Top Searches on WeChat: China's battle against Omicron; New Party chief for Hubei; Investigation of plane crash
Top Searches on WeChat: China's battle against Omicron; New Party chief for Hubei; Investigation of plane crash
China's financial hub sticks to dynamic zero-COVID principle in battle against Omicron
If you've been on WeChat in China recently, you've almost certainly seen photographs, videos, and stories about Shanghai's ongoing battle against Omicron.
For the second day, temporary closed-off management has been implemented in the regions lying to the east and south of the Huangpu River of the megacity. Ginger River, who spent six years studying and working in Shanghai, is concerned about the city's status, as are many others.
Today's review of the top searches on WeChat are primarily about China's ongoing battle against COVID-19, with details regarding Changchun and Shanghai, the remediation campaign against excessive overtime, and the investigation of the plane crash. In addition, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee appointed a new Party chief for Hubei, which was also included in this newsletter.
Tuesday's top 10 trending searches on WeChat as of 7:00 p.m. (1100 GMT):
1.The Chinese mainland on Monday reports 1,228 new local COVID-19 cases and 5,658 local asymptomatic cases . -- Xinhua
31省份新增本土“1228+5658”
2.Nine Chinese provinces and regions focus on investigating and rectifying excessive overtime
9省份集中排查整治超时加班
3. Wang Menghui was appointed as secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC
王蒙徽任湖北省委书记
4.Changchun authority apologies for short supply of vegetables amid soaring COVID-19 outbreak
长春就买菜难问题致歉
5.Hao Chunrong, vice governor of northeast China's Liaoning Province, is under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law -- Xinhua
辽宁省副省长郝春荣被查
6.Five steps to complete declaration of personal income tax reduction for parents of children under 3
婴幼儿照护减个税五步搞定
7.Biden submits $5.79 trillion budget plan to Congress -- CNBC
拜登公布2023财年预算案
8.Will Smith apologizes to Chris Rock after Oscars -- US Today
威尔史密斯发文为打人事件道歉
9.Three major challenges remain for the investigation of China plane crash
MU5735飞行事故调查存在3大挑战
10.Shanghai on Monday reports 96 new local COVID-19 cases and 4,381 local asymptomatic cases.
上海增确诊96例无症状4381例
#1,#4 & #10 China's ongoing battle against Omicron
Changchun
Authorities in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province apologized to local residents for the short supply of vegetables as the city's two major vegetable wholesale markets were temporarily closed due to the sudden epidemic flare-up of COVID-19.
The sudden closure of the city's two major vegetable wholesale markets due to the grim epidemic situation in the city and the seriously insufficient personnel for supply chains, have led to inconvenience for local resident when buying vegetables, Liu Renyuan, deputy secretary general of Changchun explained during a press conference on Tuesday morning. Foods ordered online by some residents also failed to be delivered at the doors of some residents.
The response came after a senior resident who cried for vegetables outside a supermarket last Friday since he did not know how to order foods online, which went viral online and sparked public concerns over the food supply problem of senior residents.
For the senior resident case, iNewsweek (Chinese: 中国新闻周刊) later reported that community staff has delivered supplies to the senior resident's apartment that evening. Hu Xijin, former Editor in Chief of the Global Times, wrote on his social media platform Monday on the necessity of local governments taking actions to solve actual problems in the epidemic control and prevention work.
Shanghai
One City, Two Lockdowns: Shanghai Faces Its Toughest COVID-19 Test -- Sixth Tone
On Monday, Shanghai hit a record daily total of 4,477 COVID cases. The city has been locked down in two phases to test about 25 million people. Areas east of the Huangpu River would be entirely sealed until Friday, followed by the remaining areas from April 1 to April 5.
Some netizens said that Shanghai, the megacity with a population of over 24 million, is experiencing its "darkest hour," but they believe the city has the resilience to get over it. Some others posted video of the empty streets of the city's usually bustling financial zone of Lujiazui in the Pudong New Area, saying it was a once-in-a-lifetime scene.
Many of Ginger River's friends in Shanghai are now staying at home. Some shared with me screenshots of the community contact groups on Wechat for grocery shopping and delivery. Some others shared the pictures of the supplies delivered to their home by the community center and said the vegetables look good.
