南京花千坊1314

Global semiconductor industry group SEMI Europe reportedly called on the EU on Monday to limit curbs on European firms' outbound foreign investment, as the EU is considering proposals to screen investment in foreign semiconductor, artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology companies, following proposed US rules that would restrict investments in China's high-tech field.

Chinese observers said that EU's protectionist moves over unfounded security concerns will bring uncertainties to China-EU relations and harm European economy as well as the international competitiveness of its companies, amid the risk of losing the huge China market.

There is vast room for cooperation between China and the EU in a variety of fields including new energy and AI, and the general trend of cooperation will not be affected by geopolitics, observers said, noting that talks are needed to address each other's concerns for boosting cooperation in the long run.

In response to the European Economic Security Strategy, SEMI Europe said that "European semiconductor companies must be as free as possible in their investment decisions or otherwise risk losing their agility and relevance," Reuters reported on Monday, citing the group's paper outlining its recommendations.

Representing about 300 Europe-based semiconductor firms and institutions including ASML, the group said that the policies under consideration by the EU appear to be overly broad and if adopted could force companies to disclose sensitive business information, adding that restrictions on cross-border research cooperation would be misplaced, according to the report.

"The EU's protectionist move will add uncertainty to China-EU relations and investments by companies from both sides. Moreover, it will harm the European economy and the competitiveness of European companies, since the EU's investment restrictions targeting China will affect European companies' exports and make them lose the huge China market," Zhang Jian, a vice president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Zhang said that the EU's politically driven motives sharply deviate from European firms' interests, and as a result, more European companies may step out to oppose the bloc's protectionist moves.

The EU has adopted protectionist measures in recent months targeting China's new-energy and high-tech sectors. Recently, the EU imposed provisional additional import tariffs of up to 37.6 percent on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), which have drawn strong opposition from European firms.

Oliver Zipse, BMW chief executive, on Thursday said that the EU's tariffs on Chinese-made EVs had hit the bloc's own carmakers, including the Munich-based group, which produces vehicles in China for the European market, the Financial Times reported.

"There is vast room for China and the EU to deepen cooperation, for example, in green technology, AI, biotechnology and environmental protection," Jian Junbo, a deputy director of the Center for China-Europe Relations at Fudan University's Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

It's unrealistic for some Western countries to achieve a technology monopoly through geopolitics, and China's high-level opening-up is in line with the trend of history, Jian said.

In June 2023, the European Commission brought up the European Economic Security Strategy, which proposed several measures, including preparing a list of technologies critical to economic security and assessing the risks they face, fully implementing the EU's export control regulations on dual-use items, and reviewing regulations on screening foreign direct investment.

Due to the increasingly fierce China-EU competition, the EU may impose more trade restrictions on products where China has an advantage, acting out of protectionism. However, such measures will hinder the healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations, disrupt international trade and ultimately harm the prosperity of Europe, Jian said.

To address the increasingly fierce economic competition, the two sides should bind their industrial chains more closely together, explore a larger market through mutual integration, avoid vicious competition and unilateral suppression, and truly achieve the best way to share their interests and prosperity.

They should also facilitate the promotion of the technological development of humankind, according to Jian.

"It is in the interests of both China and the EU to properly handle differences through dialogue and consultation on the basis of mutual respect," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference on July 29, stressing that China-EU trade and economic cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature.

China-EU economic and trade relations have recently developed in a direction that is not very good amid the EU's growing protectionism and abuse of the "national security" concept, but the general trend of cooperation will not change, Zhang said, as Chinese and EU officials have expressed willingness to strengthen cooperation during their high-level exchanges.

He said that talks are needed for the two sides to address each other's concerns to promote win-win relations.

In the early morning of Sunday, Beijing time, in the women's singles final of the Paris Olympic Games, 21-year-old Zheng Qinwen defeated her opponent, making history in Chinese tennis and winning the first gold medal for a Chinese and even Asian athlete in the Olympic Tennis event. Previously on Thursday, in the men's 100-meter freestyle final, Pan Zhanle set a new world record and won the championship with an astonishing time of 46.40 seconds.

