Hong Kong Intelligence Report #27 “The FIVE EYES of Darkness”: COVID-19 Exploitation and Beyond
Ryota Nakanishi- Mar 26, 2020
- 45 min read
Updated: May 2
Open-source intelligence (OSINT)
IMPORTANT(COVID-19)
Unlike international media already forget amidst of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, Hong Kong anti-extradition bill riots of 2019 still continue sporadically, and it further synthesised with residential resistances against governmental decisions of setting up quarantine centres in their communities. (1)
As the result, the original destabilising regime change campaign got new momentum and partially grassroots form by politically exploiting difficulties which caused by case mismanagement and crony capitalism of SAR government of Hong Kong. Both anti-extradition riots and COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic are unsolved in Hong Kong. Double blows to patriotic Chinese citizens and pro-China camp. The real weakness of pro-China camp is that it automatically linked and equalised with devastating mismanagement and crony capitalism of SAR government while the SAR government itself is a pretty complicated interest group who heavily infiltrated by pro-colonial reactionary bureaucrats.
There is still no fundamental change detected but both sides had politically important developments for future change under COVID-19 pandemic. In propaganda aspects, this COVID-19 crisis whitewashed the damages(about 15 billion HKD) caused by riots while mainstream media claiming 1,600 billion HKD economic damages on Asia-Pacific regions. （2）
Hong Kong Political Situation
Sporadic Anti-Extradition Riots + COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic + COVID-19 panic/crisis business campaigns
Status: Continued and further complicated; Fomenting shortage panic of certain necessary goods is obviously relieved on toilet paperers, rice and sanitisers on February 27, 2020 in Hong Kong when China has been successfully started curbing the epidemic in Mainland China, and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe mentioned ongoing SNS-fuelled panic on the shortage of toilet paperers in Japan. (3)(4)
This was a turning point on anti-COVID-19 operations in East Asia. Now only reasonably priced masks are lacking in Hong Kong. February 27, 2020 was a turning point because total amount of active cases drastically decreased from 43,258 (Feb.26) to 39,919 (below 40K line). It is contrary to February 11 when the total amount of active cases started exceeding 40K line (38,791). It indicates China won the war against COVID-19 in mainland China. (5)
2. Pro-China Camp: Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region took initiative to build four quarantine centres (Lei Yue Mun; Penny's Bay; Sai Kung Town; Pat Heung) with mainland developers (China State Construction International Holdings Limited; CHEC) and some relatively trusted ''pro-China'' developers (Li Ka-shing-related PAUL Y. ENGINEERING GROUP LIMITED; CHEUNG HING CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LIMITED; New World Development owned Hip Hing Construction Co., Ltd.). (6)
It shows which Hong Kong developers Chinese government trust politically. Basically central government manly trusts its own state owned developers after the black-shirted riots of 2019. This is a wise decision to build it in short time without systematic delay possibly caused by politically suspicious Hong Kong developers. One of notorious land oligarchs, a member of Our Hong Kong Foundation, New World Development is mostly trusted by the central government among others. State owned enterprises secure political power and independence of CCP to ruling class. Luo Huining took leadership to successfully built 118 units in just only 28 days from planning to completion on February 28. (7)
It is mission impossible if let local private developers to do the same job in short term. Luo Huining's action is a political sign of successful control of epidemic, and it also reduced the dependency and immobility of state owned enterprises in Hong Kong.
3. Imperialist / Opposition / Business Camp: Vision2047 / HKGCC / Our Hong Kong Foundation
Untrustworthiness of ''pro-China'' Chambers of Commerce
Vision2047 (founded in 1987; total 63 members) is one of opposition chambers of commerce which leaked improperly obtained sound record of Carrie Lam to one of member companies of HKGCC, Reuters on September 2, 2019. (8)
It led to official abandoning of the extradition bill on September 4, 2019. (9)
Vision2047 is mainly formed by ex-colonial officers and foreign business owners, such as chairman of Link Real Estate Investment Trust, Nicholas Charles Allen; ex-chairman of HKGCC (2008-2010), Andrew Clifford Winawer Brandler; famous Shaw family member, Markus Shaw; a good friend of Tung Chee-hwa, Victor Fung Kwok-king; ex-Secretary for Financial Services of Hong Kong, Michael David Cartland; ex-assistant chief of Social Welfare Department, Rachel Cartland who is a close friend of the notorious US puppet, Anson Maria Elizabeth Chan Fang On Sang. (10)
Vision2047 supports anti extradition bill movement as part of opposition camp. They skilfully stated it with the article ''To friends of Vision 2047 Foundation, 29 July 2019'':
Why marches and demonstrations in the first place?
The first march was called to oppose the Government’s proposed amendment to our extradition law. The bill was deemed not to have been introduced with all due process and many believed the amendment exposed Hong Kong citizens, and foreign nationals here, to non-common law legal systems, which they do not trust, in particular and of greatest concern, that of the PRC. As a result of public opinion, the bill was not presented to our Legislative Council and was stated as being shelved or “suspended”. Since then, however, demands of the protesters have expanded to include the Government explicitly stating that the Extradition Bill is “withdrawn” not just suspended; retracting the classification as a riot of a protest on 12 June – such classification has sentencing implications for those arrested; unconditional release of detained protesters; an independent enquiry into police behaviour during the demonstrations and Government actions; an enquiry into the incidents of “thug” or triad involvement; and calling for the resignation of key Government figures. So far, the Government has not acknowledged any of the above demands, let alone addressed them. This has frustrated many people and the escalation of events has been attributed to this. (11)
Cited from VISION 2047 FOUNDATION
Chatham House Rule is a joke for them. Three English leakers of Vision2047 were fully trusted by Carrie Lam than anyone else in pro-China camp. It proved many important facts, Carrie Lam relatively trusts business community in opposition camp, she disclosed strategically important classified information that Beijing has no plan to send PLA to Hong Kong as a solution to riots as a response to their grave concern in the July statement, both self-proclaimed ''pro-China'' chambers of commerce and ''opposition'' ones are interchangeable, their members are mixed with ex-colonial bureaucrats, US-UK multinational corporations and developers who politically gained titles of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The leak incident links Vision2047, HKGCC, its member Reuters, Anson Maria Elizabeth Chan Fang On Sang and Tung Chee-hwa. In fact, Our Hong Kong Foundation which is under the cover of ''pro-China'' camp expanded its contributors including key figures of HKGCC, its chairman Aron Hari Harilela and Li Ka-shing's son Richard Li Tzar Kai. The most important figure is vice president of Our Hong Kong Foundation, Victor Fung Kwok-king who is also a member of Vision2047. This makes those chambers of commerce interchangeable politically as political asylum. Pragmatism of local ruling class won't fully help central government in anyway. It is always opportunistic and traitorous. (12)
“Agenda ID2020”
Recycle of Vaccination Conspiracy Theory + COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory (Recycle of SARS Conspiracy Theory)
One of groundless conspiracy theories is a mixture of pre-existed anti-vaccination conspiracy theory and COVID-19 crisis. Although ID2020 organisation does exist in private sector, there is still no proof provided by the Global Research conspiracy theorist Peter Koenig.
Anti-Vaccination cult (vaccination hesitancy)caused the revival of already extinguished disease and several death globally in 2019. The most famous news is that WHO listed anti-vax hoaxes as one of global threats in 2019. (13)
Vaccines are an effective and affordable way to prevent the spread of many diseases. In fact, it is estimated that without them, there would be an additional 2 million to 3 million deaths every year. Despite this, a sizable minority of people in several countries around the globe refuse vaccines (for themselves or their children)—or hesitate to accept them—even when they are readily available, a phenomenon known collectively as "vaccine hesitancy. "This can make it a difficult task to achieve sufficient levels of coverage in a population, mitigating the effects of "herd immunity" and potentially leading to outbreaks of disease. For example, vaccine hesitancy has been identified as one potential factor contributing to the 30 percent increase in measles cases globally.
