BRICS expansion, a sign of the rise of the Global South, marks the decline of US hegemony and its ideological bedrock, American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism posits that the US is the "best" country in the world and portrays US dominance as a permanent feature of global politics. Presumed allies and adversaries alike are expected to follow the economic, political and military dictates of US policymakers no matter the consequences for their own sovereign development.
The 15th BRICS Summit in late August came after months of increased global interest in expanding the mechanism. By the end of the summit, BRICS added six new members: Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran. The expansion undermined Western mainstream media reports hyping divisions within BRICS.
The six new members of BRICS are a powerful signifier of a multipolar world order where no single nation "calls the shots." While BRICS does not target third countries, BRICS expansion is, in part, a response to the perils that US hegemony has inflicted on the world. Iran, for example, has experienced decades of crippling unilateral sanctions from the US that have caused economic instability and social hardship nationally and globally. That Iran was admitted to the first multi-country expansion of BRICS is a testament to the mechanism's opposition to unilateral sanctions and its commitment to peaceful development.
Argentina's admission to BRICS cannot be separated from the US' foreign policy of treating Latin America as its "backyard." Neoliberal reforms pushed by the US under the "Washington Consensus" have contributed greatly to the impoverishment of Argentina's economy. Powerful Wall Street hedge funds called "vulture funds" have exploited Argentina's debt burden by siphoning the nation's wealth with the support of the US judicial system. Argentina's BRICS membership is a major step toward economic sovereignty.
Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE's addition to BRICS represents a significant shift in the geopolitical calculus on the African continent and West Asia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the US declared "the end of history" and moved quickly to secure its hegemonic interests in these resource-rich regions of the world. This led to devastating invasions of sovereign countries and persistent attempts to develop deep and unequal relationships with "friendly" governments. Its geopolitical relationship with Saudi Arabia has been one of the most important for the US. The US has dominated the world energy market through the purchase of Saudi Arabia's vast oil reserves in US dollars, the principal reserve currency in the world since the end of World War II.
Egypt, Ethiopia and the UAE have been important to the US' broader interests of maintaining dominance over North Africa and West Asia. US interference in the affairs of these nations and the broader region played a role in their interest in joining BRICS. In the case of Ethiopia, the Biden administration has threatened sanctions over the country's internal conflict in the Tigray region. African and West Asian states have all received stern warnings from the US that continued trade with Russia during the Ukraine conflict could lead to sanctions and other forms of punishment.
The truth is, however, that BRICS is not simply a rejection of US policy. Global South countries share common interests and in many cases complementary economies. BRICS not only offers win-win alternatives to the US-led financial system, but also follows a policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs. It is therefore in the interests of the Global South to diversify relations regardless of the status of the relationship that individual countries possess with the US. In fact, it is within their right under international law.
BRICS is just one of many examples of the growing strength of the multipolar world. Multilateral mechanisms in all spheres of development are also growing, from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to China-led projects like the Belt and Road Initiative. BRICS' historic expansion thus injects even more hope and inspiration into a world order that has seen so much devastation from US-led unipolarity and its ideological foundation of American exceptionalism.
Two years ago this week, the AUKUS pact was announced. When US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood together in San Diego on March 14, 2023, to announce arrangements for the Australian acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs), many Australians were dumbstruck. They were as dumbstruck as they were when the initial announcement was made 18 months earlier by Biden and past prime ministers Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison in the dying stages of a discredited Australian government. Their dismay was shared by many of Australia's neighbors in Asia and the Pacific.
The plan consists of three stages. The first will involve increased rotational deployment, effectively basing, of US (from this year) and UK (from 2027) SSNs in Australia. The second is the Australian purchase of between three and five US Virginia-class SSNs, commencing in the early 2030s. The third is the design and construction of a new AUKUS-SSN, to be built in the UK and Australia using US weapons systems and a US/UK-built nuclear reactor, to be available in the 2040s and 50s.
