LyrArc Article Gist
During question time in the US Congress US Senator Rand Paul stated that the US money was used to fund research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. A ban on gain of function research on virus was lifted by the US in 2018. Following the lifting of this ban which was strongly opposed by scientists at Cambridge, Massachusetts, research was conducted that many of these scientists considered dangerous and risky. This report in the BBC shows Dr. Anthony Fauci. director of the NIAID, the Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases responding to Dr. Rand Paul, Senator from Kentucky. Much of the discussion goes into definition of "gain of function research" and misses the broader implications. Scientists in Cambridge had warned early of the danger of doing research because of earlier mishaps such as the one involving anthrax research from accidents that are always a risk. Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health warned of just such an "accidental pandemic" in Three Questions, Three Answers in the January 2018 issue of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health journal. He stated that an "accidental pandemic" could result from the lifting of a ban on a risky kind of research favored by some virologist professionals. Most of the medical and scientific community in Cambridge fiercely opposed the lifting of the ban on what they saw as risky research with little benefit in 2018.    ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Wang Xiaohong, head of public security joins a team led by vice premier He Lifeng, for China's talks with Treasury head Scott Bessent, and Jamieson Greer USTR. The talks are held in Switzerland and include fentanyl as a top topic. The US has called its tariffs fentanyl tariffs on China for lack of the necessary action to stop flow of fentanyl from China to the US. Progress will depend on action on this issue and discussion of other trade issues that cause the lack of a level playing field for the US in trade with China.

LyrArc Article Gist
Experts in the U.S. say the U.S. made a mistake in not supporting the idea of a new financial institution to meet the urgent needs of development and infrastructure financing of Asia's developing countries. India, Australia, S. Korea, Britain, Germany, France and Italy are joining as founding members in 2015. China has offered leadership in providing resources for the new bank. Jane Perlez says China is looking for the best talent worldwide to help write the charter for the bank and to run it. It is a project pushed forward by China's president Jinping, and was discussed at the 2013 G-20 meeeting in Moscow as a critical part of the agenda. Laurence Brahm, who supported Chinese premier Zhu Rongji in 2001 for entry into the WTO, says it is natural for China to look for ways to use its extra capacity in steel, concrete and pipes to build projects in other parts of Asia, which would mutually benefit China and the region. Paul Haenle of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, says the U.S. lack of support is shortsighted, as the existing U.S. sponsored institutions World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are sorely lacking the resources to deal with the huge infrastructure challenges in Asia. China's Finance Ministry is looking for the best talent worldwide to write the charter and run the bank. Natalie Lichtenstein, a lawyer with 30 years experience working at the World Bank will write the bank's founding charter. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Delta Airlines only gets about 1.6% of its revenue on flights from the U.S. to China. Poor customer service at China Eastern is leading to loss of revenue to competitors from China, Japan and Hong Kong. Delta is helping train China Eastern representatives at call centers in Shanghai and on airline counters to better respond to customers.

LyrArc Article Gist
Bilateral trade between China and Russia is down 31% for the first half of 2015, and Chinese investment in Russia down by 20%, according to Moscow Carnegie Center. This is a result of the fall in oil prices, declining demand for commodities in China, and the economic downturn in Russia. After the western sanctions on Russia Chinese investors are cautious about making investments. This means Russia's large expectations that this would act as an offset for economic relations with Germany and other western nations is not working out in reality. The contract for the second gas deal for gas from western Siberia, for which a memorandum was signed with China in Nov. 2014, was not signed during Putin's visit to Beijing in September 2015. Experts say the economic environment is not favorable for gas deals with the uncertain economic outlook in China.

LyrArc Article Gist
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mark Carney, the head of Canada's central bank and the head of the Financial Stability Board, says China is falling behind in its earlier committments made at G-20 meetings to move towards rebalancing the world economy. He pointed to the fact that consumption in China has moved from about half of China's GDP to about a third, in the last ten years. China's investment has also declined from half of GDP to about one third. Carney also raised concerns about the strength of the Canadian dollar for Canada's competitiveness. The report "China: 2030" by the World Bank and China's Development Reform Commission also calls for changes in the way China's economy has increased its dependence on state run companies.

