Thread: Eurasia Topics

Looks like little puppy has come along to try and help Hoohoo out.

However, the best knowledge about the life in criticised country is obtained from a Hollywood style propaganda...

But not to mistaken it with a "Brainwashing"...

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Looks like little puppy has come along to try and help Hoohoo out.

Haven't you given the "little puppy" on Ignore, in order not to be held for "ignorant" like your little puppy?

Originally Posted by hallelujah

Quite why OhOh considers Communist Party propaganda from the Global Times/CGTN etc worthy of a "news" thread still baffles me...

^Wondering who was here few days ago so concerned about brainwashing and that people have to report on their neighbours? Did you mean these people? And not only "people" but people's children?

Children can be used as undercover spies to report on parents, covert intelligence bill reveals

6 Jan 2021

The Government faces a major Lords revolt over the bill, which sees children used by more than 20 state agencies

Children can be used as undercover spies by more than 20 state agencies, guidance for the Government's covert intelligence bill reveals....

Children can be used as undercover spies to report on parents, covert intelligence bill reveals

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Looks like little puppy has come along to try and help Hoohoo out.

It's quite sweet, really.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

However, the best knowledge about the life in criticised country is obtained from a Hollywood style propaganda...

You should stop watching 'propaganda'.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Some actually read them and comment on the content. Others just troll.

Originally Posted by panama hat

It's quite sweet, really.
You should stop watching 'propaganda'.

As an esteemed Weltmann he surely could do better and tell us more about his world knowledge, but he - same as his Master - prefers just trolling...

Originally Posted by OhOh

I live in Thailand, Asia.

My news posts regarding Eurasia are in the Eurasian Topics thread. Unless there is a thread already started and posted on the particular topic. If so I reply in other Eurasian relevant threads there.

Hence, news from many sources regarding Eurasia/China that IMHO are informative, are placed here.

Some actually read them and comment on the content. Others just troll.

C'est la vie.

No this is a great place for you to chuck shit chinky propaganda and for us to dump the actual facts the make it look stupid.

You just carry on.

Originally Posted by hallelujah

still baffles me...

Originally Posted by OhOh

I live in Thailand, Asia.

He can write in English, but doesn't understand the language after so many years away from China . . .

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Weltmann

On the other hand, has difficulties with English, tries his hand at German and fails.

Originally Posted by panama hat

He can write in English, but doesn't understand the language after so many years away from China . . .


On the other hand, has difficulties with English, tries his hand at German and fails.

How lucky we are, to have here an expert on languages...

Originally Posted by Klondyke

How lucky we are, to have here an expert on languages...

You're welcome, Loondyke.

CNBC: China set to overtake US as world's largest economy sooner

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-02-03 10:31

"China is set to overtake the United Sates as the world's largest economy earlier than expected, CNBC reported on Sunday.
China's gross domestic product grew 2.3 percent to 101.6 trillion yuan ($15.7 trillion) in 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, making China the only major economy to have achieved annual growth.

By contrast, the US Congressional Budget Office said last week that the US economy contracted 3.5 percent last year, the worst performance since 1946. Based on a preliminary government estimate, the GDP is about $20.93 trillion.

That puts China's economy at only $5.2 trillion behind the US, down from $7.1 trillion in 2019.
"This (divergence in growth) is consistent with our view that the pandemic has been a much larger blow to the US economy than China's economy," CNBC reported quoting Rob Subbaraman, global head of macro research at Nomura Holdings in Singapore.

"We believe that on reasonable growth projections the size of China's economy in US dollar terms will overtake the US in 2028."
If the Chinese currency strengthens further to around 6 yuan per US dollar, China could surpass the US two years earlier than anticipated, Subbaraman said.
"The latest GDP data shows that China's recovery enjoyed strong momentum toward the end of 2020, due to its ability to contain the pandemic," Tai Hui, chief Asia market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management told CNBC.

He also predicted it will take another eight to 10 years for China's GDP to catch up to that of the US."

CNBC: China set to overtake US as world's largest economy sooner - Chinadaily.com.cn

Originally Posted by OhOh

CNBC: China set to overtake US as world's largest economy sooner

Impressive for a country with 3.5 * the population.



















Oh.

