China hails Indo-Pak participation in SCO Peace Mission exercises

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

China has hailed the participation of Pakistan and India in the Peace Mission anti-terrorism exercises of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson declared on August 27 that their country welcomed the joint Indo-Pak participation in the SCO Peace Mission. 

The week-long exercises were held in Russia and for the first time two neighbouring countries under the banner of the SCO participated, spokesperson Hua Chunying remarked at a regular media briefing in Beijing. 

The Ministry of Defense officials of both the country said that they believe that the two sides can learn from each other, which is a unique opportunity to exchange experiences.

The Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said that they welcomed the joint participation of India and Pakistan in the anti-terrorism exercise under the SCO framework.

“Pakistan and India are important countries in South Asia. The stability of bilateral relations is of great significance to the peace and development of the region and the world,” she said 

“We sincerely hope that the two countries will strengthen bilateral and dialogue and cooperation within multilateral mechanisms such as the SCO, improve bilateral relations, and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability,” she added.

The six-day SCO drills, which have brought the two countries together for the Exercise Peaceful Mission 2018, will continue till August 29 at Chebarkul town in Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia. 

The exercise is aimed at enhancing cooperation between member states to deal with the growing threat of terrorism and extremism. 

Around 3,000 soldiers from Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan are taking part in the exercise. 

The Pakistan contingent comprises 110 members, while the strength of the Chinese contingent is of 748 personnel. The 200-member strong Indian contingent has 167 Indian Army personnel including four women officers and 33 personnel from the Indian Air Force.

Pakistan may achieve autarky with China’s hybrid wheat

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Under the guidance of the Belt and Road Initiative, the research and cooperation between Pakistan and China in research of hybrid wheat has been continuously promoted. The achievements will not only benefit the farmers in Pakistan, but also open up a new path for China's agricultural science and technology to go global. 

Recently, at the Peshawar Agricultural University, a scientist informed media that since last year, he planted hybrid wheat from China in his own home. The effect was unexpectedly good. 

"After starting to grow hybrid wheat, I found that the yield of hybrid wheat was more than doubled, so was his income. I am very happy because I can send the children to school. I will advise my relatives and friends to plant hybrid wheat,” he was quoted as saying. 

At present, 44% of the arable land in Pakistan is used to grow wheat, and the Naan Pakistanis eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, are made of wheat, wheat. Production is related to food security throughout the country.

However, Pakistan's wheat monoculture production is below the world average, and Pakistani agricultural scientists have been trying to introduce higher yield wheat varieties. 

In 2016, the experts from Peshawar Agricultural University learned that the application technology of the hybrid wheat developed by the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences was in the forefront of the world, and actively sought the Beijing Hybrid Wheat Engineering Technology Research Center under the Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences to request cooperation. 

Muhammad Arif, a professor of agronomy at Peshawar Agricultural University, told reporters that the reason why Beijing hybrid wheat was chosen is because the technology of Beijing hybrid wheat is unique in the world. 

“The world is studying hybrid wheat, but so far no country had achieved such great success as China,” he declared. 

“Beijing Hybrid Wheat is a pioneer in the world of hybrid wheat technology, through which it is easy to mass produce hybrid wheat seeds without much labor. This technology is different from the world. The technology of other countries, this is a set of China's own technology system," he added. 

Since 2010, under the joint support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing Municipality, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Pakistan Foundation Committee, the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry/Beijing Hybrid Wheat Engineering Technology Research Center and the Sinochem Group, in cooperation with Wheat Seeds (Beijing) Company Limited, a hybrid wheat test base was established in Lahore and Peshawar, to create new hybrid wheat varieties suitable for Pakistani applications. 

At the same time, the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences also specially built the Yunnan Yuanmou Hybrid Wheat Test Base to conduct simultaneous testing with the Pakistani side. After seven years of hard work, in 2017, the trials at Peshawar Agricultural University achieved remarkable results. 

Professor Arif said that if Beijing hybrid wheat is promoted to the whole of Pakistan, it will save a lot of cultivated land for the country.

“Pakistan planted more than 9 million hectares of wheat nationwide, with a total output of 26 million tons and an average yield of more than 2,700 kilograms per hectare. With the help of the team, Chinese hybrid wheat can easily reach 6,000 kg per hectare, which is more than twice that of our local production. If our target output value is 26 million tons of wheat, then we can save after the introduction of Chinese hybrid wheat. A large amount of land is used to grow other agricultural products,” he remarked. 

