@BenjaminMColes
...while apparently failing to realise that Sachs was actually supporting the possibility that Covid-19 came from US lab *biotechnology* being researched in a *Chinese laboratory* from where it leaked

@AsiaNews_FR
 
#Chine Pékin resserre ses règles strictes de Covid Zero, exigeant que les enfants de plus de 3 ans aient besoin d'un résultat négatif dans les 72 heures pour entrer dans les parcs de la capitale chinoise @business http://trib.al/nqRmhmr

@ZeyiYang
Gigantic civilian data leak if confirmed: A hacker is selling an alleged Shanghai police data leak containing 1 billion Chinese nationals' names, home addresses, ID #, phone #, criminal records, etc. Hacker says it's from an Aliyun (Alibaba) private cloud server.
 

@DiMartinoBooth
 
Fireworks you may have missed
 
“Chinese developer Shimao Group Holdings missed payment on $1B dollar note due Sunday, its first default after months of mounting stress…among biggest dollar payment failures so far this year in China. Firm has ~$5.5B in outstanding offshore bonds”
 

Shanghai announces two new rounds of mass COVID-19 testing

The city of Shanghai on Tuesday (Jul 5) announced two new rounds of mass COVID-19 testing of most of its 25 million residents over a three-day period, citing the need to trace infections linked to an outbreak at a karaoke lounge.
 
The city government said on its official WeChat account that all residents in nine of the city's 16 districts would be tested twice from Tuesday to Thursday. People in parts of three other districts would also have to undergo tests.

During the testing, people living in the affected districts would be required to show a test taken within the last two days to leave their homes, it said.

The city already requires all of its districts to organise mass testing of residents every weekend until the end of July. Residents also need to test themselves every three days in order to enter public areas such as shopping malls or take public transport.

The Social Costs of Chinese Transnational Crime in Sihanoukville
Unrestricted and unregulated development has allowed crime to flourish, and eroded the trust between Cambodians and Chinese expatriates

Since the inauguration of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, the town of Sihanoukville, the location of Cambodia’s only deep-sea port, has received a massive influx of Chinese immigrants.
 
In 2013, there were around 80,000 Chinese nationals living in Cambodia. By 2019, that figure had jumped to 250,000. At the peak of the influx, 200,000 of these Chinese nationals lived in Sihanoukville. This increase has also been accompanied by an increase in crimes associated with the Chinese expatriate community in the coastal town, which has become the center of dozens of Chinese-run casinos.

A National Police report revealed that from January to March 2019, Chinese residents were implicated in 241 out of the 341 criminal cases involving foreigners. Between January and September of that year, 744 Chinese residents of Cambodia had been arrested and deported from the country.

Starting in early 2022, numerous reports have emerged about kidnapping, detention, and forced labor by Chinese gangs and criminal syndicates, who attract foreign nationals with promises of well-paying jobs, only to force them to conduct scam calls in prison-like conditions. In March, over 30 Indonesian nationals were rescued in Kandal province after being transferred there from Sihanoukville. In April, 66 Thai nationals were rescued from another gang. Despite around 3,000 Thais having been rescued by the police, it has been estimated by the Thai police that around 1,500 Thai workers are still trapped in Sihanoukville.

First of all, the presence of these types of criminal operations in Cambodia has contributed to a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment. While ethnic Chinese have historically been welcome in Cambodia, many Cambodians associate this new Chinese community with criminal and unlawful activities that have brought chaos to their country. In a study from February of this year on Cambodian perceptions of the new Chinese community, 59 percent of respondents said there is high or very high social tension between Cambodians and Chinese.

In 2018, the city’s 120,000 Chinese nationals constituted 20 percent of the population. In July 2019, a representative from the Sihanoukville policy department estimated that up to 90 percent of the city’s businesses were owned by Chinese nationals.

Covid en Chine : la grande ville de Xi'an se ferme pour éviter une «flambée»

Restaurants, bars, lieux de culte ou encore karaokés vont fermer pendant une semaine dans la grande ville chinoise de Xi'an (nord), après une vingtaine de cas de Covid-19, ont indiqué mardi les autorités. La cité historique et touristique de 13 millions d'habitants, ancienne capitale impériale, est connue dans le monde entier pour son armée enterrée en terre cuite du premier empereur de Chine.

Elle consiste en des dépistages massifs, des quarantaines obligatoires en cas de test PCR positif et des confinements ciblés.

La ville de Xi'an a fait état depuis samedi de 18 cas positifs liés à Omicron, selon les autorités locales. Un haut responsable municipal, Zhang Xuedong, a annoncé mardi devant la presse l'application pour sept jours de "mesures de contrôle" destinées à éviter "les flux de personnes" et donc les infections. "Nous sommes engagés dans une course contre la montre face au virus" et il convient

Le ministère de la Santé a fait état mardi de 335 nouveaux cas positifs à l'échelle nationale. La principale zone touchée est la province de l'Anhui (est), où 1,7 million d'habitants de deux cantons ruraux sont actuellement confinés. À Shanghai, les autorités ont lancé une nouvelle série de tests PCR obligatoires dans la plupart des districts, une mesure justifiée par "les nombreux cas positifs locaux enregistrés" depuis dimanche.
 
Une grande partie des 25 millions d'habitants de la métropole, capitale économique du pays, vont ainsi être dépistés à deux reprises entre mardi et jeudi. Malgré la levée tout début juin à Shanghai d'un dur confinement de plus de deux mois, certains quartiers sont parfois confinés après la détection de cas sporadiques.