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Chinas AI enterprises surge in H1

(Xinhua)08:42, July 13, 2020

BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) — The number of enterprises with business related to artificial intelligence (AI) went up in the first half of the year, data up to Thursday shows.

From January to June, the country saw more than 140,000 newly registered AI enterprises, surging 31.35 percent year on year, data from database query platform Tianyancha.com shows.

More than 880,000 companies in China have businesses in the areas of artificial intelligence, robots, data processing, cloud computing, voice and image recognition and natural language processing, the data shows.

The size of Chinas AI software and application market is expected to reach 12.75 billion U.S. dollars by 2024, according to global market intelligence firm International Data Corporation.

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Beijing 2022 announces shortlist for visual design of uniform equipment

(Xinhua)14:19, August 15, 2020

Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games announced on Friday a shortlist of 10 designs for the visual appearance of Games uniform equipment.

BOCOG has entrusted the China Fashion Association to solicit the visual appearance designs for uniform equipment for the 2022 Winter Games.

A total of 602 proposals came out. After experts initial evaluation, re-evaluation and public evaluation, 10 were shortlisted.

Creators of the shortlisted designs include Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Tsinghua University and Chinas leading sportswear maker Anta.

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Chengdu 2021 Universiade recruits 3,000 key volunteers

(Peoples Daily Online)13:32, August 20, 2020

Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan province has recruited 3,000 key volunteers for the 31st Summer World University Games, or Universiade, from 50,000 applicants in the host city’s 44 colleges and universities.

A total of 50 training courses were offered in five batches for these volunteers. In April, the city launched the first online test for them, with a pass rate of 98 percent.

Wang Tao (1st from right). (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Wang Tao, a sophomore from Chengdu Institute of Sichuan International Studies University, is one of them. With true love for classic Chinese poems, he cherished the opportunity of being a volunteer for the Games and wanted to share Chengdu’s cultural glamour with foreign guests.

“The beauty of Chengdu is not only reflected in classic poems about it, but also all aspects of the city, including scenic spots such as the Wuhou Temple and Kuanzhai Alley Pedestrian Street with rich history and culture,” Wang said.

He expected to feel the charm of international competitions and display what he has learned in the training through volunteering.

Wang felt his responsibilities as a volunteer more keenly, saying that a volunteer shall serve as a bridge between Chengdu and foreign guests to let them understand and like the city.

Su Yujie (right)(Photo provided by the interviewee)

Like Wang, Su Yujie, a junior from Southwest Petroleum University, was also eager to recommend Chengdu to the rest of the world.

“Food can bring people closer in a way nothing else could, and Chengdu is known for its food culture,” Su said, adding that she hoped to recommend Sichuan cuisine to foreign guests.

For Liu Jia, a volunteer from Sichuan Vocational College of Culture Communication, what he wanted to do most is to let visitors feel Chengdu’s vitality.

“Many net users thought that Chengdu is the most livable city in China where people live a carefree and comfortable life, as seniors are seen playing Mahjong and people drinking tea in parks for a whole afternoon,” he said, noting that it’s not the whole picture.

Liu Jia (2nd from left)(Photo provided by the interviewee)

“Chengdu is an emerging city full of vigor and vitality and with expanding urban areas. There will be 18 metro lines in the city,” Liu added.

Chengdu marked the one-year countdown to the Universiade on Tuesday. On July 14, 2019, the city received the Universiade flag from Naples, where the 2018 Summer Universiade took place.

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Olympic sample re-analysis sends positive message to clean athletes, says WADA vice chief Yang

(Xinhua)12:16, August 21, 2020

BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) re-analyzing urine and blood samples from the Olympic Games gives hope for clean athletes and the people who are the real fair players, said World Anti-Doping Agency vice president Yang Yang.

With the eight-year statute of limitations reached in August, the IOCs further re-analysis of 2012 London Olympic Games samples is drawing to a close. In the retests starting from 2015, the IOC confirmed to Xinhua that a total of 65 positive cases have been revealed through the IOC-initiated re-analysis as of April 28 this year, compared to nine anti-doping rule violations during the Games in 2012.

