Nigeria Times

By Chang Biluo, People’s Daily

Guoyuan Port is playing a bigger and bigger role in the opening up of southwest China’s Chongqing municipality due to its unique geographic advantages.

It is linked with the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road by the Yangtze River Economic Belt to the east and connects the Silk Road Economic Belt via the westward China-Europe freight train routes. Besides, cargoes at the port can go all the way down to Qinzhou Port, in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and be shipped overseas via the southern gateway.

Guoyuan Port, gathering factors of inland opening up, is improving its port functions and accelerating intelligent development. It has been approved as a port-based logistics hub at national level.

During an inspection tour to Guoyuan Port, Chinese President Xi Jinping requested Chongqing to better its opening up platforms and build itself into an inland international logistics hub.

Over recent years, the development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has provided a larger platform for Chongqing to “go global,” and the progress achieved by the Yangtze River Economic Belt better integrated Chongqing into the development of central and east China.

Guoyuan Port, building itself into an intelligent and green port for higher logistics efficiency, is a miniature of Chongqing’s efforts to expand its opening up channels.

Chongqing is currently striving for better construction, management, and operation of its ports, to serve the development of the BRI and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and advance China’s western development program. It enjoys huge development potential and bright prospects.

Opening up leads to prosperity. The head of a foreign trade company told People’s Daily that the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has cut shipping time by over 50 percent, and his company’s business in Southeast Asia is thriving.

Many enterprises doing business in Chongqing, seeing the dividends of opening up, are confident about the development of interior China.

Their confidence came from a series of facilitation measures adopted by the municipality. For instance, settlement by letter of credit and rail-ocean intermodal trains have significantly facilitated foreign trade enterprises; the pilot program of “ship-side direct pickup” of imported goods and “direct loading upon arrival” of exported goods has optimized the process of customs clearance; the single-window system has reduced customs clearance time by over 30 percent and cut enterprises’ comprehensive costs by over 20 percent.

Working to meet enterprises’ demands, giving play to policy advantages, improving service quality and optimizing supporting measures, Chongqing has widened its platforms of opening up and gradually built itself into a focus of opening-up in China’s interior.

The municipality’s opening up channels are of national influence and connect China with the rest of the world. They not only extend the industrial chain of the logistics sector and the value chain of the trade sector, but also boost regional development, bringing Chongqing, an interior municipality, much closer to the world.

“We will better plan regional opening up, consolidate the leading position of eastern coastal areas in opening up, and more widely open the central, western, and northeastern regions,” said Xi in the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Opening up and development shall not be exclusive to a certain area. Instead, it should be pursued by all regions. It calls for integrated resources, concerted efforts and coordinated steps.

Apart from Chongqing, all regions in west China are working to optimize their opening up platforms. An inter-region operation platform of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is well underway. Provinces and municipalities along logistics channels are cooperating closely. New advantages of development are taking shape.

By adopting approaches that address both local and regional development, acting in light of local conditions, making science-based planning, conducting practical cooperation, and driving reform, development and innovation through opening up, inland areas will be better integrated into the national and even global economic and trade systems.

It is believed that inland areas, including Chongqing, will be able to promote high-quality development through higher-level opening up as long as they make unremitting efforts to smooth opening up channels, build opening up platforms and enhance inter-regional cooperation.

By Li Yingqi, Huo Wen, People’s Daily

“China is a builder of world peace and a contributor to global development. I appreciate the Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping,” said B. Batbaatar, deputy chairperson of the Mongolian Civil Will-Green Party in a recent interview with People’s Daily.

The initiative fully indicates that China is committed to maintaining world peace and promoting win-win cooperation and the happiness of the people around the world, Batbaatar added.

Batbaatar said the GDI focuses on development issues faced by the world, especially developing countries, and will play an important role in promoting global development.

The governments of China and Mongolia issued a joint statement when Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene came to China for the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in February this year.

The two sides agreed to further synergize the China-proposed GDI and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Mongolia’s “Vision 2050” long-term development policy and the new revival policy, to expand cooperation in trade, investment, finance, minerals, energy, interconnectivity, infrastructure, digital economy and green development.

