Foreign

So-called “rules-based international order” reveals U.S. hegemony

Published

1 year ago

May 17, 2023

By Huan Yuping, People’s Daily

Some people in the United States, to hype the Group of Seven (G7) Summit to be held in Japan’s Hiroshima, are raising their pitch in peddling the so-called “rules-based international order.”
However, what they say is not new. The so-called “rules-based international order” is just a disguise that’s been used by the United States more and more frequently in forcing bloc confrontation and pressuring other countries.
Saddling other countries with its own wills and standards and replacing international law widely accepted by the international society with rules that only suit itself and its allies, the United States is indeed pursuing hegemonism and power politics. The international community is deeply aware of the harm of these practices.
I.
The so-called “rules-based international order” narrative fabricated by the United States is totally groundless.
In 1945, the World Anti-Fascist War secured a great victory, and justice defeated evil. The making of the UN Charter laid a cornerstone for the modern international order and established contemporary basic norms governing international relations. Over the past more than 70 years, it is widely accepted by the international community that there is only one international system in the world, namely, the international system with the United Nations at its core; there is only one international order, which is the one underpinned by international law; there is only one set of rules, namely, the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
The so-called “rules-based international order” narrative fabricated by the United States has no relation at all to the international order widely accepted by the international society today.
This narrative is not written in the UN Charter nor included in the resolutions of the UN General Assembly or the UN Security Council. The “rules-based international order” is not recognized by the international community, and only works in the clique formulated by the United States and parts of its allies.
The “rules-based international order” never has a clear explanation on who should be making the rules, what rules should be made, how the rules should be obeyed or what rules should be protected. The explanation by the U.S. side is quite arbitrary and selective.
Some commented that the “rules-based international order” narrative of the United States is just a blurred term that never exists in international law established after the World War II, one that has no concrete connotation.
Fabricating the so-called “rules-based international order” narrative, the United States aims at explaining and applying international law at its own will and monopolizing the right to define international rules and order. The more ambiguous the “rules” and “order” are, the more discretion the United States enjoys. Any country could be labeled as a “rules and order breaker” for any practice that touches upon the hegemonic interests of the United States.
American columnist Peter Beinart noted that “Since the ‘rules-based order’ is never adequately defined, America’s claim to uphold it can never be disproved.”
A British scholar called the discussion over the term which American politicians have never defined a fight against the mist.
The U.S. doesn’t have to peddle the so-called “rules-based international order” narrative, if it really wants to safeguard the international order. All it should do is to uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law.
The United States should pay its long overdue contributions to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping budget, ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, stop standing alone in obstructing the resumption of the negotiations on a verification protocol under the Biological Weapons Convention, stop refusing to implement the ruling of the International Court of Justice, and stop violating WTO rules again and again.
The United States has long been seeking supremacy. It takes a selective approach to international rules, and uses international organizations when they suit its interests and abandon them otherwise. The United States is undermining international order in the name of safeguarding it. Its true intention is to set up an “American order” outside the existing and recognized international system and order, so as to safeguard its hegemony and private interests.
II.
The so-called “rules-based international order” narrative of the United States stems from and serves American hegemony.
The United States has become the only superpower in the world since the Cold War ended, gaining a supreme position in the globe. To get rid of the restrictions from the UN system and international law, the United States fabricated the “rules-based international order” narrative to gloss over American hegemony.
According to scholar Paul Poast from the University of Chicago, the “rules-based international order” emerged in 1990s and was more and more frequently used by the White House after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The “rules-based international order” has been synchronized with the expansion of the U.S. hegemony since the end of the Cold War.
The so-called “rules-based international order” narrative of the United States, though literally comes with “rules” and “order,” always has two standards.
From the perspective of the “rules-based international order,” combating extreme and violent terrorists is considered counter-terrorism in the United States but a human right issue in other countries; safeguarding national security is considered necessary in the United States but a violation of democracy and freedom in other countries; supporting international exchanges is justified in the United States but considered propaganda and infiltration in other countries.
Such double standards exactly indicate the remarks by American historian Alfred McCoy that “You must follow international law unless you’re America.”
Under the disguise of verbal tricks, U.S. hegemonic, domineering and bullying practices of military intervention, economic sanctions and technological blockage all hypocritically become a part of the “rules-based international order.”
From the wars the United States launched in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, to the color revolutions it started in European and Asian countries, and to the unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction it imposed on dozens of countries, the “rules-based international order” has brought no stability to the world at all, but only turbulence and disasters.
The so-called “rules-based international order” narrative of the United States is also a tool of the country to rope in its allies and start bloc confrontations.
The United States is addicted to containing its “imaginary enemies.” All “rivals” or “competitors” of the United States are labeled “rule breakers” or “order subverters.”
However, the frequent trouble-making by the United States in the name of “rules-based international order” has presented a clearer and clearer picture to the international society that behind the narrative is the hegemony of the United States that places everything after its own interests, and the major threat against the stability of the international order is exactly the U.S.-led group politics under the disguise of the so-called “rules-based international order” narrative.
III.
In today’s world, multiple challenges and crises are intertwined. As a community with a shared future, humanity needs to work hand in hand to tackle these challenges and crises. Under such a background, it is more necessary and urgent for the international community to jointly safeguard the UN-centered international system, the international order based on international law, and the basic norms of international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
The United States should come to realize that the world does not need a country dictating other countries, nor does the world need a “coalition of shared values.” What the world needs is mutual respect despite difference in ideology, values and development level, solidarity and joint efforts in line with the UN Charter and international law in order to tackle global challenges together.
The international community’s determination to choose justice over hegemony has become even stronger today. Developing countries are gaining an increasingly higher awareness for strategic independence and are more active on safeguarding the international order. They believe it’s important to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and safeguard true multilateralism.
Having suffered among the heaviest casualties in the world anti-fascist alliance during WWII, and as a founding member of the UN and the first country to sign the UN Charter, China sees it as its solemn duty to defend the authority of the UN and uphold the post-war international order. The country has the best record in abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, international law and the basic norms of international relations.
To contain China, the United States has done everything to label China a challenger to the international order. However, such defaming cannot affect the international community’s opinion.
The international structures of power are going through profound changes, with the international system and order in intensive reform. To oppose hegemonic “might is right” practices, transcend the outdated mindset of bloc confrontation, jointly safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and follow the golden rules in state-to-state interactions such as equal sovereignty and non-interference in other countries’ domestic affairs is not a proposal of only China, but a common aspiration of most countries in the world. Only by recognizing this point, can a country play a constructive role in safeguarding the stability of the international order.
The exclusive clique established by the United States cannot represent the international system with the UN at its core. The so-called “rules-based international order” narrative of the United States cannot replace the international order underpinned by international law. The laws and rules applicable to only the United States and its allies cannot represent the basic norms governing international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. The international order will only become fairer and more equitable, which can never be stopped by the hegemony of a few countries.

Foreign

Expressway service station in Shandong achieves carbon neutrality

Published

9 hours ago

October 16, 2024

Online Editor

By Li Rui, People’s Daily

A man surnamed Lin, driving a new energy vehicle, was on his way from Jinan to his hometown Weifang, both in east China’s Shandong province. As the battery of his vehicle ran low, he pulled up in a service station along the Qingdao–Yinchuan Expressway.

Experience told him that a service station was a place where drivers and passengers could refuel vehicles, use the bathroom, grab a drink of water and have a meal. However, he found this service station a little bit different.

The Jinan East service station was a key carbon-zero station built by Shandong Hi-Speed Company Limited. It was put into operation on July 26, 2019. During China’s just-concluded National Day holiday, the service station received an average of 13,000 vehicles and 44,000 people on a daily basis.

“How long does it take for a vehicle to get 200 kilometers of range with this ultra-fast charging pole?” Lin asked a staff member of the service station.

“One second for one kilometer of range,” the staff member replied, pointing to an advertising board above that said “Get Fully Charged over a Cup of Coffee.”

Being skeptical about it, Lin scanned a QR code on the charging pole with his phone. Then, he unwound outside his car and went to get a cup of hot water. When he came back, he found his car fully charged.

The power level of the charging pole Lin used was 600 kW, and there were also charging poles of different models and power levels available for users to choose from at the service station.

The Jinan East service station covers an area of 300 mu, or 20 hectares. With so many charging poles in service, it consumes about 6,000 kWh of electricity each day. Where does such a huge load of electricity come from?

On the canopy, rows of solar panels were neatly paved. They were a part of a renewable energy utilization system – a 3.2 MW solar farm built on side slopes of the expressway, parking lot canopies and rooftops. The system also comes with a 3.2 MWh power storage facility.

At present, the service station generates an average of over 10,000 kWh of electricity on a daily basis, far exceeding its daily power consumption volume. This saves 1,200 tons of standard coal per year. The service station also transmits extra electricity to the power grid through safe and efficient means.

At noon, the fragrance of food was floating in the corridors of the crowded comprehensive building of the service station. As one of the busiest service stations in Shandong province, the Jinan East service station welcomes over 10 million passengers each year. How does it manage the wastewater generated by such a huge crowd?

In the “backyard” of the service station, there were two white bungalows at the corner of a tree lawn. Inside them, sewage treatment facilities were running, processing wastewater and pumping it back to the water tanks, which would be used for irrigation and floor washing.

The treatment system for waste and pollutant resources successfully addresses the challenges of the huge variation between water usage peaks and lows, as well as significant greenhouse gas emissions from sewage, effectively recycling and reusing treated water.

