China, Russia, Mongolia meet to reinforce trilateral tourism ties www.chinadaily.com.cn

With the aim of deepening trilateral cooperation in the tourism sector, the Fourth Tourism Ministerial Conference of China, Russia and Mongolia was held on Sunday in Ulaanqab, a city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Attending the event were Luo Shugang, China's minister of culture and tourism; Alexey Konyushkov, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation; and Ts. Tsengel, state secretary at the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism of Mongolia. They were joined by hundreds of representatives from the tourism, culture, academic and media sectors from the three countries.

Luo, who delivered the keynote speech, pointed out that tourism cooperation is such a vital part of the trilateral relationship that it plays an irreplaceable role in deepening friendship and understanding among the people of China, Russia and Mongolia.

According to Luo, the most noteworthy development in tourism since 2016, when the first ministerial conference was held, is that the number of mutual visits among the three countries is steadily rising.

In 2018, over 2.4 million Russian tourists visited China, a 3 percent year-on-year increase. The number of visitors from Mongolia to China rose 2.8 percent to over 1.9 million; the number of Chinese visitors visiting Russia hit 2 million, an increase of 21 percent from the previous year; and nearly 200,000 Chinese visitors were received by Mongolia, a 19 percent growth.

The statistics show the growing appeal of Russia and Mongolia as tourist destinations for Chinese travelers. They are also an indicator that tourism plays a pivotal role in trilateral friendship, Luo said.

Luo proposed five suggestions for future cooperation: deepening the integration of culture and tourism and crafting quality cross-border travel products; using tourism as an engine to boost the intensive development of other related industries such as transportation, catering and entertainment; upgrading travel services to make them convenient and more comfortable for tourists; strengthening surveillance of the tourism market to build a safe and civilized environment; and enhancing the reputation of the "Tea Road" as a travel brand.

Konyushkov said that Russia, China and Mongolia are important partners in the field of tourism. Time-honored friendships and geographic proximity have created a favorable environment for the three countries to develop crossborder tourism.

He mentioned that the largest number of inbound visitors to Russia comes from China, and the number of Russian visitors to China is also growing. The tourism ministerial conference serves as an effective platform to facilitate trilateral tourism cooperation, Konyushkov said.

Tsengel said Mongolia will improve its infrastructure for international visitors. Specific measures include opening rail routes to connect with Siberia, increasing the number of air routes and flights, and launching favorable visa policies to attract more travelers.

The Minutes of the Fourth Tourism Ministerial Conference of China, Russia and Mongolia were signed at the event, establishing another milestone in the history of the trilateral partnership in crossborder tourism.

Initiated by China, the first ministerial conference was held in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia. The second was held in Russia's Buryatia and the third was in Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar last year.

The Tea Road Cultural and Tourism Expo was also unveiled on Sunday as part of the event.

Covering a total length of over 13,000 kilometers, the Tea Road served as an important international commercial road in the history of Eurasia.

Since the establishment of the Tea Road International Tourism Alliance in 2016, a wide range of related travel products have been jointly developed by China, Russia and Mongolia, including an international self-driving tour, a special train, a summer camp and more, making the cross-border tourism scene diversified and vibrant.

How one woman took on Mongolia’s mining industry to save the snow leopards www.scmp.com

Bayarjargal Agvaantseren roused local communities and politicians to prevent mines destroying the magnificent mountain cat’s habitat
Her work saw the creation of a 1.8-million-acre natural park, home to a population of snow leopards that is the world’s second largest after China

There are fewer than 7,000 snow leopards in the wild today, and those numbers are decreasing, according to the likes of global conservation body WWF. Photo: ShutterstockThere are fewer than 7,000 snow leopards in the wild today, and those numbers are decreasing, according to the likes of global conservation body WWF. Photo: Shutterstock
There are fewer than 7,000 snow leopards in the wild today, and those numbers are decreasing, according to the likes of global conservation body WWF. Photo: Shutterstock
The fight to save snow leopards in Mongolia was never going to be easy – not when it involved taking on mining companies, the backbone of the country’s most powerful industry. It was a long road, one that saw a suspicious death, efforts to convince rural communities that the snow leopard was not their enemy, and the creation of a massive new national park, but Bayarjargal Agvaantseren got there in the end.
The snow leopard is as renowned for its beauty as for its scarcity. It lives at altitudes of more than 10,000 feet, and has evolved to camouflage itself in the snowy landscapes in which it makes its home – but the outlook for the magnificent mountain cat is grim. Habitat fragmentation, poaching, retaliatory killings by farmers who have lost livestock, and the current climate crisis – which could result in a loss of up to 30 per cent of the snow leopard’s habitat in the Himalayas alone – are threatening its survival.

