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Serie: Verlieben Sie sich in China – TU LOU

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Für diese erste Einladung zu einer Reise, bei der sich die LHCH von Europäern leiten lässt, die wirklich bereits in China waren, haben wir die Ehre, Michèle Koltz-Chedid, Malerin und Fotografin, Tochter des großen französischen Schriftstellers Andrée Chedid, zu begrüßen.

DIE GÄSTE * DES FUJIAN

土楼

Die Erbauer des TU LOU

Sie glauben mir das vielleicht nicht, aber es gibt in China eine Region in der Provinz FUJIAN, wo alte kaiserliche Damen seit jeher in auf der Erde stehenden Ufos leben!

Allerdings heißen diese Behausungen dort „TULOU“!

Ich lüge Sie nicht an: Ich war im Frühjahr 2009 dort ** und ich träume davon, wieder dahin zu reisen!

Es handelt sich um riesige Wohnhäuser, die meisten von ihnen kreisförmig, und einige stammen noch aus dem 17. Jahrhundert.

Die Wände bestehen aus verdichteter Erde, die mit Kalk, Sand, Reis und Bambus verstärkt ist.

Das Dach aus grauen Terrakottaziegeln deckt nur den äußeren Rand des Gebäudes ab, sodass man den gesamten Innenraum auch von ganz weit oben einsehen kann: einen kleinen Tempel in der Mitte und Holzböden rundherum, von denen jeder eine bestimmte Funktion hat. (Lagerung von Getreide, Reinigung von Kleidung, Mahlzeiten, Schlafzimmer usw.)

Alles ist wunderschön, die Landschaft, die Gebäude und ihre Bewohner, die „HAKKA“.

Schön und friedlich und man kann dort noch von Tee und Getreide leben!

Wir bieten Ihnen eine Handvoll kleiner, fein gerollter Kugeln an: Den „Guanyin-Frühlingstee“.

Man wird Ihnen stolz die bunten Plakate mit Maos Flagge zeigen, und man wird Ihnen sogar den Eindruck vermitteln, dass er noch lebt, die Zeit ist hier stehen geblieben! Aber es kommt nicht in Frage, eines dieser Plakate wegzuwerfen, denn dass sie an der Wand hängen, ist ein Zeichen der Loyalität.

Die jüngeren Generationen besuchen ihre alten Verwandten, die fast als einzige dort leben.

Wir wollen die Namen dieser Kunstschätze auflisten, ohne sie aber alle zu nennen: ZHENGCHENGLO in Hukeng.

Der TIANLUOKENG-Komplex im Landkreis Nanping, mit den Tulou HUAYUAN, HEGUI, SE CAI YI TONG (dies sind die meistfotografierten), GAOBEI Tulou *** („der König der Tulou“), bestehend aus mehreren Gebäuden: CHENGQI LO, SHIZE LO (wo wir den beiden Schönheiten von 86 und 85 Jahren begegnet sind), QIAFU LO, WU YUN LO (Ende der Ming-Zeit!).

Und wenn man großes Glück hat, kann man ein paar Nächte in einer kleinen Klosterzelle verbringen, im kleinen Tulou des Hotels „Qingde“, wo auch die Küche exquisit ist!

Michèle Koltz-Chedid
* „Hakka“ wird als „Gast“ übersetzt
** 2008 von der Unesco als „Weltkulturerbe der Menschheit“ aufgeführt.
*** Yongding, im Südwesten von Fujian
Anmerkung der Redaktion: Bauwerke des Volks der Hakka gibt es auch in anderen Provinzen Chinas: Hunan, Jiangxi und Guangdong.
Urheberrecht für die Fotos: Liu Li

Wir identifizieren neue Potenziale, entwickeln sie und setzen sie um

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DAS WIRKLICHE CHINA KENNENLERNEN – Das Europäische Institut für Asien-Studien (EIAS)

Da in diesem Jahr der 45. Jahrestag der Aufnahme diplomatischer Beziehungen zwischen der EU und China begangen wird, erörtert und reflektiert der EIAS-Geschäftsführer Axel Goethals in einem Interview mit der LHCH den aktuellen Stand der Dinge sowie die Herausforderungen und Chancen in der Beziehung zwischen den beiden Regionen.

Können Sie uns etwas über das EIAS und Ihre Arbeit erzählen?

Das EIAS wurde 1989 als Institut für politische Forschung gegründet. Zu unseren Mitarbeitern gehören eine Reihe von Personen, die seit vielen Jahren und in verschiedenen Regionen mit Asien zu tun haben, mit Ostasien, Südostasien, Südasien und Zentralasien. Unsere Arbeit ist besonders interessant, weil wir der Meinung sind, dass ein Think Tank „bahnbrechend“ sein sollte, das heißt, dass er neue und langfristige Möglichkeiten der Zusammenarbeit in den Beziehungen zwischen der EU und Asien identifizieren sollte. Darüber hinaus identifizieren wir diese neuen Möglichkeiten nicht nur, sondern wir entwickeln sie auch und setzen sie um. Wir sind der Meinung, dass ein Think Tank sowohl bahnbrechend in Bezug auf Ideen sein als auch diese praktisch umsetzen sollte, sonst verkommt er zur Fachsimpelei.

Der Schwerpunkt des EIAS lag schon immer auf Ostasien und auch auf China. Tatsächlich haben sich viele beim EIAS tätige Leute seit den 1960er und 1970er Jahren mit Asien beschäftigt (mich eingeschlossen). Mein erster Besuch in China fand in den 70er Jahren statt, und seitdem habe ich die Region häufig besucht. Ich muss sagen, dass wir in China in den letzten 50 Jahren enorme Erfolge beobachtet haben. Natürlich ist nichts vollkommen, und es gibt noch viel Raum für Verbesserungen, aber das gilt auch für Europa.

Wie sehen Sie die Beziehungen zwischen der EU und China?

Ich denke, es lassen sich zwischen der EU und China viele Parallelen ziehen. Die EU an sich ist eine sehr gute Initiative, aber wir haben auch noch einen langen Weg vor uns. Allerdings gibt es in der EU immer die Tendenz, anderen Ländern zu sagen, wie sie sich verhalten oder was sie besser machen sollen. Ich glaube, wir haben zu Hause genug Themen, die vorrangig behandelt werden sollten. Deshalb sollten wir uns zuerst auf uns selbst konzentrieren, wie z.B. auf das gute Funktionieren der EU, sowohl politisch, sozial als auch wirtschaftlich, bevor wir anderen sagen, was sie tun sollen.

