It's mid-March. There have been no new cases of SARS in China for a week in a row, and there have been no new cases in Guangdong for two weeks.

At this moment, people will not forget that in those unforgettable days, the people of Nanyue experienced such painful natural disasters in human history; At this moment, people will not forget how in those extremely difficult days, the loveliest white-clothed soldier wrote a magnificent song of great doctor sincerity with his life and blood with the support of the people of the whole province; At this moment, people will not forget that at the critical moment when the people of Nanyue started the battle against SARS, the General Secretary, Premier Zhu and Premier Wang of the State Council visited Guangdong in person, which brought the people of Nanyue the incomparable concern of the Party Central Committee, the State Council and the people of the whole country, and pointed out the direction and injected infinite impetus into the final victory of the people of Nanyue in the fight against SARS!

The rising sun shines on the god of distemper, and the love of Nanyue calls for spring! Guangdong's SARS prevention and control work has moved from victory to victory, first of all, thanks to the correct leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and to the cordial care and guidance of the general secretary and premier. History will always be remembered, and the people of Guangdong will always be remembered!

The decisive measures taken by the Chinese government's top brass against SARS have been praised by the media at home and abroad, and Guangdong's health and epidemic prevention system has even been praised by the World Health Organization. In addition to showing a big face in the international community on the SARS incident, Guangdong also showed a big face because of the successful fight against SARS, which made Guangdong save a lot of face for itself and for China.

In Chen Feng's previous life, China's attitude towards the SARS epidemic in the early stage was unanimously criticized by the international community, especially the World Health Organization, especially Minister Zhang Wenkang's lying to the world in front of hundreds of Chinese and foreign journalists, which made the image of the Chinese government in the eyes of the world plummet, and the World Health Organization made a very profound criticism of this in its subsequent annual report. But obviously, because of Chen Feng's butterfly, this qiē has changed now. In a sense, Chen Feng indirectly kept Minister Zhang's black yarn hat.

In February, under the command of Zhong Nanshan, the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases gradually explored a set of effective treatment plans, which greatly improved the successful rescue rate of critically ill patients, reduced the mortality rate, and significantly shortened the treatment time of patients. This set of plans was later adopted by many hospitals and became a general treatment plan, and at the same time, under the auspices of Zhong Nanshan, the "Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for SARS Cases in Guangdong Province" was also soon introduced. At the same time, he became known worldwide for being the first to discover the SARS pathogen.

On February 15, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention observed paramyxovirus from throat swab specimens through an electron microscope, and at the same time, the Guangzhou Huyan Institute obtained the gene amplification products of paramyxovirus and published the electron microscope pictures and gene sequences on the Internet.

February 20th. Internationally, there are 4 real rooms that have begun to carry out paramyxovirus testing. Paramyxovirus was detected in the real yàn room in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, but the paramyxovirus gene amplification was negative, and the real yàn room sent the detection reagents to Singapore and Hong Kong, and the real yàn room in Canada sent double copies of serum to Rotterdam.

On February 21, three Singaporean patients' respiratory specimens in Germany tested negative for HMPV virus PCR in the Rotterdam Shiyàn room. In addition, lesions were found in respiratory specimens of two suspicious cases, including Vero cells and monkey kidney cells. Also on this day, British scientists tested the H3N2 influenza virus in the samples of the two patients; Chinese virus expert Hong Tao announced that chlamydia is the main pathogen causing SARS, but did not rule out that chlamydia and coronavirus work at the same time.

On the same day, a team of experts led by Zhong Nanshan successfully isolated the coronavirus-like virus from the autopsy specimens of SARS patients, inferred that it may be the causative agent of SARS, and made a written report to the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China on this important result. The next day, coronavirus-like particles were found in the virus room electron microscopy, and the virus sequence was obtained, which confirmed that the amino acid sequence of the new virus was consistent with the polymerase amino acid sequence of the known coronavirus, and the genetic evolution tree of the new virus was published on the Internet.

From February 27th to 31st, the animal real yàn with monkeys as the object of the real yàn continued. Normal human serum and newly isolated virus were confirmed to be negative, respectively. At the same time, there are more real yàn rooms with the detection of coronavirus.

