Nigeria Times

By Zhang Yang, Liu Hongchao, People’s Daily

During the summer vacation, the Liaoshen Campaign Memorial in Jinzhou, northeast China’s Liaoning province, has seen a constant flow of visitors. Hanging quietly on the wall inside the Hall of Martyrs is a time-worn silk banner bearing the words “An Army of Benevolence and Righteousness,” behind which lies a poignant historical tale. 

Behind the banner is a moving story.

During the 1948 Liaoshen Campaign, orchards surrounding Jinzhou were heavy with ripe apples.  Passing through the area, People’s Liberation Army soldiers were exhausted and thirsty, but not a single one picked an apple. The people’s army, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, won the hearts of the people through its strict discipline.

“Here the fighters were conscious that not eating the apples was noble, whereas to eat them would have been ignoble. They knew the apples belonged to the people,” Chinese President Xi Jinping quoted late Chairman Mao Zedong’s comments on the story during an inspection tour to Liaoning in 2022.

Decades later, the tale endures as a powerful symbol of integrity. 

Today, as China deepens its efforts to promote clean governance and institutional accountability, the story is being actively revived to inspire contemporary officials. 

About a 20-minute drive from the Liaoshen Campaign Memorial is the Jinzhou Apple Integrity Education Base, where a sculpture entitled the “People’s Apples” stands out. Inside the special‑themed exhibition hall, docent Sun Yimeng was giving a vivid account, guiding visitors through historical photos and precious cultural relics.

“We take the ‘People’s Apples’ as our underlying theme to convey to every visitor the Communist Party of China’s fine conduct, strict discipline and original aspiration to serve the people, ” said Sun.

“Declining the apples reflects discipline; avoiding even the smallest exploitation of citizens demonstrates dedication to public service. We must carry forward the revolutionary heritage, uphold our revolutionary legacy, foster and put into practice a correct approach to evaluating political performance, exercise power with integrity, and effectively protect and advance the interests of the people,” said Guan Hua, an official with the Jinzhou municipal people’s congress, during a study visit.

Jinzhou has translated this historical lesson into actionable governance. On one front, the city enforces a zero-tolerance stance toward corruption in sectors directly impacting livelihoods, including rural collective assets, healthcare, and education. Targeted campaigns have been launched to root out misconduct that harms ordinary citizens. On another, Jinzhou focuses on “growing apples for the people” by improving the business climate. The local government has institutionalized dialogue with enterprises, established direct policy-delivery channels, and implemented 32 regulatory frameworks to streamline operations and support sustainable growth.

Clean governance, officials stress, is not merely about restraint — it is a foundation for effective public service. To embed accountability into daily operations, inspectors from Jinzhou’s Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection now work alongside staff at the city’s 12345 public service hotline and government service centers. A QR code-based oversight system has been rolled out across all 283 service windows, enabling real-time feedback and monitoring. The results are tangible: government services in Jinzhou have become increasingly standardized and efficient. Over 900 administrative procedures can now be completed on the same day, with many finalized in under two hours.

From a wartime promise of restraint to a modern blueprint for transparent administration, the “People’s Apples” story continues to remind officials that true authority flows from serving the people with integrity.

“The tests of the times keep evolving, yet our original aspiration to serve the people remains unchanging,” said Zhao Yu, an official with the Jinzhou municipal commission for discipline inspection. “We unswervingly uphold rigorous discipline, nurture a sound and upright political climate to edify the public and bolster high-quality development. We must never take the people’s apples.”

By He Yin, People’s Daily

On Oct. 23, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a letter to the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong’an), further elaborating on the importance of reforming and improving the global governance system and charting the course for advancing the implementation of the Global Governance Initiative (GGI). The letter demonstrated China’s sense of responsibility and its willingness to work with other countries to build a more just and equitable world.