Batbaatar believes it is a practical measure to advance cooperation between the two countries.

Batbaatar has paid multiple visits to China, where he witnessed the country’s huge development progress.

He said China’s development experience is recognized by the international society, and Mongolia hopes to learn from such experience.

The Mongolian Civil Will-Green Party and the Communist Party of China (CPC) have launched various exchange activities. Many young cadres of the Mongolian party have visited China for study.

Batbaatar told People’s Daily that these young cadres are eager to visit China and expect to take courses on Chinese culture and the BRI.

The Mongolian editions of the first volume of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” and “Up and Out of Poverty” were released at a China-Mongolia seminar on state governance held in Ulan Bator in August, 2019. Batbaatar attended the seminar.

“I still vividly remember that day. President Xi’s works involve multiple areas such as politics, economy, culture and diplomacy, demonstrating his profound thinking and long-term vision on the past, the present and the future,” Batbaatar said.

“By reading these books, I gained a deeper understanding of the CPC’s guiding philosophy and strategic thinking,” he added.

Batbaatar believes it is impossible to comprehend China’s development achievements and valuable experience if one doesn’t associate the country’s progress with the CPC.

He said the CPC unites and leads the Chinese people in working ceaselessly for a better life, and has embarked on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist country.

“I believe China will make more glorious achievements under the leadership of the CPC,” Batbaatar said.

As a Mongolian saying goes, “Neighbors are connected at heart and share a common destiny.” The global spread of Covid-19 is causing great concern, China and Mongolia have offered mutual assistance to tide over difficulties.

For instance, central China’s Hubei province, once hard-hit by the pandemic, shipped local tea to Mongolia as gifts in appreciation of the latter’s previous donation of sheep in support of China’s COVID-19 fight.

Besides, China offered over four million doses of vaccines for Mongolia when Mongolia was experiencing the most difficult time in fighting the disease.

Batbaatar noted that China, as a friendly neighbor of Mongolia, has offered sincere assistance for his country, providing batches of vaccines.

China has also donated anti-pandemic materials to many other countries, worked to promote the fair, equitable allocation of COVID-19 vaccines around the world, and actively launched cooperation with other countries, he said.

“Unquestionably, China has made important contributions to global solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 and to the recovery of the global economy,” Batbaatar told People’s Daily.

Mongolians see Beijing as a “blessed land” as their country won its first Olympic gold medal during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Earlier this year, Batbaatar attended a Winter Olympics-themed activity collecting artworks showcasing the China-Mongolia friendship jointly held by the two sides. He was deeply impressed by the successful Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

“The Winter Olympics is a top sports event for people around the world. It is conducive to promoting solidarity and bridging differences,” Batbaatar said.

He noted that China has demonstrated to the world the charm of “Together for a Shared Future”, the official motto for 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, by delivering the games as scheduled and providing an important platform for promoting peace and friendship amid the pandemic.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

“Our Party has dedicated itself to achieving lasting greatness for the Chinese nation and committed itself to the noble cause of peace and development for humanity. Our responsibility is unmatched in importance, and our mission is glorious beyond compare,” said Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, in a report to the 20th CPC National Congress.

The congress profoundly revealed a message that the CPC always pursues the common good and universal harmony of the world.

At present, the international balance of power is undergoing profound adjustments. Unilateralism, protectionism, hegemonism, and power politics are posing greater threats to world peace and development, and the backlash against globalization is rising. The world has entered a newperiod of turbulence and change.

China focuses on the main goal of achieving national rejuvenation and promoting human progress, and holds high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit.

Chinese diplomacy showcases its own features, style and ethos of advancing with the times, responsibility, as well as openness and inclusiveness. It has won broad recognition and appraisal from the international society.

Xi, from the perspectives of the general trend of history and the international landscape, has made major innovations in both theories and practice in Chinese diplomacy, proposing a series of new ideas, new propositions and new initiatives with distinctive Chinese features, which reflect the call of the times and lead the trend of human progress.

