China Daily Global Edition (USA)
India shooting itself in the foot
Nature needs time to recover after earthquake
By persistently maintaining the standoff between its troops trespassing in China’s territory and the Chinese troops stationed there, what does India want, a war with China or something else? By calling on India to withdraw its troops and warning it time and again about the serious consequences it will face, China has given it an inch but India wants to take a mile, not only by turning a deaf ear to the repeated warnings but also by increasing its military presence along that section of the delimited border.
The Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed government official as saying that the “caution level” among the troops has also been raised. It is hard to escape the conclusion that it is making preparations for a military clash with China.
In another development, the Indian government announced on Wednesday that it will impose anti-dumping duties on 93 products imported from China, which can only be regarded as another provocation by India.
China does not want a war with India; it does not want conflict of any kind with its neighbor. That explains why China has employed the utmost restraint by repeatedly asking India to withdraw its troops and warning it about the serious consequences should a military conflict take place.
It is wrong and stupid of India to consider China’s restraint as a sign of weakness and taking it for granted. By doing so, India is walking further down a dangerous path, which will take it anywhere but a destination with both diplomatic and substantial gains.
India should come to its senses and understand that there is a limit to China’s restraint. It would be a grave miscalculation to expect China to give in and make concessions at the expense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
India will only shoot itself in the foot if it persists with its stubborn refusal to pull its troops out of Chinese territory, and it will only shame itself by coercing China to take whatever action it is necessary to drive the trespassing troops out of Chinese territory.
India should pull its troops out before it is too late. News: Subscription: Advertisement: Phone app:
The iOS operating system Apple installs on its products such as iPhone and iPad is a closed-source one and its users have no other channel but the virtual Apple store to download and install applications.
Such a technological barrier is jokingly known as “jail” among iPhone and iPad users. There used to be a group of hackers who developed special software to help users “jailbreak” iPhones and iPads, but Apple has defeated most of them by closing in the loopholes in the iOS operating system.
Yet Apple has been abusing its dominant position. This June alone, Apple withdrew 89,205 apps from its Apple Store within 20 days. Although the process actually began in 2013, since then as many as 60 very popular apps developed by about 30 companies in China have been withdrawn. And Apple withdrew these apps because they refuse to pay Apple a 30-percent service fee as the latter requires.
Apple has derived quite huge profits from the move. In the fourth financial quarter of 2016, Apple had derived 92 percent of the profits of the whole industry, and the Apple Store monopoly is a cash cow for the company.
But for consumers, that’s bad news because iPhone and iPad users only have part of the usage right over the products they buy. Smartphones are supposed to be a bridge that connects app developers and users, but iPhone has failed in this regard.
That’s why Apple has been fined many times in many countries, including the United States. Now lawyers have reported it to Chinese authorities and we expect the latter to launch investigations. Apple should also learn a lesson from the case.
The case of Apple is not alone. On July 1, a regulation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology came into effect, which requires smartphone producers to make sure users can uninstall any app on their smartphones. That has hit the right point — Users that buy smartphones should have the final say on what apps should stay on their smartphones.
JIUZHAIGOU COUNTY in Southwest China’s Sichuan province has long been famous for its scenic wonders, and tourism is a supporting pillar of the local economy. Yet a magnitude 7 earthquake on Tuesday damaged many of the local scenic spots. The most famous of them, Nuorilang Waterfall, has almost “disappeared”. Beijing News calls for patience to let nature itself repair the scenic wonders:
Nuorilang Waterfall is the widest waterfall of its kind in the country, as well as one of the few waterfalls formed by calcified stones. It took thousands of years for nature to form Nuorilang, yet it took only minutes for nature to destroy it.
While many voices online call this a pity and discuss the possibility of artificially restoring the Nuorilang Falls, the majority of experts have already expressed the opinion that nature should play the major role in repairing the wounds of Jiuzhaigou. We can repair the infrastructure, such as roads and tourism facilities, but we must refrain from intervening in the local ecological recovery process.
That requires the local governments and local residents to have patience, because the local economy will suffer from the loss of tourism revenues, and some local employees who live on tourism will lose their jobs. But they still need to give nature time to repair itself.
This is not the first time that an earthquake has destroyed scenic spots. After a magnitude 8 earthquake hit Wenchuan, Sichuan province in 2008, 68 of the 128 historical relics were destroyed, and it took several years to repair them. The case in Jiuzhaigou is more complicated because most of its scenic spots are ecological wonders, and the repair of them must combine both the ecological recovery and infrastructure reconstruction.
For that purpose, the local government needs to coordinate comprehensively among different agencies and departments and the public needs to have patience and wait for the natural wonder to recover. That’s also a kind of courtesy to nature.
With the fast development of information technology, e-payments are an irreversible trend. In Beijing and some other metropolises, it is already common for people to pay for meals, shopping and entertainment using their smartphones and payment apps.
That’s why the no cash days have attracted so many shops, restaurants and entertainment venues to participate. However, the reality is we still cannot pay for everything using e-payments. When a shop refuses cash because it is participating in a no cash day initiated by the e-payment service providers it is inconvenient for some. By doing so, a shop is actually setting an unfair condition for trading with customers, which is against the law.
Besides, no cash days should be a kind of encouragement for people to embrace a cashless society, not compulsory. According to the law, the renminbi is the legal currency of China. Those refusing to accept cash payments have therefore violated the law.
It is time for the organizers of the no cash days to rethink their measures. They are commercial companies and they have no power to make decisions for consumers. The authorities also need to intervene and stop customers’ legal rights being violated in this way.
More importantly, the no cash day activities show that mobile payment competition among internet companies is becoming increasingly fierce, which calls for the authorities to properly guide and regulate e-payment service providers.