ah, does a moment glass or an eternity time. it can be measured precisely. indeed, every one experiences it differently as if there are different forms of time. time . a phenomenon, a dimension, if we know we won't live forever. an illusion. about time presenting future's past starts december 31st on d. w. 50 dublin years, asia coming up to date. chinese dentist up on choy says she'd never claim she was raped by a senior chinese politician. so is that the final definitive was on her allegation? not quite, the women's tennis association remains unconvinced, and that have been

a scene of events that have sought to poke holes in her allegations. we look at the context behind them, plus the hong kong pools that most hong kong as didn't show up full yet led to what one winning candidate cold that really election. ah, i'm british manager, welcome to d w. news asia. glad you could join us. chinese dennis super stop on troy has denied writing that she was sexually assaulted. her comments come a little over a month, often a detailed post on chinese social media platform waybill from how to count which alleged that she had been raped by china's former vice premier. john gower league. her latest statement came in the form of an interview with singapore based chinese language use. leann hurts. i'll bow bung was apparently at an event in shanghai

promoting next year's winter olympics. this is the video that emerged from that exchange pill with we sure 11 you since she did she all seasons. how nice this denial is interesting because she denies saying or writing about sexual assault. it's a very roundabout way of denying and acquisition. she could have simply said, no, there was no sexual assault. this is something we'll discuss further, but her comments are the latest in a series of events that appear to dent the initial allegations she made in november with nothing to see here pumps. why now says she never wrote a social media post accusing form of vice premier jungle lee of sexual assault. it's the latest doubling down to avoid

a potential public relations fiasco for china's ruling communist party footage of pung, posted by a state media reporter on twitter shows with form in be a basketball star yell mean? yeah. was probably the most recognizable chinese sports though overseas and a member of the communist party is top advisory body, singer posley and goods our ball, chinese language, newspaper rend, video of pung in full, petro, it garb a china logo, and her jacket and a red t shirt. bearing the characters for china. the newspapers report a aspen for clarifications batter allegations. and this is what pung said. we boys in she was good in you know tika patio without lucy selina dale they seem to be no distorted interpretations when pung, initially made the post in november. but then it was quickly scrub from the chinese

web, but not before. screenshots were posted on twitter, setting off a global outcry. she disappeared after the accusation, and there were concerns for her safety. she reappeared at a tennis tournament in beijing weeks later, with the message that she was safe and well. the international olympic committee supported the official version and held a video chat with pung some, 3 weeks after the initial posting. it remains confident that she is fine and has stuck to its message despite criticism. mm hm. we all are. oh, we're having the same impression and her that her. we could not to feel her being under under pressure. the i see was accused of staging a publicity stunt as calls grow to boycott next year's winter games in bay. jing and the women's tennis association remains unconvinced. c,

e o steve simon said in good conscience, i don't see how i can ask our athletes to compete there. when punctuate is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault. there still no comment from jungle li, all the communist party hierarchy about the accusations nor any expected but for now repeated claims that nothing happened. and that ponies find being greeted mostly im skepticism as get more context on this or from my colleague did of the reporter but going on, who joins me now in the studio. clifford, there's been a steady stream of denials through emails. public baron says, impromptu media statements, yet concern for bung choy remains. why is that? so i think the reason is that china has a credibility problem when it comes to dealing with their issues that are politically sensitive in a believable way. and that, that, that's basically what it boils down to. there's no free media to check out what's

happening and people routinely disappear after making comments. that wraps critical of the communist party. we saw recently, the alibaba tycoon jack mar disappeared for weeks, months, and then reappeared. it's fairly common, it's very different in the west. you would typically have as someone, you'd have spin, doctors getting on top of the problem as they see us and trying to spin a message in a particular way. whereas in china, it's a very different approach. in some ways, it's kind of straight out of the soviet union playbook where you had this orwellian thing about controlling the narrative. and the narrative being what you say, what the com is party says it is. and in this case, it seems to be that they're saying that while they're sending a very much a mixed message saying nothing to see here. and the thing to be using a bunch roy to do that. and therefore, i like to talk specifically about this video that is there most from shanker that we just wrote to our viewers now on choice is that the wave or post where she made the original allegations of rape. these are her past an issue,

