Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft docks with China’s space station module
Posted: May 31, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, space station, Tianhe, Tianzhou-2 1 CommentReuters May 30, 2021 11:50 AM HKT
China’s cargo spacecraft, carrying supplies, equipment and propellant, docked with the space station’s key module Tianhe on Sunday, the official news agency Xinhua reported.
The Tianzhou-2, or “Heavenly Vessel” in Chinese, autonomously rendezvoused and docked with Tianhe at 5:01 a.m. Beijing time, Xinhua said on Sunday.
It blasted off via a Long March-7 Y3 rocket at 8:55 p.m. Beijing time on Saturday from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.
With a designed life of more than 1 year, Tianzhou-2 carried supplies for future astronauts including food for the Shenzhou-12 crew which will be launched next month for a three-month stay on the station, as well as two tons of propellant.
Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China’s first self-developed space station around 2022, and follows the launch of Tianhe, the first module, in late April.
The three-module space station will rival the International Space Station (ISS), which is backed by countries including the United States, Russia and Japan. China was barred from participating in the ISS by the United States.
The rocket’s launch was postponed this month due to technical reasons, state media said.
The first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 was sent to refuel a space lab – Tiangong-2 – three times in 2017, as a test of the technologies needed to support construction of the space station.
Both Tiangong-2 and an earlier space lab Tiangong-1 have been deorbited in recent years.
Next year, China will launch the two other core modules — Wentian and Mengtian — using the Long March 5B, its biggest and most powerful space transport vehicle.
That rocket, capable of sending 25 tonnes of payload into low Earth orbit, was a source of worry earlier in May as it re-entered the atmosphere after delivering Tianhe into orbit.
Media reports warned of an uncontrolled re-entry of the rocket’s core stage, reviving memories of debris from the flight of the first Long March 5B in May 2020, which damaged buildings when it landed in Ivory Coast.
Remnants from the rocket finally fell harmlessly in the Indian Ocean, but China drew criticism for not being transparent about the timing of the debris re-entry and predictions of its trajectory.
From June until 2022, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft will also be launched, by the smaller Long March-7 and 2F rockets, which have a maximum low Earth payload of 14 tonnes and 8.8 tonnes, respectively.
Note: This is Reuters’ report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’s views.
Joe Biden Believes China Hiding COVID-19 Origin Info, China Warns ‘Political Virus’ Spreading
Posted: May 31, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, origine of COVID-9, political virus, US 3 CommentsBY TOM O’CONNOR AND NAVEED JAMALI ON 5/28/21 AT 7:49 PM EDT
President Joe Biden and his officials believe China is hiding information regarding the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, a contentious issue that the U.S. administration warns it will pursue in spite of protests from Beijing, which has accused Washington of politicizing the investigation.
“This virus originated in China and China has information that it has not shared with the global community about its origins,” a senior administration official told Newsweek, “and that is information that we all need access to in order to prevent the next pandemic.”
The remarks came two days after Biden issued a statement in which he offered an update on a U.S. Intelligence Community report he commissioned in March on the origins of COVID-19, “including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”
In a rare insight to the ongoing probe, the president said Wednesday that the U.S. Intelligence Community “has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question.” Out of the possibilities of an animal-to-human transmission or a laboratory accident, he revealed the latest analysis as determining: “while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.”
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The comments marked the most dramatic shift yet in the administration’s narrative on the theory that the novel coronavirus escaped from a scientific institution, most usually cited as the Wuhan Institute of Virology, an esteemed facility that deals with coronavirus research and is located in the city where the disease was first detected late last year. Most experts had previously dismissed the scenario as far-fetched, and many still do.
In Beijing, Biden’s announcement sparked anger as Chinese officials have downplayed the lab leak hypothesis as unfounded, and accused those promoting it of bearing ill-intentions.
“Lately, some people have played the old trick of political hype on the origin tracing of COVID-19 in the world,” a spokesperson at China’s embassy in the United States said in a statement sent to Newsweek. “Smear campaign and blame shifting are making a comeback, and the conspiracy theory of ‘lab leak’ is resurfacing.”
The spokesperson pointed to what was perceived to be a plot to assign fault to Beijing as the disease first ravaged the world, hitting the U.S. worst of all as China managed to curb the spread relatively quickly.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year, some political forces have been fixated on political manipulation and blame game, while ignoring their people’s urgent need to fight the pandemic and the international demand for cooperation on this front, which has caused a tragic loss of many lives,” the spokesperson said.
