interest, the global economy, our portfolio, d w. business. beyond. here the closer look at the project. our mission. to analyze the fight for market dominance. if this is wes, get a step ahead with d w business beyond on you to with this or did have been years aisha coming up to date chinese dennis stuff on choices . 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 there have been a series 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 for yet led to what one winning candidate cold, real election. ah, i'm british manager, welcome to d w. news asia. glad you could join us. chinese dennis superstar bunch roy has denied writing that she was sexually assaulted. her comments come a little over a month after the detailed post on chinese social media platform, waybill from hud account, 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, newspaper leanne heads. 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. so i don't know which one you since she did, she sees this denial is interesting because she denies seeing or writing about sexual assault. it's a very roundabout way of denying an acquisition. she could have simply said, nor there was nor 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 emission allegations she made in november. nothing to see here. punctual i now says she never wrote a social media post accusing former chinese premier john gully of sexual assault. it's the latest doubling down to avoid a potential public relations fiasco for china's ruling communist party tongue was seen with former n b, a basketball star yameen in footage,

posted by state media reporter on twitter. yeah, was probably the most recognizable chinese sport star overseas. and a member of the communist parties top advisory body, singapore. as leon hoods, i'll bow, chinese language, newspaper ran video of pong and full patriotic garb, a red t shirt, bearing the characters for china, and a china logo on her jacket. the newspapers porter asked pang for clarifications about her allegations. and this is what pung said. she one good thing you can own kicker. as hale without lucy, selina dale her post seemed unambiguous when pung, posted initially 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 of the 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's fine and a stuck to its message despite criticism. oh, we all are. oh, we're having the same impression and her that to we could not to feel her being under under pressure. he, ios, he was accused of staging a publicity stunt. as cold grow to boycott next years, winter games in beijing. and the women's tennis association remained unconvinced. c, e o steve, simon said in good conscience, i don't see how i can ask our athletes to compete there when punctual is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict or

allegation of sexual assault. there still be no comment from john gully, or the communist party hierarchy about the accusations, nor are any expected. but for now repeated claims that nothing happened, and that pung is fine. are being greased mostly with skepticism. is get more context on this or from my colleague did a report. if at gwinnett, who joined 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 bunk troy 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'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 ali baba 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 someone you'd have spin, doctors getting on top of a problem as they see 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 then out of 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 person issue, yet she hasn't ever said or written anything about sexual assault. she also says that there are misunderstandings,

but nor distorted interpretations. what is wrong saying her? 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. if everyone thought, hundreds of millions of people saw this post in 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 is being coached, if not to create confusion, but to basically sort of stick to are gone saying that, that there's, 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 uminski works under. if i can put that for the deputy here, remains unconvinced by this video. yet you have the international olympic committee,

the iris c, which appears to be the only international body that is convinced that on troy is able to move on freely in china and able to express that will bring in the way she wants to. why is there, there's divergence between the 2 bodies. but i think the w t, a position is remarkable, actually given that it has huge commercial interests. here is billions of dollars to lose by not playing tournaments in china. and it seems to have gone with, you know, 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, i'm 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 pan

saying at one point does that he wasn't going to put the 100 billions of people that at stake just to, to rescue punch. why? 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 rape care, john, go from whom we've heard nothing. actually. he's not in the ordinary politician, right. i mean, he is a top top ranking one, but then explain to us the context of why these allegations from punctuated detective at 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 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 allied to lee coach young, who's the premier, but he would have worked very closely with she, 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. good. ah. now to hong kong, when it comes as little surprised, the pro vision candidates have dominated sundays. legislative council election. it was the 1st all under new rules that dramatically cut directly elected seeds and typed and controlled on who can stand for office. only hong kong as a vetted by the government and deemed to be, quote unquote, patriots. while out to run. some of the elective candidates and their supporters even celebrated victory by chanting, guaranteed when on cons, largest pro democracy party boycotted the ball which they slammed as a force. here's how one of these stablish went candidates responded,

