Publication of 500-year-old manuscript exposes medieval beliefs and religious cults

The metre-long prayer roll reveals Christian devotion prior to Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the Protestant reformation, a new study states

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

 

IMAGE: THE BROMHOLM PRAYER ROLL, INK, SILVER AND GOLD ON PARCHMENT, 1370X130MM view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT GAIL TURNER / JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

A rare English illuminated medieval prayer roll, believed to be among only a few dozen still in existence worldwide, has been analysed in a new study to expose Catholic beliefs in England before the Reformation in the sixteenth century.

Now in private hands and previously unknown to experts, this metre-long roll provides fresh insights into Christian pilgrimage, and the cult of the Cross before Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

Examination of the ancient roll’s illustrations and text, including religious verse in Latin and English, are published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the British Archaeological Association.

“In particular,” art historian, and study author, Gail Turner states, “the study demonstrates Christian devotion in medieval England.

“It gives insight into the devotional rituals connected to a large crucifix (‘Rood’) at Bromholm Priory, in Norfolk, and uncovers a direct link between this 16th century artefact and a famous religious relic once associated among Christians with miracles.”

The ‘Rood of Bromholm’, as it is known to historians, supposedly contained a fragment of the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. The relic transformed the Priory into a popular pilgrimage site mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer and in The Vision of Piers Plowman.

Images of the Rood in black, with gold outlines, feature several times in the Bromholm roll, and there is one direct reference to ‘the crosse of bromholme’.

Turner’s analysis suggests a prosperous pilgrim was possibly the owner of the Bromholm prayer roll – made from two pieces of vellum stitched together, and bought by a private collector in the 1970s.

“The roll reflects a time when the laity (non-clergy) had a real belief in both visible and invisible enemies,” says Turner, who has worked at Tate Britain, the Arts Council, and as a consultant for Christie’s and at the Courtauld.

CAPTION

The first illumination of the roll

CREDIT

Gail Turner / Journal of the British Archaeological Association

“For their owners, prayer rolls…were prized as very personal inspirations to prayer, although during the Reformation and after they were commonly undervalued and dismissed.

“The survival of such a magnificent roll for over 500 years is therefore remarkable.”

Attaching animal skin pieces end to end in a continuous strip to make a ‘roll’ was once the standard method of presenting text. Few medieval prayer rolls survive today because they lacked covers yet were made to be handled. This one is 13cm wide, by a metre long.

Worshippers regularly touched or kissed images of Jesus on the cross in an attempt, says Turner, ”to experience Christ’s Passion more directly and powerfully”. Indeed, the historian reveals abrasion marks are visible on the Bromholm roll where the owner has engaged in such a ‘devotional act identified in other similar rolls’.

Turner has been able to estimate the document’s age through a reference in the roll to ‘John of Chalcedon’ or John Underwood, the penultimate prior of Bromholm. A passionate supporter of the Roman Catholic church, Underwood became auxiliary bishop of Norfolk in 1505 then lost his position in 1535 so it’s likely the roll was made between these dates.

Further connections between the roll, the Rood and Underwood can be made through the imagery of the five wounds Christ received during his crucifixion, according to the study.

Symbols representing the five wounds are depicted on Underwood’s tomb in Norwich, despite not being commonly found in Norfolk’s churches. In addition, the five wounds were focal to Bromholm Priory’s key devotional feasts – the Passion and the Exaltation of the Cross – when pilgrims came to venerate the Rood.

The original owner of the roll is likely to have been a ‘devout worshipper’ familiar with Bromholm’s feasts, says Turner. A patron of the priory, a member of the local Paston family, or a friend of John Underwood’s are among her suggestions.

Today, the priory stands in ruins in a field near the village of Bacton. As to the Rood of Bromholm’s fate, the study suggests it was taken to London. This is according to a letter written in 1537 to Thomas Cromwell by Sir Richard Southwell, a courtier from Norfolk.

After that, the trail appears to go cold, according to Turner, who adds it is ‘presumed to have been destroyed in London with many other relics, although its fate remains uncertain’.

