Nigeria Times

By Wang Piyi

China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has risen and grown strong in the past decade, becoming an important force driving the global upgrading of the automobile industry and a new signboard of China’s intelligent manufacturing.

According to statistics released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), nearly 4.57 million NEVs were sold in China in the first three quarters this year, surging 110 percent year on year and exceeding the whole-year figure in 2021.

China has ranked first in the world in terms of NEV production and sales for seven consecutive years. Last year, over half of the world’s total sales of NEVs came from China.

Xin Guobin, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said China has worked vigorously to develop the NEV industry, having issued more than 600 support policies at both central and local levels, covering technological innovation, application, safety supervision and other areas.

The country has established innovation centers for the development of power batteries and connected vehicles. The country has also supported enterprises in the industrial chain to expand R&D input and create new business models, generating strong internal impetus for NEV development.

In an attempt to make driving safer, smarter and more comfortable, Chinese carmakers have integrated new information technologies with automobile manufacturing, such as facial recognition-enabled door unlocking, driver assistant systems, and automatic warning systems, making driver-vehicle-traffic interactionpossible.

With such cross-border integration, NEVs are not merely a transportation tool but an intelligent mobile space.

Expert said that China’s NEV manufacturers’ exploration in intelligent and digital technologies has activated the industrial chain. These enterprises are blazing a trail to turn traditional manufacturing into service-oriented manufacturing, making individualized and customized products to be used in different scenarios.

Thanks to their strong capabilities in technological innovation, Chinese NEV manufacturers have witnessed rapid growth in vehicle exports and have gained better and better reputations from the global market. The CAAM recently said that 340,000 NEVs were exported in the first eight months of this year, up 97.4 percent year on year.

Chinese vehicles entered foreign markets years ago with their low prices, winning a pretty good share in Latin America and Africa. Today, China’s NEV exports are further expanding.

Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the CAAM, noted that nearly 10 Chinese carmakers are selling NEVs to Europe, and Chinese electric vehicles now account for 10 percent of those sold in European countries.

According to the China Automobile Dealers Association, Europe is a major export destination of NEVs for Chinese auto manufacturers. Last year, 49 percent of China’s NEV exports went to Europe.

Apart from that, China’s electric vehicles (EV) are moving to the higher end of the overseas market. Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO recently announced plans to extend its services to Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. The company entered Norway a year ago, and its EV model ES8 maintained the bestselling 6-seater and 7-seater SUVs in Oslo in the first nine months of this year.

William Li, founder and chairman of NIO, told People’s Daily in an interview that China is a world-class manufacturer when it comes to “intelligent,” “electric” and “automobiles.” The country is competitive in terms of its supply chain and human resources, he added.

According to Li, NIO will hit more high-end markets in developed countries and bring more intelligent and green experiences to users.

The automobile industry faces a huge opportunity of industrial upgrading in the era of 5G. Relevant enterprises will compete in making electric, connected and intelligent vehicles. On a new “race track,” Chinese NEV manufacturers are constantly improving product performance, intelligent technologies and comprehensive services, upgrading “made in China” to “created in China” and to “intelligent manufacturing in China.”

By Yu Yichun, Shi Yuanhao, People’s Daily

On a day in late June, some villagers in Makuyu village, Morogoro region of Tanzania, gathered around a cauldron, stirring the boiling soy bean milk in it. The aroma floated in the air, mixed with the smell of the crackling firewood.

Villager Ali was in the crowd, learning how to make soybean milk and other bean products. Many senior villagers and children were holding plastic bottles and cups in their hands, waiting to have a taste of the “Chinese drink.”

Ali took a sip and said with a smile, “Today is like a festival.”

A maize-corn intercropping program was launched in Makuyu and other three villages last October by China Agricultural University (CAU) and the government of the Morogoro region.

The program, at its initial stage, selected 100 demonstration households to learn intercropping techniques, with a follow-up plan to teach villagers to make soybean products upon harvest.

