Beethoven is for. Beethoven is for. Beethoven 2020. 50th anniversary here on. China has declared victory over the corona virus following 9 whirlwind months for 1st responders scientists and Party Officials after denying the severity of the virus and than initially under reporting numbers beijing now says that it can keep the pandemic at bay. For normal chinese life and community are slowly edging back to normal. But chinas success is impossible for most nations to mimic so overwhelming is the communist partys grip on its population. And while the heroic narrative may resonate domestically abroad theres skepticism and discomfort over the blurring line between propaganda and leadership on the global stage. Chinas handling of the coronavirus separating substance from show. Low and welcome to georgia 19 special im Stephen Beardsley in berlin its good to have you with us a china has seen both failures and successes and its response to a pandemic began within its own borders beijings official narrative neglects those early missteps its a story line thats being firmly embraced at home. Tiananmen square in the heart of the Chinese Capital beijing the National Museum looms large. Dingly has come here with their grandchild my. The art is classic socialist real ism that honors front line workers during the pandemic my is a little shy as she poses for pictures with the heroes in the fight against the coronavirus. The theme of the exhibition unity is strength. What the exhibition brought tears to my eyes. I love my country and the Party Leadership. Without the communist Party Leadership this enormous challenge will not be overcome to keep that in the genes you that. The artwork leaves little room for interpretation the message is clear under communist leadership china has managed to contain the virus. Front and center and yet somehow relegated to the sidelines the nameless helpers who work themselves to exhaustion to repel the pandemic. For us even staying at home was a patriotic duty we didnt know what the people on the front line had to sacrifice. Im proud that china has the pandemic under control. Chinas leadership has cast itself as the savior of the nation and as a friend in need abroad. Which. In the global struggle against the virus we have acted with wisdom and strength. We have filled our International Duties responsibly and with transparency. In beijings great hall of the people there is no room for doubt and this is no time for admitting mistakes. The countrys foremost coronavirus expert is honored by being himself. Jong features prominently in the exhibition 2 others are simply ignored. Sounded the alarm over the coronavirus while the authorities were still denying its existence the doctor from mohan was forced to recant and forbidden to speak up again the contract of the disease and died for weeks the pandemic spread throughout the country unchecked because of the coverup. Despite being locked out of your visual history lisas story is not forgot. You have got a book which you can actually vision can show everything i think whistleblowers are pioneers and we should respect and admire them for those Unsung Heroes we should build a monument in our hearts. If you. Are built by the communist party they express no criticism as the regime tolerate noticed and. And im joined now by news group hes a Senior Analyst with the macarthur institute for china studies in berlin yes its good to have you on the show were told that life is returning to normal in china and that the numbers are vastly improved can we distinguish from afar if thats really the case i think its fair to say that the lower numbers into single or low double digits that china is reporting are ballpark and i mean there is no reason to believe that while china reports. New cases or so every day there are millions off cases somewhere hidden i think with the measures that china has developed over the last months to deal with local outbreaks and new cases coming in it is realistic that these numbers are true truthful and you know the the pictures we see and there are also the person reports are we get off normal life returning to chinese cities is real. Has this pandemic been more of an opportunity or a challenge for the party. I think it started as a huge challenge in many regards governance challenge in terms of information sharing between local government and Central Government a huge. Damage that the government has has taken there and public trust but the way that this has been dealt with and the effective measures going from being to your written off this virus through to really one of the best in class players in terms of the new cases now. Called the confidence of the population and we see this in surveys that are coming out now for china but also are very fired by foreign actors that there is more trust in the government capacity to deal with this before so it started certainly as a challenge but in terms off approval the i think it is now certainly a positive for the other party state or as for the mess the confidence has been bolstered what about from outside looking into china has the chinese image been improved or has a worsened through its response to the coronavirus. I think overall chinas image is in a downward movement right now im not sure this is only due to the corona virus itself but certainly the whole crisis has triggered why its deepened a lot of the rifts that were apparent also before in terms of trade in terms of you know the whole technology 5 g. Question the american chinese relation everything is and i will spiral and these dynamics have been catalyzed by the corona crisis so china has tried to to market its very effective approach to the to curbing the virus as you know as a system really relevant capacity so the chinese model is better suited to deal with these crises and that is meeting opposition abroad and i think this is something that china