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Unlike any other

February 10, 2021
Balance of Power
Bloomberg

This Lunar New Year is going to be unlike any other in Asia.

Normally a time of family reunions involving billions of trips home and back starting on New Year's eve tomorrow, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed everything.

While the region has performed better than most in controlling the virus's spread, governments haven't let up on social distancing restrictions, making traditional gatherings with family and friends more difficult.

Vietnam's prime minister has urged citizens to avoid travel, while Japanese officials are reportedly planning to extend emergency restrictions into next week.

South Korea is maintaining school closures and curbs on dining, and in Singapore, restaurant owners say they are facing a gloomy time. Hong Kong announced today it's easing some measures.

While China's daily infections are down to a handful, the vaccine rollout has been less of a success. It's set to miss a target of 50 million vaccinations before its week-long holiday.

China ordinarily sees the world's largest annual migration during the festival. But officials expect a decline in domestic travel of more than 60% from 2019, before the start of the outbreak.

Local governments have imposed testing and quarantine requirements, and officials are even offering subsidies for those who stay at their jobs. That may help exports, but it's a setback for Beijing's bid to boost the role of consumption in the economy.

As the region's laborers remain at their posts, some may take heart from the fact that it's the year of the ox — which represents being hard-working and honest. — Tom Hancock

People walk under traditional Chinese lanterns in Beijing yesterday.

Photographer: Noel Celis/AFP

Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

Global Headlines

Attack video | It's the second day of Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate today and Democrats plan to show video never seen in public of the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol, as they seek to convict the former president for encouraging a mob of loyalists in the deadly rampage. His acquittal still seems likely, as a 56-44 vote yesterday to continue the case fell far short of the two-thirds majority required for a guilty verdict.

  • As Trump's trial began, at properties across the billionaire's empire few people seemed to care.

Reality dawns | President Joe Biden's promises to recover blue-collar jobs lost to automation and foreign competition are butting against the realities of trying to increase U.S. manufacturing jobs in the wake of an economic crisis. Shawn Donnan and Joe Deaux explain that the U.S. is on course to repeat a pattern seen in recessions over the past four decades: a structural step-down in employment amid a sustained expansion in output.

Rough patch | European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has endured a torrid time: her foreign policy chief was humiliated by Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov in front of TV cameras, the 27-nation European Union's Covid vaccine rollout has been slow, and a plan to invoke the Brexit deal's emergency clause to bring in temporary export controls of inoculations between the EU and Northern Ireland sparked outrage. As Ian Wishart writes, some EU officials now wonder how the EU executive's first woman leader can draw a line under the missteps

Von der Leyen at EU Council headquarters on Jan. 21 in Brussels.

Photographer: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Europe

Online scandal | A scandal involving a top Alibaba executive enthralled China's netizens last spring and was close to morphing into a public relations debacle for the firm. Then, the posts started disappearing. The scale and speed with which the Jack Ma-backed social media site Weibo removed comments rankled Chinese government officials and drew authorities' attention to the influence of tech giant Ma and his media companies, Lulu Yilun Chen, Coco Liu and Jin Wu write.

Peak oil | China's return to normal demand for oil products is complicating a parallel push by Beijing to reach peak fossil-fuel energy consumption in this decade and turn it into a nation of net-zero emissions less than 40 years later. Drastically cutting its use of coal, which is responsible for the majority of the country's emissions, will be crucial. But in the shorter term its crude consumption has to peak by 2025.

What to Watch

  • Biden's push to reopen U.S. schools is clashing with his pledge to support teachers, who are demanding more coronavirus testing, vaccinations and other safety measures before returning to classrooms.
  • Twitter has permanently suspended more than 500 accounts and blocked access to hundreds of others within India, after the company today fulfilled the government's demand over content related to the farmers' protest following an earlier standoff.
  • Myanmar's political upheaval is prompting global companies from Japan to Thailand to dial back operations in the country, spurring concern about a widening business fallout from last week's coup.
  • Ethiopia is moving to shut down two camps run by the United Nations' refugee agency in Tigray region, saying one is too close to the Eritrean border and the other is in an uninhabitable location.

And finally ... The U.S. Air Force F-35 jet team that performs at air shows around the world has been forced to scale back appearances this year. The problem: a growing shortage of engines because of longer repair periods, some due to previously unreported shortcomings with engine blade coatings. Tony Capaccio reports the engine issue is just the latest complication with the $398 billion F-35 program that the Pentagon must contend with.

Four F-35A Lightning IIs fly over Denali National Park, Alaska, last August. 

Photographer: Tech. Sgt. Jerilyn Quintanilla

 
 

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