“Stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation is highly important for providing employment for key groups of people and increasing their income" - Premier Li Keqiang
China will roll out new measures to catalyze entrepreneurship and innovation with special focus on employment of and business start-up by college graduates and other key populations, the State Council’s executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided Wednesday.
The nationwide initiative spurring entrepreneurship and innovation is a crucial underpinning for sustaining and expanding employment, and nurturing new drivers of growth. Premier Li Keqiang highlighted the need to further take forward the entrepreneurship and innovation initiative, and catalyze its role in promoting employment, especially for college graduates.
The meeting underlined the imperative to make all-round efforts to maintain stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas.
Given the shocks caused by COVID-19 and shifting environment for development, the meeting urged keeping to the strategy of innovation-driven development, and spurring society-wide entrepreneurial activities and innovation, to unleash market vitality and people’s creativity.
New drivers of growth will be fully harnessed to support jobs and market entities, with a particular focus on the employment of college graduates, rural migrant workers who have returned to their hometowns and other key populations.
“Stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation is highly important for providing employment for key groups of people and increasing their income. Competent departments should work out greater support for the employment of college graduates and rural migrant workers,” Li said.
A series of concrete measures were adopted at the meeting. Support for entrepreneurs and innovators will be scaled up. Special funds will be earmarked from central budgetary investment for the development of the entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration centers.
Idle factory buildings and under-used land will be brought into full play as part of greater support for key entrepreneurial and innovation projects.
Government-invested incubators will provide a portion of their venues free of charge to college graduates and rural migrant workers.
One-off subsidies may be granted to first-time entrepreneurs returning or moving to the countryside, who have kept their business start-ups in regular operation no less than a year.
Demonstration programs for boosting employment by entrepreneurial activities will be carried out. Enterprises, entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration centers, and online platforms will be encouraged to jointly provide training on entrepreneurial skills in nursing, elderly care, domestic services, tourism and e-commerce to help shape the expectation of job-seekers and broaden their prospects for employment.
“We need to provide proper guidance for college graduates in their expectations for jobs, and encourage them to start their own businesses,” Li said.
The entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration centers will be encouraged to build platforms for integrated cross-regional development involving companies of different sizes. And platforms providing specialized services will be built for the commercialization of scientific and technological research outcomes.
Financial institutions will be encouraged to provide insurance services for the financial leasing of equipment and entrepreneurial activities.
Restrictions on sectors where insurance funds may be used for financial equity investment will be lifted, and the quota transfer of equity investment and venture capital investment will be piloted in regional equity markets.
The meeting urged stepping up basic research in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, and encouraging teenagers to learn and explore basic theories.
“University students need to be further encouraged to study and research basic theories, to underpin the country’s ability to innovate. Without a solid ground in basic research, it is impossible to make significant progress,” Li stressed.
THERE seems to be growing expectations among financial analysts that the US dollar strength will dissipate in the medium term as the global economy recovers from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to an analyst survey compiled by Bloomberg, the ICE US Dollar Index, which is a gauge of the greenback’s strength, could weaken about 2% to 94.1 points by the second quarter of next year. The index is currently trading around the 96 level.
Bloomberg also notes that the Deutsche Bank’s Trade-Weighted Dollar Index, which is a gauge of the currency against the United States’ most-important trading partners, has fallen to test the trend line in place since 2011. The report says a breach of that point would be an important signal for dollar bears.
This month alone the index has dropped more than 1% amid the weakening demand for safe-haven assets such as US Treasury bonds, an ongoing rally in risk assets such as equities and a shift in sentiment towards other currencies such as the euro and yuan.
Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart), at a virtual press conference over the week in conjunction with the release of its Global Market Outlook for the second half of 2020, asserts its bearish view on the US dollar over the medium term.
The multinational financial group points to massive US dollar liquidity provision and real interest rate differentials between the United States and other countries as among the factors that should facilitate a reversal in the US dollar decade-long bullish trend. “The longer-term cyclical US dollar uptrend that began in 2008 has likely peaked, with its downtrend expected to gain momentum over the coming year as the global economy rebounds and US exceptionalism fades, ” StanChart says.
“We expect some bumps on the road for the US dollar downtrend, particularly in the near term. These are likely to be driven by US political and policy uncertainty ahead of the November election, broader geopolitical risks and the evolution of the pandemic, ” it adds.
StanChart says it considers such events as opportunities for medium-term investors to sell US dollar rallies.
“We expect a 5%-7% US dollar decline over the next 12 months, with the euro, Australian dollar and British pound being the primary beneficiaries. There may be a more difficult passage for emerging-market currencies that are sensitive to an uneven global recovery and idiosyncratic risks, ” it says.
Viable alternative
Similarly holding a bearish view on the US dollar, Nomura says it expects the greenback to follow a path of reduced dominance and weaken over the long term.
In its recently released report titled “The World After Covid-19”, the multinational brokerage projects the US Dollar Index (DXY) to see a sharp depreciation of up to 20% in the coming years.
“Macro drivers include the significant deterioration of the US twin deficits, scope for European Union fiscal coordination, the undermining of the US dollar by US President Donald Trump through verbal and potential policy actions, and substantial foreign exchange (FX) overvaluation, ” Nomura says of what will lead to the weakness of the greenback.
“However, there are other developments that could reduce the role of the US dollar, some of which are structural, such as deglobalisation, yuan internationalisation, digital FX, Bitcoin and Facebook Libra, ” it adds.
