DOUBLE STANDARD OF WEST ON HK AND XINJIANG HAS BEEN EXPOSED

Many Western governments are good at claiming the moral high ground, for example, by calling the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as a mission to spread freedom and democracy, and the killing of innocent civilians as collateral damage.

That is exactly what the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Julian Braithwaite tried to do on Tuesday when he spoke on behalf of 27 countries at the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council. He criticized China’s policies on the Uygur Xinjiang autonomous region and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which exposed the West’s use of double standard to label hollow accusations against China.

Braithwaite expressed “deep and growing” concerns at the national security law for Hong Kong, saying it will compromise human rights, and the freedoms of the press and assembly in the SAR.

He should have exercised more patience and studied the law to understand how it will be implemented instead of jumping to conclusion a day before the law even took effect. But politicians such as Braithwaite know the last thing they will be held accountable for is slandering China.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has made it clear in her video speech to the Human Rights Council that the law will not affect Hong Kong’s judicial independence, or the legitimate rights and freedoms of individuals under the Basic Law of the SAR, including the freedoms of speech, of the press, of assembly and of demonstration, or undermine “one country, two systems” or Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.

The law aims to prevent, curb and punish acts of secession, subversion of State power, terrorist activities and collusion with foreign countries or external elements to endanger national security. Which means it will only target those people who breach the law and protect the rights of the overwhelming majority of Hong Kong residents.

CHINESE AMONG CITIZENS OF 15 NATIONS IN THE FRAME FOR TRAVEL TO EUROPE

The European Council adopted a recommendation on Tuesday to open the bloc's external borders on Wednesday to citizens of 15 countries, including China, but not the United States.

The approved countries are Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay and China.

But China's inclusion is subject to confirmation of a reciprocal arrangement, according to the announcement. So far, China only allows what is deemed essential travel by visitors from European Union member states.

China will gradually resume exchanges of people with the EU in a safe and orderly manner on the premise of guaranteeing the COVID-19 prevention and control measures, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, China has been actively taking measures to ensure that visitors from the EU that are engaged in necessary activities, such as those covering trade, economic and science and technology spheres, can visit China, Zhao said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

The European Council stressed that the list will be reviewed and updated every two weeks. Criteria used to make decisions include the epidemiological situation and containment measures in a country, including physical distancing levels, as well as economic and social considerations.

More specifically, the number of new COVID-19 cases in a given country over the past 14 days, and per 100,000 inhabitants, should be close to or below the European Union average.

The country should also see a stable or decreasing trend in new cases over this period compared with the previous 14 days.

The European Council, which comprises 27 members, said Schengen Area-associated countries, such as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, are also taking part in this recommendation.

CENTRAL BANK CUTS INTEREST RATES TO BOOST REAL ECONOMY

China's monetary authorities lowered interest rates of major lending facilities, given a projection of moderate consumer inflation in coming quarters, in support of credit to smaller businesses hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"The probability of an obvious inflation rebound is low, and the consumer price index is predicted to drop gradually by quarter this year," a group of central bank officials wrote in an article published on Wednesday.

Based on the projection, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, decided to cut the interest rates of the re-lending and rediscount lending facilities as of the beginning of July.

Cutting the rates is a signal of easing money supply to benefit the real economy, although some PBOC officials recently hinted at withdrawing special monetary stimulus measures, given that the pandemic is almost under control in China and economic recovery in the second quarter was strong, according to analysts. Those special measures were implemented to boost the economy when COVID-19 hit.

The one-year interest rate charged by the PBOC's lending to financial institutions that take deposits−called the re-lending rate−decreased by 0.25 percentage point to 2.25 percent. That is aimed especially at increasing cheaper credit for agricultural and small firms. Meanwhile, the rediscount rate dropped by the same extent to 2 percent, the central bank said.

The bank also lowered the interest rates of re-lending for financial stability purposes by 0.5 percentage point to 1.75 percent, a central bank statement showed.

It's the first time in a decade that the PBOC has adjusted therate of rediscount, a monetary policy tool to support banks' commercial paper financing and replenish liquidity. Commercial paper is a type of promissory note to finance short-term credit for large institutional buyers.

