Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.63/No.29 i Beijing Review

For this year’s college and high school graduates, the year 2020 will be remembered for a lifetime. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, college graduates were unable to finish their theses in the classroom or library, unable to attend their graduation ceremony and take the cherished keepsake photos wearing graduation gowns and mortarboard caps, and even unable to hug their classmates goodbye. However, it should still not be written off as something entirely unsalvageable because they have undergone a unique experience different from the previous graduates’—cloud graduation. Cloud graduation became the new normal with universities setting up online platforms for students to communicate with their supervisors and defend their theses, attend graduation ceremonies, and even search for jobs. This year, cloud graduation became a standard configuration in many universities. For high…

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced on July 7 that he tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The 65-year-old is considered to be in the high-risk age group for the virus, which had infected more than 1.71 million people and led to a death toll of nearly 68,000 in Brazil as of July 8. The first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Brazil on February 26. It has since become the country with the second largest number of confirmed cases and fatalities in the world, after the U.S. Despite the government’s emergency response, a number of factors have complicated the situation. Consequently, the Brazilian economy looks set to suffer with the forecasts looking bleak. Factors at play When the first case was confirmed, epidemic control was enhanced at airports and…

($1=7 yuan) China’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) China’s Non-Manufacturing PMI China’s Comprehensive PMI (Source: National Bureau of Statistics) The number of Europe-bound freight trains departing from the city of Yiwu in east China reached 296 in the first half of this year, up 151.1 percent year on year. Since May 5, Yiwu has seen the departure of 20 or more China-Europe trains on a weekly basis. Railway authorities say the city aims to run 1,000 freight trains to Europe in 2020. The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) stood at 118 in the A-share market during the January-June period, with the amount of fund raised totaling 139.3 billion yuan, surging 84 percent and 131 percent, respectively, from the same period last year. The National Development and Reform Commission has…

SHUTTLER ‘SUPER DAN’ ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT Chinese badminton’s “Super Dan” Lin Dan announced his retirement on social media on July 4. “From 2000 to 2020, after 20 years, I have to say goodbye to the national team. It is challenging to say it out loud,” the two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion said on Weibo, Chinese social media. Lin had a lackluster performance entering the Tokyo Olympic cycle and encountered many challenges in the Olympic qualification process. But the 37-year-old didn’t give up and trained hard to reach his fifth Olympic Games. However, the Tokyo Olympic Games were postponed by one year due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, further casting a shadow on Lin’s journey to Tokyo. After this year’s All England Open in March, Lin continued…

Fighting the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a family affair for Liu Yuanli, a professor of health policy and management and Dean of the School of Public Health at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Liu returned to China from the U.S. in February, when China was at the peak of the epidemic. Since then, he has organized policy research groups, conducted daily analysis of the situation and regularly shared China’s methods and experience in containing the virus with his U.S. counterparts online. His wife, who lives in Boston and serves as president of the U.S.-China Health Summit, established a volunteer group to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) from China for underequipped local hospitals and also organized academic research meetings. Liu and his wife’s contribution epitomizes the significant mutual…

German giant Volkswagen has the distinction of being among the first automobile manufacturers to negotiate business with China when a Chinese delegation went to Germany in 1978 after the establishment of bilateral ties to discuss a partnership. Once again in June this year, it notched up another achievement when it increased its share holding ratio to 50 percent in Chinese state-owned automaker Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., participating in mixed-ownership reform of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). There are more signals about further reforms in China’s SOEs, with a three-year action plan for SOE reform (2020-22) approved by the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform on June 30. The three years are going to be crucial. The committee said the goal is to improve the basic economic system and optimize the…

Actress and singer Jin Sha debuted in the entertainment industry in a campus drama nearly 20 years ago. Since then, she acted in eight TV series and released six albums. But then came a time when she found her career going downhill. With the roles drying up, Jin started doing commercial jigs sponsored by malls and companies so that she could still remain in the industry and make some money to self-produce her songs. And refusing to be disheartened, the 37-year-old signed up for professional training to improve her skills and find opportunities in the future. As the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves. Jin’s break came when Mango TV, a streaming site backed by Hunan Satellite TV, invited her to take part in their new talent show.…

In Beijing lies one of China’s most historical sites, the Yuanmingyuan or the Old Summer Palace, a royal garden built in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Over 800,000 relics are alleged to have been plundered from the Yuanmingyuan by the Anglo-French forces in October 1860 during the Second Opium War (1856-60) and are today in museums across the world. The theft of cultural artifacts is not peculiar to China. Africa is also a victim of the appropriation of cultural relics owing to its history of colonialism. From Egypt’s Rosetta Stone, a stele with a decree inscribed in 196 B.C., Nigeria’s Nok Terracotta, sculptures going back to 500 B.C., to Benin’s half human-half animal statues, the cases are numerous. Up to 90 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is said to…

As the world works through the novel coronavirus crisis and seeks a new order amid fractured multilateralism and deteriorating U.S.-China relations, what were previously serious but relatively contained problems have begun to intersect and potentially cascade. This was illustrated in part by the deadly clashes in June in the Galwan Valley, which Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at an ensuing press conference lies on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control between China and India. The border dispute is many-sided, driven by a multitude of local, national, and international forces, not unlike other sensitive pressure points in other parts of the world, which are sometimes inflamed intentionally to create new fronts of instability. In situations like these, what actually happened and why is of course very…

U.S. electric carmaker Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk must be a happy man with the company’s second quarter (Q2) performance in China proving his wisdom in choosing the Chinese market. While production at Tesla’s main U.S. factory was suspended for weeks, work is in full swing at its gigafactory in Shanghai, China’s financial center, and the second phase construction of the gigafactory is about to be completed. Tesla managed to surpass expectations despite the headwinds triggered by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and on July 2, announced it has delivered 90,650 vehicles in Q2. Compared to the same period last year, the decline is a mere 4.8 percent, notwithstanding the disruptions. Analysts had predicted it would produce 32,000 to 83,000 cars at the most. “China appeared to be the star of…

At a time of global uncertainty amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and an economic recession, China is taking firm and steady steps to promote reform and opening up. A high-level meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on deepening overall reform held on June 30 reviewed and approved a series of reform plans and guidelines on state-owned enterprises, integrated development of new generation information technology and manufacturing industry, rural homestead system, integrated development of media, evaluation system for education, and state-owned art troupes. It’s another demonstration of China’s resolve to comprehensively push forward reforms to tackle the changing situation and create new opportunities. On July 1, a State Council executive meeting stressed improving financial services for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. It also encouraged greater opening up…