Mali coup criticized
Key to mastery
THURSDAY, August 20, 2020
Xi inspects flooded areas in Anhui
President also visits companies, learns
about resumption of their production
By ZHU LIXIN in Hefei
and AN BAIJIE in Beijing
China must improve its capability
to prevent and combat disasters in
its effort to build a modern socialist
country in an all-around way, Presi-
dent Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.
Xi made the remark during his
inspection tour of Anhui province.
He visited the floodgate of the Wang-
jiaba Dam on the Huaihe River and
flooded areas in Funan county.
Under the burning sun, Xi walk-
ed into the fields and visited local
residents living in a zhuangtai, a
residential structure built on
raised ground at a higher eleva-
tion that functions as a haven
from river floods.
On Wednesday, Xi traveled to the
LIFE AS WE
KNOW IT HAS
CHANGED,
POSSIBLY
FOREVER
X
Pandemic
halts handshakes,
hugging and high-fives
By PAN MENGQI
panmengqi@chinadaily.com.cn
T
he steady rise in the number
of coronavirus cases world-
wide has had a far-reaching
effect on how we live and
interact with one another, producing
many changes that are likely to be
long-lasting or even permanent.
For example, to reduce contact
during the pandemic, shaking
hands, a standard style of greeting
used by officials and businesspeople,
among others, has been replaced by
fist or elbow bumps.
In the United States, the country
hardest-hit by the outbreak, with
some 5.4 million confirmed cases of
COVID-19 and more than 170,000
deaths, the top health official said
such social niceties should end,
even when the pandemic is over.
Anthony Fauci, director of the US
National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, told The Wall
Street Journal in April, “I don’t
think we should ever shake hands
ever again, to be honest with you.”
Neel Gandhi, a professor of infec-
tious diseases, epidemiology and
global health at Emory University
in Atlanta, Georgia, told ESPN, a
US sports broadcaster, “When we
talk about maximum transmission
(of the coronavirus), the hands are
the place where I focus on the most.
“When we talk about the high-five
and also the handshake, this is almost
the perfect pathogen to spread it,” he
said, suggesting that people should
permanently avoid shaking hands.
If such advice from health experts
is followed on a mass scale, it will
produce a profound shift in human
behavior.
See Habits, page 2
国内统一编号:
CN11-0091
国际标准编号:
ISSN0253-9543 A member of the
邮发代号:1-3 Asia News Network
© 2020 China Daily
All Rights Reserved
Vol.40 — No.

