CHINA-EU MEETING TO ENHANCE TIES

As the 22nd China-European Union leaders' meeting is set to be held via videoconference on Monday, observers said the two major global players could use the first official meeting between Chinese leaders and the new EU leadership to forge an even closer relationship amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Xi Jinping is to meet with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen through video link. Premier Li Keqiang will co-chair the virtual meeting with Michel and von der Leyen.

The meeting, which was scheduled to be held in Beijing in March but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, comes as China and the EU commemorate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year. It also takes place amid intensive communication and cooperation between China and EU members since the novel coronavirus epidemic started.

Xi has been maintaining good communication with leaders of European countries through telephone talks or correspondence over the past months.

In a telephone conversation on June 3 with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country will take over the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of this year, Xi reaffirmed China's commitment to stepping up the planned political agenda it has with Germany and the EU.

He said China stands ready to strengthen strategic cooperation with the EU in upholding multilateralism, tackling global challenges and providing certainty to an uncertain world, and taking the relationship to new levels. Xi also expressed similar views in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on June 5.

Feng Zhongping, vice-president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the intensive interaction between China and the EU has sent an important message that cooperation remains the overarching principle in their ties despite differences.

This message is crucially important not only to bilateral relations, but also to the recovery of the world economy in the post-COVID-19 period, Feng said.

The pandemic has brought China and Europe closer together, which has been demonstrated by the mutual support and aid between China and the EU and its members. They are stepping up cooperation on diagnostics, treatment, pharmaceuticals and vaccine development, as well as regular exchanges of information and expertise.

China recently launched a fast-track service for personnel exchanges with Germany and several other countries to facilitate business cooperation and the reopening of economic activity and to ensure industrial and supply chains remain secure and stable.

600 KM/H PROTOTYPE TRAIN COMPLETES ITS FIRST TEST

A prototype of a new magnetic levitation train with a top speed of 600 kilometers per hour completed its first test on a track in Shanghai on Sunday.

Designed and made by CRRC Qingdao Sifang in Qingdao, Shandong province, it was sent to Shanghai for testing on the 1.5-kilometer experimental magnetic track at Tongji University in Jiading district.

Ding Sansan, the company's deputy chief engineer, said the prototype completed 200 testing tasks in seven categories, with all key indicators reaching designed requirements.

The company, owned by China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the world's largest rolling stock manufacturer, is a leader in China's maglev train technology.

After three years of research and development in partnership with 30 companies and institutions, CRRC Qingdao Sifang said it had achieved breakthroughs in core technologies dealing with things like suspension, traction, communication and control.

The maglev train uses electromagnets to hold itself off the rails. Because there is no friction from contact with the rail, the train can run quietly and smoothly.

The train had already achieved static levitation in ideal conditions, and Ding said the test run helped verify the performance of its core parts in motion, gathering valuable data for the optimization of future models.

The high-speed maglev transportation system has been listed as a key project by the Ministry of Science and Technology, with research and development of a five-carriage prototype proceeding as planned.

"The train floats 10 millimeters above the rails, and it will be the fastest transportation within a distance of 1,500 km," Ding said in May last year when the prototype was first unveiled in Qingdao.

That is roughly the distance from Beijing to Shanghai, a journey that takes about 4.5 hours by plane, including preparation time, and about 5.5 hours by high-speed train. The maglev would cut that to about 3.5 hours.

Ding has taken part in the development of different Chinese high-speed trains, including ones that can travel at 250 km/h and the world's fastest bullet train, the Fuxing, or Revitalization, which has a top speed of 400 km/h.

Shanghai operates the world's first commercial maglev system, a 30-km stretch between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the city center.

It has hit speeds of 430 km/h and takes passengers to the airport in just eight minutes.

TASK FORCE PROBES THEFT OF IDS

Shandong province has set up a special group to thoroughly investigate cases involving people who qualified for college enrollment by illegal means such as identity theft, a government statement said.

The group, consisting of officials from the province's commissions for discipline inspection and supervision and departments of public security and education, will examine the circumstances of the cases and handle them in accordance with laws and regulations to safeguard education fairness and justice, it said.

