COVID-19: Beijing is essentially in lockdown but authorities won’t use that word
In Beijing, business after business is bolted shut.
The authorities won’t use the word, but this city is essentially in lockdown.
In a number of districts across the capital, all non-essential shops are shut, restaurants and cafes are open for takeaway only and people are being asked to work from home.
COVID cases here have tripled in a week, they are at the highest level ever recorded.
While many have greeted the latest rules with weary acceptance there is clearly a price being paid by people for nearly three years of restrictions.
Leading shopping districts stood eerily silent and traditional huntong alleys, usually teeming with people, had just a trickle.
Mr Zheng’s coffee shop was still open, but only for takeaways.
“Business has not been good this year and it’s even worse recently, because of the pandemic,” he says, “You see, there are no people in this huntong.”
Many businesses are only open for takeaways
But elsewhere in the country, the anger goes much further.
In the central city of Zhengzhou workers at Foxconn, Apple’s biggest assembly plant, clashed violently with police.
Videos on Chinese social media show workers throwing large objects at authorities and smashing surveillance cameras.
There has been a COVID outbreak at the plant, many workers have been unable to leave and some are now saying there has been insufficient food and promised bonus payments have been delayed.
One video shows numerous police and workers in hazmat suits beating a worker with batons.
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iPhone factory workers beaten by police
Elsewhere, being stuck at home is wearing people down. In the city of Chongqing, Zheng Meng took a video of himself attempting to leave his apartment.
“You can’t leave,” a pandemic worker tells him, “this compound is high risk”.
It is rare for someone in China to speak so plainly, but he was very clear in his opinion that China is getting this wrong.
“The World Cup makes the government embarrassed because everybody at home is still watching the TV and there’s no masks for the other people,” he says.
“Why are the Chinese different from the rest of the world? Because our body condition is weaker? Or the Omicron in China is stronger? There’s supposed to be a reasonable reason, there’s no reason at all. They just force us to stay at home.”
Just a week or so ago there had been real hope that things might start easing up. The government has called for the rules to be ‘optimised’, for the response to be more targeted and less blanket.
But it’s faltered in the face of surging infections.
The problem is that while local government authorities have been instructed to try and ease COVID restrictions, it seems they have not been instructed to hold their nerve when cases inevitably rise.
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‘Situation is getting worse across China’
Thus, under immense pressure to keep numbers low, they’ve resorted to the familiar tactics of closing things down.
It illustrates the fundamental trap of China’s zero COVID agenda – there is no way out of it without rising infections and deaths, and the government has spent three years telling people that is unacceptable.
There are many people in China who support zero COVID, plenty are afraid of the virus.
It may be one obstacle in the coming months for a regime that still faces many.
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South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.
His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
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The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.
The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
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It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
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