Xi put forward the GGI in September 2025, a much-needed initiative that offers solutions to bridge the governance deficit and build a better future. In just over a year, the initiative has gained the support of more than 160 countries and international organizations. Over 60 countries have joined the Group of Friends of Global Governance. Its core elements have been incorporated into the documents of multilateral fora such as the G20, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and BRICS.

The past year has underscored the great contemporary value of the GGI, with its appeal and influence continuing to grow. The initiative has become an important public good warmly embraced by the international community.

The international community regards the GGI as a stalwart for multilateralism as the international landscape is undergoing a profound shift, and a safeguard for fairness and justice as the law of the jungle makes a comeback. To many in the world, the GGI provides a clear pathway to shared development and security and much-needed certainty for a turbulent world.

Beyond championing the GGI, China has taken decisive steps to translate its vision into practice.  Since its launch, China has advanced multiple proposals to promote peace and stability in conflict zones such as the Middle East, voluntarily waived demands for additional special and differential treatment in World Trade Organization negotiations, and introduced new forms of international public goods, such as the International Organization for Mediation and the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization.

The GGI is widely regarded by people of foresight around the world as a remedy for and improvement on the existing international system, and a crystallization of Chinese wisdom that will shape a fairer, more inclusive, and more sustainable world.

The 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong’an), held in Xiong’an New Area in north China’s Hebei province, marked a major step by China in working with other countries around the world to put the GGI into practice. 

Under the theme “Rebuilding Confidence and Cooperation: Reforming and Improving Global Governance in a Transforming World,” participants exchanged ideas and learned from one another. Their discussions addressed both the need to uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core and the governance of emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, cyberspace, and outer space. 

Through dialogue and communication, they sought to build consensus and develop joint solutions, contributing to international efforts to tackle governance challenges and reform and improve global governance.

More than a policy dialogue, the forum offers the international community a tangible look at  China’s governance philosophy. In just nine years, Xiong’an New Area has transformed from a planned development zone into a dynamic innovation hub and a showcase of high-quality urban development. By engaging with this “city of the future,” attendees witnessed firsthand how  China’s governance model — centered on people-first development, ecological sustainability, technological innovation, and long-term planning — has translated into measurable progress.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the restoration of the People’s Republic of China’s lawful seat in the United Nations. As a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of its Security Council, China has consistently upheld and practiced multilateralism.

At the forum, China announced eight practical actions to advance global governance. These include ensuring the success of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in November, continuing to engage deeply in United Nations reform and encouraging the Group of Friends of Global Governance to play a bigger role.

The country called on all parties to uphold the central role of the United Nations, practice the values of fairness and justice, bolster the strength of the Global South for better global governance, advance in the direction of openness and development, and improve the rules of governance in emerging fields.

These measures clearly demonstrate China’s firm resolve to work with other countries to steer global governance toward greater fairness and equity. They also provide a roadmap for joint efforts to implement the GGI in the next stage.

An African media outlet commented that the forum’s significance lies in its efforts to foster a more open, balanced and constructive dialogue on the future of international relations.

Global governance serves the common interests of all nations, and requires the collective effort of the international community. China stands ready to work with all parties to uphold a vision of global governance featuring extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit, build strength through confidence and overcome challenges through cooperation. 

Together, the international community can advance the implementation of the GGI, bring greater certainty and positive energy to a world fraught with change and turbulence, and work hand in hand toward a community with a shared future for humanity.

By Huan Yuping, People’s Daily

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the restoration of the People’s Republic of China’s lawful seat in the United Nations (UN).

Over more than half a century, China has steadily evolved from a participant in the international system into a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order. This journey reflects not only a major country’s growing engagement in global governance, but also how the spirit of the UN Charter has taken root in the modern world.

On Oct. 25, 1971, the 26th session of the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 by an overwhelming majority, deciding to restore all the rights of the People’s Republic of China in the UN and recognizing the representatives of its government as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN.

In his article “Renewing Multilateralism: China and UN in the 21st Century,” former UN Resident Coordinator in China Siddharth Chatterjee wrote that, 55 years on, this decision endures as a defining milestone in the evolution of the international order.

