Dali L. Yang

TikTok fined $600 million for China data transfers that broke EU privacy rules European Union privacy watchdogs have fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million). They say a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app’s data transfers to China breached strict data ...

apnews.com/article/tikt... fined $600 million for China data transfers that broke EU privacy rules

On this day in COVID history, April 29, 2021:

Flu Has Disappeared for More Than a Year

Source: Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flu-has-disappeared-worldwide-during-the-covid-pandemic1/

I'll be giving a book talk this Friday at Stanford's Shorenstein APARC China Program. Please join us if you're in the area. You can register here: events.stanford.edu/event/dali-y...

I'll be speaking at the conference Covid-19 in China: Lessons Learned today in Irvine, California:
2:10-2:55 p.m. Pacific Time: "Will China Respond to the Next Novel Infectious Disease Better? Efforts and Challenges in Reforming China's Health Emergency Response System"
lnkd.in/dPb6xMXS

Back in stock on Amazon! Five years ago this April, Wuhan emerged from a grueling 76-day lockdown. But recovery has been far slower than reopening. As the world edges closer to a pandemic treaty and China moves to revise its Infectious Disease Law, the lessons of Wuhan still resonate
t.co/xSPploXNGg

Feds to collect personal info of people exchanging, sending money from U.S.-Mexico border The federal government will begin collecting detailed information about who’s making cash transactions of $200 to $10,000 at money exchange businesses in several South Texas counties. The effort is pa...

Starting Monday, a new policy from the Department of Treasury will require social security number and other official identification documents when sending money abroad.

(via @keranews.org)

Steeling China for a Tariff Fight, Xi Faces His Biggest Test Since Covid Xi Jinping has refused to back down in China’s tariff confrontation with President Trump. But he’ll have to persuade his people that the pain is worth it.

Steeling China for a Fight, Xi Faces His Biggest Test Since Covid www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/w...

Richard Bernstein Dies at 80; Times Correspondent, Critic and Author He wrote from Europe and Asia, served as a book critic and produced a raft of books, on subjects ranging from the French condition to multiculturalism.

“We all know death comes,” he told Ms. Peritz just before he died. “I would have loved to have more, but now understand that I won’t. I accept that and am not afraid. I have lived a really wonderful and interesting life.”

Richard Bernstein Dies at 80 www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/b...

U.S. Embassies Halt Air Quality Monitoring Abroad Since 2008, embassies and other diplomatic posts had been publishing data about local air quality. In many countries, it was the only reliable source of such information.

U.S. State Department Shuts Down Pollution Monitoring Abroad www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/c...

Chinese Architect Liu Jiakun Wins Pritzker Prize Liu, known for understated structures that respond to their surroundings, has been awarded the profession’s highest honor.

Chinese Architect Liu Jiakun Wins Pritzker Prize www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/a...

Christopher Little, Who Built an Empire Around a Boy Wizard, Dies at 79 (Published 2021) As a struggling literary agent in London, he took a chance on J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, turning her books into the most lucrative literary franchise in history.

Christopher Little, Who Built an Empire Around a Boy Wizard, Dies at 79 www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/b...

Quarantine in Wuhan: "We don't know the truth, not under this regime" The 76-day quarantine in Wuhan marked the beginning of a global lockdown due to the pandemic.

Quarantine in Wuhan: "We don't know the truth, not under this regime"
The 76-day quarantine in Wuhan marked the beginning of a global lockdown due to the pandemic. en.vijesti.me/bbc/742163/q...

“A healthy society must have more than one voice.” —Dr. Li Wenliang, 1985-2020

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Dr. Li Wenliang's tragic passing from COVID-19.

Five years ago (Thursday 23 Jan 2020), at 10AM local time (02:00 UTC), Wuhan was sealed off from the rest of the world. ▫️1/

Much had happened between the initial outbreak and the lockdown. For the what, how, and why of Chinese decision-making on the outbreak and much more:

January 23 is the fifth anniversary when cordon sanitaire was imposed on Wuhan. This is commonly known as the Wuhan lockdown, though the enforcement of strict lockdown happened in stages.

For the drama behind these maneuvers, see

Even before heading to Wuhan, Dr. Zhong and other panel experts knew from research in Shenzhen that the novel coronavirus was contagious from human to human. The Wuhan visit was followed by Dr. Zhong breaking the news of human-to-human transmission to the world on January 20.

Five years ago today, a senior advisory panel led by the 83-year old Dr. Zhong Nanshan--a hero during China's SARS crisis in 2003--was sent to Wuhan to help the national health leadership assess the novel coronavirus outbreak situation there and break the paralysis.

@daliyang.bsky.social pulls no punches in his assessment of the major cause for China’s delayed response: it was a failure of epidemiological imagination and intellectual leadership. Local Wuhan officials ignored pleas from healthcare workers and NHC officials.

Have you heard of this action program? Why, despite this urgent response, did China not announce human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus until January 20, 2020?

Five years ago on New Year's Day 2020, China initiated a health emergency response action program to deal with the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dali L. Yang, Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, Oxford University Press, 2024.

it wasn't until January 20 that human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus was finally announced.

For the what, how, and why the Chinese response faltered in the early days, get your copy of Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control.

The special New Year's Eve meeting could have been a superb turning point in dealing with the Wuhan outbreak. Alas, it wasn't! For such a contagious virus and with more and more patients showing up in multiple hospitals in Wuhan,

of patients, preliminary epi investigations by a joint team, as well as genomic sequencing results of the novel coronavirus. The meeting led to the adoption of a health emergency response action program, including the shuttering of the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan on January 1, 2020.

In fact, it was five years ago today, on December 31, 2019, that Chinese experts--clinicians, epidemiologists, and virologists-- and health policy makers convened a special New Year's Eve meeting on the Wuhan outbreak that lasted into the wee hours of January 1. They knew the SARS-like symptoms

The conventional storyline is that China delayed its initial response to the Wuhan outbreak, sat idly by, and didn't announce human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus until January 20, 2020.

How Jimmy Carter's global health efforts elevated 'the art of the possible' Former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, gave visibility to devastating health problems that are often invisible.

How Jimmy Carter’s global health efforts elevated ‘the art of the possible’ www.statnews.com/2024/12/29/h... via @statnews.com

I have two on me: "Wuhan" by @daliyang.bsky.social, which is excellent and full of surprise learnings for me, and "The Southern Tour" by @jmchatwin.bsky.social. I hope to finish both by NYE.