Tag Archives: China

Why were there only less than 4000 people died in the 1.4 billion people China ?

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, May 4(Greenpost) — For a long time I couldn’t understand why President Trump keeps on saying that China has hidden the corona virus disaster. After a long time of thinking I understood that he couldn’t believe why only less than 4000 people died from corona virus related disease in China. He simply couldn’t believe it because both in Europe and America there have been such a huge death toll.

He was shaken and he was angry. Thus he couldn’t believe China did so successfully in terms of lives saving. Thus he kept on saying China was hiding.

But the truth was that China didn’t hide. Even China hid, it was just about a few hundred. For example, when Chinese scientists published articles, they took 41 samples by January 10th. And then there were two weeks there were not many reports about the cases.

Then by Jan. 22 China found it has the danger of spreading from person to person. By then how many cases China had? I read the number it was about four hundred cases, at most one thousand infected because there was overload of patients in the hospitals. Then there was a panic and Academician Professor Zhong Nanshan, focal person for China’s antivirus campaign announced this news and together with other Chinese doctors they suggested Wuhan closed down so that the virus would not spread all over the country, even to the outside world.

From then on, China made use of big data to calculate the patients, using AI to identify those who have contacts with the patients. All the modern technology was used.

Most importantly, Chinese medicine was used to prevent people from getting worse.

From the beginning, Chinese traditional medicine doctors who are colleagues of Nobel Prize in medicine winner Tu Youyou were invited to go to Wuhan to participate in treatment. Zhang Boli, who used to be the boss of Tu Youyou and colleague who was also renowned for his advanced experiences in dealing with virus.

So we can say that traditional Chinese medicine played an important role while more and more people sacrifice their life and time and energy to take care of the patients. It was this kind of sacrifices spirit that have saved more lives in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

3000 doctors and nurses got infected and about 200 of them died during the campaign. China sacrificed a lot in terms of economy because the whole nation was closed for over a week and many provinces for two weeks. In Wuhan it was till April 8th.

During the inspection of the WHO, both experts and journalists seemed not to publicise Chinese medicine very much. As a result, in the west, people can only rely on the breathing machines or respirators, no other medicine. But in China, they used Chinese herbs to help patients to sleep, to get rid of fear and help patients to improve the immune system.

With the cooperation of western and Chinese medicine, it was a great practice. Of course, at the beginning Chinese people were not satisfied and many people thought still too many lives were cost.

But when the virus took place in Europe or in America, then we realised how the Chinese medicine or Chinese thinking or the whole hearted anti virus campaign actually worked not badly.

I don’t want to make comparison, but I can’t help. Chinese way is to put people in the center. China cost a lot of economy, but to prevent the virus from killing people, they can earn money later.

China doesn’t mean to keep itself what they did as a secret. China likes to share its experiences. But indeed, I have to say that kind of caring and generous method was hard to learn. And in the long run, whether there were psychological consequences or not, we didn’t know. I couldn’t imagine if there was because it was during the Spring Festival time and people should stay at home and reunited with the family any way.

Thus it was possible for many people to stay at home because staying outside, it was too dangerous during the first three months of this year.

China liked to help and share, but encountered a lot of misunderstanding and criticism. Only time will tell how China could be understood.

China mourns Covid-19 victims with three minute silence

A day of remembrance is held in China to honour those who have died in the coronavirus outbreak

I thought if we gave one minute of a national mourning for all those who died during this anti-covid-19 campaign including those victims. But the Chinese government has announced a three minute mourning.

According to BBC report, China has mourned the victims of the coronavirus outbreak by observing a three-minute silence, bringing the nation to a halt.

A day of remembrance was declared in China on Saturday to honour the more than 3,300 people who died of Covid-19.

At 10:00 local time (03:00 GMT), people stood still nationwide for three minutes in tribute to the dead.

Cars, trains and ships then sounded their horns, air raid sirens rang as flags were flown at half-mast.

The first cases of coronavirus were detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province late last year.

Since then, the virus has swept the globe, infecting more than one million people and killing nearly 60,000 in 181 countries.

In Wuhan, the epicentre of China’s outbreak, all traffic lights in urban areas were turned red at 10:00, ceasing traffic for three minutes.

China’s government said the event was a chance to pay respects to “martyrs”, a reference to the 14 medical workers who died battling the virus. It was reported that more than 3000 Chinese doctors and nurses as well as workers in hospitals were infected during the period. About 50 police and guards died due to the infection while on duty.

People stop and pay their respects in Wuhan, 4 April 2020
Image captionChina came to a standstill during the three-minute silence at 10:00 local time

They include Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan who died of Covid-19 after being talked by police not to talk about the disease.

“I feel a lot of sorrow about our colleagues and patients who died,” a Chinese nurse who treated coronavirus patients told AFP news agency. “I hope they can rest well in heaven.”

