North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has a border line that stretches more than 4,200 kilometers, accounting for about one fifth of the national land border. It is the "northern gateway" and the "moat" of the capital city Beijing. However, in recent years, many areas in Inner Mongolia have reported issues which have attracted wide attention such as many young people of working age choosing to leave the border areas.

Recently, the Inner Mongolia delegation to the 14th National People's Congress held a plenary meeting which was open to domestic and foreign media outlets. During the meeting, chairman of the autonomous region Wang Lixia introduced that Inner Mongolia spans the northwest, north and northeast regions, has external relations with Russia and Mongolia, and surrounds Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. It shoulders a major political responsibility in safeguarding national security and border stability. 

Wang also stressed that in 2024, the autonomous region will focus on addressing the issue of "hollowing out" in border areas, implementing comprehensive measures to attract more people to settle and live in border areas, and ensure national unity and border security. 

In recent years, the permanent population in border areas of Inner Mongolia has been seriously flowing out, with the remaining residents being senior citizens, and the problem of population "hollowing out" becoming increasingly prominent.

As a result, the local government has been studying and formulating differentiated and precise policies, which include promoting the development of border areas, enriching people's lives, stabilizing the borders, and striving to improve the level of industrial development, basic public services, and infrastructure guarantee in border areas. This will attract more people to settle and live in border areas, and guard the borders, as learned by the Global Times from the Standing Committee of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Congress.

Population decrease

Taking Siziwang Banner of Ulanqab city as an example, the banner is one of the 19 border banners and counties in Inner Mongolia, with a total area of 25,500 square kilometers and a border length of 104 kilometers. Due to production, living conditions, especially education and medical conditions, most school-age children and senior citizens in the banner have moved to Ulan Huacheng town. 

The border population has been decreasing year by year. The total registered population of the three border regions is 8,714 people in 4,664 households, with 2,844 households and 4,260 people living outside the border area, accounting for 50.9 percent of the registered population. The long-term residents on the border are almost all senior citizens, over 60 years old, according to local officials.

Official data show that as of December 2022, the actual population in the border area is 3,340, a decrease of 5,344 people compared to 2010, with a decrease rate of up to 56 percent. 

Meanwhile, a public report in September 2023 indicated that due to various factors, in recent years, the internal migration of border residents in the Alashan League border area has weakened the grassroots defense and control forces, leading to an increasingly severe border security situation.

Due to education being limited in the border cities of Inner Mongolia, many families choose to send their children to neighboring cities to study. Yang Te, a PhD student who left the Alashan League after entering university, shared his story with the Global Times.

"Almost all of my classmates in high school moved to Beijing or Tianjin. Only a few students who needed to help their families stayed in Inner Mongolia, Yang said. "Now that herding is no longer the main way to survive, more people choose to strive for a better standard of living in the big cities. Living in the border areas can be quite tough."

Seeking a way out

In order to address the issue, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has formulated a series of differentiated and precise subsidy policies. These policies are aimed at guiding and supporting residents in border areas to participate in local economic development, thereby reducing the phenomenon of population hollowing out. 

These policies include tax incentives and financial support for enterprises in border areas. At the same time, technical support is provided for industries such as agriculture and animal husbandry in border areas to improve industry efficiency and promote employment, according to local officials.

In response to the prominent issue of "hollowing out" of the population in border areas, with a high average age of left-behind personnel and a significant decrease in permanent residents and serious outflow in Alashan League, the local government has coordinated resources from all parties to jointly build and share. The strengthening of the construction of various infrastructure projects in border areas is the main focus, to continuously increase the construction efforts of border defense infrastructure. 

In recent years, the league has renovated and maintained over 2,500 kilometers of patrol routes for frontline border guards, built four duty rooms and seven watchtowers, constructed over 160 kilometers of barrier facilities such as iron fences and wire fences in key areas, built and maintained nine monitoring centers and 39 sets of intelligent monitoring front ends, installed 32 sets of water purification equipment, effectively improving the working conditions of frontline military and police units.

These efforts have not been in vain. Many young people like Li Hao, now a special police officer in the Xilin Gol League, have begun to consider the option of returning home to defend the border after graduating from college.

Now the environment for garrison defense has been greatly improved, and many young people are tired of the pressure of living in a big city, they choose to return to their hometowns. But this process of a change in attitudes will take some time, Li said. 

For Li, who idolized his father as a forest ranger since he was a child, being able to use his own power to maintain peace and prosperity in the border region has brought him a great sense of honor. "Compared with the pressure and competition of big cities, life here is self-sufficient, and the infrastructure, education, ecology and tourism environment are rapidly improving, I believe that more young people will choose to stay and feel this call of duty," Li noted.

