Nigeria Times

By Gu Yekai, People’s Daily

The online audio-and-video industry, represented by short videos, is seeing emerging new scenarios and business forms. It not only enriches people’s everyday life, but also profoundly changes the way of cultural production, communication and consumption.

According to a report on the development of the industry recently released, the number of internet audio-and-video users in China reached 1.04 billion as of December 2022, and the general market size of the country’s online audio-and-video industry exceeded 700 billion yuan (about $101.8 billion) last year.

In particular, the growth of the industry mainly came from the short video sector, which now has 1.012 billion users and becomes the largest internet audio-and-video application category.

Li Jun, general manager of the Chengdu branch of Migu, a digital content subsidiary of Chinese communication giant China Mobile, told People’s Daily that the short video sector has a huge user base and strong capability to attract new users.

The innovative formats and diverse content of short videos not only strengthen users’ interaction and participation but also stimulate their creativity and desire to express themselves, while the in-depth integration of short video platforms and other applications has built a cross-field content distribution and communication network that provides users with wider access to get to the sector, Li explained.

Zhang Chenliang, director of the media center of the Chinese National Geography magazine, is a video blogger that owns 23 million online followers.

Compared with photos and articles, short videos come with various elements such as images, voice-over, music and film editing, which create richer content and help with the dissemination of popular science, Zhang said.

According to him, this year marks the 12th year since he joined science popularizationand the 3rd year after he switched from graphics and contexts to short video communication.

Livestreaming makes another important part of the online audio-and-video industry. The report said that with 751 million users, livestreaming services are the second largest internet audio-and-video application category after short video. Today, livestreaming is deeply integrated with entertainment, education, commerce and other fields.

Zhifang village in Hebi, central China’s Henan province has become a renowned tourist attraction thanks to the exquisite wall paintings made by young artist Shang Qinjie. Now, with the assistance of online audio and video platforms, the village has gone viral on the Internet, which has made rural tourism even more prosperous.

The online audio-and-video industry, apart from spreading information, can also create new business scenarios and forms in work and life.

“Take consumer services as an example. To meet users’ demands, we support offline business scenarios through short videos and livestreaming. This enables merchants in different regions and of different sizes to expand online business on our platform,” said Li Ran, a general manager of the consumer service department of Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Yu Bing has over 10 years of experience in the bookselling industry. She had run multiple offline bookstores in Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province.

According to Yu, many physical bookstores are in a difficult situation today.

“It’s not because the business form of bookstores is outdated, but that they need to upgrade and restructure themselves following the changes in the form of knowledge dissemination. The online audio-and-video industry exactly offers a new opportunity,” Yu said.

The woman is now a short video creator that recommends books from the perspective of a bookseller and shares her knowledge about book publishing. This makes her more confident in the offline bookstore business. This year, she is planning to open a new bookstore.

New business scenarios and forms enabled by the online audio-and-video industry are playing a more prominent role in people’s work and life.

According to the report, 42.7 percent of users made at least a purchase while watching online videos or livestreaming in the recent six months, 27 percentage points higher than that in 2020.

Li Jun believes that the online audio-and-video industry is getting diversified with more market segments. Its content covers not only entertainment and social interaction, but also news, knowledge and consumer services, which further empowers entrepreneurship, employment and the development of the real economy, he explained.

Quality content is still the most important part of the sustainable development of the online audio-and-video industry. Over recent years, short videos have played an important role in knowledge dissemination. According to a recent report published by Douyin, the view counts of reading-related videos on the platform surged 65.17 percent year-on-year in 2022, and the number of such videos added to users’ favorite lists saw a jump of 276.14 percent. Besides, 279.44 percent more reading-related videos longer than five minutes were posted on the short video platform last year.

By Luo Shanshan, People’s Daily

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) entered into force for the Philippines on June 2, confirming that the trade pact is now in effect for all 15 members.

The landmark RCEP agreement covers roughly 30 percent of the world’s population, GDP and trade in goods, and the full implementation of the RCEP is a new stage for the trade bloc with the world’s largest population and trade volume as well as the greatest development potential, said an official with China’s Ministry of Commerce.

The full entry into force of RCEP reflects the determination and actions of its 15 members to support an open, free, fair, inclusive and rules-based multilateral trading system, continuously promoting a comprehensive, mutually beneficial and high-level economic partnership.