Wearing white flowers pinned to their chest, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other government officials paid silent tribute in Beijing.

Saturday’s commemorations coincide with the annual Qingming festival, when millions of Chinese families pay respects to their ancestors.

China first informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about cases of pneumonia with unknown causes on 31 December last year.

By 18 January, the confirmed number of cases had risen to around 60 – but experts estimated the real figure was closer to 1,700.

Police officers and officials stop and pay their respects during a three minutes of silence to mourn those who died in the fight against the pandemic
Image captionChina’s government said the commemoration was held to pay respects to “martyrs”

Just two days later, as millions of people prepared to travel for the lunar new year, the number of cases more than tripled to more than 200 and the virus was detected in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

From that point, the virus began to spread rapidly in Asia and then Europe, eventually reaching every corner of the globe.

Media captionThe BBC met people in Beijing heading out after the lockdown

In the past few weeks, China has started to ease travel and social-distancing restrictions, believing it has brought the health emergency under control.

Last weekend, Wuhan partially re-opened after more than two months of isolation.

On Saturday, China reported 19 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, down from 31 a day earlier. China’s health commission said 18 of those cases involved travellers arriving from abroad.

As it battles to control cases coming from abroad, China temporarily banned all foreign visitors, even if they have visas or residence permits.

What is the latest worldwide?

As the coronavirus crisis in China abates, the rest of the world remains firmly in the grip of the disease.

In the US, now the global epicentre of the outbreak, the number of deaths from the disease jumped to 7,152 on Friday, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.

The deaths increased by 1,480 in 24 hours, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic began, AFP news agency reported, citing Johns Hopkins University’s case tracker.

Banner

As of Friday, there were 277,953 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US, a rise of more than 32,000 in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, deaths continue to climb in Italy and Spain, the second and third worst-affected countries in the world.

Map showing number of cases in Europe

In Italy, deaths increased by 766 on Friday, bringing the total to 14,681. In Spain, the death toll stood at 10,935, a rise of 932 in the past day.

However, there was a glimmer of hope for both countries, as the downward trend in the rate of new cases continued.

Thanks to BBC’s objective report today.

Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson

China’s 10 lessons in Covid-19

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, March 25 (Greenpost) — American late President John F Kennedy was remembered for his famous swearing-in sentence: United We Stand. … Do not ask how much our nation can do for you and ask what you can do for our nation.

Actually China has learnt a lot from America, the American spirit of willing to sacrifice for a good cause.

If you study Kennedy’s sentence carefully, you can see it is also very much a communist idea. He called on people to be united and do more for their country and dare to sacrifice.

It is interesting to see that this idea was perfectly implemented in China.

China was the first one who suffered in large scale of the outbreak of Covid-19. But after two months intensive fighting, China has generally won the battle. Is there any secret for China to win the battle? I like to summarise it in ten lessons or experiences.

