30/05/2020
- Chinese groups calling for more ‘fighting spirit’ are getting the upper hand on those who favour calm and cooperation, government adviser says
- From Hong Kong to Covid-19, trade to the South China Sea, Beijing and Washington are clashing on a growing number of fronts and in an increasingly aggressive way
Efforts to promote dialogue and cooperation between the US and China are failing, observers say. Photo: AFP
Moderates who favour dialogue and cooperation as a way to resolve China’s disputes with the
United States are losing ground to hardline groups bent on taking the fight to Washington, according to political insiders and observers.
“There are two camps in China,” said a former state official who now serves as a government adviser and asked not to be named.
“One is stressing the combat spirit, the other is trying to relieve tensions. And the former has the upper hand.”
Relations between China and the US are under intense pressure. After Beijing moved to introduce a national security law for Hong Kong, US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington would begin eliminating the special policy exemptions it grants the city, as it no longer considers it autonomous from mainland China.
Beijing’s decision to enact a national security law for Hong Kong was met with anger from the US and other Western countries. Photo: Sam Tsang
The two nations have also clashed over trade, Xinjiang, Taiwan and the South China Sea, with the US passing several acts denouncing Beijing and sanctioning Chinese officials.
China has also experienced turbulence in its relations with other countries, including Australia and members of the European Union, mostly related to the Covid-19 pandemic
and Beijing’s efforts to position itself as a leader in the fight against the disease with its policy of “mask diplomacy”.
After Canberra appealed for an independent investigation to be carried out to determine the origins of the coronavirus, Beijing responded by imposing tariffs on imports of Australian barley, showing it is prepared to do more than just trade insults and accusations with its adversaries.
Pang Zhongying, a professor of international relations at Ocean University of China in Qingdao, said there was a worrying trend in China’s relations with other nations.
“We need political and diplomatic means to resolve the challenges we are facing, but … diplomatic methods have become undiplomatic,” he said.
“There are some who believe that problems can be solved through tough gestures, but this will never work. Without diplomacy, problems become confrontations.”
said during his annual press conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress last weekend that China and the United States must work together to prevent a new Cold War.
His words were echoed by
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who said during a press conference after the closure of the legislative session on Thursday that the many challenges facing the China-US relations could only be resolved through cooperation.
However, the government adviser said there was often quite a chasm between what China’s leaders said and what happened in reality.
“Even though we say we do not want a Cold War, what is happening at the working level seems to be different.” he said. “The implementation of policies is not properly coordinated and often chaotic.”
Tensions between China and the US have been in a poor state since the start of a trade war almost two years ago. After multiple rounds of negotiations, the sides in January signed a phase one deal, but the positivity that created was short-lived.
In February, Beijing expelled three reporters from The Wall Street Journal over an article it deemed racist, while Washington has ramped up its military activity in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, and threatened to revoke the visas of Chinese students studying science and technology in the US over concerns they might be engaged in espionage.
Beijing has also used its state media and army of “
Wolf Warrior” diplomats to promote its narrative, though many Chinese scholars and foreign policy advisers have said the latter’s nationalistic fervour has done more harm than good and appealed to Beijing to adopt a more conciliatory tone.
However, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Chinese tabloid Global Times, said China had no option but to stare down the US, which regarded the world’s most populous nation as its main rival.
“Being contained by the US is too high a price for China to pay,” he said. “I think the best thing people can do is forget the old days of China-US ties”.
Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, wrote in a recent newspaper article that Beijing’s actions – notably enacting a national security law for Hong Kong – showed it was uncompromising and ready to stand its ground against the US.
Wu Xinbo, dean of international studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, agreed, saying relations between the two countries were likely to worsen in the run-up to the US presidential election in November and that Beijing should be prepared for a fight.
But Adam Ni, director of China Policy Centre, a think tank in Canberra, said the issue was not that the moderate camp had been sidelined, but rather Beijing’s perception of the US had changed.