Thus, anti-vax hoax is not meant to prevent humanitarian disasters but it is meant to promote it. We even still don’t have vaccines for SARS, furthermore COVID-19 vaccines are still in preproduction. (14)
Anti-vax conspiracy theory won’t help solving the epidemic in anyway. Peter Koeing mixed anti-vax conspiracy theory against ID2020 and instant panic making business on COVID-19 based on speculations not any evidence. He stated:
We may indeed be just at the beginning of the implementation of ID2020 – which includes, forced vaccination, population reduction and total digital control of everybody – on the way to One World Order – and global financial hegemony – Full Spectrum Dominance, as the PNAC (Plan for a New American Century) likes to call it. (15)
There is still no ‘’forced vaccination’’ threat from any US puppet governments detected yet, what we witnessed is quite opposite, systematic avoidance of PCR tests for everybody while Chinese 15 min easy test kits are available, there are many pretexts to push the ‘’ID2020,’’ but no one pushes it, even we still don’t have SARS vaccines. Why don’t they apply ID2020 vaccination scheme in already existed diseases? There is no fundamental relations between COVID-19 and ID2020. It is not too late to publish such speculation when it becomes true tendency. Moreover, ID2020 is a separate issue to concern at this phase. The quest for instant benefits by big and small capitalists during COVID-19 pandemic and ID2020 vaccination scheme are logically contradicted as we still even don’t have vaccines for SARS. (16)
Fictional Novel's Dean Koontz Marketing
“Gorki-400” = “Wuhan-400”
Leigh Nichols, a pseudonym for Dean Koontz appeared on the anti-Soviet novel The Eyes of Darkness in 1981. It provided a narrative for conspiracy theory that biological lab unexpectedly released the deadly virus. In fact, the virus is stolen from the lab where originally not located in Wuhan, China. That is Soviet Union, the name of virus is Gorki-400. Dean Koontz and the publishers rewrote the name of virus and location in 1988-9. The most key details don’t match the COVID-19 pandemic. It is true that his novel is an origin of conspiracy theory against China during the coronavirus epidemic however there is no inner-relations between them. It only helped book sales of his own novels by marketing ‘‘prophet Koontz’’ via SNS during COVID-19 epidemic.
What Koontz actually did was just renaming of virus and location in the original anti Soviet context. It is not any ‘‘prediction.’’
According to the fact check online by the reader,
The novel describes ‘Wuhan-400’ as follows:
1. Developed by a Chinese scientist in an RDNA laboratory outside the city of Wuhan.
2. Wuhan-400 affects only human beings. No other living creature can carry it.
3. The weapon can’t survive outside a living human body for more than a minute.
The available information about COVID-19 suggests that these predictions are not aligned with the recent outbreak.
Coronavirus is not man-made. Animals can also host the virus.
Bogus claims about COVID-19 being engineered as a biological weapon has already been debunked by multiple platforms both national and international. A statement by public health scientists published in The Lancet says, “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. Scientists from multiple countries have published and analysed genomes of the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and they overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, as have so many other emerging pathogens.” (17)
This conspiracy theory was also denied perfectly. Book marketing like this case is a sheer proof of greedy panic marketing campaign by its publishers for instant profits.
Another research also proved this conspiracy theory totally false:
This claim is therefore partly false. Dean Koontz did write about a fictional virus called “Wuhan-400” in the 1989 re-release of his 1981 novel “The Eyes of Darkness”, but symptoms and effects of the disease do not match the official description of COVID-19. The additional page present in some claims suggesting an outbreak “around 2020” is from a different book. …“End Of Days: Predictions and prophecies about the end of the world” by Sylvia Browne, an American author who claimed to be a psychic (see the page here). (18). It proved that this conspiracy theory is a pure fabrication which made out of two different books.
PCR Tests and Case Management (Japan and Hong Kong)
Japan (Total 1965 cases on March 26):
Japanese government clearly knows that they can get compensations from insurance companies if IOC cancels it. Thus, they won't cancel or postpone it by themselves. Both PM Shinzo Abe and Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike are hardliners who want Tokyo Olympic 2020 to be held as scheduled. For this purpose, they are curbing number of PCR tests not curbing epidemic itself. This is a general line of entire anti-Covid-19 policy of Japan from beginning.
Key words: PCR tests; triage; Chinese test kits; Tokyo Olympics 2020; Prevention Measures and Guide of Consultation
First of all, Japanese government’s prevention measures and guide of consultation on February 25 is meant to prevent number of infected people as many as possible on statistics. The strict guidelines a priori excluded suspected patients, mild symptoms, and part of severe symptoms. The guideline is below:
- You have had cold symptoms or a fever of 37.5°C or over for four days or more.
(including when you need to continue to take an antipyretic)
- You have a strong feeling of weariness (fatigue) or shortness of breath (difficulty breathing).
* Please also consult with the consultation centre if you are a senior citizen or have an underlying disease, and you have had the symptoms mentioned above for about two days. (19)
In practice, consultation centre is a political device to curb number of cases, thus 15,330 out of 15,484 suspected people got rejected in Tokyo; 7922 out of 8080 suspected people also rejected in Osaka. This proved that the basic guideline and consultation centres are politically meant to curb the number of PCR tests and Japan’s corona virus cases. (20)
From another aspect, we can also see the political motive behind it. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare published the number of PCR tests since February 18- March 17, Japan did 14,902 tests for exact number of suspected patients at 851 medical facilities where can conduct PCR tests. It includes National Institute of Infectious Diseases, quarantine stations, local Institutes of Public Health, public health centres, test companies, universities and hospitals. They have abilities to do 7504 tests per day however there were only 203 tests on March 18. (21)
The abilities of testing per day and actual operations are not only separated but also contradicted. Shinzo Abe regime’s triage in Aichi prefecture further caused the highest mortality rate in Japan. 122 cases confirmed and 15 dead in Aichi prefecture because they are conducting triage which meant to abandon aging patients with severe symptoms, instead they relatively take patients who are possibly curable to ICUs. It shows at least they think there are serious shortage of ICUs. As the result, 15 out of 31 deaths reported from there. (22)
Japan’s chaotic case management is not limited in these issues. For instance, whereabouts of 12,500 Chinese test kits. On February 22, CCTV reported, first batch of #coronavirus test kits donated by China arrived in Japan. Mainichi news later reported those test kits were sent to National Institute of Infectious Diseases yet the minister of health, labour, and welfare, Katsunobu Kato did not answer if those Chinese test kits were actually used or not. They only qualified the effectiveness at National Institute of Infectious Diseases. (23)
Shinzo Abe is more eager to promote Japan’s self-made test kit business for big Pharmaceuticals rather than more advanced Chinese test kits which can detect COVID-19 infection at fast 15mins. Abe stated on March 18, there are two kinds of easy tests developed by both KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Eiken Chemical however it takes 40 mins to detect infection. (24)
What Japan really needs is not Tokyo Olympic 2020 but it is test expansion as perfectly mentioned by World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on March 16. He said:
'Our key message is: test, test, test'
World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says there has not been an urgent enough escalation in testing, isolation and contact tracing, which should be the "backbone" of the global response.
He said it is not possible to "fight a fire blindfolded", and social distancing measures and handwashing will not alone extinguish the epidemic.
#1 US puppet regime of Japan’s case management is completely opposite from what anti-vax conspiracy theorists suspected. It is a sheer antithesis to that kind of conspiracy theory. What we need is testing in order to grab the true infected cases for virus containment. Curbing testing number will cause more infections.
