The Taiwanese air force last week ordered an emergency evacuation and disinfection of an underground command center after six of its officers contracted COVID-19, Apple Daily Taiwan has learned.

The infections prompted military officials to close the high-level command facility built into Taipei’s Chanchu mountain last Wednesday, for the first time in its 71-year history.

All officers at the command center were ordered to receive rapid tests for COVID while a thorough disinfection was carried out, Apple Daily Taiwan learned. Health officials were arranging vaccinations for the officers.

The command center, established in 1950, is responsible for monitoring flight movements over mainland Chinese coastal provinces and for deploying the island’s aircraft in the event of an invasion.

On Monday, Taiwan reported 185 new domestic cases and 15 deaths from COVID. The number of domestic infections on the island on Sunday fell below 200 for the first time since a new wave of the pandemic broke out a month ago.

However, residents were concerned about a shortage of medical equipment, as island authorities struggled to secure enough vaccines for the 23 million population.

Taiwanese actress Jia Yong-jie said on Sunday she would donate 342 units of high-flow nasal cannula, a device to supply oxygen to severe COVID patients, after some hospitals reported shortages. Jia had earlier raised the money for the donation from private companies and entertainers, she said.

President Tsai Ing-wen thanked Jia and said her government had ordered 500 of the devices, of which 200 had arrived in Taiwan.

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Taiwanese air force closes command center after six COVID cases reported

A researcher has recently been suspended by a university in Shanghai for “making indecent statements,” including promoting polygamy and May-to-December romances between teachers and students.

Bao Yinan, an associate researcher at the East China University of Political Science and Law, wrote on social media that high school teachers should enjoy privileges because of what he called the “poor treatment” they received.

The country “should attach importance to the livelihood and the lives of teachers, while high school teachers should be treated specially, such as multiple spouses and lifetime subsidies,” the 34-year-old said on his WeChat account.

The posting soon went viral on mainland Chinese social media, where most responses were negative. “A person with [such an] extreme personality is not suitable for teaching and educating people,” one netizen said.

Bao added to his message after his post gained traction, saying that his goal this year was to find a girlfriend born after 2000.

Bao later posted a message on WeChat saying he had been ordered by university leaders to take down his controversial remarks against his will.

It is unclear whether he eventually deleted the postings, but the East China University of Political Science and Law on Sunday said it was suspending all Bao’s teaching activities and looking into his case.

“Recently, our school teacher Bao Yinan made indecent statements on the internet,” the university said in a social media post. “The school immediately established a special working group to check the situation. At the next step, the school will deal with the case in accordance with relevant regulations and laws.”

It is illegal in mainland China to have more than one spouse.

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Call for polygamy, student-teacher romances leads to suspension for Chinese university researcher

A top Chinese diplomat told envoys from 28 countries that the Chinese Communist Party had achieved three miracles for the country, as Beijing continued to sing its own praises ahead of the party’s centennial in July.

First was a rapid economic growth that had made China the world’s second-largest economy within a matter of decades, Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told the envoys from American and Oceanian countries in Beijing on Saturday.

This was compared to the century-long industrialization taken by the now advanced economies, and was one of three “rarely seen miracles” of the world, Xie said.

China had also maintained long-term social and political stability under the communist regime, which Xie said had withstood stringent tests of complex social change and reforms since 1949 when the party took control of mainland China.

The third miracle was China’s “peaceful rise” achieved by its diplomacy and firm opposition to hegemonies, Xie told the envoys. China respected the rights of people in every country to choose their own paths of development, and intimidation and coercive rhetorics were not part of its foreign policy, he said.

The top diplomat’s remarks come as the Chinese Communist Party is gearing up to celebrate its 100th anniversary on July 1. Officials have lined up dozens of movies, television soap dramas, documentaries and seminars in a major domestic propaganda campaign.

Envoys attending Saturday’s event included those from the United States and Canada. Xie told them that the Chinese Communist Party was a party with a mission and accountability that could overcome party interest, shortsightedness and populism, some of the problems which he said plagued political parties in western democracies.

In recent years, the Communist Party has dismissed the idea of adopting foreign political systems by emphasizing that the country should have self-confidence in four areas, namely, its path, theories, system and culture.

Party leaders inscribed the so-called four confidences into the party’s constitution in 2017 and have since stressed that the current system had an edge in mobilizing manpower and resources.

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Chinese diplomat boasts of Communist Party’s ‘three miracles’ ahead of centennial

American anti-communist organization Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on Friday paid its highest homage to jailed Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai for “his lifelong commitment to freedom and democracy in Hong Kong.”

