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The Three Gorges Dam is set to face the largest ever flood peak since it was built

The Three Gorges Dam in Central China’s Hubei Province on Thursday is set to face the largest ever flood peak since it was built. The reservoir has been ready to confront the challenge by coordinating with dams at its upper stream to retain the flood water, said the Three Gorges Corp.

The latest hydrometeorological forecasts estimated the inflow flood peak of the Three Gorges project will reach 73,000 cubic meters per second at 8 am on Thursday, the largest volume since it was built in 2003.

To confront the flood peak, dams in the upstream of the Yangtze River – including Wudongde, Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba dams, also managed by the Three Gorges Corp – will work together under “elaborate deployment and operation” to jointly retain the flood, the Three Gorges Corp said in a statement it sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

The dams will sufficiently exert the flood defense function of a cascade reservoir within the basin, and are expected to ease the flood defense pressure for Southwest China’s Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, as well as the Three Gorges project, according to the statement.

It is estimated the inflow water peak will be cut down to 68,000 cubic meters per second from 70,000, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the discharge flow of the Three Gorges project will increase to 46,000 cubic meters per second from 42,000 under the demand of the Changjiang Water Resources Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources.

On Saturday, the Three Gorges Dam withstood the No.4 flood of the Yangtze River of the year, which had an inflow of 62,000 cubic meters per second.

Two days after, the No.5 flood occurred along the upstream of the Yangtze River.

Several branches of the upstream of the Yangtze River saw record flood peaks due to constant heavy rainfall. 


Southern China has been suffering severe floods this summer. The Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday launched a Level I emergency response to flood defense as the No.5 flood of the Yangtze River hit the city with a population of 31 million.
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Self-developed operating system

China’s self-developed operating system Kylinsoft V10, which was officially launched on August 13, is to meet the rising needs for a self-reliant and safer operating system.

Developed jointly by China Standard Software Co and Tianjin Kylin Information, subsidiaries of China Electronics Corporation (CEC), Kylinsoft V10 meets the needs of the 5G era and achieves multi-terminal integration by connecting mobile phones, tablets, PCS and other devices, according to CEC’s report.

The Kylin technology can support a large number of Android applications, and has seamlessly transferred more than 3 million Android compatible hardware and software to domestic platforms.

One of the most important things of V10 is that its desktop version has integrated with the Android compatibility ecosystem, which enables users to download and run a huge number of Android applications, Kong Jinzhu, executive president of Kylinsoft, said in his speech at the launch, adding that the Kylin system has received a high recognition and the massive adaption in governmental departments ranges from customs to transport and agriculture.

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China exports first batch of independently developed zirconium sponge, key material for nuclear reactor

The first batch of nuclear-grade zirconium sponge independently produced by a Chinese company was recently shipped to Russia, it was announced on Monday by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) on its official WeChat account.

Nuclear-grade zirconium sponge independently produced by China National Nuclear Corporation ready to be shipped to Russia in August, 2020

For a long time, zirconium alloy material used for fuel assembly in domestic nuclear power plants depended on imports, according to CNNC.

This is the first time that China has sent nuclear-grade zirconium sponge of its own in bulk overseas, marking a breakthrough in the country’s nuclear-grade zirconium material exports. It also signals that China’s nuclear-grade zirconium sponge manufacturing has reached the international level, CNNC said.

In the nuclear industry, zirconium sponge is used to produce zirconium alloys for nuclear reactor components, such as the cladding for fuel rods, according to the Zircon Industry Association.

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China-developed vaccine against African swine fever proves effective, to enter production trials

A China-developed vaccine that protects pigs from African Swine Fever (ASF) will soon enter the expanded clinical and production trial stage after previous tests proved effective, moving one step closer to providing immunity for pigs against the ASF virus. 

Developed by the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI) under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), the ASF vaccine had shown positive results in previous tests on 3,000 pigs and is expected to be expanded to clinical trials, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) said on Tuesday. 

First diagnosed in Kenya in 1921 and now spreading to many countries, ASF is a highly contagious viral disease that infects only pigs. The epidemic was prevalent in China in 2018 and 2019. 

