“中国几乎插手了我们当前面对的每一项国家安全重点。    Beginning next week, people wanting to enter certain public facilities in China will need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or of having a medical reason for not getting the shot, Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, told reporters on Wednesday.,The list includes museums, theaters, stadiums, gyms, and other entertainment venues; in addition, elderly people will also have to show proof of vaccination to enter community facilities such as game rooms. Restaurants and public transportation are exempt from the new requirement.,The new mandate is in addition to a standing requirement for residents of the Chinese capital city to get tested every three days and to need a negative test to enter public venues.,A year ago, when the Delta variant of COVID-19 caused the worst outbreak in China since the one that started the pandemic, and Beijing responded by ushering in the “Zero Covid” policy, the National Health Commission urged provincial authorities to keep the vaccination program “informed, consented and voluntary” and not to introduce mandates for public access, as many Western states had done.,However, that was before China succeeded at vaccinating 87% of its 1.4 billion-strong population, including 97% of Chinese adults, and before the Omicron variant caused the worst and most persistent outbreaks for China until now in the pandemic.,The change also comes as the NHC relaxes travel quarantine requirements for the first time since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, but also as Beijing health authorities indicated they were planning for “Zero Covid” to last another five years.,The NHC reported 427 new cases on the Chinese mainland on Wednesday, most of them concentrated in the eastern provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu, and no new deaths. The news brings the total detected cases on the mainland since the start of the pandemic to 226,176, while total deaths remained at 5,226. The situation has been less rosy in Hong Kong, a special administrative region with greater autonomy, and in Taiwan, where an autonomous government with foreign backing rules in defiance of Chinese claims of sovereignty.,Paradoxically, Chinese elders have a lower vaccination rate than younger generations. Last month, the Financial Times reported that Chinese cities had begun offering “vaccine insurance” to people over the age of 60, pledging to cover their medical costs related to any potential complications caused by vaccination. Some two-thirds of Chinese citizens over 60 are under-vaccinated, with 95 million not having gotten their booster shot as of June 5.,Ma Chaofeng, a health official in Shaanxi’s capital of Xi'an, told reporters on Tuesday that more than two dozen cases had been detected in the city and were identified as the BA 5.2 subvariant of Omicron. The city introduced new mass nucleic testing on Wednesday in an attempt to stay ahead of a larger outbreak, with most commercial and medical institutions remaining open as normal. Nonetheless, in the West, where essentially all pandemic mitigation measures have been discarded, the move was described as “Xi’an shuts back down.”,“The transmission chain is clear, the source is clear,” Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, told reporters on Wednesday about the imported cluster in Xi’an. “The outbreak is considered to be controllable overall, based on the existing epidemic development trend.”。”据美国军事网站“Breaking Defense”8月21日报道，美国国家安全局（NSA）副局长蒂姆·科西巴（Tim Kosiba）日前在TechNet Augusta会议上再度炒作所谓“中国威胁”，声称中美正在各个领域展开“激烈竞争”，尤其不能在人工智能领域落后。科西巴大肆渲染称，从格陵兰岛、朝鲜半岛到西半球，中国都在扮演所谓“搅局者”和“破坏者”，试图在多个领域“帮助美国的敌人”。他还把矛头指向当前中东冲突，声称“中国企业向伊朗提供了地理空间情报，帮助其打击我们的基地和盟友”。不过，报道提到，美国官员对于这种说法存在分歧。中方此前回应澳大利亚广播公司相关报道时表示，有关卫星图像来自开源渠道，属于正常市场行为。

二 | 在科西巴看来，人工智能正成为中美竞争的关键。他称，AI正在改变战争攻防形态，而且这种变化并非发生在“未来一年或十年”，而是已经出现在当下的军事行动中。美国国家安全局正寻求加强与国内外伙伴及企业的合作。科西巴还煞有介事，宣称美国的“对手”正投入资源发展AI能力，试图渗透美国网络并赶超美国。谁能率先将AI全面整合进工作流程并充分利用数据，“谁就将获得巨大优势”。

三 | “我们不能落后，一刻都不行。”值得一提的是，美方近年来频频以“不能落后中国”为由渲染AI竞争，甚至不断强化技术封锁和出口限制。但不少业内人士警告，将AI发展过度安全化、阵营化，反而可能阻碍技术交流与创新。英伟达CEO黄仁勋此前多次质疑美国对华AI芯片限制，直言限制中国获取美国技术并不会阻止中国发展AI，反而会刺激中国企业加快自主研发。在他看来，美国要保持AI领先，靠的应该是让自身技术得到更广泛使用，而非把竞争对手挡在门外。