XI CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY IN FIGHTING VIRUS

China stands ready to strengthen cooperation with the international community, including Singapore and Thailand, in fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic and jointly promoting global public health security, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

Xi also vowed to work with the two Southeast Asian nations to safeguard peace and stability in the region when he held separate telephone conversations with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

While talking with Lee on the phone, Xi said that, in responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak, China upholds the vision of the community with a shared future for mankind and has shared anti-epidemic experience with other countries without reservations and provided them with materials and expertise.

China is willing to work with Singapore to support international solidarity against the virus with the World Health Organization playing a leading role in the process and jointly build a community of health for all, he said.

Xi said he appreciated the two countries' help for each other in combating the epidemic and said China and Singapore took the lead in establishing a fast-lane to facilitate people-to-people exchanges and promote stable supply and industrial chains in the region.

He also underlined the need for the two countries to intensify cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative.

China will continue to deepen reforms and expand opening-up and improve its business environment, Xi said, adding that he hopes Singapore will also provide sound conditions for Chinese companies doing businesses in the country.

Lee commended China's efforts to successfully contain the virus under the leadership of Xi while the pandemic is still raging in the world, and said his country stands ready to strengthen cooperation with China on the research and development of related vaccines and medicines.

Singapore is willing to work with China to uphold free and open trade to ensure stable supply and industrial chains in the region, Lee said, adding that he welcomes Chinese companies to Singapore.

In a telephone conversation with the Thai prime minister, Xi mentioned the mutual support and assistance between China and Thailand in the fight against the virus, and he said China stands ready to strengthen the sharing of experience with Thailand and advance the resumption of production while preventing and controlling the epidemic.

CHINA CAN WATER DOWN IMPACT OF FLOODS

China has suffered from floods since time immemorial. In ancient China, when legend and history often intermingle, Da Yu, or Yu the Great, who could be considered as founder of the Xia Dynasty (21st century-16th century BC), is said to have tamed the floods of the mighty Yellow River, saving people from untold miseries.

The Yellow River is the second-longest river in China — after the Yangtze River — and the sixth longest in the world, and prone to frequent and serious floods.

China has had more than its fair share of floods. Of the 10 worst floods in the world during the past 100 years, seven have been in China — five in the Yangtze River (1911, 1931, 1935, 1954, 1998), and two in the Yellow River (1887 and 1938).

The world's worst flood was in the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers in 1931. After two years of serious droughts, extreme rainfall in the densely populated Yangtze River basin caused the 1931 flood. It affected an area equivalent to the size of England and half of Scotland, forcing an estimated 40 percent of the affected population to leave their homes — with the resulting diseases and malnutrition claiming more than 2 million lives.

Floods are one of nature's most destructive forces. Globally, floods are responsible for nearly 40 percent of all losses due to natural disasters. Between 1995 and 2015, the world witnessed about 3,000 floods, which affected nearly 2.3 billion people. From 1980, floods have contributed to more than $1 trillion in global economic losses.

China has been battling another serious flood, with 433 rivers flowing above the danger levels since early June and 33 having crossed historically high levels. Also, more than 33,85 million people have been affected in 27 provinces and regions, and 141 people have either dies or are missing.

The flood situation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is as bad as the massive floods in 1998, with the water level in Jiangxi's Poyang Lake, the country's largest freshwater lake, rising to 22.6 meters, higher than in 1998, on Monday.

Both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have said the Party and government officials' top priority should be protect people from the floods, shift them to safer places and provide them with relief materials.

Floods cannot be prevented or completely controlled. But their impacts can be significantly mitigated, for which both infrastructure and soft solutions are essential. For example, the Three Gorges Dam has played an important role in mitigating floods in the Yangtze River. Between 2003, when the dam was completed, and 2019, it was used 53 times to control floods.

SCALE OF NIGHT ECONOMY EXPECTED TO REACH 30T YUAN IN 2020

The scale of China's night economy is expected to reach 30 trillion yuan ($4.28 trillion) this year, People's Daily reported on Wednesday.

Market consultancy iiMedia Research made the projection as the country's night consumption has accelerated and urban vitality has further exploded since the beginning of summer.

A series of measures, including innovations in product supply and extending business hours, have been taken to stimulate nighttime consumption by some businesses.

The formation of a nighttime economic system with more rational layouts, better functioning, and richer formats is accelerating in many Chinese cities.

Management conventions and friendly reminders have been made to regulate the business behavior of night market merchants during the epidemic prevention and control period, said Xie Shanqing, a night market inspector for urban management in Chaonong street, Xihu district, Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi province.

China's consumer market continues to recover currently with a gradual burst of urban vitality and accelerated night consumption, said Fu Yifu, senior researcher of Su Ning Financial Research Institute.

Data from Didi Chuxing shows the number of people using car-hailing services after 7 pm in June increased 10 percent from the previous month in a majority of Chinese cities and it even increased 30-40 percent in some cities including Taiyuan in North China's Shanxi province, Qingdao in East China's Shandong province, and Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning province.

The overnight orders from 6 pm to 6 am in major cities across the country have increased by more than 60 percent in the past two months, accounting for more than 40 percent of all-day orders, according to Meituan takeout data.

The activity of the night economy is an important aspect to reflect the vitality of a city, said Cui Lili, executive director of the E-commerce Research Institute at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Enterprises should follow the trend for night economy development and focus on diversified online and offline layouts based on their own situation.

Local cultural and tourism resources should be fully explored offline, and online consumption scenarios should be cultivated with the expansion of livestreaming and online tourism, Cui said.

CHINA TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS ON US IN RESPONSE TO HK ACT

China said on Wednesday it will impose sanctions on relevant United States personnel and entities after US President Donald Trump signed into law the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act".

Trump also put his signature on an executive order that ends Washington's preferential treatment for Hong Kong.

The foreign ministry said in a statement Beijing strongly opposes the latest US action and urged Washington to stop interfering in China's internal affairs.

The act maliciously slanders the National Security Law for Hong Kong and threatens to put sanctions on China, which seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations, the ministry said.

Formulation and implementation of the law complies with relevant provisions of the Chinese Constitution and the HKSAR Basic Law and will provide institutional and legal guarantees for the stability of "one country, two systems", according to the statement.

It will also help safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests and guarantee Hong Kong's long-term stability and prosperity.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region in China, and Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs that brook no foreign interference.

China is firmly determined to uphold national sovereignty, safeguard Hong Kong's prosperity and stability and oppose external forces to meddle in Hong Kong affairs.

The US's attempts to block the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong will never succeed, the ministry said.

"To protect its legitimate interests, China will take necessary action to impose sanctions against related US institutions and individuals."

China urges the US to correct its mistakes, refrain from implementing the so-called act and stop any interference in Hong Kong affairs and other domestic affairs of China, it said, adding if the US is bent on going down the wrong path, China will firmly respond.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DROPS FOREIGN STUDENT VISA RULE

The Trump administration has rescinded a policy that would have barred foreign students from staying in the US if they take online-only classes for the fall semester.

The decision came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the policy on July 6, under which international students would not be allowed to stay in or come to the country if their schools operate online due to the pandemic.

The policy prompted a string of lawsuits brought by universities and a coalition of 17 states. Harvard University, with overseas students comprising more than 20 percent of the student body, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose foreign undergraduates make up nearly 30 percent of enrollment, were the first to file suit.

The institutions claim the regulation is "arbitrary and capricious" — arguing that the agency is not considering the health of students, faculty and staff members — and has not taken into account the "reality" of the pandemic continuing.

A dozen "friend of the court" briefs were filed in support of the Harvard and MIT lawsuit by hundreds of universities and some of the country's largest tech companies, including, Google, Facebook and Twitter, arguing that the policy would harm their businesses.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs on Tuesday announced that the government had agreed with Harvard and MIT to rescind the policy.

"President Trump's arbitrary actions put the health and safety of our students and communities across the country at risk," said Xavier Becerra, California attorney general, in a Twitter post following the announcement of the rescission. California is among the 17 states that filed suit against the policy.

"The Trump administration appears to have seen the harm of its student visa directive but it shouldn't take lawsuits and widespread outcry for them to do their job," he said.

