The US is plagued with a drug abuse problem more acute than any other countries as 12 percent of global drug users come from the North American country, two times higher than the proportion of its population. 

Provisional data indicates that nearly 110,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2022, the highest of all time, and more than two-thirds of the deaths involved the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, as per US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Fentanyl-related deaths among children increased more than 30-fold between 2013 and 2021, the Associated Press reported.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, when visiting China in late August, claimed that US hopes to cooperate with China to tackle the rapidly increasing rates of fentanyl overdoses. However, the country simultaneously keeps scapegoating China on the issue, imposing sanctions and filing criminal charges against Chinese enterprises and individuals. 

Through an investigation into the US' opioid crisis which reveals the country's legislative and law enforcement failures over the decades, the Global Times found that the US is disinclined to find a radical cure, while scapegoating China as a conduit for mounting anger in American society. All this serves the US' strategic rivalry with China. 

Painkiller becomes source of pain

There is nothing new under the sun, and the US' fentanyl crisis is a continuation of its forbearer Oxycodone, a strong, semi-synthetic opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain. 

The Netflix TV drama Painkiller released in 2023, adapted from a book published in 2003, revealed how the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma colluded with US medicinal regulators and developed aggressive marketing tactics to promote its brand name product OxyContin, an extended-release form of Oxycodone, as less likely to cause addiction, raking in tens of millions of dollars. 

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), charged with the responsibility of prescription drug use regulation, gave OxyContin the green light in 1995 even though neither long-term studies nor assessments of its addictive capabilities had been thoroughly conducted.  

Two principal FDA reviewers who originally approved Purdue's application both took positions at the company after leaving the agency. In the following two decades, more FDA staffers involved in opioid approvals left the FDA to work for opioid makers, according to the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. 

Purdue offered kickbacks, paid lecturers, and organized free seminar vacations to doctors to incentivize them to prescribe OxyContin, leading to a tenfold increase in prescriptions for less serious pain, from about 670,000 in 1997 to about 6.2 million in 2002. 

As Purdue earned billions of dollars from oxycodone sales, other drug companies took note; when the numerous unnecessary prescriptions were given to chronic pain patients, addiction and overdose deaths soared. 

The US' healthcare system also contributed - "Most insurance, especially for poor people, won't pay for anything but a pill," said Judith Feinberg, a professor at West Virginia University with expertise in infectious diseases associated with drug injection. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services estimated that about 11 million people in the US consume oxycodone in a non-medical way annually. 

Although Purdue was ultimately brought to justice, addicts are not redeemed. The large, ever expanding group of drug dependence, without proper social support and intervention, easily became the victims of new, more powerful drugs - fentanyl, a synthetic opioid which is also FDA-approved and up to 50 and 100 times stronger than heroine and morphine respectively. 

Fentanyl, the cheaper to make yet more lethal drug and its close cousins became the biggest drug-related killers in the US in 2016, the Associated Press reported. 

The media has reported on how drug users addicted to other substances unknowingly ingest fentanyl, as local dealers sell "traditional" products like cocaine "cut" with fentanyl, or pills containing fentanyl that are "advertised as legitimate prescription drugs." 

Incapable legislation, enforcement

With around 4 percent of the world's population, the US consumes 80 percent of the world's opioids. 

Why is the US? 

The US' drug problem, including the current fentanyl abuse crisis, is deeply rooted in the country's lobbying political structure and ideology, said Zhang Yifei, an associate research fellow at the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The colossal profits bundle pharmaceutical companies with the FDA, sponsored politicians, academic groups, and the media, making the fentanyl crisis a predictable tragedy in the US that has enriched a few at the expense of many lives lost, Zhang said.

Academic institutions provide "scientific proof," media and think tanks propagate said proof, and drug makers lobby the government - this is a very complete and mature chain, Zhang elaborated, "They have various ways to exchange rights and interests through the 'revolving door' system."  

Zhang also pointed to "the pan-liberalism trend in the US, which emphasizes the absolute freedom of individuals." 

US governments, be they federal or state, are incapable of exercising effective regulation on many issues, although some of them, like drugs and guns, have endangered the public, Zhang said. 

When the public demands for freedom of marijuana use, governments and drug companies "hear" these calls and legalize the drug, milking profits from sales.  Even in states where marijuana remains illegal, its use is prevalent and law enforcement efforts to curb use are almost nonexistent. 

A Chinese national who used to live in North Carolina, told the Global Times that it is common to see people "getting high" in public in broad daylight when the drug is illegal.  

In the same way, only until the fentanyl crisis becomes so critical that the public demands for action to be taken, will the government finally act. The first fentanyl-related act passed in Congress in 2017, four years after lawmakers receiving alert on the drug. 

When actions are finally taken, they cannot avoid the trap of US' political wrestling. 

Lawmakers, during the US' 2023 legislative session, introduced over 600 bills related to fentanyl. However, in a deeply divided country, many of the fentanyl crime laws are notable for attracting bipartisan support, the New York Times reported in June. When Republican-controlled House reviewed a bill on fentanyl trafficking in May, 132 of the 133 vetoes came from Democrats. 

