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Shaanxi marks one year countdown to Chinas 14th National Games

(Xinhua)09:31, September 16, 2020

XIAN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) — Northwest Chinas Shaanxi province marked the one year countdown to the 14th National Games with a ceremony gala on Tuesday.

The ceremony was held in the gymnasium of the Xian Olympic sports center. As a host city of the major events, Xian will spare no efforts in organizing each activity. We will make great memories and try our best to hold the 14th National Games without any problems, said Wang Hao, the vice president of the events organizing committee.

The emblem and mascot of the 11th Chinas National Games for Persons with Disabilities the 8th China National Special Olympic Games were unveiled at the gala.

The circle-like emblem Tai He stands for universal peace and harmony, showcasing the ancient Chinese philosophy of appreciating the beauty of all civilizations. The mascot An An is a terracotta girl of Chinas Tang Dynasty (618 A.D- 907 A.D) playing polo, demonstrating the optimism and perseverance of persons with disabilities.

In the gala, Shaanxi announced five image ambassadors of the major tournaments. Olympic diving champion Qin Kai is in the list. Besides him, Chinese famous actress Yan Ni, anti-pandemic hero Han Jianfeng, Tai Chi player Wu Yanan and swimming coach Liu Nan are in the roster.

According to the organizers media release on September 11, 14th China National Games is scheduled to be held between Sept. 15 and 27 in 2021 and the 11th China National Games for Persons with Disabilities the 8th China National Special Olympic Games will be held between Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, 2021. All of the events are to be held in Shaanxi province.

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OCA Coordination Committee praises Hangzhou 2022 progress

(Xinhua)12:51, September 09, 2020

HANGZHOU, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Coordination Committee for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou praised the progress made by the Chinese organizers with the Games set to mark its two-year countdown on Thursday.

The OCA is very happy with the excellent progress and achievements of HAGOC. Time is short, the challenge is huge but we are confident that we will make it the best Asian Games in history and the best model for multi-sport events in the world, OCA director General Husain Al-Musallam said on Tuesday during the third Coordination Committee virtual meeting joined by representatives from the OCA and the HAGOC.

The HAGOC submitted at the meeting the first proposal for events under the 40 confirmed sports and Games schedule, and reported on technical representative appointments, anti-doping and medical care, venues and athlete villages, marketing and promotion for the Games among other related issues. The modalities for the participation of Oceania athletes, who will join the Asiad for an historic first time, was also discussed.

Under the support of the OCA and the guidance from the General Administration of Sport of China, we are confident to present the world an Asian Games that has Chinese grandeur, Zhejiang style, Hangzhou flavor and is shared by all, vowed Chen Weiqiang, Vice Mayor of Hangzhou and Deputy Secretary General of HAGOC.

According to the organizers, the construction of the 53 competition venues and athlete villages are on schedule despite the impact brought by the pandemic and the majority of the venues are expected to be finished by March 2021.

The Chairman of the Coordination Committee, OCA Life Vice President Raja Randhir Singh expressed his confidence in Hangzhou 2022: There is no doubt in my mind that we will have a great Asian Games – one of the finest we have had. The way the organizing committee is working and the way we are cooperating together, even though we cannot visit Hangzhou at this moment, is a very positive sign for the future.

The 19th Asian Games will be held from September 10-25, 2022 in Hangzhou, and will be the third Asian Games to take place in China following Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

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Roar emotion as Wuhan fans return to the stands

(China Daily)15:42, September 09, 2020

Fans of Chinese Super League club Wuhan Zall roar on their team during Sundays 2-2 draw with Beijing Guoan. The banner reads:Wuhan fans thank the people from around the nation. XINHUA

The cheers and tears told the story of just how much a return to the stands meant for fans of Wuhan Zall on Sunday.

