Day: March 17, 2022

BEIJING, CHINA —

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday the country will “stick with” its zero-COVID strategy, state TV reported, as the world’s most populous nation battles its largest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.

The country where the virus emerged in late 2019 has largely kept subsequent outbreaks under control thanks to a combination of strict border controls, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns, and has not reported any coronavirus-related deaths for over a year.

But the highly transmissible omicron variant is posing a stern challenge to that strategy, prompting authorities to close off cities, including the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, home to 17.5 million people.

The world’s second-largest economy has gone from reporting under 100 daily infections just three weeks ago to more than 1,000 per day for over a week.

More than 2,400 cases were reported Thursday, according to the National Health Commission.

Speaking at a meeting of China’s top leaders, Xi said the country should “continue to put people and life at the forefront, stick with scientific accuracy and dynamic-zero, and curb the spread of the epidemic as soon as possible,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Beijing must “raise the level of scientifically accurate prevention and control and continuously optimize disease control measures,” the report quoted Xi as saying.

He called to “strengthen technological key areas like vaccination, rapid testing and drug research” to make virus curbs more “targeted,” CCTV said.

Xi also urged tighter virus controls at ports of entry and stressed the need to “swiftly control local clustered outbreaks.”

Tens of millions of people are currently under stay-at-home orders across China to try to stamp out the latest outbreak.

Flare-ups

Beijing’s communist leadership has made its handling of the pandemic a matter of political capital, saying the low death rate demonstrates the strength of its governance model.

Racing to tamp down outbreaks in multiple cities, Chinese officials have also moved to free up hospital beds over fears the virus could put the health system under strain.

Northeast China’s Jilin province — which has reported thousands of cases over the past week — has built eight “makeshift hospitals” and two quarantine centers to stem the surge in infections.

State news outlets this week broadcast footage of dozens of giant cranes assembling temporary medical facilities in Jilin, which has only around 23,000 hospital beds for some 24 million residents.

Authorities also said people with mild cases could isolate at central quarantine facilities, having previously sent all patients with any symptoms to specialist hospitals.

The latest flare-ups have prompted long queues to form outside mass testing sites and seen tight controls at ports, raising fears of trade disruption.

In Shanghai, China’s biggest city and home to 25 million people, authorities have closed school campuses, locked down some residential compounds and launched a rigorous round of mass testing, according to state media.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Washington turned its gaze at Beijing on Thursday, with U.S. President Joe Biden scheduling a rare phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a high-stakes conversation as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy begged the world for help fighting against a three-week Russian invasion.

China has played an increasingly important role in the conflict amid reports that Russia asked China for military assistance. The U.S. is providing the bulk of military assistance to Ukraine, with Biden announcing another $800 million defense package this week.

“We have made clear our deep concerns about China’s alignment with Russia and the potential implications and consequences of that,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Friday’s call, she said, “is an opportunity for President Biden to assess where President Xi stands. There’s been, of course, rhetorical support — or the absence of clear rhetoric and denunciation, or the absence of denunciation — by China of what Russia is doing. This flies in the face, of course, of everything China stands for, including the basic principles of the U.N. Charter, including the basic principles of respect for sovereignty of nations. And so the fact that China has not denounced what Russia is doing in and of itself speaks volumes.”

Russia still stalled

As for fighting on the ground, U.S. defense officials say it appears Russian advances remain stalled, making little to no progress as they continue to encounter what has repeatedly been described as a stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.

Russian forces “are, three weeks in, basically frozen around the country … struggling to fuel themselves and to feed their troops and to supply them with arms and ammunition,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence.

Russian troops attempting to move on Kyiv, in particular, have failed to get any closer to the Ukrainian capital over the past 24 hours, the official said.

Instead, Russian commanders have been trying to move up artillery units to the front lines and increase mortar attacks in a bid to “wear the city down,” the official said.

The fighting, however, seems to be taking a toll only on the Russian troops.

“We have anecdotal indications that Russian morale is flagging,” the official said. “Some of that, we believe, is a function of poor leadership, [a] lack of information the troops are getting about their missions and objectives, and I think disillusionment from being resisted as fiercely as they have.”

