At a time when Western media outlets have focused on the potential trade dispute between China and the EU, the attention on how China-France economic and trade relations will gain new momentum for further development has increased significantly.
Behind the complexity of trade relations lies the impact of external factors - such as the uncertainty of the global economic recovery, the escalation of geopolitical conflicts, and most importantly, the US push for a "decoupling" policy toward China - on the economic cooperation between the two countries.
Yet, such complexity is far from derailing the complementarity in bilateral trade relations, which remains an important force for promoting cooperation between the two countries. France was one of the earliest Western countries to invest in and set up joint ventures in China. It was also the first Western country to cooperate with China on civilian nuclear energy, the first Western country to sign an intergovernmental scientific and technological cooperation agreement with China, and the first Western country to open a direct air route with China.
In China-France relations, economic and trade cooperation has always been a crucial stabilizing force. Over the past six decades, bilateral trade has surged by more than 800 times. Now, France is China's third-largest trading partner within the EU, with bilateral trade reaching $78.9 billion in 2023, while China is France's largest trading partner in Asia and the seventh-largest globally.
The fruitful development of bilateral economic and trade relations lies in the solid foundation of cooperation and the highly complementary economic structures of both sides. China has a competitive advantage in manufacturing, electronics, and machinery and equipment, while France excels in aerospace, nuclear energy, high-end consumer goods and agricultural products.
Such economic structures provide both countries with vast trade and investment opportunities.
In particular, with China's economic restructuring in recent years, the upgrading consumption trend has brought new opportunities for France's consumer goods and services industries.
Bilateral agricultural has been on the rise over the past 10 years, according to Chinese media reports. When French President Emmanuel Macron visited China in April 2023, the two countries signed cooperation agreements aimed at strengthening their partnerships in agriculture, food, and technology. French meat, grain, poultry and other industries are actively pursuing opportunities in the Chinese market.
In the first two months of this year, French direct investment in China surged by 585.8 percent year-on-year, according to data from China's Ministry of Commerce. If anything, it reflects the optimistic expectations of French companies for China's economic potential and their recognition of the vitality of the Chinese market.
Practical cooperation will continue to thrive, with opportunities not only in traditional sectors such as aerospace and nuclear energy, but also in emerging areas like the energy transition and green development.
With this promising future, it is essential for both sides to work together to protect their cooperation momentum from potential disruptions caused by the "decoupling" or "de-risking" push.
Continued practical cooperation in bilateral economic ties is not only essential for the relationship between the two countries, but also plays a crucial role in advancing the broader long-term China-Europe relationship.
A think tank report titled "China-EU Cooperation on Environment and Climate: Progress and Prospects" was released on Friday. The report called for the further strengthening of the bilateral green partnership and making contributions to promoting a cleaner and more beautiful world.
China is making efforts to improve the access of foreign companies to the Chinese market, as seen in the shrinking negative list for foreign investment and the improving investment climate.
It is sincerely hoped that France will meet China halfway, fostering greater bilateral trade and investment cooperation through enhanced communication and coordination, ultimately contributing to the stability and prosperity of the global economy.
Total China-US tradeexpanded 1.1 percent year-on-year to 1.47 trillion yuan ($203.42 billion) in yuan-denominated terms in the first four months, reversing a 0.7percent contraction in the first three months, customs data showed on Thursday.
The return of growth underscored the resilience and complementarity of trade relations between the world's two largest economies, which will retain a ballast role in the bilateral relationship, observers said. They predicted that more potential could be released this year if the US can check its urge to relentlessly contain China's development.
The surging trade sent a stern warning to certain US politicians and their decoupling push against Chinese exports, either in the guise of smearing "overcapacity" or hyping "de-risking," analysts said. It shows that those politicians' actions - motivated by geopolitical intentions - severely deviate from the interests of the US business community, and only pragmatic cooperation with the Chinese side would lead to win-win results, they noted.
In the first four months, China's exports to the US grew 2.4 percent year-on-year to 1.08 trillion yuan in yuan-denominated terms, while imports edged down 2.5 percent to 387 billion yuan, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
The US remained China's third-largest trading partner in the first four months, after ASEAN and the EU, according to the Global Times' calculations.
In the first quarter, China's exports to the US gained 2.1 percent, while imports were down 7.7 percent.
In April alone, bilateral trade reached 400.3 billion yuan, customs statistics showed, compared with 386.8 billion yuan a year earlier.
Observers said that bilateral trade showed a turnaround between March and April, amid animproving and stabilizing trajectory of bilateral relationships. Exchanges of high-level officials have intensified in recent months.
"It also showed that the Chinese and US economic structures are highly complementary andunderscored the win-win nature of bilateral cooperation," Gao Lingyun, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Timeson Thursday.
