Nigeria Times

A report from People’s Daily: The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a paper stating China’s position on the Afghan issue on April 12. The following is the full text:

China’s Position on the Afghan Issue

China and Afghanistan are close neighbors with longstanding friendship between the two peoples. Under the current situation, China’s position on the Afghan issue is as follows:

1.Adhering to the “Three Respects” and “Three Nevers”. China respects the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, respects the independent choices made by the Afghan people, and respects the religious beliefs and national customs of Afghanistan. China never interferes in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, never seeks selfish interests in Afghanistan, and never pursues so-called sphere of influence.

2.Supporting moderate and prudent governance in Afghanistan. China sincerely hopes that Afghanistan could build an open and inclusive political structure, adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, and engage in friendly exchanges with all countries especially neighboring countries. We hope the Afghan Interim Government will protect the basic rights and interests of all Afghan people, including women, children and all ethnic groups, and continue working actively to meet Afghan people’s interests and the international community’s expectations. 

3.Supporting peace and reconstruction of Afghanistan. China will continue to do its best to help Afghanistan with reconstruction and development, make plans with Afghanistan and fulfill its assistance pledges, promote steady progress in economic, trade and investment cooperation, and actively carry out cooperation in such fields as medical care, poverty alleviation, agriculture, and disaster prevention and mitigation, so as to help Afghanistan realize independent and sustainable development at an early date. China welcomes Afghanistan’s participation in Belt and Road cooperation and supports Afghanistan’s integration into regional economic cooperation and connectivity that will transform Afghanistan from a “land-locked country” to a “land-linked country”. 

4.Supporting Afghanistan in countering terrorism resolutely and forcefully. Security is the foundation and prerequisite of development. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a terrorist organization listed by the UN Security Council and designated by the Chinese government in accordance with law. The ETIM forces in Afghanistan pose a severe threat to the security of China, Afghanistan and the region. China hopes that Afghanistan will fulfill its commitment in earnest and take more effective measures to crack down on all terrorist forces including the ETIM with greater determination, and earnestly ensure the safety and security of citizens, institutions and projects of China and other countries in Afghanistan.

5.Calling for greater bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation. As Afghanistan faces pronounced terrorism-related security issues, it is necessary for the international community to strengthen counter-terrorism security cooperation at both bilateral and multilateral levels and provide Afghanistan with much-needed supplies, equipment and technical assistance. Afghanistan should be supported in taking comprehensive measures to address both the symptoms and root causes of terrorism and prevent the country from again becoming a safe haven, breeding ground and source of terrorism. 

6.Working together to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism in Afghanistan. Terrorism, separatism and extremism in Afghanistan remain a major security threat to the region and the world. China calls on the international community to firmly support Afghanistan’s fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism and its active measures to cut off the channels of terrorist financing, to counter recruitment and cross-border movement of terrorists and the spread of violent terrorist audio and video materials, to contain extremism, youth radicalization and the spread of terrorist ideologies, and to eliminate sleeper cells and terrorist safe havens.

7.Urging the US to live up to its commitments and responsibilities to Afghanistan. It is a widely-held view in the international community that, by seizing Afghanistan’s overseas assets and imposing unilateral sanctions, the US, which created the Afghan issue in the first place, is the biggest external factor that hinders substantive improvement in the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The US should draw lessons from what happened in Afghanistan, face squarely the grave humanitarian, economic and security risks and challenges in Afghanistan, immediately lift its sanctions, return the Afghan overseas assets, and deliver its pledged humanitarian aid to meet the emergency needs of the Afghan people.

8.Opposing external interference and infiltration in Afghanistan. It is a shared view of regional countries that the military interference and “democratic transformation” by external forces in Afghanistan over the past 20-odd years have inflicted enormous losses and pain on Afghanistan. It will be difficult to eliminate the negative impacts for many years to come. To help Afghanistan achieve sustained peace and stability, relevant countries should not attempt to re-deploy military facilities in Afghanistan and its neighbourhood, practice double standards on counter-terrorism, or advance their geopolitical agenda by supporting or conniving at terrorism.

