XI: NATION CANNOT AFFORD COMPLACENCY

A key Party meeting on Wednesday stressed the need to reform China's disease prevention and control system and bolster its monitoring and early warning capacities for outbreaks in a bid to close the gaps and strengthen weak areas exposed in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the country's top political authority, approved decisions in the meeting to streamline the medicine and healthcare system and refine laws and regulations on public health and emergency management.

The Standing Committee heard a work report by the steering group sent by the CPC Central Committee to oversee the epidemic response in Hubei province, according to a statement released after the meeting.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, emphasized at the meeting that the steering group has fought alongside the people of Hubei and its capital, Wuhan, and prioritized efforts to contain the spread of the outbreak, treat infected patients and ensure the supply of resources.

It has made the utmost effort to stem the spread of the pandemic and striven to secure the first line of defense in the country's epidemic containment, which has showcased China's strength, spirit and efficiency, he said, adding that the group has made important contributions to winning the people's war against the pandemic.

However, Xi said huge uncertainties still linger over the pandemic, given that the momentum of its global spread has yet to be curbed and the country is still seeing infections among clusters of people in certain areas.

He called for unrelenting epidemic containment measures in Hubei province even as it has switched to epidemic control and prevention efforts on a regular basis.

The CPC Central Committee has decided to send a liaison group to Hubei to step up guidance and support to follow-up containment efforts in the area, Xi said.

The liaison group must continue to offer guidance regarding the rehabilitation of recovered patients and their psychological counseling and press for the implementation of normalized containment efforts to prevent the importation of infections and a possible rebound of the outbreak, he said.

Xi stressed that authorities can afford zero complacency in their work on all fronts to consolidate the outcomes of epidemic containment and must not undo all the efforts that have been made.

The liaison group must also push forward the enforcement of the many policies rolled out to support economic and social development in Hubei to help restore the normal order of life and production at an early date, he said.

The meeting also underlined the importance of summarizing and employing practices proved to be effective during the epidemic containment in Hubei and Wuhan and closing the gaps and strengthening the weak areas that have already been exposed.

The country must optimize its emergency management and patient treatment systems in coping with major outbreaks and in the area of public health, and, with an emphasis on prevention, innovate in the methods and ways to conduct health campaigns, said the statement.

It is also important to improve the environment in rural and urban areas, improve public health facilities, popularize health knowledge and promote a more civilized, healthy and greener lifestyle among the public, it added.

FOREIGN TRADE VOLUME FALLS 4.9% TO $1T

China's foreign trade volume totaled 9.07 trillion yuan ($1.28 trillion) in the first four months of this year, declining 4.9 percent year-on-year, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Thursday.

In the meantime, the country's exports dropped by 6.4 percent on a yearly basis to 4.47 trillion yuan and imports fell by 3.2 percent to 4.33 trillion yuan.

The country's imports and exports recovered in April. Its foreign trade amounted to 2.5 trillion yuan, decreasing 0.7 percent year-on-year.

China's exports grew 8.2 percent to 1.41 trillion yuan and imports dropped by 10.2 percent to 1.09 trillion yuan last month.

China's foreign trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its largest trading partner, jumped 5.7 percent year-on-year to 1.35 trillion yuan between January and April of this year, while its trade volume with the European Union and the United States fell 6.5 percent and 12.8 percent to 1.23 trillion yuan and 958.46 billion yuan, respectively.

AMBASSADOR CUI APPEALS FOR END TO VIRUS 'BLAME GAME' BY THE US

China's top envoy to the United States on Wednesday called for an end to the blame game and urged the two countries to rebuild trust and focus on the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an op-ed piece published in The Washington Post, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai railed against what he said was "the absurd mind-set of 'always blame China'", which he said has been undercutting international efforts to curb the virus.

"Blaming China will not end this pandemic. On the contrary, the mind-set risks decoupling China and the United States and hurting our efforts to fight the disease, our coordination to reignite the global economy, our ability to conquer other challenges and our prospects of a better future," Cui wrote.

"The United States would not emerge as a winner from this scenario," he added.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday continued to fault China for the initial outbreak of the novel coronavirus and pushed back against suggestions that he and other Trump administration officials have issued conflicting statements about the exact origins of the outbreak.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news briefing Wednesday that the relationship between Washington and Beijing is one of "disappointment and frustration". McEnany also accused China of withholding information about the virus.

"Behind the mind-set of 'always blame China' is a kind of dirty politics, championed by a few people who shift the spotlight for political gain," said Cui. "In their manipulation, China has to be wrong."

In his opinion piece, the ambassador insisted China has done its best to share information about the virus.

He noted that on Dec 27, a doctor in Hubei province reported three suspicious cases. In the following four days, local and central governments conducted investigations on the ground. Then, on Jan 3 — within a week — China began briefing the World Health Organization (WHO), the US and other countries about the outbreak.

On Jan 12, China released the whole genome sequence of the virus, which has proved critical for diagnosis and treatment of the disease globally.

"We shared information with the United States at the earliest possible time and have been supporting its fight against the disease," Cui wrote.

The two countries' centers for disease control and prevention and other government agencies have been in close communication since Jan 4, the day after China briefed the WHO. In their phone calls, President Xi Jinping gave detailed accounts of China's measures to President Donald Trump, according to Cui.

"It is time to end the blame game. It is time to focus on the disease and rebuild trust between our two countries," he wrote.

Douglas H. Paal, a distinguished fellow in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Ambassador Cui deserves credit for trying to prevent emotions from overtaking good judgment in US-China relations.

"Many others share my belief that the world's leading countries need to cooperate multilaterally to mitigate and ultimately prevent the spread of the virus," Paal told China Daily.

"The temptation to put one's own people first is understandable, but viruses don't respect borders," he said.

