Nigeria Times

By Chang Qin, People’s Daily

China had completed setting ecological conservation red lines nationwide, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) announced during an activity held on the World Earth Day recently in Fuzhou, southeast China’s Fujian province.

The red lines cover areas that are ecologically vital and vulnerable and have important potential ecological value. These areas must be put under mandatory and rigorous protection.

China took the lead in proposing and implementing the red line system for ecological conservation.

The country has put no less than 3.15 million square km of its area, including no less than 3 million square km of land area, and no less than 150,000 square km of sea area, under the ecological conservation red lines.

It has formulated rules and implemented strict measures to strengthen monitoring and control                of areas covered by the red lines, achieving effective management and control of ecological red line areas.

“The ecological conservation red lines are the bottom lines and lifelines for safeguarding national ecological security,” said Zhang Bing, an official with the MNR.

Feng Wenli, president of the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute, said China has made great progress in economic and social development since the launch of reform and opening-up, but ecological problems have become prominent bottlenecks hindering socio-economic development due to ecosystem degradation and the decline in capability for the supply of ecological products.

“Setting and strictly applying red lines for ecological conservation is a major strategic deployment made by China and an important institutional innovation in its ecological progress,” Feng said.

As the main department responsible for China’s ecological conservation, the MNR, together with departments including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, organized the assessment, adjustment, and demarcation of ecological conservation red lines and completed setting the lines for the first time according to the national territorial space planning outline (2021-2035) and relevant plans at the provincial, municipal and county levels.

In Harbin city, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, around 10,700 square km, or about 20 percent of its territorial area, is demarcated within the red lines, including major mountain ranges such as the Lesser Hinggan Mountains and the Zhangguangcai Mountains, as well as the mainstream and tributaries of the Songhua River, other rivers, lakes, wetlands and other areas, with the main aim of improving ecological functions including water and soil conservation, water source conservation and biodiversity preservation.

Jiamusi city in Heilongjiang puts over 12 percent of its territorial area under the protection of the red lines, including areas that are critical in environmental function, ecologically sensitive and vulnerable, as well as natural protected areas that include national parks, nature reserves and natural parks.

Southwest China’s Yunnan province has no less than 113,200 square km, or over 29 percent of its territorial area in the ecological conservation red lines. The province’s protected areas, excluding some areas of scenic areas there, are within the red lines, with 15 typical ecosystems including the tropical rainforest ecosystem being systematically protected. The red lines cover the habitats and migration channels of more than 90 percent of key state-protected plants and 80 percent of key state-protected animals in Yunnan, further improving the function of ecosystems.

Feng said the ecological conservation red lines mainly cover the ecological shield area of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, key ecological areas along the Yellow River, key ecological areas along the Yangtze River, northeast forest belts, northern sand prevention belts, hilly areas in south China, and coastal areas. The red lines cover typical terrestrial ecosystem types including most of the natural forests, grasslands and wetlands, typical marine ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds, as well as the vast majority of uninhabited islands.

No ratio targets of areas have been preset during the process of drawing the red lines. In some provincial-level regions, the ecological red line areas account for more than 50 percent of the regions’ territorial areas and in other provincial-level areas, that percentage is less than 10 percent, said Feng.

At present, provincial regions, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Shandong, Anhui and Sichuan, have rolled out detailed rules for the controls of the ecological conservation red lines. The rest of Chinese provincial regions are soliciting public opinion for similar rules or are about to introduce ones to strengthen the supervision of the red lines.

“To strictly enforce ecological conservation red lines, we need to improve long-term mechanisms,” Zhang said.

He added that the MNR will foster stronger collaboration between the ministry and local governments, regularly conduct conservation performance evaluations of the red lines, strengthen the capabilities for dynamic monitoring and early warning, accelerate the revision of relevant laws and regulations and increase publicity, so as to build a modern China where humanity and nature exist in harmony.

By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily

The General Committee and the Plenary Session of the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) on May 22 respectively decided to reject the so-called proposal of “inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer” submitted by certain countries.

For the seventh year in a row, the WHA has rejected the Taiwan-related proposal, which fully indicates that the one-China principle has international support and represents the prevailing trend that cannot be challenged.

China’s position on the Taiwan region’s participation in the activities of international organizations, including the WHO, is consistent and clear. It must be handled in accordance with the one-China principle. This is a fundamental principle affirmed in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 2758 and WHA Resolution 25.1.