The increasing competitiveness of Chinese quality exports to the US consumer market also showed that Chinese manufacturers have helped the US to mitigatepersistent inflation, analysts added.
Gao said that the rebound also reflected a broad recovery in global demand, which bodes well for China's overall foreign trade this year. In the first four months, China's merchandise trade rose 5.7 percent year-on-year to13.81 trillion yuan.
China-US trade is likely to continue the positive momentum in the coming months and exceed last year's level, taking account of the low base effect and the stronger US dollar, Gao said, though the upcoming US presidential election will mean some uncertainty for bilateral relations.
"The US may regain its position as China's second-largest trading partner this year, depending on how China's trade with the EU develops," Gao said.
China's trade with the EU fell by 1.8 percent to 1.75 trillion yuan in the first four months, which observers said was partly due to the sluggishness in the bloc's economy.
The release of thetrade data came as US politicians ramped up a crackdown against Chinese advantageous industries, using "overcapacity" claims to justify more protectionist measures against Chinese exports.
Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday that the vigorous trade shows that the malicious geopolitical intentions of politicians represent a serious departure from the true interests and trading activities of US businesses.
"The US market did not buy into Washington's decoupling push, and it is eager for more pragmatic cooperation with the Chinese side," Cong noted.
The US reportedly revoked licenses that allowed companies including Intel and Qualcomm to ship chips used for laptops and handsets to Huawei, Reuters reported. Observers said that Chinese companies could have imported more US products if Washington had not imposed so many export restrictions.
China and France should uphold mutual benefits, jointly oppose acts of "decoupling" and disrupting industrial and supply chains, and say no together to building barriers, President Xi Jinping made the remarks on Monday when holding talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
China and France should uphold independence and jointly fend off a "new Cold War" or bloc confrontation, Xi said, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Xi also attended a welcome ceremony held by Macron on Monday.
Earlier on the day, Xi attended a China-France-EU trilateral meeting with President Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Elysee Palace.
In a signed article published Sunday in French media Le Figaro, Xi said we live in a world that is far from being tranquil and is once again facing a multitude of risks. China is ready to work with France in the spirit that guided the establishment of our diplomatic ties to forge a stronger comprehensive strategic partnership between our two countries and make new contributions to stronger cooperation of the global community.
Strategic guidance
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Monday that Xi's visit to France marks the climax of China's diplomacy toward Europe this year. And EU is crucial in the process of promoting political multipolarity and economic globalization.
On Tuesday, Macron will take Xi to the Pyrenees, a mountainous region dear to the French President as the birthplace of his maternal grandmother, according to Reuters.
Such a special arrangement by Macron has the meaning of courtesy and shows the special relationship between the two heads of state, as well as a kind of frankness, analysts said.
Tian Dewen, deputy director of the Institute of European Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that in the past five years, China-EU relations have encountered difficulties, but China-France relations have been relatively stable. This is directly related to the Macron government's implementation of positive and pragmatic relations with China.
China is a very important external force for France and Europe to realize strategic autonomy, and it can certainly consolidate France's leading position in Europe if it can maintain a communicative and interactive relationship with China, experts said.
Seeking consensus
China regards Europe as a priority of its major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, and an important partner in achieving Chinese modernization, Xi said at China-France-EU trilateral meeting held earlier on Monday.
As the world enters a new period of turbulence and transformation, China and the EU, as two major forces in the world, should continue to see each other as partners, stay committed to dialogue and cooperation, deepen strategic communication, enhance strategic mutual trust, build strategic consensus, carry out strategic coordination, work for steady and sound growth of China-EU ties, and continue making new contributions to world peace and development, Xi said.
According to AFP, Macron told Xi that coordination with Beijing on "major crises" including Ukraine and the Middle East was "absolutely decisive" and essential.
He Zhigao, a research fellow with the Institute of European Studies from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said that the trilateral meeting highlights an important opportunity for China and Europe to strengthen high-level exchanges, communicate on major issues, and enhance strategic consensus.
"By talking about some of the current challenges facing China-Europe relations and the demands of both sides, they can continue the stability and cooperation space of the current relations, so that the relations will not slide into a new Cold War led by the US. China-Europe relations now play a more important role in shaping global order than ever," He told the Global Times.
Von der Leyen said that it is important that the EU maintains good relations with China, and this will determine whether global challenges such as climate change and the Ukraine crisis can be better addressed.
Xi urged the two sides to properly address economic and trade frictions through dialogue and consultation, and accommodate each other's legitimate concerns.
Whether viewed from the perspective of comparative advantage or global market demand, there is no such thing as "China's overcapacity problem," Xi said.