During a promotional activity of the program held in Makuyu village, Ali, for the first time, learned that soybean can not only enhance nutrient intake but also improve villagers’ income.

“It’s simple and practical, just like other techniques introduced by Chinese experts before,” he said.

Being confident in the program, the man planted around six mu (4,000 square meters) of soybeans. As of the end of February this year, the 100 households had planted a total of 420 mu of soybeans.

The harvest season for soybeans came in June. Seeing bags of harvested soybeans, Ali felt joy and happiness.

“I was worried about the crop because the dry season this year was a little bit longer than usual. It was beyond my expectation that the yield was nearly 500 kilograms,” Ali told People’s Daily.

With the assistance of Chinese experts, Makuyu village has undergone drastic changes over the past decade, which reinforced the determination of Ali and his fellow villagers to get rid of poverty.

In 2011, an agricultural program aimed at poverty reduction was launched by CAU, the government of the Morogoro region and Tanzania’s Sokoine University of Agriculture. It has promoted the compact planting techniques of maize in 10 villages and trained over 1,000 local households and some 40 agricultural technicians.

Tanzanian farmers measure the weight of crops in the unit of “bags.” A bag of maize weighs approximately 100 kilograms.

“In the past, we normally harvested seven or eight bags of maize from each acre. After Chinese experts taught us row spacing and the use of organic fertilizers, the yield has been lifted to 10 to 16 bags per acre,” Ali said.

The techniques taught by Chinese experts have helped improve the livelihood of Ali’s family, who have moved into a big house with eight rooms.

However, rising production means faster consumption of soil fertility. Li Xiaoyun, a docent with CAU in charge of the agricultural program, proposed to plant soybeans to recover and maintain soil fertility after ruminating on the issue.

The Morogoro region is one of the five major soybean production areas in Tanzania. However, the local soybean industry remained gloomy due to the extensive models of local agriculture and a lack of processing techniques for soybean products.

“Planting soybeans is profitable. The crop is able to fix nitrogen and make the soil more fertile. More importantly, as a nutritious crop, soybean is a great supplement to the maze-dominated local dietary habit which causes nutrient deficiency,” Li said.

Under the efforts of Li and his team, the maize-corn intercropping program kicked off.

Following the harvest of soybeans, Li and his team started teaching locals to make soybean milk.

Leah John Mwingira, a local agricultural official of Mvomero District Council of the Morogoro region, found that the Chinese drink was very popular among the locals.

“The warm drink is unexpectedly tasty. I like it,” said Obama, a 70-year-old villager from Mtegowasimba village. He was among the first to join the soybean program in the village, and has decided to plant another 10 mu of soybeans the next year.

“Soybean planting is not new in my village, but this is the first time for me to know that soybeans can be made into so many products,” said Nyambita Magoma, executive officer of Makuyu village.

“The villagers added local spice to the soybean milk, and are planning to make soybean coffee and soybean vegan meat,” he said, adding that soybean planting has brought new hopes to the locals.

By Zhao Yipu, People’s Daily

The Philippine-Sino Friendship Farm is located in Maluid Barangay of the municipality of Victoria, Tarlac province, the Philippines. Rice growing is a major business of the farm.

Villager Maniego, 94, who owns the six-hectare farm, often goes to the fields to check the growth of rice.

“I’ve been cooperating with the Philippine-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology (PhilSCAT) over the past more than a decade. I have grown many varieties of hybrid rice developed by Chinese experts, which improved the yield per hectare to nearly 11 tons from three to four tons in the past,” said Maniego.

“I raised the salary for my employees on the farm after the production was lifted,” he told People’s Daily.

The PhilSCAT was established in Nueva Ecija province, the Philippines in 2001. It focuses on the research, development and promotion of hybrid rice varieties.

The center has helped plant commercial hybrid rice on 514,400 hectares of paddy fields in the Philippines over the past 21 years, and set pilot demonstration programs of rice growing and seed production techniques in 29 Philippine provinces. It has benefited over 300,000 farming households and increased grain production by over 4.8 billion kilograms.