As the pandemic continues to inflict sickness and death globally, the Chinese embassy spokesperson reflected on the “lesson” learned from last year’s geopolitical battle launched against China by Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump, over the handling of the disease.
“We cannot but wonder, have they already put that bitter lesson behind them, so soon? Or do they want to see a replay of tragedies?” the spokesperson asked rhetorically “With such irresponsible behaviors, how can they face up to their own people? How can they face up to the international community? And how can they face up to human conscience?”
The Chinese embassy spokesperson said Beijing has called “for international cooperation on the basis of respecting facts and science, with a view to better coping with unexpected epidemics in the future.” Such an investigation would examine “all early cases of COVID-19 found worldwide and a thorough investigation into some secretive bases and biological laboratories all over the world,” suggesting an effort to explore the possibility that the disease did not originate in China.
On the other hand, “To politicize origin tracing, a matter of science, will not only make it hard to find the origin of the virus, but give free rein to the ‘political virus’ and seriously hamper international cooperation on the pandemic,” the Chinese embassy spokesperson said.
But despite China’s messaging, the Biden administration intended to press on with its investigation that’s set to conclude in 88 days.
“We are not going to allow Chinese obfuscation to dictate the work that we need to do to protect the public health of the American people,” the senior administration official told Newsweek.
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Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, wearing protective gear are seen during their visit to the Hubei Center for animal disease control and prevention in Wuhan, China’s central Hubei province on February 2.
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The international spat plays out after the World Health Organization conducted its own investigation into the origins of COVID-19, an effort that included a visit to China roughly coinciding with the anniversary of the disease being declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The joint WHO-China mission determined in March—the same month Biden was briefed on U.S. intelligence findings—that the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely” and called for a focus on the hypothesis that the disease was transferred to humans through contact with a bat, an animal known to carry coronaviruses.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later affirmed in April the lab leak theory was the least likely, but broke with the findings in saying that more evidence was needed to entirely rule out the lab leak theory.
Tedros’ comments drew the ire of Chinese officials. Earlier this month, WHO representative in China Gauden Galea told Sky News that the agency had “not been invited to join” China’s national investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
As the Biden administration pursues its own probe, the White House has so far declined to release any more preliminary findings.
“Look, we do not comment on intelligence, as you can imagine,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday. “We’re going to continue to look at the intelligence. We believe there’s more work to do, hence the 90-day review.”
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian assailed the Biden administration’s latest comments surrounding efforts to get to the bottom of where COVID-19 truly came from.
Chinese Diplomat Lists Officials Punished Since COVID-19 Outbreak in WuhanREAD MOREChinese Diplomat Lists Officials Punished Since COVID-19 Outbreak in Wuhan
“Origin-tracing is a serious scientific issue, and yet the U.S. intends to let its intelligence service play a leading role in conducting the research,” Zhao told a press briefing on Friday. “This only shows that facts and truth is the last thing the US side cares about. It has zero interest in scientific research, but is only seeking political manipulation for the purpose of scapegoating.”
Zhao highlighted the findings of the joint WHO-China team’s initial report as well as what he referred to as the U.S.’ own possession of “the largest scale and the highest number of bio-labs in the world with media coverage of virus leak at the bio-chemical research base Fort Detrick.”
The Maryland military base historically hosted the U.S. biological weapons program from World War II through 1969, but a lab dealing in sensitive diseases remains and two breaches were reported in 2019, forcing the facilities to temporarily halt work.
Zhao also called for U.S. explanations and international investigations regarding “the unexplained respiratory diseases in Northern Virginia in July 2019 and large-scale EVALI [E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury] outbreaks in Wisconsin” around this same time.
No evidence has yet been produced to suggest a link between any of these three events and COVID-19.
In China, a number of officials have been fired, demoted or otherwise disciplined for negligence over the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan and subsequent infections that have occasionally emerged elsewhere throughout the country over the past year.
Earlier this month, Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom Minister Ma Hui revealed “an incomplete list of positions” affected by the blowback, whose former occupants were then identified by Newsweek through gathering public reports.