The probe was triggered by recent media reports about Chen Chunxiu, 36, whose identity was stolen by another woman who attended college in her place 16 years ago. Chen, from the province's Guanxian county, said she has retained a lawyer to defend her rights and interests.

"We hope that her right to be admitted to the Shandong University of Technology, the school she applied to 16 years ago, can be retrieved," Chen's husband, Li Junwei, said.

"We don't want to hurt anybody. We just want justice and for her to realize her dream of getting into a university," he said, adding that Chen had never given up on pursuing higher education.

Chen's case has attracted widespread attention on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, with tens of thousands of users sympathizing with her.

"Not only hers but her family's life track was changed due to the person who stole her ID and took her place to get into the university," said a message posted by a person using the name Erfentang.

While investigation of Chen's case is ongoing, media and netizens have started to dig into more such claims from Shandong. On Friday, the province's education department said in a notice that it had recently received tips that some individuals had obtained college entrance qualification by means such as forging their identities, stealing others' identities or buying admission certificates.

The department said it has been verifying the information revealed by media and netizens and will publish results in a timely manner.

The department emphasized that it has always had zero tolerance for such behavior.

It launched a campaign in 2018 to check the information provided by students who received higher education in Shandong. Degrees and certificates of those who stole other people's identities to get into universities were revoked according to related regulations, the department said.

BEIJING'S DELIVERY WORKERS GET TESTED TO HELP ENSURE SAFE SERVICE IN CAPITAL

More than 100,000 delivery workers in Beijing are to have received nucleic acid tests by Monday in order to provide safe service for residents amid the city's recent COVID-19 outbreak, right after the e-commerce midyear promotion ended, ushering in a busy period for logistics companies.

Starting from Friday evening, 17 postal service and logistics companies in Beijing have organized for about 103,000 delivery workers to receive nucleic acid testing, the State Post Bureau said on Saturday.

The major online catering platforms also announced plans to get their takeout delivery workers tested.

"Everyone has a responsibility to cooperate and contribute to Beijing's epidemic control and prevention," Wang Hailong, a deliveryman from YTO Express Co, was quoted as saying by China Central Television.

Wang went to a designated testing area in the capital's Shunyi district at 5 pm Friday after he delivered more than 200 packages during the day.

"The test is not just for our own health, but also for the safety of residents in the city," he said. "Under the strict and full protective measures, we will work hard to ensure dependable delivery service for the capital. Compared with doctors and nurses on the front line and social workers in all communities, we are just doing what we should do."

China's e-commerce companies held an annual midyear promotion from June 1 to 18. Many logistics companies now face delivering a massive number of packages.

From June 11 to 20, logistics companies in Beijing collected 68 million packages, up 22.86 percent year-on-year, and delivered 82 million packages, up 25.57 percent year-on-year, according to a report in Beijing Daily.

The State Post Bureau said due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the capital, some packages might take longer to arrive.

Logistics companies have taken strict measures, such as temperature monitoring of their staff and regular disinfection, to reduce risks related to the outbreak.

Zhao Xiaomin, a logistics industry expert, suggested that the companies set up emergency response teams to cope with similar incidents in the future, according to a China National Radio report.

So far, no COVID-19 case has been reported in the postal and logistics industry in the city.

COVID-19 TESTING SITE BUILT IN 70 HOURS

A site to collect samples for nucleic acid tests in a makeshift program has been built within 70 hours at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, better improving the efficiency and working conditions for medical workers.

The sampling site completed Sunday evening consists of eight sampling rooms, four billing rooms and two comprehensive service rooms. It is located at the northern square of the hospital's emergency department.

Beijing has been carrying out a large-scale nucleic acid testing after locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported.

Some open-air places have been used as temporary sampling stations where medical workers have to wear protective suits and masks to work in high temperature environment.

To meet the emergency needs of centralized large-scale sampling in a short period, the Peking Union Medical College Hospital decided to build the makeshift sampling rooms on 40-meter-long and 4–meter-wide greenland.

The hospital detailed and launched the program within 12 hours on June 18 and contacted producers on processing the makeshift rooms. Work on electricity supply and drainage pipes also started.

When the makeshift rooms arrived at the site in early hours on Saturday, workers immediately installed the rooms and other supporting facilities, and the major infrastructure facilities were completed before sunrise.