Beside mentioned above, there are several things must be mentioned on Japanese cases,
a. Shinzo Abe said on February 24 that ‘the next one of two weeks will be critical moments to contain the epidemic.’ However the two weeks passed on March 9 without any particular measures against it. Only one exception was closure of schools since February 27 without any evaluation of the measure even at the expert meeting on March 19.
b. During the ‘critical period,’ Shinzo Abe authorized 70,000 attended Tokyo Marathon on March 9; Shiga marathon and Aichi marathon on March 8; K-1 match on March 22. What a self-contradiction to allow mass scale public gatherings. Japan must ban all public events and gatherings if they really want to contain it.
c. PCR testing was not expanded practically. Since March 5 to 21, only 700 tests per day and total 18,000 tests. (25)
d. ‘Hidden Liberal Democrats-Komeito’ in opposition side, such as The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Democratic Party For the People allowed Shinzo Abe to rewrite New Flu Special Measures Act to establish dictatorship by granting PM to announce state of emergency which is equal with martial law. It can limit individual rights after the official announcement however Abe decided to not announce it immediately on March 16. The amendment was passed at house of representatives at March 12, then at house of council at March 13, finally into effect at March 14. This is what Abe mostly wanted in terms of systematical change during COVID-19 epidemic yet his prime concern is Tokyo Olympic 2020 thus he avoided further contradiction with anti-Abe dissidents. Mascot of The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, ex-SEALDs did not oppose this act. (26)
Hong Kong (total 453 cases on March 26):
Unlike Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China where PCR testing of their people is quite successful , Hong Kong’s neoliberal attitude is similar to US, Japan, Sweden, UK, Spain. Japanese critics misunderstood it. Testing is only passively done when every suspected patients go to hospitals with symptoms. There are nether statistics of PCR tests nor obligatory testing for all citizens in Hong Kong. This situation is worse than Japan and US. 13 private clinics can accept samples from suspected patients. And 3 quarantine centres available.
The center of testing is The Public Health Laboratory Services Branch of the CHP which will provide testing for 5000 samples from the relevant persons per week according to the announcement. It stated:
Taking reference from clinical and research statistics around the globe, the DH concurred that elderly people infected with COVID-19 usually present with a more serious clinical condition or are more prone to complications, and are thus subject to higher potential risk. Hence, persons under quarantine aged 65 or above or persons under quarantine residing with elderly persons aged 65 or above are target individuals at this stage.
There will be free tests to cover asymptomatic persons under the Compulsory Quarantine of Persons Arriving at Hong Kong from Foreign Places Regulation (Cap. 599E). Since March, Hong Kong’s COVID-19 epidemic entered into new stage in which ruthless travellers who went to Europe and Western countries where epidemic are rapidly complicating day by day, and also overseas Hong Kong students who could not get enough hospitalisation abroad or for temporary evacuation before full blockades of borders.
Hong Kong’s COVID-19 epidemic has three phases:
1. The first phase: The first local COVID-19 case of January 18 and the society was failed to conduct early blockades of borders. This led to the first skyrocketing number of infected cases on January 30 with 9 cases in one day. From January 27, SAR government limited entries of non-Hong Kong residents who went to Wuhan, Hubei province within 14 days. (27)
On January 28, SAR government announced partial blockades of borders which was meant to temporarily close West Kowloon Station Mainland Port Area and suspend all express rail lines, half of flights from outside of Hong Kong, individual trip visas for mainlanders. It caused tidal wave of returners who wanted to enter Hong Kong before the effective date January 30. SAR government closed only 6 borders on January 30. It should have been immediately effective to block entries as many as possible. SAR government always create epidemic hype that drive tidal wave of entries before effective time far distanced from the announcement date. . (28)
2. The 2nd phase is marked by limitation of entries to Hong Kong international airport, Shenzen Bay Port and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge from February 4, February 3-7 medical workers’ strike, imported local COVID cases from UK cruise ship Diamond Princess and Hong Kong cruise ship World Dream, and the 2020-21 Budget which announced on February 26. From January 28 to February 12, Hong Kong experienced the first round of epidemic peak. Department of Health finally started 14 day quarantine measures for all entries from mainland China since February 8. (29)
This move also accelerated rapid entries before the effective date. The important thing is that opposition-backed medical worker’s strike was and still is right in terms of containing COVID-19 epidemic even though it was mixed with those black-shirted rioters. Their demonstration and strike actually forced SAR government to take the 14 day quarantine measure. (30)(31)
Diamond Princess brought the first local case confirmed on February 1, the patient left the ship on January 25. Later the UK public-sea casino tour ship entered into Japan thus it should be counted as Japanese COVID-19 cases. Japan’s total COVID-19 cases including Diamond Princess is 1872 cases at present. Shinzo Abe regime locked down both the infected and the uninfected together in the closed space. That is living hell. Total 712 cases including 70 Hong Kong residents, 2 Hong Kong residents dead out of 7 deaths. (32)
World Dream was another nightmare. On January 19, World Dream despite warning from authorities, they started their 5 night Vietnam-2 night public sea journey (WD05200119). On the same day, picked up 3 already infected passengers at Nansha port in Guangzhou city. This was ended up in unreported disaster. Mainland temporarily refused its docking. Media kept silence before Feb.4. Strangely SAR government did not quarantine the first round of passengers and let them directly went home or mainland. Later 9 cases confirmed on WD05200119 on February 5 when World Dream came back from completely failed four night Taiwan journey. Because 33 cruise members infected, Taiwan government refused their docking at Kaoxiong port, and SAR HK government finally closed the all cruise ports in Hong Kong on February 6. 1800 cruise members and passengers who tested negative later released from the ship on February 9. (33)
What SAR government forgot was that the passengers did not have to be self-quarantined for 2 weeks after that. It’s typical negligence. No public outrage on World Dream side. It's distorted.
READ MORE:
The 2020-21 Budget is still controversial. There are several reasons for this. One is the policy of Relieve Burden that got bipartisan support from both side, however 10,000 HKD cash payment to Hong Kong permanent residents aged 18 or above will be paid after the epidemic ceased. Some claimed it would be the next year or August or July. (34)
Reliving burdens during epidemic and sporadic riots is reasonable and rational but delayed payment will be more helpless than the present. The financial secretary of SAR Hong Kong, ‘the next wanna be candidate of Chief Executive of SAR’ Paul Chan Mo-po has bad record on Caring and Sharing Scheme (2018) that not all applicants received 4,000 HKD payment for burden relieve, furthermore 12,000 applications with personal information disappeared mysteriously on October 10, 2019. (35)
Delay on public compensation payment is severe in Hong Kong. It always loses the timing. Second, the financial secretary refused setting up unemployment fund or unemployment insurance system. If he agreed it, it would have been contained in the budget. Thus, 10,000 HKD cash payment can’t really help the working class to live a month due to high rent, it will be vaporized quickly. Third, it shows neoliberal trickledown point of view on the policy named ‘Support enterprises; Safeguard jobs.’ There is still lack of direct funding for the working class, such as unemployment compensation. Workers can’t expect trickledown on SAR government’s 30 billion HKD Anti-epidemic fund which established on February 26, 2020. (36)
This is typical neoliberal, neoconservative thinking.