US Congressional negotiators on Sunday unveiled a bill to fund key parts of the government through the rest of the fiscal year that began in October 2023, narrowly averting another partial government shutdown by Friday, Reuters reported on Monday. Part of the package includes funding to counter China in the Pacific region, US media outlet VOA claimed.

As part of this agreement, the US hastily announced the allocation of funds to counter China in the Pacific region, indicating how frantic the US has become in its efforts to suppress China. Yet, efforts by the US to disrupt economic and trade cooperation between China and the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are doomed to be counterproductive.

Under so-called Compacts of Free Association, Washington provides economic assistance to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, while gaining exclusive military access to strategic areas of the Pacific, according to Reuters.

It's questionable if this funding will actually be delivered. The US, however, is seeking to increase its military presence in the region. Its geopolitical calculations are evident for all to see. These actions of the US will only disrupt the peace and stability of the region, thereby harming its economic growth.

In recent years, China's economic and trade cooperation with the PICs has continuously expanded, bringing tangible benefits to the region. However, this has triggered strategic anxiety in the US. Driven by a zero-sum game mind-set, the US has shifted from its previous arrogance toward the region, with frequent visits by high-ranking officials. 

During a visit to the Pacific island country of Tonga in July 2023, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized China's investment in the region, claiming that as China's engagement in the region had grown, there had been some, from his perspective, increasingly "problematic behavior."

However, rhetoric from US officials like Blinken attempting to discredit China's investments in the PICs cannot fool anyone. The attempts by the US to interfere with the PICs' legitimate rights to freely choose to expand economic and trade cooperation with China are futile.

First, no matter how many tricks the US plays to lure the PICs into its selfish geopolitical game, it cannot undermine the long-standing equal, mutually respectful and mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation between China and the PICs.

For a long time, China's economic and trade cooperation with the PICs has been closely aligned with the actual needs of local economic development and improvement of living standards of local residents. China is committed to improving local infrastructure, healthcare, education and other development needs, gradually gaining recognition from local residents.

In stark contrast, assistance promises by the US are often accompanied by numerous political conditions, with promised investment frequently being delayed or never materializing. The US consistently chooses to overlook the needs of local residents for improved access to water, electricity, basic healthcare, education and other essential services, instead only focusing on expanding its military presence in the region.

Second, China's economic and trade cooperation with the PICs has become a model of South-South cooperation. Situated in the southern extension of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the PICs are important economic and trade partners for China. 

Through mutual efforts, China's cooperation with the PICs under the BRI now encompasses more than 20 areas including trade and investment, the marine environment, disaster mitigation, poverty alleviation and healthcare, among others, bringing tangible benefits to the people in the region.

Third, China's economic and trade cooperation with these countries is complementary, based on the economic laws of free trade to develop economic and trade cooperation, rather than being politically driven. According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 1992 to 2021, total trade between China and the PICs that have diplomatic ties with it increased from $153 million to $5.3 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 13 percent, expanding over 30 times in the span of 30 years. As of the end of 2021, China's direct investment in the PICs amounted to $2.72 billion.

The PICs are not geopolitical chess pieces of the US. If the US genuinely wishes to support the development and prosperity of this region, then it should fulfill its economic aid and cooperation commitments. If engagements can bring tangible benefits to the local economies, they should be welcomed.

The US is only making empty promises, while imposing political conditions on these countries and forcing them to pick sides between the US and China. Its geopolitical games harm others while not benefiting itself, and this will provoke a backlash among local economies.

Temperatures in about 90 percent of regions in China will fall below zero in the coming two days, as the cold air that has been freezing northern China will also impact a significant portion of southern China, according to Weather China on Wednesday.

As of 4 pm on Wednesday, the highest temperatures in nine major cities in northern China reached a new low since the beginning of winter, including Harbin, Beijing, and Tianjin. According to the Weather China website, cold air will continue to move south from Thursday, and many places will hit new low temperatures since this winter.

Temperatures in about 90 percent of the country will drop below zero, Weather China said.

Additionally, it is expected that from Wednesday night to Thursday, there will be moderate to heavy snowfall in the Shandong peninsula and northern Xinjiang. Starting from Friday, the snowfall in the Shandong peninsula will gradually weaken and stop.

Facing the recent extremely cold weather, many netizens are discussing whether it is a "warm winter" as predicted by some experts. According to the National Climate Center, determining whether a year or a month is warmer than usual is not based on a single weather event; instead, it involves comparing the average temperatures over a period of time to assess whether they significantly deviate from the historical average for the same period.

The prediction of a "warm winter" does not mean that there won't be strong cold or warm events during this winter. The variation cycle of weather processes is still evident, and there will also be strong cold air. However, people usually remember extreme events more vividly and are less likely to remember average temperatures, so there may be a deviation in perception, experts noted.

According to the National Climate Center, it is expected that in January and February 2024, temperatures in most parts of China will be close to the average for the same period, but with significant fluctuations between warm and cold.

