During US President Joe Biden's recent visit to Vietnam, it was announced that the Vietnam-US relationship was upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership dedicated to "peace, cooperation and sustainable development," making the US Vietnam's fifth "comprehensive strategic partner."

The strengthening of Vietnam-US relations has been brewing for a long time. It seems grand in scale, but the essence of "peace, cooperation and sustainable development" needs to be carefully examined.

First, the US has always been quite enthusiastic about enhancing its relations with Vietnam, but not for the sake of "peace." During his visit, Biden expressed his "goodwill" not to let the consequences of the Vietnam War influence their bilateral relations, pointing out that the two peoples have overcome the "bitter past" together. However, it is worth questioning whether Washington can truly reflect on history.

In fact, through Biden's trip, Washington attempted to induce Vietnam to play a greater role in the US' Indo-Pacific containment circle against China and to divide ASEAN. The US is not pursuing peace. We still remember the lessons of the Vietnam War vividly, and Washington has not given up on provoking a "new cold war." No different from half a century ago, it still seeks hegemony, opposes communism and stirs up chaos and wars globally.

Second, as for "cooperation," Washington has always had a carrot-and-stick policy toward Hanoi instead of cooperation. And this is likely to continue after the enhancement of their ties. The history of Vietnam-US relations shows that every time a US leader visits Hanoi, there are voices in the US demanding pressure be put on Vietnam regarding democracy and human rights issues, claiming that Washington cannot "surrender" to Hanoi just because the former needs something from the latter. 

Moreover, the two countries' semiconductor partnership, one of the striking achievements of this visit, is also more about the interests of "American industry, consumers and workers." This is not genuine win-win cooperation. In addition, historical evidence has shown that when the interests of Hanoi and Washington clash, the US is quick to resort to threats of sanctions.

Third, "sustainable development" is what Vietnam is most concerned about. For Vietnam, the enhancement of relations with the US is primarily motivated by economic considerations. In other words, Vietnam aims to leverage US power to facilitate economic recovery and transformation. 

In fact, if the US changes its indifferent and episodic attitude toward Southeast Asia and develops normal and legitimate diplomatic relations and economic exchanges with Vietnam, enhanced Washington-Hanoi ties can promote prosperity and development in Vietnam and also Southeast Asia. However, the key is that the US has to first implement the agreements already reached before discussing so-called sustainable development.

In fact, after the talks with Biden, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized the keywords "independent" and "peace" at the press conference. It is believed that Vietnam can make its own rational judgment and truly implement its 2019 defense policy of "Four No's," the "bamboo diplomacy" concept grandly launched in 2021, and the new consensus reached by high-level visits between Vietnam and China in 2022. Vietnam should make every effort to avoid becoming a pawn for the US and ensure that the strengthening of their relations truly brings "peace and cooperation," thus providing a prerequisite for achieving "sustainable development." China will not have any objections to this, and such Vietnam-US relations can also benefit China-Vietnam relations.

On the contrary, if Vietnam follows the US to develop bilateral relations to target China or other third parties, engage in maneuvers on multilateral occasions, and cause chaos in the region, it will undermine the consensus between Beijing and Hanoi. If this were to happen, the establishment of China-Vietnam community with a shared future will likely face great storms. This is also very detrimental to Vietnam's image as a "responsible partner of the international community."

Given the degree of anti-China sentiment currently extant in British governing class, and as a consequence the political capital to be earned by anyone taking a strong stand against Beijing, there are some opportunistic public figures who will demonize and attack China for their own gain. 

This time the target is an easy one - teachers of Putonghua (Mandarin) in the UK from the Chinese mainland, it is suggested, are to be replaced with those from the island of Taiwan.  

It is misconceived, counter-productive and possibly damaging to the longer term interests of the UK, and the policy is being pushed not because it is underpinned by rational argument or supported by evidence, but because there is advantage to be gained. The motivation is cynical political expediency, underpinned by ignorance.

It is not even a new story. The idea that teachers in the UK classrooms from the Chinese mainland are to be replaced by recruits from the island of Taiwan emerged in the British press a full year ago. This idea has been repeated because the country's new Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, allegedly now favors it. It would raise her standing among hawkish ministerial colleagues in the British Cabinet, such as Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and Foreign Affairs Committee head Alicia Kearns, all long-time China critics and campaigners for the closure of Confucius Institutes at 30 UK universities and Confucius Classrooms at 150 schools. 

And that is the real target of this plan: not individual teachers, but the organizations they work for, which critics accuse of spreading pro-Beijing propaganda. Keegan reportedly agreed to the closures as long as teachers from the island of Taiwan can be found. 