Hong Kong’s epidemic situation had been successfully gradually contained since February 12 until the end of the month. (37)
During the phase, Mainland China reached the peak on February 11 (38791 active cases), then finally contained the epidemic on February 28 (37414 active cases). (38)
On the contrary, SARS-COV2 was spread to the next hot bet South Korea on February 19. South Korea’s epidemic peak was from February 22 (277 active cases) until March 9 (165 active cases). South Korea also dramatically contained the outbreak. (39)
SAR government has been fully shielded off entries from South Korean without Hong Kong residents since February 25, this is contradicted as SAR government refused shielding off borders with mainland China and claimed such measure is discrimination. (40)
They ‘discriminated’ Koreans in this way. Shielding off borders with mainland China was and still is precise containment measure taken by China’s close allies like North Korea and Russia at early phase of epidemic. In March, more than 40 countries or regions followed the measure. (41)
Highlight of the 2nd phase of HK epidemic
This global tendency actually changed blind pro-government critics into advocates of blockades of borders. (42)
Politically and economically most important thing during this epidemic is that in February, land and property oligarchs required SAR government to deregulate anti short term speculation policy like Special Stamp Duty, SSD; (Ad Valorem Stamp Duty，AVD); (Buyer Stamp Duty, BSD) which are meant to curb the already uncontrollable housing price and short term speculation schemes by speculators who are only aiming easy blood money at the cost of homeless working class people who can’t afford housing. Their hypocritical pretext is that it is described as for saving lives of workers while it has nothing to do with the needs of the working class at all. On the contrary, lifting SSD, AVD and BSD is to help greedy speculators to freely profiteering themselves from already unaffordable housing market while the strongest needs for housing of the workers cannot satisfied. Helping housing stock market prices does not mean helping lives of workers who desperately need but don’t even own houses. It will only worsen the housing situation and inequality. (43)
Fortunately, this major political scheme during Hong Kong epidemic was failed while the 2020-21 budget did not include such policy. This is critically positive and necessary decision made by SAR government. Both Oriental Daily and Apple Daily harmoniously supported developers’ scheme. (44) (45)
The proven fake ‘pro-Beijing’ side legislative council member, representative of developers, Abraham SHEK Lai-him is fully irresponsible for the entire society.
It proved that Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong is a fake pro-Beijing party which only serves local oligarchs. All of them ignored there is always world’s strongest needs for housing almost permanently among the working class people thus market itself won’t be down. Speculators and its paid mainstream media of Hong Kong are profiteering themselves at the cost of the workers by saying:
專家指出，撤辣有助吸引資金流入香港，刺激經濟復甦，提升區內競爭力，重建市民對置業及物業投資信心，可謂有百利而無一害，何樂而不為？
- Oriental Daily News, March 26, 2020 (46)
Speculators’ money only will go into bank accounts of oligarchs who are monopoly capitalists in Hong Kong thus it won’t improve the situation. It will push already uncontrollable prices of properties and housing rapidly skyrocketing, thus the inevitable result is broadening inequality gap. They build more unnecessary luxury independent houses for speculation which are not meant to satisfy the needs of housing of the working class people. It is helpless as long as what they built is almost permanently unaffordable for workers.
3. The 3rd phase is marked with WHO’s announcement of pandemic on March 11. (47)
Since March 1 (Italy confirmed 573 daily cases), the centre of epidemic moved to Europe. (48)
Hong Kong has been entered into the 2nd round of outbreak which mainly caused by travellers and returners from abroad and mainland since March 6. (49)
Unlike news, the family hall for worshipping Buddha in Maylun Apartments in North Point (confirmed 11 + 5 contracted cases until March 1; announced closure on March 11) did not become major factor of spreading virus contrary to returners. (50)
SAR HK government arranged 4 chartered flights on March 4 (theoretically 533 HK residents were estimated to return from Wuhan, Hubei province). Total 244 people returned. (51)
And now they are planning the 2nd round of 4 chartered flights to bring rest of them home on March 25 and 26. (52)
From March 19, SAR HK government requires testing for all entries but not quarantine in professional term (staying home with family members is not quarantine at disease control centers) if it is not from Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province of Korea, Iran or Emilia-Romagna-Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia of Italy. (53)
Sporadic riots still occurred in the context of resistance of residents against setting of appointed COVID-19 clinic out there like March 8 in Tai Po district, police arrested 23 rioters including district council opposition member MAN NIM CHI. (54)
It is their strategy to exploit COVID-19 epidemic for revitalising and maintaining black-shirted riots until September election. It gained grassroots elements to the certain extent while no independent grassroot movement does exist in Hong Kong.
SAR government reversed its 3 month payment compensation for unemployed workers which expected to release in October by changing target from unemployed to low wage workers reported on March 10. (55)
Neoconservative policy of SAR government’s sheer negligence and inhumanity for the working class. Department Health made ridiculous decision on March 16 that charge all temporary quarantined residents 200 HKD per day at three temporary quarantine centres such as Tso Kung Tam Outdoor Recreation Centre, Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre and Lady MacLehose Holiday Village in order to punish abusers of those centres. (56)
However this measure should not be implemented as SAR government is unable to identify who is abusing or possibly will abuse the centres for their business with mainland. Their inactiveness and negligence are only harmful to the working class who is fundamentally unsuitable for being quarantined at narrow mansion rooms due to highly possible contagion. Quarantine at home is definitely wrong for the working class generally in Hong Kong. It only fits ruling class who owns independent houses.
Unemployment rate hit the worst in 9 years, 3.7 % during the last December to February, retail and tourist industry hit 6.1 % unemployment rate on March 17. (57)
The statistics itself is suspiciously manipulated as lower as possible. Hong Kong’s unemployment rate is always higher than that if includes all kinds of employment. 3.7 % is still seemed lower than real situation.
Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung who is a microbiologist, physician and surgeon denied one of conspiracy theories that ‘SARS-COV2 MADE IN USA.’(58)
He stated that true origin is Chinese culture of consuming game from the wild. His political stance is obviously opposition side while he serves SAR government as a consultant on containment of epidemic. However it is one of factors of SARS-COV2 pandemic because CCP banned consuming game from the wild on February 18. (59)
The use of Wuhan or China on naming of the virus or epidemic is discrimination due to its apparent political propaganda motive. Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung apologized and withdrew his remarks after harsh criticism from mainland. (60)
Since March 19, all entries must wear monitoring wristbands and install "StayHomeSafe" mobile app however only 2000 out of 7400 successfully activated. (61)
Defects of quarantine measures got criticized by society as usual. What Hong Kong really needs to contain epidemic is to test and quarantine all entries at quarantine centres, ban all non-Hong Kong resident entries, all public gatherings, all bars, pubs, gyms, theatres without supermarkets and restaurants like UK and Italy, moreover direct unemployment compensation for the working class. Hong Kong situation is not a natural disaster, it is purely a manmade disaster which mainly caused by extremely selfish business interests and its corrupt protector SAR government.
Lan Kwai Fong became hotbed of epidemic since March 19, 5 cases confirmed; at the peak of the 2nd wave of epidemic, the largest number hit 48 cases on March 20, 37 on March 21, 44 cases on March 22, 4 out of 44 cases were from Lan Kwai Fong where refused curfew during black shirted riots, also relieved from possible closure while chief of Center for Health Protection of Communicable Disease Branch, Dr CHUANG Shuk-kwan denied such measure as she thinks it is a matter of social distancing not a problem of particular place. It only serves business interests of Lan Kwai Fong’s bar industry not public health as long as SAR government doesn’t ban public gatherings. (62)(63)
There are several things must mentioned beside those written above:
a. SAR Hong Kong government forgets their own promise to establish three hospital buildings for prevention of infectious diseases after SARS epidemic in 2003 which killed 299 people in Hong Kong. (64)
b. Like Yeoh Eng-kiong who was Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food and a member of the Executive Council between 2002 and 2004 in the Hong Kong Government and notorious for his scandal that he denied SARS epidemic while people were suffering from it. His successor York Chow Yat-ngok is also a walking bureaucratic disaster who caused "anchor babies in Hong Kong" issues and later transfer to Equal Opportunities Commission as a chairman; and finally appointed as a member of the medical council of Hong Kong effectively from July 9. He is predicted to push neoliberal private insurance policy for coronavirus infected city. (65)
c. March 20, Oriental News reported that prosecutor in charge of anti-extradition riots at Department of Justice, Yung Tat Yeung surprisingly wrote a last September published book “Comprehensive Book! Law Common Sense Children Must Know” (ISBN: 9789888526420) for black shirted rioters to teach how to avoid law enforcement. Later he was transferred to high court unit early this year though it is still a menace for justice. This incident proved that full infiltration in the department is far worse than people imagined. (66)
d. Finally SAR government announced ban all non HK resident entries from abroad, any entries from mainland, Macau and Taiwan who went abroad within 14 days, all airport transit, all entries from Macau and Taiwan are subject to 14 days testing since March 25. This is what we expected from beginning of the epidemic on January 18. The extreme measures mean SAR government regard this is the final phase of epidemic. (67)
Strategic importance of “Patient Zero” And Joe Biden's The Berman Law Group
China and Iran blamed US for the possible biological attacks, and US also counter attacked them by the racist remark ‘China virus’ and medical-economic terrorism against them in return. Furthermore the most of conspiracy theories from both sides based on unclear ‘patient zero.’ Chinese Foreign Ministry new spokesman Zhao Lijian claimed on March 13 that:
When did patient zero begin in U.S.? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be U.S. army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” Zhao Lijian tweeted in both Chinese and English on Thursday. “Be transparent! Make public your data! U.S. owe us an explanation!"
