Nigeria Times

Nigeria has once again reaffirmed its commitment to the one China policy noting that the recent election in China’s Taiwan region and any aspiration for its independence contradict the principles of Nigeria’s foreign relations with China as it negates all scientific principles of China’s sovereignty.

This position is contained in a statement by Hon. Ja’afaru Yakubu the Chairman, House Committee on
Nigeria-China Relations

Hon Ja’afaru also reaffirmed Nigeria’s readiness to constantly adhere to the one-China Principle noting that, “There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Nigeria opposes any separatist activities aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference in internal affairs of other states and fully supports China’s strive in achieving peaceful reunification” the statement added.

By Lin Lili, People’s Daily

Digital consumption is becoming an important driver for expanding domestic demand, stabilizing economic growth, and promoting industrial transformation in China.

From January to November in 2023, China’s online retail sales reached about 13.96 trillion yuan ($1.96 trillion), up 11 percent year on year.

Currently, the burgeoning new forms and models of digital consumption, represented by online shopping, livestreaming, and digital culture, are profoundly changing people’s consumption habits.

Thanks to livestreaming promotions, a consumer in Beijing can clearly see a sheep farm over 1,000 kilometers away in Huanxian county, Qingyang city, northwest China’s Gansu province, without leaving his home.

“The sheepfold looks quite clean and the sheep all seem energetic. Seeing is believing. I think this shop’s mutton must be good,” said Xu Jie, the customer, sitting at home holding his phone.

Compared to brick-and-mortar vegetable markets, livestreaming can sometimes offer consumers more information about products, he explained, adding that now he often makes purchases online.

“Business has been pretty good lately. With so many regular customers, I can sell about 120 sheep a day,” said Liu Guoning, an entrepreneur in Huanxian county.

According to Liu, he used to take sheep to the market to sell, or wait for buyers to come to his farm, while now he sells mutton online.

“Since I sold mutton online, I’ve not only been able to sell all the sheep from my own farm, but also help sell the sheep of other villagers. The profits and efficiency are much better,” he noted.

One of the prominent features of digital consumption is the broader scope of shopping, which plays a key role in boosting domestic demand.

Nowadays, as consumers’ online shopping radius keeps expanding, they can buy products from various parts of the country and even the world without leaving home.

As a result of the continuous improvement of China’s rural digital infrastructure and e-commerce logistics systems, local specialties such as mushrooms, eggs, and meat produced in remote regions of the country can now be sold nationwide through e-commerce platforms.

Pinduoduo, a major Chinese e-commerce platform, has established direct connections with over 1,000 agricultural production areas in China, involving more than 16 million farmer households to the digital economy, according to Zhang Chao, said an operation magager of Pinduoduo.

“We have actively promoted the application of digital technologies in the circulation and supply of agricultural products, and vigorously advanced the construction of digital information infrastructure, including cold chain logistics of fresh agricultural products,” Zhang said.

The platform has implemented measures including sending out products within 48 hours after an order is placed and free express delivery services for consumers in remote areas in a bid to boost sales, according to Zhang.

By switching from offline transactions to online transactions, consumers can easily access information about products and services, which saves time and transportation costs that could be incurred during consumption, and expands consumers’ shopping radius, giving them more options and autonomy in consumption, said Li Mingtao, head of the research institute at the China International Electronic Commerce Center.

Digital technologies not only broaden consumers’ shopping radius, but also incubate new industries, new business forms and models, ushering in greater possibilities of consumption in the country.

In Beijing’s Dongcheng district, a consumer named Lin Qing obtained her own digital model after placing an order online, signing an agreement, and having her face scanned, all within about 30 minutes at a special photo studio that creates digital twin for customers.

Lin’s digital twin realized many of her dreams in the virtual world, including scoring slam dunks, enjoying skiing, and performing street dance.

“It’s really interesting to see the familiar ‘me’ doing unfamiliar things. I feel like I met another ‘me’ from a parallel universe,” Lin said.

“We’re building an ecosystem of digital humans where everyone may one day own their digital twin,” said Liu Zheng, founder of the studio.