Was China betrifft, so hat das Land einen anderen Ansatz und ein anderes System. Eine wesentliche Beobachtung ist, dass wir in den letzten 50 Jahren einen großen Aufschwung der gesamten Gesellschaft erlebt haben. Es bleibt noch viel zu tun, aber die Ergebnisse sind recht beeindruckend.

Angesichts der zunehmend angespannten Beziehungen zwischen den USA und China ist es nicht Sache der EU, ein bestimmtes Land einem anderen vorzuziehen. Wir sollten in der Beziehung zu China unseren eigenen, europäischen Ansatz entwickeln und nicht vergessen, dass die EU für Peking sowohl der größte Markt als auch der größte Handelspartner bleibt.

Die Tatsache, dass sich die EU aus 27 unterschiedlichen Mitgliedsstaaten zusammensetzt – jeder mit seiner eigenen Stimme, während die EU als einheitlicher Block agiert – kann im Vergleich zu anderen globalen Hauptakteuren eher verwirrend oder schwach erscheinen. Diese Vielfalt der Stimmen kann jedoch auch eine Stärke sein. Im Umgang mit der EU sollte China besonders darauf achten, mit der EU als Block zu verhandeln, und nicht den Fehler machen, mit den Mitgliedsstaaten einzeln zu verhandeln. Dies würde möglicherweise zu einer negativen Wahrnehmung in Brüssel führen, wo China dann vielleicht als Land wahrgenommen wird, das ein anderes Spiel spielt. Die EU ist ihrerseits darum bemüht, keine Abkommen mit den chinesischen Provinzen statt mit der Zentralregierung abzuschließen, und sie verlangt daher von China das gleiche. Wenn China mit der EU Geschäfte machen will, ist es wichtig, dass es sein Augenmerk weiterhin auf die EU richtet.

Was sind Ihrer Meinung nach die Prioritäten in der Beziehung zwischen der EU und China während der deutschen Ratspräsidentschaft der Europäischen Union?

Der EU-China-Gipfel in Leipzig wurde verschoben, stattdessen fand am Montag, den 14. September, ein virtuelles Treffen statt. Aber ein virtuelles Treffen auf dieser Ebene kann niemals ein reales Treffen ersetzen, und wir hoffen, dass noch während der deutschen Präsidentschaft ein persönliches Gipfeltreffen in Leipzig stattfinden kann. Auch wenn die Präsidentschaft in der zweiten Jahreshälfte immer etwas kürzer ist als in der ersten (wegen der Sommer- und der Weihnachtspause), enthält die deutsche Agenda einige wichtige Punkte zu China:

1)    Die Notwendigkeit, das umfassende Investitionsabkommen (CAI) zwischen der EU und China zum Abschluss zu bringen. Es wäre ein sehr wichtiger Schritt, wenn das CAI während der deutschen Ratspräsidentschaft abgeschlossen werden könnte, da es für beide Seiten eine bedeutende Vereinbarung ist.

2)    Vorantreiben der EU-China-Agenda 2025: Diese Strategie ist längerfristig angelegt und behandelt Themen wie gute Regierungsführung, Transparenz, fairer Wettbewerb, Gegenseitigkeit usw.

Aufgrund der neuen Spannungen zwischen den USA und China besteht die Möglichkeit, Abkommen zwischen der EU und China abzuschließen, die einen soliden Rahmen schaffen sollen, auf den sich die Geschäftswelt verlassen kann. Im Geschäftsleben unterscheiden sich das chinesische Wirtschaftsmodell, die Denkweise und der Ansatz Chinas von dem in der EU. Deshalb ist es wichtig, dass wir Europäer uns bemühen, die chinesische Vorgehensweise zu verstehen, anstatt sie zu kritisieren oder anzuprangern. Insgesamt wäre es bereits eine große Leistung, wenn während der deutschen Ratspräsidentschaft diese beiden oben genannten Hauptpunkte erfolgreich abgeschlossen werden könnten.  

Sollte die EU im Umgang mit China wirtschaftliche und politische Fragen trennen?

Ich denke, die EU sollte sich auf ihre eigene Agenda konzentrieren, so wie die Vereinigten Staaten ihre eigene Agenda haben. Wir sind als Block stark genug und wirtschaftlich klug, und so brauchen wir keine Angst vor uns selbst zu haben. Wir sollten im Umgang mit China politische und wirtschaftliche Fragen trennen und dabei die innenpolitischen Errungenschaften berücksichtigen, die wir seit 1945 erreicht haben – auf beiden Seiten. Die EU und China sind natürliche Partner, und als solche sollten wir uns auf die positiven und konstruktiven Seiten konzentrieren.

Islamic Separatism v.s. Republic Values, Which Needs Be Corrected In Europe?

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The terror attack happened to a French history teacher, Samuel Paty, on 16th October, causing grave repercussions for entire France as the murder transmits a sign that some Muslims refuse to accept and also try to twist or even eliminate one of the core values, freedom, of France as in their understandings, religion superiors everything and everything should be corrected and directed by the religion. However, “the law is clear: we have the right to blasphemy, to criticize, to caricature religions,” said French President Macron, and he has decided to take intense actions towards Islamic separatism and extremism.

“The future of a society depends on the values children grow up with,” said Romy Strassenburg, editor-in-chief for the German edition of Charlie Hebdo. From this point, both the Islamic community and French society want to define and manage the role school has to play. French society aims to respect the republic, but the Islamic community requires to worship the religion. According to the data from France’s national education department, from September 2019 to March 2020, there were 935 cases against educational secularization in school, 57% of problem makers were students, but parents started to direct the case more and more. “An attack on a teacher is an attack on the republic,” concluded Romy.

