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Prince Harry you killed innocent Afghans

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The Taliban has denounced UK’s Prince Harry for his admission of killing 25 people while on military duty in Afghanistan. The officials alleged that the son of Britain’s King Charles committed war crimes and killed innocent civilians.

The condemnation came after Harry in his memoir revealed the number of people he killed during his second tour of Afghanistan.

“My number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,” he wrote in the book “Spare”.

“When I found myself plunged in the heat and confusion of combat I didn’t think of those 25 as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board. Bad people eliminated before they could kill Good people.”

Harry went further and tried to justify his action and said he killed those people because of the 9/11 attacks in the US and there is no room to show sympathy for the “enemies of humanity”.

Harry, 38, said he has been neither proud nor ashamed of the deaths. Harry served 10 years in the British military, rising to the rank of captain.

They were not chess pieces, they were humans

A senior Taliban aide, Anas Haqqani expressed his anger over Harry’s claims and said those who were killed were humans not chess pieces.

“Mr. Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return. Among the killers of Afghans, not many have your decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes,” Haqqani said.

Senior Taliban aide, Anas Haqqani

The truth is what you’ve said, Haqqani furthered, adding “Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that (game) of white and black (square).

Haqqani said that he doesn’t expect that the Intentional Criminal Court will summon Harry or the human rights activists will condemn his action, because they are “deaf and blind” to Harry’s case.

“But hopefully these atrocities will be remembered in the history of humanity,” he added.

Speaking to Harici, a top Taliban official anonymously said that it is not the fault of “Prince Harry”, killing of innocent Afghan is the nature of the UK’s government and its soldiers.

“Your fathers were here in Afghanistan in 1839, 1878, then in 1919 for killing and colonizing us. You have walked on the same path and have done nothing strange,” the official said, referring to Harry’s claim he killed 25 people.

The official added that Harry’s confession has revealed his real dynastic nature, which is covered under the “deceptive slogans of humanity and nonsense anti terror war.”

During their 20 years of presence, the foreign troops in general were responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people, children, and women in Afghanistan, he added.

Harry needs to see a psychiatrist

While Mr. Harry is trying level best to show that he isn’t going through any mental illness, but still he needs to go to a psychiatrist, an Afghan expert said. “Killing innocent people and calling them chess pieces is not the work of a normal human being,” Obaidullah Basir said.

“Being happy to kill people without verification or a single check if they are terrorists or civilians, itself indicates an illness of cruelty and inhumanity,” the expert said.

“Personnel and family dispute and other complexity could definitely affect mental health and Mr. Harry has experienced this,” Dr. Matin Royeen, an Afghan-American peace educator told Harici.

Dr. Royeen said that Harry was very young when he lost his mother in a traffic accident and apart from this tragedy, Harry also grew up in the royal family where disputes among his parents were frequent. “Harry had risen in a dysfunctional family and this has affected him,” he said.

Harry has yet to find himself and he also feels abandoned by the royal family and now he wants to end its relation with the royal family forever.

Of course, when Harry returns to the battleground with such a mentality, he sees everyone as the enemy.

In the bigger picture, soldiers from any country, no matter from the US, UK, or others, view the people as an enemy in the battleground. “To justify their act, the soldiers kill people like they are trees, or chairs and on the battlefield they don’t have any human emotion and they see humans as an enemy that must be eliminated,” Dr. Royeen added.

Harry committed war crimes

Taliban Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi criticized Harry for his comments and said that the western occupation of Afghanistan is truly an odious moment in human history.

Prince Harry in a Spartan armoured vehicle in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, in 2008

Balkhi furthered that comments by Prince Harry are a microcosm of the trauma experienced by the Afghans in the past two decades at the hands of occupied forces. “These invaders have killed a number of innocent people and went out without any accountability,” he added.

Harry’s confession of killing people is a “small example” of humanitarian crimes committed by foreign troops in Afghanistan, said the Deputy Spokesman of Taliban, Bilal Karimi.

Several such incidents happened in different parts of the country and the troops of every “occupied country” had a history of “brutal past”, according to Karimi.

A former British Army commander in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, said that Harry’s remarks undermine the good work he did.

Kemp said that Harry is indirectly suggesting the British Army trains “people, including him,” not to see the enemy as human beings, which is very far from the truth”.

Harry has served two tours in Afghanistan. His first tour was from 2007 to 2008 and the second from 2012 to 2013 and the British troops were mostly stationed in the south of Afghanistan.