China's General Administration of Sport held a winter training mobilization meeting on Friday in Beijing. The meeting summarized the work and achievements for the Hangzhou Asian Games and analyzed the preparations for the Paris Olympic Games, pointing out that the preparations for the Paris Olympics have fully entered the final combat state.

Gao Zhidan, director of China's General Administration of Sport, noted at the meeting that Chinese athletes have strived and continuously achieved excellent results in major international competitions such as the Olympic Games and Asian Games. The Chinese sports delegation achieved both excellent results in sports and spirits at the Hangzhou Asian Games, successfully completing all participation tasks and achieving the goal of training and preparation for the Paris Olympics.

Currently, there are less than nine months left before the opening of the Paris Olympics. This winter training is the last winter training before the Paris Olympics and is a critical period for solidifying the foundation, enhancing capabilities, and preparing for participation. 

Gao pointed out that it is necessary to organize this winter training work with the highest standards and strictest requirements, further enhance the comprehensive quality of Chinese athletes, and fully showcase the developmental achievements of China in the new era and the positive image of Chinese youth.

During winter training, Gao emphasized the need to make comprehensive preparation and projection, fully grasp the situation of the main competitors, form and strengthen one's own technical and tactical style characteristics by scientifically formulating countdown training and competition plans. The Chinese athletes also need to intensify their training, solidify the foundation, enhance strength, strictly manage overseas competitions and training, and calmly refine techniques. In terms of strengthening management, the involved departments will resolutely curb the spread of "fan circle" culture in the national team. On doping control, Gao stressed that China will continue to follow a policy of zero tolerance to ensure a clean sport.

Meanwhile, Gao emphasized that the preparation work for the Paris Olympics has fully entered the final stage. The athletes and their teams must shoulder the mission and strive to reach new heights at the Paris Olympic Games through this year's winter training.

The international pressure to push Israel to stop collective punishment in the Gaza Strip has been mounting with the death toll of this round of conflict surpassing 10,000. Following Bolivia's decision to suspend ties with Israel, analysts said other nations would move to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel and the US to allow a truce.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Bolivia's deputy foreign minister Freddy Mamani Machaca stated that his nation "decided to break diplomatic relations with the Israeli state in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip." According to media reports, two other South American countries, Colombia and Chile, have recalled their ambassadors from Israel. 

Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest of Jerusalem's conduct in the war against Hamas, the foreign ministry in Amman announced, media reported.

Bolivia was one of the first nations to sever diplomatic ties with Israel in response to the latter's military activities in Gaza. Together with Chile and Colombia, their actions aim to express discontent to Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and show solidarity and support for the Palestinian people, Tian Wenlin, a professor at School of International Studies of the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

In 2009, under the government of leftist President Evo Morales, Bolivia also cut ties with Israel in protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. In 2020, the government of right-wing interim President Jeanine Anez reestablished the ties. Bolivia, Chile and Colombia all have leftist governments.

On Wednesday, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a post on X that Bolivia is aligning itself with Hamas.

Many of the leftist governments and leaders in the area have chosen to support the underprivileged and base their diplomatic decisions on justice. Moreover, as the Global South has grown and the West declines, more countries from the Global South are gaining strategic autonomy and fighting to protect international law's legitimacy and fairness, said Tian. 

Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia have all brought up the important topic of international law in relation to the current state of affairs in Gaza. For example, Chile Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it decided to recall its ambassador "in the face of the unacceptable violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip." 

Although these are drastic measures to express disapproval of Israel's activities, severing ties and withdrawing diplomats are not uncommon in the Middle East. Also, nations whose relations with Israel are frozen may decide to do the same, said Tian. 

In addition, Arab nations with diplomatic ties to Israel would come under increased pressure if the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsened. It's also possible that some of these nations may sever ties with Israel in order to placate domestic public sentiment, said the expert.

For Arab nations that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, deciding whether to sever ties can be more difficult because normalizing relations required a lot of work and they must also take the US into account. However, it is obvious that future negotiations between Israel and other Arab nations on normalization will be more challenging, Li Weijian, a research fellow with the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times. 

Before Hamas' sudden attack at Israel on October 7, Saudi Arabia and Israel were on a US-brokered negotiation on normalization of relations. However, Saudi Arabia decided to pause the negotiation and informed US officials, AFP reported on October 14. 

Growing call for ceasefire

As of press time on Wednesday, the death toll from both Gaza and Israel has surpassed 10,000 in this round of conflict. According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, 8,525 have died and among them, 3,542 were children and 2,187 women, while 21,543 other people were injured. 

Israel continued its ground operation in Gaza. On Tuesday, an Israeli air strike is reported to have killed 50 people at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to the Gaza-based health ministry. But a nearby hospital said it received 400 casualties, including 120 dead.

