Beijing plans strict virus control as Winter Games approach; indoor spectators, booster shot for workers ‘not ruled out’ by Cui Fandi Aug 16 2021

A Beijing resident takes a selfie in front of a countdown clock for the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 on Monday, 200 days ahead of the opening of the Games, in the Wangfujing shopping street.

As Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics approaches, Beijing authorities highlighted the strict epidemic prevention and control measures needed to ensure the Games can be held safely and as scheduled.

Experts noted it is highly likely that Olympics-related personnel will receive a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine, as the Delta strain is causing an increase in breakthrough infections.

“As we enter the Beijing Winter Olympics moment, strict epidemic prevention and control are the important premise for successfully hosting the Winter Olympics,” Cai Qi, Party chief of Beijing and also president of Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, said during his inspection of the competition venues on Monday.

Beijing 2022 is scheduled to take place from February 4 to February 20, 2022. Cai said the aim is for the Games to run “simply, safely and wonderfully.”

The Tokyo Olympics proved that a major international event can be held successfully during the pandemic, and Beijing has a great commitment to effectively controlling infections, as Tokyo reported thousands of cases daily during the Summer Games. Health experts are confident in preventing outbreaks in Beijing and surrounding areas during the Winter Games.

Experts told the Global Times that Beijing 2022 might be able to have a domestic audience, as many events will be held outdoors. As for indoor events, spectators are likely to enter and leave stadiums through different channels to completely separate them from the athletes and working staff to lower infection risks.

Zhuang Shilihe, a Guangzhou-based immunologist, told the Global Times on Tuesday that a booster shot for some Winter Olympics-related personnel before the opening is “highly likely,” although it is unknown how to arrange this for people who have received vaccines from different drug companies and different technical routes.

From data provided by countries around the world, it can be seen that the efficacy of the vaccine, regardless of the technical route, decreases in the face of the Delta variant, Zhuang explained. The level of antibodies also decreases slowly after vaccination, with breakthrough cases occurring from time to time.

“With the event nearly six months away, judging from the current prevalence of the variant and the population’s immunization status, booster shots will be a great help to the Beijing Winter Olympics,” Zhuang said.

In addition to vaccinations, Beijing will also take strict precautions in venues to curtail the spread of the virus.

“Event preparation, venue renovation and operation must be closely integrated with epidemic prevention and control measures. Each venue should set up a command center to coordinate the relevant work,” Cai said.

Cai stressed that it is necessary to apply “one policy for one pavilion,” and implement closed-loop management, in order to cut off all possible means of virus transmission during the Games.

Most of the venues for Beijing 2022 are being converted from existing stadiums in the city. The National Speed Skating Oval, dubbed the “Ice Ribbon,” is the only new competition venue constructed for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The venues have implemented strict epidemic prevention requirements, using zoning management, physical isolation and other means to avoid mixing of personnel.

The previous National Aquatics Center, known as the “Water Cube,” has been renovated into the “Ice Cube” and is preparing to host the 2021 World Wheelchair Curling Championship, which will be an early test for the venue’s epidemic prevention system.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games sent 34 people to Japan to learn from the experience of the Tokyo Olympics in terms of anti-epidemic measures.

Compared with Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022 has both advantages and challenges in epidemic prevention and control, health experts said.

China’s epidemic prevention has had many pioneering successes and experiences, such as real-time health codes, and a fast and well-developed epidemiological investigation process, Zhuang noted. “All of these measures can be carried over to the Winter Olympics’ epidemic prevention.”

“But winter itself is a time when respiratory viruses are more plentiful and more likely to survive, and this will be a major challenge for the Winter Olympics’ epidemic prevention.”

Politicizing virus origins tracing reflects US’ political inferiority complex: Russian scholar by Global Times Aug 17 2021

Editor’s Note:

August 25 will be the 90th day since US President Joe Biden ordered US intelligence in May to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus, including the “lab leak” theory that the US administration has been using to smear and attack China. It is clear that the US has once again decided to play politics. In fact, besides China, countries like Russia have also long been the victims of US politicization. Alexey Mukhin (Mukhin), General Director of the Centre for Political Information, a Moscow-based political analysis and consulting company, shared his thoughts with Global Times (GT) reporter Xia Wenxin on politicization, US bio-labs around the world, and other issues.

GT: Recently, Washington has launched a series of attacks against Beijing over the origins tracing of the novel coronavirus, including the politicization of the issue. Why does the US keep politicizing the origins tracing? What is the real purpose of the US government?

Mukhin: The US’ real purpose is to “soften the positions” of the Chinese government on many issues that have nothing to do with the “COVID-19 crisis.” Above all, we are talking about an attempt to underplay the role China plays in the global economy and put it in a subordinate position to the US.

The politicization of the issue of virus origins tracing is associated with a political inferiority complex the US has experienced since February 2007 when Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered the Munich speech. After that, Russia, which had never admitted its defeat in the Cold War since the Soviet times, entered a new information confrontation with the “collective West.”

Despite the sanctions and the demotivating influence of Western countries on the representatives of its establishment, so far, Russia has won one victory after another: It has regained Crimea, and is successfully completing its military operations in Syria while strengthening military cooperation with countries in the post-Soviet space and so on.

It is crucially important for the US to secure at least one victory, even a symbolic one. Otherwise, its rapidly declining credibility cannot be restored either in the eyes of its opponents (for example, Russia and Iran) or in the eyes of its allies and NATO partners.

GT: The US has established over 200 biological military laboratories around the world. For instance, it has built several laboratories in Ukraine, Georgia, and other former Soviet countries that are around Russia. What does the US really want by doing so? How should the international community ensure their security?

Mukhin: In this case, we are talking about the biological warfare the US is able to start because US bio-labs have such a function. And the US doesn’t restrict the development of biological weapons in any way. Even though it has already signed the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, the US has ratified the Convention partially, with reservations, and is not implementing it properly.

The global community must urgently create basic documents that bind on everyone to prohibit the development of these types of weapons. If the US does not comply with this protocol, it should be sanctioned in the harshest way, to the extent of international isolation and physical destruction of the biological military laboratories while the security in the countries where these labs are located can be ensured.

The US should be punished for developing such weapons in an international tribunal.

GT: In one of your recent interviews, you said that “the current pandemic situation is certainly a prologue to biological warfare,” and “biological warfare is the result of the malicious policies of the US and its NATO partners.” What led you to such statements? Is there any evidence to prove that the West has started biological warfare?

Mukhin: There is ample evidence showing that the US and the UK are collecting biological data of people in various countries. The very existence of closed bio-labs and the emerging outbreaks of rare diseases in the areas where these labs are located speak for themselves.

Inspection of fixed and mobile laboratories set up by the US and its NATO partners or allies is urgently needed. This type of work must be put under strict international control. However, it should be borne in mind that structures such as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are already under the control of NATO countries. Therefore, new structures that represent a broader international community should be created.

Based on what the US and the UK have done, the start of the biological warfare that I have mentioned above has become evident with the global spread of the novel coronavirus.

GT: For a long time, the US has been smearing China and Russia on different issues. For example, it has politicized sports and sports events to suppress Russia. And now it has politicized the origins tracing to attack China. What should China and Russia do in the face of such intensifying US offensives?

Mukhin: Politicization of issues is a weak move. It is carried out without an evidence-based position on a particular issue. Politicization is made possible by the dominance of the so-called Western media, which are directly controlled by the governments of the US and other NATO countries. It is also made possible by politicians and officials in the EU and other state entities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that are corrupted by the US and UK. We can see the sign of such corruption clearly in actions and statements of these officials that go against the national interests of their countries but are in line with the interests of the US.

By working together, Russia and China have a unique opportunity to create a counterweight to the activity of the US and its allies after restoring, in fact, a bipolar system that existed during the Soviet era and served to maintain a balance in international relations.

The lack of this balance and the existence of abuses committed by the US and its allies have clearly shown that the US couldn’t cope with the role of the world regulator (or hegemon). However, it does not want to give up the privileges provided by such a status. As the situation develops, the US’ malice may lead it to the edge of rash and tragic decisions, considering that the country has already used nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (in other words, the US knows the taste of deploying nuclear weapons). This is why it is necessary to bring the US and its allies mildly but persistently back into the international legal framework. And this can be done through the joint efforts of China and Russia.

Professor John Walsh in San Francisco: Lancet controlled clinical trial for CoronaVac, the Chinese vaccine most often used.

Peer reviewed in an internationally recognized journal, one of the world’s best:

“In the per protocol population (n=10 029), 41 cases of symptomatic COVID-19 occurred at least 14 days after the second dose of vaccine or placebo (91·1 cases [66·2–121·6] per 1000 person-years). Of these cases, nine were reported in the vaccine group (n=6559; 31·7 cases [14·6–59·3] per 1000 person-years) and 32 in the placebo group (n=3470; 192·3 cases [135·7–261·1] per 1000 person-years), yielding a vaccine efficacy of 83·5% (95% CI 65·4–92·1; p<0·0001) for the prevention of PCR-confirmed symptomatic COVID-19.
“Cumulative incidences of COVID-19-related events in the vaccine and placebo groups are shown in figure 2. There were no fatal cases of COVID-19. Hospitalisation was recorded in none of the participants in the vaccine group and six in the placebo group (36·4 hospitalisations [13·5–77·5] per 1000 person-years), giving a vaccine efficacy of 100% (20·4–100·0; p=0·0344) for the prevention of COVID-19-related hospitalisation.”

Looks very good!!!

Sinopharm the other major Chinese vaccine in use appears to be even better. But it is unclear which variants were encountered in this population in Turkey.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01429-X/fulltext

Video: Afghanistan: What’s Happening and What’s Possibly Next? 阿富汗：正在發生什麼以及接下來可能會發生什麼？

Before the US is even finished with its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the puppet regime installed and propped up for the last 20 years has collapsed and the country appears to be firmly under the control of the Taliban. I explain how and why.
https://vimeo.com/588642535
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EMi7pjubqtU
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/549616256261704/?d=n
There are also several scenarios that might be playing out including the most obvious scenario many of us may believe we are witnessing.

I discuss these scenarios including how US humiliation now may provide the plausible deniability it needs later to covertly use Afghanistan as a staging ground for regional terrorism.

Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan operating normally; Taliban promises safety of embassy: ambassador by Global Times Aug 17 2021

Photo of the Chinese national flag waving in front of building of the Chinese embassy in Afghanistan. Photo: Wang Yu, Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan

The Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan is operating as normal, and the Taliban has pledged to guarantee its safety, the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan told the Global Times, who sent a photo of Chinese national flag waving in front of the embassy building.

Ambassador Wang Yu told the Global Times on Tuesday that according to his knowledge, the embassies of Russia, Pakistan and Iran are also operating. Embassy staffers of Western countries have been transferred to the airport, which is controlled by the US military.

The ambassador said that there are only embassy employees as diplomats’ families have not accompanied them to Afghanistan for years.

Wang said the embassy is connected with the outside world, although the network signal is less stable now, and power has been blacked out occasionally. He said they could hear frequent gunshots on Monday.

There are a few Chinese nationals remaining in Afghanistan, the ambassador said, noting that some of them hope the embassy can help them return to China as soon as possible. As commercial flights have been suspended, they may have to wait until flights resume, Wang said.

He sent Global Times a photo of the Chinese national flag waving in front of the embassy building.

The Afghan Taliban has swept through the country in a matter of a week and took control of the presidential palace as US-led forces withdrew. Video on social media shows helicopters and transport planes scrambling to evacuate mainly US and Western nationals.

At the beginning of July, the Chinese government evacuated 210 Chinese nationals from Afghanistan on a charter flight to Wuhan amid the deteriorating security situation.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Taliban pledged safety to foreign citizens and diplomatic missions in Kabul.

China’s growth of foreign trade in numbers by Global Times Aug 17 2021

Kabul now…Taipei next! Kiji Noh in San Francisco: Taiwan, as I pointed out, has 16 weeks of mandatory military service. The bulk of fighting would fall to US hands. Taiwanese troops would not/could not put up much of a fight. And US troops on Taiwan would be a declaration of war against China. That cannot be contained. 現在喀布爾……接下來是台北！ 舊金山的 Kiji Noh：正如我所指出的，台灣有16週的義務兵役。 大部分戰鬥將落入美國手中。 台灣軍隊不會/不能進行太多戰鬥。 而美軍在台灣將是對中國宣戰。 那是無法遏制的.

It is ineffective, as I pointed out, but it is still conscription, despite how the government spins it.

Taiwan originally had planned to end conscription in 2012, and switch completely to an all-volunteer force.
This did not pan out as not enough Taiwanese youth were willing to join the military. This plan has been periodically reinitiated from time to time, each time to failure.

https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=2&post=2137

As a stop gap measure, the government has issued a shortened conscription period of 16 weeks/4 months. People who refuse military service still have to do 6 months of alternative service.

The Taiwanese are facing irreconcilable contradictions regarding conscription: a demographic shift resulting in a diminishing number of eligible youth 18-29, an even greater number of youth who are reluctant to voluntarily join the military, increasing manpower costs (to incentivize joining and retention), refusal of volunteers to join units that could be involved in combat, and a reluctance of politicians to touch the third rail of reinstituting longer conscription.

Even worse (for the Taiwanese):

“…recent public opinion surveys suggest that many in Taiwan do not yet take the risk of a war with China seriously. In early August, a poll commissioned by the Chinese Association for Public Opinion Research found that only 20 percent of the Taiwanese public believed a military confrontation over Taiwan’s status might happen. It also revealed that less than half of those polled would be willing to fight if such a war did happen.

The poll also asked respondents whether they thought the United States would send troops to defend the island from attack and how they thought Taiwan should react to a war between China and the United States. Nearly 60 percent said they had faith that the United States would intervene in a cross-strait conflict. Yet a mere 20 percent indicated that Taiwan should return the favor by fighting alongside the United States in a war against China. In contrast, two-thirds indicated that Taiwan was better off remaining on the sidelines.”

The Painful, but Necessary, Next Steps in the U.S.-Taiwanese Relationship

A war would not be without bloodshed–wars are always about bloodshed, but it would be a losing battle.

The key fact is that Taiwan does not field a military worth its name. Its divisions are at 60-80% strength, i.e. barely operational.
It does not have the manpower to operate the expensive toys that it buys from the US. Since 2017, it has had a 16 week conscription, in which 5 weeks is boot camp, and 2 weeks discounted for school “training”. Conscripts are thus with their units for 9 weeks, which is essentially babysitting/summer camp, certainly not long enough to incorporate them into unit combat operations and tactics. The reserves are equally bad.

This means that the bulk of fighting would fall to US hands. Taiwanese troops would not/could not put up much of a fight. And US troops on Taiwan would be a declaration of war against China. That cannot be contained.

As for separatist beliefs, the Taiwanese and Chinese speak the same language, eat similar food, and resemble each other.
In HK, a colonized mindset (and a rightwing, comprador teacher’s union) led HK youth to aspire to be white-adjacent colonial sycophants and terrorists with bad cockney accents. I think it’s a harder sell for the Taiwanese colonizers to identify with the subjugated colonized indigenous.

Senator reveals ‘30,000 US troops stationed in Taiwan island,’ equal to ‘declaring war on China’ if it’s true 參議員透露“3萬美軍駐台島”，若屬實等於“向中國宣戰” by Liu Caiyu Aug 17 2021

A senior US senator, also a member of US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on his social media revealed that the US has 30,000 soldiers stationed in China’s Taiwan island. If the tweet is correct, it is a military invasion and occupation of China’s Taiwan and equivalent to the US declaring war on China. China could immediately activate its Anti-Secession Law to destroy and expel US troops in Taiwan and reunify Taiwan militarily, some experts noted.

Some others believe the news leaked by the US senator cannot be true because 30,000 is not some small amount that the US Army could hide and not being noticed in the island, and the US has nothing to gain by stationing the US Army in the island. Sacrificing its own interests to satisfy Taiwan separatists also does not fit with US foreign policy, just like the US did in Afghanistan.

In the tweet, Senator John Cornyn listed the number of US troops stationed in South Korea, Germany, Japan, China’s Taiwan and on the African continent to show how the number of US soldiers has dwindled in Afghanistan. But in the process, Cornyn revealed the shocking news that there are 30,000 US troops in China’s Taiwan island.

His tweet raised a wave of doubts among netizens with many commenting below his tweet: “how come the US still has troops in Taiwan,” “so the US army has a secret division in Taiwan,” “Cornyn must have mistaken the number,” and “this should have been before 1979.”

Despite the controversy and continuous comments under his tweet, Cornyn did not make any corrections and hasn’t deleted his tweet as of press time.

The Taiwan island “defense department” made a low-key denial on Tuesday, saying it is wrong and it would not comment on it, Taiwan-based media outlet SETN.com reported.

As a senior senator from Texas, who was once a Republican Senate Majority Whip for the 114th and 115th Congresses, and now a member of US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Cornyn should be aware of the US government’s military intelligence.

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that such ridiculous and shocking news is more likely the result from the old age of the senator that makes him a dotard or his confusion about the data with previous data in the 1970s or 1960s. But we have to acknowledge that there are also some US senators fabricating data to boost their political careers.

Whether it is a mistake or hype, we could see the US politician has a lack of political sensitivity and is irresponsible in making public remarks, which is jaw-dropping, Li said.

“I would choose not to believe this is the real case,” Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday. He said the US cannot conceal 30,000 soldiers plus their equipment in the island. US would not dare or take such risk to do so. But we cannot rule out the possibility that the US would dispatch such amount of troops when a military conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Straits.

If the US and China went to a war because US brazenly stationed troops in the island of Taiwan, whether 30,000 or 1,000, the price cannot be paid off for the US and the US clearly understands it. It is impossible for the US to be silly enough to sacrifice itself to satisfy Taiwan separatists, Li noted.

Foreign policies of the US clearly demonstrate that the US would rather sacrifice its allies to satisfy its own demands and interests, as it has never been the opposite, and the scenarios in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iraq and Syria are the evidence, the expert explained.

Also the day happens to be August 17, the day marking the signing of the US-PRC Joint Communique (1982), which was achieved after contentious negotiations on the US arms sales to Taiwan, and acknowledged Taiwan is part of China.

Intentional or not, such information being released on this special day is loathing and leaves the public an impression that the US may have gone back on its words as the communique stated, or whether the US is trying to probe China’s reactions over it through a charade. The US government and the Taiwan authorities should clarify Cornyn’s tweet, Chinese experts urged.

China and the US established diplomatic relations in 1979 on the condition of the US ceasing official relations with the island and withdrawing all US military from the island. Secretly hiding 30,000 troops in Taiwan island would seriously violate the Sino-US diplomatic agreement, seriously violate international law, and even the domestic law of the US, a Chinese expert specializing on the Taiwan question told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.

If the US really secretly stations 30,000 soldiers in China’s Taiwan island, the US as an external force is interfering with China’s internal affairs which violates China’s Anti-Secession Law. This would touch off a military conflict between the two countries, Song said.

China firmly opposes any US military personnel involvement in Taiwan affairs, or US soldiers setting foot on the island or launching any kind of military cooperation with the army of Taiwan island, Song said.

Some observers said if this is true, it’s tantamount to a military invasion and occupation of China’s Taiwan, and an act of declaring war on China. If the US really has troops stationed in Taiwan – even if the number is small – it would be a serious matter that has broken the bottom line.

Those US troops must withdraw immediately and unconditionally, and the US government and Taiwan authorities must publicly apologize for this, observers noted.

US role in Afghanistan lies in destruction, not construction: Chinese FM 美國在阿富汗的作用在於破壞，而不是建設：中國外交部 by Global Times Aug 17 2021

“US President [Joe] Biden said the US’ mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building, and it’s true,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Tuesday, slamming the US for leaving turbulence and chaos wherever it goes. “The role of US lies in destruction, not construction.”

Hua’s remarks were made in response to Biden’s speech on Monday, who said that despite the “hard and messy” US retreat amid the lightning conquest of Taliban that has come much faster than the US had expected, he stood “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.

Amid chaotic scenes at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, people mobbed aircraft and desperately tried to cling onto a US military aircraft as it took off. Video showed what appeared to be a person falling as the plane climbed. The scenes shocked people from across the world. “It is sorrowful to see the devastating mess at Kabul airport in the past few days seeming so familiar,” Hua said on Tuesday’s routine press briefing.

“The US started the war in Afghanistan in the name of fighting terrorism. But has it won? In the past 20 years, the number of terror groups in the country has increased from single digits to more than 20, with more than 100,000 Afghan people killed or wounded and more than 10 million people displaced. Has the US brought peace to the region?” Hua asked.

China hopes that the US can seriously reflect on its use of force and military interventions and stop wantonly interfering in the internal affairs of other countries under the guise of democracy and human rights, and undermining the peace and stability of others, Hua said.

As Afghanistan’s largest neighbor, China has always respected Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, adhered to non-interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and pursued a friendly policy toward the entire Afghan people, Hua noted.

China has always played a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the Afghan issue and maintained contacts and communications with the Afghan Taliban and other sides on the basis of full respect for the country’s sovereignty and the wishes of various factions in Afghanistan, Hua said.

Hua noted that China encourages the Afghan Taliban to follow a moderate religious policy, work on the building of an inclusive political structure and pursue a peaceful and friendly foreign policy, especially with neighboring countries.

We hope the Afghan Taliban will make a clean break with all terrorist organizations including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a gathering place for terrorist and extremist forces again, Hua added.

Responding to the pullout of embassy personnel and foreign nationals amid the upheaval, Hua urged relevant departments to take sound actions to ensure the stability in Afghanistan to protect the safety and legitimate rights of its people and foreign nationals and provide necessary convenience for the evacuations to avoid casualties.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi talked with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken via phone call on Monday. The phone call was conducted at the request of the US side.

The hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan has caused a severely adverse impact on the situation in Afghanistan and it would not be responsible if it continues to create new problems, Wang said, adding that China is willing to coordinate with the US on the premise of mutual respect.

Wang elaborated on China’s position on the situation in Afghanistan, saying that facts have once again proved that it is difficult to gain a foothold in a country with a completely different history, culture and national conditions by mechanically copying foreign models.

Video: 100 years of humiliation by US and Western Empires, enough is enough. 100年的屈辱: 美國和西方帝國用槍指著中國人的頭對中國做盡滅絶人性的事, 夠了!
https://vimeo.com/588375238
https://youtu.be/FE99xt2bjlk
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/549285972961399/?d=n