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U.S. uses tech companies controlling internet to spy on world: report

CAIRO, March 31: While pushing for a ban on TikTok over claims that China uses the popular app to spy on Americans, the U.S. government itself spies on the world by using tech companies that effectively control the global internet, said a report published on the English news website of Al Jazeera.

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What does the 20th CPC National Congress mean to world economy?

BEIJING, Oct. 24: At week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded on Saturday in Beijing, a blueprint for China's future development has been mapped out. As the world economy is facing a tough situation this year, with probably tougher prospects for the next, China's economic outlook carries global significance. Voicing their confidence in China's future growth, business communities worldwide believe that China's modernization stride and innovation-driven growth will inject more certainty into the global economy. QUALITY DEVELOPMENT BENEFITS ALL China will accelerate creating a new development pattern and pursue high-quality development, said Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, while delivering a report at the CPC congress. "We must fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy on all fronts, continue reforms to develop the socialist market economy, promote high-standard opening-up, and accelerate efforts to foster a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows," Xi said. Deeply impressed by the remarks, Wichai Kinchong Choi, senior vice president of the leading Thai bank Kasikornbank, said he can see China's future development direction focus more on high-quality and sustainable development. "This is good news for Thailand and other neighboring countries," he said. In the past few years, many Chinese high-tech enterprises have set up factories in Thailand, which is exactly what Thailand needs, he noted, saying that they have helped the Thai economy to transform and upgrade, and enhance its competitiveness. Over the past decade, China's gross domestic product has come to account for 18.5 percent of the world economy. It has become a major trading partner for over 140 countries and regions, leading the world in total volume of trade in goods. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, China, which has managed to coordinate pandemic control and economic development, still maintains a stabilizer of the global supply and industrial chains, and is keeping driving the world economic recovery. Moreover, its development is not achieved at the expense of the environment. Instead, China is striving to make its development greener and more sustainable. In pursuit of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, the country has cut its carbon emission intensity by 34.4 percent over the past 10 years, and pledged to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. In the eyes of Chenhong Huang, global executive vice president of the German multinational software company SAP SE and president of SAP Greater China, China's green development will profoundly change the global energy, environment and economic landscape. "Chinese enterprises are using digital technology to make carbon emission data transparent and quantifiable, and promote a balance between green development and commercial development," Huang said. Meanwhile, China renewing its commitment in the CPC congress report to promoting a high-standard opening-up also strikes a chord with the international business community. U.S. automaker Tesla's success in China speaks volume for Beijing's determination to further opening-up. Thanks to the efforts of the Chinese government to facilitate foreign investment, Tesla became the first wholly foreign-owned auto enterprise in China, Vice President of Tesla Tao Lin said, adding that the U.S. company is seeking to further expand its presence in the Chinese market. German heat exchanger company Kelvion (China) has started operations in China over 20 years ago. Cheng Wenwu, general manager of the company, said doing business in China is becoming easier. Mentioning an effective market mechanism and a convenient and fast standardized administrative process in China, Cheng said the changes over the past years have lowered the costs of companies, facilitated market access and helped firms to adapt to international rules, benefiting the companies' operations. CHINESE MODERNIZATION MEANS OPPORTUNITIES Chinese modernization, a key term defining China's journey to national rejuvenation and another buzzword in the CPC report, has spurred a heated discussion in business communities