On Tuesday, the Arab world condemned Israeli airstrikes on the refugee camp. In a Foreign Ministry statement, the United Arab Emirates condemned "the severity of the bombing carried out by Israel on the Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip, stressing that "the continuation of the senseless bombing will lead the region to repercussions that are difficult to remedy."

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that China is shocked with the great casualties of civilians in the airstrike and strongly condemns such action. 

China urges all parties concerned, especially the Israeli side, to maintain maximum calm and restraint, effectively implement the UN General Assembly resolution adopted on October 27, immediately cease fire, fully protect civilians, open up corridors for humanitarian assistance as soon as possible, and avoid an even worse humanitarian disaster, Wang said. 

Wang emphasized that China will continue to play an active and constructive role in promoting ceasefire, ensuring the safety of civilians, and pushing for an early comprehensive, just, and lasting settlement of  the Palestinian question within the United Nations Security Council.

While China and the international community are intensifying efforts in pushing for a ceasefire, the US continues its one-sided support to Israel. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the US does not believe that a ceasefire "is the right answer right now." 

The US has been feeling greater stress from the international community as criticism of the Biden administration on the issue has grown, said Li.  

There have been growing protests against US' one-sided backing of Israel in recent days. On Tuesday, demonstrators covered in fake blood disrupted US Secretary Antony Blinken's hearing on Israel in order to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and demand that the US halt "supporting genocide," causing disruption in the US Congress, according to media reports.  

Israel may continue its operations in the Gaza Strip with the aim of destroying Hamas, but it will encounter additional challenges, including the moral weight of mounting international criticism and the challenges of conducting ground operations in Gaza. Israel may decide to cease if the ground operation has not gone well and resulted in significant losses, but it won't stop for now, said Tian

According to some observers, ongoing military operations in Gaza would only worsen the humanitarian issue and harm Israel's reputation internationally. More humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is poised to occur as the US takes little action to halt it.

The US, the EU and the rest of the international community are deeply divided on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The world is also made aware of the US and the West's double standards and hypocrisy by the stark contrast between their actions and their boasts of human rights, said Tian, noting that the US has completely lost its credibility. 

Grace Ruan browses the pages of a shopping website and plans to order baby congee for her one-year-old son. This is a popular Japanese-brand congee that Ruan has bought many times.

But this time she hesitates for a while. She reminds of the alarming media reports about Japan's nuclear-contaminated wastewater dumping plan, the baby congee's country of origin.

Ruan, nonetheless, places the order after careful consideration, as she believes the dumping plan won't affect most Japanese-made products any time soon. "But I may abandon Japanese baby products in the future, maybe after three or four months," the young mother told the Global Times.

Japan plans to start dumping the radiative wastewater as early as the end of this month, and the dumping period may last over 30 years, Japanese mainstream media revealed. This irresponsible move has caused panic among residents in Japan's neighboring countries and regions.

Apart from Ruan, many Chinese parents reached by the Global Times in recent interviews said that they may no longer buy Japanese baby products, which "are likely to be contaminated by nuclear radiation" because of Japan's forthcoming dumping of poorly treated wastewater.

They currently have mixed feelings about Japanese products. "I like the products. But I don't want to risk my baby's health," a mother sighed.

How will the Pandora's Box that the Kishida administration plans to open harm the country's business enterprises? Global Times reporters reached Chinese and Japanese consumers and businesspeople, who shared their concerns and pessimisms about the reckless decision. 

Mounting worries

Ruan used to be a big fan of Japanese products. From camera to skincare products, from instant noodles to baby's feeding bottles, Ruan's home is filled with various kinds of Japanese-brand items.

"I think Japanese products are of good quality, and most products suit our Chinese customers probably because China and Japan are in the same [East Asia] region," Ruan praised.

However, Ruan started to get in touch with more news of the scheduled nuclear-contaminated wastewater dumping early this year. She has searched related information, and found that the wastewater to be dumped by the Japanese government may not meet with the set release standards, and that may lead to a series of unpredictable consequences.

"I personally don't worry too much about Japanese products," she said. "But I have to think of my baby. I may buy him Western- or Chinese-made [products] instead."

Similar to Ruan, many other Chinese mothers told the Global Times that they are anxious about how the planned wastewater dumping may affect the baby products they use regularly, which include but are not limited to disposable diapers, feeding bottles, body oils, prewalkers, and foodstuffs.

A mother nicknamed Lapin recalled that she once found a Japanese-brand baby bottle cleaner on sale at a very attractive discount, but she didn't buy it. "I don't buy any Japanese baby products now," Lapin said.

Such panic and concern has also spread online. On Chinese social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, or little red book, there are many posts that mainly list Japanese skincare, food, baby, and daily product brands, calling for people to no longer buy the listed items due to "possible safety concerns." Many big brands that are familiar to Chinese customers, such as Shiseido, Kao, Suntory, Lion and Pigeon, are usually on these lists.

