BIG FIVE IDEAS
Today’s highly discussed Global Times stories on social media
SOE GROWTH TARGET
China’s top state- asset regulator set the target for 2021, including pushing the growth of centrallyadministered state- owned enterprises ( SOEs) above the national GDP.
NEW STEP FOR HK AT WTO
The HKSAR has taken a new step in its WTO labeling dispute with the US, with the WTO agreeing to create a dispute resolution panel based on a US request to relabel Hong Kong products as “Made in China.”
HUAWEI RUNS SMOOTHLY
Has US- led global crackdown on Huawei succeeded? A Huawei senior executive said the company is working with worldwide carriers to support more than 300 networks in 170 countries to run smoothly.
HSBC PROFITS DROP
HSBC’s pre- tax profits plummeted 45 percent year- on- year in 2020 to $ 12.1 billion. The London- headquartered bank was accused of colluding with US to set a trap for Huawei, drawing criticism in China.
CHINA- GERMANY TRADE
China remains Germany’s biggest trade partner for fifth year, surpassing the Netherlands and US. According to preliminary statistics, goods worth 212.1 billion euros were traded between Germany and China in 2020.
An “enamel fruit basket” sold on US e- commerce platform Amazon has attracted huge attention from Chinese netizens, not only because the product is tagged at a price almost 15 times its regular price in China, but also because the “Chinese traditional antique” sold for dining and fashion is actually used as a spittoon or a chamber pot in China. The “fruit basket” went viral after a netizen posted a picture on social media that shows the $ 60 product on Amazon has a wide range of uses, including holding vegetables and fruits, and used as a gift for housewarmings and weddings.
Chinese netizens were amazed to see the value of a traditional spittoon that is also used as a chamber pot is so highly regarded on a US online marketplace.
The hashtag “the other ways a spittoon is used” has received more than 50 million views on China’s Twitter- like Sina Weibo.
“I hope no one from other countries ever buys this ‘ basket’ and sends it as a gift to their Chinese friends because no Chinese would feel happy if they see a delicately packed spittoon with fruits in it,” commented one Weibo user.
The product has been removed from Amazon.
Italy’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC) was among three people killed on Monday when a UN convoy was ambushed in the country’s troubled east, violence the DRC’s president called a “terrorist attack” and that was blamed on a Rwandan Hutu rebel group.
Luca Attanasio died of his wounds after a World Food Programme ( WFP) convoy came under gunfire near Goma while he was on a field trip to visit a school feeding program, according to a senior diplomatic source in Kinshasa and the WFP.
The Italian government confirmed
Attanasio’s death and said an Italian policeman, Vittorio Iacovacci, and a driver it did not identify, had also died.
UN peacekeepers and Congolese troops deployed to the rural area in Kibumba where the attack occurred, walking a dirt track between overgrown brush as they readied to recover bodies and track down the assailants.
A white WFP vehicle had at least one broken window and residents looked on as soldiers made their way through the brush.
A merchant in the area said he saw a body on the ground.
The assailants were “running with the people who were in the cars, in the buses,” Julien Amani Kiza told AFP.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella confirmed what he called a “cowardly attack.”
Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio expressed his “great dismay and immense sorrow,” breaking off from a Brussels meeting with EU counterparts to return to Rome.
In a statement, the DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi said he “condemns very strongly this terrorist attack” and promised an inquiry.
Earlier, the interior ministry had blamed the killings on “members of the
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda ( FDLR),” a Rwandan Hutu rebel group that has plagued the region for more than a quarter of a century.
Four people were kidnapped, one of whom was later found, the ministry said.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen expressed “shock” at the attack, in a region “where the population suffers unacceptable violence.”
A volley of rockets on Monday targeted the high- security zone in the Iraqi capital that is home to the US embassy, the military and security sources said.
The attack is the third in a week to target Western diplomatic, military or commercial installations across Iraq after months of relative calm.
At least two rockets landed within the perimeter of the Green Zone, where the American and other foreign embassies are based, according to a statement by Iraq’s security services.
A security source within the Green Zone said the C- RAM anti- rocket defense system deployed at the US embassy had not fired because the rockets were not projected to land within the diplomatic compound.
A security source told AFP at least one rocket hit the headquarters of Iraq’s National Security Service near the US diplomatic mission, damaging several cars parked there.
A US- led coalition deployed in Iraq since 2014 to help local forces fight jihadists also operates a base near the American embassy.
“The coalition reports no damages or injuries,” coalition spokesman Wayne Marotto said on Twitter.
At least one other rocket crashed into the nearby residential district of Harithiya, the military said.
A resident of the area told AFP the rocket damaged a multi- story parking complex just a few meters from his home.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the military said it had located the launchpad in a northern district of Baghdad.
The attack comes a week after more than a dozen rockets targeted a military complex at the Arbil airport in Iraq where US- led coalition troops are based.