The inoculation is produced with an inactivated form of the virus.
Brazil’s sanitary regulator Anvisa on Monday (July 26, 2021) received a new request for the temporary authorization of the emergency use of a vaccine against COVID-19. This time, the request was sent by Chinese laboratory Sinopharm and presented by Blau Farmacêutica, representing the inoculation in Brazil.
Technology
The Sinopharm vaccine is produced with an inactivated form of the virus. The inoculation is administered in two doses, with a three to four month interval between the two. The product is recommended for people aged 18 and older, according to the data known so far.
“The development of the vaccine had no clinical studies conducted in Brazil, which is no obstacle to submitting the request for the authorization of the emergency use or registration with Anvisa. The request was carried out in countries like Argentina, Peru, the Arab Emirates, Egypt, and China,” Anvisa explained in a note.
In Brazil, the deadline for assessing the request does not include the time elapsed under a technical requirement status – when the laboratory in question needs to answer technical questions posed by the regulator as part of the process.
Zum zweiten Mal in diesem Jahr trafen sich hochrangige Diplomaten aus den USA und China. Wie beim letzten Mal wurde das Gespräch als „offen und direkt“ beschrieben.
Das bedeutet in „normaler Sprache“, dass der Tisch angeschlagen ist und die Fenster gezittert haben. Ziel des Treffens war, zumindest nach Ansicht der Amerikaner, nicht zu einer Einigung zu kommen, sondern beiden Seiten Gelegenheit zu geben, ihre Positionen zu klären, um Missverständnisse zu vermeiden.
Während auf diplomatischer Ebene Signale ausgetauscht werden, kommt es im wirtschaftlichen Bereich zum Showdown. In den Augen der chinesischen Machthaber steht viel auf dem Spiel, sie scheinen bereit zu sein, ihre erfolgreichen Unternehmen mit fester Hand wieder auf die Linie zu bringen, wenn sie sich zu sehr von Peking entfernen. Dass Börsenwerte in Milliardenhöhe in Rauch aufgehen, ist offenbar irrelevant. Das deutet darauf hin, dass für die chinesische Führung viel höhere Interessen auf dem Spiel stehen als der Gewinn ihrer Spitzenunternehmen.
Durch strategische Investitionen in Rohstoffe und Infrastruktur auf der ganzen Welt baut China stetig ein Netzwerk auf, das in der Lage sein wird, das Machtgleichgewicht in einer globalisierten Welt tiefgreifend zu stören. Die Volksrepublik wird ihr Gewicht nutzen, um die Zukunft neu zu gestalten. Und es wird seinen territorialen Einfluss unablässig ausbauen wollen, nach Hongkong kommt Taiwan.
Der frühere US-Präsident Trump sah die Gefahr, sein Nachfolger Biden ebenfalls, aber in geringerem Maße. Und wo ist die EU? Zu beschäftigt mit Streitereien mit seinen Nachbarn, Großbritannien, Russland, Weißrussland, Türkei. Und mit einem Klimaplan, der die EU verarmen lässt, aber ohne ernsthafte Auswirkungen auf das Problem auf globaler Ebene zu haben.
Es ist fünf vor zwölf, der Westen kann nicht einfach weiter mit China Handel treiben und seinen Expansionismus ignorieren. Dafür ist der Einsatz viel zu hoch.
Traditionell hätte Huawei die P50 Serie bereits im Frühjahr 2021 vorstellen sollen, doch das Image-Flaggschiff verspätete sich wegen der US-Blockade bei Chipsauslieferung seit 2018. Um 20.00 Uhr (Beijing) am 29. Juli 2021 kamen die P50 (Pro) Modelle endlich auf den Market in China.
Huawei P50 Pro Sammleredition mit Kirin 9000 und HMOS2
Im Vergleich zur Huawei Mate-Serie ist die P-Serie spezifisch für Foto- und Video-Spaß positioniert. Während P50 Geräte diesmal nur mit Qualcomm 888 Prozessoren ausgestattet werden, genießen P50 Pro Geräte weiter die Kirin 9000 Chips. Leider können die Kunden aus dem o.g. “politisch-technischen” Grund bei den beiden Modellen keine 5G-Funktion, zumindest beim ersten Warenverkauf.
In China sind momentan über 718.000 5G-Basestationen fertiggestellt worden. Ohne 5G-Funktion ist es wirklich schade. Jedoch sind die 5G-Tarife relativ teuer und für Privatnutzer momentan nicht als die notwenige Option. Langfristig gesehen ist 5G aber eine unverzichtbare Funktion, wenn man große Menge von Daten übertragen möchte, wie bei Video-Streaming und Spielen.
Die speziellen Vorteile der P50 Serie sind das neue Betriebssystem HarnomyOS für Konnektivität zu zahlreichen Geräten wie Smart-TVs, Audioboxen, Haushaltsgeräten, Sportgeräten, usw., und auch ihre Foto- und Video-Funktionen.
Das Modell P50 (Pro) besitzt einen riesengroßen Hinterkamerasatz aus einer 50 Millionen Pixel Primärfarbkamera (Farbe, Blende f/1,8, optische Bildstabilisierung OIS), und einer 40 Millionen Pixel Primärfarbkamera (Schwarzweiß, Blende f/1,6) und einer 13 Millionen Pixel Ultraweitwinkelkamera (f/2,2 .) Blende) und noch einer 64 Millionen Pixel lange Fokuskamera (f/3.5 Blende, OIS optische Bildstabilisierung). Es bedeute z. B., man könnte mit 20x Zoom aus 5 Meter Abstand ein Dokumentblatt ohne Problem einscannen, ODER aus Spaß den Mond fotografieren.
Die P50 (Pro) haben 66W Schnellaufladefunktion mit beigefügter Ladekabel und 50W kabelloser Aufladefunktion. Für Vollaufladung einer 4360mAh Batterie braucht es ca. 35 Minuten.
Ab dem Juli 2021 produziert SMICS für Huawei die Chips Kirin 710A mit 100% chinesischer 14nm-Verarbeitungstechnik. Voraussicht wird 2022/2023 die chinesische 7nm-Technik in der Fabrik eingesetzt.
On 30 March 2021, the joint WHO-China study was published, pointing out that transmission of the virus from animals to humans is the most reasonable explanation of the origins of the pandemic, and Wuhan’s laboratory leak is extremely unlikely. The result disappoints the United States who has given pressure to WHO for over a year to get a predefined conclusion that the COVID-19 had to land in Wuhan at the earliest, and it should have leaked from Wuhan’s laboratory.
On the same day, the United States published a joint statement signed by 13 countries including Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom, to demand a new and fast investigation on the source of COVID-19 in China.
On 15 July, under continuous political pressure, Tedros Adhanom Gherbreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, proposed to make a second investigation on the origins of COVID-19 based on the main hypothesis that China’s violation of laboratory procedures caused virus leakage.
Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasized three points. Before December 30 2019, the institute had not contacted, stored, or studied the COVID-19. The institute has never designed, manufactured, or leaked the COVID-19. So far, the staff and graduate students of the institute have maintained zero infection of the COVID-19, not like some foreign media reported that three people in the institute were infected, even without any firm evidence.
Peter Daszak, British consultant and public expert on disease ecology, in particular on zoonosis. He went to Wuhan this year to participate in the traceability research carried out by the WHO. In many interviews with CNN, he revealed that he has been working with the Wuhan laboratory for 15 years. He knows everything the lab does and has never seen its scientific researchers lie. There has not been any abnormal situation in the lab.
Marion Koopmans, Dutch virologist and scientific advisor of the WHO, questioned in an interview with the BBC that the United States has continued to hype the laboratory leak theory for nearly a year. If there is real evidence, The United States has a responsibility to share it. For her, about the possibility of laboratory leak, the answer is written in the WHO report.
Adam Rogers, scientific journalist at WIRED, and a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, pointed out sharply that the so-called laboratory leak theory is nothing more than a part of people using the uncertainty of science itself for political gain.
Herman Tiu Laurel, well-known political commentator in the Philippines, published an article entitled Open for Detrick for Global COVID-19 Origins Tracing. He pointed out that on January 26 2021, the US government issued a directive that banned the use of the term “Chinese virus”. At that time, the international community thought that the United States had finally woken up.
However, based on their interests, fickle American politicians suddenly resumed hyping conspiracy theories such as the “Wuhan laboratory leak COVID-19” at the end of May 2021, and ordered the so-called “deeper investigation”. But up to now, the US intelligence has been unable to provide any proof. How absurd is this kind of conspiracy theory? Australian virologist Danielle Anderson who worked in the Wuhan laboratory every day before said that “we went to dinners together… If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick – and I wasn’t…”
To this day, the source of the COVID-19 still cannot be confirmed, but experts and scientists all over the world agree that the place where the first case was reported is not necessarily the source of the virus. Anderson said that it is important to know that Italy, Spain, France, and even the United States themselves have found evidence of the earlier existence of the COVID-19:
Dr. Yves Cohen reported on 27 December 2019 that a case in France of suspected pneumonia actually had the coronavirus.