Today, there are fewer than 7,000 snow leopards in the wild; according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which considers it a vulnerable species, the population of mature animals is estimated to be less than 3,400. The IUCN and the global conservation body WWF both believe those numbers are decreasing.
At the beginning we didn’t know what to do, because people were worried about the economy and nobody cared about snow leopards

Mongolia is home to some 1,000 snow leopards, the second-largest population after China – but the country’s booming mining industry is a grave threat to their habitat. Thanks to the efforts of Agvaantseren, however, the government created the 1.8 million-acre Tost Tosonbumba Nature Reserve in April 2016 – the culmination of her seven-year fight against the influential sector.
“We learned in 2009 that the entire Tost Tosonbumba mountain range was being given away to the mining industry, which was quite shocking news to us because South Gobi is the region where 20 per cent to 25 per cent of all Mongolian snow leopards live,” says Agvaantseren, executive director of the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation and Mongolia Programme Director at the United States-based Snow Leopard Trust. “It was not easy,” recalls the 50-year-old. “In the beginning we didn’t know what to do, because people were worried about the economy and nobody cared about snow leopards.”

At the end of the 2000s, mining was regarded as Mongolia’s economic saviour, and the government started to give prospecting and extraction licences to companies from all over the world. It worked a treat; in 2011, the country’s economy completed a remarkable turnaround, recording the highest GDP growth in the world at an astonishing 17.3 per cent.
The price of this, however, was the 37 exploratory licences granted to exploit natural resources in the Tost mountains, which Agvaantseren worried could be the final nail in the snow leopard’s coffin.
Mongolia’s toxic air tears families apart as children are evacuated
“A study had just showed that the area was one of the most important for the species, because it had the highest concentration of snow leopards in the world, and it’s located between the Great Gobi National Park and the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, becoming a corridor linking both,” she says. “So we thought it was time to do something about it.”
Agvaantseren knew the road ahead would be challenging, not just over mining’s economic importance but because it takes a parliamentary majority to secure a national park designation. But she did not shy away from the conflict.
“In the beginning, we thought local protection would be enough. But we were wrong,” Agvaantseren says. “The mining companies were not going to give up, and corruption was rife among local politicians, so licences were granted even though communities were not giving their approval as required by the law. We had no choice but to give the national level a shot.
“We were committed to do all it takes.”
First, however, Agvaantseren had to get the local people on board. The mining companies’ plans would also mean a notable degradation of pastureland for the 200 nomadic herder families in the area. Although some had been promised better-paying jobs in the mines and had hopes for the region’s development, she received unconditional support from the community.
“They understood this was also a fight to protect their land and lifestyle, and many were also aware that the mines already in operation close to the border with China didn’t fulfil people’s expectations,” Agvaantseren explains. “Even the local governors acknowledged that even if they encouraged mining companies to hire local people, the lack of skills would make that unfeasible. So they would end up bringing in Chinese labour.”

Politicians were not so easy to convince, however. Lobbying legislators for support took time, and while the mining companies were willing to come to the table for discussions, tragedy would soon strike.
People suspected that mining companies were behind his sudden death. We realised we should continue fighting as a tribute to Sumbee

Agvaantseren is not keen to talk about it, but on November 11, 2015, a young colleague of hers, Lkhagvasumberel Tumursukh – also known as Sumbee – was found dead in Lake Khovsgol, almost 2,000km from where he was supposed to be, in Gobi. The autopsy showed he had drowned and the police ruled it a suicide, but few believe this to be the truth. “It was shocking for us. People suspected that mining companies were behind his sudden death. We realised we should continue fighting as a tribute to Sumbee,” Agvaantseren said at the time.

The Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation helped draft the petition and launched a media campaign to gather more support, both among the country’s upper echelon of power and at the grass roots level.
“I think this was also a victory for Mongolian women, because we were the most involved,” says Agvaantseren, with pride. “We finally got the national park approved in 2016, but it wasn’t until July 2018 that all mining licences were revoked,” says the activist, who won the Goldman Environmental Prize this year for her conservation work. As a result of her efforts, the government has cancelled all 37 mining licences within the Tost Tosonbumba Nature Reserve, and all mining operations there are illegal.
Mongolian herders moved to the capital city but now intense pollution is forcing to reconsider
When Agvaantseren spent 1998 working as a language teacher in the Mongolian city of Erdenet, little did she know her life would soon be forever changed. “On a summer break, I had the opportunity to do some translation work for a snow leopard biologist in Gobi-Altai [province], and that’s how I learned what the situation of the species was,” Agvaantseren says. Inspired, she decided to act before it was too late.
From the beginning, Agvaantseren was certain nothing would change for good if the local community wasn’t committed and the human-wildlife conflict wasn’t properly addressed.
“The first thing I did was to set up a programme called Snow Leopard Enterprises. It offered income-generation opportunities for rural herders who share the mountains with snow leopards. This has been running for two decades now, and it has been successful in linking the production of handicrafts with conservation,” she says.

“Rural communities sign a conservation contract with us and also with the national parks. It’s a commitment to stay away from poaching and from retaliatory killing. In return, they can sell handicrafts to us and, if they keep their promise and harm no animal, they receive a bonus at the end of the year on top of that income.”
The Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation buys the merchandise – mostly Mongolian-themed handicrafts made of sheep and camel wool – directly from these communities, and distributes them at various outlets for tourists across the country. Because Mongolia receives too few visitors to make this business sustainable on its own, the Snow Leopard Trust imports items to the US and markets them at zoos that have snow leopards in captivity, and at pet shops.
But when a herder killed one of the cats in her study, claiming it had killed 26 of his goats, Agvaantseren decided to meet the community to discuss how to prevent these retaliatory killings. “They told us that the damage snow leopards induce in their economy was huge and that they needed proper compensation. They didn’t care that snow leopards are protected under the Mongolian law, because there is no compensation scheme and staying put could mean going hungry.”
To address the issue, in 2009 the foundation looked to India and adopted a version of its livestock insurance programme. It has not looked back since.

“Once local people’s losses were compensated, their attitude changed. They stopped seeing the snow leopard as an enemy,” says Agvaantseren, who has also been awarded such distinctions as the 2009 Rabinovitz-Kaplan Prize for the Next Generation, Mongolia’s Leading Environmental Worker in 2010 and the 2017 Polar Star medal.
Her work has not just made snow leopards safer, it has also helped their prey – including ibex and gazelles – flourish. However, Agvaantseren criticises the IUCN’s decision to downgrade the snow leopard’s status from endangered to vulnerable. “It’s a controversial move because researchers believe there is no ground for it. The population is already very small and it’s still decreasing,” she says.
Agvaantseren believes her work is not over. “The park is brand new, so we still need to work on its management. This is just another beginning. My goal is to make a national park system run by local people.”
She points out that snow leopards are still under serious threat, especially from China. “They are very precious for their bones because they are turned into traditional medicine. Leopard skin rugs are also very expensive and used by some Chinese as a symbol of status. Even keeping them as pets is now fashionable! So poaching and illegal trade are still a concern.”
Interestingly, she has never seen a snow leopard in the wild. “But I’ve been close – always arriving at the place of a sighting one day ahead or after,” she says, with a shrug and a smile.

Mongolia establishes foundation to support athletes www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has established a foundation to provide financial assistance to athletes who will participate in Olympics and other international competitions.

Dalian iron ore rises as supply crunch concerns persist www.reuters.com

China’s iron ore futures extended gains on Friday after touching a record high in the previous session, as concerns persisted over tight supply amid declining shipment from Rio Tinto and expectations of strong demand.

Apple, Microsoft and other tech companies ask to be excluded from the China tariffs www.cnn.com

New York (CNN Business)Technology companies have been feeling the sting of the escalating trade war between the United States and China. Now, they're trying to avoid a proposed new round of tariffs that takes aim at many American tech products.

More than half a dozen big tech companies wrote to the Trump Administration this week asking it not to hit the products they produce in China with additional tariffs.
The White House has proposed a bill that would place a 25% tariff on $300 billion in Chinese goods not already subject to tariffs. The tariff would apply to a wide range of products, from live buffalo and primates to T-shirts and shoes. It would also cover laptops, video game consoles, battery cases and other products that tech companies say would increase costs for consumers or harm their abilities to make a profit.
In public filings commenting on the proposal, Apple (AAPL), Dell Technologies (DELL), HP (HPQ), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT), Sony (SNE) and Nintendo (NTDOY) asked that their products be excluded from the list of goods the tariff would apply to. The Consumer Technology Association also submitted a letter asking the government to develop a process for companies to request that their goods be excluded from the tariff, arguing that increasing tariffs is the wrong way to improve the US-China trade relationship.
"No one wins in a trade war, and an escalating tariff fight will inflict immense damage on American businesses, workers and consumers," the Association wrote.
The letters were filed ahead of a public hearing on the proposal earlier this week.