The 15 members’ commitment to open goods, services and investment markets, superimposed with high-level rules in various fields, are expected to significantly promote the free flow of production factors in the region, including raw materials, products, technologies, talents, capital, information and data.

It will gradually form a more prosperous large regional market that promotes wider integration, higher-level and deeper open cooperation among member states, it added.

On June 2, Chenfeng Group, a company that manufactures and exports apparel products based in east China’s Jiangsu province, received an RCEP certificate of origin for exports to the Philippines under RCEP from the customs. With this certificate, men’s shirts manufactured by the company will enjoy zero-tariff treatment in the Philippines.

“After the RCEP agreement came into force in the Philippines, we have another choice following the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. It is good news for us to expand exports and maintain overseas clients,” said Yin Lijun, customs affairs manager of the company.

Since the RCEP was implemented, trade in goods between member countries has come more frequent, and regional trade has grown into a key factor stabilizing and driving their foreign trade growth, said an official with the Ministry of Commerce.

According to the official, thanks to the positive signals released by the implementation, the RCEP region continues to be a hot spot for global investment, with a growing trend in the utilization of foreign capital in most of the RCEP members. The RCEP region is attracting more greenfield investment as a whole.

The implementation of the trade pact plays a crucial role in stabilizing China’s foreign trade and investment.

In the first four months this year, the total import and export volume between China and other RCEP members hit 4.12 trillion yuan ($577.91 billion) with a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent, accounting for 30.9 percent of China’s total foreign trade.

During the same period, China’s actual use of investment from other RCEP members amounted to nearly $8.9 billion, a year-on-year growth of more than 13.7 percent.

Regions across China have strengthened policy coordination and optimized the business environment to enhance cooperation under the framework of the RCEP since the trade pact came into effect.

Many places have implemented trade facilitation measures provided by the RCEP agreement to a high standard, enabling 6-hour customs clearance for perishable and express products. They also built smart online RCEP public service platforms and promoted whole-process digital services related to RCEP certificates of origin to ensure that enterprises enjoy the benefits of the RCEP efficiently.

Some places in China launched or increased the number of foreign trade vessels, flights, and trains to other RCEP members, to improve logistics and supply chain services and lift the efficiency and capacity of customs clearance.

Local authorities and enterprises across China are utilizing RCEP’s cumulative rules of origin and favorable policies for trade in service and investment market, to optimize regional trade and investment layout and promote the deep integration of industrial and supply chains.

Some places have combined RCEP policies with other open platforms such as pilot free trade zones to attract targeted investment in key industries, promoting the implementation of a series of major projects.

The RCEP is an opportunity for China to build a world-class business environment. Regions across China strictly obey domestic laws and regulations corresponding to RCEP mandatory obligations and implement RCEP encouraging obligations. Working to improve governance capability and attract industries, capital and human resources, they have significantly bettered the local trade and investment environment.

China will keep implementing the RCEP with high quality, said the Ministry of Commerce. Besides, it will work with other parties to fulfill obligations and strengthen the construction of the RCEP mechanism for better implementation of the agreement. It will contribute to the long-term stability of the cooperation under the RCEP and strive for win-win results and common development on a higher level.

In an unprecedented move demonstrative of his commitment to reposition Nigeria to attain energy sufficiency for national development, His Excellency, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, GCFR recently assented to the Electricity Bill, 2023 barely few days after his inauguration and assumption of duties as the President and Commander in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Electricity Bill, 2023 sponsored by Senator ( Dr) Gabriel Suswam, CON, immediate past chairman of the Senate Committee on Power was crafted based on a diagnostic report and recommendations of experts regarding extant statutory and operational challenges confronting the Nigerian power sector since the conclusion of the privatization exercise in 2013. Thus, while the repealed Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005 provided the legal and institutional framework for the reform phase of the Nigerian power sector initiated and implemented by the Federal Government between 2000–2013, the Electricity Act, 2023 provides the ideal legal and institutional framework that will guide the post –privatization phase of the industry in Nigeria. The Act seeks to provide the framework that would attract more investors to leverage on the modest gains of the privatized and competitive electricity industry in Nigeria to accelerate growth in power generation capacity and improve utilization of generated power to minimize aggregate value chain loses.