will increasingly have to deal with that theres a lot more skepticism towards china and these attempts to market individual successes system. Into a different work of a system systemic competition chinas a better suit because it has a party and this will increase indeed be contested also by the European Union by other foreign actors so there is a challenge here that. Is very pressing. At the same time trying to remains a Global Player has a lot of sway when it comes to large scale projects Global Projects how hard does that skepticism on behalf of western governments make it for them to work with china its inevitable they have to work with them out of magic. Yeah so the reality of it is that china is now a very important partner we can for example the climate issue we cannot address without china and at the same time theres a lot more competition going on a lot more challenges in terms of technology our peer our trade and so on and this is really. Its quite crucial to trying to deal for every one of us to deal with this and the government to the party really has to think well how do they want to frame themselves as a local player where is it is it wise to you know to to. Global standards work and theyre ready to push their own standards and interests and priorities this is a very important a very big challenge for the Chinese Government to go forward and this is a new role that china seeing itself in this skepticism that china has met with is growing and this is this is really a new International Situation for china all right its growing big with the macarthur institute for chinese studies in berlin thank you very much thank you. And now its time for your questions to our science correspondent williams for. What fact are all the masks and social distancing having on the number of influenza cases and places that have had their flu season during the 19. 1 of the scenarios causing Health Authorities to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat as as we approach the traditional beginning of the annual flu season in the Northern Hemisphere is the fear of a twin demick after all influenza is also a potentially deadly respiratory disease and the idea of a thousands of patients or tens of thousands of patients descending on hospitals with with flu or cope at 19 or even possibly both at the same time is one you dont even want to contemplate so so theyve been casting an anxious on whats been happening in countries in the Southern Hemisphere which have been through their own flu season over the last 6 months the good news is that measures aimed at containing the spread of covert 19 appear to have also had a major impact on the number of winter flu cases in the Southern Hemisphere quite literally dropped off the table in countries from from new zealand to chill day to south africa the w h os influenza tracking that has reported for example that that in australia there have been less than 50 confirmed cases of flu since april for comparison back in 2019 there were close 210000 during the same period so so the flu is practically disappeared there and epidemiologists are hoping that that travel restrictions and social distancing and mask wearing will have the same effects north of the equator in the coming months but but we cant count on it which is why. Health authorities in the Northern Hemisphere are doing everything they can to get as many people as possible vaccinated against the flu before winter really and truly. Our own Derek Williams there with the answers to your questions and finally the pandemic has driven many diners away from their favorite restaurants out of fear of infection well heres one possible solution automated servers this footage is from a restaurant the south korean capital seoul customers place their orders at a selfservice kiosks than pay and wait for a robot to bring their food not a single human interaction. I guess thats progress thats it from this cove in 1000 special im saving beers in berlin to check us all out a line d w dot com thanks as always for watching. To the conflict zone with sarah kelly for years for lynn Foreign Policy line has been dialogue 1st keep talking no matter what but as russian Opposition Leader alexina volney recovers in a Parliament Hospital after an apparent Poisoning Program is under increased pressure my guest this week is germanys Deputy Foreign minister and meals on. Conflicts are. On the hook for. Thousands of homeless refugees left to themselves without a home. After the fire in morning banner is growing for everyone on the island and thats. What is really doing in the interim camp only an extension of the 15 inches of rain conditions. Focused on europe. In 60 minutes on d w. We know that this is a scary time for us the coronavirus is changing the world changing. So please take care of yourself good distance hands if you can date and how we do the human race here for you we are working tirelessly to keep you informed on all of our platform just were all in this together run together and well make it through to. Stay safe everybody stays in stay safe stay safe please stay safe. Im very very disappointed i thought that were you dont exactly have them shaking in their boots you believe trying to get that doesnt sound like you do. The dialogue with russia but you need to be very clear and thats for real for years berlins Foreign Policy line has been dialogue 1st keep talking no matter what but as russian Opposition Leader alexina vuln recovers and a german hospital after an apparent poisoning in siberia berlin is under increasing pressure to respond with unprecedented strength by canceling or pausing the nearly completed north stream to gas pipeline with russia my guest this week is germanys Deputy Foreign minister knelt on it is it time for a tougher stance against authoritarians in russia and beyond even if there is a financial cost. German minister of state meals on