Yes. And it is a double whammy for Vlad. Not only will/is demand from China down but China got long term deep discounts from Putin for any oil that they do purchase. It puts the Saudi's in a difficult - or at least a need to rethink- position too. China got more oil from the Saudi's than from Russia (Russia might be more now based on their recent arrangements, don't know). The Saudis have this spat/hatred of Biden going so they would not increase pumping or sales to the west. But realistically, they want to sell somewhere and China's demand is down and they don't want to get into any discount arrangements with China. That's for losers. The Saudi's got all uppity and announced how buddy buddy they were going to be with Russia so screw the west. Except Russia has also announced that one of their best buds is Iran which is the Saudi's arch enemy. What a mess. Yeh, a lot of global repositioning going on. And Bibi is back in Israel now too. They hate the Saudis and the Saudis hate them but they both hate Iran more. So love is in the air where you least expect it. What a mess. Probably China regrets unleashing or developing that virus now. Not sure.
Laughable -- China claiming they only had 10 Covid deaths in all of December. The actual rate is over 9000 Covid deaths per day. China accused of cover-up as Beijing denies failure of 'Zero-Covid' while cases erupt Experts warn that the sudden lifting of tough restrictions in China will spark an "enormous" Covid wave. https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1715970/china-beijing-zero-covid-xi-jinping-who Chinese President Xi Jinping has sparked panic across the world as a lethal wave of Covid appears to be sweeping across China, but Beijing is denying that the lifting of the tough 'Zero-Covid' policy is to blame for an explosion of cases. While China’s official tally is about 5,000 cases a day and 12 deaths during December, reports and videos showing bodies piling up at morgues suggest the country is grappling with a wave far larger than the Chinese state wants the rest of the world to believe. Now, Britain, the US, Italy, India, Israel, Spain, Canada, South Korea, and France are all slapping down some form of restrictions on air travel from China to prevent the spread of the disease. While President Xi argued that his policy “prioritised the people and their lives above all else,” the leader was forced to lift restrictions following an intense wave of protests from large swathes of the public. Experts have warned that the sudden lifting of restrictions will spark an “enormous” Covid wave. Andrew Pollard, the chair of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, told BBC News Hour on Saturday: “I think we should be concerned about what’s happening in China — for the Chinese. “Within the country, there is a large amount of Covid spreading at the moment, the omicron variant is there, and it spreads extremely well between people. And they haven’t had Covid waves before ... so we would expect an enormous number of infections to occur.” Despite this, China claims that western countries are simply creating “hype, smears and political manipulation with ulterior motives”, accusing them of exaggerating the extent of the Covid wave. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has urged countries to take a “science-based” approach. The authorities in the nation have said that the only deaths caused by respiratory failure directly linked to Covid are being counted. But this does not include the huge amount of people that die as Covid causes heart or liver failure or that the illness can make other underlying diseases worse. Estimates from medical analyst firm Airfinity suggest that about 9,000 people in China are dying each day, contrary to the messaging from Beijing, which claims only 5,000 cases a day and 12 deaths during December. Last week, the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, demanded greater transparency from China. He tweeted: “In the absence of comprehensive information from China, it is understandable that countries around the world are acting in ways that they believe will protect their populations.” Despite this, China appears to now be downplaying the threat of the virus in a major shift from the Chinese Communist Party’s original messaging following the mass protests presented the biggest test President Xi has faced. Rather than admitting “zero-Covid” was a mistake, it has appeared to vanish from state propaganda. Prior to the protests, President Xi’s Government did announce a 20-point plan to ease the tough restrictions. But this approach was abandoned, and along with it the former messaging around the threat of the virus. However, Beijing is not completely denying that there is a “tough” situation unravelling. (Article has more information and pictures)
