China burns the most coal in the world to produce electricity and steel for infrastructure and building construction. China uses the most steel to constructed the most infrastructures and buildings in the world. As a result, China has polluted the air and the environment.

Since China will soon become the richest nation in the world, it has not neglected its social responsibility.    

The Chinese Government considers human lives is the most important, far more important than economy etc. That is why China wants to fight air pollution and climate change aggressively.   

China is using these 4 methods or systems to reduce pollution:

1 High Speed Rail

2 Electric Vehicles

3 Solar Power

4 Wind Power  

1 China High-Speed Rail can reduce pollution: 

High Speed Rail is the most efficient mode of transport. 

China has the world's longest high speed railway network and most extensively used with a total length of 37,900 km by the end of 2020. The HSR network encompasses newly built rail lines with a design speed of 200–350 km/h (120–220 mph). China's HSR accounts for two-thirds of the world's total high-speed railway networks. Almost all HSR trains, track and service are owned and operated by the China Railway Corporation under the brand China Railway High-speed (CRH).

The advent of high-speed rail in China has greatly reduced travel time and has transformed Chinese society and economy. A World Bank study found "a broad range of travellers of different income levels choose HSR for its comfort, convenience, safety and punctuality."

2 Electric vehicles can reduce pollution:

Recently, China imposed a mandate on automakers requiring that electric vehicles (EVs) make up 40% of all sales by 2030. According to a series of MIT analyses, this move will expand the production of EVs and EV batteries enough to bring down the worldwide cost of both. Within China, annual sales of all vehicles will drop temporarily and then resume growing. The market share of EVs will expand as mandated.

3 Solar power can reduce pollution:

China currently holds the largest solar power capacity share in the world, having brought about 40 gigawatts into operation in 2020

China is home to a number of the world’s largest solar power plants. China has ramped up its share in the fast-growing renewable energy source over the past few years.

It is one of a number of major economies that have turned to the technology to help decarbonise its electricity grid amid the energy transition, with President Xi Jinping announcing ambitions to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 in September 2020.

China currently holds the largest solar power capacity share in the world, having brought about 40 gigawatts (GW) into operation in 2020, taking its total installed solar capacity to 240GW.

The country’s total solar capacity has increased more than fivefold since 2015 and could double in the next five years, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA).

These are the 5 largest solar power plants in China

1. Huanghe Hydropower Hainan Solar Park – 2.2GW

The Huanghe Hydropower Hainan Solar Park in China’s remote Qinghai province is the largest solar facility in the country. It has an installed capacity of 2.2GW.

2. Tengger Desert Solar Park – 1.55GW

The Tengger Desert Solar Park in Ningxia, China, is the second-largest solar power plant in the country and fifth-largest in the world.

The 1.55GW facility, often referred to as the “Great Wall of Solar”, covers 1,200km of the 36,700km Tengger desert.

Owned by China National Grid and Zhongwei Power Supply Company, the power plant was brought online in 2017 and supplies clean energy to more than 600,000 homes. 

3. Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base – 1.1GW

The Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base in Datong City, Shanxi province, is currently the third-largest solar facility in China. It is part of the country’s National Energy Administration’s plans to develop solar projects in the region.

The power plant currently has a capacity of 1.1GW following the completion of the first phase of the project in 2016.

Once the final two phases are complete, Datong could be the largest solar site in the world with an installed capacity of 3GW.

4. Yanchi Ningxia Solar Park – 1GW

The Yanchi Ningxia solar park in Yanchi district, Ningxia, is the fourth-largest facility of its kind in China with an installed capacity of 1GW.

When the plant came online in September 2016, it was reported to be the world’s biggest continuous solar PV array – an interconnected system of PV modules that function as a single electricity-producing unit.

The power plants’ central management is operated through the Fusion Solar Smart O&M cloud centre, which uses cloud computing and big data to efficiently operate the plant. It has an estimated 25-year life span. 

5. Longyangxia Dam Solar Park – 850MW

The Longyangxia Dam Solar Park is based high on the Tibetan Plateau in north-western China’s Qinghai province. With an installed capacity of 850MW, it is the fifth-largest solar site in the country and was previously the world’s biggest when it first came online in 2013.

The project, which was developed by Huanghe Hydropower Development, was completed in 2015 for 6bn RMB ($923m) and is operated by the State Power Investment Corporation.

The power plant is integrated with the nearby 1.28GW Longyangxia hydroelectric power station and it supplies up to 200,000 households.