Analysis methods have improved significantly and have become more sensitive in recent years. This, for example, allows for greater detection of long-term metabolites with the result being more cheats are caught, Yang explained the move. Also, the process of selecting samples for re-analysis is now more targeted, based on intelligence and other risk factors.

According to data collected by Olympedia which was obtained by InsidetheGames, the final tally of positive cases from the 2012 Games, is over 100 after doping tests managed by the IOC and the International Federations (IFs) as well as WADA.

London Games chief Sebastian Coe once lamented in 2016 It would be delusional to say the London Games was in the words of many yesterday dirtier than Games before.

Yang, however, believed it proved IOCs move had been effective to expose cheaters and protect clean athletes.

Even it is disappointing to see the number of violations like this, I hope the further analysis of samples over time, as science advances, is a powerful means to protect clean sport, she said. Athletes who have broken the rules know that they could still be caught years later. As such, retrospective analysis is an important tool for catching cheats and a deterrent for those considering it.

In 2019, the IOC approved a budget of up to 5 million US dollars spreading over 10 years, to be allocated in a long-term storage program managed by the International Testing Agency (ITA).

The program will cover the long-term storage for up to 10 years of the samples collected by IFs and National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) ahead of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Potentially, 22,000 samples could be kept within this program.

The long-term storage of samples for re-analysis really gives hopes for clean athletes and the people who are the real fair players, said the former IOC member.

I feel extremely sorry for athletes who did not receive their medals at the time and who missed out on their moment of glory. However, it is still critical that they receive due recognition for their performances, even if it is after the fact, she added.

At WADAs World Conference last year in Katowice, Poland, Polish hammer thrower Anita Wlodarczyk and British javelin thrower Goldie Sayers were awarded their rightful Olympic medals, a gold and a bronze respectively, after their fellow competitors were disqualified following anti-doping rules violations.

Yang said it depends on the collective efforts of the sports world to protect clean athletes.

Of course, it would be much better if cheaters were prevented from competing in the first place and clearly there is a need for the anti-doping community to collectively improve doping control effectiveness further, including in the build-up to major events, she said. When it comes to the Olympic Games, following recommendations from WADA via its Independent Observer reports, this process is now well coordinated through the pre-Games Taskforce funded by the IOC and led by the ITA.

According to Yang, WADA provides general advice and support to the IOC and the ITA as they implement the re-analysis program.

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Survey shows most Japanese companies want Tokyo Olympics canceled or postponed again

(Xinhua)12:18, August 21, 2020

TOKYO, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) — A recent poll shows that more than half of Japanese companies want the Tokyo Olympic Games to be canceled or postponed again.

Japans Kyodo news agency said on Thursday that in the online survey by Tokyo Shoko Research covering 12,857 companies, 27.8 percent want the Tokyo Games to be canceled while 25.8 percent said the sporting event should be postponed again.

That means a combined 53.6 percent of the responding firms are against holding the games from July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021.

The survey, which was conducted between July 28 and Aug. 11, shows that 46.2 percent want the games to go ahead in some way — 22.5 percent are in favor of holding the Olympics as planned, 18.4 percent want it to be held but with fewer spectators and 5.3 percent without any spectators.

Japan is suffering a second wave of COVID-19 infections, with new confirmed cases increased by 1178 in the country and 339 in Tokyo.

Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko is urging residents to take thorough precautions in every aspect of daily life.

Tokyo 2020 organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori has said that the delayed Tokyo Olympics, originally scheduled from July 24 to Aug. 9 this year, could not be held next year if COVID-19 pandemic continues as it is. He also said that the games will have to be canceled if it could not be held next year.

The organizers will start discussing concrete countermeasures against COVID-19 this autumn onwards with the Japanese government and Tokyo Metropolitan government.

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US moves citing security risks against TikTok under fire

(China Daily)08:22, August 03, 2020

With US President Donald Trump proposing a ban on TikTok, critics said the move will not solve security risks, while American values could be challenged if the popular app actually goes dark.

Trump said on Friday that he planned to terminate the videosharing app in the US through presidential authority. Its not clear how he might implement the ban, but following the announcement, Microsoft has reportedly paused negotiations with TikToks Chinese parent company Byte-Dance to buy its US operations.