In 2023, Chinese people discovered a proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered digital humans in various scenarios.

They saw digital hosts present weather forecast programs, speakers’ digital twins take the stage at major conferences, digital livestreaming hosts work 24/7, and digital humans share life wisdom in short videos.

The application of AI have been stretched into various fields, from healthcare, education, finance to transportation, entertainment, and sports, changing the way people live and work.

“The extensive application of the Internet, cloud computing, AI, among other new technologies, has enabled digital technologies to better satisfy people’s needs for a better life and unleash consumption potential, making digital technologies a new driving force for consumption growth and economic development,” said Ren Baoping, a specially appointed professor of the school of digital economy and management of Nanjing University in east China’s Jiangsu province.

“We hope to accelerate the expansion of emerging consumption areas like customized consumption, smart consumption, and experiential consumption, as well as to increase effective supplies for digital consumption in healthcare, elderly care, medical services, culture, education, security and other fields,” Ren added.

By Luo Shanshan, People’s Daily

Foreign trade is an important engine driving economic growth and a crucial link between domestic and international economic circulations. China’s 2023 Central Economic Work Conference recently emphasized the need to foster new drivers of foreign trade. And how will China do this in 2024?

Foreign trade involves both domestic and international markets, and to consolidate the foundation of foreign trade and foreign investment, it is necessary to first clarify the domestic and international situations.

“The unstable momentum and insufficient driving force of the global economic recovery have led to sustained weakness in external demand, which is the main factor affecting the trend of foreign trade,” said Li Xingqian, director general of the Department of Foreign Trade of China’s Ministry of Commerce.

He believes China needs to fully recognize the difficulties and challenges facing the development of foreign trade, and also see that positive factors of stabilization and improvement are gathering.

Specifically, there is abundant potential in new products and new business forms. The new “three major ones,” namely solar batteries, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles, as well as energy storage products meet the need of global energy development. New business forms and models such as cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, and bonded repairs are flourishing.

Chinese foreign trade possesses enduring innovation capabilities and a stable, efficient, and resilient supply chain, which will continue to provide new drivers for the recovery and growth of the national economy and global recovery.

To cultivate new drivers for foreign trade, it is important to focus on key tasks. “China has been the world’s largest exporter of intermediate goods for 12 consecutive years, with intermediate goods contributing nearly 60 percent to the growth of foreign trade,” said Li.

Expanding intermediate goods trade conforms to the trend of international trade development and is a mutually beneficial move, he added.

It is necessary for China to further strengthen cooperation with its trading partners and meet their realistic demand for developing manufacturing industry, so that it can achieve complementary advantages and provide impetus for global economic recovery.

Zhu Siqiao, associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, believes that cross-border e-commerce, as the fastest-growing, most potential, and most influential new form of foreign trade, is becoming an important trend in international trade development.

Currently, cross-border e-commerce accounts for over 7 percent of China’s total exports. The sector has over 100,000 entities, more than 200,000 independent platforms, and over 1,500 overseas warehouses covering an area of nearly 19 million square meters.

Li said that in order to expand cross-border e-commerce exports, policies regarding customs clearance, taxation, foreign exchange, and other aspects will continue to be improved to enhance regulatory facilitation and help companies reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Support will also be provided to encourage cross-border e-commerce pilot zones, industry organizations, and companies to participate in Silk Road E-Commerce and Belt and Road cooperation.

To cultivate new drivers for foreign trade, it is also important to promote the digitalization and green development of trade, consolidate the foundation of foreign trade and foreign investment, and accelerate China’s transformation into a trader of quality.

According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, it will together with local and other departments, continue to effectively implement various policies already introduced to stabilize foreign trade. At the same time, in light of new circumstances and tasks, it will make new policies and measures, and roll them out in a timely manner, to help foreign trade companies reduce costs and increase efficiency.

By Li Hongmei, People’s Daily

China’s Fengyun meteorological satellites, among the diverse man-made satellites orbiting the Earth, monitor meteorological conditions on the planet at all times, making important contributions to global disaster prevention and mitigation efforts, climate change response, as well as sustainable economic and social development.