  1. Great leadership. Wage a war against Covid-19. Chinese President Xi Jinping is a great leader. He is such a forward looking leader and a leader who has strategic outlook. After about three weeks investigation, research and study, he realised that the attack of the Covid-19 was not an ordinary virus such as SARS, MERS or American Flu but a virus that spread so quickly that if you don’t take collective and coordinated action, mobilise the whole nation to deal with it, you will face the danger that the whole Chinese nation will be paralysed and even more 20 percent of the 1.4 billion lives will be in danger. It would be very hard to imagine that such a number of population will be wiped out. China indeed has a huge population, but even one life loss is too many. China has put the people in the center and it must implement this policy. Thus, President Xi Jinping declared a war, he called it people’s war against Covid-19.
  2. Build up capacity with great coordination capability. Since it is a war against Covid-19 under the leadership of President Xi Jinping himself, he was given the power to mobilise the national resources. As soon as China found that the deaths were caused by the shortage of hospital beds, Xi mobilised all the big corporations and the army to build a temporary Xiaotangshan like hospital. Maybe he learnt from the 2003 SARS lessons, he realised it was such an important issue of life or death, thus he used all the resources he could. The Xiaotangshan hospital was built to deal with SARS patients in 2003 in Beijing suburbs near the Great Wall. In order to combat the bloody virus, the first hospital was called Huoshenshan which means the God of Fire Mountain to burn the virus. The second hospital which was also built within ten days was called Leishenshan meaning the God of Thunder to kill the virus. These two hospitals and the following dozen Noah Ark hospitals exhibited China’s formidable construction capability. This construction itself needs a lot of coordination, unity and voluntary forces. A lot of workers from other provinces came to help build the hospitals.
  3. International assistance and cooperation. Ask for help. When the most devastating Earthquake took place in Tangshan in 1976, China refused to ask any help from the world and China lost 240 thousand lives. Later we think when needed for the lives of the people, leaders should be humble and ask help, to save lives is important. When Wuhan announced to close down on January 23, it was just the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday which usually lasted for 8 days. Almost all the Chinese should go back home and unite with their loved ones and enjoy the longest holiday in China, similar to Christmas in the west. Thus there were no production, almost no one were working. But the doctors and nurses in Wuhan, Hubei and even Zhejiang and other provinces were short of protecting clothes, N95 masks, gloves and the protecting eye glasses. In fact, Dr. Li Wenliang was an eye doctor, but he was infected of Convid-19 by an 85 year old lady when he examined her eyes. So the danger of infection is not just in the emergency sector, or respiratory sector, but in all hospitals because Chinese hospitals are usually much larger and much more open so there are also long queues. Therefore, Chinese government mobilised all the overseas Chinese and other government to ask for help to donate or sell N95 masks, protecting clothes and others. The Chinese all over the world took action immediately and donated money and contacted shops to buy all kinds of goods mainly the masks. Those who couldn’t get masks, bought gloves. I remember that the goods took two weeks to arrive in China with many people’s joint efforts. This was a moving process because all the Chinese people have a kind of feeling that this was such a huge disaster that needed us all to unite and work together to win this battle. Virus was shrewd and spreading so quickly no matter who you are. Four doctors died including two professors who are experts in medical field. But maybe hard work or lack of sleep whatever lower immunity made them collapse when the virus attacked. I summarised it with a timeline, thus I think the international cooperation is very important. With this kind of unity spirit, we encouraged each other.
  4. Exert Chinese system advantage. Chinese political system is not a dictatorship but a centralised power that produced from various provinces and regions and when there is need the provinces are like brothers and sisters to help each other. When I went to Xinjiang to have a reporting trip in August 2018, I was so impressed that each region in Xinjiang has a big brother in the eastern part of China. For example, Beijing will be the brother of Urumqi, Altay will have a brother which is called Heilongjiang province in northeast China. And I saw the bridge built with 2 million yuan donated from Heilongjiang. The same with Tibet Autonomous Region. This time the most moving part was that the young brother in Xinjiang now helped Hubei province with apples and meat which was what they have. Hubei might have helped Xinjiang with money and technology. But now what Hubei needed was basic things such as vegetable and apples because the city was closed down and no trade or normal transportation were going on. When the new hospitals were built, many thousands of patients were moved in, they need new doctors and nurses. How could they manage that? Liaoning Province in northeast China sent 1000 doctors and nurses from Jinzhou and Dalian as well as more from Shenyang. So it is not fairy tale that one province helped one city in Hubei Province, it was absolutely true. Almost every province or autonomous region and municipality had offered help. How could China realise that? That is the system advantage and cultural advantage even though people from the north feel difficult to understand the language in Hubei and difficult to deal with the patients. They immediately formed a vocabulary of the local language online so that they can learn immediately.
  5. Chinese communist party members took the lead in offering the help and work on duty in the most difficult time and place. Chinese communist party members swore that they should put the public interest ahead of their own interest and I bet most of them who offered the help from other provinces are CCP members. It might be dangerous, it might cost life, it might be that you go there and you will not come back, but as a CCP member, you have such an obligation to voluntarily do it. They are all voluntary doctors and nurses. It was not ordered to do so. It was just a call and you can just answer it. It was reported that about 40 thousand doctors and nurses from outside Hubei went to Wuhan and other cities hospitals to help. Thus they need a lot of protecting clothes and masks.
  6. The Heroic Wuhan People, Hubei people and all the Chinese people. During the first week between January 25 and February 2, almost all over China was closed down and isolated. All the villages were closed. No cars were allowed to go through for a week. But by February 2, after a week of fighting against the virus, expert Zhong Nanshan who is 84 years old found that this virus actually has about two weeks potential, in which people could have symptoms after five to seven days. Or they can stay for two weeks and then have cough or fever symptoms. Thus a lot more people might have infected but showed no symtoms yet. Thus it will take at least two weeks to know how many have got infected. So the original closedown of the city for a week was extended for two weeks and then from two weeks extended to four weeks 28 days. With such a long time of closing down, how can Chinese bear it? The slogan was that to stay at home was great, patriotic and that was needed to fight against this virus. Because this virus spreads so quickly when you have close contacts. Thus some families unfortunately disappeared due to the inside family infection and left their orphans.
  7. The sacrifice of the grassroots workers such as neighbourhood committee people and volunteers. They were the ones who tested the people’s temperatures and also helped to guard people from wandering around in the street. Their jobs were not easy and sometimes they could meet irritated people and insulted them.
  8. Five million guards and volunteer made all the isolation possible. It was not admirable, but they should be respected otherwise the society could have been in chaos. But mostly it went well and again we must say Wuhan people were great because there were many kinds of recreational activities which were very innovative. It is very respectful for the Chinese people’s talent and wisdom. I have published an old man’s poem describing his staying at home. The volunteers later shouldered the responsibility of buying food and vegetables for each family who gave an order through the smart phone services.
  9. The postman was praised even during the spring festival TV gala programs but this time, without them, the battle of combating the virus was not complete. It was they who helped transport goods from Shanghai, Guangzhou and many other places to Hubei provinces.
  10. Chinese medicine has played a great role in giving the Chinese confidence in curing patients. The World Health Organization officials said it was good to see China uses whatever they have to cure the patients. In China there were western medicine doctors relying on antibiotics and other western medicines and equipment such as breathing machines and artificial lung machines. There were also Chinese medicine doctors who used Chinese herbs as medicine to alleviate the symptoms of lungs and fever. It was reported that many light symptom patients recovered with Chinese medicine and prevented them from becoming the sever patients. Unfortunately when WHO opened the press conference and made an impression that all the light symptom patients can recover themselves and the severe symptom patients could only wait for breathing machine or vaccines. China drew the lessons from SARS and all the Chinese put on a mask when they go out. Without mask, you can’t go out. It is a way to protect yourself and also protect others. It is a way to isolate. To understand the virus and its symptoms is a long process which lasted a week for 7 patients and then for 45 patients to examine exactly what it is and how harmful it is. Finally by January 23 Wuhan declared closedown. Wuhan Mayor was hesitating even if he declared that, but he said I don’t care what the history will tell this story which was unprecedented. But of course a lot of people thought he should have closed down earlier. So above are my summary of ten lessons or experiences China can offer to the world. Through this disaster, we see a lot of positive aspects of humanity. Many people said this could only be done under the leadership of the CCP, but I like to say that under the leadership of the CCP, there are great Chinese people, without their support, how can CCP itself completed this mission? So the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government and the Chinese people and the Chinese nation are all together making a great Chinese culture spreading kindness and mercy so that our world becomes a better world.

Overall, it can be summarised as united we stand. That was to unite and do the right thing at the right time and then resume the production. Of course Chinese culture is also a culture that emphasise harmony, cooperation and mutual help. With cooperation and unity, we can overcome all the difficulties. I cannot say China won a great victory or completely defeat the enemy of virus, but at least now it can produce substantially with its capacity and help other parts of the world to recover from the virus disaster.

The following are some pictures during this campaign showing how people help each other.

Latest figures from China

Stockholm, Mar.2(Greenpost) –According to the China News Agency, Beijing, March 2nd. China’s National Health Committee announced on the 2nd of March that on the 1st, 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 202 new confirmed cases and 42 new deaths.

As of 24:00 on the 1st, a total of 80026 confirmed cases and 2912 dead cases had been reported.

On the 1st, 196 new cases were confirmed in Hubei. Six new cases were confirmed outside Hubei on that day.

Data from the National Health and Medical Commission showed that from 14:00 to 14:00 on the 1st, 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 202 newly confirmed cases, 42 new deaths (42 in Hubei).

There were 141 new suspected cases.

On the same day, 2837 new cases were cured and discharged, 8154 were close contacts of medical observation, and 255 severe cases were reduced.

As of 24:00 on the 1st, according to reports from 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, there were 32,652 confirmed cases (of which 7,110 were severe cases), a total of 44,462 discharged cases were cured, and a total of 2912 death cases were accumulated.

There were 80026 confirmed cases and 715 suspected cases.

A total of 663,240 close contacts were traced, and 46,219 close contacts were still in medical observation.

There were 196 new confirmed cases in Hubei (193 in Wuhan), 2570 new cases cured and discharged in Wuhan (1958), 42 new deaths (32 in Wuhan), and 30,543 confirmed cases (25,903 in Wuhan).

There were 6872 severe cases (6225 cases in Wuhan).

A total of 33,757 discharged patients were cured (21,185 in Wuhan), a total of 2,803 deaths (2,227 in Wuhan), and a total of 67,103 confirmed cases (49,315 in Wuhan).

There were 80 new suspected cases (70 in Wuhan) and 527 suspected cases (340 in Wuhan).

A total of 148 confirmed cases were reported from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan: 98 cases in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (36 cases discharged, 2 deaths), 10 cases in Macao Special Administrative Region (8 cases discharged), and 40 cases in Taiwan (12 cases discharged, 1 case died)

Video: Swedish Water Expert Jan Lindqvist: What China has done is extraordinary and unprecedented

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, Aug. 30(Greenpost) — Jan Lindqvist, a senior expert working in Stockholm International Water Institute went to China in December 1979 for the first time. He has recalled his experience then and told us that China has made extraordinary and unprecedented progress since then. Greenpost’s chief editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson has interviewed him on the opening plenary session day during the World Water Week in Stockholm. Please watch the video.