US visa requirements typically do not allow international students to take more than one course — or three credits — online each semester. In March, ICE waived those requirements when the pandemic forced colleges nationwide to switch to virtual instruction.

On July 2, the American Council on Education (ACE) and 38 other groups wrote to the US State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, seeking flexibility into the next academic year.

But four days later, ICE reversed the relaxed regulation, requiring foreign students to transfer to institutions that offer some in-person instruction — or leave the US.

Tuesday's agreement reinstates the earlier policy implemented in March, which allows international students to take all their classes online and remain legally in the country amid the pandemic.

"International students are an extraordinary benefit not just to American higher education but to our entire nation, resulting in a wealth of new ideas, cultural connections, cutting-edge technology, and life-saving medical advances, including in the fight against COVID-19," said Mitchell.

He also noted that the economic benefit that comes with the roughly 1 million international students in the US is also immense, yielding about $41 billion and resulting in more than 450,000 US jobs.

VIRUS MAY STRIKE HARDER THIS WINTER

The novel coronavirus raging worldwide may strike harder this winter, dampening the outlook for a return to a normal life and underscoring the need to gear up for a protracted war against the disease,experts have said.

Despite the increased risk, the epidemic situation that played out in Hubei province earlier this year will not be repeated in China, as the country has proved that regional outbreaks can be suppressed with swift and targeted control measures−a response that the rest of the world could refer to, they added.

The pandemic is worsening globally with a record single-day high of 230,370 new cases reported on Sunday, according to the World Health Organization.

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the virus has been spreading quickly worldwide since March, and recent new infections added in the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa accounted for more than half of total new caseloads.

"Initial analysis shows that the viral pandemic will maintain a high level of prevalence in the near future and worsen during the coming winter," he said during an online forum held by Caixin Magazine on Sunday evening.

China is under the dual pressure of coping with sudden outbreaks stemming from unidentified sources, such as the recent one tied to a major wholesale market in Beijing,as well as infection clusters seeded by imported cases, as seen in several cities in northeastern provinces in the past few months, Wu said.

The outbreak in Beijing, detected on June 11, has been brought under full control with no new cases for eight days as of Monday. On Monday, only three new imported cases were added nationwide and the number of patients in treatment had fallen to 297, data from the National Health Commission show.

Wu said the rapid suppression of the virus in the capital has boosted China's confidence in averting another wave of infections as severe as the outbreak in Hubei's capital Wuhan- the hardest-hit city in the country−despite mounting pressure brought by more international flights.

"Beijing's actions serve as an example for the rest of China and could be a reference for the world.The key is prompt detection, a resolute rollout of refined containment measures and wide testing," he said.

IDC: MARKET SIZE OF CHINA'S AI CLOUD SERVICE REACHES $166M IN 2019

The market size of China's artificial intelligence cloud service recorded $166 million in 2019, according to the latest AI cloud service report by the global market consultancy IDC on Tuesday.

As per the report, the compounded annual growth rate of the AI cloud service of China will reach 93.6 percent from 2018 through 2024. AI capability has become a vital factor for users when purchasing cloud service, IDC said.

AI cloud service saw high-speed growth in the last two years. In 2019, AI public cloud service accounted for 10.3 percent of China's AI software market, while the share in the United States stood at 15.6 percent. IDC said, no matter the share in the software market in China or its comparison with that in the US, China has a lot of room to improve.

In terms of product quantities, most of the leading cloud service providers have provided abundent AI capability in public cloud service. Statistics from IDC showed Baidu Cloud and Ali Cloud have been offering the most abundent services. In terms of market share in 2019, Baidu Cloud topped the rankings in AI public cloud service, followed by Ali Cloud and Tencent Cloud. AWS, Huawei Cloud, Azure, Kingsoft Cloud and JD Cloud were also on the list.

As AI penetrates into the core business of firms of all kinds, the application scenarios will increasingly diversify, needing constant innovation and breakthroughs in technology and application. Regarding the AI cloud service market, the competition will escalate to a higher degree in 2020, especially among top providers, IDC analyzed.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief. But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound. – Kahlil Gibran