Nigeria Times

By ZhangXiao

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Kazakhstan. Over the past 30 years, China-Kazakhstan relations have progressed by leaps and bounds and reached the high level of permanent comprehensive strategic partnership, setting a good example of good-neighborly friendship and win-win cooperation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Kazakhstan will deepen the two countries’ political mutual trust, expand their comprehensive cooperation and usher in next golden 30 years of Kazakhstan-China relations.

China and Kazakhstan have always maintained reliable political relations. They offer each other firm support on issues concerning their respective core interests.

China firmly supports Kazakhstan in safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and Kazakhstan has openly and repeatedly expressed its firm support for the one-China principle.

When the unrest took place in Kazakhstan in January this year, President Xi immediately sent a verbal message to his Kazakh counterpart, Kassym-JomartTokayev, stressing that China firmly opposes any forces undermining Kazakhstan’s stability and threatening Kazakhstan’s security.

In recent years, the two countries have witnessed an increase inintergovernmental exchanges at all levels. The strategic guidance of the two heads of state has charted a blueprint for all-round China-Kazakhstan cooperation.

China-Kazakhstan practical cooperation has maintained healthy development. New fruits are constantly being achieved in the two countries’ Belt and Road cooperation and other pragmatic cooperation.

Bilateral trade between China and Kazakhstan surged 18.9 percent year on year to $17.67 billionin the first seven months of this year, and the full-year figure is expected to reach a historic high.

The two countries have identified 52 projects of production capacity cooperation in mining, energy, industry, commerce and transport, with a total worth of more than $21.2 billion.

The two countries have continuously enhanced interconnectivity. In the first half of this year, a record of 6,195 China-Europe freight trains passed through Kazakhstan.

Chinese home appliances, mobile phones and automobiles are popular in Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan’s green agricultural products are welcomed by Chinese consumers. The two countries are seeing increasing economic complementarity and dependence. In the future, China and Kazakhstan will further strengthen communication and coordination in terms of development strategies to add more substance to bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

China-Kazakhstan friendship has taken deep roots betweenthe two peoples.

Facing COVID-19, the two countries and their people offered mutual understanding and support, setting a good example of anti-pandemic cooperation. Kazakhstan is home to five Confucius Institutes that offer Chinese language courses to over 3,000 people each year. The two countries are also seeing closer cooperation in education, films and television, publishing, entertainment and the media, and will soon establish cultural centers in each other’s countries.

China and Kazakhstan have established 19 pairs of sister provinces and cities. This July, they resumed direct flights betweeneach other and Chinese nationals can enter Kazakhstan for up to 14 days based on a new visa-free policy. The two countries have decided to set up consulates general in China’s Xi’an and Aktobe in Kazakhstan respectively.

As the two peoples continue enhancing mutual understanding and deepening their friendship, China and Kazakhstan will jointly write a new chapter in the century-old Silk Road.

China and Kazakhstan have constantly enhanced coordination under multilateral frameworks. Both of them are important countries in Eurasia and members of the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. They are committed to safeguarding the international system with UN at its core, and have kept close cooperation in multilateral organizations to jointly promote regional and global peace and stability.

President Tokayev actively supports the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative proposed by President Xi. The two countries have the same or similar stances on regional hotspot issues. China is willing to enhance solidarity and coordination with Kazakhstan to build a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.

By setting sail together, we could brave a journey of ten thousand miles. It is believed that SCO member states, including China and Kazakhstan, will take the 22nd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State as an opportunity to further strengthen dialogues, build consensus and promote cooperation, and constantly make new contributions to consolidating regional security and promoting common development.

 (ZhangXiao is the Chinese Ambassador to Kazakhstan.)

By LiaoRuiling, ZhengYangyang

Every weekend, Pei Yiting from Taiyuan, north China’s Shanxi province, goes cycling along a bike lane on the bank of the Fenhe River that drains the center of the province. The bike lane is surrounded by wetlands where large numbers of water birds inhabit.

“The bike lane is a great place for cyclist and also offers citizens splendid river views,” Pei said.