“We believe in China’s hybrid rice technologies and Chinese experts,” said Maniego.

Maniego spoke of his Chinese friend Ma Wendong, who offered technical guidance for his farm. “We used to check rice growth in the paddy fields together, wearing straw hats and barefooted,” he told People’s Daily.

Ma is a hybrid rice expert sent to the PhilSCAT by Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. (Longping High-tech)， which is named after Yuan Longping, known as the father of hybrid rice. Under Ma’s guidance, all six hectares of Maniego’s farmland are planted with hybrid rice.

Experts sent by Longping High-tech to the PhilSCAT have cultivated and introduced to the Philippines multiple high-quality hybrid rice varieties, including 18 that have been approved by the country’s agricultural authorities and entered the local market.

At the completion ceremony of the PhilSCAT Technical Cooperation Program Phase III, then Philippine Secretary of Agriculture William D. Dar noted that China’s hybrid rice technologies had steadily lifted rice production in his country, which was important for ensuring food security and improving farmers’ livelihood.

Besides, the PhilSCAT has introduced 449 sets of equipment to the Philippines for training, production and scientific research.

The PhilSCAT Technical Cooperation Program Phase III is undertaken by Central Luzon State University. In 2019, its employee Efraim Saturno went to China to attend a training program on hybrid rice technologies.

“I saw efficient mechanized agricultural production in Ningxiang, central China’s Hunan Province. All procedures were completed by machines, including seed production, sowing, growing and harvesting. It was very impressive,” Saturno said.

So far, the PhilSCAT has trained 15,000 people and sent 11 batches of Philippine technicians to China for training. It also offers suggestions for the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture and relevant institutions, promoting reforms on eight local mechanisms.

Edgar Orden, president of Central Luzon State University told People’s Daily that the university is a witness to the PhilSCAT’s development over the past 21 years, which saw the contributions made by Chinese agricultural experts to Philippines-China agricultural cooperation.

He said the Chinese experts’ contributions are important to the Philippines’ agricultural development, and Philippines-China agricultural cooperation is conducive to ensuring the Philippines’ food security.

By Liu Xuxia, Qu Song, People’s Daily

“It was an honor for me to be a guide for President Xi at the most important heritage site of Mexico,” said Jose Huchim, director of a museum in Uxmal, an ancient Maya city of the classical period located in present-day Mexico, during a recent interview with People’s Daily.

What Huchim referred to was a visit paid by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan to the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, Mexico, upon invitation from then Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on June 6, 2013.

“During the visit, President Xi noted that it was necessary to uphold an attitude of equality and humility to understand the essence of civilizations. His broad mind was respectable and admirable,” Huchim recalled.

Chichen Itza, located some 1,400 km east of Mexico City, dates back to the 5th century AD. It had once been the most prosperous city of ancient Maya as well as an important site of the Mayan city culture at its peak. It was listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988.

On the day of the visit, Xi was greeted by Mexican children waving Chinese and Mexican national flags and singing Mexican folk songs. Local people also greeted the Chinese guests with a ceremony in a unique way of Mayan tradition.

Xi toured around the Quetzalcoatl Pyramid, ball court and the temple in the archaeological site. He learned about the ruins of Chichen Itza, the influence of Maya civilization on the Mexican culture as well as the protection and recovery work of the ruins. He also discussed the history and culture of China and Mexico with Pena Nieto.

There is a spectacle in Chichen Itza. Around the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox, the sun strikes off the northwest corner of the Quetzalcoatl Pyramid, which served as a temple to a feathered serpent god in Mayan mythology, and casts a series of shadows, creating the illusion of the god descending the pyramid.

On the Spring Equinox, the serpent-shaped shadow descends to the bottom of the pyramid, which symbolizes the return of the god to the earth. On the Autumn Equinox, the shadow goes up to the temple on top, which heralds the guardian of the Mayan civilization will give a harvest to the people. What’s more interesting is that the two shadow movements last for exactly the same time.