Sense of autonomy
Sun Keqin, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that the US has very deep involvement in European affairs.
"US interference remains, but Europe has kept a certain degree of autonomy and is able to cooperate with China, especially the French leadership which has always had a strong sense of strategic autonomy in a pragmatic manner," said Sun.
Through the visit of the Chinese top leader, Europeans will also have the opportunity to think about how to handle its relations with China, whether to follow the US to engage in confrontation and lose their own interests, or to jointly develop mutual benefits and get win-win results, the expert said.
The on-going COP28 in Dubai, the UAE, a conference dedicated to green and low-carbon practices, has also showcased Chinese brands' efforts in global environmental conservation.
Since the start of the conference, Chinese brands such as Higer and BYD have provided electric shuttle bus services to ferry attendees, with about 50 electric vehicles from South China's Guangdong Province offering shuttle services in the conference's "Green Zone," which is open to the public.
This is just a microcosm of the vigorous development of China's new-energy industry on display in the UAE.
The UAE Energy Strategy 2050 aims to increase the share of clean energy projects to 50 percent of its overall energy mix by 2050. Moreover, countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt have similar goals and visions.
In September 2020, China proposed its goals to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, with top-down societal involvement.
The development of Chinese industries around new energy, including new-energy vehicle (NEV) and photovoltaic unit manufacture, ranks highly in the world and aligns with the transformational development path of the Middle East.
During COP28 in Dubai, the Global Times visited and interviewed some Chinese new-energy enterprises operating in the UAE to understand cooperation efforts in the new-energy field between China and the UAE and how Chinese technologies and products are driving the carbon reduction process in the Middle East.
Rising star
In October 2022, Dubai police held a grand induction ceremony to welcome the new Hongqi E-HS9 police cars from China as additions to the existing police car fleet. Not only were leaders from both Dubai police and Hongqi in attendance at the ceremony, but a ceremonial guard on horseback was also held.
Dubai boasts an all-star police car fleet almost entirely comprised of super sports and luxury vehicle brands, from Ferrari and Lamborghini, to Bentley, and now a Chinese brand.
More notably, Hongqi's high-level debut marks the first independent automotive Chinese brand to join the Dubai police fleet and also the first NEV brand globally to do so.
Dubai also awarded the first Hongqi (EHS9) the prestigious number plate "8," as a sign of respect and recognition.
Local police leadership praised Hongqi's local development and expressed high appreciation for the partnership, wishing the development of Hongqi cars in the UAE and the world well. They said the entry of Hongqi into the Dubai police car fleet is a manifestation of the friendly development of relations between the two countries, with an anticipation for a longer and deeper relationship between China and the Arab world.
It was Oneroad Group Dubai, a Chinese company, that introduced the Hongqi brand to the UAE.
"We decided to introduce Hongqi cars not only because we saw the continuous improvement in independent Chinese-brand car technology but also recognized the reliable strength of China in making electric cars," said Zhang Chenling, Acting Chief Executive Officer at the Oneroad Group Dubai, to the Global Times at the company's offices at the Burj Khalifa.
"We have been making deep inroads in the UAE for more than a decade and believe that we have the capability to introduce Chinese-brand cars into the UAE market," Zhang explained.
Hongqi is a well-known automotive brand in China with a long and glorious history. It was the first high-end sedan to be manufactured in-country since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Hongqi, meaning "red flag" in Chinese, used to be served as the ride of top government leaders, which also had been used as parade cars during National Day parades.
According to Xie Qiyi, General Manager of Oneroad, the group doesn't only represent the Hongqi brand in the UAE. Following the commencement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the company also focuses on the overseas services offered by other Chinese automotive brands, such as Dongfeng Forthing and Great Wall Motors in the UAE, Oman, as well as in other countries and regions. At an automotive sales center near Dubai's Business Bay, the Global Times saw Hongqi and Forthing NEVs on prominent display.
Karam, a local resident, had his eye on a new arrival - a Forthing Friday EV. "The car is spacious, the interior is luxurious, and it has a sense of technology," Karam told the Global Times.
Pan Kuibai, a manager at the sales center, told the Global Times that Chinese NEVs have certain market potential in the Middle East, not only because Chinese technologies and products have received increased recognition in recent years, but also because the Middle Eastern market is not prejudicial against Chinese products or prone to imposing political restrictions as is the case with some Western countries.
"Overall, even though these cars are not cheap due to their high configurations, they are still favored by the locals," he said.
According to China Energy News, China's NEV industry chain is attracting the attention of Middle Eastern oil giants. Preliminary statistics show that since the beginning of 2023, NEV industry chain companies such as NIO, HiPhi, and Pony.ai have successively gained the attention of Middle Eastern capital.