Another incongruous approach is the use of "safer" supervised consumption services (SCS) through which people can use pre-obtained drugs "safety" with the support of trained personnel. Funded by public money, it is hard to say whether such facilities can curb overdoses more than treating those with an addiction, not to mention such "legal sites" can mislead youth to believe addiction and drug use are nothing to worry. 

Zeng Lidu, a grassroots narcotic control officer in Central China's Hunan Province, told the Global Times that the US approach of control sounds "odd" in China, which, as one of the countries with the most effective drug control, closely monitors the maker rather than potential user. 

"Fentanyl has variable structures, making it more difficult than the traditional drugs to crack down on," Zeng told the Global Times. "In our district, only a few chemical plants and hospitals are allowed the use of fentanyl under close supervision. We trace and regulate every step in their use, transportation, and storage of fentanyl."

Experts told the Global Times that many fentanyl precursors are widely used in the chemical industry. China, as a chemical giant, does not have a fentanyl abuse problem at home, which says a lot about the root cause of the American drug disease. 

Not cooperation but scapegoating

Out of humanitarianism, China is willing to cooperate with the US in tackling the proliferation of fentanyl and has established a cooperation mechanism with the US on the issue. 

China scheduled and controlled all fentanyl-related substance by class in 2019 - the first country to do so in the world, while the US itself is yet to do the same. China formulated three legal documents to support the filing, prosecution, conviction, and sentencing of offenses involving these substances. To reinforce fentanyl testing and monitoring, five sub-centers of the National Drug Laboratory have been established across the country.

But the US in 2020 unilaterally and arbitrarily imposed sanctions on the institute of forensic science under China's Ministry of Public Security and National Drug Laboratory, severely jeopardizing related cooperation. 

A new vilification of China popular in the US is that Chinese firms sell commonly used chemicals to a third country, such as Mexico, where fentanyl is manufactured and later sold to the US. Citing this, the US has sanctioned Chinese companies, even including tablet press machine makers. 

Analysts stressed the "know your customer" practice that some in the US have been asking about far exceeds UN obligations. According to international practices, it is up to the importing country to ensure that imported goods are not used for illegal purposes, not the exporter. China has no sovereign right over a third country, and Chinese companies are not capable of verifying all buyers of its product. 

Zhang Yifei said scapegoating China on fentanyl is an easy and convenient approach for the US government to unleash domestic anger against ineffective drug control. 

Through distorted coverage on the issue, domestic media outlets successfully sell "China responsible" narrative to Americans at home. By repeatedly hyping the narrative at international occasions, the US also adds fentanyl into its recipe cooking "China threat." 

In this sense, fentanyl is essentially same to long-term smear campaign against China on many topics including human rights in Xinjiang region, Zhang said. 

As the presidential elections approach, blaming China for its domestic social handicaps as a political tactic sounds ridiculous, but quite a number of US politicians and voters buy this logic, Zhang noted. As the US' domestic political infighting escalates, chance of cooperation on this area which the US is in urgent need of, may narrow even further. 

Normally, seeing people walking their dogs in the evening is a common sight in Beijing, including big dogs like golden retrievers, huskies and border collies.

But on Monday evening this week, the Global Times only saw one person walking her small teddy bear dog.

This might be because of reports that have gone viral on social media platforms claiming that Beijing regional authorities planned to inspect every local community on Monday to catch stray dogs and any illegal or unregistered pet dogs, or those being walked without a leash.

The inspection did not happen in the end, despite the claims online. But the Global Times learned from some dog breeders in Chaoyang that some people have been promoting high-end kennels - which cost 20,000 yuan ($2,736) per year - citing the so-called Monday inspections.

There are similar situations across the country and heated discussion over dog management, after a 2-year-old girl was reportedly seriously hurt by a rottweiler in Chongzhou, a county-level city in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The girl has got through the most dangerous period, media reports said, and was moved from intensive care to a normal ward on Monday. But the controversy over the news is growing, and many local authorities and property management companies are reportedly planning campaigns to strengthen local dog management, including catching and possibly even killing stray dogs.

The authorities in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, announced on Tuesday the launch of a rectification campaign against illegal dogs until December 30. The campaign will focus on illegal dog-raising behavior like failure to register the dog or conduct a yearly inspection, as well as raising certain fierce dog breeds that are banned in cities and walking dogs without a leash.

A security guard from Chongqing Technology and Business University was reported to have captured and killed a stray dog on October 17, sparking a backlash from the student body. Five days later, the school announced that it had fired the security guard on the grounds of inappropriate behavior during the disposal process.

On Tuesday, posts went viral on Chinese social media platforms claiming that Shanghai public security authorities broke into a local resident's home and took away a large dog. The Shanghai authorities had not responded to the claims as of Tuesday.

Dog owners are now hesitating to take out their pets, and dog lovers are angry about the action being taken against all dogs just based on one incident. Others have called for a more rational approach amid mixed information, and stressed that the most important thing is to complete an effective dog management system.
One dog bites, all dogs pay

The measures to try and catch stray dogs in several Chinese cities have worried some animal rights advocates and dog lovers, who complained the regional governments were using a one-size-fits-all approach.

