Nigeria Times

By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily

As the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) kept growing in both depth and substance over recent years, Chinese enterprises joining the construction and operation of ports in other Belt and Road countries have not only forcefully promoted local employment, infrastructure and economic development, but also benefited these countries with outstanding maritime transport services.

However, such Chinese-foreign port cooperation is viewed in a biased manner by some in the United States, who recklessly fabricated the theory that Chinese investment in global ports poses as a threat and hyped that China-invested ports would offer support for Chinese navy and make geopolitical risks.

Such accusation is groundless. It politicizes normal business cooperation and makes it an issue about ideologies and security. Its aims at smearing and oppressing Chinese enterprises so as to maintain the so-called “competitive edge” of the United States.

Maritime transportation is the most common way of transportation in international trade. It accounts for about 80 percent of the volume of international trade in goods, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Ports are comprehensive transportation hubs. How relevant infrastructure and support facilities are built and how well ports are operated and managed bear important significance in developing national economy, especially maritime economy.

Every maritime country attaches high importance to the construction and development of ports and take them as an important engine that drives trade exchanges and economic development. All maritime countries are prudent when selecting partners for port cooperation and only select those they consider the best.

Merely based on China’s ownership of ports, some people in the United States came to the conclusion that China has an ulterior motive in investing nearly 100 ports around the world, claiming that the overseas ports of China have gained “important military functions.”

They turn a blind eye to the logic of two-way selection and win-win cooperation in business, but are sticking to zero-sum mentality and viciously making groundless speculations. This only reveals their sour grapes attitude.

Chinese-foreign port cooperation brings important opportunities for development to host countries. Over the years, Chinese enterprises have taken an active part in the investment, construction and operation of ports in countries along the Belt and Road, creating remarkable economic and social benefits.

The Colombo Port City in Sri Lanka, a key project of China-Sri Lanka Belt and Road cooperation, is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the “Five New Cities to Shake Up the Future.” Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimated that the project would bring $9.7 billion in foreign direct investment to Sri Lanka and create over 400,000 jobs for local communities.

A container terminal constructed by Chinese enterprises in Phnom Penh, Cambodia has now become a major hub for Cambodia’s foreign trade. It facilitates the exports of Cambodia’s rice and other farm produce, and is creating huge economic benefits.

The China-assisted St. John’s Harbor project in Antigua and Barbuda has significantly improved the country’s transport capacity and efficiency and realized the country’s hope of becoming a regional navigation center and of promoting diversified and sustainable economic development.

Thanks to China’s advanced management technologies and experiences, the throughput of the Piraeus port in Greece exceeded 5.65 million twenty-foot equivalent units, making it the largest port in the Mediterranean.

It is generally believed by relevant countries that China-foreign port cooperation helps enhance host countries’ capabilities in self-reliant sustainable development, and promotes the coordinated regional development centering on ports and the overall development of host countries.

China launches practical cooperation on port and other infrastructure on the basis of respecting the will of relevant countries. It never interferes in other countries’ domestic affairs, targets at any third party or poses security threat to any country.

The final agreement for a Chinese enterprise’s acquisition of part of a Hamburg port-based container terminal was recently penned, becoming an indicator of the deepening China-Germany economic and trade cooperation.

The United States is also a beneficiary of Chinese-foreign port cooperation. By cooperating with its Chinese partner COSCO Shipping, the Port of Boston has not only saved 9,000 jobs in the region’s shipping industry, but also created another 400,000 jobs. It was described as a perfect example of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation.

Some people in the United States are pointing fingers at and even standing in the way of the normal port cooperation between China and other Belt and Road countries, which is a typical example of a petty mind making conjectures about an upright man.

They should be reminded that the United States is indeed the country that builds strategic “outpost” around the world. It owns more than 800 overseas military bases, and 313 of them are surrounding China.

China’s port cooperation with relevant countries is totally transparent. China will keep enhancing the connection of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with development strategies of various countries and regional cooperation initiatives, speed up the development of port infrastructure and regional and international logistic corridors, and work together with relevant countries to broaden the Belt and Road as a path benefiting the whole world.