After a 280-day hiatus, a select group of 300 Zall supporters attended their first Chinese Super League match since Wuhan emerged as the epicenter of the countrys coronavirus outbreak. A come-from-behind 2-2 draw against Beijing Guoan capped an emotional evening for Zall fans at Suzhou Olympic Sports Center.

When the CSL called to inform us the Wuhan fans could come, we were all just thrilled. The last time we appeared in the stands was last December, Wu Si, the clubs fan liaison director, told China Daily.

The match was on Sunday and people need to work on Monday. Also we needed people to take a nucleic acid test, so we thought not many people could come as it was too problematic. But all of our fans were so enthusiastic and most wanted to come.

However, getting the green light to enter the stadium was not so straightforward. As part of the CSLs strict virus-control measures, fans needed a negative nucleic acid test result for COVID-19 within seven days of the game, as well as checks on their body temperature and health QR codes, which show their 14-day travel history.

The CSL helped us through the process so our fans want to thank them, Wu said. The second we entered the stadium, we got the same old feeling back. Throughout the match we did not stop cheering. We wished to give our players a home-team atmosphere. That was a release of passion that could be seen by all the players and TV audiences.

The CSLs delayed 2020 season kicked off in late July behind closed doors after a long postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 16 teams are split into two groups in the host cities of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and Dalian, Liaoning province, where players are under strict lockdown with no interaction allowed with the outside world.

With the epidemic now under control in China, the CSL has begun to allow limited number of spectators to attend games, beginning with Shanghai SIPGs 2-1 victory over Guoan on Aug 22 when about 2,000 seats were made available for fans and medical workers who fought on the frontline against the coronavirus.

Those tough times are still fresh in the memory for Wuhan fans, who on Sunday thanked their Guoan rivals for making donations to the COVID-19 fight with gifts, including an array of local Hubei province snacks. Banners inside the stadium also showed their gratitude to Jiangsu provinces medical workers who worked on the frontline of the crisis in Wuhan.

When the outbreak started, the Guoan fan group contacted us asking if they can do anything to help the people in Wuhan, said Wu. We were so touched and I think that even went beyond the spirit of sports. Then, the Beijing fans started to wear shirts with the slogan Stay Strong Wuhan to cheer us, which gave us confidence back at that time.

We remember all of these things. So we hope the gifts express our thanks to Beijing fans. I hope in the future we can maintain this good atmosphere.

Soccers shutdown by the pandemic had been tough on all CSL clubs, but especially so for Zall.

Stuck in Spain since January due to the lockdown of Wuhan, the team finally touched down on Chinese soil again on March 16. During their 44-day training stint in Spain, players and coaches were burdened by worries about the health of family and friends back home.

Now, after enduring medical quarantines and an elongated pre-season period, Zall have made a fine start to the campaign with five wins from nine games. Sundays 2-2 draw leaves it third in Group B behind Guoan and leader SIPG.

It looked like Zall fans might leave the stadium in disappointment after Guoan led 2-0 at the interval. However, a spirited second-half comeback earned Zall a point, and Wuhan striker Dong Xuesheng was in no doubt the noise from the stands played a part.

The deafening sound of the fans cheering encouraged us a lot. As a new member of this team, I can feel the cohesion and the spirit of not giving up easily for our team, said Dong.

I felt steeled by this atmosphere. I hope we can repay our fans with better performances in the future.

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Winter sports economy gains momentum amid epidemic control

(Xinhua)10:39, September 10, 2020

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — With China effectively containing the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, winter sports are leading the recovery and their untapped potential has drawn widespread attention at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) held in Beijing.

More than 300 overseas winter sports companies and goods manufacturers, as well as over 100 international sports organizations and foreign representatives in the industry gathered to discuss the winter sports economy.

Experts reached a consensus during the panel discussions that Chinas winter sports sector has become a new link that brings the countrys service trade in sports closer to its foreign counterparts in spite of the pandemic.

