王外長震怒，對美嚴肅警告! Wang Yi’s response during a press conference on Trump’s demand !

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Below is the excerpt of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s response during a press conference on Trump’s demand for a US investigation on Wuhan epidemic-related situation.

王外長震怒，對美嚴肅警告，200萬軍隊隨時做好準備？

1、在記者會上，現場有記者問外聯部發言人王毅：美國總統特朗普想向中國派遣自己的調查員，來調查疫情相關情況，如果中國對病毒蔓延負有故意責任，就 需要承擔後果，請問你有何評論？

2、王毅的回答：病毒是全人類的共同敵人，可能在任何時間、任何地方出現，中方同其他國家一樣，受到了新冠病毒的攻擊，是受害者，而不是加害者，更不是病毒的 “同謀”。 當年H1N1流感首先在美國確診並大面積爆發，蔓延到214個國家和地區，導致有將近20萬人死亡，有誰讓美國賠償了嗎？ 上世紀80年代，艾滋病首先在美國發現，並迅速蔓延至全世界，給多少人多少家庭造成痛苦，有誰找美國賠償了嗎？ 2008年發生在美國的金融動盪，雷曼兄弟公司破產，最終演變為全球金融危機，有誰要求美國賠償了嗎？ 美國必須清楚，他們的敵人是病毒，不是中國。

3、王毅接著說：如果特朗普和蓬配奧之流不是犯有老年狂想症，那他們就應該清楚，中國不是任由“八國聯軍”踐踏時的那個中國，中國更不是伊拉克，不是 委內瑞拉，不是敘利亞，不是你想來就來，你想查就查的。 中國不是心虛怕事，而是你不夠資格，你也沒有資格！ 我們在疫情初期，就主動邀請世衛組織與中國專家深入疫區進行聯合考察，並就新冠病毒的爆發、傳播等相關問題提出了初步考察結果。 而特朗普提出的調查要求，純屬無理要求，是霸權主義的表現。 他們把美國凌駕於國際組織之上，凌駕於全人類，似乎只有他們自己才是可信的。 但美國果真可信嗎？ 伊拉克、委內瑞拉就是前車之鑑。

4、我們要警告特朗普，想打中國的算盤，最好還是想好了再說。 因為14億人民不會答應，中國的200萬軍隊不是擺設，而是中國的鋼鐵長城。 中國的東風導彈也不是用來打耙的，而是用來打狗豺狼的。 中國的核潛艇不是用來在海底旅遊的，而是用來打擊不速之客的。 中國核武器不是用來嚇唬誰的，而是用來自衛的，有誰想嚐嚐滋味兒，想好了你告訴我。

5、我們要警告特朗普，想要中國賠償，那就從八國聯軍侵華時開始算起，一直到王毅剛剛提出的這幾宗一起算。 你先把中國的、世界的歷史舊賬賠償了再說。

6、現在中國在全世界處於非常好的位置，最先控制住了新冠肺炎，最先進入經濟復甦的階段，現在更是加大馬力向全世界出口抗疫物資，中國在經濟總量上趕 超美國的時間也大幅度提前，這是特朗普無法接受的，美國已經被特朗普拖入了泥潭，這個時候特朗普想讓中國、讓全世界都不好過。 害人之心不可有，防特朗普之心絕對不可無，惡人自有天收！

希望每一個中國人都能把這篇文章轉出去，讓我們的中國變得越來越強大，支持所有愛國團體。

Foreign Minister Wang was furious and seriously warned the United States that 2 million troops are ready at any time?

1. At the press conference, a reporter asked Wang Yi, a spokesperson for the outreach ministry: US President Trump wanted to send his own investigator to China to investigate the epidemic-related situation. If China has deliberate responsibility for the spread of the virus, China need to bear the consequences, do you have any comments?

2. Wang Yi’s answer: The virus is the common enemy of all mankind and may appear at any time and anywhere. Like other countries, China has been attacked by the new coronavirus and is the victim, not the perpetrator, nor the virus’s "accomplice". During the time, H1N1 flu was first diagnosed in the United States and broke out in a large area, subsequently, spreading to 214 countries and regions, resulting in the death of nearly 200,000 people, has anyone asked the United States to compensate? In the 1980s, AIDS was first discovered in the United States and quickly spread to the world, causing pain to many people and many families. Has anyone sought compensation from the United States? The financial turmoil that occurred in the United States in 2008, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and eventually evolved into a global financial crisis. Has anyone demanded compensation from the United States? The United States must be clear that their enemy is a virus, not China.

3. Wang Yi went on to say: If Trump and Pompeo were not guilty of geriatric madness, then they should be clear that China is no longer the China of yesteryear , to be trampled on by the "eight-nation coalition". Neither is China like Iraq, Venezuela, Syria, where you can come as you please & investigate as you please. Its not that China is afraid, but, rather China feels that US is neither qualified, nor have that right. In the early stage of the epidemic, we took the initiative to invite WHO and Chinese experts to conduct a joint inspection in the epidemic area, and put forward preliminary inspection results on the outbreak and spread of new coronavirus. The investigation request made by Trump is purely unreasonable and is a manifestation of hegemony. They purport the United States as above all international laws and humankind, and that only they can be trusted. But is the United States really that credible? Iraq and Venezuela are lessons to be learnt.

