Xi's Hainan Visit Wrap - Li on Boosting Consumption - Q1 Foreign Trade Data - China's Development Finance Work - Anti-Corruption Struggle - Zhong Sheng on US Human Rights Hypocrisy
Here are the stories and pieces that I found noteworthy from the Thursday, April 14, 2022, edition of the People’s Daily.
Page 1: The big story on the page today is about Xi Jinping’s visit to Hainan. Xinhua English also has a decent round-up he visit. The story informs that from April 10th to 13th, Xi Jinping, accompanied by Secretary of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee Shen Xiaoming and Governor Feng Fei, visited Sanya, Wuzhishan, Danzhou and other places to conduct in-depth research in scientific research institutes, national parks, Li villages, ports and docks, etc.From April 10th to 13th, Xi Jinping, accompanied by Shen Xiaoming, secretary of Hainan Provincial Party Committee and Feng Fei, governor of Hainan, visited Sanya, Wuzhishan, Danzhou and other places for an inspection of scientific research institutes, national parks, Li villages, ports and docks, etc.
On Sunday, Xi visited Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory located in Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City. Xi said that if the Chinese people's rice bowl is to be firmly in their own hands, they must hold the seeds firmly in their own hands. He added that it is necessary to focus on ensuring food security and the supply of important agricultural products, realise the self-reliance in the seed industry in terms of science and technology; the country’s seed sources must be independent and controllable, so as to ensure China's food security with Chinese seeds. Xi also called for carrying forward the spirit of scientists and researchers of the older generations, who kept the motherland in mind and served the people. While calling on researchers to “strive to climb the peak of agricultural science and technology bravely,” he acknowledged that the process would take time, saying “it takes 10 years to sharpen a sword.”
Next, Xi visited the Sanya Institute of Oceanography, Ocean University of China, where he learned about the development and application of ocean observation equipment and information service systems connected to the Deep Sea No 1 platform. He spoke to “frontline staff” and then the report says this:
Xi Jinping emphasised that building a maritime power is a major strategic task in order to realise the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It is necessary to promote high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in marine science and technology, strengthen original and leading scientific and technological research, firmly grasp equipment manufacturing in our own hands, and strive to use our own equipment to develop oil and gas resources, increase energy self-sufficiency, and ensure national energy security. 习近平强调，建设海洋强国是实现中华民族伟大复兴的重大战略任务。要推动海洋科技实现高水平自立自强，加强原创性、引领性科技攻关，把装备制造牢牢抓在自己手里，努力用我们自己的装备开发油气资源，提高能源自给率，保障国家能源安全.
Xi also visited a tropical rainforest national park in the city of Wuzhishan, where the focus was on efforts to protect the environment and biodiversity, as well as the alignment of rural revitalization with the achievements in poverty alleviation. PD reports that Xi got out of the vehicle and applied fertiliser to and watered “evergreen tree” that he had planted 12 years ago.
Next, the report covers Xi’s visit to Sanya International Duty Free City, where he focused on the implementation of the tax exemption policy. He stressed leveraging the advantages of China’s huge market size, fostering a favourable market environment with the rule of law, and attracting customers with trusted business operations and quality services.
The next paragraph talks about Xi’s visit to a tropical rainforest national park in Wuzhishan. “He pointed out that Hainan should persist in establishing an ecological province, take the construction of ecological civilization as the top priority, strictly protect tropical rainforests, realise the unity of ecological protection, green development and improvement of people's livelihood, and show the world the fruitful achievements of China’s national park construction and biodiversity protection.” 他指出，海南要坚持生态立省不动摇，把生态文明建设作为重中之重，对热带雨林实行严格保护，实现生态保护、绿色发展、民生改善相统一，向世界展示中国国家公园建设和生物多样性保护的丰硕成果。
The next three paragraphs are about his visit to the village of Maona. This village is home to the ethnic Li people. The key messages in this chunk are about rural revitalisation, development of characteristic industries, Xi visiting the home of a villager and participating in a tea-making workshop, him telling cadres that they should not harbour any selfish interests, and they should devote themselves to the improvement of people's lives, and him mentioning the goal of common prosperity. Here are two chunks from Xinhua English:
“While speaking with local officials, Xi said a contingent of competent officials, with a strong record of political integrity and excellent conduct, must be trained to assist in rural revitalization. ‘We have attained a moderately prosperous society in all respects and will continue to promote common prosperity for all the people as we are developing a modern socialist country,’ Xi said at the village’s public square, urging solid efforts to consolidate poverty relief achievements and align them with the full advancement of rural revitalization.”
