The entrance of China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone.

　　Egyptian workers are working in the production workshop of China Jushi Group Egyptian Glass Fiber Industry Company.　　

　　Our reporter Zhou Yushe

　　On March 23, 2020, Chairman of the Supreme Leader and Egyptian President Seyce pointed out on the phone that China attaches great importance to developing China-Egypt relations and is willing to work together with Egypt to deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields and make China-Egypt relations a model for building a community of destiny between China and Africa.

　　This year marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Egypt. Egypt is the first Arab country and African country to establish diplomatic relations with New China. Sino-Egyptian relations are a model of solidarity, cooperation and mutual benefit between China and Africa. Over the past 65 years, China and Egypt have always helped each other and moved forward hand in hand. The relationship between the two countries has withstood the test of changing international situations and has always maintained healthy and stable development. With the joint construction of the "Belt and Road Initiative" deeply docking Egypt’s "Vision 2030", the traditional friendship and pragmatic cooperation between China and Egypt have been deepened, pushing China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level.

　　Pragmatic cooperation has progressed steadily.

　　In the vast desert 50 kilometers east of Cairo, the capital of Egypt, tall buildings are springing up. On the morning of June 17th, local time, the main structure of the sign tower in the Central Business District of Egypt’s new administrative capital, which was built by China enterprises, was capped. Egyptian Minister of Housing assim Gazal and Chinese guests jointly completed the concrete pouring of the last cubic meter of the sign tower. He said: "Today we have witnessed the achievements achieved by Egypt and China through cooperative efforts. We believe that this project today (officially capped) will become a new landmark in Egypt."

　　In recent years, China and Egypt have strengthened the docking of development strategies, jointly built the "Belt and Road" and expanded cooperation in infrastructure construction, production capacity and science and technology. During the epidemic prevention and control period, China-Egypt pragmatic cooperation maintained a good momentum of development, and major cooperation projects were promoted in an orderly manner: on the Suez River, Egyptian enterprises were helping Egypt build container terminals; On the coast of the Red Sea, by the end of April this year, the TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone jointly established by China and Egypt had attracted 102 enterprises to settle in, directly solving about 4,000 jobs, and the industry drove more than 36,000 jobs; In the aerospace field, the Egyptian satellite assembly integrated test center project signed by China and Egypt and the implementation agreement of Egypt-2 satellite are progressing simultaneously … …

　　According to statistics of China Customs, in 2020, the import and export volume of bilateral goods between China and Egypt reached US$ 14.566 billion, up 10.34% year-on-year. Since 2013, China has been the largest trading partner of Egypt for eight consecutive years. In the first quarter of this year, the bilateral import and export volume of goods between China and Egypt was US$ 4.176 billion, an increase of 32.14% over the same period of last year, reaching a new record high.

　　China has become the country with the most active investment in Egypt and the fastest growth rate in recent years. In 2020, China increased its direct investment in Egypt by 190 million US dollars, and its investment stock in Egypt exceeded 1.2 billion US dollars. In the first quarter of this year, China’s new direct investment in Egypt was US$ 83 million, up 134% year-on-year. At present, Chinese and Egyptian enterprises are discussing cooperation in the fields of electric vehicles, agriculture and smart transportation.

　　"China welcomes more Egyptian enterprises to invest in Egypt and is willing to work with China to further enhance the comprehensive strategic partnership between Egypt and China." Sethi said.

　　Humanities exchanges are closer.

　　On June 15th, the unveiling ceremony of the "Chinese Bridge" club Cairo Station was held in Cairo. Mohammed Ayman ashur, Deputy Minister of Higher Education of Egypt, who attended the unveiling ceremony, said that Chinese has become one of the most important languages in the world. At present, young Egyptian students have spontaneously formed a craze for learning Chinese.

　　Egypt is the first country in the Middle East and Africa to teach Chinese. At present, there are 16 Egyptian universities offering Chinese majors or courses. In May this year, the Egyptian Ministry of Education announced that 10 middle schools in Egypt will be used as pilot schools from next year, and Chinese will be offered as an optional course for the second foreign language. Gamar Elshali, vice president of Cairo University, said: "I hope that Chinese teaching will become a channel for cultural exchanges between the people of Egypt and China and promote the communication between the people."

