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COVID-19: Vaccine Access for All

March 5, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

China Announces Plans To Produce 3.5 Billion Vaccine Doses in 2021

March 4, 2021 (EIRNS)–A major expansion of COVID-19 vaccine production is underway in China, now surpassing 3.5 billion doses in 2021. Further, China has decided to vaccinate 560 million of its citizens by June 30, an average of about five million/day. The U.S. is just now arriving at the capacity for 2.5 million/day, on its way to a 3-4 million/day level.

At a major meeting of the Chinese Center for Disease Control on Tuesday, decisions were made to escalate vaccinations on a vast scale. Up to now, China has targeted 52.5 million vaccinations, concentrating upon those who are most exposed to people and products coming into the country at airports, train stations, and harbors, and upon those exposed internally, such as health workers. Their testing and tracking methods have pre-empted a need to rapidly vaccinate. However, they have decided that it would undermine the efforts of neighbors, such as India, who are going for herd immunity levels of vaccination, if China were unvaccinated when their neighbors had achieved their goal. Social responsibility dictates that China should not be the weak link at that point. Health authorities were sent around the country after the Tuesday meeting, to organize the vaccinations of 560 million people by June 30 and another 330 million by the end of the year.

The 3.5 billion vaccine doses will come from Sinovac Biotech, which, according to CEO Yin Weidong, is expanding to a two-billion-dose/year capacity; CansinoBIO, which is building a new factory in Shanghai and plans on 500 million doses in 2021; and Sinopharm, which guarantees at least one billion doses in 2021. Previously, India has led the world, with a production schedule of 2.25 billion COVID-19 vaccines in 2021.

Winners in New `Global Minimum Corporate Tax: Tech Giants, London `Offshore’

July 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Finance, General updates, Geopolitics updates

Winners in the New `Global Minimum Corporate Tax: Tech Giants, London `Offshore’

July 7 (EIRNS) – The Financial Times on July 3 reported that the City of London financial center had succeeded in winning an “exemption” for its banks and other financial firms – and those of Wall Street and Frankfurt – from the new “global minimum corporate tax” agreement ballyhooed by the U.S. Treasury at the time of the G7 finance ministers and heads-of-state meetings. The minimum tax scheme, considered a U.S. priority, is actually being negotiated and planned under OECD auspices.

A ZeroHedge column on July 1 had already noted that “while Washington likes to talk about the new framework as a foregone conclusion, there’s plenty of reason to doubt that it will ever be implemented. One reason is that countries like Ireland, Singapore, Indonesia and island tax havens like Bermuda all oppose the new scheme.” It could be expected that London would play this card.

In what was portrayed in financial media as hard bargaining between “the United States” on one side and “the UK and France” on the other, financial corporations got a “carve out” or safe haven from the minimum tax; and in exchange, the UK agreed to eliminate in stages its “digital services tax”, which has no American counterpart. France agreed to do this as well, on behalf of continental European countries’ tax authorities.

So while some nations may be hurt by the agreement – for example, Ireland and Russia, which currently have corporate tax rates below 15% — the Silicon Valley tech monopolists will come out just as sales tax-free worldwide, as they have always been in the United States; and the City and Wall Street banks will be subject to the 15% minimum corporate tax only in their home bases, and not in all the other places they operate in. That is to say that “London offshore” tax havens will still be tax havens.

U.S.-China: A Shared Humanity

March 5, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, New financial order updates, United States, World Land-Bridge updates

U.S.-China State Legislators Meet for 5th Forum; Amb. Cui Lauds Cooperation

March 4, 2021 (EIRNS)–The 5th China-U.S. Sub-national Legislatures Cooperation Forum met online on March 2. Attending were state legislators from the states of Alabama, Hawaii, California, Delaware, Iowa, Michigan, and Tennessee. On the Chinese side were leaders of the standing committees of provincial or municipal people’s congresses of Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Hubei, Guangdong and Yunnan. The forum was the outcome of President Xi’s state visit to the United States in 2015. 

During the course of the Forum, the two sides had extensive discussions on the theme of “Win-win Cooperation for a New Chapter.” The U.S. legislators’ organization participating in the meeting is the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, whose president is Stephen Lakis.

China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai addressed the group. He  underlined that this was the first such event since the change of administrations, and he emphasized the importance of U.S.-China cooperation, particularly in a year in which the world is still in a major fight against COVID-19. Cui referred to the call that the two presidents had made in February as the possible beginning of an improved relationship between the two countries.
            “A China-U.S. relationship based on coordination, cooperation, and stability is both in the fundamental interests of the two peoples, and meets the shared aspiration of the international community,” he said. “The two countries need to work together under the principle of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation, focusing on cooperation and managing differences, to promote the healthy and stable development of China-U.S. relations, to bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples, and contribute to peace and development of humanity.”