Were looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things, Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to Florida.

President Trump has said enough and were going to fix it and so he will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News Channel on Sunday.

While the two companies are waiting for clarity from the White House, the TikTok community is pouring out its frustration over the proposed ban and is expressing support for the company on social media. The app has gained more popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as many view it as a source of entertainment and education. Many young TikTok users are so desperate to keep the app around that they launched a movement called saveTikTok on social media.

TikTok star Griffin Johnson tweeted on Saturday that it had given him a lot of friends memories that I will forever be thankful for.

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer said in a blog post on Wednesday that the reason his company was under scrutiny was because of its Chinese origins.

Heather Evans, director of Frontier Technology Research at Asia Society Northern California, said the proposed ban didnt come as a big surprise as theres a lot of distrust and uncertainty about this popular app, which is largely due to TikToks parent company being based on the Chinese mainland.

She noted that TikTok is actually a global app, it has recently recruited Mayer, a former Disney executive, as its CEO and the headquarters of ByteDance are in London.

Evans said the scrutiny should be seen in the context of the rhetoric on US-China decoupling. In this context, it appears in order for TikTok to be able to continue to operate and serve the 100 million active American users, it needs to be decoupled from its parent company based in China. We are looking at a traffic light right now, she said.

Under the grand framework of China-US strategic gaming, the rise of TikTok is symbolic of the challenge to US dominance in information technology, said Shen Yi, professor and director of the Research Institution of Global Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University in Shanghai.

A Chinese company has managed to create a dynamic videosharing ecosystem, by out-rivaling the likes of Facebook in a realm that has arguably the highest monetization potential, he said. This is likely to cause fury in the White House.

Shen said TikToks success, especially its popularity among the younger generation of American users, stands to showcase the reality of China to local audiences and could help destroy the evil China image that the Trump administration has long been fabricating. This is a fight for supremacy over discourse and ideology.

Besides, Shen said, anti-Trump voices are also giving the US president some personal incentive to ban the app. Every move he takes now is serving his bid to be reelected.

From a business perspective, Shen said the incident might propel companies expanding overseas to find a truly neutral third-party as an avenue for registration. It also calls for new international rules for cyberspace governance that are transparent.

Chen Zilei, director of the Japanese Economy Research Center at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, agreed, saying the emerging IT sector is in dire need of international regulation.

Countries including the US and India have been taking on Chinas IT players frequently, citing national security concerns. But this highlights the lack of widely acceptable international rules on service trade industries, especially in emerging industries.

Niu Xinchun, a researcher at the China Institute of Modern International Relations, said banning TikTok would have quite a negative effect on the US itself. First, it would increase distrust and uncertainty in cooperation between China and the US. Second, it would also reduce the markets confidence in the US and damage its own interests.

To counter the claims that Beijing might access the user information or influence content on the platform, TikTok has announced measures including opening up its algorithms and moderation policies, so outsiders can access the algorithms it uses to sort and share users videos.

ByteDance has reportedly offered to sell the US operations of TikTok to stop the Trump administration from banning the app. Microsoft is among the potential buyers it has talked to.

Although Trump apparently preferred to ban the app entirely, saying, As far as TikTok is concerned were banning them from the United States, there are divisions within the White House about the appropriate course of action, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

One of the fears is a public backlash if the administration bans the app. Among those who have raised concerns about a ban of TikTok is the American Civil Liberties Union.

Banning an app like TikTok, which millions of Americans use to communicate with each other, is a danger to free expression and technologically impractical, said the ACLU.

Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center, shared a similar concern in an article. She said banning TikTok would paradoxically contribute to the erosion of online freedom and openness, while doing little to address the underlying security issues.

Doubts over potential risk

As to TikToks potential risk to national security, cybersecurity experts argued that this is largely theoretical and that there is no evidence to support the Trump administrations claims.

James Lewis, senior vice-president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNN that he doubted TikTok was a good intelligence tool for China, as there are far more effective alternatives when it comes to obtaining privileged information.

