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Take A Rare Glimpse Inside China’s Zero-Covid Madhouse

Published

11 months ago

on

STR/AFP via Getty Images)

The western world has been given a rare, intimate look inside the confines of a Chinese Covid-19 concentration camp, after Financial Times Shanghai correspondent Thomas Hale was ensnared by the President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid regime.  

It’s not that Hale had tested positive. Merely being designated as a “close contact” was enough to sentence him to 10 days of confinement on a secret island camp identified only as “P7.”

Hale provides a primer on framework of China’s system works: 

“PCR testing in China is an almost daily ritual and testing booths are common on many street corners.They look vaguely like food stalls, except they’re larger and cube-shaped and a worker inside sits behind Plexiglas cut with two arm holes.

They are merely the surface machinery of a vast monitoring system. China’s digital Covid pass resembles track-and-trace programmes elsewhere, except it’s mandatory and it works. Using Alipay or WeChat, the country’s two major apps, a QR code is linked to each person’s most recent test results. The code must be scanned to get in anywhere, thereby tracking your location. Green means you can enter; red means you have a problem.”

Research: Countries That Sought ‘Zero-COVID’ Lockdowns Have The Least Immunity

Hale’s journey into Covid madness started with an innocent outing at a Shanghai bar. Apparently, someone who’d also been at the bar tested positive. Via the tracking system, the authorities knew Hale had been there too.

Hale had “won” some kind of terrible lottery: On the day he was in the bar, there were only 18 cases in all of Shanghai that day — a city of 26 million people.

A few days after his bar outing, authorities called to confirm he’d been at the bar. The next day, a caller from the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention alerted him that authorities were on their way. Hale was about to be “taken away” — an expression Chinese use when describing the phenomenon.

Next, a hotel staffer called to say he couldn’t leave, and that the hotel was in lockdown due to his mere presence in it. Then came the men in hazmat suits, who escorted him down a deserted hallway to a staff elevator and out through the cordoned-off hotel entrance. He was directed to board a small bus driven by another man in a hazmat suit. 

Hale joined the other condemned passengers — none of whom had actually tested positive. His hopes that he’d be taken to a quarantine hotel were dashed. A drive of more than an hour ended on a small road in the middle of a field, with several large buses queued up ahead of his.

The driver got out, locked the bus behind him and wandered off. A fellow passenger was surprised to hear that Hale was from the UK: “They brought you here? With a foreign passport?” Hours of waiting on the increasingly chilly bus went by, until it finally moved again at 2 am. 

As he was trudging along to his assigned quarters, a fellow detainee pointed to three rows of wire above the perimeter fences, beyond which were only tall trees. 

Hale’s new home was a box similar to a shipping container, elevated by short stilts. His and every door was monitored by a camera. There was no hot water. 

“Inside my 196-sq-ft cabin there were two single beds, a kettle, an air-conditioning unit, a desk, a chair, a bowl, two small cloths, one bar of soap, an unopened duvet, a small pillow, a toothbrush, one tube of toothpaste and a roll-up mattress roughly the thickness of an oven glove

The floor was covered in dust and grime. The whole place shook when you walked around, which I soon stopped noticing. The window was barred, though you could still lean out. There was no shower.

…The bed was made of an iron frame and six planks of wood, and the mattress was so thin you had to lie completely flat. The bed frame, meanwhile, was impossible to lean against.” 

He was pleasantly surprised, however, to find the internet connection was 24 times speedier than what he had at his hotel. Like Hale, the camp staff were prohibited from leaving or receiving deliveries there. A worker said he earned the equivalent of about $32 a day. 

Hale tried to see if his status as a foreign journalist might spring him from detention. The worker he approached with that question was baffled by the mere premise…but we can’t blame Hale for trying. 