The riverside bike lane, extending all the way from Taiyuan’s north part to its south part, is an outcome of “urban check-up,” a comprehensive urban evaluation system that aims at optimizing urban development, strengthening urban construction and balancing rapidly swelling populations and scarce urban resources through targeted measures.

According to Han Ran, an official with Taiyuan’s municipal housing and urban-rural development bureau, many citizens demanded a riverside bike lane along the Fenhe River during Taiyuan’s 2020 “urban check-up.” In May 2021, the bike lane was put into use, and it formed a complete urban bicycle transport system with other operational bike lanes in the city, which has significantly facilitated nearby residents and made surrounding areas more energetic.

“At present, China’s urbanization rate of permanent residence stands at 64.72 percent, with an obviously slowing speed of urban space expansion. It has resultedinan imbalance between the growing urban population and scarce urban resources,” said Pan Fang, vice president of Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning and Design Institute. There’s an urgent need to improve the living environment, she said.

In 2018, Beijing became the first Chinese city to launch an “urban check-up” under the guidance of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the comprehensive urban evaluation system was piloted in 11 cities a year later, including Shenyang, Nanjing and Xiamen.

It was promoted in 36 cities in 2020 and the scope was further expanded to 59 last year, which covers all municipalities, cities under separate state planning, and provincial capitals, as well as parts of the cities with subordinate districts.

This year, the number of items on the check-up list has increased from 65 to 69 on eight aspects. The ratio of prefabricated structures in all newly built constructions, as well as the reutilization of construction waste are included in the 2022 list.

Social satisfaction surveying is one of the methods adopted by “urban check-up.” Through questionnaires and field visits, it studies people’s satisfaction with urban construction performance and searches for prominent problems and weaknesses.

Besides, “urban check-up” also employs third parties for quantitative surveys.

Pan told People’s Daily that the third-party check-up includes a series of procedures such as data collection, index calculation and the making of evaluation standards. According to her, data isacquired and analyzed by Python programs, geographic information systems, remote sensing and the internet of things. Besides, a data sampling system was also established, she said. For instance, map apps are employed to estimate the coverage of restaurants for seniors and affordable kindergartens to see whether the supply of relevant infrastructure is at a reasonable level.

At present, China is building an “urban check-up” system featuring an annual examination and a quinquennial evaluation, aiming to find solutions to livelihood issues and strengthen urban development.

Based on the results of the “urban check-up,” the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will work to discover common problems facing Chinese cities, learn from local experiences and make state policies, so as to comprehensively improve urban planning, construction and management.

By Ren Guan, People’s Daily

Navigation apps that show real-time traffic information and estimated travel time, virtual fitting room that helps you get the best clothes you want when you shop online, and virtual museums where you can get close to valuable cultural relics at home… These scenarios have already become a part of the daily life of the Chinese people.

As China steps up its efforts to build a digital country, digital technologies are being widely applied, bringing digital dividends to more and more people.

The country has further consolidated the foundation of its digital industrialization and accelerated the process of industrial digitalization over the past ten years. China’s digital economy grew from 11 trillion yuan ($1.58 trillion) in 2012 to 45.5 trillion yuan last year. Today, digital technologies are reaching every corner of the country and bringing profound changes to the life of the Chinese people.

Over the past ten years, digitalization has made people’s life easier.

From 2012 to 2021, internet penetration in China grew from 42.1 percent to 73 percent, and all prefectural-level cities have been covered by optical networks. Besides, all administrative villages and villages lifted out of poverty across the country have broadband access.

As of the end of this July, China had 475 million 5G mobile users. The country is home to the world’s largest 5G network.

Thanks to the leapfrog development of digital infrastructure, new technologies and business models are popping up, such as sharing economy, online retail and mobile payment.

The fruits of digital construction are benefiting all aspects of the society. Today, people order food by scanning QR codes and pay bills with facial recognition. Parking and garbage sorting are also made intelligent through digital technologies.

In rural areas, farmers are selling farm produce on livestream platforms and digital technologies are turning traditional agriculture much smarter. More and more farmers are seeing increasing income thanks to digitalization.

Over the past ten years, digitalization has made services much more convenient for the people.