Drawing wisdom from the fine traditional Chinese culture, Xi proposed to build a community with a shared future for mankind and foster a new type of international relations. He champions the common values of humanity, the right approach to justice and interests, the vision of global security, and the vision of global governance.

He inherits and carries forward the fine traditions of Chinese diplomacy and enriches Chinese diplomacy with new connotations. He put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative and other major initiatives, and promoted the construction of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, New Development Bank and other multilateral financial organizations.

The Communist Party of China and the Chinese people have provided humanity with more Chinese insight, better Chinese input, and greater Chinese strength to help solve its common challenges and have made new and greater contributions to the noble cause of human peace and development.

Chinese diplomacy, forging ahead while making innovations in both theories and practice, is constantly making new contributions to the world.

Chinese diplomacy mirrors China’s broad mind to help others succeed while seeking its own success.

China continues to place its own development in the coordinate system of human development, seeing the interests of the Chinese people are integrated with the common interests of the peoples of other countries. It seeks common development through its friendly cooperation with other countries and strives for win-win results through its exchanges with the rest of the world.

By the end of 2021, China has built 79 zones for economic and trade cooperation in 24 countries along the BRI routes, investing $43 billion and creating 346,000 local jobs.

In the face of a once-in-a-century pandemic, China has stood in the forefront of international cooperation against COVID-19, sharing its containment protocols and diagnostic and treatment plans with over 180 countries as well as international organizations, sending 38 medical expert teams to 34 countries, providing over 2.2 billion doses of vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations.

Chinese diplomacy is open and inclusive. It showcases China’s broad mind.

China unswervingly builds an open world economy and pushes for an economic globalization that is more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all. It safeguards the diversity of civilizations, promotes dialogue and cooperation between civilizations, and pursues the shared human values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom.

The country advocates forging a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation, pursues friendship and cooperation with all countries, and strives for a new approach to state-to-state relations.

It holds high the banner or true multilateralism and adheres to the vision of global governance characterized by consultation and cooperation for shared benefits, to make global governance fairer and more equitable.

Chinese diplomacy values friendship, takes responsibility, acts in good faith and seeks justice. China meets every commitment it has made.

To promote the construction of the BRI, the country has held two sessions of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which formed 270 and 283 deliverables, respectively.

To implement the GDI, China upgraded the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, enhanced its investment in the China-UN Peace and Development Fund and set up a Global Development Promotion Center.

To enhance China-Africa cooperation, China and African countries will jointly carry out 10 major cooperation plans, eight major initiatives and nine programs.

China always adheres to its political commitments and faithfully fulfills its obligations when dealing with international affairs, so as to inject stability and certainty to the fast-changing world.

“When all countries pursue the cause of common good, we can live in harmony, engage in cooperation for mutual benefit and join hands to create a brighter future”, Xi said. China will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress on the new journey in the new era. Although this is an era fraught with challenges, it is also an era brimming with hope. The Chinese people are ready to work hand in hand with people across the world to create an even brighter future for humanity.

By Li Rui, Yang Wenming, People’s Daily

Local authorities and relevant departments have enhanced efforts to advance biodiversity conservation with institutional construction and scientific research over the recent years, to improve the diversity, stability and sustainability of China’s ecosystems.

Dulong is an ethnic minority group residing in the mountains of southwest China’s Yunnan Province. In Yunnan’s Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, the ethnic group enjoys a unique apiculture technique developed by its ancestors, which significantly boosts local apiculture by employing 38 kinds of plants.

As bees are a major pollinator for Lanxangia tsaoko, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine and a featured commercial crop of the prefecture, apiculture also drives the development of the local Lanxangia tsaoko business.

In 2021, the apiculture technique of the Dulong ethnic minority group was listed as a major program of biodiversity conservation by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

So far, Yunnan province has established a complete biodiversity conservation system covering the investigation of wild plant species, preservation of germplasm resources, as well as artificial breeding and rewilding.

The province is now home to 362 nature reserves of various levels, which effectively put under protection 90 percent of its typical ecosystems and 80 percent of key wildlife.