Industry insiders believe that as the world's largest NEV market, China's advantages in product technology and industry chain completeness have attracted considerable investments from Middle Eastern capital. Combined with the energy transformation needs of Middle Eastern countries, cooperation and exchanges between Chinese enterprises and Middle Eastern countries in the high-quality NEV sector will deepen and broaden further in the future.
Zhang from Oneroad also stated that as the UAE continues to vigorously and rapidly promote energy transformation and carbon reduction, 50 percent of the country's official and public vehicles will also be replaced with NEVs, which will bring opportunities for Chinese enterprises. "Although local supporting facilities still have much room for development, significant changes will be seen within a few years," she said.
Sharing sunshine
In recent years, the Middle East has witnessed increased advocacy in the diversified development of energy, utilizing its unique sunlight conditions to vigorously develop photovoltaic projects and optimize the electricity energy structure. Against this backdrop, China's leading photovoltaic industry enterprises have targeted local opportunities here and hope to seize the development initiative.
A large-scale Chinese-built photovoltaic power station, which looks particularly spectacular from the air, calls the desert suburbs of Dubai home.
The synchronization of Shuaa Energy 3 900MW PV project is a recent representative project of China's leading photovoltaic enterprise Sungrow in Dubai. According to Thompson Meng, Vice President of Sungrow PV & BESS BG, Sungrow has large landmark projects in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, as well as in Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, radiating into North Africa's Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria.
Observers noted that in some countries participating in the BRI, green infrastructure such as new-energy and information networks will see rapid growth in the future. Among them, the photovoltaic industry chain will become the most developmentally advantageous sub-sector of China's new-energy cooperation abroad.
In terms of the region, the Middle East has the greatest potential for photovoltaic demand, and it is expected that by 2025, the export of photovoltaic components to the Middle East may account for more than 10 percent of China's total export volume of photovoltaic components, Yicai reported. According to the Securities Times, many Chinese photovoltaic enterprises are also actively taking root in Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Meng introduced that in addition to abundant light energy and vast land, the policies of governments in the Middle East are also relatively supportive. "They are thinking about transitioning from traditional fossil energy resources to new-energy and future technology manufacturing, so these policies and strategies are very supportive of this industry."
As a leading enterprise in the industry, Meng noted that Sungrow has a 26-year history, with dynamic technology, having undertaken the long arduous journey of development, surmounting challenges, and achieving great results, which now allows the company to export its expertise overseas. In addition, the enterprise has always been forward-looking, engaging in long term planning, and insists on sustainable development amid intense global competition.
Against the backdrop of China striving to achieve its dual-carbon goals and the global response to climate change, Meng also believes that Chinese enterprises, especially those leading the new-energy industry, are taking on their social responsibilities.
"For energy transformation, you need to play a leading role, not just focus on short-term interests. This industry is one that benefits humanity. Whether from the perspective of pollution reduction or carbon reduction, it has a positive significance," he said. "Also, our enterprise needs to focus on cultivating talents with such a vision and mindset, which I think is also a great contribution to society."
Chinese power
During the first days of the COP28, Sultan al-Jaber, the COP28 President, as well as the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology announced that more than 110 governments have pledged to triple the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030 at the COP28 climate summit. It also included a target to double the global rate of energy efficiency by 2030.
This year's COP has attracted more than 80,000 participants, making it the largest UN climate summit in history. In addition to the Chinese delegation, many institutions, enterprises, and observers from China participated in the conference and set up pavilions, holding related events to provide a platform for participants from various countries to engage in exchanges and understand China's carbon reduction measures and achievements.
For instance, the All-China Environmental Protection Federation also set up the Solar+ Pavilion (Photovoltaic Corner) in the Blue Zone of COP28 with LONGi Green Energy, showcasing the development and innovation of the photovoltaic industry and providing a platform for people of different identities to discuss and achieve energy equity.
Additionally, research institutions such as the China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co Ltd, also held a side event on NEVs and low-carbon transportation at the China Pavilion during COP28, inviting guests from the UN, the UAE, and China to learn about possible cooperation between China and the UAE in new-energy industries.
Analysts said that investments in China's NEV technology by Middle Eastern countries signify a strategic shift toward energy transformation and the finding of new competitive edges in emerging industries. Meanwhile, they emphasized the importance of market-specific adaptations and risk management for Chinese automakers exporting to the Middle East, and the consideration of local climate and consumer preferences.
In the science fiction movie "The Wandering Earth," artificial intelligence system "Moss" is able to explore all solutions to save the Earth in just a few seconds.
