Nigeria Times

By Ban Zhibin

Dragon boat racing is one of the most popular traditional customs at China’s Dragon Boat Festival, which is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar.

Southern regions in China, from central China’s Hunan and Hubei provinces to southwest China’s Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, all have the custom of dragon boat racing. In northern China, cities located near rivers also hold dragon boat races.

South China’s Guangdong province, where dragon boat racing is one of the most influential traditional cultural activities, has the longest dragon boat month and the liveliest atmosphere of dragon boat racing in the country.

Today, dragon boat racing, as a popular folk sport epitomizing the traditional Chinese culture, enjoys global popularity. Many enthusiasts of the sport in countries including the US, the UK, and Japan take part in dragon boat races every year around the Dragon Boat Festival.

Besides the Han ethnic group, many other ethnic groups, such as the Zhuang, Miao, Dai, Bai, Buyi, and Tujia ethnic groups, also observe the traditional custom of dragon boat racing, according to Liu Ting, associate research fellow with the Ethnology Museum of South-Central Minzu University in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Dragon boat races of different ethnic groups can manifest strong regional and ethnical features, due to the differences among different ethnic groups in their geographical conditions and ways of living and production. 

Dragon boat races of the Dai ethnic group, for instance, are held on the first day of the Water Splashing Festival to commemorate Yan Hongwo, a legendary hero who is said to have got rid of a tyrant for the people, and to express wishes for a good life.

Since elephant is the totem of the Dai ethnic group, the dragon head at the bow of the Dai people’s dragon boat looks like both a dragon head and an elephant head, and there are long tusks in the mouth of the head. The stern of the Dai people’s dragon boat is like the tail of a fish and also bracken, the Dai people’s favorite vegetable.

Dragon boat racing was initiated to commemorate Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet in the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), which is the most widely spread and most influential version of how the activity originated, said Liu.

Since modern times, the culture of dragon boat has conveyed patriotism, respect for ancestors, among other core values of the culture of the Chinese nation.

In 1953, the World Peace Council listed Qu as one of the four literary celebrities in the world.

By taking part in dragon boat races, people inherit and carry forward Qu’s patriotism. Moreover, dragon boat racing is a vivid expression of the Chinese nation’s spirits of unity, team work, and hard work, as the competitive activity requires more than 20 people with different characters and physical conditions to seek common ground while shelving differences and work together to win the race.

Thanks to the efforts of overseas Chinese, dragon boat racing has gradually gained popularity in many other countries all over the world.

Valuing cooperation, speed, skills and tactics, the popular folk sport of the Chinese nation well demonstrates solidarity and hard work, a universal spirit of sports.

Overseas Chinese have played an important role in promoting the culture of dragon boat outside China. They voluntarily set up dragon boat teams, clubs, associations, and carry out dragon boat races.

Nowadays almost every state of the US has its own dragon boat race funded by the government every year. In Australia, the municipal government of Sydney holds dragon boat race on an annual basis to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently sent a congratulatory letter to the Forum on Global Human Rights Governance.

Noting that China advocates safeguarding human rights through security, Xi stressed the need to respect all countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, jointly follow the path of peaceful development, act on the Global Security Initiative (GSI), and create a secure and peaceful environment for realizing human rights.

Xi’s remarks profoundly expounded on the relations between security and human rights, and emphasized the significance of acting on the GSI for realizing human rights, offering a Chinese plan for maintaining a secure environment for safeguarding human rights.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person, said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Peace and security is the basic prerequisite for the promotion and protection of human rights. Without peace and security, all human rights cannot be realized.

At present, global human rights governance is facing severe challenges characterized by emerging threats against world peace and security. Regional security hotspots keep flaring up, local conflicts and turbulence occur frequently, and traditional and non-traditional security threats are entwined.

At a time when humanitarian crises created by wars and conflicts are still troubling Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and other countries, a few countries are arbitrarily instigating confrontation, creating contradictions and intensifying conflicts, bringing new security threats to the world.