From March 1 to 8, monkeys co-infected with paramyxovirus and interstitial pneumonia virus in animals showed clinical symptoms. The researchers used ELISA to detect antibodies in the blood of patients who had been on the disease for 20 days, and immunofluorescence to detect IgM antibodies in the serum of patients who had been on the disease for 10 days. The guinea pig real yàn starts to start. More coronaviruses have been isolated in Vero cultured cells, and some serological corroborations have been confirmed. SARS disease is a combination of paramyxovirus and coronavirus. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences held a symposium on SARS pathogens at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, during which experts from both sides introduced the research progress on chlamydia and coronavirus.

On the afternoon of the next day, Hong Tao, a well-known virology expert and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, announced to dozens of Chinese and foreign media at the "Knowledge Introduction Meeting on the Prevention and Treatment of SARS": "The research on the pathogen of SARS has achieved initial results, and two main pathogens -- chlamydia and coronavirus-like virus -- have been found."

On the same day, Xinhua News Agency reported that Professor Li Dexin, Professor Bi Shengli, Director Duan Shumin and Professor Xu Wenbo of the Institute of Viral Disease Prevention and Control of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention have made a major breakthrough in the etiological research of atypical pneumonia, successfully isolated several strains of coronaviruses, and cloned some of the isolated coronavirus genes. They tested for coronavirus on lung specimens from three patients who died of SARS and spleen specimens from one of them, purified and amplified coronavirus genes from these specimens, and confirmed that the amplified genes were RNA polymerase genes of coronaviruses through nucleotide sequence determination, thus confirming the presence of zài coronavirus in the patient's organs for the first time in the world by molecular biology methods. They compared the genetic sequences of the new virus with other coronaviruses and found that the coronavirus stored in patients with SARS was a variant of the coronavirus. The new coronavirus was successfully isolated from the new coronavirus after a variety of cell cultures were performed with these specimens, and the virus was passed several times in cultured cells, and all of them showed stable cell lesions, and the genetic test of the virus continued to be positive. Three strains of coronaviruses were isolated from throat swabs of patients with SARS in China, and the nucleotide sequences of these viruses were the same as those of the coronaviruses isolated from the patient's organs. The results of the studies obtained so far suggest that the coronavirus may be the causative agent causing atypical pneumonia on a large scale.

At this point, the culprit behind the cause of "SARS" has finally been revealed.

Chen Feng stayed in Beijing very obediently during his grandfather's visit to Guangdong, although his life was a little boring, and he missed his two sons, but after all, this was his grandfather's request, so he stayed honestly.

In these five days, Chen Feng first fulfilled the contract and accepted the invitation of the agent Chen Keying's family to have dinner with them. After being introduced, Chen Feng knew that Chen Keying's family background was really not simple, her father was born in a family of red-top merchants. He is the youngest among his peers, has a very deep background in Beijing, and his mother is not simple, and has a close relationship with a political family in Beijing, and this political family has a pivotal position in China, which really surprised Chen Feng.

There is also her brother's name is Chen Hongfeng, which is very similar to Chen Feng's name, he really admires Chen Feng very much, he was so excited when he saw Chen Feng, and he couldn't wait to come forward to ask for Chen Feng's signature, which Chen Feng of course met his requirements.

During this meal, Chen Feng and their family ate quite harmoniously, and after this meal, their family obviously appreciated Chen Feng even more, and Chen Keying's younger brother was even more affectionate with "Brother Long" and "Brother Long", although he was two years older than Chen Feng.

After satisfying the wishes of Chen Keying's family, Chen Feng returned to the courtyard of his grandfather's house to live a house life, but because of the harassment of the cheap sister Wang Meixue every day, this day was not very dull, and in the end, Chen Feng was entangled by her, so he handed over the songs that had been written for her in advance. One song a day, let her practice more, and this day is a little more comfortable.

It was not until five days later that Wang Zhaoxiang returned from an inspection in Guangdong.

After Wang Zhaoxiang returned to Beijing, he returned home on the evening of the third day, and the family got together for dinner on a rare occasion.

During the banquet, everyone naturally talked about SARS, but fortunately, so far, only Guangdong has reported SARS medical records in the whole country. The rest of the provinces and cities have not yet found out, of course, this is on the premise of excluding the concealment of these provinces and cities, and the capital Beijing has implemented a strict temperature detection system for important public places such as entry and exit to ensure that the capital is not affected by the epidemic. Judging by the current precautions, the capital is undoubtedly very safe.