CAPTION

A cross, the second illumination on the script

CREDIT

Gail Turner / Journal of the British Archaeological Association

---

JOURNAL

Journal of the British Archaeological Association

DOI

10.1080/00681288.2021.1964799 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Content analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

An Early 16th-Century Prayer Roll and the Holy Rood of Bromholm

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Oct-2021

CAPTION

Three nails, the fourth illumination

CREDIT

Gail Turner / Journal of the British Archaeological Association

New nuclear reactors can help France become carbon neutral by 2050 -RTE


RTE (Electricity Transport Network) technician works on a live 

250 000 high voltage power line in Grande-Synthe

Mon, October 25, 2021

PARIS (Reuters) -French grid operator RTE said next generation nuclear reactors offer an affordable path to shifting the country's energy mix away from fossil fuels and make the aim of carbon neutrality by 2050 achievable.

"Building new nuclear reactors is economically viable, especially as it makes it possible to maintain a fleet of around 40 gigawatts (GW) in 2050," said the RTE in a report that examined the different pathways to meet the expected rise in electricity demand.

Industry and government sources say the report is expected to help inform President Emmanuel Macron's decision to go ahead with plans to build new nuclear plants.


Le Figaro reported last week that Macron wants to announce the construction of six new EPR nuclear reactors by the end of the year.

Achieving future carbon neutral goals without nuclear reactors would require a scale up of renewables faster than the most dynamic electric mixes in Europe, RTE said.

France and several other European countries have pushed to label nuclear energy as green investments in the European Union's upcoming sustainable finance rules.

The carbon neutral goals will be "impossible" without a significant development of renewable energy, RTE said.

Other supply options include the development of further interconnectors between countries, expanding hydraulic storage, and installing batteries to store renewable power.

New thermal power plants that utilise carbon-free gases, such as "green hydrogen" which is produced through the use of renewable energy, can also be used in order to meet rising consumption forecasts, the operator said.

RTE said the current energy crisis shows Europe's dependence on hydro-carbons, such as gas and coal, has an economic cost and that low-carbon production in the country is an issue of energy independence.

France's nuclear safety watchdog ASN in February cleared more than half of the nuclear fleet to operate for a decade longer than originally planned after maintenance work, as 32-900 megawatt reactors are coming to the end of their lifespan.

France currently has about 62.4 GW of nuclear generation capacity provided by 57 reactors, RTE data showed.

(Reporting by Forrest Crellin and Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Mike Harrison)

Duke Energy CEO: Net-zero emissions can’t be achieved without nuclear power

Akiko Fujita

·Anchor/Reporter

Mon, October 25, 2021

As one of the country’s largest energy holding companies, Duke Energy (DUK) is on a mission to slash 2005-level carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2030 on its path to decarbonize its power supply by 2050.

The timeline requires a heavy reliance on nuclear power, according to CEO Lynn Good.

Nuclear energy already accounts for nearly 40% of electricity generated by the North Carolina-based utility company, and Good said the company sees no way to reach net-zero emissions without the power source weighing heavily in its energy mix.

“A little bit over 80% of the carbon-free generation and energy that we produce comes from nuclear,” said Good, in an interview at Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit: The Path Forward. “I want to keep that nuclear fleet operating as long as I possibly can because I don't have an alternative of a carbon-free resource that runs 95% of the time, which is what nuclear represents today.”

The U.S. already generates more nuclear power than any other country, with 94 reactors supplying electricity roughly 20% of the overall grid. But the number of reactors have remained largely stagnant, in part because of concerns about safety and cost overruns. Just one new nuclear plant has come online in the U.S., in the last 25 years.

Steam rises from the cooling towers of the coal-fired power plant at Duke Energy's Crystal River Energy Complex in Crystal River, Florida, U.S., March 26, 2021. Picture taken March 26, 2021. REUTERS/Dane Rhys

With 11 nuclear units across six sites in the Carolinas, Duke Energy oversees the largest fleet of nuclear plants in the country. While the reactors make up just 17% of the utility firm’s overall capacity, they generate well over a third of its electricity.

Good said nuclear power acts as a reliable hedge against the price and supply volatility of natural gas, seen as a “bridge fuel” because it emits nearly half the carbon emissions of coal. Soaring global demand for the commodity has led to a more than 20-fold increase in price, from the pandemic lows last summer, according to EIA data.

Duke is actively involved in conversations to develop small modular reactors or SMRs, a new generation of reactors that require a smaller footprint and can be scaled up at a faster and cheaper cost, by mass producing components in factories.