At present, Peshawar Agricultural University is conducting further experiments on hybrid wheat in Beijing. At the same time, Pakistan Jiade Agricultural Research and Services Company Limited is also involved in the demonstration and promotion of hybrid wheat in Beijing. 

As early as 1999, the company introduced Chinese hybrid rice and achieved large-scale industrialization in Pakistan. In 2012, Jiade Agricultural Research and Service Company Limited, which tasted the sweetness, signed an agreement with China Hybrid Wheat Seeds (Beijing) Company Limited to introduce Chinese hybrid wheat for market development in Pakistan. 

The company's president, Shahru Malik, said that Pakistan has benefited a lot from China's One Belt, One Road initiative and hopes that China-Pakistan agricultural cooperation can benefit both countries at the same time. 

“The Chinese government under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Belt and Road initiative. Policies have been developed to help and promote seed planting in Pakistan, because in agriculture, the production of hybrid seeds and conventional seeds is the most valuable part of agriculture and the most expensive part because it requires huge imports and huge manpower. And efficient regulation. So I think China's policies are good for Pakistan. At the same time, we have fertile land and a suitable climate and good education level. I think these can help our country and China," he said. 

Zemir Awan, former Science and Technology Counselor of the Pakistani Embassy in China and now the Deputy Director of the China Studies Center of the National University of Science and Technology of Pakistan, is the promoter of the China-Pakistan Hybrid Wheat Cooperation Project and the continuous cooperation between China and Pakistan in the framework of the Belt and Road framework. 

“The One Belt, One Road is a Chinese dream, and it is also the dream of Pakistani people. It is not only beneficial to China, but also beneficial to the whole world. Any country joins the Belt and Road will live with greater prosperity.

China’s hybrid wheat production is high, and Pakistan hopes to increase production, which is beneficial to Pakistani farmers, beneficial to the country, and beneficial to our food security. Therefore, we hope to strengthen cooperation with China in wheat hybridization,”

China reiterates supporting Pakistan on CPEC, deepening bilateral ties

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has reiterated his country’s support to Pakistan for accomplishment of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

"China is willing to support Pakistan to uphold its sovereignty and right to development and make joint efforts with Pakistan to boost the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as well as to deepen the bilateral all-weather strategic cooperative partnership," Wang said while meeting with Chairman, Senate of Pakistan, Sadiq Sanjrani, in Beijing. 

Pakistan has just held a successfully general election, Wang said, adding that he believes Pakistan's national construction would gain new achievements under the new government. 

Reciprocating the sentiments on behalf of government and the people of Pakistan, Chairman Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani, said that his country would always uphold the friendly policy towards China, a consensus that reached between the two sides.

The Chairman Senate, leading a 9-member parliamentary delegation, pointed out that the strengthening of relationship between the two countries is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy. 

"The new government is ready to work with China to push forward the construction of Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor," Sanjrani was quoted as saying by the Chinese state media. 

The members of the delegation include Senators Mrs Nuzhat Sadiq, Sitara Ayaz, Muhammad Akram, Dilawar Khan, Kauda Babar, Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Barrister Muhammad Ali Khan Saif and Mirza Muhammad Afridi. Secretary Senate, Amjed Pervez Malik. 

Earlier, the Chairman Senate and his delegation were accorded a warm welcome upon arrival at the airport. The Vice Chairman, Chinese Foreign Affairs Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, Han Fangming received the chairman and his delegation. 

Pakistan's Ambassador to China, Masood Khalid and other senior officials of Pakistan and China were also present on the occasion.

Special teams study China’s model of poverty reduction

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, who had cited examples of China's poverty alleviation programme during an interview with the Chinese media, has already moved in this direction by sending a special team to China for in-depth study of its poverty reduction model.

The globally-admired initiative which China had undertaken has enabled millions of people to escape from poverty and Pakistan’s new leadership also considers it a way forward in this regard. 

The representatives of the ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), have already visited China's Yunnan province where the local government briefed them how they attained the poverty-reduction goals, said a report appeared in China.org.cn, a news web portal. 

Pakistan, one of the forefront countries supporting New China in its initial opening-up years, is today being repaid by assisting it in becoming a trade and economic hub on the Arabian Sea. 

The two countries are natural partners and support each other on matters of international politics and economy. That is why Imran Khan is now banking on the goodwill of the past for a stable and far-reaching cooperation in the future.