The Dragon Has Woken and Washington Should Engage With It

Brian Cloughley

January 26, 2021

"The story is told that when the Emperor Napoleon was in his final exile he was asked what he thought would be the development to have most impact on the future and replied with words to the effect “Let the Dragon China sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.” Although it’s a compelling and generally popular phrase it was entirely fabricated, for Napoleon never said anything of the sort. But the fact remains that whoever made up that non-quotation was absolutely spot on, because after millennia of chaotic evolution the dragon has indeed woken, and the world is being stirred, if not shaken. In December Science Magazine recorded that “China’s Chang’e-5 mission made a triumphant return around 1 p.m. EST today, landing in the middle of the night on the dark frozen plains of Inner Mongolia… The capsule’s return marks the first time China has collected rocks from the Moon — and the first time any nation has accomplished the feat since 1976.” The mainstream media of the west acknowledged the accomplishment, albeit in line with the New York Times report that “Space now is fast becoming one more arena where the two countries might clash. Although China’s military and civilian space programs are still catching up with those in the United States, the country’s ambitions were part of the Trump administration’s motivation to set up a Space Force.”

China carried out a most demanding scientific operation that brought some 4 pounds of rocks to earth for analysis, and Space magazine noted that Li Chunlai, deputy chief of the project, was understandably upbeat about the mission’s success, observing among other things that the “Chinese government is ready to share the lunar samples including relevant data with all like-minded institutions from other countries”, which is a responsible and laudable attitude. The problem, however, is that Washington doesn’t want to cooperate with China and the moon rocks are unlikely to be shared.

As observed by Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration, “It has been unfortunate [that] after a Congressional act [the Wolf Act] adopted in 2011 U.S. space institutions have been blocked from cooperating with China… On the basis of equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation we are willing to conduct sincere and friendly cooperation with U.S. institutions.”
The Wolf Act epitomises the attitude of successive U.S. administrations concerning China, and this over-assertive and even hostile approach has gathered impetus in recent years. Its peak was signposted by the now mercifully departed Secretary of State Pompeo in July 2020 when he delivered a diatribe titled “Communist China and the Free World’s Future” in which, as reported by the Council on Foreign Relations he declared “that the era of engagement with the Chinese Communist Party is over [and] calls on Chinese citizens and democracies worldwide to press Beijing to change its behaviour and respect the rules-based international order.”

In December, intending to set the scene for a post-Trump administration, Pompeo’s colleague John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal (owned by the Murdoch empire, which has no ties with China) headlined “China Is National Security Threat No. 1” in which he declared that “the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II.”

To be sure, the PRC is far from being a democracy, being run by the Communist Party with no alternative political organisation being permitted, but this does not make it, by definition, a threat to America or anywhere else. It is an autocracy in some ways similar to Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally in which, as the State Department records “Significant human rights issues include: unlawful killings; executions for nonviolent offenses; forced disappearances; torture of prisoners and detainees by government agents; arbitrary arrest and detention; political prisoners; arbitrary interference with privacy; criminalization of libel, censorship, and site blocking; restrictions on freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and movement; severe restrictions of religious freedom; citizens’ lack of ability and legal means to choose their government through free and fair elections…”

The undemocratic behaviour of the Saudi’s absolute monarchy does not prevent the U.S. having a “strong economic relationship” with the regime, and it is notable that “Saudi Arabia is the United States’ largest foreign military sales customer, with more than $100 billion in active cases.”

China does not buy weapons from the United States, and is an authoritarian state of 1.3 billion people whose leaders are intent on keeping the country together and improving the living standards of its citizens. The methods whereby its economic advances are being effected have attracted massive criticism and strong reaction by the United States, but so far as fourteen Asia-Pacific countries are concerned, it seems that negotiation, mediation and cooperation are deemed preferable to confrontation, provocation and insults.
The Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN, comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with a total population of some 650 million. It held its 37^th Summit meeting in Hanoi in November 2020 and, along with five other countries, signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership which “is an agreement to broaden and deepen ASEAN’s engagement with Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. Together, these RCEP participating countries account for about 30% of the global GDP and 30% of the world population. The objective of the Agreement is to establish a… mutually beneficial economic partnership that will facilitate the expansion of regional trade and investment and contribute to global economic growth and development… ”

Note that China is a partner in this international accord. It’s not the leader, and has not attempted to impose any sort of controls, curbs or limitations on its commercial associates. The Communist government in Beijing is pleased to be in an economic partnership with fourteen other countries having varying forms of government and in many cases very different approaches to world affairs. In turn, these nations realise that China is a great power and wish to expand their ties to their common benefit without in any way endorsing — or condemning — the political leaning of Beijing’s government.