The makeshift sampling rooms are equipped with medical lighting system, and outdoor lighting system in case the rooms are used 24 hours a day.

Each room has four doors and two windows to secure the ventilation and that medical workers are separated with others and they move in one direction.

The construction project of nucleic acid testing shelter has been completed and approved. The shelter went into use on Monday.

NEW POLICIES WILL GIVE SMALL FIRMS A LEG UP

Banks, insurers to help reduce loan and other costs, offer free consulting service.

China's banking and insurance sectors will forgo part of their profits this year to stabilize the real economy by lowering lending rates, comprehensive financing costs and insurance premiums for companies, and they will offer some free consulting services to small businesses, said Xiao Yuanqi, chief risk officer of China's top banking and insurance regulator.

To help various firms get through tough times, the central government will push financial institutions to sacrifice 1.5 trillion yuan ($212.1 billion) in profits this year through a series of policies such as guiding lending rates lower, deferring loan repayments for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and granting small businesses collateral-free loans, according to the State Council, China's cabinet.

Companies' financing costs have dropped significantly this year. In the first five months, the average lending rate for small businesses with a credit line of up to 10 million yuan was 6.03 percent, 0.67 percentage point lower than in all of last year. The average lending rate for the manufacturing sector was 4.32 percent, 0.46 percentage point less than the beginning of this year, said Ye Yanfei, an inspector in the Policy Research Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Banks have given better support to small and micro businesses, using cheap funds freed up by the People's Bank of China, the central bank, through monetary policy instruments including re-lending and reserve requirement ratio cuts, Ye said.

The PBOC said in a post on WeChat on May 12 that it increased quotas for re-lending and rediscounts by 1.8 trillion yuan to ensure supplies for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and to support micro, small and medium-sized businesses resuming work and production. The central bank has also made three general and targeted reserve requirement ratio cuts this year, releasing more than 1.75 trillion yuan of long-term funds.

CHINA HAS KEY ROLE IN INDUSTRIAL CHAIN'S EVOLUTION

The global industrial chain is facing huge uncertainties amid Sino-US trade frictions and the unexpected epidemic. In this context, the global industrial chain layout will give more consideration to the balance between safety and efficiency and will present new features of diversification and block.

Meanwhile, the digital development of the global industrial chain is particularly worthy of attention. In this regard, China can leverage its advantages to seize such historic opportunities. There will be challenges from some attempts to cut dependence on China's supply chain.

The United States continues to tighten restrictions on China in the high-end technology sector. As of May, more than 300 companies and institutions in China had been included in the so-called entity list. At the same time, Chinese companies that want to invest in the US are subject to stringent and harsh scrutiny by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

The US is also exerting pressure on other countries through international networks and tightening its technical restrictions on China. Science and technology cooperation and personnel exchanges between China and the US have also been affected.

On the other hand, the country's industrial chain is facing mounting external competition. Owing to the rapid rise of domestic labor costs, the labor-intensive industries represented by the textile and apparel industry continue to move outward. From 2007 to 2018, the clothing exports of Southeast Asian and South Asian countries rose from 2.9 percent to 18.5 percent in the global market share.

At the same time, regional trade agreements and bilateral trade agreements increased. Southeast Asian countries are at the intersection of important regional free trade zone agreements such as the CPTPP and the RCEP. In particular, Vietnam reached the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement; thereby, its competitive advantage has increased significantly.

The above two aspects, coupled with the impact of uncertainties including the epidemic, have caused more and more concerns that the long-term diversified development trend of the global industrial chain will weaken China's position in the global industrial chain.

However, under the diversified development trend, China itself is also one of the options for the diversified layout of the global industrial chain. At the same time, China is also one of the world's largest consumer markets. Therefore, China will undoubtedly still occupy a very important role in the global industrial chain. Diversification may have a certain impact on China's industrial migration, but it is not equivalent to cutting dependence on China's supply chain.

It should also be noted that the transformation from "globalization with a single efficiency orientation" to "globalization with a balance between efficiency and risk" means that we have to withstand a higher cost of globalization and will lead to a slump in global economic growth. A lower global economic growth rate, in turn, will slow down the process of globalization.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. - George E. Allen