Bodies Pile Up in China as Covid Surge Overwhelms Crematoriums https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...erwhelms-crematoriums?leadSource=uverify wall Funeral home worker says ‘the whole system is paralyzed’ ‘We can’t afford to die’: Soaring cremation prices stir anger For five days the elderly Chinese lady’s corpse lay decomposing in the Shanghai house she shared with her family before a hearse finally arrived to take away her remains. “We’re lucky it’s the cold winter time,” a relative said last week at Shanghai’s Longhua Funeral Home, recounting the ordeal as the family waited their turn to say goodbye along with roughly 300 other masked mourners, many of whom asked not to be identified discussing sensitive issues. While the octogenarian woman didn’t die of Covid-19, the explosion of cases across China is overwhelming crematoriums, making it hard for anyone to find an open slot. Public notices at Longhua over the weekend explained that the crematorium had received more than 500 corpses on that day, roughly five times more than it typically handles, according to one funeral goer. After hours of waiting, each family was given five-to-10 minutes to mourn in a no-frills ceremony, fighting for space in a cramped room with bodies laying on stretchers, zipped up in yellow body bags. The brisk pace of business — families ushered in and out on a de facto assembly line — robbed the bereaved of the dignity typically on display at funerals in China. Aside from mourners and staff, a lone flower vendor loitered around selling small bouquets for 50 yuan ($7.25) a pop, before he was shooed away. “The whole system is paralyzed right now,” said an employee who answered the phone at the Shanghai crematorium last week, the only number it has listed. “Things here are busier than anyone can handle.” Similar scenes are playing out at funeral homes across China, where a seemingly endless flow of grieving families and exhausted workers tell the real story of Covid’s toll on the world’s second-biggest economy. President Xi Jinping’s administration has officially acknowledged only about a dozen Covid deaths since it abandoned strict pandemic controls at the beginning of December, prompting governments around the world to impose restrictions on Chinese travelers. While nobody knows the true extent of fatalities, it’s clear funeral homes in major cities are already at capacity – and some experts warn that the worst is yet to come. Airfinity Ltd., a London-based research firm that focuses on predictive health analytics, estimated that China could see Covid deaths rise from around 9,000 a day now to as many as 25,000 a day later in January, when a rebound in travel is expected to occur during Lunar New Year festivities. The deluge of deaths is another blow to Xi, who touted his Covid Zero policy as more humane and morally superior than the US and Europe, which saw large amounts of elderly people die in the early stages of the pandemic. He shifted course abruptly after spontaneous protests against lockdowns erupted simultaneously in key cities around the country. In a New Year’s address, Xi acknowledged that the pandemic “has not been an easy journey for anyone.” He warned of tough times ahead and nodded at the social discontent, saying it was “only natural” for China’s 1.4 billion people to have different concerns and views on some issues. “What matters is that we build consensus through communication and consultation,” Xi said. The difficulty in putting loved ones to rest threatens to further exacerbate social tensions. Interviews with workers at funeral homes in Beijing and Shanghai, where furnace ovens are now operating through the night, showed the wait for a spot to cremate a loved one now extends well into mid-January. At Shanghai’s Longhua Funeral Home, some families last month arrived as early as 3 a.m. for one of 200 queue numbers that were handed out at noon. Besieged by requests, Longhua announced an online booking system on Dec. 27, allowing families to wait for a phone call and avoid long lines. “But there’s no guarantee of when it can happen,” said one employee. “We can’t give people a date for cremation at this point. You just have to join the queue first.” ‘I Shall Find an Empty Patch’ In Beijing, where the government said last week the Covid outbreak has peaked, police turned away people from funeral homes in the northern districts of Miyun and Huairou. The Civil Affairs Bureau in southeastern Tongzhou district told Chinese media on Dec. 22 that its main funeral home was burning around 140-150 bodies daily, up from 40 per day in the past. The situation has gotten so grim that some people have sought to take things into their own hands. “I’ve tried multiple paths to cremate my father but none have worked,” said a Dec. 28 WeChat message from a Shanghai resident to her neighborhood group chat, according to screenshots widely shared on social media. “The funeral services hotline told me that all cremation slots are full until after the new year. Since national law doesn’t allow patients who die of infectious diseases to be stored at home, I shall find an empty patch in our neighborhood to cremate my father. If you have problems with this, please call the police.” Local officials eventually intervened to expedite the case after fervent protests from the neighborhood, according to screenshots of subsequent