Many netizens have commented under the posts, either asking for alternative brands from other countries, or slamming Japanese government's shameful move. "The radionuclides in the wastewater can be a great harm to marine organism, and will gradually harm humans," one user wrote on Xiaohongshu. "Why must we pay for their wrongdoing?"

Some nervous customers have even reached out to Japanese brand customer service representatives requesting to be furnished with a nuclear radiation monitoring report for the products they have bought, but the result was not satisfactory most of the time.

A customer in Shanghai, for instance, recently asked for a monitoring report for a Japanese bath cream she bought in July via an online overseas shopping platform. 

"The report the customer service representative sent to me was made as early as January, and it can only vouch that the bath cream's packing has no nuclear radiation," she told the Global Times. "That was far from reassuring to me."

'A crushing blow' to seafood industry

From big companies to small business ventures, Japanese businesses have become one of the biggest victims of the country government's hasty and unreasonable nuclear-containment wastewater release plan.

Those engaged in the food industry, particularly in seafood, have been the first to suffer the effects. Customs in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced a ban on the importation of food products from 10 of Japan's 47 prefectures due to safety concerns in July.

Chinese mainland customs authorities said they would also strictly review documents regarding foodstuffs, especially aquatic products. 

Japanese Agricultural Minister Tetsuro Nomura told media in late July that some fishery exports from Japan have been suspended by Chinese customs authorities, and complained that such strict measures were "unacceptable."

"Of course, China would put pressure on Japan as a display of a tough stance, which means that since Japan can ignore the health of the people of coastal countries and the potential for pollution to the ocean, the affected countries also have the right to increase sanctions against Japan," Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

At a press briefing in July, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning urged Japan to "heed the call of the international community, stop pushing through with the discharge plan, engage in full and sincere consultations with its neighbors, dispose of the nuclear-contaminated wastewater in a responsible way, and accept rigorous international oversight."

Besides the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, the first and second largest export destinations of Japan's aquatic products in 2022 which, together, accounted for some 40 percent of its overall aquatic exports, dozens of countries and regions have announced to ban on food products from Fukushima and its surrounding areas. 

South Korea, for instance, said that it will stick to its ban on seafood imports from Japan's Fukushima region, as the issue of people's health and safety is something that the "government can never compromise on," the Yonhap News Agency reported on June 21.

The bans have dealt a crushing blow to the Japanese industries and regions involved. 

Junichi Tamatsukuri, a Japanese lawmaker from Ibaraki Prefecture, which borders Fukushima, told the Global Times that if the nuclear-contaminated wastewater from Fukushima is dumped into the sea this time, many industries in his prefecture, such as fishing, agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism, would be affected.

"It [Fukushima] used to be a treasure house for fresh and delicious seafood," said Haruo Ono, a fisherman from the town of Shinchi in Fukushima. "For fishermen living in such island countries, the sea is our god."

"But if the nuclear-contaminated wastewater is dumped into the sea at a time when the fishing situation in Fukushima has just improved, the efforts from the last 12 years will be wasted," Ono said angrily. "This is devastating for the Fukushima fishing industry."

The industry's downstream is at a low ebb as well. 

In Shanghai's downtown area is an omakase restaurant in operation for more than 20 years whose owner and chief cook is a Japanese man who likes to send WeChat messages to his regular customers at times, inviting them to try the newly arrived seafood flown in from Japan, such as sea snails and sea urchins.

From late July, his messages started to conclude with the same sentence: The seafood our restaurant uses doesn't come from the regions China has banned.

In a phone conversation, the restaurant promised the Global Times that ingredients used at the establishment have no radiation risk. "They are from Japanese regions like Hokkaido that are far from the 10 banned prefectures, and undergo hours of extensive inspection at customs," a staffer expertly said, as though she had explained this fact to customers dozens of times.

The staffer acknowledged that the restaurant has been "somewhat affected" by the dumping plan while declining to give further details.

Similarly, according to Wang, a Shanghai resident who enjoyed a buffet at a Japanese restaurant on Saturday night, the restaurant's customer flow had fallen "by half." 

The buffet restaurant in the Pudong New Area used to be so popular that there would routinely be long lines of diners waiting at the door as early as 4 pm at weekends, "but that day no one was waiting outside even during dinner time," Wang recalled to the Global Times.

Antipathy sentiment spreads

Also a casualty of the nuclear-contaminated wastewater dumping plan, Japan's cosmetics industry has also been hard hit in the Chinese market, one of its biggest overseas markets.

Several Japanese cosmetics companies reportedly suffered slumps in stock prices after an increase antipathy toward the dumping plan and warnings issued against the use of Japanese products which has spread across Chinese social media, observers found.