Xi then went to the Yangpu economic development zone in Danzhou on Tuesday. He urged efforts to better serve the construction of the new land-sea transit routes for western China and the Belt and Road Initiative. On Wednesday then, he heard work reports from the provincial Party committee and the provincial government, acknowledged the progress made by Hainan and encouraged it to build the free trade port into a shining Chinese model in the world.
He said that “long-term preparation and endeavours” were needed to develop the Hainan free trade port. “Xi said the integrated institutional innovation must be placed in a more prominent position. He called for ensuring the smooth launch of independent customs operations of the free trade port as scheduled. Efforts should be made to unswervingly safeguard national security, identify and guard against major risks, and coordinate reform, development and stability.” He stressed on the need to “focus on the development of tourism, modern service industry, high-tech industry and high-efficiency agriculture,” and “eliminate institutional barriers in all aspects and open up wider at a higher level.” He added: “It is necessary to promote the integrated and coordinated development of urban and rural areas and reclaimed areas, accelerate the construction of the Nanfan Scientific and Research Breeding Base, and improve the support policies for the natural rubber industry.” He also talked about deepening the fight against pollution.
When it comes to reform and opening up, he added that this must go along with “strengthening the construction of spiritual civilization.” This includes the “education of ideals and beliefs and cultivating and promoting the core socialist values.” “It is necessary to strengthen the construction of integrity, and advocate the social customs of abiding by laws and regulations, honesty and trustworthiness.” 习近平强调，越是深化改革、扩大开放，越要加强精神文明建设。要持之以恒抓好理想信念教育，培育和弘扬社会主义核心价值观，广泛开展群众性精神文明创建活动，不断提升人民文明素养和社会文明程度。要加强诚信建设，倡导遵纪守法、诚实守信的社会风尚.
In the next bit, Xi calls for “efforts to solve the urgent problems and worries of the people, and actively explore ways to achieve common prosperity. The policies of reducing burdens, stabilising jobs and increasing employment should be sustained, Xi noted, stressing the importance of work to improve the mechanism ensuring the supply and stabilising the prices of important commodities for people’s livelihoods.”
In the next paragraph, Xi talks about “consolidating and expanding the achievements of party history study and education,” focussing on the “party’s political construction,” “making good use of red resources” and “advancing the full and rigorous governance over the Party at all fronts and maintaining tough crackdown on corruption, in particular fixing loopholes in land lease, real estate development, investment attraction, and project development.”
The final paragraph has Xi doubling down on the current approach towards pandemic control. He said that “Persistence is victory. It is necessary to adhere to the people first and life first.” He called for adhering to a “scientific, precise and dynamic zero-Covid” approach, adding that it is necessary to overcome paralysing thoughts, war weariness, fluke mentality, and slackness” and “strictly implement normalised prevention and control measures in order to minimise the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development.” 习近平指出，当前全球新冠肺炎疫情仍然十分严重，尤其不能放松防控工作。坚持就是胜利。要坚持人民至上、生命至上，坚持外防输入、内防反弹，坚持科学精准、动态清零，抓细抓实疫情防控各项举措。要克服麻痹思想、厌战情绪、侥幸心理、松劲心态，针对病毒变异的新特点，提高科学精准防控本领，完善各种应急预案，严格落实常态化防控措施，最大限度减少疫情对经济社会发展的影响.