　　"Egypt-China cultural exchanges have a good foundation for cooperation." Mohammed Ersa, former deputy minister of information in Egypt, said that through frequent exchanges in the cultural fields between the two countries, the two peoples have enhanced mutual understanding and the friendship between Egypt and China has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

　　Over the past 65 years, people-to-people exchanges between China and Egypt have yielded fruitful results. According to data from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Relics, China has become Egypt’s fourth largest source of tourists, with hundreds of thousands of China tourists visiting Egypt every year; By the end of 2019, more than 2,800 Egyptian students and 1,200 China students were studying in two countries; Last year, China and Egypt held 52 online cultural exchange activities, attracting nearly 10 million visitors and over 650,000 people to participate in the interaction … …

　　During the epidemic prevention and control period, with the joint efforts of China and Egypt, two Luban workshops located at Ain Shams University in Egypt and Cairo Advanced Maintenance Technical School were completed as scheduled. At present, the teacher training for Egyptian teachers and the formulation of advanced training syllabus for junior high schools have been completed. "Egypt’s vocational and technical education is undergoing reform, and Luban Workshop has brought advanced educational concepts, teaching standards and training equipment." Mohammed Almugahed, Egyptian Deputy Minister of Education, Technology and Education, said.

　　Mahmoud Alam, former Egyptian ambassador to China, said that with the docking of Egypt’s "Vision 2030" and the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, cultural exchanges between Egypt and China have become closer, laying the foundation for Egypt and China to jointly build a community of destiny and deepen comprehensive strategic partnership. Egypt-China cooperation has made great achievements in education, health and other fields.

　　Anti-epidemic cooperation sets a good example

　　An Arabic proverb says, "A friend who comes in trouble is a true friend." In the face of the challenge of the epidemic, China and Egypt have helped each other, written a new chapter in sharing weal and woe, and made contributions to promoting the construction of a healthy human community.

　　During the critical period of China’s anti-epidemic, the Egyptian government and people expressed their firm support for China. Sethi sent Hala Zayed, Minister of Health and Population, as the special envoy of the President to visit China with anti-epidemic materials. Three world cultural heritage sites in Egypt lit up the "China Red" in the form of light shows and raised the five-star red flag to express their firm support for China.

　　China is one of the earliest and largest countries to provide anti-epidemic assistance to Egypt. It has provided four batches of anti-epidemic aid materials to Egypt, provided the latest version of prevention and treatment plan as soon as possible, carried out many video exchanges between Chinese and Egyptian experts, established a counterpart cooperative hospital mechanism, and helped Egypt establish a mask production line. "Different states share weal and woe". The poem of the famous Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawgī vividly explains the friendship between the Chinese and Egyptian people in times of trouble and sharing weal and woe in the aid of the China government to Egypt’s anti-epidemic materials.

　　China has provided two batches of vaccine assistance to Egypt and supported Egypt in purchasing Chinese vaccines. Egypt is one of the first countries to carry out Phase III clinical trials of Chinese medicine vaccine, and is cooperating with China in COVID-19 vaccine production.

　　At the end of May this year, the "China-Africa Counterpart Hospital Cooperation Mechanism Project" was officially launched. jiangsu province hospital and Egypt Ain Shams University Hospital held a signing ceremony of the framework agreement cloud. The two sides will carry out pragmatic cooperation in remote consultation, personnel training and discipline construction. China will further help Egypt improve its epidemic prevention capacity and health service level, and promote the construction of China-Egypt and China-Africa health community.

　　Hala Zayed said that the unity and cooperation between Egypt and China in fighting the epidemic has further deepened the traditional friendship and political mutual trust between the two countries and set an example for the international community in fighting the epidemic.

　　Egyptian Prime Minister Madbouli said that in recent years, Egypt and China have carried out pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and the anti-epidemic cooperation between the two countries has yielded fruitful results, further confirming the special friendship between Egypt and China. Egypt is willing to make joint efforts with China to accelerate cooperation in fighting the epidemic. It is believed that the comprehensive strategic partnership between Egypt and China will be more solid after the epidemic has been tempered, and the friendly cooperation between the two countries will reach a new level.

　　(Cairo, June 18th)

　

Recently, a new user named "996icu" appeared on GitHub, an international open source community. He built a new code warehouse named "996.ICU", pointing out that the "996" working system prevailing in Internet companies seriously violated the labor law. Subsequently, this quickly became a professional group of programmers and even a national topic.