This miraculous scene is gradually transitioning from science fiction to reality. The ultra-high-performance optoelectronic chip proposed by the research team at Tsinghua University adopts a new architecture of optoelectronic fusion, which is disruptive to existing chip technologies, the team told the Global Times on Wednesday.
The technology not only opens up a new path for this future technology to become part of daily life, but also provides inspiration for the integration of other future high-performance technologies such as quantum computing and in-memory computing with current electronic information systems.
The results, titled "Purely Analog Optoelectronic Chips for High-Speed Visual Tasks," had been published in the recent issue of the journal "Nature."
In 1965, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel, proposed "Moore's Law," which has influenced the chip industry for over half a century. It predicts that the number of transistors on integrated circuits will double approximately every two years.
The semiconductor field has prospered for decades based on Moore's Law, and "chips" have become an important engine for humanity's entry into the era of digital intelligence. However, as transistor sizes approach their physical limits, Moore's Law has slowed down or even faced failure in the past decade. How to build a new generation of computing architecture and establish a "new" order of chips in the era of artificial intelligence has been a frontier hotspot of international concern.
To address this challenge, a joint research team from Tsinghua University, including Academician Dai Qionghai from the Department of Automation, Assistant Professor Wu Jiamin, Associate Professor Fang Lu from the Department of Electronic Engineering, and Associate Researcher Qiao Fei, proposed a new computing architecture that "breaks free" from Moore's Law: optoelectronic analog chips. In practical tests for visual tasks, the computing power of these chips reached over 3,000 times that of current high-performance commercial chips.
From a physical perspective, optoelectronic chips are based on a disruptive technology that is different from existing chip technologies, the research team explained in an interview with the Global Times on Wednesday. They noted that, at current stage, their work is focused on intelligent visual tasks, and they are also conducting further exploration to see if the new technology can achieve tasks of the same or even higher complexity as current chips, such as large language models.
In this small chip, the Tsinghua University research team creatively proposed an optoelectronic deep fusion computing framework. Starting from the most fundamental physical principles, it combines optical computing based on electromagnetic wave propagation in space with pure analog electronic computing based on Kirchhoff's law. It "breaks free" from the physical bottlenecks of data conversion speed, accuracy, and power consumption that constrain traditional chip architectures, and overcomes three international challenges: large-scale computing unit integration, efficient nonlinearity, and high-speed optoelectronic interfaces.
In the demonstrated intelligent visual scene tests in the paper, the system-level computing power of the optoelectronic fusion chip was thousands of times higher than that of existing high-performance chip architectures. However, such astonishing computing power is just one of the many advantages of this chip. In the intelligent visual tasks and traffic scene calculations demonstrated by the research team, the system-level energy efficiency (the number of operations that can be performed per unit of energy) of the optoelectronic fusion chip reached 74.8 Peta-OPS/W, which is over 4 million times that of current high-performance chips. In other words, the amount of electricity that can power existing chips for one hour can power this chip for over 500 years.
One key factor currently limiting chip integration limits is the heat dissipation problem caused by high density. The optoelectronic fusion chip, which operates at ultra-low power consumption, will greatly improve the chip's heat dissipation problem and bring all-round breakthroughs to the future chip design. Furthermore, the minimum linewidth of the chip's optical part is only in the hundreds of nanometers, while the circuit part uses 180 nanometers Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, achieving a performance improvement of multiple orders of magnitude compared to 7 nanometers process high-performance chips. At the same time, the materials used are simple and easily obtainable, and the cost is only a fraction of the latter.
Will the emergence of this cutting-edge chip technology help China achieve a "overtaking on the curve" in chip research and development? In response to this question, the research team told the Global Times that the research and development competition in the traditional chip technology field is becoming increasingly fierce, and facing international challenges such as the slowing down of Moore's Law, the world is seeking new computing architectures. It can indeed be understood as a kind of "curve" opportunity. Whether we can achieve "curve overtaking" depends on the joint efforts and ecological construction of all sectors. We are also working towards this goal.
A special review of this research, invited by the journal Nature, pointed out that the appearance of this chip may allow the new generation of computing architecture which will be integrated into daily life much earlier than expected. Academician Dai Qionghai, one of the corresponding authors of the paper, stated, "Developing a new computing architecture for the era of artificial intelligence is a summit, but truly implementing the new architecture in real life to solve major national and livelihood needs is a more important challenge and our responsibility."
The 2,000th rail-sea intermodal train of 2024, running along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, departed from Qinzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to Chengxiang, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sunday.
The trip marked a 16.8 percent year-on-year rise in the number of combined trains year-to-date and indicated that the 2024 first-quarter goals were achieved 14 days ahead of schedule, two facts that signal a successful start to the year, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday.