Community contact group on Wechat for grocery shopping and delivery
Vegetables delivered to apartments by community center
#2 Nine Chinese provinces and regions focus on investigating and rectifying excessive overtime
9省份集中排查整治超时加班
Since March, human resources departments of at least 9 provinces and regions including Beijing, Shandong, Anhui, Henan, Guangxi, Qinghai, Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi announced to focus on investigating and rectifying the issue of excessive working hours, according to a report of the chinanews.com (Chinese).
Last year, China’s top court has ruled that the controversial “996” overtime work policy (working 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week) is illegal, taking aim at the excessive working hours commonly practiced at Chinese Internet companies.
#3. Wang Menghui was appointed as secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC
王蒙徽任湖北省委书记
CPC appoints provincial-level Party chiefs -- Xinhua
Wang Menghui was appointed secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC, said an announcement by the CPC Central Committee. Ying Yong will no longer assume the position.
Wang Menghui
Wang was the minister of housing and urban-rural development prior to his new position.
On Feb. 13, 2020, Ying Yong, former mayor of Shanghai, was appointed secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC, replacing Jiang Chaoliang, and took full charge of epidemic prevention and control in the province. The epidemic outbreak in the province was later contained. According to a report from xinhuanet.com (Chinese), Ying no longer assumes the position due to his age.
#6 Five steps to complete declaration of personal income tax reduction for parents of children under 3
婴幼儿照护减个税五步搞定
China announced tax-relief policies for parents rearing children under 3 years old Monday as part of the efforts on improving birth policies to promote long-term and balanced population development.
China reduces personal income tax for parents of children under 3 -- Xinhua
Starting Jan. 1, 2022, the individual taxable income of such parents can be reduced by a total of 1,000 yuan (157 U.S. dollars) per month for each baby, said the circular.
The deduction can be applied in full by one parent or can be split evenly, added the circular.
The State Taxation Administration's account on WeChat (Chinese) introduced the five steps to complete the declaration of the tax reduction.
#9 Three major challenges remain for the investigation of China plane crash
MU5735飞行事故调查存在3大挑战
Search continues at China plane crash site after second black box found -- Xinhua
Search work at the site of the recent plane crash in south China is continuing after the second black box was found on Sunday, an official said at a press briefing on Monday afternoon.
As of Monday noon, a total of 15,640 people had been sent to search the core site and surrounding areas of the plane crash, covering around 370,000 square meters, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Li Yong, deputy head of administration, said that three major challenges remain for the investigation of China plane crash in an interview with China's major TV broadcaster CCTV Monday(Chinese):
①飞机从巡航高度突然下降之后，没有任何征兆，我们的空中交通管制部门也没有收到任何机组反馈的遇险信息或者反映不正常的信息，所以没有给我们留下有用的信息。
1) There were no signs for the sudden dive of the flight from its cruising altitude, and the air traffic control did not receive any crew feedback or information reflecting abnormalities, so not much useful information was left for us.
②现场撞击也是非常猛烈的，应该说残骸非常琐碎，分布也比较广，这给我们后期通过残骸取证工作造成了很大困难。
2) The impact [hitting the ground] was very severe. The wreckage has lots of pieces and is widely distributed, which caused great difficulties for us to work through the wreckage forensics.
③现场条件地理环境都比较恶劣，因为它是处于一个山谷区，再加上撞击，长期雨泡，导致土地非常泥泞，我们的调查员开展工作也带来很多困难。所以针对这些困难，我们可能要做好充分的思想准备，这次调查应该会花费一定的时间，但无论如何我和我的同事将会竭尽全力，尽快查明事实的原因，给我们国家、给社会、给我们的遇难者家属一个交代。
3) The conditions of the scene were relatively a harsh geographical environment, because it is in a valley area, coupled with the impact, and the prolonged immersion of the rain, which resulted in very muddy land, bringing a lot of difficulties to our investigators. So in response to these difficulties, we may have to be fully prepared for that this investigation should take some time, but in any case my colleagues and I will do our best to find out the cause of the plane crash as soon as possible to give an explanation to our country, to society, and to the families of the victims.
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Explainer: For people who are unfamiliar with Wechat, it is a Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s app with instant messaging as its primary function, and a platform where users can search for news and information, make transactions, create self-made videos, subscribe to publications, and so on.
Wechat's monthly active user (MAU) has topped 1.2 billion, according to Tencent's Q3 report of 2021. A corporate executive claimed in January that the MAU for Wechat's search feature has surpassed 700 million, reported the China Youth Daily.
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