“We are committed to safe operation, of course. It's always job number one. And we're committed to extending the licenses of these plants,” Good said. “And then we are working actively in an advisory capacity and lending our operating expertise to the development of small modular technologies and advanced technologies that may create the opportunity to introduce more nuclear [power] in the 2030s and 2040s.”

A view of Duke Energy's Marshall Power Plant in Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, U.S. November 29, 2018. Picture taken November 29, 2018. To match Special Report USA-COAL/POLLUTION. REUTERS/Chris Keane

Expanding the generation of nuclear power is largely expected to supplant coal’s decreasing footprint. Electricity generated by coal-powered plants accounts for roughly a quarter of Duke’s energy mix, but the firm has already shuttered 54 units and plans to close "many more" over the next decade, in its push to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Renewable energy is expected to become the utility company’s largest generation source by 2050, Good said solar, wind and hydro don’t have the efficiency and reliability nuclear has, just yet.

“As we model the future, we're modeling an hour-by-hour dispatch of our system, we're monitoring a range of prices on new technologies, we’re modeling how much electrification occurs, and therefore how much additional requirements for electricity there will be,” Good said. “That combination [from renewable energy] we see as being 40, maybe 50%, of what we operate. And then we would supplement the rest of that with other technologies, some of which I don't even know what they are today, because we're waiting for those developments to occur.”

Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AkikoFujita

3D-printed houses poised to go mainstream



Joann Muller
Mon, October 25, 2021

3D-printed cement houses are about to take off, offering a cheaper, more efficient way to provide homes for those who need them — as long as they can be built in ways that don't worsen climate change.

Why it matters: Developers of 3D-printed homes think they can take on multiple challenges: the affordable housing crisis, the shortage of skilled labor and rising material costs.

At least one is also adapting its technology to mass-produce homes without releasing too much carbon into the atmosphere.

What's happening: A handful of companies are erecting new subdivisions featuring 3D-printed houses.

Instead of conventional materials like steel, aluminum and lumber, 3D-printed structures are built by a robot squeezing a cement mixture out of a nozzle, layer upon layer, like a soft swirl ice cream cone.

It's the same additive manufacturing process used to make everything from dental implants to airplane parts — just on a much, much larger scale.

Only a few dozen 3D-printed homes have been built, or proposed, so far in the U.S., but that's about to change.

What they're saying: "After years of R&D, the market is nearing a tipping point as companies are moving beyond pilots and demonstration projects," according to market researchers at Guidehouse Industries.

"Considering current tight construction margins and labor shortages, 3D printing has the potential to revolutionize construction," they wrote, adding that widespread adoption is still years away.

Where it stands: Among the early pioneers is Austin, Texas-based ICON, which has delivered more than two dozen 3D-printed homes in the U.S. and Mexico and just raised $207 million to expand.

The company prints homes on-site, using its Vulcan construction system, with a gantry-mounted nozzle that lays down the house's walls, layer by layer.

Its proprietary Lavacrete cement mix is "a closely guarded secret" that combines ordinary Portland cement with "advanced additives" for structural integrity.

The homes are designed to be energy-efficient and withstand extreme weather and earthquakes, ICON says.

Mighty Buildings, a competitor, offers an alternative that focuses equally on the housing and climate crises.

The San Francisco-based company aims to become carbon neutral by 2028 — more than two decades ahead of the rest of the construction industry.

"We make houses as tools to fight climate change," co-founder Sam Ruben tells Axios.

How it works: Mighty Buildings uses 3D printing to produce modular panels in a factory, then delivers them to the lot for assembly.

The panels are a synthetic stone made from a polymer composite and include a steel frame, insulation and even gypsum board, or drywall, for the interior walls.

With robotic tools, the panels can be milled for the desired look, like stucco or siding.

Mighty Buildings started out printing "accessory dwelling units" — small guesthouses that are one answer to the housing shortage.

It's now marketing 3D-printed home kits — similar to the Sears catalog's mail-order home kits in the early 20th century — for $349,000.

It is also partnering with a developer, Palari Group, to build two subdivisions in California.

Their 15-unit neighborhood in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, will be "the first 3D-printed, net-zero-energy community," the companies say.

With built-in solar panels and storage batteries on-site, homeowners won't spend a nickel on electricity, says Ruben.