In China, the rediscount facility has been an important measure since 1995. It was used originally to solve corporate loan delinquencies by providing ready access to funding.

The central bank said it will use flexible and appropriate monetary policy in pursuit of its inflation stability mandate. With the impact of COVID-19, intensified inflation or deflation needs to be prevented during the economic recovery, according to the article from PBOC Monetary Policy Department.

"In the second quarter, the output is predicted to return to a natural growth level, and the narrowed output gap will help to stabilize prices," it said.

Lower interest rates for the lending facilities indicated that the stance of easing monetary policy has not yet been reversed. Still, market participants have been worrying about monetary tightening since mid-April given rising interbank rates and government bond yields, said Ming Ming, a senior researcher at CITIC Securities. The central bank arranged a quota of 1.8 trillion yuan ($254.8 billion) for re-lending and rediscount after the COVID-19 outbreak, and part of the quota had not yet been used as of Wednesday, according to the PBOC.

HUAWEI ISSUE FOCUSES SPOTLIGHT ON SINO-UK TIES

The United Kingdom could be dealt a severe economic setback if Chinese telecom giant Huawei is barred from taking part in creating the country's 5G network, according to experts.

Some Conservative members of Parliament are calling on the UK government to reverse its decision taken in January to back Huawei's involvement in the next generation of wireless network technology.

Many in the business community are worried that any such U-turn would deny the UK the opportunity to be a European leader in the technology at a time when the country's economy needs a significant boost.

The UK has seen the third-highest number of deaths globally from the coronavirus pandemic, its GDP contracted by 20.4 percent in April and the country may fail to reach a trade deal with the European Union by its self-imposed deadline of the end of this year.

Much hinges on a report by the National Cyber Security Centre in the UK, which is due to be published this month. Some believe this may lead to the government backtracking on its earlier Huawei decision.

Alistair Michie, a UK business executive with long ties to China, said, "It will be deeply damaging to the UK if the British government bends to pressure to eliminate Huawei from its 5G network."

Michie, chair of the International Council at the Center for China and Globalization, an independent think tank based in Beijing, added that much of that pressure is coming from the United States.

"The US government is adopting a totally flawed strategy in its attempts to block global digital advances by trying to throttle China. The digital revolution thrives on open borders and exchanges and has already utterly changed the world, with immense benefits for everyone," he said.

The UK telecommunications industry has made its position clear on the issue.

Scott Petty, chief technology officer for Vodafone UK, a leading telecoms company, said any reversal of the Huawei decision would deny the UK a technological advantage.

"The UK's leadership in 5G will be lost if mobile operators are forced to spend time and money replacing existing equipment," he told Reuters.

"The British government should make efforts to expand 5G coverage and invest in the next stage of this technology, instead of stripping out the equipment of the Chinese telecoms equipment maker."

The Huawei issue has focused attention on relations between the UK and China, which reached a high point in October 2015 when President Xi Jinping made a state visit to the UK, heralding a new "golden era" of relations between the two countries.

The UK and China have an almost perfect economic symmetry. The UK is the world's largest exporter of services after the US, and China has huge demand for services as it moves its economy away from being dependent on manufacturing.

WARNING RENEWED FOR TORRENTIAL RAINS

The National Meteorological Center on Wednesday renewed a warning for torrential rains that have unnerved southerners for the past month, prompting authorities to deploy tens of thousands of responders.

According to the center's latest alert for heavy rains, the new round of precipitation is forecast to batter the provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Fujian and Zhejiang, as well as Chongqing municipality and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, from July 1 to 2.

In the affected regions, rainfall could reach 100 to 150 millimeters, raising risks for torrential floods and other geological disasters, the alert said.

The alert, which the center has issued for 30 consecutive days, came after marathon-like downpours caused tens of billions of yuan in economic damage over the past few weeks.

Figures offered by the center show five rounds of heavy rainfall have hit southern China since last month, producing at least 200 millimeters of accumulated precipitation on about 1.5 million square kilometers of land.

Hu Xiao, chief forecaster with the China Meteorological Administration, said the abundant water vapor is to blame.