Nomura also points out that the end of the US dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency has long been foretold, but it has yet to materialise due to the lack of a viable alternative. For instance, it notes, the greenback accounted for 88% of all global FX trades last year, up from 85% in 2010.
Nevertheless, Nomura says, the process of creating a viable alternative is gathering momentum, thanks to innovations from other global central banks and private financial institutions.
“Combined with worsening fundamentals for the US dollar, the risk over the coming years is not only one of a reduced role, but also what could be a relatively sharp DXY depreciation, possibly 20%, ” it says.
According to Nomura, the US dollar is overvalued by an average of 17.5%. The greenback on the real effective exchange rate model is overvalued by about 22%, while on the fundamental equilibrium exchange rate model, it is currently overvalued by about 15%.
Positive for emerging market
A weakening US dollar, Nomura says, will provide some breathing space for emerging-market currencies, especially those of countries with sizeable current account deficits. This is because they tend to be more vulnerable to capital outflows and hence, FX volatility.
The brokerage expects in a world of low interest rates in developed markets and ample liquidity due to global central bank easing, investors will be on the lookout for economies that offer higher risk-adjusted returns.
“Emerging markets, which offer a relative growth advantage, could benefit from such easy developed-market policies, by tapping low cost funds for high-return investment projects, ” Nomura says.
StanChart is positive on the FX of Asian emerging markets as US dollar weakness feeds through.
“Gradual emerging market FX appreciation should continue amid a recovery in global growth, easing restrictions and a broadly weaker US dollar, ” it says.
Nevertheless, it reckons a pick-up in US-China trade tensions and an uneven global economic rebound could pose a risk to its optimistic view on emerging-market FX.
Gradual ringgit recovery
On the ringgit, StanChart says further policy rate cuts by Bank Negara could potentially weigh on the performance of the Malaysian note. It points out that the ringgit remains relatively more exposed to external financing shocks.
At present, StanChart expects Bank Negara to keep the overnight policy rate at its current level through 2020. The central bank early this month cut the benchmark interest rate for the fourth time this year by another 25 basis points to 1.75%, the lowest since 2004.
Meanwhile, the longer-term valuations for US dollar to the ringgit remain attractive, StanChart says, adding that this should limit a sharp sell-off in the ringgit, while a stronger-than-expected rebound in commodity prices will bode well for the Malaysian currency.
Year-to-date, the ringgit is among the worst-performing currencies in Asia.
It has weakened by around 4% against the US dollar since the start of the year due to a number of factors, including political uncertainties following the fall of the Pakatan Harapan-led government, and risk aversion amid geopolitical tensions and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ringgit is currently trading around 4.27 against the US dollar, compared to around 4.09 to the greenback at the start of 2020.
According to Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB), the still positive yield differentials between Malaysia and the United States should be supportive of the ringgit over the medium term. A potential return to emerging-market assets as risk appetite improves should also support the local note, the brokerage says.
HLIB projects a gradual improvement in the ringgit, which it expects to end this year at 4.20 against the US dollar, before improving further to 4.15 against the greenback by end-June 2021.
It's neither moral nor just for the US & the West to refuse to coexist with the Chinese system https://youtu.be/qvjVDedLY-g
Below is the excerpt of Chinese Foreign MinisterWang Yi’s response during a press conference on Trump’s demand for a US investigation on Wuhan epidemic-related situation.
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.
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro briefed the media on Sunday, asserting that US President Donald Trump will take "strong actions" against TikTok and other Chinese-owned social media apps. Source: Global Times | 2020/7/13 21:14:43
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.
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
It will be a shame for regional countries to be manipulated by such an extraterritorial power, abandon our fundamental interests, fall into radical nationalist sentiments, and let Washington reap the benefits of our disputes.
Asian countries should be firm not to turn territorial disputes into the overriding melody of regional development. This will test the wisdom of regional countries.
An arms race and intimidation will return to international relations. Age-old contradictions will be reinforced in the loss of a world order. Favorable opinions toward each other's society will be reduced. The passion for studying and traveling abroad will cool down. The lives of many people will change.
Hong Kongers and the West have forgotten that Hong Kong was a forced ‘concession’ territory from China at gunpoint. The colonial history books that Hong Kongers want to preserve portray China as corrupt, evil and oppressive, as if Britain occupied Hong Kong for democratic purposes.
New frontier: A November 2019 file photo presented on Monday showing China’s Mars lander's hovering, obstacle avoidance and deceleration capabilities being tested at a facility in Huailai, Hebei province. China is scheduled to launch its Mars rover and an orbiter around July 23 in a mission named Tianwen, or ‘Questions for Heaven’. – AP
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.
Washington's withdrawal from the WHO is the worst among its retreat from various international organizations and treaties. The world should hold Washington accountable for betraying the common interests of humanity.
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.
Asian countries should be firm not to turn territorial disputes into the overriding melody of regional development. This will test the wisdom of regional countries.
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
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.
Venture capitalists and experts Stella Ji Xin, Wei Jiang and Rebecca Fannin discuss what’s at stake as the standoff deepens, exploring the growing list of what could go wrong as a tech war looms.
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.
Hong Kongers and the West have forgotten that Hong Kong was a forced ‘concession’ territory from China at gunpoint. The colonial history books that Hong Kongers want to preserve portray China as corrupt, evil and oppressive, as if Britain occupied Hong Kong for democratic purposes.