“When I explained this phenomenon to President Xi, he was listening very carefully, admiring the astronomical and architectural achievements of the Mayan civilization. It encouraged me very much,” Huchim said.

Huchim, as a researcher of history and culture, is impressed by the importance attached by the Chinese leader to the protection of human civilization.

“I should thank him for his important contributions to promoting mutual learning and exchanges between civilizations,” Huchim told People’s Daily.

China and Mexico are both ancient civilizations and great cultural powers. The two cultures have far-reaching influence on the world as a result of their distinctive features and manage to maintain vitality through innovations. They have learned from each other, leaving a brilliant page in the history of world civilization.

“President Xi not only has a deep understanding of the Chinese culture, but also embraces other civilizations with an open mind. He believes that there is no such thing as a superior or inferior civilization, and civilizations are different only in identity and geography. He has stressed that the diversity of human civilizations drives the progress of mankind. It exactly showcases his caring for the world,” Huchim said.

Xi’s visit has promoted the Chinese people’s understanding of Mexican culture and made more and more Mexicans eager for Chinese culture, Huchim added.

The Exhibition of Mayas: The Language of Beauty was jointly held by the cultural departments of China and Mexico at the National Museum of China in Beijing on Nov. 13, 2014. It was the first major exhibition hosted by the museum on Central American civilizations after it reopened.

Xi and Pena Nieto, who was visiting China then, jointly attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

Xi noted the exhibition was a grand event of China-Mexico cultural exchanges. Exhibitions and other cultural activities would make cultural relics, historical sites and ancient books lively and revitalize the friendship between the Chinese and Mexicans.

In December 2018, Huchim was invited to an academic exchange in China with Chinese archaeologists, and visited the Sanxingdui Museum in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan province.

He said China, employing high technologies in the protection of cultural relics, has made remarkable achievements, which has set a good example for other countries. He believes China and Mexico enjoy broad prospects in cultural and people-to-people exchanges, as both of them boast rich cultural and historical resources.

After the 2018 visit, Huchim participated in multiple academic exchange programs held by the Sanxingdui Museum, where he discussed the protection of the ancient Shu civilization of Sichuan province and the Mayan civilization.

“Different cultures and civilizations, while retaining their uniqueness, should tolerate and coexist with each other with an open-minded attitude so as to achieve common development and prosperity,” Xi said during his visit to Chichen Itza.

Huchim agrees with Xi’s remarks. “China follows a vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind when it comes to civilization. Though Mexico and China are far away from each other, they enjoy a profound friendship.”

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. We hope that the Chinese and Mexican cultures, as President Xi said, can take nourishment through exchanges and mutual learning, and grow vigorously as time goes by,” he noted.

By Xie Weiqun, People’s Daily

The Lingang new area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone celebrated its third anniversary recently.

“I’ve done many things here that I have always wanted to do.” That’s a common comment made by many entrepreneurs in the Lingang new area.

The Lingang new area, spurring technological innovation by promoting innovation in its institutional building, is building itself into a modern area and a special economic function zone with enormous influence and competitiveness in the international market.

So far, 90 percent of the 78 missions assigned by the State Council in a framework development plan for the Lingang newarea three years ago have been completed. The central government of China, Shanghai’s municipal government, and the Lingang new area have launched over 260 policies, which helped generate 87 cases of institutional innovation, of which 36 were attempted for the first time in China.

SPS is a new material company based in the Lingang newarea. It is one of the few Chinese producers of a type of alumina fiber that is able to extend as long as 4,000 meters and work in an environment with a temperature of over 1,500 degrees Celsius. The metal fiber is widely used in aerospace, semiconductor, automobile and other high-end manufacturing industries.

“We became able to produce the fiber less than two years after we moved to the Lingang newarea. This October, we put into use an 80,000-square-meter new plant in the area, which is expected to further expand our capacity,” said Guan Ketian, senior vice president and chief technical officer of the company.

The Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone of the Lingang newarea is currently the sole special comprehensive bonded zone in China. To advance high-standard trade liberalization and facilitation, the bonded zone has systematically upgraded the procedures of customs supervision.

“Cargoes had to be declared at the Yangshan Port before entering the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Thanks to new supervision models, cargoes are permitted to enter the bonded zone without any declaration. This has benefited relevant enterprises, especially those that seek raw materials and customers outside China,” said Wan Jun, an official with Shanghai Customs.

According to Wan, the number of batches of cargo permitted to enter the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone increased six-fold in the first half of this year, compared with a year ago.

The Lingang newarea strives to build four core industries: integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and civil aviation. Besides, it is also working to build competitive high-end equipment manufacturing and new energy vehicle industries and promote hydrogen energy and green development sectors for future development. The new area has established frontier industrial clusters that own core technologies.

Over the past three years, more than 300 projects of frontier technologies were inked in the special area, with a total investment of over 420 billion yuan ($58.14 billion). Such progress couldn’t have been made without the institutional innovation made by the Lingang new area.

Tax preference is a common feature of major free trade zones and ports around the world. Taking as a benchmark the world’s most advanced taxation policies implemented at other free trade ports, relevant departments of Shanghai have comprehensively studied the tax systems of Hong Kong, Singapore, Rotterdam, Dubai and other special economic function zones. They also visited over 200 enterprises in the Lin-gang Special Area to solicit opinions. Finally, a framework of tax reform measures was made, and a series of relevant policies were later announced by the State Taxation Administration.

Tax policies are one of the major reasons for SenseTime, a Hong Kong-headquartered artificial intelligence company, to place its supercomputing center and intelligent vehicle business in the Lingang new area.

“The reduced corporate income tax rate of 15 percent in the area will have a positive impact on the future development of our company. The rate of individual income tax, which also stands at 16 percent, is an attraction for talents,” said Qian Qianying, executive director of finance of SenseTime.

Tax policies are an important engine driving the rapid and high-quality development of the Lingang new area. Over the past three years, 63,000 enterprises have been registered in the special area, or 90 per day on average.

Besides, financial supervision departments have also made innovations in institutional building to facilitate enterprises, including piloting the foreign exchange management reform for cross-border trade and investment and the facilitation of cross-border settlement, investment and financing.

By Tian Hong, People’s Daily

The fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to 10 as scheduled.

This year’s CIIE, as a higher-level and more professional event to be joined by more participants, will witness a large number of launch events and serve as a better platform where global enterprises share development opportunities and pursue win-win cooperation.

More than 280 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry-leading enterprises have confirmed their participation in the event this year, of which nearly 90 percent are “old friends” of the CIIE.

Besides, the event will also be joined by the world’s top four grain producers, top three players in the seed industry, top 10 manufacturers of medical devices and largest 10 pharmaceutical companies.

On Sept. 22, 45 days before the fifth CIIE kicks off, a ping-pong robot manufactured by Japanese electronics manufacturer Omron, a “frequenter” of the event, acquired the ATA Carnet certificate – a “passport” for international exhibits – and became the first inbound exhibit of the fifth CIIE to have cleared customs through a sea port.

The robot, which will be joining the CIIE for a fifth time, was developed in 2013. It was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s first robot table tennis tutor. The seventh generation of the robot has been launched so far.

Apart from the “frequenter,””new friends” are coming to the event, too. This year, Iceland will participate in the CIIE Country Exhibition for the first time.

Thorir Ibsen, Ambassador of Iceland to China noted that Iceland and China have launched close cooperation on trade, tourism, innovation, technology, sustainable development, climate change, as well as green and geothermal energy. Iceland will bringing its seafood, alcohol, chocolate and cosmetics to the fifth CIIE, the ambassador added.