Chinas winter sports industry has maintained an annual growth of 15 percent over recent years, and winter sports venues across the country saw more than 23.45 million consumers in 2019, said Zhang Li, vice-president of the China branch of IDG Capital, at a CIFTIS forum.

Zhang said the industry was struck by the outbreak of COVID-19, followed by the nationwide closure of more than 1,100 ski resorts and ice rinks, but as the situation improves, related sports centers gradually recovered and ultimately thrived.

A winter sports center that started business in June in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, for example, welcomed 300,000 customers on the first day of opening, said Zhang.

It is estimated that the size of Chinas winter sports sector will expand to 800 billion yuan (about 117 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022 and the total industrial scale will reach 1 trillion yuan by 2025, said Li Yingchuan, vice director of the General Administration of Sport of China and vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

The profitable sector also appeals to worldwide business players. Austrian ropeway manufacturer Dopplemayr exhibited its newly developed ropeway system and cabins during this years CIFTIS. As one of the worlds first ropeway research and development companies, Dopplemayr has constructed around 15,000 ropeways across the globe.

In the past three days, our booth has been crowded with visitors who are interested in our products and service, said Li Yanqiu, CEO of Sanhe Dopplemayr Transport Systems Co., Ltd., at a parallel forum.

The company set up its Asian headquarters and production base in north Chinas Hebei Province as China is an attractive market, said Li.

A large number of major overseas operators are introducing leading management skills and ski equipment manufacturing techniques into the Chinese market to meet the diversified demand of customers and help complete the industrial chain, said Yu Yang, president of Beijing Carving Ski Sports Development Corp., at the parallel forum.

Meanwhile, domestic players are driving the industry so that a new development pattern known as dual circulation will be formed, Yu said.

Social capital continues to flow into the property market, tourist projects and cultural performances near winter sports venues, which has expanded the winter sports service trade and ensures the sustainable development of the venues, Yu added.

As China pledges to build its capital city of Beijing into a demonstration zone that will deepen its opening up of the service industry, the winter sports service trade will inject new energy into the development of global exchanges.

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China at forefront of sci-tech human resources with rising proportion of women

(Xinhua)16:36, August 13, 2020

China remains at the forefront globally in terms of the quantity of sci-tech human resource personnel with more female postgraduates, a new report by China Association for Science and Technology showed.

The country has more than 101.5 million people working in the field of science and technology by the end of 2018. Higher education is still the most important way to train sci-tech personnel, according to the report.

Among the newly added sci-tech professionals from 2016 to 2017, it was observed that the higher the educational level, the greater the proportion of women. In particular, women accounted for more than 50 percent at the postgraduate level, the report added.

Besides, from 2016 to 2017, China saw a faster growth rate of female sci-tech human resources than that of the countrys total sci-tech human resources.

The report predicted the number and proportion of Chinas women sci-tech human resources to further increase in the future.

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Chinas radiation cancer therapy facility starts cell, animal tests

(Xinhua)09:33, August 14, 2020

Chinese scientists announced on Thursday that they have started cell and animal tests for the countrys first indigenously-developed boron neutron capture therapy facility (BNCT), before applying the technology on cancer patients.

The accelerator-based BNCT experimental facility passed evaluation by experts on Thursday, said its developer, the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

BNCT is recognized as a cutting-edge technique for cancer treatment. Using neutron beams, it delivers cancer-killing power concentrated on boron compound-bearing tumors with minimal harm to surrounding healthy tissue.

According to Liang Tianjiao, deputy director of the institutes Dongguan branch, radiation therapy starts by injecting the patient with a boron-containing drug that can accumulate in cancer cells. The patient is then irradiated with a neutron beam for less than an hour. When the boron in the cancer cells is hit by the neutron beam, the resulting nuclear capture and fission reactions produce high-energy alpha particles and lithium nuclei, which can destroy cancer cells with high accuracy.

Both alpha particles and lithium nuclei have a very short impact range, just one-cell long, so they will not damage neighboring tissue while killing the cancerous cells, said Liang.