“Beijing has woken up to the idea that America’s tough policy on China will continue and it is expecting an escalation of the tensions,” he said.
“The centre of gravity in terms of Beijing’s perception of the US has shifted, in the same way the US perception of China has shifted towards a more negative image”.
Beijing was simply responding in kind to the hardline, assertive manner of the US, he said.
Source: SCMP
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13/03/2020
- System analyses hundreds of images in seconds, then advises doctors what to do next
- China has offered free use of the machine around the world, but US Centres for Disease Control says it does not recommend using scans to diagnose Covid-19
Chinese doctors are using AI to help them diagnose Covid-19 patients. Photo: AFP
A supercomputer in China offers doctors around the world free access to an
artificial intelligence diagnostic tool for early identification of
Covid-19 patients based on a chest scan.
The AI system on the Tianhe-1 computer can go through hundreds of images generated by computed tomography (CT) and gave a diagnosis in about 10 seconds, according to the National Supercomputer Centre in Tianjin, which hosts the machine.
An employee at the facility said the results could then be used to help medical professionals – especially those in areas that have limited test kits or are hit by a sudden increase in suspected cases – to quickly distinguish between patients infected with the novel coronavirus and those with common pneumonia or another illness.
The accuracy of the analysis was higher than 80 per cent “and increasing steadily every day”, he said.
The system has an English interface and the reports it produces direct doctors to those areas of the patient’s lungs that require special attention by circling them in different colours.
It also provides an estimate of the likelihood of the person having contracted Covid-19, in a range from zero to 10, with lower numbers suggesting a higher probability of infection.
It even advises on what to do next, based on the experiences and lessons learned from doctors who have treated coronavirus patients.
Dr Xu Bo, a lead scientist on the project at Tianjin Medical University, said in an interview this week with Science and Technology Daily that the accuracy of the system was initially “rather poor”.
But the team worked round the clock to train the machine using the latest information from doctors with experience of Covid-19 and their clinical practices, he said.
The AI system directs doctors to those areas of the patient’s lungs that require special attention by circling them in different colours. Photo: Handout
As the number of samples increased, the AI’s performance improved significantly, and is now helping medical teams fighting the coronavirus in more than 30 hospitals in Wuhan and other cities.
Xu said that it would take an experienced doctor about 15 minutes to go through the 300 images generated by a CT scan, while the AI did the job in about 10 seconds.
The system could be accessed via a computer or even a mobile phone, he said.
The use of chest scans for diagnosis was first proposed by doctors fighting the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan. After the city went into lockdown, a large number of suspected patients appeared and testing them for infection using genetic methods took from several hours to several days. Many people are thought to have died while waiting for their results to come back.
In a series of studies, including a paper published in medical journal The Lancet, Chinese doctors showed that CT scans were a reliable tool because the lungs of coronavirus patients had features unseen in other diseases.
The Chinese government accepted their advice and said scan results could be used as credentials for treatment. Many scientists have said that decision played an important role in controlling the outbreak in the country.
But not all countries agree with that methodology. The US Centres for Disease Control, for instance, “does not currently recommend CXR or CT to diagnose Covid-19”.
It said the reason was that using scans would attract more suspected cases to hospitals and in turn raise the likelihood of them infecting other patients and staff.
The American College of Radiology said: “CT should not be used to screen for or as a first-line test to diagnose Covid-19.”
After the device was used on a suspected patient, it could take an hour to clean the test room, the college said on Wednesday.
A doctor working at a Beijing hospital treating Covid-19 patients said the CT machine could scan hundreds of patients a day in China, but because of the different protocols in some Western countries, the number there fell to just one or two.
“Governments should not let the CT sit idle during a major public health crisis,” she said.
“If you can’t give the people a test, give them a scan.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in American College of Radiology, Artificial intelligence, beijing hospital, chest scans, Chinese, computed tomography (CT), coronavirus, COVID-19 patients, diagnose, National Supercomputer Centre, patients, Science and Technology Daily, supercomputer, Tianhe-1 computer, Tianjin, Tianjin Medical University, Uncategorized, US Centres for Disease Control, Western countries, Wuhan |
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31/08/2019
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 30, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Friday that the common interests between China and the Philippines far outweigh the differences in his meeting with visiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
Li said that China is willing to cooperate with the Philippines on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and seek better synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Philippines’ “Build, Build, Build” program, so as to promote sustained, stable and healthy development of bilateral relations and cooperation.
Li said that the current situation in the South China Sea is generally stable and the countries in the region are living in peace.
China always acts with the greatest sincerity and is willing to work together with the Philippines and ASEAN countries to achieve the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea in the period when the Philippines serves as a coordinating country for China-ASEAN relations, said Li.
Li also expected joint efforts to promote offshore oil and gas development, and safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea and the region.
Duterte said the Philippine side is willing to further expand exchanges and cooperation with China in such fields as the economy, trade and people-to-people exchanges, so as to promote bilateral ties and secure the two peoples concrete benefits.
Duterte said the Philippines will never confront China.
On the South China Sea issue, Duterte said Western countries are not COC negotiators and should not hinder the efforts of regional countries in this regard.
He said as the Philippines now is fulfilling its responsibilities as a coordinating country for China-ASEAN relations, the Philippine side will work with China and ASEAN countries to actively promote the adoption of the COC during his term of office.
Duterte also expressed the willingness to push forward common development with China on offshore oil and gas.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in "Build, Build, Build" program, asean countries, Belt and Road Initiative, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China alert, China-ASEAN relations, Chinese premier Li Keqiang, Code of Conduct (COC), common interests, differences, Philippine President, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, South China Sea, Uncategorized, Western countries |
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01/08/2019
- Fears are growing in the city that the military could be called in to quell unrest
- But the costs and complexities of doing so mean Beijing is highly unlikely to give the orders, observers say
PLA soldiers show their skills during a naval base open day in Hong Kong. The PLA has had a presence in Hong Kong since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
It is a prospect dreaded by many in Hong Kong, but debate is growing in mainland China about whether the central government should end weeks of upheaval in the city by sending in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The PLA has had a presence in Hong Kong since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty but – unlike in mainland China – memories of the military’s bloody suppression of pro-democracy students and activists in Beijing in 1989 are still strong in the city three decades on.
Still, images of protesters vandalising Beijing’s liaison office in downtown Hong Kong on Sunday have fanned nationalist anger across the mainland, prompting calls for PLA intervention.
Concerns only deepened on Wednesday when defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian commented on the recent clashes and protests in Hong Kong. Without suggesting any action or plans by the PLA, Wu made clear that the Garrison Law, which governs the operations of PLA troops in Hong Kong, already stipulates that the PLA is legally allowed to help the city maintain law and order at the request of Hong Kong’s government.
“We are closely following the developments in Hong Kong, especially the violent attack against the central government’s liaison office by radicals on July 21,” Wu said.
“Some behaviour of the radical protesters is challenging the authority of the central government and the bottom line of ‘one country, two systems’,” he warned, referring to the formula that grants Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy for 50 years. “This is intolerable.”
Both Article 14 and Article 18 of the Basic Law – the city’s mini-constitution – spell out how and under what circumstances the PLA troops in Hong Kong can be used.
While the legality is clear, analysts still believe that given the exorbitant political cost and complexities involved, using the military would remain an unlikely last resort.
Even Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s nationalist tabloid Global Times, has spoken out against the idea, citing its “huge political cost” and the “severe uncertainty” it might bring to the situation.
Crowds hold candles at a vigil in Victoria Park in Hong Kong in June to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Photo: James Wendlinger
“Once the PLA has taken charge of the situation in Hong Kong and quelled the riots, what’s next?” Hu said in a social media post on Monday.
Hu said there were no governance procedures in place that would allow the PLA to operate in Hong Kong and return things to normal. He also warned that any such action would be followed by international condemnation and a severe backlash among the Hong Kong public.