Next, let’s look at the report (detailed Xinhua English report) based on the State Council’s weekly meeting. The first focus of the report is on boosting consumption. Li Keqiang said that “Consumption is a steady driver of economic growth and bears on ensuring and improving people's livelihood. It is vital to take a coordinated approach with both near- and long-term needs in mind, to keep consumption stable for now and unlock potential with holistic measures.” The PD report has five specific points in this regard:
Relief policies for hard-hit sectors such as catering, retail, tourism, civil aviation, and road, waterway and railway transportation will be promptly and fully delivered, and local authorities encouraged to intensify support and assistance for these sectors, to stabilise more market entities in consumer services. The supply and price stability of essential consumer goods will be ensured, and logistics kept smooth. A host of large-scale warehouses with comprehensive functions will be planned in a well-calibrated manner and built on the outskirts of cities to mobilise living necessities in close vicinity in case of emergency.
New types of consumption will be promoted. Integration of online and brick-and-mortar consumption will be accelerated, and ‘smart plus’ consumption such as smart products and services will be cultivated and strengthened.
Consumption of such services as medical and health care, elderly care, and child care will be promoted, and the private sector will be supported in providing such services to shore up the weak links. Spending on home appliances, automobiles, and other big-ticket items will be encouraged. No new restrictive measures on car purchase shall be set at the sub-national level. Localities with purchase restrictions already in place should increase new license plate quota step by step. Consumption of new-energy vehicles and construction of battery charging facilities will be supported.
Consumer spending potential of counties and townships will be further tapped. Commerce distribution businesses and e-commerce platforms will be guided toward bringing their services to rural areas…
Reform will be deepened to remove consumption constraints. Sound and steady development of consumption platforms will be advanced. Financial institutions will be encouraged to develop a greater variety of consumer financial products. Construction of key projects will be expedited, and consumption-related infrastructure development may be funded by local government special-purpose bonds, to leverage the catalytic role of investment in expanding consumption. Irregularities such as counterfeiting, pricing fraud and false advertising will be punished pursuant to law.
The next part of the report focuses on easing the difficulties facing foreign trade firms and promoting stable growth of import and export trade. The report says that:
Export rebates will be better aligned with export credit insurance. Export credit insurance indemnities received by foreign trade enterprises will be regarded as foreign exchange receipts and rebates will be provided accordingly. The coverage of the departure tax refund policy will be expanded, and facilitation measures such as tax refund upon purchase will be promoted.
The process for export rebates will be expedited. Cross-departmental data sharing will be enhanced, paperwork required for export rebates will be simplified, and the entire process from declaration, to review and feedback will be handled online. The average time needed for export rebates will be further cut from seven to no more than six working days this year. Integrated foreign trade service firms will be supported in handling export rebates on behalf of manufacturers.
The business environment for foreign trade will be improved. Customs clearance for returning export goods will be made more efficient. Policies will be devised to support the development of overseas warehouses and facilitate cross-border e-commerce returns and exchanges. Enterprises with better credit record will enjoy greater facilitation in customs clearance and tax refund. Malpractices such as false export and fraudulent tax rebates will be punished to the full extent of law.
The last paragraph of the report says that the meeting decided that in view of the current situation, large banks with high provision levels are encouraged to reduce their provision coverage ratio in an orderly manner, use monetary policy tools such as RRR cuts in a timely manner in order to promote banks' ability to provide credit and further increase financial support for the real economy, especially for industries, small and medium-sized enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households seriously affected by the pandemic, and reasonably transfer profits to the real economy and reduce the comprehensive financing cost for enterprises. 会议决定，针对当前形势变化，鼓励拨备水平较高的大型银行有序降低拨备覆盖率，适时运用降准等货币政策工具，推动银行增强信贷投放能力，进一步加大金融对实体经济特别是受疫情严重影响行业和中小微企业、个体工商户的支持力度，向实体经济合理让利，降低企业综合融资成本。
Third, there’s a report on the page providing Q1 trade data. Here are the highlights:
Total imports and exports expanded 10.7 percent year on year to 9.42 trillion yuan in the first three months. In U.S. dollar terms, total foreign trade came in at 1.48 trillion U.S. dollars in the period, up 13 percent year on year.
Exports surged 13.4 percent year on year to 5.23 trillion yuan, while imports rose 7.5 percent to 4.19 trillion yuan. The trade surplus was 1.04 trillion yuan.
Exports of mechanical and electrical products expanded by 9.8 percent to account for 58.4 percent of the total, while exports of labour-intensive products increased 10.9 percent in the first quarter.