The Chinese diplomat said this demonstrated the country had handled the crisis in an “accountable” matter rather than “authoritarian” as critics have alleged.
Source: Newsweek “Joe Biden Believes China Hiding COVID-19 Origin Info, China Warns ‘Political Virus’ Spreading”
Note: This is Newsweek’s report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’s views.
The Philippines has dramatically boosted South China Sea patrols, data shows
Posted: May 30, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AMTI, China, militia, patrol, Philippines, sentries, South China Sea 3 CommentsPUBLISHED FRI, MAY 28 20212:18 AM EDT
Abigail Ng
KEY POINTS
- The Philippines has drastically stepped up its patrols in the South China Sea recently, and has come into closer contact with the China Coast Guard, according to ship tracking data.
- From March 1 to May 25, 13 law enforcement or military vessels from the Philippines visited waters around the contested Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal at least 57 times, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said.
- “This was a substantial increase over the previous 10 months … when 3 vessels were tracked making 7 total visits to contested features,” the report said.
The Philippines has drastically stepped up its patrols in the South China Sea recently, and came into closer contact with the China Coast Guard, according to ship tracking data.
Between March 1 to May 25, 13 law enforcement or military vessels from the Philippines visited waters around the contested Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal at least 57 times, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said in note this week.
“This was a substantial increase over the previous 10 months … when 3 vessels were tracked making 7 total visits to contested features,” the report said. It pointed out that this boost in patrols is “beyond anything seen in recent years” from the Philippines.
The South China Sea has been a regional flashpoint in Asia, involving territorial disputes between some countries and China. The Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam are among the countries that lay claim to parts of the waterway, but China sees much of the area — including Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal — as part of its territory. Chinese vessels, by contrast, operate as sentries, staying at targeted features for weeks at a time and usually leaving only once a replacement has arrived to continue the watch. –Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
The AMTI, which is part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, pointed out that the location of patrols by the Philippines has also changed.
Before March, vessels from the Philippines “almost exclusively” traveled to and from the country’s largest outpost in the Spratlys, Thitu Island.
“But recent patrols have included Second Thomas Shoal, which is occupied by the Philippines but patrolled daily by China, Whitsun Reef, where the recent militia swarm was detected, unoccupied Sabina Shoal near Second Thomas, and Scarborough Shoal, where China has maintained a permanent presence since 2012,” AMTI said.
The report reviewed tracking data from commercial provider Marine Traffic, and images from satellite firms Maxar and Planet Labs.
‘Outsized and outgunned’
AMTI outlined an incident in May, when Chinese Coast Guard vessels tailed or chased coast guard vessels from the Philippines which are “almost always outsized and outgunned.”
On May 19, the Philippines sent four ships into contested territorial seas, but were met by two Chinese ships. At least one Philippine ship was “pursued” by the Chinese, it said.
One of the China Coast Guard vessels began trailing the Philippine vessel named MCS 3005, as it sailed around one side of Scarborough.
The other Chinese vessel closely pursued a separate Philippine ship, the Habagat, on the other side before “peeling off toward” a third and larger another Philippine vessel name Gabriela Silang, AMTI said.
The Philippines appears determined to assert itself, but the country’s patrols “pale in comparison” to the intensity of China’s “near-permanent coastguard and militia presence,” according to the report.
Manila’s ships embark on “staggered tours” and spend one to two days at contested features.
“Chinese vessels, by contrast, operate as sentries, staying at targeted features for weeks at a time and usually leaving only once a replacement has arrived to continue the watch,” said AMTI.
“Whether the Philippines will continue its current pace of patrols, and how China might react, is unclear,” the report said. “But while Manila’s combination of more public protest and greater presence seems to have had some success in dispersing Chinese vessels at Whitsun Reef and Sabina Shoal, it hasn’t impacted the overall number of Chinese vessels operating in disputed waters.”
Manila is “drawing greater attention, and international condemnation, to China’s activities, particularly on the militia front,” AMTI said.
Source: CNBC “The Philippines has dramatically boosted South China Sea patrols, data shows”
Note: This is CNBC’s report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’s views.
China successfully launches cargo resupply spacecraft
Posted: May 30, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, space station, Tianhe, Tianzhou-2 1 CommentReuters May 29, 2021 10:03 PM HKT
China on Saturday successfully launched an automated cargo resupply spacecraft to rendezvous with an orbiting module, in the second of a series of missions needed to complete its first permanent space station.
