Where’s Wilson? – The media in China are raising the mood against the lab theory with a fake researcher from Switzerland | NZZ

“Chinese state media quote a Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards. He sharply criticizes the United States. Then the Swiss embassy in Beijing intervened and spoke of a false report.”

Read the full article @ NZZ (paywall):

Switzerland is caught between the fronts of the geopolitical confrontation between the USA and China | NZZ

“The US and some of their close friends are protesting against China – and Switzerland is not participating. In terms of content, the statement hits the bull’s eye. But the Federal Council is trying to avoid a confrontation with the leadership in Beijing. This balancing act will no longer be possible for a long time.”

Read the full commentary @ NZZ (paywall):

Swiss China strategy causes outrage in Beijing: Why the great power is now switching to attack | Aargauer Zeitung

““Malicious labels”, “unfounded allegations”, “fake news”: the Chinese ambassador to Switzerland criticizes the Federal Council’s China strategy. How are his words to be classified?
So it was generally expected: that the Chinese would not just let this sit on them. But the circumstances in which they spoke up turned out to be unusual. The Chinese ambassador to Switzerland, Wang Shihting, spoke aggressively and on all channels about Switzerland’s new China strategy.”

Read the full article @ Aargauer Zeitung:

Hebei: China locks down 400,000 people after virus spike near Beijing | BBC

“China has reinstated a strict lockdown near Beijing, affecting around 400,000 people, after a small surge in cases.

The restrictions have come into force in Anxin county in Hebei province near the capital.

After the pandemic emerged in China at the end of last year, the country has managed to get new infections to a consistently low level.

To avoid a second wave, even small surges are taken very seriously by the country’s health authorities.”

Read the full article @ BBC:

Beijing coronavirus cases to see ‘cliff-like’ drop this week: expert | Reuters

“China’s capital will see a “cliff-like” drop in new cases in a recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus by the end of this week with efforts to cut chains of transmission underway, a disease control expert said. The city of more than 20 million people reported its first case of a new spike in infections on June 11, linked to a sprawling wholesale food centre. In all, 236 people have been infected in the worst outbreak in Beijing since the novel coronavirus was identified at a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

Beijing reported on Monday nine new cases had been confirmed the previous day, sharply down from 22 a day earlier.”

Read the full article @ Reuters:

Anxiety in Beijing as officials battle new coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian

“In the last eight days, Beijing has recorded almost 200 new cases of coronavirus, linked to a sprawling wholesale market in the city’s south-east. That market and two others have been shut and at least 33 neighbourhoods have been put under varying levels of lockdown. Schools and sports and entertainment venues have been closed.

Officials have ordered all residents to avoid non-essential travel outside of the capital, and suspended hundreds of flights and all long-distance buses. Other cities and provinces have begun to impose quarantine measures on travellers from Beijing.

The city had lowered its Covid emergency response level on 6 June, only to raise it again 10 days later, and residents have reacted with a mixture of frustration and anxiety. Roads that were crowded as offices and businesses reopened are emptier again.”

Read the full article @ The Guardian:

China’s Vice Premier Demands ‘Strictest’ Virus-Tracing Measures | Sixth Tone

“China’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan has warned of the high risk of a COVID-19 rebound and tasked officials with aggressively tracking the virus after an infection cluster in Beijing was linked to a local farmers market, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

On Saturday, Beijing’s Fengtai District went into “wartime” mode after 46 people connected to the Xinfandi market — the largest farmers market in the capital — tested positive for the coronavirus. The following day, the city tested 76,499 people, 59 of whom were positive, a health official said at a press briefing Monday morning.”

Read the full article @ Sixth Tone:

Beijing battles ‘explosive coronavirus outbreak’ as food market cases mount | SCMP

“Scientists struggle to track source of cluster linked to massive food wholesale centre. Mass testing and strict lockdowns imposed in some parts of the capital while other cities order isolation for travellers from Beijing.”

Read the full article @ SCMP:

Parts of Beijing sealed off due to new corona infections | Die Zeit

“Beijing is experiencing a major outbreak of the corona virus for the first time in many weeks. According to health authorities, 45 infections were already detected in 500 tests in a wholesale market in the Chinese capital. The Xinfadi Market in the Fengtai district, which supplies around 90 percent of the vegetables and fruits of the 20 million metropolis, was closed. 10,000 dealers and employees of the market are still to be tested..”

Read the full article @ Die Zeit:

Bank of China expands tests of New Fintech Regulation to six more cities | Cointelegraph

“Bank of China launched its first fintech innovation regulatory pilot project in Beijing last year. The bank announced plans to expand its regulatory pilot projects in six more cities and districts on April 27.

The bank plans to conduct pilot projects in Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Hebei Xiong’an New District, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Ultimately, it aims to improve the financial services in general for the real economy.”

Read the full article @ Cointelegraph:

Chinese envoy takes veiled swipe at Trump for politicizing coronavirus | Reuters

“China’s ambassador to the United States took a thinly veiled swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday by criticizing politicians bent on making “groundless accusations” that distract from scientific information on the deadly coronavirus.”

Read the full article @ Reuters:

China rolls out pilot test of digital currency | WSJ

“Milestone for world’s biggest central banks in path toward launching electronic payment system. China’s central bank has introduced a homegrown digital currency across four cities as part of a pilot program, marking a milestone on the path toward the first electronic payment system by a major central bank.”

Read the full article @ Wall Street Journal:

‘It all feels a little off’: Caution as post-virus China reopens | Al Jazeera

“Even as new cases have plummeted, fears of a second wave of infections have prompted the imposition of restrictions that are even more strict than before including mandatory quarantines.

President Xi Jinping has identified the city as a top priority in virus prevention efforts.

“The security and stability of the capital city is directly related to the overall work of the party and country,” he said in a recent speech.

Daily life is now accompanied by new restrictions and small inconveniences, most of which have been welcomed as an indication that the crisis is being properly managed.

Masks are mandatory – those who attempt to leave their homes without one can expect to be reminded not only by local security guards, but by other residents.”

Read the full article @ Al Jazeera:

This battlefield has no limits | Die Zeit

“China is the origin of the corona pandemic. Now the government is staging itself as a helper to other countries in need. It follows the strategy of unrestricted war.”

Read the full article @ Die Zeit:

China three months after the outbreak – It is not over yet | Der Spiegel

“The Beijing leadership wants to slowly reopen the country. Where does it get confidence from?
Beijing is currently a confusing picture. There are first traffic jams on the five ring highways in the morning and evening, but during the day many streets are so empty that motorcyclists and sports car drivers compete in races.”

Read the full article @ Der Spiegel:

What could we learn from China’s national AI team (国家队) strategy | SMU Artificial Intelligence Club

“The notion of a national team is usually associated with sports teams representing the nation on the global stage for a shot at glory. These days, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments all the rage, nations are creating national teams for the race towards AI superiority. Amidst all the hype that one is exposed to in the media over the possible doomsday scenario about how AI could ruin our lives, governments and businesses across the globe are rapidly positioning themselves to ride the next wave of change.

In 2017, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) handpicked 4 of its technology giants, forming a ‘national team’ to lead the way in building open innovation platforms that are accessible through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This initiative was created to foster participation and hence innovation in sectors that will increasingly be powered by AI technologies in an effort to support the entrepreneurship of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This national team is expected to contribute in areas such as research and development, sharing data, open source software and ecosystem participation. Moreover, MOST is very supportive in encouraging the deployment of these technologies at the provincial level. This includes providing resources and access to city infrastructure to allow for proof of concepts to scale. (DigiChina, 2019)”

Read the full article @ SMU Artificial Intelligence Club on Medium:

For China, the 2020s will be a difficult decade | CapX

“At the dawn of the 2020s, China is facing challenges that are perhaps the most serious since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.

Until relatively recently, these were predominantly home-grown problems gathering momentum slowly over the last decade or so. They have become accentuated, though, by the emergence of a new, repressive governance system under President Xi Jinping, and, in the last two years by the so-called trade war and the eruption of instability in Hong Kong. In the 2020s, China’s growth is likely to continue to slow to about 3-4% a year. A ‘recession with Chinese characteristics’ is not out of the question.

We should pay close attention. Slower growth and the rising risk of a significant fall in the value of the yuan in the next few years could easily choke the narrative that China will become the biggest economy in the world. This would have a significant impact on how China, and we think about everything from economics to foreign and security policy in the global system.”

Read the full article @ CapX:

Beijing AI principles | BAAI

“The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) concerns the future of the whole society, all humankind, and the environment. The principles below are proposed as an initiative for the research, development, use, governance and long-term planning of AI, calling for its healthy development to support the construction of a human community with a shared future, and the realization of beneficial AI for humankind and nature.”

Read the full article @ BAAI:

Understanding China’s AI strategy: Clues to Chinese strategic thinking on Artificial Intelligence and national security | CNAS

“In the second half of 2018, I traveled to China on four separate trips to attend major diplomatic, military, and private-sector conferences focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI). During these trips, I participated in a series of meetings with high-ranking Chinese officials in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaders of China’s military AI research organizations, government think tank experts, and corporate executives at Chinese AI companies. From these discussions – as well as my ongoing work analyzing China’s AI industry, policies, reports, and programs – I have arrived at a number of key judgments about Chinese leadership’s views, strategies, and prospects for AI as it applies to China’s economy and national security. Of course, China’s leadership in this area is a large population with diversity in its views, and any effort to generalize is inherently presumptuous and essentially guaranteed to oversimplify. However, the distance is large between prevailing views in American commentary on China’s AI efforts and what I have come to believe are the facts. I hope by stating my takeaways directly, this report will advance the assessment of this issue and be of benefit to the wider U.S. policymaking community.” – Gregory C. Allen

Read the full report @ Center for a New American Security:

Download the full White Paper [PDF, 1.3 MB]