PRESIDENT TO COMMEND TOP CHAMPIONS IN COVID FIGHT

President Xi Jinping will attend a meeting on Tuesday morning to commend role models in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic and present a national medal and honorary titles to four people for their outstanding contribution during the outbreak.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will deliver a speech at the meeting, which will be held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at 10 am on Tuesday.

Xi signed a presidential order on Aug 11 to confer the Medal of the Republic, the highest national honor, on prominent infectious disease expert Zhong Nanshan. The medal was first awarded last year during the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

Zhong, who is a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, is widely praised and respected for delivering timely information on the latest epidemic situation and leading the formulation of diagnosis and treatment guidelines.

The order also awards national honorary titles to three other experts for their contribution in fighting COVID-19. They are top traditional Chinese medicine expert Zhang Boli, Zhang Dingyu, the head of an infectious disease hospital in Wuhan, and military medical expert Chen Wei.

Since the outbreak hit Wuhan, Hubei province, in late December, China has launched a resolute battle to curb its spread and is now taking regular disease control measures to prevent a resurgence as the disease continues to rage worldwide.

As of Saturday, the Chinese mainland had reported no new local infections for 21 consecutive days and 186 confirmed cases were under treatment, according to the National Health Commission. Ten confirmed cases arriving from outside the mainland were reported on Saturday, the commission said in its daily report.

5G TAKES CENTRAL POSITION IN PLANS

China will step up its push to expand its 5G network coverage, build a dynamic industrial ecosystem and strengthen international cooperation, so as to quicken the commercialization of the superfast wireless technology, officials and experts said.

Wen Ku, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on Saturday that China has built over 480,000 5G base stations so far, and more than 100 million devices have been connected to the 5G network, as part of the nation's broader push to accelerate 5G deployment.

"Chinese companies are applying 5G technologies to sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, media, and transportation, despite the fallout of the COVID-19 outbreak," Wen said.

According to Wen, Chinese companies have pioneered a wide range of applications, such as conducting a 5G-powered remote surgery on a human brain, transmitting ultrahigh-definition television content through 5G networks and piloting the operation of self-driving buses and automobiles in some cities.

He made the remarks at a 5G forum during the ongoing China International Fair for Trade in Services held in Beijing. The CIFTIS, which marks the country's first major international trade event held offline since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, began on Friday and will continue through Wednesday.

As of July, about 99 telecom operators in more than 46 countries and regions have started offering 5G services, Wen said, adding that China is working hard to promote cross-industry cooperation on 5G, which is one of the keys to giving a full display of 5G's potential.

According to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, the international association of mobile operators better known as GSMA, China has consolidated its position as a global leader in 5G, with the nation expected to account for 70 percent of global 5G connections in 2020, despite the short-term headwinds from the outbreak.

Si Han, head of GSMA China, said earlier that China is leading early adoption in 5G, and the nation's telecom operators, industrial enterprises and consumers remain enthusiastic about the superfast technology.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank, forecast earlier that China is likely to spend 1.2 trillion yuan ($175.4 billion) on 5G network construction by 2025, driving more than 3.5 trillion yuan of investment in the upstream and downstream industrial chain and other related sectors by then.

Frank Meng, chairman of Qualcomm China, said on Saturday that 5G is being rapidly deployed in China and the US chip giant aims to seize the opportunity to deepen its partnership with Chinese companies.

Regardless of any changes in economic situations or business environments, Qualcomm remains confident in the Chinese market, and the company is dedicated to expanding collaboration and common interests with Chinese partners, Meng said.

He said the CIFTIS offers a good platform to showcase the innovative products Qualcomm has jointly developed with Chinese smartphone vendors and other telecom companies.

CANADA MADE MISTAKE DETAINING HUAWEI EXEC, OFFICIAL SAYS

The United States requested dozens of countries, including its allies and those having bilateral extradition treaties with it, to detain Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of China's telecommunications giant Huawei, but only Canada agreed to do that, an official from the Foreign Ministry said.