But the United States steered clear of the Regional Economic Partnership, and unfortunately it seems that the new Biden administration is likely to continue confrontation with China rather than engaging in dialogue. Biden’s picks for senior appointments in his executive departments are not expected to agree with China’s statement that “Despite our differences, China and the United States share a wide range of mutual interests and there is room for cooperation,” with, for example, his nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, telling the Senate that “President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China” and his pick for Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, declaring “China is a challenge to our security, to our prosperity, to our values across a range of issues and I do support an aggressive stance, in a sense, to deal with the challenge that we’re facing.”

These people seem to like being “tough” and “aggressive” and cannot accept that consultation, negotiation and compromise are not signs of weakness. Rather they are a sign of maturity and willingness to come to terms with the new global development. The Dragon has woken, and they would be well advised to engage with it. There is no need for cringing appeasement, but aggressive toughness will lead only to disaster."

https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...ngage-with-it/

On Corruption, U.S. Accusations Against Russia Are the Pot’s Calling the Kettle Black


Eric Zuesse
February 2, 2021




America’s corruption is global, and globally imposed. Maybe that’s the big difference. This squid hungers to ravish everybody, everywhere.


Gallup’s polling in Russia and in the United States finds almost identically high percentages of the public saying “Yes” to the question “Is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country, or not?”— 77% in Russia and 75% in America say “Yes” to that. However, one of America’s official propaganda-agencies, Voice of America News, headlined, on January 26th, “New Reports Highlight Russia’s Deep-Seated Culture of Corruption”. It’s from Charles Maynes in Moscow. (He also reports occasionally for USA Today, NPR, Public Radio International, and other U.S. media.) He opened by saying that


New reports from Transparency International and the Russian Academy of Sciences on education highlight a pervasive culture of corruption in Russia that persists despite efforts by the government and opposition activists.
The country scored 137th out of 180 countries in the Transparency International corruption index published last week.
Every year we have to find new words to describe the same thing,” Anton Pominov, the organization’s Russia director, told VOA.
“Russia tries to introduce anti-corruption measures without any will to implement them, without understanding why they should be done,” Pominov said.

It’s not clear whether the alleged “New reports” are “on education” or instead are more generally on “a pervasive culture of corruption in Russia,” and my attempts to contact Mr. Maynes failed. However, I was able to find an 89-page multinational report, Principles of Scientific Publication, from a “World Forum” (apparently not the group that runs the annual billionaires’ conclave in the Swiss town of Davos), which “Forum” was held in “Montreal, Canada—August 19, 20, 21” of 2020, and Maynes’s article seems to have been referring to an article in it, “Plagiarism crisis in Russia,” by Andrey Zayakin, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as being one of the two sources for his assertion that there is “a pervasive culture of corruption in Russia.” That article concerns a problem which is also very much present in the United States, and in many other countries. Zayakin’s only use, in it, of the sequence of letters “corrupt” is in his sentence, on page 11, “The most essential factor in retaining the corrupt system of PhD mills is [the] expiration statute for degree revocations claims.” His article actually isn’t, at all, about any “pervasive culture of corruption in Russia.” Zayakin was the only Russian whom Maynes cited as being a source allegedly confirming that there exists “a pervasive culture of corruption in Russia,” other than Dissernet dot org, which is a Russian organization to root-out and expose academic cheating. Other than that, Maynes’s only possible source for his allegation that there exists “a pervasive culture of corruption in Russia” was Transparency International, which will be discussed subsequently here.


Furthermore, also on January 26th, Gallup Analytics emailed to their subscribers, headlining “Most Russians See Widespread Corruption in Government” and opened:


Thousands of Russians took part in nationwide demonstrations last weekend to protest the detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and to rail against rampant corruption. In 2020, 77% of Russians said corruption was widespread throughout their government. This percentage has never dropped below 70% in the past 15 years.


77% of polled Russians, in 2020, said that corruption was “widespread.” However, that was also shown to have been the average Russian figure ever since Gallup started polling this, back in 2006. What was actually unique in their 2020 poll findings was instead that 19% of Russians had answered “No” on this. The previous high “No”s on that question was only 12% “No,” and it was in the immediately prior year, 2019. The previous high before that had been 11%, and this was in 2018. In 2016, the figure was only 6%, and that figure had also been the average “No” percentage ever since 2006. So: Gallup could, much more strikingly than they had done in their email, have instead headlined it as “All-Time High Percentage of Russians Say Government Corruption Is Not Widespread.” That headline would have given the exact opposite impression, and it doesn’t mislead, like their emailed headline did.