Over the past 55 years, China has evolved from embracing international rules to contributing ideas for global governance. Throughout this journey, it has consistently supported the UN, upheld the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and played an active and constructive role within the UN framework. China has advanced the building of a community with a shared future for humanity and made significant contributions to world peace and development.

Stephen Jackson, the UN Resident Coordinator in China, noted that China brings a distinctive perspective from the Global South to the UN, helping to create a more balanced global governance landscape.

China has always been a builder of world peace. Guided by the Chinese nation’s deep-rooted commitment to peace, China has chosen the path of peaceful development, rejecting the traditional route of aggression and expansion taken by major powers. Among the world’s major countries, China has the best track record with respect to peace and security.

China is the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget and the largest provider of peacekeeping personnel among the permanent members of the UN Security Council. To date, it has dispatched more than 50,000 peacekeepers to 29 UN Security Council-authorized peacekeeping operations.

As conflicts continue to flare around the world, China has worked to promote peace and dialogue. From the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has pursued approaches to resolving hotspot issues with Chinese characteristics and played a constructive role in easing tensions and resolving disputes.

China has consistently contributed to global development. It achieved the poverty reduction goals set under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule and contributes around 30 percent of global economic growth.

It is now a major trading partner for more than 160 countries and regions and has signed 24 free trade agreements with 31 countries and regions. The country has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with over 150 countries and 30 international organizations, injecting fresh momentum into global development.

In response to widening global development gaps, China has actively worked to put development back at the center of the international agenda and help developing countries strengthen their capacity for self-sustaining growth, so that the benefits of development can be shared more widely and equitably among people in all countries.

China has always upheld the international order. Over the past 55 years, it has firmly defended the UN-centered international system, the international order underpinned by international law, and the basic norms governing international relations, founded on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

China advocates and practices true multilateralism and actively leads and advances multilateral cooperation. It is a member of almost all universal intergovernmental organizations and a party to over 600 international conventions and their amendments. It has put forward Chinese solutions in emerging areas such as climate change and AI governance.

China has successively proposed the four major global initiatives and taken the lead in implementing them, contributing Chinese wisdom and solutions to addressing deficits in peace, development, security and governance.

The world is undergoing profound change and growing turbulence, while global challenges continue to mount. The international community must build consensus and work in concert to meet the challenges of our time.

We should uphold fairness and justice, and strengthen the foundation of sovereign equality. The international community must firmly oppose hegemonic practices that allow the strong to bully the weak and must never let the world revert to the law of the jungle. International affairs should be discussed and decided by all countries together, and the legitimate concerns of developing countries must be heard and taken seriously. Only in this way can the foundations of the multilateral international order remain firm.

We should uphold fundamental principles while breaking new ground to improve UN governance. Upholding fundamental principles means adhering to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, safeguarding the international system and the basic norms governing international relations established after the end of World War II, and remaining committed to multilateralism.

Innovation means responding to the changing times by enabling the UN to adapt and reform itself, continually improving its internal governance mechanisms, enhancing its effectiveness and better reflecting the concerns of developing countries.

We should shoulder our shared responsibilities and put multilateralism into practice. The more than 190 countries in the world are all aboard the same big boat, bound by a shared destiny. Only by working together can they weather the storms ahead.

All parties should embrace the principle of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit, explore new approaches to cooperation and develop innovative cooperation models, while continuing to advance multilateralism in response to changing global circumstances, and working together to address global challenges such as climate change, food security and digital governance.

At this new historical juncture, China will continue to be a staunch supporter of the UN and a steadfast practitioner of multilateralism, working hand in hand with other countries to build a community with a shared future for humanity and create a better world for all.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

On Oct. 22, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, delivered an important speech at a gathering commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army’s Long March.

Xi offered profound insights into the keys to the CPC’s and the people’s army’s success in pressing forward, as demonstrated by the victory of the Long March, and set out five requirements for carrying forward the great Long March spirit and succeeding in the new Long March.