and welcome to conflicts happy to have you. Tests confirm that alexina volley was poisoned with the military grade chemical weapon no it took the german chancellor she has demanded answers from russia she says the following they are very difficult questions that only the russian government can answer and must answer the russian response has been defiant will there be needing full sanctions. Well i still hope that we can prevent this but this is entirely the russian governments decision and i have to say i want to be very clear very very disappointed about that reaction because instead of making clear what happened and to cooperate in an investigation we are seeing the old scheme you know of misleading information of counter accusations so if that is the spirit of the russian government then im afraid we are going to see this so we are still in a negotiation or you say its in the russian governments hands and in fact youve called for an investigation in russia but the foreign minister says there are several indications russia was behind the attack youre asking russia to investigate what do you expect well look there is the procedure here and you mentioned that indeed it looks like we are certain that it has been poisoned from some of a truck group and actually right now its not only german investigation and we gave the probe also to our laboratories and sweden and france and we also gave it to the o. P. C. W. So it is quite obvious that this is a breach of International Law so i think we are talking not only about the tragedy involving mr in the valleys this is has an International Dimension so russia is in a position and has the ability to clarify what happened but but we also in in our intention to defend the International Procedures i think we need to have that process here and the process is not over but in that process mr annan theyre not taking it seriously are they i mean just lets just look at southern iran directly coming from the foreign minister which think we have an International Reaction so this is not reduced to drum any theres a clear statement from the European Union the world to. Notice so i dont think they dont take a serious i just things that they are falling back into what we know is the typical russian here are their words foreign minister lavrov accused western officials of quote putting themselves above the law with and since to unsubstantiated accusations against moscow over the poisoning of nirvana we also have a statement from the Foreign Ministry saying berlin is bluffing serving a dirty political agenda you dont exactly have them shaking in their boots look at that but this is just confirming what they tried to tell you that we have very disappointed to see you know the auld way of reacting to accusations instead of really engaging and i am sure it is the russian credibility is that they will be be infringed by this so we are united in the European Union and we feel very encouraged by the International Reaction and we are not only talking about this case and not the only case of poisoning off an Opposition Leader we are talking about a serious step to undermining what have been a more or less Successful International convention on the chemical weapons so i have saying we are not at the end here and exactly think i should might be violating and answer russian needs to know that clear sanctions are on the table lets talk about you you mentioned an old way of doing things from from the russians and talk about the way that you have been doing things i asked you about meaningful sanctions because we know that sanctions are already in place of course since 2014 since the russian invasion of crimea but since then we have seen further aggression from russia weve seen the hacking attacks on the German Parliament 2015 weve seen the assassination of a Chechen Rebel in broad daylight in central berlin last year following that murder your Foreign Ministry you reportedly submitted 17 requests for assistance in solving that murder and received not a single response. Is just sanctions really going to pressure russia in the way that you need to what look im very happy indeed that you mention those incidents i am sitting here as a minister of state but i am also a member of the German Parliament so what happened there was the hacking attack as a serious serious violation of our weight deal among countries that should have a friendly relationship and many other incidents also see the targeted use you know of measures of fake news to troll factories that we are seeing settlers are part of the reality but its also part of the reality that we dont have we dont have a Remote Control to influence russian policies decisions are taking in moscow not in berlin but what is important here and the sink we are making progress that the European Union speaks with one wise that the russian side knows it as their surprise to pay but said we also need to be realistic we need russia to solve a great many of issues concerning our own neighborhood our stability so i think our approach to do both to be very clear but also engage washer i cannot really see an opportunity to that lets talk about the voice that youre speaking with because you have the nearly completed north stream to pipeline which is set to bring more russian gas to germany. And id like to ask you do you think that putin really takes your threat of meaningful sanctions meaningful consequences seriously when you have such a profitable economic project right on his doorstep so i look at that only shows how complex our relationship is i want to be also a little property of my answer here because im not so sure of stopping that project last winter but which by the way its not an initiative of the German Government it is by the its an order by the German Government it is by definition of its own wanted by the terrace government now lets put that aside but you know what we do