On 19 February 2015, Gallup had headlined “75% in U.S. See Widespread Government Corruption”, and showed the figures ever since 2007, when that percentage “Yes” in America had been 67%. The overall trend, in America, throughout that 7-year period has been upward. That report unfortunately omitted to indicate what percentage of Americans had answered “No” on this question. That report, additionally, showed the percentage “Yes” for each one of 37 countries, and America was the 13th-worst on that list. Lithuania, at 90% “Yes,” was the worst. Sweden, at 14% “Yes,” was the best. Russia wasn’t shown on that list.

However, back on 18 October 2013, Gallup had headlined “Government Corruption Viewed as Pervasive Worldwide: Majorities in 108 out of 129 countries see widespread problem,” and they reported that “Czech Republic” had scored as having the highest percentage, 94%, of its population answering “Yes,” and Lithuania was #2 that time, at 90%, which was the same figure as was shown for Lithuania on the 2015 list. (“Czech Republic” showed as 83% “Yes” in Gallup’s 19 February 2015 article.) On that 2013 list, too, Sweden scored the lowest “Yes”s, at 14%. Perhaps the same samplings were being represented in 2013 and 2015, just being published in different years, regarding both Lithuania and Sweden. The 2013 list showed 80% of Russians as having answered “Yes.” The January 26th Gallup Analytics email “Most Russians See Widespread Corruption in Government” indicates that the percentage-figure was steadily in the 70s during each and every year after 2013. So, apparently, governmental corruption is declining in Russia and is increasing in America, but is, at present, approximately equal in both countries. And both of those countries seem to have lower corruption than do Czech Republic and Lithuania (both of which countries became U.S. vassal-nations after the Soviet Union ended in 1991. Russia, too, had started to be such during 1991-1999, but stopped being a U.S. vassal in 2000 when Vladimir Putin became President).


The Voice of America (always a hate-Russia site) mentioned in its January 26th article Transparency International (TI) as being one of their sources. They also mentioned the World Bank, which is widely recognized as being an extension of the U.S. Government. However, Transparency International was actually formed in 1993 as a spin-off from the World Bank in order to create corruption rankings of nations that would be weighted so as to show less ‘corruption’ in America’s allies and more corruption in countries that America’s billionaires have targeted for take-over. In other words, it is a significant part of America’s global imperialism. As we shall see here, a country pays dearly for having a lower TI rating.

That cost isn’t only in international prestige; it is in billions of dollars:


A major excuse that the U.S. and its allies employ in order to ‘justify’ their imperialism is America’s global ‘anti-corruption’ campaign, and TI is part of that. Agents of U.S. billionaires had actually established Transparency International at the very same time as they did the Washington Consensus, as a means to rig the corruption-rankings of countries, so that the World Bank would be able to ‘justify’ charging higher interest rates to countries that America’s aristocracy aim to conquer (regardless of whether that conquest was by subversion — such as in Brazil — or else by sanctions, or by coup, or by military invasion). Charging higher interest rates to a given target-country softens it up so as to be less able to resist the imperialistic nation’s swallowing it up into its financial and economic web.


This imperialistic squid has many tentacles. For example, in 2008, Oxford University Press published Rebuilding War-Torn States, by Dr. Graciana del Castillo, and with a Foreword by Nobel economics laureate Edmund S. Phelps. The book’s Introduction said that the 2003 invasion of Iraq might not have been so bad for Iraq if only the U.N. had not “failed” to authorize it. The U.N. was blamed for not having approved it. This paean to U.S.-and-allied imperialism (even as gross as that case) devoted a chapter to “9: UN-led reconstruction following US-led military intervention: Afghanistan” (and one might notice here that euphemism of “intervention” instead of “invasion” — the brutal reality), in which Dr. Castillo said, on page 189, that:


“Private capital will not flow into the country — on the contrary, capital flight will continue — unless the security situation improves, electricity is restored, other basic infrastructure is built, a simple and non-corrupt legal and regulatory framework is in place, and human capital is upgraded. The earlier the economy shifts from reliance on foreign aid to trade and foreign investment, the better the peace transition’s outcome will be.” (That “trade and foreign investment” really helped the people of Iraq, and of Afghanistan, didn’t it?)