Wind power can reduce pollution:

China Installs World’s Highest Wind Farm in the Mountains Of Tibet

China built more new windfarm capacity in 2020 than the whole world combined in the year before, leading to an annual record for windfarm installations despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the world's new windfarms were built onshore, which more than offset a drop of 20% in the new wind power capacity built at sea.

China just solidified its position as a leader in renewable energy by installing the world’s highest wind farm! To accomplish the feat, Chinese energy developer Longyuan Power installed five wind turbines in Tibet at a height of 4,900 meters above sea level.

Longyuan Power’s Tibetan turbine array is the first phase in a large project that will eventually consist of 33 turbines. The company has made impressive progress in recent years, which its total energy assets generating over 2.5 million MWh in July of this year – and in 2013 alone Longyuan Power increased its wind generation capacity by 36.8%.

China is a large country, and inefficiencies in energy transmission networks can add up to big losses by the time electricity reaches households and businesses. It is hoped that the new project, which is built in a remote resource-rich area, will help reduce transmission losses while contributing to the economic development of the area.

According to reports, Longyuan Power’s final goal is to install 33 sets of 96-meter 1500 kilowatts wind turbines over 312 acres in Tibet’s Nagqu County for a total capacity of 49.5 MW.

After I read Ugandan President’s address to his nation, I think it is the best speech by a political leader, I have ever read. I reproduce it here for you. 

Uganda President KAGUTA MUSEVENI warns against people misbehaving during this COVID-19 period, "God has a lot of work, He has the whole world to look after. He cannot just be here in Uganda looking after idiots".

"In a war situation, nobody asks anyone to stay indoors. *You stay indoors by choice.* In fact, if you have a basement, you hide there for as long as hostilities persist.

During a war, you *don't insist on your freedom*. You willingly give it up in exchange for survival.

During a war, you *don't complain of hunger.* You bear hunger and pray that you live to eat again

During a war, you *don't argue about opening your business*. You close your shop (if you have the time), and run for your life. You pray to outlive the war so that you can return to your business (that's if it has not been looted or destroyed by mortar fire).

During a war, you are *thankful to God for seeing another day in the land of the living*.

During a war, you *don't worry about your children not going to school.* You pray that the government does not forcefully enlist them as soldiers to be trained in the school premises now turned military depot.

*The world is currently in a state of war. A war without guns and bullets. A war without human soldiers. A war without borders. A war without cease-fire agreements. A war without a war room. A war without sacred zones.*

The army in this war is without mercy. It is without any milk of human kindness. It is indiscriminate - it has no respect for children, women, or places of worship. This army is not interested in spoils of war. It has no intention of regime change. It is not concerned about the rich mineral resources underneath the earth. It is not even interested in religious, ethnic or ideological hegemony. Its ambition has nothing to do with racial superiority. *It is an invisible, fleetfooted, and ruthlessly effective army.*

Its only agenda is a harvest of death. It is only satiated after turning the world into one big death field. Its capacity to achieve its aim is not in doubt. Without ground, amphibious and aeriel machines, it has bases in almost every country of the world. Its movement is not governed by any war convention or protocol. In short, *it is a law unto itself. It is Coronavirus. Also known as COVID-19* (because it announced its destructive presence and intention in the year of our Lord 2019)

Thankfully, this army has a weakness and it can be defeated. It only requires our collective action, discipline and forbearance. *COVID-19 cannot survive social and physical distancing.* It only thrives when you confront it. It loves to be confronted. It capitulates in the face of collective social and physical distancing. It bows before good personal hygiene. It is helpless when you take your destiny in your own hands by keeping them sanitized as often as possible.

*This is not a time to cry about bread and butter like spoilt children.* After all, the Holy book tells us that man shall not live by bread alone. *Let's obey and follow the instructions of the authorities.* Let's flatten the COVID-19 curve. Let's exercise patience. Let's be our brothers' keeper. *In no time, we shall regain our freedom, enterprise and socializing."*

In the midst of EMERGENCY, we practice urgency of service and the urgency of love for others. God bless us all.

Profit growth is the most powerful catalyst to push up share price. If investors do not know this proven fact, they should put their hard-earned money in fixed deposit in any bank.

LC Titan IPO at Rm 6.00 in June 2016 with EPS 23.38 sen as shown on its price chart below.

LC Titan was priced at Rm 6.00 for its Initial Public Offer (IPO) and its EPS was 23.38 sen for its quarter ending June 2016. Since then, its quarterly earning has been reducing. As a result, its share price has been dropping until recently when it reported EPS 19.36 sen for its quarter ending March 2021.