For eight consecutive years from 2009 to 2016, the Taiwan region participated in the WHA as an observer in the name of “Chinese Taipei.” This is a special arrangement made through cross-Strait consultation on the basis of adherence by both sides of the Taiwan Strait to the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle.

After coming into power in 2016, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has placed political calculations before the Taiwan people’s welfare and remained headstrong on “Taiwan independence,” refusing to admit the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle. As a result, the political foundation for the Taiwan region to participate in the WHA no longer exists.

To uphold the one-China principle and the sanctity and authority of relevant UNGA and WHA resolutions, China has decided not to agree to let the Taiwan region participate in this year’s WHA. This is a just and necessary action.

This decision has received broad-based understanding and support from the international community. Recently, nearly 140 countries made clear to China their position of adhering to the one-China principle and opposing Taiwan’s participation in the WHA. Nearly 100 countries wrote to the WHO Director-General or issued public statements on the issue, reiterating that Taiwan’s participation in the WHA lacks political foundations and that Taiwan-related issues shouldn’t disturb the assembly.

These voices of justice fully prove that the overwhelming majority of countries uphold the just and right position on the Taiwan region’s participation in the WHA, and once again indicate that the one-China principle cannot be distorted, denied or challenged. Any attempt to play the “Taiwan card” to contain China will not succeed.

The real intention of certain countries to invite Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer is to politicize health issues and interfere in China’s internal affairs in the name of the Taiwan question.

Before the WHA kicked off this year, the United States Department of State said in a so-called statement that it strongly advocated for Taiwan’s participation in the WHA, and pressured the WHO not to obstruct it. The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee even adopted a so-called act that claims the representation of China doesn’t include the Taiwan region.

In defiance of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, the United States exploits Taiwan-related issues to engage in political manipulation in an attempt to contain China.

It was under the instigation and consent of the United States that a few other countries submitted the proposal to the WHO, attempting to discuss the Taiwan region’s participation as a supplementary item on the WHO agenda.

The WHO soon rejected the ridiculous proposal, which marked another heavy blow to the hegemonic, domineering and bullying practice of the United States.

The DPP authorities hyped up an alleged “international epidemic prevention gap” if Taiwan can’t join the WHA, which is totally groundless.

The Chinese central government has always attached great importance to the health and well-being of the Taiwan compatriots. It has updated the Taiwan region over 500 times about the pandemic situation since the start of COVID-19.

According to the arrangement agreed on between China and WHO, Taiwan’s medical and health experts can participate in WHO technical meetings given that the one-China principle is upheld. Over the past year alone, medical and technical experts from China’s Taiwan region took part in WHO technical activities 24 times, which involved 26 participants.

There is an International Health Regulations Contact Point in the Taiwan region for it to promptly access and report information related to health emergencies. Taiwan has timely access to WHO information on global public health emergencies and reports to WHO in a timely manner the information of public health emergencies in Taiwan.

The DPP authorities are hyping up Taiwan’s WHA participation not because this is necessary for epidemic response, but because they see it as a potential way to expand international space for “Taiwan independence.”

There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. This is an indisputable fact supported by history and the law.

The DPP authorities, engaging in political manipulation for its own interests and seeking “Taiwan independence” under the pretext of COVID-19, are going toward a dead end. A handful of countries have encouraged and emboldened this move overtly or covertly, which goes against the trend of history and is doomed to fail.

By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily

The Group of Seven (G7) Hiroshima Summit ended amid protests on May 21.

Despite its vows to build a “peaceful, stable and prosperous world” and uphold “international order based on the rule of law,” the summit did nothing to tackle global challenges. On the contrary, it arbitrarily interfered in other countries’ domestic affairs and provoked divide and confrontation.

A joint statement was released after the meeting, which hyped a series of China-related topics, slandered and attacked China, grossly violated China’s domestic affairs and blatantly challenged the post-war international order.

This seriously violated the basic norms governing international relations and fully proved that the G7 has become a tool that protects the hegemony of the United States. The Western clique is growing into a source of risks against world peace and stability, and a saboteur of the international order.

The erroneous remarks made by the G7 on the Taiwan question provided evidence of the group challenging post-war international order.

Taiwan is China’s Taiwan. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, a matter that must be resolved by the Chinese. The one-China principle is what underpins peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

The G7 always stresses the importance of respecting other countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity when speaking of the Ukraine crisis. However, it says nothing about the need to oppose “Taiwan independence” though it keeps emphasizing cross-Strait peace. Such double standards in effect constitute connivance and support for “Taiwan independence” forces, and will never lead the group to good results.