Professor Jan Lindqvist said he actually studied Economics but he got a professor job in water department in Linköping University because water issue is not just about water itself, it needs engineers, biologists and economists and many others to solve the complicated water issues.

Professor Lindqvist led a project called from Field to Fork and called on people to stop wasting food and live a healthy lifestyle in modern times.

He said with the increase of population and the expansion of production and consumption, how to balance the individual needs with the limitation of natural resources on us is also an important issue for us to think about and choose the right and healthy way to live.

37 Countries, Including Islamic States Support China’s Policies in Xinjiang

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, July 15(Greenpost) — 37 countries’ Ambassaders in Geneva signed a letter supporting China’s policies in Xinjiang.

Beijing says its policies in Xinjiang are a program to de-radicalize Uighurs and other minority Muslims, as part of a broader campaign against three ism– separatism, terrorism and extremism.

Among 37 countries, about one-third of the signatories of the letter praising China’s Xinjiang policies are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a bloc customarily outspoken about actions it views as hostile towards Muslims. They include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Syria, Tajikistan, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, and Togo.

The other signatories are Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Angola, Belarus, Burma, North Korea, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe.

At least 11 of the signatories are currently members of the HRC.

The letter, essentially echoing Beijing’s talking points, says, “Faced with the grave challenge of terrorism and extremism, China has undertaken a series of counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers.”

It says there has been no terror attack in Xinjiang for three years and that its inhabitants enjoy a happier and more secure existence. (True)

“We commend China’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and protecting and promoting human rights through development,” it says.

Chinese Charge D’Affair Li Song, speaking at the HRC on Friday, said the Chinese government warmly welcomed the support of the signatories of the letter, which “highly spoke of China’s progress in the field of human rights in Xinjiang, and the success in the field of fighting terrorism and extremism.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Li listed the principles China expects the HRC to uphold in its work – “objectivity, transparency, non-selectivity, constructiveness, non-confrontation, and non-politicization.”

He complained that some Western delegations “driven by a political agenda,” had written an open letter of their own several days earlier, “in which they distorted reality on the ground in Xinjiang and made unfounded allegations.”

The 22 signatories of that letter included Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and European nations.

Li said those countries should “discard their prejudices” and “stop politicizing human rights issues.”

Li said the existence of those vocational training centers was supported by “all the people of Xinjiang and the rest of China.

“Under the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, all the ethnic groups in Xinjiang are moving proudly to the year 2020 when China will become a well-off society, and further towards a bright future.” said Li.

Video5: Professor Danilovic: China Fixes All-More Holistic

STOCKHOLM, May 29(Greenpost) — Professor Mike Danilovic from Halmstad University in Sweden said at the 2nd Belt and Road Forum in Stockholm that China has been using a holistic way in doing business with Africa and providing assistance in African countries. He mainly talked about the BRI as a business opportunity for Swedish small and medium-size companies.

He vividly described how Chinese companies deal with development issues in Africa.

Jasmine Lihua Liu, Researcher, Halmstad University/Shanghai Dianji University gave a presentation on exploring Chinese Business Culture.

Suci Ariyanti, student of Halmstad University came from Malaysia and was sent to China to study for some time. She tells her experiences in China and Sweden.

The audience gave a lot of questions and the discussion was very good.

Opinion: Canada should talk with China to find a better solution

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 16(Greenpost) — Canada and China should talk and negotiate a better solution for the future.

China and Canada have a lot of common interest and mutual complementary factors.

Both sides should sit down and be cool headed and negotiate a better solution.

It will harm both sides if one escalates conflicts which was neither due to China nor Canada.

Both sides should cool down and talk for a better solution.

 

China grants first export licence for Finnish fish products

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 10(Greenpost) — In connection with an export promotion visit by the Finnish Food Authority and Permanent Secretary Jaana Husu-Kallio from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, China has granted its first export licence for Finnish fish products. The export authorisation granted by the Chinese authorities is specific to certain establishments, and it currently applies to one Finnish fish product manufacturer, according to a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The export licence concerns Finnish fish only, while Norwegian salmon cannot be exported to China via Finland. The licence is applicable to certain fish species and products, including frozen, salted and smoked Finnish salmon, rainbow trout, common whitefish (lavaret) and roach fish.

– Promoting the blue bioeconomy is one of the Finnish Government’s key projects. The opening of the Chinese markets for fish products means enormous opportunities for the whole fisheries sector in Finland. The global demand for fisheries products from our clean waters keeps growing, says Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Jari Leppä.

