Nigeria Times

By Jiang Jianke, People’s Daily

A group of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) recently announced the success of a trial planting to halve the growth cycle of a conventional rice variety in a desert greenhouse in Hotan, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

“We started the breeding in February this year. Supported by soilless farming, temperature control and artificial lighting, it took just 60 days for the rice seedlings to harvest,” said Wang Sen, a researcher with the CASS’s Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA).

China is the first country in the world to cultivate rice. With ordinary farming practices, it usually takes 120 to 150 days on average for rice to mature in China’s major rice-growing areas.

Why can the growth cycle of rice be significantly reduced in desert greenhouses of Hotan?

In 2021, Yang Qichang, chief scientist with the IUA, and his team successfully cut the growth cycle of rice by half in laboratory settings in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan province. They also achieved a technological breakthrough that allows rice to be cultivated throughout the year, without being limited by seasonal factors.

Yang noted that cultivating rice in laboratory settings is costly, adding that he and his team hoped to explore a technical approach that could achieve speed breeding while also significantly reducing costs.

“We found that Hotan is an ideal place for building greenhouses because the land and operating costs are relatively low here with its vast deserts, abundant sunlight and heat resources. Implementing speed breeding here can significantly reduce costs,” Yang explained.

In the greenhouses of Hotan, Yang and his team replaced soil cultivation with nutrient solutions and employed multi-spectrum LED light sources and environmental control technologies to regulate the lighting and temperature conditions. After more than two years of experiments, the team finally achieved speed rice breeding in desert greenhouses.

Later, Yang and his team continued to explore key technologies for the fast breeding of other crops in desert greenhouses, including soybeans, corn, wheat, oilseed crops and cotton.

The successful trial planting demonstrated that speed breeding in desert greenhouses is entirely feasible and provides an effective method to produce more generations of rice each year, Yang said. Besides, the efficacy of low-cost, highly efficient and energy-saving gutter-connected desert greenhouses has also been validated, he added.

“After future integration with new energy and other technologies, construction and operating costs will be greatly reduced, which will make such greenhouses strongly competitive globally,” Yang told People’s Daily.

By Zhong Caiwen

Recently, some American politicians have been unreasonably hyping up the false narrative of “overcapacity” in China’s new energy sector, accusing China of exporting excess capacity to the world.

Such narrative is merely rhetoric fabricated by the U.S. to protect its domestic industries, and to tarnish and suppress the Chinese economy. It is essentially an excuse to justify protectionism, which is detrimental to global trade and division of labor, ultimately harming the well-being of all humanity.

Fundamentally, the United States is protecting its excess low-end capacity.

From a global perspective, free and open international trade and investment can boost competitiveness of industries across the world. Since the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of any new product or the rise of any new industry has followed this pattern. History has repeatedly proven that protectionist “greenhouses” cannot cultivate truly competitive industries and companies.

As Bloomberg recently argued, despite implementing steel protectionist measures over the past decade, Washington has failed to prevent the decline in employment within the U.S. metal manufacturing industry.

The implementation of protectionist policies by the U.S. in industries such as new energy would not just undermine its capabilities to tackle climate change but also severely hinder the growth of industries like automotive and energy.

Protectionism exacerbates global overcapacity and incurs substantial cost losses.

With the end of the Cold War, economic globalization has fully developed, marked by significant reductions in tariffs and non-tariff barriers and notable decline of protectionism.

It has promoted division of labor and cooperation among countries, enabling the free flow of production factors, smooth trade integration, and orderly transfer of capacity, and fostering complete and efficient global industrial and supply chains, which has significantly propelled global economic growth.

However, under the influence of rising geopolitical competition, protectionism has resurfaced in recent years, causing a surge in anti-globalization measures.

For one, measures such as tariffs, trade controls, and technological blockades imposed by the U.S. have caused intensified fragmentation of the global market and economy.

For another, the U.S. has pushed for the restructuring of industrial and supply chains under pretext of national security, leading to redundancy of production capacities within certain sectors in some countries and even the whole world, incurring significant financial losses in their economic and social development.