9.Strengthening international and regional coordination on the Afghan issue. Under the new circumstances, Afghanistan should be a platform for cooperation among various parties rather than geopolitical games. China supports all plans and measures that are conducive to political settlement of the Afghan issue, and will actively engage in multilateral coordination through such mechanisms and platforms as the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the Afghan Issue among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)-Afghanistan Contact Group, the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan, the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue, the Informal Meeting of China-Russia-Pakistan-Iran Foreign Ministers on Afghanistan, the Troika Plus Meeting and the United Nations, in an effort to build consensus and synergy for stability in and assistance to Afghanistan at regional and international levels.

10.Facilitating solution to Afghanistan’s humanitarian and refugee issues. China is concerned about the situation of Afghan refugees and will continue to provide assistance through bilateral and multilateral channels. China supports relevant UN agencies in playing a positive role in this regard, applauds the efforts by regional countries, and calls on the international community to provide continuous humanitarian and development assistance to jointly help Afghanistan rebuild its economy and create favorable conditions for the final settlement of the refugee issue.

1. Supporting Afghanistan’s fight against narcotics. China looks forward to and supports more concrete actions by Afghanistan to counter narcotics cultivation, production and illicit trafficking, and will work with the international community to help Afghanistan with alternative development and crackdown on cross-border drug-related crimes, so as to eliminate the source of narcotics in the region.

By Zhang Yi, People’s Daily

Developing whole-process people’s democracy is one of the essential requirements of Chinese modernization. Shanghai, while building itself into a modern socialist metropolis, has integrated whole-process people’s democracy into its urban development, trying to set a great example for practicing whole-process people’s democracy.

Recently, a discussion on a draft revision to China’s Charity Law was hosted in a community cafeteria along the Hongqiao Road, Changning district of Shanghai, joined by a number of local residents. This cafeteria was designated as a meeting room for view seeking on legislation by the local legislative outreach office of Hongqiao sub-district.

The local legislative outreach office of Hongqiao sub-district was established in 2015 by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, one of the earliest in the country. It enables citizens to take part in the country’s legislation just near their homes.

The office has solicited public opinions for a number of laws, including a draft amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law and a draft amendment to the Law on the Protection of Minors.

In particular, it heard 64 opinions from the local residents on the draft amendment to the Individual Income Tax Law and submitted 25 to its superior department. Three were adopted finally. With regard to the draft amendment to the Law on the Protection of Minors, the office solicited 67 public opinions and submitted 50 of them, including 9 that were adopted.

Zhu Guoping, who runs a community service studio in Changning district, has been working in Hongqiao sub-district for decades. She became an “information officer” of the local legislative outreach office when it was established, and joined opinion collection for many draft revisions to laws.

Zhu said the local legislative outreach office needs to turn legal terms into easy language, so that residents can make suggestions centering on the laws being discussed. Besides, it also needs to turn public opinions, which are mostly colloquial, into precise legal expressions.

The office is where the public and professionalism merge. Its first discussion was on a draft version of counter domestic violence law. At the beginning of the discussion, participating residents were confused by legal terms involved, such as “statutory agent” and “law-based.”

“They might not understand legal terms, but they have rich life experiences,” said Wu Xinhui, director of a law firm in Shanghai. She has joined three such discussions, during which her task was to “translate” legal terms into popular language. According to her, participating residents would always become talkativeas soon as they found, through her paraphrasing, that the legal terms were actually about everyday affairs.

As the view seeking on legislation sees higher and higher public enthusiasm and draws wider and wider participation, the opinions received have become more targeted. Both the number and quality of opinions are on a rise, and the local residents are getting more sense of fulfillment and higher satisfaction of livelihood.

