Selasa, 24 Desember 2019

Prince Philip released from hospital on Christmas Eve - ABC News

The prince was being treated at King Edward VII Hospital in London.

Prince Philip, the 98-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, is heading home from a London hospital just in time for Christmas, according to Buckingham Palace.

"The Duke of Edinburgh has today left hospital after being discharged by his Doctor and is now back at Sandringham," the palace said in a statement Tuesday. "His Royal Highness would like to thank everyone who sent their good wishes."

The royal family is spending Christmas at Sandringham, Queen Elizabeth's estate in Norfolk, England.

Queen Elizabeth, 93, traveled to Sandringham from London on Dec. 20, the same day Prince Philip was taken from Sandringham to King Edward VII Hospital in London.

The Duke of Edinburgh was taken to the hospital for "observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition," the palace said in a statement at the time.

"The admission is a precautionary measure, on the advice of His Royal Highness' Doctor," the statement read.

Prince Philip, who wed then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947, retired from official royal duties in 2017.

He had at that time completed 22,220 solo engagements since 1952, given 5,496 speeches in his travels to more than 76 countries, authored 14 books, served as patron to 785 organizations and made 637 solo overseas visits, according to Buckingham Palace.

One year after his retirement, in 2018, Philip underwent hip replacement surgery at the age of 96.

The Duke of Edinburgh was involved in a car accident at the start of this year. In January, Philip was driving a Land Rover that was involved in a collision with a Kia near Sandringham Estate.

Philip was uninjured in the accident, Buckingham Palace said at the time.

The prince is featured in a selection of photos positioned next to Queen Elizabeth for her annual Christmas Day message.

The prerecorded message, which airs on BBC One on Wednesday, was filmed in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle.

Members of the royal family will gather at Sandringham to watch the queen's Christmas message together.

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2019-12-24 12:56:15Z
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North Korea never halted efforts to build powerful new weapons, experts say - The Washington Post

Just before North Korea launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile in 2017, scientists strapped their newest rocket engine to a test stand to see how it would perform. The liquid-fueled engine burned successfully for 200 seconds and generated enough thrust to propel a warhead halfway around the world.

Two years later, on Dec. 13, a new missile engine was lit up on the same test stand while scientists watched. This time the burn lasted 400 seconds — about seven minutes, according to an official statement.

For analysts who closely track such tests, the results were both startling and mystifying. Had North Korea built a powerful booster rocket for an ICBM? Or something entirely new? No one knew, but experts fear that the world could soon find out.

“Seven minutes,” said one U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in discussing North Korea’s capabilities, “is a long time.”

The experiment at North Korea’s Sohae test stand — one of two at the complex in the past month — has fueled speculation about the nature of the “Christmas gift” that leader Kim Jong Un promised if nuclear talks with the Trump administration remained stalled. Satellite cameras in recent weeks have spotted preparatory work at several locations where North Korea assembled or tested new missiles in the past.

But the recent surge in activity also appears to confirm something that U.S. intelligence agencies have long suspected: Despite a self-imposed moratorium on testing its most advanced missiles over the past two years, North Korea has never halted its efforts to build powerful new weapons. Indeed, Kim’s scientists appear to have used the lull to quietly improve and expand the country’s arsenal, U.S. and East Asian officials say.

U.S. analysts say the two tests at Sohae appear to reflect months of continued work on North Korea’s arsenal of potent liquid-fueled missiles, which already includes two ICBMs, the Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15, capable of striking the United States. But the country’s scientists have demonstrated progress on other kinds of missiles as well. In the months since the failed U.S.-North Korean summit in Vietnam, Pyongyang has tested five new short- and medium-range missiles, all of which use solid propellants. Solid-fueled missiles are more mobile and easier to hide compared with similar rockets that use liquid fuel.

One of the newly unveiled additions to North Korea’s arsenal, the KN-23, is a highly maneuverable short-range missile that flies at low altitudes and is difficult to intercept. Another, the medium-range Pukguksong-3, can be launched from submarines.