The WTO has previously estimated a full decoupling of the world into geopolitical blocks could reduce global GDP by 5%.

As the world is undergoing the critical transition from old to new growth drivers, adopting protectionist measures in emerging sectors such as new energy will cause even greater damage.

Protectionist policies of the U.S. have harmed the well-being of both Americans and people worldwide.

Based on the specialized division of labor, free trade allows countries to fully leverage their comparative advantages and maximize the benefits of all trading partners. In contrast, protectionism often leads to high inflation, increased production and living costs, and losses in production efficiency and consumer welfare. It is often domestic consumers that suffer the most.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated in 2019 that the U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports cost the average American household $831 annually.

For instance, the three major tech-intensive green products of China, or the “new three” — new energy vehicles (NEVs), lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products are highly sought after in the global market. Rising protectionism will hinder the public’s access to these affordable Chinese new energy products.

Protectionism leads to a lose-lose scenario.

Free and open international trade and investment can improve resource allocation globally and enhance global productivity through efficient industrial and supply chains, thereby promoting shared development of all countries involved.

In contrast, protectionism goes against this trend and results in unintended consequences. Politicizing and overstretching the concept of national security on capacity and other economic and trade issues violate economic principles and the general trend of development, inevitably leading to negative outcomes in the medium to long term.

A severe fragmentation of the global economy after decades of increasing economic integration could reduce global economic output by up to 7%, but the losses could reach 8% to 12% in some countries, if technology is also decoupled, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report last year.

Adopting anti-globalization measures such as decoupling, friendshoring or nearshoring in emerging sectors like new energy and digital economy will ultimately lead to inefficient use of global resources and decreased efficiency, hinder the sustainable growth of the global economy, and narrow or even stifle the room for economic growth.

Countries should join hands to oppose protectionism. In an increasingly interdependent and integrated world, countries form a community of shared interests. The world will never return to isolation, and no one can sever the ties between countries.

It is crucial for countries to firmly stand on the right side of history by championing the overall trend of economic globalization, take a clear-cut stand on free trade and real multilateralism, and oppose unilateralism and protectionism.

Countries should firmly oppose politicizing trade issues, using trade issues as a weapon for ulterior motives, and the abuse of the concept of national security. They should handle differences in accordance with market economy principles and WTO rules, build an open world economy, and work together to make the pie bigger for mutual benefit and win-win results.

By Zhong Caiwen

In recent times, the United States has been promoting the notion of “overcapacity” in China’s new energy sector, even in the absence of factual evidence. This has led to some countries following suit and joining in the hype. The true purpose behind these efforts is quite evident.

The main objective of hyping up this notion is to contain and suppress China’s advantageous industries. The United States has identified China as its most serious strategic competitor. In the economic realm, the United States has been attempting to suppress China’s high-tech and strategic emerging industries. Given that the new energy sector is crucial for green and low-carbon transformation and future development, it has inevitably become a focal point for the United States in its competition with China and its efforts to restrain and suppress China’s growth.

In recent years, China’s new energy industry has experienced robust growth, with three major tech-intensive green products, or the “new three” — new energy vehicles (NEVs), lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products gaining wide popularity globally. China has established a certain competitive advantage in the global market by pursuing technological innovation, production efficiency, and high-quality products.

During this year’s China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, importers from Europe and the United States noted the popularity of China’s green technologies worldwide and acknowledged the country’s role as a global leader in NEV sector. They were also keen to procure more NEVs from China.

Earlier this year, journalist and writer Henry Sanderson highlighted in Foreign Affairs that when it comes to clean energy industries, the West lags far behind China. “China is at the forefront not just in production and deployment of clean energy technologies but also now in innovation,” said Sanderson.

Bloomberg reported on April 2 that Chinese carmakers are more competitive, thanks to technology, local supply chains, brand new transport infrastructure, and lower energy and land costs. Chinese companies aren’t dumping electric vehicles on global markets at a lower cost. China’s biggest electric vehicle exporters all have capacity utilization rates above 80 percent, said the report.

