Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol.66/No.1 i Beijing Review

As of January 8, China will lift quarantine requirements for inbound travelers and COVID-19 control measures for imported cargo, marking a major shift in the country’s pandemic response policy. With these steps, China is taking the initiative in balancing COVID-19 control and economic development. The pursuit of progress while safe-guarding stability will be an important feature of the Chinese economy in 2023. During the Central Economic Work Conference that concluded on December 16, 2022, China’s leadership called for ensuring stability in economic growth, employment and prices. Stabilizing growth means consolidating the foundations for economic recovery and enabling the economy to operate within an appropriate range; stabilizing employment is essential to people’s livelihoods; stabilizing prices means ensuring sufficient supplies to meet demand. In 2022, the Chinese economy experienced significant fluctuations under…

The Central Rural Work Conference, the highest-level conference on issues relating to agriculture, rural areas and rural people in China, took place in Beijing on December 23-24, 2022. Pursuing the goal of rural revitalization is part of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) efforts to build a powerful modern socialist country in all respects. Throughout the process of economic and social advancement, China has faced a stark imbalance of urban and rural development. Its primary, secondary and tertiary industries in the vast rural areas have been left far behind those in its cities, and residents of rural areas have less disposable income than their urban counterparts. As a result, rural issues are becoming the crux of China’s economic and social development. After eradicating absolute poverty in…

In mid-October 2022, Yu Jiang, a farmer in Mashan Village of Shijiazhuang City in Hebei Province, became one of the province’s first two farmers to receive a professional accreditation in agriculture. Until recently, accreditations in agriculture were only awarded to researchers, technicians and educators in agriculture-related institutions. Offering accreditations to farmers and farm workers is part of a national plan to help them thrive on the land. Yu said he feels encouraged after receiving his accreditation as an assistant agricultural engineer. “I will continue to dig deeper and work harder to obtain higher levels of accreditation,” the 47-year-old told Beijing Review. Getting recognition After graduating from a technical secondary school at the age of 16, Yu once worked as a fertilizer salesman. Being aware of China’s rapidly increasing policy support…

‘I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all nights to come,” members of the Night’s Watch in George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, vowed as they dedicated their lives to defending the wall in the novels. Like them, British Beijing resident William Lindesay has devoted his life to the defense of a great northern wall of epic proportions. However, this wall is real—and so is its need for protection. The Great Wall, which has a total length of more than 21,000 km and stands as a symbol of the Chinese nation, has been the subject of numerous legends over the centuries. After becoming the first foreigner to traverse the main length of the wall on foot 36 years…

In the last 10 days of 2022, American and Chinese animal lovers were glued to the news coming in about two giant pandas in Memphis, Tennessee, the U.S. According to a statement from the Memphis Zoo on December 21, Ya Ya, 22, a female panda, and her male companion Le Le, 24, will be returning to China within the next few months due to the expiration of a 20-year loan agreement with the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens. But the announcement came after months of criticism by In Defense of Animals and other animal advocacy groups that have accused the zoo of providing inadequate care to the pandas. Critics called on the zoo to get them better food, more uncaged time and ultimately a transfer to a panda refuge. Since…

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrived in Beijing on December 21, 2022, and no sooner had she landed in the city than she posted on her personal Twitter account, “We have much to discuss.” Wong made a two-day visit at the invitation of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and participated in the Sixth China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue. According to the joint statement issued after the dialogue in Beijing, the two sides agreed to maintain high-level engagement, and to commence or restart their dialogue in areas including bilateral relations, trade and economic issues, consular affairs, climate change, defense and regional and international issues. They also agreed to support people-to-people exchanges, including the 1.5 Track High-Level Dialogue, the China-Australia CEO Roundtable and visits by bilateral business delegations. This…

