PRESIDENT XI ATTENDS THE NATIONAL MOURNING FOR COVID-19 VICTIMS

President Xi Jinping on Saturday attended the national mourning period for martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak and compatriots who died of the novel coronavirus pneumonia.

Xi and other leaders joined all the Chinese people and observed three minutes of silence to mourn for the deceased at the central leadership compound of Zhongnanhai. Air raid sirens and horns of automobiles, trains and ships wailed in grief.

National flags have been lowered to half-mast across the country and at Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, and all public recreational activities will be suspended throughout the country.

Saturday marks this year's Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day – a traditional festival for Chinese families to visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites, pray to their ancestors and make ritual offerings.

As of Friday night, an accumulative number of 3,326 people had died of the contagion on the Chinese mainland.

In Wuhan, Hubei province, the city hit hardest by the epidemic on the Chinese mainland, mourning activities were also held to commemorate those who had succumbed to the disease.

XI VOWS TO AID DEVELOPING NATIONS' FIGHT

China vowed on Friday to help enhance the preparedness and response of developing countries with weak public health systems amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected more than a million people worldwide.

President Xi Jinping made the remark in two separate phone conversations, with his Namibian and Lao counterparts, part of his busy diplomatic schedule. He has made dozens of phone calls to world leaders since the pandemic's outbreak.

While talking with President of Namibia Hage Geingob, Xi said China will continue to step up assistance, share experience and strengthen public health cooperation with Namibia and other African countries to secure the final victory against the virus.

China has overcome its own difficulties, provided epidemic prevention materials to the African Union and African countries and organized videoconferences for experts to share experience. Some Chinese companies and nongovernmental institutions have also offered a hand, Xi said.

All these are reflections of a China-Africa community with a shared future, he added.

As of Friday, 7,028 cases had been reported in 50 African countries with 284 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On March 18, Chinese experts answered 50 questions during a 3.5-hour videoconference on COVID-19 attended by nearly 300 officials and experts from 24 African countries.

Xi said he believes that the friendship between China and Namibia as well as all African countries will be further deepened through joint efforts in fighting the pandemic.

Geingob said Xi has shown excellent leadership by guiding the Chinese people to effectively combat the virus. He said Xi was highly praised in countries in Africa and elsewhere. More than 500 Namibian students in China are safe thanks to the Chinese government's care, he said.

Namibia also hopes to learn from China's experience in poverty reduction, he added.

In speaking with his Lao counterpart, Bounnhang Vorachith, Xi said the pandemic has once again demonstrated the importance and urgency of building a community of a shared future for mankind.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said he was very concerned about the difficulties Laos faces in stopping the coronavirus' spread, adding that China quickly sent a team of medical experts and medical supplies to the neighboring country. The 12-member team arrived in Vientiane, the Laotian capital, on Wednesday, only five days after the first COVID-19 case was reported in the country.

China will continue to provide all-out support and assistance for Laos' battle in line with the country's practical needs, Xi said.

He said that China is willing to keep the momentum of high-level exchanges with Laos, steadily promote the construction of major projects including the China-Laos Railway and the China-Laos Economic Corridor, facilitate people-to-people exchanges and enhance coordination in international and regional affairs, in order to deepen the China-Laos community with a shared future.

Bounnhang, also general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee, said the CPC has fully behaved as a responsible political party by calling for international anti-epidemic cooperation, and China has shown it will undertake the duties of a major country by actively providing precious help and support for countries in need.

China's timely experience sharing and medical assistance to Laos is the latest evidence of the profound China-Laos friendship, featuring mutual aid amid difficulties, he said.

EPIDEMIC PROMPTS NEW APPROACH TO TOMB-SWEEPING CUSTOM

In recent weeks, the novel coronavirus outbreak has abated domestically, prompting authorities to lift bans on businesses and travel in regions less affected by the epidemic.

As part of the trend, cemeteries outside of Hubei province−which was ravaged by the virus−have reopened, just in time for the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day, which falls on April 4 this year.

Normally, tens of millions flock to burial grounds in the period around the holiday to clear debris and leave food, flowers and imitation bank notes as offerings for dead relatives.

The age-old tradition received a major boost in 2007, when the festival, known in Chinese as Qingming, was officially recognized as a national public holiday along with Dragon Boat Festival, which will fall in June, and Mid-Autumn Festival, which is usually held in September or October.