Chinese athletes have successively won gold medals in swimming, tennis and other sports that were largely dominated by the West in the past, representing the overall improvement of China's competitive sports level. In fact, it has taken several generations of athletes for the Chinese swimming team to catch up and surpass the powerful Western teams. 

Today, the Chinese swimming team members are more confident and mature. These breakthroughs are not surprising at all. Similarly, the progress of Chinese tennis is obvious to all. In addition to Zheng Qinwen, Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen also won mixed doubles tennis silver medal, showing that Chinese tennis has shown a transformation from "individual breakthroughs" to "collective breakthroughs."

The outstanding performance of Chinese athletes also reflects the growth of China's comprehensive national strength. 

As we all know, competitive sports are a competition of athletes' physical fitness and skills. It is also a comprehensive competition that integrates nutrition, sports science, manufacturing science and other disciplines. 

According to a survey by the British Lawn Tennis Association, developing a pro tennis player from the age of 5 to 18 may cost over $300,000. The same is true for swimming. As far as venues are concerned, swimming pools have been popularized in Western developed countries for a long time, while developing countries started much later. Therefore, the British broadcaster BBC once cited an expert as saying that Zheng Qinwen may be "the best soft power that China has."

China's breakthroughs on the sports field have a significant impact, that is, in large-scale international sports events, winning gold medals is no longer exclusive to developed countries. Countries in the "Global South" are increasingly participating and making their presence known, even ranking among the top in the world. This trend actually promotes the Olympic movement to truly become more "international."

Unsurprisingly, in the face of the outstanding performance and transcendence of Chinese players, some Westerners were overwhelmed and showed their paranoid and narrow-mindedness. Australian swim coach Brett Hawke is one of them.

After the 100m freestyle race, he said in a video, "That's not real, you don't beat that field - Kyle Chalmers, David Popovici, Jack Alexy - you don't beat those guys by one full body length in 100 freestyle. That's not humanly possible, okay. He further asserted, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." 

Hawke's remarks are not worth refuting, as the actual performance of Chinese athletes like Liu Xiang and Su Bingtian has already shattered the Western so-called "racial determinism." 

However, this bizarre mindset of "you cannot beat me, otherwise you are cheating" does not only exist in sports competitions. Over the years, we have seen similar performances on many issues. 

For example, faced with China's rapid development in the aerospace field, the director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration publicly made ridiculous statements such as that China joined the space race by stealing others' technology. These fundamentally stem from the inability to face and acknowledge China's development achievements, leading to distorted fantasies.

When faced with competition, instead of choosing to train harder, choosing to find ways to disqualify the opponent reflects not only a narrow mind and lack of generosity, but also to some extent reflects how this country has achieved success in the past. The US has become the world's only superpower, with a history of using many unsavory means. Now these actions have spread to the sports field, with the American side smearing and slandering the Chinese swimming team, reflecting the same narrow-mindedness. This is not only a habitual arrogance, but also a self-imposed barrier to new information and new things. This is why the Olympic motto "Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together" is particularly important today. 

Today, when Chinese athletes stand on the Olympic podium, it is the result of Chinese participation in global competition. In the arena, Chinese athletes winning gold is the same as athletes from other countries winning gold, as it is the result of fair, just, and open competition. 

There is a similar logic outside the arena as well. Whether in the fields of sports, economy, or technology, Western countries have long been in a leading position. This position has a certain degree of inertia, but this does not constitute a reason why the West can always lead or dominate the track. In a sense, human development is a track and field race in which one chases another. 

Everyone is constantly breaking through themselves and at the same time breaking through the limitations of humanity. In this regard, the struggle for fairness, justice, and open competition is the struggle that belongs to all of humanity. For the West, recognizing and respecting the progress of competitors is a dignified act, and may also mean new development and progress.

Many people have noticed that the new generation of Chinese athletes are increasingly showing the grandeur of a great nation. 

They naturally praise and encourage athletes from other countries, are proficient in speaking English off the field, and are confident and inclusive in cross-cultural interactions. They use the universal language of sports to present a new understanding of China to the world - always striving for excellence and breakthroughs, and promoting cultural exchanges and mutual learning in a peaceful and cooperative manner, fostering mutual understanding among people. This is evident both on and off the sports field.

The ominous clouds looming over the US economy are growing darker, resulting in a significant drop in the stock market on Friday. Is there a storm on the horizon?

US hiring slowed to 114,000 jobs in July, the US government said on Friday, missing expectations. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent - its highest level in nearly three years, when the economy was still clawing its way back from the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. 

During a critical period when the US economy requires urgent intervention, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) faces a challenging task in determining the appropriate course of action.

US stocks, US Treasury yields and the US dollar all tumbled sharply after a far weaker-than-expected employment report for July stirred up investors' renewed fears about an economic slowdown on Friday. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid more than 600 points or 1.51 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped more than 400 points or 2.43 percent on Friday. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's "fear gauge," closed at its highest level of the year, according to the report. 

The US Dollar Index was last down 1.1 percent at 103.21 and got as low as 103.12, the lowest since March 14. It is the largest one-day percentage drop since November, according to Reuters.

US Treasury yields also tumbled, with interest rate sensitive two-year yields dropping as low as 3.845 percent, their lowest level since May 2023, and benchmark 10-year yields reaching a low of 3.79 percent for the first time since December 27, Reuters reported.

The Fed's ongoing high interest rate policy has had a significant impact on the economy. High interest rates increase the borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, which in turn suppresses investment and consumer spending. Although the Fed may start cutting interest rates later this year, the current high interest rate environment has already put pressure on the economy, and it will take time to digest this pressure.

Wage growth has slowed down, and inflation remains a problem. In December 2020, the average price of a McDonald's Big Mac in the US rose to $4.89. The latest Big Mac index in January this year shows that the average price of a Big Mac is $5.69. 

High prices have weakened consumers' purchasing power, affecting consumer spending. The reduction in consumption behaviors such as dining out reflects consumers' cautious attitude in a high-price environment. The consumption stimulating effect by the large subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic is disappearing. 

The US is one of the largest consumer markets in the world, and an American economic downturn will directly affect global trade. Once the storm forms, exports of major trading partners such as China and the European Union will be impacted, causing disruption to global supply chains.

Especially for export-dependent economies, a decrease in demand from the US will have a significant negative impact, especially on social stability. This includes countries that have recently undertaken on factories moving from China, such as Mexico, Vietnam, India, and others. The internal social and political situations of some countries may become more unstable as a result, increasing the risk of regional conflicts.

Changes in US economic data and policies will affect the stability of global financial markets. High interest rates have already led to a continuous outflow of capital from emerging markets, but a reversal has not yet shown.

The slowdown of the US economy will drag down global economic growth. As the world's largest economy, if the US economy continues to decline, global economic growth expectations will also be revised downward, affecting the economic policies and market expectations of various countries.

The US is one of China's largest trading partners, and a decline in the US economy will continue to affect China's exports to the US. In the short term, the US is unlikely to change its trade war with China.

The decrease in orders from the US will increase competition in China's domestic market, affecting companies' profits and employment. For small and medium-sized enterprises that have long been exporting to the US, finding new export markets will also become more difficult.

Due to an increase in tariffs and supply chain adjustments, the cost of Chinese export goods is rising, which may be transferred to the domestic market, leading to an increase in import-driven inflationary pressure. The rise in production costs will also further affect business profits and economic growth.

Due to the slowdown of the US economy and the ongoing trade war, many American companies may continue to adjust their supply chains and reduce their reliance on China. Such adjustments will continue to shift toward countries like Mexico, Vietnam, and India, disrupting global supply chains and industrial chains for a long time.

Although the decline of the US economy will have a negative impact on the Chinese economy, there are also some favorable factors. Chinese companies will inevitably continue to strive to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with other countries, restructure industrial chains and supply chains to reduce dependence on the US market, but this process will be challenging.

The US will find its market and industrial power weakened, lessening its comprehensive containment of China. The "industrial alliance" that Washington is trying to build to exclude China from the high-end technology industry chain will increasingly expose cracks and will be difficult to gain full support from relevant countries due to conflicting interests.

In addition, the slowdown of the US economy may lead to a rate cut by the Fed, which will alleviate pressure on global financial markets and may have a positive impact on China's capital flows and monetary policy.

What we need to pay more attention to is the slowdown of the US economy, which will have a significant impact on the rapidly changing global geopolitics.

