Thread: The View, from China

Hong Kong will allow bars to stay open until 2am and more restaurant diners to sit at the same table under the latest easing of COVID-19 restrictions in the financial hub.

Bars will have extended later hours from May 19, when karaoke rooms and some other venues will also be allowed to reopen, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday.

Beaches and swimming pools will reopen to the public from Thursday, while restaurants will also be allowed to sit eight people at a table, up from four, Lam said at a regular news briefing.

Hong Kong reported 283 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the first time the daily tally has dropped below 300 in nearly three months. The city has recorded more than 1.2 million infections and more than 9,300 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

“The COVID number has dropped to three digits in mid-April and didn’t rebound, despite foot traffic increasing during two holidays,” Lam said, adding that it was not right to prevent people from swimming during fine weather.

Lam said she hoped people would enjoy Mother’s Day on Sunday as more family members would be able to dine together.

Coronavirus restrictions have battered business in Hong Kong and helped increase a net outflow of about 70,000 people in February and March, up from nearly 17,000 in December.

For some, the easing of restrictions may be too late as many businesses in the food and beverage industry have had to lay off staff as they struggle to pay rent in one of the world’s most expensive property markets.

Hong Kong to open beaches, extend nightlife as COVID curbs ease (msn.com)

China Bolts Residents Reluctant to Lock Down Into Apartments in Desperate Pursuit of Zero-COVID


Chinese authorities are now using bolts and wires to forcibly lock residents into their apartments to prevent them leaving their homes, in brutal COVID-prevention strategies that recall the darkest early days of the pandemic. Caixin Global, an independent news agency quoted by the Telegraph, said the radical measures, the latest salvo in Beijing’s quest for zero Covid, were being reserved for people who declined to voluntarily lock themselves into their apartments—and hand over the keys. The South China Morning Post showed astonishing video of iron bolts being installed on the outside of apartment doors and strong metal wires drawn across them. The video, allegedly taken in the northern Hebei province, emerged as Beijing increased COVID restrictions amid fears the city is heading for a punishing Shanghai-style lockdown. Shanghai is still experiencing close to 5,000 local infections a day despite a grueling five-week lockdown.

VIDEO https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-...-of-zero-covid

Originally Posted by sabang

More ad hom, childish irrelevance from the usual suspects. How surprising none of you has even had a decent job, or career- believe me it shines through. The Politics of Envy.

Your quote wants the original back when you have finished fucking it up.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.​

So how do you explain the meteoric rise in Chinese GDP and average income over the past 30 years prof?

Originally Posted by sabang

So how do you explain the meteoric rise in Chinese GDP and average income over the past 30 years prof?

You live in a false reality. 99% of Chinese are fucked.

Would you trade places? Y/N?

Living in Australia, I can assure you I feel no urge to live in either China or the US. But given the same financial resources, and the requirement to choose, I would certainly pick China over the US. You just plain get more bang for your buck, better food and better women. Much less crime and much better (and cheaper) transport infrastructure too.

Originally Posted by sabang

you just plain get more bang for your buck, better food and better women.

Well since you are a grovelling sniveling apologist, I am sure that you can continue to push your false reality.

Woman Lived in a Phone Booth for a Month During Shanghai’s COVID Lockdown


As the Shanghai government ordered the bulk of the city’s 26 million residents to stay home early last month to contain a COVID-19 outbreak, one woman and her dog settled into a red telephone booth.

The woman, reportedly a migrant worker in her 50s, lived in that tiny space for the next month, occasionally taking her dog out on a stroll and airing her blanket in the sun. Her living conditions came to light only when a resident in a high-rise apartment across the street documented her existence—and eventual eviction—in a series of photos on Chinese social media, where they generated an outpouring of anger at what many thought was the city’s mistreatment of someone without a home.