Opening the export licences has been prepared as a collaborative effort by the export team of the Finnish Food Authority (until the end of 2018 the Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira). The Chinese authorities have been provided with comprehensive analyses on the manufacture of fish products in Finland, and the authorities have visited Finland to inspect the production facilities.

Sino-Russian and US-Russian relations are studied in Finland

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, Key changes in the Sino-Russian and US-Russian relationships can have significant consequences for the global balance of power and the international order at large. A report published today shows how vulnerable the recently deepened Sino-Russian relationship is as it represents a joint reaction towards the US hegemony rather than a deep strategic alliance.

The relationship is imbalanced and relies on Chinese self-restraint. The relationship between the US and Russia again suffers from a long-term structural problem as the US refuses to recognise the great power status, which Russia is longing for. Both relationships include important uncertainties as factors related to regime succession might decisively affect their future direction.

The Sino-Russian relationship has deepened during the past few years with cooperation in energy policy and military security in its core. The cooperation corresponds to the strategic needs of China, which has the upper hand in defining its future. Both great powers engage in their own regional projects in Central Asia, the Chinese Silk Road Project and the Russian-led Eurasian Union. Thus far an open competition between them has been avoided. Whilst China and Russia share a common interest in safeguarding their authoritarian political systems from Western values, their approaches to the Western led international order differ. This creates a key obstacle for any far-reaching alliance between them.

The relationship between the US and Russia has been constantly deteriorating after the end of the Cold War due to very different expectations about the relationship. The person factor forms an important determinant: the Donald Trump presidency was expected to respond to the long-term Russian demands on bargaining with Russia. The domestic controversies on Russian election hacking have, however, made the future of this relationship increasingly unpredictable. Taking the key driving forces into account it is less likely to change in the near future than the Sino-Russian relationship.

This publication is part of implementing the Government’s plan for analysis, assessment and research in 2018 (www.tietokayttoon.fi).

Source: www.tietokayttoon.fi

China and Finland Promote Cultural and Tourism to Improve Trade and Tourism Industry

 By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

 Zhai Yuhu, Vice Director of Hebei Tourism Development Commission said Hebei province has great advantages and rich cultural and tourism resources. The Great Wall is in Hebei  which embraces both the beach and the mountains as well as skiing site in Zhangjiakou where the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held.
He said the purpose of this visit was to implement the strategic decision between the two countries’ governments.
“In 2017, the governments of Finland and China made the decision to promote cultural exchange with an emphasis on Winter Olympic, energy and tourism,” said Hebei Tourism Development Committee representative Zhai Yu Hu.

The Tourism Development Committee of Hebei Province in association with the Chinese embassy in Helsinki and Visit Finland organised the tourism promotion conference.

The conference was held marking the year 2018 as the EU-China tourism year aimed at promoting the less-known tourist destinations in a proactive way.

Similar to  Finland, Hebei Province also enjoys great sightseeing and snow sport activities in winter. The province is an internationally renowned ice and snow sports and tourism resort in China. It has more than 80 skiing resorts, of which the largest one covers about 156 kilometres. In the 2017-2018 snow season the area received as many as 2.741 million visitors.

In an interview with Greenpost, Zhai Yuhu said that Finland has  long been known as an experienced country in ice and snow activities and sports, Hebei Tourism Development Committee likes to learn from Finland. Besides, the province also aims at knowing more about winter sports equipment from Finnish companies to elevate itself to the international level in terms of manufacturing them.

Zhai Yu Hu said that Hebei  has similar geographical features as Finland, having great forests and a large number of lakes. Embracing the capital city of Beijing and other neighbouring municipalities and facing the Bohai Sea with a 487km coastal line, Hebei Province enjoys great advantages in attracting tourists.

The province  has a variety of top tourism attractions, from the famous Great Wall, world-recognised geological parks and national reserves to the thousand-year historical complex of imperial gardens, ancient palaces and graveyards and temples, it is really worthwhile to visit,  said Zhai Yu Hu.

Apart from a tourism promotion framework, Hebei also has a trade facilitation policy that allows 144-hour visa-free transit for visitors from 53 countries and tax rebate on shopping departures for overseas tourists. A new international airport near Hebei province will open to operation next year to facilitate travel.

Guo Xiaoguang, Cultural Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Helsinki also spoke at the conference. He said China and Finland are really not far away from each other because there is only one country between the two countries, that is Russia.

Guo said that tourism is the best means to increase mutual understanding between the two countries. Therefore, the Chinese embassy to Finland also acts as a bridge between the agencies and companies of Finland and China in accelerating tourism cooperation.

To date, the Finnish national flag carrier Finnair has launched five direct flights from Helsinki to five different cities in China, thereby considerably increasing the number of Finnish tourists to China in recent years, while also adding a large number of Chinese visitors to Finland. Guo again and again introduced Hebei’s famous tourist destinations and warmly welcome Finnish tourists to visit Hebei.