messages in the group chat. Bloomberg News has been unable to independently verify the episode. Even the rich are having a tough time. Mao Daqing, a well-known figure in China’s property and tech circles and the founder of office space provider Ucommune International Ltd., spoke of the struggle finding a cremation spot after the sudden passing of an elderly family member. “The sheer difficulty of cremation and burial entirely surpassed my imagination,” he wrote on Dec. 21 on his WeChat public account. Later, on his individual timeline, he posted again: “Just this morning, six people approached me to help them find cremation, another three urgently required Pfizer, and three more were in dire need of ICU beds. That’s the real status quo of Beijing.” The father-in-law of prominent economist and Tsinghua University professor Hu Angang, who passed away on Dec. 21 from Covid-induced pneumonia, waited hours for an ambulance to take him to the hospital, according to a close friend’s account posted on China’s Weibo social media platform. He then struggled to secure a spot at the prestigious Babaoshan Funeral Home, where top Communist Party leaders including former president Jiang Zemin have been cremated. “Beijing’s Babaoshan has 200-300 bodies waiting to be burned each day, and there’s no way to join the queue today; there’s no hearse; no farewell ceremony; his children’s only wish is that he can be cremated alone,” the post said. “The family is heartbroken.” Hu didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. A whole gray economy has emerged to cater to those who are desperate to bury their loved ones. Everything is an opportunity for profit: scalpers hawk queue numbers to skip lines for cremation, rent out hearses and offer all-in-one packages at exorbitant rates. Some trumpet their connections to workers at various crematories and hospitals. ‘Bodies Are Overflowing Everywhere’ When Bloomberg News called one such provider named De Shun Xiang in Beijing, an employee said cremation can be arranged within three days at the cost of 68,000 yuan, with same-day service going for 88,000 yuan. Normally it would cost around a few thousand yuan. “Bodies are overflowing everywhere,” said the employee, who asked not be named. “You’ll have to wait a month if not.” While funeral homes warn against trusting brokerage services, some middlemen are using creative ways to reach anguished families. On Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, videos featuring colorful visuals and stirring music advertise Mercedes-Benz hearses, elaborate burial clothes and Babaoshan cremation slots. “We couldn’t afford to live under lockdown,” wrote a person on Weibo, sharing a view commonly expressed on the social-media platform over the past few weeks. “And now we can’t afford to die.”
An old acquaintance of mine who runs a factory in China told me a couple weeks ago that his staffing was down to--no, not by, TO--20-30% of normal.
As I read from the tea leaves, the peak would be 0.3% death rate. It is just medical science. They are not there yet, regardless how negative the press will make them. Every country experienced about the same, no better or worse. HSI is back to 20k mark, optimistic view for 2H.
Remember when China imposed COVID testing and quarantines on visitors? You'll never guess what they object to now. Beijing threatens response to ‘unacceptable’ Covid measures imposed on Chinese travelers https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...acceptable-covid-measures-travelers-rcna64002
I don't understand why they do not use their superior intellect and STEM intelligence to solve their problem of COVID. Oh, that's right, because they innovate nothing and steal everything. Pride comes before the fall. And those Chinese are so very very proud of their superiority over the Western animal free-market system. Who cares though, they have half a billion people they can lose, which will help with the climate change. Less decomposition and shit. Fucking commies.
Let's check-in and see how things are going in China. This is what a country looks like when the policies pushed by the "Great Barrington Declaration" crowd are put in place driving the wide spread of Covid to allow "natural immunity" to develop in an under-protected population. Top Chinese doctor says ‘up to 70% of Shanghai residents infected with Covid’ https://metro.co.uk/2023/01/03/chin...nghai-residents-infected-with-covid-18034311/ So many people are dying from COVID in China that a crematorium is giving families 5 to 10 minute slots to mourn victims https://www.yahoo.com/news/many-people-dying-covid-china-064902120.html
This is what happens when you try out the "Great Barrington Declaration" policies on your own population leading to thousands of deaths each day (which you fail to disclose). China’s ‘zero-COVID’ U-turn leads to loss of faith in leadership Chinese people were told they were fighting the virus together, now some are disillusioned by the abrupt policy change. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...d-u-turn-leads-to-loss-of-faith-in-leadership