4. We have to warn Trump that if they want to mess around with China, they better think it through. Because 1.4 billion people will not agree, China's 2 million army is not a decoration, but China's Steel Great Wall. China's Dongfeng missiles are not used to rake, but to fight dog jackals. China's nuclear submarines are not used for touring the seabed, but to combat uninvited guests. Chinese nuclear weapons are not used to frighten anyone, but for self-defense. Anyone who wants a taste of it, once you have thought it through clearly, let me know.

5. We want to warn Trump that if US demands compensation from China, US should first account for & compensate back when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, including all the cases that Wang Yi has just mentioned above added together. US has to first account & compensate China & the rest of the world for those historical cases, before we even begin to talk.

6. Now China is in a very good position in the world, the first to control the new covid virus, the first to enter the stage of economic recovery, and now, its time to accelerate the export of anti-epidemic materials to the world. China is catching up in the Global economy, and the time to overtake the United States is also greatly advanced. It is apparent that this is unacceptable to Trump. The United States has been dragged into the quagmire by Trump. At this time, Trump wants to make China and the rest of the world suffer. Harmfulness to humankind is absolutely wicked and the wicked will have their just dessert.

I hope that every Chinese can turn this article out so that our China becomes stronger and stronger and support all patriotic groups.



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Long March-5 rocket in position for China's first Mars probe

Infographic: GT

Photo: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

China has taken another major step toward its first Mars probe mission, Tianwen-1. The Long March-5 Y4, the carrier rocket commissioned for the probe, was vertically transported to the launch area at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan Province on Friday morning ahead of the launch scheduled to take place between the end of July and the beginning of August, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA.)

According to a CNSA press release the Global Times attained on Friday, the Long March-5 Y4 rocket arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in late May this year, and has completed preparation work including assembly and pre-launch tests.

On Friday Morning, the carrier rocket was transferred to the launch area after a smooth roll-out from the assembly building, which took around two hours, the CNSA said.

Propellant will be injected into the rocket after further functional checks and final inspections. And then the rocket will be launched according to schedule.

The minimum distance between Mars and Earth is about 55 million kilometers, and the two planets only come that close every 26 months, state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the mission's contractor, told the Global Times in June. The Mars exploration window is open between July and August.

The final launch date of China's Mars probe mission will be determined by environmental factors including weather conditions, the distance between Earth to Mars and the launch center's overall condition, as well as a small but more decisive factor, the technical readiness inspection before launch, Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of the Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Friday.

There must be no rainfall, with a ground wind speed of below 8 meters per second and horizontal visibility above 20 kilometers, Beijing-based space expert Pang Zhihao told the Global Times.

Moreover, from eight hours before launch until one hour after launch, 30 to 40 kilometers of surrounding areas should have no thunder activity, and wind speeds should be weaker than 70 meters per second in skies 3 to 18 kilometers above the launch area, Pang said, noting that winds at 8 to 15 kilometers above ground would affect the rocket's flight form.

A wind speed difference in the lower and upper air could twist the rocket's body, leading to failure, he said.

The UAE's mission to Mars has been rescheduled for launch between July 20 and 22, the UAE government announced on Thursday.

The launch of Japan's Hope probe was postponed twice this week due to unstable weather at its launch site on Japan's Tanegashima island.

"Weather conditions in Hainan are in general better than those in Japan. That was one of the factors China took into consideration when deciding to construct the launch center in the southern island of Hainan," Wang said.

The mission will mark the first application launch of the Long March-5, currently the strongest member of the Chinese carrier rocket family. It will be China's first rocket launch into the Earth-Mars transfer orbit.

The Tianwen-1 Mars probe mission was approved by Chinese authorities on January 2016, and aims to achieve orbiting, landing and roving on the Red Planet in a single mission.

The upcoming launch will be the fourth flight of the Long March-5, following the successful comeback of the state-of-the-art rocket at the end of 2019, more than two

years after a July 2017 launch failure on the rocket's second test flight due to engine problems. Earlier on Tuesday, media reported that spacecraft developer, the China Academy of Space Technology, had revealed the Mars probe which had arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Center.

Space experts expressed confidence in the success of China's Mars mission as the country has amassed rich experience from previous lunar probe missions, with the Chang'e-4 landing on the far side of the moon being the major highlight.

"The relay communication technology applied in the Chang'e-4 mission will be particularly valuable for the Mars mission, overcoming the distance challenge for interplanetary spacecraft communication," Wang said.

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Rocket to lift Mars probe moved to launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southern island province of Hainan

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China said it was not afraid of any sanctions the United States might impose over the South China Sea issue, and accused Washington of stirring up trouble in the region and driving a wedge between regional countries.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying made the remark at a daily news briefing after Reuters reported that David Stilwell, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, warned that Washington could respond with sanctions against Chinese officials and enterprises involved in the South China Sea issue.