something that really works. Make russia pay a price or would we also somehow do some things that goes against our own long term interests so thats what im not so convinced i understand this is that it has always been a controversial issue but its maybe too easy just to reduce our Political Tool box on the question of whether or not we should continue nosferatu i am with all respect not convinced that this is the only one so that we should get so you turn to your partners now your partners including in the the e. U. Including also the United States and youve asked them you want to put forward a joint response but theyve always had problems with this project havent they many among them have had problems with this project partners have expressed security concerns that north stream too would allow putin to cut off gas supply to former soviet bloc countries without affecting flows to the west cut off ukraine potentially where 40 percent of the natural gas imported by the e. U. From russia flows through north stream one to neglect your own partners concerns look there are 2 things i want to tell you for one thing that maybe surprised you and our viewers so the European Union is much more united on this and you maybe think we had a number out there all this Prime Minister yeah well we say this reaction should leave 1st of the stoppage of work of nordstroms who was strengthens russian power not 6 n. E. P. Is that absent 1018 but you can insert so you need to let me choose the european way or not the germany way for that you need to lead and you dont feel like you know that you need to let me complete that sentence because we had 24 european Member States supporting a political democracy and washington raising concerns about the american reaction which is threatening with extra territorial sanction our sovereign decision. About our Energy Supply just for a 2nd saying about the European Union would put in place a law section in American Companies does that in effect me pick one example for example z z a stunner shing fact that nobody speaks about the americans right now by oil from russia almost and the war you mean that we are buying gas from russia so you know we need to look at the facts against the 2nd part of this. German government at the top the chancellor and the 4 minister have been engaged and are engaged to safeguard ukraine score interest as he said the deal that we signed with the European Union broke up but the fact that was brokered by our government between ukraine on the one hand and the Russian Federation on the other hand make sure that key concerns of our partners within the European Union and in kiev have been implemented so as i said its too simple just to say by closing or stream 2 will solve the problem. If if if anyone really believes that youre going to take a hard line on russia the ultimate when push comes to shove even when it does come to ukraine because for example you and the foreign minister michael moss are both s. P. D. Politicians and probably s. P. D. In the affidavit there are many who are strongly opposed to halting the construction of this pipeline for s. S. I. They have we have their eye on the star of the donor and there are a lot more that looks at all says that all of them or 31 pipeline from russia to germany should not be used to punish moscow over the poisoning of a kremlin critic Alexy Novelli the sadar to cite on has called the s. P. D. The north stream party they have a point dont they know they say that they say that youre motivated by a traditional empathy with russian that they dont have a point id like to remind you you know were used as social democrats that were pro sobering here in our positions you know were somehow getting used to this kind of accusation but that doesnt make them correct you know Energy Policy of course is highly political we need to make sure that theres a clear mix between the renewable we need reaching technology gustus much more efficient and less harm to the environment we have to address an elephant in the room because we were talking about the s. P. D. Were talking about your party. And its relationship with russia the elephant in the room of course when we talk about north stream is a former chancellor former s. P. D. Head chairman of the project the wall street journal. Putins most important all of our work the the what do you dont know how football with that do you feel comfortable that that putins most important goal covered wall street journal has traditionally been maybe not the most sympathetic to the social democrats but that tell you something i have been maybe the most vocal critic of gatorade us policy and you know he is somebody who needs to accept the public criticism for privatization he takes but he is a private to the citizen he is not sitting in an alley body of c. S. Pretty so the esprit de cannot be blamed for what your tribe is it really realistic though that hes a private citizen haphazardly it is ok so hes a private citizen and so we were talking about meaningful sanctions part of the meaningful sanctions was that they would be targeted sanctions against individuals correct you know spirit so therefore its just a private person working for putin should he be among the individuals who might be targeted in ascensions regime gets what as a result was out of the poison in. A sea of were trying to get me but im not going to defend the private decision by a former translator who in other parts i think. Has been very successful and important for germany he always knew that if you were not exerting to maximum or trash or on russia maximum russia but but this is what he is doing was not is he is feeling a seed. For European Companies so you know that theres always that and that theres that narrative that this is only a german project there are actually companies from other European Partners also and loft so i figure. Leasing were no spending and