“Security is the precondition for development. We humanity are living in an indivisible security community,” Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 in April last year.

In the speech, he solemnly proposed the GSI, stressing that the world should stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and work to create a new path to security featuring dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum. What he said has been broadly recognized and supported by the international community.

In February this year, China officially released the Global Security Initiative Concept Paper, which systematically explains the core ideas and principles of the GSI, and identifies the priorities, platforms and mechanisms of cooperation.

The GSI provides ideas for solving global security issues and demonstrates China’s wisdom in improving global human rights governance through maintaining world peace and stability.

Ong Tee Keat, chairman of Malaysia-based think tank the Center for New Inclusive Asia, noted that the universal and inviolable value of human rights is being endlessly and severely tested in global governance today. He believes the GSI addresses both traditional and non-traditional security issues, and lays a foundation for building a new security framework.

It is China’s distinctive aspiration to achieve lasting world peace, so that all countries can enjoy a peaceful and stable external environment and their people can live a happy life with their rights fully guaranteed.

China’s efforts to implement the GSI and build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture are expected to create a more peaceful and secure environment for the world and ensure a realistic basis for protecting and realizing human rights.

On the Ukraine crisis, China always stands on the side of peace. Its core stance is to facilitate talks for peace. It advocates for jointly improving the humanitarian situation in the regions and has offered batches of humanitarian assistance.

The country has worked to help Saudi Arabia and Iran resume bilateral diplomatic ties, which has promoted reconciliation in the Middle East and offered a rare opportunity for alleviating humanitarian crises in Syria, Yemen and other countries.

China supports the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan, continues to assist within its capacity for the reconstruction and development of the country, and helps to solve Afghanistan’s humanitarian and refugee issues.

These concrete actions to maintain world peace and stability demonstrate that China is a responsible major country in improving global human rights governance.

The common interest of all humankind is in a world united and peaceful rather than divided and volatile, which helps protect and promote human rights.

To maintain international peace and security, promote economic and social advancement and encourage respect for human rights are the three missions of the United Nations stipulated in the UN Charter.

China always adheres to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, respects all countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, and does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs. It supports all countries to choose independently the path for human rights development in accordance with their national conditions, and opposes arbitrary blockades, sanctions and other hegemonic practices against other countries.

China always believes that human rights should not be used as an excuse for meddling in other countries’ internal affairs or holding back their development, and human rights issues should not be politicized, weaponized or instrumentalized. It opposes any practice to undermine world peace and stability under the disguise of human rights.

The issue of security bears on the well-being of people of all countries, the lofty cause of world peace and development, and the future of humanity. China will stay committed to the path of peaceful development. It is ready to work with the international community to follow the GSI and build a world that is free from fear and enjoys universal security, making constant contributions to protecting and promoting human rights.

By Yan Bing, Wang Shengying

Traditional sea ports across China are gradually turning into “ecological oases,” applying intelligent technologies and implementing various pollution prevention and treatment measures.

For instance, the Huanghua port in north China’s Hebei province, an important hub for the transportation of coal in China, has turned a construction waste dump into an artificial lake tanked up with purified coal sewage under comprehensive ecological environment management.

Each year, about 200 million tons of coal is shipped to other parts of China via the Huanghua port. However, coal ash is seldom seen in the work zone or the living quarters of the port despite the huge throughput. The port, clean and tidy, is embracing a green and eco-friendly transition.

This is attributed to efforts and innovations made over the years in improving dust suppression technology, water utilization and smart production.

According to Xu Ning, vice manager of the No.3 production department of the company that manages the Huanghua port, the company has independently developed a dust suppression technology that is able to effectively moisturize and attach dust particles when coal is handled by dumpers, realizing dust control in the whole process of stacking and loading operations during transportation.

Besides, the company has also developed a conveyor belt cleaner and other pollution treatment technologies, Xu said, adding that 98 percent of dust can be suppressed at construction sites.

Freshwater is extremely valuable for the Huanghua port, which is located on saline-alkali fields. The higher requirement for environmental protection once led to a surge in freshwater consumption at the port.