"Many dogs become strays after being abandoned by their previous owners. They are poor and innocent," said an animal protection volunteer surnamed Wei. "Why do these cities punish the abandoned dogs rather than the people who abandoned them?"

Wei has been rescuing stray dogs and cats in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province for almost a decade. Along with other local volunteers, she has paid with her own money to have the rescued strays vaccinated, and found families willing to adopt them.

Wei said she was sad about the attack on the 2-year-old, as well as other cases of ferocious dogs attacking humans. "But the dogs don't know they've done something wrong," she said, noting that the dog owners should be responsible and take the punishment for their pets.

"Keeping dogs in a civilized manner is a slogan that everybody knows. The important thing is whether there are accompanying measures to put this slogan into practice," Wei told the Global Times. She suggested that regional governments could build a pet-keeping system with practical policies and regulations, such as mandatory use of a leash in public, severe penalties for pet abuse and abandonment, and neutering or spaying the strays.

'Not the dog's fault'

In recent years, reports of dogs biting people have not been uncommon in China. According to data released by the National Health Commission, by the end of 2021 China had the largest number of dogs in the world, reaching 130 million in 2012, with over 12 million people bitten each year. Data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2019, there were 276 deaths from rabies nationwide, while in 2018 and 2017, there were 410 and 502 deaths, respectively.

Shen Ruihong, former secretary-general of the China Small Animal Protection Association, said that dogs biting people is not the fault of the dogs, but the fault of their owners and of social management.

"Fierce dogs like rottweilers are in fact relatively obedient and have a stable temperament. With proper training, they can also be used as working dogs, such as police dogs and guard dogs and have great social value. However, in our country, the threshold for owning a dog is too low. You can easily purchase a dog on platforms like Taobao and Douyin without anyone supervising whether you get a dog license, vaccinate the dog, or care for and train it," Shen told Sanlian Lifeweek.

Shen criticized the one-size-fits-all measures by some local authorities that catch and kill all dogs that are not leashed or licensed. Raising pets is an important way for people to cope with stress and loneliness nowadays. Such measures by the authorities could lead to public outrage, he said.

Chinese authorities have been actively making efforts on management of pet dogs in urban areas. Since 1994, the regulations governing dog ownership in Beijing have been revised twice. Before that year, keeping the animals was strictly prohibited in the city.

Most Chinese cities have divided their administrative areas into restricted and non-restricted areas for pet ownership, with restricted areas mostly being the central urban areas. Local regulations explicitly prohibit individuals from keeping aggressive dogs and large breeds in the restricted areas, and a list of banned dog breeds has been established. Some cities also have height requirements for adult dogs. For example, in Beijing, it is forbidden to keep adult dogs with a height exceeding 35 centimeters in the restricted areas.

In addition, pet owners are required to obtain a dog license, which includes registration information such as the owner's name, address, contact information, dog breed, and major physical characteristics. Illegal dogs or those ineligible for a license can be confiscated by the public security authorities, and the owners may also face fines. The fine for individuals is set at 5,000 yuan in Beijing, Shenzhen, and other places, and ranges from 50 yuan to 200 yuan in Chengdu, according to media reports.

The revised national law on prevention of animal epidemics also requires the display of dog licenses and dogs must be leashed when being walked outside. Some cities like Shanghai also require owners to put muzzles on their dogs in public areas.
But few of the regulations are effectively implemented. "The cost of law enforcement is high and the cost of violation is low, requiring a certain amount of manpower and financial resources to implement the regulations. Meanwhile, there are difficulties in defining penalties for dog owners and timely supervision of dog licenses. There is also a need for discussion on how to divide restricted dog ownership areas," a lawyer from Henan-based Zejin law office named Fu Jian told the media.

Shen noted the strict regulations in Germany, as compared to China's ineffective management system. He said that in Germany, dog owners need to pay an annual dog tax. Before owning a large dog or certain breeds, owners must obtain a breeding certificate by passing a theoretical test that covers topics such as animal medicine, animal psychology, and legal knowledge. Dogs also need to attend training schools for behavior correction and training, with training fees typically costing 50 euros per hour. The training cost for aggressive dogs is even higher. Those who fail to properly supervise their dogs in public places will be fined 10,000 euros. Those who privately feed "dangerous dogs" or take dogs out in public will be fined 50,000 euros. "But in China, people barely receive any punishment if they illegally keep, abuse or abandon dogs."

It is also urgently necessary to increase Chinese dog owners' sense of responsibility and their awareness of laws.

"Leashing is necessary, it is the bottom line," Yi Tongmo, a dog trainer told the media. Whether it is a large or small dog, leashing is a must when going out. Yi suggests that dog owners must have a good understanding of civilized dog ownership and actively guide their dogs' behavior. "Prevention is always better than cure; don't wait until the dog shows a tendency to attack people before seeking a solution."

Some successful examples

Shen suggested that Chinese cities could establish a registration system for dog ownership. This has been implemented in some cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Mechanisms to evaluate and train dogs and supervise their health are also needed. Similar mechanisms should also be applied to other pets, according to Shen.

A dog owner surnamed Guo in Shenzhen told the Global Times on Monday that she just took her dog to implant a chip in its neck. "Pet hospitals can get to know the owner's name and address by simply scanning the chip." But getting the chip is not mandatory.

Amid the current wave of controversy, Shenzhen is one of the few Chinese cities that has been praised for its measures to deal with stray dogs. According to media reports, Shenzhen residents can call local authorities to report stray dogs. The authorities will then go to pick them up, but the stray dogs are then either trained to become working dogs for the local authorities, or sent to local pet shelters for adoption.

The Global Times also found that Shenzhen authorities have established an app for dog ownership services. Owners can make reservations for registration, implanting chips and recording nose prints in the app. People can also use the app to apply to adopt stray dogs.

Another example is Macao. For dogs weighing over 23 kilograms, Macao authorities not only require them to be leashed but also mandate the use of a muzzle. Additionally, the city has established an exemption test for muzzles. The test, designed by animal experts, includes touching, tapping, and holding the dog's mouth to observe if any abnormal reactions occur. Dogs are also introduced to unfamiliar people and dogs to assess their behavior toward strangers. If the test is not passed, the dog must wear a muzzle when going out; if passed, the certification is valid for three years. The establishment of such exams actually promotes the scientific training of large dogs by their owners.

Editor's Note:

It seems that the frosty China-Australia relations have started to thaw faster. After three years, the bilateral high-level dialogue has resumed and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a visit to China later this year. However, the relationship between the two countries is still clouded by several factors, Washington's constant pursuit of containing China and the security pact AUKUS, announced two years ago this week, among others. In a conversation with Global Times (GT) reporter Xia Wenxin, Joseph Camilleri (Camilleri), Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, shared his views on issues including China-Australia ties and the development of AUKUS.

GT: On September 15, 2021, the US, Australia and the UK announced a new security pact called AUKUS. After the establishment of this partnership, you commented that the agreement was "a story of recklessness and delusion." Now two years later, how do you see the development of AUKUS?

Camilleri: AUKUS has affected Australia's situation, and is a source of tension. What is unfortunate about AUKUS, in my view, is the impact it has on Australia. Much of this is about future "defense" planning. There are various forms of military cooperation between the US and Australia which have become closer and closer. AUKUS has simply given them another boost.

I called it a story of "recklessness and delusion" because it places Australian assets, resources and the country as a whole in a military relationship with the US, over which it has only limited control. And this tends to exacerbate its relations with other countries, China, of course, but also many other countries, especially in Southeast Asia. I am quite concerned about what this might mean for the future - in particular, whether it might lead to some kind of arms race in the Asia-Pacific region.

GT: Has AUKUS become an obstacle to China-Australia relations? How will this partnership affect the development of the relationship in the future?

Camilleri: It's just one more obstacle on top of the other obstacles. To find out what lies behind AUKUS and much else that goes hand in hand with the Australia-US military alliance, China, its people and its government cannot but ask the following questions: Are these arrangements aimed at China? What is the purpose of these arrangements? Why is the US so keen to have these kinds of provocative security relationships in the Asia-Pacific?

The US is keen to maintain its dominance in the Asia-Pacific region, where it has projected military far beyond its boundaries virtually unchallenged since the end of World War II. It is concerned that China's rise may pose a threat to its dominant position.

What the US wants to do in Asia-Pacific is to build as many security relationships as it can and make its military planning and weapons systems as closely interconnected as possible with the military establishments of its allies and partners. It sees this strategy as crucial to bolstering its position in the Asia-Pacific region. 

The US is presently intent on constructing an overwhelming military presence in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. AUKUS is but one prong in this strategy. 

That is the problem we're facing: We have a major power that has been since World War II a superpower and the dominant power in the world, and it wants to preserve its dominance at all costs. But there are other countries, most notable China, that are rising and are committed to notions of multipolarity. Here you have a dangerous tension. And Australia, unfortunately, has been caught in the middle of these conflicting views as to what the future should look like.

GT: While Pillar 1 seems to face various difficulties, AUKUS has announced an ambitious Pillar 2 with the hope that more countries will join. What do you think is the motive of AUKUS countries behind such a move? And how likely is it that more countries will participate in the program in the future?

Camilleri: The intention of Pillar 2 has more to do with how these three countries - Australia, the US and the UK - will extend their cooperation beyond the nuclear power submarines and whether they will involve other types of defense capabilities, including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, among others. That's one part of Pillar 2, one part of expanding the strategic military relationship. 

The other part is to bring other US allies into practical forms of military cooperation. Several have been mentioned: hypersonics, cyber security and anti-submarine warfare, the emphasis being on operational and practical cooperation.

I don't see too many countries being terribly enthusiastic about joining Pillar 2 - maybe Japan or South Korea, but even their joining is not exactly guaranteed, nor is it clear what form it will take. However, the underlying idea is clear: it is to build the political, diplomatic and military infrastructure that will enable the US to maintain dominance in the region. That's the name of the game. It may create problems in the short to medium term. We need to be concerned about these looming dangers. 