To protect the republic, Macron announced to dissolve the “Cheikh Yassine Collective”, a pro-Palestinian organization including around 2,000 people, created in 2004 by radical Islamist Abdelhakim Sefrioui who direct encouraged the terror attack against Paty. Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister wants to dissolve Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), BarakaCity, and the Pantin mosque in Seine-Saint-Denis as they spreading hate speech against Paty. The Pantin mosque will be temporarily closed to rectify itself for 6 months since 21 October. Many politicians including Éric Dupond-Moretti, minister of justice, and Marlène Schiappa, minister of gender equality and the fight against discrimination, call for stricter regulation of spreading separatism and extremism online. Till now, at least 80 cases related to the terror attack has been processed. 231 foreigners who are in the FSPRT, the file for the prevention of terrorist radicalization will be deported shortly. The security of schools across France is strengthened, and all provinces will collect Islamic caricatures from Charlie Hebdo and show more students to build a secularistic spirit.

Secularism is a cornerstone of the republic, which was related to the powerful Catholic Church. France successfully separated it and state to reduce the deep and wide religious influence, and the idea of affairs now applies to all religions as well in France. There is no place for religions in the public sphere, which is a rising social conflict in current France with the largest Muslim population in Europe.

The determined actions of the French government led by Macron have drawn fire in the Islamic world. Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Algeria, Sudan, Palestine, and Morocco. They all criticize the caricatures from Charlie Hebdo, and they think the actions and words from French politicians hurt foreign relations. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticizes that Islamophobia in Europe has reached levels comparable to the treatment of Jews before WWII. He questioned the mental health of Macron as the latter mentioned Islamist separatism, which for Erdoğan is just freedom of faith. He also calls for a boycott of French products, which is unofficially ongoing in many Muslim countries since last weekend. In many grocery stores in Qatar, French products had been removed from the shelves such as instant yeast, chocolate bar, cheese, etc. Also, decades of French websites were under cyber attack Sunday over anti-France and supporting Islamism remarks, such as the victory of Mohammad, the victory of Islamism, France goes dead, etc.

Source: Aljazeera

Macron never said that he aims to tackle all Muslims or Islam, “ …what we must tackle is Islamist separatism…which claims that its own laws are superior to the Republic’s…Our challenge today is to fight against this abuse which some perpetrate in the name of religion, by ensuring that those who want to believe in Islam are not targeted and are citizens of our Republic in the full sense,” said him in a speech on 2 October, even before the case of Paty.

However, the death of Samuel Paty receives no pity from many Muslim countries, such attitude from the Islamic world is considered as an ignorant, acceptance or even support of Islamic extremism and separatism in France as they “legalize” the terror attack as a punishment for unrespect of Islam, which is unacceptable in many European countries.

Many non Muslim countries wish that Muslims living there can have deep understandings and full recognitions of the country’s values, which is hard to achieve in most of cases. The religious power of Islam hasn’t ever been weakened heavily or separated from any country, to make process will be considered as declaring the war against Islam. As the atmosphere between France and the Islamic world gets intense, many European countries including Italy, Netherlands, Austria, and Portugal choose to be against Islamic separatism and extremism, stand for republic values, and protect the common interests of the EU as the EU is not another Islamic world, and Islam won’t be allowed to dominate European society.

(Source: DW / Euronews / France Diplomacy)

How American Tech Company Uniting The Government Makes Money By Violating The Human Rights Of Prisoners

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Nowadays internet access has become a basic existence and a need for people to maintain kinds of relations, to enjoy entertainments, to purchase necessities, etc. However, for millions of American prisoners, every attempt to communicate with the outside of the world requires money, “every” here represents an unbelievable greedy rule in the American prison system, led by a tech company – JPay.   

The founder of JPay, Ryan Shapiro has never been into the prison but his services gradually replaced others and have a dominating trend in American prisons. JPay began in  2002 as a prison money-wiring service, offering a faster alternative for families who wanted to pay the order of their incarcerated loved one. In 2004, JPay launched e-messages services. In 2011, JPay pitched its products and services to the National Association of State Procurement Officials and the Multi-State Corrections Procurement Alliance, associations that secure contracts for state government, including prison systems. According to the latest research from the prison policy initiative, the American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in different levels of prisons. JPay has loyal, or no other choice customers. 

The tech industry outside the prison is very competitive, tech companies need to spend millions of dollars on feature improvements to maintain customer loyalty, which is never a concern for JPay as prison provides perfect loyalty despite bad services. Its technology is very outdated along with overcharging features,  fees increase as the security of the prison increases. For example, the fees for each transaction within $20 could charge $4.95 and within 300$ could be as high as $11.95. Other functions are charged by the usage of “stamp”, which could be as expensive as $0.33. The fee of email is charged by the length of messages and the amount of attachment. Every page and attachment requires one “stamp”. Using videograms requires four stamps, and making a call can charge $1 per minute. Meanwhile, the wages of prison work haven’t been increased for years, prisoners need to work over years but only earn $0.12 per hour to purchase their rights from JPay regularly.

Just in 2014, prisoners sent over 14.2 million emails and made 650,000 mobile payments through its system. JPay has already occupied over 1,200 facilities in 34 states, which gives it an advantageous position in the prison tech market. In the past, prison commissaries had always made a small profit by selling paper, envelopes, and stamp. With JPay, the prison system makes huge profits from its massive orders, the common interests tied the government and JPay tightly. Many prisons confiscate personal electronic devices in the name of security so that the only possibility to reach the outside is to pay for JPay. Since the beginning of 2016, JPay stops to provide its machine for free, any prisoners must pay $129 to buy their new devices with only a few features. In June 2016, JPay adjusted its user agreement that it owns and can sell any contexts spread or created on it.

Availability of JPay’s Services in Prisons acorss States

About its unreasonable and unfair rules, “we have nothing more to say on the matter,” said Jade Trombetta, JPay’s senior manager of brand marketing and social media. Many prisoners or their families tried to make complaints or to bring suits, but any information may be against the company will be intercepted, and the prisoner system will take some action to punish prisoners, like to cut off their connections with the family.  

Andrew Coyle and Helen Fair from Institute for Criminal Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London addresses humanitarian concerns of prisoners that though they lose the right to free movement, remain other rights as human beings. One of the most important rights is the right to contact their families, and their family members have the equal right to contact them outside too. The loss or restrictions of family visits should not be used as a punishment under any circumstances. The main international human rights instruments are very specific about universal rights, for example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12 rules that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.”