Though not from Xinjiang, Shao Xiangli considers the place his second home. In 2017, aged 40 and a civil servant with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in Beijing, the primary regulator of the country’s banking business, Shao applied to work in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, under a government program that brings promising cadres into the region to support its development. In July that same year, he arrived in the city and started working at Xinjiang’s regional banking regulator. But instead of sitting in his office in downtown Urumqi, Shao preferred to work more directly with the local people. Soon, he applied to work in Keqigiz, a village near the city of Artux in southwestern Xinjiang. He joined the village’s poverty alleviation campaign from January 2018…

Biodiversity Protection China is considering intensifying the ecological security and biodiversity protection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau through new legislation. A draft law on ecological conservation on the plateau was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, for its second reading on December 27, 2022. Based on a draft submitted for a first reading in August 2022, the latest version highlights more efforts to strengthen ecological protection and restoration on the plateau. It has adjusted stipulations on the protection of wild animal migration routes, compensation for livestock losses caused by wild animals, and a national biodiversity protection campaign. The new draft adds provisions requiring the government to take effective steps to guard against ecological risks, such as climate change and natural disasters, to maintain the…

TOP 10 CHINESE ATHLETES OF 2022 Zhang Weili, a mixed martial artist, was selected as one of the top 10 Chinese athletes for 2022 by Xinhua News Agency, the country’s national news agency. Zhang, China’s first-ever Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) world champion, reclaimed her UFC strawweight crown at the age of 32 in November last year, defeating two-time title holder Carla Esparza from the U.S. She began training as a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter in 2013. In 2019, she became China’s first UFC world champion when she won the strawweight belt. In 2022, she also won Women’s MMA Fighter of the Year 2022 titles from several international sports media. Other athletes who made it onto the list include Winter Olympic gold medalists—freestyle skier Gu Ailing, speed skater Gao Tingyu…

Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the opening ceremony of the high-level segment of the second part of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Canada’s Montreal via video link on December 15, 2022. Noting that humanity lives in a community with a shared future, Xi said solidarity and cooperation are the only effective ways to address global challenges. “A sound ecosystem is essential for the prosperity of civilization. We must work together to promote the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, build a community for all life on Earth, and create a clean and beautiful world for us all,” he said. More than a year earlier, on October 12, 2021, President Xi had quoted a classic Chinese saying while delivering…

From residential compounds to entire neighborhoods, communities across China have been using social media to combat the country’s rampant COVID-19 infections in recent weeks. Shortage of basic medication to battle infection got so serious that super app Weixin, also known as WeChat, created by Chinese tech giant Tencent, officially launched a Pandemic Mutual Aid mini program on December 20, 2022 where people post requests for ibuprofen, acetaminophen, rapid antigen test kits and other essentials. Posts from all over the country are refreshing every second. Mini programs are sub-applications within the app’s ecosystem. They provide advanced features to users, including virtual store tours, coupons and multiple services. As of late November 16, the number of daily active users of Weixin mini programs exceeded 600 million, a year-on-year increase of more than…

Five-year-old An An selected a picture book from a 1-meter-high shelf at a children’s library after school on December 7, 2022. These 1-meter shelves have been specially made for preschool children at the Suzhou Library in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The child-friendly concept has also been reflected in the design of the children’s center at the Xuzhou Garden Expo Park in Jiangsu Province. Chen Nian, head of the center, said the shelves at the center are around 50 cm high to help the little ones access books and toys. The decorations on the walls at the center are all around 80 cm above ground, enabling children to see them easily. As environment improvement at the park has attracted an increasing number of bird species, the children’s center at the park has…

Christmas has come and gone once again. I’d been wanting to go holiday shopping ever since China eased its COVID-19 response measures in early December 2022, riding my scooter across town and going to IKEA to get ready for the big holiday. My mom, Chen Yinyin, was a single parent in New York City, the U.S. During the Christmas holiday, she would always make sure our home had a real festive feel to it—and she’d always make sure to get a real tree. We’d decorate it with ornaments and lights on the morning of December 25. And I always knew presents awaited. Over the years, I’ve never forgotten these happy moments. I first arrived in China in late 2008 and have since settled down in Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning…