Interview with Kerry Brown + Modeling the infection wave

Covid deaths go unmentioned in China’s state media. The Beijing Health Commission has not reported a death in two weeks either. But morticians, crematories and relatives tell a different story. They experience the devastating impact of the virus on a largely unvaccinated population firsthand.

While renowned epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan downplays the disease as “Common Cold Covid”, a Covid deaths model by Hong Kong University for the coming weeks and months does not bode well. It predicts up to one million deaths. Our team in Beijing describes the current situation in the country.

In the 18th century, the French philosopher Voltaire praised China as a pioneer of secular and humane civilization. The German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz referred to China as the “Europe of the East.” Today, there is not much left of such enthusiastic appreciation. The opinion of China is becoming increasingly negative, explains British sinologist Kerry Brown. And, incidentally, the reverse is also true: Rejection of the West is growing in China. In his new book, Brown takes a journey through time to the 16 most influential European thinkers on China over the past centuries, including many great names. Brown observes that one thing has remained constant to this day: China has always polarized – sometimes in one direction, sometimes in the other.