China Pushes COVID-19 Vaccinations | China In Focus

China once again pushing for COVID-19 vaccinations. What's the main variant driving the country's outbreak? A former doctoral chemistry student accused of poisoning his neighbors, including a baby girl. More on the case and the charges he's facing. Long-time politicians in Hong Kong say they're bowing out of the city's elections, while some voters say they won't even visit the polls. Why are pro-democracy candidates getting iced out of the race? And a battle for control in the Pacific. A former president breaks down why the U.S. and Beijing are zeroed in on the region, and what Chinese influence attempts really look like. What do you think? Let us know below, and subscribe if you haven't already. Welcome to China In Focus, I'm Tiffany Meyer. Before we continue, as you may know, our channel's been hit by social media censorship. On top of being demonetized for about three years, we've also seen strange issues like viewers subscribing to our channel, then finding they've been unsubscribed. Help support us by sharing our content with friends and family, and consider donating. Find us at donorbox.org slash china dash in dash focus. Your viewership helps make our show possible. Thanks for watching. A new push for COVID-19 vaccinations in China. Authorities nationwide are urging the public to get inoculated. This comes as a pneumonia outbreak continues sweeping the country. Straining hospitals and overwhelming health workers. The new move comes on the heels of a rare admission from a top Chinese CDC expert. He said that COVID-19 is one of the main viruses driving China's current outbreak, among those 15 and older. Back to the vaccine push, authorities in Jiangxi province published a notice asking residents to get vaccinated. The notice said a COVID-19 sub-variant, known as XBB, is the primary strain currently running rampant in the country, and that the vaccines targeting it are available. Authorities in Jiangsu province also made similar announcements up north in Shaanxi. The provincial CDC saying new vaccines have been sent to different regions, and that the public should get vaccinated as soon as possible. Here's what a Chinese resident told NTD. We distorted his voice to protect his identity. Authorities are urging us to get vaccinations, but not a lot of people are getting inoculated. We're just ignoring the push. In Shaanxi province, a local taxi company sent out a staff notice saying authorities require that all cab drivers get vaccinated. Over in Liaoning province, the local CDC published a list of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination sites. Moving south to Shandong province, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner told NTD that he's seeing a spike in deaths of middle-aged adults and older. That's as the pneumonia outbreak sweeps through the region. Many of our clinician friends have passed away. They died of various conditions, including heart strokes and brain infarction. He suspects a number of different factors triggered the strokes, including side effects from Chinese vaccines, plus a condition called ADE. It means a person could have a worse response to a virus infection if he's been vaccinated. Meanwhile, Beijing is trying to attract more travelers from neighboring countries. China lowered visa fees on Friday for tourists from a dozen countries, including Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Thailand. Two weeks ago, China also loosened its visa policy, allowing citizens from six countries to enter China without visas within the next year, provided they're in the country on short visits or business trips. Those six countries are France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Back to China's sickness outbreak. Some pandemic-era sites are coming back. Health workers clad in hazmat suits have started disinfecting schools nationwide. And in some places, COVID tests also re-emerged. All of these changes come two months after a warning from a top Chinese biologist called Shi Zhenli, known as China's Batwoman. She was at the center of controversy over her research on coronaviruses in a Wuhan lab. She published a paper in September warning that the world must get ready for another outbreak like COVID-19, saying if a coronavirus caused diseases to emerge before, there's a high chance it will cause future outbreaks. A Chinese student accused of poisoning a neighbor deported to China. The student studied at the University of South Florida for his doctoral degree. He's accused of poisoning his neighbor, Umar Abdullah. Six months ago, Abdullah discovered what he described as a funny smell. His infant daughter and wife also experienced unexplained health scares and hair loss. But everything changed when they saw a surveillance video and immediately called the police. The suspect, Li Shuming, is a Chinese national. He was caught filling Abdullah's house with a mixture of lethal chemicals using a syringe. Police arrested Li soon after the video was discovered. Abdullah's apartment sits right above Li's. And Li had complained about the noise in the past. Authorities suggest that ties into Li's motivation. Li is facing several felony charges in the U.S., including battery and possession of a controlled substance. Li's attorney said it's unlikely he will face penalties after being deported. But the charges could be activated if Li ever makes it back to the U.S. Next a lineup of major stories from around the globe. National security advisors from the United States, South Korea and Japan are meeting in Seoul on Friday and Saturday, topping their agenda on North Korea and China. On Thursday, the White House said China's economic coercion will likely come up in this week's talks. I don't know of too many conversations that we've had with our Korean and Japanese counterparts where in some form or fashion, China's economic bullying practices don't come up. So it wouldn't surprise me. The Chinese embassy in Seoul has been pressuring Korean theaters to block Shenyun, an American performing arts company. President Biden's nominee for Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, also addressed security concerns in the Indo-Pacific region. At the confirmation hearing Thursday, Campbell argued the most important U.S. ally on the global stage today might be Japan, and that security in the region also depends on ties between Japan and South Korea. I'm confident that China will be unsuccessful in building the kind of bonds of trust that we are doing now with Japan and South Korea. New cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico. The two are creating a special group to share information and best practices, specifically on how to check if foreign investments might pose risks to national security. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the agreement on Thursday. The goal is to stop other countries, especially China, from investing in Mexican companies to get around U.S. sanctions and tariffs. And leading up to Taiwan's presidential election, the island on Friday reported 12 Chinese fighter jets and a suspected Chinese spy balloon. The military action comes amid concerns that the Chinese regime is trying to interfere in Taiwan's upcoming elections. They want to interfere in Taiwan's election and they want to shape the results of the election and they are telling the Taiwanese people that if you vote for this political party, that means war. If you vote for the other political party, it means peace. Taiwan's foreign ministers said the Chinese regime has been using negative language against one of the island's presidential candidates. Italy has officially informed China that it's leaving the Belt and Road Initiative. Authorities are dismissing fears that the decision could sour relations and damage the Italian economy. Here's more. Italy has officially told China it is leaving the Belt and Road Initiative. That's according to government sources on Wednesday. Italy became the first and so far the only major Western nation to join the trade and investment program, ignoring warnings from the United States that it might allow China to take control of sensitive and vital infrastructure. However, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney said when she took office last year that she wanted to withdraw from the deal. She said it had brought no significant gains to Italy. The 2019 accord expires in March 2024. An Italian government source said Rome would not be renewing the pact. Some experts consider the Belt and Road Initiative a debt trap. That's because some countries that signed on were forced to sell or lease their newly built infrastructure to China after they were unable to pay off their Chinese loans. NTD's Jane Werrell sat down with former British diplomat Roger Garsine to discuss the true motives behind Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. So Italy has officially informed Beijing it will withdraw from the Belt and Road Initiative. What's behind Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative? China's critics have said that many of the agreements with foreign governments have been kept secret. Citizens do not have knowledge of what their government, the terms on which their governments have signed up to borrow huge sums of money. Secrecy makes corruption easy. The Chinese portray it in a very benign way, but there are very serious criticisms made of it on the grounds of secrecy, opportunities for corruption, possible secret plans to use it for military purposes. So the critics say its real motive is not economic growth, but political power. In 2016, Greece allowed Chinese interests to buy up a controlling share in Greece's major port, Paris. And the Italians saw a threat of competition from there. So they wanted to get in on the act. The sad fact is that the BRI has brought very little benefit to Italy since it signed up in 2019. Roger Garside, former British diplomat and author, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Jane. Pleasure. Concerns over eroding freedoms in Hong Kong are rising. Now some of the city's district council members are bowing out of politics. I don't think I have the energy and interest in this game anymore. This is the right time for me to step down. Hong Kongers are preparing to head to the polls for local elections this Sunday, but the ballot list is shrinking. New election requirements have left some unable to qualify, even long-running council members like Winnie Poon, who served for 38 years. My only hope is that whoever gets elected will really remember their objectives, which is to serve the people. Would-be candidates need at least nine endorsements from Beijing-appointed committees, making it virtually impossible for pro-democracy candidates to qualify. The change has translated to a less diverse pool of options for Hong Kong voters. Most of those running are pro-Beijing loyalists. The city enjoyed a democratic model under British rule. Beijing promised to keep that system for at least 50 years, after the city was handed back to China in 1997. Now some Hong Kongers say they won't cast ballots at all because of the slim voting options. What's more, an amendment also eliminated most directly elected seats, meaning only 20 percent of officials are still chosen by the people. Beijing clamped down on the city after 2019's pro-democracy protests, harshly limiting free speech and assembly while stifling political opposition. All of that in the name of maintaining national security. As global fears mount over an ever more aggressive China, a battle for influence is underway. Zooming in on the Pacific, what do the Chinese Communist Party's influence attempts and political warfare really look like? What makes a region so critical? American Thought Leader's host Iania Kellick sat down with President David Panuello, the former leader of the Federated States of Micronesia, for deeper insight. The Pacific region is no stranger to war. During the Second World War, these were among the very, very biggest wars that broke out in our Pacific region, so we know what war is. Fast forward to today, the region has found itself embroiled in the political gray zone, the space in between peace and war, where the world's top superpowers are grappling for dominance. The U.S. and China. During my time as president, I've always said that the compact nations must be the nations that must very strongly champion democracy, rule of law, because these things work. When the influence come in to try to shortcut some of these things and then create the whole new system to defy the rules-based international order, that makes you concerned about the intention. As for exactly how Beijing is working to gain control, the former president of the Federated States of Micronesia cites attempts like the Common Development Agreement. Proposed by China, the deal would pull in 10 Pacific island nations, giving Beijing sway over their lucrative fisheries and internet networks, knowledge of their immigration movements, and set up Confucius Institutes, known as a tool to spread Beijing's communist ideology overseas. It would even have seen the countries team up China on traditional and non-traditional security and law enforcement. I wrote to the Pacific leaders, brothers and sisters, to warn them about the Common Development Agreement. And upon review, leaders did find out that, you know, that can cause a problem of compromising our sovereignty. But why is the region so critical? Together with Palau and the Marshall Islands, Micronesia forms a cornerstone of cooperation, and it strongly pays into American defenses. The fact that our population combined in Hawaii and Guam, it's larger than two of our states in the Federated States of Micronesia. And that unique relationship allows our nation, young men and women, to also serve in the U.S. armed forces in, you know, higher per capita than any of the states in the United States. What's more, concerns are rising of a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. And more control of the Pacific would give Beijing an edge in the conflict. You know, they come in, whether it be by way of research vessels, by way of obtaining information or electronic surveillance, you know, these kind of influences that they try to gain to make, you know, the compelled decisions of our leaders to do these things. And you know, the thing about China that I always also say is that, you know, their system is authoritarian. So when they want to prove a support for a country, it's almost instantaneous. They don't go through the prophecy of a country's waiting. That's all for today's China In Focus on YouTube. We're now sharing a shortened version of our program here after being demonetized for more than two years. If you'd like to support us, subscribe to our partner platform, Epic TV, where you can watch our full episodes. Here's what to look out for in our second half. A large economy built on a shaky foundation. Major Wall Street executives are rushing to get their investments out of China. That's as a debt-driven housing crisis continues to bankrupt the regime's financial sector. Just years ago, the real estate industry was the driving force of China's economic growth. What's behind the downturn and who's at risk? To discuss, we sat down with Anders Kor, publisher of the Journal of Political Risk and principal of Kor Analytics. Thanks for watching China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you soon.