“The [PLA’s] Hong Kong garrison is the symbol of national sovereignty. It is not a fire brigade for law and order in Hong Kong,” he said.
Any move to use the Chinese troops will create a furore in the US Congress … They will re-examine the Hong Kong Policy Act very carefully Larry Wortzel, senior fellow at American Foreign Policy Council
The South China Morning Post reported last week that military force was not an option for mainland leaders working on a strategy to resolve the city’s biggest political crisis in decades.
And in June Major General Chen Daoxiang, commander of the Hong Kong garrison, assured David Helvey, US principal deputy assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs, that Chinese troops would not interfere in the city’s affairs, according to Reuters.
The comments support analysts’ assessments that deploying the PLA is not a viable solution to Hong Kong’s crisis.
“Will the mobilisation of PLA troops further inflame the situation? There might be people who will resist or even revolt against the PLA, and that may lead to bloodshed,” said Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official think tank.
The last time Beijing sent in troops to quell pro-democracy protests was during the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989 – bloodshed that has stained the PLA and the Communist Party to this day, despite decades of efforts to wipe it from public memory.
The last time Beijing sent in troops to quell pro-democracy protests was during the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Photo: Reuters
“Although they don’t like to admit it, they know they made a mistake in the way they used the PLA [in 1989],” said Larry Wortzel, a long-time PLA watcher, who witnessed the crackdown as an assistant military attache at the US embassy in Beijing 30 years ago.
“In subsequent years, when there were major demonstrations, they managed to handle them with either the People’s Armed Police [PAP] or the Public Security Bureau [PSB], or in some cases a combination of both,” said Wortzel, now a senior fellow in Asian security at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington.
If the military was deployed [in Hong Kong], it would mean China was ready to shut its doors completely Chen Daoyin, a Shanghai-based political analyst
The PAP is a 1.5 million-strong paramilitary police force tasked with maintaining domestic security and order, while the PSB is the country’s police force.
The June 4 crackdown is still widely remembered in Hong Kong, where tens of thousands gather every year on its anniversary for a candlelight vigil in the heart of the city.
“The activities in Hong Kong and the Chinese Communist Party’s conduct there have really had a profound impact on thinking in Taiwan. It has killed any chance with any political party of [supporting] the one country, two systems,” Wortzel said.
Chinese military can be deployed at Hong Kong’s request to contain protests, Beijing says
“The last thing President Xi Jinping and the Politburo Standing Committee would want to do, if they can avoid it, is to use the PLA [in Hong Kong].”
The situation in Hong Kong is also being closely watched in the West, with many international firms basing regional headquarters in the Asian financial hub, thanks to its capitalist system and rule of law.
Deploying the PLA to Hong Kong would certainly spark an international outcry and draw huge pressure from Western countries, said Liang Yunxiang, an international affairs expert at Peking University.
“Britain, of course, would have the harshest criticism since it governed Hong Kong for a long time and signed treaties with China to ensure Beijing would keep its commitment to one country, two systems,” Liang said.
In the United States, the repercussions could go beyond verbal condemnation to a shift in policy that might fundamentally change Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre and prompt an exodus of businesses, according to Wortzel.
“Any move to use the Chinese troops will create a furore in the US Congress … They will re-examine the Hong Kong Policy Act very carefully,” he said, referring to the bill passed in 1992 that allows Hong Kong to be treated as a non-sovereign entity distinct from mainland China on trade and economic matters.
Hong Kong head blasts violence, amid further extradition bill unrest
“They will simply treat Hong Kong like another Chinese city, which affects export controls and how the financial industry operates.”
Just last month, members of Congress reintroduced the bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. If the legislation is passed, the US could revoke Hong Kong’s special status under American law if Beijing fails to ensure the city has “sufficient autonomy”.
The crisis comes as Beijing’s ties with Washington are already strained by a year-long trade war that has spilled into other areas of bilateral relations.
