Asian shares buoyed by coronavirus vaccine hopes www.reuters.com

Rio Tinto chief Jean-Sébastien Jacques to quit over Aboriginal cave destruction www.bbc.com

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to pay official visit to Mongolia www.montsame.mn

Mongolia to challenge Australia on coking coal exports www.news.mn

China claims 'important breakthrough' in space mission shrouded in mystery www.bbc.com

Ever since China claimed success in the secretive launch of an experimental spacecraft, experts have been pondering over what it could be and what it did in space.

The spacecraft - mounted on a Long March 2F rocket - was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China on 4 September and safely returned to Earth after two days in orbit.

"The successful flight marked the country's important breakthrough in reusable spacecraft research and is expected to offer convenient and low-cost round-trip transport for the peaceful use of space," state-run Xinhua News Agency said on 6 September in a brief report.

But unlike recent Chinese high-profile space missions, very few details have emerged about the vehicle and no visuals have been released.

Mysterious vehicle
Chinese authorities have been tight-lipped about the nature of the short-duration excursion and what technologies were tested.

The exact launch and landing times were not revealed, nor was the landing site although it is thought to be the Taklamakan Desert, which is in northwest China.

"There are many firsts in this launch. The spacecraft is new, the launch method is also different. That's why we need to make sure there is extra security," a military source told South China Morning Post (SCMP).

An official memo circulating on social media also warned staff and visitors to the launch site not to film the lift-off or discuss it online, according to SCMP.

The launch of the vehicle may have come as a surprise - there was no official announcement prior to the launch - but China has been working on such technology for the past decade. Three years ago, China said it would launch a space vessel in 2020 that "will fly into the sky like an aircraft" and be reusable.

A reusable spacecraft - as the name implies can undertake multiple trips to space - thereby potentially lowering the overall cost of launch activity. A traditional one-off spacecraft - costing tens of millions of dollars - is practically rendered useless after a single mission.

The experimental vessel reached an altitude of about 350km, which is in line with China's previous crewed flights. The spacecraft also released an unknown object into the orbit before returning to Earth.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, says the aim of the mission was likely to test out the vehicle's systems such as power, temperature, stability and to prove it could re-enter and land correctly.

Once the testing is complete, such a vehicle could be used to launch and repair satellites, survey the Earth, as well as take astronauts and goods to and from orbit, possibly to a planned future Chinese space station.

Comparisons to US' X-37 space plane
The Chinese craft's size and shape remain unclear but it is widely believed to be some sort of uncrewed space plane similar to the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle operated by the US Air Force.

The recent mission could be linked to the Shenlong - or divine dragon - space plane project, which has been in development for some time, according to reports. A second Chinese reusable space plane called Tengyun, or cloud climber, is also in the works.

If confirmed as a space plane, China would become only the third country to have successfully launched such a vehicle into orbit after the US and the former Soviet Union.

The European Space Agency is working on its own reusable orbital vehicle called Space Rider, while India is also said to be developing a space shuttle-like craft.

The X-37B, resembling a miniature space shuttle, has been in orbit since late May following its launch on its sixth assignment. Very little is known about the X-37B's missions, prompting speculation that the planes could be used for spying activity or testing space weapons.

Similarly, the lack of publicity has given rise to speculation that the Chinese spacecraft could also possibly have some military use.

"The secrecy, I am sure, is just because it is a military project," adds McDowell, who has been closely following the mission.

There is little distinction between China's civilian and military space programmes which fuels suspicions about Beijing's space ambitions.

"It is reasonable to assume that what's being tested has some military applications, probably new satellite equipment and spying technologies," notes Bleddyn Bowen, a space policy academic at the University of Leicester.

"We'll have to wait and see how many future flights like this China may conduct to see whether it will match the scale of X-37B," he told the BBC.

China's state-run outlet Global Times, citing observers, did say that the country should have the capability to strike anywhere on Earth within half an hour, just as the X-37B does.

China's growing space ambitions
Whatever its purpose, the reusable system marks yet another milestone for China's ambitious space programme, and comes weeks after the launch of Tianwen-1, China's latest attempt to reach Mars.

China has poured significant funding into its space efforts, and last year became the first country to send an uncrewed rover to the far side of the Moon.

President Xi Jinping has also thrown his support behind the country's space endeavours and the Chinese state media regularly cast the "space dream" as one step in the path to "national rejuvenation".

Earlier this year it also completed the network of satellites for its BeiDou navigation system, an alternative to the US GPS system. China is also working toward sending astronauts to the Moon and, eventually, Mars.

"If this really is a space plane, and not just a reusable capsule like Dragon, then it represents a big step forward in China's space technology as winged re-entry is really hard to do," notes McDowell.

"China was way behind in space but has been gearing up its space programme on all fronts and is now catching up fast. The spacecraft launch is just another reflection of that."

Bleddyn Bowen adds the spacecraft launch is "just another part of China becoming a comprehensive space power that utilises space technology for the purposes of war, development, and prestige like all others".

Nalaikh park to increase domestic building material production 1.78 fold www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Member of the Parliament S.Amarsaikhan, Minister of Construction and Urban Development B.Munkhbaatar, and Ulaanbaatar city government officials worked at Nalaikh Industrial and Technology Park of Building Materials (NITPBM) on September 8.

World Bank Group’s Response to COVID-19 (coronavirus) in Mongolia www.worldbank.org

The World Bank Group, one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, is taking broad, fast action to help developing countries strengthen their pandemic response. We are increasing disease surveillance, improving public health interventions, and helping the private sector continue to operate and sustain jobs. Over the next 15 months, we will be deploying up to $160 billion in financial support to help countries protect the poor and vulnerable, support businesses, and bolster economic recovery, including $50 billion of new IDA resources in grants or highly concessional terms.

In Mongolia, the Bank has been working closely with the government to address the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the health sector, Mongolia was included in the WBG’s first batch of COVID-19 health emergency support operations. The Mongolia COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness project, with a total financing of US$26.9 million, will help the country meet emergency needs in the face of the pandemic and better prepare for future health crises.
In addition, US$2.2 million has been mobilized under the ongoing E-Health project to purchase the most needed medical diagnostic equipment.
Under the Strengthening Governance in Mongolia Project, funded by the European Union, US$750,000 (€ 680,000) has been reprioritized to enable the government to take more targeted just-in-time measures to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, such as assessing the potential economic impact of the pandemic, planning and monitoring of fiscal resources, and better tracking the allocation and expenditure on response measures.
Resources under the Employment Support Project have also been reprioritized to support the government’s economic stimulus package in response to COVID-19. This includes US$15 million towards providing social insurance contributions relief for an estimated 120,000 individuals enrolled in the voluntary scheme—including the self-employed, micro-entrepreneurs, and those informally employed—for a period of five months. The microloan program with US$2.6 million financing under the project will also provide temporary interest rate relief for borrowers during the time of crisis.
Mongolia Emergency Relief and Employment Support Project, financed with US$20 million IDA credit, will provide temporary relief to eligible workers and employers in response to the COVID-19 crisis and help provide the country’s jobseekers and micro-entrepreneurs with improved access to labor market opportunities. In particular, US$10 million from the project will be transferred to the Social Insurance Fund to partially compensate the contribution relief for eligible employers and their workers under the mandatory SI scheme.
To minimize the secondary impacts of COVID-19 on children’s health and nutrition, US$5 million has been mobilized under the Education Quality Reform Project. The funding will top up payments to the government’s Child Money Program benefitting approximately 1.19 million children. The transfer will use the existing government system of social assistance for children thus reaching households quickly, with minimal administrative costs.
The World Bank provided US$1 million grant from the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility to strengthen Mongolia’s capacity to respond to the COVID-19. The funding will help purchase essential medical and personal protective equipment to public officers at high-risk screening points and health care providers in selected areas.
The East Asia and Pacific Regional Economic Update (April 2020) analyzes the economic impact of COVID-19 on the region and recommends policy actions countries can take to mitigate the impact, with a particular focus on protecting the poor and vulnerable.

GS25 convenience stores to open in Mongolia www.akipress.com

GS Retail is opening its first stores in Mongolia, with 50 locations planned in the country before the end of 2021, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.

Authorities quash Inner Mongolia protests www.ft.com

Students are returning to school following weeks of fierce demonstrations in Inner Mongolia, after a public manhunt and the threat of parents being fired from their jobs quashed protests against curbs on local-language teaching.

Some of the most widespread mass resistance from ethnic Mongol communities in almost a decade erupted late last month after Beijing moved to use standardised Chinese to teach history, politics and literature in Mongolian-language middle schools.

Tongliao, a city at the eastern end of the resource-rich expanse of grassland, desert and forest that spans much of China’s 2,880-mile border with Mongolia, has been at the centre of the stand-off.

Bu Xiaolin, governor of Inner Mongolia, told teachers on a tour of Tongliao schools last week that adopting the state-written textbooks was a “major political task” that would be beneficial now and into the future.

The policy was formally announced at the end of August, less than a week before the start of term. Mongol parents, teachers and students quickly arranged sit-ins, protests and school boycotts.

Local authorities responded with a propaganda push, a heavy-handed police crackdown and intense pressure on parents to send children back to class.

By September 2, Horqin district police had released wanted lists of 129 protesters suspected of disorderly behaviour. Alongside grainy photos apparently taken by security cameras, a cash reward of Rmb1,000 ($146) was offered and police officers with clipboards checked cars at the toll gates leaving Tongliao.

Protesters in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia demonstrated this month against Beijing’s plan to introduce Mandarin-only classes at schools in the neighbouring Chinese province of Inner Mongolia
In the city of Bayan Nur, a reward of Rmb10,000 led to the arrests of four people accused of using WeChat, the messaging app, to spread “fake news” about the textbooks and organise petitions.

Last weekend, in a region to the west of Tongliao, government workers were told that their children would have to attend school on Monday. If they did not, the parents’ pay would be suspended and they would be put under investigation by the party’s anti-graft authorities, according to an image of the order shared by Inner Mongolian residents.

After the Monday deadline, some locations began to announce punishments for cadres who “failed to rectify behaviour after being admonished”.

The government of Sonid Left Banner of Xilin Gol League, a region north-west of Tongliao on the border with Mongolia, announced that the pay of four officials had been suspended and two others were fired. All six were placed under investigation by the local Discipline Inspection Commission, the body responsible for enforcing loyalty to the party.

In Tongliao, the harsh measures appear to have forced the acceptance from some parents.

Last week, students at the Horqin district Mongol middle school had rushed past teachers to break down the front gate and flee campus, according to a video of the incident that was independently verified by witnesses.

By Monday, the gate was back in place, reinforced by a steel red-and-white anti-riot barricade. A handful of students, mostly flanked by parents, returned under the watch of officers who sat in police cars. The only sign of the protests this week were the police cars on patrol and large quantities of barricade tape.

The students are back in school, [there are] no more complaining parents or students

Ms Tong, teacher
“The students are back in school, [there are] no more complaining parents or students,” said Ms Tong, a teacher who declined to give her full name. “We are officially using the new textbooks.”

Parents who had protested were now reluctant to speak about their earlier complaints. “The problem has been resolved,” one man said in response to the Financial Times, while hurriedly pulling his son towards the school gate.

Some middle school students appeared ambivalent. “Lots of fellow students have not come back, but my parents said we have to go to school,” said one 15-year-old, who was waiting for a friend down the road from the gate.

The police declined to comment.

Under President Xi Jinping, China’s established system of “preferential policies” pledging marginal autonomy for ethnic minorities is being stripped away. Instead, mores assertive policies inspired by thinkers who support a unified, singular and Han-Chinese dominated “state-race” are being adopted in a bid to assimilate ethnic minorities.

But unlike Tibet and Xinjiang, where grievances over perceived discriminatory treatment of ethnic minority communities from Beijing have sparked mass riots, Inner Mongolia has largely avoided violence.

The region has also yet to face blanket surveillance to the same degree as Xinjiang, where new police stations have been built on every block and enforced data collection has become ubiquitous.

But the scale of protests — and the severity of the clampdown — raise the prospect of heightened securitisation. Mongols retain a strong sense of ethnic identity and have consistently resisted Beijing’s efforts to meld them into mainstream Han culture.

One herder in the Jarud banner region of Tongliao said he planned to keep his six-year-old son out of school for as long as he could.

“They shouldn’t have done it like this,” said the herder, who declined to be named. “I have no problem with him learning the Han language, but there should have been a discussion. We will teach him ourselves for now.

100th Mongolia-Russia diplomatic anniversary to be marked next year www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At its regular meeting on September 9, the Cabinet put the Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of the 100th Mongolia-Russia diplomatic anniversary celebration working group.