Yes, but: Construction is a major contributor to climate change. It takes enormous amounts of energy to produce cement, a key ingredient in concrete, the ubiquitous foundation of our built world.

The cement industry alone is responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

That's one reason Mighty Buildings is partnering with a company that figured out how to trap those emissions in an innovative low-carbon cement.

The bottom line: It's too early to say whether 3D-printed houses will meet the test of time, says Henry D'Esposito, construction research lead at JLL, a real estate services firm.

"We've never seen one of these at 20, 30, 40 years old," he tells Axios.

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

Xi Jinping tells UN China will uphold world peace, does not mention Taiwan

Shweta Sharma
Mon, October 25, 2021,


File: Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a meeting with Tedros Adhanom in January (EPA)

President Xi Jinping on Monday promised that China will always uphold world peace even as he failed to mention growing tensions with Taiwan in a speech marking the 50th anniversary of the country’s return to the United Nations.

Mr Xi called for greater global cooperation on the issues of regional conflicts, terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity, and biosecurity.

"China resolutely opposes all forms of hegemony and power politics, unilateralism and protectionism," he said, adding that countries should “vigorously advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom..”


Beijing was a founding member of the UN and one of the five permanent members at UNSC before it was blocked by the US to retain its seat until 1971.

Mr Xi called the “decision to restore all rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations” as a “victory for the Chinese people and a victory for people of the world.”

“China will stay committed to the path of multilateralism and always be a defender of the international order,” he added.

But the president did not mention Taiwan despite concerns raised by the United States and other countries as Beijing stepped up its military intimidation of the self-ruling democracy.

China has sent a record number of warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence zone, forcing the island nation to raise alarm and seek help from the UN in what Taipei called the worst tensions in more than 40 years.

Taiwan also accuses China of preventing Taiwanese envoys from taking part in conferences by specialised UN agencies which has kept the nation distant from access to international cooperation in fields like medical science.

Taiwan held a UN seat under the title Republic of China but the island nation was expelled in 1971 after China was recognised as the sole representative under UN resolution 2758.

The foreign ministry of Taiwan reiterated a call for the UN to allow its "meaningful participation", adding that the island had never been part of the People’s Republic and its government had no right to represent the island’s people.

Taiwan recognises itself as a free and independent country but China considers it as its breakaway province that will unify China, by force if necessary.

Without naming the US, Mr Xi appeared to take aim at the country, saying: “International rules can only be made by the 193 UN Member States together, and not decided by individual countries or blocs of countries. International rules should be observed by the 193 UN Member States, and there is and should be no exception.”

As Beijing and Washington remained embroiled in a lingering trade war, high-level diplomats from the US State Department met officials from Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, ahead of Mr Xi’s speech, via video conference to discuss Taipei’s participation at the UN and other international forums.

State Department official Rick Waters called out China for misusing its status in the UN. Mr Waters accused China of misusing UN Resolution 2758 to restrict Taiwan from taking part in the UN, according to the semi-official Central News Agency in Taiwan.

Responding to the comments, China’s embassy in the US hit back at the statements, calling it “serious provocation to China” and “highly misleading.”

“This is a serious political provocation to China and a malign distortion of international law and universally recognised norms governing international relations," the statement said.

US president Joe Biden answered “yes” when he was asked whether his administration would back Taiwan during a CNN town hall on Thursday.

“I don’t want a Cold War with China -- I just want to make China understand that we are not going to step back, we are not going to change any of our views," Mr Biden told host Anderson Cooper in Baltimore.

Xi’s ‘Common Prosperity’ in Theory and Practice


Investors had, over the past 30 years, grown so accustomed to ignoring rhetoric about communism from nominally-communist China that a leader firmly putting equality at the heart of his economic agenda has caused more than a little heartburn. The Oct. 15 release of a fuller transcript of President

Xi Jinping’s mid-August remarks on “common prosperity” therefore piqued considerable interest.

The publication in the party’s theoretical journal, “Seeking Truth,” appears partly aimed at reassuring investors and entrepreneurs spooked by novel language about “rationally adjusting” excessive incomes in the original mid-August readout of Mr. Xi’s speech, which came at the height of Beijing’s campaign to rein in its internet giants.