It would be recalled that President Tinubu’s predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR had at the twilight of his administration assented to Bill No. 33 which was a constitutional alteration Bill passed by the National Assembly and duly ratified by the requisite number of State Houses of Assembly to remove the lacuna under item F, paragraph 14(b), part II ,Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. Prior to this constitutional alteration, the legislative powers of State Houses of Assembly over electricity within the various States of the Federation was restricted to “areas not covered by the national grid system within the State” This restriction was counterproductive as it hampered electricity access to many communities and also undermined effective regulation of electricity within states’ boundaries.

It must, however, be clarified that while the Constitutional alteration Bill No.33 assented to by the immediate past President Buhari essentially removed the lacuna that hitherto existed under paragraph 14(b) , part II, Second Schedule to the Constitution to give States of the Federation unfettered powers to make laws for electricity generation, transmission and distribution in every area within the state territory, the Electricity Act 2023 is to serve as a comprehensive statutory framework to guide this new regime of collaborative relationship between the Federal Government and the Federating States in the area of electricity regulation. In this regard, the Electricity Act expressly demarcate regulatory powers between the Federal Government and the Federating States by vesting the Federal Government powers to develop standards for adaptation and implementation by State Governments and regulation of the national grid, transnational and inter-state electricity distribution, while the Federating States are vested with regulation of intra-state electricity generation, transmission and distribution consistent with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The expected practical impact of the Electricity Act, 2023 is that State Governments can now regulate mini-grids, embedded power, independent electricity distribution networks (IEDN)/ independent electricity distribution networks operators (IEDNOs) and independent electricity transmission networks (IETN)/ independent electricity transmission networks operators (IETNOs) thereby decentralizing electricity regulation and creating huge investment opportunities for private investors in off-grid electricity generation, transmission and distribution. Under the Act, individuals and corporate organizations can generate and distribute electricity in maximum aggregate of 1 Megawatt (MW) and 100 Kilowatts (KW) respectively without a license or permit from regulatory authorities. Successor Distribution companies can also enter into franchise arrangements in order to improve on existing infrastructure and at the same time establish subsidiaries in various States of the Federation for intra-state electricity distribution businesses.

In the area of rural electrification, while the Rural Electrification Agency is retained at the Federal level with clear provisions made for its mandate in managing the Rural Electrification Fund and promoting electricity access to rural, unserved and underserved communities through the use of various renewable energy sources and technologies, States are empowered under the Act to take leading collaborative role with the Federal Government in rural electrification while at the same time mobilizing Local Governments at the State levels to participate in the provision of street lights through the Local Government Rural Electrification Committees all with the sole objective of decentralizing electricity and attracting more investments.

As a further recognition of this new era of collaborative regulation of electricity business between the Federal and State Government, and to ensure policy harmony, the Act, for the first time gives statutory recognition to a body known as the National Power Policy Coordinating Council comprising of representatives of the two levels of Government and other critical stakeholders in the Nigerian power sector. The Council has among other responsibilities the duty of considering and adopting an integrated electricity policy and strategic implementation plan for the approval of the National Economic Council. The resource plan for the sector is to be reviewed every 5 years to ensure alignment in resource planning across the power value chain and responsiveness of government policies in the sector to prevailing realities and exigencies.

Another important point to note is that prior to the enactment of the Electricity Act, 2023, a plethora of legislations relevant to power sector were in existence but not consolidated and with several amendments to each of these legislations, it was usually a herculean task for stakeholders to track these legislations for compliance. With the enactment of the Electricity Act, 2023, all these legislations relating to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) with all observed post –privatization challenges are comprehensively articulated and addressed. While the consolidation of all electricity related legislations entails their repeal, various agencies such as the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) were retained under the Act while the National Power Training Institute is now establish to address the problem of power challenges in the sector with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) retained as an independent apex regulator of the power sector at the Federal level.