12570
Cuddly exotic
Exhibition devoted to late artist Ye Qianyu
Exh
reveals secret of his work LIFE, PAGE 16


city of Ma’anshan and visited the
Xuejiawa Ecological Park, where he
inspected the condition of the Yang-
tze River. He also visited Magang
Group, a subsidiary of China Baowu
Steel Group, to learn about the com-
pany’s resumption of production
and business operations.
He also visited Hefei, capital of
Anhui, where he learned about the
condition of Chaohu Lake, praised
military forces dedicated to flood
relief work, learned about the prov-
ince’s scientific innovation work and
paid tribute to revolutionary martyrs.
While talking with flood-affected
villagers on Tuesday, Xi said that
Chinese people have been battling
natural disasters for thousands of
years and have accumulated valua-
ble experience.
People enjoy themselves on Saturday at the Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park, part of the Happy Valley amusement park in Wuhan,
Hubei province. The city recently issued alerts for high temperatures, prompting residents to flock to waterside facilities to keep cool.
ZHANG CHANG / CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Wuhan permits big gatherings as things get back on track
By ZHOU LIHUA in Wuhan
and ZOU SHUO in Beijing
With pandemic control meas-
ures in place, Wuhan, the Chinese
city hit hardest by COVID-19, is
hosting events involving large
gatherings of people to celebrate
life returning to normal.
On July 11, the Wuhan Maya
Beach Water Park, part of the
Happy Valley amusement park in
the Hubei provincial capital, kick-
ed off its annual 50-day open-air
electronic music festival to show
visitors a good time amid the
summer heat, said Tang Haifeng,
Happy Valley’s deputy general
manager.
Typhoon Higos’ gales hammer Guangdong
By ZHENG CAIXIONG
in Guangzhou
zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn
Typhoon Higos caused floods,
downed trees, damaged cars and
slammed transportation services
on Wednesday in major cities in the
western Pearl River Delta before it
weakened into a tropical storm and
left Guangdong province for the
Guangxi Zhuang autonomous
region that night.
Higos, the seventh typhoon
formed in the Pacific Ocean this year,
brought air, rail, water and road tra-
ffic to a halt in Guangdong after it
made landfall with maximum sus-
“During the fight, we should
respect nature, conform to the laws
of nature and live in harmony with
nature,” he said.
Xi said that he felt relieved when
he saw people’s lives and work were
protected and they were hopeful.
“I have always been concerned
about the people in flood-stricken
areas,” he said.
Local residents told Xi that they
have access to stable power and
water supplies, and have daily
necessities delivered to them.
They also said that as the flood-
waters receded, they resumed
farm work.
Anhui is among many places in
the country ravaged by floods and
landslides caused by incessantly
heavy rains this summer. As of Aug
13, more than 63 million people
nationwide had been affected,
according to the Ministry of Emer-
gency Management.
Around 20,000 people have
visited the amusement park every
day during the summer vacation,
he said, with around 12,000 of
them going to the water park.
The park decided to host the
music festival because the city has
been a low-risk area for COVID-19
for some time and has witnessed a
strong recovery from the pan-
demic, Tang said.
Pictures of partygoers in swim-
suits at the park waving to the
beat of music have raised eye-
brows on international social
media platforms, with the hash-
tag “Wuhan” among the top 10
trending topics on Twitter on
Wednesday.
tained winds of 126 kilometers per
hour in Zhuhai’s Jinwan district at
about 6 am on Wednesday. Despite
the damage, no casualties had been
reported by Wednesday evening.
Intercity railway services, includ-
ing the Guangzhou-Zhuhai and
Jiangmen-Zhanjiang lines, and
some high-speed train services
between provincial Guangzhou and
Shenzhen, were canceled, according
to China Railway Guangzhou Group.
Some other high-speed trains
departing from and arriving in
Zhuhai and Guangzhou from out-
side the province were also can-
celed or delayed due to strong gales
on Wednesday.
animals draw
customers
CHINA, PAGE 6
During a meeting on July 17, Xi,
who is also general secretary of the
Communist Party of China Central
Committee, stressed putting people’s
lives and property first and taking
more forceful measures to improve
flood control and relief work.
The inspection tour is the latest
among the president’s busy agenda
of domestic tours this year.
There are more than 20 flood
diversion areas along the Huaihe
River and most of them are in Anhui,
according to the provincial govern-
ment.
In Funan, which was previously a
key county for the country’s poverty
alleviation campaign, many villagers
have migrated to cities for work. The
local government has made great
efforts to create jobs for those who
have remained so that they will not
have to rely on the limited income
they can make from crops.
Wang Hengliang, a villager from
Among the comments posted
was one called for people to “quit
with the blaming of Wuhan for
COVID-19”. Another suggested
critics “take responsibility for our
own failure”.
Tang said the photos were taken
on Saturday, when about 20,000
people visited the water park.
“We are surprised that people
are so interested in Wuhan having
a music festival. Wuhan is a very
safe place, thanks to the concerted
efforts of its people and medical
workers from across the country,”
he said.
“Almost all people in the city
have been tested for the novel
coronavirus, and we have not
Many passengers were seen
waiting in long lines at Zhuhai
Railway Station and Guangzhou
South Railway Station to change
tickets or seek refunds.
Li Ya, a worker at Guangzhou
South Railway Station, said passen-
gers could avoid lines since refunds
were available until Aug 30. “Passen-
gers can also get refunds and change
their tickets online,” she said.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao
Bridge, linking the three metropo-
lises at the mouth of the Pearl River,
was temporarily closed for safety
reasons on Wednesday.
See Typhoon, page 3
UN, neighbors of African nation
condemn ouster of president
WORLD, PAGE 11
chinadaily.com.cn
Wangjiaba township who briefed Xi
on Tuesday about his factory, said he
was excited about the president’s
visit and has the confidence to run
his business better.
Wang, who went to Shanghai as a
migrant worker in 2000, returned to
his hometown to create a business
making bags and suitcases after the
government put forward favorable
policies to support entrepreneur-
ship in 2015. Wang said the presi-
dent showed concern for the
business and asked him questions
about its development.
Of his firm’s 97 employees, 48 are
from poverty-stricken families, and
each employee on average earns
more than 2,000 yuan ($289) a
month, Wang said.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
Contact the writers at
anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn
seen new cases for a long time. We
are getting back to normal life,
and the city is becoming better
and better.”
The park has taken strict pan-
demic control measures, such as
limiting the number of people to
50 percent of maximum capacity,
thorough sterilization and sanita-
tion of public areas and checking
the temperatures and apps that
indicate the health codes, or con-
dition, of all visitors, he said.
Water samples from the park
have been tested for coronavirus,
with all results coming back nega-
tive, Tang said.
See Wuhan, page 4
Workers remove a tree trunk snapped by Typhoon Higos in Zhuhai,
Guangdong province, on Wednesday. The typhoon made landfall in
the province on Wednesday morning. GUAN MINGRONG / NANFANG DAILY
RMB ¥2
RIGHT TRACK
Wider access
to services
trade given
to investors
By ZHONG NAN
zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn
China will create broader market
space for services providers from
overseas by removing entrance
barriers and making more conve-
nient services available for foreign
professionals to start businesses,
the Ministry of Commerce said on
Wednesday.
The ministry has introduced 26
measures, such as allowing foreign
institutions to independently run
economic and technological exhibi-
tions and helping local firms to
form partnerships with foreign
counterparts to develop cross-bor-
der commercial medical insurance
products.
“These measures are now in trial
use in the 28 pilot cities and
regions for the innovative develop-
ment of the services trade. They
will be expanded to other regions
of the country when conditions are
ripe,” said Xian Guoyi, head of the
ministry’s Department of Trade In
Services and Commercial Services.
Xian’s remark came after the
State Council, China’s Cabinet,
approved a plan early this month
allowing more cities and regions
to host the pilot program. It aims
to facilitate a higher level of open-
ing-up in the country’s services
trade by further refining govern-
ment policies and reforming the
existing administrative and regu-
latory systems.
The country has expanded the
pilot program to spur innovative
development of services in 28 cities
and regions, including Beijing,
Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province,
and Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang
Uyghur autonomous region, under-
scoring efforts to stabilize foreign
trade and foster new growth driv-
ers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The services trade refers to the
sale and delivery of intangible
products such as transportation,
healthcare, product development,
logistics, tourism and telecommu-
nications.
In addition to exploring the
relaxation of restrictive measures
in specific areas and promoting
mutual recognition of professional
qualifications among China and
other countries, Xian said the gov-
ernment will further simplify work
visa policies to help qualified for-
eigners work and develop their
businesses.
In the next stage, he said, more
resources will be made available for
the growth of services businesses in
the country’s northeastern, central
and western regions.
As many pilot cities are located in
these regions, the government will
formulate specific and feasible
implementation plans based on
their own industrial characteristics
and location advantages.
See Trade, page 3
2 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
PAGE TWO
Habits: New forms of greeting found
From page 1
However, some people are finding
alternative ways to greet one anoth-
er at a time when direct contact is
frowned on.
In South Korea, bowing deeply
and using fist bumps have become
popular. In Australia, officials
have suggested that people pat
each other on the back instead of
shaking hands, while Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
taken to greeting people namaste-
style — palms together and bow-
ing slightly.
Handshakes are just one form of
contact that has largely ended dur-
ing the pandemic, along with hug-
ging, high-fives and squeezing
shoulders, all of which are done
when standing less than 1 meter
apart.
As many people worldwide
emerge from lockdowns and
rebuild their social lives, experts
are predicting that some degree of
social contact will disappear for
good.
Tiziana Casciaro, a professor of
organizational behavior at the
University of Toronto in Canada,
said shaking hands taps into “a
fundamental drive” humans have
to establish trust with each other,
and the call by Fauci for the prac-
tice to end “flies in the face” of this.
But Casciaro said Fauci is moti-
vated by the desire to keep people
safe. She thinks that after the pan-
demic many people could be
deterred from shaking hands in the
short term. “They are going to be
shell-shocked for a while,” she said.
If such contact disappears com-
pletely, the way in which it is
replaced is open to question. How-
ever, what is certain is that social
interactions will be different.
Xu Tongwu, a professor of public
policy at the Research Center for
Social Organization and Public Gov-
ernance at the University of Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences said,
“There’s going to be a lot of awk-
wardness as people try to figure out
how to greet someone, how to pro-
fessionally welcome someone, or
even how to greet their daughter’s
boyfriend for the first time.”
Such uncertainty can affect rela-
tionships, Xu said, adding that peo-
ple might reserve handshakes and
hugs for those closest to them who
they trust the most. For those out-
side their immediate social circle,
they could develop new-style greet-
ings that don’t involve touching the
skin.
“We’re going to start seeing a lot
more interpersonal and family-
based sorts of conflict,” he said. If a
business colleague attempts a
handshake or a friend tries a hug,
and the intended recipient pulls
away, “there’s going to be a pretty
big ripple effect in terms of the
relational dynamics that we see,”
Xu said.
According to research by Ipsos
MORI in May, many people believe
that life will never return to normal
after the pandemic.
Only 7 percent of Britons want
businesses that have closed to
reopen if the virus is not fully con-
tained, while 70 percent strongly
oppose life returning to normal.
About 60 percent of Australians
and US citizens, 70 percent of Cana-
dians and 50 percent of people from
France and Brazil don’t want society
to return to normal, as they believe
the virus will never die out com-
pletely.
Xu said: “The pandemic has
changed everything we know, par-
ticularly how we remain socially
connected. People have risen to the
challenge and have tried to main-
tain social connections in creative
ways, but at the same time life has
been different and it can be hard to
adjust to the new changes.”
Long lines vanish
In China, where the pandemic has
been successfully brought under con-
trol, with only a small number of new
COVID-19 cases now being reported,
many containment measures look
set to remain for a long time.
For example, in Beijing, Gui Jie,
or Ghost Street, a long, bustling
thoroughfare, is lined on both
sides by a string of brightly lit res-
taurants. Many of them used to be
so popular that diners waiting for
a table often sat patiently outside
on stools placed on the sidewalk.
However, the lines of customers
have disappeared during the pan-
demic, with restaurants introducing
separated seating areas for custom-
ers, to prevent cross-contamination.
The lines are unlikely to return
anytime soon, as many establish-
ments nationwide have placed
1-meter markers on the ground to
separate people as they wait to be
admitted. Lines outside grocery
stores in cities have snaked around
blocks as shoppers try to maintain
social distancing.
Crowded concerts and mosh pits
will not be allowed at entertainment
venues while the coronavirus
remains a risk to public health.
Many singers have turned to online
concerts during the outbreak, unex-
pectedly attracting a large number
of fans and views.
In the US, a report in Rolling
Stone magazine in May on a per-
formance in Arkansas by the blues-
rock band Bishop Gunn appeared
under the headline “US’ first pan-
demic concert”.
Only about 200 fans were admit-
ted to the 1,100-seat venue, and
they had to wear face masks, sit in
assigned seats and maintain social
distancing. They also had their
temperature checked before being
admitted, and use of the restrooms
was limited to 10 people at a time.
Quarantine measures have result-
ed in much of the global workforce
operating from home, and a report
by the Center for the Digital Future
at the University of Southern Cali-
fornia’s Annenberg School of Com-
munications suggests that many of
SONG CHEN / CHINA DAILY
them like being away from the
office.
The report said 42 percent of
survey participants said the expe-
rience has made them want to
work from home more. Over 60
percent working away from the
office said they enjoyed being
able to dress casually, the
increased flexibility and lack of
commuting.
Some 78 percent said they were
just as effective working from home
CHINA DAILY
In the post-pandemic
era, people are likely
to behave more
conservatively for a
while. They will pay
more attention to
themselves, such as
caring for their health,
spending more time
alone, moving offline
activities online,
socializing less and
saving more.”
Chen Xuefeng, deputy director
of the Institute of Psychology at
the Chinese Academy of Scien-
ces
as in the office, or even more so,
according to the report, which sur-
veyed more than 50,000 people
from 86 countries.
Debra Dinnocenzo, president of
the consultancy VirtualWorks,
which advises companies in the US
and Europe on transitioning to
working from home, said: “I think
there will be some upside to this dis-
ruption that workers will want to
preserve. People and families are
going to be spending more time
together.
“I think people will be increasing-
ly adamant that they want more
time to work at home and not return
to all the crazy commuting they
were doing before.”
In Silicon Valley, California, many
companies have permanently
adopted working from home.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
said up to 50 percent of the compa-
ny’s employees could be working
remotely in the next five to 10 years,
while Twitter has said it will allow
some of its staff members to contin-
ue working from home permanent-
ly if they want to.
Nearly 75 percent of corporate
finance officials surveyed in late
March by Gartner, the business
research and consulting organiza-
tion, said their companies plan to
switch at least 5 percent of onsite
workers to operating from home
permanently as part of their cost-
cutting efforts after the pandemic.
Unenviable position
Zach Emmanuel, an analyst at
global market research company
Mintel, said pandemics have
always been the enemy of crowded
urban living, and increased work-
ing from home means fewer people
are using public transportation.
The virus has placed public tran-
sit systems in the unenviable posi-
tion of urging people not to use
them unless absolutely necessary.
Turning such a situation around
will be difficult and involve
changes in how such agencies
operate, especially when it comes
to convincing people to return to
crowded buses and subway cars,
Emmanuel said.
He added that a range of tech-
nologies are being developed to
enhance safety, including the use
of ultraviolet light. Seating
arrangements on buses are being
reconfigured and travelers’ tem-
peratures are checked before they
board.
But Emmanuel also said many
transportation companies have
slashed services due to a severe
reduction in the number of travel-
ers during the pandemic.
The worst-case scenario would
be for these reductions to be made
permanent, as cash-strapped tran-
sit agencies did during the Great
Recession, he said, adding, “Once
you do that, riders change their
plans, and they don’t really come
back.”
Chen Xuefeng, deputy director
of the Institute of Psychology at
the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
said: “In the post-pandemic era,
people are likely to behave more
conservatively for a while. They
will pay more attention to them-
selves, such as caring for their
health, spending more time alone,
moving offline activities online,
socializing less and saving more.”
This new way of life means that
some industries where old habits
are engrained will face challenges in
transforming and upgrading, Chen
added.
 CHINA DAILY
TOP NEWS
Premier hails
role of China’s
health workers
Medical staff at front line of anti-COVID
fight receive profession’s highest honor
By WANG XIAOYU
and MO JINGXI
Premier Li Keqiang underlined
on Wednesday the importance of
further pushing forward the reform
and development of the country’s
medical and healthcare sectors.
Governments at all levels and
related departments should put
people first, build a strong team of
medical workers and improve the
environment of respecting medical
workers in the whole of society, he
said in an instruction given on Chi-
na’s Medical Workers’ Day.
Li said that he hoped medical
workers will consistently improve
their skills and the quality of servi-
ces to make a new contribution to
the building of a healthy China and
guaranteeing people’s health.
Also on Wednesday, a symposium
celebrating this year’s Medical
Workers’ Day was held at the Great
Hall of the People in Beijing.
Delivering a speech at the sympo-
sium, Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan
said that since the start of the novel
coronavirus pandemic, large num-
bers of China’s medical workers
have put themselves forward and
made outstanding contributions to
achieving progress in epidemic pre-
vention and control.
So far, nearly 80,000 COVID-19
patients, with more than 10,000 of
them in severe or critical condition,
have recovered in China.
This has fully shown the dedica-
tion and superb skills of the coun-
try’s medical workers, Sun said.
The majority of the 80 recipients
of this year’s Chinese Physician
Prize — the highest honor for the
country’s medical workers — have
participated in fighting the COVID-
19 epidemic on the front line,
according to the Chinese Medical
Doctor Association, which released
the list on Wednesday.
A man surnamed Tang (second left), who has recovered from COVID-19,
greets doctors at Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, on
Wednesday, which was Medical Workers’ Day. ZHAO JUN / FOR CHINA DAILY
PLA: Washington’s moves in
Taiwan Straits threaten peace
By ZHAO LEI
zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn
The United States’ troublemaking
moves in the Taiwan Straits are a
real threat to regional peace and sta-
bility and are extremely dangerous,
a Chinese military spokesman said
on Wednesday afternoon, respond-
ing to a US warship’s passage
through the straits on Tuesday.
Senior Colonel Zhang Chunhui,
spokesman for the People’s Libera-
tion Army’s Eastern Theater Com-
mand, said in a statement that the
command mobilized its air and
naval units to follow and monitor
the USS Mustin, an Arleigh Burke-
class guided-missile destroyer, as
the warship sailed through the Tai-
wan Straits. He did not give further
details of the operation.
The officer said that the US had
engaged in a succession of “negative
acts” concerning Taiwan recently.
Such moves sent misleading signals
to separatist forces in Taiwan and
posed a severe threat to peace and
stability in the straits.
The association said that a num-
ber of courageous and selfless medi-
cal workers have braved danger and
committed themselves to battling
the virus amid the outbreak, includ-
ing renowned clinical experts and
grassroots doctors.
According to the list, over 30 win-
ners battled the pandemic in Wuhan,
Hubei province — the city hit hard-
est by the virus in China, and more
than 20 of them were sent from oth-
er regions to assist the city’s fight.
One of the them is Zhang Dingyu,
president of Wuhan Jinyintan Hos-
pital and deputy director of Hubei
Provincial Health Commission. As
an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
patient himself, Zhang has earned
widespread respect for steadfastly
remaining at his post, although his
disease has rendered both his legs
increasingly powerless and will
eventually paralyze him.
Zhang Wenhong, head of the
infectious disease department at
Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, also
received the honor. As the leader of
the Shanghai expert team for the
treatment of COVID-19 cases, Zhang
is beloved by the public for his frank
and accessible style of speaking and
has been praised for his role in
spreading scientific knowledge
about the virus.
Guo Yanhong, an official with the
National Health Commission’s medi-
cal administration and supervision
bureau, said that various disease pre-
vention and control measures must
be resolutely implemented to solidi-
fy the hard-won achievements in
curbing the virus, and to win a deci-
sive victory against the epidemic.
Contact the writers at
wangxiaoyu@chinadaily.com.cn
Inside
Editorial, page 8
Any words or moves that compro-
mise the one-China principle and
provoke trouble in the Taiwan
Straits are not in the interests of Chi-
na, the US and people on both sides
of the straits, Zhang said, adding
that they are harmful to regional
peace and stability and are extreme-
ly dangerous.
The PLA Eastern Theater Com-
mand will stay on high alert and will
firmly safeguard China’s national
sovereignty and territorial integrity
as well as peace and stability in the
straits, he said.
Tuesday’s move by the USS Mus-
tin, operating as part of the Ronald
Reagan Carrier Strike Group,
marked the 10th transit by a US war-
ship in the Taiwan Straits this year,
said a brief statement from the US
Pacific Fleet.
The passage through the straits
came two days after the USS Mustin
performed a joint drill with the Jap-
anese Maritime Self Defense Force’s
destroyer JS Suzutsuki in the East
China Sea, according to a report
from the US Naval Institute News.
Festive time
The traditional “sunning of the Buddha” ceremony with thangka paintings is held during Shoton Festival at Drepung Monastery in Lha-
sa, Tibet autonomous region, on Wednesday. Shoton Festival, which literally means the “Yogurt Banquet Festival”, is one of the most
important festivals for the Tibetan ethnic group. TANG BIN / FOR CHINA DAILY
Huawei’s PC business gains momentum Typhoon:
By CHENG YU
chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn
Huawei Technologies Co has
achieved “high-speed growth” in the
personal computer business despite
economic uncertainties globally, a
top executive said on Wednesday, as
the Chinese tech giant strives to
boost its portfolio of products.
Richard Yu Chengdong, CEO of
Huawei’s consumer business group,
said on Wednesday that Huawei’s
personal computer business has
been growing rapidly and accounts
for 16.9 percent of the country’s
total personal computer market.
“We aim to bring Huawei’s inno-
vative technologies and designs
from smart terminals and smart
hardware to the personal comput-
er field,” he added.
Huawei entered the personal com-
puter business only four years ago.
Yu made the remarks as the
smartphone maker launched on
Wednesday its latest series of
Ministry seeks improved Sino-US ties
By MO JINGXI
mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian on Wednesday urged
a small number of US politicians
to listen to the international com-
munity, abandon their Cold War
mentality and put bilateral ties
back on the right track. He said
that a steady and sound relation-
ship between China and the Unit-
ed States serves the immediate
and future interests of both coun-
tries and the world.
Zhao made the remarks after
United Nations Secretary-Gener-
al Antonio Guterres said on Tues-
day that the China-US
relationship “has never been as
dysfunctional as it is today”.
Guterres warned that escalating
tensions between the two powers
threaten to divide the world into
“two blocs”, which is a huge risk
for the world.
“We consistently believe that
China-US cooperation can bene-
fit the two countries and the
world by addressing global
Trade: Beijing services fair set for September
From page 1
The plans aim to cultivate new
competitive nodes in areas such as
digital businesses, transportation,
tourism, traditional Chinese medi-
cine and other fields to better
boost economic transformation
and upgrade coordinated regional
development.
Stan Zurkiewicz, executive
vice-president of Stuttgart-based
Dekra Group, a large testing, cer-
tification and inspection compa-
ny, said China has responded to
various crises in the past by
Floods, fallen
MateBook laptops, as well as smart
electronic goods including eye-
trees, signs
wear and earphones.
Industry experts said the move
block roads
is part of Huawei’s “smart” growth
strategy to develop a full range of
products amid the changing global
economic situation.
With a starting price of 7,999
yuan ($1,158), MateBook X, the
company’s new flagship personal
computer, adopts what the compa-
ny claimed to be the industry’s first
floating full screen. Featuring a
high screen-to-body ratio of 90 per-
cent, the new laptop is smaller
than a sheet of A4 paper and
weighs just one kilogram.
“The future giant in electronic
goods cannot just be a smartphone
manufacturer. It should establish a
complete ecosystem to provide
users with a variety of products and
services and allow cross-terminal
multi-screen collaboration,” said
Xiang Ligang, director-general of
the Information Consumption Alli-
issues, while confrontation goes
against the common interests of
the international community,”
Zhao said at a regular news brief-
ing in Beijing.
He noted that the current Chi-
na-US relationship is suffering
serious difficulties due to the US
government’s unilateral provoca-
tions and a series of statements
and actions that interfered in Chi-
na’s internal affairs, undermined
China’s interests and gravely
harmed bilateral relations.
Some US politicians have been
fanning anti-China sentiments
and provoking a rivalry to serve
their own interests, Zhao said, but
such regressive actions have been
and will continue to be criticized
and resisted by insightful and
peace-loving people in both coun-
tries and the world.
He called on these politicians
to “work with China to bring Chi-
na-US relations back on the track
of coordination, cooperation and
stability and to jointly safeguard
world peace, stability and devel-
opment”.
accelerating market reforms and
opening-up.
“We believe that after the priori-
ty of containing the pandemic has
been accomplished, China will
embark on another wave of mar-
ket reforms, further improving the
investment environment in the
country’s services trade sector,” he
said. “We believe in the enormous
long-term potential of the Chinese
market, and Dekra will continue to
invest in the country.”
Barbara Woodward, British
ambassador to China, said trade
in services will become a major
ance, a telecom industry association.
The newly unveiled MateBook X
is also embedded with a multi-
screen collaboration function, in
which users can directly operate
smartphone applications on their
computer.
“The most valuable move by
Huawei is not regarding its various
products, but is in its ability to get
these products to support each
other. In this regard, few compa-
nies in the world have truly formed
such a strong ecosystem,” he said.
A report by third-party database
firm Sigmaintell showed that in
the first quarter of this year, com-
puter giant Lenovo Group and US
tech firm Dell Technologies Inc
took the lead in online sales of per-
sonal computers in China.
Meanwhile, Huawei’s sales of
personal computers in China grew
rapidly over the same period,
reaching around 550,000 units and
notching up year-on-year growth
of 96 percent, the report said.
The spokesman also
announced that Indonesian For-
eign Affairs Minister Retno Mar-
sudi started a three-day official
visit to China on Wednesday.
Retno is the first foreign minister
to visit China “as virus control is
being conducted on an ongoing
basis”, said Zhao, adding that this
shows the “high importance” that
both countries attach to bilateral
relations.
According to Zhao, State Coun-
cilor and Foreign Minister Wang
Yi will hold talks with Retno dur-
ing her visit. The two sides will
exchange in-depth views on bilat-
eral relations, anti-epidemic coop-
eration and joint construction of
the Belt and Road.
The relationship between Chi-
na and Indonesia, both important
neighbors and partners, has
enjoyed rapid development under
the guidance of their leaders,
Zhao said, noting the progress
achieved in landmark projects
such as the China-built Jakarta-
Bandung high-speed railway
project.
part of future China-UK business
ties as both nations have a strong
desire to deepen their coopera-
tion in financial, educational and
energy development services.
Eager to pursue the healthy
growth of the sector and the coun-
try’s emphasis on services, Beijing
will hold the 2020 China Interna-
tional Fair for Trade in Services,
scheduled for early September.
The event, which will have both
online and offline exhibitions,
will include four major forums
and more than 100 seminars and
promotional events.
Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 3
From page 1
Thousands of passengers were
affected when Guangzhou-based
China Southern Airlines canceled
75 flights to or from Guangzhou,
Shenzhen and Zhuhai because of
the typhoon.
But ferry services across the
Qiongzhou Strait restarted on
Wednesday afternoon. The ferry,
linking Guangdong and Hainan
provinces, had been suspended
starting at 7 pm Tuesday.
Some sections of highway were
temporarily closed by flooding or
fallen tree branches. Heavy down-
pours flooded some sections of
roads and streets in the urban areas
in Zhuhai. High winds uprooted
trees and blew down billboards,
damaging parked vehicles.
Zhang Hongwei, a civil servant
who lives in Zhuhai’s Xiangzhou
district, said he was awakened by
the storms at about 6:30 am.
“I saw many umbrellas that had
been blown away, as well as many
tree branches broken by the strong
gales. A neighbor was drenched by
the rain when she got home from
shopping,” he said.
Zhang said he was told to stay
home as the city government shut
down its departments as well as
companies and schools on
Wednesday.
Zeng Fanwei, owner of a small
restaurant, said electronic equip-
ment was damaged by flooding,
causing him losses of more than
10,000 yuan ($1,450).
“It will take me more than a doz-
en days to repair and restore the
restaurant to reopen for business,”
he said.
Besides Guangzhou, Jiangmen,
Yangjiang and Yunfu in Guang-
dong province were battered by
Higos’ gales on Wednesday. The
education department in
Guangzhou’s Haizhu district
issued a notice that all the schools
and kindergartens were to suspend
classes on Wednesday.
Lu Shan, chief forecaster at the
Guangdong Meteorological Bureau,
said Guangzhou and major cities in
the Pearl River Delta would contin-
ue to experience some heavy down-
pours on Thursday and Friday,
although Higos had weakened and
was moving westward.
Temperatures in the Pearl River
delta cities were forecast to gradu-
ally climb back above 37 C over the
weekend, Lu said.
Guangdong’s provincial govern-
ment urged departments and cities
to take effective and concrete meas-
ures to prevent landslides, flash
floods in mountainous areas and
other possible natural disasters
caused by Higos in the coming days.
Liu Xiaolin contributed to
this story.
4 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
CHINA
Left: Floodwaters submerge the Hongyadong tourist area in Chongqing on Wednesday.
runs above floodwaters in Chongqing on Wednesday. YANG XINYU / FOR CHINA DAILY
Chongqing braces for biggest flood since 1981
By TAN YINGZI in Chongqing
tanyingzi@chinadaily.com.cn
Chongqing is facing possibly its
largest deluge since 1981 as its flood
control and drought relief head-
quarters upgraded its flood-control
response to the highest level for the
first time ever on Tuesday afternoon.
Due to recent heavy downpours
in the Sichuan Basin in the upper
reaches of the Yangtze River, the city
flooded for the fifth time this year
on Monday, the Ministry of Water
Resources said.
The ministry has called for
strengthened monitoring and early
warnings as well as flood preven-
tion efforts in the Three Gorges Res-
ervoir and other main reservoirs.
The upcoming flood is expected to
hit the city of Chongqing proper
from Tuesday to Thursday, accord-
ing to the municipal water resources
authorities.
“Thanks to the coordinated
management of the reservoirs in
Woman’s dog-related death sparks liability debate
By CUI JIA
cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn
The death of an elderly woman
caused by a dog running loose has
been ruled an accident by local
authorities, though netizens are
still discussing whether the dog’s
owner or the child who secretly
took the dog out should be held
responsible.
The incident occurred on Mon-
day evening as the 88-year-old
woman, surnamed Mai, was stand-
ing on a road in Foshan, Guang-
dong province. When the dog —
which was wearing a leash but had
gotten away from the girl walking it
— ran past the woman, its leash
wrapped around the woman’s legs,
pulling her feet out from under her
and causing her to fall on her face.
She was sent to hospital where
she was pronounced dead, the local
Shenzhen village’s business 150,000
yuan
investments are paying off
By CHAI HUA
and PEI PEI in Shenzhen
“From startups to cultivating
land, our village has got rid of pov-
erty and now is on a road of com-
mon prosperity,” Zhang Yubiao,
party chief of Nanling village, said
proudly.
The village’s story is well-known
in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
It used to be one of the city’s poor-
est villages, but now its collective
fixed assets have reached 3.5 billion
yuan ($500 million), and the aver-
age annual per capita income is
about 150,000 yuan, three times
Shenzhen’s average.
But Zhang said Nanling’s path to
success was not smooth, and it was
the spirit of indomitable will and
perseverance passed down
through generations that kept the
village moving forward.
“Nanling” in Chinese means
“southern mountains”, and true to
the upper reaches of the Yangtze,
Jialing and Wujiang rivers, the
scale of the flood has been success-
fully reduced this time,” said Xie
Fei, deputy director of the Chong-
qing Water Resources Bureau.
“Otherwise, this fifth flood
would have probably surpassed the
catastrophic flood of July 1981.”
The 1981 disaster affected more
than 15 million people, and 1.5 mil-
lion people were left homeless.
More than 8,660 square kilometers
of arable land was flooded. The
direct economic loss caused by the
flood was about 2 billion yuan
($289 million).
Since this year’s first flood on
March 26, Chongqing has been
coordinating with the Ministry of
Water Resources, the Changjiang
Water Resources Commission and
related departments in Sichuan
and Guizhou provinces to control
the water flow.
As of the press time, the outflow
volume of the Three Gorges Res-
Xingtan township government
said on Tuesday evening.
According to a police investiga-
tion, a 12-year-old girl surnamed
Luo unchained the dog at the
entrance of another villager’s house
and took it for a walk without
informing the owner. It later broke
free and caused the incident, which
was caught on surveillance camera.
The shocking footage soon went
viral on Chinese social media.
Surveillance footage shows the
pet, a large white dog, chasing
another dog while its black leash
was dragging along the ground
behind it. The dog then ran past
Mai. In a split second, she fell on
her face after the dog’s leash
wrapped around her feet.
A girl believed to be Luo soon
appeared in search of the dog. She
found the dog and ran away while
ignoring Mai, who was lying
its name it is
located in a
mountainous
area of Shenzhen,
so transportation
was very incon-
venient.
Zhang Yubiao In the begin-
ning of the
nation’s reform
and opening-up in the early 1980s,
villagers spontaneously formed a
road paving team to improve trans-
portation and persuade manufac-
turers to set up factories.
In 1982, Nanling reached a
turning point when the city gov-
ernment offered villagers about
400,000 yuan for some of their
idle land.
Instead of enriching them-
selves, they decided to use the
money to improve fundamental
infrastructure on the rest of their
land to lure manufacturers.
Since then, hundreds of millions
CUI LI / FOR CHINA DAILY
Thanks to the
coordinated
management of
the reservoirs in the
upper reaches of the
Yangtze, Jialing and
Wujiang rivers, the
scale of the flood has
been successfully
reduced this time.”
Xie Fei, deputy director of the
Chongqing Water Resources
Bureau
ervoir has increased from 42,000
to 46,000 cubic meters per sec-
ond, and the outflow volume of
Xiangjiaba Dam has decreased
from 6,300 to 4,000 cubic meters
per second to relieve the flood
motionless on the ground.
The incident triggered heated
discussion on social media about
whether anyone should be held
responsible for the woman’s death
and how to prevent similar trage-
dies.
“The dog walker is only 12, so she
is exempt from criminal liability.
What’s more, she did not intend to
let the dog run free. It’s just an
unfortunate accident,” Peng Xinlin,
a criminal law professor at Beijing
Normal University, said on
Wednesday. “But the young girl’s
legal guardian should have civil lia-
bilities.”
According to China’s Civil Code,
animal owners or caregivers
should be held fully responsible if
their animals hurt others due to a
lack of safety precautions, includ-
ing having them leashed at all
times.
Average annual per capita
income of Nanling village in
Shenzhen, three times the
city’s average
of yuan have been poured into
building factories and supporting
facilities, covering an area of more
than 1 million square meters. The
village also started to rake in
increasing revenues from rent.
As a result, the village communi-
ty brought in over 50 manufactur-
ers, including ZTE, and investment
of more than 1 billion yuan.
By 2000, Zhang realized the
landlord business model was not
sustainable and suggested the com-
munity find a new one.
“The cost of such a transition was
high,” he said. “For instance, we cre-
ated a jewelry industrial zone, and
we had to ask the tenants to move
out two years before the contract
deadline, leading to a loss of 18 mil-
lion yuan.”
That zone was later turned into a
“cultural and creative town”, a com-
plex integrating modern office
Right: A city railway train
pressure in Chongqing.
Some roads and houses on the
banks of the Yangtze and the Jialing
have been hit by the floodwaters.
Nanbin Road, the popular travel
destination on the south bank of
the Yangtze, was shut down, and all
the buildings along the road have
cut power to avoid accidents.
Chaotianmen Port, the city land-
mark at the connecting point of
the two rivers, has seen its gate
submerged.
The municipality in Southwest
China is located in the upper reach-
es of the Yangtze, which flows 6,300
kilometers from glaciers in the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau through
Chongqing, Wuhan of Hubei prov-
ince and Nanjing of Jiangsu prov-
ince, before reaching the East
China Sea in Shanghai.
To ensure safety, the Chongqing
Maritime Safety Administration
has banned vessels from sailing in
long stretches of the waters since
Monday.
Bai Xiangfei, a lawyer from Han-
shang Law Firm in Shanghai, said
that the dog’s owner should be held
liable without fault.
It doesn’t matter if the owner
knew the dog was unchained or
not. The fact is that his pet caused
the accident, so he should be held
responsible in accordance with the
Civil Code, Bai explained.
The Xingtan government said it
will step up efforts to educate own-
ers about how to handle their dogs
in accordance with the law.
Authorities around China have
intensified law enforcement efforts
on pet management to reduce acci-
dents and conflicts caused by pets
that have become increasingly pop-
ular among Chinese households.
In July, Shanghai police decided
to fine dog owners on the spot for
walking their dogs without regis-
tration tags and leashes.
space, tourism, cultural and educa-
tion sectors.
As a result of the bold transfor-
mation, Nanling’s revenue doubled
and the community’s collective
income increased by 2.6 percent in
2019.
More importantly, the village
community brought in selected
startups as investment targets.
Zhang said they have set up a fund
of 300 million yuan to focus on
emerging industries, such as life
sciences, 5G telecommunication,
chip design and artificial intelli-
gence.
The village community collec-
tively decides the amount of their
assets assigned to the fund, and a
professional management team is
responsible for management.
He is confident that this year, the
village could see one or two of their
invested firms get listed on the
nation’s stock markets.
“To ring the bell at a stock
exchange with my fellow villagers
has been a dream for me, and now
it is about to come true,” Zhang
said.
Contact the writers at
grace@chinadailyhk.com
Bad weather
to occur more,
experts predict
The heavy rainfall saturating the south
this year is connected to global warming
By LI HONGYANG
lihongyang@chinadaily.com.cn
Extreme weather events will
occur more frequently in China as a
result of global warming, something
the country is particularly vulnera-
ble to, meteorologists said following
a record-setting spell of rainy weath-
er in June and July.
Data from the National Climate
Center show the Yangtze River
Basin has seen about 54 percent
more rain than average for two
months, while the Huaihe River
Basin had about 43 percent more.
The heavy rain in June and July,
which caused flooding in many
parts of China, was the longest last-
ing in records dating back to 1961.
Some regions had 30 percent of
their average annual rainfall in just
one day, and many places, including
Lu’an in Anhui province and Poyang
county in Jiangxi province, set rain-
fall records in the past two months.
“In general, the climate this year
is pretty extraordinary,” said Jia
Xiaolong, deputy head of the center.
He said the continuous heavy
rainfall occurred against the back-
drop of global warming, which had
caused the number of rainstorm
days in China to increase by an aver-
age of 3.9 percent every 10 years for
the past six decades.
This year, the Indian Ocean has
seen its temperature rise above nor-
mal, causing a stronger subtropical
high to affect China. Meanwhile,
active cold air from the north has
met warm air in the south, resulting
in frequent heavy rainfall, he said.
China is improving its capacity for
real-time analysis of global warm-
ing’s role in extreme weather events
in the hope of raising people’s
awareness of the need to take action
to mitigate it.
Lu Chunhui, a researcher at the
