Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol.65/No.48 i Beijing Review

The world’s population hit 8 billion on November 15, according to the UN. Continuous population growth indicates human progress. This is best illustrated by the increase in life expectancy, which rose from 65 years in 1990 to 71 years in 2021, according to the World Health Organization. However, our arrival at the 8-billion mark has drawn public attention to the impact of the growing population on our lives and our planet. One important factor is the carrying capacity of Earth. As our population increases, so too does our need for resources. Finding ways for a developing population to use Earth’s resources sustainably is among our greatest current and future challenges. Therefore, the need to promote the innovation and adoption of technologies and lifestyle practices that lessen our personal and collective…

The path of China’s economic progress has for years been under discussion as an alternative for use by other developing countries to expedite development and pull millions out of poverty. Before going into its merits, it is first important to understand the model. The key component of China’s economic philosophy is that it espouses a development path with Chinese characteristics. China believes every country should identify its own development needs and chalk out policies and action plans to meet them rather than following a one-size-fits-all model. Coordinated efforts will lead to win-win cooperation worldwide. However, in a globalized world, different states are intertwined with each other in terms of politics, economics, finance, technology and culture. Countries and peoples are interconnected and interdependent and therefore need to seek more ways to…

After two decades of booming, the hi-tech sector in the United States is now going through a harsh downturn, leading to massive job cuts in a lot of tech firms. According to Crunchbase, a data provider, by mid-November, a workforce of more than 67,000 had been shown the door this year, including from tech giants like Amazon, Twitter and Facebook’s parent company Meta. In a closely connected world, mass layoffs in one country tend to cast a shadow over the whole global supply chain, the industrial development and social consumption (choices of goals and resource use at the national level) in the rest of the world might also be affected, triggering a domino effect. Investors in many countries, including in China, are closely watching this round of job cuts in…

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), 27 Dresses (2008), A Wedding Invitation (2013), Crazy Rich Asians (2018)… The past decades have seen their fair share of matrimonial films, some obvious and spending their reels building up to the big day, others with nothing but a pivotal, momentary iconic scene dedicated to the nuptials. One shared feature: They all channel the wedding trends of their time. Wedding trends are such a big part of planning a couple’s big day, and every year brings a new crop of things that are “in” and others that are on their way out. To make this once-in-a-lifetime event unforgettable, many Chinese couples today rack their brains to figure out something unique to suit their taste. Some end up celebrating their weddings in castles, surrounded by…

Jiangxi Province, located in the eastern region of China, belongs to the subtropical humid monsoon climate zone with a mild climate, abundant rainfall, and four distinct seasons. It ascends from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south and east. The average annual temperature is 16.3-19.5 degrees Celsius, the annual precipitation is 1,341-1,943 mm, the sun shines here for 1,600-2,100 hours each year and the annual frost-free period is 240-307 days. Owing to the favorable environment, the local traditions of planting, loving and protecting camphors, and the longevity of the trees, many of the still-remaining camphor forests in the province are thousands of years old. With the 63.1-percent forest coverage, Jiangxi is known as one of the greenest provinces in China. There is…

Climate Observatory Shanghai will build a national climate observatory by 2025, according to a report in the newspaper China Science Daily on November 23. The observatory will focus on the main meteorological problems of megacities along estuary areas under the influence of strong human activities, the Shanghai Meteorological Service announced. The observatory is expected to support natural disaster prevention and alleviation, contribute to climate change management and assist the country’s efforts to achieve its carbon peak and neutrality goals before 2030 and 2060, respectively. Power Line Inspection Yunnan Province has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles to replace humans in the inspection of its 90,000-km power transmission lines, most of which are in the region’s remote mountains. During the recent poverty reduction campaign, the border province upgraded grids and extended power supplies…

TRAILBLAZING TRIBUNAL JUDGES The 77th UN General Assembly on November 15 elected two Chinese candidates to become judges of the UN Appeals and Dispute tribunals. It’s the first time since the establishment of both bodies—in 2008 and 2009—that nominees from China have been elected. Gao Xiaoli of China’s Supreme People’s Court was elected judge of the Appeals Tribunal for a term starting upon appointment and ending on June 30, 2026. The Dispute Tribunal in Geneva, Switzerland, elected Sun Xiangzhuang, also of the Supreme People’s Court, as judge for a term from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2030. Both organs are important bodies of the UN internal justice system, playing a key role in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of UN staff members and promoting the effective functioning of…

As many governments worldwide signed and committed to the Paris Agreement in 2015, there is now an overarching goal of slowing down global warming and controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5, degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. In recent years, green investment has gained international prominence as an efficient way to mitigate the impacts of climate change. However, a lingering concern surrounding this plan’s success is how such a collaboration-heavy goal can be materialized among countries with diverse backgrounds, needs and contexts, especially given the need to balance economic development with environmental protection against a backdrop of keen competition among nations. In line with its aim of being a responsible major country on the international stage, China has…

Chinese writer Mo Yan was delighted on October 11, 2012, when he received the news that he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Watching on from far away in Europe, linguistics and literature professor Juan José Ciruela from the University of Granada began researching the new laureate. Ciruela’s Spanish translation of Mo’s novel Thirteen Steps was published three years later. Direct translation from Chinese Ciruela says translating the novel was an interesting challenge. After Mo received the Nobel Prize, many of his works were introduced to Spain. However, as most of them had been translated first into English and then from that language into Spanish, much of the original nuance was lost. For this reason, when the Spanish publishing house Kailas contacted Ciruela to translate Thirteen Steps directly from…

Transport Investment Fixed assets investment in road and waterway transport reached nearly 2.47 trillion yuan ($345.5 billion) in the first 10 months of 2022, up 9.5 percent year on year, the Ministry of Transport said. Within this total, 2.34 trillion yuan ($327.6 billion) went to road transport projects, up 9.6 percent year on year; 63.4 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) to inland waterway projects, an increase of 9.2 percent; and 65.2 billion yuan ($9.1 billion) to coastal waterway projects, gaining 8.2 percent. Industrial Economy Industry, region and enterprise-specific measures will be adopted to secure the sound development of key industries, boost coordinated regional development, and inject vitality into industrial enterprises, according to a document jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and…

The 2022 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting took place in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 18-19 against a backdrop of rising geopolitical rivalry. Themed Open, Connect, Balance, the event set priorities for responding to food and energy insecurity, climate change, inflationary pressure and the dire need for post-pandemic economic recovery. Facilitation of trade and investment, restoration of connectivity, promotion of inclusive and sustainable growth through the Bio-Circular-Green economy constituted the three main thrusts of the agenda for this year. Indeed, at this juncture, APEC’s designed aim of creating greater prosperity for the 2.9 billion people in the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth through regional economic integration remains a real challenge. This was particularly so in the face of such headwinds as escalating deglobalization, disrupted…

As the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Twenty-seven-year-old Wu Kaisi often wears secondhand clothes and is always on the lookout for the next piece of discarded furniture, or other household items, ripe for the picking. Based in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, he has been collecting castoffs for personal use, trade and exchange for seven years now. Wu is a proud stooper. The stooping trend, basically acquiring free secondhand furniture from the city streets, is becoming a new way of more affordable living for many young urbanites in China. Picking up a piece they need on the street is literally rescuing it from the waste stream—if they don’t take it, a garbage truck will just pick it up and take it to a landfill. In the…