Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 60/No. 37 i Beijing Review

Linking Up A Chinese freight train bound for Tehran, Iran, departs from the Yinchuan South Railway Station in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on September 5, the day the Yinchuan-Tehran international freight train service was launched. Beef From the U.S. The Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau announced on September 5 that the first ship- ment of U.S. beef by sea entered China four days earlier, signifying the normalization of the large-scale import of the product. The shipment of frozen beef weighed 15.1 tons and was valued at more than $300,000, according to the bureau. China started the import of U.S. beef in June after a 14-year suspen-sion. However, imports were limited to air freight in June and July, which pushed up costs while failing to…

When the first BRIC Summit was held in 2009 in Moscow, the Chinese version of the bloc leaders’ joint statement was only around 1,500 characters. This month, the Xiamen Declaration of the Ninth BRICS Summit saw its list of outcomes exceed 12,000 charac-ters. Though the achievement of this coopera-tion platform of emerging economies can’t be measured by the length of the joint statement, it still serves to underscore the growing coop-eration among the five countries. From simply an economic term to an outstanding cooperation platform of emerging economies, the tenor of BRICS has rapidly expanded in the past decade. Its agenda has evolved from promoting economic cooperation and development to improving global governance and jointly addressing global challenges. Observers say with the enhancement of the cooperation mechanism, BRICS is expected…

Rooftops all over the Shanghai Lingang Industrial Area are now serving a more productive purpose than simply covering factories and warehouses. In August, the vast area in southeast Shanghai had solar panels installed on all roofs, creating the capacity to generate power for local businesses and sur-rounding households. The action was the inaugural project of a new energy demonstration program that is expected to be expanded to more areas in Shanghai. It is funded by the first lending pro-gram of the New Development Bank (NDB), an international multilateral financial institution co- founded by BRICS countries. “When completed, the rooftop photovoltaic power stations with a total capacity of 100 megawatts will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 88,360 tons,” said Wang Tai, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Hongbo New Energy Development…

Every day Pei Rui, a 30-year-old project supervisor, goes to the construc- tion site of the Beijing-Qinhuangdao Expressway in Beijing to inspect the work and discuss its progress with other staff mem- bers. Though Pei’s job title is director of the project management security department, he is actually in charge of all procedures of the Beijing leg of the project. The Beijing-Qinhuangdao Expressway, to open to traffic in 2020, will link Beijing with Qinhuangdao, a port city in northern Hebei Province. The construction started in November 2016. Pei and his colleagues are in charge of the 6-km stretch in Beijing. Although it’s not a long segment, the work is difficult and ur- gent, which means a lot of pressure for the workers. This summer, for instance, it rained a lot…

The recently issued guideline on further regulating outbound direct investment specifies sectors where outbound direct investment is encouraged and also tightens control of investment in the sectors of real es- tate, hotels, entertainment, sports and casinos. The sectors where outbound investment is tightened or banned are hot spots pursued by Chinese capital in recent years. Some Chinese corporations show great interest in foreign soccer clubs and some European soccer clubs have already been purchased by Chinese investors, who do not hesitate to burn money to undertake such acquisitions. undertake such acquisitions. Famous Chinese corporations seem “un- fashionable” if they have made no overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As). In fact, the government previously supported all types of overseas M&As made by Chinese investors, especially those in sectors restricted by the recent…

Peng Liyuan (third left), wife of President Xi Jinping, is flanked by a group that includes wives of the leaders of the other BRICS members and invited countries, as they attend an event to promote HIV/ AIDS prevention and control at Xiamen University on September 5. Peng has long been active in HIV/AIDS prevent ion and other health programs for public good. She has been the health ambassador for HIV/AIDS prevention for the Ministry of Health of China since 2006. She was appointed a World Health Organization goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/ AIDS in 2011.…

COLOMBIA Top leaders of the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force attend a press conference on September 2 as it transforms into a political party. The anti-government organization had fought a 52-year campaign against the government before signing a peace deal last November RUSSIA Locals and tourists are evacuated following a mudslide which trapped more than 500 people in the North Caucasus area on September 1 INDIA Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of a threestory building which collapsed in Mumbai due to torrential rain on September 3 CANADA The Snowbirds aerial demonstration team performs during the 68th Canadian International Air Show in Toronto on September 2 NORWAY Children experience a simulation of cross-country skiing at a lakeside area in the capital Oslo UNITED STATES Firefighters attempt to put out a…