GT: In addition to AUKUS, Australia and the US have deepened their military partnership. For instance, Washington has made a commitment to help Australia produce guided multiple-launch rocket systems by 2025. What do you think of this "help" from the US? How will it affect Australia? 

Camilleri: The defense links between the two countries, including the AUKUS arrangement, will probably deepen as there is an increasing level of interoperability. From the point of view of the US military establishment, what Australia offers is real estate assets, that is to say, it can operate from different parts of the Australian continent which provides it not just with landing and refueling rights but also with platforms from which it can operate its land, sea and air forces.

And I suppose for the Australian military, the US offers a few "carrots." It supplies Australia with more advanced technology and perhaps some increased intelligence cooperation. This is just one part of the wider picture that I described before. The US is, in some respects, a declining power, and therefore needs to boost its position by relying on what its allies and security partners can provide. This is why there is so much emphasis, particularly under the Biden administration, on developing, maintaining and strengthening military alliance arrangements on the European front as well as in the Asia-Pacific.

Australia is becoming more and more enmeshed and integrated into US military planning. Against this backdrop, many Australians are challenging and questioning the current direction of Australian defense policy, even many within the Labor Party, the party in government. 

I expect there will be an ongoing debate within Australia for some time to come. The wider questions of Australia's place in the region and the world will become a major subject of public discussion for some time to come.

GT: A recent article in The Economist suggests that if a war were to break out with China, Australia seems most willing to fight alongside the US. Do you agree? Is such an argument wishful thinking only on the US' part?

Camilleri: I don't think these opinions carry a great deal of rational weight. Some years ago, a previous Liberal foreign minister made it clear that there is no commitment under the ANZUS alliance for Australia to join the US in a war against China, for example, in relation to Taiwan.

Australia would think many times before it became involved in such a conflict. But there is always a danger that this may happen. This danger needs to be taken seriously. The challenge, as I see it, is not what would happen in the event of a China-US war. The issue that we must all confront is: how do we make sure such a war never takes place? There's too much talk in Australia and elsewhere, even by those who oppose AUKUS, about what should not happen, and not enough about what should happen. 

We need to think about what alternatives look like, and the alternative is to try and build a regional framework in which all countries in Asia-Pacific, large and small, powerful and not so powerful, can coexist in relative peace. That's what Australia, among others, should be committed to.

GT: How do you see the role of the US in China-Australia relations? Some argue that structural conflicts in the China-US relationship constrain China-Australia ties. Do you share this view?

Camilleri: We've been discussing a major conflict that has emerged in recent times. At the moment, the conflict between China and the US is largely geopolitical, not military. This is something that the entire international community must be concerned about. We have to find ways whereby China and the US can live in peace with each other. It's critical for the future of both countries as well as the world. We cannot allow the present tensions to keep rising.

The US administration, in particular the US security establishment, has never fully consulted the American people as to how they should plan the future of the country's foreign and security policy. The American people have never been consulted and have never had the opportunity to participate in a serious public discussion of these issues. The same is true of Australia.

As we have seen, there is an emerging structural conflict. It is something we must all work to prevent and diffuse as best we can, and Australia should be playing its part. Unfortunately, it is not doing very well. So must other regional powers and, of course, the great powers, including the US and China.

GT: On September 7, China and Australia held their first high-level dialogue in three years. What kind of signals do you think this event has released? Does it lay the foundation for further easing in China-Australia relations? What suggestions do you have for the Australian government to improve its relations with China?

Camilleri: There are some positive signs. These are rather early signs which haven't yet gone very far. Part of the challenge we face is to identify the good things Australia and China could be doing together that they're not doing at present. It's very important that we put this question on the table in high-level dialogues. Also, in future discussions, Chinese and Australian government leaders must address the question, what are the good things that our two countries could be doing but are not presently doing? Two things stand out.

First, there is a great opportunity to develop the bilateral relationship. What we ought to place at the forefront of the relationship is not "strategic competition." Far more important is a better cultural understanding of each other. For Australia, this means a wide-ranging program with China's engagement to develop a better understanding of Chinese culture, history, civilization, language and, perhaps most importantly, Chinese perspectives on the emerging, rapidly transforming world order. Hopefully, the same question is being addressed in China, which is far bigger and more influential than Australia.

Ultimately, what matters most is people-to-people contacts and connections. Therefore, at the center of Australia-China discussions should be this question: What should we do to develop people-to-people relations between these two countries on a large scale? Such culturally based understanding and cooperation can greatly assist the bilateral relationship, in particular, mutually beneficial economic development, not least in trade, investment, and technological cooperation. 

The second thing has to do with multilateral relations. Australia and China should discuss seriously at the highest level what initiatives the two countries can take to advance the prospects for disarmament and demilitarization in our region. With the loosening and demotion of military alliances and appropriate diplomatic steps, we can work towards more effective forms of both regional and global governance. China and Australia should work together toward achieving urgently needed reform of the United Nations and greater regional cooperation on many fronts, including an economically and environmentally constructive code of conduct for the South China Sea. There is so much positive work that could be done. The time has come to do it, and do it with a renewed sense of urgency.