However, the American authorities don’t think JPay is infringing upon prisoner’s rights as everything is written clearly in the contract and agreed upon before to use. Federal law states that consumers cannot be forced to accept salaries or government benefits through electronic methods; they must have another option, such as cash or check. Since prison release cards are not considered government benefits, though JPay still faces some ongoing lawsuits against its services across the U.S., it doesn’t respond to many of these requests.

For Shapiro, his business is expanding pretty well, “a flood of requests for proposals from state agencies looking for prison tablets,” “there is no point in fighting it,” he doesn’t disclose the company’s further financial information, but concludes that it “has the largest footprint in corrections in the country”.

(Source: Human Rights Defense Center / JPay / Business Insider / the Guardian / Prison Studies)

Japan Plans For Years But Informs The World Now That It Will Dump Radioactive Water Into The Pacific

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After nine years of struggles to deal properly with the contaminated water due to nuclear leak, recently, the Japanese government has decided to start to pour the contaminated water into the Pacific in 2020 and to finish the process within a decade of years. Currently, more than one million tonnes of contaminated water is held in around one thousand tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi site, and the amount of water keeps increasing but the availability of tanks will be run out by the summer of 2020. “The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it. The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple option,” said Harada Yoshiaki, minister of the Environment and State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness.

Transition of Different Types of Water Stored in Each Tank Area from 2013 to 2015

The gradual release of massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water being stored at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will bring a negative impact on at least the local ecosystem. Though the final plan designed with properly treated solutions, promised the Japanese government, will be released end of this month, still causing controversies worldwide.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has tried to deal with the buildup of contaminated groundwater when mixing with water used to protect the three damaged reactor cores from melting since March 2011.

Water Treatment Flow Diagram of Tepco

Tepco uses multiple facilities including Multi-nuclide Removal Facility for advanced liquid processing system (ALPS). After the concentration of Cesium and Strontium contained in the contaminated water is reduced, ALPS eventually removes most of the radioactive materials except Tritium.

Structre of Operation of ALPS

Tepco wants to remove radionuclides from the excess water but fails to rid the water of many nuclides due to technical limitations. There are other contaminants besides tritium in the water stored in its tanks, some of them require over half a century’s careful treatment.

Target Radioactive Materials to Be Removed by Tepco

In 2013 when Japan joined the bid to host the Olympics and Paralympics, prime minister Shinzo Abe, assured the international community that the situation and procedure of radioactive water treatment were and would continue to be under control. But on March 24, according to the latest report on handling ALPS treated water of Tepco, the power station has stored tritium concentration about 730,000 Bq/liter, around 860 trillion Bq tritium in total. The disposal of the ALPS treated water must be completed when the decommissioning itself, which aims to complete within 30 years after this year, is completed, and it should be assumed that the continuation of storage will end after the decommissioning.

But the storage of tanks will be run out around 2022, so Tepco doesn’t reserve enough space to finalize its process. Though Tepco admits that it is crucial to proceed with the decommissioning and contaminated water management within the existing site area, as removing radioactive materials and placing them outside will increase the risk, the time to transfer these wastes to an off-site location for the continuation of storage in tanks is long along with the construction of new equipment. Therefore, Tepco believes that discharge into the sea and vapor release are the practical options as they are fast, economic, and applied by many nuclear facilities in other countries.

Annual Tritium Release from International Nuclear Facilities

Tepco claims that the number of radioactive materials other than tritium will be reduced as much as possible. And even it will study dilution of tritium as a rate equivalent to that for discharge into the sea, as against the regulatory concentration limit of tritium in the atmosphere (5 Bq/liter). Also, the dilution rates of tritium concerning operational standards for “groundwater bypass” and “sub-drains” (1,500 Bq/liter) are below the regulatory concentration limit for tritium in seawater (60,000 Bq/liter).

Concept of Discharging into the Sea Facility

Tepco asks to use mass media, social media to improve the overseas transmission of information so that the international community will give full understanding and accept the “reasonable” solution. Though Japan assumes that it can control the situation with well regulation in the future, any decision to dispose of the radioactive water would affect the local environment, the nature needs a longer time to adapt changes. The decision will affect not only Japan but also nearby South Korea or even other countries.

Japan has already failed the world on treatment of the issue in past nine years. Obviously, it has planned to dump its radioactive water into the sea for years, they just avoided to reveal it or choose the best timing when it’s too late to be rejected by the surroundings to do it. Small Japan always has a big plan to strike the world harshly, we are close to the end of 2020, and it will start to dump its wastewater in 2022, no matter the world is ready or not, making promises at first to proceed with the plan is inevitable. If Japan failed to treat the issue well like these years, it will be too late.   

(Source: Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings / the Guardian / National Geographic)

French Teacher Beheading: Republican Values Are Never Recognized By Islamic Extremism

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At 5 pm on 16th October, Samuel Paty, a history teacher of a middle school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a city of province Yvelines close to Paris, was beheaded by an Islamic extremist.

The tragedy is confirmed due to the class discussion held by Paty after he showed caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, and he asked Muslim students out in case they felt uncomfortable. The caricatures were made by Charlie Hebdo, a famous French satirical weekly magazine publishing articles and producing cartoons about the far-right, religion, politics, and culture, which makes it a target of terrorism. There were three terrorist attacks in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were connected to a number of controversial Muhammad cartoons that it published as Islamists thought that Charlie Hebdo didn’t respect Islam, for many french, it’s just press freedom. Professor Paty asked students to think “a dilemma: to be or not to be Charlie,” a common discussion adopted in “moral and civic education” class. “To be Charlie” represents blasphemy but isn’t prohibited by law, “not to be Charlie” means to admit that Charlie Hebdo provokes Islamists along with potentially risky attacks.

Defined in Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen of 1789, “the free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious human rights: any citizen can therefore speak, write, print freely, except to answer for the abuse of this freedom, in the cases determined by the law,” which allows french to provoke, criticize the religion but they can be sued if others feel insulted. Charlie Hebdo was sued several times for its religious caricatures.

Apparently for the suspect the freedom of opinion and expression is based on full respect of his religion. According to testimonies from the suspect’s relatives, he spent more time in strengthening religious beliefs online rather than make connections in reality. He read the post of Brahim Chnina, an unsatisfied parent of a Muslim student in Paty’s class, and the video of Abdelhakim Sefrioui, an Islamic extremist, who published the personal information of Paty and encouraged supporter to take action. He contacted a parent of a Muslim student in Paty’s class many times and he paid at least two students to know the appearance of Paty. After a long time and full preparation, he killed the teacher.