LyrArc Article Gist
Taiwan's president Ma Ying-jeou calls on Beijing to allow true democracy in Hong Kong. For the first time in the debate on Hong Kong and democracy Mr. Ma challenged the idea that democracy is not suited to China. He told the Taipei National Day audience "Now that the 1.3 billion people on the mainland have become moderately wealthy, they will ofcourse wish to enjoy greater democracy and rule of law. Such a desire has never been a monopoly of the West, but is the right of all humankind." Ma called on China to experiment using the pragmatic sense shown by Deng in adopting capitalism- "Thirty years ago, When Deng Xiaoping was pushing for reform and opening up in the mainland, he famously proposed letting some people get rich first. So why could'nt they do the same thing in Hong Kong, and let some people go democratic first."

LyrArc Article Gist
Chinese leaders at annual policy meeting turn to issues facing nation's 730 millon farmers, as urban outcomes year after year far outpace growth of rural incomes. See graph. Urban incomes have shot up just as rural incomes remain sluggish as the country has focused on rapid industrialization, rapid urbanization and an export driven manufacturing economy for two decades with some success because of the focused effort. But this focused effort is dependent on the ability of Western Europe and the USA as well as other countries sucking in cheaper Chinese manufactured goods. This ability of the western countries to absorb Chinese manufactured goods at an astonishing rate is now called into question, and maybe permanently impaired after years of out of control consumption and spending and easy credit with the impact of the credit and housing crisis. As one of the aspects of this focused effort was to make enough rapid progress in industry and urbanization that it could stay ahead of the problems facing the rural areas and farmers, the new situation in western countries and China's lowered growth rate with lower exports, calls for new thinking on how to address the problems facing the rural areas and farmers. Part of the problem is that farmers do not own land in China. The government owns all the land and China's farmers only have 30 year leases on the land and technically that land cannot be sold though it can be transferred. A related aspect to this is that farms though having 50% more productivity than in 1980 are still small by western standards and it takes a lot of land to feed the growing needs of a more affluent urban population. The typical Chinese farm is 1.5 acres compared to 15 acres in Hungary and Poland and 432 acres in the USA. Obviously the US farms are huge and China does not have the vast acreages of land compared to the people, but larger farms would enable the kind of improvements posible on larger farms to raise productivity. Ways have to be found to increase farmers incomes and to enable farmers to move to urban areas which means creating more jobs. This will have to be done in the context of a domestic led growth and trade with other Asian countries as the export drive and export industries shipping products to western countries see their growth fall. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Experts at Moody's say that a partial deal with China like the phase 1 deal Mr. Trump announced this week will leave unresolved the fundamental differences in the two countries' economic, political and strategic interests. Mr. Trump suspended a new tariff on Chinese imports set to go into effect in December on mobile phones, laptops and the remaining import products not yet covered by tariffs. Any improvements in relations is seen only as temporary. In the agriculture sector most farmers are taking a cautious attitude. Importers of products such as luggage and other basic consumer products are living with the uncertainty- product quality may deteriorate now that importers cannot pass on a 25% tariff cost.

LyrArc Article Gist
India is seen as critical for the US to develop alternatives to the existing supply chain where manufacturing is concentrated in only one country. US is positioning itself as a key supplier of defense needs of India through joint development and manufacturing in India. GE has a proposal to build jet engines in India, which Jake Sullivan, US National Security Advisor, calls just the kind of effort that will make it possible to rapidly build up the American relationship with India for advanced technologies and the supply chain in manufacturing. 

LyrArc Article Gist
China put out a new map with Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as part of China. China sees it as part of South Tibet. China annexed Tibet that was independent for centuries until invaded in the early 1950's, after the Communist Party under Mao formed the new Chinese government in 1949. Because of the map controversy president Xi may stay away from the G20 leaders meeting in New Delhi on September 9, and send Li Quang in his place.