China's Shenzhou-14 crew, who have stayed at China's space station for half a year, have completed all the assigned tasks and will return to Earth in the coming days, the Global Times learned from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gansu Province on Friday.

The Shenzhou-14 spacecraft will land at night at the Dongfeng landing site in the Gobi Desert, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Global Times learned. The site conducted the last full-system integrated exercise for its search and rescue mission on Thursday.

The drill on Thursday further tested the site's organizational and implementation capabilities for spacecraft search and rescue missions. Currently, all special working groups at the landing site are ready to receive the return of Shenzhou-14.

Shenzhou-14 is the last mission of the three-step development strategy of China's manned space project, as well as the final episode of the construction stage of the China Space Station.

The fact that they will return at night time involves higher requirements for on-site rescue and risk prevention, the Global Times learned, as it would be more difficult to locate and reach the ship at night.

To prepare for the successful completion of the return, the landing site worked on a situation with the maximum of hardship, complexity, coldness and darkness, and made various plans for spacecraft tracking, return capsule recovery, and on-site rescue for astronauts.

A number of materials have been prepared including lighting and winter supplies. Training for extreme situations has also been carried out to ensure they can handle any kind of emergency during the process.

Early on Wednesday morning, six taikonauts of the Shenzhou-14 and -15 missions had their historic gathering in the China Space Station, marking a first in China's aerospace history, after the Shenzhou-15 manned spacecraft was launched on Tuesday night.

The new faces of Shenzhou-15 will conduct a direct handover in orbit with their predecessors, which will take about five days, during which the Shenzhou-14 crew members will mainly prepare for their return to Earth, while the Shenzhou-15 crew will focus on setting up the space station's working status, adapting to the space environment and concluding the handover.

Sitting atop a Long March-2F Y14 carrier rocket and carrying Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe - the third crew to enter China's Tianhe space station core module - Shenzhou-14 was launched on June 5 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

Six months later, the Shenzhou-14 members have achieved a number of firsts, including the first in-orbit docking of two 20-ton space modules, the first time taikonauts entered the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules, and the first two-hour fast autonomous docking of a cargo spaceship.

According to Ji Qiming, spokesperson for the China Manned Space Agency, they have completed a variety of tasks. The crew coordinated with the ground to finish building the basic structure of the T-shaped space station. They have also undergone nine combo configurations, five rendezvous and docking maneuvers, two separations, and two translocation missions.

The Shenzhou-14 crew have also managed a large number of platform tests, as well as equipment maintenance and other tasks onboard the space station. They completed the unlocking and installation of experiment cabinets in two lab modules, and carried out a number of scientific and technical experiments as well as one "Tiangong classroom" space lecture.

The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi have strongly condemned an attack on a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a project at Gwadar port, Pakistan on Sunday morning. 

The convoy was ambushed by bombs and gunshots on their way from the airport to the port at 9:17 am Sunday local time, according to a statement released by the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi on Sunday. No injuries or casualties were reported in the attack. 

The convoy of three SUVs and a van, all bulletproof, carried 23 Chinese personnel, the Global Times learned from one of the Chinese personnel. 

An IED exploded during the attack and the van was shot at. A picture obtained by the Global Times shows the bulletproof glass on the window of a van belonging to the Chinese convoy cracked from the attack, and there were bullet holes on the windows. 

All the personnel concerned have been properly relocated, according to the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan.

The Embassy and the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi on Sunday night strongly condemned the act of terrorism, and asked the Pakistani side to severely punish the attackers and to take practical and effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals, institutions and projects. 

The Consulate General activated the emergency response plan immediately, reminding local Chinese nationals, enterprises and projects to be more vigilant, upgrade security initiatives, prevent security risks, closely monitor the security situation and ensure safety.

The Chinese Embassy and Consulate General urged Chinese nationals in Pakistan to maintain high vigilance, safeguard life and property safety, and strictly control large-scale gathering activities due to the severe security situation. 

China will continue to work with Pakistan to jointly address the threat of terrorism and effectively protect the security of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects in Pakistan, said the embassy in a statement. 

Pakistani security forces killed one terrorist and three others were injured during a security clearance operation in Gwadar, local media outlet Daily Pakistan reported Sunday. After getting intelligence about the presence of militants, security forces cordoned off the area and started a search operation to find other militants, according to Daily Pakistan. 

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to media reports.

Chinese personnel have been targeted by terror attacks by Baloch militant groups many times. 

In April 2022, a terror attack against the shuttle bus used by Karachi's Confucius Institute killed three Chinese teachers and their local driver, for which the BLA took responsibility.

In August 2021, two children were killed and three were wounded in an attack targeting Chinese nationals in Gwadar.

In July 2021, a shuttle bus blast in Pakistan that killed nine Chinese and four Pakistanis was confirmed to be a terrorist attack. 

In April 2021, a deadly car bomb explosion that rocked a hotel which was hosting the Chinese ambassador in Quetta, Bolochistan province killed five people, for which Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility. 