The suspect shot dead about 600 meters from its crime scene after he tried to attack the police with the same knife. He has been identified as an 18-year-old Moscow born Chechen refugee named Abdullakh Anzorov.

Abdullakh Anzorov

Chechnya is a predominately Muslim Russain republic in the North Caucasus. France has offered asylum to many Chechens since the Russian military waged war against Islamist separatists. The case is widely considered as rising Islamic extremism challenged republican values, an “Islamic terrorist attack”, called the French President Macron, “a citizen has been murdered today because he was a teacher and because he taught freedom of expression,” “terrosits will not divide France, obscurantism will not prevail,” said him.

Chechnya’s Location

For decades of years, French society has been suffering hatreds such as antisemitism, xenophobia, anti-democracy, Islamic extremism, etc. Here the radicalism and extremism refer to the Islamic extremism at first, who causes more crimes and increases horrible social impacts. The French government has realized the severity of it and started to strengthen deradicalization, or more precisely, to prevent the radicalization and to fight the Islamic extremism, especially after a series of terror attacks in 2015.

France has between five and six million practicing and non-practicing Muslims, around 9% of the population, which makes Islam the second strongest religion in the country, and makes the French Muslim community the first powerful community in Europe. The amount of Muslims keeps increasing due to multiple reasons or resources such as birth passion, illegal immigrants, political refugees, receiving members from bigamous marriage, etc. France is willing to accept diversity, but not separatism, and not the religious superiority at all.

The strong separatism from France of some extreme Islamists pushes the French government to monitor them more. France has formed an operating system including multiple level institutions led by the central government. In this system, Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Crime and Radicalization (CIPDR) is the core existence.

Prevention of Radicalization from Reporting to Preventive Care of the French Government

“For radicalization, we designate the process by which an individual or a group adapts a violent form of action, directly linked to an extremist ideology with political, social or religious content which challenges the established order on the political, social or cultural level,” defined Farhad Khosrokhavar, Franco-Iranian sociologist, director of studies at School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS). He locates three elements of “radicalization”: violence, ideology, and self-isolation, and clearly points out that extremism is not a sudden change but a long time process.

The process usually begins with family education, so the prevention program of the French Government has a huge portion of family reports. However, an extremist isolating from the social environment is always tied closely with his/her community, and his/her surroundings or supporters are unlikely to help the government to be against themselves. To many loyal Muslims, transforming them into qualified republican citizens may threaten the fundamental interests of Islam, there are obvious difficulties to process the program well in the reality, but France is trying, and all the Europe tries so too.  

(Source: France24 / Time / La Toupie / Le Gouvernement de la République Française / Maphill / Franceinfo)

Nawalny: Maskottchen transatlantischer Interessen

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Ob die genauen Umstände der angenommenen Vergiftung des russischen Politikers Alexej Nawalny je aufgedeckt werden, ist bis dato eine offene Frage. Irreversibel ist jedoch, dass zahlreiche Fragen zu dem Fall unbeantwortet und eine Fülle von Hintergrundinformationen zu Nawalnys Person für die breite Öffentlichkeit unbeleuchtet geblieben sind. In der allgemeinen Berichterstattung wird er als eine Art russischer Robin Hood dargestellt, der gegen das „korrupte Regime“ im Kreml den Kampf aufgenommen habe und deshalb nun mit einem – wenngleich missglückten – Anschlag auf sein Leben bestraft worden sei. Doch dieses Image ist rein fiktiv. Auch die offiziellen Erklärungen zum angeblich verwendeten Giftstoff bleiben äußerst vage.

Nachdem der zusammengebrochene Nawalny in die Intensivstation der Berliner Charité eingewiesen worden war, vergingen immerhin elf Tage, bis die deutsche Bundesregierung schlicht erklärte, ein Spezial-Labor der Bundeswehr habe bei der Untersuchung von Proben Nawalnys zweifelsfrei den „Nachweis eines chemischen Nervenkampfstoffes der Nowitschok-Gruppe erbracht.“ Seitdem fühlt sich die Zunft der hiesigen Kreml-Kritiker berufen, täglich das „System Putin“ und seinen „Clan“[1] für diesen Vorfall haftbar machen. Bis heute wartet die Welt allerdings auf belastbare Beweise.

Die OPCW vertritt US-Kriegsinteressen

Die Bundesregierung ließ dann wiederum Zeit verstreichen, wobei sie das Gesuch der russischen Staatsanwaltschaft auf Zusammenarbeit bei den Untersuchungen völlig beiseiteschob. Stattdessen rief man ohne Absprache die Organisation für die Nichtverbreitung chemischer Waffen an, die OPCW in Den Haag, die mit ihren 193 Mitgliedstaaten eine Art „Vereinter Nationen“ zur Ächtung von Chemiewaffen darstellt. Dessen Technisches Sekretariat entsandte ein Team in die Charité, das Blut- und Urinproben von Herrn Nawalny entnahm. Die Untersuchung brachte „Biomarker eines Cholinesterase-Inhibitors“ hervor, der nicht in der Liste der chemischen Kampfstoffe der OPWC vorkommt, aber eine „ähnliche strukturelle Charakteristik“ aufweisen soll wie giftige Chemikalien, die unter der Rubrik 1.A.14 und 1.A.15 im Anhang der OPCW-Konvention aufgeführt sind.

Das Wort Nowitschok taucht im Bericht überhaupt nicht auf. Reines Nowitschok hätte Nawalny sowieso in kurzer Zeit getötet und viele, die mit ihm in Kontakt gewesen waren, entweder ebenfalls mit in den Tod gerissen oder ihnen erheblichen Schaden zugefügt. Was also hat man in Nawalnys Proben wirklich gefunden? Die Frage bleibt schleierhaft.

OPCW-Vertragsstaatenkonferenz im November 2019 auf dem Weltforum in Den Haag, Niederlande (Quelle: Flickr)

Diejenigen Politiker auf der transatlantischen Seite, die Russland sowieso stets die Schuld an allem zuschieben, kümmern sich um solche Feinheiten natürlich nicht. Die Britische OPCW-Delegation hatte „keinen Zweifel“, dass Nowitschok, also eine „verbotene Chemiewaffe“, eingesetzt worden war, und das Russland seinen „Verpflichtungen nachkommen müsse“. Norbert Röttgen sprach sogleich von einem „völkerrechtswidrigen Einsatz des russischen Nervenkampfstoffs Nowitschok“.