To tackle the freshwater shortage, the Huanghua port recycles ballast water, purifies coal sewage and collects rainwater into its artificial lakes and wetlands. Now, over 90 percent of the freshwater consumed by the port is produced by the port itself, which saves it over 19 million yuan ($2.65 million) each year and makes its production greener.

The Caofeidian port, which is also a major hub for coal transportation in Hebei province, is also committed to green development. The port has built a 400,000-ton coal storage yard where over 99 percent of static dust emission can be suppressed.

To better reduce dust pollution in the port’s surrounding areas and sea waters, the company managing the Caofeidian port has built huge windbreak netting near the coal storage yard.

If the yard is fully enclosed by the windbreak netting, the total dust volume would be reduced by another 80 percent from the current level, and the environmental impacts from the dust on areas within 5 kilometers from the yard would be lowered by more than 70 percent, relevant personnel told People’s Daily.

Intelligence also provides a key boost to the green and low-carbon development of ports across the country.

At an intelligent container terminal of the port of Tianjin in north China, 12 automatic ship-to-shore gantry cranes, 92 smart transport vehicles and 42 gantry cranes were running at full capacity, handling cargo from across the world. No manual work was observed at the terminal.

On the north end of the terminal, two wind turbines were rotating slowly, generating green electricity for production.

It is said that the terminal is the first one in the world that is entirely powered by green electricity and releases no carbon emissions. It is equipped with multiple wind turbines and a solar farm, which boasts the largest single-unit installed capacity among all solar farms built at ports across China.

Sun Biao, deputy general manager of Tianjin Port Group’s No 2 Container Terminal, told People’s Daily that 5G technology, Beidou Navigation Satellite System and AI have been massively applied in the operation of the terminal, and all procedures are controlled by a smart transport management system, marking the first in the world.

Sun noted that the terminal has offered Chinese plans for the intelligent upgrading and low-carbon development of other container terminals around the world.

By Dong Siyu, People’s Daily

China has implemented multiple measures to combat desertification over the recent years, achieving fruitful results. The areas of land desertification and soil desertification were both reduced, and hazards of sandstorms and soil erosion were effectively curbed.

As of the end of 2022, the country had completed desertification prevention and control missions on 305 million mu (20.33 million hectares) of land, sealed off 27.08 million mu of desertificated land for protection, and established 41 national comprehensive demonstration zones for desertification control and 99 national desert parks, forging a science-based green ecological barrier with trees, shrubs and grass along the regions in north China prone to sandstorms.

Water shortage has become an increasingly prominent issue in the farming-pastoral areas in China’s semi-arid regions over the past decades. Frequent droughts, descending underground water level and flow cutoffs of rivers and lakes are posing new challenges to maintaining sand-fixing vegetation.

Thanks to technologies developed by the Naiman Desertification Research Station of Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), water loss from soil during artificial afforestation has been significantly reduced, which effectively improves the survival of seedlings and ensures efficient utilization of water resources in the desert of semi-arid regions.

Besides, Chinese eco-company Elion Group also developed an innovative planting method, which saves more than 50 percent of water consumption and lifts survival rate to 85 percent.

The spatial and temporal distribution of water resources as well as the water holding capacity of soil should be taken into consideration in artificial afforestation, and local rainfed tree and grass varieties that can stay vital on dry, lean and saline-alkaline soil shall be prioritized for water conservation, said Lu Qi, chief scientist of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, and researcher with the academy’s Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute.

Technologies should also be applied to strengthen the utilization of water resources, Lu added.

Lei Jiaqiang, researcher with the CAS Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, told People’s Daily that building a germplasm bank of adversity-resistant desert plants is the foundation for developing water-conserving forests and grasslands.

Plants should be irrigated according to their actual demand in a targeted manner and based on the law of water consumption, and technologies should be applied to curb water loss in soil, Lei said.

“Besides, it is also important to strengthen the construction of water-conservation facilities for desertification control, place more attention on building ecological channels for combating desertification, and enhance the efforts to protect ecological dams and other infrastructure facilities,” the researcher added.

China follows a “close-to-nature” approach in desertification prevention and control. Local plant species and science-based artificial management measures shall be used to restore degraded ecosystems to the state before they were disturbed by human activities, so as to ensure that desert ecosystems are bio-diverse and have complete, stable and sustainable structures and functions, Lei noted.

From adopting measures according to the degree of damage to developing relevant industries to combat desertification, how to fully and properly utilize the natural resources in deserts has always been an important topic of the studies on desertification control.

China has established a batch of characteristic industrial bases that leverage local resources to develop fodder manufacturing, commercial fruit planting and desert tourism. According to statistics, 48 million tons of dried and fresh fruits are produced in China’s desert areas each year, accounting for about a quarter of China’s total production with a total annual output value of 120 billion yuan ($16.81 billion). In key areas, over half of farmers’ net income is from the fruit business.

China takes desertification prevention and control, rural vitalization, ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, and other major national strategies as an organic whole.

While developing crop farming, animal husbandry, green food, sand-based materials and desert tourism, the country is also vigorously investing in high-input industries that yield high output and high profits. It has launched a number of photovoltaic generation, wind power generation, agricultural factory and artificial photosynthesis projects in desert areas.

Apart from strengthening desertification control at home, China is also enhancing its cooperation with other countries and has achieved remarkable accomplishments in basic research and applied research. Chinese scientists have developed over 100 desertification control technologies with Chinese characteristics, which are widely promoted and applied in some 40 countries and regions in Asia and Africa.

By Ye Zi

As new anti-counterfeiting technologies keep emerging over the recent years, digital solutions have been widely applied in the anti-counterfeiting of products, tickets and certificates, which contribute to the sustainable and healthy development of the Chinese anti-counterfeiting industry.

For instance, each book under the protection of a book anti-counterfeiting and track & trace system has its unique identity information; tea brands are employing block chain, QR codes, miniature texts and images as well as VOID labels to fight fakes; manufacturers of dietary supplements have labeled their products with scratch-off anti-counterfeiting stickers with QR codes, which prove the authenticity of the products.

In China, a laser hologram label and a QR code can be found on each bag of edible salt sold on the market. To obtain product authenticity information and track the production and circulation of the salt, all a consumer needs to do is to scan the QR code.

Over the recent years, the China Salt Association has been requesting producers of edible salt to upload the information of every bag of salt they produce onto a national edible salt tracing service platform the association established, so that the origin and circulation of the salt can be tracked, and responsible parties would be called to account once problems happen.

Brand value has been considered increasingly important as market economy develops in China. However, it is also triggering illegal activities.

According to an official with the China Trade Association for Anti-counterfeiting, products made by renowned manufacturers and come with high market shares and profitability are always counterfeited. For example, some generic brands of milk powder are selling their products with a strategy of copycat packaging, and adulterated alcohol is sold in recycled bottles of renowned liquors.

Today, these counterfeiting methods can barely exist any longer as more and more anti-counterfeiting technologies are developed.

The Fujian branch of Quantum Cloud Code, a Shenzhen-based provider of enterprise digitalization solutions, has developed an anti-counterfeiting and track & trace system for international smart bathroom brand JOMOO. Thanks to the system, every kitchen and bathroom accessory produced by JOMOO comes with an anti-counterfeiting label that is extremely difficult to be duplicated. More importantly, the label still can be read an show authenticity information even 90 percent of it is worn out.

Insiders believe that anti-counterfeiting labels and QR codes adopted by enterprises have well regulated market competition.

Today, anti-counterfeiting remains an important method to safeguard fair competition in the market and plays a unique and irreplaceable role in protecting brands and intellectual property rights, in protecting the rights and interests of enterprises and consumers, and in building the social credit system.