Over the past 10 years, China has advanced in-situ and ex-situ conservation of wildlife in a coordinated manner. The country made a list of major habitats and designated nature reserves to prevent engineering projects from undermining the habitats of wild species.

It has established a nature reserve system based around national parks, incorporating important ecological corridors and typical ecosystems into national parks.

Now, with a protected land area of 230,000 square kilometers, China’s first batch of national parks is home to nearly 30 percent of the key terrestrial wildlife species found in the country.

Over the past 10 years, China has carried out holistic conservation and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands and deserts, and implemented major biodiversity conservation projects and systematic campaigns to save endangered species. The country now has designated 35 priority areas for biodiversity protection.

Technology also plays an important role in biodiversity conservation.

In Liziping National Nature Reserve in Shimian county, Ya’an, southwest China’s Sichuan province, a lab was established in January 2018 for the protection of small populations of giant pandas. The lab set up a DNA data base of giant pandas in the county, which helped realize targeted management of small populations of the rare animal in the county.

Internet, big data, internet of things, remote sensing, radar, drones and other information technologies are employed in an ecological monitoring center near a national-level nature reserve of the Yellow River Delta in east China’s Shandong province. These technologies have built a three-dimensional real-time monitoring network that ensures the breeding of bird species is free from human activities

Over the past 10 years, the wild population of more than 300 rare animal and plant species recovered or increased. Ninety percent of typical terrestrial ecosystems and 74 percent of the country’s key wildlife species have been effectively protected.

At present, 1,864 wild giant pandas are living across the country, and the number of wild crested ibises has exceeded 6,000. The number of wild Asian elephants reached 300, and that of Tibetan antelopes 300,000. China has nearly 200 botanical gardens where over 20,000 plant species, or over 60 percent of the country’s indigenous plant species, are under conservation.

By Liu Shi’an, People’s Daily

In west Shanghai, a piece of land covering 151.4 square kilometers and adjacent to the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, is generating nearly 10 percent of the economic aggregate of the Yangtze River Delta with less than 2 percent of the delta’s total area.

This piece of land is the Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD). It attracted major projects worth 120 billion yuan ($16.47 billion) in the first eight months of 2022.

Asia Socks Inc. is a company based in the Hongqiao CBD. It sources finished socks from Southeast Asia and sells them to European and American merchants. The company has exported a total of $2 million of socks.

Shanghai Totole Food Ltd., another company headquartered in the Hongqiao CBD, not only has established a sales network that covers China but also sells its products to countries in the West and the Middle East.

Besides, Shanghai Wooray Metals Group Co., Ltd. in the Hongqiao CBD reported revenue of 75 billion yuan in the first half of this year.

Companies in the central business district, driven by multiple factors, are forging ahead despite adversity.

Yang Xubo, head of the business development department of the administration committee of the Hongqiao CBD, introduced that the Hongqiao CBD recently named 30 companies as trade-oriented headquarters according to their annual revenue and other performance.

Besides, the central business district is also home to a batch of “backup” enterprises of this type, which help foster a brighter future.

“Despite the impacts from COVID-19 in the second quarter, the Hongqiao CBD still enjoys robust momentum for foreign trade,” said Mao Xiangyu, another official with the administration committee of the Hongqiao CBD.

“We are engaged in the development and sales of plant protection products and new fine chemical materials. We are doing business in Shanghai because of its geographical and platform advantages,” said Bu Mingxing, general manager of CAC Shanghai International Trading Co., Ltd., which is located on No. 365 of Linhong Road, Changning district of Shanghai.

He told People’s Daily that the Hongqiao CBD enjoys obvious geographical advantages and is home to many business platforms.

According to him, his company has established cooperation with multiple transnational corporations and sells its products to overseas destinations after having participated in trade exhibitions held in the Hongqiao CBD, such as the China International Agrochemical & Crop Protection Exhibition.

