Day: July 10, 2020

(Xinhua)08:38, August 05, 2019

BEIJING, Aug. 4 — The following are the highlights of Chinas key business news from the past week:

NEV CHARGING POLES

Four of Chinas leading property developers have teamed up with the State Grid in setting up new-energy vehicles (NEVs) charging poles for some 8.7 million households.

Property giant Evergrande Group and the State Grid Corporation of China jointly launched a smart energy services company in Shenzhen in early July to install NEV charging poles for each parking space in residential communities.

Other real estate developers including Country Garden, Vanke and Sunac have also joined in the venture, extending the charging services to 5,468 communities operated by the four developers and covering an estimated 31 million residents.

TRANSPORT DIGITALIZATION

China has become a pioneer for developing and applying the latest mobility technologies thanks to the countrys huge market demand and efficient implementation, according to senior management with German transportation firm Siemens Mobility.

The future transport will be connected, autonomous and electric, and China enjoys many advantages in transport innovation including supportive policies, clear development plans and fast execution, Jurgen Model, CEO with Siemens Mobility Greater China told Xinhua in an interview.

He observed that China is one of the leaders in the development and application of autonomous driving technologies which have now been tested in 16 cities. The commercial use of 5G wireless technologies will accelerate its industrial application, he said.

SHRINKING PROFITS

Chinas steel output surged in the first half of the year, but higher material costs had weighed upon profit of the sector, according to the China Iron and Steel Industry Association (CISA).

Chinas crude steel output came in at 492 million tonnes in H1 2019, up 9.9 percent year on year, CISA data showed.

The country in H1 saw its newly-added output of crude steel at 44.34 million tonnes, while net exports of steel suffered a 70,000-tonne decrease year on year, said the CISA.

VR STARTUP

Chinese mobile virtual reality (VR) firm NOLO Inc. has completed its series A+ financing of 15 million U.S. dollars.

This round of financing was led by Joy Capital, followed by BlueRun Ventures and Peakview Capital, and the money will be mainly spent on the continuous research and development as well as commercialization of its VR tracking technology, the company said in a statement.

Established in 2015, the startup focuses on VR interaction and now has users from more than 70 countries and regions.

(Xinhua)08:50, August 05, 2019

CHANGSHA, Aug. 3 — How is the microorganisms contribution to carbon sequestration in paddy soil relevant to the climate? Chinese researchers have recently solved the puzzle.

Carbon sequestration is a process involving the carbon capture and long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is considered to be the main driver of global warming.

To reduce the accumulation rate of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists have been studying the relations between the land use, forestry activities and carbon sequestration in soil, hoping to learn more about the carbon capture mechanism.

Su Yirong, a researcher with the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is based in Changsha, capital of central Chinas Hunan Province, has led his team to study the contribution of fungi and bacteria residues to the organic carbon accumulation in paddy soil.

Fungi and bacteria can transform unstable organic carbon into the composition of their own cells by anabolism, and ultimately stabilize organic carbon in the form of microbial residues through cell growth and death. But how the contribution of fungi and bacterial residues in this process is related to the climate change remains unclear.

Su and his team collected samples of paddy soil respectively from the mid-temperate, warm temperate, subtropical and tropical zones. Their research shows that although the main microbial residues in paddy soil are fungi, its contribution to organic carbon accumulation is not significantly different among the four climate zones.

Further analysis shows that the increase of temperature and rainfall results in the decrease of soil pH value, which will promote the growth of fungi, but higher temperatures and more rainfalls themselves will inhibit the growth of fungi. Therefore, fungi residues are unresponsive to climate conditions in terms of the organic carbon accumulation.

The rise in temperature and rainfall will, however, facilitate the growth of bacteria, which will thereby increase its contribution to the organic carbon accumulation in paddy soil, according to the research recently published in Biology and Fertility of Soils, an international academic journal.

The research will help provide a scientific basis for explaining the microbial mechanism of the carbon sequestration in paddy soil in China, Su said.

(Xinhua)10:06, August 05, 2019

BEIJING, Aug. 4 — The following are the highlights of Chinas key technology news from the past week:

MICRO LUNAR ORBITER

Chinas micro lunar orbiter Longjiang-2 has crashed into the Moon under ground control after it completed its mission, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

The micro satellite crashed into a predetermined area on the far side of the Moon at 10:20 p.m. on July 31 (Beijing Time).

SEABORNE ROCKET LAUNCH

China plans to start the construction of a homeport for seaborne rocket launches in Yantai, east Chinas Shandong Province, this year, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC).

The project aims to make seaborne rocket launches a frequent occurrence, said CASTC.

ROBOT WRITER

China Science Daily announced Thursday that it had used software to automatically generate news stories about the latest discoveries from the worlds leading science journals.

The robot science reporter, called Xiaoke, was co-created by the newspaper and researchers from Peking University in about half a year.

DIAGNOSTIC TECH

A new diagnostic technology developed by Chinese scientists for improving coronary heart disease treatment has received market approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to Chinas .

The technology, called Quantitative Flow Ratio measurement system, was jointly developed by Pulse Medical Imaging Technology (Shanghai) Co and a group of researchers with Shanghai Jiaotong University.

(Peoples Daily Online)17:17, August 05, 2019

(Photo/Xinhua)

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released data which indicated Chinas achievements in scientific and technological innovations over the past seven decades.

According to NBS, Chinas research and development (RD) spending hit 1.97 trillion yuan in 2018 ($286 billion), 138 times the 1991 figure, and the number of patent applications saw substantial growth.