There are also indications that Russian commanders are beginning to question how much longer they can sustain their invasion.

“Just that they’re talking about resupply and re-sourcing tells you that they’re beginning to get concerned about longevity here,” the U.S. official said.

U.S and Western officials also note Russia’s missile attacks are increasingly relying on so-called dumb bombs instead of on precision-guided munitions, an indication that Russian forces may be facing shortages.

At the same time, the U.S. and its NATO allies are working on ways to further strengthen Ukraine’s defensive capabilities, including answering demands for Russian-made S-300 air defense systems and Russian-made fighter planes.

“We’ve been in discussion with United States, with Ukraine and also with other allies on the possibility to deploy or to send or to give S-300 systems,” Slovak Defense Minster Jaroslav Nad said Thursday after meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava.

“We’re willing to do so immediately when we have a proper replacement,” he said, noting Slovakia currently depends on its S-300s and MiGs for its own defense. “What we’re discussing is the options of how to fill in this gap.”

U.S. officials say that those discussions are ongoing and that, for now, NATO allies are working to provide Kyiv with other defensive systems that have proved themselves on the battlefield.

“[The Russians are] using a lot of rockets and missiles and artillery, and so there are a number of things that can be used to counter that,” Austin told reporters. “We’ve seen that drones have been very effective. We’ve also seen having the ability to conduct counterfire with rockets and in artillery is also very effective.”

‘Freedom and bondage’

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy appealed for Germany’s help Thursday, telling the German parliament that a new wall was being erected in Europe “between freedom and bondage.”

“And this wall is getting bigger with every bomb that falls on Ukraine, with every decision that is not taken,” Zelenskyy said in his video address. He has been asking allies to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine — a request the United States has denied.

Also Thursday, Washington officials turned up the volume in condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying he agreed with Biden’s claim that Putin is a “war criminal.”

Russia continues to target civilian sites in Ukraine, including a theater in Mariupol where women and children were sheltering on Wednesday, Blinken told reporters.

“Actually targeting civilians is a war crime,” he said. “After all the destruction of the past three weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise.”

But he went on to say that those attacks have to be carefully documented and investigated, and that the U.S. welcomed the efforts of various institutions to do that.

When asked about ongoing virtual peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, Blinken said: “We commend Ukraine for being at the table despite being under bombardment every minute of the day. At the same time, I have not seen any meaningful efforts by Russia to bring this war that it is perpetrating to a conclusion through diplomacy.”

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Biden’s remarks were “absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable.”

On the ground

In the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, rescue efforts were continuing Thursday at the theater where hundreds of civilians had been sheltering. Satellite images of the site released by the Maxar space technology company showed the word “children” written in Russian on the pavement outside the theater as recently as Monday.

Also Wednesday, Russian airstrikes hit a municipal pool complex where pregnant women and women with children were sheltering, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the regional Donetsk administration.

No casualties were reported from the attack on the pool complex; however, the governor of the northern city of Chernihiv said Thursday that at least 53 people killed in heavy Russian aerial and ground attacks had arrived at morgues in the past 24 hours.

Russia has denied any involvement.

In the meantime, the Ukrainian government said Russia conducted more airstrikes on Mariupol and attacks on other areas of Ukraine early Thursday, including on the town of Kalynivka and city of Brovary outside the capital, Kyiv.

The mayor of the eastern town of Merefa said Russian artillery had leveled a school and community center overnight but did not immediately report any casualties.

 

Source: Voice of America

UNITED NATIONS —

The head of the World Health Organization said Thursday that “the lifesaving medicine” needed in Ukraine is peace.

“Prolonged conflict is in nobody’s interests and will only prolong the suffering of the most vulnerable,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an emergency U.N. Security Council session on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine, which has been under Russian airstrikes and shelling for the past three weeks.

Tedros reported that WHO has verified 43 attacks on health care facilities, which have killed a dozen people and injured 34 others.

Attacks on hospitals can rise to the level of war crimes.

Tedros said WHO is working with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and has so far sent about 100 metric tons of medical supplies to the country.

“We have now established supply lines from our warehouse in Lviv to many cities of Ukraine, but challenges with access remain,” Tedros said. Lviv is in western Ukraine, which has remained relatively safe.

