Officials in Chinese cities and provinces across the country are pulling no punches in stamping out sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks as winter nears, quickly closing venues and enforcing longer temporary lockdowns on millions of people.

Cases in mainland China hit 2,898 on Sunday, topping 2,000 for a second straight day and pressuring the country’s controversial zero-COVID policy, which has hamstrung the economy and exasperated its citizens.

In Guangdong province, manufacturing centre Guangzhou has seen a spate of cases over the past week that has closed some districts. Haizhu’s 1.8 million residents, or about 10 percent of Guangzhou’s population, have been the worst hit.

Total cases in Guangzhou rose to 1,110 during October 24-30 from 402 in the previous seven-day period. The threat of a major lockdown would rattle the city and harken back to the nightmarish two-month lockdown Shanghai experienced a few months ago.

On Monday, Shanghai Disney Resort said it closed the entire resort from October 31 due to COVID prevention measures in the city.

Over the past week, authorities raced to get a handle on rising cases in Datong, Xining, Nanjing, Xian, Zhengzhou and Wuhan, forcing temporary lockdown measures in some neighbourhoods.

Lu Dongliang, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Datong, rushed back from the party congress last week to access the “dire situation in the city” of more than one million.

Datong, which recorded 288 cases from October 27 to 30, has enforced stricter isolation and management of hotels, key industries and its railway. Some officials in the city have been punished for lax enforcement of COVID rules, according to local media reports.

As winter nears, northern cities, particularly those close to international borders, are seeing higher case numbers and could face new curbs.

Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang province, bordering North Korea, extended the temporary lockdown of some areas, according to local media reports. Dandong, Suihua, and Ruili – cities close to North Korea, Russia and Myanmar borders respectively – are experiencing outbreaks.

On October 27-28, 2022, the Institute of Asian Studies of the Charles University in Prague organized an international conference on "Internal and external relationships influence on the Mongolian language and culture".

The conference was opened by Mr. Gansukh Damdin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to the Slovak Republic, and Vice-Dean Daniel Berounsky from Charles University`s Faculty of Philosophy. In his speech, the ambassador thanked the staff of Charles University for supporting Mongolian studies and organizing the international Mongolian Studies Conference in Prague after 30 years.

In his speech, Mr. Gansukh Damdin mentioned “The Government of Mongolia in its "Vision 2050” long-term policy document is pursuing a policy of building unified national values, creating the immunity of the Mongolian language, history, and cultural heritage, and then intensively developing Mongolian studies on the international stage”. He also commended the efforts of Mongolists and scholars to spread Mongolian studies and promote them internationally.

“Mongolia is paying attention to the training of young Mongolists and implementing an annual summer school program for them. For example, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia spearheaded an initiative of marking the International Day of Mongolian Studies and made the ‘Award named after the Minister of Foreign Affair’ for the best work of young researchers available from 2023”, he added.

About 40 Mongolists and scholars from more than 10 countries including Mongolia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Qatar, and Romania participated in the conference. They gave presentations on more than 30 topics.

The Embassy of Mongolia in Slovakia opened the "Khot Mandal-Secret Mantra Temple" photo exhibition and welcomed the delegates to the Mongolian Ger /yurt/.

At least eight Mongolian provinces are likely to experience the extreme wintry weather "dzud" this winter, local media reported on Sunday, citing official sources.

"Out of all the 21 Mongolian provinces, at least eight provinces, namely Bayan-Ulgii, Uvs, Zavkhan, Khovd and Govi-Altai in the west, Bayankongor in the south-west, as well as Arkhangai and Uvurkhangai in the center are likely to experience dzud or near-dzud conditions this winter," the country's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry said in a statement.

A dzud is a brutal weather phenomenon in which a dry summer followed by a frigid winter kills vast numbers of livestock, either by starvation or freezing temperatures.

According to the ministry, the government has stored 15,500 tons of hay and 4,800 tons of fodder for livestock to help them overcome the possible harsh winter.

The livestock sector is a central pillar of the Mongolian economy, while the country's livestock population totaled 67.3 million by the end of 2021.

In 2016, a dzud killed more than 1 million livestock in Mongolia, a nation where pastoral herding is still common.

In pursuit of their joint interests and shared values, Japan, Mongolia, and the United States held a trilateral meeting on October 28, 2022, in Tokyo. The three sides discussed a wide range of regional security challenges, economic issues, and areas for cooperation. The three sides reaffirmed their commitment to strong ties with each other, and dedication to their visions for a free and open Indo-Pacific. Japan and the United States expressed their support for Mongolia’s democracy and Third Neighbor policy.