Stilwell spoke one day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful”.

Urging Washington to reconsider its policies, Hua said, “As the world’s most developed and powerful country, the only superpower, the US arbitrarily talks about sanctions, which is very pathetic.”

Hua said that Stilwell’s remarks again showed that the US wishes nothing but chaos in the South China Sea and makes the utmost efforts to sow discord between China and other regional countries.

The US has dispatched advanced military aircraft and warships to flex its muscles in the South China Sea, while it also issued a statement to undermine the efforts of regional countries to jointly maintain peace and stability.

Such practices will only make the world more aware of US hypocrisy and hegemony, she said.

According to the US military, a US Navy destroyer carried out a freedom of navigation operation on Tuesday near the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.

China will continue to firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security and rights on the South China Sea issue and maintain friendly cooperation with regional countries, Hua said. — China Daily/ANN

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US versus China – in outer space

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IF you have been too preoccupied with all the awful stuff happening on Earth, you might have missed something that is shaping up. Up, as in up in space.

I did and it was only recently I caught up somewhat with the New Space Race. That was when I stumbled across the January graduation ceremony of the first class of 13 astronaut candidates comprising seven men and six women under the Artemis programme.

This is the long-awaited successor to the 1960s and 1970s Apollo missions by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). Artemis – goddess of the moon and twin sister of Apollo – is Nasa’s plan to finally return to Earth’s closest celestial body.

The first man to land on the moon was, of course, Neil Armstrong on July 20,1969, and that historic occasion marked the winner of the first space race between the United States and Russia (or USSR as it was then called).

I still remember the excitement of watching RTM’s delayed telecast of the very grainy footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I was all of 10 years old.

The subsequent Apollo missions were very much part of my teenage years, but with the exception of the near disaster of Apollo 13, none of them came close to the global excitement over Apollo 11’s achievement.

That feat will be exactly 51 years old come Monday. Since Dec 14,1972, when Apollo 17 landed, no humans have visited the Moon.

While the six Moon missions did deliver much scientific data and 382kg of lunar soil samples, the race to the moon was essentially a politically-motivated contest to prove American technological prowess over Russian and once achieved, the enormously expensive one-upmanship (total cost was US$20bil) was over.

Nasa went on to do other great stuff like Skylab, the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS), which is still going strong after 20 years.

Without a doubt, for the last 50 years, the United States has held dominance in space exploration. But its pole position is now being challenged in the new space race.

This time it’s between the US and – no surprise – China, which also has its eye on the moon and beyond.

When China sent its first yuhangyuan (meaning “space navigator”) into orbit in the early 2000s, the West chuckled. They wondered what they would do during the flight and a think tank analyst guessed they would do some “physical exercises” and “space medicine-type things”.

No one is laughing now. In January last year, China landed its Chang’e 4 lunar lander on the far side of the moon, the first ever by any nation. (Chang’e is the Chinese moon goddess.)

From there, the Jade Rabbit 2 rover was able to transmit data back to Earth via a satellite that had been previously deployed around the moon for this purpose.

With that successful landing, China proved it has become a force to be reckoned with, which was President Xi Jinping’s declared intention in 2016 – to make China a “space giant” with the Moon as the vital centrepiece.

On May 5, China successfully launched its Long March-5B rocket, which is designed to ultimately transport astronauts into space. That was quickly followed by back-to-back launches of Earth-imaging satellites.

It might have faced a setback when its Kuaizhou-11 rocket carrying low-orbit remote sensing satellites failed to launch on July 10, but that won’t derail China’s plans to launch 60 spacecraft in over 40 launches this year.

What’s more, China plans to have its own space station in operation by the end of 2022. While Nasa partners with several other national space agencies on the International Space Station and welcomes newbie astronauts from many countries, including Malaysia, no yuhangyuan has been allowed on board.

China’s space station will orbit the moon to give it what is known as cislunar domination. Cislunar refers to the space between the earth and the moon and the moon’s orbit. If China succeeds, it will have the space equivalent of the Silk Road, because once cislunar is secured, it can develop a sustainable presence on the moon for in-space manufacturing, mineral extraction, and space-based solar power (SBSP) technology. From that, it can leap into deep space exploration and stage manned missions to Mars.

Nasa’s Artemis programme too has big plans for a permanent station orbiting the moon called the Gateway that would be instrumental to its ambition to send its first manned mission to Mars.

To do that, President Donald Trump proposed a US$4.7bil (RM20bil) budget submission for Nasa for 2021 so that Artemis can ensure “the next man and the first woman on the moon will be American astronauts (by 2024) – using this as a launching pad to ensure America is the first nation to plant its flag on Mars” by 2033.

But the Democrat-controlled Congress isn’t playing ball and wants to push the return-to-moon target date to 2028 because they don’t want it to be a Trump triumph.