Biologist Gabrielle Sozzi of the Milan National Cancer Institute who reported in September 2019 that Italian blood samples taken in the Lombardi region showed Sars-CoV-2 virus antibodies.
The University of Barcelona reported that the Barcelona sewage sample, taken as early as March 2019, had revealed traces of novel coronavirus.
Significantly in March 2020, former U.S. CDC chief Robert Redfield admitted to a congressional hearing that many US flu cases turned out to be Covid-19 after post-mortem verifications. One year later, however, CDC chief Redfield turned around and claimed the virus came out of the Wuhan laboratory.
Herman Tiu Laurel stated in the article that China has opened up the city of Wuhan, the suspicious market, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the WHO expert group, indicating that China has nothing to hide. However, instead of inviting the WHO to investigate, the United States is actively drawing attention to China by proposing conspiracy theories such as the “Wuhan Laboratory Leakage” to divert the public’s attention and use blinding methods for Fort Detrick.
He believes that the United States has used political means to delay the completion of research on the COVID-19, and is not guilty of giving up vaccine patents. At the same time, it has falsely promised to provide millions of vaccines, but in fact the vaccine has never been completely delivered. This is also extremely unfair to a developing country like the Philippines.
Instead of finding a way to kill the coronavirus, the White House has never stopped making and spreading the political virus to achieve self-interest and contain China’s development over the past year. Calling COVID-19 the “China virus,” the White House instigated US officials to put the blame on China. There was even a 57-page strategy document that taught US politicians to slander China with the pandemic. The US government made hypes of the so-called “lab leak theory,” and launched a notorious intelligence operation to force the “lab leak” on China. It also resorted to “origin sourcing terrorism,” coercing the WHO and some scientists to give up objectivity. As a result, the second stage of the origin tracing work is deviating from science-based principles.
In the past year, the political virus made by Washington has become a public enemy of the world. Deluded by the rumors fabricated by the US, Asian hate started in the country and other parts of the world, which was indicated by an increasing number of hate crimes committed against Asian people.
The US made lies about the pandemic to slander China, because some Americans are not willing to accept a growing China. It seems that Washington has forgotten that it is facing the world’s second largest economy that is resolute and competent to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and is committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind and providing new opportunities for the world with its own development.
“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” The rumors fabricated and spread by the US can neither blind the people nor cover the facts, and are destined to fail.
(Source: the U.S. Department of State, NBC News, SAGE Journals, Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection, Universitat de Barcelona, World Bank)
Er führte aus: „China und die Vereinigten Staaten, die beiden großen Länder, die sich in ihrer Geschichte, ihrer Kultur, ihren Gesellschaftssystemen und ihrem Entwicklungsstand unterscheiden, treten in eine neue Runde der gegenseitigen Erkundung, des Verständnisses und der Anpassung ein.“
Presse am 09. Feb. 2021 in Beijing
Chinesische Diplomaten werden seit 3 Jahren durch westliche Medien, vor allem die amerikanischen Nachrichtenagenturen, oft als “Kriegswolf” vorgeworfen. Dazu hat QIN Gang am 09 Feb. 2021 eine Rückantwort zu der deutschen Medien: Wenn wir uns die grundlosen und schamlosen Verleumdungen und Angriffe durch einige Länder und Personen gegen China ansehen, fürchte ich, dass sie nicht als “Wölfe” bezeichnet werden können, sondern einfach “böse Wölfe”.
Beim Treffen zwischen der US-Vizaußenministerin Sherman und ihrem chinesischen Amtskollegen XIE Feng am 26. Juli 2021 in Tianjing tauchte das selbe Problem wieder auf, dass die USA Angst haben, ihre Dominanz der Welt und Hegemonie zu verlieren, während China sich schneller entwickelt.
XIE Feng hat geklärt, die 3-Teile-Methode der USA über „Konkurrenz, Kooperation und Konfrontation“ sei eine „Täuschungstaktik“ zur Eindämmung bzw. Unterdrückung gegen China. Wenn die USA Vorteile von China erwerben wollten, dann kooperierten sie mit China. Mit Überlegenheitssektoren wollten sie Abkoppelung, Blockade und Sanktionen gegen China anstreben. Um die Volksrepublik einzudämmen, scheuten die USA nicht, Konfrontationen und Konflikte aufzuhetzen.