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asia and Oceania Bureau Director General Funakoshi Takehiro, Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs State Secretary Nyamdorj Ankhbayar, and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Mark Lambert participated in the meeting.

Japan, Mongolia, and the United States emphasized the importance of international law, including the United Nations Charter and the principles of sovereign equality, respect for the independence and territorial integrity of states, and prohibition of the threat or use of force. To this end, the three sides expressed concern over the suffering of the Ukrainian people. The three sides also expressed deep concern about the risk of nuclear weapons use and the deteriorated international security environment, and also called on all states to affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.

Japan, Mongolia and the United States expressed their respective views regarding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) continued development of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery, including the unprecedented number of ballistic missiles launched in 2022. All sides underlined the necessity of resuming dialogue, and called on the DPRK to fully comply with its obligations under relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and to engage in dialogue. All sides also emphasized the importance of the international community fully implementing relevant UN Security Council Resolutions. Japan emphasized the need for an immediate resolution of the abductions issue and thanked the United States and Mongolia for their continued support on this issue.

The three sides reaffirmed their shared commitment to maintaining the rules-based international order, including the principles and the purposes of the United Nations Charter. All sides strongly opposed attempts by any party to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in any region, and they emphasized the importance of resolving disputes by peaceful means.

Japan, Mongolia, and the United States shared their respective visions for regional development, including in the Indo-Pacific, and exchanged views on how to cooperate to ensure a prosperous and peaceful future. All sides concurred to work together to promote the rule of law, peaceful resolution of disputes, human rights, environmental protection, and economic development. Japan and the United States expressed their appreciation for Mongolia’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations and continued stability operations in conflict zones worldwide. All sides expressed an intention to continue defense cooperation and joint training exercises.

Japan, Mongolia, and the United States discussed economic challenges the international community is facing as a result of regional and global shocks. All sides emphasized the importance of strengthening the international economic order to counter new challenges, such as economic coercion. All sides underscored their desire to deepen their economic partnership, including through enhanced collaboration on renewable energy, climate change, supply chain resilience, critical minerals, intellectual property rights, and digital development. They discussed the importance of improving Mongolia’s business climate and ability to attract investment, particularly from Japan and the United States. Japan and the United States discussed their development projects in Mongolia and ways to enhance the mutual complementarity of such projects and their impact on furthering Mongolia’s economic development. In particular, Mongolia and the United States briefed Japan on their joint $462 million Millennium Challenge Corporation Water Compact, which will expand Ulaanbaatar’s water availability by 80 percent. Mongolia expressed appreciation for Japan’s enduring Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects. Japan and Mongolia highlighted their recent cooperation on Chinggis Khaan International Airport, constructed using Japanese ODA and operated by a Mongolia-Japan joint company, to increase the regional connectivity of Mongolia and realize the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) has reached a deal with a major generating company to provide $970 million to fund the construction of the country’s first small modular reactor (SMR). The announcement was made by Canadian Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson on Tuesday.

“We are doing this because nuclear energy – as a non-emitting source of energy – is critical to the achievement of Canada's and the world's climate goals…

Nuclear power is one source that can help in reaching our climate targets while addressing growing future demand,” Wilkinson said about the deal, as cited by Reuters.

Canada intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, and views SMR technology as a key part of this aim.

The funding for the project will come in the form of a low-interest loan from the CIB, which will go toward the preparatory work, including project design and site preparation, Wilkinson added.

The reactor itself will be designed by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and is expected to supply electricity to about 300,000 homes, according to Ontario Power Generation, the recipient of the loan for the project. It says it expects the project to be completed by 2030, while site preparation will start later this year.

SMRs are nuclear reactors that are smaller than traditional nuclear power plants. Unlike the latter, SMRs can be constructed in factories and then transported to be assembled on a site about the size of two soccer fields.

The size of these reactors does not reduce their efficiency, however. Each SMR is reportedly capable of producing enough energy to power about one million homes – the same as produced by 150 onshore wind turbines.

According to the World Nuclear Association, 15% of Canada’s energy currently comes from nuclear power plants.

The Mongolian Association for Chinese studies has been established to boost mutual understanding in areas such as translation, education, and more cultural communications, the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) announced at the inaugural ceremony on Wednesday.

Co-hosted by the BLCU, the Mongolian Embassy in China and other organizations, the establishment of the association will not only provide more convenience for Mongolian Sinologists when conducting their research, but will also to give chances for future doctorate students to be tutored by Sinologists from both Mongolia and China during their studying careers.

The association discussed topics including building a database for Mongolian Sinologists and collecting all the paper works as well as the academic works they’ve composed. In addition, more Sinology works will be republished across Mongolia after being revised by experts from both countries.

