XI: BUILD 'GREAT SPACE POWER'

President Xi Jinping extended greetings to elder scientists who participated in the country's first satellite program 50 years ago and said he expected space industry workers to learn from their predecessors' spirit and strive to build the nation into a stronger space power.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, wrote a letter in reply to some distinguished Chinese space scientists who participated in the Dongfanghong 1 mission half a century ago. He said new generations of space industry workers should learn and uphold the spirit of those who took part in the making of the nation's first nuclear weapon, ballistic missile and satellite.

A number of decorated space scientists, including Sun Jiadong and Wang Xiji, recently wrote the letter to Xi to express their expectations for China's space sector.

In his reply, Xi encouraged space industry professionals to overcome difficulties and hardships to achieve new heights in space science and technology.

"(You should) strive to strengthen and expand our space exploration and make our country a great space power as soon as possible," the president wrote.

Xi also wrote that he was in the village of Liangjiahe in Shaanxi province 50 years ago when he heard about the launch of China's first satellite. He told them he was very excited about the great news.

He recalled that the scientists' enterprise, diligence and perseverance inspired the whole nation at that time and exemplified the Chinese people's spirit of striving.

On April 24, 1970, the first Chinese satellite, Dongfanghong 1 or The East is Red 1, was carried aloft by China's first carrier rocket−Long March 1.

The mission made China the fifth nation to independently design, build and launch a satellite, after the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan. The 173-kilogram spacecraft worked 28 days before it ran out of power, but the satellite still travels in its orbit.

China has since sent over 500 spacecraft aloft and developed more than 20 models of carrier rockets.

In 2016, China designated April 24 as China Space Day. Space authorities and major contractors organize events around the date each year to commemorate the nation's accomplishments in space. This year's events were mainly held by teleconferencing or livestreaming due to the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The annual China Space Conference is scheduled for Fujian province in the second half of the year, according to the China National Space Administration.

China is now a major player in the international space arena. The country carried out more space missions in 2019 than any other nation, with 32 successful orbital launches.

Also, on Friday, the China National Space Administration announced that the country's planetary exploration program has been named Tianwen, or Quest for Heavenly Truth.

The program was named after a long poem by famous ancient poet Qu Yuan of the Kingdom of Chu during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). He is known for his patriotism and contributions to classical poetry and verses, especially through the poems of the Chu Ci anthology, also known as Songs of Chu.

The name represents the Chinese people's relentless pursuit of truth, the country's cultural inheritance of its understanding of nature and the universe, as well as unending explorations in science and technology, officials said.

The country's first Mars mission, which is expected to take place in coming months, was named Tianwen 1, the administration said.

It also released the planetary exploration program's emblem, which incorporates the elements of China, cooperation and capability in deep-space expeditions.

According to the administration, the country's first Martian probe will conduct scientific investigation of the Martian soil, geological structure, environment and atmosphere as well as water.

The robotic probe will consist of three parts−the orbiter, lander and rover. The rover will have six wheels and four solar panels and will carry 13 scientific instruments. It will weigh more than 200 kilograms and will work about three months on the planet, said Sun Zezhou, the probe's chief designer at the China Academy of Space Technology.

Ye Peijian, a leading scientist in deep-space exploration at the academy, said the probe is expected to land on the Martian surface before July 2021.

CHINA URGES US NOT TO GO AGAINST INT'L COMMUNITY

China hopes the United States will not choose to be "on the wrong side of the track from the international community," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday.

"The US assumes that WHO should do its bidding because it is the largest contributor. This is typical hegemonic mentality," Geng Shuang said at a press briefing. "At present, by supporting WHO, we will be able to contain the further spread of the virus. It is literally a matter of life and death. This is a consensus shared by the majority of countries and a sure choice anyone with conscience would make."

Geng made the remarks when asked to comment on media reports that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Washington may never restore funding to WHO.

The US has been smearing and attacking WHO without any factual basis. Its tactics of pressure and coercion will only draw greater disapprobation from the international community, Geng said.

Led by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO has been actively fulfilling its duties and playing an important role in coordinating international efforts to fight COVID-19 in an objective, fair and science-based manner, he said, noting that supporting WHO helps uphold multilateralism and safeguard the role and authority of the UN.

"In fact, support for WHO has recently poured in from the leadership of many countries and international organizations including France, Germany, the UK, Canada, Japan, and the UN. Headed by Director-General Tedros, WHO's leadership is also endorsed in the UNGA resolution and statements by the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 and China. In the statement of the recent G20 extraordinary summit, member states stressed that they fully support and commit to further strengthen the WHO's mandate in coordinating the international fight against the pandemic. All these facts demonstrate a common position and aspiration of the international community."

Geng said that as for the US suspending funding to WHO, "We have offered China's response repeatedly. Here I would like to stress that WHO members have a legally-binding obligation to pay their assessed contributions, thus the US suspending funding is a fundamental violation of its membership duties, which will definitely deliver a hard blow to the international anti-virus cooperation and probably entail serious ramifications.

"It will affect all countries, including the US, and particularly those with vulnerable health systems," he said.

CHINA WEIGHS NEW FISCAL STIMULUS PLAN

China is close to unveiling an additional fiscal stimulus package to prevent layoffs and debt defaults and secure its post-COVID-19 economic recovery, experts said on Friday.

According to the experts, key to the new package would be central government special bonds, or treasury bonds, to support consumption, roll over business loans and facilitate working capital for small and medium-sized banks.