He noted that the new journey is a long expedition filled with glory and dreams, and is a new Long March for the Party and the people. As China commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Long March victory, it will continue to advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese modernization and, in doing so, make greater contributions to human progress.

Ninety years ago, the Long March was a remarkable revolutionary epic forged by the CPC and the Red Army, offering the world a new perspective on China. The Long March forged an unshakable faith. Driven by unwavering faith in their ideals and convictions, the Red Army soldiers broke through enemy encirclement and overcame tremendous hardships to blaze a trail forward.

Since then, the story of the Long March has drawn sustained international attention. From Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China, which introduced the truth about the Long March to readers overseas, to German writer Christian Y. Schmidt, who cycled nearly 7,000 kilometers to retrace the route, generations of foreign visitors have followed in the Red Army’s footsteps, seeking to understand the power of faith forged through that arduous expedition and uncover the inner strength that has enabled China to overcome challenges and move steadily forward.

Not long ago, Celso Malavoloneke, a Central Committee member of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, visited Long March sites in southwest China’s Guizhou province. He said his greatest takeaway was a deeper understanding of the Chinese people’s spirit, which he would take back to his own country. Rooted in truth and concern for the people, this faith has become a spiritual bond that resonates with people across national borders.

The power of the human spirit can transcend mountains and seas and resonate with people around the world. Forged through firm ideals, fearlessness in the face of sacrifice, a commitment to seeking truth from facts, unity, and reliance on the people, the great spirit of the Long March is an integral part of the spiritual heritage of CPC members. It transcends time and space and continues to flourish.

British scholar Martin Jacques has observed that the Long March revealed the remarkable capacity of Chinese society to mobilize around a common vision.

Over the past 90 years since the Long March victory, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people in carrying forward the cause of revolution, construction and reform, and in pursuing the great endeavors of the new era, overcoming challenges at every stage. Drawing on the valuable experience of upholding independence and self-reliance and relying on the people, the CPC has continued to break new ground in advancing its cause.

William N. Brown, an American professor at Xiamen University who has lived in China for nearly 40 years, said the Long March spirit is a shared spiritual treasure of humanity, and that it belongs to everyone in the world who strives unremittingly amid uncertainty.

The road to achieving ideals has never been smooth. The CPC has always stood on the right side of history and on the side of human progress. Holding high the banner of building a community with a shared future for humanity, it puts the people’s interests first and works for the common good, continually contributing positive momentum to global stability and development.

The Chinese military has participated in 26 United Nations peacekeeping operations, and dispatched over 50,000 peacekeepers. For years, China has contributed around 30 percent of global economic growth. It has signed 26 free trade agreements with 33 countries and regions, steadily expanding its global free trade network.

China has proposed and taken the lead in implementing the four major global initiatives, making important contributions to addressing the deficits in peace, development, security and governance.

The Long March’s most valuable lesson for the world today is the importance of staying the course, maintaining a focus on long-term goals and persevering through adversity amid turbulence and change, said José Luis Centella, president of the Communist Party of Spain.

The history of the Long March is never far behind us, and its journey continues. Amid profound changes in the world, the times and history, China will continue to carry forward the great spirit of the Long March and forge ahead on the new Long March in the new era. Through its own steady development, China will bring confidence to a turbulent world, work with other countries to tackle common challenges and share development opportunities, and contribute to building a community with a shared future for humanity.

By Wu Xian

When people use Japanese to ask leading international large language models about historical facts from World War II, the answers they receive may already have been deliberately distorted. 

The July 7th Incident in 1937, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident, which marked the beginning of Japan’s full-scale invasion of China, is described as a “Sino-Japanese military conflict.” The Nanjing Massacre is downplayed as the “fall of Nanjing.” Japan’s invasion of Southeast Asia is sanitized as “an interest in southern resources.”

