Three naturalized short track speed skaters stole the spotlight at an opening training session of the Chinese national short track team on Tuesday, as a 27-athlete national team training camp is underway.

At a training facility for the national team next to the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, Lin Xiaojun, Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang were garnering media attention by overshadowing China's homegrown athletes and Olympic champions Ren Ziwei and Fan Kexin. 

Liu Chenyu, the team leader of the national short track team, told reporters that the training camp has been undergoing "dynamic adjustments" since its establishment in May. It consists of 15 male and 12 female athletes. 

Based on the performances they delivered at the national championships in late March, eight young athletes who were born after 2004 were summoned to the training camp to prepare for the junior short track international competitions this year. 

The plan is to conduct selections at the end of August and form a new national team in early September, taking into account physical fitness tests and on-ice assessments, Liu said, before stating that the ultimate goal of the team remains the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. 

"At this stage we are not setting any high targets for the athletes but focusing on gradual progress," the team leader told reporters. "Through years of training and international competition experience, I believe they will achieve great results at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games."

The national team's participation in the new season will involve a relatively heavy schedule with 14 international events, including six World Cup events, the World Championships and Four Continents Championships. In addition, there will be the World Junior Championships, as well as the upcoming Winter Youth Olympics early in 2024. 

Zhang Jing, the head coach of the national team, said that the new season is a "consolidation period" for the entire team, before adding that she hopes the young athletes can mature through competitions and "compete with world champions and Olympic champions" to reach a more solid stage of development.

The aforementioned three naturalized athletes, who previously followed a training regime different from that of domestic athletes, have adopted a more independent training approach since joining the team, Zhang said. 

The experienced players have been very helpful to their younger teammates in underlining the importance of paying attention to training details, Zhang said, noting this mentorship is the key to improving the quality of training of the team. 

Brothers Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang, both Olympic gold medalists who once represented Hungary and now have completed their naturalization process for China, expressed great satisfaction with their training as part of the national team. 

Liu Shaolin mentioned that although they have trained extensively abroad in places such as Canada, the US and Italy, the conditions in China are their best to date.

"We have experienced the advantages of teamwork and mutual assistance within the national team, from coaches to equipment and massage therapists, all of whom provide top-level support," Liu Shaolin told reporters. 

When asked if they are confident about winning Olympic gold again, Liu Shaolin noted that the duo wouldn't be in Beijing if they lacked confidence, while Liu Shaoang noted the ultimate goal for them is always standing on the top of the podium at the Olympic Games. 

Lin, who joined the national team after obtaining Chinese citizenship from South Korea, had to miss the initial training sessions of the national team due to a shoulder injury. He underwent his eighth shoulder surgery to focus on preparing for the Milan Winter Olympics.

Expressing that the shoulder injury currently does not hinder his skating training after undergoing rehabilitation, Lin has also been active in learning Chinese.

"I study Chinese one hour a day," Lin told reporters in Putonghua (Standard Chinese) after a journalist asked about his language proficiency. Teammate Liu Guanyi, who speaks Korean thanks to his Korean ethnicity, helps interpret for Lin whenever the latter, a hot favorite on social media, faces language barriers.

When asked about the love from Chinese fans, Lin expressed his gratitude and stated that he will do his best to improve at short track speed skating together with his teammates. He also credited head coach Zhang for helping him overcome difficulties thanks to her thorough consideration for the athletes. 

More than 3,000 stone tools have been unearthed during the latest excavations at the Piluo site, a large-scale Paleolithic site that can be traced back to more than 200,000 years ago in Daocheng county, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, reported by the Sichuan TV on Monday.

The Piluo site, located at the southeastern foothills of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau at an altitude of about 3,750 meters, has revealed more than 15,000 stone artifacts, including hand axes and thin-blade axes, since the commencement of the archaeological excavations in April 2021.

The latest phase, kicking off in July, is the third of its kind and covers approximately 150 square meters, providing archaeologists with crucial materials to comprehend the stratigraphic accumulation, artifact distribution and stone tool making across different regions of the site, according to the report.

Tan Peiyang, a deputy director of the Old Stone Age archaeology research institute at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that during this year's excavation, they found out that some areas had layers less than a meter thick, while others had layers as thick as seven to eight meters. 