The CIIE includes a business exhibition, a country exhibition, the Hongqiao International Economic Forum and other supporting activities. As the world’s first import-themed exhibition held at national level, it has been developed into an important platform for China to share its development opportunities with the rest of the world over the past five years.

The business exhibition of the event has expanded its display area to 366,000 square meters last year from 270,000 square meters at the first session. It includes six exhibition sections of food and agricultural products, automobile, intelligent industry and information technology, consumer goods, medical equipment and healthcare products, and trade in services.

The first three import expos alone facilitated 622 foreign investment projects worth approximately $30.5 billion.

China has a huge market. Its opening up through the CIIE will place profound impacts on the world economy. The fourth CIIE saw deals reached for intended one-year purchases of goods and services totaling $78.42 billion, which followed $57.83 billion of intended deals inked at the inaugural expo in 2018, $71.13 billion worth of tentative deals at the second expo and $72.62 billion at the third. China’s robust consumption growth is seen by all merchants around the world. Any company wanting to sell its products to the vast Chinese market can’t afford to ignore the CIIE.

Today, the CIIE is not merely an exhibition. It is also hosting activities in different parts of China for targeted business matchmaking, turning exhibits into merchandises, and exhibitors into investors.

As a powerful platform with a convenient mechanism, the CIIE has witnessed the launches of a number of new products, technologies and services. In the first four sessions, participating enterprises launched over 1,500 new products, technologies and services.

German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim received a fruitful return with a 200-million-yuan ($27.68 million) contract of intention signed when it attended the CIIE for the first time. Its products were officially launched in the Chinese market in less than a year after its second participation in the event.

Opening up is a distinctive feature of modern China. As an important platform that promotes Chinese-foreign markets integration, advances cross-industry collaboration, encourages innovation and synergizes Chinese and foreign market rules, the CIIE features good performance, good results and continued success. It makes the huge Chinese market a big opportunity for the world and demonstrates China’s firm determination to expand opening up at a higher level.

No matter how the international situation may change, China will only open its door wider to the world, which will release more dividends and bring long-term benefits to the rest of the world.

By Yu Jianbin, Wu Ya’nan, People’s Daily

Taikonauts of the Shenzhou-14 crew Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe delivered their first live class from China’s space station on Oct. 12 to students on Earth.

It is the first space lecture from the Wentian lab module, the first lab module of China’s under-construction space station launched in July.

The “Tiangong Classroom” series is a well-known national brand for science popularization jointly held by multiple departments of China. It presents to students the mystery of the universe and brings to them the pleasure of exploration, so as to inspire their passion for space and science. The previous two lectures of the series delivered by the Shenzhou-13 crew were widely applauded.

The third lecture continues the interactive way between the Wentian lab module and the Earth. The three taikonauts “swam” into the lab module and showed the magical microgravity environment in space. Chen and Liu introduced scientific cabins in the module as Cai filmed.

Chen introduced the scientific glove cabin. which could provide an airtight and clean operation space in the lab module, making experiments easier and more controllable.

The life and ecology experiment cabin presented by Liu in the module is like a “space hotel” for species. It is used to study the influence of microgravity and radiation on life in space.

“The results of the experiments in this cabin will help mankind make the Moon and even Mars a long-term habitat,” Liu said.

Chen also presented a biological technology experiment cabin, noting that it is a fully automated mini biological lab in space. It could perform experiments such as cell proliferation and differentiation, and display the process of cell sample changes in real-time.

After the introduction, the “space teachers” began to demonstrate experiments And collect plant samples in space.

In a capillary effect experiment presented by Chen, the liquid level in a thin tube rose at a speed that was much faster without gravity than that on Earth. Liu sipped mango juice with a two-meter straw to show the students the motion and vibration of liquid in a microgravity environment.

“I had grown lettuce in Tiangong-2 space lab and recently ate some planted by Cai,” said Chen, while sampling thale cress plants and performing cryopreservation of the samples in their growing state in space.

He said all the collected samples would be preserved in a storage area with a temperature of minus 80 degrees Celsius. When the crew returns to the Earth, the samples will be handed to scientists for further research.

