Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 61/No. 17 i Beijing Review

NORTH KOREA A Chinese dance troupe performs the ballet Giselle in Pyongyang, on April 16, during a trip to North Korea to participate in the 31st April Spring Friendship Art Festival UNITED STATES Maurice Obstfeld (second right), Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), speaks on the newly released World Economic Outlook in Washington, D.C. on April 17. While growth forecasts for the world economy remained unchanged for this year and 2019, the IMF warned that a potential trade conflict could threaten to derail global growth SYRIA The ruins of a scientific research center in the Barzeh neighborhood north of Damascus on April 14, after the United States, Britain and France carried out a wave of joint airstrikes on Syrian facilities ALGERIA People attend the funeral of pilot…

China’s door to the world will be opened ever wider, with broadened market access, an improved investment environment, better protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), lower tariffs and expanded imports. The powerful message sent by President Xi Jinping at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 held in south China’s Hainan Province from April 8 to 11 has reaffirmed global investors’ confidence in China. Despite rising protectionism, “globalization won’t stop in China,” said Albert Ng, Managing Partner of professional services provider EY’s Greater China division and Chairman of EY China, during a panel discussion on investment at the Penn Wharton China Summit 2018 held in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania from April 13 to 15. “China will continue to play a key role in globalization,” Ng said. What cannot…

In a speech at the Penn Wharton China Summit 2018 in Philadelphia on April 15, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, reaffirmed China’s commitment to further opening up. He also urged U.S. politicians and strategists to make the right choice for the world’s most important bilateral relationship. An edited excerpt follows: On April 10, President Xi Jinping made an important speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018. After reviewing reform and opening-up practices and the achievements of the past four decades, President Xi pointed out the future direction for China and the world in the midst of major transformation and adjustments. Xi’s speech sent a clear message to the world that China’s rapid development in the past four decades is proof…

In March, a woman was hit by one of Uber’s driverless cars while jaywalking from a me-dian strip across two lanes of traffic on a highway in Tempe, Arizona. Her death, the first case of a fatal pedestrian accident caused by a self-driving car, has raised the debates over who is responsible, as well as whether the testing of driverless technology should be suspended just as the number of autonomous cars being tested on the roads of cities around the globe takes off. Innovation unstoppable Ma Rong (News.zol.com.cn): The accident in Tempe has sparked a heated debate among the public. Opponents of driverless cars have taken this opportunity to push the government to limit the development of this new technology. Undoubtedly, this is a heavy blow to the driverless car…

Salt Harvest Workers collect crude salt on the Manas Lake in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on April 13. Family Doctors The Chinese Government will promote contracted family doctor services among priority groups this year including the elderly, pregnant women and children, according to the National Health Commission (NHC). Among the targeted groups are patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, as well as those with severe mental disorders. The government will focus on promoting the services for people living in poverty, said an NHC official in charge of the country’s community-level healthcare. Family doctors, including general practitioners registered with community-level health institutions, qualified doctors at township clinics and village doctors, provide basic medical care and other health services. They can provide customized services such as health…

On April 12, President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), reviewed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in the South China Sea, saying that the need to build a strong navy has never been more urgent than today, and calling for efforts to build a first-class naval force. The navy review was the largest of its kind in the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949. Taking part in the review were more than 10,000 service personnel, 48 vessels and 76 aircraft. They included the aircraft carrier Liaoning and the country’s latest submarines, ships and fighter jets. More than half of the vessels were commissioned after the 18th CPC National Congress…

Separated by only a two and a half hour flight, Beijing and Tokyo are neighbors, but their relations have been anything but neighborly in recent years due to territorial disputes and Japan’s whitewashing of its past aggressions. Yet with efforts from both sides in recent months, China-Japan relations have seemingly taken a positive turn, culminating in Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent trip to Tokyo and the resumption of the China-Japan High-Level Economic Dialogue after an eight-year hiatus. According to observers, Wang’s visit sent an important message that China-Japan relations are warming up, and thus exchanges between high-level officials could possibly resume. Wu Jinan, an expert with the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), claimed that in addition to a return visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro…

