines after recovering. The reason he is mourned this week is because his simple gesture of caring for people became an act of protest.

Li is not the first symbol of the common man in China being a conscientious citizen and being penalised for it. During the 2003 SARS epidemic, a military doctor named Jiang Yanyong wrote to Chinese media revealing the extent of the virus. The news was leaked to Western media and finally it broke through public consciousness, forcing the government to reveal the scale of the disease. Recent reports allege that he remains under house arrest for a letter he wrote to the government about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

The difference between the two men is that Jiang Yanyong actively did his duty by blowing the whistle on the epidemic while Li Wenliang was only speaking on a semi-public space. But both are examples of courage in bounded spaces.

If in a democracy like India, people are being arrested on account of sedition for staging plays, raising slogans at peaceful protests and writing open letters, then that space is even more limited in China. That is why it is more important than ever to remember Li Wenliang, his powerful gesture and his simple words: “A healthy society has more than one voice.”

Hamsini Hariharan is the host of the States of Anarchy podcast and is currently based in Beijing.

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

Do onion uthappams cure Coronavirus?

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

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I was hiking in Yunnan when the confusion about coronavirus blew up. All the shops were sold out of surgical masks. One night, while I was picking up supplies at a grocery store, they luckily stocked up on masks: Yellow, purple, patterned with ice-creams and clouds. “Were these even the masks we needed?” I asked my friend. We didn’t know but we ended up buying a pack of ten masks each. The store was sold out of masks in fifteen minutes.

By the time I returned to Beijing, WeChat groups were buzzing with advice and information. Here is a sample of what’s on Chinese social media: Planes will be disinfecting cities, snow and pets can be infected with the new virus, the city of Beijing will be quarantined, a plethora of DIY videos on homemade masks, and cures for the virus including (but not limited to) red wine, garlic water, aspirin, strawberries hot baths and paediatric urine.

Beijing generally empties out during Spring Festival but coronavirus made it so that roads would have hardly one other person walking through (a rare sight in a city of 20 million people). Temple festivals were cancelled, as were events and any gatherings of people. Temperature checks became a regular feature of life. When I flew back to India (a day before Hong Kong announced that it would halve flights from Beijing), a woman chided another passenger for not wearing a mask.

Racial prejudice amid outbreak

Fears and misinformation within China are understandable but the Indian counterpart is far worse. From pepper rasam to onion uthappams to homeopathy (backed by the Ministry of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy, no less), Indians have spun their own concoctions on how to deal with the epidemic. For its part, the Indian administration has risen to the occasion with the evacuation of two batches of Indian citizens (and seven Maldivians) who were unable to leave Wuhan. Health check and quarantining of passengers from East and South East Asia led to the detection of the two cases of the virus in India.

The suspension of e-visas for Chinese travellers, while following the global trend does not bode well as a confidence-building measure. (for which it was instituted). Meanwhile, the Indian internet is spewing racism (and casteism) through hashtags such as NoMeat_NoCoronavirus. Accounts of racism against Chinese people have been evident in countries all over the world particularly in light of the virus. The assumption that Chinese people contract diseases because they eat wild and exotic meats is racist and creates a norm for what meats are “normal”. We already live in a country that is prejudiced against anyone who does not fit an Indian ideal and is obsessed with the ideas of purity. Couple this with a lack of knowledge and a relative sense of envy, and we have the perfect recipe for discrimination – one that has no place in a multicultural nation. These attitudes fuelling a torrent of misinformation to deal with the coronavirus outbreak (often with the backing of influencers and the government) will only further complicate relations between India and China.

Hamsini Hariharan is the host of the States of Anarchy podcast and is currently based in Beijing.

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

Coronavirus: Air India’s B747 ‘Ajanta’ to bring back Indians from Wuhan after 2 am on Saturday

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

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Air India on Friday commenced evacuation programme for Indians stuck in the Coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan as its double-decker jumbo ‘Ajanta’ B747 aircraft took off from Delhi to bring them back to the country.

Wuhan is the epicentre of coronavirus which has been linked to 213 deaths so far in China. The vast majority of the cases have been in Hubei province and its provincial capital, Wuhan. No deaths have been reported outside China.

The scheduled departure time for ‘Ajanta’ was 12:30 pm and it was airborne around 1:17 pm. The aircraft is expected to return after 2 am on Saturday. The national carrier may operate another evacuation flight on Saturday if required.

The 423-seater plane, VT-ESP, has 15 cabin crew and 5 pilots with the rescue mission being led by Captain Amitabh Singh, who is Director Operations at Air India. A team of five doctors from Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, one paramedical staff from Air India with prescribed medicine, masks, overcoats and packed food are also onboard the special plane. A team of engineers and security personnel have also been sent on the evacuation flight.

Chairman and Managing director Ashwani Lohani was also present for the departure of the flight.

“The national carrier once again comes to the rescue – this time to evacuate Indians from Wuhan, the site of the outbreak of coronavirus. This mission begins today with a Jumbo 747 operating between Delhi and Wuhan” Lohani wrote on Twitter.

As the Indians who will be evacuated will have to be screened for coronavirus on arrival in India, there will be no interaction between the cabin crew and passengers on the flight. No service will take place and food will be kept in seat pockets for the passengers on board.

“Masks have been arranged for the crew and passengers. For our crew, we have also arranged complete protective gear,” Lohani said before the aircraft’s departure.

Flag carrier Air India was also involved in evacuation programmes from Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.

In August 1990, Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines evacuated more than one lakh Indians from Iraq and Kuwait via 488 flights in 59 days, creating a world record for the largest aerial evacuation since 1948-49.

India detected its first case of coronavirus in Kerala on Jan 29. The patient is a student at Wuhan and is currently stable and has been kept in isolation in a hospital.

The passengers arriving from Wuhan will be kept under quarantine at state-run facilities.

#ITBP has created a facility at Chhawla Camp, New Delhi for quarantine of approximately 600 people arriving from #Wuhan #China with all basic requirements. A team of ITBP doctors will be available 24×7. #CORONAVIRUS#Himveers pic.twitter.com/VPdpwdwZyw

— ITBP (@ITBP_official) January 31, 2020

The Indian government has asked its citizens to avoid travel to China unless absolutely essential. Passengers coming from China and Hong Kong are being subjected to thermal screening at Indian airports to detect any signs of the respiratory virus.

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