"The Pacific and Indian oceans are two powerful suppliers of water vapor in our country. In summer, wind usually blows from south to north, transporting the vapor from the ocean to the land," he said.

As rainfall continues, Hu said, affected regions are vulnerable to disasters such as floods in small or medium rivers, mudslides and mud-rock flows, and the public must cut outdoor electricity and suspend outdoor operations as precautions.

The National Flood and Drought Control Office and the Ministry of Emergency Management on Monday urged first responders to prioritize people's lives and interests as they moved to forecast future deluges and relocate affected residents.

The two agencies said they have deployed more than 28,000 firefighters and relocated 34,700 people.

By Sunday, the sustained rainstorms had affected 12.1 million people scattered across 13 provincial regions south of the Yangtze River, killing 78, ruining almost 80,000 hectares of crops and leading to 25.7 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) in direct economic damages, according to the ministry.

HOME-DEVELOPED BREAST CANCER DRUG FIRST PRESCRIBED IN CHINA

Chinese doctors have given their patients the first sheets of prescriptions of a new, home-developed breast cancer drug.

In Beijing, Inetetamab, a targeted injection drug for metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer patients, was first prescribed in the cancer hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences on Wednesday, 12 days after the drug was approved for clinical use.

Meanwhile, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Zhejiang provinces also witnessed their first prescriptions of the drug, given at local medical institutions.

Developed by Sunshine Guojian Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of 3SBio, Inetetamab was approved for clinical use by the National Medical Products Administration on June 19.

In recent years, China has been striving to speed up the registration and approval of both foreign and home-made new cancer drugs, and to promote the replacement of imported drugs that are costly, but urgently and essentially needed with domestic ones.

According to a report released by the National Cancer Center in 2019, breast cancer is the cancer with the highest incidence rate among women. In 2015, the number of new breast cancer cases in China reached 304,000, of which 20 to 25 percent were HER2-positive patients.

HER2, or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, is a type of protein in the breast tissue, helping to control breast cells dividing, growing, and repairing. When the HER2 gene is abnormal, it encourages the rapid growth of cancer cells. The HER2-positive breast cancer tends to grow faster, spreads more easily, and is more likely to recur.

Earlier studies show that Inetetamab has a stronger effect on antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). ADCC is an immune response, in which antibodies, by coating target tumor cells, make them vulnerable to attacks from immune cells.

The new drug has broken the monopoly on the anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody by imported drugs, and brought more choices to breast cancer patients, said Lou Jing, chairman of 3SBio.

'STRICTEST MEASURES' IN PLACE TO PREVENT GAOKAO IDENTITY THEFT

Any students who cheat or are involved in identity theft in the upcoming national college entrance exam will be disqualified to be enrolled in universities and colleges, the Ministry of Education said on Thursday.

The ministry will work with public security and disciplinary authorities to look into any fraud in the gaokao, and hold violators and people assisting them accountable according to laws and regulations, the ministry said in a notice.

Universities should conduct identity checks on freshmen to find any students who have stolen others' identities or gained extra points in gaokao through illegal means, it said.

The ministry has called for the highest standards and strictest measures for this year's gaokao, which will be held from July 7 to 8 nationwide.

The notice came after 46 people were punished for their involvement in two impostor cases in Shandong province, the province's discipline inspection commission said on Monday.

In one case that triggered widespread criticism online, a 36-year-old woman named Chen Chunxiu, from Liaocheng, Shandong, scored 546 out of 750 in 2004's gaokao.

But her score was stolen by Chen Yanping, another Liaocheng local, who had scored 303 the same year. The impostor's father, a businessman, and uncle, a local official, had used their connections to make this happen.

The imposter's university diploma was canceled, and she was fired from her job. The results of a preliminary investigation have shown 242 cases of identity theft happened between 1999 and 2006.

CHINESE SHARES RISE ON THURSDAY

Chinese stocks rose on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 2.13 percent at 3,090.57 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.29 percent higher at 12,269.49 points.

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, rose 0.20 percent to close at 2,424.39 points.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights. - Georg Hegel