In a recent interview with the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, Lu Kang, director-general of the ministry's Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, reiterated that Ottawa's arrest of Meng is a "political incident", and he said the Canadian government made a mistake on this issue.

Lu said that many countries received requests from the US to detain Meng, but "none of them followed this ridiculous idea until Madame Meng entered Canada".

"So why did the Canadian government become the only one?" Lu asked.

He described Meng's case as the US government trying to use its state power to suppress competitive and successful companies.

"Unfortunately, the Canadian government is the only one that helped the US government in this kind of dirty game," Lu said.

"So definitely this is something that became a very serious obstacle between our two countries. And definitely the Chinese government and the Chinese people are entitled to preserve our legitimate rights in whatever forms."

Ties between China and Canada have become strained since Canadian police detained Meng in December 2018 on a US extradition warrant. China has repeatedly accused Canada of acting as an accomplice of the US in the incident.

Lu said Ottawa's wrong decision to detain Meng could bring about more opportunity costs for the Canadian government and for bilateral relations. "Because without that, there are a lot of areas, there are a lot of opportunities and potential that we could explore more. But with this, we don't have the right circumstances to explore further."

"We hope the Canadian government would really seriously take care of this issue in order to pave the way for smooth cooperation between our two countries," he said.

Lu also rejected allegations of so-called "hostage diplomacy" when talking about two Canadian citizens−Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor−who were arrested in China for committing crimes endangering China's national security.

"We made it public which specific articles of Chinese law they have violated, and everything is open, everything is transparent," Lu said.

"But when we come to the issue of Meng Wanzhou, even the Canadian side could not explain what kind of legal framework she has violated."

"From the very beginning, we have told the Canadian public very clearly that those are two issues totally different by nature," he said.

Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu also urged the Canadian government to make the right decision to release Meng at an early date to allow her to return to China safe and sound.

This will help bilateral ties return to the right track and will also help unleash the potential for the countries' cooperation, Cong said while talking to local media.

CHINA RECORDS 6% RISE IN FOREIGN TRADE

China saw its foreign trade increase 6 percent on a yearly basis to 2.88 trillion yuan in August, with exports surging 11.6 percent and imports declining 0.5 percent respectively, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed on Monday.

The country's foreign trade of goods reached 20.05 trillion yuan in the first eight months of 2020, down 0.6 percent year-on-year. The drop narrowed by 1.1 percentage points compared with the decline between January and July, Customs data showed.

China's foreign trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its largest trading partner, jumped 7 percent year-on-year to 2.93 trillion yuan during the eight-month period, while its trade volume with the European Union, its second-largest trading partner, grew 1.4 percent on a yearly basis to 2.81 trillion yuan.

In the meantime, China's goods trade with the US fell by 0.4 percent on a yearly basis to 2.42 trillion yuan.

The imports and exports of China's private companies reached 9.21 trillion yuan between January and August, a rise of 8.5 percent year-on-year, accounting for 45.9 percent of the country's total foreign trade value.

CHINESE, INDIAN MINISTERS TRY TO REDUCE TENSIONS

China's and India's defense ministers have met in Moscow in an effort to lower tensions along their border in the eastern Ladakh region and seek ways to enhance exchanges.

In the meeting on Friday, Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, urged India to strictly abide by the series of agreements reached between the two sides, to refrain from provocations on the current Line of Actual Control, to refrain from actions that may cause the situation to heat up, and to refrain from exaggerating and disseminating negative information.

"The Chinese military is fully determined, capable and confident of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wei said on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization defense ministers' meeting in Moscow. The organization comprises China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

It was the first and highest level of face-to-face talks between the two after recent border clashes. Foreign ministers and other officials of the two countries have been speaking over the phone since the standoff started in May.

Wei said the cause and truth of the current tension on the border are very clear, with the responsibility lying entirely with India.

"China would not give up an inch of its territory," he said.