Trade with China’s top five trading partners, ASEAN, the European Union, the United States, South Korea and Japan, increased by 8.4%, 10.2%, 9.9%, 12.3% and 1.8% respectively.
Trade with Belt and Road countries grew by 16.7 percent from a year ago to 2.93 trillion yuan. Among these, exports were 1.64 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.2%; imports were 1.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.4%. Trade with BRI countries accounted for 31% of China’s overall trade.
Trade between China and RCEP countries expanded 6.9 percent year on year to 2.86 trillion yuan, accounting for 30.4 percent of China’s total foreign trade.
The number of enterprises engaging in foreign trade in the country increased to 432,000 in the first quarter of the year.
Two other bits, which are not in PD but are worth noting. First, China’s Q1 trade with India in Q1 was $31.96 billion, that’s the highest on record for a quarter. China’s exports to India were $27.09 billion and its imports were $4.87 billion. That’s a massive deficit already.
Also, China’s trade with Russia stood at $38.2 billion in the first three months, up 28.7 percent on a yearly basis. Global Times reports that the growth rate dropped from 38.5 percent in the first two months in 2022. Trade between Russia and China stood at 243 billion yuan ($38.2 billion) in the first quarter. Chinese customs spokesperson Li Kuiwen also said at a press conference on Wednesday that China-Ukraine trade stood at about 29.59 billion yuan in the first quarter, achieving positive growth…The slowdown in China's trade with Russia was more evident in the export sector than in the import sector. In the first quarter, China's exports to Russia increased 25.9 percent year-on-year, down from 41.5 percent in the first two months. Import growth fell from 35.8 percent in the first two months to 31 percent in the first quarter.
Bloomberg reports that Chinese firms sold $3.8 billion worth of goods to Russia in March, official data showed Wednesday, a 7.7% drop from a year earlier. That was the lowest amount since May 2020, when global trade was badly affected by the outbreak of Covid-19…Imports from Russia rose 26.4% from a year ago, likely pushed higher by rising commodity prices. China mainly buys oil, gas, coal and agricultural commodities from Russia and sells electronic equipment, machinery, and vehicles. Details on the actual goods moved across the border in March will be released later in the month.
Finally, there’s a piece talking about the fight against corruption. This is an introduction to further reports on Page 6, discussing the steps taken to tackle corruption. The article is structured into three parts. The first part focuses on steps taken so that officials and cadres do not dare to be corrupt; the second part covers building an institutional system so that they cannot be corrupt and the final bit is about work done to shape attitudes so that they do not want to be corrupt. The first part has some interesting data. It says:
“The anti-corruption struggle is a major political struggle that the Party cannot afford to lose and must never be lost. Since the 18th Party Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has taken on the mission of ‘offending thousands of people and living up to the expectations of 1.4 billion’, and with the firm will of "scraping the poison off the bones and cutting one’s own wrist’, it has promoted the building of a clean and honest government and the fight against anti-corruption with unprecedented strength, achieving remarkable results. 反腐败斗争是一场输不起也决不能输的重大政治斗争。党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央以“得罪千百人、不负十四亿”的使命担当，以“刮骨疗毒、壮士断腕”的坚定意志，推进党风廉政建设和反腐败斗争，力度之大前所未有、成效之大有目共睹.
The next bit talks about having a zero tolerance attitude towards corruption with there being no forbidden areas for action. Since the 18th Party Congress till October 2021, discipline inspection and supervision organs across the country had filed 4.078 million cases involving 4.379 million people. Among these were 484 centrally-managed cadres. Some 3.998 million have been given disciplinary sanctions. 我们党坚持无禁区、全覆盖、零容忍，坚持重遏制、强高压、长震慑，坚持受贿行贿一起查，坚持有案必查、有腐必惩。党的十八大以来，截至2021年10月，全国纪检监察机关共立案407.8万件、437.9万人，其中立案审查调查中管干部484人，给予党纪政务处分399.8万人.