“Since as early as the 1920s, there have been many experts doing Chinese studies. And for the past hundred years, many articles concerning the cultural communications between the two countries have been created and shown to the world,” E. Sarantsetseg, director of Chinese Studies at Ulaanbaatar State University, said at the ceremony via video link. “The establishment of the database has set a foundation for experts and Sinologists to conduct further studies,” he added.

The association has invited 21 Mongolian scholars and experts who have made achievements in Chinese studies. “With the establishment of the database, the academic workshops as well as the re-publication of the classics and more mutual communication can be achieved in the future,” said B.Dorj, vice-principal of the National University of Mongolia.

Ever since the Belt and Road Initiative was launched in 2014, Mongolia, with its natural advantages along the ancient Silk Road, has developed cooperative relations with China in areas such as medical care and construction of the economic corridor. The establishment of this association will “surely help boost both education as well as the translation industries of both sides,” said E. Nomin, a member of the academic committee at Otgontenger University.

The World Association for Chinese Studies (WACS) was established in July this year. Nearly 5,000 Sinologists from 103 countries have since been connected to the association, and 67 different kinds of languages have been recorded as well.

If you think Mongolian Mike has been impressive during the Dayton Flyers’ preseason practices – video snippets of his dunking abilities, pinpoint passes and three-point accuracy attest to that – you should see him after practice.

That’s when Mike Sharavjamts has been truly remarkable this past week.

“We’ve just been here five days and he’s picked up four pounds,” his dad, Sharavjamts Tserenjankhar, said with a laugh late Thursday afternoon. “His mom and I are staying in Centerville and every day after practice he comes over for dinner and she cooks Mongolian food.

“He especially likes the Mongolian soups.”

It was Napoleon Bonaparte who said: “An Army marches on its stomach.”

So, too, do young basketball players, especially this 20-year-old, 6-foot-8 freshman point guard when his mom – Erdenebulgan Purevsuren – is making the meal.

Although he spent much time in the United States the past few years – and was born in Phoenix when is 7-foot dad was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters – Sharavjamts was raised in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

When he signed with the Flyers, he became the first-ever Mongolian player to get a Division I basketball scholarship.

He begins his career tonight when the Flyers meet Capital University in a 7 p.m. exhibition game a UD Arena. And with returning starter Malachi Smith injured, he will get more playing time.

His dad and mom will be in the crowd, just as they hope to be for all the Flyers games, home and away, this season.

“My wife and I plan to be here for six months, until the end of the season,” Tserenjankhar said.

He said when they are around – when there’s a little bit of a home atmosphere, Mike “calms down and relaxes… And when he’s relaxed, he grows very fast in basketball.

“Over the years we came here two times – once when he was playing for Prolific Prep (the Napa Valley basketball academy in California that’s sponsored by Adidas) and last year when he was at ISA (the International Sports Academy in Willoughby) – and he did well both times.”

Actually, Sharavjamts has mostly played well no matter who was in the stands.

Something of a basketball prodigy with fabled hoops genes that go back three generations, he first came to America at age 11 to be mentored by the late Bruce O’Neil at the United States Basketball Academy in Blue Ridge, Oregon, a place that has helped thousands of Asian basketball players over the years.

Sharavjamts first showed up in the Miami Valley as a high school freshman at Legacy Christian in Xenia, thanks to the school’s ties to Athletes in Action. He averaged 10.5 points per game that season and the following year joined Prolific Prep, a national showcase team, that played in the Flyin’ to the Hoop tournament that year.

When COVID upended everything the next (2020-2021) season, Sharavjamts returned to Mongolia. While being around family might have been some tonic for the times, it did take him out of the spotlight and caused him to be under-recruited.

He returned here in the summer of 2021 and played for the Cincinnati-based AAU team, the Midwest Basketball Club, coached by Centerville High School coach Brooks Cupps.

Last season (2021-22) at IMS he averaged 10.2 points per gamewhile shooting 51.3 percent (44 of 86) from long range.

Over the summer he trained with the Mongolian national team and would have played with it in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers had those game not been moved back to next month.

Since joining the Flyers – where he’s known as Mongolian Mike – his marquee status has grown back home.

Once his dad – who the Globetrotters billed as The Mongolian Shark – was the most famous basketball player in the nation. Now his son wears that mantle.

A month ago the Dayton Flyers - Mongolian Fans Facebook page was launched and it has over 3,100 followers.

Young basketball-playing Mongolians now look up to him and Tserenjankhar said he guided two of them to this area: “One is 6-foot 11 and is at Chris Wright’s Flyght Academy and another, who’s around 6-7 and really strong, is at Centerville High.”

