Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.64/No.13 i Beijing Review

UNITED STATES Protestors take part in a demonstration calling for an end to anti-Asian discrimination in New York City on March 21 POLAND A woman walks on a near-empty street in Warsaw on March 20. The government announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on the day amid the recent COVID-19 resurgence, and only a select number of shops are allowed to operate TANZANIA Samia Suluhu Hassan is sworn in as president of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam on March 19, becoming the first woman to hold the post EGYPT A massive ship runs aground on March 24, blocking the Suez Canal after being blown off course by a dust storm JAPAN The Tokyo Olympic torch relay begins in Fukushima, site of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, on March 25. The…

To meet the government’s avowed targets of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, all eyes are on the national carbon emissions trading scheme that is expected to go online in June. As a major step forward toward the launch, a set of interim rules for carbon emissions trading management came into effect on February 1. Pilot trading of carbon emissions started 10 years ago in seven provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, covering power generation, iron and steel production and cement manufacturing sectors. Later, a nationwide carbon emissions trading system in the power generation industry was inaugurated in December 2017. The upcoming national market can connect the various local emissions exchanges, enhancing market liquidity and reducing trading costs for enterprises, Chai Qimin, head…

While the first China-U.S. senior officials’ meeting in Alaskan city Anchorage since U.S. President Joe Biden took office has been described as chilly by the Western media, to look at it objectively, the March 18-19 strategic dialogue has clarified the red lines on both sides and broken the ice for further communication. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the door for China-U.S. dialogue would be always open while White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, “We expected to have tough and direct talks on a wide range of issues and that’s exactly what we had.” The debate From the Chinese perspective, three points were made clear at the talks. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sullivan’s allegations of so-called human rights violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong…

China’s crude oil futures, traded on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), is the first futures contract in the country to allow international investor participation. Even before its launch on March 26, 2018, there was much suspicion about whether the INE crude oil futures might be successful. All these doubts and concerns were completely understandable, given the serious challenges encountered in the past in other Asian countries, not to mention the INE’s deviation from all predecessors in having the contract denominated in the yuan. But now, at the time of its three-year anniversary, we can congratulate it on finding its feet and achieving preliminary success as a regional benchmark. What are the factors that might have contributed to the success? And what challenges may lie ahead? Unexpected progress In March…

After watching a recent episode of The Awakening Age, a TV series on the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Yang Meng, a program engineer in Beijing, has plans to visit the Red Building in the capital during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, which falls on April 4 this year. Built with red bricks and red tiles, from which it gets its name, the Red Building was the main location of Peking University in 1918. Since the university’s founding in 1898, its main campus had to be moved several times due to the internal conflicts in the country at that time. The Red Building was a major cradle of political development in China. Between 1915 and 1923, prominent Chinese scholars and college students initiated the New Culture Movement, which rejected…

Fighting Erosion Shanxi, a province on the Loess Plateau in north China, has treated more than 18,000 square km of land to battle water and soil erosion over the past five years, authorities said on March 23. The province plans to treat another 366,667 hectares of land this year, according to the provincial administration of water resources. The Loess Plateau used to be plagued by chronic soil erosion, resulting in ecological imbalance. Tens of millions of tons of mud and sand are washed into the Yellow River every year, making up most of the silt that gave the river its name. Thanks to water and soil SOCIETY conservation efforts in recent years, such as afforestation projects, the amount of sand pouring into the Yellow River from the province dropped from…

The annual plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the top legislature of the country, held in March unveiled new targets for achieving carbon neutralization. They included reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP respectively by 13.5 percent and 18 percent during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period. China made the commitment to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45 percent by 2020 as compared with 2005 at the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen. It also committed to simultaneously increasing the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption to 15 percent of its total energy mix. The commitments were honored ahead of schedule. By 2019, China’s carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP had dropped by 48 percent, and its non-fossil…