Fengyun satellites are a series of remote-sensing meteorological satellites independently developed by China. Since the successful launch of the country’s first meteorological satellite in 1988, Fengyun satellites today are widely applied in such fields as weather forecasting, climate prediction, natural disaster and environmental monitoring, and scientific research.

China has by far successfully sent 21 Fengyun meteorological satellites of two generations into space. Currently, nine of them are operating in orbits, providing data and products for 129 countries and regions around the world.

With multiple satellites in orbit conducting networked observations, Fengyun meteorological satellites are able to provide three-dimensional (3D), quantitative, global, all-day, all-weather, hyperspectral, and timely precision monitoring data.

The extraordinary capabilities of the Fengyun satellites enable precise monitoring of all types of weather and climate events. It has detected all typhoons, performed 3D “computed tomography (CT) scans” of rainstorms, accumulated the dataset of climate variables for El Nino, and carried out more tasks.

The satellites have provided remarkable service support for the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and become the backbone of the global Earth observation network.

In recent years, data obtained from the instruments on the Fengyun meteorological satellites have been playing an increasingly important role in data assimilation of the numerical weather prediction models of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said Niels Bormann, a Principal Scientist in ECMWF Research Department.

Integration of satellite-based Earth observation data and ground-based observation data allows for better monitoring of meteorological disasters and their impacts on agriculture.

In the past few years, Fengyun meteorological satellites have been used to monitor extreme drought events in Central Asia, facilitate studies of drought mechanisms, climate change and its impacts, identify affected areas, and then help these areas reduce adverse impacts and enhance climate resilience, according to Sanjarbek Muratov, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) representative to Uzbekistan.

On November 13 last year, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) launched the international version of FengYun Earth, a comprehensive application platform serving services by leveraging the Fengyun meteorological satellites and satellite remote sensing technology.

The international version of the platform, specially developed for international users, boasts outstanding capabilities. It can effectively obtain multi-source data such as meteorological satellite data and numerical weather prediction data, while identifying disastrous weather and extreme climate events with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

It also provides users with more than 100 quantitative and multi-scale products in five categories for different business scenarios, covering cloud charts, key elements, disaster events, climate, and model verification. According to different countries and regions, it can be configured to focus on certain meteorological factors, observation areas, and time ranges, among other aspects, so as to meet users’ personalized needs.

Shortly after its debut, the international version of FengYun Earth received an order – to provide support for the 17th Pacific Games hosted by the Solomon Islands.

At the invitation of the meteorological bureau of the Solomon Islands, the CMA sent experts to the Solomon Islands, while starting the fast-scan mode of the Fengyun-4B (FY-4B) satellite for meteorological observations centered on the Solomon Islands. Leveraging the platform, the CMA provided dozens of satellite products for the Solomon Islands, delivering strong support for the successful holding of the 17th Pacific Games.

In an effort to better serve international users, the CMA established an emergency support mechanism regarding disaster prevention and mitigation of Fengyun satellites in April 2018. A total of 34 countries had registered for the mechanism by 2023.

Since the beginning of 2023, Fengyun satellites have responded 28 times to global requests for emergency support services.

They have observed tropical cyclones Lola and Mocha, providing meteorological support to countries including the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Bangladesh. They have also helped monitor concentrated ignition points of devastating forest fires from the northern coast of Algeria to northwest Tunisia, offering important assistance for the fire prevention and control efforts of local authorities.

According to CMA statistics, over the past five years, more than 1,000 international users have been trained for better use of Fengyun meteorological satellite-based products. The CMA has provided support concerning application software for Fengyun satellites’ remote sensing services and held video consultations on relevant services and products for over 20 countries and regions across the world more than 50 times.

By Fan Jiayuan, Sun Longfei, People’s Daily

With flags flying high, the melodious sound of the reed pipes, the resounding beats of drums and gongs, cheerleaders dancing and singing, and a packed stadium, the 2024 season of the Village Super League, or “Cun Chao” in Chinese, kicked off on Jan. 6, 2024 in Rongjiang county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture of southwest China’s Guizhou province.

“The new season sees a significant increase in the number of participating football teams. Last year, the Village Super League featured 20 teams, while this year, over 1,800 players from 62 football teams will partake in the new season,” said Lai Hongjing, a member of the organizing committee of Village Super League and a P.E. teacher of No.1 Middle School of Rongjiang county.

“Cun Chao” is a grassroots football league that has gained popularity in China in recent years. Chinese internet users dub it the “Village Super League”, drawing inspiration from renowned leagues such as the English Premier League and the Chinese Super League.

By hosting the Village Super League matches, Rongjiang, with a population of less than 400,000, became a sensation last year, attracting attention and generating revenue.

According to the Village Super League Office of Rongjiang county, from May 13 to Dec. 31, 2023, “Cun Chao” received more than 58 billion page views online, and the livestreams of the matches attracted more than 600 million views online.

During the same period, Rongjiang received 7.33 million tourist arrivals, translating to tourism income of 8.113 billion yuan (about $113 million).

The success of “Cun Chao” is attributed to the fervent football community in the local area.

In the 1990s, residents of Rongjiang county started to organize matches on open fields. Presently, the county boasts 25 football fields, 35 registered teams, and 41 schools offering football coaching. Nearly 50,000 people in the county play football.

“Cun Chao” is not the only sports event that has been deeply involved in the grassroots and has achieved great success.

In Taipan village, located in Taijiang county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, the local community upholds the tradition of playing basketball during festivals. Through the establishment of the “Cun BA”, or Village Basketball Competition, Taijiang county received over 2 million tourist arrivals in a year, resulting in tourism revenue exceeding 2.3 billion yuan.

In Wenchang, a county-level city in south China’s Hainan province, every village has its own volleyball court and everyone plays volleyball. The popularity of the village volleyball league has now extended from offline to online platforms.

Village sports events, originating from rural areas, play a significant role in the development of these regions. By actively involving the local community and capturing people’s attention, these events have unlocked a multitude of values.

Various rural sports events have also stimulated economic development.

During the breaks between the matches, the audiences were treated to captivating cultural performances. Outside the sports venues, e-commerce live-streaming sessions were hosted, offering a platform to sell a wide range of cultural and creative products.

Sports events have played a role in empowering the tourism and cultural industries, paving a new path towards rural revitalization. They have brought attention to Guizhou’s distinctive cuisine, agricultural products, and intangible cultural heritage.

They have also led to the creation of tourism projects and increased employment opportunities for the local community. The online buzz generated by these events has translated into increased offline foot traffic, ultimately benefiting the residents of Guizhou.

The thriving rural sports events allow more people to appreciate the charm of sports and experience the excitement of competition.

To demonstrate their support, villagers raised funds for their teams, stitched team emblems, and offered their seats to accommodate tourists. They even formed a volunteer team of drivers to contribute their share to the games.

Yang Bing, a commentator for the “Cun Chao”, said sports serve as a bond that unites people, instilling a sense of confidence in the local culture of Rongjiang.

Mass sports, deeply ingrained in rural areas, continue to exude vitality, infusing a fresh atmosphere into the hosting regions.

During the Village Super League matches, young entrepreneurs who have returned to their hometowns after graduating from college hosted live-streaming sessions, promoting local agricultural products. The impact of “Cun BA” is evident, as many neighboring villages have reaped the benefits of these basketball games.

“Over the past decade, driving rural revitalization through sports has emerged as a prominent aspect of China’s sports industry development, yielding many success stories. The innovative approaches implemented in Rongjiang county and Taijiang county serve as valuable references for integrating culture, sports, and tourism to stimulate economic and social development, thereby fulfilling the aspirations of the people for a better life,” said Wang Xueli, director of Tsinghua University Sports Industry Development Research Center.

By Kou Jiangze, Yao Xueqing, Li Maoying, People’s Daily

Early in the morning, Shen Wei arrived at the Gehu Lake, upstream of the Taihu Lake in east China’s Jiangsu province, with a toolbox, to conduct routine water quality and aquatic organism monitoring. Meanwhile, Shen’s colleagues were sampling water from the lake with a water collector for the monitoring of planktonic algae.