An official with the China Trade Association for Anti-counterfeiting told People’s Daily that China is currently home to more than 1,200 enterprises engaged in the anti-counterfeiting industry, which generate a total output of more than 150 billion yuan ($20.96 billion) and produce over 360 billion anti-counterfeiting labels each year. These labels are used by hundreds of thousands of brands and enterprises on a wide range of products, such as liquors & tobaccos, edible salt, farm produce, food, medicines, agricultural supplies, child care supplies, cosmetics, leatherware, clothes, electronics and home appliances, auto parts, construction materials and furniture.

By Li Yanan, People’s Daily

Located in the hinterland of the Pamir Plateau and surrounded by mountains, Datong township in Taxkorgan Tajik autonomous county, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region once had no stable supply of electricity. Its source of power included only a small hydropower plant and some solar panels.

Three years ago, the township was connected to the power grid. The stable supply of electricity has brought drastic changes to the township, making residents’ life more convenient, industrial development more efficient and public services more developed.

“Welcome to my home. Please come in,” said Sayifnazir Kurban, who runs an agritainment facility in Datong township, while guiding Zhang Hang and other five tourists from Beijing into her house.

From a freezer in the house, she took a pot of homemade yogurt and invited the tourists to have a taste of it.

After enjoying the yogurt, Zhang and his friends unpacked and took a hot shower, which significantly eased their travel fatigue.

“Before I came here, my friends who visited the township a couple of years ago told me to find a hotel in the county seat. They said the accommodation was poor in the township because the power supply was poor, though it has beautiful sceneries. I didn’t expect that so many changes have taken place here in the recent years,” Zhang told People’s Daily.

The agritainment facility of Sayifnazir Kurban was transformed from the woman’s resettlement house in 2019. However, the business was gloomy due to the power shortage.

“It was totally impossible to make iced yogurt. Freshly made yogurt would go bad the next morning. There was no way for us to have fresh meat, too. Most of the dishes on our menu were made of air-dried beef. We literally had to have ‘candlelit dinners’ at night,” the woman recalled.

Today, with stable power supply, Sayifnazir Kurban can finally keep fresh food in her refrigerator and freezer, which has lengthened her menu.

In the evening, she made pilaf and braised mutton for Zhang and his friends, and they enjoyed the meal over a joyful conversation under the light.

After the guests went to sleep, Sayifnazir Kurban started editing the video clips she filmed in the daytime and posted them on short video platforms to advertise her hometown and agritainment facility.

“Many people asked me about the accommodation after watching my videos, and some called me to book rooms,” she said.

According to the woman, she received 20 guests at most a day. As of the start of April, she had already gained about 20,000 yuan ($2,796) from the agritainment facility.

The stable supply of electricity is powering the development of the township. Today, Datong is home to 68 agritainment facilities, as well as many convenient shops and restaurants. Several jade processing workshops also started operation in the township. Compared with the sales of raw jade, jade processing is more profitable.

According to mayor of Datong township Alimjan Shirin, the per capita annual income of residents in Datong increased from 8,264 yuan in 2020 to 11,910 yuan last year. “Residents’ sense of fulfillment and happiness has been constantly improved,” he said.

In a classroom of the central primary school of Datong township, principal and Chinese teacher Li Yuan was teaching a class to students, highlighting important parts of the text on a big screen.

“The classroom was upgraded in the second half of last year. Electric heaters have been installed in classrooms, dormitories and faculty apartments. Now the students can study and rest in warm and safe rooms. It’s much better than using coal furnaces,” Li told People’s Daily.

The days were hard for Li when she just came to the primary school from north China’s Shanxi province in 2019.

“Teachers cooked with electric stoves, which always triggered blackouts or short circuits in peak hours. We had to take turns to cook and boil water for students, especially in winter,” Li said.

The most difficult part, according to the woman, was communication, because the mobile phone signal was poor around the school and to make a phone call she had to get close to the township government office.

Li is quite satisfied with the township’s connection to the power grid. “Now an expansion program of the school is underway, and the school is also better facilitated. I’m looking forward to the school’s future development,” she told People’s Daily.

After the sun went down, lights were turned on in the offices on the first floor of the township clinic, where doctors were collating the results of physical checkups completed in the daytime.