His post was accompanied by a video of Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying that some Americans who had seemingly died from influenza later tested positive for the new coronavirus. (68)
As long as it’s around the ‘unclear’ patient zero, both anti-China or US conspiracy theories are groundless even though exploitation of COVID-19 epidemic to push political agendas is too seriously real. The definition of biological warfare could include medical terrorism and SHOCK DOCTORINE scheme because the use of naturally originated contagious virus as a political or economic tool against adversaries or class enemies in order to gain benefits from the epidemic recession can be seen as a weaponization of the virus. In this point of view, China and Iran won’t deserve criticism while they are concentrating on containment of epidemic domestically and internationally. There is no such weaponization of the virus epidemic by China or Iran detected although Hong Kong media wanted to make such a claim.
The Apple Daily reported on February 22 that Carrie Lam suggested Beijing to exploit this epidemic and its effective containment in order to gain popular support for pro-Beijing side. It is a sheer trap and black op against Beijing politically. (69)
Inside China, a raft of conspiracy stories have appeared online, including that the contagion might have been brought in by American athletes staying in Wuhan during the Military World Games last year. (70)
The Military World Game was actually held in Wuhan during October 18-27. (71)
The earliest patient zero’s symptoms appeared and confirmed on December 1, 2019, and now some claimed with a governmental document that it’s November 17, 2019 when the first case was confirmed for the first time. The incubation period is two weeks thus it is rational to consider that it’s the same patient because it’s too literally 14 days later, December 1 his or her symptoms appeared. The conspiracy theory of the Military World Game is false due to the time gap between the event and the patient zero. Moreover, total 109 countries attended but there is no ground to only suspect and condemn US without any proof. The November 17 theory is published by AmCham member, opposition media SCMP without any so called governmental records shown to the public. Thus it remains a theory. Patient zero means the first infected case not a host.
According to the government data seen by the Post, a 55 year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted Covid-19 on November 17. (72)
Anti-China conspiracy theory is the lab biohazard in Wuhan:
The virus' origin has been the focus of conspiracy theories and other forms of misinformation. In an interview with Fox News on Feb. 16, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., suggested that the coronavirus may have come from a virology laboratory in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak emerged. Others went further by raising the possibility that the virus was a leaked bioweapon. (73)
This was swiftly denied by scientific research:
The virus' genome can't tell scientists everything about its source, but the string of DNA sequences functions almost like a blueprint for this type of detective work. …… Public health officials suspect that the current outbreak may have originated at a live-animal market in Wuhan, where dozens of workers were infected at the outset. The market has been shut down, but tests on samples from the area have been inconclusive. (74)
In early February, a group of Chinese scientists suggested that genetic analyses pointed to pangolins — scaly, long-snouted anteaters — as a likely source of the outbreak. Their research showed that genetic sequences of coronaviruses isolated from pangolins are 99 percent similar to those of the current variant. Jones said the pangolin theory is plausible, but he cautioned that the findings haven't yet been confirmed by independent scientific research. (75)
FACTs: Pangolin is indigenous in Hubei province? Manis pentadactyla (aka Chinese Pangolin) lives in south of Yangtze but Wuhan is located in north of Yangtze. It can only be brought into Wuhan manually. Moreover, there is no viral research centers near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in a map. Thus, biohazard at Wuhan labs is geographically groundless hoax. (76)
FACT CHECK:
Is there any disease center near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market within 280 m? NO, there is no disease research and prevention centre next to the market. The important thing is that unlike Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao ‘exposed’ on internet about the closest 280m distanced disease research and prevention centre where called WHCDC (武汉市疾病预防控制中心) and its numerous bio hazard incidents including this SARS-COV2 biohazard, however the centre is far distanced from the market. 3,900m (13min drive from the market) and it is just near the consulate general of South Korea. From geographical information, this Wuhan lab biohazard theory is totally false. (77)If this was a real bio hazard, the consulate general of South Korea or the lab itself could have been the epicentre. Anti-China conspiracy theory is false from beginning geographically.
Patient Zero of USA: The epidemic of COVID-19 Began from Washington State since January 20
US already published a formal report of US patient zero on March 5 while China still refused to disclose detailed information of the patient zero. The title is First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States written by Michelle L. Holshue, M.P.H., Chas DeBolt, M.P.H., Scott Lindquist, M.D., Kathy H. Lofy, M.D., John Wiesman, Dr.P.H., Hollianne Bruce, M.P.H., Christopher Spitters, M.D., Keith Ericson, P.A.-C., Sara Wilkerson, M.N., Ahmet Tural, M.D., George Diaz, M.D., Amanda Cohn, M.D., et al., for the Washington State 2019-nCoV Case Investigation Team.
On January 19, 2020, a 35-year-old man presented to an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, Washington, with a 4-day history of cough and subjective fever. On checking into the clinic, the patient put on a mask in the waiting room. After waiting approximately 20 minutes, he was taken into an examination room and underwent evaluation by a provider. He disclosed that he had returned to Washington State on January 15 after traveling to visit family in Wuhan, China. The patient stated that he had seen a health alert from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the novel coronavirus outbreak in China and, because of his symptoms and recent travel, decided to see a health care provider.
This has nothing to do with the World Military Games 2019 which held in October. The patient zero of US is Chinese American who is not a military personnel at all. This article was published on January 31, 2020, at NEJM.org.
Some conspiracy theorists wrote that genetic sequence of SARS-COV2 showed it is originated in US however genetic sequence is shared with the world scientists and no such claim was made by real scientific research including this one.
The full genome sequences from oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal specimens were identical to one another and were nearly identical to other available 2019-nCoV sequences. There were only 3 nucleotides and 1 amino acid that differed at open reading frame 8 between this patient’s virus and the 2019-nCoV reference sequence (NC_045512.2). The sequence is available through GenBank (accession number MN985325). (78)
There are two strains of the SARS-COV2 were identified by Chinese scientists not like 5 or more like conspiracy theorists wrote. Moreover, one is typical at early phase in Wuhan outbreak and now it mutated.
There is no more stupid and irresponsible conspiracy theorist than Larry Romanoff. Read COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US. He just translated what original Weixin article author 榜上悦读 wrote. (79)
Nothing original even no proof shown. Phylogeography with whole genomes 24 Mar 2020 proved the completely opposite story that origins of those SARS-COV2 variants are all originated in Asia and mutated while they reached the different continents. The whole genome sequence tree was reversed by both irresponsible attention earners. US and EU have variants that China doesn’t have because they mutated and evaluated out there.
In a preliminary study published Tuesday, scientists at Peking University’s School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai found that a more aggressive type of the new coronavirus had accounted for roughly 70% of analysed strains, while 30% had been linked to a less aggressive type.
The more aggressive type of virus was found to be prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan — the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected late last year.
But the frequency of this type of virus has since decreased from early January.
The researchers said their results indicate the development of new variations of the spike in COVID-19 cases was “likely caused by mutations and natural selection besides recombination.”
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Chinese scientists identify two strains of the coronavirus, indicating it’s already mutated at least once BEAST by Continent
Data and model as above (373 genomes), but with Continent added as discrete trait when using 1000 empirical trees (symmetric model with BSSVS). Here you can more easily see the separate introductions and subsequent spread into Europe, North America and Oceania. (80)
On the contrary to conspiracy theories, the real genome sequence tree shows that the virus was originated in Asia. The most of branches belong to Asia not North America.
It's already confirmed that some patients were wrongly diagnosed as flu while they were COVID-19 patients but it is overstated while all flu patients are COVID-19 patients. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying on March 11 that some Americans who had seemingly died from influenza later tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Redfield said there has been "a surveillance system of deaths from pneumonia, that the CDC has; it’s not in every city, every state, every hospital.”
Rouda followed up and asked, “So we could have some people in the United States dying for what appears to be influenza when in fact it could be the coronavirus?”
The doctor replied that “some cases have actually been diagnosed that way in the United States today.”
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It was only a matter of time when US and its allies unanimously sue China for COVID-19 pandemic. This is why the information of patient zero is strategically important.
The Berman Law Group filed a class action federal lawsuit against the People’s Republic of China and several other Chinese government entities, alleging they mishandled the outbreak of COVID-19.
Reported by 12NEWS on March 13. Directly to the point, this is like recently dropped Russiagate lawsuit on Concord Management & Consulting LLC which is also based on conspiracy theory not actual proof. Thus if defendant appears, it will be failed. (81)
The law group is backed by big names such as Frank Biden, Joe Biden's brother, and former Sen. Joseph Abruzzo.
It proved that Democrats are all behind the both anti Russia lawsuit and anti-China lawsuit equally. Biden controlled plaintiffs implied that there will be bipartisan support to their lawsuit.
In a 20-page civil complaint filed in a South Florida federal court, the plaintiffs reference unconfirmed theories about the virus’ origin, including a theory that it emerged from a Chinese microbiology lab near Wuhan.
The Berman Group, however, is confident that they will be able to determine the virus’ origin after they obtain documents from China as the case progresses.
While the Chinese government could ignore the suit, a consultant with the Berman Group told reporters there are economic ways to ensure the Chinese government comply with the court process, including targeting various bank accounts and relying on treaties between the U.S. and China. (82)
Their lawsuit is already illogical as their statement based on the Wuhan lab biohazard theory which contains the fatal geographical mistake. In sum, their false accusation is based on science fiction and pushed by economic terrorism. It means there will be more complicated and heated conflict between US and China in near future.
About the dropped US lawsuit against Russia,
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Crisis Business and Aftermath: Neoliberalism + Crony Capitalism + Shock Doctrine
“Help is on the way, big help and quick help.”
IOC had implied that they will only postpone it before official decision of postponement of Tokyo Olympic 2020 on March 24. IOC guaranteed will not cancel it as Shinzo Abe regime was so highly concerned of it. For this purpose, Shinzo Abe and Japanese ruling class made tremendous efforts to curb the number of PCR testing cases not actual infection cases at the cost of the working class. This is a sole purpose of why Abe not declaring the state of emergency to establish dictatorship during the pandemic. IOC implied this pre scripted scenario on March 23.
On Monday afternoon, the I.O.C. member Dick Pound confirmed to USA Today what everyone already knew: the Olympics would be delayed. The next four weeks would be used to determine when they would take place, not whether it would be this summer. At least the uncertainty was over. Now the question is whether the Olympics can become, again, a symbol of hope and idealism, rather than of greed and delusion.
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On the day of IOC official decision to delay the Tokyo Olympic, Kyodo NEWs which is part of Dentsu PR establishment proactively released Tokyo COVID-19 crisis news tightly after the news of postponement circulated internet. Its sheer purpose is to cover the unusually undercalculated infected numbers. Tokyo is now the most infected city in Japan. Japan’s total case number is counted as 71 higher than what live tracking statistics counted. It is 53 including the deaths of Diamond Princess. (83) (84)
This Kyodo news means that Shinzo Abe will shift to crisis marketing of his own political agenda thus it intrinsically needs mainstream media to foment mass hysteria and pretexts for pushing crony capitalist policy. Lockdown of Tokyo is called by governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike on the same day surprisingly immediately after the IOC announcement they wanted. Furthermore Shinzo Abe regime insincerely exploited the opportunity to cancel the cash compensation for all Japanese nationalities that he promised as a living relief measure. (85)
In Hong Kong, major political schemes during COVID-19 epidemic are fortunately failed. The major scheme is deregulation of housing market in order to give free hands for international speculators to engage in already uncontrollable housing price hype manipulation. The mainstream media of Hong Kong like pro-Beijing KMT media Oriental Daily and opposition media Apple Daily are harmoniously still pushing the oligarchs’ self-neoliberal agenda despite the almost permanent needs of housing in the working class. Deregulation of SSD and BSD are hypocritically justified by ideologues of irresponsible media in the name of saving lives of the working class. They already failed to persuade SAR government in the late February. The 2020-21 Budget excluded possibility of that kind of policy.
The most important things we must concern in the world news are about US administration’s SHOCK DOCTORINE schemes below:
National Economic Stimulus Package: Stock Market and Endless Printing of Money
The bill is being rushed through Congress without public hearings or formal review, and it’s unclear how effective the measures would be in arresting the economy’s sudden fall. The stock market rose sharply Tuesday(March 24) in anticipation of the deal, with the Dow Jones industrial average surging more than 2,100 points, or 11.4 percent. The government is dealing with a number of competing pressures, though, as Trump declared that he’d like much of the country to be up and running by April 12, even though the number of people testing positive for the novel virus in the United States continues to climb. …… “We got better oversight, better oversight,” Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday. “The oversight basically is saying that you know you can’t just ... exempt everybody and give all your corporate executives, based on the backs of the taxpayers, free carnival.” Manchin has been critical of the bill being weighted more toward Wall Street than average America. Trump took a shot at the lawmaker when asked about his criticism during an interview Tuesday on Fox News…… Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) voiced concern about the legislation over Twitter, writing that despite “vague statements” no one had seen text of the legislation that “seems to give a *HALF TRILLION DOLLARS* away to big corporations, w/ few worker protections.”
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US national debt now total $25.3 trillion has been worsening since 2008 financial crisis due to its endless printing of money to pump up stock prices of oligarchs at the cost of the working class. (86)
Pump and dumb manipulation means deregulation and governmental free capital injection for international speculators and oligarchs have nothing to do with entire domestic material economy and saving lives of the working class people at all. It only serves insider traders and speculation of targeted markets. Debt market crisis, Saudi-led oil crisis all pre-existed before the COVID-19 pandemic for US and the world. Endlessly skyrocketing debt and incompetence of social health care system proved that saving speculators, insider traders and oligarchs with free capital from the state is neither capitalism nor containment effort yet it is a sheer extortion of money from the working class. Thus, coronavirus pandemic is just a pretext which insider traders exactly wanted. Finally they reached the deal for 2 trillion dollar stimulus package by bipartisan cooperation on March 25. (86)
American corporations have been shown to have little capacity to plan for “rainy day” contingencies, instead focusing all their economic resources on the generation of short-term profit. And the American working class has been likewise exposed as living on the edge of catastrophe, with few Americans able to fall back on savings that would enable them to ride out a period of sustained economic inactivity or, worse, to pay for emergency health care.
