China Says Coronavirus Cases Rise to 70,548, Deaths Hit 1,770

Tom, let me start with you because we heard from the director of a hospital in the city of Wuhan that maybe a tipping point had been reached when it came to these new infections now that you're in Beijing you've been in the capital is that the feeling that it gets there okay the feeling I get here talking to Chinese friends and contacts is that they don't really trust the numbers that come from the government in terms of qualified infections look at the latest numbers today an additional 2048

cases

as you say across the world, it's over seventy thousand

cases

and as you correctly point out in the death toll according to these data points, at least one thousand seven hundred and seventy, but there's certainly a lack of trust here on the ground between people when it comes to the infection rate and if you can honestly believe the government in these numbers in terms of the policies to further restrict the movement of people we are seeing that on the ground here in the capital we left the city now there are roadblocks preventing For people who are not residents of villages or townships to enter those places, the roads are sealed, so clearly the officials here in the capital on the outskirts are concerned that this virus could spread here and in Wuhan and who Bay specifically of course, we have seen more draconian measures implemented by officials there who have told families that they cannot leave their homes unless it is an emergency and that private cars are banned throughout the province, a population of 60 million. people and most businesses there have to remain closed as well, you talked about the PBOC, the operations of the MLF, of course, the central bank has worked to ensure that there is sufficient liquidity in the system to ensure that there are no financial shocks, particularly in the market and what we heard from the finance minister over the weekend was that he wants to see further cuts to taxes and fees, but that really raises the question of how much firepower China really has in terms of fiscal stimulus given that we know that the provinces in terms of their revenue streams are already constrained and that raises another question: if China is going to have to increase its deficit ratio, something is looking to the future: yes, with business and factory closures, just know that tax revenue is coming in right now, right?

Vaughn, let me get to you, it's not just China talking about these tax planning measures or fiscal expansion measures, we also hear a similar sentiment from Hong Kong and Singapore looking to open those coffers even before this outbreak, we were expecting at least bold steps from Hong Kong, a sizable budget from Singapore due to the threat of trade war, of course, with Hong Kong months of political protests, but this virus now only adds to the urgency for more fiscal spending and, in the case of Hong Kong, you are now proposing at least three point two billion dollars in new funding for the fiscal year this is after we learned from financial secretary Paul Chen the warning of these tsunamis shocking the economy and this virus could have a bigger effect than it goes well beyond the likes of retail FMV and tourism related industries budget coffers as you mentioned a lot of questions if there is room for that according to paul chen the deficit will probably continue to climb for some time and on tuesday the Singapore government deliver a solid budget.

Analysts predict the budget deficit could be the widest we've ever had. seen or the biggest we have seen in almost two decades, the fiscal gap could widen to one and a half percent of GDP and Citigroup predicts that this economic package could be more than half a billion dollars, which is three times what that the Singapore government spent in the 2003 star epidemic and Tommy you talked earlier about how degraded social trust and trust in government is in some ways and the numbers that we're seeing right now how are you doing playing that in terms? leadership because there is even more confusion in terms of Xi's response or even when he started handling this crisis, another absolutely another sign that the officials here, the senior leaders are trying to reshape the narrative again and that last single came out during the weekend of course over the last week they changed the officials they changed the party leadership in Wuhan and who Bay they changed the methodology in terms of counting the virus and now over the weekend they came out with a speech that the president apparently gave on February 3 saying that he is been taking control of the situation since January vii that he was giving orders to local officials that it was he, the president, who said that the city of Wuhan should be closed, so trying to prove that I would assume the president and his team were in control they were being decisive because of course they've faced pressure and criticism that it's been mishandled and that according to some there was a cover-up of course and that was at the focus of the death of complainant dr.

Lee wen Liang tries to show that the president is being decisive, but this raises questions about the publication of this speech because if Xi Jinping issued these orders on January 7, why did he wait until January 20 to make public announcements about the virus? crown? to publicly inform the people of China about the seriousness of this virus which remains a question and again underscores the fact that this is a political situation, a political pressure point, a political challenge to China's leaders as well as an economic and health. system challenge this is something the president will have to deal with, he may not pose and is highly unlikely to pose a significant threat to the communist party, but what he can do is spark discussions within the party and that can lead to some extra pressure on The leader of

china

and evon before we go just give us the latest on that cruise ship that's quarantined and docked in yokohama japan yes the diamond princess we learned the last few hours the first chartered flights leaving Japan to the US have taken off this morning this is after we saw the US countries like Canada and Hong Kong are moving to evacuate their citizens from the ship after we saw another 70 confirmed cases on the Diamond Princess and what we are learning so far is that when it comes to those who have tested positive, they will be taken away. to hospitals in Japan, those who tested negative will be on these charter flights where they will be quarantined for two weeks at Air Force bases in the US California and Texas what we have learned and those who did not get on these flights they will remain in quarantine for another 14 days or so before they can fly do more testing we understand not everyone on board has been tested yet and it takes a couple of days for those results to come out