Videos of lip syncing and dancing are of limited strategic use even for what the Trump administration brands as an adversary government, said Sacks.

TikTok is the latest Chinese tech company to be targeted by the Trump administration. It has previously raised similar national security concerns about Huawei and ZTE.

Last week, the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved a bill to ban the app on government-issued devices. The Pentagon has advised employees to remove it from their phones. The US Navy and the Army also have banned the app on government-issued phones.

Sacks likened the administrations move to playing a game of whack-a-mole against a rotating cast of Chinese tech companies.

The US would be wise to spend more time developing legislation and standards for how all companies, regardless of country of origin, protect online privacy and secure data, she said.

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Major north China port switches to BeiDou navigation system

(Xinhua)09:02, August 03, 2020

Qinhuangdao Port, a leading coal port in north China, has successfully switched all its public navigation aids to Chinas BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).

The ports navigation support capability has significantly improved with the BDS, which was officially commissioned Friday with the formal opening of the newly completed BDS-3 system for global users, according to the Qinhuangdao navigation aids department of the Navigation Guarantee Center of North China Sea (NGCN), the Ministry of Transport.

Among all the navigation tools, the 120-year-old Nanshantou beacon has performed more efficiently with the new navigation system.

The operation status of the lighthouse was on display in real-time, so were its communication records. The new system automatically examines and reports any failure before raising the alarm, said Ao Zidong, a maintenance staff with the Qinhuangdao navigation aids department. For years, they had to climb atop the beacon to check when the old system raised the alarm.

The unique text messaging function of BDS enables our users to communicate when there is no communication base station or mobile phone signal on the sea, he said.

The Nanshantou beacons newly replaced lamps were developed with the BeiDou technology, which has increased its maximum range from 20 nautical miles to 27 nautical miles.

BDS is one of four global navigation-satellite systems in the world. The other three are GPS of the United States, Galileo of the European Union, and GLONASS of Russia.

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BioNTech, Pfizer receive FDA fast track designation for two COVID-19 vaccine candidates

(Xinhua)08:45, July 14, 2020

BERLIN, July 13 (Xinhua) — German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and U.S. company Pfizer received fast track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for two potential vaccines against COVID-19, the two companies announced on Monday.

Fast track is a process designed to speed up the development and review of drugs to treat serious conditions. According to the FDA, the purpose is to get important new drugs to the patient earlier.

The two vaccine candidates were the most advanced out of four investigational vaccine candidates and were currently tested in clinical studies in the U.S. and Germany, the companies announced in a joint statement.

We look forward to working closely with the FDA, along with our partner Pfizer, to expedite the clinical development path forward, said Oezlem Tuereci, chief medical officer at BioNTech.

At the beginning of July, BioNtech and Pfizer presented initial results for a COVID-19 vaccine. The companies noted that the results were encouraging.

The FDAs decision would signify an important milestone in the efforts to develop a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, said Peter Honig, senior vice president, global regulatory affairs, Pfizer.

Subject to regulatory approval, the two companies are expecting to start the next phases of the trial with up to 30,000 participants later this month.

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Merkel says rethink needed if U.S. waves goodbye to global role

(CGTN)11:05, June 28, 2020

During a recent interview with a group of six European newspapers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Europe needs to reassess its relationship with the United States if the U.S. is not willing to shoulder its responsibilities as a global power.

Analysts see it as a sign of a reversal in the U.S. relations with its traditional European allies such as Germany.

We grew up in the certain knowledge that the United States wanted to be a world power, the German chancellor said. Should the U.S. now wish to withdraw from that role of its own free will, we would have to reflect on that very deeply.

U.S. President Donald Trump has had testy relations with Merkel in the past.

The U.S. president said on June 15 that he will halve the number of U.S. troops in Germany because Berlin is delinquent in contributions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and treats the United States badly on trade.

In the interview, Merkel said the U.S. military presence in central Europe was in the U.S. own interest.

American troops in Germany help to protect not only Germany and the European part of NATO but also the interests of the United States of America, the chancellor said.

Talking of Germanys military spending, Merkel said: We in Germany know that we have to spend more on defense; we have achieved considerable increases in recent years, and we will continue on that path to enhance our military capabilities.