Chen was wearing a pair of mixed reality goggles when performing experiments. The goggles could enable him to work more efficiently and present students with a better view to observe the experiments.

During the question and answer section, the three taikonauts answered a number of questions raised by the students in biology and astronomy.

At the end of the class, the trio expressed their expectations for the students on Earth. “The Mengtian lab module will be launched into orbit soon, and we will witness the historical moment when China’s space station is fully completed,” Chen said. “We expect you guys to build our space home better in the future.”

By Wang Wenzheng, People’s Daily

Over the past ten years, China has witnessed the rapid development of its tourism, culture, sports and health sectors, which are known together as the “happiness industry”.

During this period, the country has moved from the low human development category to the high human development category, with its Human Development Index jumping from 0.699 in 2012 to 0.761 in 2020.

Empowered by digitalization, large numbers of new business forms in the culture sector have emerged in China. Cultural products launched by museums are sought after, becoming a new area of growth for consumption.

According to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the added value of China’s cultural and relevant sectors hit around 4.5 trillion yuan ($630 billion) in 2020, accounting for 4.4 percent of the country’s GDP, 0.6 percentage points higher than in 2014.

In particular, the added value of the cultural service sector stood at nearly 2.9 trillion yuan, or 64.2 percent of the total of all cultural and relevant sectors, 15.6 percentage points higher than that in 2014.

Online exhibitions, online performing, livestreaming and immersive experience programs are on a rise. Road trips, camping, winter tourism, health tourism and seaside tourism have become trendy in the country. Besides, the cultural sector and workshops of intangible cultural heritage are constantly driving rural vitalization and in-depth integration between the culture and tourism sectors.

The National Fitness Program, upgraded to a national strategy, hasincreased Chinese people’s enjoyment of sports.

In the just-ended week-long National Day holiday, many Chinese people participated in sports activities.

The total output of China’s sports industry exceeded 2.7 trillion yuan in 2020, and the added value of the industry neared 1.1 trillion yuan.

In particular, the sports service industry reported an output of 1.4 trillion yuan. Its added value was 737.4 billion million yuan, accounting for 68.7 percent of the total in the general sports industry.

Between 2013 and 2021, the average annual growth of sports enterprises above the designated size, or those reporting annual growth of over 20 million yuan from their main businesses, reached 8.4 percent.

As of the end of 2021, there were 3.97 million sports venues in China, with a per capita sports area of 2.4 square meters.

Over the past 10 years, China has vigorously promoted education, culture, health, social security and other livelihood programs that are inclusive, general and guarantee basic needs, to improve people’s sense of happiness.

The country’s cultural and educational sectors embraced prosperous development. The retention rate of nine-year compulsory education and the gross enrollment ratio for high-school education were 95.4 percent and 91.4 percent in 2021, respectively, up 3.6 and 6.4 percentage points from the figures in 2012.

As of the end of 2021, there were 3,215 and 5,772 public libraries and museums across the country, up 139 and 2,703 from the end of 2012.

The country has made steady progress in building a healthy China. As of the end of 2021, the numbers of health organizations, hospital beds and health workers in China were 1.03 million, 9.45 million and 11.24 million, respectively, and the country’s basic medical insurance covered over 1.3 billion people.

The country has accelerated the construction of its social service system for the aged. It has enhanced efforts to make its public facilities elderly-oriented and to better facilitate the transport for the senior group.

Over the past 10 years, China has built an elderly care service system that covers both rural and urban residents with an investment of nearly 30 billion yuan.

As of the end of 2021, China had a total of 340,000 nursing homes and other relevant facilities, whose number of beds had doubled from that in 2012. Community-based elderly care services were accessible to almost all communities across the country.

Efforts are being made to deal with the underdevelopment of elderly care services in rural areas, and all people living in dire poverty at the county level are covered by the country’s relief and support system. There are currently over 130,000 mutual-aid elderly care facilities in China, providing entertainment, food, chronic disease treatment and other services to seniors. As of the end of 2021, the country’s basic old-age insurance covered more than 1 billion people.