Over the recent years, the United States has followed the salami tactics on the Taiwan question, distorting, manipulating, fudging and hollowing out the one-China principle. Some high-ranking U.S. officials even claimed that the Taiwan question is not China’s domestic affair.

The G7 Hiroshima Summit propagated that the Taiwan question exerts important impacts on the security and prosperity of the world, which fully proves that the G7 is reduced to an accomplice of the United States to “contain China with Taiwan,” and standing on the opposite side of the post-war international order.

The G7 talks like a parrot when it comes to issues related to the East China Sea, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, spreading lies fabricated by the United States and trying to smear China with the so-called “economic coercion.” Its ultimate goal is to tarnish China’s image and peddle the “China threat” theory.

Despite the chaotic governance and poor human rights records of its own members, the G7 is always interfering in China’s domestic affairs, such as issues related to Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, in the name of “democracy” and “human rights.” This only reveals the group’s hypocrisy and hegemony.

The East China Sea and the South China Sea have remained overall stable. The G7, using maritime issues to drive a wedge between regional countries, is indeed posing risks for the stability in the region. The United States, which resorts to illegal unilateral sanctions, long-arm jurisdiction, decoupling, breakage of supply and industrial chains, and politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade ties, is indeed the origin and expert of “economic coercion.” The G7 is completely doing the United States’ bidding as an accomplice of “economic coercion.”

U.S. hegemony is seen in every word in the joint statement released after the G7 Hiroshima Summit. The summit, which was a political farce, indicated that the United States is trying to turn its tactic of denigrating and containing China into a consensus of the G7.

Protectors of justice around the world are highly alert to hegemonic countries doubling down efforts to provoke bloc confrontation, sabotage the international order and undermine peace and stability with their cliques. The international community will not accept the “Western rules” dominated by the G7 and drawing ideological and value lines, nor will it tolerate the West’s lecturing.

Some said the G7 has become a “political group” that is manipulated by the United States and cannot represent the whole world, and the decisions made by the group are totally politics-oriented and aimed at seeking political and economic interests for the United States at the expense of other countries’ interests. Some said such a political group that hinders the development of other countries should be eliminated by history. These voices of justice exactly mirror the true attitude of most countries in the world toward the G7, a group that goes against the trend of history.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joined a press conference in Hiroshima on the day the G7 concluded, which attracted high attention. He listed the moral, power-related and practical injustices faced by developing countries.

“In our multipolar world, as geopolitical divisions grow, no country or group of countries can stand by as billions of people struggle with the basics of food, water, education, healthcare, and jobs,” he said, adding that “Here in Hiroshima, it’s time to demonstrate global leadership and global solidarity.”

His remarks represented the requests raised by the developing world for the G7, the “rich country club.” However, the G7 turned a deaf ear to the remarks though it was trying to rope in developing countries. On the contrary, it kept undermining international order and trampling on equity and justice, which disappointed developing countries.

American political scientist Parag Khanna believes that the G7 is no longer qualified for coordinating global issues and its summit was meaningless.

Gone are the days when a handful of Western countries can just willfully meddle in other countries’ internal affairs and manipulate global affairs. When the international community, especially the developing world, is gaining an increasing awareness for strategic independence, the G7 will only be further isolated if it continues assisting the United States to pursue hegemony.

The G7 needs to reflect on its behavior, rather than continuing its wanton act. Only by stopping forming closed and exclusive small circles, stopping containing and oppressing other countries, stopping provoking bloc confrontation and returning to the right track of dialogue and cooperation, can the group avoid becoming a stumbling block for world peace, stability and development and avoid being eliminated by the trend of the times.

By Ran Yongping, Ding Yiting, People’s Daily

China’s first deep-sea floating wind power platform, named Haiyou Guanlan, was connected to the power grid of an offshore oilfield group in Wenchang, south China’s Hainan province on May 20.

The platform, built by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), will generate green power for the operation and production of offshore oilfields. It marks major progress achieved by China in key technologies of deep-sea wind power generation.

The wind turbine, with a diameter of three impellers extending 158 meters, can cover an area of nearly 20,000 square meters in one rotation, which is equivalent to the size of 2.7 standard soccer fields. The green electricity generated will be sent to the power grid through a 5-kilometer dynamic subsea cable.

Currently, most of the offshore oilfields in the world are powered by fossil energy. Wind power generation offers a greener way of production for deep-sea offshore oilfields.

Haiyou Guanlan is expected to generate as much as 22 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, which will all be used for oil and gas production. It can save nearly 10 million cubic meters of natural gas and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 22,000 tonnes every year.