“No one thinks they developed all these systems in a few months,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California. Satellite photos and multiple tests — many of them publicly announced and photographed — have shown repeatedly that “North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities kept operating during the moratoria,” he said.

“They have built up capabilities over time,” Lewis said, “and they choose to reveal them when it’s politically desirable.”

A demonstration of any of these technologies would be intended in part to express frustration over the stalled nuclear talks and to prod the Trump administration into new concessions at the negotiating table. But implicit in any new missile launch would be a larger message directed at Americans themselves, experts said.

“It would be a way of highlighting our vulnerability — to show they have the range to reach us,” said Robert Litwak, director of international security studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The same message, delivered in the form of back-to-back ICBM tests, helped lead the United States and North Korea to the brink of crisis in 2017. Litwak said he worries that a new round of missile tests — or a Christmas surprise — could be the start of a new escalatory cycle, with an uncertain outcome.

“We do not respond well to vulnerability,” he said.

A string of hints

Assuming he follows through on his threat, Kim’s choice of a Christmas “gift” ultimately will be a political calculation. East Asian diplomats and some Western analysts believe he will opt for something less dramatic than an ICBM launch or nuclear weapons test, to avoid completely sabotaging U.S.-North Korea negotiations and possibly damaging ties with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

In any case, Kim appears to have numerous options, and in recent months he has left a string of tantalizing hints.

Since the fall, amid faltering talks with the Trump administration, U.S. satellites have monitored ongoing work at two navy shipyards where North Korea keeps special barges used to test submarine-launched ballistic missiles, or SLBMs. Beginning in early December, there has been a spike in activity around a test barge at the Nampo shipyard near Pyongyang, suggesting that North Korea might be preparing to test a missile that can be launched at sea.

The last publicly announced test of an SLBM occurred just three months ago, when North Korea unveiled the Pukguksong-3. Launched from a submerged barge, it flew in a high arc, traveling 600 miles above the Earth before splashing into the sea. If it had flown in a normal trajectory, it would have crossed Japan’s northern islands and covered a distance of up to 1,200 miles, making it the most powerful solid-fueled missile built by North Korea so far.

The test revealed substantial progress with a kind of missile that military analysts regard as especially worrisome. Liquid-fueled missiles such as North Korea’s Hwasong-15 generally must be filled prior to launch, so they are liable to being spotted in advance by satellites or reconnaissance aircraft. But solid-fueled missiles can be hidden in bunkers or containers and launched with little warning. The solid-fueled Pukguksong-3 is designed to be fired from submarines that, by definition, are even harder to detect.

“They are clearly moving toward having a survivable deterrent,” or a capability that can’t be easily neutralized, said Victor Cha, a former adviser on North Korea to the George W. Bush White House and now a senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “Solid propellant, SLBMs and submarines would be one way of showing that they now have such a deterrent.”

North Korea has a modest fleet of Soviet-era Romeo-class submarines, some of which are being re-engineered to carry SLBMs. Pyongyang also is developing a new line of missile-capable Sinpo-class submarines with a range of up to 1,500 nautical miles. Some North Korea experts say Kim’s Christmas “gift” could be the unveiling of a submarine that could potentially launch missiles at sea without warning.

The SLBMs to be carried by those submarines also have undergone a significant upgrade. A new report about the Pukguksong-3 suggests that the missile’s solid-propelled engine is bigger and more capable than many experts initially believed. The study, by Middlebury’s Jeffrey Lewis, analyzed North Korean images to more precisely calculate the dimensions of the new SLBM as well as an earlier land-based version of the same missile. The diameter was judged to be about 13 percent wider than experts previously believed, a sign that North Korea’s engineers may have overcome a key technological barrier that limits the size of solid-fueled missiles. If so, the overall program may be “at a more advanced stage than we realized,” Lewis wrote.

“We believe North Korea could conduct a first flight-test of an intermediate- or intercontinental-range ballistic missile using solid-propellant some time in 2020,” said the analysis, according to a pre-publication draft obtained by The Washington Post. “We cannot predict whether such a test would be successful.”