A man disposes of a couch that was carried outdoors by floodwaters in
Huanglongxi old town in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Wednesday
as the flood receded. ZHANG LANG / CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Wuhan: City reports zero new
COVID cases since mid-May
From page 1
Wang Yongli, who lives in Wuhan,
said her family started to go out only
in late May, more than a month after
the city lifted its lockdown.
The family felt safe carrying their
4-year-old son out of the house after
the city conducted nucleic acid test-
ing of all residents in June. They
took him to the water park as tem-
peratures rose in July, she said.
“Although life has returned to
normal in the city, people in Wuhan
are very mindful of the pandemic,
and many people still wear masks in
public and wash their hands fre-
quently,” she said. But she added, “It
is unreasonable to blame people for
not wearing masks at the pool.”
More than 60 car brands and 800
models were featured at the city’s
five-day Central China International
Auto Show that started on Thursday,
marking the first offline large-scale
exhibition in Wuhan since the city
lifted its 76-day lockdown on April 8
as the COVID-19 outbreak waned,
said Zhang Jun, secretary-general of
the event’s organizing committee.
The number of auto show visitors
increased by 20 percent from last
year and the total sales volume
reached 3.52 billion yuan ($510 mil-
lion), he said.
CHINA DAILY
center, said China is catching up
with other countries in a technique
called attribution analysis.
“Countries such as the United
Kingdom and Germany started this
kind of analysis earlier than China,
and they share data with each other
so that they can quickly calculate
the results of mathematical simula-
tions of specific weather events,” Lu
said.
“China usually lags a few months
behind its European counterparts in
giving the results of its analysis. We
are working to improve the system.”
Wang Pengling, a senior engineer
at the center, said that due to its
large latitudinal span and range of
landforms, China has complicated
climate types and is especially vul-
nerable to climate change.
China has witnessed a tempera-
ture rise averaging 0.24 C per dec-
ade since the 1950s, significantly
higher than the global average rise
during the same period, Wang said.
The World Meteorological Organi-
zation said in a report released in
September that the global average
temperature has increased by 1.1 C
since 1880.
“China’s ecologically fragile areas
overlap with populous areas to a
great extent, which further intensi-
fies disaster risks brought by cli-
mate change,” Wang said.
He called for more research on
how extreme weather leads to disas-
ters to better inform the public of
the risks.
“Research findings indicate that
global warming will continue,”
Wang said. “Under high emission
scenarios globally, both the frequen-
cy and intensity of rainstorms in
China will increase, raising the risks
of floods. Low-carbon lifestyles
should be encouraged worldwide,
and cities need to enhance their
adaptability to climate change.”
All visitors to the auto show must
show their health codes, wear
masks and have their temperatures
checked, and people with coughs
and temperatures higher than 37.3 C
were not admitted, he added.
Hubei lowered its emergency lev-
el for the pandemic from the sec-
ond-highest level to the third-
highest on June 13, and Wuhan has
not reported any new confirmed
cases since mid-May.
On Aug 8, the province launched a
campaign to revive its tourism sec-
tor, with nearly 400 A-level tourist
attractions offering free admission
to domestic tourists as a token of
gratitude for the nation’s assistance
to the province during the COVID-
19 outbreak.
Almost 2.7 million people visited
the attractions during the first week
of the campaign, with almost
400,000 people visiting as part of
group tours arranged by travel agen-
cies, 32 percent more than the total
number of visitors from April to
July, the Hubei Culture and Tourism
Department said.
Contact the writers at
zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn
Liu Kun in Wuhan contributed to
this story.
 CHINA DAILY
CHINA
Guideline cites
incubation
period of virus
It can take up to 14 days before COVID-19
carriers see symptoms, document says
By ZHANG ZHIHAO
zhangzhihao@chinadaily.com.cn
The incubation period for COVID-
19, the time between exposure to the
virus and the onset of symptoms, is
about three to seven days for most
people and can be up to 14 days, dur-
ing which these pre-symptomatic
patients can be contagious, accord-
ing to China’s latest national guide-
line on diagnosis and treatment of
COVID-19 published on Wednesday.
The five days after symptoms
occur is when the disease becomes
highly transmissible, the guideline
said. Respiratory droplets and close
contact with infected patients and
contaminated objects are the prima-
ry methods of transmission, it added.
“Since the global pandemic is still
ongoing and the situation may per-
sist for quite some time, the risk of
COVID-19 spreading in our country
will still exist,” the guideline said.
Therefore, early diagnosis, quaran-
tine and treatment are crucial for
improving cure rates and reducing
mortality, it added.
The guideline called for new
measures including publishing the
status of suspected or confirmed
patients online within two hours
after their discovery, as well as the
administration of anti-viral medici-
nes at the early stages of the disease,
especially for severe patients.
Wang Bin, an expert at the
National Health Commission’s
Bureau of Disease Prevention and
Control, said in a news briefing on
Wednesday that China is proactively
preparing for the possible reoccur-
rence of COVID-19 in the autumn
and winter with more prevention
measures, more testing and more
extensive screening and monitor-
ing.
“We hope the public can stay vigi-
lant in regards to COVID-19, main-
tain social distancing and hand-
washing, use serving utensils
(rather than personal cutlery to
serve meals) and continue other
hygienic practices,” she said.
For treatment, the latest guideline
Polar panda?
A panda licks an ice cube for a moment of refreshment at Taihu
Lake Wetland Park in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on Tuesday, as the
temperature climbed to 36 C. HANG XINGWEI / FOR CHINA DAILY
10 new national park candidates await approval from evaluations
By YANG WANLI
yangwanli@chinadaily.com.cn
China’s 10 candidates for new
national parks are being evaluat-
ed, and results will be announced
in late October, the National For-
estry and Grassland Administra-
tion revealed on Wednesday.
Those that fail the evaluations
will have to wait for a new round of
selections in the future, said Tian
Yongchen, deputy director of the
administration’s national park
management office.
In 2013, China put forward the
establishment of a national park
system that aimed to set up a batch
of national parks and form a uni-
fied management system by 2020.
In 2015, the country officially
discouraged the use of hydroxychlo-
roquine for treating COVID-19
patients, and anti-HIV combination
drug lopinavir/ritonavir could only
be used in tandem with ribavirin.
Chloroquine phosphate can still
be used as a trial drug but only for
patients aged 18 to 65, and the treat-
ment period should not exceed sev-
en days. Medical personnel must
also keep a close eye on the side
effects of these anti-viral drugs and
stop administrating them immedi-
ately if serious adverse effects occur,
the guideline said.
Corticosteroid, a type of steroid
that consists of the promising drug
candidate dexamethasone, can be
used sparingly to treat severe or crit-
ical patients. But the treatment peri-
od should be around three to five
days, and no more than 10 days max-
imum.
Doctors should be mindful that
large dosages of the steroid will sup-
press the immune system and may
prolong the time needed for the
body to expel the virus, the guideline
said.
In terms of the effect of the novel
coronavirus on the body, the guide-
line said the virus can damage the
lungs, spleen, bone marrow, cardio-
vascular system, liver, kidney, brain
and digestive tracts.
The symptoms of infected chil-
dren are typically mild, with nausea,
diarrhea and shortness of breath
being some of the more common
ones, the guideline found. However,
an extremely small number of chil-
dren could develop Multisystem
Inflammatory Syndrome, showing
symptoms similar to the rare Kawa-
saki disease, an inflammation in the
walls of arteries throughout the
body that primarily affects children
younger than 5.
The condition of a child with the
syndrome could deteriorate quickly.
Therefore, immunoglobulin thera-
py, corticosteroid, aspirin and other
anti-inflammatory treatments
should be used as soon as possible to
fight the condition, the guideline
said.
announced 10 pilot parks covering
a total of 215,000 square kilome-
ters, about 2.2 percent of the coun-
try’s land area. All of the parks will
have finished construction by the
end of this year.
Construction of the national
parks, part of China’s comprehen-
sive strategy of improving the
environment and achieving its
goal of becoming an ecological civ-
ilization, has seen significant
achievement in ecological and
wildlife protection, according to
the administration.
In Northeast China Tiger and
Leopard National Park, both the
Siberian tiger and Amur leopard —
two species listed as critically
endangered in the International
Union for Conservation of
A good day’s work
A farmer weighs cabbages he just harvested before loading them on a truck in Baokang, Hubei prov-
ince, on Tuesday. At an altitude of 1,350 meters, vegetable farmers get particularly busy as the slightly
cooler temperature in the mountains provides favorable conditions for the produce as opposed to the
scorching heat in plain areas that makes it difficult for plants to grow normally. YANG TAO / FOR CHINA DAILY
International ‘Iron Man’ team helps
epidemic fight on Wuhan campus
By LIU KUN in Wuhan
and CHEN MEILING
Tiando Damien named his team
after the superhero Iron Man as a
tribute to the character’s bravery
and perseverance in fighting the
evil.
But without a helmet or armor,
Damien, a doctoral student from
Benin in China University of Geos-
ciences in Wuhan, and his 22 team
members from 13 countries are
devoted to fighting COVID-19 in
the city by giving a helping hand to
their fellow students.
These volunteers come from
countries including Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwan-
da and Yemen.
“No matter what continent we
are from, our minds are linked like
that of a family,” said Damien, 30.
Damien’s parents didn’t want
him to study in China in the first
place, as four of his elder brothers
and sisters were married and they
had hoped their youngest son can
keep them company.
But Damien insisted, saying he
likes “Chinese films, kung fu and
Jackie Chan’s sense of humor” and
that he wanted to learn more about
the culture.
He has now been in the country
for eight years.
When the epidemic broke out in
Wuhan in late January, Damien’s
family called him several times a
day. His mother even cried, plead-
ing with him to fly back home.
“In the most difficult times, I also
felt anxious and afraid,” he said. “But
then I saw the many measures taken
by the Chinese government to curb
the contagion, which helped me
grow faith to believe it is a responsi-
ble country and a safe country.”
Like the over 300 foreign stu-
dents in the university, Damien
chose to stay. But he wanted to do
more, to participate and contrib-
ute.
The Iron Man team was separat-
ed into food supply, necessities sup-
ply and goods distribution groups.
Every day from February to May,
the team would work from 9 am to
9 pm. They would send the canteen
menus to WeChat groups and col-
lect students’ food orders as well as
Nature’s Red List — have seen pop-
ulations increase, with 10 Siberian
tiger and six Amur leopard cubs
born in the past three years,
according to Zhao Li, head of the
park’s management bureau.
The Three-River-Source Nation-
al Park, the first listed as a candi-
date, has boosted the local
economy by encouraging local
herdsmen to become ecological
conservationists in their habit-
ants.
He Wancheng, head of the park’s
management bureau, said more
than 17,200 families living in the
park have had one member
become an ecological conserva-
tionist, making an extra income of
20,000 yuan ($2,880) for their
families each year.
requests for necessities, and they
would distribute goods to people in
need.
To avoid face-to-face contact,
they would knock on doors three
times and leave.
“There were also problems,” Dam-
ien recalled. “For example, some
classmates complained they didn’t
get a package on time. Such blame
upset our group members because
the service was free of charge.”
Damien said he would listen to
everyone and provide explanations
and comfort.
“I hope to help them to see prob-
lems from a positive angle.”
Maimuna Iddy Abdy, a 29-year-
old from Tanzania who is also a
member of Iron Man, said she
immediately signed up to be a vol-
unteer with a hope to “change the
traumatized situation we all sud-
denly found ourselves in”.
“Despite being enthusiastic about
being a part of it, there were a few
challenges we had to overcome so as
to provide good services, such as our
cultural differences,” she said, add-
ing she has been emotionally
attached to Wuhan and considered
it to be her second home because
she has been there for six years.
Luo Jingang, a teacher at the
International Education College of
the university, said the college pur-
chased about 12 metric tons of veg-
etables, rice and noodles to provide
an adequate food supply for the
international students.
Luo helped students add funds
to their hot water and food cards by
Tiando Damien (left) and his ‘Iron Man’ volunteer team give out
supplies to international students in Wuhan, Hubei province, in
February. LUO JINGANG / FOR CHINA DAILY
However, there are still challen-
ges in the construction of the
national parks.
For example, conflicts between
local residents and the increasing
number of Siberian tigers and
Amur leopards have grown in
recent years, according to Zhao.
Further, in Giant Panda Nation-
al Park — which spans 27,134 sq
km across Shaanxi, Gansu and
Sichuan provinces — a cross-re-
gional management system has
yet to be established, according to
Xiang Kewen, head of the park’s
management bureau.
Yin Weilun, an academician of
the Chinese Academy of Engineer-
ing, suggested that more invest-
ments should be made to support
scientific research and technology
app or charging machines. He
would show up if light bulbs were
broken or someone ran out of mon-
ey. And during the winter vacation,
he even lived on the campus to
make himself available for inquir-
ies 24 hours a day.
“In the beginning, many students
felt afraid. Some even refused to
eat. So we talked to them very often
to ease their anxiety,” Luo said, add-
ing that many teachers besides him
sacrificed their holiday.
Damien said teachers also
helped move goods and contacted
doctors if someone fell ill.
“We feel safe and secured,” he
said. “For a country, protecting its
own people is a necessity, but it
(China) also treats foreigners the
same way, which really moves me.”
None of the international stu-
dents in the university has been
infected by COVID-19.
There has been no reported local
infection in Wuhan for over three
months, and the university is wait-
ing for students to return in Sep-
tember. Students are free to walk
around but are not yet allowed to
leave campus except for special
occasions due to health concerns.
Deliverymen also cannot enter the
campus, so the volunteer team is
still helping fetch packages for stu-
dents.
“Wuhan is safer and there is less
we can do,” Damien said with a
smile. “China never disappoints me.”
Contact the writers at
chenmeiling@chinadaily.com.cn
facilities in the panda park, espe-
cially in the park’s core protected
area where human activities are
strictly limited.
He also emphasized the impor-
tance of the role that the national
parks should play in terms of pub-
lic education about protecting
nature, which will encourage more
participation by the general pub-
lic.
According to Tian, the adminis-
tration will release several docu-
ments in the coming months,
including the standards for
national parks, the national parks’
space management plan, and also
the national parks’ surveillance
and technical support system, fur-
ther contributing to the national
parks construction.
Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 5
Thousands
of gangs
busted in
crackdown
By YANG ZEKUN
yangzekun@chinadaily.com.cn
The nationwide campaign
against organized crime has bus-
ted 3,291 mafia-style organizations
and 10,418 other gangs as of July
31, according to the national office
against organized crime under the
Commission for Political and
Legal Affairs of the Communist
Party of China Central Committee.
Wang Hongxiang, deputy head
of the office, said on Wednesday
that so far, more than 364,000
criminal cases have been solved
and nearly 411,000 suspects have
been placed under criminal deten-
tion during the campaign, which
was launched in January 2018.
As the existence of organized
crime is usually connected with
corruption and duty crimes,
Wang said, authorities have
investigated more than 64,800
cases related to public servants
providing shelter for such crimes,
and over 77,600 people involved
in such cases were punished.
According to a case released by
the office, a total of 131 officials
were involved in the cases related
to Liu Li, ringleader of a mafia-
style organization in Jixi, Hei-
longjiang province. Seventeen of
those officials were sentenced for
acting as “protective umbrellas”.
In September 2018, the provin-
cial commission for discipline
inspection and the supervisory
commission in Heilongjiang
found that Liu, also former deputy
chief procurator of the Jixi Peo-
ple’s Procuratorate, violated Party
discipline and broke the law. He
was sentenced to 25 years in pris-
on for committing 16 crimes,
including organizing and leading
underworld organizations.
Forty people were arrested for
their involvement in Liu’s
crimes, suspected of offenses
including organizing and lead-
ing underworld organizations
and intentional homicide over
the past 18 years. The gangs also
allegedly offered bribes to local
public servants to form a net-
work for providing shelter for
their crimes. Of those 40 people,
12 have received sentences.
Through coercion, extortion
and violence, Liu’s gangs forcibly
bought shares in or illegally oper-
ated 11 coal mines and monopo-
lized the local sand and gravel
market, obtaining nearly 200 mil-
lion yuan ($28.5 million) in profits.
On July 20, the Heilongjiang
High People’s Court sentenced
Liu’s brother, Liu Gang, to death
for committing nine crimes,
including joining underworld
organizations and intentional
homicide.
Given that a number of orga-
nized crimes occurred at the
grassroots level, and that the
criminal gangs usually con-
trolled local village committees
and grassroots Party organiza-
tions, inspections and supervi-
sion at the village level is also a
significant part of the campaign.
Chen Yixin, head of the nation-
al office against organized crime,
said 41,700 village officials
involved in organized crimes
have been punished.
The office also identified the
sources of funds and property
ownership of enterprises under
the control of gangs to ensure all
their ill-gotten assets are proper-
ly handled. As of June, 450 bil-
lion yuan in assets have been
seized and frozen nationwide.
Authorities also struck a balance
between destroying the criminals’
economic foundation and protect-
ing the legitimate rights and inter-
ests of private enterprises.
Though the three-year special
campaign will come to an end
soon, the fight against organized
crime and gangs will continue,
Chen said.
The office will improve the
mechanism for the coordination
between departments, and long-
term prevention and control
measures will also be intro-
duced, Chen said.
It will also promote the nor-
malization of reporting plat-
forms, special supervision
mechanisms and publicity cam-
paigns to target such crimes.
6 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
CHINA
Pet lovers develop a passion for the exotic
Cats and dogs are making way for squirrels, raccoons and even capybaras. Zhang Yangfei reports.
B
eijing residents who love
unusual stores, chic
brands, upscale bistros and
sophisticated bars are no
strangers to the Sanlitun area in the
east of the city. Recently, though, the
trendy district has provided another
reason for people — mainly animal
lovers — to visit frequently.
Li Li, 31, frequents a small cafe in
Sanlitun’s SOHO building at least
once a week. The cafe, Takara, is also
a pet store where customers can
spend time patting and cuddling
fluffy animals while having a drink.
However, unlike many other pet
cafes that house cats or dogs, Takara
is home to squirrels, rabbits, ra-
ccoons, hedgehogs and a capybara,
the world’s largest rodent.
To Li and many other city dwell-
ers, these animal-themed cafes
serve as a haven to release stress,
while also meeting their emotional
needs for pets and their desire to
seek novelty.
In fact, such places have been
springing up across the city and the
country so quickly recently that the
novel coronavirus outbreak has not
damaged the trend’s progress.
Quirky cafes
In addition to Takara, Sanlitun
has a cafe that offers animals such as
call ducks — a domesticated species
often raised as a pet — piglets, hair-
less cats and a sheep.
In Beijing, Pigs in the Palm, a cafe-
cum-shop, is themed with little por-
cines, while Chengdu, capital of the
southwestern province of Sichuan,
has outlets featuring marmots and
alpacas as customer companions.
Li, an enterprise training special-
ist in Beijing, met her first capybara
at the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
during a trip to Japan a few years
ago. She immediately fell in love
with the animal.
When her boyfriend told her that
a cafe was opening in Beijing where
people would be able to pat a capy-
bara, Li said she was ecstatic.
“The capybara became my favor-
ite animal as soon as I saw one. It
seemed like a nice old guy who nev-
er offends anyone. They always
seem totally unperturbed and have
a particular aura of detachment
from all worldly affairs,” she said,
adding that getting close to a capy-
bara is very “stress relieving”.
Zhao Meng, Takara’s founder, said
capybaras are very popular in Japan
because the animal’s character fits
with today’s youth culture, being
indoorsy, chilled and “Buddhist” —
popular modern Chinese slang for a
person who is intensely relaxed and
allows events to happen in their
own time.
Zhao is an animal lover. After
learning about capybaras in Japan,
he wanted to raise one himself, but
his family didn’t really like the idea
of having a giant rodent at home.
Instead, he decided to open a
store so the animal would have
enough space to wander around. In
the wild, capybaras usually live
near water, so the store has a bath-
tub to pander to the animal’s semi-
aquatic habits.
Initially, Zhao wanted to mainly
sell regular pets like cats and dogs,
but the presence of the capybara,
which he named Tata, quickly
attracted large numbers of custom-
ers and brought more fame.
Some people living in neighbor-
ing cities even make special visits
just to spend time with Tata.
As a regular visitor to zoos, Li said
cafes such as Takara offer a different
experience, which she called “a
process of finding emotional bond-
ing in the concrete and steel jungle
of the city”.
“Actually there are a lot of pet
cafes around. But what truly mat-
ters are the relations between peo-
ple and people and people and
Two game-changers bringing new life to the traditional sector
Sales of new favorites rise
Aquatic species, reptiles,
rodents and birds have become
the new favorite pets in Chinese
homes.
Among them, turtles are
favored by a growing number of
people due to their small size, ease
of breeding and reasonable price.
An assistant feeds a sheep at Lucky Ducky, an animal-themed cafe in Sanlitun, Beijing, last month.
From left: A customer holds a sugar glider at Lucky Ducky; a boy reaches out to touch a capybara bathing in a tub, while an assistant tests
the water temperature.
animals that can make you feel
relaxed, like staying with a good
friend,” she said.
Since the beginning of the year,
cafes themed with a variety of ani-
mals have become a new sensation
in big cities such as Beijing, Shang-
hai and Guangzhou, capital of
Guangdong province.
For example, call ducks are
among the most popular attrac-
tions. Key opinion leaders and
social media influencers have
scrambled to pet cafes to post selfies
with call ducks, encouraging more
people to visit.
Call ducks are smaller than other
breeds and have a pure white plum-
age, a short bill, a little round head
and a very chubby body.
In reviews, netizens have com-
mented that one of the main reasons
to recommend such cafes is the
stress-relieving and relaxing experi-
ence of patting this cute fluffy bird.
Dianping, China’s most popular
review and rating platform, rates
Lucky Ducky, a call duck-themed
cafe and retailer in Beijing, as the top
pet store to visit in the capital.
Although scheduled to open in
January, its debut was postponed
until April as a result of the coronavi-
rus outbreak. Despite the virus, peo-
ple’s enthusiasm and curiosity do
not seem to have been dampened.
Even in June, when several new
cases of COVID-19 were discovered
in Beijing, Lucky Ducky was still
packed every day.
The interior is pink, with cloud-
shaped pendant lights on the ceiling
Birds, rabbits, flying squirrels and
chinchillas are also becoming
popular.
Sales of niche pet products have
also seen a significant rise.
Online sales of insect-related prod-
ucts have increased by more than
200 percent year-on-year and online
sales of items for hamsters, reptiles
Leisure
People take photos of call ducks at Lucky Ducky, which specializes
in the birds.
and posters and pictures of duck
emojis hanging on the walls.
On the day China Daily visited,
most of the customers were young,
and some were holding ducks on
their laps. Many repeatedly took
photos with their smartphones.
“I love the ducks very much.
They are very chubby and feel so
good to touch. The feathers on
their breasts in particular are so
fluffy and smooth,” said a customer
surnamed Wu.
Tian Xuhui, Lucky Ducky’s owner,
said one of the reasons his store-
cum-cafe has become so popular is
the fast pace of life in big cities,
which drives many people to look for
places to release the pressure.
“They love animals. They are curi-
and rabbits have risen by nearly 100
percent.
Digital marketplace grows
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pan-
demic has pushed the pet economy
into the digital world. In February,
the number of live broadcasts of pets
on Taobao, the country’s biggest
PHOTOS BY ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY
ous about these unusual pets and
want to raise one at home, but cir-
cumstances don’t allow it so they
come to interact with them,” he said.
Going viral
Unusual pets first went viral on
social media and earned millions of
followers. On video-sharing plat-
form Douyin, the hashtag #call duck
has nearly 1 billion views. One user
called MiYa has documented his pet
duck’s life in short videos since it
hatched. The videos have attracted
more than 62,000 followers.
On instant-messaging platforms,
some of the most popular emojis fea-
ture call ducks, piglets and shiba inu
and husky dogs.
The animals capture people’s
e-commerce platform, soared by 375
percent year-on-year, with more
than 1 million viewers every day.
The previous offerings of animat-
ed images and short videos were
upgraded to 24-hour livestreaming
with interaction to allow audiences
to fully enjoy the pets through the
screen.
hearts by appearing dumb and
clumsy. For many people, watching
animal-related videos is a way of
relaxing, and the emergence of pet
cafes helps realize their fantasies of
closely interacting with animals
they see so often on digital devices.
“I have watched so many emoti-
cons and videos featuring little pig-
lets. They just look so cute and
fluffy,” said Liu Wan, a Beijing resi-
dent who works in finance.
The 24-year-old said that until
recently she had not had a close
encounter with a pig, but she had
been moved by some gifs — comput-
er files used for sending images,
especially moving ones, on the inter-
net — of piglets. One day, she hap-
pened to watch a reality show in
which the celebrities went to a pig-
let-themed cafe, and rushed to go
herself.
“The piglets were bigger than I
expected. Their bodies were really
warm but their snouts were cool,
and they lay on my lap very submis-
sively,” she said.
She added that she thought about
buying one, but she knew her par-
ents wouldn’t approve. “I know I
can’t raise one at home so I rely on
pet cafes to meet my needs. It
requires lots of time and effort to
take care of an animal and I also
need to consider my family mem-
bers’ feelings,” she said.
Self-employed Xiao Ou is a fre-
quent visitor to Takara. The 30-year-
old spotted the raccoons when she
was passing one day and was imme-
diately attracted, because Chinese
The pandemic has also triggered
owners’ willingness to splurge on
their pets. Lockdowns have made
them feel that they owe their pets
and they want to compensate them
by splurging online.
Data show that in the first quar-
ter, orders placed on Taobao, includ-
ing pet bathing, grooming products
CHINA DAILY
people have heard so much about
this North American species but
have rarely seen one.
Xiao called for more pet cafes to
open in Beijing. “There are so many
people who want to have a pet but
are unable to do so. The cafes suit
the needs and wishes of this group,”
she said.
“In this place, you can get close to
the cute little ones in a very comfort-
able way without having to worry
about safety and hygiene — overall,
it is an extremely comfortable expe-
rience.”
Animal lovers say the pet stores
and cafes have a secondary function,
as they may change people’s atti-
tudes toward pets.
“These animals are actually not
rare. But they have been served as
food for so many years that people
hardly see them as pets,” Tian said,
referring to the ducks, pigs and
sheep in his store.
Rapid expansion
China’s pet market has expanded
rapidly in recent years. Although
cats and dogs still dominate, many
people have started to choose
ducks, rodents or domesticated ani-
mals as pets.
Their attitude toward pets has
also shifted from seeing them as
playthings to regarding them as
family members or close friends.
“Whether at home or in stores,
these little animals are there for
companionship and they bring
warmth to our hearts. They care and
understand just like family mem-
bers. They give us much more than
the love we give to them,” Xiao said.
Beijing resident Zhao Meng (no
relation to Takara’s founder) is an
animal enthusiast. Even though she
has three rabbits and a guinea pig at
home, she still frequents places like
Takara and Lucky Ducky just to play
with the animals.
The 27-year-old graphic designer
also draws pictures to record her
daily life with her “children”.
Her latest rabbit was bought from
Lucky Ducky after she played with it
in the store.
“I never see them as animals or
pets per se. They all have their own
temperaments and personalities.
They understand what you are say-
ing. Although they can’t speak, you
can really communicate with them
and they will give you a reaction,”
she said.
Takara founder Zhao Meng said
one of his initial intentions in open-
ing the store was to help people
learn more about animals before
they buy them and take them home,
because many people buy pets on
impulse.
“They say ‘Oh, this pet is so cute’
and then buy it without knowing its
habits or personality or if they are
allergic to it. So I opened my store to
let customers experience the ani-
mals first. They can play with all the
animals here to see if there’s any
problem. If it is okay, they can con-
sider purchasing one,” he said.
He added that Takara repre-
sents the fourth generation of pet
shops. The first three generations
are: pet shops that only sell pets
and related products and services;
cat- or dog-themed cafes and res-
taurants, with food and drink
being the main service; and stores
with one species intended merely
for cosseting.
“We are trying to refine pet sales
and pet experiences to help custom-
ers better understand what they like
and turn impulse buying into
rational consumption,” he said.
“I think pets are the only family
members you pay to have, so I hope
people will be more cautious in the
future.”
Contact the writer at
zhangyangfei@chinadaily.com.cn
and spas, rose by 348 percent from
last year. Orders for pet vaccines
rose by 240 percent, purchases of
pet health products increased four-
fold year-on-year, while pet sham-
poo and shower gel rose more than
60 times.
Sources: 2019 Pet Consumption Big
Data report by CBNData / The 2020
China Pet Economy Status and
Development Trend Report by
iiMedia Research
 CHINA DAILY
CHINA
A stitch in time helps mothers find jobs
Young business
leader sets up
factory to help
village women
balance home and
work lives
By YANG JUN in Guiyang
and WANG KEJU in Beijing
At the age of 29, Shi Qiqing does
not mind looking older than her
years if she can help mothers stuck
at home join the workforce.
People often tell her that due to her
facial wrinkles and a few gray hairs
she looks much older than her age.
However, the successful entrepre-
neur from Weining Yi, Hui and Miao
autonomous county in Guizhou
province, has a mission more
important than worrying about her
appearance. She wants to help lift
her fellow villagers, especially stay-
at-home mothers, out of poverty.
“I’m a mother of four children
myself, and I deeply relate to their
dilemma of finding a job and stay-
ing at home to look after children,”
she said. “With the ability to offer
jobs to serve both ends, I can pull
them out of the mire.”
Born into a poor family and with
three older siblings, Shi spent much
of her infancy being carried on the
back of her grandmother who
worked in the fields.
Her parents had left the village for
work, and as a baby Shi was breast-
fed by an aunt and her neighbors.
It was not until 2004, when Shi
turned 13, that her family could
afford to send her to primary school.
During summer vacations, she
A herd of Tibetan antelopes feeds in the Changtang National Nature Reserve of the Tibet autonomous
region on July 7. CHOGO / XINHUA
Drones monitor antelope population
BEIJING — Chinese researchers
have used drones to monitor the
health and living conditions of
60,000 Tibetan antelopes roam-
ing Nagqu prefecture in the Tibet
autonomous region.
The researchers, from the
Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, stud-
ied the birth, migration and habi-
tat of antelopes in the Changtang
National Nature Reserve using
drones and ground observation
methods.
The drones conducted 12 obser-
vation flights in the reserve that
covered more than 100 square
kilometers. The intricate images
processed by the drones were able
to recognize newborn antelopes.
The 60,000 antelopes were
observed forming a large migratory
group almost 6-kilometers long,
China Science Daily reported on
Monday.
The antelope population was
calculated using the drones’ data-
processing software, said Wu
Police officer inspires teen to win top university spot
NANCHANG — The 17-year-old
son of a migrant worker has
thanked a traffic policeman for
helping him gain entry to one of
China’s top universities after the
teenager was injured in a car acci-
dent.
Wang Zhixiong graduated from
Bailuzhou High School in Ji’an,
Jiangxi province, this summer. He
secured excellent marks in this
year’s gaokao national college
entrance examination and has been
Shi Qiqing plays with an employee’s child at her knitted-shoe factory in Weining, Guizhou province.
planted trees in the mountains near
her home to help pay her tuition fees
and living expenses.
“Usually the contractor would pay
12 yuan per day to an adult and 6
yuan for a kid, but my diligence
earned me 8 yuan a day,” she said.
“During the two-month break, I
made over 400 yuan in total and
bought a new dress for myself.”
A few years later, Shi, like many of
her age group, entered a marriage
60,000
Tibetan antelopes
are migrating in the Changtang
National Nature Reserve.
Xiaomin, a researcher with the
institute. The software divided the
ground into grids and counted the
antelopes with the help of infra-
red camera recognition.
The researchers believe the
antelope population has
increased significantly this year,
based on ground observations and
data analysis. Disturbances dur-
ing the migration of the antelopes
are also gradually decreasing,
while the quality of their habitat
has improved as the environment
has been further restored.
In previous years, the survival
rate of newborn antelopes was
about 80 percent after a long-dis-
tance migration. This year, the
admitted to Tsinghua University in
Beijing.
Three years ago, Wang was
injured in a road accident ahead of
his senior high school entrance
examination, known as the zhong-
kao. The driver involved ran off, and
local police failed to locate him.
Medical expenses could have
placed severe financial burdens on
Wang’s poor family and caused the
boy further mental stress.
“At the time, I felt that the acci-
arranged by her father. However, her
father-in-law was sick, and to pay the
mounting medical bills she worked
as a street vendor selling tofu, bean
jelly and other snacks. After he
passed away, she and her husband
left the village to look for work.
Poultry sums
In 2014, in an attempt to better
care for her children, Shi quit her
job and returned to her home vil-
researchers found the survival
rate was more than 90 percent.
Since 2013, the researchers have
studied the migration of Tibetan
antelopes by using China’s domesti-
cally developed Beidou Navigation
Satellite System.
They have recorded basic data,
including the migration routes and
times, and the spread of the species
around the Changtang National
Nature Reserve where many endan-
gered wild animals live.
Tibetan antelopes are mostly
found in Tibet and the Xinjiang
Uygur autonomous region. The spe-
cies is under first-class State protec-
tion in China.
In the 1980s, the Tibetan ante-
lope population declined from
200,000 to 20,000, due to illegal
hunting. It has recovered thanks
to the country’s efforts to improve
its habitat and crack down on
poaching.
XINHUA
dent had disrupted my study plans
and I lost confidence in doing the
senior high school entrance exami-
nation,” Wang said.
After learning about the teenag-
er’s situation, traffic policeman
Zhang Bingbing helped Wang apply
for relief funds for victims of road
accidents that covered most of the
teenager’s medical costs.
“Life is not always smooth, how-
ever, setbacks and difficulties are all
transient,” Zhang said.
CHEN JIE / FOR CHINA DAILY
lage. The convenience and familiari-
ty of her hometown made it possible
for her to breed chickens.
From her first batch of chickens,
Shi earned over 10,000 yuan.
Though the money was huge for her,
Shi wanted still bigger profits.
Instead of raising the chickens her-
self, she distributed the chicks to
local villagers to raise and later
bought them back for a reasonable
price.
Alpacas pack a punch in poverty fight
TAIYUAN — When it comes to
the alpaca, it is hard to connect the
cute creature originating in the
Andes, South America, with the
Loess Plateau, a region of barren
plains and fragile ecosystems.
In 2014, a private company
cashed in on Chinese people’s affec-
tion for the exotic animal and
introduced the species to the pla-
teau in North China’s Shanxi prov-
ince.
Over six years, the population of
alpaca has increased from 100 to
2,000, with most of them sold to
pet lovers, parks and zoos across
China. Each alpaca is priced at
around 20,000 yuan ($2,880), said
Deng Xin, general manager of
Qifengshan Breeding.
The company’s breeding base is
in Yangqu county, which is at a high
altitude and has a climate similar
to conditions in the Andes, Deng
said.
“Before this breeding base, there
was no precedent of large-scale
alpaca breeding in China. I started
as a layperson without any prede-
cessors to follow,” said Deng, who
developed a fondness for alpacas
when she was studying overseas.
When the business first started,
the survival rate of newborn alpac-
as was below 50 percent.
Deng learned how to make the
right formula for them, treat the
animals’ illnesses and place the
correct number of alpacas in a pen
for optimal growth.
She also attended Shanxi Agri-
cultural University to improve her
knowledge of scientific breeding
methods and hired veterinarians.
In 2017, Deng was able to limit
the death rate of the newborn to
under 1 percent.
An added benefit was that the
company was also able to con-
tribute to the impoverished local
villages.
He told Wang several times that to
emerge stronger from the setback
he needed to discover and acknowl-
edge the good things around him.
Wang regained his zest for life,
recovered from his injuries and suc-
cessfully enrolled in a local senior
high school.
Although Wang didn’t speak to
the policeman for three years,
Zhang’s words kept his spirits high.
“For me, studying hard is the most
effective way to change my life,”
As her poultry business expand-
ed, she started to supply local super-
markets and schools.
Demand for vegetables was also
increasing, so she threw herself into
planting and developed a client base
at home and abroad.
“Since 2017, I have maintained
cooperation with three vegetable
companies in Vietnam. The sales
volume of each product, such as cab-
bages, potatoes, tomatoes and rad-
The plateau region, with a
stressed ecosystem, is one of the
last areas in the country to eradi-
cate absolute poverty, a national
target that has been set for the end
of this year.
In recent years, several innova-
tive startups like Qifengshan have
emerged in the region, helping to
create job opportunities.
In 2017, the Yangqu county gov-
ernment became a shareholder in
the breeding company. Since then,
eight impoverished villages have
received a share of 2 million yuan
in dividends generated annually by
the breeding base.
With the money, a senior center
has been built and village roads
upgraded. The area has also
attracted more tourists, and villag-
ers have opened guesthouses and
restaurants. “These alpacas have
changed our village,” said Li Xiu-
long, the secretary of the Pingli vil-
lage Party committee.
Since 2017, the company has
hired more than 50 villagers, he
said.
Each of them can earn an annual
salary of over 30,000 yuan. Villag-
ers can also benefit from more than
Alpacas at the base of Qifengshan Breeding company in Yangqu
county, Shanxi province, on July 31. XIE YUAN / XINHUA
Wang said. “Whenever I met with
difficulties in study and life during
the past three years, Zhang’s encour-
aging remarks would come to
mind.”
Wang’s mother said the first per-
son she called to thank after hearing
of her son’s successful application
was Zhang.
“Without the help of traffic police-
man Zhang three years ago, my son
would not have been able to realize
his dream of getting into a coveted
university,” she said.
Wang’s father is a migrant worker
employed by a textile company in
Zhejiang province.
Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 7
ishes is thousands of tons every
year,” she said, adding that she sold
about 20,000 metric tons of vegeta-
bles last year, with sales reaching
over 40 million yuan ($5.76 million).
Shoemaker
After her family’s wealth was
secured, Shi believed it was time to
share her prosperity with fellow vil-
lagers.
“I know many mothers crave a
job, but they can’t totally leave the
elderly and children behind,” she
said.
“But working at a nearby factory
is one way to crack that nut. After
doing market research, I found
making handmade shoes would be a
win-win solution as most women
here are good at knitting shoes.”
In April, Shi set up a knitted-shoe
factory with an investment of about
700,000 yuan and offered jobs to 150
female villagers. As a bonus they
would be allowed to bring their
infants to the workplace.
The women can earn over 2,000
yuan a month for working an eight-
hour day. A skilled worker can col-
lect a monthly salary of more than
3,000 yuan.
“Bringing the kids to the factory
will no doubt lower the efficiency
and cut the profits, but it’s not all
about money this time,” she said. “I
want these mothers to have a job
and an income while being able to
attend to their family at the same
time.”
Shi is planning more family-
friendly factories in neighborhoods
across the town to enable more
women now stuck at home to work.
She hopes 500 women will eventual-
ly benefit from the business.
Contact the writers at
wangkeju@chinadaily.com.cn
500 jobs that supply and serve the
company’s business.
In 2018, the village was lifted out
of poverty. Last year, the per capita
disposable income of the 760 vil-
lagers exceeded 5,000 yuan.
“If I had gone to a big city as a
migrant worker as I have done
before, my income would have
been significantly affected this year
by the impact of the COVID-19 out-
break, which has shrunk employ-
ment,” said Li Jinshuan, one of the
company’s alpaca feeders.
The job provides him with a sta-
ble monthly salary of over 2,700
yuan. In Yangqu, there are 11 com-
panies engaged in breeding and
related industries. Impoverished
villagers can either work for them
or supply farm produce to them,
said Hou Aiying, chief poverty
relief official in the county.
“We have 4,300 impoverished
people benefiting from a rise in