The train, with 108 containers, carried black sesame from Myanmar, coconut juice from South China's Hainan Province and sugar from Guangxi, among other goods.
As of Friday, the land-sea corridor's extensive network had reached 149 stations in 18 provincial-level regions across China, five more than in January.
The rapid development of the corridor, a trade and logistics passage launched in 2017 and jointly built by provincial-level regions in western China and ASEAN members, shows the growth potential of provinces in the Chinese hinterland and reflects China's robust foreign trade growth in the first two months of the year, despite the complex international situation and rising protectionist headwinds, analysts noted.
The increase in the freight volume of the trade corridor reflects the prosperous trend of economic development in western China, said Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Bai said that the result shows that trade between Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members and China has become more optimized, and the China-Laos Railway is also boosting trade cooperation between China and RCEP members.
The trade corridor has continuously optimized its supply structure and service scope this year, bringing many opportunities to regions along the route and driving their economic development, Bai noted.
In terms of seaborne trade under the corridor, 20,539 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers of goods were transported from the Beibu Gulf Port in Guangxi, a surge of 36 percent year-on-year. RCEP member countries shipped 11,023 TEUs via the corridor from January 1 to March 10, increasing 35 percent year-on-year.
ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner in the first two months of 2024, with bilateral trade of 993.24 billion yuan ($139.88 billion), up 8.1 percent year-on-year, customs data showed on March 7.
China should ramp up efforts to promote independent scientific exploration and innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), as the country seeks to pursue a unique path of AI innovation with Chinese characteristics, Xu Jiuping, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and a professor at Sichuan University, told the Global Times.
"We should give full play to the spirit of Chinese people who always dare to explore and innovate," Xu said.
AI has become a heated topic in this year's two sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC, and the investment and application of AI technology would assist industries and businesses to achieve speedy digital transformation and nurture new quality productive forces for economic growth.
Chinese authorities have always actively supported the development of AI and have been striving to achieve greater self-reliance in technology advances. And AI is deemed as an important engine in driving the nation's economic transformation and upgrading, Xu said.
China is home to a huge market and talent reserve, and the population base and sound software and hardware infrastructure also provide a good foundation for data collection, Xu told the Global Times.
According to Xu, to seek ingenuity in developing more advanced AI innovations means finding a unique way that suits China's actual conditions and industrial development situation, and to better serve new needs and promote China's international competitiveness.
The US investments in exploration of AI in 2023 accounted for 60 percent of the global total investments, followed by China with 12 percent, Xu told the Global Times, adding that China is relatively weak in terms of "AI literacy, talent and research."
According to information released by the White House, the US government has laid out an ambitious agenda for the country to lead on AI research and development. The Biden administration has been funding groundbreaking research to promote trustworthy AI through America's National AI Research Institutes.
And, the emergence of ChatGPT and Sora, a large number of AI talent have allowed the US to lead in cutting-edge AI innovation.
To fill those gaps, Xu said Chinese enterprises can learn from the experience and practices of AI pioneers such as US-based OpenAI, while finding its own distinct way to promote AI innovation.
China should advocate independent homegrown innovation, Xu noted.
"This kind of originality does not mean being complacent or rest on our laurels, but rather adhering to independent innovation, to better serve our development needs and promote our international competitiveness in advanced technologies," Xu said.
More importance should be attached to cultivating Chinese talent in mathematics, computing and algorithm, he added.
China's investment in AI is forecast to reach $38.1 billion in 2027, accounting for 9 percent of the world's total, according to a report released by market consultancy IDC.
"The Chinese market has the world's largest number of users and active data-producing entities, helpful for reshape many new and complex businesses and services," Xu said.
The tourism phenomenon triggered by Harbin, the ice city in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, shows no sign of abating and most recently its popularity has led to a fierce competition among tourism authorities in several Chinese cities, as they strive to leverage the internet's potential to convert online engagement into real tourist footfall.
Starting from January 9, the official Douyin account of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Henan Province has seen an increase in the number of videos being posted, with 20 to 30 clips being released per day and a total of 112 in four days, enthusiastically showcasing its cultural and tourism resources. By posting videos such as "Shaolin Kung Fu" and "mutton stewed noodles" to show off its local cuisine, the account gained nearly one million followers within just a few days.
In January, North China's Shanxi and Central China's Henan provinces announced their partnership in tourism, achieving mutual exemption of admission tickets for 114 A-level scenic spots in six cities.
While culture and tourism authorities in Shanxi and Henan provinces are boasting their enriched tourism resources on social media, East China's Shandong Province, famous for being the birthplace of Confucius and the location of the famous Taishan Mountain and the Yellow River estuary, has also attracted much online attention.