These distortions stem from coordinated efforts by Japanese right-wing groups to inject biased historical narratives into AI training datasets. Simultaneously, major AI systems frequently draw upon records from Japan’s National Archives, where sensitive wartime details have been deliberately minimized.

Manipulating artificial intelligence through dataset bias represents a sophisticated new strategy for historical revisionism. Its stealth and global reach far surpass traditional methods such as textbook censorship or inflammatory public statements. This development demands sustained international scrutiny.

Today, Japan’s historical revisionists operate through a highly organized ecosystem that blends private initiative with state support to reshape historical narratives via AI.

At the grassroots level, a factory-style disinformation network has emerged. Right-wing operators run incentive programs that pay approximately 5,000 yen ($31.72) for each 30-second AI-generated video promoting historical revisionism. Content targeting China reportedly yields over three times the standard payout per thousand views. These low-cost, high-volume outputs — denying acts of aggression and glorifying wartime actions — spread rapidly across digital platforms, normalizing distorted historical accounts.

More concerning are state-level initiatives. Japan’s government has allocated 4.4 billion yen to develop Gennai, a domestically built AI. Reports indicate that during the construction of its foundational knowledge base, data collection was intentionally limited to post-May 1947 documents. This cutoff excludes critical records of Japan’s wartime aggression, including the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan’s full-scale war against China, the Nanjing Massacre, and Allied judgments from the Tokyo Trials. Such omissions cannot be dismissed as technical limitations; rather, they structurally embed revisionist perspectives into the architecture of publicly accessible AI knowledge systems.

The political objectives driving these efforts are evident. In recent years, Japan’s political landscape has steadily shifted toward conservative nationalism, accompanied by resurgent militarist tendencies. By leveraging digital technologies to reconstruct historical narratives, authorities aim to normalize revised accounts within mainstream discourse, dilute international consensus on wartime responsibility, and overcome the legacy of postwar subordination. Ultimately, this strategy seeks to legitimize constitutional amendment, military buildup, and a gradual departure from Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution — a transformation that elevates historical revisionism from isolated advocacy to a systematic, state-backed technological enterprise.

The repercussions of digitized historical distortion extend across domestic, regional, and global spheres. 

For younger generations in Japan, the absence of accurate and comprehensive history education, combined with prolonged exposure to false narratives, risks eroding their ability to make basic judgments about aggression and the justice of war. 

It may weaken their capacity for reflection and their vigilance against militarism, ultimately severing historical empathy with people in countries that suffered under Japanese aggression and creating fertile ground for extremist ideas.

Across Asia, manipulated historical accounts threaten to unravel the hard-won postwar consensus, impede diplomatic reconciliation, and destabilize regional security. Globally, the continuous ingestion and dissemination of biased data by major AI systems risk permanently altering international understanding of World War II, with enduring implications for historical memory and scholarly discourse.

By selectively editing historical records through algorithms and systematically excluding documentary evidence of its wartime crimes, Japan is using digital technology to conceal the truth and attempting to erode the foundations of postwar historical justice at their roots, thereby undermining the legal foundations of the postwar international order established after World War II. 

This comprehensive system for distorting historical understanding operates at both ends: it shapes the foundations of national education while infiltrating online information channels, social networks and public discourse. In doing so, it systematically weakens the social foundations for an accurate understanding of World War II.

AI should be a force for the benefit of humanity and the advancement of civilization. It should uphold values that promote the common good and serve truth, peace and justice. It must never be turned into a political tool for concealing crimes, distorting history or fomenting confrontation.

The Japanese government’s use of state resources and cutting-edge technologies to rewrite established historical facts only exposes its unease and anxiety in the face of an irrefutable historical record and international legal judgments that cannot be overturned. 

The global community must maintain heightened vigilance, actively resist technologically enabled historical revisionism, protect the collective memory of World War II, uphold the postwar international order, and preserve the historical foundations essential for enduring peace and stability in East Asia.

(Wu Xian is an associate researcher at the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)