The expanded remarks still contain such language, but the tone and structure contain some marked differences. Mr. Xi forcefully addresses entrepreneurship right near the top, saying that “common prosperity depends on hard work” and innovation and that law-abiding entrepreneurs should be particularly encouraged. The newly released remarks also warn about the dangers of “welfarism” and government dependence—language that was absent from the original readout.

In theory, there is a fair amount for investors to like here: most important, it shows that Mr. Xi understands the importance of incentives—and that the rapidly escalating regulatory campaign over the past year risks damaging entrepreneurship. The speech also fits with Beijing’s long standing skepticism about big outlays for social services, as opposed to infrastructure or carrots for businesses like cheap land. Notably, China’s countercyclical policy in the initial months of the coronavirus outbreak focused on loan forbearance for businesses rather than direct income support for households, as in the West.

The overall message appears to be that the policy pendulum will move more toward equality: higher taxes and more pressure to donate for high-income individuals, moderately higher spending on social programs and education and tougher antimonopoly enforcement in some areas. But that isn’t the same as a huge expansion of China’s welfare state or confiscatory economic policies.

The problem, of course, is that this is all happening in the lead-up to the 20th Party Congress next fall. Mr. Xi’s bid for an unprecedented third term at China’s helm would presumably be strengthened by showing he has solutions to festering problems such as inequality, unaffordable housing and the high cost of child-rearing. The capricious manner in which certain industries and companies have been treated also has a strong political flavor.
China recorded a steep economic slowdown in the third quarter as its pandemic bounceback fades—and now, Beijing is taking on longer-term issues including household debt and energy consumption. WSJ’s Anna Hirtenstein explains what investors are watching. Photo: Long Wei/Sipa Asia/Zuma Press

While there had been warning signs about the private tutoring industry for some time, the virtual decapitation of the sector overnight—and its overseas listed companies—still sent a very strong signal of uncertainty and vulnerability. Likewise, despite some legitimate criticisms of Ant Group’s business model, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the company’s abrupt fall from grace was related to Jack Ma’s very public criticism of some of Mr. Xi’s signature policies.

It is often said that the U.S. stock market prefers a divided government because, although inertia and ossification cause problems, it is at least predictable—and better than unchecked regulatory overreach. Likewise China’s consensus-based model of elite governance ushered in by

Deng Xiaoping created many problems—among them pollution and corruption—but was also reasonably predictable and responsive to different economic interest groups.

For better or worse, those days are over. Whether that change will result in the common prosperity that Mr. Xi envisions remains to be seen.

How China’s past shapes Xi's thinking - and his view of the world


Mon, October 25, 2021

President Xi

Heightened tensions with Taiwan have focused attention on China, with many wondering where President Xi Jinping sees his country on the world stage. Perhaps the past can provide some clues, writes Rana Mitter, a history professor at Oxford University.

China is now a global power, something scarcely imaginable just a few decades ago.

Its power sometimes stems from cooperation with the wider world, such as signing up to the Paris climate agreement.

Or sometimes it means competition with it, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, a network of construction projects in more than 60 countries which has brought investment to many parts of the world deprived of western loans.

Yet there is also a highly confrontational tone to much of China's global rhetoric.

Beijing condemns the US for seeking to "contain" China through the new AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) submarine pact, warns the UK that there would be "consequences" for granting residence in Britain to Hong Kongers leaving their city because of the harsh National Security Law, and told the island of Taiwan that it should prepare to be unified with the mainland.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has asserted China's place on the global stage much more strongly than any of his predecessors since Mao Zedong, China's paramount leader during the Cold War.

Yet other elements of his rhetoric draw on sources much more longstanding - looking back to its own history, both ancient and more recent.

Here are five of these recurring themes.
Confucian ways

For over 2,000 years the norms of Confucian thinking shaped Chinese society. The philosopher (551-479 BC) constructed an ethical system that combined hierarchy, where people would know their place in society, with benevolence, the expectation that those in superior positions would look after their inferiors.

Heavily adapted over time, this system of thinking underpinned China's dynasties until the revolution of 1911, when the overthrow of the last emperor spurred a backlash against Confucius and his legacy from radicals including the new Communist Party.

Statue of Confucius

One of those communists, Mao Zedong, remained deeply hostile to traditional Chinese philosophy during his years in power (1949-1976). But by the 1980s, Confucius was back in Chinese society, praised by the Communist Party as a brilliant figure with lessons to teach contemporary China.