Tianjing Treffen zwischen Sherman und XIE Feng am 26. Juli 2021
Gegenüber hat Sherman nochmal China wegen der so genannten Probleme über “Tibet, Xinjiang, Hongkong usw.” angegriffen, die zu den internen Angelegenheiten Chinas gehören. Zusätzlich betonte Sherman die “internationale Ordnung”, die lediglich den Interessen der USA dient, ohne dass die USA ihre eigenen systematischen Probleme lösen können oder versuchen, zu lösen.
Under the severe situation of the global COVID-19 epidemic, more and more mutant strains have shown up and dominated some areas. The mutation of the virus is essentially a change in the genome, and the source of the mutation of COVID-19 is the “error” in the replication and amplification of the virus. As COVID-19 continues to spread among the population, every replication and proliferation inevitably brings the risk of mutation.
Variants worthy of attention and discussion often have several characteristics: increased transmission capacity, increased risk of secondary infection due to immune escape or decreased effectiveness of vaccines, decreased effectiveness of existing treatment drugs, and a certain position in the epidemic, that is, more cases of infection.
At present, 4 new variants have the greatest threat to humans, namely Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants.
Alpha: once the mainstream variant
Scientists first measured the genome sequence of the Alpha variant in November 2020, and the sample used was from September, so the Alpha variant is likely to expand between the summer and autumn of 2020.
The most important feature of the Alpha variant is its strong transmission power. A study published in AAAS Public Health Emergency Collection shows that the transmission speed of the Alpha variant is 40-80% higher than that of the original virus strain. According to the Weekly Epidemiological and Operational updates from the WHO as of 26 July, Alpha variant has been found in 178 countries and regions around the world.
Although the spread is fast, fortunately Alpha does not significantly affect the effectiveness of the vaccine. For example, the Public Health England recently published a vaccine effectiveness tracking report in the New England Journal of Medicine. After receiving two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the effectiveness of protecting against Alpha variant against symptomatic COVID-19 was 93.7%, while the the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 74.5%, which is very consistent with the effectiveness data obtained in Phase III clinical trial of the vaccine and there was no Alpha variant at that time.
Beta: the most severe variant of immune escape
In the samples collected in South Africa in May 2020, scientists discovered the Beta variant and it soon became the main virus strain in South Africa. Beta variant has been recorded in 123 countries and regions around the world, according to the WHO.
But unlike Alpha variant’s dominant position in many countries, Beta variant has not shown a leading trend in the proportion of infection cases in most countries and regions. For example, the Beta variant detected in the United Kingdom and the United States accounted for 1% or even lower of infection case level.
The Beta variant has the highest degree of immune escape among known mutations. The immune escape of the coronavirus mutant strain has two major features in reality. One is that the human immunity obtained during the previous infection with the original virus strain is no longer reliable against the mutant strain, and the risk of secondary infection appears; the other is that the current vaccines are all based on the original virus strain design, and immune escape will threaten the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Novavax’s Phase II clinical trial in South Africa showed that the natural immunity of survivors has limited effectiveness against the Beta variant, only 49.4%, which is far lower than the results of the Phase III clinical trial of the vaccine in North America, around 90%. This is most likely to be affected by the immune escape of the Beta variant.
Gamma: the driving force behind the South American epidemic
At the end of 2020, Brazil broke out in the country’s second wave of epidemics, and it also exposed the problem of secondary infections among survivors, from which Scientists discovered the Gamma variant.
Gamma derives new mutations while having same features like Beta, making Gamma likely to have a faster transmission speed and the risk of immune escape at the same time. A Brazilian study supported by the Medical Research Council-So Paulo Research Foundation shows that the Gamma strain spreads 1.7-2.4 times faster in the local area than the non-Gamma strains, and it can also avoid the immune protection brought by 21%-46% of past infections.
The Gamma variant has also quickly replaced other virus strains in Brazil, becoming the mainstream mutant strain of local infections, and has continued to spread to neighboring countries, becoming the most important coronavirus strain in many countries in South America. Gamma strains are now recorded in 75 countries and regions around the world.
Delta: new variable in the global epidemic
Although Alpha, Beta, and Gamma all have a huge impact on the global epidemic, the biggest shadow of the global COVID-19 pandemic is the Delta variant that has emerged since the outbreak in India in April 2021.
The genetic sequence of Delta was uploaded to the COVID-19 genome sequence database as early as October 2020, so this COVID-19 branch did not only appear when the Indian epidemic broke out in April. However, since the outbreak in India, the Delta mutant strain is spreading globally at an alarming rate, leading to repeated outbreaks in many countries.
As of 26 July, according to the Weekly Epidemiological Update of the WHO, Delta variant has been recorded in 113 countries and regions around the world. What is even more frightening is that Delta has become the most important mutant strain in many countries within a short period. For example, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Delta has accounted for 62.7% of new cases in the United States, completely replacing the dominant position of the Alpha variant.
According to research published in the Lancet, Delta’s transmission power is 150% higher than that of the Alpha variant, which spreads the fastest before. The R0 may be between 5-8, that is, an infected person can infect 5-8 people and the R0 of the most primitive virus strain of the coronavirus was about 2.5.
Fortunately, although Delta has an impact on the effectiveness of the vaccine, the immune escape observed so far is not serious. According to the latest follow-up study by Public Health England, the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after two doses of the vaccine is 88% against Delta, which is not much lower than the 93.7% of the Alpha variant. Similarly, after two injections of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the effectiveness of Delta is 67%, which is not much different from 74.5% for Alpha. But a very prominent problem is that if only taking one dose, whether it is Pfizer or AstraZeneca, the protective effect is only 30.7%, much lower than the 48.7% for Alpha.
Although the emergence of multiple variants do have a negative impact on the epidemic, the existing vaccines are still effective. According to WHO regulations, if there is a mutation that completely immune escapes, it will be classified as a variant of high consequence. Fortunately, no COVID-19 variant has such serious consequences. And reducing the occurrence of variants through vaccination or public health measures is the key to preventing mutations that cause serious consequences.
(Source: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New England Journal of Medicine, AAAS Public Health Emergence Collection)
Nancy Pelosi vertritt die Region San Francisco im Kongress, seit sie 1987 in das Repräsentantenhaus gewählt wurde, und stieg in Washington DC, auf. 2003 wählte die demokratische Fraktion sie als Minderheitsführerin aus und sie wurde die erste Frau, diese Stellung zu halten. Sie übte den Job vier Jahre lang aus, bis sie 2011 als erste weibliche Sprecherin des Hauses erneut Geschichte schrieb. Da dieses Amt von einem Mitglied der Regierungspartei der Kammer wahrgenommen wird, war sie von 2007 bis 2011 und von 2019 bis heute Sprecherin. Von 2003-2007 und 2011-2019 war sie Minderheitsführerin.
Pelosi trägt in Washington eine Reihe von Hüten. Sie ist Vorsitzende und Verwaltungschefin des Hauses, Vorsitzende der Mehrheitspartei und noch immer Vertreterin ihres Heimatkreises. Sie ist nach Vizepräsidentin Kamala Harris an zweiter Stelle in der Nachfolge des Präsidenten.
Hier ist ein genauerer Blick auf das Leben und Vermögen von Nancy Pelosi. Als Haussprecherin ist sie das bestbezahlte Mitglied des Kongresses.
Geburtsdatum: 26. März 1940
Nettovermögen: 120 Millionen US-Dollar (umgerechnet auf cira 102 Millionen EUR)
Haupteinnahmequellen: US-Kongressgehalt
Karriere-Highlights: Erste Sprecherin des Repräsentantenhauses
Als erfahrene Kongressabgeordnete, die den 12. Bezirk Kaliforniens vertritt, ist Pelosi in der Politik verwurzelt. Als Tochter des ehemaligen Bürgermeisters von Baltimore und des fünfjährigen Kongressabgeordneten von Maryland begannen ihre politischen Ambitionen, als sie 1962 unbezahlte Praktikantin bei einem demokratischen Senator war.
Trotz ihrer jahrzehntelangen Tätigkeit als Beamtin bringt ihr Vermögen Pelosi laut “Center for Responsive Politics” auf Platz 6 der Liste der reichsten Kongressabgeordneten im Jahr 2020. Während ihr Jahresgehalt 223.500 US-Dollar (circa 189.382,72 EUR) beträgt, stammt der größte Teil ihres Vermögens aus dem Geschäft ihres Mannes und dessen Investitionen.