Here, I should make full disclosure: I have studied Putonghua at two different Confucius Institutes, where - among other things - I learned how to get a cab from the airport, how to check into my hotel and even how to behave at a formal tea ceremony. What was lacking in my classes was any form of indoctrination. Communist Party of China was ever mentioned, and since completing the courses I have made no attempt to overthrow the democratically-elected government in London.

The very idea of these institutes being nests of spies is ridiculous, and would be laughable if the situation was not so serious. If the UK closed these cultural operations, it would suffer most. Knowledge of China in the UK and the ability to speak Putonghua is very poor, though it has improved. Businesses are slowly starting to realize that to trade with China they need to better understand China.

The Confucius Institutes scattered around the world are no different to similar bodies set up by other nations.

Imagine an organization which promotes a nation's language and culture internationally through a network of shared educational facilities, helping promote understanding between countries and spreading its values in a context of mutual respect and benefit.

Now imagine this organization is the British Council, formed in 1934 to encourage the learning of the English language and British "value." It has spent several billions of pounds promoting arts and culture, and educational exchanges internationally.

On a political whim, the body which does the same for China is under threat: an egregious act of cultural vandalism and political spite.

These organizations represent international soft power, the non-coercive shaping of attitudes and opinions through exposure and interaction; manipulating the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. 

And Britain could certainly do with some wider engagement and understanding of China. An article in the political magazine The Spectator last year revealed the startling level of incompetence within the Foreign Office, where there were only 41 speakers of Putonghua in the entire department of 17,000 staff. Such a paucity of experience and knowledge about the world's most populous nation, and its second greatest economy, is reprehensible. But to compound this failing by promoting a policy which will further impoverish Britain's resources in this vital area is unforgivable. Similarly, replacing teachers from the Chinese mainland with teachers from the island of Taiwan will dilute the lived experience and knowledge which is so vital an asset from which students can learn. A concentration of experience across a narrow range of tutors introduces a risk of group think, not a wider world view. Businesses believe that students looking for work are better equipped for the future if they speak Mandarin.

The UK needs to create better conditions to learn about China, not diminish them. It is in its own interests to understand, even if some do view China as a rival and competitor. One can only hope that the proposal is nothing more than political posturing by the education minister, more to do with party political symbolism, than a serious policy, for if it goes ahead it is likely to prove an egregious act of self harm.

Editor's Note:

Despite widespread opposition both domestically and internationally, the first phase of dumping nuclear-contaminated wastewater from Fukushima concluded on September 11. The commencement of the second phase is potentially scheduled for late September. This move has significantly impacted the populations of the Pacific region. However, when China expressed legitimate concerns, it faced criticism from some US and Western media. Why does Japan insist on this course of action despite opposition? How should people view relevant countries' legitimate concerns? Global Times (GT) reporter Ma Ruiqian discussed these issues with Komei Hosokawa (Hosokawa), emeritus professor at Kyoto Seika University, board director of the Takagi Fund for Citizen Science and secretariat member of the Citizens Commission on Nuclear Energy (CCNE). This is the second installment of the series.

GT: Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) recently admitted that about 66 percent of the nuclear-contaminated water in the storage tanks exceeds the standard for radioactive substances. Were you shocked by this news? 

Hosokawa: This is a well-known fact that TEPCO and the government of Japan don't like to be the focus of public attention. There are two important aspects to consider. First, looking back, TEPCO had not disclosed this very important fact even to the ministerial councils until it was shockingly revealed by the Kyodo News scoop in August 2018. Second, looking ahead, TEPCO claims they can "re-purify" the water exceeding the regulatory limits by sending it through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) again and repeating the process if necessary, but practically they have not verified it yet. They have done only a very limited amount of trials. Thus, we do not really know if the two-thirds of the radioactive water in storage can be decontaminated to meet the regulatory limits for discharge. 

GT: The Japanese government has not adopted alternative methods to handle nuclear-contaminated water and is instead insisting on discharging it into the ocean. What do you think are the reasons? 

Hosokawa: The Japanese government said the ocean release was the cheapest and the fastest way when compared to other methods. The cost and length of operation figures they used for comparison have now turned out to be extremely underestimated (3.4 billion yen vs. the current estimate of at least 120 billion yen; 7.5 years vs.the current estimate of 30-40 years, which could be much longer).

There seem to be two main reasons why the Japanese government insists on ocean release. First, in the event of another nuclear accident in Japan, they want radioactive discharge to the sea to be allowed from the beginning, without the trouble and cost of storage they had to deal with in Fukushima. Second, the Japanese government wants to start up the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori (currently under construction and yet to be approved by the regulator, Nuclear Regulation Authority). Operation of the reprocessing plant will inevitably involve a huge amount of tritium discharge to the sea. Obviously, the Japanese government wants to avoid any controversy surrounding this issue. They want to say "it was OK in Fukushima!"  

GT: How do you view the Japanese government's decision to proceed with ocean discharges despite domestic and international opposition? 

Hosokawa: Quite simply, the decision and the process leading to it have been undemocratic. The current administration holds the absolute majority in both houses of the parliament, and quite often skips troublesome deliberations. To make the matter worse, the nuclear energy issue is administered almost exclusively by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) with only a small role played by the environment, health and fishery ministries. The political weakness of major media outlets makes the situation even worse.

GT: Reflecting on your supervised documentary Fukushima 10 Years Later: Voices from the Continuing Nuclear Disaster, how do you view the psychological, physiological and economic impact of Japan's actions on fisherfolk?

Hosokawa: The agony the fishery community had to go through in the last 12 years has been intense and terrible. Now TEPCO and the Japanese government have broken their promise again, the community's distrust of politics may be irreparable. As I depicted in the documentary, the local fisherfolk continuously carry out radiation monitoring of all the fish species they catch and abide by a voluntary limit of 50Bq/kg for radioactive cesium, twice as strict as the Japanese government's regulation of 100Bq/kg. Their hard work and endurance were thought little of by the Japanese government.  

However, given the enormous economic loss since 2011, it is also a harsh reality that the local fishing industries need official financial support. That may explain, at least partially, why the national, prefectural and local fishery unions do not very much resist the rude push from the Japanese government, while the individual union members are furious and feel insulted. 

GT: Currently, some regions have suspended the import of Japanese seafood products. Besides this, what do you think other countries and regions can do during the planned 30-40 years of water discharges?

Hosokawa: There should be interventions, based on the established international laws, such as the London Convention's radioactive waste dumping protocol and the UNCLOS which firmly upholds the precautionary principle in the protection of marine environment. 

GT: There is a phenomenon where Japan discharges water, and China receives criticism. Faced with Japan's unreasonable discharge of nuclear-contaminated water, why can't China express legitimate concerns?

Hosokawa: Although it is true that there are certain political elements in the strong position taken by the Chinese government, the concerns on environmental and health reasons are legitimate. It should also be understood that Chinese experts' proposal of taking up the evaporation method (ie releasing tritium into the air, but keeping non-volatile radionuclides contained) is radiologically safer and more reasonable than Japan's way of dumping all the residual radionuclides into the sea. CCNE recommends mortar solidification in concrete pits, which is even safer than evaporation.

Japan's LDP administration is apparently exploiting anti-China sentiment in order to divert public attention from the environmental focus of the radioactive discharge issue. It is a great shame that it has become a new addition to the already growing racism and exclusionism in the country.

GT: People in neighboring countries around the Pacific have been at the forefront of opposing Japan's ocean dumping plan. In your opinion, why have we been unable to stop Japan from releasing contaminated water into the ocean?

Hosokawa: Japan's foreign affairs ministry seems to be working hard to divide the Pacific countries, mainly by offering additional development aid. However, that civil society organizations and local councils maintain firm opposition to Japan's discharge plan. So far exchange of information and ideas between the civil society sectors of Japan and the Pacific countries has been insufficient. The Japanese government can activate the existing diplomatic and economic ties. It's urgently critical to relay the voices of the Pacific peoples' concern to Japanese society, media and the decision makers.

GT: Experts believe that the US tolerates Japan's ocean dumping of nuclear-contaminated water fundamentally as a trade-off, using the global marine environment and the health of all humanity in exchange for US geopolitical interests. How do you evaluate this trade-off? Is it worth it?

Hosokawa: I am no expert in geopolitics, but I see the US-China rivalry is surely a big factor in the US attitude on the Fukushima water issue. Bureaucrats and technocrats in Japanese government are inclined too much to conform to the overwhelming power of the US and to forget about Japan's own geopolitical interests, such as Japan's inherent position as a maritime country and its indispensable friendship with the neighboring Asia-Pacific states.

The developer of an unmanned suspension railway has finished its phase I construction and started testing on Monday in Shanghai, the latest step in intelligent monorail testing in China. 

The Baoshan demonstration line project finished its 400-meter-long phase I construction and started testing, aiming to offer passengers a new experience of traveling with a sense of technology.

Designed by EPN Skytrain Development Co, the demonstration line project, with a designed length of 940 meters, has two stations and one repair facility with a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour.