The 73-year-old was presented the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, becoming the first Hong Kong advocate of democracy to receive the prize. The medal came at the two-year anniversary of the start of the months-long anti-government protests in the city.

“The brutal crushing of dissent in Hong Kong tells the world all it needs to know about the capacity of communist governments to tolerate even the smallest concessions to freedom,” the foundation said in a statement. “The bravery of Jimmy Lai and many other citizens of Hong Kong tell us the human thirst for freedom will never die.”

A non-profit anti-communist organization, the foundation was authorized by the United States Congress soon after the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, with its purpose of “educating Americans about the ideology, history and legacy of communism.”

The foundation offered the highest honor to the pro-democracy publisher “for his lifelong commitment to freedom and democracy in Hong Kong, his dogged opposition to communism and all other forms of tyranny, as well as his determination to fight the CCP’s authoritarian actions no matter the cost,” it said in a statement.

Andrew Bremberg, the foundation’s chairperson, complimented Lai for daring to speak out against the ruling Chinese Communist Party and for fighting for the freedom of Hongkongers, at the cost of putting himself and his family at risk.

“We must continue to work together, using every resource we can, to ensure that beacons of freedom like Hong Kong, and heroes like Jimmy Lai, do not fall captive to communism,” he said.

Lai’s imprisonment was evidence of the party’s determination to eliminate dissidents in the former British colony, Bremberg said.

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence also praised Lai as a “freedom fighter” on Twitter, saying he felt honored to receive him at the White House in 2019.

“Today, he sits in prison for his support of democracy in Hong Kong &amp; @VoCommunism rightly awarded him their highest honor for his courageous commitment to freedom,” Pence tweeted. “God bless Jimmy Lai.”

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Jimmy Lai awarded top honor from US anti-communist group for ‘lifelong commitment to democracy in Hong Kong’

Ukrainian painter Vladi says he was so moved by the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong that he now calls the city home and is determined to stand up for its way of life to the end, even as Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties is narrowing the window for freedom of expression.

The 30-year-old, who goes by his first name, took part in the million-person march on June 12, 2019. Then, a high-achieving student with a master’s degree in computer science, he had just arrived in the city with his Hong Kong girlfriend.

He praised the living environment and the unique culture in the city, pointing to the different kinds of “freedom” from his native country. “It’s quite different because I actually think in Ukraine there is less freedom than Hong Kong,” he said.

When Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests kicked off in November 2013, Vladi was living in Germany. He saw his relatives and friends fighting for democracy in a movement that eventually toppled the Russian-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, and the national government after escalating into violent clashes with armed security forces in early 2014 that left dozens of protesters dead.

“The Ukrainian people are more brave in standing up for their beliefs, and they are more persistent,” he said.

Having missed out on the protests in Ukraine, Vladi and his girlfriend turned their energy to Hong Kong, joining in demonstrations against a now-mothballed extradition bill that could have sent Hongkongers to stand trial in mainland China, where the judiciary is controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

Vladi then turned to art as a way to express himself. Art can strengthen people’s will, and soothe feelings of helplessness and hurt at the same time, he said.

And so, combining his computer prowess with painting skills he created artworks and put them on display in the commercial district of Mong Kok, the scene of many violent confrontations during the months-long protests in 2019.

Since then, he has faced repeated intimidation from the police and others who didn’t share his political outlook.

Police have accused him of obstructing the street, causing a public nuisance and breaching the COVID-19 gathering ban. “Sometimes they also say that I’m violating [the] national security law,” he added, although he said he has not been formally arrested.

Despite the challenges, Vladi endeavored to make more artistic creations, hoping that everyone will always remember every rally they have participated in to fight for democracy. “And I feel good about it because it’s my small contribution to the movement,” he said.

Even if Hong Kong is no longer what it used to be, he said he will stay until the end.

“I will still — as long as it’s possible — stay,” he said. “It’s my home, so I do what I can do to protect it.”

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Ukrainian painter brings spirit of Maidan protests to his new Hong Kong home

Most of the protest art on Hong Kong’s streets has been erased by authorities, but one young protester is trying to remind the public that the 2019 pro-democracy movement is far from over.

K, as the artist in their early 20s asked to be called, took a sealed bag containing dozens of homemade stickers with protest artwork from a pocket. K has been leaving those stickers across the city since mid-2019, the artist told Apple Daily.

“When everyone has returned to their daily lives, or they are focused on fighting the pandemic, it is easy to forget,” K said. “I want to do something to remind myself that [the movement] is unfinished.”

Since first making protest art in 2019, K’s style has been influenced by Japanese anime. In June that year, K drew a young woman in a yellow raincoat, to show that Hongkongers would carry on the spirit of deceased protester Marco Leung. In November, K drew another character whose helmet was splattered with blood, to symbolize the protesters’ defiance in spite of their injuries.

