The Asean secretary-general and leaders of the 15 RCEP member countries with their trade ministers after the pact was signed on 15 Nov 2020.
PHOTO: MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION (MCI)
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SAN FRANCISCO (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, REUTERS) - The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which will take effect on Saturday (Jan 1), is expected to significantly boost the regional and global economies and offer lessons for international cooperation.
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"The RCEP is a huge, potentially powerful agreement among rich and poor countries that complements each other's strengths," Professor Peter Petri, who specialises in international finance at Brandeis University in the United States, told China Daily.
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"For example, it has favourable rules for parts and components trade, and these could help developing members benefit from partnering with more advanced countries, making the region a haven for some of the world's most efficient supply chains," he said.
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"If its potential is realised, the RCEP would create larger markets and innovative, affordable products for the world economy," he added.
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Signed in November last year by 15 Asia-Pacific economies - all 10 member states of Asean, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand - the agreement has created the world's largest free trade bloc that accounts for about one-third of the global population and gross domestic product.
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It will take effect in 10 member states - Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand - on Jan 1, and for the other five members 60 days after official deposition of ratification, acceptance or approval.
South Korea will see it take effect on Feb 1.
Indonesia's chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto said on Friday (Dec 31) that Indonesia, South-east Asia’s largest economy, will likely ratify its RCEP membership in early 2022.
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A parliamentary commission overseeing trade rules had approved the ratification and its endorsement will be brought to a wider parliamentary vote in the first quarter of 2022, he said.
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President Joko Widodo will sign off on the ratification after parliamentary approval, he added.
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According to a recent study by Prof Petri and Prof Michael Plummer, an international economics expert at Johns Hopkins University in the US, the RCEP is estimated to increase world trade by nearly US$500 billion (S$675 billion) annually by 2030 and raise world incomes by US$263 billion annually.
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"There are several aspects of the agreement that will lead to significant economic effects, even if the RCEP is not as ambitious in scope as, say, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership," Prof Plummer told China Daily.
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"For example, it will create harmonised, cumulative rules of origin for intra-RCEP trade, which should give a significant boost to regional supply chains, at a time when supply chains are facing headwinds," he said.
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The agreement will lower tariffs on about 90 per cent of traded commodities and reduce some non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services, according to Prof Plummer.
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"Importantly, it will create a free trade area among the North-east Asian economies of China, Japan and South Korea, giving a particularly strong boost to trade and production in the area of advanced manufacturers," he added.
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The study by the two economists, published by the East Asian Economic Review, estimates that the RCEP should increase regional incomes by US$245 billion on a permanent basis and create 2.8 million jobs in the region, which Prof Plummer described as "a significant boost".
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"In addition to its salutary effects on global incomes and trade, the RCEP offers an important boost to opening international markets, with very little negative effects on outside economies in the form of trade diversion," said Dr Plummer.
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Moreover, the RCEP shows how developed and developing countries can work together to include the interests of countries at all levels of economic development, he said.
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"This could hold some important lessons for the WTO (World Trade Organisation), which reached an impasse at the Doha Development Agenda to a large extent because it was unable to accommodate the interests of developed and developing economies sufficiently," said Prof Plummer.
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Prof Petri also noted that the RCEP's success will depend on how well countries with different systems will work together to make the agreement successful.
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"If benefits are widely shared and relations are positive, members will implement the agreement fully and may even expand its scope," he said. "The RCEP could become a model for cooperation in an unusually diverse economic region."
Malaysia and other partner nations are looking forward to better days ahead after signing the world’s largest trade deal.
THE Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), eagerly awaited by 15 member nations and their 2.2 billion people, was finally signed last Sunday after eight years of negotiations and delays.
This regional free trade agreement has injected hope into the economies of member nations as they struggle to contain the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
The biggest trade deal in the world signed on Nov 15 during a virtual summit in Vietnam will, among others, allow participating countries to enjoy major tariff cuts.
Covering 30% of the global economy and global population, the RCEP will broaden and deepen economic linkages across the Asia Pacific region, ease trade in goods and services and facilitate the flow of investments.
The Geneva-based United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) believes that the RCEP could give “a significant boost” to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region.