both domestic and abroad. It contains elements common to the modernization processes of all countries, but more importantly, it features the Chinese context. It is the modernization of a huge population, of common prosperity for all, of material and cultural-ethical advancement, of harmony between humanity and nature and of peaceful development. For business leaders in many parts of the world, Chinese modernization means more opportunities. Jose Antonio Hidalgo, former president of the Ecuador-China Chamber of Commerce, said Chinese modernization will generate a positive impact in the global context, especially for the agri-food sector of Ecuador. "It is an opportunity for us because the middle-class consumers (in China) are going to need excellent quality agrifood and they are going to look for it in countries like ours," he said. In 2021, China announced that after eight years of strenuous work between late 2012 and late 2020, the country had lifted the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line out of poverty, and removed all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages from the poverty list. Now the country boasts the world's biggest middle-income group -- 400 million people. That means huge potential for consumption. Hamdi Al-Tabbaa, president of the Jordanian Businessmen Association, also sees opportunities in the Chinese path to modernization. China's consistent efforts to improve people's living standards mean a significantly expanded middle-income group and upgraded consumption structure, which will offer more development opportunities for global enterprises, said Al-Tabbaa. From initiating the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank to taking the lead in implementing the UN sustainable development agenda, China has always been sharing its development dividends with the rest of the world. Woody Guo, senior vice president and managing director of Herbalife Nutrition in China, said the CPC report underlines the certainty of the Chinese market against the uncertainties of the global market, and makes foreign enterprises feel reassured about their development in China. The Chinese modernization "will provide more chances and opportunities, not only from the growing of markets, but also from an employment point of view," said Sara Vermeulen-Anastasi, head of group communication at Swiss technology group Oerlikon. "We will be able to attract more engineers and have more choices of new technologies," Vermeulen-Anastasi said. INNOVATION INSPIRES NEW MOMENTUM While invigorating its economy, China has made innovation a top priority in its planning. The country rose to 12th place on the Global Innovation Index 2021, up from 34th place in 2012, said the World Intellectual Property Organization. It ranked first among middle-income economies. "We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth," Xi said in the report. "Everything is about innovation," said Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club. China is very forward-looking, as in every sector, China has the dynamic about "wanting to know where the world is going," he added. Amid the innovation drive, the number of Chinese companies on the Fortune Global 500 list has grown. In 2021, 145 Chinese companies made it to the list, climbing from 95 in 2012 and increasing for 19 consecutive years. In terms of telecommunication infrastructure, the country has built the world's largest 5G network, with a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations installed across the country by the end of 2021, accounting for over 60 percent of the world's total. Backed by technological advancement, China has accelerated the construction of high-speed transportation networks. With the world's most developed high-speed rail network, China now has more than 40,000 km of high-speed rail lines in operation. Oswaldo Navarro from Jalisco, an agriculture-producing state in Mexico, has purchased several pieces of agriculture and farming equipment from China. He told Xinhua that the seed cleaning machine he imported from China has a daily capacity two to three times that of the equipment from other countries, saving much time and cost. China's increased efforts in science and education will help turn scientific and technological achievements into productivity, said Navarro. Hichem Chorfi, an Algerian businessman working for a consulting firm in industrial technology and innovation, said China shares advanced development models and achieves economic complementarity with other countries, improving the well-being of people in various countries through advanced technologies. Chinese innovation will be featured in many important areas of human society in the future, he said.