For many in Shanghai, the woman’s apparent hardship added to residents’ frustration with a protracted lockdown that has led to widespread food shortages and harsh—sometimes absurd—enforcement actions. In a recent incident compared to a scene in The Shining, officials broke through the door of a flat to drag its residents off to quarantine. In another case, a 75-year-old resident of a nursing home was put in a body bag destined for a crematorium only to be found alive when workers loaded her on a van.


“How has surviving become so difficult?” a Shanghai citizen wrote in a comment on the Chinese social media service WeChat in response to the photo diary, published in Esquire China on Sunday.

Details about the woman’s life have underscored deep-rooted economic inequality that was only compounded by the city’s chaotic pandemic responses.

The woman, who was not identified in the article, was among legions of migrant workers who could not find a job as the city ground to a halt. Unable to afford rent, she carved out a living space for herself in the phone booth, while some others like her slept on cardboards in parking lots, on makeshift beds under bridges and in tents on the sidewalk.

“Many migrant workers live from hand to mouth and rely on their employers to provide shelter and food,” Pun Ngai, a professor at Lingnan University of Hong Kong, who studies Chinese labour, told VICE World News. “With most factories and shops closed, they are left to fend for themselves.”

With scant labour protection and little job security, migrant workers, who make up a third of China’s workforce, have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic compared to those with regular incomes. As the new wave of lockdowns dampened China’s economic growth and sank its manufacturing output to a 2-year low, millions of migrant workers were put out of jobs, according to China Labour Bulletin.

But like many labourers who survive on temporary gigs, the woman’s economic hardship predated the recent lockdown. In an interview with China Youth Daily on Tuesday, the woman said she began living out of the phone booth in January.


That was until police officers in white coveralls arrived one midnight last week. Tossing her belongings on the curb and sealing the booth with tape, they evicted the woman from her only shelter. Holding her dog to her chest, the woman left barefoot and disappeared into the rain. According to state-run China Youth Daily, she declined the authorities’ offer of accommodation and preferred to be on her own.


But many others living on the street do not do so by choice.


Zhang, a 31-year-old migrant worker, had lived on the street for weeks after the sudden lockdown in early April stranded him in Shanghai and shut down the construction site where he worked. Unable to return to his home province in Henan, he had slept around the site and spent two nights at a wet market. He survived on cup noodles for two weeks before finally getting his first bite of rice at a government shelter on Tuesday. But now, in a compound surrounded by gates and guarded by officials in full-body suits, he is not allowed to leave.

“I don’t want to stay here, I want to work,” Zhang told VICE World News, requesting the use of only his surname for fear of reprisal from authorities for speaking to foreign media.


The pandemic has highlighted the precarious working conditions of labourers like Zhang. In another video that has gone viral on Chinese social media this week, a worker stopped a truck on the road in desperation. “I am a worker. I am going to starve to death,” said the elderly man. He wept after the driver gave him bananas and crackers.


During the weeks-long lockdown, some workers have appealed for help online, saying they helped construct the temporary hospitals and isolation facilities to accommodate the growing number of patients only to be cast out by their employers when they themselves caught the virus.

As the authorities focused their efforts on fighting the outbreak, some Shanghai residents have taken it upon themselves to help migrant workers and rough sleepers, including by distributing supplies.


“Many have nowhere else to go, after they were released from centralised quarantine, as their residential compounds or dormitories do not allow them to return,” said Jane, a 33-year-old business owner, who has been collecting tents, blankets and food to distribute to those in need. She requested the use of only her first name because she wasn’t sure if her actions were legal. As the weather became warmer, she and other volunteers also handed out mosquito repellants.

Made up of dozens of volunteers, Jane’s group has received more than 200 requests for help in the past week. But the number has dropped since Monday, as the city authorities started to intervene and house people dwelling on the streets in shelters.


Xu, a volunteer with another group, said it should be the government’s responsibility to handle the consequences of their pandemic measures, including caring for those left on the streets.


“It is not an act of charity. This is their legal duty,” said Xu, who is waiting in a hospital for a kidney surgery that has been postponed indefinitely. “And the tradeoff should not be our freedom and rights. People should be able to choose their own ways of living and where they want to go.”