“The provisions related to market access and disciplines in trade, services and e-commerce are highly relevant for regional value chains and market-seeking investment,” said the UN body in its special issue on investment trends last Sunday.
With China being a participating nation, others within the bloc will be able to gain easier access to China’s vast market of
1.4 billion people, including its 400-million strong middle-class income group.
And China, being the largest economy in Asia, will find it easier to export its capital to Asean and other RCEP nations after having faced political barriers in its investments in the West in recent years.
The RCEP comprises 10 Asean members (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand) and five others in the region – Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Indeed, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s remark after the signing could best summarise the importance and impact of the trade agreement.
He described the signing of the RCEP as a “major step forward for the world at a time when multilateralism is losing ground and global growth is slowing”, according to The Straits Times.
“It signals our collective commitment to maintaining open and connected supply chains, and to promoting freer trade and closer interdependence, especially in the face of Covid-19 when countries are turning inwards and are under protectionist pressures,” he added at the virtual conference hosted by Vietnam.
Premier Li Keqiang of China, which has been suffering from the US-led trade war, said the RCEP “is a victory of multilateralism and free trade” and “it let people choose unity and cooperation in the face of challenges, rather than conflict and confrontation.”
In its analysis, Global Times said: “The conclusion of the RCEP indicates that most Asian countries endorse free trade framework and see it as a landmark step toward achieving closer economic integration in East Asia and South-East Asia.
“The RCEP sends out the message that Asian countries are not willing to blindly follow the US and exclude China from the region’s integration process. A sound and healthy economic community in Asia cannot be achieved without China’s participation.”
For China, the RCEP is the first multilateral free trade agreement it has ever participated in. China already has bilateral trade deals with many RCEP members, and it has been trying to seal an obstacle-filled trilateral pact with Japan and South Korea.
For Malaysia, the cheer is that the RCEP will provide greater access to regional markets and more opportunities for local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to expand into foreign markets, said Senior Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.
The lowering of barriers and streamlining of rules in trade facilitation will boost Malaysia’s trade with RCEP countries and attract foreign firms keen on entering into a more integrated Asean, said the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM).
“This will enhance transparency in trade and investment, as well as facilitate the greater inclusion of Asean’s SMEs in global and regional supply chains,” said ACCCIM president Tan Sri Ter Leong Yap in a statement.
Wanita MCA national chairperson Datuk Heng Seai Kie said the RCEP provides “new hope for Malaysian entrepreneurs and national economic recovery to counter the current pandemic”.
“The RCEP trade deal will help stimulate the economy by integrating the various participating nations in the Asia-Pacific while introducing lowered tariffs, standardised customs rules and procedures and widened market access, especially among countries that don’t have trade deals,” she said in a statement.
Describing the free trade agreement as “an incredibly important agreement in terms of the timing”, Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said: “This agreement signifies that our region is still committed to openness and to trade and that we will use that as a platform and a springboard for recovery in the post-Covid era… Better access for our farmers and businesses means more jobs for Australians overall.”
Birmingham noted that Australian businesses in education, healthcare, accountancy, engineering and legal service industries would benefit most from the deal, which will allow them to open offices in RCEP countries.
Most importantly, the trade pact may facilitate Australia’s exports to China – its largest trading partner – if Australia tones down its two-year long hostility towards Beijing. Canberra’s ongoing spat with Beijing has hurt Australia’s economy deeply.
For Japanese exporters, the agreement means that China and South Korea will gradually eliminate tariffs on sake and shochu, according to Japan Times. The reduction from China’s current 40% tariff on both will fall to zero after 21 years, and South Korea’s 15% tariff on both goods now will be eliminated after 15 years.
The RCEP may help reduce the adverse impact of trade wars waged on any member country in the deal, according to prominent YouTuber Yang Fong.
“Once the RCEP comes into force in two years, the US cannot simply wage trade wars on China and other members. The deal will also bring major changes to supply-chains in China and the region,” said the economic analyst.
While all member nations are excited about RCEP, India left the negotiation table last year.
In November 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the pact would not benefit India’s core interest. Indian dairy farmers, as well as SMEs, are worried of losing out to China in the trade of manufactured goods, and to Australia and New Zealand on dairy products.