The so-called "996" working system refers to working hours from 9: 00 am to 9: 00 pm, with one hour off at noon and evening, totaling more than 10 hours a day, working six days a week and working 72 hours a week. This working time, regardless of whether there is overtime pay, has violated the labor law.

This kind of working system gives people the first impression that enterprises are squeezing employees, but if programmers are weak, then why can programmers get a high salary of 20 thousand to 30 thousand? In fact, programmers are not a vulnerable group, but a group with high salary, high quality, high skills, high attention and high voice. The various factors and logic contained in their rights protection actions are more complicated.

In the consumer market, there are two important methodologies to judge whether an enterprise has violated the interests of consumers: Is there competition? Is consumer sovereignty still there?If the answers to these two questions are yes, I don’t think there is any big problem.

Similarly,On the issue of overtime and wages, there are also two methodologies: is the enterprise in a competitive state in the labor market? Can job seekers choose?If these two answers are in the affirmative, then the problem will not be too serious.

Moreover, under these two premises, safeguarding rights is definitely not as simple as it seems. There must be deep-seated factors besides the simple explanation of "enterprises squeezing employees".

It is worth noting that,Opposing "996" is more of a group appeal, but it has not become a universal behavior of individuals in the group.

Theoretically, programmers have the ability to get rid of the 996 working system by individual choice. For example, ask if you want to work overtime regularly during the interview; Resignation from the company that announced the implementation of 996; You can also choose to go to a smaller company. This kind of dispersed individual behavior will eventually form a group trend, which makes the company dare not implement the 996 working system at will.

In fact, the high salary of programmers comes from this mechanism. Programmers make choices independently and dispersedly, and use the method of "voting with their feet" to make enterprises offer high salaries. Finally, the systematic situation of programmers’ general high salaries is shaped.

Why can the decentralized and independent individual selection mechanism bring high salaries to programmers, but it can’t make them get rid of 996?

From the industry point of view, the Internet and IT industries have fierce competition and rapid development, and the company must strive hard; From the specific nature of work, programmers are often faced with urgent needs and often have unexpected events to solve, which will lead to frequent overtime. The nature of business makes overtime work a "just need" for employees.

From a larger perspective, China’s overall income is not high. According to the economic law, when the income is not high, people tend to work more in exchange for more wages. This makes employees’ motivation against overtime weak. Just as a programmer told reporters: As long as the money is in place, everything can be said.

In fact, the IT industry has experienced explosive growth in the past 30 years. Entrepreneurship, equity and listing have constructed one wealth myth after another.People in IT companies are willing to work overtime, which is largely due to the wealth effect. Entrepreneurship, options, bonuses and dividends all encourage employees in the industry to work overtime.

The industry’s just need for overtime, employees’ expectation of wealth and weak resistance to overtime often form a culture, which leads to all kinds of unnecessary overtime. For example, in a department or a company, when someone works overtime, others are forced to follow suit. Over time, it has become the default consensus that Internet companies work long hours and are not fixed. In the end, the company unscrupulously stood up and implemented the 996 system, turning overtime into a solidified system.

However, the Internet industry is developing at a rapid pace, and many things have changed.

From the perspective of the big economic law, with the increase of wage level, with rich income, the marginal effect of income begins to decrease, and workers will think that leisure is more important than income growth, preferring to increase leisure and reduce working hours.

From the time point of view, "996" was mentioned frequently from about 2014, and it took about five years for this outbreak to be a hot topic. Five years ago, it was the time when the myth of entrepreneurship and wealth creation brought by the mobile Internet kept emerging. Five years later, the economy is in a new normal, the Internet’s wealth-making ability is no longer beautiful, and the incentives are reduced.Without money, overtime culture can’t continue.

Therefore, when the "996ICU" action appeals, awakens and influences the programmers in China, the "996" overtime system will be more severely challenged. Internet companies in China should conform to this general trend and maintain long-term sustainable development with better labor protection and welfare.

Of course, at the same time, the characteristics of the Internet and IT industries also need to be respected. For example, your APP can’t be used, and you definitely want programmers to work continuously to solve this problem. Therefore, the introduction of flexible working hours is also inevitable.

It is worth noting that the implementation of flexible working hours in China needs the approval of relevant supervision departments, so law enforcement departments also need to respect the diversified market formats and make appropriate adjustments.Only legal and clear overtime can make those illegal and vague overtime more obvious, so as to better regulate it.