The U.S. government turns a blind eye to these facts and maliciously promotes the notion of “overcapacity” in China’s new energy sector. It distorts China’s industrial policies, overstretches the concept of national security, and attempts to rally allies and partners to decouple from and disrupt China’s new energy industry. The ultimate goal is to impede and suppress the development of China’s advanced manufacturing and new energy industries with unfair and non-market means.

The intention behind the “overcapacity” narrative in China’s new energy sector is to support U.S. domestic industries. Since the 1970s, traditional manufacturing in the U.S. has increasingly moved to developing countries with lower production costs, causing the hollowing out of its manufacturing sector.

The value added of manufacturing contributed 22.7 percent to the U.S. GDP in 1970, but the figure dropped to 10.3 percent in 2022. During the same period, the proportion of manufacturing employment to total non-farm employment decreased from 24.5 percent to 8.4 percent.

The 2008 global financial crisis revealed the dangers of an economy detached from tangible production, prompting the U.S. government to implement a reindustrialization strategy that aimed at reshoring the manufacturing sector and developing U.S. domestic industries.

When it comes to the new energy sector, the conflicting ideologies of the Democratic and Republican parties have resulted in a wavering and indecisive approach in balancing traditional energy sources with the advancement of clean energy. This created the pendulum effect that has hindered the development of the U.S. new energy industry.

At the beginning, the U.S. actively participated in global climate governance and implemented the Paris Agreement on climate change, vigorously developing clean energy technologies.

However, it later announced the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and shifted its energy policy towards the traditional fossil energy industry.

In August 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, marking another major shift in the U.S. climate and energy policy. According to the Act, subsidies of up to $369 billion would be invested in industries such as NEVs, charging stations, and photovoltaic equipment.

The fluctuating energy policies have bewildered many new energy companies in the U.S., causing them to miss out important development opportunities.

In light of this situation, the primary objective behind the “overcapacity” narrative in China’s new energy sector is to create more time and room for the development of its domestic new energy industry.

The hype of the “overcapacity” narrative in China’s new energy sector is also partly fueled by the political agenda within the U.S., which is grappling with economic and social challenges. As anxiety and apprehension grow over China’s development, shifting the blame outward and projecting a display of power against China has emerged as a convenient political tactic.

This year’s U.S. election will hinge on the outcomes in a few key swing states. According to the latest polling data released by Real Clear Politics, support for Democratic and Republican candidates in six critical swing states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada – is hovering around 45 percent, making the contest exceedingly tight.

Traditional industries like steel and fuel-powered automotive manufacturing, and new energy sectors such as NEVs, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, are pivotal economic drivers that underpin job creation and local livelihoods in these battleground states.

Whether it’s the steel industry in Pennsylvania, the fuel-powered automotive industry in Michigan, the solar industry in Georgia and Arizona, the NEVs industry in Wisconsin, or the battery industry in Nevada, all face competitive pressures from global players, including China.

Raising the narrative of “overcapacity” in China’s new energy sector at this juncture is an important strategy for U.S. presidential candidates to win over voters and stakeholders in these critical swing states.

Driven by domestic economic and political imperatives, the U.S. “overcapacity” narrative in China’s new energy sector, in disregard of market dynamics and international rules. Such narrative is a new pretext for economic de-globalization, protectionism, and unilateralism. A few other countries, blinded by their own short-term interests, are jumping on this bandwagon indiscriminately.

This doesn’t benefit China, the U.S., other countries involved, or the world at large. Curbing and suppressing the development of China’s new energy industry will not strengthen domestic industries in the U.S.; instead, it will distort the international market and undermine efficient resource allocation.

History has repeatedly proven that unilateralism and protectionism ultimately result in self-inflicted harm. The international community faces common challenges in green and low-carbon transition and addressing climate change. The development of China’s new energy industry aligns with future development trends and contributes to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

It is hoped that the U.S. and a few other countries adopt the vision to build a community with a shared future for mankind and proceed from the fundamental well-being of their own people and the people in the rest of the world. They should uphold the principles of multilateralism and free trade, and strengthen cooperation with China in the new energy sector to address common challenges faced by the world.