But despite this, the RCEP welcomes the return of India once it is ready to join.
To the Western world, the concern is that the world’s largest trade deal has left out the United States.
“Notably, the agreement excludes the US and can potentially allow China to cement its position as a key trade partner for South-East Asia and other countries,” CNBC said in its report.
The US Chamber of Commerce in Washington has expressed concern that the US is being left behind in the world’s largest free-trade bloc, reported Reuters.
However, the absence of US in the RECP could be easily explained. The world’s biggest economy was never a part of the trade pact from the very beginning.
The RCEP’s formation in 2012 is seen as an Asean response to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a US-led free trade agreement that excluded China – the world’s second largest economy and largest trading partner for most Asian countries.
At the beginning, TPP membership included the United States, Malaysia and several Asean countries, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and Australia.
While setting up the RCEP, Asean invited China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to be partners in this free trade agreement.
For countries like Malaysia that believe in multi-lateralism, they can gain tremendously from having membership in both US-led TPP and Asean-led RCEP.
However, when Donald Trump became president, he rejected multilateralism and the Trump administration withdrew from the TPP in 2016.
Trump’s “America First” policy and the trade wars he has waged against China and others have also raised doubts about the US’ willingness to trade with Asian countries on mutually beneficial basis.
Without US participation, the West is worried that China will dominate RCEP and expand its influence in the region.
China’s state-linked Global Times is prompt to supply answers and address the concern.
Noting that major US allies (such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan) are part of the RCEP, Global Times said: “China cannot dominate the attitude of these countries or Asean as many major US allies are in the deal.”
In fact, Japan and Australia – which have enjoyed very close ties with the US – are likely to keep a close eye on China in the RCEP, while championing their own interests in the deal.
Global Times added: “If China is the so-called winner this time, then it is a win-win situation for all other RCEP members because these countries have strived for their own benefits during the past eight years of negotiations. All countries can only be winners since they have signed this agreement.”
China and 14 other economies signed the world's largest trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), on Sunday to form a free trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region that will encompass a third of the global economy, in what Chinese officials and experts call a historic win for multilateralism that would help the regional and global economies cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and rising protectionism.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that signing of the RCEP is not only an achievement of landmark significance in East Asian regional cooperation, but is also a victory of multilateralism and free trade.
"Signed after eight years of negotiation, the RCEP lets people see brightness and hope in shadows, proving that multilateralism and free trade remain the main and correct course as well as the right direction for the global economy and mankind," Li said.
Signed at a critical turning point in the global political climate – when the next US administration is set to come into office and the world is grasping for solutions to tackle challenges arising from the coronavirus pandemic, the new regional deal would also help the Asia Pacific region take the global lead in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce US hegemony in the region, experts said.
The deal, which encompasses Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nationals, will create what is believed to be the world's largest free trade zone, covering about one-third of the world's total population and GDP. It will be also Japan's first free trade framework with its vital trading partners China and South Korea.
Notably, two major economies – the US and India – were left out of the trade pact. The US, under President Donald Trump, has been pushing for bilateral deals rather than multilateral ones. India was part of the negotiations, but did not join the final agreement.
The RCEP, which contains 20 chapters covering a wide range of areas from merchandise trade to investment to e-commerce, is “modern, comprehensive and high-level win-win agreement,” China’s Finance Ministry said on Sunday, adding that under the deal, members will aim to reduce tariffs to zero in the coming decade.
Bao Jianyun, professor of the School of International Studies and director of the Center for International Political Economy Studies at Renmin University of China, said that signing of the RCEP showed China, which played a very active role in pushing for the deal, has led the way in liberalizing trade and promoting a global market order of free competition.
"At the same time, China provides the world with a Chinese model and a Chinese solution on the open platform, where it serves the world," Bao told the Global Times, explaining that China as an emerging power has been a major promoter of trade and investment integration of RCEP.
Chen Fengying, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, also stressed that the successful and long-awaited signing of the megapact has rekindled the world's 'hope and confidence" about a model of cooperation.
"Global cooperation has been defeated in recent years because of rising protectionism and China-US trade friction. But the RCEP's signing is a signal that cooperation does work today, which I think is even more important withthe lift it gives to specific countries' GDP growth," Chen told the Global Times.