its your questions im trying to answer thats ok with me but were spending more time talking about not scream 2 right now then were spending time on talking about our difficult relationship with russia and i also want to again the remotest arc of the relationship with russia of course and i said you that you are increasingly and konami ties with russia it is a complex relationship you know our american friends sent have an ocean between them and russia we dont we have to join and shared history russia is not going to go away and that decision about russia saudi may be influenced by us but the russian position so we are talking about peace in libya you need to talk with russia were talking about peace and syria like it or not you need to talk with russia and there are many other suspects so we are trying so dialogue that we dialogue no matter why we have dialogue or not very much to the causes no matter what russia doesnt know we this is very important to me because thats really what i believe is that we are in a world where apparently many of the step louche rules are not binding countries like russia and unfortunately even sometimes countries that we are more close to so germany is in the central position geographically in europe its the most important economy we are not you know projecting military problem so we are we need to rely on the willingness and ability to apply by those schools and thats what we are trying so you cannot cut off the dialogue with russia but you need to be very clear in that and thats what we are lets talk about another country where you have a lot of dialogue we have to mention was going to china now also in the news for its continued infringement of human rights and rule of law similar to russia in a speech before the parliament on september 10th you said the following human rights are central element of our china policy. Hows that working out for the prodemocracy protesters and on what we are and i hope that im not going you know its not im not intending to to criticize any of our European Partners but do you really think sometimes. We need as a government explain more what were doing is saying that germany is maybe the only relevant country right now that is addressing human rights issues with china on every high level meetings that we are having sometimes we do that publicly sometimes though we dont do that publicly because were talking about individual cases we havent established human rights dialogue and and quite frankly we tried to celebrate the e. U. Were trying out some of the in order to generate more european unity also on human rights but i would let us know about the message that you are sending that you might have a dialogue but the message the real message that youre sending how can china really believe that you are serious on human rights when in every state visit you show up with a huge business delegation and id just like to go to the last one with the german chancellor Angela Merkel that was in september of 21000 where amid the crackdown on the prodemocracy protesters in hong kong she sat along the tiniest premier and in her visit it was crowned by overseeing the signing of 13 business deals between german and chinese executives in the great hall of the people in Tiananmen Square is a trade off for human rights because thats what it looks like i dont think that it looks like that i dont see that this is a contradiction i mean if if if the policy would be to completely exclude china from Political Landscape and from our political thinking. Well i think we are not going to so far on interests and i am very concerned that this is going to happen if we look listening to some of the very inflammatory rhetoric right now we need to award falling back into the logic of the new cold war but you ask about the effectiveness of our policies and i can tell you that there are many cases and some are prominent cases like that would go off the Nobel Prize Winner who came in to freedom and could leave the country because of very very high level interventions from germany and there thats not always the case it there and id like to id like to bring in i just want to say how is that there is. And i mean we cannot ignore that there is a temptation for many leaders around the world not to do that what we are doing a from a government because they believe that if they dont address human rights issues that may be because owing to philosophical not sleeping and thats not what were doing and im very proud of philosophically speaking when we look at your overall diplomatic strategy we have for example your economy minister saying just back in july in a conversation with politico he said i still believe in transformation through trade transformation through trade when it comes to china your own German Industry Association has come out and said they published a paper last year calling for a tougher approach to china their message was the west strategy for opening china has failed you know this is a wake up call that they have said its going to be the case of china isnt it isnt both outdated and naive to think youre going to have transformation 301 is not happening to make one comment because you were all really asking me system on the question of me and my boss cycle miles being members of the social democratic party. So so now youre trying to put me into responsibility for something well youre part of the government does that equate youre part of the government with your christian democratic partners and i can tell you that. I think we had maybe a decade where we were social democrats in question the question of liberal to greens or whatever may be too optimistic about the impact of our Economic Engagement on democracy and human rights i think this is very obvious china change the guiding policy of soft drink shopping so to bide your time never takes the lead that is over with risp presidency and thats why we are in the middle and thats why i welcome your questions we are in the midst of a debate how to readjust our policy and i think we need to defend or ok with stronger but we shouldnt cut off or away ties with china you need allies to deal with china absolutely russia you absolutely do lets look at the state of your alliances right now the u. S. Is pulling 12000 troops and germany is reportedly because you didnt meet your defense spending also the nato 2 percent goal of g. D. P. For dispense spending what does that say about the state of your diplomacy that this announcement reportedly 1st of all surprise shouldnt you have seen it coming from the us up what he said they would well there would be consequences well look i mean. We dont believe that reducing troops and draw money as an instrument to harm drug money ought to castigate trouble me. Those troops the few look carefully about what they are doing they are serving the interests of the United States armed forces and they are part of the deterrence where not only drama is benefiting but europe us the whole so we have some problems to understand the logic behind that decision but it is there now whats the problem to understand youre not spending 2 percent of g. D. P. Youre not on track to spending 2 percent of g. D. P. This is a commitment that you made to your allies at the nato summit in wales and 2014 a commitment that look if you dont appear to be intent on fulfilling that well after the numbers of the appropriations that we made in terms of defense spending there are no secret there were no one in washington so if they look at what were doing its clear that we are on that we are on track to quote you that we are massively increasing our defense spending but by the way not because somebody in the United States is demanding that from us. But because we see that the world is changing that we talked about it russias getting more sort of you have conflicts in their own neighborhood so thats the reason why were doing this and so i think we cannot neglect that we have political differences that its a very you know i want some foreign minister here for you this is the unique style of the american president but to basis of our relationship is stronger than but ultimately here between us that mr alternately when we look at the big picture when we look at the broad picture when we look at the actions not just the talk but the actions that your government and your country is taking youre adhering to deals and russia the north stream to project which is probably what you want us to restart the question again why do we need to be discussed and also you have you have a very robust trade relationship with china that is increasing countries where there are open human rights offenders. But youre not fulfilling your commitments to allies like nato for example when it comes to increase in defense spending is this really the way forward look for german diplomacy or is this really what takes you into the next decades and beyond look. We are only told so were doing this its because of all on interest its german fighter plane its right now is that defining as a box guys its german soldiers who are part of the very high already in their stride task force its a German Initiative that we took up and we are going to build it and you nato headquarters so nobody needs to to teach us about how important nato is and i tell you something sometimes our friends and allies i dont want to name countries here but sometimes france and allies say simply is humans its a german would react in the way we do how how are we doing in this russian world were not going to be provoked weve not cutting our dialogue and the networks that we have been building this is important for europe so im im happy to take some blame there sometimes disappointment people sometimes have that strange ideas that its weakness not to respond in kind but we are its a force that is keeping all of this together chairman minister of state nelson and thank you for joining us on conflicts and thank you so much. The. Thousands of homeless refugees left to them solids without a home. After the fire in moria the banner is growing for everyone on the island of muslim. What is the e. U. Doing is the new interim camp only an extension of the 13 inch main condition. Focused on europe. In 30 minutes on d w. Russia a world power president putin is using patriotism to unite his country many questions believe only he can bring back fame and glory to their country. Churches and conservatives are gaining tremendous influence. And critics and opposition activists are in danger. Guten sprite. In 75 minutes on d w. Sometimes. What connects people is stronger than what separates. The is so strong that it can not be torn down. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of his freedom for casey. October 3rd on t. W. The break is over and the new zealand is kicking off in the most. Summer break undisputed history. Is history and like going. To. The public will probably anything but normal. Display. Started to temper the team on g. W. Email a mensa patient compatible with the. Most muslim women choose between their faith and self determination. As to why in the revolution the militant feminists looking to look i dont want anyone to tell me what direction where his stuff will know. How women are striving to reform their islam. Traditional prejudices. September 24th on t w. As a state of the news and these are our top stories 29 Police Officers in the german state of north rhinewestphalia have been suspended over allegations that they shared a far right content and chat groups. 11 are now under criminal investigation images of hitler and nazi insignias and doctored photos showing refugees in gas chambers where allegedly exchanged online. European Commission President was enough on the line has laid out in
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