ASIA

BYD shares soar on promise of ‘5-minute EV charge’

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Shares of BYD, China’s electric vehicle (EV) champion, hit a new record high on Tuesday after its founder, Wang Chuanfu, claimed their EVs can now charge as quickly as filling a car with traditional fuel.

BYD, a rival to Tesla, saw its shares rise by over 6% in early trading in Hong Kong, reaching HK$408.80 (approximately $52.62) per share, marking an approximate gain of 85% over the last 12 months.

The company’s billionaire founder, Wang, stated on Monday that the new charging system developed by the Shenzhen group for BYD’s own EV batteries can add approximately 470 km of range in five minutes.

This claim suggests that BYD has surpassed competitors like Tesla and Mercedes-Benz in fast-charging technology, although the new system depends on several preconditions, including sufficient voltage at charging stations.

There is increasing competition among EV and battery manufacturers to establish faster charging infrastructure to help alleviate consumer concerns about the driving range and charging speed of EVs compared to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.

According to Chris Liu, a Shanghai-based senior analyst at Omdia consulting, China is estimated to install approximately 460,000 new public EV chargers this year, accounting for about two-thirds of the global total, bringing cumulative units to approximately 2.1 million.

BYD’s recent share price increase comes a month after the company shook the global automotive industry by launching a free advanced autonomous driving system, dubbed “God’s Eye,” which it plans to install in its entire new car series.

These moves put further pressure on Elon Musk’s Tesla and Germany’s Volkswagen, as well as a host of domestic competitors, who have been losing market share as EV sales have exploded in China in recent years.

According to data from Automobility, a consulting firm in Shanghai, BYD already holds approximately 35% of the Chinese EV market. It has an 18% share in the pure battery EV segment and a 56% share in the plug-in hybrid segment.

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China’s AsiaInfo expands with DeepSeek-powered AI

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China’s largest telecom software infrastructure provider says that working with artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek is helping the company develop its own AI capabilities, which it will use to expand in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

AsiaInfo Technologies CTO Ouyang Ye said in an exclusive interview with Nikkei Asia that the company’s collaboration with DeepSeek began well before it rose to global prominence earlier this year with a low-cost approach to developing AI models.

Ouyang said that AsiaInfo also works closely with other top-tier Chinese large language models (LLMs) such as Alibaba Cloud’s Tongyi Qianwen and ByteDance’s Doubao, but that the rise of the open-source DeepSeek model is what facilitates and accelerates the deployment of the company’s various AI solutions.

“Our telecom infrastructure software solutions for China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom fully support DeepSeek’s model,” said Ouyang, referring to the country’s three major telecom providers. He said that his company was the first in the industry to embed and fully support DeepSeek.

According to research by AsiaInfo and Tsinghua University, DeepSeek’s model performs well in specialized technical areas such as monitoring network failures and optimizing wireless communication performance.

The CTO said that, for example, China Unicom’s Guangdong subsidiary used AsiaInfo’s DeepSeek-enhanced solutions in February to optimize service efficiency. This initiative reduced training costs by 75%, enhanced AI assistant capabilities, accelerated response times by 200%, and increased the efficiency of human-machine collaboration by 40%.

Hong Kong-based AsiaInfo, a leading telecom software infrastructure solutions provider, competes with US-based Amdocs, India’s Infosys, and Poland’s Comarch. Some network equipment makers like Huawei, HPE, Cisco, and Nokia also provide some software services.

In addition to infrastructure software, AsiaInfo also provides business and operations support systems, such as network monitoring software and customer and billing management, including processing telecom billing information for China’s 1.4 billion population.

AsiaInfo is also the largest software provider for China’s 5G private networks, serving the country’s leading energy providers and steelmakers, such as China Nuclear Group and Shougang Group, as well as miners and wind farm operators. Private networks are set up by businesses or organizations to provide on-site connectivity to facilitate services like factory automation.

Ouyang is optimistic that AsiaInfo can leverage AI to boost its overseas expansion, and that 5G private networks are expected to be a significant growth driver in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The majority of AsiaInfo’s business is in China, and going overseas is one of the company’s core strategies for growth.

“This year, the growth potential in the overseas market is quite large, especially in the fields of mines, ports, and energy, where we have more specific domain expertise,” the senior executive said.

AsiaInfo Chairman and CEO Edward Tian previously stated that the traditional telecom market and spending have slowed in 2024, but the adoption of AI and LLMs has become a key growth driver for the company as customers begin to adopt these technologies in their services.

AsiaInfo says its software can run on servers and other hardware from different companies, including Nvidia, Huawei, and Hygon.

While leading Chinese tech companies and government agencies are adopting DeepSeek, some governments, such as Italy, Australia, Canada, and South Korea, are banning its use on official devices.

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China unveils ‘most comprehensive’ plan in 40 years to boost consumption

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China has unveiled a new plan to stimulate domestic consumption, called the “Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption,” as it grapples with weak confidence and deflationary pressures.

The 30-point plan, issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the General Office of the State Council, aims to “strongly promote consumption, revitalize domestic demand as a whole, and enhance spending power by increasing earnings and reducing financial burdens.”

This plan supports President Xi Jinping’s directive from late last year, instructing policymakers to focus on boosting domestic demand.

Analysts have described China’s newly announced consumption action plan as the most comprehensive policy package the country has released in over four decades to boost consumer spending.

The plan from the State Council, China’s cabinet, will focus on increasing incomes, stabilizing real estate and stock markets, improving the consumption environment, and enhancing healthcare and pension services. Through this plan, the Chinese economy seeks to transition to a consumption-driven growth model.

News of the “Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption” invigorated stock markets on Monday.

The plan announcement, made late Sunday, followed the “Two Sessions” in Beijing last week, where legislators re-emphasized consumption as a top priority.

In China, domestic spending has remained weak since the end of Covid-19 lockdowns over two years ago, as households have been cautious about spending. Consumer prices fell into deflation in February, although figures were positively impacted by the New Year holiday.

The slowdown in China’s vast real estate sector has also renewed calls from economists to bolster domestic demand.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday showed that retail sales rose 4% year-on-year in January and February, surpassing December’s 3.7% increase and aligning with forecasts from a Reuters poll of analysts.

In September, policymakers announced a long-awaited package to support the economy, but the measures largely focused on stock markets, disappointing investors.

The new plan, comprising eight main sections, addresses factors such as income growth, enhancing the quality-of-service consumption, improving large-scale consumption, and improving the consumption environment simultaneously.

It includes a commitment to raising the minimum wage, strengthening support for education, and establishing a subsidy system for childcare—a particularly pressing issue as China’s population has declined for three consecutive years.

Shi Lei, an economics professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, said, “This is the most comprehensive directive to promote consumption since China’s reform and opening up [in the late 1970s],” adding, “According to the policy, authorities will promote the reasonable growth of employees’ incomes by increasing employment, raising the minimum wage, and accelerating the implementation of the paid annual leave system.”

Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Shi noted, “In the past, policymakers often ignored income growth [when discussing ways to boost spending].” He added, “In fact, if consumers have money, they don’t need your encouragement to spend, and if they don’t have money, such encouragement won’t work.”

Lynn Song, ING’s Greater China chief economist, stated that the plan “focuses significantly on boosting household consumption capacity and willingness” and, if implemented correctly, “could help China’s economic transition towards a consumption-driven growth model.”

“The direction looks positive, but implementation is everything. It is not certain that these measures will be enough to restore consumer confidence to healthy levels,” Song wrote, also noting that the administration’s focus on boosting consumption, combined with a relatively low base last year, means that China’s consumption growth could reach a mid-single-digit growth rate in 2025.

Data released on Monday also showed that industrial production increased by 5.9% year-on-year in the first two months of 2025, slowing from 6.2% in December but exceeding analysts’ expectations of a 5.3% increase.

The new package will also promote “inbound” consumption. Beijing has granted visa-free travel to dozens of countries in the past year to revitalize inbound tourism post-pandemic.

It also highlights specific tourism sectors such as “snow and ice.” China has built several indoor ski resorts in recent years, including the world’s largest, which opened in Shanghai in September.

According to the plan, China will also broaden real estate income channels with measures to stabilize the stock market and develop more bond products suitable for individual investors.

The plan calls for exploring ways to unlock the value of homes legally owned by farmers through rental arrangements, equity participation, and cooperative models.

Notably, in addition to traditional consumption sectors such as housing and automobiles, it emphasizes emerging categories such as AI-powered products and the low-altitude economy.

It also states that new consumption sectors with high growth rates will be created by accelerating the development and application of new technologies and products such as autonomous driving, smart wearable products, ultra-high-definition video, brain-computer interfaces, robotics, and additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing.

Xu Chenggang, a senior research fellow at the Stanford University Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, said that Beijing’s shift towards consumption indicates official recognition that the economic situation is “serious.”

Zou Yunhan, a researcher at the State Information Center, also said that consumption is playing an increasingly key role in boosting economic growth, but some challenges still persist in the quest to further unleash consumer potential.

Looking ahead, Zou called for joint efforts from all sectors to ensure the full implementation and effectiveness of the action plan.

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