China is in some serious turmoil

Dillan Schorfheide

Man, China is on a roll.

Not on a roll like a basketball player who is having a great scoring night, more like the sarcastic “roll” friends snicker behind your back as you strike out with yet another girl at a social event.

As if the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, was not enough, the Associated Press released a report today showing that China’s government essentially criminalized being Muslim. On top of that, Apple Inc. announced that due to the coronavirus, iPhone production and sales will not meet the expected quarterly mark the company thought it would hit.

Let me explain.

We already know how bad the coronavirus is and that there is no cure for it, on top of the fact that containing it seems to be difficult; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nearly a week ago confirmed the 15th case of the disease in the U.S.

It seems as though the big numbers of new cases are not being reported as much, and the World Health Organization reported Sunday and Monday that no new countries reported cases of the disease.

But even so, someone from Taiwan just died from it, as reported Sunday, and the Washington Post reported Monday that 328 Americans were evacuated from a coronavirus-stricken cruise liner in Japan, with 14 of them confirmed to be infected.

With all the hysteria surrounding this new, deadly strain of coronavirus, it is hard to imagine the story getting much worse.

But it does, and Apple Inc. helps show why.

AP reported that Apple Inc. said Monday all of the company’s iPhone manufacturing facilities are outside Hubei province, where the outbreak started.

All the facilities are reopened but are slowly getting back to form.

The company said demand for iPhones is down because out of the 42 retail stores, many are closed or are operating with reduced hours.

CNBC also reported Monday that 5 million companies worldwide could be impacted by the disease.

A new study by global business research firm Dun and Bradstreet analyzed the Chinese provinces most impacted by the virus and found they are intricately linked to the worldwide business network.

Forty-nine percent of the companies with subsidiaries in impacted regions are headquartered in Hong Kong, CNBC reported.

Dun and Bradstreet researchers also found that at least 51,000 companies worldwide, 163 of which are in the Fortune 1000, have one or more tier one suppliers in the impacted region.

If all that was not enough, a report from the AP shows the detainment of 311 individuals and lists information on more than 2,000 of their family, friends and neighbors.

Most of the people taken to these detainment camps were Muslim, which outlines the discrimination from the Chinese government toward Muslim people (the report does not clarify which branch of the Chinese government compiled the documents AP used for the reporting).

While the coronavirus is the hot topic regarding China and the world, more things are happening in the country that people worldwide need to be aware of because the coronavirus and the discrimination against Muslims have a global impact in some way.

Dillan Schorfheide is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].