In 2018, the BLA attacked the Chinese Consulate-General in Karachi in south Pakistan, during which two police officers were killed. In May 2017, 10 workers were killed by two gunmen on motorbikes, which the BLA claimed was a response to the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The purpose of this BLA-planned terrorist attack is no different from the previous terror attacks against Chinese personnel, mainly because it wants to impact China-Pakistan cooperation, especially the CPEC, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.

The terrorist group deliberately set the attack in August as the CPEC had just celebrated the 10th anniversary of its cooperation in July and was hoping to take advantage of a period of change in the administration in the country.

Qian noted that although the ongoing unrest in Balochistan has limited the Pakistani government's presence in the province, the Pakistani government managed to protect Chinese personnel from being harmed in this attack, which demonstrates the strength of their protection. The attack will not affect the continued construction of CPEC in the future, he said.

Together with other nine departments, the National Health Commission (NHC) has launched a one-year campaign to crack down on corruption in the healthcare sector across the country, focusing on "key few" and key positions in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure high-quality development of the medical and healthcare sector, the NHC announced on Tuesday.

Since China started the sweeping anti-corruption drive in the public health sector in mid-July, at least 176 Party secretaries or heads of hospitals had been put under investigation as of Saturday, according to media estimates.

Strengthening the anti-corruption work in the healthcare field is an important content of promoting the high-quality development of the pharmaceutical industry, and an important part of improving the construction of the pharmaceutical governance system.

In recent years, some people in key positions have been guilty of accepting kickbacks, bribery and profiteering, among other crimes, thereby seriously diluting the dividends gained from the reform and development of the pharmaceutical industry and eroding the rights and interests of the people. This not only hinders the reform and development of medical, insurance and pharmaceutical undertakings, but also jeopardizes the interests of the vast majority of people in the field of medicine and health, the NHC said on Tuesday.

The one-year campaign covers the entire chain of production, circulation, sales, use and reimbursement in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as pharmaceutical administrative departments, industry associations, medical and health institutions, pharmaceutical production and operation enterprises, and medical insurance funds, according to the NHC.

This concentrated campaign will focus on six aspects: administrative departments in the field of medicine using power for profiteering; the "key few" and major key positions in medical and health institutions; sales representatives for drugs, equipment, and consumables; social organizations that accept the management and guidance of administrative departments that use their position for self benefit; illegal acts by pharmaceutical enterprises during purchases and sales; and medical staff in violation of the standards for integrity, the NHC said.

Recently, some media outlets have reported on the suspension and postponement of some academic conferences due to the anti-corruption campaign. However, the NHC responded that what needs to be remedied is the illegal behavior of fabricating academic conferences out of thin air, carrying out illegal benefits transmission, or illegally sharing the sponsorship fees of academic conferences.

Medical experts said that the anti-corruption campaign in the sector this year is different from previous campaigns, as it is sweeping and more vigorous than ever.

Corruption in the medical sector is a serious issue that affects the credibility of the healthcare system and the interest of patients, said Zhong Chongming, an expert from the China Health Culture Association.

As the medical anti-corruption campaign has received widespread attention, some social platforms have exposed several corruption cases. In one case, Xu Bo, the director of the cardiac catheterization room at Fuwai Hospital, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, was investigated by the discipline inspection team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the NHC of the State Supervisory Commission for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. At present, the case is still under investigation.

After confirming with related departments, the NHC said that online rumors about Xu using the opportunity of surgeries, consumables, and participation in the procurement of medical equipment bidding to accept bribes of up to 1.2 billion yuan ($165.6 million) are seriously inconsistent with the current investigation of the case.

The notoriously intricate strategy game Go has a new champion.

AlphaGo, Google’s Go-playing computer program, has topped Lee Sedol, the world’s reigning player, in a five-game match played over a week in South Korea.

The program, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, learned to play Go by watching human experts and by playing millions of games against itself. It stepped into the world spotlight in January, when it beat Fan Hui, the European champion, 5 games to 0. Victory wasn’t certain against Sedol, though, a player often described as “legendary.”

But by March 12, Sedol was officially sunk. AlphaGo had defeated the human in three consecutive games. The only question left was whether the program would sweep the match. In game 4, however, Sedol defied expectations and pulled out a win. In game 5, AlphaGo made a big mistake early on, but clawed its way back in a match that Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis tweeted was “nail-biting.”

Google DeepMind, the artificial intelligence company that developed AlphaGo, will give away the $1 million in prize money, splitting it amongst UNICEF, science, technology, engineering and math charities, and Go organizations.

For Wisconsin’s snowshoe hares, climate change now ranks as an even bigger menace than the bulldozing, paving and other destructive things people have done to northern forests.