This is the rare Trump initiative I actually like and how that will pan out, like his re-election, remains to be seen. But the space race is definitely on. There are other serious players, namely India and the newest – and I must say surprising – contender, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Russia, while maintaining a presence with its participation in the ISS, is by all accounts no longer a serious contender as its space agency Roscosmos is beset with corruption and mismanagement.

In 2014, India’s Space Research Organisation beat China in putting out a satellite in orbit around Mars, becoming the fourth national space agency to reach Mars. In the pipeline is the launch of its first crewed orbital space craft named Gaganyaan by 2022.

Today the UAE will launch its first mission to Mars: A spacecraft called Hope that will orbit the Red Planet to study its atmosphere and weather.

Undoubtedly, there are great bragging rights for a nation that has the means to undertake space exploration, truly the final frontier.

To be fair, the US has been very magnanimous in freely sharing Nasa’s inventions and innovations with the rest of the world. These include baby formula, scratch resistant lenses, artificial limbs, camera phones, athletic shoes, wireless headsets, water purification systems, the computer mouse and freeze-dried food. Just check out inventions we use every day that were actually created for space exploration on usatoday.com or bit.ly/spacethings.

I do wonder whether China will be as magnanimous?

YouTuber and former Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Mark Rober aptly sums up what he considers the five best reasons for space exploration in his video, “Is Nasa a waste of money?”

The one that seems the most far-fetched yet most compelling is finding habitable planets that humans can live on to prevent humanity’s extinction. Earth could be destroyed by a meteor strike or by our own human doing, a possibility which has become more real with the Covid-19 pandemic and worsening climate change.

But space exploration is no longer the sole domain of governments. Increasingly, private sector entities like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Roger Zhang Changwu’s LandSpace have become important players and collaborators.

Still, instead of Artemis versus Chang’e, I wish the US and China can resolve their differences and work together on their space ambitions for the good of humankind instead of turning space into the latest battleground for economic and military supremacy.

I had a glimpse of the future of space exploration in 1995. That was when I visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston and saw the prototype design for the ISS.

That was in my lifetime, as was the 1969 moon landing. I may live long enough to see the first woman to walk on the Moon but perhaps not the Mars manned mission.

That saddens me but it also thrills me to know that it will happen. Bon voyage, astronauts and yuhangyuan!

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

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US' withdrawal from the WHO is equivalent of surrendering to the coronavirus ; WHO to send experts to China for cooperation on COVID-19 origin-tracing

US' withdrawal from the WHO is the equivalent of surrendering to the coronavirus

WHO withdrawal US' worst global retreat ever:

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WHO to send experts to China for cooperation on COVID-19 origin-tracing

After consultation between the two sides, the Chinese government has agreed that the World Health Organization (WHO) will send experts to Beijing to exchange ideas with Chinese scientists and medical experts on science-based cooperation to trace the origin of the COVID-19 virus, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday.

Noting that WHO experts will be traveling to China to prepare scientific plans for identifying the zoonotic source of the disease, Zhao told a daily press briefing that experts from both sides will develop the scope and Terms of Reference for a WHO-led international mission.

"Virus source tracing is a scientific issue that should be studied by scientists through international research and cooperation across the globe," Zhao said, adding that it is also the view of WHO that it is an ongoing process probably concerning many countries and localities, and WHO will conduct similar trips to other countries and regions in light of the actual need.

Zhao said that the WHO and China have maintained communication and cooperation since the start of the pandemic.

Identifying the origin of emerging viral disease has proven complex in past epidemics in different countries. A well planned series of scientific researches will advance the understanding of animal reservoirs and the route of transmission to humans. The process is an evolving endeavor which may lead to further international scientific research and collaboration globally, Zhao said.

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Global AI collaboration to fight pandemic, revive economies

The future is AI technology

A staff member, wearing a face mask following the Covid-19 outbreak, is looking at a robot at the venue for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China. Prompted by the need to contain Covid-19, the world is now looking toward AI-based techniques to aid the anti-pandemic fight. - Reuters

SHANGHAI, July 11 (Xinhua): Due to Covid-19, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2020 in Shanghai this week adopted a hybrid model where offline exhibitions and online displays took place simultaneously to showcase the latest artificial intelligence (AI) applications and frontier development.

More than 500 AI experts and executives, including Nobel laureates and Turing Award winners, attended this year's WAIC held from Thursday to Saturday with the theme of "Intelligent Connectivity, Indivisible Community."

AI has already demonstrated its potential to transform societies, economies and industries, but this is just the beginning, according to experts at the conference. WAIC plays a critical role in bringing people together to learn from one another and identify ways of collaborating to achieve more.

AI TECHNOLOGIES FIGHT EPIDEMIC

In recent years, AI has begun to play a significant role in many sectors. Prompted by the need to contain Covid-19, people around the world are looking toward AI-based techniques to aid the anti-pandemic fight.

Companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, SenseTime and iFlytek have been among the first to join the fight. Data modelling, crowd screening, and tracing contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases have been widely used to help control the spread of the coronavirus.

SenseTime, an AI-technology firm with its China headquarters and Global R&D headquarters in Shanghai that specializes in computer vision and deep learning, participated in this year's event.

During the outbreak of Covid-19, SenseTime collaborated with several hospitals and medical institutions across China to assist COVID-19 diagnoses. The company upgraded its diagnosis application, which dramatically improved the effectiveness, accuracy, and speed of the current analysis of CT scans with the help of AI algorithms.

Screening large crowds is another area where AI shows its potential, particularly in public spaces such as the metro. AI firm Megvii, another exhibitor at WAIC, launched a remote temperature measurement system in subway stations in Beijing to help screen out passengers with a high fever. Compared with manual detection, the system can examine up to 300 people in one minute without disrupting passenger flows.

Shen Xiangyang, a professor from Tsinghua University, said during the conference that AI technology could play a significant role in remote diagnoses, vaccine development, virus analysis and global coordination.

With the widespread application of AI products and technologies in the battle against the epidemic, Li Yong, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, said that the technological innovation of AI should go beyond national boundaries to avoid widening the technological gap between developed and developing countries.

AI is also changing the way of scientific research and pharmaceutical manufacture in the healthcare sector.

"Health systems face incredible challenges due to aging populations, increased patient expectations, and the growing prevalence of chronic conditions. Covid-19 has only intensified those challenges," said Pascal Soriot, executive director and CEO of AstraZeneca. "If AI is to play its full part in overcoming them, I believe we need to embrace the opportunity, collaborate, and pursue it together."

NEW ENGINE FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to rising demand for online services, which at the same time created many new scenarios for AI applications. Many experts attending the WAIC saw AI as a new engine to stimulate growth in the post-coronavirus era.

Zhu Min, chairman of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University, was upbeat about the prospects of the AI industry. "Our lives underwent fundamental changes when we moved from offline to online activities, making teleworking, online entertainment, shopping, and conferencing part of our daily lives. This provides a broad space for AI development in the future."

China has seen a quickly evolving AI ecosystem in recent years. Many Chinese cities have stepped up efforts in building AI clusters.

Shanghai built the AIsland of the Zhangjiang Science City in the Pudong New Area, an AI cluster for both major AI players and start-ups. Covering an area of 66,000 square meters, the AIsland has attracted about 90 companies, including Microsoft and IBM.

Besides a rapidly expanding AI market, AI companies were also buoyed by a friendly policy environment. In this year's government work report, China called for support on the construction of new types of infrastructure, which is widely regarded as a positive policy signal for cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, AI, and the Internet of Things.

New infrastructure will hopefully start the trend of AI in all aspects of life in China, said Li Yanhong, CEO of Baidu, at the opening ceremony of the WAIC.

The continuous efforts in promoting the AI industry and the construction of new types of infrastructure will boost economic activities following the pandemic, experts said.

Kai-Fu Lee, chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, was confident of the potential of the collaboration between AI and traditional industries, noting that more traditional industries ranging from manufacturing, medical care to the education sector will focus on improving efficiency in the next decade.

Right before the WAIC 2020, the Shanghai AI Tower was unveiled in the city's Xuhui District, marking another milestone of international AI cooperation.

Twenty leading global AI companies including Microsoft, Huawei, and Alibaba have clustered in the twin buildings on the waterfront along the Huangpu River.

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, who is also co-chair of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, underlined cross-border collaboration and the unity of mankind during a virtual speech at the opening ceremony of the conference.

"We should take responsibility instead of being worried because the virus does not need a passport or sees no national borders. Technology should also have no borders," said Ma. "We have no other choice, so the sooner we start to cooperate, unify, and embrace each other, the sooner we will win," he added. - XInhua

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The fight for digital supremacy

China is at the forefront of a huge revolution in AI. Already, the United States realises it is no longer the leader.

Whenever Trump (left) is put in a corner, his tactic is to blame China! (President Xi right). The latest being his wish to distract from his Administration’s failure to contain the disease, Covid-19.

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CHINA bashing has become a bipartisan passion in the West, especially the United States.

Whenever Trump is put in a corner, his tactic is to blame China!

The latest being his wish to distract from his Administration’s failure to contain the disease, Covid-19 – such that America, despite having had months to prepare for it, now has the most Covid-19 cases and deaths in the world – far, far more than China.

Where recent pandemics – including the 2014 African Ebola outbreak – saw productive Sino-American co-operation, this one has taken the already poor relations between the United States and China to new lows. As I see it, they are likely to worsen, despite some efforts on both sides to rein in the rhetoric.

Chips war

Essentially, the conflict that matters most between the United States and China is the 21st century fight over technology– from AI (artificial intelligence) to 5G (network equipment). The real battleground is in chips or SCs (semiconductors) where US industrial leadership and China’s superpower ambitions directly clash.

Firms from the United States and their allies (including South Korea and Taiwan) dominate the most advanced areas of the industry.

China, by contrast, remains reliant on the outside world for supplies of high-end chips.

It spends more on semiconductor imports than it does on oil.

As far as I know, the list of top 12 SC firms by sales does not contain a single Chinese name. Well before Trump arrived on the scene, China made plain its intention to catch up.

Not surprisingly, China’s ambitions to create a cutting-edge industry worried Trump’s predecessor.

President Obama blocked and stymied the acquisition of chipmakers by the Chinese in 2015 and 2016. Other countries are alarmed, too.

Taiwan and South Korea have policies to stop sales of domestic chips firms and to dam flows of intellectual property. Since then, Trump has intensified the chips battle.

Three things have changed. First, the United States realised its edge in technology gives it power over China. Second, China’s incentives to become self-reliant in SCs attracted its tech giants to come on board: Alibaba, Baidu and Huawei, all ploughing money into making chips. And, China has showed that it can outcompete US firms.

China is destined to try to catch up; the United States is determined to stay ahead. Third, the SC supply chain is already too globalised for US to stop it.

Today, US has the edge over China in designing and making high-end chips. It can undoubtedly slow its rival.

But China’s progress will be hard to stop. Firms like Huawei have the proven ability to innovate; it spurred China on to develop its domestic supercomputing industry.

Zhongguancun

China’s own Silicon Valley – Zhongguancun – has come of age.

Originally a byword for cheap knockoffs in the electronics market, it has since evolved into a sweeping quadrant of north-western Beijing that includes its two leading universities, Peking and Tsinghua.

Zhongguancun is now a concept as much as a place for “self-dependent innovation of high-quality” economic development, to accelerate a shift from assembling tech products to creating them.

Surrounded by the world’s largest, fastest growing market for such goods, Zhongguancun is creating new apps, services and devices more speedily and cleverly than ever before.

Total venture-capital investment pouring into Chinese technology companies has grown rapidly, now reaching parity with the United States. New companies have ready access to capital and to refreshed flows of technically-minded graduates.

Indeed, China has long since moved beyond producing merely Chinese versions of Silicon Valley companies. The newest firms in Zhongguancun employ business models that do not exist yet in the United States.

Even in areas where Silicon Valley dominates globally (like social media), Zhongguancun can compete. But Zhongguancun’s real strength is in developing new applications and services in SCs and AI for the Chinese market, to be provided through smartphones.

Chinese digital services are often the first of their kind. The Chinese government has adopted a laissez-faire approach to such companies: “If there is no regulation, they let you run.”

To address one of Zhongguancun’s greatest weakness –a reliance on imported components and technology, firms are investing to make chips which manage charging devices wirelessly, or that fuse camera data into three-dimensional scans.

It is also investing in companies that design new materials – antibacteria ones for fabrics and mattresses, and ceramics for phones.

Zhongguancun is now set to blossom as a global, not just a regional, tech hub, to insulate China against protectionism.

The priority is to nurture its own suppliers. Chinese chip companies offer software for designing circuits, and handling licensing negotiations on behalf of its young tenants with other chip architecture firms.

The latest crop of start-ups has set their sights on foreign markets. They see the trade war not as a threat, but as an opportunity – to fill the gaps in Chinese supply chains and then compete in the West.

So far, very few Chinese tech companies have managed to go global, Huawei and Bytedance being the most prominent. And Huawei, in particular, is already under threat due to security fears in the West.

AI supremacy

China is at the forefront of a huge revolution in AI. Already, the United States realises it is no longer the leader. Today, fundamental AI innovation no longer matters, since the big intellectual breakthroughs have indeed occurred.

What matters most is effective implementation, not innovation. China has many advantages: (i) work of leading AI researchers is readily available online; (ii) its ceaseless “trial and error” approach is well suited to the effective rolling out of the fruits of AI; (iii) the dense urban settlements have created a huge demand for delivery and other services; (iv) its backwardness allowed businesses to leapfrog; (v) China has scale; (vi) there is a supportive government; and (vii) the Chinese is far more relaxed about privacy.

As I see it, China is fast catching-up in SC production. It’s already ahead in potential users, but has only about half the number of AI experts and companies.

What then are we to do

Not so long ago, all Top 10 technology companies were American.

Today, four among them are Chinese, including Huawei whose revenues amounted to less than US$28bil in 2009; they reached US$107bil in 2019. Telecoms and wireless technology are at the forefront of the competitive sparring between the United States and China.

In a world where everything is dual-use technology, it is difficult to distinguish what is commercial and civilian; what is strategic and military.

To have the technological edge is existential for both nations.

5G is a big deal, both in itself and because of its multiplier effect on a range of other technologies, including autonomous vehicles, the Internet of things, smart cities, virtual reality and, battlefields.

The first movers will set global standards. That in turn brings-in billions in revenues, substantial job creation and leadership in any other technologies that require ever swifter transmission of data.

The United States is determined that China will not dominate in 5G. The country that owns 5G will own many innovations and global standards.

As I see it, the United States will not dominate. Chinese equipment is cheaper and in many cases, superior.

No question US has lost its edge. Huawei today has become a national champion of China, mainly because of its huge investments – US$180bil over the past five years and has 10 times as many base stations as the United States.