The eye-watering projected A$368 billion ($244.06 billion) cost is 10 times greater than Australia's largest previous military acquisition, even without the seemingly inevitable cost blowout. It is, in fact, a greater cost than any other national project in Australia's history. The plan was hatched and developed in secret with a complete absence of democratic process and accountability. There has been no detailed parliamentary examination, no White Paper, and no ministerial statements explaining a rigorous assessment of the comparative risks, benefits and costs of the plan and alternatives, in the context of a long-term comprehensive security plan for the country. Albanese in opposition agreed in less than 24 hours to sign up to the plan hatched by Morrison, his predecessor as prime minister. This was, apparently, essentially for the mundane political imperative not to be wedged and portrayed as weak on national security and the US alliance in the lead-up to a federal election.
That Labor has embraced and aggressively prosecuted such a fraught, costly and long-term plan hatched by the previous government, rather than let it die a natural death at the end of the 18-month review period, is incomprehensible for many Australians who had hoped for much better from their new government.
The AUKUS plan takes Australia back to the old racist, colonial and sub-imperial approach of "forward defense" - long-range power projection far beyond Australia's surroundings, as "deputy sheriff" in concert with a white great ally and protector, previously the UK, now the US. Forward defense justified Australia's past involvement in wars in the Korean Peninsula, Malaysia and especially Vietnam. The submarines are to be deployed with conventionally armed Tomahawk cruise missiles and will be technologically dependent on the US.
The strategic implications of the plan are profound. In the context of escalating enmeshment with US military forces and plans, which Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles has characterized as no longer about "interoperability" but "interchangeability," the plan is the flagship for a profound loss of sovereignty and independence by Australia. Former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating described the AUKUS submarine plan as "the worst international decision by an Australian government since the former Labor leader, Billy Hughes, sought to introduce conscription to augment Australian forces in World War One."
AUKUS nuclear submarines will lock Australia into US plans to contain and potentially militarily confront China, and (together with missile defense, to which Australia also contributes via the Pine Gap base in central Australia) put at risk China's second-strike nuclear capability. Regional tensions in Northeast and Southeast Asia, the risk of armed conflict, including between nuclear-armed states, notably the US and China, and the potential for such conflict to escalate to nuclear war can only grow. All the available evidence suggests that if the threshold of nuclear weapons use is again crossed, rapid escalation of nuclear war will follow.
As the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council reaffirmed last year, a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. And as G20 leaders just reiterated, "The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible." The survival and health of all humanity and the biosphere demand that nuclear weapons be eliminated. This is the only way to ensure that they are never used under any circumstances. Nothing can justify increasing the danger of nuclear war.
Another negative consequence of the AUKUS SSN plan relates to nuclear nonproliferation and fissile material control. With the planned purchase of second-hand US Virginia-class submarines, Australia will become the first country without nuclear weapons to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. Regrettably, like current and planned US and UK submarines, any Australian SSN will be fueled by highly enriched uranium (HEU), which is directly usable in nuclear weapons. This is entirely avoidable. France and China have fueled their nuclear submarines with low-enriched uranium, which cannot be directly used for nuclear weapons.
The AUKUS plan will put somewhere between eight and 20 nuclear weapons worth of HEU per submarine on stealthy mobile platforms, the whereabouts of which are designed to be secret over many months at sea, where it is effectively unverifiable. This flies in the face of commendable international efforts in recent decades, which the US, UK and Australia contributed to, to end the production of fissile materials and reduce and eliminate the use of HEU.
Already nuclear nonproliferation and the consistent application of nuclear safeguards are under severe stress in multiple countries. Australia looks set to become the first country to prize open a previously dormant loophole in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which envisages the temporary removal of nuclear material from comprehensive safeguards for non-explosive military purposes. It is unlikely to be the last.
It is not too late for democratic, accountable, evidence-based common sense to curtail the fraught AUKUS nuclear submarine plan and avoid the huge opportunity costs for human and environmental security and the grave dangers it fuels.
The author is a board member and immediate past co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and founding chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
There have been signs of easing tensions in China-Australia relations recently, with the holding of the China-Australia High-Level Dialogue in September and a potential trip to China by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later this year. To what extent can China-Australia ties be repaired? Will the Albanese government give pragmatic cooperation a priority? Colin Mackerras (Mackerras), a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and world-renowned sinologist, shared his insights with Global Times (GT) reporter Su Yaxuan.
GT: To what extent can China-Australia ties be repaired? And what kind of relationship would be most beneficial to Australia?