This variability allowed them to construct a chronological framework spanning from 200,000 years ago to tens of thousands of years ago, Tan added.

The Piluo site not only unravels the layers of history but also presents a continuous cultural sequence, showcasing the evolution of stone tool technology during the Paleolithic era. 

One notable finding is the "Acheulean technology deposits," consisting of hand axes, thin-blade axes, picks and stone knives, making it the world's highest-altitude Acheulean technology site, which also demonstrates the ability, methods and historical progression of ancient humans in conquering high-altitude extreme environments as early as 200,000 years ago, the report said.

"Tools like the Acheulean hand axes represent the first standardized tool in human history. With a symmetrical, teardrop-shaped design, these artifacts not only served practical purposes but also exhibited aesthetic features. This technological advancement reflects a significant shift in early human cognition," Tan noted.

During the excavation, the archaeological team conducted systematic surveys of the surrounding areas, discovering multiple Paleolithic sites, with the highest at elevations surpassing 4,300 meters. 

The Piluo site's archaeological pavilion, integrating excavation, exhibition and research functions, is set to open in June 2024, the report said. 

The discoveries at Piluo site have been listed as one of China's top 10 archaeological revelations of 2021, recognized by the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

The Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Beijing hosted the unveiling ceremony of artwork donated to the Embassy on July 14.

The painting was created and donated by renowned award winning Chinese artist Qu Zhenhui. She has made valuable contributions to female and youth empowerment and to community programs in the field of art.

In 2023, Qu spent half a year to create the giant frescos measuring 3.6 by 2 meters for the embassy and the work now hangs in the parlor of the embassy.

Ambassador Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele attended the ceremony and said, "I truly appreciate Qu's great efforts in the creation of this beautiful piece of art. This impressive piece of art represents Qu's gesture of goodwill and appreciation to our country. We feel honored to have this painting be displayed in the embassy as a constant reminder of our culture and our people back at home."

Such works of art build bridges for China-South Africa cultural exchanges. 

"The South African Embassy in Beijing will continue to promote people-to-people exchanges in the field of art and culture between South Africa and China so as to further strengthen our bilateral friendship relations." he said. 

The most significance of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro lies in its ability to bypass the US sanctions wall and open up new horizons. The sanctions imposed by the US on Huawei and Chinese companies may now be extended to companies such as Qualcomm, Nvidia, Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and others. If it is true, as hearsay on the internet suggests, that the Mate 60 Pro does not contain technologies strictly controlled by the US through sanctions, then the Mate 60 Pro represents a turning point. It could potentially lead to a significant reduction in chip profits for American companies and herald the rise of Chinese operating systems.

The Mate 60 Pro is not only a 5G phone but also the world's first mass-market smartphone with satellite calling capabilities. 

Analysts predict its global sales could reach tens of millions, and Huawei's annual smartphone sales could reach 40 to 50 million units. The Kirin 9000s chip also opens up the possibility for other Chinese smartphone brands to transition from using Qualcomm chips to adopting domestic chips. Huawei's smartphones will drive the expansion of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, paving the way for the installation of HarmonyOS on other Chinese smartphone brands. Even if other Chinese smartphones continue to use American technology, the negotiating position of those Chinese manufacturers will be different from now on.

All these possibilities are built on a solid foundation, and now is the most difficult time for the US hardliners who advocate for unlimited sanctions against China. They see a huge loophole in sanctioning Huawei and imposing technology bans on China, and what makes them panic is how this loophole was formed. They are confused, like being lost in the fog.

If the US authorities are determined to further tighten sanctions comprehensively, it will be a risky bet that they cannot afford. Not only do they need to expand the scope of sanctions against Chinese companies on a large scale, but they also need to increase the depth of sanctions, demanding that the US and Western companies under its control not sell any semiconductor materials and manufacturing equipment, even low-end ones, to China. However, doing so will immediately harm US and Western companies, and Washington has no guarantee that it can kill the Kirin 9000s chip. If the chip's independence has already gone far beyond the US sanctions wall, it would be futile for the US to build a larger sanctions wall, which will only strangle the US and Western semiconductor industry in a more ruthless and foolish way. The end of such a policy will be the demise of chip giants like Qualcomm.