“In the past, diesel vehicles were used for service area operations and cleaning, but now they have been replaced with electric vehicles. The catering businesses have also undergone electrification upgrades for their gas stoves, replacing them with clean energy sources wherever possible,” a staff member said.

Carbon emissions are invisible and intangible. How are they measured?

Shandong Hi-Speed Company Limited has independently developed a smart energy management system, which builds a digital twin of the station and displays all relevant data on a screen, including daily electricity generation, charging station power, peak electricity generation periods, air conditioning usage and more.

It is learned that this zero-carbon smart energy management system collects data of all indirect carbon emission sources such as photovoltaics, energy storage, micro grids, lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and wastewater treatment. It can automatically calculate, make decisions, and intelligently control equipment.

For example, if the air conditioning is set at 26 degrees Celsius indoors, the system can automatically shut down some air conditioners when the temperature falls below this threshold, refining energy management and enabling intelligent equipment control.

According to real-time monitoring by the system, the service station emits an average of 2,060.97 tons of carbon dioxide per year. By planting over 19,000 square meters of greenery, the service station offsets greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently, the forestry area of the service station covers 67,000 square meters, or about 33 percent of the station’s total area. Through forestry carbon sequestration, the system helps reduce an annual average of 3,410.1 tons of carbon dioxide, with a forestry carbon sequestration volume of 53.4 tons of carbon dioxide, realizing “zero-carbon” operations. The service station now has the capability for sustainable carbon neutrality.

“So far, China has built nearly 4,000 pairs of expressway service stations. If we can promote zero-carbon experiences in more service stations, it would be of great significance,” said Zhou Pengfei, deputy director of the energy and environment department of Shandong Hi-Speed Company Limited.

Foreign

Qinling Mountains better safeguarded with comprehensive digital platform

Published

9 hours ago

October 16, 2024

Online Editor

By Zhang Tie, Zhang Danhua, People’s Daily

The Qinling Mountains in northwest China’s Shaanxi province are a natural boundary between China’s north and south in terms of geology, climate, biodiversity, water systems, and soil types.

The unique geographic environment creates abundant moisture, and the rugged terrain harbors rich plant and animal resources, earning the Qinling Mountains the nickname “China’s Central Park” and establishing them as a crucial ecological barrier for the country.

In recent years, ecological protection and restoration of the Qinling Mountains has maintained a priority of Shaanxi province.

“There appears to be waste dumping in the east of Liyuanpo village in Shijing neighborhood,” an alert popped up on the screen of a digital comprehensive monitoring platform for the Qinling Mountains of Huyi district of Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

Staff member Zhao Na immediately contacted Mao Juan, a local grid officer: “Drones have captured footage, and AI analysis has detected unauthorized dumping.”

In less than an hour, Mao arrived at Liyuanpo village. Upon investigation, she learned that a villager had been renovating his house and had dumped construction waste by the roadside.

She promptly took photos for evidence, uploaded them from her phone, and informed the neighborhood office. After the area was cleared by the following morning, Mao revisited the site, verified the cleanup, and uploaded the update to the platform.

The ecological protection area of the Qinling Mountains covers six districts and counties in Xi’an, accounting for about 55 percent of the city’s total area. The rapid handling of issues like this is a result of an integrated ecological monitoring and protection system for the Qinling Mountains.

The system includes satellites that provide periodic remote sensing images, drones that conduct routine patrol flights, cameras offering real-time monitoring, and 1,240 dedicated grid officers carrying out inspections.

“With this system, countless ‘eyes’ help us protect every ridge and valley of the Qinling Mountains,” said Lei Bo, director of the technology and grid management department of the Xi’an municipal bureau of Qinling ecological environment protection.

From January to August this year, the platform autonomously identified and processed 2,480 cases involving unauthorized construction and dumping. Most cases were resolved within one to three days.

In recent years, Xi’an has continuously improved the systems and mechanisms for regular and long-term protection of the Qinling Mountains. The approach combines human surveillance with technology-based monitoring, and grid-based management with networked coordination, making protection efforts more targeted and intelligent.

Now, the entire landscape can be visualized on a single map, which shows forests, rivers, buildings, and mineral distributions, creates a digital model of the Qinling Mountains.

Each village has its own grid, with at least one grid officer, which forms a four-tiered management system from the municipal level down to villages.

Municipal- and district-level platforms, as well as several industry-specific platforms have been integrated, enabling information sharing and seamless data exchange to form a unified digital supervision system for the Qinling Mountains.

“We can detect even the smallest fire, down to a single lighter, thanks to the integration of thermal, smoke, and light sensors,” said Hua Yiping, director of the Qinling ecological protection and comprehensive law enforcement bureau of Huyi district. The digital monitoring platform now extends to multiple applications, including forest fire prevention, flood control, water quality monitoring, and geological disaster monitoring.