As of this January, the local legislative outreach office of Hongqiao sub-district had solicited public opinions on a total of 78 laws and submitted 1,926 opinions to its superior department. Among them, 163 were adopted.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently concluded its 52nd session in Geneva, Switzerland.

During the session, the Chinese delegation comprehensively promoted China’s human rights philosophy and approaches, and called for joint efforts to advance healthy development of global human rights, which was broadly welcomed and supported by representatives attending the session. 

China champions international cooperation on human rights, opposes politicizing human rights issues, and steers global human rights governance toward greater fairness, justice, equity and inclusiveness with concrete actions. The country has made important contributions to the development of global human rights.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action. The values, purposes and principles of the two documents, which hold all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, are a common aspiration of mankind.

Speaking on behalf of over 70 countries at the 52nd session of the UNHRC, China made important proposals on further implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On behalf of nearly 80 countries, it called for strengthening international cooperation and revitalizing the spirit of the Declaration and promoting high-quality development.

The speech is of positive significance for global efforts to better promote and protect human rights, enhance and improve global human rights governance. It reflects the strong aspiration of the international community, especially the vast developing world. 

China pursues a people-centered vision on human rights. Putting emphasis on the people is the distinguishing feature of the Chinese path of human rights protection.

China has brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty, built a moderately prosperous society in all respects and is pursuing modernization of common  prosperity for all.

For the Chinese government, the biggest human right is the happiness of the 1.4 billion Chinese people. Meeting their immediate interests is what all its endeavors are about. The 1.4 billion people have been deeply involved in the development of human rights, and have benefited the most in this process. They now have a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.

Under the constitutional principle that “The state shall respect and protect human rights”, China has constantly developed the whole-process people’s democracy, advanced law-based governance and enhanced legal protection of human rights, to uphold social fairness and justice. The Chinese people now enjoy fuller and more extensive and comprehensive democratic rights.

Rui Lourido, Chairman of Portuguese think tank Observatory for China, believes that China has truly made human rights a part of the Chinese people’s life.

The historic achievements of China in human rights protection fully prove that respecting and safeguarding human rights must be based on recognizing the universality of human rights and the commitment to a path of human rights development that suits the realities of each country.

Countries vary from one another in historical background, cultural heritage, national conditions and needs of the people. There is no one-size-fits-all model in the protection of human rights. Blindly copying the model of others would be ill-fitted for one’s own conditions, and imposing one’s model upon others would entail endless troubles. The right of all countries to independently choose one’s own path of human rights development should be respected.

Tom Zwart, director of the Cross-cultural Human Rights Center, Utrecht University, noted that the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by China respects cultural diversity and promotes mutual learning among civilizations, which is conducive to placing human rights issues in a new and sustainable international context.

No country is qualified to act as the judge on human rights, and human rights should not be used as a pretext for meddling in other countries’ internal affairs or holding back other countries’ development.

Since 2019, the United States has gathered a group of countries for four times to smear China on human rights issues, which were firmly opposed by the vast majority of countries and all ended in failure.

Nearly 100 countries have voiced understanding and support of China’s just position at UNHRC sessions, opposing politicization of human rights issues and double standard, and opposing using human rights issues as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs. It fully indicates that the international society has fair judgments.

What’s urgent for the countries that smear China on human rights issues is to take practical actions to resolve their own severe human rights problems and reflect upon the human rights disasters they have created for other countries.

At the 52nd session of the UNHRC, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri said that some countries today would only focus on unilateral coercive measures, which almost always resulted in human rights violations and weakened the ability of countries hit by those measures to respond to food crises.

UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures Alena Douhan expressed her concerns in a statement, noting that U.S. unilateral coercive measures like prohibiting entry into the United States and freezing any assets with a United States connection violate basic human rights of individuals and entities concerned including labor rights and freedom of movement.