income from the companies. Over
92 percent of local poor households
have become involved with these
businesses in one way or another,”
Hou said.
XINHUA
He earns less than 4,000 yuan
($570) per month.
A total of 10.71 million students
took the national college entrance
examination last month, and like
Wang, many students are from
humble families in rural areas.
After receiving the university
admission notice, Wang and his
mother visited the police station to
thank Zhang.
“I never imagined that an ordi-
nary act of mine would encourage a
mother and son for three years,”
Zhang said.
XINHUA
8 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
COMMENT
Editorials
Textbook revisions good beginning
to get Hong Kong’s schools in order
T
hat all Hong Kong publishing houses
have finished revising their liberal stud-
ies textbooks according to requirements
of the Education Bureau of the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region is a welcome
development, as it means the SAR is finally begin-
ning to set things right in its schools.
The publishing houses started disclosing the
revised contents from Monday, and even a cursory
look at the changes is enough to appreciate how nec-
essary and overdue they were.
For instance, almost all the unrevised liberal stud-
ies textbooks, some of which have been used for
more than a decade, portrayed the political and
social systems of the Chinese mainland as backward
in comparison to the West, as represented by the
United States and the United Kingdom.
The books even encouraged students to take the
initiative to resist any influence from the mainland
even if that led them to break the law, making them
believe that in so doing they would be struggling for
the good of Hong Kong, with the US and the UK as
their natural allies.
That explains why the Stars and Stripes and the
Union Jack could be seen being waved amid the cha-
otic scenes of street violence in Hong Kong.
No wonder many of the youths in Hong Kong
today identify themselves as being closer to those two
countries than to China, which makes them ready to
be turned into their pawns to “liberate” the city as it is
easy for them to be brainwashed by some Western
politicians having ulterior motives toward China.
In this process the young people are invariably con-
Wine probe normal trade remedy move
D
espite it coming at a time of increased
tensions between China and Australia,
the announcement by the Chinese Min-
istry of Commerce on Tuesday that it
has begun an anti-dumping investigation into
imports of wine from Australia, although it will be
unwelcome news for Australian wine producers,
should not be over-interpreted.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce,
the probe is a normal anti-dumping investigation
that is being conducted at the request of the China
Alcoholic Drinks Association on behalf of domestic
wine producers.
China's imports of Australian wine more than
doubled to 12.08 million liters between 2015 and
2019, with the association claiming that Australian
wine producers had cut their prices to take the
market share from local companies.
The ministry has pledged that the investigation,
which will look at imports of Australian wine in con-
tainers holding two liters or less in 2019 and evalu-
ate any damage done to the Chinese wine industry
from 2015 to 2019, will be conducted in a fair and
just manner in accordance with the law taking into
account the comments of Australian stakeholders.
Although the move comes after China decided to
apply anti-dumping tariffs on Australian barley in
May and to suspend beef imports from four Aus-
tralian companies due to their violation of the
agreed requirements, none of these developments
are anything more than normal trade measures.
Day with special significance this year
W
ednesday was China’s third Medical
Workers’ Day, an occasion to thank
them for their dedication to saving
lives and healing the sick — accom-
plished routinely under heavy pressure and some-
times even extremely dangerous conditions.
What made this year’s event even more signifi-
cant of course was the novel coronavirus outbreak.
During the country’s fight against this grave public
health threat, nearly 4 million medical workers
demonstrated their passion, professionalism and
spirit of sacrifice. More than 1,700 medical workers
were infected with the virus and dozens of them
died while fighting the invisible enemy on the front
line. They are rightly “the most beloved people” of
our times, as President Xi Jinping called them dur-
ing a visit to Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan,
Hubei province, in March.
By putting their own lives at risk, they saved the
lives of others and helped curb the transmission of
the virus by treating those infected. No new locally
transmitted infections were reported on the Chi-
nese mainland on Tuesday, neither were new sus-
pected cases or deaths related to the disease. Given
how rampantly the pandemic is still ravaging the
rest of the world, what China has achieved so far is
nothing but a miracle, and its medical workers
have helped make that happen.
CHINA DAILY WORLDWIDE
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vinced that the laws are shackles to be broken, and
they can thus cast their “bravery” in a heroic light.
Most of the more than 9,000 people detained by
the police in Hong Kong since the violence first
erupted in June last year are young people, among
whom 40.4 percent are students — preparing for
tests and traveling are often the excuses they offer
when pleading to be released on bail.
As such, Hong Kong’s liberal studies education,
which was introduced as a compulsory course in
2009, and a subject in the college entrance exam in
2012, with the aim of inculcating the right values
and outlook on the world in students, has betrayed
its purpose. Intriguingly, among all the compulsory
courses in middle schools in the SAR, it was the only
one whose textbooks were exempt from review and
approval by the education bureau. That means
there were actually no protective screens to prevent
the aforementioned subversive content from reach-
ing Hong Kong’s youth over the past decade.
The liberal studies textbooks should be subject to
the same review and approval process as other text-
books. The education sector must be “crystal clear”
on cardinal questions of right and wrong as Hong
Kong Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-
hung has said. So with some teachers and education
professionals being detained or fired for openly
endorsing or directly participating in violence and
secessionist activities — some of whom authored the
old textbooks — how to ensure the content of the
revised textbooks can be properly delivered in class-
rooms by qualified teachers is another practical
challenge that must be addressed.
Nor should it be overlooked that this is only the
second trade remedy investigation China has
launched into Australian products, while Australia
has launched more than 100 trade remedy investi-
gations against Chinese products since the two
countries established bilateral ties.
In recent years, Australia has been imposing a
staggering amount of tariffs on some Chinese
products, including iron and steel, aluminum and
chemical products, which has not only harmed the
interests of Australian consumers but also damp-
ened Chinese companies’ enthusiasm for the Aus-
tralian market.
Some Australian politicians and media seem to
willfully ignore the fact that China has remained
the largest source of exports to Australia in recent
years. China’s demand for Australian beef accounts
for about one-fourth of Australian’s beef exports,
and last year about one-third of Australia’s wine
exports was destined for China. Hence, to some
extent, the anti-dumping investigation may serve
to raise Australians’ awareness of the importance
of bilateral cooperation in trade and other fields.
China has always attached great importance to
bolstering sound economic ties with Australia, other-
wise, it would not have tied the economic knot with
Australia in the form of their 2015 free trade agree-
ment. Canberra should know therefore that at the
conclusion of the investigation, which could last up
to 18 months, the final ruling will be objective, impar-
tial and fair, and based on the merits of the case.
The contributions the medical workers have
made to public health have benefited every one of
us tremendously. Over the past several decades
they have worked to eliminate leprosy, reduced
cases of measles to nearly zero, lowered the baby
mortality rate to 6.1 deaths per 1,000 live births,
and extended people’s life expectancy to 77 years.
They are the guardian angels of all of us.
Yet what the medical workers have received in
return is often disproportionate with what they
have to give, in the form of onerous work sched-
ules, long working hours and the enormous
responsibilities they have to shoulder.
This has led to a brain drain in the medical sec-
tor, as evidenced by a shortfall of more than
100,000 pediatricians in the country. Xi has spoken
on many occasions of the need to better protect the
rights and interests of medical workers and, in par-
ticular, preventing any acts of violence against doc-
tors and nurses.
“Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is
also a love of Humanity,” ancient Greek physician
Hippocrates once said of the profession. The medi-
cal workers in the country have attested to the
truthfulness of the statement through their pas-
sionate, selfless and dedicated work to safeguard
public health. They deserve our love and respect
not just on one day but every day of the year.
China Daily USA
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New York, NY 10036
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subscription@chinadailyafrica.com
Luo Jie
Opinion Line
Making essay public compromises
fairness in marking procedure
“Life in the tree”, an essay that
fetched a student full marks in this
year’s college entrance examina-
tion, or gaokao, has assumed a life
of its own, as the controversy aris-
ing out of an examiner violating
grading rules by disclosing and
commenting on the exam paper
refuses to die down.
Some have criticized Chen Jianx-
in, an associate professor in the
Department of Chinese Language
and Literature of Zhejiang Univer-
sity and the group leader for scor-
ing the compositions in this year’s
gaokao in Zhejiang province, for
making the essay public; they said
it violates the exam’s confidentiality
clause.
Li Weishu, a retired media pro-
fessional from Wuhan, capital of
Compensation a way to make some amends
A video clip of a tragic accident
went viral on social networking
sites on Tuesday. It shows an elderly
woman standing by the roadside
when two dogs, one leashed, rush
past her. Suddenly, the leash gets
entangled in the elderly woman’s
foot, pulling her forcibly till she
falls, her face hitting the ground.
Soon after, a girl comes running,
looking for the dog. On finding the
woman badly hurt, she drags the
dog away. As bystanders gather at
the site, the girl quickens her pace
until she is out of the frame.
The police in Foshan, Guangdong
province, issued a news release on
Tuesday saying the elderly woman
died in hospital. The dog belonged
to a nearby restaurant and the girl,
12, untied it and was playing with it
What They Say
US targeting supply chains weakens its hegemony
United States President Donald
Trump told his supporters on Mon-
day that he would create 10 million
jobs within 10 months by introduc-
ing a tax credit for American com-
panies that move their
manufacturing units back from
China to the US.
He also said that the US govern-
ment would eliminate federal con-
tracts for companies that have
outsourced their business to China.
Trump had made similar promises
during the last presidential cam-
paign in 2016 and launched tax
reforms, but the expected return of
manufacturing enterprises has not
happened yet.
Ever since the novel coronavirus
spread globally, politicians in the
US have been talking about ending
dependence on the Chinese supply
chain. However, the enterprises
affected by the pandemic are more
concerned about their own survival.
According to a recent survey con-
ducted by the US-China Business
Council, nearly 70 percent of Amer-
ican companies said they are opti-
mistic about the business prospects
of the Chinese market in the next
Hubei province, publicly reported
Chen to the Ministry of Education
and the Zhejiang Education Exami-
nations Authority, saying it was
improper for Chen to provide tuto-
rial classes on essay writing or pub-
lish essay reference books in his
capacity as group leader for scoring
the compositions.
The Zhejiang Education Exami-
nations Authority responded by
restricting Chen from participat-
ing in future gaokao grading. Rele-
vant authorities will investigate
other issues reported by the pub-
lic.
Whether Chen violated the
rules by publishing reference
books on how to write high-scor-
ing essays and providing extracur-
ricular tutorial classes is the
JIN DING / CHINA DAILY
when tragedy struck.
The police are treating the inci-
dent as an accident while the dog
owner and the elderly woman’s
family are negotiating with each
other. The family is within its right
to seek damages for the woman’s
death. Some on social networking
five years, and based on their long-
term confidence in the Chinese
market, 87 percent of American
companies said they have no plan
to move their production lines out
of China.
Another survey cited by the BBC
shows that nearly 90 percent of
global companies have chosen the
Chinese mainland among their top
three procurement destinations.
Following the outbreak, some
countries have called for diversify-
ing supply chains in order to build
a more robust and resilient global
supply chain, but their real inten-
tion is to force manufacturing
enterprises to return at the expense
of the established global produc-
tion and supply chains and estab-
lish a localized production system
under the umbrella of protection-
ism.
However, it will be difficult for
any country to substantially
reshape the global supply chain
without affecting profitability.
Capital input alone is not
enough for gaining a competitive
advantage in manufacturing;
problems such as high labor costs
CHINA DAILY
subject of the authorities’ investi-
gation, but undoubtedly he
should not have made an exami-
nee’s essay public.
There are some who feel making
the essay public will help other stu-
dents learn, but the idea here is to
safeguard fairness. Although there
are set standards, the markers’ per-
sonal choice does influence the
marking process and it is not
always objective.
Now that it has been made pub-
lic, the model essay will influence
many to cater to the marker’s taste,
resulting in unfairness in future
exams. Given that the exam decides
many people’s future, the need to
safeguard its fairness cannot be
overemphasized.
— WANG YIQING, CHINA DAILY
sites said the compensation was of
no use now, because it will not
bring the woman back. However, it
can be a kind of small consolation
for their losses. For the one who is
responsible for the accident, the
money is a kind of penalty, warning
such people against being irrespon-
sible in the future. The girl’s guardi-
ans and the dog owner might need
to shoulder the compensation
amount.
However, if the girl took the dog
away without its owner’s knowl-
edge, the owner may not be held
responsible.
For society, the compensation
should serve as a reminder to be
mindful of others’ safety and ensure
similar accidents do not recur.
— ZHANG ZHOUXIANG, CHINA DAILY
and shortage of skilled workers
also need to be resolved.
Following the novel coronavirus
outbreak, the manufacturing sector
faces not just financial challenges,
but also the pressure of slack
demand because of the economic
downturn. So, it remains to be seen
whether US manufacturers will bid
farewell to China and invest in new
production lines.
In fact, while US politicians seek
to reorganize global supply chains,
China is launching a new industri-
al structure and supply chain sys-
tem.
Transnational corporations’
competitiveness will be greatly hit
if instead of participating in this
new system, they focus on indus-
trial relocation.
The US is unlikely to benefit
from any attempts to undermine
the international division of labor.
Instead, it will probably damage
the interests of US multinational
corporations and sabotage the
US-led system of rules, ultimately
weakening the US’ established
hegemonic status.
— 21ST CENTURY BUSINESS HERALD
 CHINA DAILY
VIEWS
Tom Fowdy
Spyware in apps reveal US hypocrisy
T
he United States administration
had utilized a contractor to
embed spyware in more than
500 apps giving them the capa-
bility to track hundreds of millions of
people worldwide, a US media outlet has
reported. The company, known as Anom-
aly Six LLC, has ties with US intelligence
and defense organizations, and according
to the report, “provides global location
data to branches of the US government
and private-sector clients”.
The Wall Street Journal report also says
the procurement of such private data was
in fact lawful, noting that: “According to
interviews with numerous people in the
industry, there is little regulation in the
US about the buying and selling of loca-
tion data.”
This revelation comes at a critical point
in time, just days after US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo intensified his assault
on China-based telecom companies and
networks, setting out what he described
as a “clean network” initiative and ironi-
cally, pledging to protect American peo-
ple’s personal data.
In his speech, which laid the ground for
US President Donald Trump’s attacks on
WeChat and TikTok, Pompeo pledged to
purge Chinese telecommunications
networks from the US, and Chi-
nese apps from App Store
and mobile devices. The US
move comes on the back
of an all-embracing para-
noia which has sought
to portray Chinese
technologies as a
threat to US national
security, which lacks
both evidence and rea-
son.
The move, however, shows the
US’ abject hypocrisy. The so-called con-
cerns for American people’s personal
data are not sincere and instead
based solely upon political oppor-
tunism.
While WikiLeaks has given
an insight into how US tech-
nology companies are co-opt-
ed into carrying out
surveillance on behalf of the
US National Security Agency,
the other side of the coin is that
private online data of individuals
all around the world are effectively
and rampantly commercialized by US
technology companies both for profit
and political gain. There is no “clean net-
work” or “clean app” in the US. It’s a total
sham.
In the modern world of mass commu-
nications and social media, what the pub-
lic often fails to recognize is that these
services are not provided solely for their
personal convenience, but because tech
companies that provide them can use
their personal data, which reveal every
aspect of their lives and preferences, as a
commercial product.
Google, for one, is not so much a search
Sun Lu
Washington’s evil designs in HK doomed to failure
F
rom the perspective of interna-
tional law, any attempt by anoth-
er country to interfere in the
affairs of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region is a violation of
China’s sovereignty and goes against the
principle of non-interference in other
countries’ internal affairs.
But the United States is trying to do
exactly this, and that too in a more direct,
gross and aggressive manner by forming
a wide network comprising the US Con-
gress, the State Department, the US Con-
sulate-General in Hong Kong, NGOs and
the US-backed opposition camp in the
SAR.
During the Cold War, the US used
Hong Kong, which was under British
colonial rule then, to gather intelligence
on the Chinese mainland and launched a
cultural and psychological campaign
with the help of American NGOs and reli-
gious organizations in Hong Kong to
indoctrinate local residents and people
against the mainland’s political system.
Ironically, with the help of the British
colonial rulers, the US downplayed Hong
Kong’s colonial status and bestowed on
the city the symbolic title of “free land”, in
order to help turn it into a “window” to
showcase Western democracy, values and
way of life, and spread its ideology on the
mainland.
In fact, the US has been trying to
interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs since
the 1980s — when China and the United
Kingdom started talks on Hong Kong’s
handover — using immigration laws,
human rights, democracy and constitu-
tional development as excuses. It even
engine as it is a depository for every
benign thought, question, interest and
lifestyle preference of its users. Out of all
this, there is money to be made. The huge
revenues which they make out of adver-
tising is not random, but tailored upon
the utilization of this information that are
then sold to third parties, which include
Facebook and other social media compa-
nies or, of course, pushed “upward” to the
US administration through its PRISM
and ECHELON programs.
In this context, the news that Anomaly
Six LLC is secretly infiltrating apps and
then harvesting data on individuals, and
selling them as products to US intelli-
gence, defense and commercial parties is
hardly surprising even if it is disturbing.
Despite all the US allegations against
telecom giant Huawei and TikTok owner
ByteDance and other Chinese high-tech
companies, an unsettling premise is that
harvesting the data of hundreds of mil-
By internationalizing the
SAR issue and trying to
sabotage the “one country,
two systems” practice,
Pompeo and his colleagues
in the US administration
are trying to contain
China’s peaceful rise and
its growing international
influence.
linked the “most favored nation” treat-
ment extended to China to the human
rights conditions in Hong Kong and
passed the United States-Hong Kong
Policy Act in 1992, which stipulates that
Washington views Hong Kong as an
independent political entity and there-
fore provides it with more “immigration
quotas”.
As the self-proclaimed guardian of
world democracy, freedom and human
rights, the US has tried to manipulate
some Hong Kong residents’ call of “uni-
versal suffrage” to show there was no
democracy in Hong Kong, regardless of
the city’s actual political environment.
After the outbreak of violent protests
in Hong Kong last year, the US provided
the opposition camp with a lot of sup-
port, and tried to strengthen the social
organization and mobilization capability
of opposition forces and build them into
anti-mainland forces.
lions of people around the world for the
procurement of authorities is legitimate
and legal business, and that this is being
done discretely without the consent or
knowledge of those people.
The apps involved are extensive in
number, and not named in the initial
report. How can the US government fea-
sibly talk about a “clean network” and
“clean apps” when this is going on?
Such news shows how shallow, oppor-
tunistic and hypocritical the talk of “data
protection” really is. The US administra-
tion is doing everything it can to accuse
China of almost everything. And ironical-
ly, it is injecting fear into the general pub-
lic about Chinese technologies and apps,
linking them to espionage and data har-
vesting, and vowing to protect people and
their personal data
when it is itself har-
vesting the data of
hundreds of mil-
From the “Occupy Central” move-
ment in 2014 to the yearlong mayhem
unleashed by the radicals in the SAR
last year, Washington has been pointing
the finger at the central government,
while surreptitiously adding fuel to the
protests and providing material support
for the opposition camp, and thus bla-
tantly interfering in China’s internal
matters.
But now the US has moved from the
background to the forefront to openly
support the radicals in the city. The lat-
est example is US Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo’s statement, in which he
not only criticized the SAR government
for postponing the Legislative Council
election but also claimed that “Hong
Kong people may never vote again”. Giv-
en Pompeo’s sordid record, it is not sur-
prising that he conveniently forgot to
mention that the LegCo election has
been deferred because of the threat the
rising number of novel coronavirus
infections pose to the SAR residents’
health and life.
By internationalizing the SAR issue
and trying to sabotage the “one country,
two systems” practice, Pompeo and his
colleagues in the US administration are
trying to contain China’s peaceful rise
and its growing international influence.
Yet such US attempts in recent years
have failed, which is evident from the
rapid expansion of the Chinese economy.
Equally importantly, China has been
playing an increasingly important role in
global governance and international rela-
tions, and the SAR has been gradually
incorporated into China’s national gov-
lions of people across the world, which
would not have been revealed if it were
not for journalistic leaks.
Individuals’ data are big and lucrative
business for US companies, and thus
have been milked to maximum benefit on
behalf of the administration. As a result,
amid this revelation, it is fair to argue
that Pompeo’s claim of so-called “clean
network” and “clean apps” is the claim of
a snake oil salesman in a bid to distract
the public from the deeds of a country
where both government departments
and private enterprises are working in
tandem to harvest, politicize and profit
from people’s data, which the extent to
which the US is involved in illegal activi-
ties.
The author is a British political and
international relations analyst.
The views do not necessarily reflect
those of China Daily.
SHI YU / CHINA DAILY
ernance system, and become the back-
bone of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-
Macao Greater Bay Area and an
important link in the China-proposed
Belt and Road Initiative.
But the foreign elements’ active
involvement in the SAR, and their
remarks and actions aimed at separating
Hong Kong from the motherland
exposed the national security loopholes
in the city. As such, the Standing Com-
mittee of the National People’s Congress,
the country’s top legislature, implement-
ed the national security law in the SAR to
plug those loopholes.
To enact and implement a law to
safeguard national security in its terri-
torial jurisdiction is a country’s internal
affair, and no other country has the
right to interfere in it. But US politi-
cians, driven by their global strategy,
are trying to turn the SAR into a “stra-
tegic fulcrum” against China so they
can fulfill their narrow economic and
political goals. In doing so, however,
they have underestimated China’s firm
will to safeguard its national security,
uphold “one country, two systems” and
maintain Hong Kong’s stability, devel-
opment and prosperity.
The US should know that it cannot use
Hong Kong as a pawn against Beijing,
and any attempt to contain the main-
land’s development is doomed to failure.
The author is associate professor with the
School of Government and Public Affairs,
Communication University of China.
The views don’t necessarily reflect those of
China Daily.
Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 9
Wan Guanghua
Inclusive growth
essential for
poverty alleviation
in BRICS states
E
radicating poverty is high on the list of
both the Millennium Development
Goals and Sustainable Development
Goals. Both the MDGs and SDGs were
endorsed by the heads of state or government
of the 190-plus member countries of the United
Nations, including BRICS.
As a member of the UN as well as BRICS, Chi-
na’s contribution to global poverty reduction is
much more than its contribution to global eco-
nomic growth, which is estimated to be about
30 percent. So, since China’s unprecedented
economic growth has been called a “miracle”,
the fact that China is set to eliminate absolute
poverty by the end of this year can be seen as “a
dream come true”.
There is no doubt that the fast economic
growth in China and India has played a key role
in reducing poverty in the two countries. Slow-
er but positive growth — before the novel coro-
navirus pandemic broke out — also helped the
other BRICS countries to lower their poverty
rates. Indeed, economic growth helps reduce
poverty, provided that income distribution
remains the same or improves. But if income
inequality worsens, the impact of positive
growth can be offset, even reversed — meaning
poverty will increase.
The relevance and significance of inequality
can be understood by imagining a country
with no inequality. In this hypothetical case,
everyone gets the same share of the national
income, and if long-term per capita income is
higher than the poverty line, there will be no
poverty.
In short, all BRICS countries
have made progress in poverty
alleviation work, even though
the progress has been uneven
due to their different growth
rates and the levels of inequality
in their societies.
The impacts of growth and inequality on pov-
erty are interlinked and the growth-inequality-
poverty relationship is complex. But it is still
possible to assess their roles in making China’s
dream come true and to analyze how the other
BRICS economies can reduce poverty. This can
be done by attributing changes in the poverty
rate to growth (the so-called growth impact)
and changes in the inequality level (the distri-
butional impact). Such an analysis is informa-
tive and useful, as it can help policymakers to
rework or adjust their development strategies,
and focus on either growth or distributional
concerns, or both.
The results of such an analysis indicate that
growth has played a much more important role
than inequality in reducing poverty in all
BRICS countries. Changes in income distribu-
tion either had negligible impact on the poverty
rate or actually entailed increase in poverty.
In particular, rising inequality in China and
India hampered the progress of poverty allevia-
tion work. In other words, China and India could
have achieved even better results had their
income distribution not deteriorated over time.
Rising income gaps could also hurt growth
and the poverty alleviation work, because they
put psychological pressure on the poor — even
compel some to engage in criminal activities
out of desperation — and contribute to sluggish
demand. For example, rising income inequality
in China is a main cause of insufficient domes-
tic demand that affects the profitability of
enterprises. Having difficulty in selling their
products and services, enterprises hold on to
future investment, which hurts economic
growth.
It is thus important for governments, includ-
ing those in BRICS economies, to promote
growth and at the same time contain, if not
reduce, inequality. This will lead to inclusive
growth, and ensure that sufficient attention is
paid to the poor and vulnerable groups when
designing and implementing various policies.
Especially, greater efforts should be made to
ensure the poor do have equal access to educa-
tion and healthcare services, because education
and health represent the fundamental elements
of human capital and are key determinants of
people’s well-being or poverty.
In short, all BRICS countries have made
progress in poverty alleviation work, even
though the progress has been uneven due to
their different growth rates and the levels of
inequality in their societies. But despite growth
playing a dominant role in poverty reduction, it
would be a mistake to overlook inequality,
because a high level of inequality directly
undermines growth potential and indirectly
offsets the beneficial impact of growth on pov-
erty reduction.
The author, former director and head of Poverty
and Inequality Group at the Asian Develop-
ment Bank, is a distinguished professor at and
director of the Institute of World Economy,
Fudan University.
The views don’t necessarily reflect those of Chi-
na Daily.
10 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
WORLD
Briefly
CANADA
PM taps ally Freeland
as finance minister
Chrystia Freeland, who helped nego-
tiate Canada’s free-trade deal with
the United States and Mexico, was
named the country’s first female
finance minister on Tuesday. Her
elevation came a day after her pre-
decessor resigned after reportedly
butting heads with Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau. Freeland, a former
journalist who had been Canada’s
foreign minister, is a trusted ally of
Trudeau and will keep her job as
deputy prime minister. Trudeau
named her to the job after Bill Mor-
neau stepped down on Monday
amid reported differences with Tru-
deau’s administration, which has
been spending heavily to shore up
the pandemic-hammered economy.
AUSTRALIA
Govts condemned
over ill-fitting masks
Australia’s peak medical body has
accused state and federal govern-
ments of an “appalling” approach
to ill-fitting face masks for health-
care workers. Omar Khorshid, the
president of the Australian Medical
Association, or AMA, on Wednes-
day said that it was “baffling” that
frontline medical workers caring
for COVID-19 patients have not
been fitted properly for N95 masks
to create an effective seal around
the face. State health departments
are responsible for providing hospi-
tals with personal protective equip-
ment but have often only provided
one size of N95 mask, leaving young
female health workers particularly
vulnerable. As of Monday, about 14
percent of Victoria’s active cases of
COVID-19 were healthcare workers.
UNITED STATES
California declares
emergency over fires
California Governor Gavin Newsom
declared a statewide emergency to
mobilize resources to fight wildfires
burning across the state. Newsom
noted in a proclamation that there
are hundreds of fires actively burn-
ing during the extreme weather con-
ditions throughout California, and
they had scorched tens of thousands
of hectares. As the other US Western
states were all struggling with the
wildfires, it is increasingly difficult
for authorities to obtain the necessa-
ry in-state and out-of-state firefight-
ing resources to respond to the
aggressive wildfires, the proclama-
tion said, adding extremely high
temperatures and dry conditions
were expected to continue and exac-
erbate the fire threat in California.
MIDDLE EAST
Gaza’s power plant
shuts amid tensions
Gaza’s sole power plant shut down on
Tuesday, leaving the territory’s 2 mil-
lion residents with only around four
hours of electricity a day after Israel
cut off fuel supplies in response to
incendiary balloons launched by Pal-
estinian militants. Tensions have ris-
en in recent weeks between Israel
and Hamas, the Islamic militant
group that has ruled Gaza since 2007.
The balloons, launched across the
frontier by Hamas-affiliated groups,
have set farmland ablaze, prompting
retaliatory strikes by Israel.
XINHUA—AGENCIES
Russia warns interference in Belarus will worsen tensions
By REN QI in Moscow
renqi@chinadaily.com.cn
Russian President Vladimir
Putin insists that foreign attempts
to interfere in the domestic affairs
of Belarus are unacceptable and
could further escalate tensions, the
Kremlin said in a statement.
He made the remarks during a
phone call with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel on Tuesday. The two
leaders “thoroughly discussed the sit-
uation in Belarus following the presi-
dential election”, the Kremlin said.
Putin also held separate phone
calls on Tuesday on Belarus with
European Council President
Charles Michel and French Presi-
dent Emmanuel Macron.
Putin expressed concern over the
attempts of some countries to put
pressure on the Belarusian leader-
ship and “in every possible way” to
destabilize the political situation in
Belarus, the Kremlin said in a news
release.
Interest was also expressed in pre-
Former US vice-president Joe Biden is shown enjoying the moment after his formal nomination as the
Democratic presidential candidate on Tuesday. Procedures on the second day of the party’s convention
are shown on a video feed at its hosting site in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. BRIAN SNYDER VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Democrats choose
Biden to end ‘chaos’
With nomination bagged, flag-bearer’s
character pitched as edge to oust Trump
By CHINA DAILY
US Democrats have nominated
Joe Biden as their 2020 presidential
candidate, offering the Washington
veteran as a “man of courage” who
would sweep away the “chaos” of
four years under Republican Presi-
dent Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, viewers tuning in to
Day 2 of the four-day Democratic
National Convention saw present-
ers affirm Biden’s character and
leadership while drawing a sharp
contrast with the brash Republican
scrambling to remain in the White
House after November’s election.
In an unprecedented and elabo-
rate roll-call vote that took place
entirely online due to the coronavi-
rus pandemic, all 50 states and sev-
en territories announced their vote
tallies that cemented the 77-year-
old Biden’s role as the party flag-
bearer.
The nomination was a formality
as he had already won the majority
of the more than 3,900 delegates
back in June.
The roll call came on Day 2 of the
mostly virtual Democratic conven-
tion aimed at celebrating the par-
ty’s candidate and welcoming
independents and frustrated
Republicans into their political
movement to oust Trump from the
White House.
The proceedings included a series
of presentations by party leaders
past and future who unleashed their
own arguments against the White
House incumbent and urged voters
to rally around Biden.
The lineup featured 95-year-old
Jimmy Carter, who served one
presidential term from 1977, and
1990s commander-in-chief Bill
Clinton, who warned that the
venting confrontation in Belarus,
according to the release.
Attention is firmly focused on
how Russia will respond to the big-
gest political crisis facing its ex-So-
viet neighbor, with Belarus
engulfed in mass protests after
President Alexander Lukashenko
won a sixth term in elections on Aug
9. The opposition have refused to
recognize the results.
On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
said in Beijing that as a good friend
and partner, China does not want
any chaos in Belarus and opposes
external forces creating division
and instability in Belarusian society.
“We hope that Belarus can main-
tain stability and social tranquillity
through their own efforts,” he said,
adding that China has always
respected the development path
chosen by the Belarusian people in
accordance with their national con-
ditions. China also respects their
efforts to safeguard national inde-
pendence, sovereignty, security and
Trump White House is swirling
with chaos instead of the compe-
tence necessary to address the
nation’s crises.
“At a time like this, the Oval
Office should be a command cen-
ter. Instead, it’s a storm center.
There’s only chaos,” said Clinton,
who turned 74 on Wednesday. He
had prerecorded his address from
his home in New York.
“Just one thing never changes —
his determination to deny respon-
sibility and shift the blame. The
buck never stops there.”
His fellow heavy hitter also
appearing virtually was Carter,
who noted that the country
deserves a leader with integrity
and judgment, someone who is
“honest and fair”. “Joe has the expe-
rience, character, and decency to
bring us together and restore
America’s greatness,” he said.
Live speech next week
Trump, 74, faced a barrage of
criticism on opening night, too,
notably from former first lady
Michelle Obama, who said the
president lacks the character and
skills for the job.
He tweeted on Tuesday: “People
forget how divided our country
was under (Barack) Obama and
Biden. The anger and hatred were
unbelievable. They shouldn’t be
lecturing to us. I’m here, as your
president, because of them!”
On a Tuesday visit to battle-
ground state Arizona, Trump
knocked Michelle Obama for deliv-
ering taped remarks.
“Thursday night I’m doing it
live,” Trump said, referring to his
speech next week when he formal-
ly accepts his party’s nomination at
the online Republican convention.
development, the spokesman said.
On Monday, Lukashenko said new
elections may take place in Belarus if
a new Constitution is adopted
through a national referendum.
Lukashenko has refused to step
down. He also signed a decree hon-
oring about 300 police officers for
their service.
He had a phone call with Putin on
Tuesday. They also spoke by phone
on Saturday and Sunday.
According to Belarusian state
news agency Belta, Putin on Tues-
day promised Lukashenko security
assistance if Belarus needs it, but
only on the basis of the framework
of treaties under the United Nations
and the Collective Security Treaty
Organization.
Lukashenko accused NATO of
bolstering its forces on Belarus’ bor-
ders and harboring aggressive
plans, but the claim was denied by
the alliance.
But Russia has remained tight-
lipped and both the Kremlin and its
state media have said nothing about
Former Democratic president
Barack Obama was scheduled to
speak on Wednesday night along
with 2016 Democratic presidential
nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Democrats need to use the
quadrennial gathering to lay out a
vision for the future that appeals to
a broad swath of voters, make the
case against Trump and his down-
the-line congressional supporters
without turning off suburban
Republicans and independents,
William A. Galston and Elaine
Kamarck, both senior fellows of
governance studies at the Brook-
ings Institution, said in a research
note.
Just one incumbent president
has been defeated in the past four
decades.
In another development, with
political turmoil bubbling less than
three months before the election,
the US Postal Service chief moved
to take a contentious issue off the
table on Tuesday, saying no
changes would be made to the sys-
tem before the Nov 3 vote.
Louis DeJoy suspended all mail
service changes, acceding to pres-
sure by Democrats, who interpret-
ed the moves as fashioned to boost
Trump’s reelection chances.
The reversal follows complaints
that the cuts could slow the han-
dling of mail-in ballots, which
could account for as many as half
of all votes cast in the election as
the coronavirus pandemic raises
fears of crowds at polling places.
The abrupt reversal from DeJoy,
who is set to testify on Friday
before the Senate, came after more
than 20 states, from New York to
California, announced they would
sue to stop the changes.
Zhao Huanxin in Washington,
Ai Heping and Heng Weili
in New York and agencies
contributed to this story.
any possible security assistance.
European Union leaders were set
to tighten sanctions against Bela-
rus at an emergency video confer-
ence on the crisis on Wednesday,
EU Industry Commissioner Thier-
ry Breton said.
Some other Western countries,
including the United States and the
United Kingdom, have also voiced
concerns over the crisis in Belarus.
A Russian government plane
used to carry senior officials,
including the head of the FSB secu-
rity service, flew to Belarus for a
brief stay before returning to Mos-
cow in the early hours of Wednes-
day, flight-tracking data shows,
according to a report by Reuters.
Tracking data showed the plane,
a Tupolev Tu-214 that also serves as
a command and control center,
flew to Minsk on Tuesday before
landing back in the Russian capital
early on Wednesday morning.
Agencies and Xinhua contributed to
this story.
UK exam results system
descends into turmoil
By JULIAN SHEA in London
julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com
Britain’s university entrance sys-
tem is in turmoil after a high-pro-
file government climbdown over
the assessment of school-leavers’
results.
With end-of-year exams impos-
sible because of the novel corona-
virus shutting schools and
colleges, teachers estimated what
results pupils would have been
likely to achieve.
But these marks were then sub-
mitted to a computer algorithm
that saw significant numbers of
students, particularly those from
less affluent areas or historically
less successful schools, downgrad-
ed, affecting their university
entrance prospects.
After days of public anger and
political criticism, the government
dropped the algorithm, revising
results to the initial estimates, but
in the meantime, some students
have now made other plans.
Previously, British Prime Minis-
ter Boris Johnson, who is on holi-
day, had called the results
produced by the system “robust
and dependable”, and Education
Secretary Gavin Williamson said
there was no chance of the author-
ities in England following the lead
of Scotland in reversing results,
saying “the message we got from
everyone was that this is the right
system going forward”.
That reversal decision in Scot-
land was widely criticized by the
central government when it hap-
pened, but following similar moves
in Wales and Northern Ireland,
England has now done the same.
Williamson said he was “incred-
Students rally near the constituency office of Gavin Williamson, a
Conservative MP and Britain’s education secretary, in Codsall,
England, on Monday. PAUL ELLIS / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
EU’s ‘frugal four’ push
to preserve fund rebates
By EARLE GALE in London
earle@mail.chinadailyuk.com
A row is brewing among Euro-
pean Union member states over
billions of dollars in rebates.
Some governments reportedly
fear large payouts they managed to
secure in return for their coopera-
tion during a controversial debate
are now in danger of being deval-
ued because of stagnant growth
and high inflation caused by the
novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Financial Times reported
that Austria, Denmark, the Neth-
erlands and Sweden, which have
been dubbed the “frugal four”
because of their past economic