After the sampling was completed, Shen, deputy chief of the ecological department of the Changzhou Environmental Monitoring Center, which initiated a comprehensive ecological monitoring network for water bodies on the plains of Changzhou, returned to the lab with his colleagues and started analyzing samples.

“We discovered Novaculina chinensis, a national second-class protected aquatic wild animal, and we have found it at multiple locations many times,” said Shen. According to him, this indicated that the ecological condition of Gehu Lake was improving.

The monitoring of planktonic algae also had some positive findings – diatoms, the dominant species in the winter lake, were at normal levels and varieties.

Ecological monitoring is essential for obtaining an objective and accurate understanding of the ecological conditions in a given area, implementing scientific ecological protection and restoration measures, and evaluating their outcomes.

Recently, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, issued a work plan on national ecological quality supervision and monitoring for the 2023-2025 period.

According to the plan, China will set up a national ecological monitoring network and designate 55 sites as the first batch of national stations for monitoring ecological quality, including a station in Xishuangbanna, southwest China’s Yunnan province, and the comprehensive ecological monitoring network for water bodies on the plains of Changzhou.

The first batch of national stations for monitoring ecological quality cover major ecosystem types such as forests, wetlands, grasslands, deserts, oceans, cities, and farmlands. They span across 44 key ecological conservation and regulatory areas in China, as well as other important ecological regions and urban clusters with frequent human activities.

Compared to environmental monitoring, ecological monitoring features richer content, more complex indicators, and more diverse methods.

“The national ecological monitoring network takes species diversity and habitats as its monitoring objects, with the goals of highlighting supervision, finding problems, and accumulating data. It focuses on the composition, structure, and functions of biological communities and species, enabling comprehensive monitoring of all types of ecosystems within a 100 km radius of each monitoring station,” said Dong Mingli, an official with China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

In the Xishuangbanna national nature reserve in Yunnan, Yuan Shengdong and other scientific researchers from the Xishuangbanna tropical rainforest ecosystem station walked into the depths of the dense forest to carry out routine field monitoring at designated plots, including measuring, marking, sampling, and recording.

For most of the year, the staff at this station are out in the field. “We collect millions of monitoring data every year, including various types such as biology, meteorology, hydrology, and soil,” said Yuan.

He further explained that studying the dynamics of tropical rainforests requires long-term data accumulation, as short-term observations do not yield immediate results. Therefore, researchers need to diligently work day by day to gather the necessary data for studying the changes in the rainforest ecosystem.

Dong said that the national ecological monitoring network takes monitoring stations as regional centers, monitoring plots as the primary objects, and ground mobile patrols as a supplement. Working in sync with remote sensing, it integrates satellite resources, manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, ground fixed and mobile patrol monitoring, and other observation methods to establish an integrated sky-ground ecological monitoring technology system, Dong explained.

It is learned that satellite remote sensing monitoring boasts a wide coverage. It can monitor land surface changes promptly and discover ecological damages, serving as the primary means for ecological supervision.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are flexible and responsive. They can carry visible infrared sensors, hyperspectral sensors, LiDAR and other payloads to conduct on-site investigations and technical calibrations of damage clues and changes of ecological types in key areas. This provides data support for the verification of ecological damages and validation of remote sensing parameters.

Ground monitoring mainly utilizes video surveillance, patrols, plot monitoring and other means to conduct real-time monitoring of key sensitive areas and discover problems like human interference.

Ecological monitoring not only aims to present the current status and changes in regional ecological quality but also focuses on enhancing the ability to proactively detect ecological issues.

“For example, cyanobacterial bloom is a prominent issue in the treatment of the Taihu Lake. The monitoring station utilizes historical data to study the competitive growth mechanisms of aquatic plants and cyanobacteria, providing technical support for scientific and precise artificial restoration of the ecological environment,” said Pan Chen, director of the Changzhou Environmental Monitoring Center.