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