By Gu Yekai, People’s Daily

The industrial application of China’s large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) models has seen rapid development in recent years.

For instance, Chinese tech-firm Shengshu Technology and Tsinghua University recently unveiled their self-developed text-to-video AI model Vidu, which can generate a 16-second 1080P videoclip with one click.

At the 2024 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, Chinese carmakers launched multiple new models integrated with AI systems, enhancing driving experience with multisensory interactions and autonomous driving capabilities.

Humanoid robots integrated with large-scale AI models for task scheduling and application development have quickly learned how to fold clothes and sort items.

According to incomplete statistics, China has developed over 200 large-scale AI models, spanning across different sectors with expanding application scenarios.

As indicated by the latest data released by the Cyberspace Administration of China, China had validated 117 generative AI services as of March this year.

China’s large-scale AI models have entered a period of rapid development, making significant advancements in technology branches such as natural language processing, machine vision, and multimodal capabilities.

With the joint efforts of enterprises, universities and research institutions, China has developed systematic R&D capabilities that encompass theoretical methods and software and hardware technologies. A number of influential large-scale AI model applications have emerged in China, establishing a technology cluster that remains at the cutting edge of innovation worldwide.

The industrial application of large-scale AI models in China follows two major paths. The first is to develop cross-sector general-purpose AI capability platforms, known as general large-scale models. These models are being adopted in a wide range of areas, from office settings and daily scenarios to healthcare, industry, and education.

The second focuses on industry-specific large-scale AI models in vertical sectors such as biopharmaceuticals, remote sensing, and meteorology. These models can leverage their expertise to provide high-quality and specialized solutions for specific business scenarios.

Liu Shijin, former deputy director of the Development Research Center of China’s State Council, believes that the application of new technologies in China’s huge market brings more development opportunities for digital economy. According to Liu, an increasing number of market players are driving innovation by competing in the market, which in turn provide more application scenarios for technology and engineering.

Large-scale AI models are primarily classified into cloud-side models and edge-side models, based on how they are deployed. Unlike cloud-side models that primarily cater to industrial applications, edge-side models mainly serve individual users. Since this year, Chinese manufacturers have been rolling out consumer electronics and smart terminal products equipped with large-scale AI models.

Early this year, Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Honor launched a new generation of all-scenario operating system, featuring a large-scale intelligent question-answering model that sees 15 million monthly uses and peaks at 850,000 daily.

With the ability to automatically summarize key points from phone conversations and engage in natural dialogue to create content for video production, this model is set to elevate smartphone capabilities to a new height and drive growth in the smartphone market.

As a new generation of intelligent terminals, large-scale AI models are massively employed on intelligent connected vehicles. In addition to enabling more natural interactions with passengers in smart cabins and recognizing people and objects inside and outside vehicles more accurately, the models can also enhance the efficiency and safety of autonomous driving systems.

Industrial application has become one of the important advantages and a key driver of China’s AI industry, featuring cutting-edge mobile applications, abundant data resources, diverse application scenarios, and a complete industrial chain.

An Xiaopeng, vice president of Alibaba Cloud, believes that the application of large-scale AI models in different industries can boost product competitiveness and generate new added value. Additionally, it can enhance the efficiency of enterprise innovation by improving processes and decision-making in broader and more complex scenarios.

Wu Tongning, deputy director of the AI research center at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that the emergence of numerous innovative applications has raised higher demands for support systems of AI software and hardware. The increased demand generated by new technologies will propel China’s innovators in computing power, algorithms, and data.

China, Africa see expanded tourism cooperation

By Peng Xunwen, Wu Yue

China just witnessed a booming outbound tourism market during the past May Day holiday. Apart from traditional popular destinations in Southeast Asia and Europe, an increasing number of Chinese tourists chose to travel to Africa, to see the pyramids in Egypt and the vast plains of Kenya.

Not only Chinese but also international tourists are showing a growing interest in Africa. According to the newest edition of the World Tourism Barometer released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourist trips paid to Africa hit 66.4 million in 2023. Among them, 39.6 million were paid to sub-Saharan Africa.