Doch das Laborergebnis der OPCW ist ebenfalls nirgendwo veröffentlicht oder einzusehen. Die Stellungnahme lässt durch nebulöse Formulierungen eher Raum für Spekulationen und ist ganz und gar nicht eindeutig. Die OPCW leistet den transatlantischen, anti-russischnr Interessen hierbei dadurch Vorschub, dass sie sich den Anstrich eines unparteiischen und wissenschaftlichen Ermittlers gibt. Doch dieses Bild bekam bereits mit dem unter amerikanischem Druck erzwungenen Rausschmiss des OPCW-Generaldirektors José Bustani 2002 einen Riss.

Bustani wollte dem Irak und Libyen die Mitgliedschaft anbieten, um Inspektionen und eine schrittweise Zerstörung ihrer Chemiewaffenlager auszuhandeln. Doch der republikanische US-Außenminister Colin Powell und sein Staatssekretär für internationale Sicherheit, John Bolton, wollten den Krieg mit dem Irak um jeden Preis. Vollends büßte die OPCW ihre Integrität aber erst ein, als 2019 mehrere Whistleblower an die Öffentlichkeit traten. Ihr Vorwurf: der Abschlussbericht zum Einsatz von Giftgas 2018 im syrischen Ort Douma sei gefälscht, da er im Vorfeld sämtliche Ermittlungsergebnisse verworfen hatte, die nicht eindeutig Baschar Al-Assad als einzigen in Frage kommenden Täter verurteilte.

Prof. Günther Meyer von der Uni Mainz war einer der Experten, die im Rahmen einer Anhörung die Aussagen jener OPCW-Whistleblower auswertete. Er hat bis heute entschiedenen Zweifel an der Objektivität der OPCW, und das schließt den Fall Nawalny mit ein: „Die OPCW ist so eindeutig auf die Interessen westlicher Staaten festgelegt, dass auch bei allen folgenden Aktionen, auch eben bei Nawalny, davon auszugehen ist, dass es in jedem Fall so hingedreht wird – und von OPCW auch abgesegnet wird – dass es die Interessen des Westens im Wesentlichen widerspiegelt. Die Vertrauenswürdigkeit als unabhängige Organisation ist endgültig dahin. Auch die Umstrukturierungen, die dann als Reaktion auf die Proteste der Mitarbeiter – der Whistleblower – stattgefunden haben, zeigen eindeutig, dass es eine massive Ausrichtung hinsichtlich in erster Linie US-Amerikanischer Interessen besitzt.“

Nawalnys Milliardärs-Freunde

Was Nawalnys Umfeld angeht, ist er scheinbar das Maskottchen international agierender Finanzinteressen. Der Medienmainstream hält zwar dicht, was Berichte über Nawalnys Biographie, seine Überzeugungen und die Unterstützer angeht, die seine erheblichen Ausgaben übernehmen; doch hier und dort findet man ein paar gute Recherchen, wie die vom Chefredakteur des Portals Telepolis, Florian Rötzer. Dieser fragt sich zurecht, auf wessen Veranlassung Alexej Nawalny unter Bewachung von zahlreichen deutschen Kriminalbeamten nun in einer Luxusferienwohnung mit 5-Sterne Apartments im Schwarzwald untergekommen ist.

Der Ort werde an seinen Eingängen streng bewacht. Auch Zivilstreifen und ein Hubschrauber seien gelegentlich im Einsatz. Die 50.000 Euro für Nawalnys Behandlung in der Charité seien sowohl von dem seit 2009 in London lebenden Milliardär Jewegeni Chichwarkin, als auch vom 2013 in die USA übergesiedelten ehemaligen Chef der russischen Zentralbank (1995-98, also während der turbo-kapitalistischen Jahre) Sergei Aleksaschenko übernommen worden. Laut Rötzer wurden die 80.000 Euro für den Flug von Omsk nach Berlin vom Sohn des ebenfalls nach London ausgewanderten Milliardärs Dmitry Zimin bezahlt.

Nach Recherchen von Clara Weiss von der World Socialist Website gehörte Aleksaschenko zu Nawalnys Expertenteam, das sein neoliberales Wahlkampfprogramm bei seiner Kandidatur für den OB-Wahlkampf in Moskau verfasst hat. Als Zentralbankchef soll Aleksaschenko mitgeholfen haben, die berüchtigten GKO-Rentenanleihen einzuführen, die 1998 zum Finanzkrach Russlands und zur Verarmung weiter Bevölkerungsteile führte. Weiss schreibt auch, dass Nawalny vom Juristen zum Banker konvertierte, der nach seinen eigenen Worten „eine Marktwirtschaft der übelsten Art“ wollte, in der „nur die Stärksten überleben.

Der Rest ist ganz einfach überflüssig.“ Nawalny begann mit Immobilien und an der Börse zu handeln, um schnell reich zu werden. Laut einem Artikel von Gerd Brenner auf world-economy.eu nahm Nawalny auf Empfehlung von Garri Kasparow an einem Stipendiatenprogramm der Uni Yale teil, dem neo-liberalen World Fellowship. Die Leiterin des Programms, Emma Sky, habe die ISAF-Truppen in Afghanistan beraten und sei eine Expertin in Counter Insurgency, also dem Organisieren von Aufständen gegen Regierungen. Laut Brenner tauchen weitere neoliberale Oligarchen in Nawalnys Umfeld auch, so zum Beispiel Sergej Gurjew, der Nawalnys Wirtschaftsprogramm seiner Moskauer OB-Kandidatur 2013 ausarbeitete, und Wladimir Aschurkin, der Co-Vorsitzende von Nawalnys Antikorruptionsfond und Besitzer opulenter Immobilien in London. Diese Milliardäre vermissen vermutlich die Zeit, in der sie ein schwaches Russland und seine Bevölkerung ungehindert ausplündern konnten.