Liang added that BNCT is an effective treatment for head and neck tumors, and can also potentially treat liver, lung and pancreatic cancers.

Compared with traditional methods of radiation, BNCT does not lead to huge economic burden, enabling patients to maintain a high quality of life after treatment, Liang said.

In March, the worlds first accelerator-based BNCT facility and boron-containing drug were approved and entered clinical trials in Japan.

Accelerator technology from the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS), a large scientific facility located in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, has been key to the development of the countrys indigenously-developed BNCT facility.

Fu Shinian, deputy manager of CSNS, said neutron beams for BNCT in past decades were generated by nuclear reactors, which slowed its development. Since the CSNS project was completed in 2018, institute scientists have used CSNS accelerators to produce neutron beams, making BNCT easier and widely available in hospitals.

Scientists will continue to optimize the accelerator-based BNCT facility and plan to carry out clinical trials soon, according to its developer.

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China seeks payload ideas for mission to moon, asteroid

(Xinhua)08:48, August 07, 2020

China is soliciting ideas for payloads aboard its proposed missions to the moon, an asteroid and a comet, according to the China National Space Administration.

It is asking for primary, middle school and university students across the country to provide ideas for payloads that would fly aboard the Change-7 probe to the moon, and on another spacecraft to the asteroid 2016HO3 and the comet 133P.

The solicitation aims to arouse students interest in science and inspire them to explore the universe, said the administration.

The space administration, together with six organizations including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, issued a notice about the solicitation in late July.

The solicitation remains open until Oct. 31. Students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are also welcome to offer ideas.

Winners will be awarded with prize money and invited to witness on-site spacecraft launches, according to the notice.

In 2019, administration officials announced the Change-7 mission plan, which will carry out surveys around the South Pole of the moon, including studying terrain and landform, physical composition, as well as the space environment in the region.

The asteroid mission was also unveiled last year. According to previous reports, China will send a probe to fly around the asteroid 2016HO3 and then land on it to collect samples. The probe will then fly back to the proximity of Earth, and release a capsule to return the samples. After that, the probe will continue its journey. With the assistance of the gravity of Earth and Mars, it will finally arrive at the main asteroid belt and orbit comet 133P.

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China poised to power huge growth in global offshore wind energy report

(Xinhua)08:49, August 07, 2020

The worlds offshore windfarm capacity could grow eightfold by the end of the decade powered by a clean energy surge led by China, according to the latest report from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

There will be stronger than expected growth for the offshore wind industry, which could reach 234 GW by 2030, from a global tally of just over 29 GW at the end of last year, said the report.

The council revised its forecasts up by 15 GW in its latest annual report on offshore wind power after the fastest ever growth in 2019, when new wind farms around the world added an extra 6.1 GW to the global tally.

Ben Backwell, chief executive at the GWEC, said offshore wind was truly going global as governments around the world recognize the role that the technology can play in kickstarting post-COVID economic recovery.

The report found that 2019 was the best year on record for offshore wind, with 6.1 GW of new capacity added globally, bringing total global cumulative installations to 29.1 GW. China remains in the number one spot for the second year in a row for new installations, installing a record 2.4 GW, followed by Britain at 1.8 GW and Germany at 1.1 GW.

Britain held the top spot for the largest market for offshore wind at the end of last year with 9.7 GW in operation, followed by Germany with 7.5 GW and China with 6.8 GW.

The report highlights increased activity level in the Asia-Pacific region thanks to increased national ambition, led by China where 52 GW of new offshore wind capacity is expected to be installed by 2030.

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China to boost smart infrastructure in transport sector

(Xinhua)08:51, August 07, 2020

China will promote the construction of new infrastructure projects in the transport industry, aiming to advance the sectors transformation toward digitalization and intelligence, according to a guideline issued by the Ministry of Transport on Thursday.