Nancy Pelosis Ehemann und Vermögen
Der Großteil von Pelosis Vermögen wird dem Erfolg ihres Ehemanns Paul Pelosi, einem Risikokapitalgeber und Immobilienmagnaten zugeschrieben, den sie 1963 heiratete. Seine Firma “Financial Leasing Services” hat eine Erfolgsbilanz bei “klugen” Investitionen in Unternehmen wie Facebook, Apple und die Walt Disney Co.
Laut einem Bericht des mit dem Pulitzer-Preis ausgezeichneten Journalisten Glenn Greenwald vom Juli 2021 hat Pelosis Familie in den letzten zwei Jahren mehr als 33 Millionen US-Dollar (ca. 28 Millionen EUR) an Technologieaktien gehandelt.
Zu den gemeinsamen Immobilien des Paares gehören ein Anwesen in Nordkaliforniens atemberaubendem Weinland, ein Haus in San Francisco und eine Eigentumswohnung in Washington D.C.
On 23 July 2021, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games finally began after being postponed for a year. Tokyo’s fate with the Olympics can be traced back to the 1920s, the Olympics have implicated Japanese society for nearly a hundred years.
In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake almost destroyed the entire Tokyo. The restoration of municipal construction was extremely urgent, but because of this, Japan was desperate to find a way, such as bidding for the 1940 Olympic Games, to show the world how effective reconstruction the nation could achieve. At the same time, 1940 meant the 2600 year of the Emperor’s Year.
From the perspective of the development process of the Olympic Games itself, what is regarded as a major event in the international community or an important display of a country’s national strength was started from the 1936 Berlin Olympics. That was the first time a country used the power of a nation to host the Olympics. Some of the modern Olympic formats that people are familiar with now, such as the grand opening ceremony, and the player admission ceremony were all invented in the Berlin Olympics and were emulated by future generations, which undoubtedly had a direct impact on the Japanese’s positioning of its Olympics.
The first round of bidding for the 1940 Olympics included Rome, Dublin, Helsinki, Buenos Aires, and other European and American cities. Japan used diplomatic relations to negotiate with Mussolini to withdraw Rome from the bid. Therefore, when the second Italian-Ethiopian war broke out in 1935, Japan publicly supported Italy. After that, Japan also promised to bear the cost in full. In the end, on 29 July 1936, the day before the opening of the Berlin Olympics, Tokyo defeated Helsinki by 37:24 and won the right to host the 1940 Olympics.
However, starting from the 1930s, Japan had already launched a war of aggression against China, some Japanese senior officials preferred to focus on war instead of embezzling materials to host the Olympics. Plus, Japan’s identity as an aggressor faced criticism and condemnation from international public opinion. As a result, in 1938, Japan had to return the hosting right to the International Olympic Committee.
Soon WWII broke out in Europe, though the 1940 Olympics were never held, it became the beginning of Japan’s obsession with the Olympics. Japan was not able to host the Olympic Games until 1964. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics symbolized Japan’s defeat in the war, achieving rapid development, returning to the international family, and proclaiming to the world that it had become a significant economic power. For example, in 1964, the Shinkansen in Japan was launched 10 days before the opening of the Olympic Games; Japan joined the OECD as a quasi-developed country, and Japan also opened up overseas tourism so ordinary Japanese people can travel freely overseas.
After the 1964 Olympics, in 1970, Japan hosted the Osaka World Expo and became the second-largest economy in the world. For the Japanese, the 1964 Olympic Games are full of positive memories. Following the holding of the Olympic Games, ordinary Japanese families began to enter the middle class. By the 1970s and 1980s, the economic pride of Japanese nationals became particularly prominent. Under the lifetime employment system, about 90% of the people considered themselves the middle class.
This point of view brings complicated feelings when compared with the current Japanese society and the Japanese government. Japanese politician Shinzo Abe was a teenager in 1964. His personal life experience was accompanied by a period of tremendous social change. When he became the prime minister, bidding for the Tokyo Olympics again in 2013 was to show the post-disaster reconstruction of the 3.11 earthquake.
However, no one expected a global outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, and Abe himself resigned in May this year. It was originally predicted that the Olympic ticket revenue could reach around 0.69 billion euros. As the epidemic has not been effectively controlled by the Japanese government for a long time, most of the competitions are not allowed to have audiences. In addition to ticket loss, there is also sponsorship loss. Most of the Olympic sponsors’ rights and interests are reflected in the venues. Normally, each venue is full of audiences, but if there are no viewers, it can only be broadcast on the TV screen. The sponsor rights have almost been wiped out. Of course, there are even greater economic losses in industries surrounding the Olympics and tourism, and the costs invested by a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises cannot be recovered.