Liu Kuikui, a Beijing-based consultant of international transport and trade, told the Global Times that the RCEP will establish a common framework of rules of origin for Asia-Pacific countries, reduce investment barriers, and expand trade and investment. The participation of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, allies of the US, demonstrates that the four countries are opposed to the trade protectionism and the economic bullying launched by the US.
Signing of RCEP a victory of multilateralism and free trade: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
RCEP will end US hegemony in West Pacific
Not joining RCEP a strategic blunder that will lead to India’s isolation in globalization
The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade agreement (FTA), will
give strong momentum to the development of the world's
COVID-19-battered economy and cement regional cooperation within East
Asia, which has emerged strongest from the pandemic, observers
predicted, noting that China, with its economic and market size, will
play a driving role in this partnership, yet every member will benefit
equally under such framework.
A report celebrating the milestones and achievements of
the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) highlighted the growth of
bilateral trade and investment over the past decade, as well as joint
efforts to battle the coronavirus and the safeguarding of regional
industrial and supply chains
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday called for
solidarity, the focus on development and expanded cooperation to join
hands in countering the challenges amid the ravaging COVID-19.
HANOI,
Nov 15 (Reuters): Fifteen Asia-Pacific economies formed the world’s
largest free trade bloc on Sunday, a China-backed deal that excludes the
United States, which had left a rival Asia-Pacific grouping under
President Donald
People in rich, developed countries are increasingly disillusioned, and realising that politicians are short on long-term answers
These nations need to agree on a new approach to managing the future and a fresh compact with their society and the rest of the planet
The idea that those living successful, advanced countries can look forward to perpetual advancement is no longer a given after Covid-19 .
I thought the end of the world would look different. There are no horsemen, no mushroom cloud, no alien spacecraft. Just sweatpants and Zoom. As it turns out, rumours of our demise have been exaggerated.
If you live in the developed world, the first 20 years of this century might have resembled the apocalypse in slow motion – from September 11 to Sars, the war on terror, the global financial crisis, technological disruption and Islamic State, to Trumpian anxiety and now Covid-19. Are we reliving the Crusades or fast-forwarding to the dystopian world of Blade Runner?
And yet, for many others, the 21st century has also been a revelation. Money to spend, real-time connections with the world, the Babylonian wonders of urban life and much more.
THE (DEVELOPED) WORLD IN CRISIS
Time and again, data and insights have supported this dichotomy. For years now, polling and analysis have pointed to growing levels of dissatisfaction and malaise in a number of rich countries. This is against the backdrop of people who are not only living better lives, but empowered with opportunities thanks to greater mobility and education, which have transformed their existence.
Our study by Blackbox Research, “World in Crisis”, measured the sentiments of citizens from 23 countries toward their governments’ Covid-19 crisis management efforts. While news coverage has focused predominantly on the study’s political findings and how leaders performed, these results are in many ways less interesting and largely predictable. What really stood out to us at Blackbox were the wider perceptions of how business, media and communities were seen to have responded.
The results of our study, which have been reported in nearly 30 countries to date, show that most countries were rated poorly across the board. The major revelation for us was how people in the majority of the world’s most advanced countries – in both the East and the West – were not only shocked and surprised by how quickly the crisis overran their daily lives, but also expressed a wider feeling of being let down, giving the impression that they had expected more.
Performance ratings for business leaders and healthcare systems, even local communities and neighbourhoods, all scored more poorly in advanced nations.
Our findings, from the United States to Italy and to Japan, all point to one thing: People living in wealthier nations feel isolated and vulnerable in a way they have not felt for generations. Of the 11 developed countries and territories covered in the study, only New Zealand scored above average in our index. Who knew the Kiwis were living in the last well-appointed bungalow in a run-down neighbourhood?
A REJECTION OF THE TRUTH
Despite the long-standing evidence from even before our study, we are witnessing a level of denialism, with some commentators suggesting that the scores do not reflect the best route ahead. The wealthier nations, they argue, just need the time to organise their resources in response to such an unprecedented event. Once this happens, they claim, public opinion will soon shift. Yet the most recent polling in nearly all of these countries indicates that perceptions have actually deteriorated further.