The Tianzhou-2, or “Heavenly Vessel” in Chinese, blasted off via a Long March-7 Y3 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.
Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China’s first self-developed space station around 2022, and follows the launch of the key module Tianhe in late April.
The three-module space station will rival the only other station in service, the International Space Station (ISS), which is backed by countries including the United States, Russia and Japan. China was barred from participating in the ISS by the United States.
Tianzhou-2 will autonomously dock with Tianhe, which will provide supplies for future astronauts as well as propellant to maintain its orbital altitude.
The rocket’s launched was postoned this month due to technical reasons, state media said.
The first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 was sent to refuel a space lab – Tiangong-2 – three times in 2017, as a test of the technologies needed to support the construction of the space station.
Both Tiangong-2 and an earlier space lab Tiangong-1 have been deorbited in recent years.
Next year, China will launch the two other core modules — Wentian and Mengtian — using the Long March 5B, its biggest and most powerful space transport vehicle.
That rocket, capable of sending 25 tonnes of payload into low Earth orbit, was a source of worry earlier in May as it re-entered the atmosphere after delivering Tianhe into orbit.
Media reports warned of an “uncontrolled” re-entry of the rocket’s core stage, reviving memories of debris from the flight of the first Long March 5B in May 2020, which damaged buildings when it landed in Ivory Coast.
Remnants from the rocket finally fell harmlessly in the Indian Ocean, but China drew criticism for not being transparent about the timing of the debris re-entry and predictions of its trajectory.
From June until 2022, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft will also be launched, by the smaller Long March-7 and 2F rockets, which have a maximum low Earth payload of 14 tonnes and 8.8 tonnes, respectively.
Note: This is Reuters’ report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’s views.
Huawei calls on an old friend, Russia, as U.S. sanctions bite down
Posted: May 29, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, China-Russia cooperation, Huawei, Russia, US 3 CommentsBy Eva Dou, Pei Lin Wu and Isabelle Khurshudyan May 28, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. GMT+8
Last month, Huawei’s president of its European and Russian research institutes, Zhou Hong, visited Novosibirsk State Technical University in Siberia. At a conference table adorned with the Russian and Chinese flags, Zhou and his hosts discussed how Russian universities could help the Chinese tech giant.
“It’s now very important for Russian researchers to work with partners at this level,” rector Anatoly Bataev told Zhou, according to an account published by the school. “We’re ready to assist in organizing such a consortium.”
Huawei’s presence in the West has plummeted since a U.S. trade ban, but in Russia, it’s expanding. The company urgently needs to replace U.S. technologies in its supply chain — and it has willing research partners in Russia.
Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uyghur minorities and alert police, report says
One result of the partnerships will launch June 2: a replacement for Google’s Android operating system for smartphones. Huawei’s HarmonyOS was built with help from the company’s Russia research teams, which encompass some 1,500 staffers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Minsk, Belarus, according to Russia’s state-run Sputnik News.https://833633f7eb9fe0e41210681904ea1736.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Huawei’s Russian push comes as Beijing and Moscow are drawing closer under U.S. pressure. U.S. officials have accused Huawei and other Chinese tech giants of posing national security threats, while charging Russia with cyberattacks. Beijing and Moscow dispute the allegations.
Speaking with China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Sino-Russia relations the “best in history” and said Moscow was ready to strengthen strategic coordination. Putin has previously accused the United States of attacking Huawei to hold back China’s development.
Huawei’s executives had hoped the Biden administration would lift restrictions. But this month, President Biden extended predecessor Donald Trump’s 2019 executive order barring U.S. firms from using Huawei telecom gear.
Huawei is also beginning its third year on the Commerce Department Entity List, which curbs U.S. businesses from selling it technology. The company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, said in February he feared it would be “extremely difficult” to get off the list.
Weeks after Huawei was slapped with the ban in 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Putin in Moscow, calling him his “best friend.” The same day, Russian telecom operator MTS pledged to work with Huawei on next-generation 5G networks.
Huawei’s new smartphone could be its last, as U.S. sanctions clamp down on access to chipsets
Huawei did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Chinese and Russian foreign ministries.