Today, online and remote services are very prevalent in China. In south China’s Hainan province, 18 urban hospitals, 340 rural healthcare centers and 2,700 village clinics have been equipped with 5G telemedicine devices. These devices can reduce the average length of patient visits by three to five hours and improve hospitals’ efficiency by 30 percent.

In a scenic area in Fuzhou, southeast China’s Fujian province, a series of 5G-enabled smart tourism programs have been launched, such as a 5G visible management platform and a B&B monitoring system. With these programs, the scenic area has witnessed a 13-percent rise in tourist visits.

In Fuzhou, east China’s Jiangxi province, education authorities have connected rural and urban schools through the internet, so as to bring the quality education resources in cities to rural children.

China has established the world’s largest online education platform and a national platform for medical insurance information. Over 90 percent of Chinese counties and districts have access to telemedicine. During the remarkable decade, digital technologies have made important contributions to narrowing the urban-rural and interregional gap regarding social service resources.

Over the past ten years, China has made huge improvement in digital government services. Digital government is an important part of China’s digital construction efforts. To apply digital technologies in government services is an effective measure to modernize governance system and capability, as well as an inevitable choice for China to meet the public’s ever-growing demand for government services.

At present, mobile government service platforms are seen in almost everywhere in the country, and people can have the errands done via a single website and in any province in the country.

Nearly 90 percent of provincial-level administrative licenses can be applied online, and the applicants can receive the licenses by paying one visit at most to relevant offices, without the need for a second trip. The average processing time has been reduced by over a half.

According to a UN survey, China’s E-Government Development Index is the ninth highest in the world.

By building a digital country, China will energize digital economy, improve e-government services, optimize digital environment, build digital cooperation and enhance digital security. Digital technologies will surely better benefit the society and give people more sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.

By Zhong Yin, People’s Daily

Star trails are a type of photograph that uses long exposure times to capture the motion of stars in the night sky. In Beijing, star trail photographs could be captured only in suburban areas in the old days. But recently, photographers recorded them in the Shougang Park, which sits in the Beijing city. This indicates continuous improvement in Beijing’s air quality.

For instance, the Chinese capital saw 288 days of good air quality last year, or 78.9 percent of the calendar year, up by 112 days from 2013. The total number of heavily-polluted days in the city had been slashed by 50 to eight during the same period.

Such drastic change mirrors the remarkable achievements made by China in the past 10 years in terms of ecological progress.

A sound ecological environment is the fairest public product and the most inclusive benefits to people’s wellbeing.

In southwest China’s Guizhou province, over 98 percent of the days in key cities are of good air quality, and good water quality is monitored at all exit cross-sections of major rivers.

Hebei province, located in the northern part of the country, has reduced 5.23 billion cubic meters of groundwater overdraft, restored 400,000 mu (26,667 hectares) of mines and recovered 2.7 million mu of degraded, desertified and salinized grasslands.

In Jiangsu province, 93.6 percent of residents said the environment was satisfactory.

Over the past 10 years, China has seen bluer skies, greener mountains, clearer waters and better environment. The Chinese people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness and security has been constantly improved.

Over the past 10 years, China’s ecological environment has gone through a historic change. In this period, the country contributed to around a quarter of the world’s afforestation area, and the carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP dropped about 34 percent. Besides, China has built the world’s largest renewable energy capacity and become the world’s largest producer and seller of new energy vehicles.

China’s national carbon market has started online trading, and the country has established an ecological compensation system for the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, said Ye Min, deputy head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

According to Ye, outstanding green loans in yuan and foreign currencies reached 15.9 trillion yuan (about $2.31 trillion) by the end of 2021.

Over the past 10 years, China has enacted multiple laws and regulations on environmental protection and launched a central inspection system for ecological and environmental protection. It has established a protected areas framework with a focus on national parks and made continuous and huge afforestation efforts. It has formulated and introduced measures for assessing progress made in ecological improvement and implemented a river, lake and forest chief system.

The country protects the environment like we protect our eyes and treats the environment like it is its life. Greenness has become an integral component of China’s development.