In line with the development trend of intelligent and unmanned urban rail transit in Shanghai, the system is equipped with a Grade of Automation 4 autonomous train operation system, the highest level in the industry.

Putting unmanned intelligent technology on a suspension railway is an innovative move in the industry, and it shows the developer's high-level development capability for intelligent systems, Sun Zhang, a railway expert from Shanghai Tongji University, told the Global Times on Monday.

Founded in 2018, the company introduced a German prototype system that had a safe operation history of nearly 40 years, after five years of independent research and development. The localization rate of the system has exceeded 90 percent, reported news outlet thepaper.cn.

Unlike traditional railway systems, suspension railway systems offer greener transportation while using less land and costing less money. They also give passengers a better view of the city, said Sun.

On April 27, 2006, Shanghai unveiled a maglev train, which was also the first maglev line in China. With German technology, the train was put into use on a 30-km track between downtown area and Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML started its 2024 campus recruitment program in China on Tuesday, with key positions related to scanners, e-beams and computational lithography.

The recruitment program this year, which is about the same size as that of last year, shows that the company is staying committed to the Chinese market, despite geopolitical headwinds that are affecting the global chip supply chain, a Chinese analyst said.

The company, which had net global sales revenue of 21.2 billion euros ($22.46 billion) in 2022, said it plans to hire some 200 professionals this year, roughly the same as last year, indicating steady growth in its Chinese business.

"The continuous hiring by ASML at this critical juncture implies the company's confidence in China's vast market and its unwillingness to lose market share here," Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"Even if sales for certain machines are blocked in the future, the company will still need employees to maintain its existing fleet of lithography machines in China and service customers," Xiang said. 

Under new Dutch export control regulations that took effect on September 1, the company is required to have licenses to continue shipments of chip tools to China. 

The company said it has the required licenses for China-bound shipments of the NXT:2000i and subsequent systems until the end of 2023.

On June 30, the Dutch government announced a ministerial order restricting exports of certain advanced semiconductor equipment, a move widely believed to target China due to pressure from the US.

ASML sells about 80 Deep Ultraviolet Lithography machines to China each year, accounting for around 15 percent of the company's revenue, an analyst said.

Isolating China completely through export controls is not a viable approach, ASML CEO Peter Wennink emphasized during an interview.

China and the Netherlands have maintained communication on chip equipment export controls and China has urged the Netherlands not to abuse export control measures regarding semiconductor products, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

In 2000, the Dutch giant that makes lithography machines established ASML China and built its first office in the country. After 23 years of development, the company now has more than 1,600 employees and 16 offices in China.

The Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR), the first HSR in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, officially began operation on Monday. 

The high-speed line, a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), connects Indonesia's capital Jakarta and another major city Bandung. Observers said it will have a demonstration effect for future BRI developments in Southeast Asia.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday declared the official operation of the Jakarta-Bandung HSR at Halim Station in Jakarta, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

At the ceremony, Widodo announced the name of the HSR - "Whoosh" - inspired by the sound of the train, saying that the high-speed train marks the modernization of Indonesia's transportation system, which is efficient, environmentally friendly and integrated with other public transportation networks, Xinhua reported.

The Indonesian Transportation Ministry issued an operating license Friday to PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China (KCIC), a consortium of Indonesian and Chinese firms responsible for developing and operating the Jakarta-Bandung HSR line.

From September 7 to 30, the high-speed railway conducted trial operations, having offered free rides to local residents, according to media reports.

A spokesperson of the China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co told the Global Times in September that ridership of the HSR could exceed 10 million trips in the first year of operation.

China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co participated in the construction of the rail line.

Connecting Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and Bandung, the fourth-largest city in Indonesia, the Jakarta-Bandung HSR is 142 kilometers long and has a maximum design speed of 350 kilometers per hour. It will cut the journey between the two cities from 3.5 hours to just 40 minutes.

The HSR passes through the hinterlands of West Java province and has several stops including Halim, Karawang, Padalarang and Tegalluar.

The grand opening of the HSR received a warm welcome from the locals, who see the project as a symbol of national pride and a dream come true.

Grace Jessica, an Indonesian assistant director at the Tegalluar station of the Jakarta-Bandung HSR, told the Global Times that the "beautiful day" for a rapid ride has finally arrived. "Before the opening, many friends asked me for train tickets, and my family also longs for a chance to get on board," she noted. 

As the HSR becomes a reality, Zhang Chao, executive director of the board of KCIC, told the Global Times that his feelings could be compared to "sitting the national college entrance exam," and he is excited to see eight years of hard work pay off, while having a sense of responsibility to ensure the line operates smoothly.

