1-866-636-WAVE
http://www.cruise-connections.comGuaranteedLowestPrice
+2014-+VisitourwebsiteformoredetailsC
RUISEC
O
NN
ECTION
SCHOICE OF
3FREEPERKS
WORLDWIDE SALE FOR 2020-2022 VOYAGES
Take EXTRAup to$1,300 OFF/Cabin –for Select Voyages
Beverage Package(value of $160/day)
FREE Pre-Paid Gratuities(value of $50/day)
FREE Shipboard Credit($300USD/ cabin)
FREE Wi-Fi(2 Logins)may not be combinable with other offers and discounts. Cruise-only Fares.Government taxes & fees additional. Offer applies to select 5-night and longer sailings departing
2020 – 05/03/22. Offer excludes Galapagos Voyages. Advertised savings are “Up to”, included on advertised fares and apply only to published itineraries. Choice of 3 Perks
is for 1st and 2nd guests in a stateroom. Suites receive 4 perks. Guests must select the same perks at the time of booking. Beverage Package is Classic Beverage Package.
Shipboard credit is per stateroom based on double occupancy. FREE Prepaid Gratuities for 1st & 2nd guests in a stateroom. Limited Time Offer | AdditionalAdditionaldiscountsdiscountsfromfrom
advertisedadvertisedfaresfares––C$250C$250OFF/CabinOFF/Cabin(Inside(Inside&&Oceanview);Oceanview);C$500C$500OFF/CabinOFF/Cabin(Veranda,(Veranda,ConciergeConcierge&&AquaAquaClass);Class);C$1,300C$1,300OFF/CabinOFF/Cabin(Suites).(Suites).Cruise Connections
reserves the right to correct errors & omissions. All offers, rates & sailings subject to change & availability at the time of booking. Promotion is capacity controlled and
may be pulled out at any time without prior notice. Certain restrictions apply. BPCPA #WholesalePricing
SAVEUPTO
52%
TakeExtraupto$1,300off/Cabin!
Sep20,2020-onboardEclipse$849CAD
FROM$1,
SAVE UP TO$1,
**Astoria, Seattle, Victoria5 Nights - Pacific Coastal
Roundtrip Vancouver
Apr19,2021-onboardReflection$1,349CAD
FROM$2,
SAVE UP TO$3,
**Ponta Delgada, La Coruna, Le Havre, Bilbao, Amsterdam16 Nights -Spain, Portugal, andAzores
Ft.LauderdaleToAmsterdam$4,
Sep19,2020–CelebrityInfinity$1,849CAD
FROM$3,
SAVE UP TO$2,
**Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Leixoes,
La Coruna10 Nights - Spain Portugal’s Best
Barcelona To Lisbon
S1
B
Feb12,2021-onboardSolstice$1,669CAD
FROM$2,
SAVE UP TO$1,
**Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound, Milford Sound, Port
Chalmers, Lyttelton, Wellington, Tauranga9 Nights - Australia & New Zealand
Sydney To AucklandSep06,2020-onboardEclipse$1,909CAD
OCEANVIEWFROM$2,
SAVE UP TO$1,
**Icy Strait Point, Hubbard Glacier, Juneau,
Ketchikan7 Nights - Alaska
Roundtrip Vancouver
S7
R
Sep29,2020-onboardInfinity$1,849CAD
FROM$3,
SAVE UP TO$2,
**OvernightLisbon,Leixões,LaCoruña,Málaga,
Alicante, Valencia10 Nights - Best of Spain and Portugal
LisbonToBarcelonaSep18,2020-onboardSolstice$2,039CAD
FROM$2,
SAVE UP TO$ 616
**Victoria, Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Lahaina10 Nights - Hawaii
Vancouver to Honolulu
Jul02,2020-onboardConstellation$2,339CAD
OCEANVIEWFROM$3,
SAVE UP TO$1,
**Venice, Koper, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Naples,
Civitavecchia, La Spezia, Toulon, Barcelona.9 Nights - Best of Western Mediterranean
Venice to BarcelonaA4 OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | SATURDAY,FEBRUARY22,
Fears of a deadly virus outbreak
have kept much of China inside
for the past three weeks. For peo-
ple living in the country’s capital
region, though, another menace
has infected the air: thick layers of
smog whose presence has puz-
zled people looking at a city
where roads and industry have
gone silent.
If factories aren’t operating and
the roads are empty, residents
have wondered, where has the
smog come from over much of
the last few weeks?
Even more puzzling: Chinese
authorities have vaunted their
progress in cleaning up the air,
saying pollution in 2019 fell to half
the level of 2013. The United Na-
tions has complimented China
for “a feat” in combatting air pol-
lution unmatched by any other
“city or region on the planet.”