Cosmetics giant SHISEIDO saw a 6.8-percent plummet in stock prices in June, "the biggest weekly drop in nearly 10 months," the Singapore media outlet Lianhe Zaobao reported on June 24. It added that the share prices of other cosmetics manufacturers in Japan, including Pola Orbis Holdings and Kosé, also fell more than 3 percent that month.

China has always been an important market for Japanese exporters in various industries.

"However, although these import and export enterprises have complaints and criticisms [against their government], they cannot control the government's mandatory emissions," Da said.

Even if some neighboring countries have not banned these Japanese products, public sentiment that these products may pose certain risks has gained traction, making consumers more cautious when choosing, he told the Global Times.

More than 80 percent of respondents in 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, except for Japan, said Japan's plan to dump nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea is "irresponsible," nearly 90 percent of respondents expressed negative sentiments toward the plan, and 94 percent said the move would have a negative effect not only on Japan and Pacific Rim countries but also on the rest of the world, a survey conducted by the Global Times Research Center found.

In recent years, the US Congress has witnessed increasing bipartisan consensus in its strategic competition against China. It has intensively pursued anti-China legislation, employing stereotypical tactics to contain China through legal means since US President Joe Biden took office. In particular, the US Congress is becoming more and more blatant in making up all kinds of lies about issues related to Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and enacting related bills, which is increasingly becoming an accomplice of the White House's interference in the sovereignty of other countries as well as its exercise of hegemonism and power politics.

There are underlying motives behind the frequent introduction of Xinjiang-related bills. First, the US sees China's economic rise as a threat to its global leadership. To safeguard its own position in the global economy, the US government has hyped up Uygur-related issues and introduced "the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act," with the intention of imposing trade restrictions and suppressing China's economic development. Second, through the manipulation of Xinjiang-related topics, the US can divert public attention from domestic dissatisfaction and internal conflicts. Third, the US exploits the human rights issue in Xinjiang as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs, thereby perpetuating its hegemonic and power-driven approach on a global scale. Fourth, the US aims to disrupt the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative by leveraging the Xinjiang-related bills, taking advantage of the region's strategic location. This strategy is intended to tarnish China's image in Central Asia and Muslim countries worldwide, while also impeding China's efforts to open up to the west.

The US' Xinjiang-related bills are without restraint. They will hurt not only China-US relations, but also Washington's credibility in the international community as well as its political stability and legitimacy at home. Ultimately, the US is shooting itself in the feet.

At the international level, the US exploits and politicizes legal means and frequently interferes in the domestic affairs of other countries, which will undermine its own judicial credibility and diplomatic authority, and solidify its international image as the biggest disruptor of the international order.

At the domestic level, those Xinjiang-related and anti-China bills will incite anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiments, spark conflicts between different ethnic groups and trigger social unrest in the US. This will lead to the loss of legitimacy of its ruling authorities. Moreover, the US Congress' manipulation of Xinjiang-related bills will impede US businesses and economic development. Every China-related bill passed by the US Congress will weaken the interdependence between the two countries, jeopardize common interests, and continually push up the risks of confrontation between China and the US.

Moreover, the US Congress has been actively passing legislation related to Xinjiang, seemingly portraying itself as the embodiment of "justice." However, it avoids facing up to its own domestic issues of hostility and discrimination against Muslims.

Within the US, there is open denial and hostility toward Islam, often associating it with extremism and terrorism. Open discrimination, isolation and even attacks against Muslims are prevalent. The spreading of Islamic cultural and Muslim population growth has sparked concerns and rejection among some elites and the public, leading to a significant increase in hate crimes against mosques and Muslims.

In addition, discrimination and attacks on Islamic countries and Muslim communities exist in US foreign policy. After the 9/11 attacks, the US government introduced a series of laws, regulations and policies primarily targeting Islamic countries, such as the "Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act," the "National Security Entry-Exit Registration System," and Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban.

In contrast, China has consistently prioritized the fundamental interests of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, while fully respecting and safeguarding human rights and actively exploring effective ways to combat terrorism and extremism within the framework of the law. Significant achievements have been achieved.

China has always prioritized counter-terrorism legislation, decisively combating any form of terrorist activity and creating a secure and stable environment in Xinjiang to safeguard human rights. Xinjiang has seen no violent terrorist incident for more than five consecutive years due to the preventative counter-terrorism measures. Discrimination based on geography, ethnic groups, or religion is strictly prohibited in China's counter-terrorism practices.

China's preventative counter-terrorism efforts combine maintaining social stability with improving people's livelihoods. The dividends of Xinjiang's stability have continued to grow, with sustained healthy economic and social development. In 2020, Xinjiang achieved a regional GDP of 1.3797 trillion yuan ($213 billion), improving the lives of all ethnic groups and ensuring the comprehensive development of the region.