“If Russian specialists didn’t have something to offer, Huawei wouldn’t have come here,” Ivan Reva, dean of Novosibirsk State Technical University’s automation and computer engineering program, said in an interview. “They’re interested in our researchers and engineers.”
Early partners
The growing partnership has historical echoes. The Chinese Communist Party relied on Soviet scientists in its early years, when Western governments did not recognize Mao Zedong’s rule.https://833633f7eb9fe0e41210681904ea1736.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
“There was a huge technological transfer from 1949 to 1960,” said Joseph Torigian, a historian at American University in Washington. “The Soviet Union sent experts to help with Chinese industrial development.”
Ren, Huawei’s 76-year-old founder, lived through that golden era of Sino-Soviet camaraderie. He studied the Russian language, according to an early military newspaper profile. He later wrote that he grew up with Pavel Korchagin and Tonia Toumanova — characters in Nikolai Ostrovsky’s novel “How the Steel Was Tempered.”
In 1996, Ren chose Russia as Huawei’s first international market and visited Moscow with thousands of Huawei brochures in tow, as he recounted in Huawei’s employee magazine. Russian leader Boris Yeltsin and China’s Jiang Zemin had just forged a strategic partnership, a move that former secretary of state Henry Kissinger called a “declaration of independence” by both countries from U.S. influence.
Beijing was anxious as tensions with the United States over Taiwan escalated to the point of potential war, while Moscow was facing Western blowback for its war in Chechnya, said Alexander Gabuev, a Carnegie Moscow Center senior fellow.
Ren would say that geopolitics opened the door for Huawei in Russia.
“With the improvement of Sino-Soviet relations, the United States will feel even without it, the world will still turn,” he wrote in 1996. “China will undoubtedly grow rich, and the United States cannot suppress it.”
A quarter-century later, Huawei has reverted to old form, declaring it doesn’t need the West. Russia is one of the few countries Ren is known to have visited since his daughter’s 2018 arrest in Canada.
Call for cooperation
Huawei’s Russian Research Institute has been working on a range of technologies, including chips and operating systems (OS), two areas affected by U.S. sanctions.
In Novosibirsk, Huawei is looking for programmers to write and improve code called “math libraries” for its Kunpeng processor, according to the institute’s hiring website. The company issued a “call for cooperation” to help it migrate applications to different chips: “Due to processor design differences, software components written in high-level languages cannot be accurately executed after recompilation in the new architecture.”
The institute is also seeking help in “greatly improving the business competitiveness of Huawei-developed OSs.”
Huawei did not reply to questions on whether these projects were related to the U.S. sanctions.
Huawei CEO tells staff to keep fewer records, write shorter memos
The research in Russia only partially offset the sanctions’ effect. Even as Huawei improves its chip algorithms, it still lacks a factory to manufacture them. All semiconductor contract manufacturers, called foundries, are off-limits because of their use of U.S. technology.
Analysts say it’s unclear whether Huawei’s core businesses can survive another two years, let alone the decade or more it will take for China to build a foundry free of U.S. intellectual property.
“Huawei is making heroic efforts to survive,” said Dan Wang, a Gavekal Dragonomics technology analyst. “But no technology company has much room for maneuver if it lacks semiconductors.”
In recent speeches, Ren has scaled down ambitions from global expansion to servicing Chinese coal mines, from leapfrogging the United States in innovation to survival. He has dubbed Huawei’s self-sufficiency push “Nanniwan,” after a gorge where Chinese soldiers grew their own food in 1941 during a Japanese economic blockade.
Huawei’s rotating chairman Ken Hu told reporters in March that the company was relying on stockpiled chips to fulfill orders. He declined to say how long supplies would last, or what Huawei would do when the company ran out.
‘Higher salaries than Google’
In May 2019, weeks after being cut off by Google, Ren declared Huawei would vie with the U.S. giant for talent in Novosibirsk, home to international-level computer programmers.
“Starting today, we will offer them higher salaries than Google, to innovate on Russian soil,” he said in a speech.
Huawei’s Russia-based researchers have since filed for patents related to 5G and artificial intelligence.
Not everyone has been happy about Huawei’s recruiting effort.
“Not only do they undermine Russia’s sovereignty in information security, they are also completely destroying the labor market,” Ilya Sachkov, CEO of cybersecurity firm Group-IB, told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in a panel discussion in July 2020.