The Huawei Mate 60 Pro has put immense pressure on the US Department of Commerce's "Entity List." China's manufacturing industry is complete and has accumulated a solid foundation for scientific research and innovation. In this situation, any breakthrough is possible. Washington has severely overestimated its ability to mobilize Western allies to suffocate China's high-tech development and has made a tragic misjudgment.

In fact, Huawei has become the company with the strongest ability to resist sanctions globally and possesses the most critical information industry technologies. Whether it is Qualcomm, Samsung, or TSMC, they are all parts of the US technological hegemony system and would perish without it. However, Huawei is different from them. Huawei has contributed to the infrastructure of 5G networks, and has produced 5G smartphones connected to the BeiDou system while moving beyond the US-dominated supply chain. I hope history will prove that the Huawei Mate 60 Pro heralds the arrival of a new era in technology. It is an era where the US no longer has the ability to overlook the world from a position of dominance and arbitrarily set rules. It will be an era of greater freedom and fairness.

The Russian-North Korean negotiations this month have provoked a lot of hype, particularly in the West. It is assumed by the West that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's trip might indicate a profound change in Moscow's overall approach to the security problems on the Korean Peninsula. Allegedly, a new so-called "Moscow-Beijing-Pyongyang axis" that harbors unquestionable hostile intentions toward the West is rapidly emerging in Northeast Asia. It is suggested that Moscow is now ready to directly assist North Korea with its nuclear and, especially, with its ballistic programs. Pyongyang, in its turn, might send large-scale military hardware supplies to Russia to serve the "special military operation" that Moscow has been conducting in Ukraine since February of 2022.

These allegations have to be addressed in a proper context. Speaking of various axes in Northeast Asia, one should not forget about the growing level of military cooperation between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul. Both Japan and the South Korea have dramatically increased their defense spending as well as the scale of their trilateral interaction. In the end of 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced an unprecedentedly ambitious five-year rearmament plan that should turn Japan into the nation with the third highest defense budget in the world after the US and China. 

The changing posture of the South Korea is arguably even more significant. After all, Japan has always been a disciplined US geopolitical partner at least since signing the 1960 US-Japan security treaty. South Korea for a long time has consistently resisted pressure from the US to join Washington and Tokyo in a trilateral alliance or to drop its friendly ties with Beijing and Moscow. President Yoon Suk-yeol, who came to power in 2022, apparently has a different take on the South Korea's security prospects. The traditional distancing from the US-Japan strategic partnership is no longer in place. The new leadership makes steps to bring Seoul closer to Quad and AUKUS. It even entertained the idea of South Korea obtaining indigenous nuclear weapons. On top of that, for at least last two years, both Japan and South Korea have been meticulously integrated into the new global strategy of the North Atlantic Alliance.

A devil's advocate would argue that both Tokyo and Seoul have every reason to be concerned about security challenges mounting in Northeast Asia. Still, even giving both nations the benefit of the doubt, it is impossible to deny that the security and political "axis" in this region of the world is being built by the West rather than by the East. And, as Newton's Third Law tells us, for every action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction. When one body acts on another, it experiences an equal and opposite reaction from the other body.  Now, the question is not if a nuclear war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean Defense Minister General Kang Sun-nam stated in August, but who starts it and when.

Let's be clear: Pyongyang is much more sensitive about its sovereignty and independence than both Tokyo and even Seoul. This means that North Korea will never become an obedient proxy in Russia's or China's capable hands. However, the growing US-Japanese-South Korean military cooperation inevitably leads to stronger China-Russia-North Korea ties. This, in turn, means that we are moving toward a more rigid bipolar security arrangement in Northeast Asia. Unfortunately, for the time being, all the dreams for a common security system in the region have to be put on hold.

Will this change affect Russia's and China's approaches to the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula? Neither Moscow nor Beijing is interested in a nuclear arms race there. Russia and China have little to gain and a lot to lose if the existing fragile consensus in the United Nations Security Council on North Korean nuclear program were to collapse. On the other hand, the new great powers confrontation can do nothing but erode the trust, which is indispensable for maintaining this consensus. There is still time to reverse these dangerous trends toward bipolarity in the region. Instead of lamenting about the actions of the other side, major actors should engage in inclusive consultations on how to defuse the situation. 