By and large, the Act contains far reaching provisions on a wide range of issues critical to unlocking Nigeria’s full potentials in electricity generation and increased energy access. These include clear provisions on the status of transitional entities such as NBET, provision on unbundling of Transmission Company of Nigeria into a Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and Independent System Operator (ISO), elimination of constraints around tenured licenses, inclusion of transitional provisions that allows NERC to amend licenses to allow existing successor companies to establish subsidiaries for their operation within State boundaries, provisions on business continuity to allow for uninterrupted services in cases of revocation of licenses, provision on the intervention powers of NERC in cases of distress, non –performance and managerial failure, provisions on the operationalization of Power Consumer Assistance Fund(PCAF) and gradual elimination of cross –subsidies, improved funding for rural electrification, consumer protection and prevention of unfair competition, severe punishment against electricity theft and related offences, metering and promoting the contribution of renewable energy to Nigeria’s energy mix. For the first time, provision has been made for generation and utilization of electricity from Nigeria’s abundant renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, etc with adequate provisions made to incentivize investors and ensure adequate regulatory support in terms of feed in-tariffs and renewable generation and purchase obligations ( RGOs/RPOs).

The Electricity Act, 2023 is therefore an important piece of legislation that would change the fortunes of the Nigerian power sector if properly implemented. The nation should be proud of 9th National Assembly and particularly the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Gabriel Suswam for this monumental legacy. President Bola Tinubu should also be commended for swiftly signing the Electricity Bill into law.

Written by:

Emmanuel Ukera

Fairfields Solicitors

By Sun Yahui

China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is now applied in a wide scope of areas, from navigation to transportation, and from agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery to disaster prevention and alleviation.

The Chinese navigation system provides reliable positioning services and ensures smooth operation of various sectors.

According to statistics, the total number of terminal products with BDS positioning function has so far exceeded 1.2 billion units or sets in China, and the BDS has served more than 7.9 million operating vehicles, 47,000 ships, and 40,000 postal and express delivery vehicles on main lines. Meanwhile, there are more than 5 million shared bikes equipped with BDS high-precision positioning chips.

Since 2020 when the last satellite of the BDS was completed and launched, it has played an important role in enabling economic and social development.

The total output value of China’s satellite navigation and positioning service industry reached 500.7 billion yuan ($71.3 billion) in 2022, said a white paper recently issued by the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location Based Service (GNSS & LBS) Association of China.

In particular, the output value of core sectors, including integrated circuits, components, algorithm, software, navigation data, terminals and infrastructure, which are directly related to the development and application of satellite navigation technologies, hit 152.7 billion yuan, accounting for 30.5 percent of the total.

Today, the BDS has become a part of people’s everyday life.

Map apps Baidu Map and Amap have announced to switch to prioritize BDS positioning. The positioning service of the BDS the two apps call now average more than 360 billion times per day.

Thanks to the high-precision positioning of the BDS, it’s now possible to obtain centimeter-level and real-time positioning information of vehicles.

Xie Jianjia, deputy president of WeTransport, a new strategy on smart transportation launched by China’s internet giant Tencent, noted that the BDS is widely applied in the transportation sector. It offers precise and reliable positioning and navigation services for vehicles in terms of autopilot, automatic parking and automatic logistics, which helps improve safety and efficiency, he added.

The BDS is also powering the development of China’s infrastructure and has significantly improved high-precision positioning services for natural resource, agriculture, communication, transportation and electricity industries.

For instance, a geological hazard monitoring and early warning system based on the BDS is now in service in over 10 Chinese provinces including Yunnan and Sichuan. The system, which is able to remotely monitor, analyze and warn deformations, cracks and underground water level in real time at sites prone to disasters, has improved these provinces’ capability in disaster warning.

Besides, the application of the BDS is also vigorously promoted in the power industry. As of the end of 2022, over 2,000 BDS ground-based augmentation stations had been built and planned across China by power constructors. More than 500,000 units or sets of BDS terminal devices had been put into use, offering high-precision positioning services for drone inspections, robotic inspections at transformer substations as well as tower monitoring and inspections. So far, all vehicles in the power industry have been equipped with BDS terminals.

Regions in China are promoting in-depth integration between the BDS and local economy according to their own demands to pursue economic transformation and upgrading.

In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the navigation system has been used to guide infrastructure-vehicle cooperative autonomous driving and unmanned delivery, which effectively improves the efficiency of traffic and terminal-end deliveries.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, to realize intelligent development of infrastructure, has applied BDS technologies in multiple engineering projects, including an offshore wind farm in Guangdong’s Yangjiang and a bridge in the province’s Zhanjiang. The comprehensive construction efficiency of these projects has been significantly improved thanks to these technologies.

