Elon Musk: Tesla plans to establish an engineering team in China for self-driving vehicles, and will work on innovative car designs and new auto engineering in China, instead of copying what has been done in the US. Tesla is now very close to level-5 self-driving technology, and is confident to complete developing basic functions of L5 self-driving this year, said Musk at WAIC 2020. He added that Tesla’s China team is doing an “amazing job”.
Russia Eyes Another Massive Gas Pipeline To China
Russia Eyes Another Massive Gas Pipeline To China 7-8-20 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Russia-Eyes-Another-Massive-Gas-Pipeline-To-China.html
Gazprom and Moscow have been pushing for the ‘Power of Siberia-2 pipeline’ from Western Siberia to China’s Xinjiang region. The proposal has been met with a lukewarm response from Beijing because the region is already well-supplied with Central Asian gas. However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic and Gazprom’s adjusted plan, the Power of Siberia-2 project is gaining momentum.
China’s first aircraft with high-speed homegrown satellite internet system XstreamSAT
China’s first aircraft with high-speed homegrown satellite internet system XstreamSAT has successfully made maiden flight. XstreamSAT is built up upon China’s first and only high throughput satellite in Ka band frequency. https://www.livemint.com/news/world/china-s-first-plane-with-homegrown-satellite-internet-system-makes-maiden-flight-11594190558650.html
China has no interest in joining the US-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms reduction
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-08/China-will-not-join-U-S-Russia-arms-control-negotiations-RXADOSEvIY/index.html China has no interest in joining the US-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms reduction given the huge gap between the nuclear arsenal of theirs and China’s, and China has the need to improve its military capabilities.
China on Wednesday stressed that it has no plans to join the U.S. and Russia in their talks to renew a nuclear arms control treaty.
Recently, U.S. officials have been making a lot of noises about China joining the U.S.-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms. They even went so far as to tweet a staged photo.
Washington and Moscow began talks last month to try to extend the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which they signed in 2010. It will expire next year.
Fu Cong, Director-General of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated China’s position during a press conference to share China’s policy mainly on arms control issues, noting that China has no interest in joining Russia and the U.S. in their bilateral negotiations.
Given the huge gap between the nuclear arsenal of China and those of U.S. and Russia, it is unrealistic to expect China to join the two countries in a negotiation aimed at nuclear arms reduction, Fu said.
First container train from China’s Wuhan arrives in Kiev
The first direct container train, which left the central Chinese city of Wuhan on June 16, arrived in Kiev on Monday, opening up new opportunities for China-Ukraine cooperation, said Ukrainian officials.
“Today’s event has important symbolic significance for Sino-Ukrainian relations. It means that future cooperation between China and Ukraine within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative will become even closer,” said Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong during a ceremony to mark the train arrival here.
“Ukraine will show its advantages as a logistics center connecting Europe and Asia, and Sino-Ukrainian economic and trade cooperation will become even faster and more convenient. All this will bring even more benefits to the peoples of the two countries,” he said.
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii, who also attended the ceremony, said this is the first step of regular container transportation from China to Ukraine.
“This is the first time that Ukraine has not just been used as a transit platform for container transportation from China to Europe, but acted as the final destination,” said Kryklii.
Ivan Yuryk, acting head of Ukrainian Railways, told Xinhua that his country plans to expand the route of the container train.
“We have big expectations as to this container route. We can receive (trains) not only in Kiev but also in Kharkiv, Odessa and other cities,” said Yuryk.
“For now, we’ve made plans with our partners about one train per week. It’s a reasonable volume for a start,” said Oleksandr Polishchuk, first deputy head of Liski, a branch company of Ukrainian Railways that specializes in intermodal transportation.
“One time per week allows us to improve the technology, work out necessary procedures with customs and controlling authorities, as well as with our clients,” Polishchuk said.
The official added that one train can transport up to 40-45 containers, which adds up to a total of 160 containers per month. Thus Ukraine will receive up to 1,000 containers till the end of this year.
“In 2019, China became Ukraine’s most important trading partner,” said Ukrainian economist Olga Drobotyuk in a recent interview with Xinhua. “The launch of such trains can help to further expand and strengthen trade, economic, political and cultural cooperation between the two countries.”