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Flies an Even More Daring Mission

July 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General updates, Space updates

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Flies an Even More Daring Mission

July 6, 2021 (EIRNS)—NASA reports that Ingenuity successfully completed its ninth and most challenging mission so far on Monday. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Ingenuity’s “mother”) tweeted: “#MarsHelicopter pushes its Red Planet limits. The rotorcraft completed its 9th and most challenging flight yet, flying for 166.4 seconds at a speed of 5 m/s.” That’s 16 feet a second, the fastest speed since the beginning of the experiments in April. The little heli flew about 625 meters (0.4 miles). Ingenuity has been tested performing increasingly greater tasks than originally planned. Yesterday Ingenuity was sent off on a different route than its rover companion, Perseverance, flying over “unfriendly” terrain which has elevations and sandy “ripples,” not the flat terrain for which Ingenuity had been prepared. The “significantly elevated risk” makes it “the most nerve-wracking flight since Flight 1,” JPL wrote in its July 2 pre-flight statement. It was a success, but the full statistics and image collection have yet to arrive back at Earth. Read more here.

WHO Briefers Angry at Lack of Health Infrastructure in the War vs. COVID-19

July 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Healthcare

WHO Briefers Angry at Lack of Health Infrastructure in the War vs. COVID-19

July 6, 2021 (EIRNS)—The World Health Organization’s Mike Ryan and Maria Von Kerkhove answered questions for the public on Monday and allowed some of their frustration and anger to show. First on Monday: While new cases worldwide have stabilized, they have done so at an uncomfortably high level; this, in fact, reflects a dangerously unstable situation. While new cases in the Americas declined (13%), they raced upwards in Africa (15%) and Europe (28%). This last week had twenty countries undergoing sharp rises. Basically, the point of impact simply shifted. The two WHO specialists cited three interacting factors: uneven vaccination levels, the spread of the Delta variant, and social relaxing.

Then the anger: The WHO teams are fighting on the front lines. We’re really humanitarians, and we won’t give up. But the vaccines aren’t coming as they should, or even as promised. “The cavalry is not coming.” This destroys morale. So, people then give up, go back to work and accept what fate will bring them. What is needed is to build and invest in systems now—don’t wait for the next surge. A system involves: surveillance systems, testing in place, isolation, clinical care, contact tracing or at least cluster investigations and such; so that we can find out where the enemy is and go after it. Those systems need to be built now, and the wealthier West is not even doing it for their own populations. Their admonitions are an echo of Helga Zepp LaRouche’s 2020 call for a new global health platform for each country.

Ryan stressed that there were enough vaccines in the world right now to inoculate all the “at-risk” categories and the medical personnel. Kerkhove stressed that enough is known about the workings of the coronavirus to design a comprehensive war plan against it. It seems that the first 18 months of the battle finds the immaturity of political culture is no match for the reality of the virus.

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy!

March 5, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Daily Beethoven — Sparks of Joy, Music updates

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Four hands are better than two, Op. 6 piano sonata

With an opening theme that resembles the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven’s Opus 6 sonata for piano four hands is a rarely heard gem. Due to its brevity and relative ease of execution, it’s generally thought of as a work for piano students, but in the hands of brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen it’s a delightful frolic. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

More British Provocations Signal the Panic Gripping Those Running the Empire

July 8, 2021by Malene Robinson in General, General updates, Harley Schlanger Daily Update

While British Foreign Minister Raab threatens China over its unwillingness to submit to the City of London’s Rules-Based Order, the largest financial institutions are granted exemptions from the new minimum global corporate tax praised by Biden.  If a company is a corporation based in the City of London, Wall Street or Silicon Valley, it is exempt from the new taxes.  The blowhards demanding subservience to the new global order are deploying regime change operations and military threats against nations which don’t accept the arbitrary rules the Davos billionaires have created for everyone, but themselves!  The imperial order is dying, help us put it out of its misery, by creating a new, just order based on principles of international law.  

— harleysch@gmail.com

Mexico Seeks Energy Security

March 4, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, Finance, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Mexico, United States

Mexico Stands Firm: Texas Shows We Are Right To Put Energy Security Before Profit

March 3 (EIRNS)—In the middle of the Texas energy crisis, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked leaders of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to brief the nation on how that crisis proves that his policy to restore national energy self-sufficiency and a  national electricity grid regulated by the government, fed by all energy sources, emphatically including fossil fuels, is urgent, and its opponents are dead wrong.

The climate mafia has launched war against AMLO’s “vision of energy sovereignty” and mandate for fossil fuels to be used before subsidized and unreliable wind and solar. “No other G20 country has such abnormal or retrograde energy policies as this government. It’s not going to advance us toward our climate goals,” one leading climate activist told the London Guardian in mid-February. International energy “investors” are preparing lawsuits against AMLO’s new Electricity Law to drive out the speculators, which was passed by the Chamber of Deputies last week and is expected to pass the Senate shortly. Rating agencies are preparing to lower Mexico’s credit rating, if it becomes law.