practices, want to protect the val-
ue of the massive rebates they won
during a recent debate about a
virus recovery fund by having
them index-linked to inflation.
EU members have been receiving
rebates each year after paying their
annual membership fees, ever since
the United Kingdom’s then prime
minister Margaret Thatcher secured
one for her nation back in 1984.
Countries have since been bit-
terly divided on the issue, because
each receives a different rebate.
And because there are clearly win-
ners and losers it prompted France
to push hard in recent months for
rebates to be scrapped completely.
But, Austria, Denmark, the Neth-
erlands, and Sweden managed to
secure very large rebates earlier
this year when the bloc was trying
to build a consensus on a recovery
fund to help nations in the south of
the bloc bounce back from the nov-
el coronavirus pandemic.
CHINA DAILY
ibly sorry for the distress” caused
to students, but when pressed by
the BBC, refused to say if he would
be stepping down from his posi-
tion, only saying “my focus is mak-
ing sure youngsters get the grades
that they deserve”.
The same system had been lined
up for use in the results of GCSEs,
exams taken at the age of 16, which
are due out on Thursday, but has
now been dropped completely.
Opposition Labour Party leader
Keir Starmer was highly critical of
how the matter had been handled,
saying “the government has had
months to sort out exams and has
now been forced into a screeching
U-turn after days of confusion”,
and the reversal does not bring the
saga to a neat conclusion.
Further challenges
Now some universities will find
themselves oversubscribed with
students who have met the
entrance requirements, causing
logistical problems, and although
a cap on numbers has been
removed to allow for this, there
will be challenges around physical
capacity, especially in the era of
social distancing.
“If you rip up the rules after the
results are out and with only a few
weeks to go before the academic
year starts, it is a major challenge,”
Nick Hillman, director of the
Higher Education Policy Institute,
told The Guardian newspaper.
“Institutions will do their best
by their applicants but there are
always limits, internally imposed
and externally imposed, on how
much they can expand and that is
doubly true when social distanc-
ing rules are in force.”
In the end, after the frugal four
grudgingly supported the move,
the bloc was able to set up a 750-bil-
lion-euro ($893-billion) recovery
package. In exchange for their sup-
port, the frugal four secured rebates
on their fees worth 7.6 billion euros
a year. In the case of Austria, the
rebate was twice its normal size.
The Financial Times reported
that one diplomat said the four
nations could lose tens of millions
of dollars a year from those rebates
if the economy tanks as expected
because of the virus.
Divide within bloc
Poorer nations in the south and
east of the EU will benefit from the
virus recovery fund but lose out if
the bloc agrees to hand over even
more money to the frugal four and
are resisting their demands, the
Financial Times reported.
The issue threatens to create a
north-south divide within the EU
and be a major sticking point in
the bloc’s continuing discussions
over its 1.07-trillion-euro seven-
year budget in the coming months.
Janez Lenarcic, the EU’s crisis
management commissioner, told
the Financial Times the extra mon-
ey that the four nations secured as
rebates mean the bloc had to cut
spending in other areas, particu-
larly on overseas aid packages.
“A compromise had to be
reached and that was the price for
it,” Lenarcic said. “This does not
make everybody happy — it does
not make me happy because I
believe in the need for Europe to
show solidarity with the rest of the
world and to help others.”
 CHINA DAILY
WORLD
Mali president forced out in coup
UN, African neighbors, as well as China,
call for a peaceful resolution of crisis
By CHINA DAILY
Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the
Malian president who was
detained by mutinous soldiers in a
military camp near the capital
Bamako, announced his resigna-
tion late on Tuesday. He also dis-
solved the nation’s legislature and
prime minister Boubou Cisse’s gov-
ernment.
“I wish no blood to be shed to
keep me in power,” he said in a brief
declaration broadcast by national
television network ORTM from the
camp in the town of Kati, adding
that he didn’t “hold any hatred”
toward anyone.
Keita, who was elected president
in 2013 and reelected five years later,
was arrested along with Cisse by the
rebel soldiers near Bamako on Tues-
day morning, local media reported.
The leaders of the military coup
said on Wednesday that they would
enact a political transition and stage
elections within a “reasonable time”.
The National Committee for the
Salvation of the People, or CNSP,
“decided to take responsibility in
front of the people and of history”,
Ismael Wague, the Malian Air Force
deputy chief of staff, said on televi-
sion.
The Economic Community of
West African States, or ECOWAS,
the African Union, the European
Union and the United Nations,
along with France, condemned the
soldiers’ arrest of Keita and
demanded that constitutional
order be restored, saying they
Allergy-free Venus
Workers clear dust from the Townley Venus Roman sculpture
(dating from the first or second century AD) in the Greek and
Roman Sculpture Gallery of the British Museum on Tuesday
ahead of the London attraction’s reopening on Aug 27. The
coronavirus lockdown provided an opportunity for a massive
cleaning effort. YUI MOK / PA WIRE
Brazil fires sweep into
world’s largest wetland
BRASILIA — Flames are ravag-
ing Brazil’s Pantanal wetland, the
world’s largest, approaching the
region’s main highway and threat-
ening endangered species amid a
near-record number of fires.
Brazil’s national space research
agency Inpe has registered 3,121
fires in the first 15 days of August,
nearly five times higher than the
same period a year ago. At the cur-
rent pace, fires could approach the
record for any month since moni-
toring began in 1998.
Firefighters in the area worked
to douse smoldering earth that
was charred black as clouds of
smoke billowed hundreds of feet
into the air.
Experts say the fires that threat-
en the world’s largest rainforest
are rarely a natural phenomenon
and are mostly set by speculators
to clear land for pasture.
Speaking on a visit to Mato
Grosso State to see the firefighting
efforts in the Pantanal, Environ-
ment Minister Ricardo Salles said
the challenges loom large.
“The atmosphere is very hot,
very dry, with strong winds and
high temperatures,” Salles said.
“We saw hundreds of fires along
the journey throughout the day.
Places where the planes and fire-
men have fought the fires directly
without stopping, but still the fires
are causing great damage to fauna,
flora and to the Pantanal region.”
Roughly 8,500 square kilome-
ters, or nearly 6 percent of the Pan-
would not accept an unconstitu-
tional power switch.
United Nations Secretary-Gener-
al Antonio Guterres on Tuesday
called for constitutional order to be
returned to Mali after Keita’s arrest.
“The secretary-general reiterates
his calls for a negotiated solution
and peaceful resolution of their dif-
ferences,” UN spokesman Stephane
Dujarric said.
Dialogue urged
China on Wednesday called on
all relevant parties in Mali to work
for the fundamental interests of the
country and its people and resolve
differences through dialogue.
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian said China is paying
close attention to the situation in
Mali and opposes the change of
power through abnormal means,
such as the use of force.
He added that China supports
the efforts of relevant regional and
international organizations, espe-
cially the African Union and the
Economic Community of West
African States, in finding a peace-
ful solution to the crisis in Mali.
“We call on all relevant parties in
Mali to restore normal order as
soon as possible, and safeguard
national stability and unity,” he said.
African Union Chairman Moussa
Faki Mahamat said on Twitter: “I
energetically condemn the arrest of
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita,
the prime minister and other mem-
bers of the Malian government and
call for their immediate liberation.”
tanal, burned from January to July,
according to government data.
The Pantanal is 10 times the size
of the Everglades wetlands in the
US state of Florida. The region is
one of the most biodiverse places
on the planet with more than 4,700
plant and animal species, includ-
ing threatened ones like the jaguar,
according to advocacy group WWF.
Rising concerns
Most of the largest sanctuary for
the blue hyacinthine macaw par-
rots has gone up in flames this
year, Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo
newspaper reported.
The region has been suffering
from below-average rainfall and
higher-than-average tempera-
tures in the past 30 days, accord-
ing to data provider Refinitiv.
“It is extremely difficult to com-
bat, control and combat again a
fire with the dimensions that we
have seen here in the Pantanal,”
said Paulo Barroso, president of a
local firefighting committee.
The blazes in the Pantanal come
amid rising concerns about fires in
the Amazon, its much larger
neighbor to the north.
Fires spiked in the first few days
of August in the Amazon, but were
down by 17 percent for Aug 1-15,
compared with the same period a
year ago. Deforestation rose 34.5
percent in the 12 months through
July, compared with a year earlier.
AGENCIES VIA XINHUA
Soldiers move through the streets of Mali’s capital city Bamako on Tuesday.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves
Le Drian said France “condemns in
the strongest terms this grave event”.
The US envoy to the Sahel region,
J. Peter Pham, said on Twitter that
“the US is opposed to all extra-con-
stitutional changes of government”.
The ECOWAS, in a statement on
Tuesday evening, threatened to
sanction the leaders of the mutiny.
The regional grouping said it had
suspend Mali’s membership, and
asked its members to close their
Forget herd immunity, says WHO
By CHEN WEIHUA in Brussels
chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn
The World Health Organiza-
tion, or WHO, warned on Tuesday
against pinning hopes on herd
immunity as a salvation to stop
the spread of COVID-19 in the
foreseeable future.
The New York Times reported
on Monday that more than a doz-
en scientists interviewed by the
paper said that the threshold to
reach herd immunity is likely to
be much lower than the 70 percent
previously suggested.
The report said “50 percent,
perhaps even less”. “If that’s true,
then it may be possible to turn
back the coronavirus more quick-
ly than once thought,” the report
said.
Mike Ryan, executive director
of the WHO’s Health Emergen-
cies Programme, pointed out that
so far no one knows the level
required to reach herd immunity
for COVID-19.
“There is no question in my
mind that we are a long way from
that. And it will remain a long way
in the absence of an effective vac-
cine,” he told a virtual news con-
ference from Geneva.
“What we can say with certainty
that right now as a global popula-
tion, we are nowhere close to the
level of immunity required to stop
this disease from transmitting.”
Ryan said people need to focus
on what they can do now to sup-
press transmission, and “not live
in hope of herd immunity being
our salvation”.
“Right now, that is not a solu-
tion, and not a solution we should
be looking to for our salvation,” he
said.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the
WHO’s technical lead on COVID-
19, said that when people talk
Harry Potter magic destined for Tokyo theme park
By WANG XU in Tokyo
wangxu@chinadaily.com.cn
A Harry Potter-inspired theme
park will replace a 94-year-old
amusement park in Tokyo in a treat
for the legions of fans of the boy
wizard.
Warner Bros Japan and partners
including Seibu Railway and trad-
ing house Itochu announced on
Tuesday that the theme park paying
homage to the Harry Potter series of
films will open in the first half of
2023.
borders to the country and suspend
all financial connections with it.
Early on Tuesday morning, gun-
shots were heard in Kati, as the
first indication that something was
happening.
A source from the Malian
Defense Ministry said an officer
reportedly took advantage of the
protest to incite soldiers to revolt.
For months, opposition coalition
the Movement of June 5 — Rally of
Patriotic Forces, or M5-RFP, had
It (herd immunity)
will remain a long
way in the absence of
an effective vaccine
(against COVID-19).”
Mike Ryan, executive director
of WHO’s Health Emergencies
Programme
about herd immunity, it means
the use of a vaccine, and how
many people need to be vaccinat-
ed to be able to reach the right
proportion so that the virus will
not have an opportunity to circu-
late between people.
She said there are now more
than 100 sero-epidemiological
studies globally for SARS-CoV-2,
referring to the virus that causes
COVID-19. The WHO has been
working with at least 50 countries
on these studies.
But she said that studies con-
ducted so far show that less than
10 percent of the population has
evidence of antibodies against
SARS CoV-2. That level could go
up to 20 to 25 percent for high-risk
groups, such as front-line health-
care workers.
Focus on basics
“But again, that means a large
percentage of the population
remains susceptible,” she said.
While people infected usually
develop an immune response, Van
Kerkhove said that it is still
unknown how strong and how
long the response is, adding that
this study is still taking place.
She said that people should
focus on the basics, such as case
finding, isolation, contact tracing
Seibu Railway, which owns
Toshimaen, one of the oldest
amusement parks in Tokyo dating
to 1926, will turn part of the
220,000-square-meter site into the
new theme park. The rest of the
land will be sold to the Tokyo met-
ropolitan government.
Occupying about 30,000 square
meters, the theme park will dis-
play film sets, costumes and props
used in the beloved fantasy films
based on the popular novels of the
same name by British author J.K.
Rowling.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
been organizing demonstrations to
demand Keita’s resignation, accus-
ing him of being responsible for the
worsening security in the northern
part of the country and Mali’s eco-
nomic recession. The coup occurred
as the M5-RFP on Tuesday began a
week of “continuous activities” of
protests in Mali to force out Keita.
Xinhua, agencies and
Edith Mutethya in Nairobi, Kenya,
contributed to the story.
and quarantining the contacts.
Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser
to WHO Director-General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that
when half of the world’s popula-
tion are in lockdown and the econ-
omy has ground to a halt in many
places, people should plan for a
very high level of herd immunity
because “we don’t want to take
chances, we don’t want to be
wrong”.
He suggested that the vaccina-
tion rate must be much higher
because the vaccine may work in
only 50 percent or 80 percent of
people.
He echoed the messages by
Ryan and Van Kerkhove that peo-
ple should focus on the basics.
“You need the full package; they
are our silver bullets,” he said.
The Guardian reported on Mon-
day that Anders Tegnell, the archi-
tect of Sweden’s no-lockdown
strategy, has come under fire after
emails came to light showing his
appearing to ask whether a high
death rate among old people
might be acceptable if it led to a
faster herd immunity.
Tegnell has repeatedly insisted
the government’s objective was
not to achieve rapid herd immuni-
ty but rather to slow the spread of
the coronavirus enough for health
services to be able to cope.
However, e-mail exchanges
obtained by Swedish journalists
under freedom of information
laws show that Tegnell was dis-
cussing herd immunity as an
objective in mid-March, days after
the WHO declared COVID-19 a
global pandemic.
With a population of 10 million,
Sweden has reported more than
84,000 coronavirus cases and
5,783 deaths. About half of those
deaths occurred in nursing
homes.
Ann Sarnoff, chairwoman and
CEO of Warner Bros, said in a state-
ment that the theme park will offer
“fans of all ages a unique way to get
closer to the films” and that the
company is “looking forward to
creating something very special”.
‘Good news’
According to Seibu, the park will
be the second such facility after
Warner Bros Studio Tour London —
The Making of Harry Potter, which
has welcomed over 1.4 million visi-
tors since it opened in 2012.
Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 11
France to
make masks
mandatory
in indoor
workplaces
By JONATHAN POWELL
in London
jonathan@mail.chinadailyuk.com
The French government has said
it would make the wearing of masks
mandatory in most indoor work-
spaces by the end of the month in
an effort to contain an alarming rise
in COVID-19 infections.
The public health council has rec-
ommended masks in all workplaces
as the country’s daily infection
count jumped past 3,000 for the
first time since May.
The measure, likely to come into
effect in time for the end of the sum-
mer holidays on Sept 1, will be
accompanied by a reminder that
home working remains the employ-
ment ministry’s preferred option
for most employees.
Health officials suggest that
almost a quarter of new clusters
have been linked to workplaces out-
side medical settings.
“The best thing we can do to pre-
pare for the return from vacations is
to reassure employees that, togeth-
er, we are taking the precautions to
avoid spreading the virus,” said Elis-
abeth Borne, the minister of labor,
employment and integration.
The mask warning comes off the
back of a recent rise in cases,
believed to be driven by young
people.
“We have to systemize mask-
wearing in all closed or shared
workspaces,” Borne said, suggest-
ing that meeting rooms, corridors,
change rooms and open-plan offi-
ces would all be included.
Until now, the French govern-
ment has advised the wearing of
masks only at work when social dis-
tancing is not possible.
Meanwhile, Borne discussed the
issue with union leaders on Tues-
day and the new advice was expect-
ed to be published imminently.
The government has been under
pressure from trade unions to step
up protective measures in time for
September to try to stop a resur-
gence of cases.
205,000
people
have been infected with the
novel coronavirus in France
France has seen a sharp rise in
cases since July and masks are
already widely used. Its average
number of new cases over seven
days is now nearly 2,500, double
what it was at the start of the month.
More than 205,000 people have
now been infected in France, and
more than 30,000 have died, accord-
ing to the WHO as of Wednesday.
The country has already made
mask-wearing obligatory on public
transport and in enclosed shared
public spaces, but has left their use
in offices to the discretion of
employers until now.
The latest measure follows
updated advice on the risk of aero-
sol infections.
Underlining the hazards in all
walks of life, the first game of
France’s top-flight soccer season
has been postponed.
The match between Marseille
and Saint Etienne, scheduled for
Friday, was called off after a spate of
positive tests in Marseille.
At least 37 France Ligue 1 players
from 11 clubs have tested positive for
COVID-19 in recent weeks.
“I think it is very good news,” said
Kaori Kawasaki, a student in her 20s
in Tokyo, “By then, the COVID-19
pandemic will be over and I hope
many people like me can enjoy the
theme park.”
“It also shows that neither Lord
Voldemort nor the pandemic can
disrupt the daily lives of human
beings.”
The Tokyo metropolitan govern-
ment said the rest of the Toshimaen
facility will be repurposed as a large
public park, which could also serve
as an emergency evacuation site.
12 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
From left: Modern agriculture machinery sweeps across farmland in Jilin province.
city. ZHANG HAIFENG / FOR CHINA DAILY
Higher yields planned for Jilin’s farming sector
Province pledges to accelerate rural modernization in bid to increase industry's output value and improve food production systems
By YUAN SHENGGAO
N
ortheast China’s Jilin
province has announced
it will further speed up
the construction of agri-
cultural modernization and
strengthen weak links in the work
on agriculture, rural areas and rural
people.
Agriculture is one of the most sig-
nificant advantages of Jilin province
and it has a sound foundation to pro-
mote modern agriculture, according
to the recent seventh plenary session
of the 11th Jilin provincial Party com-
mittee.
By the end of China’s 14th Five-Year
Plan (2021-25), the total annual grain
output of Jilin is expected to reach 40
billion kilograms and will upgrade
more than 3 million hectares of farm-
land into high-standard plantations.
Meanwhile, the sales revenue of
the agricultural products process-
ing industry is expected to reach
400 billion yuan ($58 billion) annu-
ally. The comprehensive mechani-
zation level of crop cultivation and
harvest will have reached more
than 90 percent, achieved by Jilin
taking a lead role in realizing the
modernization of agriculture.
As a key commercial grain pro-
duction base in the country, Jilin
has seen burgeoning development
in agriculture over the past few
years. Official data showed that in
2020, the grain-planting area in Jil-
in reached 5.67 million hectares, up
23,200 hectares year-on-year.
Grain production in Jilin prov-
ince has been stable at 35 billion kg
for seven consecutive years.
By the end of 2019, the province
had 54 major national-level enter-
prises in the agricultural sector. And
Business strategies help counties
beat poverty and boost economies
By YUAN SHENGGAO
With consistent alleviation
efforts, a total of 15 counties in Jilin
province escaped poverty as of
April.
This achievement has led to the
province receiving a positive evalu-
ation in its annual working assess-
ment, local officials said.
Home to the Yanbian Korean eth-
nic group, Mingdong village of
Longjing city is the epitome of Jil-
in’s progress in poverty alleviation
over the past few years.
“Mingdong village has a pro-
found historical culture. We have
been developing revolutionary-
themed tourism based on the vil-
lage’s advantages in these
resources,” said Han Baoning, first
Party secretary of the village.
In addition to this, the village has
developed its rural tourism through
operating homestays and fruit and
vegetable-picking businesses.
“In the past two years, we
launched the Mingdong cultural
tourism festivals featuring the drag-
on boat races, which attracted many
visitors and helped enhance the vil-
lage’s reputation,” Han said.
“Now, the village can receive up to
100,000 visits annually,” he added.
Moreover, the village has also
Rice paddies at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain in Shulan city, Jilin province.
Local farmers are busy harvesting grain with modern agricultural machinery on farmland in Northeast China’s Jilin province.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
its 576 provincial-level enterprises
generated a revenue of 180 billion
yuan. Their production bases have
helped create more than 1.9 million
jobs for local farmers.
These enterprises also helped
establish 2.3 million hectares of
plantations. Other bases have han-
dled about 320 million animals
been focusing on its all-round
development.
“In the past, there were no indus-
tries in the village and locals lacked
the opportunities to escape poverty.
“They stuck to established prac-
tice and refuse to change,” said Liu
Yuandong, director of the village
committee.
Resources in the village, includ-
ing grasslands and mountains, have
given it an edge to develop certain
industries, Liu said.
Between 2016-18, the village
mobilized more than 7 million yuan
($1 million) to support industrial
projects including calf rearing, rice
wine production and photovoltaic
power generation.
These helped increase the
income of the village collective by
more than 500,000 yuan every year,
which is now five times higher than
that in 2015, according to Liu.
Xuan Changhao is a local villager
who returned to Mingdong in 2016
to start his own business after learn-
ing about the local policies for tack-
ling poverty that supported
industrial development.
“I earned 450,000 yuan last year,”
Xuan said. By running cattle-rear-
ing businesses and managing con-
tracted lands, Xuan has helped
many locals seek their fortunes in
This page is sponsored by the information office of the Jilin provincial government.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
through livestock and poultry rais-
ing, contributing 6.2 billion yuan to
farmers’ incomes, according to the
Jilin government.
The province has established 206
projects worth 10 million yuan
aimed at agricultural industrializa-
tion. An average annual growth of
more than 5 percent has been main-
recent years. After years of develop-
ment, the village has seen an all-
around improvement in its
environment, facilities and indus-
trial development. Several years
ago, the local authority built a new
house for Nan Jixue, 79, a local vil-
lager and his wife, helping the cou-
ple move away from the mud hut
where they lived for years. Nan lost
his left hand through an injury
when he was young, which made
life difficult. With the help of the
local authority, Nan got a job as a
cleaner and now earns about 800
yuan per month.
“Life has become more promising
thanks to the new house, medical
insurance and ample support,” Nan
said. The couple said their annual
family income can reach more than
10,000 yuan thanks to subsistence
allowances and village dividends.
In 2017, Mingdong was taken off
the impoverished village list and
went on to help 70 residents escape
poverty in 2019.
“As the environment, industries
and living conditions have improved,
I hope all the migrant workers can
come back to Mingdong to make
money at home,” Han Baoning said.
Han Junhong contributed to this
story.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
A farmer harvests melons in Mingdong village.
tained for the agricultural products
processing industry’s output value.
In recent years, Jilin has built a
series of agricultural product
brands such as “Jilin Coarse Cere-
als” and “Changbai Mountain Gin-
seng”. Fusong ginseng and 11 other
brands of agricultural products
have been rated as nationally
A vast stretch standard farmland rolls into the distance in Shulan city of Jilin province.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Pilot area updates its agricultural
practices as part of revitalization
By YUAN SHENGGAO
A series of reforms carried out in
the rural areas of Jilin have helped
modernize the province’s agricul-
ture.
As one of three nationally desig-
nated pilot provinces for rural col-
lective property rights reform, the
province completed the assess-
ment of its rural collective assets in
2019.
A total of more than 10 million
hectares of collective resources
property in its rural areas have
been assessed, according to the Jil-
in province.
To promote the reform of man-
agement in rural areas, the prov-
ince has organized related
counties and villages to join in the
construction of pilot management
zones.
As the only rural financial
reform pilot area in China, Jilin
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY A harvest gets underway in Songyuan
famous regional public brands by
the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Affairs. In addition, the prov-
ince has improved its production
systems. Over the past five years,
Jilin province has built 2.42 million
hectares of standard farmland. In
2019, the province added 50,000
hectares of high-efficiency water-
1,840
financial
service stations had been built
in many villages in Jilin
province by the end of 2019.
has also forged ahead. By the end
of 2019, the province had built
more than 1,840 village-level finan-
cial service stations, established
more than 40 property rights insti-
tutions.
It also promoted more than 600
primary outlets for various rural
property rights transfer.
The coverage rate of the admin-
istrative villages for primary finan-
cial services has reached about 98
percent.
In 2019, Jilin province proposed
that by 2025, Changchun and its
nine other national modern agri-
CHINA DAILY
35 billion
kilograms
of annual grain production has
been maintained for seven
consecutive years in Jilin
province.
saving irrigation area. Its 14 demon-
stration counties have taken the
lead to build high-standard farm-
land, adding up to more than
133,333 hectares for three consecu-
tive years. For example, in Lishu
county, the local authority has
adjusted its planting structures and
tutors farmers in planting wheat
using new techniques.
In recent years, the use of superior
crop varieties in the province has
nearly doubled. And the utilization
rate of agricultural science and tech-
nology has grown 58.6 percent.
In 2019, the comprehensive
mechanization rate of crop cultiva-
tion and harvest in Jilin province
reached 89 percent, 1.5 percentage
points higher than that of 2018,
according to the Jilin government.
In January, the province launched
its first provincial-level professional
agricultural cooperative. Its
founders are young farmers with
vocational training.
In 2019, the number of family
farms in the province reached 31,200,
with a year-on-year increase of 16 per-
cent. The number of farmers’ cooper-
atives reached 89,400. In addition,
Jilin has organized for 135 farmers to
receive training in countries includ-
ing Japan, South Korea, France and
Germany. To date, the province has
trained 15,099 farmers in total.
Han Junhong contributed to this
story.
cultural pilot zones and cities will
play leading roles in modernizing
their agriculture.
By 2030, Jilin is expected to have
achieved the general moderniza-
tion of agriculture with an
improved planning system.
Responding to this goal, the
province said it will roll out institu-
tions to promote the reform of
rural areas.
It will establish combined orga-
nizational structures, set up teams
for different works and carry out
projects in 14 pilot counties for
rural revitalization.
The province will continue to
ramp up efforts in reforming major
sectors in rural areas, promote the
efficiency of reform and fuel a driv-
ing force for agricultural moderni-
zation, local officials said.
Han Junhong contributed to this
story.
 BUSINESS CHINA DAILY | CHINADAILY.COM.CN/ Thursday, August 20, 2020
Briefly
Shanghai logs gains
in foreign trade
The total value of imports and
exports in Shanghai rose by 1.3
percent on a yearly basis to
299.3 billion yuan ($43.2 bil-
lion) in July, indicating positive
growth for a second month in a
row, according to data released
by Shanghai Customs District
on Wednesday. The total value
of exports stood at 118.3 billion
yuan in July, up 5.9 percent on
a monthly basis. The total value
of imports rose by 4.4 percent
to 181 billion yuan. The total
value of imports and exports
during the first seven months
contracted slightly by 0.4 per-
cent on a yearly basis to 1.88
trillion yuan.
JD net income up
in second quarter
Online retail giant JD said its net
revenue rose by 33.8 percent on a
yearly basis during the second
quarter of the year. Net income
attributable to ordinary share-
holders for the second quarter
stood at 16.4 billion yuan ($237
billion), compared to 600 million
yuan for the same period last
year. As of June, JD had 417.4 mil-
lion active buyers over the previ-
ous 12 months, up 29.9 percent
year-on-year, the company said.
Natural gas yield
rises last month
Natural gas output grew at a
slower pace in China last month,
with production of the clean fuel
rising by 4.8 percent on a yearly
basis to 14.2 billion cubic meters,
retreating from the 11.3-percent
growth seen in June, according to
data from the National Bureau of
Statistics. Average daily produc-
tion came in at 460 million cubic
meters. In the first seven months
of this year, the country’s natural
gas production rose 9.5 percent
year-on-year to 108.3 billion
cubic meters.
CHINA DAILY - XINHUA
The LNG carrier Tianjixing, which has a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters, at its naming ceremony on Wednesday in Shanghai.
HE BAOXIN / FOR CHINA DAILY
Shipbuilder: LNG vessel to be delivered soon
By WANG YING in Shanghai
wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn
Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuild-
ing Co, a unit of China State Ship-
building Corp, said on Wednesday
that it will deliver the third lique-
fied natural gas carrier under the
3.9 billion yuan ($551.62 million)
deal with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines
(MOT) and Chinese shipping giant
COSCO Shipping by the end of this
month.
The LNG carrier, the Tianjixing,
will have a capacity of 174,000 cubic
meters and is proof of the ship-
builder’s ability to build vessels of
high standard, despite the novel
coronavirus epidemic, said experts.
The vessel is 295 meters long, has a
width of 45 meters and a depth of
26.25 meters.
According to Song Wei, technical
expert for LNG carriers at Hudong-
CCB lists
$1.2b green
bonds on
Nasdaq
Dubai
By JIANG XUEQING
jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn
China Construction Bank Corp
celebrated the listing of two green
bonds of $700 million and $500
million, totaling $1.2 billion, on
Nasdaq Dubai on Tuesday amid
China’s transition to green growth
and sustainable development.
The issuances by the Hong Kong
branch of China Construction
Bank will support the bank’s
efforts to combat climate change as
the second-largest State-owned
commercial lender by assets in
China looks to develop its commer-
cial, corporate and consumer
banking activities domestically
and internationally.
Listed on Nasdaq Dubai on Aug
5, the $700 million bond maturing
in 2025 achieved a coupon rate of
1.25 percent while the $500 million
bond will mature in 2023 with a
coupon rate of 1 percent. The
bonds received pre-issuance certi-
fication as climate bonds from the
Climate Bonds Initiative under the
Climate Bonds Standard, Nasdaq
Dubai said on its website.
“The successful issuance of the
bonds has once again demonstrat-
ed to the international capital
market the determination and
commitment of CCB to imple-
ment green finance innovation
and development, and reflects
investors’ confidence in the strate-
gy and business of CCB,” said Yuan
Shengrui, senior executive officer
of China Construction Bank’s
branch at the Dubai International
Financial Centre.
In recent years, a growing num-
ber of Chinese banks issued green
bonds overseas as the country is
Zhonghua Shipbuilding, the first
and second vessels under the deal
were delivered in October and Jan-
uary. The last carrier in the deal has
completed its sea trials and will go
for gas trials soon, he said.
“The vessel represents Chinese
shipbuilders’ most advanced tech-
nologies and is also one of leading
state-of-the-art LNG carriers in the
world in terms of performance,”
said Song.
According to Song, the vessel can
save energy by an additional 16 per-
cent when compared with the pre-
vious generation of LNG vessels.
Besides, it has been designed in
such a manner that it can berth at
more than 100 major LNG ports
across the world.
Due to the ongoing novel corona-
virus pandemic, global new ship-
building orders fell to the lowest
during the first six months of this
Visitors pass the China Construction Bank booth during an expo
in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
progressing toward an environ-
ment-friendly economy. Bank of
China Ltd, another large State-
owned commercial lender, has
issued green bonds in the overseas
market six times since July 2016
with a total value of more than $7
billion.
Industrial Bank Co Ltd, a leading
bank in green finance headquar-
tered in Fuzhou, Fujian province,
issued two offshore green bonds of
$600 million and 300 million
euros ($358 million) respectively
for the first time in 2018, to support
the financing and refinancing of
domestic and overseas green pro-
jects in a wide range of fields,
including renewable energy, low
emission transport and sustaina-
ble water resources management.
Chen Xinjian, vice-president of
Industrial Bank, said in July the
bank had issued 136.5 billion yuan
($19.8 billion) worth of green
bonds since 2016 both in and out-
side of China, supporting more
than 1,000 green projects which
generated considerable environ-
mental and social benefits.
China’s domestic green bond
market started in 2016 and main-
tained strong growth from 2017 to
2019. The country is now one of the
world’s largest green bond issuers.
year since 1996, according to data
provided by market tracker Clark-
son Research Service, Yonhap
News Agency said in a report. From
January to June, new shipbuilding
orders stood at 5.75 million com-
pensated gross tons (CGTs) global-
ly, or 269 ships, according to the
global market researcher.
On a country by country basis,
Chinese shipbuilders accounted for
the lion’s share of up to 61 percent,
or 3.51 million CGTs, or 145 ships, in
the first half, followed by South
Korean shipbuilders with 1.18 mil-
lion CGTs, or 37 ships, and Japanese
peers with 570,000 CGTs, or 36
ships.
Experts said China’s effective epi-
demic containment measures will
help in the steady resumption of
shipbuilding activities across the
nation.
In April, the biggest export deal
Last year, China issued 289.6
billion yuan of green bonds, up
29.3 percent year-on-year. The
growth slowed down in the first
half of this year, with the value of
green bonds issued during this
period falling 16 percent year-on-
year to 109.55 billion yuan, Lu
Zhengwei, chief economist of
Industrial Bank, said in a report
on Wednesday.
By the end of June, 601 labeled
green bonds, including financial
bonds, corporate bonds, and asset-
backed securities that earmarked
proceeds for climate or environ-
mental projects and were labeled
as “green” by the issuer, had been
issued in the domestic market.
The total value of these bonds
reached 1.03 trillion yuan, the
report said.
The People’s Bank of China
issued a notice on July 8, saying
that the central bank, along with
the National Development and
Reform Commission and the Chi-
na Securities Regulatory Commis-
sion, started soliciting public
opinion on the 2020 edition of the
Green Bond Endorsed Project Cat-
alog, to further regulate the domes-
tic bond market and unify
domestic green bond-endorsed
projects and fields.
in China’s shipbuilding sector was
inked between China State Ship-
building Corp, the world’s largest
shipbuilder, and Qatar Petroleum,
the world’s largest LNG supplier.
Lei Fanpei, chairman of CSSC,
said that CSSC’s Shanghai-based
Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding
will build LNG tankers for the
Qatari energy giant under a 20 bil-
lion yuan deal.
The Shanghai-based shipbuilder
said that it has put in place a com-
plete marine LNG industrial equip-
ment chain after more than two
decades of research and develop-
ment.
“We started the research and
development work as early as 1997
and from scratch. Till date, the
company has delivered 23 LNG
tankers and is currently the world’s
fourth-largest LNG vessel maker,”
said Song.
RIGHT TRACK
July boost for
fiscal revenue
Sustainable economic steps, steady
output resumptions fuel growth
By CHEN JIA
chenjia@chinadaily.com.cn
China’s fiscal revenue rose 4.3 per-
cent year-on-year in July, the second
consecutive month of growth, as the
country’s economy continued its
recovery from the novel coronavirus
epidemic and local government debt
continued to shore up investment, the
finance ministry said on Wednesday.
The growth in fiscal revenue was
largely a result of output resump-
tion and sustainable economic
growth, the ministry said.
Tax revenue rose by 5.7 percent
last month thanks to the rebound in
industrial output, fixed-asset invest-
ment and industrial profits since
June, the data showed.
To sustain the economic recovery,
the government enlarged its spend-
ing by 18.5 percent in July, compared
with a year ago, in order to directly
channel the funds to the prefecture-
and county-level governments and
inject capital into key construction
projects, the ministry said.
“The implementation of proactive
fiscal measures should further
speed up, and the local governments
need to accelerate the revision of fis-
cal budgets, so that the policies can
directly reach the grassroots level
and benefit enterprises,” said Wang
Hongju, senior researcher with the
National Institution for Finance and
Development, a think tank.
“The top priority is to help small
and medium-sized firms and low-in-
come people to tide over the difficul-
ties due to the impact of COVID-19,”
he said.
By the end of last week, local gov-
ernments have issued special bonds
totaling 2.56 trillion yuan ($370 bil-
lion), accounting for 72 percent of
the available quota, up 51 percent on
Swire Coca-Cola bullish
on Chinese marketplace
By FAN FEIFEI
fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn
Swire Coca-Cola Ltd, a bottler of
Coca-Cola beverages, said it will
ramp up investment, hiring, prod-
uct categories and digitalization
efforts in China, to cash in on the
rapid growth of its businesses in the
world’s second-largest economy
despite the challenges posed by the
COVID-19 outbreak.
Karen So, managing director of
Swire Coca-Cola, said the company
currently has 18 factories in 11 prov-
inces and the Shanghai municipali-
ty on the Chinese mainland, and
these play an important role in its
business growth.
According to So, the company has
reaffirmed its commitment to make
further investments in China by set-
ting up the headquarters in Shang-
hai and remains bullish on future
prospects in the beverage market.
“The novel coronavirus outbreak
has had an effect on our business in
February and March, but the sales of
health drinks, such as sugar-free
Coca-Cola, were largely unaffected
by the pandemic and maintained
high growth rates during and after
the outbreak,” So said.
She said that the 200 milliliter mini
cans were extremely popular among
Chinese consumers, most of whom
had been confined to their homes for
online courses or playing online
games for several months as part of
the virus containment efforts.
According to So, the traditional
sale channels have been altered as
more consumers switched to online
purchases and chose on-demand
delivery services or online-to-offline
platforms. She said they have
strengthened cooperation with O2O
and fresh produce e-commerce plat-
forms to provide packaging suitable
for consumers confined to homes.
As the fifth largest bottling group
a yearly basis, the Ministry of
Finance said. The funds raised by the
special bonds have been injected
into areas like transportation infra-
structure, energy, agriculture, forest-
ry and water conservancy, ecological
and environmental protection pro-
jects, livelihood services, cold chain
logistics facilities, municipal and
industrial park infrastructure.
During the second half, analysts
expect the government to carry out
what it planned in the first half on
scheduled budget and government
bond issuances. But if COVID-19
spreads faster overseas, the global
recession would drive down exter-
nal demand and fiscal policies need
to be adjusted to offset the mid- to
long-term negative impact.
1
trillion yuan
government bonds that China
has issued for COVID-19 control
so far this year
This year, China issued 1 trillion
yuan of government bonds for COV-
ID-19 control and increased the defi-
cit by 1 trillion yuan, as
extraordinary measures during the
epidemic period. Authorities
required the funds to be transferred
in full to local governments through
a special transfer payment mecha-
nism that ensures the funds go
straight to prefecture- and county-
level governments and directly ben-
efit businesses and households.
Raising the annual fiscal deficit
ratio or adding new quota of the spe-
cial treasuries is likely to ensure peo-
ple’s livelihood and expand
domestic demand, if the economic
shocks sustain, Wang said.
in the Coca-Cola sys-
tem globally, Swire
Coca-Cola has part-
nered with The
Coca-Cola Co for
more than 50 years.
So said that the
Karen So, company’s revenue
managing fell in the first quar-
director of ter due to the pan-
Swire Coca- demic, with soda
Cola water witnessing
the least decline
among all categories.
“We have estimated that there
would be an explosive consumption
in the post-epidemic era, so we did
not reduce our investment in China
during the outbreak,” she said. The
company will continue to promote
products that are low in sugar and
calories, and will reduce 20 percent
sugar per 100ml of products by 2025.
“China’s beverage market is diver-
sified with a wide range of products.
Tea is a relatively large market in Chi-
na, accounting for about 14 percent to
15 percent of the market share, while
soda water was 13 percent. We will
strive for a dominant position or a
front ranking in soda water, tea, cof-
fee, energy drinks and other catego-
ries in the future,” So said.
According to research firm Mintel,
the soft drinks or nonalcoholic drinks
market has witnessed a growth rate
of 7.6 percent in the last two years.
The ongoing demand for premi-
um quality and healthy, functional
soft drinks is a key driver behind the
growth, said Xu Wenxin, a food and
drinks analyst at research firm
Mintel.
“Other factors, such as added
nutrients, freshness from upgraded
processing techniques and beauty
enhancements, could be critical for
brands and companies to stay com-
petitive, as products with only one
premium cue struggle to satisfy con-
sumers,” said Xu.
14 | Thursday, August 20, 2020 CHINA DAILY