In the Yangtze River delta, the application of the BDS has made possible cross-district operation of bus services, which advances integrated regional development and fosters new areas of growth for the region.

Experts believe that as China accelerates industrial digitalization, the BDS also needs to deeply integrate itself with industries to forge new production models, on top of offering time and spatial information, which is expected to create broader space for the market-oriented, industrialized and large-scale development of the BDS.

By Fang Min, People’s Daily

China’s first domestically built large cruise ship completed its undocking in Shanghai on June 6.  The cruise ship is scheduled to make its first trial voyage in July, and a second one will take place in August, according to its builder Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation.

Building large cruise ships is a symbolic accomplishment in China’s shipbuilding industry. Multiple core technologies have been developed and a series of sci-tech innovations made during the building of the ship.

The cruise ship, measuring 323.6 meters in length and 37.2 meters in width, has 2,826 cabins.

According to Wu Xiaoyuan, shipbuilding director with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., the ship has more than 40,000 square meters of public areas, which is as large as six standard soccer pitches. In the public areas, there are a number of entertainment facilities such as a performance center, cafeterias, bars, cafes, art galleries, spas and water parks, Wu said.

The cruise ship will soon to go through a series of final tests before it’s named and delivered.

Large cruise ships, large liquefied natural gas carriers and aircraft carriers are dubbed as “three pearls on the crown of shipbuilding.” They are considered the most advanced equipment of today’s shipbuilding industry.

In particular, large cruise ships are the most complicated single electromechanical product in today’s world.

The Chinese cruise ship has as many as 25 million components and parts, five times the number of those on China’s homegrown C919 jet, said Chen Hong, technical manager of the cruise ship project with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.

The length of cables installed on a 300,000-ton crude tanker is about 100 to 120 kilometers, but that on the Chinese cruise ship exceeds 4,300 kilometers, Chen added.

The building of large cruise ships had long been monopolized by a few shipbuilders in Europe, as these huge vessels normally come with special structures and diverse systems. It requires high-standard techniques and arduous efforts to build them.

The building of the Chinese cruise ship started in 2019 in Shanghai. Over the past more than three years, the development team of the ship has tackled multiple core technologies such as weight control, vibration reduction and harbor returning, delivering a series of innovation results.

According to Chen, competitive enterprises in the shipbuilding industry were mobilized to launch projects aiming to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies, which yielded over 1,000 sci-tech outcomes.

Besides, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. also tackled a number of challenges to ensure the smooth progress of the design of the cruise ship, including technical import, data management and multi-party collaboration.

To meet the demand of the cruise ship project, the company upgraded its information management platform and developed a supply chain collaboration platform, an interior decoration management platform and a logistics and material management platform. It also built a smart factory and put into use a mobile internet platform.

The cruise ship marks a remarkable achievement made by Shanghai shipbuilders. More importantly, their achievements are more than this.

In 2022, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., together with other two major shipbuilders of CSSC in Shanghai, Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co., Ltd. and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., delivered a total of 48 ships, and about 98 percent of these ships were exported.

With the 72 new orders received by the three shipbuilders last year, they now have 183 orders at hand, which will keep them busy until 2027.

Apart from Shanghai shipbuilders, the entire Chinese shipbuilding industry is prospering. In the first quarter this year, shipbuilders across the country completed vessel construction totaling 9.17 million deadweight tons and received 15.18 million deadweight tons of new shipbuilding orders, a jump of 53 percent from a year ago. As of the end of April, the orders held by Chinese shipbuilders accounted for 51.3 percent of the total in the global market.

China has retained the largest share of the global shipbuilding market for 13 consecutive years. With a strong technological capability and dynamic momentum for development, the Chinese shipbuilding industry is brimming with vitality.

By Liu Yi, Kou Jiangze, People’s Daily

There have been significantly more “blue sky” days over recent years, said Zou Yi, a Beijing citizen.

Since 2013, Zou has taken photos of the sky at a fixed spot in Beijing’s Chaoyang district every day, as a way to record the changes in air quality. So far, he has taken over 3,000 photos.

“The city is getting more and more beautiful, which gives people a better mood,” he said.