Before the change, people observed the festivals after work if they fell on workdays. The new status was aimed at bolstering people's pride in traditional Chinese culture.

Through a rearrangement of workdays, tomb-sweeping relatives are entitled to a three-day break, which removes barriers to the celebration of filial piety.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, about 9.78 million people visited cemeteries during the three-day period last year, a rise from the 9.72 million in 2018.

The holiday has also become increasingly popular as a prime time for spring tourism.

According to the China Tourism Academy, 112 million domestic tourist trips were recorded during the three days last year, a year-on-year rise of 10.9 percent, and tourism revenue during the period reached about 48 billion yuan ($6.7 billion), a rise of 13.7 percent from 2018.

Even though new infections in Hubei have fallen to single digits or even zero over the past few weeks, local authorities have maintained an uncompromising ban on tomb-sweeping activities in a bid to prevent large gatherings that could facilitate the spread of the virus.

In a March 24 circular, the provincial government ruled out the possibility of commercial cemeteries across the province receiving visitors during the festival, although exceptions were made for some burial grounds in rural areas.

Commercial facilities in the provincial capital, Wuhan, which was hardest hit by the epidemic, will not reopen until at least the end of the month, and cemeteries elsewhere in Hubei will remain closed until April 20 at least, it said.

Cemetery authorities will hold remembrance ceremonies to mitigate the absence of relatives at graveyards, it added.

In less-affected areas, cemetery operators have introduced rules to limit the number of daily visits and screen mourners for fevers, coughs and other symptoms of the virus.

Shanghai authorities have discouraged nonessential visits to cemeteries during the festival to prevent gatherings and possible infection. Instead, they have encouraged mourners to remember departed family members on a designated website, where they can jot down heartfelt words and present a digital bouquet. Official online group ceremonies are also being encouraged.

In Ningbo, Zhejiang province, which is near Shanghai, authorities have banned most cemetery visits. The only exceptions are people who have been bereaved since 2019, as a comfort measure. To prevent traffic jams, all visitors must make reservations.

ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS GET ATTENTION

Chinese scientists will accelerate research into understanding the level of infectiousness of asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 and recovered patients who have tested positive for the virus, officials said on Friday.

Bao Xianhua, head of commercialization of scientific findings at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said these groups are no cause for panic, but shouldn't be taken lightly, either.

China has not found any cases of recovered patients who tested positive for COVID-19 infecting others, and the majority of experts think asymptomatic carriers will not lead to another outbreak, he said in a news briefing.

Zhang Xiaoyuan, head of the ministry's department of resource allocation and management, said China has invested 320 million yuan ($45 million) in special funds in 68 scientific projects to combat the novel coronavirus.

Asymptomatic carriers and recovered patients who tested positive again in later checkups have become a hot issue in public discourse due to the potential for rekindling another outbreak. On Monday, Premier Li Keqiang urged health officials to closely monitor and track silent carriers and their close contacts.

Two days later, the National Health Commission announced it will begin disclosing the number of asymptomatic infections under medical observation.

Officials on Thursday reported 60 new asymptomatic infections, seven of which were imported. A total of 1,027 asymptomatic patients, including 221 from abroad, are still under medical observation.

Central government data for recovered patients who retested positive was unavailable, though local health authorities and workers reported some 3 percent to 10 percent of patients who recovered could test positive again after being discharged from hospitals, according to state media.

However, virologists have frequently warned not to call these patients reinfected since they have yet to find evidence proving these patients have become infectious.

Moreover, false results could be due to a myriad of reasons, including the quality of testing, how the samples were taken and handled, and the fundamental mechanism of nucleic acid tests, which amplify bits of genetic material so that residual viruses from the initial infection may lead to a false result in the second positive reading.

Zhong Nanshan, China's leading expert in tackling the epidemic, said on Thursday that the nucleic acid tests can detect parts of the viral genome, not necessarily the whole live virus.

"Most recovered patients will produce strong antibodies in their bodies, and most of them will not be reinfected," he said. "The chance for these patients to spread the virus to others is also very low."

