Medicine

With the sudden easing of anti-epidemic rules and Beijing’s latest surge in Covid-19 cases, people have been caught out by insufficient medication and are swarming to pharmacies and hospitals. Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan gives a peek into the situation on the ground.

The seemingly unending lockdown in Shanghai has taken a toll on investor confidence, leading to some entrepreneurs and companies talking about leaving the city. Zaobao’s Shanghai correspondent Chen Jing surveys the short-term reactions and long-term outlook of China's top financial city.

China has supplied 190 million doses of its homegrown vaccines to Southeast Asia. However, although there has been sporadic support, perceptions of Chinese vaccines among the public in the region largely trend negatively, suggesting a non-linear relationship between China’s vaccine diplomacy and its soft power in the region. ISEAS researchers Khairulanwar Zaini and Hoang Thi Ha discuss the complex factors affecting vaccine hesitancy in six Southeast Asian countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

After a month of tough restrictions following a Delta variant outbreak, China reported this week zero new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases. Since the pandemic started, it has stuck with a zero-Covid strategy. In fact, even contemplating living with the virus is often seen as submitting to the ways of the West. LKYSPP academic Lu Xi asks: as some local officials take zero-Covid policies to extremes to submit good report cards, will ordinary folk suffer the most?

The world seems divided on whether to aim for zero Covid-19 infections, or to treat it as endemic and live with it. Zaobao’s Shanghai correspondent Chen Jing notes that amid a resurgence of infections, experts believe that China is well-placed to aim for zero cases, albeit with some trade-offs.

Dr Kai-Fu Lee recently spoke at a summit reviewing the development of artificial intelligence. He gave five predictions about the industrial changes that would be brought about by the combination of artificial intelligence and other new technologies. Lee feels these changes would allow China to lead the world in science and technology in the next 20 years or so. This is the edited version of his speech.

Zhang Wenhong, China's top infectious disease expert who was dubbed by the New York Times as China's Dr Fauci, gives his opinion on the Covid-19 pandemic crisis in India, which is seeing more than 300,000 infections daily. With a large domestic population and a low vaccination rate, what will it take for the country to survive the current crisis?

A media war is underway between the state media in China and the media in the US and Europe over vaccine development, distribution and reception. With loud hailer tactics used all round, it’s not the truth but what people perceive to be true that counts most. Whose voice will be the loudest to drown out the din and shape the vaccine narrative?

A community hospital in Yiwu, Zhejiang, is offering coronavirus vaccinations to the public, as long as they make online bookings and offer proof of work or study in Yiwu. But how reliable are these proofs, and how effective is the vaccine? Zaobao correspondent Chen Jing finds out more.