PLA troops go through their paces for the public at their Hong Kong barracks during an open day. Photo: Edward Wong
There is also mounting international pressure on China over issues such as its mass internment and political indoctrination of an estimated million or more members of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, despite the Chinese government’s repeated denials of ill-treatment of the inmates and attempts to defend its policies.
Chen Daoyin, a Shanghai-based political analyst, said the increasing scrutiny China faced from Western countries – whether in the form of punitive tariffs or restrictions on technology – made it all the more important for China to keep Hong Kong as an open channel to connect with the world.
“If the military was deployed [in Hong Kong], it would mean China was ready to shut its doors completely,” Chen said.
Lau, from the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said the PLA should only be deployed as a last resort.
Two calls per second ‘jammed emergency lines’ during Hong Kong violence
“It would be a huge blow to the principle of ‘letting Hong Kong people govern Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy’, since it will prove that Hong Kong people are not up to the task of governing themselves,” he said.
Hu, from Global Times, said the PLA troops could be used only if the authorities lost control of the city or an armed rebellion broke out.
Short of that, he said, the central government should let the chaos in Hong Kong run its course and wait for the public mood to flip.
This strategy of sitting it out hinges on the city’s police force holding the line and stopping Hong Kong’s slide into total anarchy.
Wortzel also warned that there were lines protesters should not cross – or risk provoking the use of military force.
“For instance, to this point, demonstrators have not gone up against the PLA garrison or any of its outposts. If they did that, I think it’s possible – actually it is very likely – that there will be a limited mobilised response [to defend the facilities],” he said.
While most analysts said the chance of Beijing resorting to military force was slim, the very idea – ludicrous to even discuss three months ago – has become a popular topic on social media on the mainland, where the discussion is not censored and many commenters support it.
The official media have been careful not to touch the subject but they too have stepped up rhetoric against the protests in Hong Kong.
In a rare move, state-run China Central Television has run commentaries and reports about protests in Hong Kong during its main evening news for five days in a row.
Only the most politically important issues receive such unusual treatment.
Source: SCMP
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29/04/2019
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – China will help Cambodia if the European Union (EU) withdraws special market access over its rights record, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday as he announced a 600 million yuan ($89 million) Chinese aid package for his military.
Hun Sen, who is on a five-day trip to China to attend a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in Beijing, held bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping and signed several agreements with Cambodia’s most important ally.
Cambodia benefits from the EU’s “Everything But Arms” trade scheme which allows the world’s least developed countries to export most goods to the EU free of duties.
But Cambodia risks losing the special access to the world’s largest trading bloc over its human rights records.
During a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Li pledged to help Cambodia if the EU withdraws the market access, according to a post on Hun Sen’s official Facebook page.
“In this regard … Prime Minister Li Keqiang also confirmed his efforts to help Cambodia,” the post said.
China is Cambodia’s biggest aid donor and investor, pouring in billions of dollars in development aid and loans through the Belt and Road initiative, which aims to bolster land and sea links with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
Unlike Western countries, China does not question Cambodia’s record on rights.
The EU, which accounts for more than one-third of Cambodia’s exports, including garments, footwear and bicycles, in February began an 18-month process that could lead to the suspension of the special market access.
Among the agreements Hun Sen struck in China was one for Huawei Technologies to help Cambodia develop a system for 5G technology. The Chinese tech giant has ambitions to build the next generation of data networks across the world and boasts 40 commercial 5G contracts worldwide.
China also agreed to import 400,000 tonnes of Cambodian rice, according to Hun Sen’s Facebook page.
“China will continue to support the national defence sector in Cambodia, and in this regard, the Chinese president announced that China will provide 600 million yuan to Cambodia’s defence sector,” the post said.
Source: Reuters
Posted in 5G technology, africa, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum, bicycles, Cambodia, Cambodian Prime Minister, Cambodian rice, Central Asia, China alert, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, EU, Europe, European Union (EU), Everything But Arms, footwear, garments, huawei technologies, Hun Sen, middle-east, national defence sector, President Xi Jinping, Southeast Asian, special market access, Uncategorized, Western countries |
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