The Party has focused on corruption cases where political and economic issues have been intertwined. It has prevented the formation of interest groups within the Party, and investigated and punished serious violations of discipline and law such as those in the cases of Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Sun Zhengcai, and Ling Jihua. The Party has adhered to targeting both tigers and flies. It has not only resolutely investigated and dealt with cases of leading cadres’ violation of laws and regulations, but also sought to address practical issues related to unhealthy practices and corruption that impact the masses. The examples mentioned here are corruption and work style issues related to poverty alleviation, rectification of corruption and work style issues in matters related to people's livelihood, and targeting criminal gangs and protective umbrella cases. 党聚焦政治问题和经济问题交织的腐败案件，防止党内形成利益集团，查处周永康、薄熙来、孙政才、令计划等严重违纪违法案件。党坚持“老虎”“苍蝇”一起打，既坚决查处领导干部违纪违法案件，又切实解决发生在群众身边的不正之风和腐败问题。比如，开展扶贫领域腐败和作风问题专项治理，深化整治民生领域腐败和作风问题，推进惩治涉黑涉恶腐败和“保护伞”常态化，努力让人民群众的获得感成色更足、幸福感更可持续、安全感更有保障。
The next bit talks about foxes. The Skynet 2021 operation recovered 1,273 people who had fled, including 22 people against whom a Red Notice had been issued. Around 16.74 billion yuan of stolen funds were recovered.
The next section talks about work done to build a systems cage to restrict and supervise the use of power. This refers to guidelines related to political life in the Party, inner-party supervision, promulgation of a code of integrity and self-discipline, the implementation of the supervision law and the law on administrative punishment. The last section talks about the history education campaign, propaganda, and guidelines to shape a culture of integrity, etc.
Page 2: A couple of interesting stories to note. First, a report about Li Keqiang congratulating Shahbaz Sharif on his election as Pakistan's prime minister. Xinhua says:
“In a congratulatory message, Li said China and Pakistan are unique all-weather strategic cooperative partners, adding that bilateral relations and friendship have experienced great changes, and have always been rock-solid and unbreakable. In the face of profound and complex changes in international and regional situation and amid the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, China and Pakistan have helped each other to overcome difficulties, and the ironclad China-Pakistan friendship continues to grow, he noted. Li said he looks forward to working together with Shahbaz to carry forward the two countries' traditional friendship, consolidate mutual political trust and promote the high-quality construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
Second, a report on the second BRICS sherpas’ meeting, which discussed the war in Ukraine. Xinhua reports that:
“BRICS countries reiterated their respective national positions on the Ukraine issue, pledging to support multilateralism, abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries. The meeting was chaired by Ma Zhaoxu, sherpa for BRICS affairs and vice foreign minister of China. BRICS countries, consisting of China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa, expressed their concern over the humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine, as well as support for all humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including the contributions of the ICRC and UN agencies. Noting their particular concern about the serious impact of unilateral sanctions on the recovery of the world economy, the stability of industrial and supply chains, energy and food security, as well as the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the sherpas called for attention to and effective addressing of the concerns of the vast number of developing countries to ensure that the economy and people's livelihood of all countries are not affected.”
Third, another report (English report) based on that BRICS meeting. There’s also a review piece on the global development initiative. Actually, this is more about China’s development diplomacy over time rather than specifically about what the initiative means. The piece says that the world’s development finance needs are immense. The international community needs an annual investment of 5 trillion to 7 trillion US dollars if it needs to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development goals. “According to a study by the International Monetary Fund, the financial gap of developing countries in health, education, roads, electricity and other aspects is about 2.6 trillion US dollars per year.” The piece also says that data show that global investment in developing countries has been dropping.
“According to the World Investment Report 2021 published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, global foreign direct investment dropped by more than one-third in 2020 to US$1 trillion, with investment from developing countries being particularly affected. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed out that “80% of recovery funding is spent in developed countries, and low-income countries are experiencing the slowest growth this generation has seen.” 联合国贸易和发展会议发表的《2021年世界投资报告》显示，2020年全球对外直接投资额下降超过1/3，降至1万亿美元，其中发展中国家投资受到的影响尤其严重。联合国秘书长古特雷斯指出：“80%的复苏资金都花在发达国家，低收入国家正在经历这一代人所目睹的最慢增长.”