In a statement issued by the Indian Defense Ministry, Rajnath Singh said "the current situation should be handled responsibly, and neither side should take any further action that could either complicate the situation or escalate matters in the border areas".

DECOUPLING NOT GOOD FOR CHINA OR US

Sino-US relations have undergone drastic changes since the US administration launched a tariff war against China at the beginning of 2018.

Thanks to the China hawks in Washington who want to decouple the US and Chinese economies, Washington has taken a series of targeted measures against Beijing, including restricting Chinese investment in the US through the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States' review process, trying to strangle Chinese high-tech enterprises, imposing visa restrictions on Chinese students who want to major in science or engineering in the US, and forcing American companies operating in China to return to the US, which have seriously affected economic and trade exchanges between the two sides.

The clampdown on TikTok, a short video-sharing app developed by Byte-Dance, and WeChat, a messaging app owned by Tencent, is the latest US move against Chinese companies on the pretext of safeguarding national security, economy and American people's private data.

Will the impact of all these US moves lead to the global supply chains expanding further out of China to more and more countries?

The fact is, the global supply chains were already widening as some industries, especially labor-intensive industries, had started shifting from China to other countries even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic or the US-triggered trade war. Such shifting of industries is determined by a variety of factors, including labor cost, changing consumer preferences and industrial upgrading.

Given the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative across the world and the "go-global" drive of Chinese enterprises, it is only natural that some of China's production capacity will shift and supply chains will extend further to overseas countries and regions.

CHINA LAUNCHES NEW OPTICAL REMOTE-SENSING SATELLITE

China launched a new optical remote-sensing satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi province on Monday.

The Gaofen 11 02 satellite was launched by a Long March 4B rocket at 1:57 pm (Beijing Time), according to the center. It was the 345th flight mission by a Long March carrier rocket.

Gaofen 11 02 has a resolution up to the sub-meter level. It will be mainly used for land surveys, city planning, land rights confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster prevention and mitigation.

The newly launched satellite will also offer information support for the Belt and Road construction.

OFFICIALS CLARIFY LEGAL SELF-DEFENSE RIGHTS

Chinese judicial authorities have clarified several situations in which actions can be deemed justifiable self-defense.

The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued a guideline recently clarifying the parameters of legal self-defense, specifying that people can defend themselves when their personal freedoms are violated or their residences are unlawfully invaded.

If someone finds that others are causing damage to national or public security, efforts to stop them will also be regarded as self-defense. For example, passengers can stop people trying to grab steering wheels or attack bus drivers while vehicles are in motion, according to the guideline.

In addition, when a person is attacked by a group of people, he or she can fight back not only against the attackers as self-defense, but also those organizing or instigating the attack at the scene, it added.

Jiang Qibo, director of the top court's research office, said the guideline will help make judicial authorities more willing to acknowledge justifiable self-defense, making the legal provision more practical and allowing it to be applied more accurately.

"We've found that some judicial workers have blurred the lines between right and wrong, supporting those suffering injury or death instead of siding with justice," Jiang said. "It doesn't meet the spirit of the rule of law and should be corrected."

He said the criteria for deeming an action justifiable self-defense under the Criminal Law had been too vague in the past, so many judicial departments rarely bothered to apply the legal provision.

"The guideline, I believe, will give relatively freer rein to the provision … better protecting people's legitimate rights," Jiang said.

Lao Dongyan, deputy director of the top procuratorate's law and policy research office, said the guideline will allow justifiable self-defense to be more easily identified, adding that prosecutors across the country have also enhanced public awareness of such cases in recent years.

Statistics from the top prosecuting authority show that prosecutors around the country decided not to detain 187 people last year after reviewing evidence and identifying justifiable self-defense in the cases, up 105.4 percent year-on-year.

"What we are highlighting is that justice cannot bow to or give in to unlawful attacks," Lao said.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

When you praise someone you call yourself his equal. – JW von Goethe