Mackerras: I think it's a good thing that there are signs of improvement. If we have more trade, that's a good thing. I hope we can make some agreements that will help both sides. I don't think it's going to go back to the way it was before. I say this mainly because of these other things that Americans seem to be doing. For instance, the US, UK and Australia agreed on a nuclear-powered submarine project. What that does is take away our independence to some extent as well, and it ties the US and Australia together. Although it could be argued that it's not against China, it seems to me that it is and the Americans designed it to be just that, against China.
I think that's extremely unfortunate. Australia is heavily dependent on the Americans. In a context where the US doesn't want us to be friendly with China, they tend to be very hostile, and I think that's very unfortunate and very unfair. Australia is giving signs that it wants to be friends with China. At the same time, it's also digging up unfounded criticisms against China. That's unfair and unnecessary.
When you're talking about relations, you can talk about geopolitical relations, but you can also talk about people-to-people relations. I've now been to China more times than I can count since I first went there in 1964. I love going to China. I have a lot of friends there.
We can develop these people-to-people relations in many different ways. Students can go to school in another country. Scholars from both countries can conduct joint research. But also, you can have students coming from China to Australia and from Australia to China. I think tourism is a very interesting phenomenon, it can be economic, but I think it can also be people-to-people. When people go to another country as tourists, they're interested in its culture, they learn about its culture, they meet people, they make friends.
Despite what the Australian government is doing and despite the policy it has toward the Americans, which I am very much against, we can still make good friends with China. We can still have good people-to-people relationships. We can still receive Chinese students and Australian students can go to China, and we can also improve tourism. I'm very optimistic about all of this.
GT: How do you think the trade and economic ties between the two countries will develop in the years to come? Will the Albanese government view pragmatic cooperation as a priority to help bolster Australia's economy?
Mackerras: I think Albanese will develop economic trade and ties. I know there have been a few problems which people have talked about a lot here in Australia, but I don't see them as being fundamentally impossible to solve. With a bit of goodwill on both sides, I expect them to be solved gradually over time which would be good for both countries. Australia's economy is very closely aligned with China's at the moment. I don't want Australia to trade with other countries at the expense of trading with China. I think it's very valuable for Australia to trade with China and I expect that to happen and continue to happen.
GT: What are the main biases that currently exist in the West toward China? What do we most need to break? How should we do it?
Mackerras: It seems to me that the most difficult area is that the West is determined to see China as a threat. The reason is it wants to stay on top and it's not willing to let anyone else challenge its hegemony. It doesn't want this multipolar world. China often talks about this multipolar world, and it is not the only one. Most people seem to want a multipolar world. But the Americans and the West are determined not to have that because they think it is against them. They want to be No.1 and everyone else should do what they're told.
I think that's the main bias, but there are other biases too, because the Western media tend to put everything that happens in China in a negative light. Here in Australia, we have the Murdoch Press journals, like The Australian, and there are others, like the Fairfax Press and they mostly seem to put a negative spin on everything China does.
The media in Australia is currently indulging in a sort of triumphalism that China's economic success can't last. That seems to me to be very wrong. Looking at the big picture, China's economy is still growing well and will recover from present difficulties.
But as for how you're going to get over this, I don't know, but I do think promoting people-to-people relationships is very helpful indeed and an excellent way to go.
Alibaba’s Cainiao Smart Logistics has strongly refuted Belgian intelligence service VSSE’s recent accusation of engaging in “possible spying or interference activities” at the company’s European logistics center at Belgium’s Liege Airport.
“We strongly deny the allegations based on prior conjecture. Cainiao is in compliance with all laws and regulations where it operates,” the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Saturday.
Belgian officials are looking into “risks” involving the presence of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba at a cargo airport in the city of Liege, Reuters reported on Friday, citing VSSE.
The security service said it was working to “detect and fight against possible spying and/or interference activities carried out by Chinese entities including Alibaba,” Reuters wrote.
Alibaba signed an agreement with the Belgian government in 2018 to establish an e-commerce trade center operated by Cainiao at Liege Airport. In 2021, Cainiao commenced operations at the Liege Digital Logistics Hub, which was its largest smart logistics hub in Europe.