Arms control: Statement by the Spokesperson on the ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty by China
China has become the 107th State Party to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
By acceding to the ATT, China, an important arms exporter, contributes to the advancement of the Treaty’s objectives to regulate the international trade in conventional arms, to prevent and eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms and ammunition, and to prevent their diversion. Increased transparency in international arms trade is another important objective of the Treaty.
As with all international treaties, full implementation and universal adherence is essential. This is an important development as a more responsible global arms trade would contribute to peace, security and stability, reduce human suffering, and promote cooperation, transparency and increased confidence. It would also create better conditions for sustainable development. The European Union supports the universalisation and implementation of the Treaty by sharing expertise with countries around the world on how to set up or improve their arms export control systems in accordance with the Treaty. The European Union calls upon all Signatory States to advance their ratification processes.
The European Union encourages other States, especially major arms exporters, importers and transit States, to become State Parties to the ATT before the next Conference of States Parties, thus strengthening the multilateral framework.
China Inks Military Deal With Iran Under Secretive 25-Year Plan
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/China-Inks-Military-Deal-With-Iran-Under-Secretive-25-Year-Plan.html?fbclid=IwAR0mHzlcDcEdzpugzKZp7x0N4sO0J6efEoCC7xIDZeS8LqLv8lVoW-0LCrM One of the secret elements of the deal signed last year is that China will invest US$280 billion in developing Iran’s oil, gas, and petrochemicals sectors. This amount will be front-loaded into the first five-year period of the new 25-year deal, and the understanding is that further amounts will be available in each subsequent five year period, provided that both parties agree. There will be another US$120 billion of investment, which again can be front-loaded into the first five-year period, for upgrading Iran’s transport and manufacturing infrastructure, and again subject to increase in each subsequent period should both parties agree. In exchange for this, to begin with, Chinese companies will be given the first option to bid on any new – or stalled or uncompleted – oil, gas, and petrochemicals projects in Iran. China will also be able to buy any and all oil, gas, and petchems products at a minimum guaranteed discount of 12 per cent to the six-month rolling mean average price of comparable benchmark products, plus another 6 to 8 per cent of that metric for risk-adjusted compensation. Additionally, China will be granted the right to delay payment for up to two years and, significantly, it will be able to pay in soft currencies that it has accrued from doing business in Africa and the Former Soviet Union states. “Given the exchange rates involved in converting these soft currencies into hard currencies that Iran can obtain from its friendly Western banks, China is looking at another 8 to 12 per cent discount, which means a total discount of around 32 per cent for China on all oil gas, and petchems purchases,” one of the Iran sources underlined.
Telecom operators have led the formulation of 31 new 5G new technology standards
Chinese three major telecom operators have led the formulation of 31 new 5G new technology standards, involving key standards such as mobility enhancement standards, which will facilitate the development of 5G in high-speed rail scenarios and remote driving .
Huawei has introduced a new desktop PC that is made of all Chinese parts
Huawei has been at war with the US since last year when the Trump administration banned the company from conducting business with US-based companies. After the government renewed the ban this year, Huawei was forced to switch to in house hardware and software to continue developing new smartphones and PCs.
In an attempt to project itself as a self-reliant company, Huawei has introduced a new desktop PC that is made of all Chinese parts. The company has used its own ARM-based Kunpeng 920 processor built on 7nm technology (2.6 GHz eight-core). The processor is paired with 16 GB of Kingston DDR4-2666 RAM and a Yeston RX550 graphics chip. All the hardware is housed in a Huawei D920S10 motherboard. The motherboard supports 6 SATA III ports, two M.2 slots, two USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI. For storage, the PC has a 256 GB SSD and it comes with a 64-bit proprietary OS-based on Linux.
China successfully launched the Shiyan-6 02 satellite
China on 7-5-20 successfully launched the Shiyan-6 02 satellite on a Long March 2D rocket 长征二号丁 • 实验六号02星 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center 酒泉卫星发射中心 . The satellite will be used in space environment research and related tests.