The official tourism promotion board, Visit Finland representative Teemu Ahola, said currently Finnish officials are in China discussing further cooperation between China and Finland in snow sports in 2019 based on Xi jinping’s last year’s visit result.  In December this year,   Finland will go to Zhangjiakou to organise an opening event of the Winter Olympics 2022, which might become a good opportunity for promoting cooperation in sports and tourism between the two countries.

In an interview with Greenpost, Teemu Ahola said China is the fifth largest tourism market for Finnish tourism industry. They really like to tap the great potential of it and will organize promotion activities in China too.

During the promotion conference, the two sides also signed further agreements in deeper cooperation in the future.

About 100 people attended the event.

Commemorating 9.11, condemning terrorist attack against Afghan journalists

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM(Greenpost)– Today marks the 17th anniversary of terrorist attacks on the twin towers in the United States on Sept. 11, 2018.

Even though the United States had been acting as the world police, it didn’t justify the terrorist attacks against civilians in the twin towers.

Terrorism is the enemy of mankind who love peace and development.

Unfortunately today the terrorist action still exist.

At least 16 people have been killed recently  in two explosions in Kabul including two of TOLOnews’ journalists.

Samim Faramarz, journalist, and Ramiz Ahmadi, cameraman, lost their lives in an explosion in Kabul city on Wednesday night while covering an earlier bombing.

The first explosion happened at around 6pm Kabul time, targeting a wrestling gym in Qala-e-Nazer area in Kabul’s PD6.

The first explosion was a suicide bombing while the second explosion was a car bombing that according to officials left at least 16 people dead and 65 others wounded.

Farmarz had been reporting live from the scene of the first explosion on TOLOnews 6pm bulletin – just minutes before the explosion happened.

Faramarz started working at TOLOnews three years ago. Despite his activities in culture, he continued with making dozens of reports on corruption, security situation, political issues, electoral issues, suicide attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country, and documentaries.

He was 28 and was an exceptional person among his colleagues with a smiling face and a kind heart. The last post on his Facebook is about his work as a reporter.

Ramiz Ahmadi, like Faramarz, was leading in his profession as a cameraman at TOLOnews. He pictured many reports from war-hit areas in the country.

He worked for TOLOnews for four years and besides that he was a law student at a private university in Kabul.

Ahmadi was 23 years old and was always trying to support his family besides continuing his education.

His last post of Facebook was from one of his provincial trips for covering a story.

This comes after TOLOnews lost another employee in an explosion in Kabul this year in April.

On January 2016, a suicide bombing took the lives of seven TOLOnews staff members. This is the second black Wednesday for Afghanistan’s media family.

PROFOCA and Green Post strongly condemned this terrorist action against innocent journalists and civilians.

Said Najib Asil is Executive Producer from Tolonews in Afghanistan.  He said he lost two wonderful colleagues and best journalists in his organization.

In an interview with Greenpost in Xinjiang Uygor Autonomous Region, Asil said Afghanistan is suffering from the dispute between many other countries. Afghan issue is really not just a domestic issue.

He said Belt and Road Initiative is a great initiative, but China must solve the security issue along the border with Afghanistan because there is terrorist threat there.

He said the issue can only be solved through negotiations among Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, and other relevant partners.

Over the years, Afghanistan has suffered from Russian occupation, Taliban cruel rule and US involvement.  All these factors caused Afghanistan to be a country that almost every family has lost one or two of their relatives.

This was also the root cause why Afghan young people wanted to go abroad because they were fed up with the conflict and violence.  And they like to go to European countries such as Sweden.

In Sweden, to receive the orphan children was not just today’s issue. Six or seven years ago, I heard from Save the Children that there were Afghan children coming to Sweden without any document.  They think from children’s point of view, Sweden should receive them.

Thus a total of about two or three thousand Afghan children were received in Sweden.

As time goes by, these people of course now are more than teenagers.

History should not be forgotten, but terrorist action should be condemned and uprooted. How to do that?  Najib  Asil said Afghanistan should prioritise education so that the young people can quickly improve their education level and serve the country’s long term peace and development.

Terrorists were often the people who had low education and were brain washed easily.

It is hoped that world leaders especially the Asian leaders can take the opportunities offered by the Belt and Road Initiative put up forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping and be united in solving the peace and development issue in order to have a common bright future in Asia, as well as in the world.

It is believed that the Belt and Road Initiative is purely by the countries, for the countries and without any coercion or other intentions, it is purely for the common good, while of course good for both China and the world because China likes to see a peaceful and prosperous world.

Commentary : How to commemorate August 15th?

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

August 15th is a day that is worthwhile to commemorate because it was on that day in 1945 when the Japanese invaders surrendered.