“The China International Import Expo (CIIE) is seeing a constantly expanding spillover effect. We have set up permanent exhibition platforms such as the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center and the Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub, as well as ten 10-billion-yuan distribution centers of imported commodities, including an international coffee port,” said Cai Jun, the CEO of a Shanghai-based enterprise operating the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center.

Great platforms help enterprises pursue larger goals. In the Hongqiao CBD, there are trade service platforms such as the Hongqiao Overseas Trade Center and the Hongqiao International Central Legal Hub; there are demonstration bases of service trade facilitation such as the Shanghai Hongqiao Linkong Business Park and the Xihongqiao business district; there are cross-border e-commerce demonstration zones such as the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center.

Offshore trade, new models of cross-border e-commerce, bonded exhibition, exhibits-turned- bonded commodities, exhibits-turned cross-border commodities and other new business forms are seeing rapid development. Innovative policies of the CIIE regarding customs clearance facilitation, capital settlement, investment facilitation and exit & entry of personnel have been upgraded to regular rules.

Recently, logistics company OCS ANA Group received its Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Travel Card. “Compared with business visas, the APEC Business Travel Card can make business activities more efficient,” said Yu Tianli, deputy general manager of OCS ANA Group China.

Great services make resilient foreign trade in the Hongqiao CBD, and also boost the confidence of foreign trade enterprises in the district in coping with challenges.

Fan Jiayuan, People’s Daily

In recent years, China’s sports industry has achieved remarkable progress as domestic fitness consumption has seen robust growth and homegrown sports brands have gained popularity among consumers.

At the recently concluded 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the 20,000-square-meter sports services exhibition attracted 353 enterprises and organizations participating in the event online or offline. Sports service deals worth a record high of about 12.72 billion yuan (around $1.77 billion) were signed at the exhibition.

It proves that China’s sports industry is growing vigorously.

China made the “Fitness for All” program a national strategy in 2014, steering the course for the development of the sports industry.

For years, China’s sports industry has maintained rapid growth and its industrial structure has been continually optimized. A sports industry system driven by sports games, performances, fitness and sports-related leisure activities has been basically formed, with synergistic development of sports manufacturing and the media.

For example, according to statistics from the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA), China held 1,828 marathon-related events in 2019, which was 47 times as many as in 2013.

The country has also released development plans for other popular sports, encouraging social forces to organize sports activities while encouraging public engagement in sports, thus pushing forward the development of fitness and sports-related leisure activities.

Today, Chinese citizens have diverse choices in sports activities. Outdoor sports activities, including mountaineering and cycling, see burgeoning growth. Traditional sports such as football, basketball, badminton and swimming enjoy continuous popularity, and niche sports, including frisbee and paddle boarding, are widely participated.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games have driven the development of winter sports in China. According to Peng Weiyong, vice-director of the General Administration of Sport of China (GAS), China’s snow-related sports saw 312 million visits in the 2021-2022 winter season. The period also achieved a snow tourism revenue of 390 billion yuan, an increase of 44.4 percent from the 2016-2017 winter season.

As the mass fitness program is being increasingly accepted by the general public, buying sports equipment, taking part in sports training, experiencing sports fashion, watching sports events and hiring sports venues have become new scenarios of sports consumption.

Statistics from the GAS indicated that the size of China’s fitness and sports-related leisure grew from 27.69 billion yuan to 179.66 billion yuan, an increase of 548.83 percent.

China’s winter sports equipment manufacturing has also embarked on a fast lane of development after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Provinces in northeast China have rolled out plans for the construction of winter sports equipment industrial parks while ramping up investment in the related market.

Driven by the mass fitness program and favorable policies, China’s homegrown sports brands have taken coordinated efforts to strive for sci-tech innovations, reform of sales channels and expansion of their global influence.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), the number of market entities in China’s sports market kept increasing. By the end of 2019, China had 289,000 legal entities in the sports market, an increase of 150 percent from 2015.

Many time-honored homegrown sports brands unveiled their performance recently in the first half of 2022. Anta Sports, one of China’s largest sportswear companies, registered revenue of nearly 26 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 13.8 percent year on year.