IP
Briefly
European agreement
on foodstuff labeling
BEIJING
Artworks illustrate
efforts against poverty

a recipe for success More than 550 artistic works on

By YUAN SHENGGAO
The Council of the European
Union has recently adopted reso-
lutions with the signing of an
agreement between the EU and
China on geographical indica-
tions, raising prospects for bilater-
al trade and economic
cooperation, experts said.
This is the first significant bilat-
eral trade agreement signed
between the two, according to the
council.
It will ensure that 100 EU agri-
food GIs such as Mozzarella di
Bufala Campana cheese, Langued-
oc wine, Polish vodka and Kalama-
ta olives get protection on the
Chinese market.
At the same time, 100 Chinese
products from 27 provinces,
autonomous regions and munici-
palities will be protected in the EU.
poverty alleviation are being exhib-
ited at the National Art Museum of
China. The exhibits, mostly collect-
ed by the museum, include art-
works related to the country’s
intangible cultural heritage, and
The EU’s recognition paintings, sculptures and photos
revolving around the themes of
of Fuzhou Jasmine poverty alleviation, the battle
Tea as a GI will give against COVID-19 and work
resumption. The exhibition, which
us easier access to opened earlier this month, will run
the European until Oct 11.
market, where the XINHUA
quality of Chinese SHANGHAI
tea will be more Crackdown on violators
trusted and the ahead of import expo
brands will stand The Shanghai Intellectual Property
Administration, in cooperation
out.” with other government depart-
Fu Tianlong, chairman of ments, is launching a 100-day
Chunlun Group After days of heavy rain, a resident in Wenxian county, Gansu province wades through the street in crackdown on IP infringements.
rolled up trousers on Tuesday. JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY Running from Aug 1 to Nov 10, they
aim to create a lawful environment
an consumers to have a better for the third China International

Beidou saving lives in

They include rice, vegetables,
fruits, tea and spices.
Four years after its entry came
into force, the scope of the agree-
ment will expand to cover an addi-
understanding of imports from Import Expo, scheduled for Novem-
China. ber in the city. During the event,
Recent years saw a rise in agri- enforcement officials will conduct
cultural trade between China and regular inspections and random
Europe. China is the second-larg- checkups at local businesses, popu-

battle against flooding

tional 175 GI names from both
sides, according to the EU Delega-
tion to China.
A GI is a distinctive sign used on
products that have a specific geo-
graphic origin and possess quali-
ties or a reputation that are due to
that origin.
The EU-China agreement will
offer protection of the products’
intellectual property rights: it will
safeguard against translation,
transcription or transliteration,
and against the use of the protect-
ed GIs accompanied by expres-
sions such as “kind”, “type”, “style”,
“imitation” or the like in respect of
a non-originating product, a state-
ment from the delegation said.
“It is a crucial opportunity to
enhance Chinese agricultural
products’ internationalization and
increase their profile,” Fu Tian-
long, chairman of tea maker Chun-
lun Group headquartered in
Fuzhou, Fujian province, told Peo-
ple’s Daily.
Jasmine tea from Fuzhou is pop-
ular in the European market, with
France, Britain and Germany
among its regular export destina-
tions.
“The EU’s recognition of Fuzhou
Jasmine Tea as a GI will give us
easier access to the European mar-
ket, where the quality of Chinese
tea will be more trusted and the
brands will stand out,” Fu said. “So
we are more confident and reso-
lute in the internationalization of
our agricultural products.”
Eric de Spoelberch, an official
with the International Taste &
Quality Institute, told People’s Dai-
ly that Chinese products have
enormous potential in the Europe-
an market, as European consum-
ers are showing interest in them.
He said he believes the China-
EU agreement will enable Europe-
est export destination for agricul-
tural products from the EU and
also serves as a major source of
imported agricultural products to
the region.
Data from the EU Council show
that the region exported agricul-
tural products worth 15.3 billion
euros ($18.25 billion) to China in
2019, an increase of 37.9 percent
from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, its import of agri-
cultural products from China
amounted to nearly 6.15 billion
euros, up 7.3 percent.
“China is a high-growth poten-
tial market for European food and
drink. This agreement will there-
fore benefit European producers
and should be a boost to rural are-
as where these products are
made,” said the EU Council.
Ye Bin, an expert on European
law at the Institute of European
Studies of the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, told People’s Daily
that GI-marked wines, brandies
and dairy products from Europe
have captured the hearts of Chi-
nese consumers.
The agreement will increase
their competitiveness in the Chi-
nese market and help Chinese con-
sumers distinguish authentic
European products from others,
Ye noted.
“The move demonstrates China’s
resolution toward advancing an
open world economy,” he said.
With more bilateral cooperation in
trade and economics, China and
the EU can provide high-quality IP
protection to each other. This will,
in turn, promote their trade and
send a positive message for global
multilateral cooperation, he added.
China had approved 2,385 GIs
by the end of June, according to
data from the National Intellectual
Property Administration.
Officials in Hunan province using intelligent
app to predict, tackle threat of rising water
By HU YUYAN
huyuyan@chinadaily.com.cn
A torrent of mud throws rocks
and tree trunks down the moun-
tainside, engulfing houses before
the eyes of residents.
It was the largest landslide to hit
Shimen county in Changde city,
Central China’s Hunan province,
in 70 years. Fortunately, no one
was killed or injured in the July 6
incident thanks to an early warn-
ing by a disaster alert program
backed by the Beidou Navigation
Satellite System, China Intellectu-
al Property News reported.
Local authorities have been
using technology, such as Beidou,
to predict flooding along the Yang-
tze River.
The Beidou system monitors
deformations and displacements
in mountains, reservoirs and riv-
ers around the clock and issues
warnings on landslides, subsi-
dence, crevices and water-level
surges, according to CIPN.
Beidou is China’s largest space-
based system and one of four glob-
al navigation networks.
As of Dec 31, 2019, China’s appli-
cations for satellite navigation-re-
lated patents had exceeded 70,000,
the largest in the world, the Bei-
jing-based newspaper reported.
Wang Dunlei, director of the
Changde flood and drought pre-
vention and mitigation center, told
CIPN that Shimen county received
the alert on June 24, more than 10
days before the landslide struck.
“Only by combining people, sup-
plies and technology can we better
respond to natural disasters and
protect people’s lives and proper-
ty,” Wang said.
Another technology that can
help prevent disaster is a three-di-
mensional electrical resistivity
imaging system developed by East
China University of Technology.
Electric fields change as an elec-
tric current hits different geologi-
cal masses in the dam, CIPN
quoted Deng Juzhi, dean of the
School of Geophysics and Meas-
urement-Control Technology at
the university, as saying.
By collecting the data, the sys-
tem is able to “see through” the
dam and determine whether there
are hidden hazards such as voids,
cracks, seepages and unstable soil.
“The whole process is like per-
forming a CT scan on the dam,
which can help ensure the dam is
‘healthy’ before floods arrive,”
Deng said.
Applications for a number of
patents related to this new tech-
nology have been filed, Deng said.
He added that the technology is
being used to detect safety hazards
in coal mines, seepages at landfills
and subterranean cavities. It is
also being used in archaeological
excavation and urban under-
ground space management.
An official with the Hunan Pro-
vincial Department of Water
Resources told CIPN that some
counties use drones to patrol dams
and collect flood-related data,
based on which a three-dimen-
sional model of the dam is made.
Using high-tech equipment to
patrol the dams is much safer than
sending people, the official added.
On top of the high-tech equip-
ment and systems, mobile apps
have been created to update the
public on flooding situations.
Hunan province has launched a
mobile app to provide historical
and real-time data on the weather,
rainfall, water levels and the
amount of water entering and
leaving reservoirs, CIPN reported.
Jiangxi province in East China
has introduced an app that can be
used to record the location of sink-
holes, landslides and riverbank
collapses. Also, people can access
dam drawings and information on
rainfall and floods in surrounding
areas.
Rescue equipment such as
amphibious vehicles and rescue
robots are also being deployed to
the front lines of the battle against
floods.
The rescue robot looks like a
small boat, an official with the
emergency management bureau
of Wuhan in Central China’s Hubei
province told CIPN.
The remote-controlled robot
travels at more than 6 meters per
second and can return to its start-
ing point at the push of a button.
It is capable of rescuing up to four
people at a time, the official add-
ed.
lar markets and scenic sites. CIIE
organizers have created a dedicated
section on its website to announce
information on IP protection and
legal services. In addition, Shang-
hai’s service hotline (12345) also
helps respond to complaints
against IP violations.
CHINA INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY NEWS
ANHUI
IP protection center
opens in Hefei
The China (Hefei) Intellectual Prop-
erty Protection Center opened in
early August, bringing the total
number of national centers to 34.
The new facility in Hefei, capital of
Anhui province, is the third to open
in the country during the COVID-19
pandemic after Guangzhou in
Guangdong province and Karamay
in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous
region. The Hefei center is focused
on the new-generation information
technology and advanced machin-
ery manufacturing sectors. It will
contribute to create an extensive IP
protection network in the Yangtze
River Delta, promote the region’s
innovation-driven economic growth
and improve its business environ-
ment.
CHINA INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY NEWS
GUANGDONG
Invention exhibition
set for November
A national invention exhibition is
slated to be held in Foshan between
Nov 19-21. A string of new sections
focusing on themes such as intellec-
tual property related to military
defense, advanced manufacturing,
biopharmaceuticals, and smart
home will be added to this year’s
event. In addition, a series of compe-
titions and business matching
events are scheduled. Since 2017, the

Fast-tracking key patents a major help for tech businesses
By LIANG KAIYAN
liangkaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn
Giving priority to processing
high-quality patent filings in intel-
lectual property applications not
only helps improve efficiency, but
contributes to building a sound
business environment, officials and
business representatives said.
To help high-tech companies
with their patent filings, the Zhong-
guancun IP promotion bureau in
Beijing has streamlined its online
administrative procedure by select-
ing high-quality filings for priori-
tized processing.
Creating green channels helps
applicants obtain patents for their
innovations within a short time,
said Shi Ying, head of the bureau.
“It is conducive to innovators’
expansion in the market and creat-
ing a friendly business environ-
ment,” Shi said. “Through the green
channels, the period for obtaining
patents has been shortened to with-
in one year from two to three years.”
Qualified companies can gain a
recommendation for such priority
services in patent processing with-
in two days, she added.
In the first half of 2020, the
Visitors try out new Xiaomi branded smartphones at a showroom
in Beijing last week. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
bureau said it recommended nearly
3,740 patent filings from 755 appli-
cants in Beijing for the prioritized
service to the National Intellectual
Property Administration.
The patents involved more than
10 technological fields. They range
from the new generation of infor-
mation technology; healthcare;
energy conservation and environ-
mental protection; intelligent
equipment services; software and
information services. Of them, the
patents from the new generation of
information technology accounted
for 57.4 percent.
Vision Vera, a network communi-
cation technology manufacturer, is
one of the beneficiaries.
“In the intensely competitive
technological arena, giving priority
to patent examination has made us
In the intensely
competitive
technological arena,
giving priority to
patent examination
has made us share
the bonus of the
modern IP
management
system.”
Fang Dong, IP director at Vision
Vera
share the bonus of the modern IP
management system,” said Fang
Dong, IP director at Vision Vera. “In
the past, we had to spend more
than 30 months to obtain a patent,
but now it has reduced to about 10
months.
“Patents are used to protect the
market and the improved patent
examination also enables us to pro-
tect our technologies via patent
applications and be more active in
responding to patent infringe-
ments.”
Liu Zhen, deputy general manag-
er of the legal department at elec-
tronics manufacturer Xiaomi, said
the company is paying great atten-
tion to the research and develop-
ment of new technologies and IP
protection.
In 2020, Xiaomi plans to invest
more than 10 billion yuan ($1.45 bil-
lion) in its R&D, Liu said. “Our R&D
and product strategies are focused
more on the 5G and internet of
things fields.”
Products and technologies in
these fields are evolving fast and
they have higher requirements for
the efficiency of IP protection, he
said.
In the past year, Xiaomi has
applied for the green-channel ser-
vice for nearly 60 patents, Liu said.
He added that 90 percent of the
company’s filings for invention pat-
ents have been granted within one
year and industrial designs were
granted patents within two months.
That helps innovators not only
protect their IP, but also maintain
their technological competitiveness
on the global stage, according to Liu.
national event has been held in Fos-
han, injecting vigor into the local
economy and attracting groups of
high-tech projects to the city, said
Cai Jiahua, executive vice-mayor of
Foshan, at a news conference in Bei-
jing on Tuesday.
IP.PEOPLE
HAINAN
Culture week to focus
on embroidery works
South China’s island province of
Hainan will hold an international
culture week in November. It will
focus on brocade and embroidery
works from various countries, as
well as from the local Li ethnic
group. The event, to be held between
Nov 19-22, will feature a forum;
three shows; an art exhibition; and a
contest for brocade in the style of
the Li ethnic group, an intangible
cultural heritage item, according to
a news conference held on Tuesday
in Haikou, capital of Hainan. Com-
petitors from various countries are
to present their own brocade using
the Li ethnic style. The art exhibi-
tion is to show brocade and embroi-
dery works from Thailand, India,
Malaysia and other countries and
regions involved in the Belt and
Road Initiative.
XINHUA

This page is sponsored by the National Intellectual Property Administration.

 CHINA DAILY
BUSINESSFOCUS
Lingang area
pushes ahead
novel growth
Special region in Shanghai to focus on
dual circulation development strategy
By SHI JING in Shanghai
shijing@chinadaily.com.cn
Celebrating its first anniversary,
Lingang Special Area — a recent
expansion of the China (Shanghai)
Pilot Free Trade Zone — will play an
unparalleled role in facilitating the
country’s dual circulation develop-
ment pattern in which domestic and
external demands complement one
another, said experts.
“When facing the domestic mar-
ket, Lingang can lead the country’s
industrial reform and upgrading. In
terms of the complete dual circula-
tion, Lingang can enhance efficien-
cy to link Chinese domestic demand
with overseas markets,” said Zhu
Min, deputy director of the Shang-
hai Development and Reform Com-
mission, at a news conference on
Aug 13.
The concept of dual circulation
was first raised on May 14 at a
high-profile meeting of the Com-
munist Party of China, presided
over by Xi Jinping, general secre-
tary of the CPC Central Committee.
The Political Bureau of the CPC
Central Committee reiterated dur-
ing a meeting on July 30 the
importance of the dual circulation
growth model at a time when the
country’s economic development
is faced with multiple complexities
and uncertainties.
During a meeting held by the
Standing Committee of the Shanghai
People’s Congress on July 31, city offi-
cials suggested that Shanghai should
grow into the center of China’s
domestic circulation and be a strate-
gic bridge connecting domestic and
international circulation.
With an initial planned area of
119.5 square kilometers, Lingang
Special Area was officially launched
on Aug 20 last year, which marks the
second expansion of the seven-year-
old Shanghai FTZ. According to the
State Council’s plan, Lingang will
grow into a special economic zone
with strong global market influence
and competitiveness by 2035.
But tensions have mounted in
terms of global economic and trade
relations in a year’s time, which
have been aggravated by the COV-
ID-19 pandemic, said Zhao Xiaolei,
director of the FTZ research insti-
tute at the Shanghai University of
Finance and Economics.
While foreign direct investment
will contract globally until 2021
and the profits of Fortune 500 com-
panies are expected to generally
decline this year, international eco-
nomic and trade relations have
undergone tremendous changes
‘Tesla model’ to be benchmark for future operations of companies
By SHI JING in Shanghai
Electric car leader Tesla reported
surprise second quarter global sales
revenue of $6.03 billion despite the
COVID-19 upheaval, with its Shang-
hai gigafactory making a great con-
tribution by delivering 31,000 cars
while the company’s three US facto-
ries suspending production for
nearly two months.
China has become an important
earner for Tesla. The 31,000 cars
comprised one third of Tesla’s total
global sales volume from April to
June. According to the company’s
second quarter fiscal results, sales
revenue in China jumped 103 per-
cent year-on-year to reach $1.4 bil-
lion, accounting for 23.14 percent of
the company’s total top line.
Based on the performance of the
Shanghai gigafactory, Tesla CEO
Elon Musk said during the World
Artificial Intelligence Conference
in Shanghai last month that they
are building an engineering team
in China to come up with more
original engineering research and
development in the country.
Tesla’s rapid development in Chi-
na is closely related to the efforts
over the past 12 months. In this
sense, Lingang should carry out a
deeper and all-around opening-up
to enhance the quality of economic
development, which in the long
term will help Lingang compete in
the global marketplace, Zhao said.
To that end, a complete industrial
cluster featuring pioneering indus-
trial changes and core technologies
should come into full swing in Lin-
gang, Zhao added.
The government has looked
ahead. According to the framework
plan, Lingang will be home to seven
key industries, covering integrated
circuits, artificial intelligence, bio-
medicine, civil aviation, smart new
energy vehicles, high-end equip-
ment manufacturing and green
remanufacturing.
An integrated circuit industrial
cluster is one highlight of Lingang,
which spurs the development of the
six other key industries. In a year’s
time, more than 40 integrated cir-
cuit companies have established a
presence in Lingang, providing ser-
vices covering the entire industrial
chain of production, assembly,
material, research and development
and testing.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic,
Lingang still managed to attract 11
projects from industry leaders such
as STAR Market-listed companies
Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equip-
ment Inc and Montage Technology,
with total investment reaching 66
billion yuan ($9.5 billion). Zhu, of
the Shanghai Development and
Reform Commission, estimated
total investment in integrated cir-
cuit projects in Lingang will exceed
100 billion yuan by the end of this
year.
Yin Zhiyao, chairman and CEO of
AMEC, said the company will build
a semiconductor and material pro-
duction base in Lingang. The tech-
nological innovation incubated in
the area, combined with strong gov-
ernment support, will make Lin-
gang a world leading center for the
advanced integrated circuit indus-
try, Yin said.
From the beginning of this year,
companies specialized in key indus-
tries, such as integrated circuits,
artificial intelligence, biomedicine
and civil aviation, were levied
15-percent business income tax
rates for five years after their regis-
tration in the area. Under the coun-
try’s tax system, the business
income tax rate is usually 25 per-
cent.
Integrated circuit company Sitrus
Technology was registered in Lin-
gang in 2017. The company’s mar-
made by the Lingang Special Area
Administration — part of the China
(Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone —
where the new energy vehicle mak-
er is located. In July 2018, Tesla
signed an agreement with the Lin-
gang Special Area Administration
to build a production base in Lin-
gang. With total investment of 50
billion yuan ($7.2 billion), the
Shanghai gigafactory is Tesla’s first
such facility outside the United
States. It is also the largest foreign-
invested manufacturing project in
Shanghai.
The Shanghai gigafactory started
churning out its first cars on Nov 7,
only 16 months after the agreement
was signed. The high efficiency of
Lingang as well as the number of
favorable policies in the area will
help undergird Tesla’s ambitions,
said the company’s global vice-
president Tao Lin.
Zhu Zhisong, executive deputy
director of the Lingang Special
Area Administration, said the suc-
cessful example of Tesla has been
promoted to more companies,
making the “Tesla model” a high-
light of Lingang.
Zhu added that industrial land can
Top: Amphibious light leisure aircraft made by Shanghai Oxai Aircraft Co are on display at the compa-
ny’s factory in the Lingang Special Area. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Above: An aerial photo taken on Aug 17 shows a container dock at Yangshan Port in Shanghai.
DING TING / XINHUA
keting director Pan Chao said that it
will apply for the favorable tax rate
as long as the company achieves a
certain level of production. The
company will also be able to apply
for further tax reductions once it is
profitable, according to the coun-
try’s tax regulations.
“The tax policy in Lingang, com-
bined with China’s overall tax regu-
lations, will help companies to
reduce their tax burden to the
utmost. Therefore, companies can
invest more in research and devel-
opment as well as expand capacity,
which is especially important for
startups,” Pan said.
The number of newly registered
companies in Lingang surged 70
percent to reach 15,115 over the past
12 months, according to Lingang
Special Area Administration. The
registered capital of these compa-
nies topped 200 billion yuan, up 313
percent year-on-year.
The domestic market is not the
only focus in terms of the develop-
ment plan of Lingang. Efforts have
A customer test drives a Tesla car at a showroom in the US auto-
maker’s gigafactory in Shanghai. JI HAIXIN / FOR CHINA DAILY
be used for multiple purposes, which
is first tried out in Lingang based on
Tesla’s example. One-stop services
are provided for new investment
projects in terms of project construc-
tion permits and authorization.
also been made to make Lingang
an ideal choice for foreign compa-
nies.
The Yangshan Special Compre-
hensive Bonded Area in Lingang
was officially unveiled on May 16,
and is the only one of its kind in Chi-
na. Li Guo, deputy head of the Gen-
eral Administration of Customs,
said unnecessary trade supervision
or permits will be eliminated in Lin-
gang to ensure the policies carried
out in the area are competitive
worldwide.
Chen Zhenchong, director of the
FTZ and special control area
department of the General Admin-
istration of Customs, further
explained that imports can directly
enter the Yangshan Special Com-
prehensive Bonded Area as long as
they abide by Chinese laws and reg-
ulations and no special inspections
or quarantine measures are
required. In this sense, companies
located in Yangshan can directly
pick up and deliver goods. Compa-
nies based in Yangshan will operate
“Lingang will work as a testing
site for deepened opening-up. It is
our job to carry out more reforms
and make more breakthroughs so
that Lingang can grow into an inter-
nationally influential special eco-
based on the rule of self-discipline,
and are exempted from extra
inspections, he said.
On Aug 10, a total of 525 Mer-
cedes-Benz cars worth 140 million
yuan arrived in the Yangshan Spe-
cial Comprehensive Bonded Area,
marking the first batch of vehicles
using the bonded warehousing poli-
cy in Yangshan.
Huang Yingming, chairman of
Shanghai Origin Supply Chain Man-
agement Co Ltd, said local service
providers for delivery warehousing
and Customs clearance typically
took two months from placing over-
seas orders to selling imported cars
in China. But now the time span can
be significantly reduced to one week
in Yangshan.
“The bonded warehousing func-
tion realized in Yangshan can help
carmakers and dealers to make their
operations more flexible and effi-
cient. Costs and capital pressure will
also be largely reduced,” Huang said.
The opening-up of the financial
sector has also been a stimulus for
The high efficiency
experienced by Tesla
will become the new
normal for all
companies registered
in the area. More
innovative tax
services will be
incubated in Lingang
so that companies
can seek more
sustained
development here.”
Wu Jian, director of the Lingang
tax bureau
nomic zone,” Zhu said.
Moves by companies reflect their
appreciation of the high efficiency of
Lingang. Publicly available informa-
tion showed that total fixed asset
investment registered in Lingang
Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 15
Lingang’s development, said Li Jun,
head of the Shanghai Financial Reg-
ulatory Bureau. For example, the
Shanghai head office of the People’s
Bank of China in early March start-
ed offering a favorable policy
regarding cross-border renminbi
settlement for companies. By the
end of June, 66 companies based in
Lingang had benefited from the pol-
icy.
In addition, companies specializ-
ing in strategic emerging industries
are provided with a 2-percent dis-
count for bank loans. In early May,
France’s Credit Agricole Corporate
and Investment Bank and Bank of
China joined hands to launch a
wealth management company in
Lingang. This company is also the
first foreign-controlled wealth man-
agement company in China.
The favorable business environ-
ment in Lingang has paid off. Faced
with multiple challenges posed by
the COVID-19 pandemic, Lingang
still managed to attract more than
$102 million in foreign investment
during the first quarter, up a record
167 percent year-on-year.
Zhu of the Shanghai Develop-
ment and Reform Commission said
opening-up and reliable policies are
crucial to building Lingang into a
bridge linking domestic and inter-
national markets.
Efforts have been made in this
regard. A framework plan for the
development of Lingang was rolled
out in early August last year, stress-
ing the freedom of investment,
trade, capital, transportation and
employment. Based on this plan, the
municipal government has come up
with 78 detailed tasks, of which 45
have been completed so far. With
the help of the central government,
Lingang has issued a total of 107 pol-
icies to further facilitate trade and
investment.
“It can be said that we have made
a first successful step in building an
open systematic structure in Lin-
gang,” said Zhu Zhisong, executive
deputy director of the Lingang Spe-
cial Area Administration.
rose 32.8 percent year-on-year dur-
ing the first half, while total indus-
trial output increased 26 percent
from a year earlier. A total of 141 new
projects had been signed in Lingang
during the first six months, with
investment reaching 176.7 billion
yuan.
While company operations were
much affected by COVID-19 during
the first quarter, the Lingang
administrative body came up with
favorable tax policies to help com-
panies endure difficulties.
To further facilitate Tesla’s opera-
tions, the tax bureau carried out tax
credit ratings and tax refund appli-
cation revisions at the same time,
and the company will likely receive
tax breaks given its massive initial
investment.
Wu Jian, director of the Lingang
tax bureau, said the Tesla model
will be applied to the rest of Lin-
gang.
“The high efficiency experienced
by Tesla will become the new nor-
mal for all companies registered in
the area. More innovative tax servi-
ces will be incubated in Lingang so
that companies can seek more sus-
tained development here,” Wu said.
16 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
LIFE
Left: Joy of Fishing, a painting by Ye Qianyu, is on show at the Ceaseless Self-Improvement exhibition at the China National Academy of Painting’s gallery in Beijing. Right: A Dance of the Mongolian Ethnic
Group, a painting by Ye on show. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Dancing across the canvas
An exhibition of works by late artist Ye Qianyu reveals his mastery of depicting people,
especially ethnic groups, moving to music, Lin Qi reports.
Y
e Qianyu (1907-95) stands out
among the pantheon of mod-
ern Chinese artists. He didn’t
train at a formal art school, yet
carved out a niche with his talent,
insight and diligence.
His classical Chinese-style work, A
Great Unity of the Nation, is monumen-
tal. The piece created in 1953 depicts
Mao Zedong and premier Zhou Enlai
making a toast to the country’s future
and being surrounded by dancing and
singing people from different ethnic
groups.
The painting, which is considered a
classic of Chinese socialist realism, is
now in the collection of the National Art
Museum of China in Beijing.
Ye was good-looking and enjoyed a
rich social life. His decadelong mar-
riage to prominent dancer and chore-
ographer Dai Ailian was another
source of admiration for many.
Particularly popular are his sketches
and paintings of dancers and local
opera performers.
Visitors to the Ceaseless Self-Improve-
ment exhibition at the China National
Academy of Painting’s gallery in Beijing
through Aug 31 can explore his legacy.
Dozens of sketches and colored-ink
paintings review how he viewed life
and captured the nuances of people,
especially when they sing and dance.
The works are from the collection of
the China National Academy of Paint-
ing, where he was a deputy director in
the 1980s.
Ye started his career as an illustrator
at advertisement agencies in Shanghai
and strove to become a leading painter
in the 1940s. He headed the Chinese
painting department of the Central
Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in the
early ’50s and stayed until 1983. He was
also vice-chairman of the China Artists
Association for years.
Ye began to paint dancers and Chi-
nese opera performers in the 1930s,
when he frequented theaters.
He once said: “I like people. Most of
the time, I study people’s movements,
moods, environments and relation-
ships. I work hard to depict their bodies
in motion.”
He gradually exerted more energy on
painting figures.
His intensive journeys across the
country to regions inhabited by ethnic
groups, mostly in the 1950s, further
broadened his outlook.
Ye once said: “I don’t deny the influ-
ence of traditional art, such as the danc-
ers depicted in the murals of the
Dunhuang grottoes. But, above all, it’s
my strong interest in (dancing) that
Top: The ongoing exhibition
provides people an opportunity to
enter the mind of artist Ye Qianyu.
Above: A portrait of Ye in the
1980s. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
draws me to paint.”
His works reveal his studies of tradi-
tional art and folk cultures that he
depicted with neat composition and
vivid palettes. His paintings are hailed
as colorful and animated.
He also employed sketching tech-
niques and the bright, cheery styles of
caricatures to give his paintings a mod-
ern touch and a sense of straightfor-
wardness, which appealed to more
audiences.
Ye is known for vigor and persever-
ance. It’s estimated he created over
25,000 sketches. He donated more than
420 sketchbooks to the National Art
Museum of China.
His former assistant, artist Hu Wei,
says Ye was “self-disciplined and com-
mitted to what he was doing”. He had
diverse interests and believed it’s never
CHINA DAILY
If you go
Ceaseless Self-Improvement
9-11:30 am, 1:30-4:30 pm, daily,
through Aug 31. Reservation needed.
54 Xisanhuan Bei Lu, Haidian district,
Beijing. 010-6841-2606.
too late to learn and continue self-im-
provement, Hu says.
Hu took care of Ye when he had can-
cer in his late life.
Hu recalls that Ye normally got up
around 5 am and drank a cup of tea left
over from the previous night. They’d
then walk for nearly an hour, during
which Ye talked about his past. Hu says
that after Ye returned home, he wrote
diaries that he’d kept for years and
sketched.
People who knew Ye often mention
that he always carried a sketchbook. He
began to draw in the 1930s and
sketched whenever and wherever he
could.
The medium allowed him to quickly
capture dancers’ flowing motions and
changing emotions, and he often trans-
lated these sketches into paintings.
“I don’t like when people pose or sit up
straight for me to paint,” he once said.
“They look nervous and unnatural.
Their true emotions and thoughts are
hidden, which appears really dull.
“Life and sketching are inseparable in
my practice. The sketchbooks are my
database of people’s forms and my dia-
ries of the various images of life.”
Contact the writer at
linqi@chinadaily.com.cn
 CHINA DAILY
LIFE
Turning over a new leaf
A paved road, some forward thinking and an “a-ha” moment inspired by traditional architecture have helped a
mountainous village out of poverty, Wang Kaihao and Shi Ruipeng report in Hezhou, Guangxi.
B
efore 2018, when a drivable
road finally reached this
stockade village in Hezhou,
Guangxi Zhuang autono-
mous region, the only way out for
locals living on the mountain was
by foot.
The distance to the nearest town,
which took about four hours on foot
to reach, was enough to besiege resi-
dents of Dachong village with a dif-
ficult life. Nearly 500 people from 87
families live in the village, which is
home to the Tuyao community, a
part of the Yao ethnic group.
Tuyao literally means “indigenous
Yao”, which not only indicates the
preservation of the traditional lifes-
tyle and culture of the ethnic group,
but also shows that its development
was once blocked by poor transpor-
tation links.
Ancestors of Tuyao people migrat-
ed to Hezhou from elsewhere about
700 years ago. However, when they
arrived, as the better farming land
had been occupied by locals, these
“new residents” had to climb up the
mountains, where there was little
land left to cultivate crops.
To make ends meet, Pan Qinglan,
a 44-year-old woman, had to carry
wild tea leaves, ginger and wood to
the next town to exchange for rice,
oil and other food.
“The path was dangerous,” Pan
recalls. “But we had no choice. It was
hard to grow crops here ... We set off
when it was still dark. To stave off
the fear, we walked in groups and
always sang songs.”
Landslides were a regular occur-
rence as a result of the area’s
changeable weather. Even on a sun-
ny day, cliffs and rivers were still
obstacles that needed to be over-
come.
“Fairs were organized several
times a month in the town,” she says.
“We would make sure to get every-
thing we needed in a single visit.”
It often took villagers two to three
days to finish one “shopping tour”
and they would stay overnight in the
town.
Even while recalling the tough
years, Pan wears a smile. For first-
time visitors to the village, it indeed
needs imagination to picture the old
days of Dachong, which has experi-
enced a huge shift in fortunes over
the past few years.
According to Zhao Wanxing, the
Party chief of Shidong, the village
complex in which Dachong is a part,
in 2014, about 90 percent of people
in Dachong lived under the poverty
line and the annual income per cap-
ita was just over 3,000 yuan ($433).
“This is the debt left by history
and nature which we have to pay,”
Zhao says. “Upon hearing the news
there would be a road built, many
villagers volunteered to join the
construction team. They learned
quickly from construction workers.”
Work on the paved roads began in
2016 and, in 2018, a nearly 10 mil-
lion yuan fund from central and
local governments was also allocat-
ed to improve the local infrastruc-
ture.
Pan and her husband, Feng Qiub-
ao, were among the first ones to join
the construction team.
Pan says: “Building a road was
our biggest dream.”
When entering Dachong, people
will see some stone slabs paving the
entry of stockade. They are carefully
chosen from the leftover materials
from the construction of the road as
“a monument”, to mark the locals’
great effort.
It now takes the couple just half
an hour on a motorbike to reach the
town.
As always, the villagers of
Dachong do not want to forget their
past. For example, electricity was
wired into the village in 2008.
Before that, people relied on a dyna-
mo system to generate power.
“We take care of the dynamo and
exhibit it in the village, making sure
it still functions well,” Feng says.
“That not only bears our nostalgia,
but also reminds the younger gener-
ation to cherish the better life they
have today.”
Hoard of tea
After their “biggest dream” was
realized, the villagers soon found
many more things to dream of.
XIAOKANG@GRASSROOTS
In 2018, Zhou Huafeng, a tea
entrepreneur from Hunan prov-
ince, was invited by the local gov-
ernment to visit Dachong to see
whether there were any opportuni-
ties to boost the local economy.
Upon a first glance of the old houses
in the village, he was overjoyed.
“Once I saw those earthen houses,
I thought of my childhood,” Zhou
recalls. “Such traditional architec-
ture used to be common in my
hometown, but has almost disap-
peared as people’s lifestyle has
changed.”
In Zhou’s eyes, those earthen
houses — or more specifically their
dark, well-ventilated wooden attics
— would be perfect warehouses for
the natural fermentation of dark
teas.
“I found that some villagers also
used their attics to store tea in
stacks of gunny bags,” Zhou says.
“What I needed to do was to inherit
that tradition so that it could benefit
more people.”
Pan Jieyin is from one of 12 house-
holds in Dachong participating in
Zhou’s project. They call it “raising”,
or aging tea. His livelihood used to
come from selling wood and doing
odd jobs.
Now, every morning and evening,
he lights a small bonfire in the atri-
Now I have to um to smoke the tea. To fully arouse
take good care the aroma, this is a key process in
of it (old house). the tea’s fermentation, which can
take more than a year to complete.
You see, When it comes to dark teas, the
patience is longer the fermentation, the more
valuable the product. The only oth-
important, not er thing he needs to do is to rotate
only in making the packages of tea from time to
time to ensure they all get evenly
good tea, but smoked.
also in life in Upon seeing neighbors demolish-
ing their old houses and building
general.” new ones, Pan Jieyin wanted to fol-
Pan Jieyin, resident, low suit.
Dachong village, “I didn’t realize my old house was
Hezhou, Guangxi so valuable until I started aging tea,”
he laughs. “Now I have to take good
care of it. You see, patience is impor-
tant, not only in making good tea,
but also in life in general.”
Pan Jieyin has aged 500 packages
Life is getting of tea leaves. For each package, he
better now. will get 30 yuan a year.
Seeing tourists Zhou has also encouraged him to
grow tea to earn extra money and,
come here, we’d as a result, Pan Jieyin’s annual
like to be income has increased to 30,000
yuan.
tourists to travel Pan Manbao, 36, and his 33-year-
to faraway old wife, Feng Qiugu, have also
Top: Knitting has become a booming industry in Dachong village, found prosperity in tea. Their
Hezhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Middle: Pan Jieyin, a places as well.” impoverished life forced them to
resident of the village, prepares 500 packages of tea for aging at Feng Qiubao, resident, hold off on having their wedding
home. PHOTOS BY WANG KAIHAO / CHINA DAILY Above: Rural resident Pan Dachong village until they finally saved 20,000 yuan,
Manbao (left) and his wife, Feng Qiugu, have benefitted from a bet- seven years after registering for
ter local economy in the recent years. SHI RUIPENG / CHINA DAILY marriage. However, last year alone,
Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 17
they earned 12,000 yuan. So they
decided to take a further 100 tea
packages to mature at home this
year.
“It’s much easier to save money
now,” Feng Qiugu says. “We don’t
need to engage in heavy labor by
carrying our produce for a long way
on foot.”
Knitting a brighter future
Resources in Dachong are abun-
dant, and the only thing needed is
perhaps a keen eye. As bamboo can
be found all over the mountains,
Zhou and villagers have concocted
another way to boost the value of
their product — to make a pretty,
handmade package in which the
dark tea can be sold at a higher
price. Getting rid of the old gunny
bags, they make knitted bamboo
baskets to hold the tea leaves.
In 2018, Pan Qinglan, Feng Qiu-
gu, and more than 100 women in
the village, were offered the oppor-
tunity to knit the baskets. Each
product nets its knitter 9 yuan.
“When I was a kid, I saw my
grandma and mother knit baskets,
and I also knitted some for daily use,
like every family here did,” Pan
Qinglan says. “But nobody ever
thought this craft could also make
money.”
Pan Qinglan regrets that she is
not very skillful, but the workshop
also offers training programs to
hone their basket-making tech-
nique, particularly those suited to
tea fermentation. The best crafts-
women can fashion over 20 baskets
a day.
“I can only make 10, but it’s OK,”
Pan Qinglan says. “It doesn’t inter-
fere with my farm work. I can do it
whenever I have time, like people in
cities sometimes also knit sweat-
ers.”
She earned over 6,000 yuan in
2018 alone from basket-making,
and the villagers in Dachong can
collectively earn around 600,000
yuan annually from the baskets.
Nowadays, there are also a great-
er number of vehicles arriving in the
village to order local produce. Pan
Qinglan and Feng Qiubao’s ginger
has become popular, and they also
operate a fishpond. Pan Manbao has
started keeping bees, from which he
earned 6,000 yuan last year.
“My wife makes extra money by
knitting,” Pan Manbao says. “I can-
not lag behind. I have to start my
own business.”
The recent statistics show that
the average income per capita in
Dachong reached 9,500 yuan in
2019, tripling in five years. But
Zhao, the Party chief, plans to intro-
duce new businesses to make villag-
ers richer.
“We see tourists drive to the vil-
lage every day, from nearby cities
and from (nearby) Guangdong
province,” he says. “Tourism can be
the next booming industry if we
keep improving the infrastructure.”
Wooden boardwalks and an
observation deck have recently
been built in the village to act as
tourist tracks for future visitors,
while some villagers, like Feng
Qiubao, plan to turn their houses
into homestay inns.
And he has other plans. The cou-
ple have never traveled outside
Guangxi. Their daughter, who is
graduating from college, aban-
doned her job as a civil servant with
the local government and chose to
work in Guangdong with the rea-
soning that “the world is big, and I’d
like to see it”.
An open-minded Feng Qiubao
respects his daughter’s decision. He
also knows it is necessary to catch
up with the fast-changing world,
even though they live deep in the
mountains. Broadband internet
network facilities will be introduced
into the village later this year.
“When we got married and first
heard people talk about ‘tourism’
some years ago, I didn’t even know
what the word meant,” he says. “But
life is getting better now. Seeing
tourists come here, we’d like to be
tourists to travel to faraway places
as well. If we can buy a car, that will
be even better.”
Contact the writers at
wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn
18 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
LIFE
Brave doctor, 80, survives COVID-19, returns to helping people
I was very afraid that I would be
writing an obituary, but I’m thrilled
to report that Dr David Gullett, an
80-year-old physician in my home-
town of Clarksville, Tennessee, sur-
vived a harrowing attack of the
Covid-19 virus and
has quickly
returned to helping
his patients.
David and his
wife Paula built a
house next door to
David my parents’ house
Blair in the early 1970s
Second and have been
Thoughts great neighbors
ever since. As a
teenager, I was too stupid to get to
know them. But I’ve been honored
to talk with them many times in the
last few years.
When my father died two and a
half years ago, the Gulletts were a
rock supporting my mother. I
don’t think she would have been
able to get through it without their
Candid camera: Shadow play
Shadows enchant visitors at the first Shamian Public Art Season in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on
Sunday. The event on Shamian Island, in Liwan district, under the theme of “Together”, features a public
art exhibition, as well as displays of traditional and historical art. It will run until December.
LI ZHIHAO / FOR CHINA DAILY
Film soundtracks seeks to settle the score
By XU FAN
xufan@chinadaily.com.cn
Walking on to a stage shrouded in
an atmosphere of nostalgia, singer
Chen Chusheng closes his eyes as he
croons The Days We Spent Together,
the closing song of the Hong Kong
film Casino Raiders II, starring Andy
Lau.
The song, first sung by Lau, was
once a big hit, and a firm favorite in
the karaoke booth.
So when Chen’s scene — as part of
the online show Hi! Movie Music —
was streamed on the short-video
app Douyin on Aug 12, it drew tens
of thousands of viewers, with some
saying it reminded them of the gold-
en era of Hong Kong cinema.
Despite music being a crucial part
of films and TV dramas that can
make or break the audience experi-
ence, local industries have yet to ful-
ly recognize the importance of
soundtrack and score creation,
observes Garand Wu, a veteran who
has worked in the entertainment
sector for more than two decades.
A 2019 report from the Communi-
cation University of China shows
the country’s music market had
seen total sales of more than 374.7
billion yuan ($54 billion) in 2018,
but domestic movie and TV music
merely accounted for a tiny part,
says Wu, who has served as the man-
aging director of Universal Music
China since 2013.
As an effort to develop the niche
market, the domestic division of
Universal Music Group has recently
released Hi! Movie Music, an origi-
nal online series that combines
interviews and performances to
raise public interest in film and TV
music.
love and support.
Dr Gullett caught the virus from
a patient. He became sick on April
24 and had to be rushed to the hos-
pital’s emergency room on May 8.
Making things even worse for the
family, Paula’s elderly mother died
on May 9.
David downplays the terrible
experience, but his daughter Leigh
tells me how severe the danger was:
“When I was driving him to the
emergency room, I did not know if
he would live through this or not. I
knew Dad would not ask to go to the
ER unless it was extremely serious.
“His symptoms were high fever at
the beginning, chest pains, short-
ness of breath, having a hard time
breathing, very unsteady on his feet.
He wasn’t taking any liquids in. He
had not been eating for several days.
Extremely weak. I remember stop-
ping at a red light and looking over
at him. His eyes were just closed.
You just don’t know what is about to
happen. You don’t know the situa-
Singer Chen Chusheng appears on the online show Hi! Movie
Music, launched by Universal Music China on Aug 12.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Aside from Chen, dozens of celeb-
rities have joined the program,
including pianist Lang Lang, his
wife and fellow pianist Gina Alice
Redlinger, singer Sa Dingding and
jazz pianist Luo Ning.
In addition to the show, which
consists of six to eight episodes, Uni-
versal Music China has also estab-
lished Magic Muses, the company’s
first Chinese music label in a dec-
ade, dedicated to soundtracks and
scores for TV and movies.
With the global distribution and
talent resources from its parent
company, Universal Music China
will use the label to bridge local
musicians and filmmakers to create
bespoke music works for Chinese
films and TV dramas.
The first such project is under-
way. Composers and musicians
from Magic Muses are now working
on the original soundtrack for My
People My Homeland, one of the
most anticipated films set for
tion and how bad it is. You hear
these horrible case studies and Dad
is in the high-risk category of being
80 and it was really terrifying,”
Leigh said.
The hospital found that he had
blood clots throughout his body,
even one on his heart. If any of them
had come loose, he could have died
instantly. With his usual downplay-
ing he said: “It wasn’t a very fun
experience. When I lay there with
my legs full of clots that could break
off and go to my lungs, it didn’t help
me at all. But as the days went by, I
felt like I was a little closer to pulling
through.” He was finally released
after six days in the hospital.
Leigh said that the scariest thing
was not being allowed to see him or
know what was happening. She
would call the hospital and no one
would get back to her. In Clarksville,
as in the rest of the country, elderly
patients are dying alone in nursing
homes, unable to see their families.
Clarksville is having a hard time
release during the weeklong Nation-
al Day holiday, from Oct 1.
With Zhang Yimou and Ning Hao
respectively as the chief executive
producer and director, the antholo-
gy film gathers nine directors to
helm five comedy stories, displaying
the corresponding landscapes of
five provinces.
Speaking about the project, Wu
said: “Some of the world’s most suc-
cessful musical works are rooted in
local culture and history. As a great
country, with a long history of over
5,000 years, China’s culture and
diversity of landscapes will be a trea-
sure trove that can provide count-
less inspirations for the
soundtrack.”
Magic Muses’ musicians have
been on board since July, preparing
the music for the film for more than
two months.
“Movie music is not merely a
string of notes, but a craftwork
which needs to be tightly in sync
with the virus. Many businesses are
closed. Schools are closed. Many
people who were already having
financial problems have lost their
jobs or their small businesses and
can’t pay their bills. About 6 percent
of those tested in the county have
been positive for the virus. The hos-
pital has two whole floors devoted
to coronavirus patients.
Leigh said that Dr Gullett started
to prepare paperwork for his
patients within an hour of returning
home from the hospital, even
though he was weak and still had
clots in his legs. (The US medical
system requires such a huge
amount of paperwork from physi-
cians that Leigh says that her par-
ents often spend their day off work
going through it.) After a few days,
he returned to treating patients in
his office.
Although they are very modest,
I’ve heard that the Gulletts have
devoted their lives to helping people
in the city. At a time of life when
Online
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copy of today’s paper.
with the unfolding of the story, and
the development of the characters.
So leaving enough time ahead for
the music creation is very important
for the success of a movie,” says Wu.
However, most domestic film-
makers give only a few weeks in the
post-production phase for the music
part, while foreign blockbusters
usually start work on the music two
years in advance, explains Wu.
Echoing Wu’s words, Kelvin Hou,
founder and CEO of Magic Muses,
recalls that Christopher Nolan invit-
ed Hans Zimmer to compose for
Interstellar when the sci-fi epic’s
script was just a few pages long.
Hou adds that an influential mov-
ie soundtrack can also be lucrative
over a long period of time. Citing
James Cameron’s 1997 phenomenal
hit Titanic as an example, Hou says
the original score still sells well
today, indicating the market poten-
tial of the cinematic music genre.
The Magic Muses label will also
serve as an incubator to support
local talent, and help Chinese music
abroad by leveraging Universal
Music Group’s global distribution
network, says Wu.
“We are delighted to see China’s
music market has expanded contin-
uously in recent years. When I
joined Universal Music China in
2013, China was listed as the 19th-
biggest music market in the world
by the International Federation of
the Phonographic Industry, but now
it has risen to seventh,” says Wu.
Speaking of China’s film industry,
which now has the world’s most
screens and become the world’s sec-
ond-largest market in terms of box
office, Wu says he believes the movie
music genre will have a promising
future.
most physicians have retired to
travel the world or play golf, both
David and Paula work long hours
every day in his office treating
patients. Very unusually, they treat
many patients for free and have
never once, in 52 years practicing
medicine, used legal avenues to col-
lect the unpaid debt of any patient.
In addition to working full time, Dr
Gullett volunteers at the “Good
Samaritan” charity clinic to help
those in need in Clarksville.
They are known for helping peo-
ple who can’t pay their bills. For
example, they paid for a new roof
when a tornado damaged the house
of a small business owner who had
worked hard all his life but couldn’t
afford homeowner’s insurance.
Many of their patients are poor, so
the Gulletts help them pay for elec-
tricity, or water, or dentist bills.
They give away more than half their
income.
To me, Dr David Gullett and his
wife Paula personify what is meant
Korean culture marked
in Shanghai festival
By XING YI in Shanghai
xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn
The beating of drums and flut-
tering of colorful flags heralded the
arrival of a group of young people
dressed in hanbok, traditional
Korean clothing, as they marched
into the Jingting Tiandi Plaza in
Shanghai on Saturday.
As the formation stopped in the
central square, and loud applause
rang out from the crowd gathered
around, a month-long China-Ko-
rea Friendship Cultural Festival
started.
Located on Hongquan Road, the
plaza hosts dozens of open air res-
taurants featuring Korean food,
such as chimaek (fried chicken and
beer) and kalbi (Korean BBQ). Not
surprisingly, it is known to locals as
the “Korean Street”.
“Good evening, everybody! I
hope you have fun at the fair!” Park
Sang-yun, chairman of the Korean
Chamber of Commerce in Shang-
hai, announced in fluent Shanghai
dialect, to the large crowd.
“Because of the COVID-19 pan-
demic, Korean businesses here
have suffered and we want to
revive the lively scene now the cor-
onavirus has been controlled in
China, and add more cultural ele-
ments to the street,” he says.
On the central stage, the pro-
gram started with a traditional
Korean drum performance, fol-
lowed by a K-pop dance routine,
and then a concert of traditional
Chinese instruments.
Around the stage, several tempo-
rary booths were set up, selling
Korean products, such as cosmet-
ics and souvenirs, and showcasing
Korean culture and services.
The Korean Cultural Center of
Shanghai organized a series of
activities that are taking place
from Aug 15 to Sept 13.
On Saturday, visitors were
encouraged to try on hanbok and
Top: K-pop dancers open the China-Korea Friendship Cultural
Festival in Shanghai on Saturday. Above: Visitors try on Korean
style hanbok at the event. PHOTOS BY XING YI / CHINA DAILY
CHINA DAILY
by “good people”. They have devoted
their lives to helping others. Like
many doctors in China and other
countries, he almost gave his life to
help his patients.
Why do they do it?
Leigh said that her parents taught
her: “If we did not work, we would
have nothing to give.”
Paula said: “David and I both
want to feel like our lives have been
useful and have a purpose. We want
our lives to be a ministry and a
blessing to others. We just know we
are exactly where we are supposed
to be, doing exactly what we are
supposed to be doing with our lives.
Hopefully, we can be a help to peo-
ple who cross our path.”
Contact the writer at
davidblair@chinadaily.com.cn
Online
Scan the code
to hear an audio
version.
Because of the
COVID-19 pandemic,
Korean businesses
here have suffered
and we want to
revive the lively
scene now the
coronavirus has
been controlled in
China.”
Park Sang-yun, chairman,
Korean Chamber of Commerce
in Shanghai
take photos against the back-
ground of a traditional Korean
home.
The center says an exhibition of
kimchi and other traditional Kore-
an food will open during the sec-
ond week of the festival, followed
by a traditional handcraft experi-
ence program and a Taekwondo
introductory class as it draws to a
close.
Kim Hong-soo, director of the
center in Shanghai, says: “We want
to introduce Korean culture to Chi-
nese people to enhance exchanges
and understanding between the
two nations as we will celebrate the
28 anniversary of the establish-
ment of diplomatic ties between
China and South Korea on Aug 24.”
In the booth representing Daegu
city, the staff promoted medical
tourism.
Kwag Kab-yeal, chief representa-
tive of Daegu municipality in
Shanghai, says, “Our city is known
as the ‘medical capital of Korea’
and we welcome more Chinese
tourists to Daegu to experience our
services, as well as the beautiful
scenery after the pandemic.”
 CHINA DAILY Thursday, August 20, 2020 | 19