Twenty years ago, the so called six-party talks on nuclear program were launched in Beijing. Over six years this multilateral format had its ups and downs, successes and failures. In April of 2009 this mechanism finally hit the wall. Though it is hardly possible to get back to where the region was 20 years ago, the spirit of the six-party talks remains the best hope for security solutions in the region of Northeast Asia.

The twenty third Research Institute of the state-owned arms giant China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) Second Academy, displayed for the first time its newly developed mini interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) at the 10th World Radio Detection and Ranging Expo in Beijing on Thursday. The device is a small yet powerful millimeter-wave mapping radar that weighs only 4 kilograms and is capable of being carried on smaller drones. 

“It is an upgraded version of the CASIC InSAR, a result of industrialization and miniaturization,” Zhou Luanbing, spokesperson with the 23rd Research Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

The miniSAR is intended for civilian use, with an emphasis on quick response, flexible deployment and lower costs. It is compatible with smaller drones, Zhou explained.

The previous InSAR weighed some 50 kilograms, while the new miniSAR only weighs 4 kilograms, Global Times reporters learned at the expo. 

But the mini version maintains the high precision of the much heavier and larger InSAR.

Developers explained that such small drone-compatible miniSARs could become useful in Northwest China’s cloudy and rainy weather conditions, where optical radars onboard satellites have limited performance.

Developers believe that the mini devices could be deployed in more flexible working scenarios such as scientific research, verification of poverty-lifting policy implementation and urban planning. 

Having been held every other year since 2001, the World Radio Detection and Ranging Expo has become a comprehensive platform for cutting-edge technology display, innovation and exchanges for the global radar industry.

Private Chinese aerospace firm Galactic Energy launched its eighth Ceres 1 rocket on Friday, the latest effort by a private Chinese firm to expand its capabilities in rocket research and development (R&D) and launches.

It was the third launch within 35 days by Galactic Energy and the eighth successful flight for the rocket model.

The launch successfully sent the Jilin-1 Kuanfu 02A satellite, self-developed by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Corp, to its preset orbit.

Following the launch, it will further accelerate the networking process of the Jilin-1 satellite constellation, and expand the large-scale, high-resolution remote sensing information resources of Jilin-1, which can provide richer remote sensing data and product services for land and resources censuses, smart city, agriculture and forestry development and other fields.

Jilin-1 is China's first self-developed commercial remote sensing satellite system. The satellites are operated by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Corp based in Northeast China's Jilin Province, after which the satellite is named.

So far, the Ceres 1 rocket has served 15 commercial satellite clients, sending 29 satellites into orbit that offer support for Earth observation, meteorological monitoring, popular science education and others, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times.

Having kicked off its high-density delivery and launch cycle for the second half of the year, Galactic Energy aims to complete one land-based launch and one sea-based launch in the near future, a PR representative from the firm told the Global Times.

A high-density launch is the path a rocket firm has to take for its products to mature from the lab to large-scale production.

Prior to Friday's launch, the Beijing-based start-up had accomplished seven consecutive launches after making its debut flight in November 2020 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China.

Ceres 1 is a four-stage launch vehicle independently designed by Galactic Energy. Solid engines are used in the first, second and third stages, while advanced liquid upper stage is the fourth one.

The company is also conducting R&D into liquid rocket technology.

In June, it announced that the Pallas 1, a larger, reusable liquid-propellant rocket model, had completed the inter-stage separation test, verifying the correctness of the separation scheme.

Private firms, a rising force in propelling China's space industry, are ramping up efforts to foster capabilities to meet market demand. With consecutive successful launches, they are entering a new R&D cycle and accelerating the pace of shaping their commercialization loop, experts said.

"Private Chinese firms, especially those established as the first-generation launch start-ups in 2015, are now in the ascending period," Lan Tianyi, founder of Beijing-based Ultimate Blue Nebula Co, a space industry consultancy, told the Global Times Friday.

They have demonstrated robust innovation capabilities and potential over the past few years, and have become an important force in promoting China's commercial space sector, he noted.

The year 2023 is also anticipated to witness more milestone launch events in the commercial space sector compared with the past few years.

In July, LandSpace, another private rocket start-up, launched the world's first liquid oxygen, liquid methane carrier rocket from Jiuquan, a milestone move that has put China in the front of the global space race for methane-based rockets.