Die jetzige Regierung Putin ist ihnen vermutlich ein Dorn im Auge, und der Fall Nawalny ist schlicht ein weiterer Vorwand, den politischen „Rammbock“ gegen Russland einzusetzen. Dass sich die deutsche Bundesregierung für diese unappetitlichen Machenschaften um den Fall Nawalny einsetzt, darf man zurecht als unverzeihlich bezeichnen.


[1] Der Abgeordnete Manuel Sarrazin von Bündnis90/Die Grünen am 11. September 2020 im Deutschen Bundestag

Portrait Filtering Is Not Only To Feel Better, But Also To Highlight Personal Interests

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Nowadays, almost every picture we can see from others on any social media platform or in the public is edited especially by some applications or unconsciously by built-in filters. People already have been used to beauty relied on makeup, filters, and even plastic surgeries, and everyone knows there could be a huge difference between the picture and the person, which generates many articles discussing how to differentiate real beauty from fake ones.

The unsatisfyingly chasing beauty deepens the doubt of an individual physical condition in reality, especially in dating when people get to know each other online at first, many people feel disappointed and disgusted by the fake image the other gave, and they express misses of the old-time that there was no Photoshop, less makeup, and no plastic surgery, every image was real, and any beauty was beautiful. In fact, it is not true. Our ancestors started to find solutions to make their portraits or pictures look better than the reality centuries ago, and their disappointments could really make something worse happen.

In the mid-16th century, King Henry VIII became increasingly desperate for a new wife. Thomas Cromwell found a Protestant ally with two available sisters – the Duke of Cleves, who have wealthy lands. As the eldest, Anne was chosen as the possible bride and Holbein immediately went to Cleves to paint her portrait. Henry was determined to have a beautiful wife but real Anne did not match his standard at all. To secure the marriage alliance, Cromwell implied Holbein to make some adjustments if necessary. Holbein masked her large hooked nose and covered up her smallpox marked skin. His portrait showed a perfectly attractive young woman to Henry, which excited the King a lot.

Unrealistic Portrait of Anne by Holbein

In 1539, Anne of Cleves met King Henry VIII for the first time. Though the marriage was politically calculated, Henry still expected a beautiful bride, however, when he saw her, he felt very disappointed and even disgusted by her real face. “I am ashamed that men have so praised her as they have done, and I like her not,” the King said ominously; he also complained to Cromwell that Anne was “nothing so well as she was spoken of,” and if he had known the truth of her appearance, she would never have been considered as his Queen. He called her a “Flanders Mare”, and his court tried to annul the marriage but the Holy Roman Emperor was in Paris meeting with the French King and Henry, locked out by those two great powers, could not risk offending the German princes who approved the union with Anne. So Anne was not sent back and Henry moaned that he had to “put my neck in the yoke,” he wrote to Cromwell, “my lord if it were not to satisfy the world and my realm, I would not do that I must do this day for none earthly thing.” Henry did a private marriage ceremony at Greenwich, and after Henry often spoke openly of how unbelievably ugly Anne was, as “struck to the heart.” They lay together for the entire length of their marriage but were never physically intimate.

Realistic Portrait of Anne

Thomas Cromwell was charged with treason for organizing the marriage. His later relative, Oliver Cromwell learned this lesson and he famously insisted that all his portraits contain the “roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will pay a farthing for it.” To realistic was not always preferred by men, even in the old-time the power was more important to be shown than the appearance of a male. But if a catfish work can strengthen the recognition and worship of the surrounding people, who can resist it?

Thomas Cromwell

In the work “Napoleon Crossing the Alpes (1801-1805) by Jacques-Louis David, the sitter wasn’t even Napoleon himself, but the son of the artist. “It is the character that dictates what must be painted. Nobody knows if the portraits of the great men resemble them, it is enough that their genius lives there.” The whole scene was just an imagination of the artist, in reality, 167cm tall Napoleon crossed the Alps on a mule. Paul Delaroche painted a realistic moment of it, from his work, no one can feel the legacy of Napoleon but his perseverance.

Modern portraiture arguably is no different. Though a picture can be edited a lot to achieve a better effect, some people still have an obsession with portrait which can provide more a dreamy and glorious experience. American artist Ralph Cowan is famous to paint such a style portrait to satisfy the old fascination of customers. “The Visionaire” (1989) is a portrait of Young Donald Trump. In a 1997 Playboy article, Journalist Mark Bowden compared it to a “Sun God” and Trump’s glowing face to “the top floors of Trump Tower at sunset, the color of warm bullion.” Though Trump hasn’t made America great again, at least he already achieved to long live his greatness.

(Source: English History / Messy Nessy)

What Course To Follow For 5G In France?

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Apple released its new 5G iPhone, many Chinese are excitedly discussing which new iPhone they will buy but in the Western, people still doubt whether they should jump over 5G now. The huge difference lies in the 5G technology development between China and many Western countries. Many main Chinese cities  already use 5G this year, but even in the U.S., in France, in Germany, or many old developed countries, 5G time still seems far away. They may not have 5G in their areas now, but they probably will in the next few years…will they?

American giant technology companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple dominate the global cloud computing business, Macron pointed out Europe had lost the global battle in cloud computing and should catch up with the revolution. “If we want our ecosystem to be sustainable, it has to be sovereign,” meaning that Europe should not rely “on any non-European power” for data security and 5G. He announced to start partnerships between Deutsche Telekom and French cloud services provider OVHcloud, from the view of national development, the 5G plan seems inevitable, but in reality, to go 5G or not to go 5G has been debated in France for a few months.

France is the only one of the four most populous European Union countries where 5G is not yet commercially available. Mobile  carriers in Germany, Spain, and Italy have all launched it in several cities in 2019. But French people are still hesitating to make a move. “I hear a lot of voices being raised to explain to us that the complexity of contemporary problems should be addressed by going back to the oil lamp. I don’t believe that the Amish model can solve the challenges of contemporary ecology.” “France will move forward with its planned deployment of 5G telecom networks despite detractors who would prefer ‘the Amish model’ and ‘going back to the oil lamp’,” President Emmanuel Macron said in September, referring to communities such as the American community which are very suspicious of technology advancement.

