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Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Global connection, disconnection, reconnection

In four separate speeches, Secretary of State Pompeo (pic), Attorney General Barr, National Security Adviser O’Brien and FBI Director Wray laid out their case for containing China. But do the US Gang of Four’s analyses of containment of China make global sense?
https://youtu.be/DPt-zXn05ac

This is the age of disconnection. What Covid-19 has done is to show up all the flaws of global connectivity.

The virus travels with human beings and forces us to have periodic lockdowns that disconnects the transmission, buying time to bring it under control. Commenting on the pandemic, US Foreign Affairs magazine laments not only the US failure to prepare, but also the failure to contain: “what is killing us is not connection, it is connection without cooperation.” Touché!

Globalisation was the great connector, created by the unipolar order which saw free trade as beneficial not just to the world, but mostly to itself. But the shift to a multi-polar order made America insecure and everyone else unsure.

A wounded Alpha is always dangerous, emotionally hurt and lashing out on perceived rivals. China as number two falls into that category.

In four separate speeches, Secretary of State Pompeo, Attorney General Barr, National Security Adviser O’Brien and FBI Director Wray laid out their case for containing China. But do the US Gang of Four’s analyses of containment of China make global sense?

Beating the drums of war, decoupling trade and splintering the Internet into a “Clean Net” may sound great for domestic politics, but no one in their right mind can support a nuclear arms race in the midst of a growing global pandemic and possibly the worst economic depression since the 1930s.

The global free trade bargain is very simple - free trade is win-win for all trading partners, but each country must deal with the unequal distribution of trade benefits within its own borders - all about domestic politics.

Disconnecting global trade and free flow of information only increases costs for all, reducing the resources to deal with domestic inequalities.Worse, any arms race is lose-lose for all, diverting scarce resources from fighting pandemics, climate warming and domestic injustices.

History is the best guide to understanding how we got into the mess today.

The story on US politics and economics is well told, but the China story is often undertold. Because of China’s rapid growth from poverty to world number two in 40 years, most historians are still at a loss to explain what this implies for the world as a whole. NUS East Asia Institute Professor Wang Gungwu in his marvelous new book: “China Reconnects (2019)” has given us a clear and easily readable sweep of China’s history and her search to reconnect with the outside world.

Professor Wang has condensed global history into three key centres of power: Mediterranean, India and China.

In 1500, China and India accounted for 48.6% of world population and 49.2% of world GDP (OECD). The Mediterranean powers (broadly including all Western Europe and West Asia) amounted to 17.1% and 22% of population and GDP respectively.

But it was naval power, science and technology that enabled the Western swerve to global dominance, so by 1950, China and India together accounted for 16.3% of world GDP, but 35.9% of the population. Western Europe and USA plus Western offshoots accounted for 19.1% of global population, but 56.8% of world GDP.

This neglect of maritime power caused India to be colonized by the 18th century, and China nearly gobbled up by the 19th century.

China’s engagement with the world was mostly through the Silk Road, with Indian Buddhism being the major foreign cultural influence on China. The Silk Road flourished during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), but the Mongol empire in the 13th-14th century connected China not only to Europe, but also to Mughal India.

However, the arrival of Western traders through South-East Asia after 1500 accelerated China’s trade with the West (including cross-Pacific trade with Latin America through Manila). Only in the 20th century did China begin to appreciate that the key instruments of Western power came from maritime power and ability to enforce international law.

In Chapter 2 of “Behind the Dream, ” Professor Wang skillfully weaves the story of post-dynastic China, when Chinese intellectuals struggled to understand modernity. It was the Japanese invasion that sparked Chinese nationalism, culminating in the civil war that enabled the Communists to unite the country with the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

The story of Chairman Mao, Deng Xiaoping and the policy choices of President Xi Jinping is told with verve and deep insight, without the usual Western baggage of seeing personalities in black and white.

China’s admiration for the West is defined in Chinese names for the leading powers – heroic England, beautiful America, legal France and virtuous Germany. Hence, the reforms in the last 40 years were all about reconnecting to the West through trade, investment, technology and people. But as China became deeply entangled in globalisation as the world’s largest manufacturer and trading partner, there grew an internal awareness that continued development would have to rely on internal stability and order, as well as external security. Stability was premised on a strong Party, and as Professor Wang put it, “the country’s integrity rests on the capacity to defend its borders even from the world’s sole superpower.”

Professor Wang goes deep into Chinese philosophy and political history to find China’s roots into the new world order.

The book’s real contribution is in explaining China’s shift from the Old World to the New Global. Here, China’s interaction with the South, especially with the Association of Southeast Asian (Asean) countries, will play crucially in the next phase of development of the New Global.

Asean comprises 600 million people and over US$2.5 trillion in GDP, with great cultural diversity, natural resources and a strategic zone that holds the key to global trade between the West, South Asia, China and Northeast Asia. The South China Sea cannot afford to be balkanized because it was Great Power struggles that made the Balkans an unstable region for Europe and the Near East for over a century.

As the US tries to disconnect, China Reconnects is a tour-de-force for us to understand current developments from the lens of philosophy and history. Professor Wang writes with eye-popping clarity, dosed with empathy, to guide us through the fog of uncertainty. Unfortunately, reconnection takes two to play. Whether the next US President will attempt to connect or disconnect will be the question of the century.

Andrew Sheng is a Distinguished Fellow of Fung Global Institute, a global think tank based in Hong Kong.The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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Thursday, August 13, 2020

Health experts doubt Russia vaccine, as China likely to take lead along Russia in accelerated global vaccine race: experts

https://youtu.be/SHi2RjWP_zo

https://youtu.be/-XW9_1fXmKE

A handout photo provided by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) shows samples of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, in Moscow, Russia August 6, 2020. Picture taken August 6, 2020.

PETALING JAYA: The announcement of a Covid-19 vaccine in Russia – dubbed Sputnik V – that will help end the pandemic soon is still a “distant reality”, say local public health experts.

Russia announced on Tuesday it will approve a Covid-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing and hopes to begin production in September with plans to vaccinate its medical staff immediately afterwards.

The approval was made before a phase three trial which would involve thousands of participants and considered essential before regulatory approval is made.

Public health expert Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar criticised the approval of the Covid-19 vaccine in Russia as non-ethical for its lack of full clinical trials and scientific data.

“The scientific community is worried as basically, a vaccine will need to undergo full clinical trials to identify its efficacy and side effects.

“So, it is premature for Russia to be releasing the vaccine now without conducting large-scale trials that would produce data to show whether it works, ” he said.

Public health medicine specialist of Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, Associate Professor Dr Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki said for any available vaccines, the effectiveness of the vaccine needs to be evaluated before it can be considered.

“With any new vaccine, there will be a committee to discuss and decide on the evidence of whether the vaccine works or not, ” she said.

The head of the Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Practice noted that any risk or benefit will be balanced before a vaccine is approved, such as whether the tested population is similar to Malaysia’s community and the kind of resources needed to implement the vaccine.

Dr Zainal, who is Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president, cited an example of a dengue vaccination which was approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO). But even then, it was later found to have caused a lot of deaths and />complications.

“Luckily after evaluation, we did not implement the use of the dengue vaccination for our country.

“That is why the scientific and medical community is very cautious of approving a vaccine for the community because we don’t want to be wrong for using a premature product, ” he said.

Dr Zainal expects a vaccine to be made available in the country only by the middle or end of 2021.

“Any vaccine will help the situation later on. But at the moment, we don’t have the capability of developing new vaccines. But we can be involved in any trials or collaborate with international agencies for trial purposes, ” he said.

Indonesia said on Tuesday it would launch a Phase 3 human trials of a vaccine candidate from China’s Sinovac Biotech.

According to the WHO, there are currently 139 vaccines in development and 26 have been undergoing human trials since July 31. Out of the 165 vaccines, six are reaching Phase 3, which is the last step before regulatory approval and will involve large numbers of human testing.

Sinovac’s vaccine, named CoronaVac, is already being tested on 9,000 Brazilian health workers.

Malaysian Medical Association president Dr N. Ganabaskaran said the Covid-19 pandemic will go on for years even if vaccines are readily available.

“Even if vaccines are available, what about poor countries? Not all countries can afford the vaccine.

“There are vaccines being developed, but available vaccines will go to the rich countries first and it may take many years before we can overcome Covid-19, ” he said.

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Friday, August 7, 2020

How to use BeiDou navigation system on your phone


China has just announced the completion and launch of its BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System. But, how can we use it?

CGTN recently posted a video showing the differences between China's BeiDou system and other global navigation satellite systems.

Read more: How is China's BDS different from other global navigation networks?

And we received some questions, about how to actually use BeiDou for navigation. This video explains how the system works on your phone.

Before we get started, let's clear up a common misconception. A lot of people think if you want to use the BeiDou system, you need to download some sort of "BeiDou apps."

The truth is, you don't need to download any new app for using the system. If you find an app titled "BeiDou" in an app store, it's not official. Regular navigation apps, delivery apps or car-hailing apps are all able to use the positioning service of the BeiDou system.

Civil equipment like our phones, cannot choose which navigation system to use. It will automatically pick the system that has best signal at that time.

So maybe you're using the BeiDou system right now.

But not every smartphone supports BeiDou. Currently, most of the Android phones can use the BeiDou system. But if you are an iPhone user, you are not able to use it because chips carried by the Apple product line do not support the system. To check, you can take a look at the tech specs of your phone.


GPS testing apps can show the number of satellites in your area and their signal strength. /Screenshot via GPS Test

Another way to find out whether your phone supports BeiDou is through GPS testing apps. Your phone can use BeiDou's services if the app can detect BeiDou's satellites.

There are also people asking whether BeiDou can be used outside China. You can do so just like we can use GPS services in China.

The difference is that BeiDou provides better accuracy in China and the Asia-Pacific region, at five meters, because of its unique layout. The accuracy in other areas is about 10 meters.

Cameraman: Yang Yang Video editor: Guo Meiping Cover image: Jia Jieqiong


How is China's BDS different from other global navigation networks?

https://youtu.be/NXdFg1PRKnQ

China has completed its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, or BDS, becoming the fourth country in the world with a global navigation network, the other three being GPS of the U.S., GLONASS of Russia and Galileo of Europe.

As the name suggests, the global navigation satellite system provides navigation and location services on a 24-hour basis. From what we know so far, building a sound satellite system costs a bundle. Besides, the other systems are already well-established. So, what makes China's BDS stand out among its competitors?

Firstly, the other systems have 24 satellites in medium earth orbit (MEO). In addition to the 24 satellites, the BDS constellation also has three satellites in geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and three in inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO). What's special about the extra six satellites is that they have a relatively fixed range of activity.

This layout can enhance BDS' accuracy in China and the Asia-Pacific region to five meters, in comparison with a 10-meter accuracy in other areas.

Secondly, BDS has a trump card – the short message service. It is a function that allows users to have a two-way communication.

In areas not covered by cellular or communication signals, BDS can make the short message service available in uninhabited areas, such as deserts, forests, and mountainous or polar regions.

With this service, users in distress can inform the rescue team about their location and condition.

As the most populated country in the world, it's important for China to have its own global navigation satellite system to meet the needs of the country's socio-economic development.

In fact, the BDS is also good business. According to the White Paper on the Development of China's Satellite Navigation and Location Services Industry (2020), the country's satellite industry has maintained a 20-percent annual growth since 2012. BDS contributes about 80 percent of it.

The system has also generated tens of billions of dollars, countless high-paying jobs, and stimulated economic growth via big contracts in commercial industries.

And with improvements in functions, it will have much more to offer in the future.

Scriptwriter: Pan Zhaoyi Producer: Guo Meiping Cameraman: Fu Gaoliang Video editor: Zhao Yuxiang Cover image: Yin Yating

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