Japan and France, for example, scored the lowest in our study, and public opinion in both countries remains anaemic. Yet the responses from these countries hardly feel like outliers. South Korea, which scored fourth lowest in our study, even voted overwhelmingly to reelect a president during the crisis. So in all likelihood, the scores reflect more than simple antagonism towards political leaders. Something else is going on.
Flaws laid bare: South Korea, which scored fourth lowest in the study that measured citizen sentiments, even voted overwhelmingly to reelect a president in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis. —
On the other end, some argue that the countries that scored well are often authoritarian and have leaned on state-controlled media to the extent that their people tell pollsters everything is hunky-dory. While their media diet can have some influence in what people tell pollsters, it does not tell the full picture. Singapore, Thailand and even Iran are all dominated by state media, yet none of them recorded stellar results in our study. Barking up the propaganda tree only gets you so far.
Two months on, the vulnerability expressed in our study by people in advanced countries largely remains. It also appears to fit a continuum that has been developing for some time now: the belief and confidence that unravelled after World War II and peaked with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, but was rock solid by the end of the 20th century.
TIME TO SET THINGS RIGHT
The rich global disillusionment reflected so obviously in our poll, as well as in others conducted during the current crisis, has not arisen out of nowhere. It demonstrates a real sense that all is not right. The emotional mindset also goes well beyond anger. There is a growing realisation that political and business leaders are short on long-term answers, and “community” is now a term more likely associated with social media than social cohesion.
What this crisis has done more than anything else is expose the real flaws and weaknesses that have been emergent in advanced countries for many years. The scab has been peeled off, and the wound is worse than we thought.
The findings of our study reveals something pertinent: It is time for developed nations to truly reflect on the way forward. The idea that those living in successful, advanced countries can look forward to perpetual advancement is no longer a given. More and more people are coming to comprehend this. The present crisis, more than all the other recent ones, has laid this bare.
With that, confidence can only be regained through new ideas and action. Developed countries need to agree on a new approach to managing the future and a fresh compact with the rest of the world. As with a major war, Covid-19 has left everyone with heavy losses, and now is the time to acknowledge that simply trying to paper over long-standing flaws (that are much worse than most have been prepared to concede) is not going to offer either stability or hope
These could include rethinking the global institutional framework – whether it is for trade, health, finance or even technology. Countries also need to reconstitute and develop new forums to include a more diverse representation of key global stakeholders. In the same way leaders have been forced to address changing attitudes and demands on race and gender in recent years, they now need to expand this change of approach to society itself.
So, it turns out once again that the apocalypse is not nigh. People too often confuse end times with a reshuffling of the order. Those who have enjoyed sitting in the premium seats for a long time will have to pay more for them or give them up altogether.
By David Black, the founder of Blackbox Research, a Singapore-based research agency and data content specialist, mainly covering national and regional opinion across Asia. David has lived in Singapore for the past 20 years
As R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe sang, “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.” – The Jakarta Post/Asia News NetworkThe writer is founder and CEO of Blackbox Research, a data-driven content and research agency based in Singapore that primarily covers national and regional public opinion. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.
NEW YORK: As coronavirus infections tore across the US in early March, a Silicon Valley executive called the survival shelter manufacturer Rising S Co.
He wanted to know how to open the secret door to his multimillion-dollar, 11 feet underground bunker in New Zealand.
The tech chief had never used the bunker and couldn’t remember how to unlock it, said Gary Lynch, general manager of Texas-based Rising S Co.
“He wanted to verify the combination for the door and was asking questions about the power and the hot water heater and whether he needed to take extra water or air filters,” Lynch said.
The businessman runs a company in the Bay Area but lives in New York, which was fast becoming the world’s coronavirus epicentre.
“He went out to New Zealand to escape everything that’s happening,” Lynch said, declining to identify the bunker owner because he keeps his client lists private.
“And as far as I know, he’s still there.”
For years, New Zealand has featured prominently in the doomsday survival plans of wealthy Americans worried that, say, a killer germ might paralyse the world.
Isolated at the edge of the earth, more than 2,000 miles off the southern coast of Australia, New Zealand is home to about 4.9 million people, about a fifth as many as the New York metro area.
