This patent shall come into force as of the date of publication, and the term of protection of the patent shall be counted from the date of application. Are these two statements not contradictory?

The two are not contradictory, but different protections. At the application stage, others can't use the patent you are applying for, but the patent application is not successful, so you can't say that the patent is infringing. If the application is successful, others will infringe your patent right.

In Article 42 of the Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), the term of the invention patent right is 20 years, and the term of the utility model patent right and the design patent right is 10 years, all of which are counted from the date of application.

1. The term of the invention patent right is 20 years.

Two, the term of the patent right for utility model and design is 10 years, counting from the date of application.