Experts noted that enterprises were the primary driver for Chinas fast-growing innovations. In 2017, Chinese enterprises spent 1.35 trillion yuan on RD, accounting for 76.5 percent of the national total.

More companies today value scientific and technological innovations and regard innovation as the lifeblood of development, according to Zhao Zhiyun from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China.

In 2017, Chinas high-tech manufacturing industry created 15.9 trillion yuan in main business income, up 55.8 percent compared with 2012. RD expenditure used for high-tech manufacturing increased by 83.6 percent, with an annual growth of 12.9 percent on average.

High-tech manufacturing, as a part of the real economy, plays a supporting role in the process of building a modern economy, said Sun Fuquan, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

Sun believed that high-tech manufacturing has yielded remarkable results, as the country now implements innovation-driven development. This stimulates the upgrading of conventional industries while catalyzing new industrial forms toward high-end production.

High-tech products, including high-speed trains, nuclear power stations, and communication devices have become Chinas overseas business cards, said Zhao.

Meanwhile, steel, cement, and other conventional industries are increasing their added value of products through innovation and contributing more to economic development, Zhao added.

Against Chinas backdrop of profound changes and the upgraded structure of domestic demand and consumption, experts agreed that technological innovation can be a decisive force for social reform as it provides high-quality factors of production and life.

They suggested emphasizing systematic innovation to unleash its power in driving economic development.

By CurtisStone (Peoples Daily Online)17:25, August 01, 2019

The US Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate Wednesday by a quarter point to a range of 2 to 2.5 percent. It is the first reduction in a decade. The Fed has said it is concerned by uncertainties around trade wars and the strength of the global economy. This is a slam on the face of US President Donald Trump, who has been bragging that the US economy is doing great.

The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States and it has the authority to formulate US monetary policy according to its assessment of the US economic situation. It is a key organization in managing the macro economy in the United States.

And unlike the cheap talk of US politicians, the Fed鈥檚 actions and comments carry some serious weight.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump sent out four tweets, claiming that he 鈥済ot China back on its heels, and the United States in doing great.鈥?He also claimed that the 鈥淭rump Tariffs鈥?are costing China millions of jobs.

This is just Trump talking through his hat.

While Trump was busy tweeting with his thumbs, the US side and China were busy conveying the 12th round of trade negotations in Shanghai. It is understandable and even expected that Trump would try to influence the negotations, but the claims were pure nonsense.

Economics tells us that rate cuts, which are a typical expansionary monetary policy tool, are a response to downward pressure on the economy. The Fed鈥檚 rate cut was an act of desperation and it indicates that the US economy has entered a period of possible recession. The Fed is always very careful in the words it chooses, but it is clearly worried that a recession may be on the horizon, and it has pointed the finger at Trump鈥檚 trade wars.

It is common knowledge that there are no winners in a trade war. In a globalized world, it is also impossible to decouple the American and Chinese economies. The trade frictions between the world鈥檚 two largest economies has brought damage to both sides and to the world. This is further proof that cooperation will lead to mutual benefits and that confrontation will lead to mutual destruction.

However, consdiering the situation, China鈥檚 economy has fared quite well鈥攁 point that Trump has missed.

For example, an important meeting attended by China鈥檚 top leaders was held in Beijing on Tuesday to analyze the economic situation and arrange the economic work for the second half of the year. A statement released after the meeting said that the Chinese economy maintained the steadily advancing momentum in the first half of 2019 and that the main macroeconomic indicators remain in a reasonable range.

The statement from the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee also mentioned several other positive factors going for China, such as headway in supply-side structural reforms, relatively full employment, advancement of the targeted poverty alleviation, and improvement in people鈥檚 living standards, as well as the ongoing transition from high-speed growth to high-quality growth. All in all, the statement painted a picture of a country moving forward.

Data also backs up the claim that China is doing well. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China鈥檚 GDP expanded 6.3 percent in the first half of 2019 to about 45.09 trillion yuan. This is still a very high growth rate considering the size of China鈥檚 economy.

These facts are quite different from the picture that Trump has tried to paint. Despite some issues and challenges, China鈥檚 economy, on the whole, is not only doing well, but is resilient enough to withstand the impact of Trump鈥檚 trade war against China.

It is complete and utter nonsense to suggest that the US economy is not facing serious challenges and that China was taken aback by Trump鈥檚 moves.

The Chinese leadership deserve much credit for the good shape of the Chinese economy and for skillfully maneuvering the country. China is a country capable of pushing forward structural reforms, which is needed to boost economic growth. It is also a country that can set long term plans and goals and then implement them. This is an important advantage of Chinese system and an important source of confidence in the Chinese economy.

To the contrary, America鈥檚 political system is dysfunctional. The US economic expansion over the past years was mainly driven by the Fed鈥檚 actions to pump liquidity into the US economy and it has little to do with so-called 鈥淭rumponomics.鈥?Republican tax cuts injected some juice into the economy, but Republicans lost the House in the 2018 midterm elections and it is unlikely that the US government will be able to agree on any major reforms.

The US side should be more realistic about the situation and the state of its own economy. The first rate cut since the Great Recession in 2008 suggests that the Fed is in a sweat about a possible recession spurred by Trump鈥檚 trade wars and slowing global growth and it sends a signal that rough waters are ahead. The facts just do not match Trump鈥檚 fantasy world of an all-powerful America and a desperate China.