In a world fraught with various global issues, the international human rights cause is confronted with severe challenges. China is ready to work with all parties to promote the common values of humanity, namely, peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, launch human rights exchanges and cooperation based on equality and mutual respect, take an active part in global human rights governance, promote all-round development of the human rights cause and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

This year marked the 60th anniversary of China sending its first medical team to Algeria on April 6, 1963.

So far, batches of Chinese medical teams have offered sincere assistance to countries in need with outstanding medical skills and noble ethics. They have explained the spirit of the Chinese medical team featuring no fear of hardships, willingness to dedicate, saving lives and great love with practical actions, winning wide applause from the international community.

Patients from various countries thanked Chinese doctors for “creating medical miracles,” while foreign doctors applauded them for passing on valuable experiences from China.

Chinese medical workers have shown their great love with dedication. Over the past 60 years, China has dispatched around 30,000 medical personnel to 76 countries and regions across five continents, providing 290 million diagnoses and treatments for local people.

Currently, Chinese medical teams work at 115 sites in 56 countries, nearly half of which are in remote areas with harsh conditions. Overcoming difficulties in work and life, Chinese medical personnel are benefiting the people in those countries with medical proficiency and ethics.

Dedicating all their efforts to international medical assistance, they believe that the smiles of the patients are the motivation for their persistence, and doctors must do everything they can to save lives against all odds. The words interpret Chinese doctors’ respect for life.

Chinese medical workers are not only “angels in white” who save lives, but also envoys of friendship who pass on love.

In Algeria, Chinese medical teams often host academic saloons, lectures, acupuncture training programs and other teaching activities.

In Vanuatu, Chinese medical teams join local patrol missions, offer free clinical treatment, and launch investigations and health education activities apart from providing routine medical assistance.

In Malta, a traditional Chinese medicine center established by Chinese medical workers has held over 10 acupuncture training sessions, which were joined by trainees from multiple European countries including Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Serbia.

Chinese medical teams have also trained local practitioners based on each trainee’s aptitude, cultivating local medical talents for the community. With concrete actions, they tell Chinese stories to the international society and forge a closer people-to-people bond between China and other countries.

In the 1970s, Mei Gengnian, the leader of China’s first medical team to aid Ethiopia, sacrificed his life in the country when practicing medical service to local people and was buried in a local village. His tomb has been “guarded” for decades by local resident Zewdie Haile and his family for generations, which has become a warmhearted tale spreading throughout the village.

The Chinese people love peace and cherish lives, which is illustrated by their efforts in international medical assistance.

After the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, China sent more than 1,200 medical workers to treat over 800 patients and provided public health training for more than 12,000 people.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 globally, China has shared pandemic prevention and treatment plans with 180 countries and over 10 international and regional organizations and held video conferences on pandemic response exchanges with over 160 countries and international organizations. It has also sent 38 expert teams to 34 countries, and offered anti-pandemic materials to more than 150 countries and 15 international organizations.

Besides, China has also sent short-term medical specialist teams overseas for particular diseases to safeguard the health of people in developing countries. Whether in regular health services or in response to major public health emergencies, China has always been an active provider of assistance, which fully showcases the country’s major-country responsibility.

There’s a Chinese saying that “a just cause finds great support and compassion knows no borders.” Chinese medical teams have composed a song of great love with concrete actions, making important contributions to promoting the noble cause of human peace and development.

China will keep playing an active role in international medical assistance and other international cooperation, build strong synergy for building a global community of health for all and work together with all parties to safeguard the health of all humanity.

By Li Xinping, People’s Daily

China-Europe freight trains made 4,186 trips and transported 449,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods in the first quarter this year, up 15 percent and 28 percent year on year, respectively, according to statistics released by China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., or China Railway, on April 10.

In particular, 1,488 trips were made and 162,000 TEUs were transported in March alone, growing 31 percent and 52 percent respectively from a year ago. It marked the 35th straight month since May 2020 that China-Europe freight train trips exceeded 1,000.

On the morning of March 24, a freight train loaded with automobile parts and other cargo departed from Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province. It was the first China-Europe freight train heading for Zhodzina, Belarus from the Chinese city, and the third new route for the cargo service opened in Wuhan this year.

So far, the transportation channel in the central Chinese city has 44 stable cross-border routes involving 109 cities in 40 countries on the Eurasian continent.

Since this year, a number of Chinese cities have launched new routes or stations for the China-Europe freight train service, including Beijing, north China’s Tianjin municipality, Anyang of central China’s Henan province and Zhongshan of south China’s Guangdong province. The cargo service has constantly expanded its transportation network with increasing channels.

Besides, upgraded services also enriched the sources of cargo and clients for China-Europe freight trains. In particular, the seamless connection between the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the oceangoing “21st-century Maritime Silk Road” has opened up new prospects for rail-sea intermodal train services.

Recently, a cargo vessel from the Port of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam arrived at the Haitian Container Terminal at Xiamen Port, southeast China’s Fujian province. After fast transit formalities, cargo on the vessel was soon transferred to a China-Europe freight train bound for Almaty, Kazakhstan.

According to an employee of the China Railway Nanchang Group in east China’s Jiangxi province, the rail-sea intermodal train services could shorten the cargo transportation to only 20 days, which is 45 days less time than whole sea transportation. It has become the best logistics route between Southeast Asia and Central Asia, the employee added.

In the future, Xiamen’s China-Europe freight train service will promote cross-border LCL (Less than Container Load) business, selecting the fastest shipping schedule to gather bulk cargo from South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries to Xiamen, and then transfer them to Europe through railway, the employee said.

The constant upgrading of infrastructure and relevant services has significantly improved the efficiency of China-Europe freight trains.

Xi’an International Port in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, a departure station and return destination of China-Europe freight trains in Xi’an, has expanded its handling capacity by 30 percent after three rounds of upgrading.

The China Railway Beijing Group has opened two cargo routes in a China-Europe freight train base in Shijiazhuang, north China’s Hebei province, which improves loading capacity by 50 percent.

In Wuhan, the customs department and the railway department are sharing logistics data of the China-Europe freight train service, which reduces the time for customs clearance by one to two days.

Today, the types of cargo transported by China-Europe freight trains have been significantly expanded, including automobiles, wood, furniture, chemical products, machinery, fertilizers and others.

On the morning of April, 8, a China-Europe freight train carrying new energy vehicles (NEVs) departed from southwest China’s Chongqing municipality. These vehicles were expected to head for Duisburg, Germany via Alashankou Port in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Thanks to the prospering development of the NEV sector in China, the type of vehicles are driving the cargo volume of China-Europe freight trains. “China-Europe freight trains have become a new choice for Chinese automakers like Geely and BYD to export their products,” said an employee of the Xi’an International Port, which has launched a service for whole-vehicle exports.

According to the China Railway Zhengzhou Group in Henan province, the group has launched customized reinforcement plans for different vehicle models during shipping. Each container is able to carry up to four vehicles at most, which has largely reduced the logistics cost for auto exporters.

The continuous recovery of China’s macro economy has helped many cities set new records in the China-Europe freight train service.

In the first quarter of this year, Xi’an saw over 1,100 China-Europe freight train trips, which carried more than 1 million tons of cargo, up 39.6 percent and 66.1 percent year on year, respectively.

During the same period, 315 trips departed from Wuhan, delivering nearly 26,000 TEUs. The two figures surged 202.88 percent and 202.8 percent respectively from a year ago.

Also in the same quarter, Hefei in east China’s Anhui province set up 21 new stations for the cargo service. A total of 340 China-Europe freight train trips were made by the city, up 49.78 percent year on year.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

French President Emmanuel Macron paid a state visit to China from April 5 to 7 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The two heads of state had in-depth and high-quality exchanges over the two days in Beijing and Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province, which enhanced mutual understanding and mutual trust, and set the course for future cooperation between the two sides at the bilateral and international levels.