Hale describes key aspects of daily life in Covid detention: 

  • Every morning, he was awakened by a “lawnmower-like noise,” as an industrial-grade machine sprayed the cabin windows and front steps with disinfectant
  • Around 9 am, two workers came to administer PCR tests. A positive result would have meant being taken to a different type of detention  
  • Meals were delivered at 8 am, noon and 5 pm
  • Hale pursued a strict routine of language study, writing, exercise, music, online chess, and then reading or watching Amazon Prime entertainment

The routine served him well. Over time, he noticed his neighbors stopped eating breakfast, while some could be heard pacing their shaky boxes at night. 

He did endure some psychological discomfort, in the form of not knowing when he’d get out. He was originally told seven days but it ended up being 10. 

Upon his release and return to civilization, Hale savored the hot water of the hotel’s shower and the softness of its bed.When he went out for a celebratory meal, however, he faltered — pacing the street as he contemplated the fact that entering China’s contact-tracing matrix brought the peril of a return to confinement. 

He settled on takeout from a steak restaurant, where an employee said there’d be no need for his code to be swiped — if he ordered takeout. 

* * *

Check out Hale’s full tale at the Financial Times (subscription required) 

This post was originally published at Zero Hedge

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Canadian Speaker Of The House QUITS Following Nazi Scandal

Anthony Rota falls on his sword as Trudeau refused to take any responsibility

Published

17 hours ago

on

27 September, 2023

Steve Watson

PATRICK DOYLE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The Canadian Speaker of the House has resigned following the incident where a 98-year-old SS solider was cheered and honoured in Parliament, with Prime Minter Justin Trudeau refusing to take any responsibility, despite meeting with the Ukrainian Nazi beforehand.

As we noted earlier this week, Anthony Rota apologised for the scandal, but it wasn’t enough.

Canada’s Speaker Of The House Apologises For Honoring An Actual Nazi

Trudeau through Rota under the bus:

Incredible: After Celebrating An Actual Nazi In Parliament, Trudeau Complains About ‘Russian Propaganda’

Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre told parliament that “Canadians are sick and tired of a prime minister who never takes responsibility for things that happen under his watch,” adding “he always finds someone else to throw under the bus,” and asking the Speaker of the House “are you that person?”

Turns out he is:

“It’s with a heavy heart that I rise to inform members of my resignation as Speaker for the House of Commons,” Rota stated, adding “I reiterate my profound regret for my error in recognizing an individual in the House during the joint address to Parliament of President Zelensky.”

Rota further stated “that public recognition has caused pain to individuals and communities including the Jewish community in Canada and around the world, in addition to survivors of Nazi atrocities in Poland, among other nations.”

It seemingly didn’t matter that Trudeau personally met with the Nazi before the celebration in Parliament:

Trudeau didn’t show up in Parliament and his underlings attempted, but failed, to get all records of the Nazi scandal erased from history:

Spectator writer Brendan O’Neill notes that “This is the same Trudeau who fantasises that Nazism lurks everywhere. Who gleefully brands his critics as ‘far right’. Who has damned everyone from parents worried about LGBTQ education to truckers concerned about vaccine mandates as footsoldiers of a 1930s-style populism.”

“Welcome to Woke Canada, where moms and pops who would rather their kid wasn’t transitioned behind their backs are far right, while a literal former SS fighter gets a fulsome round of applause,” he adds.

O’Neill continues, “you don’t need a PhD in European history to think that a Ukrainian military man who fought against the Ruskies in the 1940s was probably linked with the Nazis,” adding “The cluelessness is off the scale.”

He concludes that “The Hunka scandal is a perfect snapshot of the liberal elite’s weird and delirious obsession with the far right. They marshall the horrors of the 1940s to condemn their critics in the here and now, as if every trucker protest and parental uprising were a harbinger of a new Fourth Reich. Yet when face to face with someone who was involved in the horrors of the 1940s, they smile and fawn.”

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    Incredible: After Celebrating An Actual Nazi In Parliament, Trudeau Complains About ‘Russian Propaganda’

    “I think it’s going to be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda”

    Published

    2 days ago

    on

    26 September, 2023

    Steve Watson

    GEOFF ROBINS/AFP via Getty Images

    Despite the fact that he met with and then invited a former SS soldier into his parliament, where the 98-year-old Nazi was given a standing ovation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau complained about “Russian propaganda” and “Russian disinformation” Monday.