The US Congress will continue to produce anti-China bills under the pretext of democracy and human rights, exhibiting typical power politics and hegemonism. But facts speak louder than words, and the false narratives behind Xinjiang-related legislation in the US will eventually be discarded as trash of history.

Western media outlets and politicians have recently been singing a chorus on China's economy, clamoring how it is in trouble while maliciously attacking China's governance system. 

An article of Bloomberg, titled, "Democracies Versus Autocracies Isn't a Close Fight," published earlier this month, claims that the US has "a history of overestimating their authoritarian rivals" like China, and that "totalitarian enemies have a tradition of underestimating US capabilities." It also claims that democracy has a long winning streak despite all its maddening inefficiencies and contradictions, while most non-democratic states in modern history have suffered economically and existentially, because they "create inefficiencies, stifle innovation and quash the feedback mechanisms needed for effective governance." The article further asserts that the day when China's GDP surpasses that of the US may never come.

This narrative and viewpoint are filled with the arrogance and superiority complex of Western elites regarding their system. Driven by this kind of strong sense, they hold a bias against other systems, leading to increasingly paranoid perspectives. 

China's continuous economic development has left Western countries feeling a loss of their superiority and increasingly worried. This sentiment, coupled with the challenges and problems that inevitably arise during China's economic recovery following the pandemic, has made some Americans believe it is an opportunity now for the US to badmouth China and its economy.

Is it impossible for China's GDP to ever surpass that of the US? Yu Xiang, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy, Tsinghua University, told Global Times that such a statement is highly unscientific and arbitrary. China has achieved significant economic success and has already exceeded 60 percent of the US GDP. This implies the ruling power, the US, is no longer capable of containing the rising power, China. In this context, as long as China avoids major systemic mistakes, adheres to its established development path, and overcomes external interference and suppression, its economy is bound to achieve steady and long-term growth.

As globalization enters a new phase, some countries are starting to compete for capital and development resources. In the current global economic environment, which is filled with risks and uncertainties, the US is trying to shift attention from concerns about potential risks and economic prospects within the US by propagating negative narratives about China's economy and undermining confidence and expectations regarding China's growth. This is aimed at preventing capital from flowing into China, while drawing Chinese capital outflows and other capital back to the US, said Yu.

Faced with the Western media's portrayal of "democracies versus autocracies," it should be noted that China has its own form of democracy. The discussion is, therefore, in essence, not about "democracies versus autocracies."

Feng Yue, a researcher at the Institute of Political Science at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Global Times that China is developing the whole-process people's democracy, while the US is becoming more of a coercive and exploitative authoritarian state. Despite facing various issues within its own democracy, such as fierce partisan competition, the US has not engaged in self-reflection but has continually planned and executed "color revolutions" in many parts of the world, using democratic rhetoric to suppress other countries and pursue its own interests. Whenever a country disobeys, they resort to military coercion and repression, exacerbating international divisions and camp confrontations. Isn't this a blatant display of authoritarian behavior?

The decline of democracy, political infighting, money politics, and the erosion of freedom of speech have become hallmarks of US-style democracy. The elites in the US, however, seem to remain trapped in the illusion of the "end of history." While glaring problems exist in the US system, including identity politics, social polarization and wealth disparity, they lack the self-reflection and determination needed for reform due to their conflicting interests. It's not that rival nations have a tradition of underestimating US capabilities; rather, amid the arrogance and bad habits of US elites, the country overestimates its own capabilities.

In recent years, China's good governance and the US' poor governance have formed a stark contrast. China has pursued an innovation-driven development strategy, striving for self-reliance in high-level technology to promote high-quality economic growth. Particularly in the field of technological innovation, Huawei's success in breaking through comprehensive US containment measures has proven the failure and ineffectiveness of the US' strategy. China's economic future is bright and we must rely on our own innovation, ensuring technological independence. 

Western countries are mired in economic and political quagmires, trying various methods to discredit their opponents, and hoping to find some consolation by bad-mouthing China. However, casting shadows over China's economy and system will not solve US' own problems. Overestimating their own capabilities will only accelerate their decline.

In the 19th century, Britain was the nation which invented the railway. The landmark invention of the steam engine, known as "Stephenson's Rocket," was a creation which revolutionized the world and became a pinnacle of building the modern, industrialized world, connecting nations and enabling trade like never before. It was through the genius of this innovation that Britain excelled against its competitors and established itself as a global empire, a scientific, technological and military giant which allowed it to dominate and subjugate countless countries, including China.

Yet, Britain today pales in comparison to its historical achievements, as it struggles to even muster the organization, funding and political will to build a second high speed railway. This project, known as High Speed 2 (HS2), has proven to be one of the most controversial, politically contested and expensive infrastructure projects in British history, with a report from Channel 4 stating its costs could spiral upward to 108 billion pounds ($131.6 billion). The railway was designed to connect Britain's largest two cities, London and Birmingham, cutting transportation time to just an hour, but it was also envisioned to extend to other major cities including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh, connecting all the economic centres of the country.