The 3 months price chart above shows that it has been up moving high and higher.

Why LC Titan has excellent profit growth?

Covid 19 pandemic is affecting almost all the listed companies which are showing reduced profit. But, during this period, production of gloves, face masks, liquid soap etc have increased to prevent the virus. The production of all these products require chemicals from LC Titan.   

Lotte Chemical Titan Holdings Bhd is a petrochemical producer. Its products include polyolefins, comprising of polyethylene and polypropylene and olefins comprising ethylene and propylene and other derivatives such as butadiene, TBA, benzene and toluene.

Based on its excellent profit growth, its next quarter ending June should be better than 19.36 sen. 

Donald Trump will be recorded as one of the worse, if not the worst US President in the American history. During his presidency, he concentrated in bashing China, imposed higher import tariff on Chinese made goods but allowed free import of Kongflu so that US has the most Covid 19 cases in the world. Currently US has a total of 33.6 million Covid 19 cases and 598,523 deaths.  

China has a total of 90,868 Covid 19 cases and 4,636 deaths. The daily new cases can be countered by your figures. It looks like China is the safest place to live in the world.

In the last 40, China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty and created more than 600 million middle class people. Every year China has more college graduates and entrepreneurs than any nation in the world. There are no homeless people in China. But in Los Angeles, you can see many people living on the roadsides and back lanes.  

The end of 2020 brought the sharpest rise in the U.S. poverty rate since the 1960s, according to a study released recently.

Economists Bruce Meyer, from the University of Chicago, and James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame found that the poverty rate increased by 2.4 percentage points during the latter half of 2020 as the U.S. continued to suffer the economic impacts from Covid-19.

That percentage-point rise is nearly double the largest annual increase in poverty since the 1960s. This means an additional 8 million people nationwide are now considered poor. Moreover, the poverty rate for Black Americans is estimated to have jumped by 5.4 percentage points, or by 2.4 million individuals.

The scholars’ findings put the rate at 11.8% in December. While poverty is down from readings of more than 15% a decade earlier, the new estimates suggest that the annual Census Bureau tally due in September will be higher than the last official, pre-pandemic level of 10.5% in 2019.

Black Americans were more than twice as likely to be poor as their White counterparts in December -- an improvement from the summer months when they were nearly three times more apt to live in poverty -- but an increase from before the pandemic, when the differential was under 2.

Poverty Rate Jumps.

Millions more Americans to be classified as poor in 2020

Despite improvements in the overall poverty rate since the middle of the 20th century, Black Americans had been about three times as likely to be poor as White Americans for most of the past 60 years. The gap started to narrow after the financial crisis, during the longest economic expansion in history.

These December poverty estimates are based on survey data collected late in the month after some government relief measures expired. The researchers found that the stimulus checks the federal government issued in the spring helped forestall the poverty rate from rising even faster. In late December, $900 billion in addition federal relief aid was passed, and President Joe Biden is asking Congress for an additional $1.9 trillion in stimulus.

How Does the U.S. Compare to Other Countries?

In Table 1 we can compare poverty rates across 26 OECD countries. In this table, poverty is being measured as the percent of the population falling below one half of a particular country’s median household income. This is what is known as a relative measure of poverty, and is used extensively in making cross-national comparisons. The first column shows the overall poverty rate for each country; the second column displays the poverty rate for children; and the third column indicates the percentage distance from the poverty line to the average income of those in poverty.

Source: OECD Data, 2019.

What we find is that the U.S. rates of poverty are substantially higher and more extreme than those found in the other 25 nations. The overall U.S. rate using this measure stands at 17.8 percent, compared to the 25-country average of 10.7 percent. The Scandinavian and Benelux countries tend to have the lowest rates of poverty. For example, the overall rate of poverty in Denmark is only 5.5 percent.

Looking at the poverty rates for children we see similar patterns. The United States again leads all nations in having the highest rates of child poverty at 20.9 percent, while the overall average stands at 11.7 percent.  Again, we see the Scandinavian countries having the lowest rates of child poverty, with Denmark seeing only 2.9 percent of its children falling into poverty.

Finally, the third column indicates the poverty gap, which is defined as the percentage by which the average income of the poor falls below the poverty line. This gives us an overall gauge of the depth and severity of poverty in each country. Once again, we find that the United States is at the very high end in terms of this measure. The distance between the poor’s average income and the poverty line is nearly 40 percent.  Only Italy has a greater poverty gap than the U.S.

To summarize, when analysing poverty as the number of persons who fall below 50 percent of a country’s median income, we find that the United States has far and away the highest overall poverty rate in this group of 26 developed nations. Furthermore, the distance of the poor from the overall median income is extreme in the U.S.  At the same time the United States is arguably the wealthiest nation in the world.

This paradox is revealed in additional analyses that have examined how well children and adults from the lower, middle, and upper ends of the income scale do. Not surprisingly, the United States has the highest standards of living at the middle and upper ends of the income distribution scale, yet for children at the lower end, their standards of living fall behind most other industrialized nations.

The reasons for such a discrepancy are twofold. First, as discussed in Discussion Module 8, the social safety net in the United States is much weaker than in virtually every other country in Table 1. Second, the United States has been plagued by relatively low wages at the bottom of the income distribution scale when compared to other developed countries. These factors combine to contribute to both the relative and absolute depths of U.S. poverty in comparison to other industrialized nations.

Managing a country is like managing thousands of various kinds of businesses. Good mangers produce good results and bad managers produce bad results.

Since the beginning of 2020, human societies worldwide have been facing a crisis; a communicable disease and its consequences. The novel coronavirus has been spreading in different countries and put the governments in the hard place of battling this virus alongside saving the economy.

When it comes to battling this disease, the involved governments have shown different levels of capability.

Former US President Donald Trump is a classic example of bad management. He did not even believe in wearing a face mask. He called it Konglu, a Chinese made virus. As a result, US has the most Covid 19 cases in the world.    

At the very first stage of facing the pandemic, countries like Canada, France, and Germany have indicated a lower-than-average inefficiency in preventing the spread of COVID-19, but after a while they faced an increase in their efficiency.

While some other countries like Australia and South Korea have managed to improve their performance in preventing the spread of COVID-19. To prevent the spread of coronavirus, various restrictions are applied to daily activities in different countries e.g., school closure, workings from home, and gatherings ban. However, some of these restrictions cause major economic costs. Labour markets in many countries have been influenced, as an overall increase in the unemployment rate is being observed.

The lockdown and other restrictions have also led to a GDP decline which affects all countries, but the developing countries suffer more than the others. So, in addition to the massive biological threat that COVID-19 has caused, it has short term economic consequences and long-term socio-economic impacts. The pandemic particularly makes the countries with lower level of economic development struggle more. These countries are not as prepared as developed countries to face such an economic shock; hence they are less likely to afford restrictions such as social distancing. Nevertheless, all involved countries are dealing with heavy pressure on their economy, the high unemployment rate, GDP reduction, an increase in poverty, and a decrease in manufacturing exports that translate into a recession for many countries.

What the world is dealing with is originally a health crisis, where the influences of it are very much related to the characteristics of each society. The virus is a communicable disease, so population characteristics are shown to play a role in the disease’s mortality rate. The age structure is one of these characteristics since the elderly are at higher risk.

Also, where the population is dense, the risk of spreading the virus is higher. Looking at the virus’s biological and socio-economic consequences indicates the importance of government capability in eliminating the multidimensional damage caused by COVID-19, i.e., government performance. The governments of affected countries and particularly the developing countries need to find out the trade off between saving lives and saving the economy.

Based on these reasons, the question that arises is how efficient the intervention policies of governments in different countries have been to deal with this pandemic?

I cannot comment on the Malaysian Government’s efficiency in managing the Covid 19 pandemic because about 2.5 years ago I wrote that we had the most Civil Servant per capita in the world, our Home Minister Tan Seri Muhyiddin, ordered to arrest me. The police grilled me for 2.5 hours at the Jelapang Police Station.

Currently US has the most Covid 19 cases in the world. It has 33.6 million Covid 19 cases and 597,785 deaths. Fortunately, these 2 figures are reducing due to massive vaccination.

India has 23.3 million Covid 19 cases and 254,000 deaths. Unfortunately, these 2 figures are surging. The number of daily new cases is about 400,000 as show on the chart above. At this rate, very soon India will have the most Covid 19 cases in the world.

Chinese method

All countries must follow the Chinese method of preventing the spread of the virus. China nips the problem at the bud. In January 2020, a few Covid 19 cases were discovered in Wuhan market. The Chinese Government immediately ordered lockdown and examined all the people who were in contact with the victims 2 weeks before and quarantine all of them. As soon as there were more Covid 19 cases, the Chinese Government ordered lockdown the whole region. All the people must stay at home. If anyone has to go out on emergency, he must wear a face mask and practise social distancing. He must wash his hands when he returned home. All the people must drink more water than they really need.

As a result, China has a total of 90,868 Covid 19 cases and 4,636 deaths. The daily new cases can be countered by your figures. It looks like China is the safest place to live in the world.

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus announced approval for China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, Geneva, May 7, 2021

The World Health Organisation’s approval Friday for China’s Covid-19 vaccine known as Sinopharm dramatically transforms the ecosystem of the pandemic. In immediate terms, this has potential to boost global vaccine supply, as China’s overall yearly production capacity is approaching five billion doses. 

The western pharmaceutical industry’s monopoly has been breached, as Sinopharm’s is the first COVID-19 vaccine developed by a developing country to be validated by the WHO and only the sixth approved for emergency use globally — in fact, the only non-western vaccine so far. 

Literally, China has gate crashed the aggressively-guarded orchard of powerful western pharmaceutical companies. In practical terms, the WHO approval allows China to enter the portals of the COVAX as a qualified supplier. The COVAX platform aims to provide two billion doses to developing countries and regions by the end of 2021. But as of Friday, only 54 million doses had been delivered to 121 participants of the program.

That is because, as New York Times wrote in the weekend, “Despite early vows, the developed world has done little to promote global vaccination, in what analysts call both a moral and epidemiological failure.” The anomaly creates a bizarre situation whereby in the western world, “vaccine orders are soaring into the billions of doses, Covid-19 cases are easing, economies are poised to roar to life, and people are busy lining up summer vacations,” while in the poor countries, the virus is raging on and vaccinations are happening far too slowly. 

This wasn’t how COVAX was supposed to pan put when 192 countries joined hands and all agreed that vaccination is a universal human right. Plainly put, vaccine nationalism is as much a moral issue as of predatory capitalism. 

Moderna expects to make US$ 19 billion profit  

The western pharmaceutical industry is prospering off sales to the world’s rich. Pfizer made $3.5 billion out of the vaccine in the first quarter of 2021. Moderna expects to make over $19 billion this year. The French President Emmanuel Macron lost patience, saying, “Today the Anglo-Saxons (read the US and the UK) are blocking many of these ingredients and these vaccines. Today 100% of the vaccines produced in the U.S. go to the American market.” 

Will Corporate Greed Prolong the Pandemic?

Jospeh Stiglitz — the Nobel laureate in economics at Columbia University, former chief economist of World Bank and chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers — co-authored an essay last week with a startling title Will Corporate Greed Prolong the Pandemic? He wrote: 

“The scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines across the developing world is largely the result of efforts by vaccine manufacturers to maintain their monopoly control and profits. Pfizer and Moderna, the makers of the extremely effective mRNA vaccines, have refused or failed to respond to numerous requests by qualified pharmaceutical manufacturers seeking to produce their vaccines.

“Their goal is simple: to maintain as much market power as they can for as long as possible in order to maximise profits… The argument that developing countries lack the skills to manufacture COVID vaccines based on new technologies is bogus. When US and European vaccine makers have agreed to partnerships with foreign producers, like the Serum Institute of India (the world’s largest vaccine producer) and Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa, these organisations have had no notable manufacturing problems. There are many more firms and organisations around the world with the same potential to help boost the vaccine supply; they just need access to the technology and know-how.” 

The western nations are inoculating their own citizens as priority and also keeping stockpiles and vaccine-making capacity as reserves to provide for booster doses that may be required against some new variants of the virus in future. 

In effect, China’s Sinopharm is entering the COVAX platform just as it seemed to be floundering. The WHO said in a statement that the approval given to Sinopharm (which took over 5 months, actually) is a “milestone achievement” that will create an opening to significantly increase the global supply of vaccines. 

The WHO is reportedly granting approval to a second Chinese vaccine, Sinovac, in the coming days. Last October, when China joined the COVAX global vaccine distribution campaign, it had made a modest commitment to provide 10 million vaccines. Now, the WHO approval to Sinopharm will speed up China’s supplies to COVAX, which aims to send vaccines for free to 92 lower-income countries and to help another 99 countries and territories procure them. 

Indeed, the WHO approval is a defining moment for the Chinese vaccine. Many countries were hitherto hesitating to use the Chinese the vaccine as it did not have recognition from the WHO. Sri Lanka began using Sinopharm last weekend itself! 

China has curbed the epidemic without the help of vaccines, while it has secured a place right at the forefront of vaccine research and development and has the capabilities today to expand vaccine production capacity explosively. To be sure, China is at the horizon as the ‘world’s pharmacy’.