The smears on Chinese-foreign port cooperation by some people in the United States will only shadow and cripple international win-win cooperation and common progress. They had better stop abusing the concept of national security, stop hyping the so-called “threat from Chinese investment in global ports,” and withdraw its overstretching hand that hinders normal international business cooperation.

By Zhang Danhua, People’s Daily

The Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD), a fascinating age in early history featuring the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Wei, Shu, and Wu, is one of the most widely known period of history in China. The culture related to it has a profound impact.

As the main battlefield between Wei and Shu during the Three Kingdoms period, Hanzhong in northwest China’s Shaanxi province possesses an important geographic position.

In the Three Kingdoms period, there was a saying that “The one who gets the Dingjun Mountain gets Hanzhong, and the one who gets Hanzhong gets the country.”

Then where is the Dingjun Mountain?

It is located in Mianxian county, a small town with a history of over 2,000 years in Hanzhong.

Over the recent years, the Mianxian county museum has made its name thanks to its efforts to enrich its collection, innovate advertizing models, and promote the culture of the Three Kingdoms. It is presenting the beauty of Chinese history and culture to more and more visitors.

The museum is not big in size, but it houses a number of cultural relics and items that are seemingly able to bring visitors back to the volatile Three Kingdoms period, such as bronze caltrops, a bronze crossbow that dates back to nearly 1,900 years ago, and a valuable model of a Chinese quadrangle built in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).

Deputy head of the museum Xiao Yongqin, who has worked for the museum for over 10 years, told People’s Daily that these cultural relics are of vital importance for studying the history of the Three Kingdoms period because not many documents and relevant items from that faraway period still remain today.

Many of the cultural relics displayed at the Mianxian county museum have their own stories.

In about the 1970s and 1980s, a type of ancient weapon called “tongjili,” or bronze caltrop, was discovered in Wuhouping, which is near the Dingjun Mountain and the Hanjiang River in Mianxian county. The weapon has four spikes, each with a length of 2 centimeters. When it is thrown on the ground, in whatever manner, one of spikes always points upward. This weapon was used in ancient times to slow cavalries and troops and thus nicknamed “horse spike” in China.

According to historical records, Yang Yi, an official of the state of Shu in the Three Kingdoms period, once used bronze caltrops to prevent the pursuers sent by Sima Yi, a military general of the state of Wei.

“This weapon is similar to today’s roadblocks,” said Qin Jiaying, a guide of the museum.

The museum now boasts a rich collection that consists of over 2,000 cultural relics it unearthed, purchased and collected. Some of these cultural relics have been displayed at the National Museum of China, the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution and the Shaanxi History Museum. They also joined itinerant exhibitions to Japan, the United States, the UK, among others.

Bigger museums have bigger foot traffic, but they don’t have many cultural relics from the Three Kingdoms period on display. How the Mianxian county museum can give play to its advantages as a county-level facility that collects a large number of Three Kingdoms cultural relics has been a major focus of Xiao over the recent years.

He believes what builds the public’s affection for culture is enduring access to culture.

Therefore, the Mianxian county museum turned to social media. It has made a short video series about cultural relics, which is released one episode each week, and is publishing an article about history, traditional culture and news of the museum on each workday on WeChat.

The change in publicity models has constantly expanded the influence of the museum. The number of visits to the Mianxian county museum grew at least 30 percent during this year’s May Day holiday from four years ago.

There’s much remained to be done in the preservation of cultural relics and cultural promotion, said Xiao.

“Only by well telling the stories of cultural relics and making them lively can we attract more people to the culture of the Three Kingdoms and the Chinese history,” he added.

The development of the Mianxian county museum is a miniature of Hanzhong utilizing its featured culture and exploring the integrated development of culture and tourism.

Hanzhong has a long history and profound culture. It is home to the Tomb of Zhang Qian, a UNESCO World heritage site, the Hanzhong Sanyan water conservancy project, which is listed in the World Heritage Irrigation Structures, as well as the Longgang Temple Ruins under national-level protection.

