Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.65/No.51 i Beijing Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has made severe impacts on the economy during the past three years. China adjusted its virus control in early December, relaxing the restriction measures in line with the lessening pathenogenicity of the virus. Now, the priority should be boosting the economy. On December 6, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, comprising the ruling Party’s most senior officials, convened a meeting to analyze the economic work necessary in 2023. It was noted at the meeting that special attention will be paid to steady growth in the coming year, pursuing progress while ensuring stability. Proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy will continue to be implemented, and efforts will be made to coordinate different policies and optimize the pandemic response so as to form…

The United States likes to frame itself as an “exceptional” country, calling itself a guiding light and model to the entire world, particularly in regard to liberty and democracy. In doing so, the U.S. professes that it has a right to remake the entire world in its own image and aggressively evangelize its ideologies overseas. These have become the underpinning messages of a hegemonic state that strives for unchallengeable global dominance. But is the United States truly as great as it makes out? When you look at the facts, it is not. The country may be praised on its own merits, but that does not mean its less favorable political realities should be exported to the rest of the world unconditionally. As detailed in a recent CNN report, nine countries…

The Chinese men’s football team may not be competing in this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, but China is still very much a part of the tournament, not only building stadiums and other major infrastructure, but also contributing to its success from right under the players’ feet. That’s because the turf covering each pitch is kept green using an intelligent watering system developed by Ningxia University. The technology uses wind and solar energy, the Internet of Things and a network of porous underground pipes to deliver water when and where it is needed and, in addition to its role in Qatar, has also been applied to projects in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The application of this smart technology is just one of the many exchanges that is…

China-Africa relations go back a long way. Two ancient trade networks were once the main conduits of contact between China and Africa: the continental Eurasian Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road, which stretched from China to East Africa along the northern shore of the Indian Ocean, ran parallel with and was connected to the continental Eurasian Silk Road. The trade in silk and other items, and consequently the Silk Road, are much older than previously thought and probably reached Egypt through Persia. Trade and cultural exchanges between China and Egypt began during China’s Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220). Chinese copper coins bearing the Kaiyuan reign mark of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) were found on several islands and at coastal port sites, including Mogadishu in Somalia,…

A Traditional Technique Farmers dry noodles in Feidong, a county in Hefei, Anhui Province, on December 12. Intelligent Cameras Fifty intelligent infrared cameras that can capture and transmit real-time images of animals have been installed in the Chengdu area of the Giant Panda National Park, Xinhua News Agency reported on December 12. The newly developed devices can transmit image data wirelessly at real time and apply solar power systems to provide an additional source of electricity, said Chen Peng, one of the developers from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province. While infrared cameras have been widely used in wildlife monitoring for several years, Chen explained that the battery life is limited and field monitoring data can’t be obtained in real time. Experts believe the new…

SKELETON RACER WINS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS Yin Zheng won the men’s skeleton on the first day of competition at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Push Championships in Lake Placid, the U.S., on December 9. Yin, who came fifth in the event at the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, clocked the best time in all three runs and was crowned the 2022/2023 Push World Champion. The silver medal went to German Felix Keisinger (0.18 seconds behind) ahead of Matt Weston of Great Britain (0.25 seconds behind) with bronze. Born in Jincheng, Shanxi Province, in March 1996, Yin graduated from Beijing Sport University and joined the national team in 2017. Before he started his skeleton career, he trained as a sprinter for two years. Warm Stations In Cold Winter…

Some 6.7 million people in 224 countries and jurisdictions have died from COVID-19. Many more will have perished without being diagnosed and others because they were denied treatment for other illnesses in overcrowded hospitals. So far, approximately 653 million cases have been confirmed worldwide. The pandemic is not over. While statisticians still count high numbers of deaths, neither national publics nor world leaders seem to want to notice. Worldwide, 1,636 died of COVID-19 every day in the week ending December 12. During the same week, COVID-19 killed 2,826 Americans, 370 more than died in the 20-year war in Afghanistan. COVID-19 has done lasting damage to the global economy. The world’s collective GDP fell by 3.4 percent in 2020—equivalent to every adult and child losing $385. Spreading first mostly among rich…