Another important point is that there has been little response from the political circles. The only foreign head of state who presented is French President Macron because the host city of the next Olympic Games is Paris. Other major countries, like Japan’s most important ally, the United States, were scheduled to be attended by the first lady; South Korean President Moon Jae-in has announced the cancellation of his visit to Japan a few days ago, even involving diplomatic disputes during the period. Even the former Japanese Prime Minister Abe, who advocated the Olympic bid, did not attend the opening ceremony. As the honorary president of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Emperor Naruhito of Japan participated in the opening ceremony alone to announce the opening of the Olympics, but other members of the royal family did not participate in all Olympic-related activities.
The current atmosphere of the entire Japanese society cannot be compared with that in 1964, and the dissatisfaction of the Japanese people is still rising. Due to the impact of the Delta variant, the number of confirmed cases in Tokyo continues to increase in recent days. According to the current set of epidemic prevention and control measures in Japan, an uncontrollable situation is expected. For example, foreign sports teams lost their way at Narita Airport and mixed into ordinary passenger queues; Ugandan athletes “disappeared” from the hotel where they were staying; not to mention that many foreign Olympic delegations were diagnosed after they arrived in Japan.
Japan also imposed restrictions on foreign journalists’ reporting activities. A group of British and American journalists protested, claiming that the freedom of reporting was restricted.
In addition to the impact of COVID-19, the scandal that was exposed by the directing team at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games has repeatedly occupied the headlines of Japanese media. For example, in February, the chairman of the Japanese Olympic Organizing Committee Mori Yoshiro made a sexist speech against females. Even the main Olympic venue itself is full of controversy. The plan presented in the 2013 Olympic bid was the plan won by the top international architect Zaha Hadid in the international bidding conference in 2012. Later, it was claimed that the cost was too expensive, requiring 1.92 billion euros. At the same time, Japanese domestic designers were unwilling to lose the chance. Finally, in July 2015, Abe abandoned the original project plan and made a re-tender. Such public bid destruction from a nation causes huge controversy in the international community.
The Japanese government wants to use the Olympic Games to emphasize that the goal of post-311 earthquake recovery is impossible to achieve. Also, when applying for the Olympics, Abe vowed to say that the Fukushima nuclear disaster is under control, and it has now been proved that there is a certain gap between Japan’s international commitments and its practical capabilities.
This time, the Olympics not only fails to demonstrate Japan’s national strength and amaze the world but also leaves countless jokes to the world.
(Source: Xinhua, DW, the Guardian, the New York Times, BBC)
Polysilicon, the main source of materials in the production of solar cells and semiconductor devices. On 12 May 2021, Bernreuter Research, a reputable German research company focusing on the global polysilicon market, published its latest ranking of the top 10 polysilicon producers in the world and pointed out that though over two decades, the polysilicon industry has dominated by 7 manufacturers running 10 polysilicon plants in the United States, Germany, Italy, and Japan, in 2022, the world’s 4 largest polysilicon manufacturers will all be based in China.
Back in 2004 when the global photovoltaic industry was booming, photovoltaic-grade polysilicon materials were a bottleneck restricting the development of China’s photovoltaic manufacturing industry. At that time China only had 1 domestic-based polysilicon manufacturer, Emei Semiconductor, that existed negligibly in the industry with an extremely tiny annual production.
However, as early as the 1950s and 1960s, China had already begun to study semiconductors. By the end of the 1970s, there were more than 10 polysilicon production companies in the country located in Shanghai, Chongqing, Sichuan, Jiangxi, and other places, but the key production technology had been controlled in Germany, the United States, Japan, and other countries. China was unable to achieve breakthroughs for decades.
Around 2004-2005, the global photovoltaic market began to develop rapidly. However, due to the limited output of companies that could produce polysilicon materials, and the semiconductor industry already had a mature market at that time, silicon material manufacturers gave priority to ensuring the needs of semiconductor companies before turning to photovoltaics.
To solve the supply problem, Chinese company GCL New Energy bought reduction furnaces from a German private company that provides equipment for Wacker. The reduction can be used to obtain pure high-grade polysilicon from the purified trichlorosilane, a step that Chinese technology couldn’t achieve at that time, In 2007, using these furnaces, GCL New Energy built the first polysilicon production line with an annual capacity of 1,500 tons in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. When the second 1,500-ton per year production line was put into operation in 2008, China could already produce and improve the reduction furnace.