Luo Qian, a 33-year-old woman of the Bouyei ethnic group who now runs an “agritainment” business in Pingzhai Village, has never regretted her decision to resign from her city job and return to her home-town to start a business. The village is located in Machang Town in the Guian New Area, a 1,795-square-km economic zone located near Guiyang, the capital city of southwest China’s Guizhou Province. “After graduation, I worked at a Guiyang-based company living on an annual salary of 50,000 yuan ($7,962). Three years ago, I decided to become self-employed and set up a rural homestay, which now earns 100,000 to 200,000 yuan ($15,923 to 31,847) every year,” said Luo. She has noticed that since the roads and houses in the village were repaired and refurbished, not only people…

A series of children’s stories about the mysterious adventures of Li Xiaoyu, an 11-year-old girl from Beijing, and all kinds of mythical creatures in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Forbidden City that was home to 24 emperors across Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), had three new titles launched at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair which ran in the northern Italian city from March 26 to 29. When Chang Yi, a Chinese children’s author, first put pen to paper several years ago while she was pregnant, she perhaps never expected that Monsters in the Forbidden City books would one day debut on the global stage. “The Forbidden City, one of the largest palace complexes in the world, is home to over 500 cats, nine dogs as well as countless hedgehogs,…

Intelligent Farming Farmers plant vegetables with the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in Tawan Village, Wuzhong in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on April 18. The application of the system to agricultural production not only enhances efficiency and quality, but also lowers overall costs. More Liquidity China’s central bank announced on April 17 that it will cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for most commercial and foreign banks. The People’s Bank of China (PBC) cut the RRR for most banks by 1 percentage point on April 25 to help small businesses and to improve overall stability and liquidity of the economy. The move did not include policy lenders such as the China Development Bank. Funds released will be used to pay back medium-term lending facilities, according to the PBC website. “The move…

Starting on May 1, people from 59 countries can enjoy 30-day visa-free stays in south China’s Hainan Province, the youngest province in the country. This new policy is among a slew of substantial policies unveiled by the Central Government to deepen the reform and opening-up process in the province and the country as a whole. Since 2010, group visitors from 26 countries could enjoy either 15-day or 21-day visa waiver treatment by booking through travel agencies. The new policy will give greater access to the island province, which boasts sandy beaches, coconut trees, plenty of sunshine and tropical scenery. Born to be open Established in 1988 as a province and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Hainan was born with special blood. As the only tropical province in China, it developed…

In a speech at the Penn Wharton China Summit 2018, an event at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia on April 14, Fu Ying, a veteran diplomat and Vice Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress, called for a better understanding of China’s development. An edited excerpt follows: This year marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up in China. The China-U.S. relationship has witnessed profound change in this period. Today, more than 300,000 students from China’s mainland are studying at U.S. universities, and nearly 3 million Chinese tourists travel to the United States every year. The two countries have become important partners in many areas and both have benefited from mutual cooperation. However, the relationship is not without difficulties. The…

The multilingual versions of the second volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China were launched in London on April 11, at a ceremony attended by over 300 political and business leaders, academics and representatives of publishing agencies from 14 countries and regions. Chinese wisdom The second volume unveiled during the London Book Fair, contains a collection of 99 articles, including Xi’s speeches, conversations, instructions and congratulatory messages between August 2014 and September 2017. The book was published in Traditional Chinese, English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, Arabic and Portuguese, and serves as a supplement to the first volume launched in September 2014 and published by Foreign Languages Press, a publishing house under the China International Publishing Group (CIPG). The first volume contains articles arranged in 18 topics, incorporating 79…

For Chinese carmakers attending the nation’s largest trade fair, the country’s pledge to further open up the economy will bring more opportunities than challenges. Authorities recently announced that China would ease foreign equity restrictions in the automobile industry and significantly lower import tariffs for vehicles as part of the country’s broader push for economic opening up. While analysts believe that wider access could intensify competition in the Chinese market, Wu Jun, assistant general manager of international trade at Zotye Domy, a privately owned automaker, shrugged off the concerns. “The easing of foreign equity restrictions can allow private domestic auto companies to better interact with foreign firms and help us improve,” said Wu at this year’s China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, in south China’s Guangdong…