By 2035, China aims to achieve remarkable results in the field, with advanced information technology playing a key role in empowering transport infrastructure, the document said.

The country will set up data centers and network security systems for the sector, while gradually promoting the application of smart trains, self-driving vehicles, and smart ships.

Vowing to expand the application of new energy and new materials, the guideline also put forward building smart roads, intelligent railways, smart ports, and civil aviation, among others.

By using blockchain technology, China will intensify whole-chain oversight on electronic documents, online businesses, and hazardous substances, according to the guideline.

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Closing the door to talent will cost jobs and hurt competitiveness US expert

By WeiDeng (Peoples Daily Online)18:02, July 01, 2020

San Francisco, June 24 (People’s Daily Online) — Closing the door to talent will cost jobs and hurt US competitiveness, Sean Randolph, Senior Director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, said on Tuesday.

Sean Randolph

In an exclusive interview with People’s Daily Online west USA, Randolph warned that the Trump administration’s plan to suspend the issuance of H-1B and other temporary visas through the end of 2020 is a direct challenge to the business model that has made Silicon Valley and other U.S. technology centers successful, a model that underpins America’s economic and technological leadership.

Randolph said that Silicon Valley is built on talent, much of it coming from around the world. The ability to attract the best trained and most creative people is a large part of the explanation for why its economy has excelled. While the short-term impacts of this new policy will be limited (the executive order does not apply to visa holders already in the country), restricting flows of talent to the U.S. will come at significant long term cost to competitiveness and to Americans whether or not they work in tech.

The National Foundation for American Policy, after examining data for 91 unicorns (new companies valued at $1 billion or more), found that 50 of them have at least one immigrant founder (the many Bay Area examples include Tesla, Slack and Uber). Their collective value at the time the research was conducted was $248 billion, and on average they had created 1,200 jobs per company, the vast majority in the U.S. Tellingly, 33 of those companies are headquartered in California.

The contributions of innovative immigrants extend beyond founders: 75 of the 91 companies surveyed (82%) had at least one immigrant filling key management or product development roles, the most common being CEO, CTO of Vice President for Engineering.

The Bay Area

Other research carried out by the Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation finds that immigrants are twice as likely as native born citizens to become entrepreneurs. “We see this in the Bay Area every day, where 40-45% of startups are led by entrepreneurs who came from other countries,” said Randolph.

“The implication is clear,” Randolph said, pointing out that fewer immigrants means fewer startups, and losing those startups means fewer new companies and fewer jobs.

According to Randolph, H-1Bs are used by both tech and non-tech companies to fill jobs where the needed skills are unique or not available locally. The numbers aren’t large but are strategic, he stressed, adding that in many cases, visa holders go on to win green cards or permanent residency, which enables them to contribute to the U.S. economy in the long term.

“So this isn’t just about temporary workers – it’s about innovation and long-term talent flows.”

Randolph listed several other implications for shutting the door: educated immigrants who are denied entry to the U.S. are welcomed by countries with which we compete and may choose to go there instead, or they may choose to stay home to start their own companies. If Silicon Valley or other companies can’t find the skills they need when they need them, he said, the odds increase that more high-skilled jobs and functions will leave the U.S. for other countries such as Canada, which welcomes immigrants and where educated workers with advanced skills are readily available.

Universities that rely heavily on foreign students to fill their graduate departments in fields such as engineering and computer science are also vulnerable if potential applicants believe they have no opportunity to work in the U.S. following graduation.

It has been reported that other visas will also be suspended – H-2Bs for seasonal workers (for example at summer resorts where local workers are in short supply), L visas that apply to intra-company transfers, and J visas that enable work-study summer programs for students. All are forms of legal immigration that fill unmet needs and create opportunity.

“Using the coronavirus as an excuse to pull up the drawbridge will not fill critical needs or create new jobs. It will, on the other hand, undercut the flow of talent that has made America truly great. Businesses and citizens groups should push back,” Randolph noted.