The Department of Culture and Tourism in North China's Hebei Province changed their short video official name overnight, from "Hebei Tourism" to "Hebei Cultural and Tourism." This alteration was prompted by the fierce online competition to attract tourists, resulting in the phrase "cultural and tourism" gaining significant popularity across various social media platforms.
More interesting is that the video of the head of culture and tourism in Harbin's Acheng district dancing with performers from Harbin Ice-Snow World, the world's largest theme park of its kind, on short video platforms, has entertained millions of netizens.
These diligent efforts made by the local head of culture and tourism in Harbin to attract tourists to the city were joined by netizens across the country as they playfully boasted about the exceptional skills possessed by their own heads of culture and tourism bureaus, all in an effort to achieve similar success in their own cities.
Netizens from Southwest China's Sichuan Province, known for its giant panda bases, jokingly claimed that their head of local culture and tourism bureau has the extraordinary ability to "give birth to" giant pandas. While, netizens from Central China's Hunan Province proudly boasted that their head of cultural and tourism can devour a staggering 50 kilograms of red peppers. Hunan Province is renowned for its diverse pepper varieties and spicy cuisine, which locals take great pride in.
Netizens from Southwest China's Yunnan Province went as far as bragging that their head of cultural and tourism can consume three kilos of raw wild mushrooms. Yunnan is famous for its different types of wild mushrooms, some of which can be poisonous if not cooked properly.
With the rapid proliferation of social media, Harbin has swiftly become the most coveted tourist destination in the country. Recognizing this trend, cultural and tourism authorities aim to harness the power of the internet to transform online engagement into actual tourist visits.
Cities surrounding Harbin have also attempted to take advantage of the huge tourist flow brought with Harbin by frequently uploaded interesting videos.
Tourism in Harbin hasn't become popular overnight. It is a result of the long-term promotion of ice and snow sports in Northeast China, reflecting the booming popularity of China's ice and snow tourism, Jiang Yiyi, deputy head of the School of Leisure Sports and Tourism at Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Jiang believes it might be difficult to reproduce the popularity of Harbin tourism. Its popularity and the booming Zibo barbecue phenomenon in 2023 are the results of unintentional efforts. However, both places have achieved good interaction with the tourists.
These two major tourism events in China and the popularity of a grassroots basketball tournament known as Village BA are not only developed based on the tourism resources in these regions, but also achieved by actively grafting them with local culture, Jiang noted.
Industry observers noted that the key to turning one-time booming tourism into a persistent trend lies in the continuous cultivation of a pleasant destination to visit and fostering a warm-hearted hospitality.
In the beginning of this winter, Harbin has effectively addressed tourists' complaints regarding the organization and services of Harbin Ice-Snow World, as well as overcharging by local restaurants. This crisis management has left a positive impression of the city. Harbin has also taken the initiative to provide considerate services to tourists, media reports said. For example, numerous free warm and comfortable rest stations have been established at major tourist attractions, which have been well-received by visitors.
Both last year's Zibo barbecue and this year's ice and snow fever reflect the fast recovery of China's tourism industry. As winter, the traditional tourism off-season, draws new tourism fever, these events signal the fast tourism development in China, Jiang noted.
From the Adora Magic City's completion of its maiden commercial voyage on Sunday to Chinese shipbuilders obtaining the most orders from global clients in 2023, China's high-end manufacturing sector, represented by the steadily progressing shipbuilding industry, has become a new driving force in the country's economic development.
The Adora Magic City, China's first domestically built large cruise ship, completed its maiden commercial voyage on Sunday after taking more than 3,000 tourists from 16 countries and regions for a seven-day trip to destinations in South Korea and Japan.
China has been advancing its shipbuilding technology especially in high-value added segments with strong international competiveness. The ability to build ultra-large container ships and use green fuels is also leading the world, Zheng Ping, chief analyst with industry news portal chineseport.cn, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Last year, Chinese shipyards won the highest number of global orders, with deliveries as far off as 2028, according to media reports.
The delivery dates for Guangzhou Shipyard International Co run into 2027 and 2028, as fleet operators worldwide are attracted by the company's strengths in green production and environmental protection, said Li Hao, an official from the company, as China Media Group (CMG) reported on Saturday.
More than 60 percent of the company's on-hand orders are methanol-powered dual-fuel ships or LNG- fired (liquefied natural gas) () dual-fuel models. Compared with conventional container ships, ultra-large container ships powered by dual-fuel sources can reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent, nitrogen oxide emissions by 85 percent and sulfur emissions by 99 percent, CMG reported.