The proposed tariff is a continuation of an ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China. Last month, the United States raised tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese exports from 10% to 25%, and China responded by increasing tariffs on American goods, such as cotton and grain. The two countries have also been swapping other retaliatory measures, including a US export ban imposed on Chinese smartphone company Huawei.
The trade dispute has forced some tech companies to look beyond China for new locations, mostly in Southeast Asia, to produce their goods. But leaving China is a slow and costly process, because the country has for decades amassed the infrastructure, talent and suppliers needed for manufacturing.
In its letter, Apple highlighted its contribution to the US economy, saying it is the largest US corporate tax payer and is responsible for more than 2 million jobs across the country. The company said additional tariffs would reduce this contribution, and could also threaten Apple's ability to compete with foreign technology companies.
"The Chinese producers we compete with in global markets do not have a significant presence in the US market, and so would not be impacted by US tariffs," Apple wrote. "Neither would our other major non-US competitors. A US tariff would, therefore tilt the playing field in favor of our global competitors."
Apple attached a list of nearly 20 products ⁠— including iPhones, MacBooks and AppleTVs⁠ — that it wants excluded from the tariff.
A joint letter from Dell, HP, Intel and Microsoft asked the government to leave laptops and tablets out of the list of goods covered by the tariff. The companies said the tariff could raise the average retail price of a laptop by $120, citing a study from the Consumer Technology Association. Another letter from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft asked that video game consoles be excluded.
Among the reasons cited by the Trump Administration for the tariffs is a concern about Chinese theft of US companies' intellectual property. In the Dell letter, the companies acknowledged this as a legitimate concern, but argued that continued tariff hikes would do little to stop it.
"Imposing additional tariffs on laptops will in practice undermine the Administration's policy priorities in this China investigation," the companies wrote in the letter before going on to say the policy would force them to divert time and money away from developing new products and could also threaten their positions as tech industry leaders.
President Donald Trump and Chinese leaders are expected to meet at next week's G20 summit in Japan. Many are hoping that if the talks go well, Trump may decide not to impose the proposed tariff expansion.
The Consumer Technology Association in its letter asked Trump to abandon the tariff strategy altogether, specifically mentioning the G20 meeting as a chance to begin improving US-China relations.
"We further urge the administration to leverage multilateral action, join strategic trade agreements that move China toward transparency, competition and open markets," the letter reads, "while resisting the imposition of taxes and trade barriers that would continue to harm American interests, risk our economic future and jeopardize our technological leadership."

More Russian commodities expected to come into China www.chinadaily.com.cn

HARBIN - More Russian commodities are expected to come into the Chinese market, a Russian trade representative said.

High-level inter-regional conference against terrorism taking place in Ulaanbaatar www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On June 20, the High-Level Inter-Regional Conference on ‘Whole-of-Society Approach’ to Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism kicked off at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The conference is being co-organized by the Government of Mongolia, OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.

Mongolia's possibility to become Eurasian integrated logistics hub discussed www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A seminar themed ‘Logistics trend in Eurasian Continent and Role of the Mongolian Transport Sector’ took place on June 19 at Construction Development Center. The Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning organized the consultation in partnership with JICA.

Mongolia ranks 42nd in Global Peace Index www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Institute for Economics and Peace released its thirteenth edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

Mongolia Rapidly Moving Out of Russian World, Raising Concerns in Moscow www.jamestown.org

For most of the Soviet period after 1945, Russians informally viewed Mongolia as “the 16th Soviet republic” not only because it tried to become one during World War II, but also because, even more than Bulgaria, it slavishly copied Soviet laws and practices. Notably, Mongolia introduced a Cyrillic-based alphabet close to Russian in 1941 (Asiarussia.ru, April 1, 2018). Moreover, it promoted Russian in its media and educational system to the point that, in many sectors, Russian displaced Mongol as the most frequently used language (Cod15.ru, May, 10 2018).