He said Huawei was offering salaries of $16,300 to $20,400 a month, five or six times prevailing rates.
Huawei’s Russia Research Institute is still seeking researchers and interns for projects such as facial recognition and video surveillance in Moscow, speech recognition in Nizhny Novgorod and 6G technology in St. Petersburg.
“The need to combine software implementations and mathematical algorithms presupposes high qualifications at the postgraduate level and above,” one job listing says. Another reads: “It is enough to be an expert in one of these topics.”
Natasha Abbakumova contributed to this report.
Source: washingtonpost.com “Huawei calls on an old friend, Russia, as U.S. sanctions bite down”
Note: This is washingonpost.com’s report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’ views.
China’s space station module ready to receive first cargo ship visit
Posted: May 29, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, space station, Tianhe, Tianzhou Comments Off on China’s space station module ready to receive first cargo ship visitBy Andrew Jones about 4 hours ago
The Tianhe station module is healthy in orbit.
China’s Tianhe space station module has passed on-orbit tests and is ready to receive its first visitor, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).
Tianhe launched on a Long March 5B on April 28 at 11:23 p.m. EDT (0323 GMT on April 29)and has since carried out a range of tests to prove it is capable of hosting astronauts.
CMSEO said tests of functions needed for rendezvous and docking, life support and other platforms have been completed. A 33-feet-long (10 meters) robotic arm which will be used to help add new modules to the station has also been passed ready for work.
China is now preparing to launch the first visitor to Tianhe, with the Tianzhou 2 cargo spacecraft now expected to launch from Wenchang, south China on Saturday (May 29), shortly after 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 May 29 GMT; 8:30 p.m. May 29 local time).
The Tianzhou 2 spacecraft was first expected to launch on May 19 to send cargo and propellant to Tianhe. The launch has been delayed however due to “technical reasons,” CMSEO said in a statement.
Tianhe is the core module for a “T”-shaped space station that China aims to complete by the end of 2022. China has planned 10 more launches to complete the orbital outpost, starting with Tianzhou 2.
Source: space.com “China’s space station module ready to receive first cargo ship visit”
Note: This is space.com’s report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’ views.
Huawei HarmonyOS launch shows breaking of US technology myth
Posted: May 28, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 5G, China, HarmonyOS, Huawei, operation system, software, software design, tech war, US 2 CommentsBy Xie Jun and Ma Jingjing
Published: May 25, 2021 10:39 PM
Chinese telecom giant Huawei is set to introduce its HarmonyOS for its mobile phones at the beginning of June, a move which not only shows the company’s successful shift to a new business focus that can largely free it from US supply chains, but also shows China’s technological rise that starts to break the US monopoly of operating systems, experts said.
HarmonyOS, or Hongmeng in Chinese, the Huawei-developed operating system which is currently used in gadgets like wearable devices and smart screens, will be rolled out for its smart phones on June 2, Huawei confirmed with the Global Times on Tuesday.
The company posted a short video on its Weibo account showing the boot screen of its HarmonyOS mobile phone, with many netizens commenting that they are anticipating the arrival of self-developed operating systems.
Chinese telecom analysts spoke highly of Huawei’s HarmonyOS phones, as it could not only help Huawei break US technological blockade, but also shows China’s powerful entry into the software field that has long been dominated by US IT giants like Apple and Google.
Zhang Yi, CEO of the iiMedia Research Institute, said that launch of the HarmonyOS by Huawei marks a “historic turning point” that China is increasingly free itself from the US restrictions on Chinese tech firms and the country’s general information industry.
“It sends a signal that Chinese companies can fight their way out of the US technological blockade as long as they insist on independent innovation, and that the so-called US technology myth is not unbreakable like many people thought,” Zhang told the Global Times.
For the company itself, a shift to the software business is also a wise choice as the software sector, whose upgrading cycle is much slower than hardware sets, can help Huawei win more time when its mobile phone business is facing difficulties arising from US chip supply restrictions, Zhang said.
“I think it’s just a matter of time before China breaks through mobile chip technological bottlenecks, but the rise of the software business will help Huawei survive this period instead of being beaten down by sudden blows,” Zhang said.
Huawei has been caught in the Trump administration’s strike against China’s technological rise, which resulted in global chips supplies to Huawei being blocked.
Huawei has been caught up in the US government’s strike against China’s technological rise, with measures taken that include the suspension of chip supplies.