In line with optimized COVID-19 response measures rolled out by the Chinese Government in early December, quarantine requirements and travel restrictions have been lifted or relaxed across the country. Subsequently, the number of patients infected with the Omicron variant has quickly increased in many places. A lot of people have turned to social media to detail their symptoms, which have included a persistent high fever of more than 39 degrees Celsius, soreness throughout the body and severe tonsil inflammation. Some people stated that trying to drink water was as painful as swallowing broken glass. However, unlike what was seen beginning in 2020, when the fear that the Chinese people felt about facing an unknown virus was obvious, calm is the reaction now. With home rest and medication, the vast majority…

Beijing is creating mini sports grounds in its communities and parks. The sports grounds usually cover about 30 to 40 square meters and feature stationary bicycles, hopscotch lines, and even digital screens with online fitness and sports programs, among other things. These grounds are part of the Zip project, which aims to install sports facilities in urban public areas. “Zip means compress. We try to zip various sports programs into limited space,” Li Changlin, Executive Director of Dream Deck, a Beijing-based urban planning and smart technology company, told Beijing Review. “Of course, it doesn’t mean that Zip limits the size of the public space, which can be up to 300 square meters and include more facilities,” Li added. Vitalize public spaces The vitalization idea came from the Beijing Municipal Government,…

Industrial Output Value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, went up 2.2 percent year on year in November, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. In the first 11 months of 2022, the mining output gained 7.6 percent compared with the previous year. The manufacturing sector’s output rose 3.3 percent, and the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water went up 4.8 percent. The output of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) registered a 60.5-percent year-on-year increase in November, while that of solar batteries increased 68.6 percent year on year, according to the NBS. “China’s industrial transformation and upgrading trends have not changed,” Tang Weiwei, an official with the NBS, said on December 15, adding that the industrial production is expected to accelerate recovery as the optimization of COVID-19…

The world witnessed significant bilateral and multilateral diplomatic activities in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia on December 7-10, namely, the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia, the First China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit. With far-reaching geopolitical and geoeconomic influence, the state visit and the two summits mark the China-Arab states cooperation has been lifted to a new height and represent a new milestone of cooperation on strategy, energy, trade, investment, finance and technology as well as people-to-people exchange between the world’s second largest economy and the Arab world. The Riyadh Declaration of the China-Arab States Summit highlights the following key points: All parties agree to strengthen comprehensive cooperation for joint development, advance the Sino-Arab strategic partnership, adhere to the UN Charter…

Approximately 70 percent of our planet’s surface is covered by water. Yet marine ecological and environmental governance is still relatively new to most countries, notably the developing Global South. Parallel to this, the blue economy—an emerging concept that the World Bank defines as the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem”—has begun to capture the attention of many economists and political actors. The list of components has been growing from the established traditional ocean industries like fisheries, tourism, and maritime transport, to emerging sectors such as offshore renewable energy, aquaculture, seabed extractive activities, marine biotechnology and bioprospecting. Meanwhile, concerns of waste management, sustainability of ocean life and impact on climate change have been called into question as the…

A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel report regarding the case brought by China to challenge the U.S. Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, or DS544, ruled on December 9 that the tariffs violate WTO rules and do not qualify for the national security exception. Unfortunately, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has rejected this report. Western media reported that the Joe Biden administration may make a fresh move to impose new tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum on the grounds of “tackling climate challenges.” “China hopes the U.S. will respect the ruling of the WTO expert panel, follow the WTO rules, correct its wrongdoings as soon as possible, and work with China and other WTO members to jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system,” the Ministry of Commerce…

Retirement no longer equates with being old as many of the world’s younger generations expect to spend a prolonged period in that phase of their lives. What they aim to pursue is a more avant-garde lifestyle—“FIRE:” Financial Independence, Retire Early. This movement popped up in China in the last decade and, admittedly, accumulating enough money at a fairly young age to see you through the next few decades and living on a passive income courtesy of a rational wealth management plan does sound enviable. Some of those whose current paychecks won’t stretch far enough are even resorting to minimalist lifestyles to ensure their FIRE dreams can come true. But for most young people, this goal is but a dream and they will still have to stick to the conventional retirement…