French telecom regulator Arcep had launched the country’s 5G spectrum auction end of last month, which had been delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Operators Bouygues, Orange, Free, and SFR took part in the bidding which will allocate the eleven 10MHz lots still available into the GHz 3.4-3.8 frequency band. After 3 days of bidding, Arcep announced that the main auction was completed on 2nd October, and Orange was the biggest winner. Arcep will issue the new 5G licenses, and “orange will be able to consolidate its leadership in mobile networks and will develop an efficient 5G network,” said Stéphane Richard, chairman and CEO of Orange. Though Arcep’s specifications for the 5G auction requires that each operator must launch 5G services in at least two cities before the end of this year, each carrier should utilize 3,000 sites within 2 years, and 10,5000 sites within 5 years, the applying process doesn’t go well like scheduled.

Locations of Current 5G Experimental Cities
Source: Arcep

Just one week after the auction, on 9th October, the Lille government decided to pause the establishment of 5G as protesters ask not to authorize the installation of test antennas, while a 2-year experiment launched by the operator Orange has just been completed. They have rising doubts about the negative impact of 5G on health, also they question the meaningfulness of massively economic cost of 5G, and they demand a “digital sobriety”, a way promotes using the internet and technology more mindfully and responsibly, the idea is generated from a think tank called “The Shift Project”, created by environmental experts from Paris. The think tank believes that humanity is the victim of ‘addictive design’, an online concept used to maximize the amount of time spent by a user on the platform, such as the mechanism of TikTok, which boosts the consumption of a large number of contents and generates increasing volumes of associated data. If 5G can be launched and applied widely in France, the following internet pollution will get more severe.

Source: MesOpinions

Besides the wishes of common people, can mayors who are against 5G use their power to prevent its arrival? The Council of State rules that “only the State authorities designated by law are competent to generally regulate the installation of mobile telephone relay antennas,” which forbids mayors to interfere with 5G advancement. However, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts and the National Frequency Agency need to rely on expertise to “ensure within the framework of their respective competences, the limitation of the exposure of the public to electromagnetic fields and the protection of public health.”

The Council of State also adds that it is up to them “to determine, in a complete manner, the methods of setting up radio stations throughout the territory as well as the measures to protect the public against the effects of radio waves,” which potentially reserves space for following anti-5G movements. 5G in France, even talking about it is a hot debate, achieving it is a tougher journey.

(Source: France 24 / RCR Wireless News / Earth / France Bleu / Numerama / Arcep)

How Shenzhen Made Economic Miracle Within 40 Years?

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China on 14th October held a grand gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ). On 26th August 1980, the Chinese top legislature approved to establish 4 special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Shantou in Guangdong Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province. Among all of them, Shenzhen has achieved the most successful development over the past 40 years, between 1979 and 2019 Shenzhen’s gross domestic output grew tp 2.69 trillion yuan, or roughly $390 billion, such an annual growth rate of 21.6% proved again that Shenzhen creates a miracle in the global development history.

Modern Shenzhen changed its shape within a generation, no one could imagine that a historic decision can transform a poorly local fishing village into an advanced modern city worldwide. Since 2000, Shenzhen started to transform from a tax-free manufacturing hub to a modern metropolis. Three pillar industries began to develop here – high-tech, logistics, and financial services, contributing significantly to the Chinese technological innovation, attracting numerous talents from across the mainland which continuously pushes up its population. The city now is often referred to as China’s Silicon Valley as many renowned Chinese technology companies are located here, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Tencent, etc.

Source: South China Morning Post

Credit to its economic model, in 2018, Shenzhen’s economy surpassed Hong Kong’s for the first time.  “Hong Kong is heavily reliant on traditional industries such as financial and real estate, which covers about 70% of the economy. Shenzhen’s economy is mainly supported by manufacturing and technology, which contributes about 70%,” said Hong Hao, the director and head of research at Bocom International. If the different economic structures of the two cities maintain so, Shenzhen’s economy will remain ahead of Hong Kong’s in the coming year, if including political factors, the stable and open environment of Shenzhen is surely more attractive to the foreign investors.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Between Shenzhen And Hong Kong
Source: South China Morning Post

Shenzhen has built a deeply interactive economy model among technology, finance, and logistics. One of the places to give an insight into this new world is Huaqiangbei electronic markets, the world’s largest electronic market, virtually nothing coming under the electronics products that cannot be found here. These markets in the Huaqiangbei area supply millions of electronics products across the world. Each year, hundreds of thousands of businessmen and resellers visit these markets, and they may place, send, and track orders via Wechat or Alipay. Not everyone has been to Shenzhen, but everyone definitely has used things produced or shipped from Shenzhen. Many times you may need to wait longer when you buy some local things online than buy similar items from China. The economic influence of Shenzhen applies wider and deeper ranges than we can imagine.

Chinese media uses 9 keywords to demonstrate the success of Shenzhen
Source: ChinaNews

特 (Special)”, Shenzhen couldn’t have made such achievements without being a Special Economic Zone. The special position provides Shenzhen uncountable advantages in policies.  

改 (Change)”, Shenzhen is a trail of changing the way to develop Chinese economy and society, and it proves as long as a country always follows the right trend, and make good changes, it will get better.  

勇 (Brave)”, 40 years before no one knew how to transform a poor village into the current modern city, the earlier just pictured a blueprint and went ahead without stepping back, this braveness has encouraged people till now.

智 (Wisdom)”, three generations deepen their thoughts here, and in the future, more younger generations will join, their efforts and achievements are the best proofs of their wisdom.  

先 (Advance)”, Shenzhen is always the first city to apply every new policy or to experiment with new things, which brings it more risks but also more advancements.  

搏 (Effort)”, from extremely poor to relevant wealthy, people overcame too many obstacles by holding a belief that a better life needs efforts.

快 (Speed)”, “time is money, efficiency is life”, this phrase is widely spread and deeply remarked in Shenzhen’s people. They try to grasp every chance and gaze every moment to make some difference.  

创 (Innovative)”, by insisting on an innovative economy model, Shenzhen becomes the best place for startups and young people, their innovations are pushing the city and even the country more and more forward.  

新 (New)”, Shenzhen continuously makes new targets and new plans for a better future. But which direction Shenzhen is exactly heading to?

Last August, China’s State Council and the Central Committee issued a new guideline outlining an ambitious plan for the future of Shenzhen. The plan wishes to transform Shenzhen into a leading city globally in terms of economic might and development quality, specifically focusing on academic research, industrial innovation, public services, and ecological environment.    

(Source: XINHUANET / CGTN / South China Morning Post / China News)