Today, China celebrates "harmony" (hexie) as a "socialist value," even though it has a very Confucian air. And a hot topic in Chinese international relations is the question of how that term "benevolence" (ren), another key Confucian term, might shape Beijing's relations with the outside world.

Professor Yan Xuetong of Tsinghua University has written of how China should seek "benevolent authority" rather than "dominance" in contrast with what he regards as the less benevolent role of the United States.

Even Xi Jinping's idea of a "world community of common destiny" has a traditional philosophical flavour about it - and Xi has visited Confucius's birthplace of Qufu and cited his sayings in public.
A century of humiliation

The historical confrontations of the 19th and 20th centuries still deeply shape Chinese thinking about the world.

The Opium Wars of the mid-19th Century saw western traders use force for the violent opening of China's doors. Much of the period from the 1840s to the 1940s is remembered as a "century of humiliation", a shameful era that showed China's weakness in the face of European and Japanese aggression.

During that era, China had to cede Hong Kong to Britain, territory in the north-eastern region of Manchuria to the Japanese, and a whole range of legal and commercial privileges to a range of western countries. In the post-war era, it was the USSR that tried to gain influence in China's borders, including Manchuria and Xinjiang.

BBC Bitesize: The First Opium War

This experience has created a deep suspicion toward the intentions of the outside world. Even seemingly outward-looking gestures such as China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 was underpinned by a cultural memory of "unfair treaties" when China's trade was controlled by foreigners - a situation which today's Communist Party has vowed never to allow again.

In March this year, an ill-tempered public session between Chinese and American negotiators in Anchorage, Alaska, saw the Chinese push back against US criticism by accusing their hosts of "condescension and hypocrisy". Xi's China does not tolerate the idea that outsiders can look down on their country with impunity.
Forgotten ally

However, even terrible events can yield more positive messages.

One such message comes from the Chinese phase of World War II, when it fought Japan essentially alone after being invaded in 1937, before the Western Allies joined the Asian war at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

During those years, China lost more than 10 million people and held back over half a million Japanese troops on the Chinese mainland, a feat commemorated widely in history books and in films and television.

The anniversary of victory against Japan is marked in Beijing

Today China portrays itself as part of the "anti-fascist alliance" alongside the US, Britain and the USSR, giving itself moral ballast by reminding the world of its role as a victor against the Axis powers.

China also draws on its historical role as a leader of the Third World in the Mao era (for instance at the Bandung Conference of 1955, and in projects such as the building of the TanZam railway in East Africa in the 1970s) to burnish its credentials as a leader today in the non-western world.

Witnessing Japan's surrender in China

Modern history remains a key part of the way that the Chinese Communist Party perceives its own legitimacy. Yet elements of that history - notably the terrible famine caused by the disastrous economic policies of the Great Leap Forward of 1958-62 - remain almost unmentioned in China today.

And some modern wars can be used for more confrontational purposes. The last year of bumpy US-China relations has seen new films commemorating the Korean War of 1950-3 - a conflict which the Chinese remember under a different name - "the War of Resistance to America".
On your Marx

The historical trajectory of Marxism-Leninism is also deeply embedded in Chinese political thinking, and has been very actively revived under Xi Jinping.

Throughout the 20th Century, Mao Zedong and other major communist political leaders took part in theoretical debates on Marxism with immense consequences.

Chinese tourists pose for pictures in front of Mao's portrait

For instance, the notion of "class warfare" led to the killing of a million landlords in the early years of Mao's rule. Even though "class" has fallen out of favour as a way of defining society, China's political language today is still shaped by ideas of "struggle", "antagonism" and conceptions of "socialism" as opposed to "capitalism".

Major journals, such as the Party's theoretical organ Qiushi, regularly debate the "contradictions" in Chinese society in terms that draw extensively from Marxist theory.

WATCH: What does Marxism actually mean?

Xi's China defines the US-China competition as a struggle that can be understood in terms of Marxist antagonism.

The same is true for the economic forces in society, and their interaction - the difficulties in growing the economy and keeping that growth suitably green are interpreted in terms of contradiction. In classic Marxism, you reach an agreed point, or synthesis - but not before you work through often painful and lengthy "antagonisms".

Taiwan

Beijing stresses the unshakable destiny of the island of Taiwan, which it defines as unification with mainland China.

Yet the past century of Taiwan's history shows that the issue of its status waxes and wanes in Chinese politics. In 1895, after a disastrous war with Japan, China was forced to hand over Taiwan, which then became a Japanese colony for the next half century.

China's southeastern coast can be seen from the Taiwanese island of Kinmen

It was then briefly unified with the mainland by the Nationalists from 1945 to 1949. Under Mao, China missed its chance to unify the island; the American Truman administration would have probably let Mao take it, until the People's Republic of China joined the North Koreans in invading South Korea in 1950, prompting the Korean War and suddenly turning Taiwan into a key Cold War ally.


What's behind the China-Taiwan divide?

Mao launched attacks on the Taiwan coast in 1958, but then ignored the territory for the 20 years after that. After the US and China re-established relations in 1979, there was an uneasy agreement that all sides would agree that there was One China, but not agree over whether the Beijing or Taiwan regime was actually the legitimate republic.

Forty years on, Xi Jinping is insistent that unification must come soon, while the aggressive rhetoric and fate of Hong Kong has led Taiwan's public, now citizens of a liberal democracy, to become increasingly hostile to a closer relationship with the mainland.

Professor Rana Mitter teaches at Oxford University where he specialises in the history and politics of modern China. His latest book is China's Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism

Xi and Putin are snubbing the COP26 climate summit, even though China and Russia produce some 32% of global CO2 emissions


Thomas Colson
Mon, October 25, 2021

Vladimir Putin talks to Xi Jinping vua video link in June 2021

. Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via REUTERS


The leaders of China and Russia said they won't be at this week's COP26 climate-change summit.

Their absence may make it harder for others to secure big commitments to reducing emissions.

China emits around 28% of the world's CO2 emissions, while Russia emits around 5%.

China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin are set to snub this week's COP26 summit on climate change in Glasgow.

Their absence is especially significant given their nations' contributions to global emissions, with China producing an estimated 28% and Russia 5% of global CO2 output.

The Kremlin confirmed last week that Putin would not travel to Scotland for the summit, while China is said to be planning to send its special envoy on climate change instead.

The Times newspaper reported last week that Johnson had been told that Xi would not attend in person.

Other world leaders at the summit may find it harder to strike a historic agreement on climate change without Xi and Putin around.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the summit, is seeking support from other world leaders to commit to a radical plan tackling climate change.

Xi has not left China since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported, choosing instead to attend summits by video-link.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin would "unfortunately" not fly to Glasgow but said that climate change was "one of our foreign policy's most important priorities," AFP reported.

China emits nearly 28% of the world's global carbon dioxide emissions, according to Our World in Data, more than any other country. The figure grew rapidly as the country's expanding economy industrialized.

Russia emits around 5% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, according to Our World in Data - the fourth highest in the world behind China, the US, and India.

US President Joe Biden and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi are planning to attend the summit, as well as at least a dozen other national leaders.

 

The Chinese military is thinking about how to stealthily destroy enemy ports and just set off a big explosion to see how it might work

Ryan Pickrell

Mon, October 25, 2021

• The Chinese military is looking at options for attacking an enemy port, Chinese media reported.

• The PLA recently conducted its first test exploring port destruction with underwater explosives.

• "If we can use stealthy ways, like underwater explosions, to destroy the ports, we can kill off the enemy's war potential," said a Chinese officer.

The Chinese military is thinking about how to stealthily destroy a naval port to cripple an adversary's capabilities and hinder its ability to fight, a People's Liberation Army Navy officer explained to state media after a recent explosive test that was reportedly meant to simulate an attack on a port.

The Chinese military, through a PLA Naval Research Academy institute, recently detonated underwater explosives at an unidentified port.

Sensors set up at important structural points gathered data on the damage the port sustained. Chinese media said the data "will provide scientific support to attack hostile ports in a real war."

The test was the first of its kind for the Chinese military, according to CCTV, a state-run broadcaster which aired its report on the testing over the weekend. Chinese media did not say when the test was carried out, only noting that it happened recently.

The recent test explored the impact that different weapons might have on an operational port in an actual conflict scenario. The explosion reportedly destroyed the testing terminal. 

Zhao Pengduo, who Chinese media identified as a captain and the deputy director of the Naval Port Demolition Test Program, highlighted the military's thinking behind the test in his interview with CCTV.

Zhao said that naval bases and ports are valuable targets because they are used to support logistics vessels that move munitions, fuel and other essential supplies to the frontlines of a fight.

He told Chinese media that "if we can use stealthy ways, like underwater explosions, to destroy the ports, we can kill off the enemy's war potential," according to a Global Times translation of his remarks.

A unnamed military analyst in Beijing told the Chinese state-affiliated media outlet that attacking key ports could undermine the US strategy of dispersing its forces throughout the Indo-Pacific region by threatening the critical supply lines that US forces would require to operate effectively.

The media reports on the Chinese military's naval port destruction testing did not explain how China would deliver underwater explosives to an adversary's port and likely under intense fire.

It is unclear if China is thinking about manned infiltration, autonomous systems, submarines, mines, or some other approach entirely.

Bryan Clark, a former US Navy officer and defense expert at the Hudson Institute, said attacking a US naval port is "easier said than done," telling Insider that attackers would have to bypass security barriers, nets to stop submersibles, acoustic sensors to detect divers, patrols, and other countermeasures. The risk is greater at civilian ports though given that they are not as well defended.

As the recent test was the first such test China has conducted, the Chinese military may still be working through these questions, but the testing clearly indicates some degree of interest in developing this combat capability.

UH OH

Rise in human bird flu cases in China shows risk of fast-changing variants - health experts

FILE PHOTO: Man provides water for chickens inside a greenhouse at a farm in Heihe

Dominique Patton
Mon, October 25, 2021, 11:13 PM·3 min read


BEIJING (Reuters) - A jump in the number of people in China infected with bird flu this year is raising concern among experts, who say a previously circulating strain appears to have changed and may be more infectious to people.

China has reported 21 human infections with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza in 2021 to the World Health Organization (WHO), compared with only five last year, it said.


Though the numbers are much lower than the hundreds infected with H7N9 in 2017, the infections are serious, leaving many critically ill, and at least six dead.

"The increase in human cases in China this year is of concern. It's a virus that causes high mortality," said Thijs Kuiken, professor of comparative pathology at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

Most of the cases had come into contact with poultry, and there are no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, said the WHO, which highlighted the rise in cases in a statement on Oct. 4.

It said further investigation was "urgently" required to understand the risk and the increase in spill over to people.

Since then, a 60-year-old woman in Hunan province was admitted to hospital in a critical condition with H5N6 influenza on Oct. 13, according to a Hong Kong government statement.

While human H5N6 cases have been reported, no outbreaks of H5N6 have been reported in poultry in China since February 2020.

China is the world's biggest poultry producer and top producer of ducks, which act as a reservoir for flu viruses.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could not be reached for comment on the rise in H5N6 human cases. However, a study published on its website last month said the "increasing genetic diversity and geographical distribution of H5N6 pose a serious threat to the poultry industry and human health".

Avian influenza viruses constantly circulate in domestic and wild birds, but rarely infect people. However, the evolution of the viruses, which have increased as poultry populations grow, is a major concern because they could change into a virus that spreads easily between people and cause a pandemic.

The largest number of H5N6 infections have been in southwestern Sichuan province, though cases have also been reported in neighbouring Chongqing and Guangxi, as well as Guangdong, Anhui and Hunan provinces.

At least 10 were caused by viruses genetically very similar to the H5N8 virus that ravaged poultry farms across Europe last winter and also killed wild birds in China. That suggests the latest H5N6 infections in China may be a new variant.

"It could be that this variant is a little more infectious (to people)...or there could be more of this virus in poultry at the moment and that's why more people are getting infected," said Kuiken.

Four of the Sichuan cases raised poultry at home and had been in contact with dead birds, said a September report by China's CDC. Another had bought a duck from a live poultry market a week before developing symptoms.

China vaccinates poultry against avian influenza but the vaccine used last year may only partially protect against emerging viruses, preventing large outbreaks but allowing the virus to keep circulating, said Filip Claes, Regional Laboratory Coordinator at the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases at the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Backyard farms in China are common and many people still prefer to buy live chickens at markets.

Guilin city in Guangxi region, which had two human cases in August, said last month it had suspended trading of live poultry in 13 urban markets and would abolish the trade within a year.

(Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Michael Perry)