‘A big unknown’

But the year-end “gift” could also be of an entirely different nature — and perhaps a true surprise, analysts said. North Korean scientists have been chipping away at multiple technical barriers that hamper Kim’s ability to strike the United States with a nuclear warhead, analysts said, and the communist leader may decide to showcase a breakthrough.

The two missile-engine tests at Sohae — a facility that Kim had pledged to dismantle — sparked speculation that North Korea is preparing to unveil a more powerful, multistage rocket to launch satellites into space.

Other experts, citing the unusual seven-minute burn time during the Dec. 13 experiment, theorized that Pyongyang is working on an improved reentry vehicle to sit atop one of the new ICBMs. To reach the United States, the missile and its nuclear warhead would have to survive intense heat as it slices through the upper atmosphere. Perhaps the North Koreans were using a rocket engine’s fiery exhaust to simulate reentry conditions, analysts said.

Kim could also demonstrate an ability to use decoys to fool the expensive antimissile systems built by the United States to intercept incoming warheads, said Vann Van Diepen, a top nonproliferation official in the Bush and Obama administrations. The decoys, called “penetration aids” or “penaids,” could include inflatable balloons or clouds of metal chaff that can confuse missile-tracking radars on land.

The Kim regime has not yet demonstrated that it has such devices, but “it would be consistent with North Korea’s historical missile development philosophy to deploy at least simple penaids” on its long-range missiles, Van Diepen wrote in an essay published by 38 North, a website that serves as a forum for North Korea analysts.

Even a more modest demonstration — a new test of one of North Korea’s older ICBMs, for example — would make a political statement by breaking the self-imposed freeze. But Van Diepen said it would be a mistake to rule out the possibility of other, bigger surprises if Kim resumes an active testing program in the months ahead.

“A big unknown is how much technical help they got from others, but they’ve been able to do an awful lot on their own,” he said. “There’s a whole cottage industry of people who underestimated North Korea.”

Simon Denyer in Seoul contributed to this report.

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2019-12-24 12:00:00Z
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Prince Philip leaves hospital after four-night stay for undisclosed condition - CNN

The Duke of Edinburgh, 98, left King Edward VII Hospital in London around 8:50 a.m. (3:50 a.m. ET) on Tuesday morning, where he was seen walking to a green Range Rover and sitting in the passenger seat. He returned immediately to the Queen's country estate, Sandringham, where the royal family traditionally spend Christmas.
"The Duke of Edinburgh has today left hospital after being discharged by his doctor and is now back at Sandringham," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "His Royal Highness would like to thank everyone who sent their good wishes.
The Queen's husband was hospitalized Friday for "observation and treatment in relation to a pre-existing condition."The admission was a "precautionary measure" on the advice of the duke's doctor, Buckingham Palace said in a brief statement on Friday.
The Duke of Edinburgh leaves King Edward VII Hospital in London.
While the hospital stay prompted concern, a royal source told CNN that Philip had not been taken to the hospital in an ambulance and had walked into the building.
Philip retired from public life in 2017 and is rarely seen in public. He is believed to spend most of at Sandringham.
The monarch traditionally celebrates the festive season with members of the royal family at the country estate in rural Norfolk, about 100 miles north of London.
In November, the Queen and her husband marked their 72nd wedding anniversary. Although he no longer carries out engagements, Philip remains patron, president or a member of more than 780 organizations.

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2019-12-24 09:32:00Z
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Queen acknowledges ‘bumpy’ year for nation in Christmas message - BBC News

The Queen will use her Christmas Day message to acknowledge that 2019 has been "quite bumpy".

She will say the path is never "smooth" but "small steps" can heal divisions.

It comes after a year of intense political debate over Brexit, as well as a number of personal events affecting the Royal Family.

Her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, 98, has left hospital after four nights of treatment for a "pre-existing condition".

Buckingham Palace said the duke had gone to the King Edward VII's hospital on his doctor's advice for "observation and treatment".

Prince Charles told reporters on Monday that hospital staff had looked after his father "very well".

In January, the Duke of Edinburgh was involved in a car crash while driving near the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. He escaped uninjured, but two women required hospital treatment.

In September, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex publicly revealed their struggles under the media spotlight during their tour of southern Africa.