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Cristiano Ronaldo & Harry Maguire most abused players on Twitter - report

AUG 3: Ofcom analysis of 2.3 million tweets in the first half of last season found nearly 60,000 abusive posts, affecting seven in 10 top-flight players. Half of that abuse was directed at just 12 individuals - eight from United. However, the study by the Alan Turing Institute also found the vast majority of fans use social media responsibly. "These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game," said Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom's group director for broadcasting and online content. "Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort." Ronaldo and Maguire most targeted The report identified two peaks in the frequency of abusive tweets. The first came on the day Ronaldo rejoined Manchester United on 27 August 2021, generating three times more tweets than any other day (188,769), of which 3,961 were abusive. At 2.3%, that is marginally lower than the daily average. The volume of posts can largely be accounted for because of Ronaldo's 98.4m followers. On this day the Portugal forward was mentioned in 90% of all tweets aimed at Premier League footballers and 97% of abusive tweets. The second peak came on 7 November when defender Maguire tweeted an apology following Manchester United's 2-0 home defeat by Manchester City. On that occasion, 2,903 abusive tweets were sent - 10.6% of the total that day - with many users reacting to Maguire's post with insulting or demeaning language. The report also found a duplicated tweet - using the same exact phrase - was sent to Maguire 69 times by different users within two hours. The study says "it is possible that this duplication occurred because users saw the abusive message and decided to replicate it - indicating organic organisation rather than coordinated behaviour". The Alan Turing Institute said that understanding the organisation of online abuse is of increasing interest given the harm caused by co-ordinated attacks and "pile-ons". Other players were targeted by large volumes of abuse following a "trigger", despite receiving relatively few tweets overall. Newcastle defender Ciaran Clark, now on loan at Sheffield United, was sent off against Norwich in November, with 78% of the abusive tweets he received coming on this day. Meanwhile, Crystal Palace's James McArthur was also the subject of a spike in abuse after being yellow carded for stepping on Bukayo Saka against Arsenal in October. Researchers will also look at whether a spike took place when an incident that saw West Ham defender Kurt Zouma kicking and slapping his cat came to light, as that took place after the data was collected. How did the study work? As part of its preparation to regulate tech giants under new online safety laws, Ofcom teamed up with the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, to analyse more than 2.3 million tweets directed at Premier League footballers over the first five months of the 2021-22 season. The study created a new machine-learning technology to automatically assess whether tweets are abusive, while a team of experts also manually reviewed a random sample of 3,000 tweets. Of that sample, 57% were positive towards players, 27% were neutral and 12.5% were critical. The remaining 3.5% were abusive. Of the 2.3 million tweets analysed with the machine-learning tool, 2.6% contained abuse. "These stark findings uncover the extent to which footballers are subjected to vile abuse across social media," said Dr Bertie Vidgen, lead author of the report and head of online safety at the Alan Turing Institute. "While tackling online abuse is difficult, we can't leave it unchallenged. More must be done to stop the worst forms of content, to ensure that players can do their job without being subjected to abuse." What are the recommendations? The UK is set to introduce new laws aimed at making online users safer, while preserving freedom of expression, with rules for sites and apps such as social media, search engines and messaging platforms. "Social media firms needn't wait for new laws to make their sites and apps safer for users," said Ofcom's Bakhurst. "When we become the regulator for online safety, tech companies will have to be really open about the steps they're taking to protect users. We will expect them to design their services with safety in mind. "Supporters can also play a positive role in protecting the game they love. Our research shows the vast majority of online fans behave responsibly and, as the new season kicks off, we're asking them to report unacceptable, abusive posts whenever they see them." Twitter says it welcomes such research to help improve conversations on its platforms, while also pointing to a number of online abuse and safety features it has implemented to stop such posts reaching individuals. A Twitter spokesperson said: "We are committed to combating abuse and, as outlined in our Hateful Conduct Policy, we do not tolerate the abuse or harassment of people on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. "As acknowledged in the report, this type of research is only possible because our public API is open and accessible to all. However, our publicly-accessible API does not take into account the range of safeguards we put in place, so this does not completely reflect the user experience." Twitter said it had not seen the data, but claimed 50% of all "violative content" is found by its own processes to help the burden on an individual to report abuse, adding "we know there is still work to be done". European football's governing body, Uefa, last month pledged to work with social media platforms to tackle online abuse as part of a Respect campaign during the European Women's Championship. Other projects have included BBC Sport's Hate Won't Win campaign, alongside Sky Sports, while in April 2021 football clubs, players, athletes and a number of sporting bodies undertook a four-day boycott of social media in an attempt to tackle abuse and discrimination. With inputs from BBC

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Facebook, Google, Other Social Media Users Could Disable Content Algorithms in New US Proposal

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Russia, facing lags, turns to China to produce Sputnik shots