Zhangjiakou JX Sports, a new sports company founded in 2018 in Zhangjiakou city, north China’s Hebei Province, mainly produces snowboards, sleds for Alpine skiing, sleds for cross-country skiing and fixation devices. The rising star has maintained an annual sales growth between 15 percent and 20 percent.

China’s sports industry has entered a crucial stage of development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

Last October, the country issued a development plan for the sports industry throughout the period, which sets a long-term goal of building the country into a leading sporting power by 2035 and outlined main targets that cover eight aspects, including raising the level of mass fitness and achieving new progress in the development of the sports industry.

Looking ahead, the country’s sports industry will push for further integration with other industries and actively explore ways to lead a healthy lifestyle, expand domestic demand, and boost consumption as the sector sees significant increases in size and enjoys a better development environment and greater market potential.

By Xu Peiyu

Trunk market has gained popularity in many cities across China since the beginning of this fall. The lively atmosphere created by such markets stimulates citizens’ consumption desire, while adds a pleasant vibe to cities.

When the night closes in, trunks of private cars are turned into special mobile stalls filled with all kinds of petty commodities, attracting passing crowds.

In the Donghu Park in Zaozhuang city, east China’s Shandong province, people use their car trunks to sell hamburgers, bubble tea, and handicrafts.

During the week-long Chinese National Day Holiday in October, a trunk market featuring parent-child bonding was opened in the Grand Bao’en Temple in Nanjing city, east China’s Jiangsu province, attracting wide attention. Stallholders at the market were mostly parents and their children. The special trunk market provided children a special experience of selling things from a stall.

In Wulin Night Market, Hangzhou city, east China’s Zhejiang province, a pink car was covered with various eye-catching slogans and converted into a stall selling lemon tea. The car trunk-turned stall has become a Internet-famous site by virtue of the good taste of its drinks and its novelty look.

Fast food and drinks, such as coffee, hamburgers, and small cakes, are the most common commodities sold in many trunk markets in Beijing, followed by handicrafts, fridge magnets, and other kinds of petty commodities. Pet supplies, including snacks and clothes, are also often found in such markets.

“The organizer of the market has stipulated that there should be no open flame on the stalls, so the food sold here is mostly fast food,” said a stallholder at a trunk market, who disclosed that people who want to sell food at the market are required to provide relevant documents for the organizer, including a food business license.

Besides providing documents, stallholders also need to pay stall fees. The prices for trunk market stalls in different markets vary between 200 yuan ($27.64) per day and 500 yuan per day, and the payments are made either on a daily or monthly basis, according to credible sources.

Car trunk stallholders don’t get stable incomes from the sale of goods. A stallholder in Beijing told People’s Daily that trunk market can only be considered a way to earn an extra income.

A handmade coffee stall can sell 60 cups of coffee a day and bring an income of 1,200 yuan when it’s crowded, the stallholder said.

“But the business is rather unstable. You can sell 60 cups of coffee on a good day, and less than 10 cups on another day. And when the weather is bad, you couldn’t even go out to the market,” the stallholder added.

Many young stallholders say they join the trend out of interest, and noted that trunk market brings them satisfactory experiences of social contact.

“I don’t make money every time; but every time I set up the stall, I have new gains,” a young stallholder told People’s Daily.

“Every time I sell from my stall, I get to chat with nice passers-by. It feels great to meet new friends,” said a stallholder.

“I really enjoy hearing people tell me how good my coffee is,” another stallholder said.

People who enjoy visiting markets are likely to feel a stronger desire to buy in markets than in other occasions, according to a Beijing citizen surnamed Chen.

“When people see stuff that’s not expensive in the market, they tend to have a impulse to buy it. But when they see the same stuff on the Internet, they probably don’t place the order,” said Chen, who has bought from trunk markets fridge magnets sold at 10 yuan each, pet snacks priced at 35 yuan a bag, and various kinds of pour-over coffee, which was about 20 yuan a cup.