The television channel SPC, the Mongolian Premier Channel, has sent a film crew to Dayton to do an expansive documentary on Sharavjamts and his family, entitled “Mongolian Mike.” The first of eight trailers recently was released and already has 195,000 views.

The short clip features photos of three generations of the family, clips of Sharavjamts with the national team back in Ulaanbaatar, here in the Cronin Center practice gym and then taking the floor in the otherwise deserted UD Arena.

“Everybody back in Mongolia knows him,” his dad said. “They all are just waiting for his (UD) career to begin.”

From volleyball to the Globetrotters

When Tserenjankhar joined the Globetrotters in 2001 – becoming the team’s first Asian player – it was said he hailed from the tallest family in Mongolia.

He said his dad, who played for the national basketball team, was “around 6-5″ and his mother, a national volleyball team player, was near 6-foot 1. His brother was about 6-foot-9 and his sisters were over 6-feet, as well.

Although he’d grow to 7 feet, Tserenjankhar initially was a volleyball player and knew little about American college basketball and the NBA.

Until he was 16, Mongolia was under Communist rule, he said: “There wasn’t freedom of speech. There were no international trips. It was all closed to the outside world.

“The first time I watched an NBA game was on Russian TV – the Los Angeles Lakers against the Boston Celtics.”

Seeing all the tall athletes, he said: “I was in shock. That’s when I decided to play the game, too.”

He played in a league in Ulaanbaatar and once part of the national team, he starred at the Asian Games.

Eventually, the Asian Basketball Federation convinced Dale Brown, the former LSU coach, to accompany O’Neil to a basketball camp in Mongolia.

Afterward, Brown told Sports Illustrated how Tserenjankhar caught his attention, not just because he towered over his teammates and scored the fastest 50 points he ever saw, but for how agile and skilled he was – even though he was rail thin at 210 pounds.

But Tserenjankhar was 27 – over the age limit for Division I college freshmen – so Brown contacted Globetrotters’ owner Mannie Jackson, who quickly signed him.

When an American coach suggested he take on a nickname that would be easier to pronounce, Tserenjankhar came up with Shark: “I didn’t want to call myself Shaq, but my first name kind of sounded that way, so I became Shark.”

As for the difference in his last name and that of Mike and an older son, he explained:

“In Mongolia, it is tradition that we use our father’s first name as our last name.”

As for the Globetrotters, The Mongolian Shark became an attraction like teammates Matt “Showbiz” Jackson, Michael “Wild Thing” Wilson and Paul “Showtime” Gaffney.

“Being a Globetrotter was a dream come true,” he said. “I’d always wanted to play in America.”

He would end up playing some 400 games with the Globetrotters.

“I’ve been to 48 states and over 300 (U.S.) cities,” he said.

On December 31, 2001, he played at UD Arena.

“Who would ever think that 20-some years later my son would play there, too?” he said.

After his playing career, Tserenjankhar taught high school, worked as a sports director for the government and ran a basketball academy.

He hoped that one day his two sons might embrace basketball and while his eldest -- Munkhiin Od Sharavjamts – is a coach in Mongolia, Mike is embarking on the college career he never got to have.

‘There was so much here he liked’

“As soon as he started to walk, you could tell he was going to be something special,” Tserenjankhar said of Mike. “The very first time he saw a basketball and a backboard -- one of those small ones for children – he picked up the ball and walked over and dunked it. He was maybe a year and two months old.”

While he taught his son some of his early basketball skills, he said his ability to dominate their 1-on-1 matchups ended when Mike was 16 or so.

“And now he’s just too quick,” Tserenjankhar said. “He’d dunk on me.”

Actually he and his son teamed up in a dunk contest in Mongolia a while back.

“He stood out front, pulled of his shirt and underneath was my old (No. 55) Mongolian jersey. Then he came and jumped over me and dunked.”

While COVID limited his early scholarships, Sharavjamts did get offers from Rutgers, Providence, Eastern Washington and UD.

“He chose Dayton because it was very close to his heart,” his dad said. “He had all the ties to the area and the Dayton coaches are great people and then there are the Dayton fans.

“There was so much here he liked.”

And now there’s more.

Every day after practice there’s that Mongolian meal Mom has waiting.

As of Friday (2022.10.28), the exchange rate of Mongolia’s national currency the Tugrik against the U.S. dollar has weakened by 18 percent year on year.

The exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Tugrik is at 3,383.20 on Friday.

The depreciation is largely related to higher imports that led to the outflow of dollars.

Mongolia’s total imports were worth 6.4 billion dollars in the first three quarters of this year, up 24 percent year on year.