yet she hasn't ever said or written anything about sexual assault. she also says that there are misunderstandings, but no distorted interpretations. what is wrong saying here? it's kind of difficult to work one's way through these because there's quite a confusing message. and i think she's been coached on what to say. and basically, in some ways doesn't admit nothing here. i mean, the post is out there. we every one thought, hundreds of millions of people saw this posting the 30 minutes that it was up. there's been no mention of being a hack. there's been no mention of anything like that. so it's, it's, it's clearly, you know, the, the accusations are there, but then she's almost denying the accusations at the same time as admitting it. so it's, it's very much as if she's been coached, if not to create confusion, but to basically sort of stick to are gone, saying that there is that this is not an issue. now that you know that there was no sexual assault. and that's where we stand, and despite this video, you have the w to your the women's tennis association,

the body to which punctual belongs, and basically walks under. if i can put that for the deputy here, remains unconvinced by this video. yet you will have the international olympic committee the aisle see which appears to be the only international body that is convinced that bung troy is able to move on freely in china and able to express. it'll bring in the way she wants to. why is there? there's divergence between the 2 bodies. well, i think the w t, a position is remarkable, actually given that it has huge commercial interests. here, it has billions of dollars to lose by not playing tournaments in china. and it seems to have gone with the initial idea that you know of skepticism, skepticism of the way that this is being presented. the i o. c has got the winter olympics coming up next year. it's got a strong stake in being able to consider as a political or not getting involved in anything to do with issues like human rights or whatever. so they clearly gone down this road and it means that they want to

protect the winter olympics. they want to try and shield everything, but at the same time try to appear as if they have the athletes interest best interests at heart. but we also had to add another senior ios member dick pounds saying at one point, and he wasn't going to put 100 millions of people that at stake just to, to rescue punctual i. so it's, it's, it's very much shows a very different approach between the 2 sporting bodies. talk to us a bit about the man who's been accused of raping john, go from whom we've heard nothing. actually. he's not in the ordinary politician. right? i mean, he's a talk top ranking one, but then explain to us the context of why these allegations from punctuated detective after him are so significant. well, i think it's, it's difficult to underplay how important, john, golly, is as a political figure in china. china is, is run by a black box. we've no idea how decisions are made. and what we do know is that on top of the politburo, you have the standing committee of 7 men,

and it's always been man. and they make all the decisions in china. they, everything that happens is decided by these, these 7 men on the, on the standing committee. and he's a former member of that. and he was a member at a time when it was, there was a lot of things happening in china. and he works. he's very, i like to the coach young who's the premier, but he would have worked very closely with jim ping as well. so he's an extremely important figure. so for this kind of accusation to come out against john gully is a massive event or leave it there. thanks so much for joining us. if it ah, now to hong kong where it comes as little surprised, the probation candidates have dominated sundays. legislative council election. it was the 1st all under new rules that dramatically cut directly elected seats and tightened controls on who can stand for office. only hong kong as a vetted by the government and deemed to be caught on court. patriots were allowed to run some of the elected candidates and their supporters even celebrated victory

by chanting. guaranteed. when on cons, largest pro democracy party boycotted the bolts which they slammed as a force. here's how one of the establishment candidates responded. i think it's fake news to court a fake election because it's real election and we're elected by voters. i think we should respect the photos choice, right. and thus democracy. but sunday also. so hong kong voters stay away from the ballot box in droves. watertown, outside to 30 percent of the lowest since britain handed the delivery back to china . in 1997, turned out on the previous board in 2016 was almost double at 58 percent. and it was more than 53 percent in 2012. i'm going through the cadillac knowledge to turn off was low, but insisted there was widespread support for the new election rules. i could expect that very soon there will be a lot of criticisms allegations against this particular election. so the best

way to refute those debt allegations is to look back at history before 1997. there was no serious intention to give hong kong people democracy. hong kong is now back on the right track of one country to systems and under the improved electro system . we have already conducted 2 of the 3 important elections and elect donald says to one big storms. but does the law turn out sunday, undermine the legitimacy of the polls? here's tom grundy, editor in chief of the independent english language newspaper, hong kong, free press. well, the chief executive carry lamb saw this coming and said a week or 2 ago that a low turn that might suggest that the government is doing well and the credibility is high. but this morning, moments ago, she rebuffed questions about the record low turnout figures saying that she was very satisfied and that the campaigns were beautiful. it chamber was widely representative,