Last month, the Duke of York withdrew from public life after a BBC interview about his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in August.

The Queen, 93, recorded her annual message, to be broadcast on BBC One at 15:00 GMT on Christmas Day, before Prince Philip was admitted to hospital.

She refers to the life of Jesus and the importance of reconciliation, saying "small steps taken in faith and in hope can overcome long-held differences and deep-seated divisions to bring harmony and understanding".

"The path, of course, is not always smooth, and may at times this year have felt quite bumpy, but small steps can make a world of difference."

Analysis: A coded message?

It has been a year which, at times, may have felt "quite bumpy", so the Queen will say in her Christmas broadcast.

It is a choice of words which will inevitably prompt speculation about what it is that she's referring to.

She does not offer any clarification herself, though the remark is made in the context of overcoming what she calls "long-held differences" and how "small steps taken in faith and in hope can overcome deep-seated divisions".

The obvious interpretation is that this is the Queen's - as ever - coded message to the country to try to move on from the divisions of the Brexit debate, but the reference to a "bumpy" year may also be taken to refer to events within her own family after a year which has seen the Duke of Edinburgh's car accident, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex complaining about the difficulties of being in the public eye and the controversies around Prince Andrew.

The head of state - who is publicly neutral on political matters - will also use her message to highlight the 75th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day landings, and how former "sworn enemies" joined together in friendly commemorations to mark the milestone this year.

In June, the UK hosted an event in Portsmouth commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day and attended by world leaders including US President Donald Trump, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Queen said: "By being willing to put past differences behind us and move forward together, we honour the freedom and democracy once won for us at so great a cost."

The broadcast was produced by the BBC and recorded in the green drawing room of Windsor Castle after the general election.

The Queen wore a royal blue cashmere dress by Angela Kelly, and the sapphire and diamond Prince Albert brooch, a present from Albert to Queen Victoria on the eve of their wedding in 1840.

She is filmed sitting at a desk featuring photographs of her family, including one of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, and a black-and-white image of the Queen's father, King George VI.

There is also a photograph of of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children - Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis - perched on and around a motorbike and sidecar - an image used for the couple's Christmas card.

On Monday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed their festive greeting via the Queen's Commonwealth Trust Twitter account.

It features a photograph of Harry and Meghan with their seven-month-old son Archie crawling towards the camera, and a message reading: "Merry Christmas and a happy new year... from our family to yours".

The card was emailed to friends and colleagues on Monday, with hard copies sent to family.

The couple are currently spending time in Canada while taking a festive break from royal duties with their son, who was born in May.

Prince Andrew's appearance on BBC Newsnight last month was one of the year's biggest news stories involving the monarchy.

In the interview, Prince Andrew defended his relationship with Epstein, who took his own life in August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The prince was heavily criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards Epstein's victims and little remorse over his friendship with the disgraced US financier.

He later issued a statement saying he continued to "unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein" and he deeply sympathised with everyone who was affected.

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2019-12-24 05:36:34Z
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Senin, 23 Desember 2019

A girl said she found a plea for help in her Christmas card. The seller is investigating. - The Washington Post

Supermarket chain Tesco said it has also stopped selling the cards after the Sunday Times described an all-caps note, attributed to foreign prisoners in Shanghai, that urges its reader to contact a human rights group. The report, which Tesco’s supplier and the Chinese government have strongly disputed, follows years of other notes allegedly penned by abused workers that have raised concerns among unsuspecting shoppers and prompted inquiries.

Tesco said in a statement that it was stunned by the accusations of forced labor and would cut ties with the cards’ supplier if it was found to have violated Tesco’s rules against prison labor. The company said it has a “comprehensive auditing system,” adding that the cards’ supplier “was independently audited as recently as last month” and that no evidence of wrongdoing surfaced.

The supplier Tesco says it is investigating, Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, has denied any use of forced labor. The company told the Global Times in China that it was not aware of the allegations until foreign media outlets reached out.

“We have never been involved in such activities that the media reported,” a representative who declined to give a name told CNN Monday, adding that the company is “investigating whether those cards were printed by us" and saying it thinks “someone is smearing us.”