Habitat loss as humans reshape landscapes has loomed for decades as the main conservation problem for a lot of wildlife. It’s still important, says climate change ecologist Benjamin Zuckerberg of the University of Wisconsin‒Madison. But along the southern boundary of the snowshoe hares’ range, climate change bringing skimpy snow covers has surpassed direct habitat loss as a threat, Zuckerberg and his colleagues say March 30 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
North America’s Lepus americanus hares may be especially sensitive to climate change. “Almost everything about them screams adaptation to seasons of extensive snow cover,” says study coauthor Jonathan Pauli, also at Wisconsin‒Madison. The hares have outsized snowshoe feet, thick fur and an annual molt from brown to snow-white. Getting out of sync with the snow turns camouflage into a come-on for predators (SN Online: 1/26/16). In bad years, “there’s a lot of white hares on brown backgrounds,” Pauli says.

To see how the hares have fared, the researchers looked for signs of the animals at 199 sites during the winters of 2012‒2013 and 2013‒2014. Many of these locations were mentioned in a rather anecdotal 1945 study and in a more systematic one in 1979 to 1980. Satellite images showed not much change in the overall amount of hare-suitable forest since the 1980s, but snow cover averages have declined. When researchers put all their information into a computer simulation, the climate-related changes — particularly the length of the snow-cover season — did a better job of explaining the ups and downs of hare populations than just the forest changes did.
Snow cover has powerful effects on hares. For each 7.41 days that snow blankets the landscape, snowshoe hare populations become four times as likely to survive, the researchers found.

If the hares dwindle from a place, the loss may ripple through the ecosystem. “Snowshoe hares are central, really central, to prey species,” Pauli says. Lynx, great horned owls, coyotes and many more species dine on them. And regardless of any ecosystem role, hares are remarkable creatures in their own right. “It’s hard for me, a person living in Wisconsin, to imagine these northern conifer forests without snowshoe hares,” Pauli says.
To prevent such a loss, reducing greenhouse gases is important, but so is creating “climate-resilient landscapes,” Zuckerberg says. For snowshoe hares, that landscape might bristle and tangle with abundant, thick young growth, full of hiding places for too conspicuous, out-of-season-sync hares, he suggests.

White furry animals may not be the only ones that will have to cope with a shift in the balance of threats. “In a number of cold-associated butterflies, and also birds, it is becoming clear that climate change is beginning to surpass land use as the primary driver of extinction at the trailing edges of the species’ range,” says ecologist Tom Oliver of the University of Reading in England. And the threats of climate change and land-use upsets can intensify each other. “We appear to be entering a worrying time,” Oliver says.

Tadpoles don’t cry to get their way. But some of them sure can beg.

Each bout of hungry-baby drama among mimic poison frogs (Ranitomeya imitator) occupies both parents for hours. The tadpoles get so crazy-frantic that researchers wanted to know whether the begging is an honest call for help or a histrionic scam.

Frogs can lay globs of eggs by the thousands and leave them to fend for themselves. But the two-to three-egg clutches of mimic poison frogs (the only known monogamous frogs) get coddled, says Kyle Summers of East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. Dad repeatedly checks in, sitting on the eggs and shedding some paternal pee if they’re drying out.
When the eggs hatch, dad gives each tadpole a piggyback ride to its own private pool. To find a little rainfall cupped between a leaf and stem, he’ll haul youngsters four meters or so. “A bit of a hike,” Summers says, since dad is only about a centimeter or two long himself.

These baby pools are pretty empty: home to only some algae, maybe some small insects. “The good news is that your offspring are not likely to get eaten; the bad side is that they don’t have anything to eat,” Summers says.
This is where the begging comes in. Frogs can’t make milk like mammals or regurgitate bugs like birds. But this species is one of the rare frogs whose moms, after considerable persuading, will lay an unfertilized egg for the tadpoles’ breakfast.
When parents show up on their weekly visit, a youngster stops regular swimming, noses up to a parent and goes into a frenzy of vibrating its tail. “The parent cannot miss a hungry tadpole,” Summers says.

Bouts of persuasion go on for several hours as the tadpole begs, stops, begs more and then more. Mom often makes several false starts, entering the pool but leaving it without any egg action. During all this, “dad will be the cheerleader,” calling in trills and stroking her, Summers says.

Analyzing tadpole frenzies in the lab, Summers’ then-student Miho Yoshioka found that tadpoles on short rations begged more as hungry weeks dragged on. Parents fed these hungrier tadpoles more reliably than the babies that researchers slipped treats to, Yoshioka, Summers and Casey Meeks report in the March Animal Behaviour. Overall, the researchers conclude, the relentless frenzy shows honest need, not tadpole greed.

A mushroom whose genes have been edited with molecular scissors known as CRISPR/Cas9 doesn’t need to be regulated like other genetically modified crops, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said April 13 in a letter to the mushroom’s creator. The edible fungus is the first CRISPR-edited crop to clear USDA regulation.

Yinong Yang, a plant pathologist at Penn State University, used CRISPR/Cas9 to snip out a tiny bit of one gene from the mushroom Agaricus bisporus. The edit reduces browning when the mushroom is sliced.

Because the gene editing left no foreign DNA behind, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service determined that the mushroom poses no risk to other plants and is not likely to become a weed.

Yang says he plans to submit data about the mushroom to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA clearance isn’t required but, says Yang, “we’re not just going to start marketing these mushrooms without FDA approval.”