Merkel has refused Trumps invitation for a proposed G7 summit in Washington, saying that her personal participation cannot be ensured because of the pandemic situation.

Meanwhile, Merkel also mentioned relations with the UK, saying that it will have to live with the consequences of Boris Johnson ditching Theresa Mays plan to maintain close economic ties with the EU after Brexit.

We need to let go of the idea that it is for us to define what Britain should want, Merkel said, adding that it is for Britain to define and the EU27 will respond appropriately.

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Floridas coronavirus crisis deepens as state shatters daily case record

(CGTN)14:15, June 28, 2020

Florida and four other states recorded daily highs for cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, highlighting the worsening spread of the coronavirus in parts of the U.S. South and West, prompting some officials to roll back their reopening plans.

Florida on Saturday morning reported 9,585 new infections in the last 24 hours, a record for a second day, while Arizona recorded 3,591 new cases of COVID-19, matching its prior record on Tuesday.

Nevada disclosed 1,099 cases, double its previous record, while South Carolina and Georgia reported 1,604 and 1,990 new infections, respectively, also marking new daily highs.

The surge in cases has been most pronounced in a handful of Southern and Western states that reopened earlier and more aggressively, serving as a warning to the potentially illusory nature of any perceived progress in controlling the virus.

So far, there are more than 2.5 million confirmed cases in the U.S. and over 125,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, the highest known death toll in the world.

On Friday, as the United States recorded its largest daily increase in cases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, said the governments current strategy for finding and isolating infected people was not working, partly due to significant asymptomatic spread.

The worsening contagion in some parts of the United States has created a split-screen effect, with New York and its neighboring Northeastern states, which were hit hardest initially, reporting declining cases and forging ahead with reopening plans.

Kami Kim, director of the Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine at the University of South Florida, said her states leaders claimed victory too soon after lockdowns were lifted starting in early May, while giving off conflicting messages on face coverings by not wearing masks themselves.

It was just complete denial by a huge swath of the politicians, she said, predicting that the state may need to shut down again. Unfortunately, our community still isnt taking it very seriously. People arent wearing masks.

In a reversal of his early moves to relax restrictions, Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday ordered bars across the state to close and required restaurants to limit indoor seating, acknowledging that in hindsight he had opened bars too soon.

Esmeralda Moya, the mayor of Galena Park, Texas, a community of 10,000 people east of Houston, instituted an overnight curfew starting on Saturday night at 10 p.m. Moya said she was acting after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Friday raised a health warning system for the county to its highest possible threat level, a sign people should shelter at home.

Florida, another state that reopened its economy relatively quickly, told bar owners on Friday to immediately stop serving alcohol on their premises.

Yet despite skyrocketing case numbers, both Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have not bowed to pressure to issue statewide mandates on wearing masks, opting to leave that decision to local municipalities. Both Abbott and DeSantis are Republican, the same party as President Donald Trump.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College in Houston, said he fears that daily cases in the Houston area could more than triple to 4,000 by mid-July, making it the main global hot spot by then.

We need to implement more aggressive social distancing measures now, the renowned vaccine scientist said.

At a briefing on Friday, DeSantis blamed the spike in infections on young people interacting more in the last few weeks, adding that they faced a lower risk of dying than older people. Lending support to that view, Florida on Saturday reported 24 additional deaths, well off peaks in April when the elderly made up a larger proportion of cases.

But DeSantis also acknowledged that those young people, even if they dont become hospitalized themselves, could transmit the virus to the elderly or people with conditions like diabetes which make them susceptible to severe outcomes with COVID-19.

Earlier this week, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut imposed a 14-day mandatory quarantine on travelers from states with high infection rates like Florida, where some 13 percent of those tested on Friday came back positive.

In a disclosure meant to highlight that risk, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a news release on Saturday saying he had ordered health officials to investigate an outbreak tied to a drive-in high school graduation ceremony in Chappaqua, New York.

One of the attendees at the ceremony had recently traveled to Florida and subsequently tested positive, Cuomo said in the release. Since then, an additional four individuals also at the ceremony tested positive and are self-isolating, he said.