TAIPEI TAIWAN, May 3: Russia is turning to multiple Chinese firms to manufacture the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in an effort to speed up production as demand soars for its shot. Russia has announced three deals totaling 260 million doses with Chinese vaccine companies in recent weeks. It's a decision that could mean quicker access to a shot for countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa that have ordered Russia's vaccine, as the U.S. and the European Union focus mainly on domestic vaccination needs. Earlier criticism about Russia's vaccine have been largely quieted by data published in the British medical journal The Lancet that said large-scale testing showed it to be safe, with an efficacy rate of 91%. Yet, experts have questioned whether Russia can fulfill its pledge to countries across the world. While pledging hundreds of millions of doses, it has only delivered a fraction. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said demand for Sputnik V significantly exceeds Russia’s domestic production capacity. To boost production, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which bankrolled Sputnik V, has signed agreements with multiple drug makers in other countries, such as India, South Korea, Brazil, Serbia, Turkey, Italy and others. There are few indications, however, that manufacturers abroad, except for those in Belarus and Kazakhstan, have made any large amounts of the vaccine so far. Airfinity, a London-based science analytics company, estimates Russia agreed to supply some 630 million doses of Sputnik V to over 100 countries, with only 11.5 million doses exported so far. RDIF declined to disclose how many doses are going to other countries. Through April 27, less than 27 million two-dose sets of Sputnik V have been reportedly produced in Russia. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which has been in charge of international cooperation for Sputnik V, said in April it would produce 100 million doses in collaboration with Hualan Biological Bacterin Inc., in addition to an earlier deal announced in March for 60 million doses with Shenzhen Yuanxin Gene tech Co. The two deals are in addition to a deal announced last November with Tibet Rhodiola Pharmaceutical Holding Co, which had paid $9 million to manufacture and sell the Sputnik V vaccine in China. RDIF said in April the terms of the deal were for 100 million doses with a subsidiary company belonging to Tibet Rhodiola. Russia is “very ambitious and unlikely to meet their full targets,” said Rasmus Bech Hansen, founder and CEO of Airfinity. Working with China to produce Sputnik V could be a win-win situation for both Russia and China, he added. In recent years, Chinese vaccine companies have turned from largely making products for use domestically to supplying the global market, with individual firms gaining WHO preapproval for specific vaccines — seen as a seal of quality. With the pandemic, Chinese vaccine companies have exported hundreds of millions of doses abroad. Chinese vaccine makers have been quick to expand capacity and say they can meet China’s domestic need by the end of the year. “This is an acknowledgment of the Chinese vaccine manufacturers who can produce at volume,” said Helen Chen, head of pharmaceuticals LEK Consulting, strategy consultancy firm in Shanghai, in an email. However, none of the three Chinese companies have yet to start manufacturing Sputnik V. Tibet Rhodiola started constructing a factory in Shanghai at the end of last year and expects production to start in September, the company said at an annual meeting for investors last month. Tibet Rhodiola’s chairman Chen Dalin also said that after the successful technology transfer, they will start with an order of 80 million doses to sell back to Russia. An employee at the company declined to transfer a phone call request to the company's media department for comment. The timeline for the newest deals are also unclear. Hualan Bio was among the 10 largest vaccines manufacturers in China in 2019. Phone calls to Hualan Bio went unanswered. A spokeswoman for Shenzhen Yuanxing declined to say when the company will start production but said their order would not be for sale within China. RDIF had said the production will start this month. In spite of the delays, Russia’s vaccine diplomacy has made gains. From the outset, Russia, the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, aimed to distribute it globally. Within weeks of giving Sputnik V regulatory approval, RDIF started actively marketing it abroad, announcing multiple deals to supply the shot to other countries. It is so far winning the “public relations” battle, analysts said in a new report examining Russia and China's vaccine diplomacy from the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Russia has been able to build stronger diplomatic ties and in areas where it hasn’t been able to,” before, said Imogen Page-Jarrett, an analyst at EIU. “They have this window of opportunity while the US, E.U. and India are focusing on domestic and the rest of the world is crying out for a vaccine supply."

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