The Jakarta-Bandung HSR is the first time that Chinese high-speed railway technology was implemented in an all-round way outside of China, with the whole system, all elements and entire industrial chain.

Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Lu Kang told the Global Times in a recent interview that in the long term, the HSR will further optimize the local investment environment, increase job opportunities, drive commercial and tourism development along the line, and even create new growth points to speed up the building of an HSR economic corridor.

China’s space technology was deeply applied in the country’s various industries in 2022, forming an all-weather remote sensing monitoring system for infrastructure including all sea areas and islands under its jurisdiction, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said on Wednesday during the release of the Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology Activities. 

China has developed a series of satellites for ocean color, marine dynamics and surveillance, which have formed the capability of continuously and frequently covering observations of global waters, and have achieved remarkable results in applications in areas including island management, marine resource investigation and supervision, marine environmental monitoring and forecasting.

In 2022, China's marine satellites continued to carry out remote sensing inspections of key islands and reefs. In particular, they strengthened monitoring of the waters around Huangyan Island, Diaoyu Island and all the islands of Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands, providing important data support for the management of sea areas and comprehensive management of the islands.

China's marine satellites also continued to carry out remote sensing detection of key islands and reefs in 2022, in particular strengthening the monitoring of the waters around Huangyan Island, Diaoyu Island, as well as the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands, providing a significant basis for the utilization of waters and coastal islands, the report noted.

In addition, China’s marine satellites are also carrying out global ocean observation and forecasting, providing services for global marine dynamic environment monitoring, marine forecasting and disaster monitoring, as well as remote sensing monitoring of global sea level changes.

China's marine satellites have successfully provided important data and technical support for monitoring and warnings for fires, typhoons and storm surges at home and abroad.

Lin Mingsen, director of the National Satellite Ocean Application Service, said China will further strengthen the integration of artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies with satellite remote sensing systems, so as to provide high-quality marine satellite public service products and promote the level of marine management in China.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) vowed to accelerate the research and development of core technologies in 6G, optical communication and quantum communication to support the country's industry digitalization. 

Zhao Zhiguo, spokesperson for MIIT, said during a press conference held on Thursday that China's information communication industry saw stable growth in the first quarter of 2023 as revenue for businesses in the sector - including internet data centers, cloud computing and internet of things - increased by 24.5 percent year-on-year.  

China's telecommunications revenue hit 425.2 billion in the first three months of 2023, up 7.7 percent year-on-year, and the business volume also saw an 18 percent year-on-year increase, said Zhao.  

By the end of March, China had built 2.64 million 5G base stations across the country, and the number of 5G mobile phone users passed 620 million as the 5G network kept expanding to rural areas as well as city management, intelligent traffic and mobile payment, MIIT data showed.  

For the next step, the MIIT vowed to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies for 6G, optical communication and quantum communication, as well as enhancing the research and development of cutting-edge areas including artificial intelligence and block chain. It will also further secure the stability of industrial chains and supply chains. 

In addition, MIIT will expand the 5G and broadband network for information consumption and residential livelihoods to support industry digitalization.

Analysis of large amounts of dinosaur and bird fossils has suggested that the evolution of primitive birds was slow and the diversity of body shapes dropped, which is opposite to the common belief that quick and major changes occur when a new species is taking shape.

The discovery was made by Wang Min and Zhou Zhonghe from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. An article about the research has been published by Nature Ecology & Evolution, a sub-journal of Nature.

Vertebrate evolution from dinosaurs to birds was an epic moment in natural history and the process involved many changes in bones, muscle and skin, which are related to flying, according to a press release the institute sent to the Global Times on Monday.

One of the most notable changes was in body shape, represented by the length of the limb bones. Theropod dinosaurs, which are closer to birds in the evolutionary tree, have relatively long forelimbs. Therefore, a systematic quantitative analysis of the dynamic evolutionary trajectory of limb bones during the origin of birds is key to understanding the important transition from "dinosaurs running on land" to "dinosaurs (birds) flying in the blue sky."

Researchers established a model to analyze the limb bones of avialans (birds), non-avialan paravians (dinosaurs similar to but not the same as birds) and non-paravian theropods, finding that diversity of avialans was the lowest while for non-paravian theropods it was the highest. An estimate of limb bone evolution speed indicated the evolution "slowed down" among avialans, or primitive birds.

Analysis also found two other indexes, which represented the flying pattern and cursorial pattern, were also the lowest among birds, indicating a low evolution speed.

These findings go against the common sense that the diversity and evolution speed increase at an epic evolutionary juncture.

One hypothesis is that birds' forelimbs can only have limited changes within the aerodynamic frame, and many characteristics related to flying had already appeared among theropods.