"Xiao Feng, I don't think it's very safe in Xiuzhou, I think it's necessary to bring your family to live in Beijing, and wait for this SARS epidemic to pass." Chen Yufeng said with concern, "Especially my great-grandson, there can't be anything wrong." I think if you don't, let your family come and live with us, there are still empty houses anyway. ”

When Chen Feng heard that his godmother actually wanted his whole family to live here, although he was moved, he quickly refused: "Grandma, haven't we reported the epidemic in Donghai Province yet?" And the epidemic may be controlled within the scope of Guangdong Province. "In the history of previous lives, the capital Beijing was the hardest hit area of SARS, with the highest death toll. Although the history of this life has deviated because of his intervention, Chen Feng is really difficult to guarantee this kind of thing at present.

Chen Yufeng shook his head and said, "How can it be so easy? Grandma also learned about SARS, which is very contagious and can spread through the air. The epidemic occurred in November last year, and Guangdong, as a province with a large population, has more than 20 million floating population, and there are no prevention and control measures at all, especially during the Spring Festival at the end of last year, and there is no effective arrangement, so that these floating population has spread to all parts of the country, and it is difficult to keep the people infected with this epidemic. ”

Chen Feng also knew that in the original history, because the Guangdong side did not pay enough attention to the SARS epidemic at the beginning, which led to the later outbreak, and this time and space, because of Chen Feng's intervention, was carried out more than two months earlier than the original history to fight SARS. Indeed, because of the Spring Festival at the end of last year, it is very likely that SARS infected people will spread the epidemic to all parts of the country.

Wang Zhaoxiang interjected: "Now that the Party Central Committee has issued an important document on the prevention and control of SARS in various places, and severely punished the behavior of concealing the epidemic in various places, the response of various provinces and cities is still very positive, even if individual cases are found, they should be able to make emergency measures such as isolation and treatment in accordance with the "Emergency Regulations" issued by the State Council, so as to control the epidemic." ”

"It's uncertain what happens in officialdom, but for the sake of safety, I think it's better to take them to live with us for a while." Chen Yufeng insisted.

Seeing this, Chen Feng refused again: "Grandma, let's wait for a while, if the epidemic really spreads by then, even if you don't say it, our whole family will come here for refuge." ”

Seeing Chen Feng say this, Chen Yufeng looked at her husband's face again, so she had no choice but to stop insisting, but just told again: "As long as there is an epidemic in your Donghai Province, you will immediately take your family members to fly by special plane." It's definitely safer here than at home. ”

Chen Feng could only nod and accept her kindness.

After dinner, Wang Zhaoxiang and Chen Feng talked alone in the study again.

"Xiao Feng, when I was in Guangdong this time, my grandfather had already communicated with Academician Zhong Nanshan alone, this is a very rigorous and principled person, and my grandfather appreciates it very much. Moreover, grandpa has already informed him about the pathogen you said, I hope what you said is true, otherwise, judging by his expression at the time, grandpa will not be able to get off the stage in the future. ”

Chen Feng said confidently: "Grandpa, don't worry, my intuition has always been very accurate, and I haven't made a mistake so far." ”

"If you really guess it, you have made a great contribution, what kind of reward do you want grandpa to do then?" Wang Zhaoxiang pretended to look at Chen Feng curiously.

Chen Feng shook his head and said obediently: "This is what I should do, it is a matter of course for my grandson to relieve my grandfather's worries." ”

This sycophant made Wang Zhaoxiang laugh out loud: "Xiao Feng, you, you, the bigger you are, the more you will be able to pat the sycophant." ”

Chen Feng said seriously: "Grandpa, what I said is from my heart, not a sycophant." ”

Wang Zhaoxiang couldn't help but smile and shook his head: "It's cheap and good, but this time you really did your grandfather a big favor, otherwise when the epidemic in Guangdong spreads, the consequences will be unimaginable, and I, the vice premier in charge of national health work, will be to blame." ”

Chen Feng naturally knows this truth, but he still said: "This matter can only be blamed below, especially the Ministry of Health, as far as I know, Guangdong has reported the SARS epidemic to the Ministry of Health last year, but they don't seem to care much about this matter and put the epidemic report on the shelf." If the Ministry of Health reports to the central leadership in a timely manner, it is possible that the state will soon make arrangements. ”

The reason why Chen Feng said this was mainly because he hated Minister Zhang who lied to the world with his eyes open in his previous life, and now this Minister Zhang is still wearing a black gauze hat firmly because of him, especially yesterday's "News Network" I also saw his report, calling on the national health system to carry out SARS prevention and control work, and fight the SARS prevention war.