This pattern partially had its roots in the fact that Imperial Russia played a key role in Mongolia’s acquisition of independence from China just over a century ago. But additionally, it stems from the history of the Soviet Union using this large (one-third the size of the United States) but underpopulated (just over three million residents now) Northeast Asian country to put pressure on China, which still controls Inner Mongolia. Moscow further sought to use its dominance in Mongolia to prevent Beijing from using the Mongols against their co-ethnics inside Soviet Russian borders, the Buryats (or Buryat Mongols as they were known until 1958) (Fergananews.com, September 11, 2008). However, with the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989 and then of the Soviet Union itself two years later, all that began to change. And now, in the words of one Russian specialist, “an entire generation has grown up in Mongolia that does not know Russian” (Rossyiskaya Gazeta, June 11, 2019). Indeed, some in Mongolia even want to do away with the Cyrillic alphabet entirely and go back to the vertical script Mongols had used for centuries (Vb.kg, May 11, 2017; Gtrkchita.ru, April 17, 2018; 161.ru, May 16, 2019).

From Moscow’s perspective, such moves on language and alphabets in Mongolia are just as offensive and dangerous as similar policies in the former Soviet republics (see EDM, January 28, 2019; Commentaries, March 5, 2018). Indeed, they may be even more worrisome for two reasons. On the one hand, they introduce a new complexity to Russia’s relations with China, further undermining Moscow’s confidence that it can reliably expect Ulaanbaatar to be on its side in talks with Beijing. And on the other, changes in Mongolia in this regard are likely to have an impact on the already-restive Buryats within current Russian borders, who, to this day, follow closely what happens in Mongolia (Gazeta-n1.ru, March 17, 2017).

While Russian does remain the most widely known foreign language in Mongolia—Chinese has so far not made massive inroads as many had predicted—it is now very much a foreign language rather than a national one. It has not been a requirement for entry into Mongolian universities since 1990, and it has not been a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools since 2003, the year in which English replaced Russia as the required foreign language. What this means—and what anecdotal evidence appears to confirm (Quora.com, October 18, 2014)—is that while most Mongols over 35 know Russian, most below that age no longer do. This pattern suggests the role of Russian will continue to decline unless radical measures are taken, something Moscow would like to see but which Ulaanbaatar presently has no plans to introduce.

Just how dire the situation of the Russian language and, with it, of Russian cultural and political influence in Mongolia has become was recently described by Nyamzhav Naymdavaa, a Russian-language teacher in the Mongolian capital. In a paper for delivery at a Moscow competition on Russian-language use outside the Russian Federation, she recalls “the golden times of the end of the 1940s, when Russian was studied in all the schools of the country four or five hours a week, or the end of the 1970s, when a Pedagogical Institute of the Russian Language was established, an institution that, over the decade of its existence, graduated 1,847 Russian teachers.” Those times, she says, are not likely to reappear. Worse, Naymdavaa argues, in 1989, Ulaanbaatar canceled the contracts of all Russians teaching Russian in Mongolia. As a result, 500 lost their jobs altogether, and “more than 200” stopped providing Russian-language classes and began to teach English instead (Rossyiskaya Gazeta, June 11, 2019).

To be sure, the Ulaanbaatar-based teacher writes, Russian instruction did not completely disappear. But even positive steps contain negative aspects. Three years ago, for example, the Mongolian Ministry of Education said schools could reintroduce Russian-language courses but only where each could assemble “no less than 25” pupils who wanted to study the language. In some places, that has effectively blocked Russian instruction altogether. And she said she was encouraged that Ulaanbaatar has restored a Russian-language television program after canceling it 33 years ago.

Moscow has responded to this situation by increasing the number of scholarships for Mongols who want to study Russian in Russian universities, by providing more support to Russian-language instructors in Mongolia so that they can help the approximately 3,000 young people there in such classes continue, and by launching a major propaganda campaign against any further cuts in Russian-language instruction or any consideration of the idea that Mongolia should dispense with the Cyrillic alphabet and go back to its original national one (Russkiymir.ru, June 3, 2019; Vb.kg, May 11 2017; Gtrkchita.ru, April 17, 2018).

Moscow may be on the winning side of efforts to block a return to the pre-Cyrillic national script, as there are many Mongols who oppose such a move; but it almost certainly will be the loser elsewhere. All evidence seems to suggest that the Russian language will continue to decline in importance in Mongolia. And with that decline, Russian influence will wane there as well.