SUPPORT RAISED FOR DOMESTIC ECONOMY

China is ramping up financial support for the domestic economy, including a cut in banks' required reserves, officials said on Friday. Also, targeted measures in issuing bonds and injecting liquidity will help bail out the corporate sector with the global spread of the novel coronavirus.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, announced cuts in the reserve requirement ratio for some rural and city commercial banks by a total of 1 percentage point, split between April 15 and May 15, or 0.5 percentage point each time. That is to release about 400 billion yuan ($56.4 billion) into the financial sector.

It also decided to cut the interest rate the central bank pays on excess reserves deposited by all financial institutions to 0.35 percent from 0.72 percent, the first such cut since 2008.

On average, every small and medium-sized bank will get about 100 million yuan from the RRR cut, which will save them nearly 6 billion yuan in financing costs. The RRR for more than 4,000 small and medium-sized depositary institutions will drop to 6 percent, a new low. The moves will further encourage commercial banks to increase credit to small and medium-sized enterprises, it said.

The PBOC will continue to cut lending costs and use a newly approved 1 trillion yuan from relending and rediscount provisions to boost credit for small and medium-sized companies, said Liu Guoqiang, vice-governor of the People's Bank of China.

The pandemic's impact has not exceeded that of the 2008 global financial crisis, but measures need to be released quickly to offset its fallout. Monetary policy should prevent liquidity shortages and a surge in inflation, Liu said. As to whether the benchmark deposit rate will be cut, the central bank official said the issue still needs more evaluation, as the one-year deposit rate anchors the whole interest rate system.

"As a policy tool, the deposit rate could be used, but it is special and more relevant to the public," he said. Given the current 5.3 percent headline inflation and the 1.5 percent one-year deposit rate, the real rate for depositors is already below zero. A further decline in the deposit rate will add currency depreciation pressure.

Local governments will soon get an additional quota of special bonds, delivered early, to raise funds for government-led investment, Xu Hongcai, vice-minister of the Ministry of Finance, said at a news conference on Friday.

On Tuesday, an executive meeting of the State Council called for speeding up approval and issuance of local government special bonds, more facilities for financial and corporate bond issuance, extension of subsidies and auto purchase tax exemptions for new energy vehicle purchases.

Such policies boost infrastructure, and more financial relief for enterprises and households "should be the best economic and social policies at the moment", said Nomura Securities' Chief China Economist Lu Ting.

Overall business activity across China fell for the second month in March, but the rate of decline eased from February, as indicated by a rise of the Caixin China Composite Output Index to 46.7 from 27.5. The index, released on Friday, covers business activities of small and medium-sized enterprises and exporters in manufacturing and services.

HUBEI AGRICULTURE PRODUCTS IN NEED OF BUYERS

The agricultural department in Hubei province, the hardest-hit region in China by the novel coronavirus outbreak, is calling for joint efforts nationwide to expand consumption of agricultural products in the province.

As one of the country's biggest production bases for crawfish, tea and shiitake mushrooms, Hubei is facing great challenges to sell those agricultural products, said Zhang Guihua, an official from the Hubei agricultural and rural affairs department.

At a news conference in Wuhan, capital of Hubei, Zhang said about 100,000 tons of spring tea will hit the market by the end of May, and at present 110,000 tons of crawfish and 40,000 tons of dried shiitake mushrooms are looking for buyers as of Thursday.

The provincial government is making efforts to boost consumption inside the province while exploring the market outside the province, he said.

"Together with the local finance department, we have made preferential loan policies for farmers. Soon, we will build a pairing assistance mechanism based on investigation and help farmers surmount their difficulties," he said.

Since the outbreak of the disease, Hubei has encountered difficulties selling agriculture products due to outbound travel restrictions, which were lifted days ago.

Thanks to helping hands from other provinces, online retailers and news outlets, Hubei has sold 500,000 tons of vegetables, more than 80,000 tons of eggs and 650,000 tons of fish once unable to find buyers.

But as the harvest season of crawfish, tea and shiitake mushroom is approaching, farmers who live on those products are now under great pressure.

Zhang said joint efforts are needed from other regions outside the province. Also, the local agricultural department is looking for cooperation with e-commerce platforms to boost sales.

"We also encourage big companies to build supportive bonds with local famers and help them reduce the loss," he said.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Everything secret degenerates; nothing is safe that does not bear discussion and publicity. - Lord Acton