No one could have put a simple proposition better than Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi did in early March on the mending of the India-China relationship. Bilateral ties have been uneasy following the conflict between the two armies along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector of China-India border areas last year. On March 7, Wang held a news conference on the sidelines of the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, in Beijing to explain the country’s diplomatic agenda for 2021 to the outside world. Setting tone Wang spoke about the importance of building a “constructive relationship” with India. He offered a fresh blueprint to clear the air on India-China relations after the prolonged border standoff. The foreign minister…

Dorjee, a 45-year-old herder in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, northwest China, is relieved to see the pasture in the region, where he grazes his herd, is once again covered with grass as high as his knees. More than a decade ago, he had to sell all his 200 yaks and look for odd jobs when the grassland deteriorated and there wasn’t enough to feed the animals. The change is due to the local government’s measures such as treating the soil and banning or restraining grazing. With the grassland improving, Dorjee has returned to his old business that he likes the most and started to raise yaks again. He also has another job now as a grassland ranger, monitoring the land to prevent overexploitation. “Now our grassland is…

Chinese archaeologists announced on March 20 that they had uncovered six new sacrificial pits and unearthed more than 500 items dating back about 3,000 years at the Sanxingdui Ruins, in Sichuan Province, southwest China. The findings help shed light on the development of the Chinese civilization and enhance a more vivid, deepened mutual learning among ancient civilizations. Among the artifacts, there are exquisite gold masks, gold foil, bronze masks, bronze sacred trees, ivory products and jade. The remainder of the newly discovered pits is still under excavation Additionally, the archaeologists unearthed miniature ivory sculptures, silk and textile residues, carbonized rice as well as tree seeds. Chinese archaeologists for the first time ever are applying 3D scanning and printing technologies to create bespoke casings for the relics unearthed. A 3D scanner…

Digital Yuan Pilots and testing of the digital yuan are making steady progress, according to Mu Changchun, head of the Digital Currency Research Institute at the People’s Bank of China (PBC), the central bank. Mu made the remarks while addressing a summit at the China Development Forum. The forum took place in Beijing on March 20-22. Mu dismissed concerns of user privacy infringement, saying the digital currency has the highest level of privacy protection among existing payment tools. The digital currency, although still in its pilot phase, will include more people in the rapidly developing digital era, making daily life easier and digital payments more secure, he said. The digital yuan will be issued by the PBC and legally backed by the government as an alternative to paper money. According…

Those waking up in China’s northern provinces on March 15 would have been forgiven for thinking they’d been transported to a completely different planet. Their cities were engulfed in thick orange smog, the likes of which had not been seen for a decade. Brought on by severe sandstorms from neighboring Mongolia, according to the National Meteorological Center, the epic storms brought traffic, flights and even schools to a close as people tried to deal with the hazardous conditions. In downtown Beijing, the average concentration of dangerous airborne PM10 particles, fine particles with a diameter of 10 micrometers, topped 8,000 micrograms per cubic meter, far above the recommended exposure limit. Levels of PM2.5, which is inhalable and one of the most harmful air pollutants, rose to 600 micrograms in many parts…

An extraordinary year has passed, in which COVID-19 swept the world, global political and economic uncertainty abounded, and people from all walks of life faced challenges unseen in generations. Participants at this year’s China Development Forum, an annual event hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council, have reflected on 2020, and also on the opportunities 2021 will bring, particularly in China. Below are edited excerpts of what they said: Henry Alfred Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State This year, the concept of cooperation among societies is emphasized by the experience of the pandemic, and by the enormous technological development that is taking place in so many countries, importantly in China and the United States. When I came to China 50 years ago, I had the honor of…

After inspecting the three classes in his kindergarten, Li Ming, head of the preschool institution in Anding, a village in Yunnan Province, southwest China, feels satisfied. The tots wanting to use the toilet were waiting patiently in a line, instead of rushing toward it. Then they washed their hands thoroughly before eating. They have also learned to sing in unison before the classes start, and be quiet in class and pay attention to the teacher. Seeing the progress, Li feels they have acquired the basic etiquette for primary school and life beyond that. Only four years ago, there was no kindergarten in the village. Children aged between 3 and 5 years were sent to the nearby township for early education if their families could afford it but most stayed at…