    Here’s the backstory from yesterday:

    Canada’s Speaker Of The House Apologises For Honoring An Actual Nazi

    Trudeau was asked about the situation by reporters and commented, “Obviously it’s extremely upsetting that this happened,” before immediately blaming the Speaker of the House, noting “The speaker has acknowledged his mistake and has apologized. This is something that is deeply embarrassing to the Parliament of Canada and by extension to all Canadians, I think particularly of Jewish MPs and all members of the Jewish community across the country, celebrating, commemorating Yom Kippur today.”

    He then pivoted to Russia, stating “I think it’s going to be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation and continue our steadfast and unequivocal support for Ukraine.”

    Incredible.

    Watch:

    Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre told parliament that “Canadians are sick and tired of a prime minister who never takes responsibility for things that happen under his watch,” adding “he always finds someone else to throw under the bus,” and asking the Speaker of the House “are you that person?”

    Poilievre demanded that Trudeau personally apologize, describing the situation as “an appalling error in judgment on the part of Justin Trudeau, whose personal protocol office is responsible for arranging and vetting all guests and programming for state visits of this kind.”

    “It was impossible for any parliamentarian in the room (other than Mr. Trudeau) to know of this dark past,” Poilievre added of the SS veteran.

    Meanwhile, comedian Rob Schneider hit out at Trudeau, and said he has cancelled his upcoming dates in Canada in protest:

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    Biden Regime Poised to Allow Israelis to Travel to U.S. Without Visa, Despite Escalating Human Rights Abuses

    Published

    2 days ago

    on

    26 September, 2023

    Chris Menahan | Information Liberation

    BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

    The Biden regime is poised to allow Israeli citizens to travel to the US without a US visa, despite Israel’s escalating human rights abuses against Christians in the Holy Land and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. 

    From AP News, “The Biden administration is poised to allow Israeli citizens to travel to the US without a US visa”:

    The Biden administration is poised to admit Israel this week into an exclusive club that will allow its citizens to travel to the United States without a U.S. visa despite Washington’s ongoing concerns about the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinian Americans.

    U.S. officials say an announcement of Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program is planned for late in the week, just before the end of the federal budget year on Saturday, which is the deadline for Israel’s admission without having to requalify for eligibility next year.

    The Department of Homeland Security administers the program, which currently allows citizens of 40 mostly European and Asian countries to travel to the U.S. for three months without visas.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is set to make the announcement Thursday, shortly after receiving a recommendation from Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel be admitted, according to five officials familiar with the matter who spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity because the decision has not yet been publicly announced.

    Christian leaders in the Holy Land spoke out earlier this year about how Christians are being viciously persecuted, attacked, spat on and abused in Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right regime with authorities doing little to nothing to hold their abusers to account.

    Just two weeks ago, video went viral showing a mob of Israeli children kicking and cursing a group of Christian missionaries with their parents’ full support. 

    Though Biden calls himself a Zionist, he’s long touted his opposition to Israel expanding settlements in the West Bank as a show of independence. 

    Nonetheless, Netanyahu spit in his face earlier this year by approving a major expansion of new settlements in the West Bank.

    Israel banned congresswomen Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesotafrom entering their country in 2019 and bans US citizens from entering if they’re supporters of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS).

    Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen claimed Monday on Twitter/X that Israel’s entry to the Visa Waiver Program is a done deal. 

    “Great news for the citizens of Israel ahead of the new year – as we promised, this coming November we will enter the visa exemption program for the USA,” Cohen said. “Anyone who wishes can fill out a form online, pay $21 and receive an entry visa within 72 hours. This is a great achievement that testifies to the close relations between Israel and our great ally the USA. I thank US President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken for their support during the process, and especially the friends of the outgoing ambassador Tom Neides who promoted the issue here in Israel.”

    This post was originally published at Information Liberation

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