Before the global financial crisis in 2008, GCL expanded its production successively and connected three production lines with a capacity of 5,000 tons per year, with a total scale of 18,000 tons per year, making it the largest polysilicon producer in Asia. Now, GCL has carried out a large number of independent innovations in key technologies such as hydrochlorination, de-disproportionation, high-efficiency chemical vapor deposition, and polysilicon ultra-large-scale clean production technology to completely recycle all materials. Compared with the processes adopted by Hemlock, OCI, and WACKER, GCL’s process is shorter, the material and energy utilization rate is higher, and it not only greatly reduces production costs but also achieves clean production and green manufacturing of polysilicon with zero-emission.
At present, whether Chinese factories in Jiangsu or Xinjiang, the equipment localization rate has exceeded 95%. Compared with imported equipment, China’s domestic equipment procurement and subsequent operation and maintenance costs are more than 30% lower, and the overall technical level is already in an international leading position.
On 23 June, the U.S. Department of Commerce added 5 Chinese companies to the Entity List, including Hoshine Silicon Industry, Xinjiang Daqo New Energy, Xinjiang East Hope Nonferrous Metals, Xinjiang GCL New Energy Material, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in the name of violations and abuses of the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. Behind this excuse, the real reason is that some of the companies produce monocrystalline silicon and polysilicon that are used in solar panel production, and Xinjiang is an important production area for polysilicon production in the world.
Among the former largest manufacturers, Wacker, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo Titanium, and Hemlock already began to produce massive amounts of polysilicon since 1959, the rest followed the pace since the mid-1970s. And Japanese companies have deep connections with the United States. The latter actively transferred advanced technology to Japan in the 1950s, accelerating the development and increasing the production of semiconductor sectors and other electronic industries in Japan. To contain Japan’s technology development, in 1985, the US initiated a Section 301 case over alleged dumping of Japanese electronic products to regain market share in the global semiconductor industry.
Therefore, it is not the first time that the U.S. finds reasons to contain the production of polysilicon in other countries, but when the U.S. did so to Japan, the polysilicon was mainly used for semiconductor, and now, China uses it for photovoltaic which the U.S. already develops behind China.
In the future, some countries led by the United States will inevitably strengthen the containment of China’s polysilicon and photovoltaic industries to achieve technological hegemony. However, China’s polysilicon production has undergone severe technical blockades and has achieved technological breakthroughs to reach the world’s leading level through efforts. China is not afraid of and is used to dealing with external pressures, and it will always move forward courageously.
(Source: Bernreuter Research, Global Times, Center for Strategic & International Studies)
An den letzten drei Tagen wurde die chinesische Provinz Henan, insbesondere ihre Städte Zhengzhou, Xinxiang usw., durch das Hochwasser aus dem Huanghe schwer betroffen. Bis zum 23. Juli 2021 sind über 55 Menschen ums Leben gekommen und mehrere dutzende verschwunden. Alleine in der Stadt Zhengzhou sind die privaten Autos in einem Wert von über 1 Milliarde RMB (umgerechnet auf circa 130 Millionen EUR) total verschrottet. Am gleichen Tag des 20. Juli war die PLA unterwegs zu den Orten, die von der Flut betroffen sind, um den Menschen zu helfen.
TOPSHOT – Cars sit in floodwaters after heavy rains hit the city of Zhengzhou in China’s central Henan province on July 21, 2021. – – China OUT (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Hunderttausende chinesische Firmen haben gespendet, von dem Großkonzern Alibaba mit 250 Millionen RMB (ca. 33 Millionen EUR) bis zu den unbekannten Einzelunternehmen mit 1.000 RMB (ca. 130 EUR).
Darunter hat der Schuhhersteller ERKE aus der Stadt Xiamen der Fujian Provinz die Hilfsmitteln, im Wert von 50 Millionen RMB (ca. 6,50 Million EUR), wie Trinkwasser, Schnellnudeln, Kekse, usw., als Spende nach Provinz Henan per Express geliefert.
Gegenüber zeigten seine Fans dem Unternehmer unglaubliche Unterstützung. In einer Stunde am 22. Juli 2021 hat die Firma ERKE einen Umsatz von 18 Millionen RMB (ca. 2,4 Millionen EUR) schaffen können.
Bei Not und Unglück zeigen die Chinesen jedesmal die Kraft der Volkssolidarität und Sympathie, während die PLA immer für das Volk da ist.