The speeding development of the happiness industry is constantly expanding people’s access to elderly care, childcare, education and medical services.

As the country keeps deepening the supply-side structural reform in the public service sector and sees more equitable access to basic public services, new stories of the Chinese people’s better lives are unfolding.

By Dr Austin Maho

There is a trending  news report, which relies heavily on a report  authored by one  Laura Harth and  released  earlier in September by the London human rights group, Safeguard Defenders.

The investigation by the human rights group Safeguard Defenders says that while the overseas police service centers may help Chinese diaspora and tourists with everyday problems, they also are part of a complex global web of surveillance and control, allowing the Communist Party to reach far beyond China’s borders.

The report claims Chinese regional police forces have set up at least 54 offices on five continents, according to freely available official data. The centers are named after the police emergency telephone number in China, 110. The police service stations connect with local Chinese Overseas Home Associations in foreign countries, which in turn are linked to the ruling Chinese Communist party.

The crux of the report which seems to have gain media traction in Nigeria is that  the Chinese government is operating a police station in some countries including  Nigeria.

How ridiculous can this be! To begin with how can one sovereign nation seeks to establish and operate a police force in another sovereign nation? How is that even possible? Unfortunately there are those who are ready to go to town with such narratives, which further creates the necessity to debunk this odious and contemptuous report.

To begin with the  Laura Harth report does not in anyway tell us if a physical Chinese police station exists in Nigeria; or if the so-called police station exists as part of the “contact desk” of the Chinese embassy or in any of its other affiliate institutions. The report is based entirely on speculation without any verifiable evidence to prove otherwise. Surprising some sections of the Nigerian media went to town with this patently false narrative without subjecting the story to verification at least within the Nigerian context.

The Nigerian government does not in anyway have  bilateral agreements with China to operate police stations in our home soils as speculated ?  In any case the  Harth report makes no reference to such agreements. However,  there are instances in which some  countries in Asia and Europe have cooperated with China in its rendition of Chinese citizens back to China, this does not in anyway amounts to having physical police presence in another sovereign nation.

Be that as it may, we expect that  the Nigerian Media should be more circumspect when reporting news from western based organisations about  China, especially when such report seeks to denigrate the Asia giant. There are many instances in the past were stories and report which had the imprint of western based organizations turned out to be fake news design to malign China and to fuel the geopolitics between the west and a rising China.

 There is no Chinese police station in Nigeria or any country in Africa for that matter, what is there is only an category of outreach service to service the need and interests of  Chinese communities in foreign countries. It is  preposterous and laughable  to assume   that China  have the resource, energy s and intention  to run a police station outside its territory.

The Chinese government supports an extraordinary rendition/policing framework which  has been in operation, at least, since 2014 when the Chinese Ministry of Public Security was established and Operation Fox Hunt was launched to address the increasing involvement of Chinese citizens in overseas crimes. Available information also indicates that this  Operation has since been replaced by Operation Sky-Net. The “110 Contact” (110 is China’s emergency number) policy under which  there exists  contact desks inside the Chinese embassies in 110 countries, Chinese Cultural and Language Centres and Law Firms dedicated to servicing  Chinese citizens’ commercial interests globally.  This does not by any stretch of the imagination amounts to the Chinese government setting up police station in a sovereign country like Nigeria.

The Chinese Embassy in London has already dismissed the report. In a publicized email, the Chinese embassy said the Safeguard Defenders report “is rife with speculation and lies,” adding that “China’s judicial and law-enforcement authorities strictly abide by international rules and fully respect the judicial sovereignty of other countries.”

The Nigerian media expectedly should be guided and discountenance this patently false assumption that the Chinese government is operating  police stations  in Nigeria as nothing can be further from the truth, providing outreach services to your citizens in a foreign country does not amount to setting up a police station.