The other uncomfortable truth about America that has been exposed by the crisis is the overall fragility of American society. The medical emergency brought about by the need to treat this virus has shown that what passes for a national healthcare system is, in fact, a fragile construct of for-profit institutions susceptible to being rapidly overburdened and unable to function once the cash-stream of overpriced healthcare has been cut off. The coronavirus crisis has revealed the reality of the US healthcare system today – most Americans don’t have the wherewithal to get quality healthcare when needed – the cost of such care is prohibitive, as are the insurance premiums one must pay to cover it.
President Trump, while supporting the emergency economic stimulus package, has questioned whether this approach is sustainable. The short answer is that it is not. In addition to the approximately $2 trillion that the stimulus is adding to the US debt, the Federal Reserve has been pumping additional trillions into the American equity market, making virtually interest free money available to US banks and financiers.
The purpose of this injection of free money is to stimulate economic growth in a system which purports to be built on the principles of private capital. But when an ostensibly private equity market must be pumped up with government infusions of capital, it is neither private nor liquid.
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Constitutional Rights
Suspension of Constitutional rights is one of political sales targets especially of Japan, US and France in order to systematically oppress their dissidents during pandemic. Even lockdown measures can be a political tool to lock competitors or targets down for speculators. This is always done for equity market interests ultimately. Lockdown of the entire city will be the huge opportunity for speculation however Ackman’s analysis on the side effects of lockdown measure is still rational.
Bill Ackman: I think Governor Cuomo has done a superb job. And I think the White House, the president, the vice president are finally taking a lot of the necessary steps. But it's not enough. And the reason why it's not enough is the only way what's going to happen if we continue the way we are operating until a vaccine is manufactured, distributed and injected. We will go through a depression era period in the country and millions of people will die around the globe. And as many as a million Americans are going to die. And it's just math, OK? And the problem is, if you lock down New York, what will happen is Governor Cuomo will say, OK, we're locking down New York... You know, there was a rumour of that. So what did everyone do? Everyone got out of New York, went somewhere else because they didn't. No one wants to be locked out. And they spread the virus and they're not doing it, you know, to cause anyone harm. That is don't even know that they're infected. You know, the so-called is not you know, the reproduction number of the virus, I think is much higher, particularly in. Group of people. We have a group of people that are, you know, 20 to 30, the millennials, they're going out. They're having fun. They don't feel sick. Not afraid of anything. And they are spreading this everywhere. And by the way, when the college is shut down, they all go on spring break and they spread it everywhere.
Bill Ackman: We do this where it just incrementally over time until there's a vaccine. We're done. And what will happen is, you know, the hotel industry and the restaurant industry will go bankrupt first. Boeing is on the brink. Boeing will not survive without a government bailout. OK, so look at airline industry, auto industry, restaurant industry, hotel industry. You know what? Capitalism does not work in a 18 month shutdown. Capitalism can work in a 30 day shutdown. And we've got to do the 30 day shutdown. And if the president has to bring out the National Guard to keep people in their homes, which I don't think he will need to do, he should do it.
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Like the billionaire, one of oligarchs showed, draconian measures against COVID-19 pandemic (panic) will mostly hurt the working class than the ruling class. Politically exploiting the epidemic to gain more political and economic powers and capital is welcomed by speculators as long as the crony capitalist government compensates them firmly without any consideration of the class interests of the workers. Suspension and limitation of constitutional rights of the working class give oligarchs free hands. It is a deregulation of pre-existed constitutional rights. Furthermore, it causes more systematic violations of privacy of workers in the name of quarantine or public safety. After the epidemic gone, the bureaucratically built oppressive structures will continue its functions. For instance, Shinzo Abe, Trump and Macron will be able to contain dissidents in this way while they officially disguising as containment efforts against COVID-19 epidemic.
Governments across America already used the pandemic, and the media-stoked panic around the pandemic particularly, to limit, restrict or remove First Amendment freedoms of speech and free association, with officials complaining about the potential restraints the freedom of religion imposed upon them. Others denied or declared the right to deny Second Amendment rights of gun purchase for personal safety (at a time governments are issuing no-arrest and no-detention orders for a wide range of crimes in their community while publicly freeing inmates from jails and prisons). They want to coordinate with tech companies to surveil and spy on your everyday movements and activities, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and potentially waive, unilaterally, your medical right to privacy in multiple contexts. Stay-at-home orders deprive you of your profession, occupation, business and property, without any due process of law at all beyond an executive fiat in violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process. Governments request the authority to involuntarily imprison any American on mere fear of infection without any probable cause of crime or clear and present danger of harm by that person’s volitional conduct, deny access to personal counsel in an unsupervised, un-surveilled manner in violation of the Sixth Amendment, and act as judge, jury and executioner in violation of the Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury, as jury trials themselves get suspended around the country in the nation’s quieted courts and fear-muted public.
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Military Dictatorship
US military can take over authorities from civilian government in national emergency when the government is disabled. However US military rule during this COVID-19 pandemic is still quite impossible. The most important thing on this whistle blowing is that there are actual structural possibilities of materialising military dictatorship under the so called “extreme situations.” This should be known beforehand.
An article in Newsweek reported that on February 1, 2020, US Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper signed orders directing NORTHCOM to implement nationwide plans to fight the pandemic. In addition, Minister Esper also secretly signed Warning Orders, WARNORDs to NORTHCOM and its subordinate military units on the US East Coast “to deploy in support of potential emergency missions.”
Top-secret emergency plans have been prepared not only to protect the capital of the country – Washington, but also for the possible introduction of martial law in one form or another in the United States. The plans include actions by the US military in case “all constitutional successors are incapable.” Top-secret emergency plans have been prepared not only to protect the capital of the country – Washington, but also for the possible introduction of martial law in one form or another in the United States. The plans include actions by the US military in case “all constitutional successors are incapable.”
Various plans, codenamed Octagon, Freejack, and Zodiac, provide for the continuity of government. According to these emergency plans, the transfer of power is bypassing the usual constitutional procedures for the succession of the government. According to them, military commanders can take control of certain territories of the country or even all of America.
After the September 11 terrorist attack, the Northern Command (NORTHCOM) was created as part of the US Armed Forces. According to the Joint Command Plan (UCP), the NORTHCOM function is:
– conduct operations to deter, prevent and repel threats and aggression directed against the United States, its territories and interests within the allotted zone of responsibility ;
– at the direction of the president or defense minister, provide military assistance to non-military authorities, including consequences management operations.
It was NORTHCOM that created the three comprehensive contingency plans. A Newsweek publication says that the commander of the Northern Command (NORTHCOM) four-star general Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy may in the event of an emergency take charge of US government until “a new civilian leader is established “. Essentially, General O’Shaughnessy is a potential US military ruler during an emergency. NORTHCOM is headquartered in Colorado Springs. …… Federal Succession Directive No. 40, issued just a few days before Donald Trump became president, states that he must establish “procedures for the transfer of statutory authority and duties” to this secondary appointed staff to maintain the basic functions of the state.
“The transfer of authority may be temporary or lengthy,” the directive No. 40 says. It further stipulates that personnel designated for the transfer of power should be located in a “geographically dispersed area not affected by the incident.” As it turned out, such a condition cannot be observed now with the current spread of the coronavirus epidemic in the United States.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2006, not a single state of emergency forced any state to even seek federal military assistance in accordance with established procedures. Local police forces themselves have become more capable of emergency operations by acquiring military equipment, weapons and having received the necessary training. State governors have also worked together to strengthen the National Guard, which can enforce domestic law in crisis situations. The current willingness to deploy a federal army to provide an emergency is an extraordinary experiment.