i think is fake news to court, a fake election because is real election and we are elected by voters. i think we should respect the photos choice, right. and thus democracy. but sunday also saw hong kong voters stay away from the ballot box in droves. water turned out sank to 30 percent of the lowest since britain handed the dead of re back to china. in 1997 turn out on the previous board in 2016 was almost double at 50 percent, and it was more than 53 percent in 2012. on conclude our carry lam acknowledged to turn out was low, but insisted there was widespread support for the new election rules. i could expect that very soon that there will be a lot of criticisms. allegations again said this particular election. so the best way to refute those, their allegations is to look back at history before 9 to 97,

there was no serious intention to give hong kong people. democracy on call is now back on the right track of one country to systems and under the improved electro system. we have already conducted at 2 of the 3 important elections and elect donald says to one begging 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 it might suggest that the government is doing well and the credibility is high. but this morning, moments ago, she both questions about the record low turnout figure saying that she was very satisfied and that the campaigns were beautiful. 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 arrests. so they wanted it to look credible today, having to now spinet as invested harry lam, escapes to our beijing. and there is a more analysis on the elections in hong kong on our website. did of the dot com forward slash a sharp them 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 site 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 update, because like 19 special next on d, w. one, continent,

700000000 people with their own personal stories. europe. mm week stuart every day life with what europeans fear and what they hope for focus on europe in on d w. m. no. hm. ah, protests across the world. demonstrations against vaccination, sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent police often have to intervene when protested, without mosques 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, went out welcome to our cove. 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 coven measures. so why does a loud minority seemingly want to fight for what could harmed them or even kill them, or their loved ones? their views are seen as radical, and although the number of so called fear,

tinker or lateral thinkers is relatively small, they're certainly vocal. what did the protesters have in common? one study suggests that in southern germany, they often share esoteric and answer pacifica beliefs that generally highly educated and many a former green or left party supporters. however, in eastern germany, the far right plays a much greater role. in mentioned the, 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 shaman is a pediatrician. and fryeburg, he believes in patient autonomy and holistic medicine, but it's still vaccinated against cove at 19. many of his patients are skeptical,

but he tries to ease their fears. as i enjoy figures i will mend is not a common concern, is that the vaccines were developed so quickly at loudon. 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 wilk on daph, what i tried to reassure them and ease their doubts, also convinced them to a certain extent, ne bidding to niemen and when it comes to children having to wear a face mask at school to buy as to shelburne says he won't issue exceptions, especially after a corona virus outbreak. at this, near by a vile doth school, infected dozens of children. authorities later discovered 50 pupils had been issued fake merced 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 to psychologist and each tennis co 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. the believe in conspiracy theory is related to covet 19, so national narcissism, we can think of it as individual nasa system on the, 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. we call that, sorry, continue. yeah, yeah. so we find a, this related to the believe and covet 19 conspiracy theory. and then there's also a relationship to 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 eternity and extreme of them. it's more associated with not being open to having discussions and updating once 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 koby 19 can be a to the 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, i'm conflicts and covert 19 conspiracy theory believes 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 countries really did for differ 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 vaccine 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, said, who just need more information about the vaccines. and then people who are and strongly conspiracy theory believers who need to be more addressed in their overall in modesto 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 ok, so it's also about meeting their needs and understanding them in a way as well, and that we can't 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 ah,

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, isn't 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 you a 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 anna 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 of facts for any of the approved coven vaccines. that's because the

expert said 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, a 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 an all micron wave huff even reached the edge of the arctic circle tourism operators and finish lapland are still recovering from a disastrous 2020. now there are hopes and fears as the frosty regions. winter

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 fun park as any one's guess? it's not a case of finish restrictions, but other nations responses to the only one variant, including travel restrictions, test requirements, and quarantine measures. and i think for me, your coven, 19 special. i'm daniel winter in berlin. thank you for watching. with

ah, with to sheer ellen or socialists construct almost soviet to coast was an ideal in the soviet union. millions were educated according to this archetype. after the collapse of the eastern block, it disappeared. or did it almost soviet,

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