But the lingering shroud dur-
ing the coronavirus outbreak has
brought a dark, visual reminder of
how intractable a problem smog
continues to be in China, while
raising new worries that efforts to
revive an economy devastated by
the virus will reverse progress au-
thorities have made in reducing
airborne toxins.
The problem lies in places such
as Handan, China, where Hongri
Steel Co. continues to operate like
usual. “All of our factory workers
are on the job,” said Pan Xusheng,
who works in marketing at Hon-
gri.
In Tangshan, too, Delong Steel
Ltd. is going at full tilt. In the first
two weeks of February, with much
of the country on lockdown and
most of its manufacturing indus-
try closed, China’s output of raw
steel rose 3.2 per cent, compared
with last year, while raw iron was
up 0.9 per cent and rolled steel
production rose 2.5 per cent, ac-
cording to statistics gathered by
the China Iron and Steel Industry
Association. China had already
set a new record for steel output in
2019.
Meanwhile, the country’s coal
consumption has also rebounded
to near-record levels, as compa-
nies install large numbers of coal-
fired power plants. Nationally,
coking plants are operating at
rates below levels from last year,
but blast furnaces are operating at
roughly the same rate as last year;
in Tangshan, which is not far from
Beijing, they are operating at a
higher rate.
Part of this is normal. While the
rest of the country takes off work
for the Lunar New Year break,
which this year has been extend-
ed because of the virus, some
heavy industry continues apace.
“Steel production is a continuous
process, which won’t be halted
during holidays,” said Xu Xiang-
chun, an analyst at mysteel.com.But analysts have also drawn a
link between the country’s slow-
ing economy and a bid by its au-
thorities to maintain momentum
by returning to the industrial en-
gines that powered the country’s
growth.
The smog during the virus lock-
down has served as an unmistak-
able illustration of the continued
importance of heavy industry.
Between 2013 and 2018, ”we
made great progress,” said Zhang
Xingying, director of the business
science and technology division
of the National Satellite Meteoro-
logical Centre. He cited strength-
ened environmental laws and the
closing of large numbers of indus-
trial facilities with high emis-
sions.
“However, we have not seen
much progress in the past two
years because of unusual difficul-
ties,” he said. “It’s easy to improve
your test score from 40 to 60. It’s
hard to get it from 95 to 100.”
“People’s sentiment toward
smog is understandable,” he add-
ed. “But from our professional
point of view, the country’s basic
emissions are relatively high, pat-terns of energy use have not
changed and the coal is still a pri-
mary source.”
For those gazing out on smog
in Beijing, weather hasn’t helped.
Winds have blown smog toward
the capital, which is largely sur-
rounded by mountains that trap
bad air. High humidity levels have
further dimmed visibility.
But the resurgence in energy-
intensive activity has been “a su-
perlarge reality check,” one that
has demonstrated how much air
pollution those industries still
create, said Ma Jun, director of the
Institute of Public and Environ-
mental Affairs, and one of China’s
most prominent environmental
advocates. The virus outbreak has
led to a “shutting down of almost
all other sources” of smog, but the
air remains bad.
“It just reminds us that we need
to focus more on the restructur-
ing of the industrial structure in
this region,” he said. “It’s still too
heavy, too energy-intensive.”
He is optimistic that change is
under way. Some of the largest
banks in China have sought Mr.
Ma’s help for data on the environ-mental performance of different
companies. He hopes that will
lead to changes in lending that
will push polluters to change.
At the same time, the virus has
caused deep pain to the Chinese
economy, and analysts say na-
tional efforts to make up for lost
ground – heavy stimulus spend-
ing is expected from Beijing –
risks worsening the problem.
“I’m very worried about what
the government might do to catch
up to GDP targets after this is
over,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead
analyst at the Centre for Research
on Energy and Clean Air.
There has been “a lot of talk
about stimulus and nothing
about which sectors should be
targeted. There would be a lot of
potential to stimulate the clean
energy sectors which have been
struggling recently, for example.
But without guidance, the money
will just flow to the same old un-
needed projects.”
Authorities have already of-
fered some elements of support
to steel makers, eliminating high-
way tolls to assist the transport of
goods and removing health
checkpoints near factories that
had frustrated the movement of
workers.
Still, orders have dried up and
logistics problems have made it
difficult to get raw materials on
time. Delong Steel, like many oth-
ers, is placing much of what it
makes into stockpiles that are
quickly increasing in size. “At pre-
sent, our inventory is very large,
so capital flows are seriously af-
fected,” said Mr. Wang, a worker at
Delong who only gave his sur-
name. “Since we are stockpiling
all of our products, we are out of
money.”
Still, the industry and its em-
ployees are keen to continue
work.