despite the fact that there is less democratic representation. the truth is though they were very concerned about turner special cues for the l gimme a covey tracing that we've been using here was suspended, holding stations. banners, posters, ads just plastering the city. and they made it illegal to boycott with the 10 to rest. so they wanted it to look credible today, having to now spinet as executive carry lamb escapes to beijing. and there is a more analysis on the elections in hong kong on our website. the other dot com, forward slash asia, and as ever you can follow us on facebook and twitter. that's it for today. we'll see you the same time to morrow for by the fight against the corona virus pandemic. how has the rate of infection been developing? what does the latest research say? information and context?

the corona virus updates because 19 special net auntie w every journey begins with the 1st step and every language with the 1st word. hello pinnacle. nico is in germany to learn german with why not learn with him. with the chef, it's simple online on your mo bile and free d. w 's e learning course, nikos vague. german made easy with protests across the world, demonstrations against vaccination, sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent. police often have to intervene when protestors,

without masks and social distancing, contribute to the spread of the virus. debate seems futile for many conspiracy theorists. after all, what do you say to an activist who thinks that bill gates is trying to embed secret micro chips and people using the coven vaccine? but when you draw the line between extremists and skeptics, and how can radicalization be prevented? i'm daniel winter. welcome to our coven, 19 special vaccination rates. show what the majority of the public believes that jobs are safe and effective. but not everyone agrees. and of those people as a fine line between skepticism and conspiracy. then there are the extremes. in recent days, several prominent politicians here in germany were threatened with violence for supporting covered measures. so why does a loud minority seemingly want to fight for what could harm them or even kill them

or their loved ones? their views are seen as radical and although the number of so called clear thinker or lateral thinkers is relatively small, they're certainly vocal. what did the protesters happen? common one study suggests that in southern germany, they often share esoteric an anthropological beliefs. they're generally highly educated and many a former green or left party supporters. however, in eastern germany the far right plays a much greater role. and in mentioned d, these people lead largely civil and autonomous lives. but now they feel their being dictated to by the state. again, although multiple esoteric aspects play a role. but there are clear differences of opinion, even among esoteric think is tobias to schuman, is a pediatrician and fryeburg. he believes in patient autonomy and holistic medicine,

but his still vaccinated against covert 19. many of his patients are skeptical, but he tries to ease their fears. as i know if it is our men, is that a common concern is that the vaccines were developed so quickly. lawton, the under another fear is that people believe that there has to be people out there who have had some negative side effects. baker, named wilken dartford. i try to reassure them and ease their doubts. also convince them to a certain extent is a bidding to niemen. and when it comes to children, having to wear a face mask at school to buy as to shelburn says he won't issue exceptions. especially after a corona virus outbreak at this nearby veiled off school infected dozens of children. authorities later discovered 50 pupils had been issued fake musk exemption certificates. they're always going to be debates about what's right and

wrong to do in a pan direct, independent, paranoid conspiracy is particularly dangerous phenomenon. so let's speak tim psychologist and each disco. thank you very much for joining us. and you've written extensively about so called national narcissism. and the spread of conspiracies during the pandemic. what were your findings? thank you for having me. in our research, we find that national narcissism tends to be positively associated bed. the believe in conspiracy theory is related to covet 19. so national narcissism, we can think of it as individual nasa system on the social scale. so it is the concept that people have an insulated belief of how great their country is. but at the same time, have also the desire to have that greatness being recognized by others. we were told that story, continue. yeah, yeah. so we find a, this related to the believe in covet 19 conspiracy theory. and then there's also

a relationship through the believe to with us health behaviors to combat the virus . what do we draw the line between skeptics and extremists? that's a good question. i think get things open for different opinions and to consider a turn it there and extreme with them. it's more associated with not being open to having discussions and updating one believe and how strong are these movements after all, we can see in most western countries, majority of people have accepted getting the vaccine. yeah, related pan. we looked at 56 countries and we saw that there is quite a variance in how popular corbin and conspiracy theories are and also how popular this national narcissistic ideas are. so for example, what we find is that in india and greece,