Analysts attributed the strong momentum of tourism in Africa to the diverse range of measures implemented by countries on the continent, which have injected new impetus into regional economic development.

During this year’s May Day holiday, a woman surnamed Chen from east China’s Zhejiang province had a trip to Kenya with her child.

“My child has always loved observing animals in the wild. On Kenya’s vast grasslands, we saw lions hunting, gaining a firsthand understanding of the laws of nature that felt more real than what we read in books,” Chen shared.

She told People’s Daily that inside the conservation areas, they hiked alongside experienced guides, enjoying intimate and safe encounters with the animals. This experience was truly new to them, she said.

The temples and ancient ruins scattered along the Nile River, including the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Luxor Temple, have attracted many Chinese tourists.

“During this year’s May Day holiday, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Egypt has significantly increased compared to the same period last year, with group tours remaining the preferred choice for travelers. There has also been a noticeable increase in independent travelers who prioritize freedom and personalized choices,” said Wang Peizhong, head of the Egypt China General Association, who has been engaged in the tourism industry for many years. According to him, his travel agency received new tourists every day during the holiday.

According to statistics, Africa is becoming one of the popular destinations for Chinese tourists.

Statistics released by online travel platform Mafengwo indicated that African countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, and Mauritius became new choices for many young travelers during the May Day holiday this year.

Data from Statistics South Africa also showed a rapid increase in the number of international tourists arriving in the country last year, with a total of 37,000 Chinese tourists, a year-on-year growth of 205.5 percent.

Tanzania’s tourism authorities estimated that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Tanzania had grown from nearly 34,000 in 2019 to approximately 44,000 last year.

China and African countries are jointly strengthening their tourism capacity building. Recently, a training program on tourism capacity building for English-speaking African countries kicked off in Beijing and Hangzhou, hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and organized by the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration.

A total of 26 officials, experts, and scholars from countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania participated in the training program.

The training program focused on topics such as tourism policies, scenic area development and management, standardization, and the integration of culture and tourism development. Experts and scholars from institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the China Tourism Academy were invited to share China’s practical experience in the development of the tourism industry.

A report on China-Africa Belt and Road cooperation highlighted that China has signed bilateral tourism cooperation agreements with 31 African countries, listed 34 African countries as outbound group tour destinations for its citizens and established 166 pairs of sister cities with Africa.

Both sides actively invite each other to participate in tourism exhibitions and join tourism promotion events, building a platform for experience sharing, business negotiation, and product promotion between the Chinese and African tourism departments and enterprises.

Professor Song Wei from the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University said that as Belt and Road cooperation continues to deepen, China and Africa have carried out extensive cooperation to promote tourism visa facilitation, increase direct flights, enhance tourism safety and quality, strengthen hotel and scenic spot construction, and promote tourism routes, and these efforts have yielded fruitful results.

“The tourism industries of China and Africa have distinct characteristics and strong complementarity, exhibiting a reciprocal dynamic,” Song added.

By Peng Xunwen, Wu Yue

China just witnessed a booming outbound tourism market during the past May Day holiday. Apart from traditional popular destinations in Southeast Asia and Europe, an increasing number of Chinese tourists chose to travel to Africa, to see the pyramids in Egypt and the vast plains of Kenya.

Not only Chinese but also international tourists are showing a growing interest in Africa. According to the newest edition of the World Tourism Barometer released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourist trips paid to Africa hit 66.4 million in 2023. Among them, 39.6 million were paid to sub-Saharan Africa.

Analysts attributed the strong momentum of tourism in Africa to the diverse range of measures implemented by countries on the continent, which have injected new impetus into regional economic development.

During this year’s May Day holiday, a woman surnamed Chen from east China’s Zhejiang province had a trip to Kenya with her child.

“My child has always loved observing animals in the wild. On Kenya’s vast grasslands, we saw lions hunting, gaining a firsthand understanding of the laws of nature that felt more real than what we read in books,” Chen shared.