Cheng Li, director of the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center, cautioned that mutual animosity risks putting the bilateral relationship, as well as world peace, in jeopardy.

"Instead of blaming each other, the most important thing is for the two sides to work together firstly on the medical and public health fronts, and so all the other issues should be secondary," Li said.

"There's no reason that the United States and China should not cooperate at this critical moment," he said.

GOVT TO BOOST SUPPORT FOR JOBS, INCOMES

China will intensify policy support to keep employment stable and safeguard people's livelihoods, the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided on Wednesday.

Those at the meeting highlighted the need to advance work in what were identified as the "six priorities" of safeguarding employment, people's livelihoods, the development of market entities, food and energy security, the stable operation of industrial and supply chains, and the smooth functioning of society.

These efforts are designed to ensure stability in six key areas−employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment and market expectations, as well as maintaining solid economic fundamentals.

The meeting reviewed the targeted policy measures introduced in recent weeks to advance the resumption of work and production and to help companies cope with difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The measures that have been taken include VAT relief for small businesses; extending the loss carry-forward period from five years to eight years for sectors severely hit by COVID-19, providing 2.85 trillion yuan ($401.3 billion) of low-cost lending for smaller businesses, and deferring over 1 trillion yuan of principal or interest payments for more than 1.1 million micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

The meeting urged the full implementation of all policies introduced to help businesses overcome outbreak-related difficulties.

Reviewing the progress made so far, Li said that "the support policies introduced earlier are adequate. In other words, our policy response is appropriate in its intensity and prompt in timing.

"It will still take some time for industries and the market to recover, and there is also the factor of the impact from the global economic situation. These should inform our decisions on the next-step policies," Li said.

"We must effectively take forward the 'six priorities' to ensure stability in the 'six key areas' and maintain solid economic fundamentals," Li said.

Real benefits must be delivered to businesses to make employment more stable and cushion the impact on jobs and workers' incomes.

"We must make every effort to meet people's essential needs. Social protection and fiscal policies should work in harmony. Our financial measures should target micro and small businesses and help lower their financing costs," Li said.

The meeting called for boosting domestic demand as a matter of strategy and taking steps to drive consumption.

TEACHERS 'SCALE' HEIGHTS TO GIVE SCHOOLCHILDREN LESSONS AT THEIR HOMES

This series tells the stories of selfless individuals, from medical workers to volunteers, who are bravely fighting the virus outbreak with extraordinary dedication.

When the novel coronavirus hit China, schools throughout the country were closed and all classes went online.

But the students at Yanzijiao Primary School in Weishan Yi and Hui Autonomous County, which is located in the west of Yunnan province in Southwest China, have no luxury of online learning. They live in a mountainous area where communication signals are unstable.

The altitude difference in the area is also wide. The lowest elevation in the river valley is 1,146 meters, while the highest elevation in the region is 3,037 meters. Weishan county is 375 kilometers from Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.

But the 13 teachers of the school did not want their 265 students to idle their time away when staying home as part of social distancing measures.

"The students were supposed to return to school on Feb 24, but we told them to stay home to keep them safe (from COVID-19)," Bi Enquan, head of the school, said.

On March 16, the teachers returned to work and made preparations for the school's reopening on March 30. They disinfected the campus.

But the Yunnan provincial government asked the school to again delay the reopening because of a confirmed infection of COVID-19 at the seat of the county, which is 54 kilometers from the school.

As it was difficult to offer online lessons to their students, Bi decided to send all the teaching staff to the children's homes. The teachers gave new textbooks to every student, checked their homework and clarified their doubts about lessons.

It was a difficult mission for the teachers as the students live in 25 different villages.

"Some homes are so far away that two teachers drove three hours and walked 40 minutes to get there," Bi said.

Since it's a boarding school, students are usually picked up by their parents or relatives on Friday afternoon and brought back to the school on Sunday afternoon.

The teachers keep in touch with parents and guardians on WeChat groups.

"Nearly half of the students stay with their relatives, such as grandparents, as their parents are away working at other places," Bi said. "It's our duty to take good care of the kids."

When visiting the students' homes, some teachers carried their teaching tools with them, such as small blackboards. They taught them some Chinese characters, and how to solve math sums.

These "classrooms" could be anywhere outside, under the shade of trees or in the courtyards.

MOBILE PLATFORM FOR LITIGANTS RECORDS BIG JUMP

A mobile platform for litigation-related services witnessed a rapid growth of users during the COVID-19 outbreak, playing a bigger role in helping litigants solve their disputes, China's top court said on Thursday.

In March last year, the Supreme People's Court opened a mini program on WeChat, the country's most popular instant messaging tool, in a move to provide litigants with a quicker and easier access to litigation.

People could access legal services, including searching for relevant laws, case filing, case hearing and evidence exchange, after entering the mini program and registering an account on the mobile platform. In other words, people can obtain legal services at any place and any time if they have mobile phones and have installed WeChat.

As of March 31, the platform had more than 1.39 million users and had been visited more than 270 million times, according to a statistic released by the top court on Thursday.

Xu Jianfeng, director of the top court's information center, said the platform is a great achievement of the country's technology-friendly court construction, adding it contributed a lot to helping litigants deal with lawsuits and legal affairs during the outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia.

In March, the platform users increased 390,000 and its view reached 2.08 million, up respectively 86.8 percent and 53.7 percent compared with the figures in February, the statistic said.

"Thanks to the platform, litigants' demands during the novel coronavirus epidemic, which required people to reduce travels and face-to-face activities, were met," said Xu Jianfeng, director of the top court's information center.

He added the top court would promote the building of technology-friendly courts to offer more convenience for litigants and improve the quality of legal services.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it. - Thomas Carlyle