Fezari Jami, head of the clinic, noted that the clinic is now able to do a number of physical examinations including comprehensive metabolic panel, complete blood count, B-scan ultrasonography of abdomen and mammary gland, electrocardiography and X-ray scan.

Local residents can finally have complete physical checkups here and don’t have to send blood samples to the county hospital anymore, Fezari Jami said, adding that examination reports are now generated by computers, which is more efficient and convenient.

By Du Haitao, Han Xin, Jin Bo, People’s Daily

The logistics sector, which serves as a bridge between production and consumption, is an important link that ensures the smooth flow of economic activity.

China’s social logistics rose 4.4 percent year-on-year between January and April this year to 107.6 trillion yuan (about $15.07 trillion), up 0.5 percentage points from the first-quarter figure. The China Logistics Prosperity Index stood at 51.5 percent in May.

These statistics indicate a sound recovery of the Chinese logistics industry since this year, with major indicators continuing to rise. The continuous improvement in the national economy has consolidated the sound momentum for the development of the logistics industry, offering strong support for stabilizing the economy, expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption.

At 8:00 pm on May 31, China’s mid-year “618” shopping festival started. Soon after placing the order a villager from Lhoka prefecture, southwest China’s Tibet autonomous region received the smart LCD TV delivered by JD Logistics, the delivery arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com.

This year, the company placed pre-sale commodities at thousands of warehouses in more than 300 cities across China, which enables the goods to be delivered at the fastest speed after orders are placed.

Customs clearance is getting smoother. At the Qianwan Container Terminal of Qingdao Port in east China’s Shandong province, 17 tons of polyester knitted fabric imported by a garment manufacturer in Shandong’s Yantai was unloaded from a vessel and then immediately shipped to the manufacturer’s factory for production.

According to an executive of a logistics company in charge of the imported fabric, a new monitoring model has been launched by customs authorities in Qingdao that introduces machine inspection and ship-side direct unloading. It decreases the procedure of container lifting and transferring, which saves time for customs clearance and reduces logistics costs, the executive said.

From the rising business volume of express delivery to the busy cargo ships frequently seen at ports, the accelerated recovery of China’s logistics sector this year reflects the country’s vitality.

Statistics indicate that China’s courier sector saw its delivery volume exceed 50 billion parcels this year as of May 31, and the milestone was achieved 27 days earlier than in 2022. In the first four months of 2023, the country’s commercial freight volume increased 7.5 percent year-on-year to 16.53 billion tons, and the cargo throughput at ports across the country stood at 5.28 billion tons, up 7.6 percent from a year ago.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) said the total revenue of the logistics industry rose 7.5 percent year-on-year in the first four months, 0.8 percentage points higher than that of the first quarter. In particular, over 5 percentage points of the growth came from the transporting and warehousing services as well as the express delivery sector.

“Policies to expand domestic demand have come into effect, and online and offline consumption scenarios have been integrated. Restaurants, supermarkets, florists and pharmacies in neighborhoods are connected by instant logistics services. This has further driven community consumption,” said Zhou Zhicheng, a researcher with the CFLP and deputy head of the China Society of Logistics.

The continuous progress of digital transformation also enriched the commercial application scenarios of intelligent logistics.

For instance, a smart control system is launched at a port in north China’s Tianjin municipality, which enables customs authorities to remotely monitor berthing and cargo handling in real time.

With this system, it’s easier for foreign and domestic trade cargos to share the same vessels, said Sun Yan, an executive with the port. According to the man, the system has not only lifted the efficiency of domestic feeders, but also helped launch 10 new routes for domestic trade.

New business models of logistics created by the Internet, big data, cloud computing and Internet of Things technologies are offering strong support for the stable recovery of the industry.

At an international express parcel distribution center in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong province, parcels from overseas entered smart CT equipment one after another for customs clearance, and trucks loaded with parcels were rushing to destinations across the country.