It is not the first time for certain Belgian officials and media outlets hype such groundless accusations. In May 2021, The Chinese Embassy in Belgium refuted similar accusations against Alibaba, noting that such baseless allegations were a replica of the “China threat theory,” which not only misguided the Belgian public but also cast a negative impact on the image and reputation of Chinese businesses and individuals in Belgium.
The Chinese government always requires Chinese enterprises to strictly abide by local laws and regulations when doing business overseas, and will not require Chinese enterprises to engage in activities that violate local laws and regulations, the embassy said in a statement.
“Currently, Europe’s perception of and sentiment towards China have undergone complex changes due to a combination of internal and external factors. Many regular economic cooperation projects between China and Europe are being scrutinized through the lens of so-called security concerns,” Dong Yifan, a research fellow at the Institute of European Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.
Against the backdrop, various security and defense departments, including Belgium’s VSSE, are inclined to take the forefront in promoting such issues to underscore their own influence, Dong said.
“Such moves overstretching the concept of national security will undoubtedly create a negative impact on the political atmosphere and public sentiment between China and Europe, subsequently undermining the willingness and confidence of both parties to engage in cooperation,” Dong said.
Cao Zhongming, China’s ambassador to Belgium told the media in January that China retained its position as Belgium’s third-largest trading partner in 2022, while Belgium stood as China’s seventh-largest trading partner within the EU. The accomplishment is noteworthy given the backdrop of a sluggish global economic recovery.
The successful operation of Alibaba's Cainiao Liege Smart Logistics Hub in Belgium has significantly boosted cross-border e-commerce between China and Europe and helped reinforce Belgium’s position as a logistics hub in Europe, Cao said.
In an interview released Sunday, the US’ NASA chief once again smeared China's space missions and vowed to beat China in the “moon race.” The latest barrage of attacks was slammed by Chinese experts as a reflection of a lack of confidence and a dangerous, narrow Cold War mentality in the US.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson accused China of being “one of the very few nations” that would not be partners with the US and that it is being “very secretive” in terms of space programs in an interview with Nikkei Asia published on Sunday.
In the meantime, Nelson stated that he believes the US will beat China in terms of sending a manned spacecraft to the moon.
The two countries both have similar visions to launch a crewed moon probe in the next decade. China announced that its manned rocket for the mission is expected to be constructed by 2030, while NASA has pushed back its moon landing to 2025 or later.
Nelson's unsubstantiated accusations fully reflect that the US lacks confidence in its aviation development, experts told the Global Times.
Nelson's renewed hype of the Chinese aviation threat theory is actually a common NASA trope, spinning an external excuse to spur the US Congress to pass more related budgets, Song Zhongping, a space analyst and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Sunday.
"China has never said it aims to engage in a so-called space race with the US," he said, noting that the past race with the Soviet Union and Cold War mindset trapped the US.
In fact, publicly attacking China’s space programs has become normal for NASA in the past few months. In September, Nelson accused China of lacking needed transparency over issues. In July, the NASA chief blatantly claimed that China is “trying to occupy the moon.” In May, he said that China stole the US’ space technology.
"These accusations fired by NASA are unfounded and unjustified," Song said. "China has always had a cooperative and open attitude in the space sector."
In the 1990s, China launched satellites for other countries and provided space delivery services to other countries. Now, with its space station, return satellites and target vehicles, China has also been providing piggyback services and giving platforms to other countries’ projects.
China issued an action statement in November outlining its plan for promoting further international cooperation on space technology and exploration, working with other countries and international organizations within the framework of the United Nations.
Observers point out that China’s space station is facing all countries in the world that are willing to cooperate, including developing countries, which is the real sense of an international space station. On the contrary, the space station created by the US is precisely a club for the rich, and it is very difficult for developing countries to get their hands on it.
In 2011, the US Congress passed the Wolf Amendment, a law that prohibits NASA to engage in cooperation with China and China-affiliated organizations. “Now that China has moved into the top echelon of space-faring nations with its own innovations, the US is starting to worry even more,” Song said. “The country realizes that China's momentum is going to be strong and even limitless, which needed to be contained.”
Such a narrow US mindset and approach would not only be unhelpful to the two countries' technological development, but also could even overshadow the progress of human technology, analysts said.
If the US could treat China as a partner and not as an enemy, it would promote the humankind's ability to explore space to soar, Song noted.
136 types of seeds, including crops, forest vegetation, flowers, and microorganisms will be carried on board the Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft to start their space breeding journey. These seeds will contribute to the advancement of China's agricultural science and technology and enhance food security, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced on Wednesday in a statement.
The seeds were selected through a four-month application and review process and have been chosen from 53 institutions across the country. The project, conducted by manned spaceflight, is of a public welfare nature and does not charge any carrying fees.
It has been 36 years since China's first space seed breeding effort in 1987, the country has sent the seeds of hundreds of plant species into space on dozens of retrievable satellites and Shenzhou spaceships. Nearly 1,000 new species have been created, of which 200 have displayed outstanding performances, according to media reports.
Space seed breeding uses cosmic radiation to mutate the genes of seeds sent into space, in order to create new species for greater variety.
"Space peppers and watermelons" commonly found in supermarkets in China are successful varieties of space breeding. China ranks first in the world in the number of cultivated varieties and the range of popularization and application of space breeding, read media reports.
The area under cultivation for grains, vegetables, fruits and other plants developed by space seed breeding has surpassed 4 million hectares, and generated economic benefits of over 200 billion yuan ($30.51 billion), media earlier reported.
The seeds need further improvement, especially in disease resistance, through conventional breeding methods or space breeding, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Space breeding involves exposing seeds and strains to cosmic radiation and microgravity during a spaceflight mission to mutate their genes.
China's space seed breeding level also reflects the nation's advancing aerospace technology, Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
"There are only a few countries in the world with mature aerospace technology, and Chi
New progress has been made on an investigation into a cyberattack incident targeting the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center affiliated to the city's Emergency Management Bureau, after a joint investigation team formed by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) and Chinese cybersecurity company 360 discovered malicious backdoor software that exhibits characteristics of US intelligence agencies, the Global Times learned on Monday. Chinese authorities will publicly disclose a highly secretive global reconnaissance system of the US government, which poses a serious security threat to China's national security and world peace.
On July 26, the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center reported that some front-end station collection points of the earthquake reporting data had been implanted with backdoor programs, attracting widespread attention. The CVERC and the company 360 immediately formed a joint investigation team to go to Wuhan for investigation and evidence collection.
Du Zhenhua, a senior engineer from the CVERC, told the Global Times that the team has found very complex backdoor malware in the victim's network, fitting the characteristics of US intelligence agencies, highly concealed, and aiming to steal earthquake monitoring-related data, with a clear military reconnaissance purpose. Why target earthquake monitoring system?
Du explained that China is a country seriously affected by earthquake disasters, with multiple occurrences causing severe loss of life and property. "Therefore, China attaches great importance to earthquake monitoring and early warning. In order to improve the monitoring and early warning capability of geological disasters, earthquake monitoring data includes not only basic information like magnitude and epicenter but also rich geographical and geological data such as surface deformation and hydrological monitoring," Du said.
These data also hold high value as military intelligence. Hence, the cyberattack on the earthquake monitoring center by US intelligence agencies was a planned and premeditated cyber military reconnaissance action, the expert noted.
Xiao Xinguang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and also the chief software architect of leading anti-virus company Antiy Labs, further explained to the Global Times that although the location, magnitude, and depth are publicly released information, they are based on the calculations from multiple sensors.
"The comprehensive vibration and sound wave data collected by these sensors, especially infrasound data, have significant intelligence value for judging geological terrain, analyzing weapons system tests, and nuclear tests," Xiao said.
Furthermore, this is just one of the reasons the US targets earthquake monitoring and other systems with cyberattacks. Xiao also analyzed that the current information gathering is only one type of behaviors that have been exposed.
There are still many information theft instances targeting other fields that have not yet come to the surface. By leveraging its global comprehensive reconnaissance ability, along with various means of intrusion, theft, and other comprehensive measures to obtain all kinds of telemetry data, and combining other multi-source auxiliary data, it forms the ability to analyze, judge, attribute, and locate China's economic, social operations, and even military actions.
Causing social panic
Experts believe that cyberattacks on civil infrastructure, including earthquake monitoring systems, can lead to serious consequences.
Du underlined that if the attackers maliciously damaged earthquake monitoring system, it would become ineffective in providing accurate data during an earthquake. This would impact earthquake early warnings and disaster assessment work, leading to more severe loss of life and property.