The platform is located in waters 136 kilometers away from Wenchang. With an installed capacity of 7.25 megawatts, it consists of a wind turbine, a floating foundation, a mooring system and a dynamic cable.

It is China’s first offshore wind power project with a water depth of over 100 meters and an offshore distance of over 100 kilometers. The platform is more than 200 meters high with a total draft weight of 11,000 tons.

The Haiyou Guanlan facility adopts an integrated design for wind turbine and floating foundation, and thus is able to ensure safe and stable operation under strong typhoons.

China’s offshore wind power industry has embraced continuous development over recent years. According to Qin Haiyan, secretary-general of the Chinese Wind Energy Association under the China Renewable Energy Society, China installed an offshore wind power capacity of 5.16 million kilowatts last year, with the total reaching 30.51 million kilowatts, the highest in the world.

Thanks to the large-scale development and technological progress in the industry, China’s offshore wind power has greatly improved in cost. From 2010 to 2021, the levelized cost of electricity generated by offshore wind turbines in China dropped nearly 56 percent to about 0.33 yuan ($0.05) per kilowatt hour.

Statistics from the National Climate Center show that China’s technical exploitable capacity of deep-sea wind resources exceeds 2 billion kilowatts, indicating great potential for exploration.

It is hoped that the construction of the Haiyou Guanlan platform could promote breakthroughs in key technologies, major offshore equipment installation and integration of industrial chain resources in the Chinese deep-sea offshore wind power industry, and explore the integrated development of offshore wind power and offshore gas and oil production, said Yang Yun, executive vice-president of CNOOC and general manager of the corporation’s new energy department.

By Yang Xun, Gu Chun, Luo Shanshan, Liu Junguo, People’s Daily

The third China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair was held in Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang province from May 16 to 20.

The expo has become a major platform that displays featured CEEC products and expands China’s imports from these countries. It is steering the two sides toward high-quality economic and trade cooperation.

Hungarian noble rot wine, ouzo from Greece and a series of other commodities under the EU geographical indications system were exhibited at the expo. Dazzling exhibits including foldable Slovenian skis and fragrant Bulgarian rose essential oil attracted visitors’ attention.

It is reported that over 5,000 kinds of commodities from CEECs joined the exhibition, up 25 percent from a year ago. About 3,000 exhibitors participated in the event, a record high in history.

“These are biscuits and chocolate candies that have been accompanying us since childhood. Please have a try,” said Dominik Pekalski, import-export manager of a trading company that has been engaged in China-Poland trade for over 15 years, when introducing commodities to visitors at the booth of Polish pastry brand Skawa during the China-CEEC Expo.

He said the Chinese consumer market is highly open and energetic, and his company is currently working to introduce more Polish products to the Chinese market.

“Through e-commerce platforms and other channels, we have already achieved remarkable performance. We are here at the expo to seek more opportunities in the Chinese market,” Pekalski told People’s Daily.

A total of 62 foreign-funded projects were signed during the expo, with a total investment of $17.78 billion, up 17.7 percent year-on-year.

Among all the projects, 17 were invested by Fortune Global 500 companies and industry-leading enterprises, covering high-end equipment manufacturing, biomedicine, digital economy and other frontier areas.

The expo was also attended by 15,000 professional purchasers and received 126,000 visits, and 10.53 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) of purchase orders for CEEC goods were reached, hitting historical highs.

This year marks the beginning of the second decade of China-CEEC cooperation. Under joint efforts from relevant parties, the two sides have achieved fruitful results in their economic and trade cooperation.

According to statistics released by China’s Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade between China and CEECs has grown at an average annual rate of 8.1 percent since the founding of the China-CEEC cooperation mechanism in 2012. China’s imports from CEECs have increased at an average rate of 9.2 percent annually during the same period.

Jiang Yu, special representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for China-CEEC Cooperation Affairs, noted that China will firmly pursue a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up, comprehensively promote high-quality development and high-level opening up, and keep sharing new opportunities of China’s development with CEEC.

China and CEEC, assisted by infrastructure connectivity, are seeing more efficient logistics between the two sides.

The Zhoushan Port in Ningbo has established cooperation mechanisms with five ports from CEECs, including the Piraeus port in Greece, the port of Gdansk in Poland, the Constanta port in Romania, the port of Koper in Slovenia and the Croatian Rijeka port. Fourteen container shipping routes have opened in total.