The new Pakistani government has a single major agenda of bringing the economy back on track. 

Imran Khan, whose political party emerged victorious in the country's recent election, appears ready for some drastic moves, and building on China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of them. 

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship BRI project, is the largest Chinese investment in Pakistan to date. Often termed a game changer, the US$62 billion mega-project involves a massive financial inflow into Pakistan to promote infrastructure, energy and trade development and create many jobs.

Imran Khan has promised continued support to CPEC involving all sectors of Pakistani society. While he has taken up the challenge of turning State-owned companies into profit-generating machines, his plan also has the potential of engaging private industry to ensure success for the CPEC.

 

The national cricket hero-turned-politician laid out his intentions for engaging with Pakistan's closest ally in an interview with the Chinese newspaper the Guangming Daily last month. 

He considers the CPEC as a medium and long-term project, pledging to guarantee the corridor's construction so that both Pakistan and China benefits. 

Imran Khan’s party has identified several areas where cooperation with China will be expanded. 

Clean energy is one area where his neighbour has achieved monumental success. After the industrial boom, China was faced with heavy pollution which had to be tackled by taking radical measures. 

The new Pakistani government also plans to focus on developing indigenous resources and promoting local value-addition approaches. 

This can be worked out by establishing more vocational training institutes in Pakistan and sending young people to China to acquire higher education and better skills. If this goes as plan, the indigenous resource pool will witness augmented benefits from engagement in CPEC projects.

Pakistan has immense manufacturing potential owing to ample availability of raw materials. As the incoming government looks to revitalize Pakistan's industry on modern lines, companies will eventually be looking for global consumption and should be ready for integration with various global supply chains. 

The CPEC and BRI specifically aim to achieve this. Being trade routes in the classical sense, they will provide transportation facilities that can help remodel local industry centers into globally-competitive economies. 

As proclaimed in Khan's election manifesto, he intends to focus on partnerships in development projects undertaken by Chinese entities. This will increase the transfer of knowledge to local firms, improve the skill level of the workforce and bring about sustained results. 

Joint ventures will be encouraged, which will also help Chinese companies to benefit from the local knowledge of their Pakistani partners.

China-Pakistan relationship to remain unchanged: Media

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chinese media has stressed that the change in government in Pakistan, following the results of the recently held general elections, would not affect the bonding between the two friendly countries.

China's top official news portal, china.org.cn, known for its contents reflective of its government policies, has highlighted the portion of the victory speech of the Prime Minister in waiting, Imran Khan, in which he pledged to learn from China to combat corruption and promote economic development. 

In over four-minute English language video commentary, Wang Xiaohui, however, clarified that it’s difficult to judge the policies of Pakistan's new administration, just from the television broadcast. 

Tracing the background of Pakistan’s World Cup winning cricket captain, the Chinese analyst has considered Imran to have risen above the traditional politics in the country. Imran, who transformed into a brilliant cricketer during the tour of Australia in 1976-77, after having made his international debut in England in 1971, though had no political background.

Quitting cricket on a high, soon after bringing home the World Cup in 1992, he had entered politics in 1996 by founding his own party. He became a parliamentarian in 2002 and now he is all set to become the new Prime Minister of Pakistan. 

"In this respect, China as Pakistan's all weather friend for half a century can and should provide help and support within its capacity,” Wang asserted. 

“In the past a number of cooperative projects between Pakistan and China including the most important China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) were initiated that had brought vast opportunities to uplift of Pakistani economy including provision of employment and industrial development,” the Chinese analyst reckoned. 

“There may be some differences between the two countries on individual projects of CPEC, however, these are entirely business like and can only be resolved through friendly consultations and equal consultations,” he added. 

“The CPEC involves the common interests of the two countries over the coming decades and will not be reoriented with the change of government. There is no reason to dub it. But in any case the iron friendship between China and Pakistan will remain unchanged", he concluded.

Hassan Daud appointed CPEC projects spokesperson

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
 

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms, Government of Pakistan, has appointed Hassan Daud as the spokesperson on matters related to China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). 

The ministry, through a statement, has announced that Hassan Daud, who is Project Director of the CPEC Support Project, will be authorized to issue statements on status of CPEC projects to all forums if required after due approval. 

“All concerned including center of excellence CPEC (PIDE) are advised to acknowledge this in view of importance and coherence of CPEC arrangements”, the statement said adding that any official participating in CPEC related event should coordinate with CPEC secretariat ministry of planning for updated information on all CPEC related activities. 

When contacted by PNFS, Hassan Daud vowed to keep the media posted of the developments regarding the CPEC projects as and when they happened. 

“Whenever an activity takes place in this regard and we have newsworthy stuff to share we will do it right away,” he stated in a brief chat. 

The CPEC, a framework of regional connectivity, will not only benefit China and Pakistan but will have positive impact on Iran, Afghanistan, India, Central Asian Republic, and the region. 

Having founded peace, development, and win-win model for all of them, it is deemed as a journey towards economic regionalization in the globalized world. The CPEC is considered to be a hope of better region of the future with peace, development and growth of economy.

Overseas students, including Pakistanis, set to take up part-time jobs in China

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The overseas students, including over 20,000 Pakistanis, in China are set to be benefitted from the revamped policy of Beijing allowing international students to take up part-time jobs. 

China will allow international students at Chinese universities nationwide to take part-time jobs during their studies to make the country's higher educational system more attractive, the Ministry of Education said in a statement provided to China Daily on August 7. 

The government of China has been introducing a number of exploratory changes allowing international students in Beijing and Shanghai to take part-time jobs or internships off campus as long as they obtain approval from their academic institutions and the entry and exit administrative authorities. 

In 2016, the Ministry of Public Security had implemented new policies to allow foreign students recommended by their host universities in Beijing to take part-time jobs with companies in the city's Zhongguancun Science Park or become involved in entrepreneurship in the area, where they get an annotation of ‘entrepreneurship’ added to their student visa. 

With around 22,000 Pakistanis studying in Chinese universities, China has now become the largest destination for Pakistani students seeking overseas studies, an official revealed while giving break up including 3,000 students were completing their PhD degrees while others are studying engineering, economics, management, agriculture, medicine, information technology, communication and other majors. 

One of the major reasons for Pakistani students to be attracted to Chinese universities was that they were confident of getting employment after their studies in projects being completed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship initiative of Belt and Road Initiative. 

According to statistics released by the Chinese Ministry of Education, more than 200,000 students from 64 countries along the Belt and Road Initiative were studying in China. 

The number of pupils studying in China from countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road has increased greatly under a series of preferential policies, an education officials said.

Creating waves on Social Media networking sites

By Zena Mason
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The omnipresent "thumbs up" sign has become an integral part of all forms of social media websites, from Facebook itself to Linkedin, Twitter, the fitness tracking site MyFitnessPal and language learning sites. 

Though Facebook has evolved "likes" to include "reactions," there is a consistent theme of judging the content of your posts by how many "likes" you receive. "Likes" can be thought of as a simple barometer of approval. 

You post baby photos on Facebook and 50 of your friends like it. You make a poignant statement on Twitter and someone retweets it. You find a picture and write an article post on Linkedin. Upon seeing the "likes" start to trickle in, you get a buzz of social approval.

Interestingly, the need for social approval, something which before the "like" button, social networking or the internet, used to either occur face-to-face and with other factors in play. 

With the "like" button, there are no nuances of face-to-face interaction. You know they hit "like," but you can't necessarily know why. Maybe people clicked "like" because they were in a good mood. 

Maybe they bumped the thread because they disliked something you said and want to come after you. 

Maybe there is some idea in your post that they wanted to save without caring about other things that you do. Another result of the "like" button is the speed. 

Because you can post things immediately, you can respond immediately trends in your audience, particularly if you use all the free trend analysis software available for virtually all the social networking sites.

On my Quora site, I noticed that after writing several articles, all with varying rates of writing quality and time put into them, it was controversial politics topics where I got the most views. 

Media has changed, but people still love a good old fashioned sensation. But at what cost? Are people's attention spans decreasing because there is less of a need to put thought into what they do, or are their attentions too shallow because they are spread over so many different topics and platforms? 

It is in the interests of many websites to get people "hooked" on their website and pay for yearly subscriptions to use and/or share more specialised content such as language lessons and weight loss regimens. 

Because social networking sites are structured in a certain way, they encourage you to think in a certain way. In facebook, if you want feedback on anything, it's like lowering a bait into the water and waiting for the fishes to bite. 

It's an almost passive manner of expressing yourself. You have some idea of what you think your friends will like and you tentatively prepare the content with certainty about what the result will be. 

This is why, even though it has been done hundreds and thousands of times before with superior lighting, angles and reasons to post it, people keep posting the very same dishes, because there is an illusion of some kind of success.

The illusion of "likes" is that it is actually very easy to get thousands of likes but if they are from the wrong people it means nothing. 

I post things on social media because I want to keep track of things I like and find interesting. 

Because I post unique things, not things that are guaranteed to get plenty of likes, I learn things about my friends. 

I shared an emotional story about a specific aspect of mental health, and I found out who amongst my friends sympathised with that because they also have that issue or support a close friend or family member who have it. 

In today's society, we are so scatterbrained with the myriad of things that we have to think about. I usually find success with Social Media when I focus on a single topic. Topics are great because they are usually tags and can be found in all kinds of search engines. 

For every topic, there are a definite number of users, likes and any other statistic you can think of. Everyone has varying levels of interest with every topic, which is important to consider depending on whether you're trying to sell something, build a network, learn a language, socialise, rally support or crowd fund. 

Some people are more focused than others, but it is the focused people, not the unfocused people, who will pay for memberships, organise activities and do work. So want more positive engagement from your social networking sites? Forget "likes." 

**The writer is based at Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Pakistan, US researchers launch artificial intelligence study

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The researchers at the Aga Khan University and the University of Virginia are collaborating on an innovative project that will harness the power of artificial intelligence to understand a particularly complex disorder of the intestine, Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (EED).

The EED, often referred to as a neglected disease of poverty, is widespread among children in low-income countries such as Pakistan where the population is exposed to contaminated water and poor sanitation. 

The EED hinders the gut’s ability to absorb essential nutrients compromising children’s growth potential and leaving them vulnerable to a range of diseases. 

The data scientists have already demonstrated how ‘intelligent’ computers can outperform experienced radiologists and pathologists in detecting signs of disease in x-rays and biopsies. 

Dr Sana Syed, an assistant professor in paediatrics at the University of Virginia and Dr Asad Ali, associate dean for research at Aga Khan University, are now applying ‘deep learning’, a type of artificial intelligence, to train a computer programme to analyse microscopic images of tissue located deep inside the small intestine.

The initiative, funded through an Engineering in Medicine grant from the University of Virginia (UVa), will be conducted in collaboration with the Data Science Institute at UVa. 

The project will see computers break down the size, shape and structure of images of the intestine’s cells into a matrix of numbers. 

Every number corresponds to a pixel, the smallest unit of an image, and as the programme scans more of these images, it becomes alert to abnormal patterns. 

Eventually, the computer will learn to compare images of healthy intestines to those affected with EED and to pinpoint the differences at the cellular level that trigger the disorder. 

The images of intestines affected by EED being studied come from work in SEEM, a USD $13m multi-country grant funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. SEEM is co-led by Dr Asad Ali, associate dean of research at Aga Khan University, and Dr Sean R Moore at the University of Virginia. 

Along with the images from SEEM, Dr Syed will also be analysing images held in the University of Virginia’s pathology archives as well as those provided by collaborators from the University of Zambia’s School of Medicine.

“Applying cutting edge data science methods on these images will help us decipher this complex, high-dimensional biomedical data, and yield insights that will improve the way we diagnose the disease,” Dr Sana Syed, assistant professor in paediatrics at the University of Virginia, remarked. 

“Advances in computing technology offer a neutral, systematic way to process huge amounts of data and this enables us to pursue a multiomics approach where we analyse information on proteins, chemical compounds and even microorganisms to study all the biological changes caused by EED. This knowledge could then be used to test nutritional or pharmacological interventions that can reduce the harmful health effects of EED.” 

In the longer-term, Dr Syed and Dr Ali believe that these insights could also transform the way doctors diagnose EED. At present, the only way to conclusively identify the disease is through a biopsy, an invasive procedure that involves extracting tissue samples from a person’s intestine. 

The researchers aim to use the insights from their work to create a comprehensive set of screening biomarkers, chemical warning signs, that would help future clinicians diagnose EED through a simple blood or urine test. 

“The EED is one of the drivers of chronic public health problems in the developing world such as malnutrition, stunting, and poor response to vaccines,” Dr Asad Ali said. 

“Addressing EED will help us unsettle the vicious cycle of poverty triggering poor health, and poor health leading to poverty,” he added. 

The SEEM is a multi-institutional partnership focused on the EED. The partners on the project include AKU, the University of Virginia, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Washington University.