Currently, the populations of wild plants and animals in the Qinling Mountains are steadily increasing, with 99.3 percent of the Qinling area within Shaanxi province now rated as having an excellent ecological environment.

“In the future, we will continue to enhance the automation, intelligence, and precision of Qinling’s protection measures. We aim to refine our monitoring systems and ensure thorough, dynamic inspections and remediation,” said Li Bo, deputy director of the Xi’an municipal bureau of Qinling ecological environment protection.

Foreign

SWChina’s Guizhou builds itself into computing power base serving whole country

Published

14 hours ago

October 16, 2024

Online Editor

By Chen Junyi

At the Gui’an Supercomputing Center, which is located in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou province, over 600 servers are running at full speed, supplying constant computing power to cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Wuhan, creating a vibrant ambiance with constant hum of cooling fans and flickering indicator lights.

As one of the eight major hubs of China’s national integrated computing power network, Guizhou is actively pursuing the integrated development of data storage and computing, with a particular focus on intelligent computing.

It aims to enhance the capacity in computing power supply, effectively match the supply and demand of computing power within the province and elsewhere, and better utilize computing power and localize the computing industry, so as to establish a support base serving the whole country.

Guizhou launched its plans to develop data centers ten years ago. It boasts numerous natural advantages for developing the computing industry, such as safe geological conditions, reliable power supply, and low average temperatures. China’s three telecommunication operators, namely China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom, have all set up data centers here, making it the first province in China to host data centers of all the three.

After a decade of development, Guizhou is currently home to 47 data centers, either under construction or in operation, including 25 super-large and large data centers, most of which are located in the Gui’an New Area.

The Gui’an New Area is known for its flat terrain and an annual average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. The region enjoys 99.5 percent of days with good air quality throughout the year, thereby serving as a natural air conditioner and oxygen bar.

The power usage effectiveness (PUE)of data centers in the region, a metric for energy efficiency, is lower than 1.2, which is at the forefront of all green data centers across the country. It is also one of the areas in China where data centers boast the lowest energy consumption and the longest equipment lifespan.

“As the carrier of computing power, data centers are equipped to support high-performance application scenarios by leveraging advanced computational capabilities and large-scale data processing power through the use of various hardware components such as servers and graphics cards,” said Peng Benqian, head of the Gui’an Supercomputing Center and director of the technology research and development department of Gui’an New Area Science and Technology Innovation Industries Development Co., Ltd., the company that runs the center.

In the past, most data centers in Guizhou were primarily focused on storage. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), Guizhou is advancing intelligent computing, which forms the basis of AI development. The data centers are rapidly transforming from mere “storage centers” to integrated “storage and computing ones.”

The Gui’an Supercomputing Center, the first of its kind in Guizhou, was put into operation at the end of 2020. “We have more than 600 servers, and the peak computing power has reached 130 petaflops,” Peng said.

“It would take nearly 600 years to create special effects rendering for a 3D animated film with a regular computer. However, the whole process can be completed within 3 months at our center,” he said.

In addition to locally built computing power centers, top internet companies such as Huawei, Tencent, and NetEase have established superlarge computing centers and intelligent computing centers in Guizhou. Besides, many banks have set up their financial data centers in the province.

Guizhou has become one of the regions in China with the strongest intelligent computing capabilities. By the end of July 2024, its computing power had reached 40.55 Eflops (a measurement unit used to determine a computer’s speed), with intelligent computing power amounting to 37.578 Eflops, accounting for over 90 percent.

Just like other commodities, computing power cannot be on a perfect supply-demand balance. Idle computing resources will enter a public computing resource pool and be scheduled by the Guizhou branch of China’s national integrated computing power network to efficiently connect the resource side and the demand side.

The transmission and trading of computing power rely on network infrastructure. Guizhou has established direct connections with 38 cities across China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.The computing power can meet the huge demand of the “East data, west computing”project, a key part of China’s digital infrastructure which aims to coordinate the computing capabilities of the country’s eastern regions, where the need for computing is high, with inland western regions like Guizhou, where abundant renewable resources are optimal for building data centers, according to Zhang Jie, head of the business department of Gui’an New Area Data Service Technology Co., Ltd.

Meanwhile, Guizhou is leveraging its computing power to drive industrial development and extend the industrial chain. With the support of computing power, many local companies have begun to explore new opportunities.

Guizhou Tuzhi Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a technology company specializing in geospatial big data application and development and a professional provider of real-time spatial-temporal information services integrating air, space, and ground data. With over 8 years of experience, the company has witnessed the evolution of Guizhou’s big data industry.

“The ecosystem of the big data industry in Guizhou is getting better and better, with refined computing power support, industry applications and data transactions. We have seen increasing productivity and expanding business scope,” Huang said.