In 2023, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group delivered 17 vessels, which was 106 percent of the annual plan. The number of medium- and high-end vessels exceeded 90 percent of the total deliveries, the company said in a statement it sent to the Global Times earlier. Hudong-Zhonghua is now building 16 LNG vessels simultaneously, and it plans to deliver nearly 50 LNG carriers in the next five years.
China has basically closed the technological gap with South Korea in building high-value added ships, Zheng said, and China's shipbuilding boom will persist this year.
In 2023, Chinese shipbuilders won the most new orders worldwide for a total of 24.46 million compensated gross tons (CGT), 59 percent of the total, data from UK-based Clarksons Research showed. South Korea was second for the third consecutive year with 10.01 million CGT.
China's shipbuilding industry is striving to advance its high-quality development through intelligent and green technology.
The intelligent transformation has also boosted the efficiency of shipbuilding, which is traditionally a labor-intensive process. Through intelligent transformation, the entire workshop for building a ro-ro passenger ship with more than 20,000 square meters can be reduced from 200 people to 50 people by integrating more automation and robotics technology, according to the CMG report.
Intelligent ports are becoming popular in China with the expanding utilization of autonomous trucks and other types of smart equipment, Zheng said.
He said that the domestic industry is still in the early stages of smart development, and more emerging technologies will be integrated into future manufacturing.
From January to November 2023, China completed ships totaling 38.09 million deadweight tons (dwt), up 12.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
New orders rose 63.8 percent to 68.45 million dwt, and orders on hand totaled 134.09 million dwt as of the end of November.
A new round of large-scale rain and snow weather should hit the country starting from Tuesday night, and it is expected that from Wednesday to Friday, the central and eastern regions of China will experience another round of large-scale rain and snow, the meteorological departments warned on Tuesday.
In the past two days, northern China, the Huang-Huai region and other areas of China have experienced the first rain and snow storms of the winter. During the day on Monday, this first round of rain and snow gradually weakened and ended.
However, from Tuesday night to Saturday, a new cold wave is predicted to affect most parts of China from west to east, making it the strongest cold air front so far this winter. Temperatures in most parts of China will drop by 8-12 C, and in some areas, the temperature drop may exceed 14 C, leading Beijing to issue a blue cold wave warning and a yellow blizzard warning on Tuesday.
The heavy snowfall areas in northern China and the Yellow-Huaihe region overlap with the areas that experienced heavy snowfall on December 10, and daily snowfall in these regions is expected to be extreme. Influenced by the cold wave, temperatures in the central and eastern regions will continue to decrease, and the lowest temperature in northern China, the Yellow-Huaihe region and other areas will approach or even break the historical record for this period, according to meteorological departments.
Meteorologists said that this cold wave will be fierce, with a large drop in temperatures and severe snowstorms, which may put significant pressure on transportation and lead to an increased risk of accidents. Moreover, special attention needs to be paid to safety hazards caused by snowstorms, Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
To cope with the snowy weather, the Beijing municipal bureau of public security traffic management has established a snow road traffic emergency support command center. According to the department, they have initiated a high-level duty plan to strengthen the deployment of police forces and traffic maintenance guidance in key areas, roads, bridges, intersections, as well as areas with steep slopes and that are prone to icing. Also, they have actively coordinated with emergency response units for snow emergencies and promptly implemented ice removal and snow melting measures to minimize the impact of snowfall and icing on traffic.
In addition, the new round of rain and snow has entered a more complex phase. Freezing rain may occur in the central part of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, southern part of North China's Shanxi Province, and central-northern part of Central China's Henan Province, so extra attention should be paid to the dangers brought by blizzards and freezing rain and snow.
It is also worth mentioning that the cold air will not influence the south of the Yangtze River and South China regions from Wednesday to the Thursday, and temperatures in these areas will still be high. For example, the highest temperature in cities like Nanchang and Fuzhou will reach 26 C. However, these areas will soon be hit by a strong "pressure" from the cold air. It is expected that around Saturday, the highest temperature in these areas will generally drop to around 5 C.
The meteorological departments reminded the public not to underestimate the power of this new cold wave. People in the above-mentioned areas should closely monitor local warning and forecast information, take measures to keep warm and pay attention to fire and electrical safety.
Experts said that overall the world is experiencing a warming trend, and the rising sea temperatures caused by El Nino have increased the moisture content in the air. As such, the precipitation and snowfall this round will be quite unique, with a higher water content, resulting in wetter and heavier snow.
In case of a sharp drop in temperatures during the cold wave, areas should prepare for freezing rain, especially in mountainous areas where temperatures may be lower than in the plain areas. This is highly likely to have a serious impact on infrastructure such as the electrical grid and agriculture, so local authorities need to make advance preparations, Ma warned.