SPORTS
GOLF

Zhang charts unlikely

By CHUAH CHOO CHIANG but the demand to produce consist-
ent form each week continues to be a
Zhang Xinjun is pinching himself challenge.
these days to ensure he is not When golf made a return follow-
dreaming. ing a three-month suspension due to

Growing up in northwestern
Shaanxi province, where his parents
earned a living farming, Zhang lived
a simple life as a child. Most days
growing up featured daily treks to
school across hilly terrain and help-
ing at home with odd jobs.
But when he turned 17, Zhang left
the comforts of his village to work as
a security guard at a golf course in
Xi’an. It wasn’t long before an oppor-
tunity to work at the driving range
presented itself, and Zhang promptly
grabbed the role without hesitation.
It didn’t matter at the time that
golf still seemed alien to him. After a
few swipes at the ball at the behest
of his co-workers, Zhang was
hooked.
The 33-year-old will become the
first Chinese mainland golfer to play
in the PGA Tour’s lucrative FedEx-
Cup Playoffs when the action tees
off at The Northern Trust in New
Jersey on Thursday. Getting into the
playoffs also means enjoying a crack
at the $15 million top prize, which
probably seemed like a long shot to
Zhang and his farming family 17
years ago.
“I fell in love with the game,”
Zhang said. “I became rather good
and received support from the Chi-
na Golf Association. People say my
story could inspire more kids to play
golf. If that’s true, I’m going to work
harder and harder to become a bet-
ter role model.”
Zhang’s journey has seen him go
through ebbs and flows. After some
initial success on PGA Tour Series
China, he made the leap to the
United States, where he competed on
the Korn Ferry Tour. He finished
20th on the points list in 2017 to
secure his PGA Tour card, which he
said was a “dream”.
But his rookie season on the tour
proved to be rough.
“I suffered from basic errors and a
bad temperament,” he said. “When I
didn’t play well, I became more and
more angry, which resulted in a
poor performance. I was too focused
on the immediate gain and loss.
Going back to the Korn Ferry Tour
(in 2019), I was determined to
change my mindset and mentality.”
Two wins on the feeder circuit last
year gave Zhang a second chance on
the PGA Tour. And so far he’s made
good on his latest attempt, having
recorded three top-10s and three
top-20s to end the regular season in
70th position in the FedExCup
standings. That’s a far cry from his
rookie season that saw him miss 16
cuts across 28 starts.
Part of that renaissance was due to
a combination of old-fashioned hard
work, his upbringing and life experi-
ences in different places.
“I did not speak English when I
arrived in the US, so I couldn’t com-
municate when I went out,” said
journey to jackpot
Former security guard now vying for PGA Tour’s $15m top prize
Zhang Xinjun tracks a shot during the PGA Championship in San Francisco, California, on Aug 7. The 33-year-old from Shaanxi province is
among the field for this week’s Northern Trust tournament in New Jersey, the first round of the prestigious FedExCup Playoffs. AFP
Zhang. “I missed home. I was lonely.
After thinking about it, I realized
that my biggest problem was my
mind. I had a lot to improve, but my
biggest challenge was to change my
mindset.
“My goal at every tournament was
to not think about the result, only
focus on the moment and the shot. I
also needed to make adjustments to
my technique and I also needed
more physical training.
“Growing up in my village as a
child, I had to cross the mountain
and run to school,” he continued.
“Those experiences have made me
very tough and persistent. I made it
back to the PGA Tour because I was
finally ready in every way. I got help
from my coaches both with my
game and on the mental side, and I
was finally accustomed to the
lifestyle in America. I think golf is a
game that tests one’s perseverance.
the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhang
missed four consecutive cuts.
“I needed to get back my feeling
with the swing. I was worried and
when I have these thoughts and care
so much about results, I cannot
focus,” he said.
“After four events, I reminded
myself to focus on every swing,
every hole and not think about
results. At the Memorial Tourna-
ment (where he finished tied 10th), I
stuck to my strategy and regained
my feeling and confidence.
“I am satisfied with my perform-
ance this season. I improved my
mentality and practiced more
which showed in better scores and
got me into my first major (PGA
Championship) and my first play-
offs. I have gained so much.”
Like many others, Zhang is excit-
ed at the prospect of challenging for
the PGA Tour’s ultimate prize, the
FedExCup Playoffs.
The playoffs are comprised of
three mega events, beginning with
the 125-player Northern Trust, the
top-70 BMW Championship and the
Tour Championship, where a
30-player field will compete for the
$15 million prize at East Lake Golf
Club outside Atlanta, Georgia.
“I am so excited to compete with
the best golfers and accumulate
experiences. This means a lot to me,”
Zhang said. “Trying to win (a tour-
nament) is the objective of every
player, and it’s the same for me. A
small step leads to a thousand miles
and what I can do is to focus on
every tournament and every swing.
I am closer and closer to becoming a
PGA Tour champion.”
Zhang’s biggest fans at home are
his parents and family, whom he
said sacrificed so much for him to
pursue his golf dream. “Getting
good results is the best return to
them,” he said. “My parents always
give me great understanding and
support, which makes me focus and
devote myself to golf.”
Realizing how golf has provided
A small step leads to the opportunity to create a new life
a thousand miles and for him and his family, Zhang
what I can do is to launched a junior golf charity pro-
gram in his hometown as a way of
focus on every giving back to the community.
tournament and “Golf is a great sport. I hope more
and more young people could love
every swing. I am golf,” he said.
closer and closer to “I also hope people who love golf
can persist and play well. I want to
becoming a PGA Tour share my life experiences, profes-
champion.” sional experiences and golf skills
with a bunch of juniors and provide
Zhang Xinjun, first Chinese one-on-one training. I will continue
mainland golfer to qualify for
the FedExCup Playoffs
this program to support junior
charity golf development and
participation.”
Zhang Xinjun imparts some swing tips to local people in Shaanxi I’m the kind of person who never
province, where the 33-year-old has established a junior golf camp gives up.” The writer is senior director of com-
as a way of giving back to the community where he was born and It has been 10 years since Zhang munications of the PGA Tour and is
raised. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY first joined the professional ranks, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Acclimatized Kang braced for bumpy British Open ride

A self-confessed “control freak”
on the golf course, Danielle Kang
likes her ball to end up where she
intended it to go.
That likely explains her under-
whelming career record at the
Women’s British Open, given the
bumps, hollows and undulations on
the event’s old links courses.
Maybe this year will be different
for the form player in the women’s
game.
Kang arrived at Royal Troon
ahead of the first major of the pan-
demic-affected year as the No 2 play-
er after back-to-back wins in Ohio
following the resumption of the
LPGA Tour after the coronavirus
outbreak.
Then, last week, came what was
perhaps a significant breakthrough
in her game with a tied-for-fifth fin-
ish in the Ladies Scottish Open at
the Renaissance Club on Scotland’s
east coast, which is a links course —
albeit not pure links.
It should mean Kang, the winner
of the PGA Championship in 2017
for her only major success to date, is
a serious contender for the first time
at the British Open where her best
finish is a tie for 41st last year.
That was on an inland course at
Woburn, near London. Before last
week, she missed the cut in her
previous two starts on links cours-
es in Britain, in the Women’s
Opens at Kingsbarns and Royal
Lytham in 2017 and 2018, respec-
tively. She has failed to make the
weekend in five of her nine appear-
ances at the British Open.
“I got a good feel for links golf, the
bounces and the rolls that we are
going to get,” Kang said Tuesday
about the Scottish Open, a warm-up
event for the British Open, where
she wound up a shot off a four-way
playoff.
“I mean, links golf, people know
that it’s just going to be a little bit
slower greens, subtle breaks and
accepting missed putts were a bit
harder for me than normal.”
Indeed, it was on the greens
where she struggled last week, and
that’s what she has been working on
most since arriving on Monday at
Troon, a course she has never played
before.
“I’m used to just putting the way I
do and if you miss 2- or 3-footers
here and there, you freeze over them
and that’s what was tough for me
last week,” Kang said. “Other than
that, I think I hit the ball quite well
and went around the golf course
pretty well. I’m really proud of how I
took on links golf in general because
my results in links golf hasn’t been
great.”
More at home on the links — and
in Scotland — is another American,
Stacy Lewis, who won the British
Open at St. Andrews in 2013 for her
second and most recent major title
and won the Scottish Open on Sun-
day for her first LPGA victory in
nearly three years.
Whereas Kang said she is
“uncomfortable” on links, the
former top-ranked Lewis clearly
loves it.
“I’m excited the way I’m hitting it,”
she said. “Links golf, you’ve got to be
able to control your golf ball in the
wind and I did a pretty good job of
that for four days.”
In a golf calendar that has been
heavily reshaped because of the
pandemic, the British Open has
managed to hold its date and will be
the first of four majors this year. The
Evian Championship has been can-
celed and will return in 2021.
There will be COVID-19 testing
for players and caddies but no spec-
tators at Troon, which is hosting its
first women’s major. The Ayrshire
course staged the men’s British
Open in 2016 when Henrik Stenson
won a final-day duel with Phil Mick-
elson to win his first major.
In the last seven women’s majors,
there have been six first-time
winners.
Top-ranked Ko Jin-young won
two majors in 2019 but will not be
going a third of her career because
of the coronavirus pandemic. Third-
ranked Park Sung-hyun or No 6 Kim
Sei-young haven’t traveled to Danielle Kang poses with the
Scotland either. trophy after winning the
Marathon LPGA Classic on
ASSOCIATED PRESS Aug 9 in Sylvania, Ohio. AFP

Scoreboard
BASEBALL East Division W L Pct GB W L Pct GB LA Angels at San Francisco Results of the National Hockey League games on
W L Pct GB Seattle 7 18 .280 9½ LA Dodgers 18 7 .720 _ St. Louis at Chicago Cubs, 1st game Tuesday (home team in CAPS):
Results of the MLB games on Tuesday (home NY Yankees 16 7 .696 _ Colorado 13 10 .565 4 At Toronto
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis, 2nd game
team in CAPS): Tampa Bay 15 9 .625 1½ Arizona 13 11 .542 4½ Philadelphia 2 Montreal 0
HOUSTON 2 Colorado 1 (11 innings) NATIONAL LEAGUE Cleveland at Pittsburgh
Baltimore 12 11 .522 4 San Diego 13 12 .520 5 NY Mets at Miami (Philadelphia leads best-of seven series 3-1)
San Diego 6 TEXAS 4 East Division Washington 3 NY Islanders 2
Toronto 9 11 .450 5½ W L Pct GB San Francisco 9 16 .360 9 Washington at Atlanta
San Francisco 8 LA ANGELS 2 (NY Islanders lead beat-of-seven series 3-1)
Boston 6 18 .250 10½ Atlanta 14 11 .560 _
ARIZONA 10 Oakland 1 At Edmonton, Alberta
Cleveland 6 PITTSBURGH 3 (10 innings) Central Division Miami 9 8 .529 1 Wednesday’s games BASKETBALL Dallas 2 Calgary 1
Tampa Bay 6 NY YANKEES 3 W L Pct GB Philadelphia 9 9 .500 1½ Toronto at Baltimore
Results of the NBA first-round playoffs in Orlan- (Dallas leads of-of-seven series 3-2)
LA DODGERS 2 Seattle 1 Minnesota 16 8 .667 _ NY Mets 11 14 .440 3 Philadelphia at Boston
do on Tuesday (Best-of-7 series): Vegas 4 Chicago 2
Philadelphia 13 BOSTON 6 Cleveland 14 9 .609 1½ Washington 9 12 .429 3 Cincinnati at Kansas City, 1st game (Vegas wins best-of-seven series 4-1)
Orlando 122 Milwaukee 110
Toronto 8 BALTIMORE 7 (10 innings) Chi White Sox 13 11 .542 3 Cleveland at Pittsburgh
Central Division (Orlando leads best-of-seven series 1-0)
Cincinnati at KANSAS CITY, ppd Detroit 9 12 .429 5½ W L Pct GB Tampa Bay at NY Yankees SOCCER
Miami 113 Indiana 101
CHICAGO WHITE SOX 10 Detroit 4 Kansas City 9 14 .391 6½ Chicago Cubs 15 7 .682 _ Detroit at Chicago White Sox (Miami leads best-of-seven series 1-0)
MINNESOTA 4 Milwaukee 3 (12 innings) West Division Milwaukee 10 11 .476 4½ Milwaukee at Minnesota Houston 123 Oklahoma City 108 UEFA Champions League
NY Mets 8 MIAMI 2 W L Pct GB St. Louis 5 6 .455 4½ Cincinnati at Kansas City, 2nd game Result on Tuesday:
(Houston leads best-of-seven series 1-0)
Washington 8 ATLANTA 5 Oakland 16 8 .667 _ Houston at Colorado All matches in Lisbon
Cincinnati 9 11 .450 5 Portland 100 LA Laker 93
CHICAGO CUBS 6 St. Louis 3 Houston 13 10 .565 2½ (Portland leads best-of-seven series 1-0) Semifinal
Pittsburgh 4 15 .211 9½ Texas at San Diego
Texas 10 12 .455 5 Arizona at Oakland Estadio da Luz
West Division RB Leipzig 0 Paris Saint-Germain 3 (Marquinhos
AMERICAN LEAGUE LA Angels 8 16 .333 8 W L Pct GB LA Dodgers at Seattle ICE HOCKEY
13, Di Maria 42, Bernat 56)
20 | Thursday, August 20, 2020
SPORTS
BASKETBALL
Orlando conjures a little Disney Magic
Giannis frustrated
as top-seed Bucks
drop series opener
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida —
The Milwaukee Bucks’ hopes of win-
ning their first NBA title since 1971
got off to a rocky start.
Nikola Vucevic scored a playoff
career-high 35 points and had 14
rebounds, and the Orlando Magic
stunned the top-seeded Bucks 122-
110 on Tuesday in the league’s fan-
free Disney World bubble.
Terrence Ross scored 18 points,
Gary Clark added 15 and DJ Augus-
tin had 11 points and 11 assists for
the eighth-seeded Magic, who were
14-point underdogs.
Orlando took a 1-0 lead in the
best-of-seven series, an intriguing
result given that the Bucks can’t rely
on home-court advantage in these
pandemic-altered playoffs.
“We don’t care what other people
have to say,” Vucevic said. “We focus
on ourselves and we came out and
played a great game on both ends of
the floor.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo finished
with 31 points, 17 rebounds and sev-
en assists for Milwaukee. Last sea-
son’s MVP was held without a field
goal over the final 11 minutes and
seemed to get more frustrated as the
fourth quarter went on.
“You have to really be ready for
what they do,” Vucevic said. “Espe-
cially us against a team like Mil-
waukee where we have to make sure
we know their stuff and we are pre-
NBA numbers game adds up to intriguing subplots
The NBA playoff pool is deeper
than ever this season.
Playoff teams will split a record
$23,287,266 for making the NBA
postseason, a figure that’s up about
$1.6 million from last year.
And the Milwaukee Bucks stand
to grab the biggest share of a pool
ever, if they win the NBA title. The
Bucks would split $6,827,848 if they
won the NBA championship, based
on the formula worked out by the
league.
The Bucks have already secured
$1,606,897 from the pool by having
the best record in the NBA, the best
record in the Eastern Conference
and making the first round. The top
six teams in each conference get a
bonus for their finish in the regular
season.
From there, the breakdown is this:
— First-round qualifiers make
$347,545.
— Conference semifinalists get
another $413,534.
— Conference finalists get anoth-
er $683,363.
The biggest slices, of course, go to
the teams that make the NBA Finals.
The losing team receives another
$2,732,699, while the NBA champi-
ons get another $4,124,054.
For winning the NBA title last sea-
son, the Toronto Raptors split $5.6
million from the playoff pool.
Treble chase
If Kawhi Leonard wins an NBA
Finals MVP award with the Los
SOCCER
PSG ready to make history after fulfilling final fantasy
LISBON — The wait is finally over
for Paris Saint-Germain.
After 110 Champions League
matches, the Qatar-owned French
powerhouse has made it to the final
of Europe’s top club competition.
No other club to reach the final
had to wait longer, with Arsenal
holding the previous record by
going 90 matches from 1971-2006
before being able to play for the title.
And there was no need for late
drama for PSG this time as Angel Di
Maria scored a goal and set up two
others in a comfortable 3-0 win over
Leipzig in the semifinals on Tues-
day. PSG had needed two late goals
to come back against Atalanta in the
quarterfinals last week.
“We’re very happy. It’s a first for
the club,” Di María said. “We worked
hard and played a great game. We
want to make history for the club.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo fouls Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic while reaching for a loose ball during
Game 1 of their NBA first-round playoff series at the Disney World resort in Florida. Orlando won 122-110. USA TODAY SPORTS
pared for everything. Tonight, we
definitely were on top of that. We did
a good job executing the game plan.”
The Bucks came into the postsea-
son as the favorites to win the NBA
title. But they went 3-5 in seeding
games in the bubble, and that slug-
gish play carried over into the post-
season.
George Hill said the Bucks needed
to do some “soul searching”.
Kawhi Leonard
Angeles Clippers this season, he’d do
something that nobody has ever
done — three finals MVPs with three
different teams.
Leonard was finals MVP for San
Antonio in 2014 and for Toronto
last year. Besides Leonard, only
LeBron James (with Miami in 2012
and 2013, then Cleveland in 2016)
and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (with
Milwaukee in 1971 and the Los
Angeles Lakers in 1985) have won
finals MVPs with two different
franchises.
If the Lakers or Clippers win the
title, it’ll be another rarity. If the
Lakers win, James and Danny
Green (San Antonio, Toronto)
would have championships with
three different teams; if the
Clippers win, Leonard would be on
that list.
The only players in NBA history to
win titles with three different teams,
to this point, are John Salley and
Robert Horry.
We succeeded tonight and we’re in
the final, that’s very important. We
have to continue like tonight to
make our dream come true.”
PSG became the first French club
to reach the Champions League
final since Monaco in 2004, and it
can become the second French team
to win the title after Marseille in
1993.
Marquinhos and Juan Bernat also
scored as PSG moved a win away
from finally capturing an elusive
European crown.
Neymar, who set up one of the
goals with a neat backheel flick, is
also a step closer to fulfilling his goal
of winning the Champions League
away from former club Barcelona.
The Brazilian and his teammates
celebrated on the pitch after the
match, chanting and dancing. Back
in Paris, PSG supporters poured
Antetokounmpo didn’t go that
far, saying the Bucks’ energy level
was fine, but that they need to make
more shots. Milwaukee made 43
percent from the field and was 14 of
42 from 3-point land.
“There’s no magic wand to point
and things are going to change,”
Antetokounmpo said. “You’ve got to
come out, play hard, play even hard-
er, play together and have fun.”
Six pack
Division championships in the
NBA don’t seem to mean much any-
more.
Well, maybe they do.
If history holds, one of these six
teams — Toronto, Milwaukee,
Miami, Denver, Houston or the Los
Angeles Lakers — will win the NBA
title this season.
Every finals team since 2012 has
done so after winning a division
title. The last team not to win its
division but make the finals was
Dallas, which won the title in 2011.
And the last time an NBA Finals had
two non-division-winning teams
was 2007, when San Antonio topped
Cleveland.
Stats all, folks
A few numbers to watch during
the playoffs:
— LeBron James is 89 points away
from 7,000 career postseason
points. Nobody else has even
reached 6,000; Michael Jordan had
5,987. James nearly has more playoff
points than any other three players
entering these playoffs do in their
postseason careers combined.
James Harden (2,654), Russell West-
brook (2,489) and Kawhi Leonard
(2,164) have 7,307 between them.
— If the Lakers make a deep run,
James could also take over the No 1
spot on the postseason-games-
played list. He’s been in 239, behind
Derek Fisher (259), Tim Duncan
(251) and Robert Horry (244). James
onto the Champs-Elysees, lighting
up the iconic avenue with flares in
raucous scenes before police even-
tually intervened.
French Prime Minister Jean Cas-
tex praised the team on Twitter, cit-
ing PSG’s “experience, talent and
team spirit” for the victory. “Paris is
magic!” he tweeted.
The result ended a surprising run
for Leipzig, the young German club
that was making only its second
Champions League appearance.
The last time PSG reached the
Champions League semifinals was
in 1995, 14 years before RB Leipzig
even came into existence.
“The ticket for the final for Paris is
well deserved,” said 33-year-old Leip-
zig coach Julian Nagelsmann. “In the
first 10 to 12 minutes we did well and
had good situations. It was hard to
come back into the game after the
Milwaukee swept the season
series against Orlando, winning
four games by an average of 17
points, but struggled with the Mag-
ic’s stingy defense, which caused 16
turnovers and repeatedly clogged
the lane, forcing Antetokounmpo to
settle for jump shots.
The Bucks’ frustration was evident
when center Brook Lopez stomped
on a chair — and then kicked it — in
LeBron James
is already the NBA career playoff
leader in minutes, field goals made
and attempted, free throws made
and steals.
— Boston’s Gordon Hayward has
made 95.5 percent of his playoff free
throws (106 for 111). Nobody with at
least 100 career postseason makes
from the line has ever been better;
Mark Price is No 2 at 94.4 percent.
Losing interest
For the first time since 2015,
teams with a losing record made the
playoffs.
And for the first time since 1997,
three teams below the .500 mark
found their way into the postseason.
Portland, Brooklyn and Orlando all
finished the regular season with los-
ing records — yet are still alive in the
race for the NBA title.
Boston and Brooklyn were the
last teams to get to the playoffs with
losing marks, both getting there in
2015. Minnesota, Phoenix and the
second goal because Paris have a lot
of quality. It’s hard to accept but foot-
ball is like this.“
PSG looked in control from the
start at Benfica’s Stadium of Light,
with Marquinhos and Di Maria
scoring in the first half and Bernat
adding to the lead in the second.
Leipzig, which eliminated Atletico
Madrid in the quarterfinals, was try-
ing to make its mark in Europe under
energy drink company Red Bull,
which in 2009 bought the license
rights from fifth-tier club SSV Mar-
kranstaedt and financed the new
team’s steady promotion through the
lower leagues in Germany.
PSG has scored in its last 34
Champions League games, match-
ing the record set by Real Madrid
from 2011-2014.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
the bench area during a timeout.
“Obviously, our main focus was
try to make it hard on Giannis, to
protect the paint,” Vucevic said. “We
did that as a team. Gary (Clark) did a
great job fighting him and we were
able to help.”
The Magic led most of the game.
Orlando used an early 15-2 run to
build a 51-33 lead midway through
the second quarter behind 16 points
Los Angeles Clippers were the three
teams that did it in 1987.
The last time there were more
than three sub-.500 teams in the
playoffs was 1986, when six made the
field. No team with a losing record
has won a playoff series since 1987,
when the Seattle SuperSonics won
two rounds to reach the West finals.
Since that season, sub-.500 teams
are 0-26 in first-round matchups.
Lucky charm
If the Toronto Raptors win this
NBA title, there can be no doubt that
the team’s magic number this sea-
son would be 23.
Or maybe 23-9, to be more
specific.
When the season was stopped on
March 11 because of the pandemic,
the Raptors were exactly 23-9 at
home and 23-9 on the road.
At Disney in the seeding games,
they went 7-1. They went 16-8 last
season in the playoffs, and if they do
exactly that this year — yes, they
would have gone exactly 23-9 at Dis-
ney this year as well.
Home alone
Since 1984, home teams have won
411 of 540 playoff games played —
76.1 percent. Of course, much of that
can be attributed to having 20,000
or so screaming fans cheering teams
on in those games.
Will it matter without fans in the
bubble? Time will tell.
During the restart, teams went
Marquinhos (left) celebrates scoring Paris Saint-Germain’s first
goal with Neymar during Tuesday’s 3-0 Champions League semifi-
nal victory over RB Leipzig in Lisbon, Portugal. REUTERS
CHINA DAILY
from Vucevic.
Montenegrin Vucevic had 14
points in the third quarter, scoring
down in the low post against small-
er defenders and stepping out to
knock down 3s against bigger men
as the Magic carried a 13-point lead
into the fourth quarter.
The challenge for the Magic will
be to maintain their intensity. A year
ago they beat the eventual NBA
champion Raptors to kick off their
opening-round series, but lost the
next four.
“We came out with a huge victo-
ry,” Vucevic said. ”Again, it’s just one
game. We’ve got to move on.”
Vucevic finished 15 of 24 from the
field, including 5 of 8 from 3-point
range. He also had four assists.
“He played out of his mind,” Ante-
tokounmpo said.
“He was just terrific,” Magic coach
Steve Clifford said. “He’s played very
well down here. He made big play
after big play today. But I’m not sur-
prised. Because his preparation for
this playoff series, and I think it will
show, he’s on top of things.”
Bubble talk
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer
doesn’t believe playing in the bubble
is impacting his team.
“It’s always great to play in front
of your fans and feed off their energy
a little bit but we’ve all been down
here in the bubble for a while so I
think everybody should understand
how to sustain a run and prevent
runs,” Budenholzer said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seth Curry
49-39 in matchups designated as
“home” games — a 55.7 percent clip
in those contests where they got to
see their logos on the video boards
and hear their usual pregame
music. And that is close to what
teams were doing outside the bub-
ble this season, when home teams
prevailed 55.1 percent of the time.
Family affair
Callie Rivers Curry cannot lose in
the first round of the Western Con-
ference playoffs. Either her father is
going to the second round, or her
husband is.
The Los Angeles Clippers play
Dallas in the first round. Callie’s
father is Clippers coach Doc Rivers.
Her husband is Mavericks guard
Seth Curry.
“I don’t think she’s rooting for
me,” Doc Rivers said, “but I’m not so
sure.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS