The explosions of pagers and handheld radios across Lebanon are no different from terrorist attacks and reflect Western countries' indifference to human lives, said a Belgian analyst.
The death toll in explosions targeting pagers and handheld radios across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday has risen to 37, whereas the injuries came at 2,931, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said Thursday.
Belgian politics and conflict analyst Elijah Magnier told China Media Group (CMG) that the use of explosives capable of causing widespread injury and fatalities evokes memories of terror attacks.
"This collaboration among the secret services in the West and Israel, they see Israel as a main ally. It is detrimental because there is no consideration on who is going to use it, when to use it, and against whom. They just created a terrorist act, but not only that, putting metal balls inside the batteries along with a highly sensitive explosive like the PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate), for example, to create a vast amount of injury and fatality, is using exactly the same style that ISIS use in suicide bombs," said Elijah Magnier during an interview with
Stressing that Western countries display double standards in respect to human life, Magnier said the U.S., Israel's main ally, turns a blind eye to escalating tensions and civilian deaths in the region and that U.S. support for Israel not only faces criticism from the international community but also exposes the hypocrisy of the Western world.
"The main problem is we in the West pretend to have values and abide by the international law. We look at what happened or our leaders in the West are looking at what happened as an expression of admiration for what the Israelis were capable of, without looking at the human life and the human value. That is the main problem that allowed Israelis to do a sabotage attack and get away with it," said Magnier.
Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have been escalating since Oct 8, 2023, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Hamas. Israel retaliated with artillery fire into southeastern Lebanon. The conflict has resulted in hundreds of deaths in Lebanon, and Hezbollah claimed its attacks have inflicted casualties in Israel.
The recent explosions add a new layer to the ongoing 11-month clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, marked by deadly Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel.
Pager blasts in Lebanon no different from terrorist attacks: Belgian expert
Tax and administrative fee reductions have boosted the development of China's manufacturing industry, as the sector posted a 4.6 percent year-on-year growth in total sales revenue in the first eight months, latest data from the State Taxation Administration showed on Friday.
During the period, the sales revenue of the manufacturing industry accounted for 29.7 percent of the combined sales revenue of all industries, 0.8 percentage points higher over the previous year. This shows that the "bedrock" role of the manufacturing industry in the national economy becomes more prominent and the sector is moving towards the medium- to high-end development featuring high intelligence and green development.
"From January to August, the combined value of digital technology products and services purchased by enterprises in the manufacturing industry went up 10.7 percent year on year, driving the sales revenue of intelligent equipment manufacturing growing by 11.5 percent. The total value of energy conservation and environmental protection services purchased by industrial enterprises above designated size soared 19.1 percent, reflecting the increased efforts of these enterprises in conserving energy and controlling pollution," said Dai Shiyou, head of the administration's policies and regulations department, at a press conference.
Industrial enterprises above designated size are companies with annual revenue from principal business reaching or above 20 million yuan.
The administration's data indicated that a host of tax and administrative fee reduction policies have effectively reduced burden on manufacturing enterprises.
From 2018 to 2023, newly introduced tax and fee cuts, tax refunds, and deferred tax and fee payments for manufacturing enterprises exceeded four trillion yuan (about 567 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for more than 30 percent of all tax and fee concessions, the largest share among all industries.
"From January to August this year, tax and fee cuts and tax refunds for supporting sci-tech innovation and the development of the manufacturing industry totaled more than 1.8 trillion yuan," Rao Lixin, the administration's deputy director, said at the press conference.
After the large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in campaign was launched in early March, the total value of new machinery and equipment purchased by enterprises nationwide from April to August was up 5.6 percent over the previous year.
During the period, new energy vehicle and second-hand car sales volume soared 38.4 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively. The sales revenue of refrigerators, TVs, furniture and sanitary ware all logged positive growth.
China's manufacturing sector posts 4.6-pct growth in total sales revenue: data