Sanctions by US against Huawei is likely only to accelerate China’s efforts to achieve self-sufficiency.

To me, Western panic over Huawei is overblown. 5G will not yet profoundly alter consumers’ lives. True, it promises faster connections; but often only in optimal conditions. I know similar down-speeds can be achieved by extending 4G. Outside China, South Korea and a few other Asian countries, the uptake of 5G is likely to be slow.

Sure, 5G is more than just a faster way to stream. The extra processing oomph will allow base stations on networks’ “edge” to guide self-driving cars, or robots on factory floors.

5G will not just power telecoms but much of economic activity, making wireless networks into critical infrastructure.

Its wireless connectivity brings with it the next-generation Wi-Fi, constellations of low-orbit satellites and, soon 6G.

So, Chinese dominance of this wireless tapestry spooks many Western security hawks.

If Huawei is allowed to build even parts of these networks, it could wreak havoc in the event of a conflict between China and the West.

For all his China-bashing, Trump appears to have since demurred, instead heeding the concerns of America’s tech bosses, who warn that such a move can hurt their industry.

As I see it, the 5G race is not about out-innovating China but hobbling it. In the end, Trump faces a clear choice in doing something altogether very American: help usher in innovation that lets many companies thrive at a time when cheaper and better connectivity is precisely what a post-pandemic world really needs. But will he?

By Lin See Yan
The views expressed are the writer’s own.

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Financial scandals are pandemic too

QUESTION: What do Wirecard, Luckin and Hin Leong have in common, although all three are based thousands of miles apart in Munich, Beijing and Singapore respectively? Answer: Accounting and/or financial scandal?

That’s right, despite having seen numerous cases in the past with the likes of Enron, WorldCom, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bernie Madoff and of course, our very own Transmile, the corporate world has not learnt its lessons as we continue to see scandal after scandal that rock markets and test investors’ nerves. Losses derived from these scandals are getting bigger and bigger, and is normally more obvious during trying times like an economic recession or at the height of an economic boom that has created a massive financial or stock bubble.

In the scheme of things that are related to financial or accounting scandals, it is common that they are carried out not just by one person but a host of others including third parties who are entrusted by shareholders to oversee the operations of a company.

This include potentially, not only the board of directors, but also lenders, auditors, investment bankers, regulators, employees and most often, the key management personal, especially the CEO, or other C-suite high-ranking officials.

In Wirecard’s case, the scandal was unearthed when the auditors could not locate some missing cash amounting to €1.9bil as it was trying to wrap up auditing the company’s finances for 2019. Kind of ironic when we think about it that Wirecard’s business model was in fact about transmitting monies electronically on behalf of banks to merchants as it was seen as a trusted source in the e-commerce space and yet it failed to account for its own cash.

Wirecard’s auditors in Germany, Ernst & Young (EY), had failed to obtain crucial banking information from a bank in Singapore. Interestingly, this was only revealed after Wirecard’s board actually commissioned a special audit as allegation of fraud was made by UK’s Financial Times in January. The newspaper said it suspected that Wirecard’s staff had inflated sales and profits to mislead its auditor, EY.

What was astonishing on Wirecard is how market had perceived the company. From a fintech start-up to one of Germany’s largest listed company with market capitalisation of €24bil. But despite its high profile status, short-sellers were going for the kill for years. Some of them have been shorting Wirecard since early 2000 while others at a later stage.

Even Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, defended Wirecard against short sellers by investigating them on the grounds of market manipulation. Short sellers on Wirecard were confident that something was amiss on its financials and hence they were daring enough to take on large positions. However, it was only after the FT report, that BaFin turned around and started to investigate Wirecard instead. During this time, the auditors remained silent as they had vouched Wirecard’s financial statements for the previous years and right up to 2018. According to a Bloomberg report, EY accused its client of “an elaborate and sophisticated fraud” that allowed the monies to go missing.

In Hin Leong’s case, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report, the company had overstated its assets by an “astonishing” sum of more than US$3bil, which consists of US$2.23bil in accounts receivables which have no prospect of recovery and another US$0.8bil in inventory shortfalls. The oil trading giant had also fabricated documents on a “massive scale” to conceal losses of some US$800mil accumulated over the past decade.

The PWC report also highlighted that despite posting losses in the past, the company paid out dividends totalling US$90mil in FY2017 and FY2018. Founded by tycoon, O.K. Lim, Hin Leong is one of Singapore’s oldest oil trading company but the volatility in oil prices especially in the Covid-19 environment probably resulted in them not being able to withstand the pressure.

By the time the company filed for bankruptcy on April 17, it was revealed that it owed US$3.85bil to 23 lenders. Despite the financial scandal and even after it had filed for bankruptcy, its auditors, Deloitte, stood firm on the quality of its audit carried out “based on the information provided to them at the time”.