Wang Zhaoxiang muttered: "The Ministry of Health has not done a good job in reporting the SARS epidemic in Guangdong, but they have now begun to make amends. ”

When Chen Feng heard this, he knew that his grandfather did not mean to deal with the Ministry of Health, especially Minister Zhang Wenkang, and couldn't help but hurriedly say: "Grandpa, if you are wrong, you are wrong, it is precisely because of the inaction of the Ministry of Health, and even the deliberate concealment of the report, that the epidemic in Guangdong has spread further, causing heavy economic losses and deaths." The Ministry of Health bears an unshirkable responsibility for this, and I think that Minister Zhang Wenkang should take the blame and resign. ”

Wang Zhaoxiang suddenly said in a stern tone: "Xiao Feng, don't comment on the matter on the political record." ”

Chen Feng saw that his godfather said this, so he had to stop talking, but he also understood in his heart that in the matter of Zhang Wenkang, it seems that his godfather does not have much decision-making power, after all, he is a big minister, how can the foundation behind it be ordinary.

Chen Feng changed the topic slightly and said: "Grandpa, in addition to being a natural disaster, I think a large part of this SARS incident is a man-made disaster, and our country should think deeply about it and learn a lesson." ”

"Your remarks are also very pertinent, the Party Central Committee attaches great importance to this matter, and will introduce a series of policies to improve this work and establish an effective epidemic reporting system......

After that, the grandfather and grandson talked about SARS for more than half an hour before ending the topic under the knock on the door of Dr. Wang Zhaoxiang.

The day after this conversation, Chen Feng formally submitted his resignation to Wang Zhaoxiang's family. Because of the excuse of going home to see the baby, Wang Zhaoxiang and the others naturally didn't want Chen Feng to stay longer, but just told him to come to Beijing to visit them more often. Chen Feng bought a landline, and their family already knew about it, with the plane to travel, although Xiuzhou is a little far away from Beijing, it is convenient to go back and forth, and it only takes seven or eight hours to go back and forth.

On the plane back, Chen Feng received a call from Chen Keying, informing him that the organizers of the American Grammy Awards and the Hollywood Academy Awards had sent him an invitation letter again, inviting him to attend the awards ceremony at that time.

At the beginning of last year, Chen Feng was pregnant because of red leaves, and he himself had no intention of participating, so he was absent from the 2002 Oscars, for the Grammys, Chen Feng had already announced to the world that he would not participate in the next session when he went to participate in the Newcomer Award for the first time, and naturally he would not participate, so that although Long won ten nominations at last year's Grammy Awards, and in the end, all ten nominations were miraculously awarded, but because Long did not show up to receive the award, It's just that Jupiter Records symbolically sent a staff member to accept the award on its behalf, which made the ratings of this year's Grammys dismal, down three percentage points from the average of previous years, which can be said to be the most dismal ratings ever. And the Oscars are not about the same, because of the lack of long's participation, the ratings have also suffered a waterloo, so they have lost huge advertising revenue and broadcast revenue, which is not the same as the last awards ceremony with long participation. At the end of last year, they sent an invitation again, and the Oscars invited Chen Feng to be a guest performer this time, but also served as an award presenter, but the Grammys were nominated for ten Grammy Awards again because of Chen Feng's "Advance" album released last year, including five individual nominations and five album nominations. Chen Feng had already rejected them once, but now they had sent an invitation again, obviously not giving up.

Chen Feng naturally didn't want to go to the Grammy Awards, and at the Oscars, Chen Feng had already been there once as a guest performer before, and it was obviously pointless to go again this time, if he wanted to go, it would also be when his first movie was nominated.