He said WHO has critical supplies ready to enter difficult areas on joint U.N. convoys but has so far not been able to get them in.

Besieged cities

“Today, for example, the U.N. convoy to Sumy that included a WHO truck carrying critical medical supplies was unable to enter,” he said. Sumy, near the Russian border in the northeast, has come under heavy bombardment, making it difficult and dangerous for civilians to evacuate safely.

“Loads ready for Mariupol remain in staging areas and cannot proceed,” Tedros said of the besieged southern city. “Access to these and other areas is now critical.”

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said hundreds of residential buildings, as well as schools and hospitals, have been destroyed or damaged in three weeks of conflict.

Since Russia began its invasion on February 24, the U.N. has verified the killing of 726 civilians, including 52 children. More than 1,000 other civilians have been injured. The U.N. says the true numbers are likely much higher.

“It is the responsibility of all sides to fully abide by their obligations to protect the lives of all civilians everywhere,” DiCarlo said.

She expressed particular concern for residents trapped in Mariupol, where a maternity hospital was bombed on March 9 and a theater, where hundreds of people were sheltering, was hit on Wednesday. The city has been cut off from food, water, electricity and medical care, and bodies lie in the streets uncollected.

“The devastation in Mariupol and Kharkiv raises grave fears about the fate of millions of residents in Kyiv and other cities facing intensifying attacks,” DiCarlo said.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, says the conflict has sent more than 3.1 million people fleeing to neighboring European countries and has displaced 2 million more inside Ukraine.

Impact beyond Ukraine

“Russia will be held accountable for its atrocities,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “There is only one way to end this madness. President (Vladimir) Putin: Stop the killings. Withdraw your forces. Leave Ukraine once and for all.”

Several council members echoed her outrage with Moscow’s war and the suffering it has caused.

“The main news is that Ukraine is holding on, that Ukraine is resisting and Ukraine is winning and Russia is deep in the mud: on the ground, morally, legally and internationally,” Albania’s ambassador, Ferit Hoxha, said.

There were also concerns about the broader humanitarian implications of the conflict.

Russia and Ukraine account for nearly one-third of the world’s wheat, and almost 50 nations are dependent on both countries for over 30% of their wheat import needs. War could disrupt food supplies to many countries already grappling with food insecurity.

“I find it a damning indictment that this council has to plead with the Russian Federation not to deprive civilian populations of food and water, not to deny them the basic infrastructure they need for daily existence, for survival,” Ireland’s envoy, Geraldine Byrne Nason, said.

China, which has not criticized Russia for its invasion, called for maximum restraint and the protection of civilians.

“The international community shares the common wish for a cease-fire at an early date to alleviate the situation on the ground and prevent civilian casualties,” Ambassador Zhang Jun said. “This is also the expectation of China.”

He said Beijing, which is not usually among the big international aid donors, has sent humanitarian supplies to Ukraine through its Red Cross Society, including milk powder and blankets for children.

Several council members also mentioned Wednesday’s decision by the International Court of Justice, which ruled Russia must “immediately suspend its military operations” in Ukraine. The decision is legally binding, but Russia is unlikely to comply with it.

Russia doubles down

For its part, Russia’s ambassador repeated the narrative of being the victim of a Western disinformation campaign about the offensive, saying it is “reaching new heights.”

“We note with regret that Ukraine has always [been] a pawn in the geopolitical struggle against Russia and remains such a pawn still,” Vassily Nebenzia told the council. “Western politicians could not care less about the suffering of the people in Donbas.”

Donbas is the region in eastern Ukraine that comprises Luhansk and Donetsk, the two breakaway republics that President Putin recognized as independent days before he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

On the humanitarian situation, Nebenzia said he was calling off his delegation’s planned vote Friday morning on a draft resolution. It was drawn up to counter a text from Western council members deploring the humanitarian consequences of Russia’s invasion and seeking a cease-fire for humanitarian access.

Moscow was certain to be isolated again in the council if it brought its doomed resolution to a vote. Council members repeatedly noted Thursday that Russia putting forward such a draft was cynical and hypocritical, and that if Moscow really wanted to solve the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, it could start by ending its war.