Hong Kong’s protest artists mostly went underground after the implementation of the national security law last year, but K still carries a stack of stickers.

“Maybe it’s because I’m stubborn. I believe that my beliefs cannot be taken away, so I still haven’t lost,” K said.

K acknowledges that putting stickers on public walls has become more risky. Such an act might not be considered criminal damage, but it could attract a fine under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, barrister Albert Luk had said in a previous interview.

K would often place stickers next to protest art created by others as a show of solidarity. “If we don’t persist, there will be fewer and fewer of us, and that puts us in greater danger. This is why I want to carry on together with them.”

Leaving a sticker on a wall feels similar to shouting a slogan and waiting for a response, which K said was the source of their motivation. “I want to see whether anyone will reply with the next line, and to join in chanting the ‘slogan’,” K said.

“If you pay attention to your environment, it’s not hard to see that there are still comrades out there.”

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‘I still haven’t lost’: Hong Kong artist continues protest legacy, one sticker at a time 

Two student activists have accused the police of arresting them the day before June 12 — when they planned to set up a booth to mark the anniversary of a key date of Hong Kong’s 2019 protest movement — in order to keep them off the streets and send a warning to the public.

On Friday, police arrested Wong Yat-chin and Alice Wong of the activist group Student Politicism and accused them of promoting an unauthorized assembly, as well as inciting others to join an unlawful assembly. Police claimed the group’s social media posts encouraged violent resistance.

Both activists were released on bail on Sunday. After his release, Wong told Apple Daily that he believed he was granted bail because the arrest had “created too much noise.” Officers had asked him at least 70 detailed questions about his group’s posts on Facebook and Instagram, but he refused to answer, Wong added.

“The Hong Kong regime is using every method at its disposal to quash dissent and limit our freedom. It wants to strip us of our rights, such as the right to have street booths, rallies and protest marches — and it even wants to strip us of our hope, our future,” Wong said.

The two activists said that the timing of their arrest was meant to coincide with June 12, the second anniversary of the large-scale clashes between demonstrators and police outside the Legislative Council. That event is seen as one of the early turning points of the 2019 pro-democracy movement.

The police were “scared that we would host an event on June 12, and that our street booth would lead to unrest or even a riot. They waited until June 12 was over and then they let us go,” Wong said.

Alice Wong agreed, saying that she believed the police used the arrests to stop Student Politicism from going ahead with their planned street booth. “The arrests were meant to create white terror and to deter the public from standing up. It was oppressing the voice of the people,” she said.

A police spokesperson earlier said that Student Politicism was not just holding street booths, but was encouraging others to participate in unlawful assemblies and inciting violence.

The two activists were released on bail at around 1 a.m. on Sunday.

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Hong Kong student activists say their arrest was an excuse for police to keep them off streets for June 12 anniversary

Guangdong province has vowed to take serious disciplinary action against officials found to bear responsibility for a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the southern Chinese economic powerhouse.

The Communist Party’s discipline watchdog and supervisory agency in Guangzhou recently announced the establishment of a joint task force to look into local officials’ handling of the pandemic. Officials would face severe consequences for dereliction of duty in curbing the coronavirus, the two agencies said.

Guangdong has seen a spike in new domestic COVID cases since late May. Some parts of its capital of Guangzhou have gone into lockdown as a result.

On Saturday, China reported 34 new cases, including six local infections — all from Guangdong — and 28 imported cases. The country has recorded 91,428 cases and 4,636 COVID-related deaths so far, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, a Shanghai-based infectious disease expert said the new COVID strain from India had been spreading quickly across the globe, but there was no sign that it had led to increased death rates.

Zhang Wenhong, a doctor at Huashan Hospital, which is affiliated with Shanghai’s Fudan University, added in his Sina Weibo microblog on Saturday that existing vaccines appeared to be effective in dealing with new COVID strains.

His remarks came amid calls by three Beijing-based medical experts for a review of the effectiveness of vaccines and other drugs.

Writing in the medical journal Immunity, Zhang Linqi, a medical professor at Tsinghua University; Wang Xinquan, a life sciences professor at the same institute; and Zhang Tong, a professor at Capital Medical University, said that new strains from the U.K., South Africa and Brazil last year might negatively affect the protection rates of vaccines and the antibodies used to treat COVID patients.

Researchers should work toward developing drugs and preventive measures that can be used to deal with mutated strains in the long term, they said.

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Guangdong vows to hold officials to account over recent COVID spike

A senior Taiwanese health official on Sunday urged residents to remain vigilant against COVID-19 despite the number of new domestic infections falling below 200 for the first time in a month.