Therefore, Chen Feng asked Chen Keying to refuse the invitations of Oscar and Grammy again. For these two film awards and music awards with great influence in the world, Chen Keying, as an agent, naturally hopes that Chen Feng can participate, not to mention that they have been invited twice, which shows sincerity, but Chen Feng still refused them without hesitation, which made Chen Keying a little helpless. She had already persuaded Chen Feng before, but Chen Feng had made up her mind not to go, and she had no choice.

A few hours later, the special plane arrived in Xiuzhou safely, and after returning home, it was inevitable that his family would complain about him, saying that he was older for the New Year, and even if his godfather kept him, he should go home early. Chen Feng naturally had no choice but to do so.

In addition to enjoying the joy of family at home, Chen Feng also always pays attention to the development of SARS, every day the medical records of SARS are refreshed, the first ten days, except for Guangdong Province, the rest of the provinces have no SARS medical records reported, knowing that in mid-February, Beijing appeared the first case of SARS infection, however, because the patient was detected in time, and then isolated, there was no second case in the next few days, which made the people of the capital secretly relieved, and then Sichuan, Tianjin, Anhui, Shanxi, Shandong and other provinces have successively found infected people, among which a new patient in Shanxi Province has caused many infections due to untimely isolation, but fortunately, the remedial measures after the incident are still in place to avoid the further expansion of the number of infected people. However, because of this incident, a deputy county magistrate and the director of the health center where the infected person is located were removed from their posts, and Gansu Province was even criticized by the central government. Because of this incident, officials across the country immediately paid real attention to SARS and began to make rigorous arrangements for SARS prevention and control.

As time passed, the SARS situation developed in a favorable direction, especially the discovery of the pathogen, and it was the first to be discovered by the Chinese side, which made Chen Feng very happy. Finally, the patent for the SARS virus did not fall into the hands of others. However, because four international scientific research institutions have discovered the SARS coronavirus one after another, the patent competition will take a lot of effort.

When AIDS was first discovered in the United States in 1981, it took researchers more than two years to track down the culprit of the disease - human immunodeficiency virus HIV, and it took several years to decipher the genes of HIV, and it took another 15 years to discover some partially effective drugs for the treatment of AIDS. For example, in the United States, the mortality rate and morbidity of AIDS patients have dropped by 75% and 73%, respectively. On the other hand, developing countries, where diseases are rampant and most in need of treatment, cannot afford to rely on patents to maintain the high price of the drugs in question. For example, patients who use "cocktail therapy" require an average of $10,000 to $15,000 a year in treatment, which is astronomical for people in poor countries with a per capita income of less than a few hundred dollars a year. And China, because of its population base, is undoubtedly a big country with AIDS, and because of the patent of the United States, China's AIDS patients continue to contribute their own yuan to the United States. If the patents for the SARS virus fall into the hands of foreigners again, a similar "cocktail therapy" situation will surely appear.

With the great attention of the international community, especially the Chinese government, and the painstaking efforts of medical workers, we have achieved a phased victory in the war against SARS, which not only fully demonstrates the level of governance of China's new generation of leading collectives, further enhances the cohesion of the Chinese nation to unite as one and seek common development, but also promotes scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges that transcend national boundaries and humanitarian spirit. What is certain, however, is that we are far from the time to claim victory over SARS. Some people have even foreseen that from now on, mankind will enter a post-SARS period of long-term coexistence with SARS. Subsequently, a battle for the core intellectual property rights to fight the cake of the SARS market and seize the market dominance is about to begin. The mountain rain is coming, and the wind is full of buildings! This time, we can no longer just be "spectators"!

Coveted by SARS, a race against the disease is in full swing, and medical achievements have been continuously introduced. It is worth noting that the competition for patents for anti-SARS research is becoming increasingly fierce. Experts believe that as the international community's anti-inflammatory situation turns active, the anti-inflammatory competition in the scientific research community will turn to patent battles.

When the SARS storm swept the world, and medical workers wrote a magnificent poem of saving lives and helping the wounded on the front line of the fight against SARS, scientists from all over the world also urgently joined forces to identify the pathogen and draw a genetic map in a very short period of time, so as to find effective ways to prevent and treat SARS. In the era of the knowledge economy, they are more likely to apply for patents and protect their intellectual property rights. It is reported that scientists in the United States, Canada and Hong Kong, China, are competing to seek to apply for patents for anti-SARS achievements. A race over SARS patent applications is heating up. Chinese scientists in the hard-hit areas of the SARS epidemic have made many important discoveries in the fields of SARS antibody changes, detection methods, treatment and protection.

It took less than a month to find the SARS pathogen and complete the sequencing of its genome. However, after a brief period of triumph, one discovers that the reality becomes grim, for things do not seem to be as easy as they have been claimed: scientists work together, regardless of fame and fortune, regardless of whose interests and losses will be spent on the great honor and benefit of the Nobel Prize (only a speculation, of course). On the contrary, seemingly overnight, all those involved in the study have been faced with the grim reality of who will reap the fruits of victory, in other words, how to share the seizure of the SARS culprit and the many results that may be involved in the aftermath, including clinical testing, drug development, treatment modalities, vaccines and other additional products?

In the face of the increasing number of patent applications for anti-SARS achievements, inventors must be resourceful when applying for patents in order to obtain patent rights and fully enjoy the right to protection. First, attention should be paid to the timing of the patent application. Inventors should not only pay attention to the race against time to seize the opportunity, but also pay attention to the initial improvement process of technology. That is to say, on the one hand, it is necessary to apply for a patent in time after the preliminary completion of the invention to avoid being preemptively applied for by others and losing its novelty; On the other hand, there should be sufficient number of tests to prove the effect of the said invention in order to satisfy the conditions of practicality, creativity and full disclosure required by the patent examination.

Otherwise, if a drug is rushed to file a patent application without any convincing test to prove its effectiveness, it is possible that the above requirements will not be met if the DNA sequence of the virus is determined or a drug can be used to prevent and treat SARS without any convincing test counts. Moreover, given the basic principle of the first-to-file patent system, such deficiencies are often not corrected after the filing date, and the result may be that technical information is provided to others in vain without any return. In particular, this situation is more likely to occur in invention patents filed by individuals, and special attention should be paid to them. Even if one manages to retain something as know-how, it is necessary to ensure that the minimum requirements for adequate disclosure of the application are met, otherwise one should not choose to apply for a patent.

Secondly, attention should be paid to the novelty of the patent application. Do not duplicate the application for "new" technologies that have already been publicly reported as "able to fill gaps in China", nor do you publicly use independently developed new technologies before filing. China's patent law requires that the invention and utility model for which a patent is applied must not have been publicly published in domestic or foreign publications, publicly used in China, or otherwise known to the public before the filing date, and no other person has filed an application in China and recorded in the patent application published after the filing date. Therefore, after the invention is preliminarily completed and confirmed by the search, a patent should be applied for first; If the anti-SARS struggle urgently needs to use the technology, it should be used non-publicly within the scope of the confidentiality agreement, and the technical content should not be disclosed, so as not to lose the patent. The purpose of applying for a patent is to obtain effective legal protection, so the legal documents and descriptions that are the basis for patent examination and infringement judgment should make a reasonable summary of the invention to avoid disguised infringement by others. At the same time, in order for the required broad scope of protection to be supported by the specification, care should be taken to disclose sufficient technical information in the specification, especially to disclose the scope and effects of the invention with a sufficient number of embodiments and specific test numbers. If you do not pay attention to this, you may only be able to obtain a relatively narrow scope of protection, and you may be at a disadvantage in the future when exercising your power in the event of a legal dispute. Therefore, if conditions permit, an experienced patent attorney should be entrusted to handle the patent application formalities as far as possible. In the event of a legal dispute, it is at a disadvantage. Therefore, if conditions permit, an experienced patent attorney should be entrusted to handle the patent application formalities as far as possible.

In terms of patent application, Chen Feng does not need to worry too much, because China has suffered too many losses in this regard, and I believe that government departments and scientific research departments should pay attention to it.

After the pathogen was found, the SARS epidemic in China gradually became optimistic, and by mid-March, all major provinces and cities across the country had zero cases for three consecutive days, which undoubtedly indicated a heavy victory in the fight against SARS.

And just after the curtain gradually came to an end on China's smokeless battle, the Middle East was lively, and the Iraqi crisis broke out. The United States has stationed 200,000 troops in the Gulf, and the war against Iraq is on the verge of breaking out. In this form, in the international community, the countries that advocate a peaceful settlement of the Iraqi crisis within the framework of the United Nations and those represented by the United States and the United Kingdom who advocate the use of force against Iraq have waged a fierce diplomatic struggle. Diplomatic wars are unfolding around the globe. At the critical juncture when the Iraq war is about to break out, what means should be used to resolve the struggle in Iraq? First of all, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder reaffirmed that the settlement of the Iraq issue should be carried out in the Security Council. On 24 February, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain submitted a new draft resolution on Iraq to the Security Council, the core of which is that Iraq has once again "substantially violated" Security Council resolution 1441 and will face "severe consequences."

In response, France, Russia and Germany submitted to the Council a memorandum on the continuation and intensification of weapons inspections in Iraq, emphasizing that priority should be given to the peaceful disarmament of Iraq through the Guò verification mechanism.

Japan's "Asahi Shimbun" believes that the new bill on the use of force by the United States and Britain against Iraq has seen a "4-5-6" pattern in the Security Council. The so-called "4 to 5 to 6" pattern refers to the number of members who are divided into hardliners, those who continue to verify and those who are centrists. Hardliners include the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Bulgaria, while the continuing verification faction refers to France, Germany, China, Russia, and Syria, while Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, Angola, Guinea, and Pakistan are referred to as the "middle six."

The American newspaper The Times believes that in the dazzling diplomatic activities, almost every leader in the world has been affected by the conflict. The conflict dominated the debates within the European Union and at the 116-member NAM summit in Malaysia. Conflicts have also swept discussions in the capitals of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Meetings are being arranged, and ministers are being sent around the world. Phones ring, and those who have access to e-mail receive letters that include persuasive arguments, lure of profit, and outlandish and subtle threats. Old-fashioned diplomacy used to take place formally, with elaborate letters, long-scheduled meetings and time-consuming visits. Today's "hand-to-hand combat" unfolds in an unvarnished manner.

In order to win over those members of the Council who do not yet agree to the use of force against Iraq, Washington and London have engaged in a vigorous effort of persuasion. Mexico, Angola, Guinea, Cameroon, Pakistan and Chile became the centre of attention. The fate of the new draft resolution submitted to the Council for discussion will depend on the position of these non-permanent members, who have become the object of active work by both camps of the Council.

The USA Today website says that the United States relies on favors and money to build war alliances. Of the more than 20 countries that have expressed measures to support the United States, many are trying to appease the world's only superpower or to trade their support for more U.S. aid. Turkey is asking the United States for $30 billion or more, other countries in Eastern and Central Europe are looking for the United States to guarantee their membership in NATO, and the smaller countries in the Persian Gulf region are trying to ensure that the United States fulfills its security assurances to them.

According to the US "Christian Science Monitor", diplomats from France, Germany, Russia, and China have used their good offices in the Security Council to try to delay or prevent the United States from rushing to war against Iraq. Their attitudes stem to a large extent from a genuine aversion to war, and countries are still taking into account economic realities and national interests.

Among the issues France considers are: domestic voters are adamantly opposed to war against Iraq; Leaders are fervent in their desire to weaken America's role in the international arena; Contracts for the development of oil fields in cooperation with Iraq are lucrative; Iraq owes France a huge foreign debt. In addition, France is keen to regain leadership in Europe.

Germany's domestic problems and economic benefits are similar to those of France. Recent opinion polls show that 50 percent of Germans are not in favor of going to war, and 71 percent are against providing support for military operations in Iraq. Iraq also defaulted on Germany's huge foreign debt. German companies want a slice of the Iraqi economy. In addition, after German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was narrowly re-elected last year, his relationship with Bush was not cordial.

Russia's attitude stems from its economic and political interests in Iraq and Russia's desire to regain superpower status. From an economic point of view, Iraq owes Russia at least $6 billion in foreign debt, and Russia's Lukoil and several other smaller oil companies have signed contracts with Iraq.

Of the five permanent members, China has no strategic interests in the Middle East: it has only a small contract with Iraq to develop one oil field. For now, China is more worried about the crisis on the Korean Peninsula and other complex problems in the region.