Dr. Castillo’s obituary at Columbia University’s Center of Capitalism and Society said that “Graciana was Associate Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society from 2008 until late 2009. She was an economist with a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University and occupied prominent positions in several international organizations, including Director of Sovereign Ratings at Standard & Poor’s, where she helped alleviate economic crises in several countries.” So, she had been S&P’s top person deciding how high an interest-rate to charge the impoverished people of Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.


Wikipedia’s article concerning the Center on Capitalism and Democracy says “The Center on Capitalism and Society seeks to determine the means by which a country can successfully achieve economic success through its ability to generate and develop sound commercial ideas. The Center’s work is based upon a theory of capitalism where entrepreneurs and financiers are the key actors and the discovery of viable ideas is the essential activity. The director is Professor of Economics and Nobel-Laureate Edmund Phelps.” Workers are not “the key actors,” because “the discovery of viable ideas is the essential activity.” For example, the discovery of financial derivatives was an “essential activity,” but the sorts of things that people such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Richard Strauss, Jonas Salk, or the people who build houses or other works of architecture, or who grow our food, do, are not. Will wonders never cease?


Of course Afghans might happen to find that they can make lots more money farming opium than as “entrepreneurs and financiers.” But who cares about them? Perhaps the Taliban does.


After all:

America’s corruption is global, and globally imposed. Maybe that’s the big difference. This squid hungers to ravish everybody, everywhere.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...-kettle-black/


75% in U.S. See Widespread Government Corruption

World

September 19, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three in four Americans (75%) last year perceived corruption as widespread in the country's government. This figure is up from two in three in 2007 (67%) and 2009 (66%).

Attachment 64234

https://news.gallup.com/poll/185759/...orruption.aspx

^ What a load of pompous bollox from someone with his head far up Putins ass.
Where the fuq are the communists nowadays?

Originally Posted by OhOh

Brian Cloughley

Is this who you learned waffling from Hoohoo?

Because he's much fucking better at it than you.

Originally Posted by lom

What a load of pompous bollox

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Because he's much fucking better at it than you

Thank you both for your most informative replies to the content of the posts.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Thank you both for your most informative replies to the content of the posts.

Your posts don't usually deserve anything else.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Thank you both for your most informative replies to the content of the posts.

"Content".





"Xi and Putin Stand Up for Humanity"

A couple of murdering dictators "stand up for humanity".


"On Corruption, U.S. Accusations Against Russia Are the Pot’s Calling the Kettle Black"

Well it's more the pot calling the kettle a corrupt, thieving murderous dictator.



Vladimir Putin’s speech, delivered in the format of remote participation in the annual Davos Forum, is already being actively compared with his 2007 Munich speech.

Meaning he's been spouting the same bullshit for years.





Content.

The irony is palpable . . . here's another one:

Wu-Tang Clan or Wuhan? T-shirt ignites new China-Canada tiff

BEIJING: China has made a formal complaint to Canada over T-shirts ordered by a Canadian Embassy staffer in Beijing that allegedly mocked China’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, in an apparent mix-up between the city of Wuhan and the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday (Feb 2) that China called on Canada to “thoroughly investigate the incident and give China a clear explanation".

The incident arose after a T-shirt maker posted on the Chinese internet that a staff member from the Canadian Embassy had ordered T-shirts with a bat print. That appeared to reference allegations that the virus originated in bats and then spread to people in the city of Wuhan, where illnesses were first reported in late 2019.

But Canadian media reported the logo was a W in homage to the New York hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan and that Ottawa had apologised for any misunderstanding.
China's government is extremely sensitive to accusations it was the source of the pandemic and failed to respond quickly enough when cases were first reported in Wuhan.

The T-shirts were reportedly ordered last summer and it wasn't clear if any were still in circulation.
The controversy underscores the plunge in relations between the countries in the past two years over China's demand that Canada release a top executive of communications giant Huawei who is wanted on fraud charges in the United States.

Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the company's founder, denies the charges. China says her case is politically motivated as part of a US effort to stifle the nation's global economic expansion. Her lawyers argue she has been subjected to abuse of process and should be freed.

Canada arrested Meng at Vancouver’s airport in late 2018. In apparent retaliation, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor, placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, and sentenced a convicted Canadian drug smuggler to death in a sudden retrial.

Wu-Tang Clan or Wuhan? T-shirt ignites new China-Canada tiff - CNA


And then . . . "READ: China temporarily bars entry of foreigners travelling from Canada


These dickheads want to be part of the 'free' world?