AI-driven Huawei
Experts stressed that Huawei has found a new breaking point in smart solutions, software design and operating systems after its handset business was hit by the US sanctions.
Huawei’s capability and flexibility in rapidly pivoting to new services to gain a foothold – for example, from making smart phones to the building of the HarmonyOS operating system, to smart cars and cloud computing – makes it increasingly immune from Western countries’ suppression in the industrial and supply chains, Fu Liang, a veteran telecom industry analyst, told the Global Times.
“Large-scale business transformation makes Huawei more like an internet and software company instead of a mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM),” Fu said, adding that Huawei has a great role to play in the vast 5G+AI market in China with its 30 years’ experience in information and communication technology (ICT).
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said in a memo recently that the company is focusing on software as the field’s development is fundamentally outside of US control, according to a Reuters report.
Huawei’s artificial intelligence business has flourished in multiple areas. For example, it has recently partnered with China Telecom’s branch in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province in building “intelligent mines,” arming sites with intelligent applications like 5G video communication and remote control workshops. It also recently released a “trajectory prediction” patent which can be used in AI self-driving.
Fu also said that Huawei’s software services may be exported to emerging countries given that many intelligent services and products do not need cutting-edge chips of 7nm or smaller.
Domestic support
Huawei’s launch of its self-developed operating system and other AI solutions are gaining wide support from domestic companies, which experts said can support the company to catch up with industry leaders like Apple and Google in about three to five years.
A group of local tech companies have been actively taking part in the joint construction of a self-developed ecosystem with Huawei. For example, Shanghai-based smart city services provider Yanhua Smartech said in February that part of the company’s software products are compatible with HarmonyOS, and the firm will continue to develop compatibility between its own products and HarmonyOS in line with market demand.
Huawei disclosed that about 300 million mobile phone sets will be installed with HarmonyOS by the end of 2021, with about 200 million being Huawei sets.
Zhang said that at a time when many Chinese companies are facing the threat of sanctions from the US, they are in urgent need of software that can replace US products.
“This need, plus China’s huge mobile phone user base and HarmonyOS’ advantage in integrating different platforms, a feature in which other systems like Android and iOS do not show particular superiority, I think HarmonyOS might become the world’s top operating system in about 3-5 years,” he noted.
Note: This is Global Times’ report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’ views.
Software another path for Huawei to break US attack: analyst
Posted: May 28, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 5G, China, Huawei, software, tech war, US Comments Off on Software another path for Huawei to break US attack: analystBy Global Times
Published: May 26, 2021 10:08 PM
From the launch of its self-developed Harmony operating system (OS) to being a provider of information and communications technology (ICT) solutions, Huawei is putting more effort into strengthening its software ability and shifting away from being a hardware manufacturer to shake off the negative effects of the US chip ban.
The efforts, with the rapid development of China’s 5G sector, are paying off — and they could help Huawei expand quickly at home and abroad, as the Chinese technology company will be largely immune from further US assaults, analysts said.
“As an ICT solutions provider, Huawei has so far cooperated with mines, photovoltaic enterprises and finance firms, as well as ports and pig farms. It is transforming itself from being a hardware supplier to a software and services supplier,” Ma Jihua, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Profits from being a services vendor could be huge and possibly even better than being a hardware producer, Ma said.
Last year, as part of a plan to deal with the US’ technology crackdown, Huawei reportedly kicked off a project called Nanniwan, named after a revolutionary site in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, which will focus on gadgets that shun US technologies.
A large-scale production campaign was launched in Nanniwan during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, aiming to tackle economic hardships, achieve self-sufficiency in production.
In February this year, Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s founder and CEO, confirmed the existence of the project, explaining that this term actually refers to production and self-rescue.
“For example, we have made great breakthroughs in the fields of coal, steel, music, smart screens, PCs, and tablets. So, we can survive without relying on mobile phones.”
Analysts said that after almost a year of development and progress, the ICT sector is the area where Huawei has made the most breakthroughs so far.
For instance, investment in the vehicle sector has already become profitable. Other than providing smart solutions for a dozen carmakers, Huawei also announced plans to help carmakers sell vehicles through its flagship stores across China – the places where it has been selling smartphones.