China and France are permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, major countries with a tradition of independence, and firm advocates for a multi-polar world and for greater democracy in international relations. The two heads of state, maintaining close strategic communication, will not only elevate the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to a new height, but also inject fresh impetus into China-EU relations and more stability and certainty to the volatile world.

France is the first major Western power to establish official diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Guided by the founding spirit of China-France diplomatic relations as “independence, mutual understanding, foresight, mutual benefit and win-win outcomes,” China-France relations have been a pacesetter in China’s relations with major Western countries.

Stability is a defining feature and valued asset of China-France relations. The two sides have worked together to maintain a positive and sound growth momentum in their bilateral ties over the recent years. The two sides have maintained high-frequency and high-quality strategic communication in a hybrid format.

During Macron’s state visit to China, the two countries agreed to hold a new round of meetings under the three high-level mechanisms on strategic, economic and financial, and people-to-people dialogues within this year, and resume offline exchanges between legislatures and militaries as soon as possible. The two sides reiterated mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests, and will promote China-France comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level.

China and France share extensive common interests and see high complementarity. They have kept to the right direction of free trade and economic globalization, significantly enhancing the resilience and vitality of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

The two-way trade volume and mutual direct investment have grown steadily, cooperation on large projects has further deepened, and cooperation in emerging areas such as green consumption, green energy and scientific and technological innovation has continuously expanded.

China supports French enterprises’ efforts in playing a greater role in the Chinese market by making effective use of such major opening-up platforms as the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the China International Consumer Products Expo.

France clearly opposes decoupling and severing supply chains, and hopes to build more stable and open supply chains.

The two heads of state witnessed the signing of a series of important bilateral agreements, which demonstrated the joint ambition of China and France to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation. Business cooperation between China and France has not only boosted the economic development and improved people’s well-being of the two countries, but also helped foster greater confidence in and stabilized the expectation of the world economic recovery.

China and France are representatives of Eastern and Western civilizations, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges remain important support for the development of bilateral relations.

Having tea by the water, Xi and Macron enjoyed the view and discussed the past and present at the Pine Garden in Guangzhou. It pictured the exchanges and mutual learning between the Chinese and French civilizations.

To protect and promote cultural diversity worldwide, China and France support the deepening of cooperation in the creation and utilization of cultural works and will work actively to resume their cooperation on culture and tourism.

The year 2024 will mark the 60th anniversary of China-France diplomatic relations and the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism, and France will host the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The two sides will take the opportunities to accelerate people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and bring China-France relations to a new level with rich and splendid cultural and sports activities.

The world today is going through profound changes unseen in history. China and France have the ability and responsibility to rise above differences and obstacles, keep to the overall direction of a comprehensive strategic partnership that is stable, mutually beneficial, enterprising and dynamic, and practice true multilateralism for global peace, stability and prosperity.

The two countries share the commitment to seeking constructive solutions based on international law to the challenges and threats against global security and stability. They believe that differences and disputes between countries should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation, and seek to strengthen the international system with the UN at its core in a multi-polar world.

Macron said France is committed to an independent foreign policy and to the strategic autonomy of Europe, and opposed to stoking confrontation, division and bloc rivalry. France will not pick sides. Instead, France calls for unity and cooperation to keep relations stable between major countries.

He commended China’s important role in the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, saying France hopes to increase communication and make joint efforts with China toward peace.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership. China and the EU, as two major forces in the multi-polar world, share broad strategic consensus and common interests, and enjoy a solid foundation for cooperation. China-EU cooperation has direct bearing on the prosperity of the Eurasian continent and the stability of the international landscape.

China is willing to work with the EU to fully resume exchanges and dialogues at all levels and revitalize mutually-beneficial cooperation in various fields, thus injecting fresh impetus into China-EU relations and global peace, stability and prosperity. The French side said it is committed to promoting the further development of EU-China relations.