That isn't happening. As the costs of construction continue to grow, and as the date of completion continues to get pushed back, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has lost the political will to pursue it and decided to effectively scrap the northern link, instead proposing to shoehorn the trains onto existing lines. 

There are several factors which have contributed to this scaling back, but all are the government's fault. This includes disastrous policy choices including full-throttle escalation of the war in Ukraine, which the government has devoted billions to, and the subsequent onslaught of inflation and economic stagnation, mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also more subtly, the government's decision to, at the behest of the US, pursue an antagonistic foreign policy toward China against its national interests.

How are China and HS2 linked? First of all, at the end of 2019, the Boris Johnson government proposed to the press that China Railway Corp be used as the contractor for HS2. This was the most effective, reliable and cheapest option available. Not only would the project have been completed far earlier, but it would have also been far less expensive. The following year, Britain reset its foreign policy on China at the influence of the US, and the whole thing went out the window. With that policy shift, Britain began effectively sabotaging its own infrastructure development to suit US preferences. The costs of Britain banning Huawei from its 5G network, to take just one example, have been astronomical.

China's high speed railway record speaks for itself. Meanwhile, Britain is struggling to connect just two major cities just 117 miles (188 kilometres) apart, China has built a comprehensive high speed railway network within the scope of just 15 years, which as of 2022, spans 42,000 kilometres and is still growing. It is possible to travel across the entire country in just seven hours from Shenzhen to Beijing. In 25 years, Britain has only managed to complete one high speed network (HS1), which is in fact a transnational route which goes to France, the Netherlands and Belgium, making it a joint collaboration rather than a distinctly "British" achievement. 

The fundamental reason behind Britain's failure to move ahead with high speed railway is that its infrastructure is a series of privately owned, for-profit franchises, without any subsidies, which substantially drives up the costs and also limits investment in the infrastructure simultaneously. Even without considering the High Speed Rail, the quality of British railways is astonishingly poor and behind most of its European counterparts. This model has also been bad for the workers, which has led to routine industrial action and strikes throughout the year of 2022-23, making services unreliable. This contrasts sharply to China's state-led model of development which is superior to the British railway system in every single way.

This makes the comparison ironic given that Britain sees China as a "competitor" and a "threat to its economic security." Britain is a stagnating, declining country while China is the world's second largest economy, and rather than learning from China's development successes and courting Chinese investment, the UK has made the bizarre choice to "cut its nose off to spite its face" and antagonise Beijing to suit US interests. 

But what have they got to show for it? The answer is a single high speed rail route spanning into the cost of more than 100 billion pounds which has taken decades to build and has to be scaled back from its original plans. This is the country which invented the railway, but now finds itself falling behind at an alarming rate. This means shunning Chinese companies was one of the most expensive and short-sighted decisions taken by politicians in recent years, among many other things.

China's overall environmental quality in 2022 showed an improving trend, with the proportion of heavily polluted days dropping to below 1 percent for the first time, China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Tuesday. 

The proportion of "good air days" in cities nationwide was 86.5 percent in 2022, which is ahead of the previous anti-pollution schedule by 0.9 percent. The proportion of heavily polluted days dropped to less than 1 percent for the first time, at 0.9 percent, Jiang Huohua, an official with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

In addition, the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) fell to within 30 micrograms per cubic meter for the first time, at 29 micrograms per cubic meter. As for the capital Beijing, which was once plagued by air pollution problems, its annual PM2.5 concentration data has been dropping year-on-year for ten consecutive years.

In addition to air quality, data shows that the quality of China's surface water continued to improve in 2022, and the quality of seawater in near-shore waters is also generally improving.

In particular, the Ministry noted that the ecological protection and management of the Yellow River basin has achieved milestones. In 2022, the water quality of the entire main stream of the Yellow River continued to improve. The source of the Yellow River and the Yellow River Delta biodiversity have steadily improved. For example, the number of birds in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve has increased from 187 species at the time of the establishment of the area in 1992 to 371 species.

However, the nationwide and key regional ozone concentrations have increased year-on-year, while water ecosystems in some areas are still fragile and noise pollution remains a problem, said the ministry. "The inflection point for qualitative changes in ecological environmental quality has not yet arrived, and the task of ecological environmental protection remains daunting," the official said. 

The problem of noise pollution will be a key concern in 2023. By the end of 2023, China plans to complete a sound environment quality monitoring network covering all functional areas of cities at the prefecture level and above, Jiang noted. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment also asked that localities should focus on areas with a high concentration of noise-sensitive buildings that have received complaints, and they should investigate and monitor the quality of the sound environment and noise emissions.