"Even more dangerous is that if the attackers tamper with the earthquake monitoring data, triggering false alarms, it could lead to social panic and disorder, resulting in casualties among innocent people," Du said.
The remote sensing and telemetry systems and data are national strategic resources that must be given priority protection, Xiao said. "These data can display the basic operation of our country's economy and society from macro to micro levels and provide comprehensive support for integrated decision-making and emergency response. They are the supporting resources for territorial safety and national security."
"US intelligence agencies not only actively collect various signal intelligence but have also long obtained other countries' comprehensive earth system science remote sensing and telemetry data as strategic intelligence through various means. This includes sharing through allied intelligence mechanisms, coercing high-tech companies to provide it, and using academic and scientific research activities," Xiao said.
He also explained that the discovery of the cyberattack on Wuhan earthquake monitoring center was not accidental, indicating that cyberattack intrusion and theft have become the lowest-cost way for the US to obtain other countries' remote sensing and telemetry data.
The US has developed a series of signal intelligence collection, analysis, and processing systems, such as the Echelon project for electromagnetic signal spying, the Main Core project for telecommunications operators, and the PRISM project's super access interface for large IT and internet manufacturers.
"After many years of continuous tracking with relevant departments, we will soon publicly disclose a global reconnaissance system of the US government, which poses serious security threats to China's national security and world peace. We must be highly vigilant and tightly guard against this," Xiao said.
Violating international law
In fact, a plethora of internal documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) exposed in events such as Prism, Shadow Brokers and WikiLeaks reveal that the US, as a real "hacker empire" and "spying empire," targets "indiscriminately" (including its allies) in its cyber intelligence collection activities. Civil institutions and individuals worldwide are its targets for cyberattacks, fully exposing the US' double standards and hypocrisy on human rights issues.
Du further stated that the US military intelligence agencies' use of their information technology advantage to launch cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure is a criminal act in clear violation of international law, seriously infringing on China's national security and public interest.
"In fact, for a long time, the US' cyberattacks on China's key information infrastructure have been all-encompassing, with government agencies, universities, research institutions, and large corporations all being targeted by its cyberespionage activities. The US is attempting to use these unfair means to comprehensively steal China's political, economic, military, and diplomatic sensitive information, to contain China's development and progress, and to maintain the US' world hegemony," he said.
As a veteran expert in computer virus prevention technology and emergency response, Du suggested that if China's key information infrastructure is attacked with state-backed hackers, relevant units must report the cyberattack to relevant authorities immediately; build cybersecurity capabilities; strengthen supply chain security management, increase autonomous control abilities; conduct regular cybersecurity drills to improve emergency handling and recovery abilities.
Xiao believed that although China's overall cybersecurity ecosystem is still relatively small in market size, overall, it's complete in technology categories without obvious weaknesses. "In continuous confrontation with threats, especially in identifying, analyzing, and exposing advanced persistent cyberattacks, including those from the US, many excellent Chinese cybersecurity companies have demonstrated their abilities, becoming the industry's supporting force in safeguarding national security and defending the security of the cyberspace community."
China does not need to underestimate itself in terms of cybersecurity capabilities, he noted. "We can establish more ambitious goals, become a competent force in the national governance system, create a capability advantage compared to main geopolitical competitors, and not become a significant constraint and risk vulnerability, even when facing comprehensive suppression by hegemonic states or in high-intensity security conflicts.
"We can achieve an overall risk controllable state by strengthening the construction of the public service attributes of cybersecurity , and enhancing the construction of common security capabilities, resilience mechanisms, and cybersecurity infrastructure," Xiao said.
Deadly wildfires in Hawaii, which caused the biggest death toll in more than a century in the US and forced thousands to evacuate from their homes, expose the incompetence of the US government, said analysts, with many local residents who survived the disaster posting videos on social media criticizing the problematic response of local authorities and poor early warning system. Residents also criticized US mainstream media reports, saying this was not just a natural disaster, but also a man-made calamity.
Chinese analysts and web users are paying attention to the horrible tragedy that Americans have suffered, as the hashtags on Sina Weibo about "Hawaii wildfires" have received more than 71.52 million views on Tuesday. Experts said the response of the US government made the US look "unlike a developed country."