A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Sheng Guang, said at a Monday news conference that officials have verified no foreign inmates in Shanghai’s Qingpu prison are made to work against their will. Guang denounced a “drama choreographed” by the author of the Sunday Times story.

The supplier did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s inquiries, nor did the Chinese Embassy.

The upheaval started with a holiday purchase that supports Tesco’s charity, the London family said in an interview posted by the BBC. Florence Widdicombe was looking through the cards her mother picked up — she wanted to write to her friends at school — when she starting laughing, her father said.

“Mom, look — somebody’s already written in this card,” Ben Widdicombe recounted his daughter saying to his wife.

A closer look revealed a note claiming to be from foreign inmates in China’s Qingpu prison “forced to work against our will,” he said. The note reportedly asked the reader to contact a “Mr. Peter Humphrey” — a British journalist and former private investigator who spent about two years in the prison and who would bring the allegations of mistreatment into the public eye this weekend with a Sunday Times article.

At first, Ben Widdicombe said, he suspected a prank.

“But on reflection, we realized it was actually potentially quite a serious thing,” he said.

He messaged Humphrey on LinkedIn on Monday, the journalist would recount later.

The Post could not independently confirm the Widdicombes’ account, but the report raises serious questions about the festive cards that Tesco says allow it to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to charitable causes in Britain.

Humphrey said he believes the note was written by ex-cellmates whom he met after his corporate fraud investigations drew the ire of the Chinese government, landing him and his wife in prison on “bogus charges that were never heard in court.” He said he reached out to other former inmates, who confirmed that people in his old unit have been forced to do assembly and packaging.

Foreign prisoners in Qingpu have been working on Tesco Christmas cards and gift tags for at least two years, Humphrey says he was told.

“I’m pretty sure this was written as a collective message,” Humphrey told the BBC of the note that Ben Widdicombe passed on to him. “Obviously one single hand produced this capital letters’ handwriting and I think I know who it was, but I will never disclose that name.”

Humphrey, who did not immediately respond to The Post, told CNN that China’s denials of forced labor were unsurprising.

Notes alleging worker abuse in China have shocked consumers before. In 2013, the New York Times reported, a former prisoner whose story led to a documentary claimed responsibility for a letter found by an Oregon mother in Halloween decorations from Kmart. The Beijing man said he’d stuffed 20 letters into items bound for the West over his years in a labor camp.

“Sir: If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization,” the Halloween decorations note is said to have read. “Thousands people here who are under the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever.”

The next year, a woman in Northern Ireland found an alarming note in a pair of pants that was attributed to prisoners, the BBC wrote.

“We work 15 hours per day and the food we eat wouldn’t even be given to dogs or pigs,” the note claimed, according to news reports.

A more recent story, from 2017, involved another Christmas card: A woman in Britain told Reuters that she found a scrawled note inside a card from the supermarket Sainsbury’s that was signed in Mandarin, “Third Product Shop, Guangzhou Prison, Number 6 District."

Humphrey told the BBC that conditions in Qingpu were poor while he was imprisoned but that work was optional, a way to earn money for soap or toothpaste or biscuits. That seems to have changed, he said, pointing to censorship as a possible reason that those still jailed have not contacted him directly.

“So they resorted,” he wrote, “to the Qingpu equivalent of a message in a bottle.”

Read more:

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2019-12-23 14:51:00Z
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Taliban claims responsibility for killing US service member - CNN

US and Afghan government forces were targeted with IEDs while conducting a raid in the northern province of Kunduz, according to Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid.
The US military early Monday confirmed that a service member was killed in action. The name is being withheld until next of kin is notified.
Between 12,000 and 13,000 US troops are currently serving in Afghanistan as part of a US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.
At least 20 Americans have been killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, and there have been more than 2,400 total deaths of US service members since the start of the 18-year war.
The Taliban has continued to carry out attacks despite ongoing peace talks with the US.
President Donald Trump announced late last month during a visit to Afghanistan that peace negotiations between the Taliban and the US had restarted. He had ended formal peace talks in September after a Taliban-claimed attack in Kabul killed a dozen people, including an American soldier. Trump said at the time that Taliban leaders were to travel to the US for secret peace talks, but after the attack he said the meetings were "dead" and called off the negotiations.