Jiang Jianke, People’s Daily

With its plasma current exceeding one million amperes, China’s new-generation “artificial sun,” the HL-2M, has set a new record in the country for the operation of a controlled nuclear fusion device, according to the data analysis team of the Southwestern Institute of Physics of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

This breakthrough marks a further step China has taken toward research and development (R&D) of nuclear fusion ignition. It also indicates that the country is among the first echelon in the world in research concerning this field and that the country is in a leading position globally in this technology.

The HL-2M, a Tokamak device, is the country’s largest in scale and highest in parameters. The plasma current is a core parameter of the Tokamak fusion reactor. A plasma current of one million amperes is necessary for nuclear fusion. In the future, Tokamaks must rely on plasma currents at the mega-ampere level in order to maintain steady operation.

Tokamak is a mainstream device used for research on controlled nuclear fusion. It features a vacuum chamber to hold plasmas with a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for a long time for a steady and sustainable fusion reaction. Because the way through which energy is generated inside the device is similar to the way the sun generates energy, Tokamak is also figuratively called the “artificial sun.”

Zhong Wulv, deputy director of the Center for Fusion Science under the Southwestern Institute of Physics of the CNNC and head of the HL-2M experiment, stated that temperature, density, and time are three parameters that determine the creation of the fusion device and the fusion research results, and a nuclear fusion takes place only when the product of the multiplication of the three parameters exceeds a specific figure.

The HL-2MTokamak, with a plasma current of more than 2.5 million amperes and holding plasmas with a temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius, can achieve high-density, high specific pressure, and high bootstrap current operation.

China follows a “three-step” roadmap of “thermal neutron reactor – fast reactor – controlled nuclear fusion reactor” for the development of nuclear energy. The Southwestern Institute of Physics of the CNNC, as a core institute in R&D of controlled nuclear fusion reactor and an important support institute for the country’s participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), has developed various types of magnetic confinement fusion devices.

The HL-1, the first Tokamak device independently built by China in 1984, is an important milestone in the country’s history of nuclear fusion reaction research. It has accumulated a wealth of experience for China in independently designing, building and operating nuclear fusion devices, Wu introduced.

On Dec. 4, 2020, a new generation of “artificial sun” independently designed and built by the Southwestern Institute of Physics of the CNNC was completed and achieved its first plasma discharge after it went into operation, marking an important progress made by China in the fields of basic research and original innovation.

In the future, the HL-2MTokamak will continue to be used to carry out experiments in an orderly manner. It will strive for a higher plasma current and a higher plasma temperature, as well as an increase in the three parameters of nuclear fusion, thus making new progress in China’s research on the “artificial sun.”

By Phinij Jarusombat

I’ve visited China over 100 times and been to a lot of places in the country, where I was deeply impressed by the diligence, bravery, hospitality and tenacity of the Chinese people.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the country has achieved rapid economic and social development and significantly improved its people’s living standards, gaining abundant development experiences worth learning for other countries.

On a trip to Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in south China, I saw that rural areas there had shaken off poverty by developing modern agriculture and the rural environment had been greatly improved. The Chinese government offered capital and technical support to promote the industrial development of rural areas and thus lift farmers’ income.

Since its reform and opening-up, China has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty, which accounts for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction, meeting the poverty eradication goal set out in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. It is a miracle in the history of poverty alleviation.

China follows a targeted poverty alleviation policy and makes individualized assistance measures for poor people to achieve efficient poverty alleviation, which is worth learning for other countries.

Poverty reduction needs efforts from all aspects, as well as the proper allocation of resources. China’s institutional advantages were a guarantee for the implementation of its poverty reduction policy.

From its poor and underdeveloped past to the present prosperity, China has completed leapfrog development. Today, the country is home to galloping bullet trains and ramified logistics network. It has constantly achieved technological outcomes in manned space, lunar exploration and other major scientific projects. Besides, the country is also continuously moving forward in scientific and educational development.

The leadership of the CPC is the fundamental reason for China’s progress and remarkable achievements. The CPC serves the people wholeheartedly and always strives for the well-being of all ethnic groups. The Chinese people trust and support the CPC. They have the reason to believe that only the CPC can bring them a better life.