Lou Mei, a 30-year-old employee with a foreign Internet company in Beijing, has seen her eating habits change recently. “I used to stroll out with my col- leagues to have lunch in the shopping malls near my office but as my work schedule has become increasingly tight and almost all the restaurants to my taste have online order and delivery services, I now tend to have my lunch delivered to my office, even supper at times,” Lou said. “Many of my colleagues also do the same.” Two takeout apps that Lou has installed on her mobile phone and uses often are Baidu Takeaway, the online food delivery platform started by Baidu, China’s lead- ing search engine, and Meituan Takeaway owned by group deal giant Meituan- Dianping. “Since the restaurants listed…

It was a glorious evening for Mohammed Elmoiez, who was crowned the champion of the 16th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students on August 12 in Changsha, south China’s Hunan Province. Elmoiez made his- tory as the first African participant to win the prestigious event. The third-year Sudanese student at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Khartoum, who goes by the name Zhao Zhihang in China, impressed both the judges and the audience with his nearly perfect mas- tery of the Chinese language. Despite having achieved the highest ranking among 145 par- ticipants from 112 countries, the 19-year-old student remained humble. “My family always encouraged me to learn Chinese. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t even be here tonight. They think China is a…

Some Like it Hot Contestants chop newly harvested chili peppers as they take part in the annual Chili Pepper Festival in Mahai Village in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on September 2. The village celebrates its chili pepper harvest at this time of year by organizing games like pepper plucking and pepper chopping. Chinese Pharmacopoeia The 11th edition of Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China (Chinese Pharmacopoeia ), to come out in 2020, will add 800 types of medicines, increasing the total number to around 6,400, according to Zhang Wei, Secretary General of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission. Chinese Pharmacopoeia is China’s largest medicinal guide. It was first published in 1953. Zhang said the current edition includes 5,608 types of medicines, covering almost all medicinal products. The upcoming edition…

The 2017 Xiamen BRICS Summit has ended with a strong pledge to enhance practical cooperation and boost de-velopment of BRICS countries. In the Xiamen Declaration, BRICS leaders have committed to “promote exchanges of good practices and experiences on development, and facilitate market inter-linkages as well as infrastructure and financial integration to achieve intercon-nected development.” The Declaration has also underscored the importance of establishing broad partnerships with emerging markets and developing coun-tries (EMDC), stating that BRICS countries will “pursue equal-footed and flexible practices and initiatives for dialogue and cooperation with non-BRICS countries, including through BRICS Plus cooperation.” At the press conference held after the summit, China’s President Xi Jinping hailed the event as a “new starting point” for the member states which will bring a “positive energy to global growth.” With…

Some say BRICS is just a round table for talks because it has no binding rules for members or mechanism to take unified action as a whole. Some Western media even predict the decline of BRICS. What do you think of BRICS? Liu Zhiqin, Senior Fellow, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China: The increasing mutual trust between BRICS members has promoted their cooperation and exchanges. The BRICS group has become a new model of multilateral cooperation on common development. In Chinese, BRICS is not merely a set of bricks; we Chinese add the adjective “golden” to describe the bricks, which reflects China’s positive expectations for cooperation ties. Gold can endure over time. China hopes BRICS cooperation can withstand various difficulties and challenges. Therefore, BRICS countries must maintain…

The sound of Suzhou Pingtan, an art form which combines story-telling and ballad singing in the Suzhou dialect, swirled around a hall of the International Department of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee (IDCPC) in Beijing on August 31. The singing enchanted the au- dience, including 400 visiting political party leaders and ambassadors of other countries. The scene was part of the thematic briefing for an event titled Practice of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee—Innovation- Driven Transformation and Development hosted by the IDCPC. The event, the fourth part of the Stories of the CPC series launched by the IDCPC, aimed to introduce China’s efforts to become a country of innovation through dedication to education, talent development, techno- logical breakthroughs and structural reforms with the example of Jiangsu Province. Song…

Nikolai Chen is a Russian farmer who raises an unusual livestock—wood frogs, the brown or pink variety that lives in moist woodlands and is used in tradi-tional Chinese medicine (TCM). The 43-year-old made his way to Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, which sits near the boundary with Russia, to explore the 11th China-Northeast Asia Expo and see if he could find any buyers for his frogs. “We breed wood frogs which are highly sought after by Chinese buyers, as green and natural food becomes a craze with more and more Chinese,” Chen told Beijing Review. “China is a market with huge potential.” Ties with Russia The breeding farms are located in Primorsky Krai in Russia’s Far East, near the border with China, where Chen said the natural conditions…