Heavy smog was once a big headache for Beijing citizens. To cope with the severe problem, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding cities have strengthened efforts to control air pollution caused by industrial production, coal consumption, automotive and dust.

Last year, Beijing’s annual average concentration of major airborne fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, dropped to 30 micrograms per cubic meter, reaching the second-level national standard for two consecutive years.

Compared with 2013, the figure was reduced by 60 micrograms per cubic meter. Also, the annual average concentrations of PM10, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide fell by over 50 percent in the Chinese capital.

The improvement in Beijing is a miniature of China’s efforts to better air quality. Since 2013, the country has launched an Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan and a three-year action plan on air pollution control, making remarkable and historic achievements.

China is the world’s first developing country to control PM2.5 pollution with comprehensive treatment. It has twice improved its atmospheric pollution prevention law.

With a firm determination and unprecedented measures, local authorities and relevant departments across the country are confident in defeating air pollution.

Regions across the country have vigorously adjusted industrial, energy and transportation structures, put high-energy consuming and high-pollution industries under strict control, and raised standards on energy conservation and environmental protection.

Under the blue sky in Linfen, north China’s Shanxi province, people are working out in the fresh air along the ancient city walls and Fenhe River.

“Today, there are more and more ecological beauties for us to shoot. The storage of my hard disk is just running out,” said Yan Ruipeng, a photographer in Linfen, north China’s Shanxi province.

Linfen once relied on resource-based industries such as coal, coking and steel. In 2016, it ranked last among all 168 key cities in China in terms of air quality. The concentration of sulfur dioxide once exceeded 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter three times in just 10 days.

To turn things around, the city launched forceful measures. The average annual concentration of sulfur dioxide in the city fell to 10 micrograms per cubic meter last year, an 80 percent drop from 2017.

“Photos look great even without toning,” Yan said.

Historic changes have taken place in China’s air quality over the past decade thanks to the forceful and targeted measures launched by relevant departments and local authorities.

A clean and low-carbon energy structure has been improved.

Two-thirds of the increase in China’s energy consumption came from clean energy in the past 10 years. The country ranks first in the world in terms of the development and utilization of new energy and renewable energy.

Its total installed capacity of renewable energy power generation has exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts, and the consumption of clean energy accounts for over a quarter of the country’s total energy consumption.

Besides, China has built the world’s largest clean coal power generation system, and is home to 1.05 billion kilowatts of coal-fired power units that have achieved ultra-low emission status.

The industrial structure has effectively carried out green transformation and upgrading.

Over the past 10 years, China has worked vigorously to eliminate outdated capacity and reduce excess capacity, cutting about 300 million tons of steel, 300 million tons of cement and 150 million weight cases of plate glass. The country is comprehensively promoting the ultra-low-emission upgrading in the steel industry, and around 630 million tons of crude steel capacities have completed or are in the process of the upgrading.

Green transitions have been made in the transportation system.

The country has shifted more freight transport from road to railway. Last year, Chinese railways transported over 4.98 billion tons of cargo, up 211 million tons from a year ago.

Over 30 million old and high-emitting motor vehicles were removed last year, and the country now has more than 10 million new energy vehicles, ranking first in the world.

Air quality has been improved with science and technology support.

The country established a national joint control center for preventing atmospheric pollution, which is joined by over 2,000 researchers. They have made key technological breakthroughs in the causative mechanism, targeted control and forecast of atmospheric pollution, and completed a research program on causes of heavy air pollution and proposed solutions.

Last year, the share of days with good air quality stood at 86.5 percent in 339 cities across the country at or above the prefectural level. The proportion of days with heavy air pollution was 0.9 percent, dropping to less than 1 percent for the first time.

In 2022, the average PM2.5 concentration dropped to 29 micrograms per cubic meter in those cities, falling below the 30-mark for the first time since the data was first monitored.

China’s experience in smog control contributed the Chinese wisdom and plans to global environmental and climate governance. China’s ecology and environment minister Huang Runqiu noted that China has seen the fastest improvement in air quality across the world.

Huang added that according to Bloomberg, China has reduced air pollution in seven years between 2013 and 2020 nearly as much as the United States did in three decades since the U.S. Clean Air Act was implemented.