Western media bias against China deplorable, dangerous; Anti-China RSF has more actors than audience in its play against China

lustration: Chen Xia/GT 

 

 

 Western media bias against China deplorable, dangerous 

 

For years, the unspoken truth about Western media is that their veneer of objectivity has come off a long time ago. While touting themselves as the epitome of trustworthiness and honesty, some media practitioners in the West have no qualms about propagating lies against China.

As the coordinated anti-China smear campaign is gaining steam, more intrepid journalists with a conscience are calling it out despite the tremendous pressure to silence them.

In one of the most excoriating rebukes against Western media's manipulation of the public opinion against China, Javier Garcia, head of the office of the EFE News Agency of Spain in Beijing, announced earlier this week that he would soon leave journalism, as the flagrant information manipulation by Western media "has taken a good dose of my enthusiasm for this profession."

The departure of journalists like Garcia is a giant loss to the industry, which is in dire need of introspection. For those who choose to stay and disagree with the highly biased and distorted reporting on China, they are usually confronted with a monolithic propaganda structure in the West to ignore, silence and discredit them.

The past few years have seen a lot of deplorable cases where anyone who dared to maintain objective and impartial positions on China were accused of being on the payroll of the Chinese government or even worse.

While they are working arduously to suppress impartial information and hoping it to pay off, some media in the West, especially in the United States, should expect that the chickens will come home to roost, as their own political order is at risk.

Even James Murdoch, son of right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch who owns FOX News, castigated U.S. media for amplifying disinformation that successfully sowed falsehoods.

"Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years," he told the Financial Times shortly after the U.S. Congress riot in early January.

For those Western media who are still slandering China's peaceful development, it is time for them to think twice. Enditem Xinhua

 

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Anti-China RSF has more actors than audience in its play against China

The French-based organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) launched its Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) transparency tool designed to "identify and reward trustworthy news sources" to combat false information. This online program requires the media to first conduct a self-assessment, which involves an internal check of conformity with the "JTI Standard." Next, the results may be "voluntarily disclosed to the public." The final stage of the process is an external evaluation by a third-party to certify a media as "trustworthy news sources." The supporters of JTI are basically Western news and social organizations, including major US internet companies and the "Association of Taiwan Journalists." Chinese and Russian news organizations are not involved.

The RSF describes JTI as "a game-changing transparency tool." However, the spread of information on the internet is based on another set of logic different from traditional media. It is questionable whether tradition media, with its declining influence, can regain the public's attention and influence by adding the tags of credibility.

The idea of JTI appeared in 2018. After the official launch in May, there was basically no actual response in the communication industry. Information about the project and how it operates is hard to come by on the internet.

I have again picked up such a topic that almost no one cares about, because the RSF is very anti-China. When it launched JTI, it obviously took the China factor into account, hoping that this online program, once becomes influential, can form another barrier to prevent Chinese voices from being heard in the international public opinion field. Its failure is destined.

Being full of ideological fanaticism, Western organizations such as RSF are fully hostile toward China, a socialist country. No matter what they do now, they will always regard damaging China as one of their goals. The world they want to shape is a spiritual kingdom irreconcilable with China. By forming and rewriting various "rules" and "standards," they will draw a gap between the world and China to demonstrate China's "self-isolation" which is incompatible with the so-called universal values.

In fact, the RSF is one of the worst liars in the contemporary world, and it has been committed to building an alliance of lies about China. Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. The reality of China's vigorous development is a strong proof that China's path is not wrong. In their annual "world press freedom index," China is always listed at the bottom. But the public opinion field in China can always discover and expose various problems in time and generate public opinion and pressure to solve these problems.

In contrast, the public opinion field of the US and other Western countries has almost done nothing to promote solutions to their national problems. The concept of "freedom of the press" has long been hallowed out by them, becoming the lipstick on Western countries' face. By listing China's "press freedom index" at bottom, they aim at boosting their own morale and entertaining themselves.

On some fundamental issues in today's world, the Western public opinion regards position, instead of objectivity, as their priority. They do not hesitate to call white black. The COVID-19 epidemic has repeatedly caused humanitarian disasters in Western countries, but Western public opinion agencies have collectively regarded China, a country that has successfully fought the epidemic, as their first target of attack. The US and several other Western countries who have been waging wars have labeled China, a country that has not fought a war in several decades, a "threat" to world peace. Not only did US warships declare "freedom of navigation" by repeatedly crossing the Taiwan Straits, but even British warships have done the same despite being so far away from home. Obviously this is a provocation and a cheap trick, but it is falsely praised as "rules." Has the eyeballs and conscience of the Western media been dug out together?

The RSF is one of the many Western organizations that have smeared China the most. They have supported almost all attacks against China. They realized that it's not fun enough to oppose small countries. They believe they can have enough audience, show off as much as they want and set off unprecedentedly huge ideological storms by cursing China. Thus, they can finally find themselves something to do and develop a "career" that the entire West will fully support.

The RSF cannot control the internet. As I previously mentioned, a Western NGO cannot modify and reset the logic of the spread of false information on the internet. What the organization is really interested in is to create troubles for China, and it is much easier for them to find political and economic sponsorship by doing this. Their starting points may differ, but their political explanations to the West, especially to the US, will ultimately fall on creating an iron curtain of public opinion against China. This is the "value of their times" for Western ruling groups.

It seems that JTI has become an awkward play with more actors than audience. But organizations like the RSF are cheeky. Like a wild dog, it will haunt the road ahead of China from time to time. Therefore, we must carry a stick in our luggage when forging ahead.

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By Hu Xijin 

    The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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Should we be worried about debt?

 According to Bank Negara’s Financial Stability Review report for the first half of 2021, Malaysia’s household debt to GDP has declined to 89.6% from 93.2% as at end of last year. Although a small achievement,the household debt level remains elevated.

With a current debt-to-gdp of about 125%, the US is not the only country with a huge mountain of debts.

IN recent weeks, global markets were roiled by the mere mention of a four-letter word, debt. From China’s Evergrande Group’s near collapse, as it sat on a mountain of liabilities, to the United States government’s need to raise its debt ceiling.

In Malaysia’s case, we too have not much choice either but to raise our debt ceiling as we look at ways to re-generate the economy with a higher debt room of 65% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 60% currently.

It seems like debt has become one dirty word for investors for the time being, as we all know there is a price to pay when it comes to debt as there is no such thing as a free lunch.

For the US, there is no doubt that they have constantly raised their debt ceiling over the years to ensure they do not default on their obligations.

According to the US Treasury website, since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the nation’s debt limit.

Currently suspended, the US debt ceiling was reset on Aug 1, 2021, to US$28.4 trillion (RM118.9 trillion). For the US, failure is not an option as it will lead to a catastrophic chain reaction to not only the financial market but to the economy as a whole.

According to Treasury Secretary and the former Federal Reserve (Fed) chairperson, Janet Yellen, (pic) the US has never defaulted on its debt before and she was “confident” that the issue would be addressed, despite warning the Congress that the deadline for the debt ceiling is “around Oct 18”.

According to Treasury Secretary and the former Federal Reserve (Fed) chairperson, Janet Yellen, the US has never defaulted on its debt before and she was “confident” that the issue would be addressed, despite warning the Congress that the deadline for the debt ceiling is “around Oct 18”.

For now, while a nine-week stopgap funding bill has been endorsed by the President on Thursday, which in all likelihood will avoid a government shutdown at least up to Dec 3, 2021, the threat of a US defaulting on its debts remains.

While the US is able to continue to print money by simply passing the law to keep borrowing, the US, just like any other country, cannot go on borrowing forever. With a greater supply of money, sooner or later, interest rates will have to rise as the increase in money supply will likely fuel inflation.

After all, the Fed too expects rates to start rising in 2022 and much more in 2023 onwards.

In the last Federal Open Market Committee just over a week ago, the 10-year and 30-year US benchmark rates have already moved 17 basis points (bps) and 21 bps to 1.50% and 2.06% respectively – as the market begins to price in expectations of the Fed’s tapering move as well as worries if there is going to be lengthy impasse between the Democrats and the Republican or grand old party (GOP) to raise the debt ceiling.

Having said that, as the US has been running budget deficits for the longest time, it would not be too far-fetched to assume that given time, the US will need to raise the debt ceiling yet again in the future.

Hence it was also of no surprise when Yellen commented on Thursday that the debt ceiling ought to be permanently abolished.

In any government’s financial management, it’s either shortfall or revenue, mainly due to inadequate tax collections or excessive spending, which are also a function of debt service charges, and to a certain extent, over-priced development spending or operating expenditures.

With a current debt-to-gdp of about 125%, the US is not the only country with a huge mountain of debts.

So is the rest of the world. In fact, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in its Global Debt Monitor report published on Sept 14, 2021, global debt, which includes government, household and corporate, and bank debt increased by US$4.8 trillion (RM20 trillion) to reach a new alltime high of US$296 trillion (RM1.24 quadrillion).

In essence, over the past six quarters, as the pandemic has caused significant damage to the global economy and unprecedented response from governments, total global debt has expanded by US$36 trillion (RM150.7 trillion) or 13.6% from just about US$260 trillion (RM1.09 quadrillion) as at end of 2019.

Money has to go somewhere

When a debt is raised, be it by the government, a company, or a household, it has to go somewhere. For most governments, debts are mainly raised for development expenditure, and if it is allowed by the constitution, on operating expenditure too.

Debts raised due to the pandemic perhaps has become the norm globally as well, as the government has no choice but to raise the required funding to support the economy.

In the US, the Fed also buys US treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities and this effectively makes its way into the financial markets.

So while the Fed has expanded its balance sheet by more than 100% since the pandemic, the liquidity it has provided has caused significant gain not only in traditional asset classes but into everything else. Home prices are rising, commodities have boomed and markets are buoyant and cryptos have soared.

In the case of Evergrande Group, many are left wondering if it was a case of a “too-big-to-fail” company. Evergrande became a property developer largely by borrowing.

As a group, they also ventured into other businesses, which among others include electric vehicles, Internet and media production, theme park, football club, and even into mineral water and food production.

Evergrande’s massive business empire, grown out of debt means, while it has substantial assets, it also had huge liabilities. As Beijing has been strong in putting its house in order in the form of new regulations and guidelines for many industries, Evergrande too was not spared.

As early as August last year, the Chinese government had introduced a “three red lines” test for developers to meet if they wanted to borrow more.

This was firstly, liability to asset ratio of not more than 70%; secondly, net debt to equity ratio of not more than 100%; and thirdly cash to short-term debt ratio of more than 1.0.

Hence, the writings were already on the wall on Chinese developers more than a year ago that the regulators were serious in addressing debt-driven growth pursued by these companies. In Evergrande’s case, the debt hit the ceiling.

Why do we go into debt?

Debts taken by individuals are rather straightforward. Of course, there are good debts and bad debts. For most of us, it is for the purchase of big-ticket items like a roof over the head, and for mobility purposes, where most of us own a car.

Of course, we also indulge ourselves with material stuff, either from our savings or credit cards that we will pay off when the time comes. Some of us, due to lack of income or due to financial mismanagement, take on bad debts and that’s where the trouble starts as we are unaware of the consequences of rising personal debts and high-interest cost.

Stories of debts owed to money lenders are common within our society while Bank Negara statistics also show that one of the fastest-growing debt profiles among individuals is personal loans.

This has remained relatively high and has increased by 87.4% over the last five years alone to about Rm73.7bil as at end of August 2021, while its share of the banking system loans outstanding has increased from 2.7% to as much as 4.0% now. 

 

According to Bank Negara’s Financial Stability Review report for the first half of 2021, Malaysia’s household debt to GDP has declined to 89.6% from 93.2% as at end of last year. Although a small achievement, the household debt level remains elevated. For a company, debts should be part of capital management as companies need to not only sustain their business operations but look at opportunities to grow and expand their market share, either via acquisition or via borrowings. However, similar to what we have seen in Evergrande’s case, companies too must observe their own “three-red-lines” to ensure they have the right mix and remain vigilant of its exposure.

Does Malaysia have the room to borrow more?

For Malaysia, with a higher debt ceiling of 65%, the government is effectively allowing itself to have some headway to borrow an additional Rm75bil to support the recovery momentum that most economists now expect will be much stronger in this fourth quarter period and 2022 and as we prepare ourselves for the post-pandemic period.

While we have created this room to enable us to borrow more, we must be mindful to borrow responsibly as debts that are taken today will be borne by future generations.

We also need to chart our way out of this debt-dependency black hole that we have been in since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998 and get out of this conundrum.

While debt-to-gdp is just a denominator that is divided by a numerator that is steadily growing, we must find ways to manage our overall federal government debt and plan to reduce them post-pandemic.

That is a whole new topic altogether, and next week, this column will explore strategies that Malaysia can deploy to reduce its debt dependency.

  PANKAJ C. KUMAR Pankaj C Kumar is a long-time investment analyst. The views expressed here are his own.   Source link

 

 US federal debt crisis uglier than Evergrande trouble

 

 

 

 There is much buzz amongst global investors recently about two possible debt defaults, though they are of different proportions in their would-be impact on global equity markets. One is the US federal government's rivers of borrowed money running dry and in urgent need of replenishing. The other is a major Chinese property developer which has run into financial trouble, because the company veered off the road by squandering too much on making electric cars and sponsoring a football club.

As US federal debt default looms, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is facing her biggest test in her eight-month tenure to convince reluctant Republican lawmakers to agree to raise the US' national debt limit, which is currently set at $28.5 trillion. The stakes are high, because if Yellen's effort fails, the US financial system will collapse.

Yellen has called Republican leaders to convey the economic danger which lays ahead, bluntly warning that the Treasury Department's ability to stave off default is limited, and the failure to lift the debt cap by late October would be "catastrophic" for the country and the world.

Six former US treasury secretaries last week sent a letter to top US lawmakers, warning them a default would roil financial markets and blunt economic growth. According to US media reports, Yellen last week also warned the nation's largest banks and financial institutions about the very real risk of a default. She has spoken to chief executives of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, briefing them the likely disastrous impact a federal default will produce.

To make things worse, both Democrats and Republicans in the US are at each other's throats now over US President Joe Biden's new $3.5 trillion spending bill, which proposes heavy tax raises on rich families and corporations, and has met fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers. Whether they will compromise on the debt limit, by making a last-minute deal with the White House to reduce Biden's giant spending plan remains to be seen.

Market analysts say if the US government defaults on its colossal debt, a financial system crisis of a magnitude larger than the 2008-09 debacle could occur, which is estimated to lead to an evaporation of $15 trillion in wealth and loss of 6 million jobs in the US. The capital market is now on tenterhooks facing a potential financial time bomb.

Last week, the US' major media outlets also focused their reportage on a possible default of a leading real estate developer in South China, but by all metrics, it is a risk of much smaller scale. The case is being closely watched by China's financial authorities and will never be allowed to develop into a systemic risk.

With regard to the privately-run property developer Evergrande, many fear the knock-on effects of the company's imminent difficulty to pay back principals and interests of borrowed money, including corporate bonds and bank loans. But, even if the city of Shenzhen with its deep pockets, where the company is headquartered, refuses to bail out Evergrande, one bankrupt company can hardly impact the stability of China's financial system, and the risks linked to this possibility have been widely overblown by a hyperventilating media.

Executives at Evergrande are launching a last-ditch rescue effort, trying to sell the company's electric car subsidiary and other assets in China and abroad, including the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club. It is also selling its housing projects scattered in dozens of Chinese cities at a discount to speed up its cash flow. Whether the company is able to stave off a debt default remains unknown.

Evergrande said on Wednesday that it would make an interest payment on an onshore bonds due Thursday, but the company didn't say whether it had plans to make a $83 million coupon payment due on its US dollar bonds within a month.

The city government of Shenzhen, or the central government in Beijing, has not rushed to bail out Evergande most likely in the belief that the company itself is to blame for the predicament - too much leverage and squandering of borrowed funds ploughed into auto making and other fringe businesses and budgeting largesse. Authorities probably want the case to serve notice to investors at home and abroad, that they need to do their due diligence and enforce accountability on debtors.

However, the central government is almost certain not to tolerate a possible bankruptcy of Evergrande to spill over to draw down the broader Chinese economy, as the central bank has done numerous pressure tests since the 2008 global financial crisis, which was caused by the sub-prime housing debts in the US. Last year, the central bank required property developers to bring down their debt levels below certain thresholds before they are able to borrow more money from financial institutions. And, many Chinese commercial banks have ascertained their exposure to Evergrande is restricted.

So, debt-beleaguered Evergrande is unlikely to produce a firestorm and disrupt China's financial system. In addition, both the government and the central bank have plenty of policy tools, including easing overall monetary policy, to tide over Evergande if it goes under. But of course, the last resort is to bail it out and restructure the company, as China has done with other troubled corporations like HNA, Huarong and Baoshang Bank.

The author By Wen Sheng is an editor with the Global Times. 

 

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  Hopson Development plans to acquire 51% of Evergrande's property management unit Property developer Hopson Development Holding Co is reportedly to acquire about 51 percent of the indebted Evergrande group's property management unit, and the deal could be valued at more than 40 billion HKD ($5.14 billion), according to media 

 

 

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Malaysia's Covid-19 Situation is improving

  CLICK TO ENLARGE

Experts: Situation is improving https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/10/01/experts-situation-is-improving#.YViCsdkAaBc.twitter

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“Based on all these trends, one may conclude that the national burden of Covid-19 has decreased in recent weeks.” Prof dr Sanjay rampal

M’sians reminded to continue observing SOP in view of endemic phase

PETALING JAYA: As Covid-19 cases and hospitalisation rates taper after heightened pandemic activity in August, health experts are looking at the government’s preparations for the endemic phase.

Epidemiologist and public health physician Prof Dr Sanjay Rampal of Universiti Malaya said there was a decline in the national daily reported cases and an even more pronounced decline in the number of Covid-19 cases that were ventilated or in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Next In Nation

As Malaysia enters the last quarter of the year, there is a glimmer of hope that a greater semblance of ‘normalcy’ can return, even if it is a new normal. Daily cases are down from a peak of nearly 25,000 in August while usage of ICU beds remains manageable.

Epidemiologist and public health physician Prof Dr Sanjay Rampal of Universiti Malaya said there was a decline in the national daily reported cases and an even more pronounced decline in the number of Covid-19 cases that were ventilated or in the intensive care unit (ICU).

These trends correlated well with a decreasing trend of test positivity ratio, he added.

As at Sept 27, the positivity rate stood at 9.8%, a decrease from the 14.8% recorded on Sept 16, which was the highest peak from April onwards.

“Based on all these trends, one may conclude that the national burden of Covid-19 has actually drastically decreased in recent weeks,” he said when contacted.

On preparations for the endemic phase or endemicity, Prof Sanjay said that regardless of what the government did, there would still be new cases of Covid-19.

But these cases would have less of an impact on the healthcare system due to the decreased risk of complications in vaccinated people, he said.

“As we learn to coexist with the virus, we must re-adjust back to the time before interstate travel restrictions were enforced while continuing to wear a mask in congested areas, practise good hand hygiene and maintain physical distancing as best as we can.

“Movement restriction should be used as the last resort in the management of the pandemic.

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that movement restriction be implemented in high intensity for only short periods and only when the healthcare system is overwhelmed,” he added.

Prof Sanjay said that as Covid-19 became endemic, there would always be a baseline number of new cases daily but there was not enough data yet to accurately estimate this baseline number.

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Assoc Prof Dr Malina Osman said an obvious decline in cases could be observed, particularly with active cases which stood at over 268,000 in August compared to over 168,000 on Wednesday.

“Similar patterns were observed for other indicators like hospitalisation, the number of patients in ICUS and those on ventilators.

“This indicates that the situation is much better compared to the previous month,” she added.

However, Dr Malina opined that the positivity rate being kept less than 5% was relevant during the late containment stage or earlier but once the outbreak was already in the mitigation stage, the value was no longer helpful in managing the outbreak.

On Covid-19 testing, Dr Malina said from a public health point of view, the numbers were acceptable as Malaysia had opted for targeted screening rather than mass screening.

She added that the focus now should be more on hospitals and clinical indicators rather than the number of screening tests.

On endemicity, Dr Malina said that as the situation had improved greatly and hospitals were no longer in a compromised state, the system would be able to cope.

“The government through the Health Ministry has taken all the necessary steps to cope with the surge of cases for the past few months.

“I think the major responsibility should be shared by the community as well. Communities should be empowered to decide on their own the best way to achieve optimum health status.

“They should know the best option to avoid getting infected. Practising recommended preventive practices and avoiding risky behaviours should be encouraged,” she added.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar agreed that the declining hospitalisation rates and daily cases were good signs as all the indicators were showing a downward trend.

“We are ready for the endemic phase. Vaccination for people over 12 years old should continue and so should surveillance on new clusters and variants,” he said.

The government should also continue with the current testing strategy and monitor the positivity rate until it was down to less than 5%, with over 150,000 daily tests conducted, he added.

The rates for hospitalisation, daily infections as well as deaths are currently declining after the nation was hit with a surge of Covid19 cases in July and August.

According to data from April to September this year, the highest number of Covid-19 patients hospitalised was on Aug 16, when 16,081 hospital beds were occupied, compared to 9,185 on Sept 29.

The highest number of daily infections was also recorded on Aug 26, at 24,599 cases logged compared to 12,434 on Sept 29.

As for deaths, Aug 7 recorded the highest number of actual deaths on a seven-day average at 334 lives lost, while reported deaths stood at 210 on the same date.

In contrast, Sept 29 recorded 88 actual deaths on a seven-day average and 208 reported deaths on the same date.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that the entire country had moved out of Phase One of the government’s National Recovery Plan.

by FATIMAH ZAINAL and REMAR NORDIN

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Mission to turn China into talent hub

 

 An opening ceremony of the Global Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit is held in Shanghai, Sept 29, 2021. - Xinhua

https://youtu.be/Gyc1OHJq_Lg

Technology and Innovation in China's Path to 2035

Xi wants country to rank among world’s best as strategic force in science

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping has set out a vision to develop China into a global hub for talented people and innovation, with steps to train and bring in more top-flight professionals to enable them to fulfil their potential.

Speaking at a central work conference on human resources – held in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday – Xi called for greater emphasis to be given to training talent and quicker steps to establish a competitive edge in human resources.

As China edges closer to the grand goal of realising its great rejuvenation, the nation is more eager for talented people than at any period in history, said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The country’s competitive strength and national development and rejuvenation hinge on the fostering of more talented people, he said.

Xi summed up key experiences of the nation’s work related to talent in eight areas, including adhering to the Party’s across-the-board leadership, following the strategy of talent-led growth and focusing on the forefront of global science and technology, the economy, the major demands of the country and people’s health.

He unveiled the nation’s goals in this area over the next 15 years..

By 2025, China will see a sharp increase in spending on research and development, secure important progress in developing a leading force in scientific and technological innovation, bring together more top scientists and have a large number of talented people in core technologies..

China will establish a talent system in keeping with high-quality growth and have stronger appeal to high-calibre talent globally by 2030..

By 2035, China aims to rank among the world’s top nations in terms of being a strategic force in science and technology and have high-calibre talent, he said..

The president proposed building a leading area for high-calibre talent in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-hong Kong-macau Greater Bay Area, saying that the nation’s high-quality resources should prioritise support for a group of national laboratories and new research institutions..

In deepening the institutional reform for talent development, Xi highlighted the need to give play to the role of employers in training and bringing in talented people and enabling them to fulfil their potential..

Scientists must be given greater say in deciding what technological routes to take, allocation of funds and resources, he said, adding that it is equally important to ensure that scientific and research programmes can yield outcomes..

Xi urged stronger efforts to train scientists and enable them to play a more important role, adding that it is important to find more scientific workers with broad horizons, strong foresight and judgment..

The role of national laboratories, research institutions, high-level universities and leading tech companies must be amplified to develop a large number of leading scholars and innovation teams, he said..

The nation must focus the strength of its talent policies on young specialists while enabling them to take major responsibility, he added..

China, with the world’s biggest higher-education system, is capable of training a large number of high-calibre talented people, giving rise to leading scholars, he said..

Higher-education institutions, especially top universities, must play a major role in training talented people in the areas of fundamental research, with measures to develop a host of training bases in fundamental science, he said..

Xi also underlined the need to give rise to more philosophers, social scientists and artists, saying that stronger measures must be taken to enhance international exchanges of talent. — China Daily/ ANN.

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Asean nations caught in a quandary over AUKUS Pact

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The entry of the new trilateral defence pact in the asia-pacific region has divided South-East Asian countries and negated the quest for a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality.

AUSTRALIA’S moniker of “deputy sheriff” is back in circulation again with last week’s announcement of the Aukus trilateral military alliance involving the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

The agreement, under which the US and the UK would provide Australia the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, was declared in a joint virtual press conference by US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian PM Scott Morrison on Sept 15.

The three Anglo Saxon nations declared that the new deal is meant to protect and defend shared interests in the Indo-pacific amid “regional security concerns which had grown significantly”.

The epithet “deputy sheriff of the US” first gained infamy 22 years ago when then Australian PM John Howard used it in an interview to describe the country’s projected role in regional peacekeeping.

In an interview with The Bulletin magazine, he defined Australia as a medium-sized, economically strong regional power, “acting in a deputy role to the US in maintaining peace”.

He also said Australia had a responsibility within its region to do things “above and beyond”, bringing into play its unique characteristics as a Western country in Asia.

The remarks led to both ridicule at home and diplomatic backlash from regional leaders who rebuked

Australia for taking orders from the United States while being geographically closer to Asia. History repeats itself often, and Australia’s partnership in Aukus has brought the focus back on that lackey image.

Besides drawing indignation from China, which condemned the deal as “extremely irresponsible, narrowminded and severely damaging regional peace”, Aukus – the abbreviation representing the initials of the three countries – has also ruffled feathers within Asean and divided the 10-member grouping.

Based on the reactions over the past few days, two camps have emerged. Malaysia and Indonesia are clearly opposed to it on the grounds that it would unsettle the region. Thailand, a traditional US ally which has a close economic relationship with China, is also of the view that the security pact would undermine stability.

On the opposite side, the Philippines has taken a totally contrary stand. It has declared support, with its foreign minister Teodoro Locsin arguing that Aukus would address the imbalance in the forces available to the Asean member states and that the enhancement of Australia’s military capacity would be beneficial in the long term.

Vietnam, which recently hosted US vice-president Kamala Harris, has not commented on the pact although its spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang offered this ambiguous response: “All countries strive for the same goal.”

Meanwhile, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has stated that the city state is “not unduly anxious” about the new strategic alliance because of its longstanding relationship with the three countries.

The four other countries in the grouping have been largely silent on the issue.

Malaysia was swift and forthright in making its position clear. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob warned that Aukus would spark a nuclear arms race and provoke other powers to act more aggressively in the region, especially in the South China Sea.

In his phone call to Morrison, he also raised the importance of abiding by existing positions on nuclearpowered submarines operating in Malaysia’s waters, including rules under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) and the Southeast Asian Nuclear-weapon-free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ).

The questions being asked now are: How will China react to Aukus? Will it intensify the arms technology race in the region by increasing military expenditure for its navy or create more missile launch facilities, also known as underground missile silos, for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMS)?

That is what is being predicted by the hawks in the US military establishment, who have been consistently exaggerating China’s supposed military threat.

Among the talk is that China would boost the number of missile silos to 100 over the next two decades. For the record, the US already has at least 450 such facilities.

It is no secret that China has been building up its navy although it is still a long way from matching the marine power of the United States or the United Kingdom with just two aircraft carriers and a third still under construction. In comparison, the United States has 11 aircraft carriers and the United Kingdom two, but only one has been commissioned.

The US has 72 submarines – all nuclear-powered – compared with China’s 56, out of which only six are nuclear-powered.

With the entry of this newfangled military pact, Asean nations are now caught in a quandary. The quest for a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality in South-east Asia (Zopfan) declared on Nov 27, 1971, when the world was in the midst of a Cold War between the US and its Western allies and the USSR, looks like a distant dream today.

Zopfan was mainly aimed at preventing the world’s big powers from competing for influence and military prowess in the region.

The concept was inspired by the UN’S principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, abstention from threat or use of force, peaceful settlement of international disputes, equal rights and self-determination, and non-interference in the affairs of member states.

But as Dr Laura Southgate, a specialist in South-east Asian regional security and international relations, highlighted in a recent article in The Diplomat, Aukus has clearly exposed Asean’s lack of cohesion.

As she put it, driven by different threat perceptions and geo-strategic interests, it had become very difficult for Asean member nations to speak with one voice, although many states hope to maintain a balance between China and the US and its allies.

Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this observation by Niccolò Machiavelli: “Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.” The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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