this idea of national narcissism and conflicts and covert 19 contribute to theory, beliefs are actually very high. whereas, and we then we see that both of them are actually very, you know, so we have to look at the countries on an individual scale to understand the psychological process. when you look at the countries on the individual level or even regions within countries, what are the causes for those differences in the strength of conspiracy movements between different places? yes, so it is, we know that conspiracy theory believes are associated with a sense of uncertainty as sense of having been left behind by for example, the government and country really just for the, for in how people feel about being considered by governmental policies or how good policy makers where in communicating the complexity

of the virus. and what can we do with this research with the studies that you've been doing and, and other people like you into lexi and conspiracy theorists. one of the, the takeaways and how do we use them? so i think to take the take away that we found in our research as we have to distinguish between people who are skeptical, su, sad, who just need more information about the vaccines. and then people who are, am strongly conspiracy theory believers who need to be more addressed in their over on motives to believe conspiracy series, such as feeling out of control, a feeling uncertain. so we have to meet these needs before talking about conspiracy theory, beliefs that them okay, so it's also about meeting their needs and understanding them in a way as well, and that we can reach out to them without understanding them. so if there's someone who's watching this right now and saying, here they go,

spreading their propaganda again. what is your message to them? because now you can reach out to them, what would you say to am? i think i would say that 1st of all, how likely it is, how likely is it that these cover obs wouldn't have been uncovered? yet when we think about how many people would be involved in, in covering up that vaccines are actually deadly or harmful? is it really likely that there wouldn't have been a whistleblower just yet? and then on the other hand, i'm also thinking about how many people around me are actually believing it. and how many people might actually say they believe these ideas to fit in a group. and having an open discussion might be actually very fruitful. so seems we have to be skeptical about the skeptics, artist anesco psychologist. thank you very much for those very insightful now. it's

time for you to ask the questions and for us to reply his of your question about whether vaccines can have long term delayed side effects. answering it our science correspondent, derek williams. o, has there ever been a vaccine that has caused side effects? yes, in the future. 0, one of the justifications that people who are vaccine hesitant often give for why they don't want to be vaccinated as that. we don't know what kind of effects coven vaccines might only have years down the road. and of course, that's an argument that can't be refuted, because none of us can see the future. we can only make decisions about it based on the severity of the pandemic. now, and the data that we have at hand, both as individuals and as societies, it's all we have to go on. it's not a perfect system,

unexpected stuff happens all the time, but it's the only system we have as we seek on to stop suffering and save lives. and, and one great source of data is the information that we've gathered from vaccine drives in the past. that past experience with many, many different vaccines for a wide range of diseases makes a couple of things really clear. first, is that given a large enough sample size, some side effects are inevitably going to crop up. and very rarely, a currently approved coven vaccine can cause, for example, someone to go in to ana, lactic shock, or develop a thrombosis or develop my own cardite us. but billions of doses had been distributed so far over the course of nearly a year. and there is nothing indicating any wide scale trends or

delayed term effects for any of the approved coven vaccines. that's because the experts say vaccines are only given a couple of times and break down quickly in the body after initiating an immune memory. which means if side effects are going to occur, they pretty much always do so within a few days or weeks of vaccination. so while it's true that for a very few unlucky people, of vaccine could cause a side effect that might have an impact on their life for years to come. the experts say there's no evidence linking any vaccine to side effects that only show up many months or years later. and

finally, worries, over and all micron waves hus even reach the edge of the arctic circle tourism operators and finish lapland, a still recovering from a disastrous 2020. now there are hopes and fears as the frosty regions when to tourism season gets underway at santa claus. village, amusement park walkers of putting finishing touches to this ice restaurant and hotel. but how many guests will experience this sa, fun park as any one's guess? it's not a case of finished restrictions, but other nations responses to the only one variant, including travel restrictions, test requirements, and quarantine measures. and that's it for me. all covered 19 special. i'm daniel winter in berlin. thank you for watching.

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