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Notes
1.【新冠肺炎．深度】檢疫設施反反反不完 揭港府社會三大落後 https://www.hk01.com/周報/442363/新冠肺炎-深度-檢疫設施反反反不完-揭港府社會三大落後
2.武漢肺炎累全球經濟損失1600億美元 https://hk.tv.yahoo.com/武漢肺炎累全球經濟損失1600億美元-084458949.html
3.World Meter: COVID-19; China https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/
4.安倍内閣総理大臣記者会見 Feb.29,2020 https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/98_abe/statement/2020/0229kaiken.html
5.World Meter: COVID-19; China https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/
6.https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/政府未公開招標-委中資及新世界建檢疫中心-朱凱廸引工程界消息-食水甚深益朋友/
7.https://www.hk01.com/政情/441133/新冠肺炎-駱惠寧視察鯉魚門度假村檢疫中心-體現中企使命擔當
8.【專欄】Vision2047遺漏出林鄭錄音 https://hd.stheadline.com/news/realtime/hk/1583248/即時-港聞-專欄-Vision2047遺漏出林鄭錄音
9.林鄭月娥撤回《逃犯條例》修訂、黃之鋒訪台、英國無協議脫歐與本周更多好故事 https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/chinese-news-49611842
10.【專欄】Vision2047遺漏出林鄭錄音 https://hd.stheadline.com/news/realtime/hk/1583248/即時-港聞-專欄-Vision2047遺漏出林鄭錄音
11.To friends of Vision 2047 Foundation 29 July 2019 http://vision2047.org.hk/communications/
12.參事 https://www.ourhkfoundation.org.hk/zh-hant/node/40
13.Ten threats to global health in 2019 https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019
14.Russia Starts Testing Coronavirus Vaccine Prototypes on Animals https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/03/20/business/20reuters-health-coronavirus-russia-tests.html
15.The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020”
16.ID2020 https://id2020.org
17.No, Dean Koontz’s 1981 novel did not ‘predict’ coronavirus emerging from China
18.Partly false claim: a 1981 book predicted the coronavirus 2019 outbreak
19.About Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/newpage_00032.html
20.日本でも医療崩壊が始まっている - トリアージを静かに示唆する愛知県 https://critic20.exblog.jp/30849576/
21.新型コロナウイルス国内感染の状況
22.日本でも医療崩壊が始まっている - トリアージを静かに示唆する愛知県 https://critic20.exblog.jp/30849576/
23.日本の感染隠蔽を見抜いているＷＨＯ - 中国提供の検査キットは何処
24.新型コロナの簡易検査機器が完成 3月中にも使用開始へ https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASN3L7HDBN3LULBJ00R.html
25.安倍内閣あいまい優柔不断支離滅裂コロナ対応 http://uekusak.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2020/03/post-a54c16.html
26.新型コロナ対象期間「１年想定」 特措法改正案、衆院委で可決 https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2020031100224&g=pol
27.入境注意 https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/chi/inbound-travel.html
28.落馬洲等4個口岸午夜起關閉 有港人及內地人趕過關 https://hd.stheadline.com/news/realtime/hk/1693639/即時-港聞-武漢肺炎-落馬洲等4個口岸午夜起關閉-有港人及內地人趕過關
29.01獨家：政府1月30日起關閉高鐵西九站 https://www.hk01.com/政情/427227/武漢肺炎-01獨家-政府1月30日起關閉高鐵西九站
30.入境注意 https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/chi/inbound-travel.html
31.香港醫護界投票是否持續罷工 政府公佈中國入境人士隔離令詳情 https://www.voacantonese.com/a/hk-public-hospital-workers-5th-day-on-strike-and-strike-and-public-reactions-live-q-and-a/5278012.html
32.2019冠狀病毒病國際郵輪疫情 https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019冠狀病毒病國際郵輪疫情#鑽石公主號
33.Ibid.
34.【財政預算案2020】陳茂波冀7月發放一萬元款項 鼓勵市民多消費
35.【政圈風聲】派錢成陳茂波的天降「橫財」 惟預算案藏小炸彈？
36.Anti-epidemic Fund https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/anti-epidemic-fund.html
37.2019冠狀病毒病個案的最新情況 (截至2020年3月25日下午四時)
38.World Meter: COVID-19; China https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/
39.World Meter: COVID-19; South Korea https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-korea/
40.對南韓封關，係林奠對中共的回禮 https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/對南韓封關-係林奠對中共的回禮/
41.【印度鎖國】港人外遊入境限制 一文看清台美歐澳日韓菲紐近20國對華限制（第二十五版）
42.人禍疫災重擊不休 經濟自由首遜星洲
43.樓市「撤辣」是慢性毒藥而非解藥 https://www.hk01.com/01觀點/438917/武漢肺炎-樓市-撤辣-是慢性毒藥而非解藥
44.憂爆金融疫症 石禮謙引《東方日報》促撤樓市辣招 https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20200219/bkn-20200219143610868-0219_00822_001.html
45.【預算案】石禮謙轟拒撤辣招恐港淪死城 「市民行山多過行街唔健康」
46.抗疫救市皆無能 經濟崩塌如何挽
47.WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020
48.World Meter; COVID-19; Italy https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/italy/
49.2019冠狀病毒病個案的最新情況 (截至2020年3月25日下午四時)
50.北角爆疫佛堂弟子登報道歉 後悔新春後未停共修
51.【包機回港】244 湖北港人返港 3人未能通體體溫檢測 續留當地隔離
52.今日兩包機接載285名湖北港人 返港毋須住檢疫中心
53.入境注意 https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/chi/inbound-travel.html 54.大埔區議員連桷璋、文念志、姚鈞豪及其助理被捕
55.簡化申請為由收窄津貼對象 政黨促落實原版失業金
56.明起入住政府隔離營要收費 每日$200打擊濫用
57.失業率升至3.7%創9年新高 餐飲業成重災區
58.反駁新冠肺炎源於美國 袁國勇指續食野味將現沙士3.0
59.李克強國務院全國禁食野味 被指或難撼民眾吃欲
60.肺炎疫情：香港傳染病專家袁國勇撤回《大流行緣起武漢》文章引發爭議
61.派6000條追蹤手帶得2000條啟動 林偉喬致歉認延誤
62.蘭桂坊淪「疫區」 人流即時冷清
63.【新冠肺炎】多名患者曾赴蘭桂坊 有確診樂隊樂手曾到數酒吧表演
64.好了傷疤忘了痛 疫境重臨一場空
65.政Whats噏：周一嶽獲「翻閹」恐偏向醫保 學者促撤任命
【醫委會】特首委任食衞局前局長周一嶽作委員 任期三年
【Emily】接替菲菲 周一嶽7月加入醫委會
66.檢控官出書涉教黑暴避刑責 鄭若驊被轟馭下不力應下台
67.非香港居民周三起禁搭飛機入境 修例禁食肆賣酒
68.Coronavirus: Chinese official suggests U.S. Army to blame for outbreak
69.港媒獲密件：林鄭獻計北京 藉疫情幫建制派翻身
70.Coronavirus: Chinese official suggests U.S. Army to blame for outbreak
71.The Human Price of Wuhan’s Military World Games
72.Coronavirus: China’s first confirmed Covid-19 case traced back to November 17
73.Where did the new coronavirus come from? Past outbreaks provide hints
74.Ibid.
75.Ibid.
76.內地學者：武漢疾控中心蝙蝠實驗或是病毒源頭 距華南市場僅 280 米
78.First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States
79.猛料：这只蝙蝠终于出现了！
80.Phylogeography with whole genomes 24 Mar 2020
81.Boca Raton law firm sues Chinese government over handling of coronavirus
82.感染者数、東京都が全国最多に 国内で新たに71人確認
83.新型コロナウイルス国内感染の状況
84.新型コロナ、小池都知事「首都の封鎖あり得る」
85.NATIONAL DEBT COULD SURPASS $25 TRILLION AMID SPENDING TO COMBAT CORONAVIRUS
86.Senate passes massive $2 trillion coronavirus spending bill
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