On one hand, this will somewhat impact the hegemony of the US. However, at present, it primarily diminishes its ability to enforce that hegemony. If the new US president implements a policy of contraction, it could potentially hinder the US' ability to intervene in and maintain security control over key regional issues.

On the other hand, the US may take more protectionist measures to protect its economy and employment, which could lead to increased global trade frictions and affect the stability of the international trade system.

The decline of the US economy will have a significant impact on the global economy and the Chinese economy, mainly reflected in trade, financial markets, and economic growth. 

After a massive typhoon recently swept through parts of eastern and southern provinces of China, a large number of oysters appeared on the beaches of coastal cities, as local residents flocked to the shores with buckets, sacks, and various tools to collect the crustaceans, the China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday.

According to a video clip posted by a netizen from Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, a beach in Shenzhen was covered in oysters, with city residents rushing to the shores, some carrying buckets of oysters directly to their homes. Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, also saw oysters piled up on the beach, according to CCTV.

Industry insiders speculated that the oysters may have come from surrounding areas where artificially farmed oysters are raised, but this is just an assumption, and the specific origin of the oysters is still under investigation, CCTV reported.

However, the action of collecting oysters after the typhoon still poses hidden risks, according to the report. Under the influence of the peripheral circulation of the typhoon, strong winds and long waves will be generated in the coastal areas, and there is a danger of being swept away by the waves if people go to the beach and fail to take due care.

The beach may also have sharp and dangerous objects including glass shards and nails after low tide, which can easily lead to foot or hand injuries. Dangerous marine organisms, including jellyfish and sea urchins, whose venom can cause serious and even life-threatening injuries, can be found in the near-shore seawater.

Because the freshness of the seafood cannot be guaranteed, some of the oysters may have been soaked in seawater for a long time. In addition, these oysters may also carry a large number of pollutants and harmful substances.

President Xi Jinping has urged central Party and state departments to improve Party building across the board and be national role models.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in an instruction that the central departments should take the lead in studying and implementing the guiding principles of the third plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee.

He said the study and implementation of the guiding principles is a "major political task of the whole Party and country at present and in the near future."

China urges the Czech Republic to honor its promises to strictly restrain certain individual politicians from sabotaging China-Czech relations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a regular press conference on Tuesday.

Lin made the remarks in response to a question about Taiwan's so-called vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim visiting the Czech Republic and giving a speech at a think tank. Lin said explicitly that Taiwan is a province of China and does not have a vice president.

Lin said that China strongly opposes official interaction of any form between China's Taiwan region and countries that have diplomatic relations with China, and this position is consistent and clear.

In multiple official documents, including the joint statements and joint communiqué between the government of China and the Czech government, the government of the Czech Republic solemnly committed to stick to the one-China policy , respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and recognize that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory.

China urges the Czech Republic to follow its commitment, strictly restrain certain politicians, immediately stop the egregious moves that undermine the national credibility of the Czech Republic and its relations with China. "We urge the Czech Republic to take effective measures to undo the negative influence of the incident," Lin said. 

"Our message to 'Taiwan independence' separatists is that whoever engages in 'Taiwan independence' will be held accountable by history; whoever in the world creates 'one China, one Taiwan' will get burned for playing with fire and taste the bitter fruit of their own doing," Lin stressed. 

Later on the same day, Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the so-called diplomatic breakthroughs adopted by the DPP authorities in the Taiwan region, in collusion with external forces, to achieve the goal of "Taiwan independence" have undermined the fundamental interests of the Taiwan compatriots, which cannot change the fact that Taiwan is a part of China, and are not conducive to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

A deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) called for efforts to tackle shortage and bottleneck in China's roll-on/roll-off (Ro-RO) cargo vessel capacity so as to improve transportation conditions of the country's surging new-energy vehicle (NEV) exports. 

Deputy Yan Keshi submitted a motion to the ongoing NPC session in Beijing, noting that the limited capacity of Ro-Ro vessels has emerged as a significant problem hindering the export of Chinese NEVs, which Yan said warrants urgent attention. 

Rising output of NEVs is an important contributor to China's economic growth. Last year, export of NEVs rose 77.6 percent from a year earlier, standing at 1.203 million units, which accounted for almost one-third of the global market share, Yan wrote in his motion.