She told People’s Daily that inside the conservation areas, they hiked alongside experienced guides, enjoying intimate and safe encounters with the animals. This experience was truly new to them, she said.

The temples and ancient ruins scattered along the Nile River, including the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Luxor Temple, have attracted many Chinese tourists.

“During this year’s May Day holiday, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Egypt has significantly increased compared to the same period last year, with group tours remaining the preferred choice for travelers. There has also been a noticeable increase in independent travelers who prioritize freedom and personalized choices,” said Wang Peizhong, head of the Egypt China General Association, who has been engaged in the tourism industry for many years. According to him, his travel agency received new tourists every day during the holiday.

According to statistics, Africa is becoming one of the popular destinations for Chinese tourists.

Statistics released by online travel platform Mafengwo indicated that African countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, and Mauritius became new choices for many young travelers during the May Day holiday this year.

Data from Statistics South Africa also showed a rapid increase in the number of international tourists arriving in the country last year, with a total of 37,000 Chinese tourists, a year-on-year growth of 205.5 percent.

Tanzania’s tourism authorities estimated that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Tanzania had grown from nearly 34,000 in 2019 to approximately 44,000 last year.

China and African countries are jointly strengthening their tourism capacity building. Recently, a training program on tourism capacity building for English-speaking African countries kicked off in Beijing and Hangzhou, hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and organized by the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration.

A total of 26 officials, experts, and scholars from countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania participated in the training program.

The training program focused on topics such as tourism policies, scenic area development and management, standardization, and the integration of culture and tourism development. Experts and scholars from institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the China Tourism Academy were invited to share China’s practical experience in the development of the tourism industry.

A report on China-Africa Belt and Road cooperation highlighted that China has signed bilateral tourism cooperation agreements with 31 African countries, listed 34 African countries as outbound group tour destinations for its citizens and established 166 pairs of sister cities with Africa.

Both sides actively invite each other to participate in tourism exhibitions and join tourism promotion events, building a platform for experience sharing, business negotiation, and product promotion between the Chinese and African tourism departments and enterprises.

Professor Song Wei from the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University said that as Belt and Road cooperation continues to deepen, China and Africa have carried out extensive cooperation to promote tourism visa facilitation, increase direct flights, enhance tourism safety and quality, strengthen hotel and scenic spot construction, and promote tourism routes, and these efforts have yielded fruitful results.

“The tourism industries of China and Africa have distinct characteristics and strong complementarity, exhibiting a reciprocal dynamic,” Song added.

By Du Yifei, People’s Daily

Unilateral sanctions against China do not conform with a broad number of international legal norms and cannot be justified as countermeasures under the law of international responsibility, a United Nations (UN) expert said on May 17.

Alena Douhan, UN special rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, said the unilateral sanctions against China can be qualified as unilateral coercive measures at a press conference in Beijing following her 12-day visit to the country.

Unilateral sanctions have been imposed against China since 2017 with mounting U.S. pressure on Chinese technological companies and the imposition of export controls, designation of companies’ officials and the launch of administrative and civil charges. These have been followed by further sanctions and restrictions related to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong SAR, by expanding the list of targets to include key sectors of economic activity, including in agriculture, construction, trade, new and green technologies, energy, finance, telecommunications and others.

“During my visit I received numerous reports on the unilateral sanctions’ adverse impact and the consequent socio-economic implications affecting peoples’ lives,” Douhan said.

Douhan also called on sanctioning parties to lift and suspend all unilateral sanctions applied to China, Chinese nationals and companies without authorization from the UN Security Council.

“I wish to reiterate the illegality of extraterritorial application of unilateral sanctions and I call on states, in particular sanctioning states, to effectively address over-compliance of businesses and other entities under their jurisdiction in order to mitigate or completely eliminate any adverse humanitarian impact,” said the expert.

During her trip, she visited Beijing, Shenzhen, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where she talked with government officials and representatives from non-government organizations, businesses, academic institutions and other sectors. Douhan will present a report based on her visit to the UN Human Rights Council in September.