“We will try to maintain normal
operations,” said Mr. Pan, at Hon-
gri. “It’s important to the econo-
my. But it’s more important to us
as individuals. If we don’t pro-
duce, we won’t be able to feed our-
selves.”WithareportfromAlexandraLiAmidvirusoutbreak,Chinafacesfamiliarfoe:smog
Alingeringshroud
ofdirtyairinthecapital
hasbroughtadark,
visualreminderofthe
country’sproblemwith
airbornepollution
NATHANVANDERKLIPPE
ASIACORRESPONDENT
BEIJING
PeoplewearfacemasksastheyridealongaroadinBeijingonFriday.WindshaveblownsmogtowardChina’s
capital,whichislargelysurroundedbymountainsthattrapbadair.MARKSCHIEFELBEIN/ASSOCIATEDPRESSCases of a new virus swelled Fri-
day in South Korea, making the
country the newest front in a wid-
ening global outbreak centred in
China and now reverberating
elsewhere.
South Korea said two people
have died and 204 have been in-
fected with the virus, quadruple
the number of cases it had two
days earlier. Schools were shut-
tered Friday, churches told wor-
shippers to stay away and some
mass gatherings were banned.
The multiplying caseload in
South Korea showed the ease with
which the illness can spread. Ini-
tial infections were linked to Chi-
na, but new cases in South Korea
and Iran – where there have been
four deaths – don’t show a clear
connection to travel there. In an
emerging cluster of illnesses in
northern Italy, the first to fall ill
met with someone who had re-
turned from China on Jan. 21 with-
out experiencing any symptoms
of the new virus, health author-
ities said.
The World Health Organiza-
tion warned that clusters not di-
rectly linked to travel, such as the
ones in South Korea and Iran, sug-
gest that time may be running out
to contain the outbreak.
“The window of opportunity is
still there. But our window of op-
portunity is narrowing,”WHO di-
rector-general Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said. “We need to act
quickly before it closes complete-
ly.”
Mr. Tedros singled out Iran’s
discovery of 18 cases and four
deaths in two days – and that a
traveller from Iran carried the vi-
rus to Lebanon, and another trav-
eller from Iran to Canada.
“These dots are very concern-
ing – take them as dots or trends,”
he said.
South Korea Prime Minister
Chung Se-kyun started a govern-
ment meeting on the health
emergency by saying, “We have
entered an emergency phase.”
“Our efforts until now had
been focused on blocking the ill-
ness from entering the country,”
he said. “But we will now shift the
focus on preventing the illness
from spreading further in local
communities.”
Daegu, a southeastern city of
2.5 million that is the country’s
fourth largest, emerged as the fo-cus of government efforts to con-
tain the disease known as CO-
VID-19, and Mr. Chung promised
support to ease a shortage in hos-
pital beds, medical staff and
equipment. Mayor Kwon Young-
jin of Daegu has urged residents to
stay inside, even wearing masks at
home, to stem further infection.
The first case in Daegu was re-
ported on Tuesday. By Friday, the
city and its surrounding areas had
152, including South Korea’s first
two fatalities from COVID-19.
Nationwide, the numbers told
of a ballooning problem. There
were 20 new cases reported
Wednesday, 53 on Thursday and
100 on Friday.
The centralgovernment de-
clared a “special management
zone” around Daegu on Friday,
which didn’t restrict movement
of residents or supersede local of-
ficials’ power but served as official
recognition of the problem.
Most of those cases have been
linked to a single house of wor-
ship, a branch of the Shincheonji
Church of Jesus, where a woman
in her 60s attended two services
before testing positive for the vi-
rus.
About 1,000 others who at-
tended services with the woman
have been isolated in their homes
for screening, and health author-
ities say they’re trying to monitor
thousands of other church mem-
bers.
All 74 sites operated by the
Shincheonji Church have been
closed and worshippers have
been told to instead watch servic-
es online for a sect whose leader
claims to be an angel of Christ, but
who is dismissed by many out-
siders as a cult leader. Its teach-
ings revolve largely around the
Book of Revelation, a chapter of
the New Testament known most-
ly for its apocalyptic foreshadow-
ing.
Health and city officials say the
woman eyed as a potential trans-
mitter at the church had contact
with about 1,160 people, both at
the church and at a restaurant and
a hospital where she was treated
for injuries from a car accident.
That raised fears that South Korea- which before Wednesday had re-
corded just 31 cases of the virus –
should brace for a further surge.
“I hope South Korea will do ev-
erything to contain this outbreak
at this early stage,” Mr. Tedros
said.
ASSOCIATEDPRESSSouthKoreabecomesnewest
frontinshiftingvirusoutbreak
HYUNG-JINKIMBEIJING
MATTSEDENSKYSEOULCORONAVIRUS