Global Times - 30.07.2019

Tuesday July 30, 2019 17

VIEWPOINT

Fifth-generation cellular net-
works will stretch across most
of the industrialized world
within a few years. Thanks to
researchers and developers in
Bologna, Italy, that will include
the inside of buildings, opening
up a wide range of new uses.
The technology, best known
as 5G, is on the cutting edge
of cellular networks. It offers
faster and more stable network
connections and can support
up to 10 times as many users
in a given area compared to tra-
ditional fourth-generation (4G)
networks.
Specifically, it can support as
many as a million devices per
square kilometer, compared to
less than 100,000 devices per

square kilometer for 4G.

According to Raffaele Barbe-

rio, director of Key4biz, a lead-

ing technology and digital com-

munications portal, that makes

5G ideal for areas with brief,

dense numbers of users, such

as stadiums, rallies or concerts.

But thanks to the work of

researchers and technology de-

velopers from the University of

Bologna and communications

company JMA Teko, part of

JMA Wireless, 5G networks are

being used inside buildings,

where they have the capacity to

run industrial robots and guide

automated assembly and pro-

duction lines that must be pre-

cisely synchronized.

In this way, the use of 5G

networks is not just better than

4G, Barberio said, but also su-

perior to wireless-fidelity, or

Wi-Fi, systems that are used to

allow devices to communicate

and coordinate.

“The ‘in-building’ networks

are a unique way to take ad-

vantage of the frequencies that

allow very high concentrations

of devices to be connected with

very fast speeds, with more

capacity, shorter delays, and

more stability than would have

seemed possible a few years

ago,” Remo Ricci, chief execu-

tive of JMA Teko, told Xinhua.

JMA Teko, one of the cre-

ators of “in-building” 5G net-

works, was the first to offer

the technology commercially

though others have since fol-

lowed suit, according to Ricci.

Much of the worldwide fo-

cus on 5G networks has been

on the impact they will have

for personal mobile phone us-

age. There are predictions the

new technology will represent

a new boom for mobile phone

producers, since consumers

will have to buy new devices to

access the new, faster networks.

But according to Barberio,

the main value of 5G networks

will be their industrial and

commercial use. The Key4biz

portal predicted the global im-

pact of 5G networks around the

world will be worth more than

$17 trillion – roughly the size of

the gross domestic product for

the entire 28-nation European

Union – within 15 years.

“The potential is immense,”

Barberio said in an interview.

“It is mistaken to look at 5G as

simply a faster version of 4G. It

is not just a faster moving river,

but also one much, much deep-

er and wider.” He went on: “It

is a little like the internet many

years ago. I think that in the fu-

ture 5G networks will have uses

we cannot imagine today.”

The article is from the Xinhua

News Agency. opinion@

globaltimes.com.cn

Murder case reveals US legal flaws

Italian researchers eye new game-changing ‘in-building’ 5G networks

Page Editor:

liaixin@

globaltimes.com.cn

By Zhi Zhenfeng

T

he verdict and sentencing in the
case of the kidnap-murder in the
US of visiting Chinese schol ar
Zhang Yingying by Brendt Christensen
sparked an outcry on the Chinese inter-
net. A federal jury sentenced the former
University of Illinois physics doctoral
student to life in prison on July 18.
Many Chinese people on the internet
expressed doubts about the ability of
the US judicial system to uphold justice
and even suggested that factors like
racial discrimination are hidden inside
so-called procedural justice.
Compared with the O. J. Simpson
murder case of over 20 years ago, the
attitude of Chinese mainland public
opinion has changed dramatically.
Simpson’s case also includes elements
of race, sex, violence and a long inves-
tigation before the trial ended. The
Simpson acquittal, with which most
Americans did not agree, became a
living textbook for many Chinese law
students to understand procedural
justice. To some extent, Simpson’s case
enlightened the Chinese mainland legal
world of that time.
Why then has the US court judg-
ment in the Zhang Yingying case met
with so much apparent Chinese dissat-
isfaction? This is not only because the
victim was an innocent Chinese girl,
but more importantly because of the
differences between China and the US
in the criminal justice system, in their
culture, as well as the fact that Chinese
public opinion no longer succumbs to
the mighty legal culture of the US.
The judgment in Zhang’s case re-
flects differences between the Chinese
and US judicial systems. The first is
the imposition of the death penalty.
Many states in the US have abolished
the death penalty. Even in those states
that have not, it is extremely difficult to
impose the death penalty in practice.
This is an important reason why Chris-
tensen, the devil, could escape the death
penalty. The second is the jury system.
As early as in North America in the
colonial era, the jury system emerged.

At that time, it had the function of fight-

ing against the British monarchy. Later,

the intention of balancing the relatively

closed and professional judiciary by

introducing the perspectives of ordinary

citizens was added. The jury system

sometimes does a good job in prevent-

ing wrongful convictions.

However, practice has long proved

that it is easy to lose control of a jury

and the jury system is prone to failure.

As jury members do not understand

the law and many people are poorly

educated, they can be easily affected

by lawyers and emotions. Since the

death penalty must be fully agreed

by the entire 12 members, it greatly

reduces the possibility of fair judgment.

Complex racial and religious situations

have made many jury members bring

prejudice into judgment, leading to

unfair decisions. Racial discrimina-

tion, in particular, has almost become a

pertinacious illness accompanying the

US judicial system. The US Civil War,

the 1992 Los Angeles riot in which over

50 people died, more than 2,000 people

were injured and tens of thousands of

people arrested, and the 2014 unrest in

Ferguson, all have something to do with

unfair judgments.

Due to various reasons such as the

underdeveloped information of the

past, China’s academic circles have not

studied these issues in depth. For a long

time, many cases in which the unfair

US judicial judgment led to bad con-

sequences were not known by Chinese

people. Also because of the image of a

developed economy, democratic politics

and a thriving rule of law of the US

in modern times, especially in recent

years when some US TV dramas in

China were praised and advocated, the

US judicial system has always been an

advanced and perfect symbol of civiliza-

tion in Chinese people’s minds. For a

long time, doubts about US court judg-

ment have been a matter of courage.

The Simpson case is a typical example

with which many Americans do not

agree, but on the contrary, was regarded

as the gold standard by some Chinese

scholars.

Perhaps, in the early days of reform

and opening-up when the Chinese

people did not know enough about the

outside world and the rule of law, it

was modest and prudent not to harbor

doubts. However, access to knowledge

at home and abroad, especially the

growing popularity of the internet, has

gradually broken the illusion that the

grass is always greener on the other

side of the fence, and has also lifted the

veil off the rule of law. More in-depth re-

search and understanding have exposed

flaws in many things that were origi-

nally considered advanced, developed

and civilized. False belief could result

from misunderstanding and blindness

to the past, but can also be abandoned

by today’s understanding.

Although there have been wrathful

comments in public, we cannot com-

pletely deny the advantages of the US

judicial system because of individual

cases. However, seen from the reactions

to the Zhang case in Chinese mainland

online public opinion, the disenchanted

will not blindly follow the powerful

discourse of the US rule of law.

The author is a legal expert at the Chinese

Academy of Social Sciences. opinion@

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT globaltimes.com.cn