The package as a whole also includes an extension of fiscal deficit and a higher quota of local government special bonds, which are essential to maintain jobs and incomes, prevent the economic downturn from turning into a prolonged depression that could permanently damage the economy, they said.

Based on the first-quarter economic data, which indicated a 6.8 percent contraction on a yearly basis, many policy advisers revised the GDP growth target for this year to 3 percent, compared with around 6 percent before the outbreak. The new target could be proposed to the annual meeting of the National People's Congress for discussion, said high-level sources familiar with the matter.

Zhu Baoliang, chief economist with the State Information Center, said at a seminar on Tuesday that the 3 percent GDP growth target is necessary to stabilize the economy, but a bigger concern is the late fiscal stimulus package due to a delay in the annual NPC meeting.

An expansion of fiscal deficit is also necessary, as this can help increase the central government's transfer payments to local authorities and deliver subsidies to people living in rural areas, said Zhu.

"Money raised through the nation's special treasury bonds can be used to set up bailout funds that can inject new working capital into enterprises and keep workers employed as cash flows dry up. It can also increase capital for small and medium-sized banks by providing more leeway to lend. Another part of the treasury bonds can be used to increase China's contribution to the International Monetary Fund and support other developing countries through multinational cooperation channels," he said.

Liu Shangxi, head of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences under the Ministry of Finance, said the funds raised via treasury bonds can help stimulate consumption through direct subsidies for residents and improved public services, to drive domestic demand. It can also support the skills training of unemployed people after the outbreak.

Informed sources told China Daily that the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic regulator, have held discussions on the special central government bond quota as well as for local government special bonds, and the plan would be sent to the Standing Committee of the NPC for approval before being made public.

China had issued special treasury bonds in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis.

AI SCOURS INTERNET FOR ILLEGAL TRADE OF WILDLIFE

A Chinese internet giant is working with an animal protection organization to develop an AI-powered tool to fight the illegal trade of wildlife.

The AI Guardian of Endangered Species was jointly released on Wednesday by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Baidu's open-source deep learning platform PaddlePaddle.

It is designed to identify images of endangered wildlife products being traded online, as illegal trading has shifted to online platforms in recent years, and the traditional monitoring and prevention methods, such as keyword searching and blocking, are no longer enough.

"Illegal traders were beginning to try various ways to evade the supervision and regulation of law enforcement and internet platforms," said Peng Cong, program officer of IFAW's Wildlife Crime Prevention program.

"For instance, they only post the photo of the illicit wildlife products in the advertisement. We have to stay innovative in order to tackle evolving challenges posed by traders.

"The AI Guardian has been trained using the images that IFAW has accumulated in the past decade, and it will significantly improve the efficiency and coverage of our regular online research," he said.

During its five-month test, the AI Guardian helped recognize 3,348 pictures of illegal wildlife products from about 250,000 pictures from online platforms.

According to Peng, it currently has a 75 percent accuracy rate for recognizing images of elephant ivory, tiger canine tooth, skin, claws and pangolin scale and claws−some of the major items most frequently traded.

"Globally, however, it is not easy for AI to identify ivory images, since there is a large variety of ivory products and images of ivory might look like porcelain or jade," Peng said.

He said current recognition accuracy has to be improved and they hope more researchers and organizations can share their photo banks with the team to improve the tool.

Tian Wu, corporate vice-president of Baidu, said they will make the code of the AI Guardian publicly available so that all developers can contribute to advancing the AI tools.

Early in 2017, several Chinese internet giants, including Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, initiated an alliance to combat online trading in wildlife parts.

All members signed a charter, under which the member companies are committed to detecting and removing illegal wildlife trade advertisements on their sites and sending warnings to users and prohibiting them from releasing such information.

ALL SEVERE COVID-19 PATIENTS IN WUHAN CURED: OFFICIAL

As the last COVID-19 patient with severe symptoms was cured on Friday, cases in severe and critical condition in Wuhan, Hubei province have been cleared, according to Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission.

A 90-year-old man surnamed Zhang tested negative for the novel coronavirus at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University on Friday, showing all patients in severe and critical condition were cured in Hubei province, the region hardest hit by the epidemic on Chinese mainland.

Since Jan 28, 21 teams with 2,801 medics, including renowned epidemiologist Li Lanjuan, have poured into the eastern branch of the hospital to support treatment of patients with severe symptoms.

As of Friday, 1,474 patients have been cured and discharged from the hospital.

The number of current confirmed cases in Hubei fell under 50 for the first time on Thursday. No new confirmed infections or suspected cases have been reported in the province for 20 consecutive days, Mi said.

The Chinese mainland reported six confirmed cases as of Thursday, the lowest daily increase since the epidemic began, according to the commission.

OFFICIALS WORK TO RELIEVE POVERTY IN XINJIANG COUNTY

Nearly 400 officials have been tasked with fine-tuning poverty alleviation measures in Moyu county, in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's Hotan prefecture.

The officials−45 from the regional government and 336 from the prefecture−are studying the situation in Moyu with an aim to adjust poverty alleviation measures to local conditions.

Moyu, in the southern part of the Taklimakan Desert, has been poverty-stricken for decades due to its tough environment.

There are still 83 impoverished villages in Moyu, but another 237 have been lifted out of poverty since China launched its poverty alleviation campaign in 2015.

To achieve the goal of pulling all people out of poverty by the end of this year, the 381 officials have been divided into 21 guidance groups that have been sent to all villages in the county.

The guidance groups need to visit five to 20 households in every village that has been lifted out of poverty, as well as every household in poverty-stricken villages to understand their situation and try to find specific measures to help them increase their incomes.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. - William James