Lucid waters and lush mountains create natural, ecological social and economic benefits.

The riverside region stretching along the Huangpu River in Yangpu district of Shanghai has turned from an “industrial rust belt” into a vibrant urban public space for leisure; a mining area in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region, upon ecological restoration, has become a “wine chateau” that generates huge economic benefits; a village in Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, southwest China’s Yunnan province has regained its natural beauty after stopping all farming activities at its lakeside ponds and farmlands, attracting more and more tourists.

These facts prove that to protect environment is to protect and increase the value of the nature, as well as the potential of economic and social development.

Ecological protection and economic development make an organic whole. Only when development and protection efforts are made in a synergetic manner, can the country complete a profound reform of its development philosophy, adjust its value orientation and fundamentally optimize its development models.

In May the last year, the first batch of forest carbon credit stamps were issued. One of the stamps, permitting 12,723 tons of carbon dioxide, was generated from approximately 213 hectares of public forest in Changkou village, Jiangle county of Fujian province, and it has guaranteed the village additional earnings of 140,000 yuan through carbon trading.

China, apart from building a beautiful country itself, is also an important participant, contributor and trailblazer in global ecological conservation.

The country has promised to scale up its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions by adopting more vigorous policies and measures. It aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

It has added the targets of carbon peak and carbon neutrality to its overall plan for ecological conservation, and is accelerating new energy development, to make low-carbon production and lifestyles a common pursuit of the Chinese society.

Today, the country is making important steps toward the initiative of “building a beautiful China,”driving weeping, historic, and transformative changes in its ecological conservation.

More and more Chinese people are taking actions to spread ecological awareness and put the awareness into practice, with an aim to leave the blue skies, lush mountains and lucid waters for future generations.

By RashidAlimov

The upcoming 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to be held in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is of special significance as the international relations system is going through profound restructuring. The meeting has aroused huge attention from the international community.

The eight member states of the SCO are home to nearly half of the world’s population and contribute over 20 percent to world GDP. Today, the SCO stands as a comprehensive regional cooperation organization that covers the largest area and population in the world.

In the past some 20 years since the organization’s establishment, the SCO has created a new model based on partnership and dialogue, rather than alliance or confrontation. It is always committed to safeguarding regional security and promoting common development.

It is obvious that, under the joint efforts of all SCO member states, they have constantly made new steps in their cooperation and consolidated regional stability.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the SCO Charter and the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation of the SCO Member States.

Since the founding of the organization, it has been closely obeying the above two documents and following the Shanghai Spirit of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development. The SCO upholds openness and inclusiveness in its cooperation, properly deals with regional issues and actively joins international affairs.

SCO member states’ commitment to the Shanghai Spirit is of more significance under the current international circumstances, and sheds light on the building of a new type of international relations.

The SCO has set a great example of mutually beneficial cooperation for the international community and constantly expanded its global influence. More and more countries and international organizations are hoping to enhance their cooperation with the SCO and more countries are expecting to become a part of the SCO family.

At the 2017 SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, India and Pakistan joined the SCO as full members. Last year, the SCO launched procedures to admit Iran as a full member state and granted dialogue partner status to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.

One of the important reasons for the SCO’s enhanced attractiveness is that it serves as a platform forequal dialogue for both small and major countries.

SCO countries, regardless of their sizes, can seek cooperation and development as equals. They listen to each other’s views and suggestions and jointly find solutions to their common problems.

Under the guidance of the Shanghai Spirit, the SCO makes decisions based on its member states’ consensus, and the decisions conform to the interests of each member state and the region at large.

Currently, the complicated and serious international situation is creating challenges for the development of the SCO. However, I believe that as long as SCO member states continue upholding the Shanghai Spirit and enhancing dialogues, no dispute is able to hinder SCO cooperation or prevent the organization from playing a constructive role in regional issues.

There was a popular proverb along the ancient Silk Road – “The dogs are barking while caravans keep going forward.” Facing the future, the SCO will eliminate interference and keep its steady and confident steps toward the future, and build bright prospects for regional cooperation.

 (RashidAlimov  is the former secretary-general of the SCO.)