The clean, green, island nation is known for its natural beauty, laidback politicians and premier health facilities.
In recent weeks, the country has been lauded for its response to the pandemic. It enforced a four-week lockdown early, and today has more recoveries than cases.
Only 12 people have died from the disease. The US death toll stands at more than 39,000, meaning that country’s death rate per capita is about 50 times higher.
The underground global shelter network Vivos already has installed a 300-person bunker in the South Island, just north of Christchurch, said Robert Vicino, the founder of the California-based company.
He’s fielded two calls in the past week from prospective clients eager to build additional shelters on the island.
In the US, two dozen families have moved into a 5,000-person Vivos shelter in South Dakota, he said, where they’re occupying a bunker on a former military base that’s about three-quarters the size of Manhattan.
Vivos has also built an 80-person bunker in Indiana, and is developing a 1000-person shelter in Germany.
Rising S Co has planted about 10 private bunkers in New Zealand over the past several years. The average cost is US$3 million for a shelter weighing about 150 tons, but it can easily go as high as US$8 million with additional features like luxury bathrooms, game rooms, shooting ranges, gyms, theatres and surgical beds.
Some Silicon Valley denizens have already made the move to New Zealand as the pandemic has escalated.
On March 12, Mihai Dinulescu decided to pull the plug on the cryptocurrency start-up he was launching to flee to the remote country.
“My fear was it was now or never as I thought they might start closing borders,” said Dinulescu, 34.
“I had this very gripping feeling that we needed to go.”
Dinulescu packed his bags and left his furniture, television, paintings and other belongings with friends.
He bought the earliest plane ticket available and within 12 hours the Harvard University alum and his wife were on a 7am flight bound for Auckland.
In San Francisco, “the entire international section of the airport was empty – except for one flight to New Zealand,” Dinulescu said.
“In a time when pretty much all planes were running on a third occupancy, this thing was booked solid.”
Four days later, New Zealand closed its borders to foreign travellers, which could thwart some refugee travel plans.
Dinulescu said he has connected with about 10 people in New Zealand who made the jump before the shutdown, but “a lot of venture capital people I know were not afraid enough in time for the border close”, Dinulescu said.
“And now they can’t get in.”
After the shutdown was announced, however, local press reported a slight increase in private plane landings in the country.
Dinulescu is now working for Ao Air, a small start-up that’s designing an air filtration mask to rival the N95.
Its co-founder, New Zealander Dan Bowden, said he’s fielded inquiries from about a dozen hopeful employees from the US tech industry since the start of the pandemic, but that generally he’s wary of these requests.
“Some people are scared and reaching out just because they want a visa,” Bowden said.
One potential US-based investor even asked if he would be eligible for New Zealand residency if he boosted his investment in the start-up. Notably, New Zealand does offer an investor visa for about US$6 million for three years.
The current travel restrictions complement another order, passed in August 2018, banning foreigners from buying Kiwi homes, partly in response to Americans gobbling up swaths of the country’s prime real estate.
That’s been a hurdle for New Zealand luxury real estate agent Graham Wall, who said that in recent weeks he’s gotten about half a dozen calls from wealthy Americans hoping to buy up properties on the island.
“They have all said it looks like the safest place to be is New Zealand right now,” he said.
“That’s been a theory since before Covid-19.”
Over the years, the moneyed North Americans who have managed to wrangle properties there include hedge-fund pioneer Julian Robertson, Hollywood film director James Cameron and PayPal Holdings Inc co-founder Peter Thiel, who has two estates in New Zealand, one of which features views of snow-capped mountains and has a safe room.
Though not in a mansion, Dinulescu has no plans to return to the Valley until the pandemic recedes.
He is now holed up on Waiheke Island with his wife in a two-floor, three-bedroom house with ocean views for US$2,400 a month – more than a third less than what they were paying for their two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco.
The couple chose Waiheke, with a population of about 9,000, for the proximity to its other elite residents.
Dubbed “the Hamptons of New Zealand”, the island is home to epic cliff-top mansions and world-class wineries.
Sir Graham Henry, former coach of the All Blacks rugby team, owns a home there, as does the packaging tycoon Graeme Hart.