Japanese invaders invaded China on 1931 after they occupied northeast China. Under Japanese occupation, all the Chinese must learn Japanese at that time.  Those who could not speak Chinese often faced being killed.  But if you could speak a little bit Japanese, sometimes you could survive.

The 14 years Japanese occupation almost changed the Chinese characteristics into being more obedient and tolerant.  That was a humiliation and disgrace, let alone experiencing all kinds of difficulties and hardship.

But on August 15th after 14 years of struggle, Japanese surrendered and China regained its dignity.

Today we commemorate this day not to ask the Japanese to compensate this or that, but to safeguard the peace we gained.  We should not let history repeat but open a new chapter to cooperate and safeguard the peaceful development environment.

As two important countries and neighbors, China and Japan should cooperate because the two sides are mutually complementary. China has vast land and huge population while Japan has high tech and more experience in development.  Japan can have good market if it has good relations with China.

If these two countries enjoy good relations, it will be conducive to the whole Asia pacific regions because they are the two strong countries.

To commemorate this day, we should try our best to safeguard the peace and develop further our economic, social, political and environmental development.

This year also marks 40th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.  May our friendship and good neighborly relationship forever.

Narendra Modi, Xi Jinping vow to maintain ‘momentum’ on sidelines of BRICS; Chinese defence minister to visit to India in August

Modi, who is in Johannesburg to attend the BRICS Summit, met Xi for the third time in nearly three months on Thursday evening after their two-day informal summit in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late April and a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Qingdao, China in June.

“It is important to maintain this momentum and for this we should, at our level, regularly review our relationship and give proper instructions whenever required,” Modi told Xi in his opening remarks.

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. AP

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. AP

He told the Chinese leader that their recent meetings have given a new strength to bilateral ties and also provided new opportunities for cooperation.

Xi said that the Chinese side is ready to work with the Indian side to carry forward the fresh impetus of bilateral relations since their informal meeting in Wuhan, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

He called on the two sides to strengthen strategic communication, increase mutual trust, promote practical cooperation, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges, strengthen dialogue and properly manage differences, it said.

At Wuhan, Modi and Xi had decided to issue “strategic guidance” to their militaries to strengthen communications to build trust and understanding, a move aimed at avoiding a Doka La-like situation in the future.

Modi said the Johannesburg meeting has provided one more opportunity to them to strengthen their closer developmental partnership.

Briefing the reporters about the meeting, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said the two leaders reaffirmed their readiness to give the necessary direction to their militaries to enhance communication between them and to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.

“They were satisfied with the efforts being made by the officials of the two sides to strengthen bilateral engagements and to implement some of the understandings and decisions that the two leaders had reached at Wuhan,” he said.

Modi also expressed his willingness to send National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to China this year for the Special Representative-level boundary talks, he said.

Gokhale said the two sides had agreed at Qingdao that the Chinese ministers for defence and public security would travel to India this year.

“It was decided that these two visits would take place in August and October, respectively,” the foreign secretary added.

In Beijing, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang confirmed that State Councilor and Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe “plans to pay a friendly official visit to India” at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman.

“We have provided a top-level design for bilateral ties in a macroscopic perspective and a timely fashion, which is conducive to mobilising the positive elements of all sectors in both countries and uniting the wills of the 2.6 billion people of the two countries, so as to form a force that would push bilateral ties into the future,” Xi told Modi.

Gokhale said both the leaders also remarked that in the last few months mutual trust has increased between the two sides.

Xi once again conveyed to Modi that he is very happy to accept his invitation to visit India for an informal summit, the second one, next year and both sides also agreed to follow up on a number of issues, the foreign secretary added.

They also agreed that the high-level people-to-people mechanism which would be established between the two sides will also meet this year, he said.

One of the important issues which Modi raised with Xi at his previous meetings is of how the two sides can enhance Indian exports to China particularly agricultural exports.

“It has been decided that an Indian trade delegation will be travelling to China on August 1 and 2. Among the issues they will discuss are exports of soya, sugar and non-basmati rice and they will also look at the possible import of urea from China,” he said.

Modi also mentioned about the pharma sector and cited a Chinese movie titled ‘Dying to Survive’ which is based loosely on the role that the Indian cancer drugs play in saving the life of the main character of the movie, Gokhale said, adding that it was decided that an Indian pharmaceutical delegation will visit Shanghai, China on 21 and 22 August for talks.

Xi said that as major emerging market economies, as well as vindicators and contributors of the current international order, China and India should strengthen bilateral cooperation, while exploring a new model for regional cooperation, upholding multilateralism, championing economic globalization and striving for a more just and rational international order, Xinhua reported.

Xi and Modi will meet again at the margins of the G20 summit in Argentina at the end of 2018.

Source: Firstpost in India.