The vaccine trials covered about 3,000 pigs from Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, Central China’s Henan Province and Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to Tang Junhua, the head of CAAS. 

Tang said the vaccinated pigs are in good condition and have no obvious clinical adverse reactions, and no obvious pathological changes have been seen in the immunized pigs. 

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Metro windows into 1080P full HD tablets

New metro line 10 in Shenzhen turned windows into smart tablets with 1080P full HD resolution, using OLED screens made by CRRC Qingdao Sifang. The metro line opened on Tuesday and will provide 5G services in the future, such as 5G TV broadcast.

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Suspension of pork imports from Canadian plant

The suspension of imported pork from Canadian pork supplier Maple Leaf Foods will result in very limited impacts on the Chinese market as pork imports from Canada only represent a small proportion of the country’s meat supply, said one industry insider.

The insider’s remarks come after Maple Leaf Foods announced they will suspend pork exports to China following a recent coronavirus outbreak there, according to the company’s statement on August 18.

“Maple Leaf Foods has temporarily suspended pork exports to China on a voluntary basis due to recent protocols adopted by the Chinese government for Canadian processors,” said the statement.

The protocol requires any plant reporting a COVID-19 positive case suspend exports to China temporarily.

“We respect China’s new import protocols for Canadian products and are working cooperatively with Canadian and Chinese authorities to resume exports quickly,” said Michael McCain, president and CEO, in the statement.

China purchased around C$609 million ($462.7 million) of pork in 2019, making it Canada’s third-largest pork market in terms of both value and volume, according to a Reuters report Wednesday, citing industry data.

“Reducing Canadian imports will have little impact on China’s meat market and prices,” Gao Guan, deputy director of the China Meat Association (CMA), told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that Canada ranks below the top five pork importers in China, with Brazil, the US and Germany among the top five.

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Former CIA Officer Arrested, Charged With Spying for China – US Justice Department

Former CIA Officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was arrested by federal authorities on August 14 and charged with “conspiracy to communicate national defense information to aid a foreign government,” according to a Monday release from the US Department of Justice.
Authorities say the two relatives met with Chinese officials over the course of three days in 2001 and provided them with information on CIA “personnel, operations, and methods of concealing communications.” The release alleges that part of one engagement was recorded, showing Ma accepting and counting $50,000 in cash.
Ma, who was born in Hong Kong and became a naturalized US citizen, began his career with the civilian foreign intelligence service in 1982 and maintained a Top Secret clearance until he left the service in 1989.

Looks like there will be an exchange for Ma and the US agents (Jimmy Lai? or someone not as significant) caught in Hong Kong.

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China revealed a domestically developed airborne munitions dispenser

China has revealed a type of domestically developed airborne munitions dispenser, a hybrid weapon that lies between an air-to-ground missile and a guided bomb droppable by an aircraft from a safe distance, that can release hundreds of submunitions that cover a large area.

https://www.facebook.com/john.roughlife.3/videos/585545408790700/?t=1

Formally classified as a guided glide dispenser bomb, this highly accurate, modularized weapon weighs 500 kilograms. While it looks like a missile, it has a square cross-section to hold more submunitions. This design can also reduce the weapon’s radar cross-section, enhancing the weapon’s stealth capability, making it more difficult to intercept.

When dropped, the dispenser can open its wings, which can provide extra lift force and controllability and allow it to have a range of more than 60 kilometers, this means the aircraft carrying it can safely drop the weapon without entering the enemy’s air defense zone.

Each dispenser can carry six types of 240 submunitions, which when released will cover more than 6,000 square meters.

When attacking groups of tanks and armored vehicles, the dispenser can use anti-tank submunitions that can penetrate tanks’ armor from the top, or it can equip regional lockdown submunitions when attacking large facilities like airfields.

A typical munitions dispenser like this can disable an airfield for an extended period with only one shot, because the sheer number of submunitions means the whole runway will be destroyed. It is also possible that some of the submunitions will be mines, which will make attempts to repair the runway very risky.

This will provide crucial battle opportunities, because it means the enemy would not be able to make any warplane sorties, and the user of the dispenser can seize air superiority and gain tactical and even strategic advantages.