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2019-12-23 13:58:00Z
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China chops tariffs on pork as soaring prices make it tougher to bring home the bacon - The Washington Post

AFP/Getty Images People shop for meat at a newly opened supermarket in Binzhou in China’s Shandong province, on Dec. 19. Pork prices have soared this year as an outbreak of African swine fever decimates hog herds.

BEIJING — It has caused soaring inflation rates, spurred organized crime and forced authorities to unlock strategic reserves.

The pork shortage, in other words, is a very big deal in China.

As the country heads into a crucial holiday period, the government is escalating its fight against one of its most vexing domestic challenges by slashing tariffs on pork to stoke imports, ease prices and potentially forestall grumbles from working-class consumers.

The tariff cuts, announced Monday, are the latest in a package of measures unveiled by various ministries after the country’s hog population was devastated this year by an outbreak of African swine fever. The disease is highly contagious and often fatal for pigs but does not affect humans. There is currently no vaccine.

The tariff drop comes days after the Commerce Ministry said it would release an additional 40,000 tons of the meat from the nation’s strategic pork reserves to keep prices steady.

China in November recorded its biggest consumer inflation jump since 2012 after pork prices more than doubled from a year earlier due to a shortage of the meat, a staple food for many Chinese households.

[A terrible pandemic is killing pigs around the world, and U.S. pork producers fear they could be hit next]

That, in turn, has led to sticker shock spreading beyond the pork aisle in Chinese markets: consumers are paying between 11 and 25 percent more for other sources of protein, such as beef, chicken and eggs, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, at a time when the economy is slowing.

Top officials say they want to keep prices in check before the Lunar New Year holiday week in late January, when many Chinese families gather to fold pork dumplings, dive into bowls of braised pork belly and sip soups with pork meatballs.

Wen Tiejun, an expert in macroeconomics and sustainability at Renmin University in Beijing, said Chinese experts are trying to figure out why prices have been skyrocketing as much as they have.

“Pork prices are rising too fast,” Wen said. “I’m afraid it’s not even a simple relationship of supply and demand, insufficient production or the epidemic.”

Qilai Shen

Bloomberg

A man sits on a motorcycle next to pig carcasses hanging from a conveyor at a pork wholesale market on the outskirts of Shanghai on May 28.

The pork dilemma has spiraled to the point that domestic prices may be distorted by pork speculators, Wen said. He added that Chinese consumers, who eat half the world’s pork, may turn to other meat if prices stay high by the Lunar New Year.

Since summer, Chinese leaders have summoned all hands to tame pork prices. Economic planning authorities promised land permits, loans and subsidies to pig farmers to stoke production. The Transport Ministry doled out free toll passes for trucks carrying pigs.

Even at the height of trade tensions with the United States, the Commerce Ministry exempted American pork from import tariffs. As part of the deal announced this month, Chinese officials have promised “significant transactions” with U.S. hog farmers.

[China loves its pork, but prices are rising and that could be a problem]

At a moment when the ruling Communist Party says it has more or less delivered a “moderately well-off” life to its citizens, rising pork prices could “undermine the image of the party and the government,” the Financial Times quoted Vice Premier Hu Chunhua as saying to top party officials during a September meeting.

The ups and downs of pork prices are often headline news and conversation starters across China. On social media outlets such as Weibo and the Chinese version of TikTok, users ironically film themselves showing off thick cuts of bacon like prized jewelry.

The country was scandalized this month by state media reports disclosing the existence of “pig speculation syndicates” that use flying drones to drop food tainted with African swine fever onto hog farms. The gangs then strike deals with panicked farmers to buy pigs at a discount to sell elsewhere in the country, according to the outlet China Comment.

Agriculture Ministry officials last week promised a crackdown on the syndicates and established tip hotlines, while at least one leading pig producer said it was using signal-jamming equipment to secure its farms in Manchuria from unwelcome flying objects.

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2019-12-23 13:33:00Z
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