A crowded shopping area in Beijing on Monday, October 6
Performers teach children to dance in a popular shopping town on the outskirts of Beijing on Monday, October 6
Shoppers look at offerings from souvenir shops in Beijing, Oct. 4
Posted on 10/06/2020 9:48:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
MAINLAND CHINA & HONG KONG
Hotel prices shot up, ride-hailing apps crashed, tickets to the Great Wall sold out: after more than nine long, housebound months, almost half a billion Chinese people are taking a vacation.
With the COVID-19 pandemic largely under control in China, the Golden Week holiday is putting on display the country’s confidence in its economic rebound and its public health measures. Through the first four days of the week-long holiday that started 1 October, some 425m people travelled domestically, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, nearly 80% of last year’s throngs.
The surge of activity stands in stark contrast to the rest of the world – the global tourism industry is expected to lose at least USD1.2t in 2020 – and underscores the relative strength of China’s economic recovery. As of September, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development forecasts a 1.8% expansion this year, putting China alone among the G-20 on pace to expand.
That positive outlook assumes the country can avoid another wave of coronavirus and aggressive lockdowns.. As millions criss-cross the country during the holiday that marks the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, no virus tests or quarantines required, the risks grow. Late last month, China opened its borders to foreign nationals holding valid residence permits.
“There is undoubtedly a risk in allowing mass tourism to resume and, in some ways, this is an early exercise in what the rest of the world will have to go through as global travel restarts next year,” said Nicholas Thomas, associate professor in health security at the City University of Hong Kong.
China has not reported any local virus infections since 15 August, though it found two asymptomatic cases in late September, and the government has eased almost all of its peak-COVID travel restrictions. The ban on group tours was lifted in the middle of July, every district in every city has been designated “low risk”, and coronavirus test results are no longer required for cross-province travel.
Kickstarting economies hobbled by the pandemic has been tricky. In the US, Japan and almost everywhere else, eagerness to reopen the economy – or reluctance to close it – has led to new waves of infection, often worse than the first.
The spectre of COVID and the fragile recovery are still taking a toll. Even travellers may not be ready for a Golden Week spree. Through the first four days of the holiday, tourism revenue was CNY312b, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, down 31% from the same period last year. – Bloomberg News.
China markets are closed for the Golden Week holiday. The Hang Seng Index advanced 1.32% to 23,767.79 on Monday (5 October).
REST OF ASIA
The Philippines has allowed malls and several businesses to reopen further even as the Southeast Asian nation recorded more coronavirus deaths last month.
The task force against the virus outbreak has approved economic managers’ recommendation to reopen more industries and public transport, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said at a briefing Monday (5 October). Essential shops in malls, miners, and money exchanges are now allowed to operate at full capacity, he said.
The economic contraction, projected to be as much as 6.6% this year, might reverse the country’s gains in poverty reduction, according to Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua. He said poverty incidence might “temporarily climb” to 17.5% although the government’s goal of reducing it to 14% by 2022 remains achievable. About 16.6% of the Philippines’s population lived below the poverty line in 2018, latest Asian Development Bank data show.
The Philippines is seeking a balance between curtailing the worst outbreak in Southeast Asia and reviving an economy that plunged into recession in the second quarter. COVID cases in the country have risen to nearly 325,000 as of 5 October. – Bloomberg News.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index was 0.21% lower at 5,929.10 in early-Tuesday trading. It advanced 2.59% to 5,941.58 the previous session.
South Korea’s Kospi Index rose 0.59% to 2,372.00 at the open on Tuesday, after climbing 1.29% to 2,358.00 on Monday.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange Weighted Index added 0.26% to 12,548.28 on Monday.
I guess the takeaway from this is; Chinese communists aren’t as harsh as American communists, I mean, Democrats.
You know what I mean.
Well they did lose about 20 million people during this see their inactive cell phones accounts so hey it’s time to celebrate!
My takeaway is different. If they can open up their economy, what’s stopping us from doing the same?
That sounds the same as my takeaway just said differently.
You think all those phones were inactivated because all the owners of them died?
I was recalling the other day how the media first played this. You would see video of Chinese people in respiratory distress, with breathless (pardon the pun) commentators gasping, “People are literally dying in the streets!”
Seems like they’re doing a little better.
At this point I might trust the ChiCom media more than ours.
The world may be upside down right now, but I know you didn't really mean THAT. The ChiCom's can NEVER be trusted. Ever.
The obvious answer is because we value LIFE far beyond what they do.
However, the US has (also obviously) overreacted to the virus, and should now focus on re-opening.
There they already have control so they don’t have to lie about everything.
Certainly not the absolutely ridiculous BS our media has been lying about.
Our economy never should have closed. Perfect example of the insane lying our press has engaged in.
BS. This Covid 19 is Bio Warfare.
Did I say it wasn’t? Take a midol, snowflake.
During that first day this all hit the news, my co-workers were watching and saying things like, “You should come watch this! It’s like some kind of gas or something. People are just keeling over in the street!”
Don’t know if anyone else recalls this early media take on the situation, but I remember it INSTANTLY injected FEAR into the developing story.
You do not know commie propaganda. Shove your snowflake.
I remember it well and have commented on it here. I’m of the belief that all that was a disinformation campaign launched by Chinese intelligence agencies.
In conjunction with the Democrat National Committee, I'm convinced. It broke so close to the Democrat impeachment failure.
Agree.
I’ve gotten over a dozen ChiCom trolls zotted from this site.
What have you done, snowflake?
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