From Beijing, Luckin is another scandal that rocked investors as the coffee chain store, a.k.a. China’s Starbuck, after an internal investigation, revealed that the company’s revenue and expenses were inflated. Its co-founder and Chairman, Charles Zhengyao Lu, had pledged shares of the company for a margin facility amounting to US$300mil and as the scandal unfolded, its share price collapsed. Luckin, founded just three years ago and deemed as one of China’s brightest young start-up, raised some US$645mil in its US initial public offering last year and was aggressive in its expansion programme. The company had also dismissed its CEO, COO and some other employees reporting to the C-suite officers.

We all know that scandals arose due to pure greed and this greed is driven by financial interest of persons involved either via the value of their shareholdings, or in the case of Hin Leong, a pure personal interest as the company was privately owned. In Luckin, the company’s ambitious plans to take on its number one rival was perhaps the very reason for its downfall while the pledging of his shares to bankers probably provided him an added reason to falsify the accounting statements, in order to sustain the company’s share price.

Auditors are just auditors

Every time a scandal erupts, it is not uncommon for people to ask questions like “where was the auditor?” or “what was the auditor doing?” Whether it was Wirecard, Hin Leong or even Luckin, we cannot blame the auditors entirely for financial scandals as there are more hands in play to conceal facts, documents, evidence.

The job of an auditor is to audit financial statements to ensure they represent a “true and fair” view of the financial affairs of the company based on acceptable and recognizably accounting standards, for example the Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Auditors used what is known as approved standards in auditing In Malaysia as well as International Accounting Standards when auditing a company.

It is not an auditors’ job to do a 100% audit of a company but, of course, if there are reasonable ground to be suspicious of the accounting practices, the auditor is required to probe further to gain assurance of the company’s financial statements. The question is then, how can we avoid such scandals occurring time and again?

Governance and independence are keys

Auditors are paid by the company and so are the board of directors. Globally, this has been the practice but in order to move away from “dependence” of a particular audit job and the fees that come with it, there needs to be a change. Auditors play a crucial role to ensure they remain independent and if their fees are dependent on the unqualified opinion, then it is obvious their role as an auditor has been compromised.

Regulations and laws ought to be amended to have auditors to be paid out of a pool of funds managed by an independent body. The choice of auditors needs to be made by this independent body and not at the whims and fancies of a company while the duration of an auditor being engaged by a company should be restricted to a term not exceeding five years.

The audit profession has its own shortcomings as it tends to be a breeding ground for young graduates for a few years before they move to greener “non-audit” pastures. Audit firms ought to have better compensation schemes for young auditors to remain in the profession to enable them to gain more audit experience. The high turnover in the field of audit is another reason why auditors sometimes do not understand a client’s business model or as to how transactions, whether suspicious or otherwise, are carried out, resulting in accounting scandals that are not easily detectable.

As for board of directors, they owe a duty to stakeholders to ensure that the affairs of the company are carried out in the best interest of the company and not individuals. As this column has highlighted before, the need for independent directors to not only be independent in form but in substance, it is their duty to ask the right questions to the board in terms of the finances of the company to ensure they represent the true and fair representation of the affairs of the company.

Independent directors should ask the right questions
New disclosure rules required for board of directors/senior management

From Enron to WorldCom and from Transmile to Luckin, there are few things we could learn. First, is in relation to the company’s financial performance and meeting market expectations. We see in these cases where companies try very hard to show sustained revenue and earnings to ensure that stock price do not collapse or pull back as there are personal interest associated to certain individuals (board members or C-suite officers) of the company. These individuals could have margin facilities taken up as they have pledged their shares to the banks.

When the market eventually finds out the truth about the affairs of the company, it is likely too late to realize what causes it in the first place. But of course, investigations later would reveal the level of personal interest associated with the scandal itself as the persons have financial interest in ensuring the company’s stock price remains elevated.

To overcome this, regulators or even the Companies Act, 2016, should be amended to ensure full disclosures are made publicly as to the number of shares that are pledged by board members as well as C-suit personnel on a quarterly basis as this will provide some guidance to investors as to the level of personal interest involved and for the auditors to be more mindful and to probe further if the situation warrants it.

Of course, the investment research fraternity ought to take stock when recommending buy calls on stocks as they are led to believe the company’s expected performance in the future by the company itself. In the heydays of stocks like Aokam Perdana and Transmile, stock price target levels were raised rapidly by analysts on the believe that the company’s fortunes are made in heaven and the shares of these companies skyrocketed before reality set in.

Driven by either rising selling prices or simply capacity expansion and demand growth, analysts do sometimes get carried away with innovative valuation models to justify a higher and higher market price each round. We saw that in the 1990s, during the dotcom bubble and even specifically on individual stocks or sectors. Sounds familiar?

In conclusion, like a pandemic, financial scandals can easily spread especially in desperate times or in times when the going is too good. Financial or accounting scandals will always be there but it is the duty of stakeholders, i.e. board members, the auditors, the regulators, the legal framework and the investment fraternity to ensure they are able to keep up with the changing landscape and to provide the check and balance much needed to protect, not only the minorities, but also the potential rippling effect to the market and financial system as a whole.

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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