A massive blaze destroyed much of the town of Lahaina, on Maui over the weekend. As of Monday afternoon, officials confirmed 99 people have died. Hawaii Governor Josh Green told the media that the death toll would likely increase "very significantly" and could "double or even triple" over the next 10 days, according to CNN.
Green said on Sunday that there was "very little left" of Lahaina, and some 1,300 people remained missing, according to CBS News.
Many people including survivors uploaded videos to break the silence on social media networks to heavily criticize the incompetence of the government and the problematic response and early warning system. Some questioned reports by the mainstream media and said it was not a natural disaster, and the death toll could be far greater than reported.
Some of them said warning sirens did not sound and people received no warning about the wildfire, and they were not informed about evacuation. Some complained about the disorganized response and poor traffic system that trapped the people who wanted to escape and the rescue personnel who wanted to enter the island, and that donations have not been handed to the people in need. Some relief materials were looted as local authorities failed to restore public order.
Hawaii has got a massive outdoor public safety early warning system, with more than 400 sirens to remind people of threats like tsunamis, and Maui has 80 of these sirens, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
In 2018, the system mistakenly informed the people of Hawaii state that "a ballistic missile is coming" due to human error, and in 2019, the system went wrong again and caused panic among locals. But this time, it failed to warn people effectively, and the state attorney has vowed to investigate, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that "Residents of Lahaina, the historic former Hawaiian capital that became an inferno," have criticized what they called inadequate warnings of the sudden firestorm and said they are now being left to fend for themselves in its wake.
"I feel like the citizens of this island have been called upon, maybe by a higher power, to actually help because no one else is helping," said Kai Lenny, a professional surfer, according to the Washington Post.
Many Chinese netizens do not understand why the powerful US military force can allow Americans to feel helpless during the disaster when the Pacific Fleet is right there in Hawaii. A comment said "why don't US military troops go to rescue their people in the disaster area?" In China, the military, police and other professional rescue forces will respond immediately to rescue people every time when disasters occur in any location in China.
Lü Xiang, an expert on US studies and a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the response of the US military or national guards this time has no comparison to their fast reaction after the Capitol Hill attack in 2021, and this means the decision makers of the country did not pay enough attention to this disaster that caused huge casualties.
"From the early warning system to the response after the disaster, the performance of the US government this time just makes the US look unlike a developed country," Lü said.
US President Joe Biden was in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, over the weekend and was asked during a bike ride on Sunday morning whether he would go to Maui to assess the devastation. He replied, "We're looking at it." After a visit to the beach later that day, Biden was asked about the rising death toll on the island and replied, "No comment," according to US media.
The comment sparked a backlash, Fox News reported, including by former Hawaii state representative Mark Kaniela Ing, a Democrat who now serves as national director of the Green New Deal Network. "I campaigned for you. Now, when I lose dozens of my friends, family, and neighbors. This?" Kaniela Ing wrote in a now-deleted post.
Kaniela Ing told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Monday that he found Biden's remark "shocking" and out of character.
This kind of disaster is closely related to climate change but the Biden administration shows limited sincerity in restoring international cooperation to handle climate change issues, said analysts, adding that a disaster like the Hawaii wildfires has not received enough attention from mainstream US media, and people from other states do not seem to care much what is happening in Hawaii.
Lü said "when I open the websites or apps of US mainstream media like The New York Times and CNN, the headline story today is about [former president] Donald Trump's legal issues, and other prominent news stories are about Ukraine, but the reports about the most deadly wildfire in more than a century in the US, while the death toll is keep updating, can only be found at the bottom."
Radiation from the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant contaminates most Japanese seafood at low levels, researchers estimate February 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For aquatic foods, data on lingering concentrations of cesium is limited in terms of the number of species sampled and the levels that surveys can even detect. To fill in the blanks, a team of researchers in Japan drew from survey measurements from April 2011 to September 2015 and devised a way to predict cesium contamination in different aquatic species across Japan.
The analysis provides mixed news: Overall, cesium contamination is pretty low. But, some species retain higher levels than others. Larger fish near the top of the food web tended to have the highest levels of contamination. The researchers predict that such factors put some wild freshwater species like the whitespotted char (Salvelinus leucomaenis leucomaenis) and the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) at higher risk for contamination.