“Frankly, we were billionaire hunting,” Dinulescu said.
“We wanted to figure out where all the other Silicon Valley people would be.”
So far, he said he hasn’t rubbed shoulders with any tech elite: “Everyone has been in self-isolation.”
Perrin Molloy, a local builder who has lived on the island since he was 11, described Waiheke as a “billionaire’s playground”.
Molloy is often called to do repair jobs inside mega-mansions on the island, many of which are empty almost year-round.
“These homes are designed to be a sanctuary for wealthy billionaires when they need to get away from what’s happening in the rest of the world,” he said.
On Waiheke, it’s common for builders to not know the identities of the homeowners they’re working for, Molloy said, and doomsday-related renovations are fairly routine.
One of Molloy’s colleagues helped build a US$12 million house in a private bay that had an “air tunnel” marked in the foundation plans that could easily fit four people walking shoulder-to-shoulder.
“It was quite obviously an escape tunnel in the basement,” he said.
The virus is likely only to fuel the disaster preparedness industry in New Zealand and beyond.
“Obviously the coronavirus is making people realise how vulnerable we all are, but what people are really concerned about is the aftermath,” said Vicino, the Vivos founder, who believes the wealthy fear an economic collapse or global depression could lead to uprisings against the top 1%.
“They don’t want to have to defend their homes when the gangs of looters or marauders show up.”
Sam Altman, former president of Silicon Valley start-up incubator Y Combinator and chief executive officer of OpenAI, has helped boost New Zealand’s reputation as a respite, previously telling the New Yorker that in the event of a pandemic he planned to escape there with Thiel.
However, in an interview last week he said, “It’s a very lovely place, but I don’t know anyone who has run away to New Zealand”.
Some fellow entrepreneurs have headed up to Napa Valley, but Altman says he hasn’t heard of any peers escaping internationally because of the virus.
Instead, Altman is sheltering in place in his San Francisco apartment, he said. Currently, like so many others, he’s growing his facial hair and watching Tiger King on Netflix.
Obama made an appeal to 300 US mayors: You must tell the truth!
Obama said that as the mayor, in this case, the biggest mistake is to "provide the wrong information" to the people. He appealed to the mayors: "Tell the truth, and make it clear, let the people feel your sympathy."
And the truth Obama said is the truth that Trump misled people not to wear masks! In fact, what the world wants is not this truth. The truth that the United States and the people of the world need to know is: How did the virus come from? Was it caused by Trump to harm the world?
Only by telling the truth can we really save the epidemic in the United States, otherwise the Americans will be in the dark!
Possible truth
01
The truth is that the United States is the most obsessed with biological warfare in the world today. The United States has more than 200 biochemical laboratories worldwide.
A report from the Pentagon pointed out that the cost of biological warfare is extremely low, killing 65,000 people for $ 0.29!
02
The United States will never allow other countries to sit on par with it, as long as it reaches 70% of him. Therefore, almost at this point, the United States destroyed the Soviet Union and abolished Japanese economic might.
Now it's China's turn.
War with China will not work, because China's military power is not in the same grade as those in the Middle East, and there are atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs in their possession, and Dongfeng Intercontinental Missiles are even more mightily sophisticated.
Fighting the trade war, China is the country with the most complete manufacturing system in the world, and the sanctions imposed by the United States on trade does not bear effective results.
So, the United States thought of the thing that could kill 65,000 people for $ 0.29.
03
The key to engaging in biological warfare is not to set fire to self-immolation. To deal with China's stuff, it must be tailor-made. Only the yellow races are killed, and the whites are immune.
Therefore, the American Gilead Company had smuggled more than 5,000 Chinese serum disguised as dog serum samples, and was caught and punished by China.
At this point, we have only remembered what the Japanese Minister of Finance Taro Aso said at the end of February: The new crown virus is only a disease targeting Asians. This paragraph is expression of truth.
More directly, the Governor of New York State said at an outbreak press conference: "We thought this virus only attacked the Asian immune system."
04
Because the New Corona virus was originally a virus tailor-made for Asians in the United States, so from the early stage of the outbreak of China, Trump said: Soon after, I will send a big gift to China.
