3. President Xi Jinping traveled to Russia to satisfy with Vladimir Putin this week. The financial relationship between the 2 international locations has weakened in recent times. (Wall Avenue Journal $)
4. A yr after the China Jap Airways crash that killed 132 folks, the Chinese language authorities nonetheless doesn’t have a conclusion about what went mistaken. (Related Press)
5. Jiang Yanyong, the Chinese language physician who uncovered the cover-up of the SARS outbreak in 2003, died on the age of 91. (NPR)
6. Somebody retains reducing the undersea cables connecting a Taiwanese archipelago to the web. Taiwanese authorities blame unintended injury from Chinese language ships. (Vice)
7. Guo Wengui, a controversial Chinese language billionaire with shut ties to Steve Bannon, was arrested in New York on Wednesday for a $1 billion fraud scheme. (NBC Information)
- “The New Federal State of China,” an entity Guo and Bannon launched in 2020, tremendously exaggerated its position in serving to to rescue Ukrainian refugees in 2022 and used it for political promotion. (Mom Jones)
Misplaced in translation
Throughout the first two years of the pandemic, Chinese language insurance coverage corporations popularized “covid insurance coverage”—folks will pay a one-time premium of some bucks and get 1000’s of {dollars} again in the event that they catch covid. However as journalist Yu Meng wrote within the Chinese language publication Connecting, it may be extraordinarily exhausting to get that payout.
Yu purchased covid insurance coverage at the start of 2022 and examined constructive on an at-home antigen check in December, throughout a nationwide wave of infections after China loosened its pandemic management measures. The insurance coverage firm gave her a quantity to name, however nobody answered. Yu studies there are not less than 60,000 extra individuals who filed a declare with the identical firm. Some known as dozens of instances a day, and a few sued the corporate. Some filed complaints with China’s insurance coverage regulator. However only a few folks truly received paid ultimately.
At one level when she lastly managed to succeed in the corporate, a buyer consultant advised Yu: “Are you aware what number of claims now we have? You assume the folks above me haven’t calculated the prices? After all, they did. It may attain billions and can trigger the corporate to go bankrupt. Do you assume the state will enable a state-owned firm to go bankrupt? Are you able to think about that?” Ultimately, Yu, who had anticipated to get 20,000 RMB ($2,900), accepted 5000 RMB. Her dad and mom, who purchased the identical insurance coverage, gave up on getting any a reimbursement.
Another factor
Even children can’t escape the AI craze now. Just lately, the native authorities in China’s japanese province Zhejiang introduced it will incorporate extra artificial-intelligence schooling into the grade faculty and center faculty curricula. How intense the teachings might be remains to be unclear, however I’m questioning: will we come full circle and see Chinese language children utilizing Ernie Bot to do their homework on Ernie Bot?