What China-New Zealand free trade agreement upgrade means

Updated: Feb 1, 2021

What China-New Zealand free trade agreement upgrade means | govt.chinadaily.com.cn


and here:

China, New Zealand upgrade FTA deal - Chinadaily.com.cn

Myanmar approves Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine despite post-coup crisis

6 Feb, 2021 20:14 / Updated 1 day ago

"Myanmar has registered Russia’s pioneering Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus, as efforts to stem the coronavirus continue, despite the ongoing political crisis that culminated in a military coup. The nation has become the 20th foreign state to greenlight the Russian jab, and the first in South East Asia, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement. Myanmar has approved the emergency use of the vaccine, requesting additional clinical trials on the ground.

Myanmar becomes the 21st country to register #SputnikV. မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် Sputnik V ကိုမှတ်ပုံတင်ရန် ၂၁ နိုင်ငံဖြစ်လာသည်။ pic.twitter.com/SxGOOYo8WP
— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) February 6, 2021

The development came despite the political instability, with tens of thousands taking to the streets across the country, following a military coup earlier this week. On February 1, Myanmar’s Armed Forces arrested key government officials, including State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as President Win Myint. The military accused Suu Kyi and her party, which won the November 2020 general election, of rigging the vote, an allegation previously rejected by the nation’s top election authority.

Myanmar health authorities moved to approve the Russian jab after the Lancet medical journal published Sputnik V’s phase-three clinical trial results, sparking a surge of interest around the globe. The released data from nearly 20,000 volunteers showed that Sputnik V is 91.6 percent effective against the virus and is even slightly more effective in case of the elderly. It was also proven to be 100 percent effective in preventing severe Covid-19 cases.

RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said he hoped other foreign nations would also cooperate with the Russian vaccine developers in their fight against Covid-19. “More countries in the region will join Myanmar soon as we see an increasing demand for the vaccine and are ready to help our partners to protect people’s health,” he said in a statement, arguing that the jab was “one of the safest and most efficient vaccines against coronavirus in the world.”

The Russian vaccine was also approved for emergency use in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Lebanon earlier this week. Previously, it received approval from Belarus, Bolivia, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Hungary, and the UAE, among others, and has notably been used in mass vaccination campaigns in Argentina, Algeria, and Serbia.

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has also expressed the hope that the European bloc’s medicines regulator, the EMA, will soon be able to certify the “efficiency” of Sputnik V, adding that “it will be good news, because we are facing a shortage of vaccines.”

Myanmar approves Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine despite post-coup crisis — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

China arrests Australian journalist for ‘illegally supplying state secrets overseas’

8 Feb, 2021 10:29

"Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who worked for state-run China Global Television News (CGTN), has been arrested for “illegally supplying state secrets overseas,” six months after she was first detained by Chinese authorities. Senator Marise Payne, Australia’s minister for foreign affairs, announced the charge in a statement on Monday, after the government was advised of the situation by China.

“Chinese authorities have advised that Ms Cheng was arrested on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas,” Payne said, stating that “the Australian government has raised its serious concerns about Ms Cheng’s detention regularly at senior levels.”
Cheng was initially detained on August 13 on national security grounds under “residential surveillance” after she disappeared from her role on CGTN and her employer removed her profile from its website.

In response to the latest development, Cheng’s family released a statement declaring that they are “absolutely convinced of her innocence” and calling on the Chinese government to provide her with access to her children, lawyers, and basic materials, such as books.

Cheng worked for CGTN as an anchor from 2012 to 2020, hosting the channel’s Global Business program as well as covering major international events. She made the headlines in 2018 for a segment on her show that mocked then-President Donald Trump over the US-China trade war.

After Canberra confirmed her arrest, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF), based in Sydney, called for Cheng’s immediate release.

“Cheng’s arrest only adds to the impression that Beijing does not care about the freedom of the press,” AJF spokesman Peter Greste said, adding that “her case stands as a clear warning to other journalists to support the government or risk being imprisoned too.”

The detention of Cheng came as tensions rose between China and Australia, after Beijing was angered by Canberra’s call for an investigation into the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cheng was the second Australian citizen to be detained in China, with Beijing arresting writer Yang Hengjun in January 2019 on suspicion of espionage. Prior to being charged, Yang had run a blog about China’s domestic and international affairs."

China arrests Australian journalist for ‘illegally supplying state secrets overseas’ — RT World News