What is this gift? It is an antidote.
In early February, shortly after the closure of Wuhan, American pharmaceutical companies hyped their own antidote ~ "Remdisivir" came on stage! Facing a new virus that has never been seen before, how does the United States know the antidote?
On March 2, Trump still vowed to say "The United States will produce vaccines, soon, really."
Not only do we have vaccines, but also therapies on March 3 Trump declares! Another meaning of therapy is that it can be cured. "
On March 16, the first batch of "white mice" in the United States received vaccination. The United States is not the first country to have an epidemic outbreak. How did it conduct R & D trials and come up with antidote and vaccine at the speed of light?
Even more exciting is that this company that produces antidote and vaccine is the main contractor of the US Department of Defense's biological warfare project, and the major shareholder is the former US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.
Should n’t researching vaccines and testing antidote be the work of pharmaceutical laboratories? How could it be the ‘Biological Warfare Lab’ to study? Why does the United States know that the new corona virus vaccine is a biological warfare, rather than an epidemic infectious disease like smallpox, cholera, and Ebola virus?
05
Time to recall to summer 2019
At that time, due to inadequate safety training and slack management, the virus laboratory in Maryland had a virus leak. This project was closed after just over a month.
But the big mistake has been made, the virus has spread out, and in the two nearby towns that were first affected, people have suffered from a strange lung disease-the white lung, which is exactly the same as the new coronary pneumonia.
It ’s hard to expose, as it ’s also a military secret. The virus must be covered, and it ’s also necessary to find someone to be a scapegoat.
As a result, the e-cigarettes that had appeared as early as 2003 suddenly became the scapegoat for the cause of white lungs. When the flu outbreak occurred, the e-cigarette hypes could finally be put down as the cause. The so-called white lungs are flu.
06
It was October 18-27, 2019. During the Wuhan Military Sports competition the US biochemical soldiers disguised as Trojan horses and mixed into Wuhan City. Wuhan was darts!
After poisoning, the United States has been waiting for good news.
When the Chinese epidemic broke out, the US Department of Commerce immediately couldn't bear the joy, and openly said: China's epidemic will help the manufacturing industry return to the United States.
In other words, China is poisoned! Yay!
07
The United States holds the antidote, there is no fear, lest the world is not chaotic, so it expects the epidemic to be as serious as possible. When the world is in chaos, the United States will sell the world's vaccine and antidote, gain fame and fortune, and more importantly, whether it sells China or not, it depends on Trump's mood. Wow, thinking of this, the White House couldn't sleep in excitement.
More importantly, this virus is only for Asians, Caucasians are fine, Trump can sit back and relax, you see that he does not wear a mask when the epidemic is most serious.
08
The villain is all day long, and the gentleman is not too late for ten years—Chinese proverb.
Trump, the villain, has been blowing all day long since then: No one knows the virus better than me. Our country is doing great.
You do n’t need to wear a mask, we have full control of the situation. One day the virus will disappear like a miracle.
We almost suppressed the virus from China. Now there are 15 diagnoses, and it will be zero in a few days. The virus is a prank. I think it ’s okay to meet, it ’s very safe, you do n’t need to go to the hospital to see a doctor ........................ How you listen, Trump behaves like a general director with an antidote in his hand and a script in his heart.
09
The government calculated that it hurt Chinese life.
The result that the United States did not expect was that the Chinese government led 1.4 billion Chinese people to control the epidemic in two months, thus becoming the safest place in the world.
What the Americans did not expect was that the United States actually became The highest number of diagnoses and the most dangerous place in the world!
Not only did the manufacturing industry not return to the United States, but it also ushered in the Great Depression. People all over the world are speculating when the behemoth of the United States will fall!
God bestows immense love to China, after this battle, became more united and got a real immunization; the so-called vaccines, so-called therapies that were not effective in the ground, the United States is 'enjoying' its retribution, pale and weak Wuhan pneumonia, Chinese pneumonia,
The sickness of the yellow race has become an unfulfilled dream in the mouth of the White House and its running dogs. What a joke.
Flaws laid bare: South Korea, which scored fourth lowest in the study that measured citizen sentiments, even voted overwhelmingly to reelect a president in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis. — 
