Free Republic

The entire northeastern province of Jilin and southern cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan are locked down. HONG KONG -- China is facing its worst COVID crisis since early 2020, when the world first witnessed an entire population locked down to contain the coronavirus in Wuhan and its surrounding province. Two years on, it's now sending tens of millions of people into lockdown in the entire northeastern province of Jilin, where 24 million people live, and the southern cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan, with 17.5 million and 10 million, respectively.

The northeastern Chinese city of Jilin has announced a lockdown after a second-wave outbreak of COVID-19 was detected. The city shares the name of the province where it’s located and is its second-largest city, with 4.5 million residents. It’s the first major Chinese city to enact a lockdown since most regions eased quarantine measures throughout March and April. When the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, spread quickly across the country early this year, most of China was placed under lockdown. However, as regional officials began reporting no or few new cases in March—even as experts...

About 100 tons of dangerous chemicals equivalent to 10 tanker-truck loads was spewed into the Songhua River, which supplies water to Harbin, the nation's environment watchdog disclosed yesterday. Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), told a press conference in Beijing that Jilin Petrochemical Corporation, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), "should be responsible" for the leak of benzene and its derivatives following an explosion at a chemical plant. The plant, on the upper reaches of the river in Jilin Province, earlier denied any connection between the contaminated water and the explosion on November 13,...