“But we are not withdrawing the draft resolution,” Nebenzia insisted. “Instead, tomorrow morning we will ask for an emergency meeting to discuss again the issue of U.S. bio-laboratories in Ukraine, using the new documents we obtained in the course of the special military operation.”

Last Friday, the Russians called for a meeting on the same subject. Nebenzia spoke for nearly 20 minutes, alleging without evidence that Ukraine, funded by the U.S. military, was developing biological weapons in at least 30 laboratories across the country.

United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu told council members that the U.N. “is not aware of any biological weapons programs.”

The United States and Ukraine have both dismissed Moscow’s accusations.

U.S. officials have expressed concerns that Moscow is making such accusations because it may be laying the groundwork for a false flag operation in Ukraine involving biological or chemical weapons.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

SAN FRANCISCO —

A Chinese navy ship stayed in the Sulu Sea southwest of the Philippines for three days, upsetting Manila. Experts say it is a part of Beijing’s effort to look after its interests in an ever-wider swath of the world’s waterways.

A People’s Liberation Army-Navy vessel worked the Sulu Sea from January 29 to February 1; according to a Monday statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila, this was an “illegal incursion.”

The Electronic Reconnaissance Ship No. 792 “entered Philippine waters without permission” and stayed even after a Philippine navy ship challenged it, the statement says.

At a March 15 news conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the navy research vessel had carried out “an exercise of the right of innocent passage pursuant to UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]. The Chinese passage was safe and standard, and consistent with international law and international practice.”

The Chinese side’s comment showed no immediate intent to do more in the Sulu Sea, said Herman Kraft, a political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.

“Talking about innocent passage seems to be an excuse that recognizes Philippine jurisdiction over the area,” Kraft told VOA.

Sulu Sea significance

Beijing is trying to expand the reach of its growing navy to protect its maritime interests and increase bargaining power in talks with other countries, analysts have told VOA. Chinese navy ships have been spotted from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific east of Taiwan and Japan.

A naval visit to the Sulu Sea could mean Beijing wants to establish a presence in waters closer to Indonesia and Australia while buffering its South China Sea claims, analysts suggest.

“This could be China exploring a third access to Pacific, after Miyako and Bashi straits,” said Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington. The two straits are near Taiwan. “The U.S. apparently uses it often, so the Chinese might feel it could do the same,” Sun said.

China has protested U.S. naval presence in Asia and has said that Washington is trying to check Chinese expansion.

The People’s Liberation Army-Navy now has the ability to “operate military assets” as far off as Djibouti, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, in Hawaii. Like the United States, he said, China is free under international law to sail on the high seas, which are waters unclaimed by other nations.

“The strategic perspective is that Chinese naval capability is growing, so China sooner or later will send out its warships to areas outside of the first island chain and even outside the second island chain,” Vuving said. The first chain refers to the band from Russia’s Kirul Islands south to Borneo. The second includes Papua New Guinea, the Marianas and the Caroline Islands.

China’s former President Hu Jintao called in 2012 for China to become a “maritime power.” President Xi Jinping, in 2018, said it was urgent that China build a “powerful navy.” A year later, the country’s defense white paper said China needed to carry out “missions on the far seas.”

“China’s navy is viewed as posing a major challenge to the U.S. Navy’s ability to achieve and maintain wartime control of blue-water ocean areas in the Western Pacific – the first such challenge the U.S. Navy has faced since the end of the Cold War,” the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in a March 8 research note.

The Chinese military may be exploring the Sulu Sea as a detour in or out of the adjoining South China Sea in case of any conflict, Vuving said. Warships could use the Sulu Sea to launch vessels into the South China Sea or seal it off, he said.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea. It has upset the Philippines and four other Asian governments that claim all or part of the same resource-rich, 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway. China, backed by military and technological superiority, is building out once-uninhabited islets for hangars, radars and tiny outposts. U.S. warships periodically enter the sea as warnings to China.

As of 2012, the Chinese navy had 512 ships, according to Britain’s International Institute of Strategic Studies. It now has 777 assets, mainly seafaring vessels, the database Globalfirepower.com says.

 

Source: Voice of America