The piece later says that “as the second largest economy in the world, China has become the main source of financing and investment for global sustainable development, benefiting the vast number of developing countries.” 作为世界第二大经济体，中国已成为全球可持续发展的主要融资和投资来源，让广大发展中国家受益.
“In 2015, President Xi Jinping announced the establishment of the China-United Nations Peace and Development Fund...So far, China has provided a total of $120 million to the fund, and initiated 112 cooperation projects, covering the fields of peace and security and development, benefiting more than 100 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania. China has also announced a series of measures to promote international development cooperation, including providing another $3 billion in international aid in the next three years to support developing countries in fighting the pandemic and restoring economic and social development, setting up the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund and the China-FAO South-South Cooperation Trust Fund, exempting interest-free inter-government loans of developing countries, and striving to increase investment in the LDCs to $12 billion by 2030. Building a BRI is highly consistent with the goals, principles and implementation paths of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which will inject momentum into the sustainable growth of all parties. According to the data, in 2021, China's non-financial direct investment in BRI countries reached $20.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.1%. 2015年，习近平主席出席联合国成立70周年系列峰会期间，宣布设立中国—联合国和平与发展基金。迄今，中国共向基金提供资金1.2亿美元，启动开展112个合作项目，涉及和平与安全和发展领域，惠及亚洲、非洲、拉丁美洲和大洋洲100多个国家和地区。中国还宣布一系列推动国际发展合作举措，包括未来3年内再提供30亿美元国际援助，用于支持发展中国家抗疫和恢复经济社会发展，设立南南合作援助基金、中国—联合国粮农组织南南合作信托基金，免除有关发展中国家政府间无息贷款债务，力争到2030年将对最不发达国家投资增至120亿美元。共建“一带一路”同联合国2030年可持续发展议程在目标、原则、实施路径上高度契合，为各方实现可持续增长注入动力。数据显示，2021年，中国对“一带一路”沿线国家非金融类直接投资203亿美元，同比增长14.1%。
In the final section, the piece talks about the AIIB and the BRICS New Development Bank and their project investments as part of China’s engagement in providing global development finance.
Page 9: The theory page is dedicated to the fourth of the 10 clears. The fourth clear is:
“The overall objectives of comprehensively deepening reform are to develop and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and to modernize China’s system and capacity for governance.”
The lead piece is by the NDRC’s Party group’s theory learning centre; there’s a lot in the piece to unpack. Unfortunately, I’m running short on time to do so. But let me point out that it does refer to the “two establishments” and the 4-4-2 formulation.
Other Stories:
On the international page, there’s a new Zhong Sheng commentary. This one is critical of the new 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued by the US State Department. The commentary attacks the US for being hypocritical and politicising and weaponizing the issue of human rights in order to further its hegemonic interests. And in doing so, the commentary argues, the US is undermining the cause of human rights development around the world.
The piece talks about the January 6 Capitol Hill riots and surveys that show declining confidence in American democracy. It lashes out at US politicians for “hyping up lies such as the so-called ‘genocide’ and ‘forced labour’ in Xinjiang” while discussing the “genocide” against Native Americans, slavery, and the use of “black prisons” as part of the war on terror. It also talks about economic inequality in the US, gun crimes, and the poor handling of the pandemic, arguing that “rather than pointing fingers at the human rights situation in other countries, the United States should find ways to improve the deteriorating human rights situation in its own country.”
It adds: “In recent years, in the face of China's increasing comprehensive national strength, some American politicians have suffered from anxiety about China. They embrace a Cold War mentality and engage in zero-sum games. The so-called issues of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ have increasingly become tools for US politicians to smear China and whitewash their hegemonic behaviour.” 近年来，面对中国综合国力日益提升，美国一些政客患上了对华焦虑症。他们抱持冷战思维，大搞零和博弈，所谓 “民主”“人权”等越来越成为美国政客抹黑中国的工具、粉饰霸权行径的幌子
Two other stories on the international page are UK’s challenges with management of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that policies are putting vulnerable groups at risk. And, the other story to note is about falling life expectancy in the US.