“The delivery of express parcels calls for high efficiency. Faster distribution and lower logistics cost are what make a courier company competitive,” said an executive of SF Express, a Chinese multinational delivery services and logistics company based in Shenzhen.

The foreign trade volume of the company via cross-border e-commerce jumped nearly 50 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023 thanks to the innovative upgrading made by relevant departments, the executive said. At present, logistics companies are optimistic about the development of the logistics sector, which is seeing sound momentum for recovery. China will further optimize its business environment and accelerate sci-tech innovation, so as to foster stable and sound development of the industry and safeguard the security and stability of the industrial and supply chains.

By Liao Ruiling

The assumption that carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere can be captured and reutilized has become a reality, as Asia’s largest carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) facility for the coal-fired power generation sector was put into operation in east China’s Jiangsu province on June 2.

The facility, attached to a generation unit at China Energy’s Taizhou coal-fired power plant, is expected to capture 500,000 tons of CO2 every year, which will be wildly used in the industrial and food sectors.

At the facility, compressed liquid CO2 is transferred between three operation towers and four gigantic silvery spherical gas storage tanks via long pipelines in white and blue, and then shipped to downstream enterprises by transport trucks.

“This is the capture area, which covers about 1,650 square meters, the smallest unit area compared with other CCUS facilities already in place,” said an employee working at the facility.

CCUS is a technology that captures and purifies CO2 emitted during production and then puts it into reutilization or storage. It helps realize the low-carbon utilization of fossil energy.

Carbon capture aims at reducing carbon emissions. Energy conservation and carbon reduction have become a consensus of all sectors of society since China vowed to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, also known as the “dual carbon” goal.

Coal-fired power generation, which ensures the basic supply of energy, is a large emitter of CO2. CCUS is considered one of the key technical methods that are able to realize the clean and efficient utilization of coal and minimize the environmental impacts caused by coal-fired power generation.

The CO2 capture rate of the CCUS facility in the plant stands at over 90 percent, which can produce CO2 at 99 percent purity with the dry base technique, said Gong Haiting, director of the carbon resource development office of the Taizhou coal-fired power plant of China Energy, adding that the facility is both environment-friendly and exemplary in the commercialization of carbon capture.

The three towers, namely the scrubber tower, the absorption tower and the regeneration tower, play a vital role in capturing the invisible and impalpable CO2, said an employee of the Taizhou coal-fired power plant.

The gas emitted by the plant meets national environmental standards, which contains 10 to 15 percent of CO2, the employee explained, adding that the CCUS facility captures the flue gas emitted from generation unit No. 4 of the plant.

It is learned that the flue gas would first enter the scrubber tower via induced draft fans, where it is cooled down and decontaminated. Then in the absorption tower, over 90 percent of the CO2 in the flue gas would be absorbed and transferred to the regeneration tower for liquefaction and compression. Finally, the compressed liquid CO2 would be stored in the storage tanks.

Before the facility came into service in the Taizhou coal-fired power plant, some other CCUS facilities had already been put into use. However, their profit is hardly stable due to immature technologies and business models. Today, the China Energy facility serves as a successful example in this regard.

According to Gong, the development team of the facility had already located clients in welding, food-grade dry ice and high-tech machinery cleaning industries based on massive market research in the Yangtze River Delta region when the project was still at a very early stage.

“There are oilfields and some shipbuilders with great demand of CO2 around our power plant. This means that the facility has a stable source of clients,” Gong told People’s Daily, adding that the development space is huge in the food-grade dry ice and cold-chain logistics sectors and the clients are satisfied with the CO2 quality offered by the facility.

Thanks to the plentiful market research, all of the CO2 captured by the facility each year would be absorbed by the market, which generates stable profit and serves as an example for the long-term sustainable operation of CCUS projects, Gong said. Insiders believe that guided by the “dual carbon” goal, China’s CCUS industry enjoys broad development space. According to a CCUS report in 2021, the demand for emission reduction in the industry may range from 20 million to 408 million tons by 2030, and China’s CCUS market is expected to reach over 330 billion yuan ($46.22 billion) by 2050.