China’s development bears important significance for the whole world. The international society admires the country’s achievements made under the leadership of the CPC.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by the country is an important development opportunity for participating countries. The China-Laos Railway, upon operation, has forcefully driven regional development.

Besides, China has put forward the Global Development Initiative to cope with the severe challenges facing global development, which is conducive to enhancing global cooperation and realizing common development.

For Thailand, the BRI means new development opportunities in investment, logistics and infrastructure. More and more Chinese enterprises have expanded their investment in Thailand, which now involves a wider range of aspects. Thailand will play an active role in enhancing ASEAN-China connectivity for more win-win results.

The China-Thailand railway is under construction, which is expected by the Thai people to inject new impetus for regional development upon completion.

As a traditional agricultural country, Thailand attaches great importance to rural development and is very interested in China’s efforts to advance poverty alleviation in rural areas through e-commerce, build farmland water conservancy projects and popularize agricultural technologies.

China enables its farmers to get timely market information through the internet. It creates jobs for the farmers and helps increase their income through e-commerce. Such practices are worth learning for Thailand.

I believe the comprehensive cooperation between Thailand and China will keep upgrading, bringing more benefits to the two countries and peoples.

(Phinij Jarusombat is the former Thai deputy prime minister.)

By Filippo Mignini

I’m a scholar studying Chinese philosophy. The book “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” is what I’ve been reading lately. After reading the book’s first two volumes in Italian and the third in English, I deeply felt that the book is an important work, showcasing the essence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s thoughts and China’s domestic and foreign policies.

“People” is a keyword of the book. President Xi stresses in the book that all power of the state belongs to the people, and that “We must base our efforts on the interests of the people, ensure the principal status of the people, humbly learn from the people, listen to their voices, and draw on their wisdom.”

It is because the Communist Party of China (CPC) adheres to a people-centered approach that China has lifted over 700 million rural people out of poverty and achieved remarkable progress.

The CPC maintains close ties with the masses and upholds a mass line. President Xi said that whether the party can maintain close ties with the people decides whether it can succeed in its cause. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party has exercised full and rigorous self-governance and advanced self-reform to strengthen its style of work. The CPC now has closer ties with the people and has acquired greater vitality.

President Xi attaches great importance to China’s fine traditional culture, calling it “a prominent strength of our nation that enables us to gain a firm footing amidst global cultural interaction,” the country’s most profound cultural soft power, and fertile ground for socialism with Chinese characteristics. He values cultural confidence, which mirrors his deep thoughts on inheriting and carrying forward the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. I’m very much impressed by this.

Law-based governance also makes up an important part of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China”. President Xi noted that the rule of law system that China is building constitutes a core component of the country’s national governance system, and the rule of law shall be integrated with the rule of virtue.

While enhancing law-based governance, China is also fostering and practicing the core socialist values, establishing good morals of society and promoting social equity and justice.

There’s a Chinese saying that “Governors should worry about inequality, not scarcity.” And as another Chinesesaying suggests, “If the ruler himself is upstanding, all will go well even though he does not give orders.” In my opinion, President Xi’s remarks well reflect the fine traditional culture of China.

China takes the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as the basic principles in dealing with foreign relations. It makes active efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind and opposes hegemonism and power politics.

As President Xi noted, China will do well only when the world does well, and vice versa. The country firmly upholds the international system with the UN as its core and gives active support to reforming the UN to make the organization stronger, fairer and more effective.

Europe is an important force in today’s world. By reading “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China”, I realized that President Xi attaches high importance to the development of China-Europe relations. In his speech delivered at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, he noted that China and Europe need to build four “bridges” of peace, growth, reform and progress of civilization to step up friendship and cooperation. “The bridges will make the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership take on even greater global significance”, he added.

In spite of changes in the international landscape, China has always supported European integration and a bigger role in international affairs by a united, stable and prosperous EU. I’m looking forward to a continuously consolidated foundation for China- Europe relations.

(Filippo Mignini is a professor with University of Macerata, Italy)