Guns, drugs, cars. Sounds like a formula for an action movie, but the list may explain why American men don’t live as long as men in other high-income countries.

In the United States, average life expectancy among men is 76.4 years — about two years shorter than men who live in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and nine other countries. Deaths due to injuries are the reason for much of the gap, researchers report in the Feb. 9 JAMA.

An analysis of U.S. and World Health Organization data revealed that deaths from injuries due to firearms, drug poisonings and auto crashes account for 48 percent of the difference in men’s life expectancies. These causes of death are less of a problem for American women, the researchers found.

When snorkelers discovered what appeared to be ancient stonework off the coast of the Greek island of Zakynthos in 2013, archaeologists sent to the site thought the odd rocks might be the ruins of an ancient city. But among the columns, bagel-shaped rings and paving stone‒like rocks, they found no telltale pottery shards or other artifacts. Soon after, geochemist Julian Andrews of England’s University of East Anglia and colleagues dove down to the supposed ruins and collected samples.

Turns out, the so-called Lost City of Zakynthos was built by microbes, not by ancient Greeks. What appear to be submerged Greek ruins are actually the fossilized remains of sediments laid down by methane-chomping microbes millions of years ago, the researchers report in the September Marine and Petroleum Geology.
The formations are the creation of microbes living in vents below the seafloor where methane-rich fluids seeped toward the surface around 3 million to 4 million years ago, the researchers’ analysis suggests. As those microbes feasted on the methane, their excretions produced carbonate minerals that formed large hollow structures. Over time, erosion exposed those structures on the seafloor. While not an archaeological treasure trove, the finding could help scientists learn more about the region’s geologic past.

The researchers even penned a helpful maxim to mark their discovery: “Columns and pavements in the sea, not always antiquities will be.”

Over the last three years, growing evidence has shown that electronic cigarettes are not the harmless alternative to smoking that many proponents have argued. Now, a new study traces a large share of e-cigs’ toxic gases to a heat-triggered breakdown of the liquids used to create the vapors. And the hotter an e-cig gets — and the more it’s used — the more toxic compounds it emits, the study shows.

“There is this image that e-cigarettes are a lot better than regular cigarettes, if not harmless,” says Hugo Destaillats, a chemist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. But after his team’s new analyses, published July 27 in Environmental Science & Technology, “we are now definitely convinced that they are far from harmless.”
Electronic cigarettes draw liquids over one or more hot metal coils to transform them into vapors. Those liquids — propylene glycol, glycerin or a mix of the two — are food-grade solvents laced with flavorings and usually nicotine.

The Berkeley team used two current models of e-cigs and three different commercially available e-liquids. The experimental setup mechanically drew air through the devices to create the vapors that a user would normally inhale.
Toxic aldehydes (such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein) were at negligible levels in the starting e-liquids, Destaillats notes. But the chemistry of the vapors varied as the e-cig device heated up: The first puffs contained somewhat less of the aldehydes than later puffs.
The new data show that “through the process of vaping, you are generating almost 1,000-fold higher emissions of those same compounds. And that is from the thermal degradation of the solvents,” Destaillats says.

Some devices can vary the voltage used to heat their coils. Higher voltages produced hotter conditions and more of the toxic aldehydes, which are probable or suspected carcinogens. Acrolein is also a potent irritant of the eyes and airways.

With a rise from 4.3 to 4.8 volts, the jump in emissions “goes exponential,” Destaillats adds, particularly “for the three aldehydes that are among the most harmful compounds present in the vapor.” Users could inhale up to 165 micrograms of these aldehydes per puff, the study found.

In their first tests, the chemists used a new e-cigarette for each puffing session. But in a second set of tests, they used one device over and over at its high-voltage setting. After the ninth 50-puff cycle, the toxic aldehyde emission rate had climbed by another 60 percent. This was consistent with a buildup on or near the heating element of what has come to be known colloquially as “coil gunk,” the researchers say. “Heating these residues would provide a secondary source of the volatile aldehydes.”

The data on changes in the vapor composition of “aged” e-cigarettes “is something new,” notes toxicologist Maciej Goniewicz of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. And using a better analytical technique than others have employed, he says, the Berkeley team turned up new toxicants — such as propylene oxide and glycidol — which neither his group nor others had detected in e-cig vapors.