But, China is experiencing a pronounced supply-demand imbalance in ocean transportation capacity, especially in the shipment of NEVs. The higher weight of all-electric NEVs, about 15-25 percent weightier than ordinary petrol or hybrid vehicles, has exacerbated the shortage of Ro-Ro vessels in China, Yan said.

Yan put forward measures of facilitating long-lasting cooperation among ship manufacturers, ports and other stakeholders, in order to ramp up sustainable Ro-Ro vessels manufacturing and optimizing the hardware and software support for exporting NEVs.

The Government Work Report released on Tuesday highlighted China's automobile industry, showcasing the remarkable performance of Chinese NEV manufacturing and marketing in 2023. Domestic auto brands have now exceeded joint ventures in passenger car sales, solidifying the NEV sector as a cornerstone of China's growing manufacturing strength. Amid this backdrop, how to shore up ocean shipping capacity of Chinese-made NEVs has drawn rising attention.

In a related development, Da Fei Monaco, a new generation of dual-fuel-powered Ro-Ro vessel, successfully completed its first voyage from Yantai Port, East China's Shandong Province, carrying 4,631 vehicles bound for the US, on March 5. 

In January, BYD's "Explorer NO 1" and SAIC Motor Cor's inaugural transoceanic Ro-Ro vessels also embarked on their maiden voyage from Chinese ports.

Chery Automobile Group, in collaboration with its shipyard in Wuhu, East China's Anhui Province, has established a NEV transport vessel manufacturing base in Weihai city, Shandong Province. Three large vessels with a capacity of 7,000 cars each have been ordered, according to the Securities Daily.

Microscopy Masters asks one thing of citizen scientists: Find proteins in electron microscope images. The task will probably give participants new appreciation for biologists who decipher the structures of teeny, tiny molecules. It’s not easy.

The goal of the online project, created by researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., is to improve biologists’ ability to construct detailed, three-dimensional models of proteins.

Using cryo-electron microscopy — which involves freezing, then imaging a sample — the researchers have taken thousands of photos of their current target, a protein complex involved in breaking down other, unwanted proteins. Each image contains 10 to 100 copies of the complex. It takes that many images to capture a protein from every angle. Once the 2-D images are stitched together, researchers can reconstruct the protein’s globular, 3-D shape at near-atomic resolution.
Microscopy Masters enlists volunteers to do the necessary first step of combing through the photos to find the protein molecules — a time-consuming job that people do better than computers. The task may feel daunting, as each black-and-white image resembles a fuzzy TV screen. Only some of the dark smudges in any given image will be molecules of interest; others will be actual smudges or globs of proteins too jumbled to be of use. Fortunately, a practice tutorial offers a crash course in protein identification. And each image will be classified by many users, alleviating some of the pressure of worrying about marking the wrong thing.

Data from the project will help researchers improve protein-picking computer algorithms, says project member Jacob Bruggemann. That way computers can take over the painstaking work.

SAN DIEGO — On some planets that orbit whirling stars, spring and autumn might be the best time to hit the beach, whereas summer offers a midyear respite from sweltering heat. These worlds’ orbits can take them over regions of their sun that radiate wildly different amounts of heat.

“Seasons on a planet like this must be really strange,” says Jonathon Ahlers, a graduate student at the University of Idaho in Moscow, who presented his findings June 15 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Some stars spin so fast that they bulge in the middle. That bulge pushes the equator away from the blazing core, making it much cooler than the poles. A fraction of these stars also host planets that travel on cockeyed orbits, which take these worlds alternately over the poles and equator of their sun.

Ahlers developed computer simulations to see how the differences in solar energy combined with the tilted orbits might affect a planet’s seasons. The outcome depends on how the planet’s axis is tipped relative to its orbit. For a world whose north and south poles periodically face the star’s equator, “you get a cooler summer than normal and an extremely cold winter, but spring and autumn can be hotter than summer,” says Ahlers. “You get two distinct hottest times of the year.”

How that plays out depends on how the planet is built: an atmosphere or oceans could mitigate climate extremes. Ahlers has yet to work out those details. “It’s doing a lot,” he says, “but what, I don’t really know yet.”