Woman Lived in a Phone Booth for a Month During Shanghai’s COVID Lockdown

^^ I do not need to apologise for not wanting to live where you live, and further hardly need to reinforce the fact that you have never set foot in either Thailand or China. If I were a multimillionaire (I'm not) the Big island might be an option, but otherwise I'm afraid the US does not interest me as a place to call home.

Originally Posted by sabang

I do not need to apologise for not wanting to live where you live

You couldn't afford to live where I live.

Originally Posted by sabang

and further hardly need to reinforce the fact that you have never set foot in either Thailand or China.

With the likes of losers like you and OhDoh I would never miss it.

Originally Posted by sabang

^^ I do not need to apologise for not wanting to live where you live, and further hardly need to reinforce the fact that you have never set foot in either Thailand or China. If I were a multimillionaire (I'm not) the Big island might be an option, but otherwise I'm afraid the US does not interest me as a place to call home.

Wouldn't bother engaging with disconnected and mindless flag-wavers of the sort, Sab.

He's just butthurt because this aussie would much rather live in China than the US. Feck, the cost of decent health insurance there alone... He lives in the north east (Seattle?), well I've been to Portland, not too far away- one of the better places in the lower 48, but the weather really sucks there. Depressing. No thanks.

Jeez, for the same amount of dosh (or less) I could live a rather enviable lifestyle in China. Better weather too, etc. But there is no point telling snubs about being an Asian expat. How on earth did he wash up here, but he can dream, can't he.

Originally Posted by sabang

He's just butthurt because this aussie would much rather live in China than the US. Feck, the cost of decent health insurance there alone... He lives in the north east (Seattle?), well I've been to Portland, not too far away- one of the better places in the lower 48, but the weather really sucks there. Depressing. No thanks.

Jeez, for the same amount of dosh (or less) I could live a rather enviable lifestyle in China. Better weather too, etc. But there is no point telling snubs about being an Asian expat. How on earth did he wash up here, but he can dream, can't he.

Perhaps the grass is not greeer in Shanghai anymore though?
I don’t recall anyone asking you to apologise for your choices, or even justify them. Why would you when it isn’t relevant?

Originally Posted by sabang

He lives in the north east (Seattle?)

Did they not teach you navigation in the navy?

Haha, feck I must have forgotten my lessons! The Pacific Northwest of course. But the weather still sucks, to me. Anyway, touche'.

The main reason I would prefer to live in China compared to the USA is because I could live a far better lifestyle there on the same money, ok? I don't work.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Wouldn't bother engaging with disconnected and mindless flag-wavers of the sort, Sab.

I'm sorry Jeff, but no matter how much you schmooze, there simply isn't room for a fifth wanketeer. You'll just have to sit on the sidelines waving some silly metaphorical flag.

Originally Posted by sabang

I would prefer to live in China

Shit, they might even pay you, the amount of witless brown nosing you do for them.

I suspect Chairman Xi might veto that.

Originally Posted by sabang

Wife and I had lunch in a cheap local restaurant - total bill 43 RMB. 7rmb= $1 or 8.4 = £1.

So, using that exchange rate, it cost 6 USD (43/7 = 6.14)

What would that same meal cost in Thailand?

Personally I'd prefer to live in Thailand than exist in China.

In Thailand, street food is tastier, woman prettier and they actually want us living there

IMHO

He paid a dollar for that slop?

Fucking hell, they saw him coming.

I wonder what breed of dog was in the meat dish.

A choice of restaurants is preferable, but only if you can afford it of course.

China proudly calls itself Communist. Do you have any idea what that actually means- because I don't. Maybe just a philosophy- people first, not Capital.
Chinas near miraculous economic transformation started with Deng, who embraced the market economy and a results rather than ideologically driven system of governance.
Deng- "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice". Very different to Chairman Mao, who they still revere.

Jerry’s meal up there looks just awful.