china

Tag Archives for china.

Chinese Travel Stocks Surge In Response To Mass Protests

by Gary Leff on November 28, 2022

Nov 28 2022

Early in the pandemic ‘getting Covid later’ versus getting it right away made sense. We didn’t know what we were dealing with. It was better to delay until there were treatments and vaccines, and better to preserve hospital capacity. But what mattered is what you did with that time.

The U.S. and U.K. developed functional vaccines and treatments. China’s Sinovac Coronavac vaccine barely worked against the ancestral Wuhan strain. Most of China remained immunologically naive to the virus, especially as it mutated. The only end game was Xi’s re-election at the 20th People’s Congress. China didn’t use the time to prepare itself.

Now That President Xi Has Secured Power, China Eases Covid Controls

by Gary Leff on November 11, 2022

Nov 11 2022

Among other things, airlines will no longer be penalized for bringing a Covid case into the country. Yet nothing has changed in China – they still aren’t using Western vaccines, the vast majority of the population remains immunologically naive – except for Xi having broken with precedent to extend his time in office, while vanquishing rival power centers.

5 Weeks Of Quarantine Required? No Wonder There’s Just 32 Non-Stop Flights To China This MONTH

by Gary Leff on April 8, 2022

Apr 08 2022

According to data from Cirium’s Diio Mi, there are only 32 non-stop flights scheduled between the U.S. and China this month. That’s a total of just 11,634 seats.

Going full Wuhan in Shanghai isn’t working. But without having used the last two years well to prepare for inevitable virus spread, which was ultimately the point of a suppression strategy, what’s the exit plan for China?

What Chinese Winter Olympics Tourism Is Like

by Gary Leff on January 28, 2022

Jan 28 2022

China is afraid of foreigners, but they also wouldn’t give up the international prestige of hosting the Olympics – even an Olympics that barely showcases the country.

When Will China Re-Open Air Travel? Probably Not For A Year

by Gary Leff on January 22, 2022

Jan 22 2022

President Xi Jinping seeks an unprecedented third term at the country’s 2022 party congress. It’s this upcoming solidification of his power that, in part, makes the nation cautious of missteps. It can’t risk a blunder like an invasion of Taiwan that goes badly. And it can’t risk losing face by losing control of Covid-19.

After all, China lacks significant background immunity to the virus due to low levels of prior infection and homegrown vaccines that didn’t work well even against ancestral strains of the virus. So it’s not surprising that international flights to China remain down 95% compared to before the pandemic as they attempt to control entry of the virus.

Marriott Refuses Service To Uyghurs To Flatter China

by Gary Leff on November 19, 2021

Nov 19 2021

A conference of Uyghurs living in exhile, who advocate for the rights of the persecuted minority in the Xinjiang region of China where over a million have been held in internment camps, was rejected by Marriott in Prague out of a desire ‘to remain neutral’ on the issue.

In The 90s Chinese Airlines Bought Boeing Because They Thought Airbus Sold Buses

by Gary Leff on September 30, 2021

Sep 30 2021

There are great stories – some of them apocryphal – about product names and marketing slogans that don’t work when translated into another language.

Apparently Airbus really did have a problem with its name when selling planes in China in the 1990s. because Chinese airlines thought they sold buses.

Chinese Airline CEO Taken Away By Police

by Gary Leff on September 24, 2021

Sep 24 2021

The Chairman and CEO of HNA Group, parent of Hainan Airlines and several other carriers, has been taken away by police. At one point HNA was the largest owner of Hilton and owned stakes in a dozen airlines (like Virgin Australia, TAP Air Portugal) as well as airport catering companies.

New Airline Launching To Celebrate The End Of Freedom In Hong Kong

by Gary Leff on September 6, 2021

Sep 06 2021

There’s a new Chinese airline forming out of Hong Kong, expected to partially launch in four weeks, with an explicit aim of celebrating – and fostering – the turn of Hong Kong away from the west and towards the Chinese Communist Party.

Greater Bay Airlines plans to make its inaugural flight – a charter to Beijing – on October 1, the 72nd anniversary of the Community Party takeover of China.

Biden Administration Retaliates Against Chinese Airlines

by Gary Leff on August 19, 2021

Aug 19 2021

In the U.S. view, Chinese limits on U.S. airline flights are a violation of the air services treaty between the two countries. So when the Chinese government served notice on United Airlines that “five passengers who traveled from San Francisco to Shanghai tested positive for COVID-19 on July 21” and that United would face limits on its flying as a result, that provoked an international trade incident.