The self-ruled island reported 174 domestic cases on Sunday.

Central Epidemic Command Center head Chen Shih-chung said he was pleased to see the drop in new infections but stressed that Taiwan needed to remain vigilant.

The self-ruled island had seen more than 200 locally acquired cases a day since May 15, with infections peaking at more than 700 on May 22. Before the current wave, Taiwan had won international plaudits keeping a tight lid on the virus, with the vast majority of days seeing single-digit or no new cases.

On Sunday, the island reported an imported case involving a man in his 20s who had returned from the United States. The man had a certificate showing a negative result for COVID obtained three days before boarding his flight.

His case came after Taiwanese health officials on Saturday stepped up quarantine measures for flight crew members.

Under the new measure, crew members who had not been vaccinated would now be quarantined for five days at home and be required to record their temperature and other health conditions for a further nine days. The quarantine period would be extended to seven days from July, Apple Daily Taiwan has learnt.

Those who had received a first shot would be quarantined for three days and record their health conditions for 11 more days. Only people who had completed both shots of vaccine would be exempt from quarantine. But they would still have to monitor their health conditions for seven days, according to Apple Daily Taiwan,

Meanwhile, President Tsai Ing-wen dismissed a report that she had secretly received the German-made BioNTech vaccine. Responding to the claim by a veteran television presenter, the presidential office said it was just a rumor.

Tsai and her deputy William Lai had not yet received any vaccine, the office said. Tsai earlier said she would take a vaccine developed by Taiwanese manufacturers to support the island’s homegrown products.

Some senior officers in local authorities have jumped the line to receive vaccines amid a shortage.

The latest case involved the head of the Hsinchu Armed Force Hospital who helped his close affiliates to get vaccinated, Apple Daily reported earlier. The hospital head has now been removed from office while the hospital was fined NT$2 million (US$72,000) by the city government.

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Taiwan COVID chief urges vigilance as new cases dip below 200

Authorities have taken strict security measures in Beijing, as armed forces rehearsed for a parade celebrating the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Over the weekend, more than 14,000 people, including security personnel, took part in the centenary rehearsals in Beijing’s Tiananmen district. The rehearsals covered the warm-up phase, entering and exiting the venue, the main celebration and emergency response, according to state media.

Photos circulated on social media showed China’s advanced J-20 stealth fighter jets and army helicopters flying in the formations of the numbers 100 and 71 — a reference to the date of the centenary on July 1.

The rehearsals reportedly involved the central military band, choir, honor guard as well as emergency service personnel.

The Beijing government closed off roads in many areas over the weekend and placed restrictions on the airspace of nine administrative districts. Authorities earlier announced that Tiananmen Square would be closed from June 23 to July 1.

Beijing authorities will also step up its “social harmony campaign” and evict all petitioners deemed “unsightly” before June 15, according to Radio Free Asia. The city will be fully secured with no vulnerabilities by June 20, the report said.

Security officials are conducting strict checks at railway stations and piers, and those found with a record of petitioning will be turned away, according to Chinese human rights blog Weiquanwang.

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Beijing tightens security amid rehearsals for Communist Party centenary parade

Hong Kong’s famously eye-watering property prices are again probing new highs, fueled by an influx of mainland buyers undeterred by the city’s political turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic or the recent wave of emigration.

As many as 35% of buyers for the latest residential project at the Wong Chuk Hang metro station on Hong Kong Island are believed to be from mainland China, based on how they spelled their names. Those transactions had a total value of almost HK$4.5 billion (US$580 million).

By some measures, Hong Kong is the world’s least affordable housing market. Last year, the average price of a home in the city of 7.8 million people was US$1.25 million — or more than 23 times the median annual household income, based on the latest government data.

As of June 9, 325 of the more than 1,400 purchase agreements reached apparently were by mainland Chinese buyers. One woman bought 10 apartments at the Wong Chuk Hang project after having purchased a HK$5 million home in Mount Nicholson, one of the city’s best-off residential areas.

Migrants from mainland China have once again become a force in the city’s property market, said Louis Chan, chief executive of the residential division at Centaline Property Agency.

Such buyers typically buy up mid-priced properties ranging between HK$10 million and HK$20 million, especially luxury homes, Chan said. Luxury properties in Hong Kong are defined as those of at least 1,000 square feet (93 square meters).

The property market might heat up even further once the city’s economy shakes off the impact of the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Eric Tso, the senior vice president for mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services.

The yearly supply of private housing is not able to keep up with the increase in the number of immigrants from mainland China, said stock and property market analyst Eddie Lam. “Those people will become Hong Kong’s largest purchasing power,” he said.

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