In the coming Internet of Things (IoT) era, Huawei will definitely be at the forefront with its HarmonyOS and ability in 5G. It has the potential to surpass Apple and also Google, Ma said.
However, experts also cautioned that Huawei is facing fierce competition from domestic counterparts such as Xiaomi, which has made an early start in the smart home sector, and also from Alibaba and Tencent.
Moreover, Jiang Junmu, an industry analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the dilemma in the hardware segment under the US ban may hamper the company’s further expansion in the software business.
“Only the integration of software and hardware can give full play to the capabilities of products and services,” Jiang said.
Source: Global Times “Software another path for Huawei to break US attack: analyst”
Note: This is Global Times’ report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’ views.
U.S. urges WHO to carry out 2nd phase of virus origin study in China
Posted: May 28, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, origin of COVID-19, US 3 CommentsReuters May 28, 2021 4:15 AM HKT
The United States called on Thursday for the World Health Organization to carry out a second phase of its investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, with independent experts given full access to original data and samples in China.
A WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February with Chinese researchers said in a report in March that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that “introduction through a laboratory incident was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway.”
U.S. President Joe Biden ordered aides to find answers to the origin of the virus that causes COVID-19, saying on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies are pursuing rival theories potentially including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China.
The initial WHO study was “insufficient and inconclusive,” the U.S. mission to the U.N. in Geneva said in a statement on Thursday, calling for what it called a timely, transparent and evidence-based second probe to be conducted, including in China.
“It is critical that China provides independent experts full access to complete, original data and samples relevant to understanding the source of the virus and the early stages of the pandemic,” the U.S. statement said.
China, through remarks by a representative at its embassy in the United States, said on Thursday it supported “a comprehensive study of all early cases of COVID-19 found worldwide and a thorough investigation into some secretive bases and biological laboratories all over the world.”
Simon Manley, Britain’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, said in a separate statement: “Phase one of the WHO-convened COVID-19 origins study was always meant to be the beginning of the process, not the end. We call for a timely, transparent, evidence-based, and expert-led phase two study, including in the People’s Republic of China, as recommended by the experts’ report.”
Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, told its annual meeting of health ministers on Wednesday: “We’ve had consultations informally with many member states to look at what happens in the next phase. And we will continue to have those discussions in the coming weeks.”
Note: This is Reuters’ report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’ views.
Deep-rooted racism, discrimination permeate US military (excerpts)
Posted: May 28, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: racism, US, US military 2 CommentsBy KAT STAFFORD, JAMES LAPORTA, AARON MORRISON and HELEN WIEFFERING 2 hours ago
1 of 14 Reserve Marine Maj. Tyrone Collier visits the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial near his home in Arlington, Va., on Saturday, April 17, 2021. When Collier was a newly minted second lieutenant and judge advocate, he recalls a salute to him from a Black enlisted Marine. But even after Collier acknowledged the gesture, the salute continued. Puzzled, Collier asked why the Marine held it for so long. “He said, ‘Sir, I just have to come clean with something. … We never see Black officers. We never see people like you and it makes me extraordinarily proud,’” Collier recalls. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
For Stephanie Davis, who grew up with little, the military was a path to the American dream, a realm where everyone would receive equal treatment. She joined the service in 1988 after finishing high school in Thomasville, Georgia, a small town said to be named for a soldier who fought in the War of 1812.
Over the course of decades, she steadily advanced, becoming a flight surgeon, commander of flight medicine at Fairchild Air Force Base and, eventually, a lieutenant colonel.
But many of her service colleagues, Davis says, saw her only as a Black woman. Or for the white resident colleagues who gave her the call sign of ABW – it was a joke, they insisted – an “angry black woman,” a classic racist trope.
White subordinates often refused to salute her or seemed uncomfortable taking orders from her, she says. Some patients refused to call her by her proper rank or even acknowledge her. She was attacked with racial slurs. And during her residency, she was the sole Black resident in a program with no Black faculty, staff or ancillary personnel.
Source: excerpts of AP report “Deep-rooted racism, discrimination permeate US military”, full text of which can be viewed at https://apnews.com/article/us-military-racism-discrimination-4e840e0acc7ef07fd635a312d9375413.
Note: These are excerpts of AP’s report I post here for readers’ information. It does not mean whether I agree or disagree with the report’ views.
Tiananmen's Tremendous Achievements 