China and France’s efforts to enhance coordination and cooperation at the China-EU level will strengthen the stability of China-EU ties and promote equal and mutually-beneficial cooperation between China and the EU, thus addressing global challenges.

China and France are special friends and win-win partners. In the face of the volatile international situation and the risks and challenges in the post-pandemic era, the two countries will keep maintaining close communication at all levels, grasp historic opportunities, work together to tackle challenges, strengthen strategic mutual trust and promote long-term and stable bilateral ties, so as to make greater contributions to world peace, stability and prosperity.

By Chang Biluo, People’s Daily

It’s hard to imagine that a factory has a “farm” on its rooftop, but this is happening in the plant of Mexin Messon Doors Industry Co., Ltd, a manufacturer of windows and doors based in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality.

The rooftop “farm” covers over 20,000 square meters, where employees of the factory can grow vegetables, fruits, cereals and flowers in their off time. When the rain stops, there is a mixed fragrance of plants. The window and door manufacturer was recognized as a national-level green factory in 2019.

A green factory, according to an evaluation guideline implemented by China in 2018, features intensive land use, adopts hazard-free raw materials, practices clean production, recycles waste and employs low-carbon energy.

As a major manufacturing hub, Chongqing has vigorously promoted green transition among its enterprises. According to a plan of the municipality, Chongqing will be home to over 30 green industrial parks and 300 green factories at municipal level and above by 2025, and it will strive to lower the energy consumption per unit of value added of enterprises above designated size by 14.5 percent from 2020.

Manufacturers in Chongqing have been “gardenizing” their factories over the recent years. In the general assembly base of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Haizhuang Windpower Co., Ltd. in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area, trees and flowers can be seen everywhere, and there are even ponds. The vegetation cover helps the base maintain a sound ecology, always keeps it in appropriate temperature, and reduces the noise diffusion.

Industrial enterprises in the municipality have spared no effort to cut energy consumption and promote green development. They have managed to make full use of sunlight to reduce electricity consumption, greened their plant buildings to consume less energy, and adopted shock absorption and noise insulation techniques to make production quieter.

How could green transition measures be implemented while production remains non-stop? Chongqing’s answer is to lower energy consumption and improve efficiency.

“Clinker calcination is a key part of cement production,” said Han Wei, assistant manager of a cement producer in Bishan district of Chongqing. Coal is the major fuel for calcination, if traditional equipment, techniques and materials were employed during the process, it would consume high energy and lead to pollution, Han noted.

Over the recent years, Han’s company has managed to replace part of the limestone needed in the production with calcium carbonate and calcium oxide, which reduces the emission of carbon dioxide generated in the secondary combustion of limestone. This procedure alone lowers the company’s cost by over 8 million yuan ($1.16 million) each year.

Relying on big data and intelligent technologies, green enterprises in Chongqing have gradually realized targeted management of energy.

Chongqing Sokon Powertrain Co., Ltd. has a national-level green factory in Changshou Economic and Technological Development Area. “We adopt engine cold test technologies which allow us to obtain over 1,000 parameters of an engine without starting it. This cuts annual carbon dioxide emissions by more than 600 tons,” said Li Ping with the company.

To make innovations of green products through efficient utilization of energy resources remains another important approach to energy conservation and efficiency improvement.

A workshop of Chinese home appliance giant Gree in Jiulongpo district has worked to tackle technological bottlenecks and lowered its annual energy consumption by 20 percent. “Fuyao,” the first deep-sea floating wind power equipment of China rolled off the production line last year. With a single-unit capacity of 6,250 kW, the equipment is able to supply 30,000 households with clean electricity.

Many enterprises in Chongqing have started greening themselves and building green factories to further improve their performance and profit. Circular production of enterprises, circular combination of industries and circular upgrading of industrial parks are advancing vigorously in the city.