The CFE team, led by its chairman, Manuel Bartlett, who has been outspoken against the wind and solar energy frauds, detailed how the selling off of Mexico’s public sector electricity generation and distribution to a bunch of unregulated international speculators under the previous two administrations were the cause of the blackouts in Mexico when the cold wave hit, as happened in Texas. The officials pointed to the absurdity that Mexico, an oil producer with plenty of its own natural gas, now found itself with 64% of its national electricity powered by natural gas imported from Texas. Mexico was knocked out when the cold wave hit because the pipelines from Texas froze, and after that Texas stopped all export of natural gas because its wind and solar “renewables” failed, they
reported.

The CFE managed to cover 75% of the gap from the loss of natural gas imports by activating 11 hydroelectric plants, coal plants fed by mines which the López Obrador government had recently reopened, diesel supplied by the state oil company PEMEX at low prices, existing reserves of natural gas and purchase of some shiploads of the latter—at the wildly-high speculative prices on the international markets. Officials stressed that they could only do these things because under the energy sovereignty policy, thermoelectric plants which were under-utilized, nonetheless were maintained, against just such an emergency.

López Obrador then drew the lessons out: What just happened in Texas makes clear that it is not possible to give equal treatment to private foreign companies, he stated. The state needs to control the energy production and national electricity grid as an integrated whole. Under the previous governments, the energy sector was being taken apart, sold off in pieces, and looted. “It is important to recognize that these two public companies [Pemex and the CFE] do not have profit as their purpose, but to guarantee electricity service, and at fair prices, also, because we are going to continue fulfilling our commitment to not increase electricity prices, even with the speculation and increases in gas prices which are occurring in Texas and the United States.”

U.S. Infrastructure Deficit

March 4, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General updates

U.S. Infrastructure Gets Report Card: C-

March 3 (EIRNS)—The American Society of Civil Engineers released its 2021 Infrastructure Report Card. Although the grade improved to a C-, up from a D+ in 2017, the investment gap—the funding required to get all infrastructure to a “B” rating—has grown from $2.1 trillion over ten years to $2.6 trillion over ten years. The ASCE estimates that continuing failures to invest adequately in infrastructure will cost $10 trillion in GDP over the next two decades, which is double the shortfall in spending over that time period!
   These figures only include repairing current technologies of infrastructure. For example, you may be surprised to hear that the nation’s rail system got the highest infrastructure grade, B, despite the utter absence of high-speed rail. For a real mission to build U.S., and the world’s, infrastructure read and circulate EIR’s The LaRouche Plan to Reopen the U.S. Economy: The World Needs 1.5 Billion New, Productive Jobs starting with healthcare.

U.S.-China Diplomacy: Needs to Aim for Unity

March 4, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, Finance, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, New Silk Road / BRI updates, United States, World Land-Bridge updates, World war danger updates

China to Biden Team: It Is ‘Evil’ To Try and Prevent Any
People’s Right To Pursue a Better Life.

March 3 (EIRNS)—China’s Global Times responded strongly to a report issued March 1 by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which accused China of undermining U.S. national interests through coercive and unfair trade practices and promised to use all available tools to pursue “strengthened enforcement” of China’s existing trade obligations. In other words, as the Global Times yesterday took due note, “the Biden administration has repeatedly said it is reviewing the previous administration’s China policy, but recent messages emanating from Washington suggest that the new administration is keeping the hardline stance against China. The Trump administration’s strategic goal of containing China will be inherited, and only the means of dealing with China may be adjusted.”

It is “understandable” and even “reasonable” that Washington would seek to maintain its leading position in technologies, and to protect its intellectual property rights, the editors of this official daily correctly assert. China does not protest U.S. policies towards China which aim at promoting U.S. development and increasing U.S. strength, but containment smacks of the “barbaric geopolitical games” of the 19th and early 20th century.

“We are in the 21st century…. Be they Americans, Chinese, Latin Americans or Africans, all people have the right to pursue a better life…. [P]olicies targeted at preventing China’s continuous development and even pushing China’s economy backward are evil. They pose a direct harm to the interests of the 1.4 billion Chinese people, depriving the natural right of the Chinese people to seek a better life….

“Restricting China from the perspective of intellectual property rights protection is different from jeopardizing China’s scientific and technological research and development capabilities. The former is part of the intellectual property rights protection regime, while the latter is an evil result of the geopolitical mentality.

“China has 1.4 billion people, more than the West combined, and much more than the population of the major Western countries combined. China’s development is the grandest project of the global human rights cause, and China’s development needs a relatively friendly international environment, including fair conditions for trade and technology exchanges…. It is malicious to take tough measures to suppress the ability of developing countries, and to tell large countries like China that ‘you deserve to be poor’….

“This kind of malicious policy cannot be followed up in a broad and lasting way in the 21st century. We hope the U.S. ruling team can see clearly the general trend, stop talking about human rights when it is trying to deprive the sacred rights of 1.4 billion Chinese people…. At last, we have to say that such evil is doomed to failure in the 21st century.”

{Source: “Policies Containing China’s Development Malicious: Global Times Editorial” https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1217096.shtml }

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