Over the recent years, Hanzhong has launched a series of featured cultural activities such as a ceremony in memory of Zhang Qian and a travel festival themed with Zhuge Liang, a strategist who served as the imperial chancellor of the state of Shu in the Three Kingdoms period. It also developed a number of cultural and travel products such as food festivals and immersive performances.

During the May Day holiday this year, the city launched over 130 cultural and tourism activities. Both the number of visitors it received and the tourism revenue during the holiday exceeded those in 2019.

By Zhang Danhua, People’s Daily

The Xi’an Museum in northwest China’s Shaanxi province has its unique charm among Chinese museums.

It comprises a museum designed with the philosophy of “round sky and square earth,” a concept of traditional Chinese architecture, as well as the elegant Jianfu Temple and the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in the temple.

Over recent years, the Xi’an Museum has actively applied digital technologies in the protection and utilization of cultural relics, and worked to make innovation in exhibitions and bring more benefits to the public. It has presented the history of the Chinese civilization to more people.

“The application of digital technologies is a profound revolution for the preservation of cultural relics,” Fu Haixiang, who’s in charge of Xi’an Museum’s department of collection preservation, told People’s Daily.

In his computer, a virtual colored 3D model of the Stone Coffin of Shijun, a sogdian living in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), is vividly shown. The 3D version has no difference from the real one.

The Stone Coffin of Shijun is a very important cultural relic collected by the Xi’an Museum. The inscription and relief on it are precious.

The virtual colored 3D model of the stone coffin was generated by high-precision laser scanning and synthesized with hundreds of millions of pixel-level high-resolution texture images.

“This digital application enables researchers to acquire information about the stone coffin anytime they want, while avoiding damages to the cultural relics that could possibly be caused by physical contact,” said Fu.

As a site for the protection of ancient books at the national level, the Xi’an Museum collects over 100,000 ancient books. How to make these ancient books “usable” was once a challenge.

The application of digital technologies offered a solution. So far, the information of over 100,000 ancient books collected by the museum has been recorded in the virtual space, including their authors, graphic designs and copyrights.

Besides, the Xi’an Museum has launched active cooperation on ancient book preservation with the National Library of China, the China National Archives of Publications and Culture, and other important organizations for the protection of ancient books

In May this year, the Xi’an Museum hosted an original exhibition presenting Xi’an’s heyday in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when it was known as Chang’an. It is the starting point of the ancient Silk Road

The exhibition has attracted a number of visitors since its inception on May 22, showing them the exchanges and mutual learning between the Eastern and Western cultures along the ancient Silk Road.

One of the most important changes that have taken place to the Xi’an Museum over recent years is the innovation in exhibitions, said Zhu Gemin, deputy head of the museum’s display and exhibition department.

Multiple outstanding original exhibitions held by the Xi’an Museum employed landscaping, modeling and images to display the treasures of Xi’an. The exhibitions were brought to multiple places across China, including Beijing, Tianjin, Suzhou, Shanghai and Xinjiang.

Today, hitting exhibitions at the Xi’an Museum is trendy among young people. This year, the number of daily visits to the museum stands at nearly 10,000.

In the hall of the museum, there is a service robot that offers help to visitors. Visitors can get a detailed introduction to the museum or cultural relics by simply talking with it or clicking the icons on a screen of it.

It can also serve as a tour guide for visitors. This has significantly improved the efficiency of the museum in serving the public.

On the second floor of the museum, children are always seen playing games designed on the ancient Silk Road knowledge guided by education specialists. The places and cultural relics mentioned in the games often interest the children.

“The Xi’an Museum today not only collects, studies and demonstrates cultural relics, but also offers education for citizens,” said Tian Jiwei, who heads the education and promotion department of the museum, referring to a “Lezhi Classroom” program launched by the museum over the recent years.

The program aims at finding ways for children, persons with visual and hearing impairments, as well as seniors to get closer to history.

Rather than regular museum guides, “education specialists” designated by the Xi’an Museum could share cultural knowledge and offer social education services by hosting public education activities, speech contests, livestream shows and in-person symposiums.

The diverse public welfare activities have enriched the cultural life of citizens with vivid stories behind cultural relics, Tian said.