Last year, 769,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of containers were shipped between the Zhoushan Port and the five CEEC ports, up 16.5 percent year-on-year.

The China-Europe freight train service, hailed as an artery of freight transportation between China and Europe, was a hot topic during the China-CEEC Expo.

Lin Huihuan, general manager of a logistics company based in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, told People’s Daily that more and more clients of his company are willing to ship cargo to China through the Yixin’ou (Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe) route, thanks to its low cost and stable capacity.

According to Lin, Yiwu has launched 18 point-to-point international lines to Central Asia and other regions, on which 1,569 trips were made last year.

“It is believed that the number will keep growing as the trade volume between China and CEECs continues to expand,” Lin said.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past 10 years, China-CEEC cooperation on infrastructure has achieved new heights. A series of projects have been implemented and completed under this initiative, including Montenegro’s Bar-Boljare Highway and the Belgrade-Budapest railway.

Croatian official Ranko Ostojic said the BRI has brought drastic changes to his hometown, citing the Peljesac Bridge as an example. The bridge facilitates local transport and creates a better life for the community, he explained. Marko Selakovic, advisor to mayor of Kragujevac, Serbia, said the China-CEEC Expo was a high-standard, high-quality and high-level economic and trade event. He hopes the potential of China-CEEC cooperation could be constantly released.

By Gu Yekai, People’s Daily

Modern cities are complex and open systems. In recent years, the rapid development and wide application of the digital twin technology are bringing new ideas and solutions to China’s urban planning, governance and management.

And how traffic congestion has been relieved near the Peking University People’s Hospital in Beijing’s Xicheng district is a great example.

It was recently found that the long lines of cars stuck near the hospital have disappeared, and the traffic on surrounding roads has got better. It used to take more than an hour for a vehicle to wait in line before entering the hospital during peak hours, but now it takes only around 10 minutes.

This is attributed to a comprehensive traffic management system adopted by the urban management committee of the district, which shows parking resources and the distribution of shared bikes around the hospital. Based on the system, traffic managers are able to make rational recommendations on drop-off locations, intelligent dispatch of shared bikes and shared parking resources of the hospital.

The digital twin technology can simulate various factors and data of cities. Cao Xinchi, vice president of CECloud, a cloud service platform developed by China Electronics Corporation, told People’s Daily that a digital twin city is a virtual city built in cyberspace by digitalizing various factors of a physical city with the Internet of Things technology.

The virtual city is formed based on building information modeling and the 3D geographic information system of the physical one, Cao added.

The construction of digital twin cities has entered a “fast lane” in China. Last year, the market hit 5.1 billion yuan ($730 million) in the country, with a compound annual growth rate of 50 percent.

Creating a virtual city that corresponds to the tangible one can make urban management more efficient and is conducive to the city’s sustainable development.

Jinan, east China’s Shandong province, has adopted a four-dimensional information visualization system that monitors the geological environment. By obtaining information about the stratigraphic structure, lithology and karst development features, the system offers guidance on the suitability analysis of urban rail transit lines

Based on hydrological data, meteorological data and information of urban drainage facilities, the urban management system of Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province, launches visualized flooding simulations at flood-prone points with the help of urban hydrology model and electronic map, thus providing references for flood control and disaster relief.

Lankao county of central China’s Henan province has developed an intelligent algorithm, which can deduce the operation results of different urban regulation strategies online.

Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province has collected comprehensive and high-precision data of ancient architectures so as to better protect and repair them.

The Xiong’an New Area in north China’s Hebei province is planning and building a virtual city with the physical one simultaneously.

While digital twin cities are seeing prosperous development, they also bring new challenges.

“Digital twin cities need to store, process and present massive multi-source heterogeneous data with various types and large volumes, which is a test for the platform’s support capacity and network bandwidth. Besides, the visualization and real-time browsing of a huge load of spatial-temporal data, as well as the real-time updating of various types of other data also call for a high cost in hardware, time and manpower,” Cao explained.

Zhou Hongyi, founder of Chinese Internet security company Qihoo 360, said digitalization is a booster for urban management, but it also magnifies issues such as data security and privacy protection.

As digitalization accelerates in urban public services, economy and industries, as well as livelihood sectors, cities will highly rely on networks, software and data, Zhou explained, adding that digital security should be made into an integral part of urban infrastructure construction.

Li Deren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and professor at Wuhan University, said the country should face up to new challenges and proactively advance the construction of both physical and online spaces.

He emphasized the significance of urban planning, upgrading and science-based management, so that China’s urban construction can become truly intelligent with the digital twin technology.