Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol.66/No.5-6 i Beijing Review

Tax and Fee Cuts China’s tax refunds, as well as tax and fee cuts and deferrals, exceeded 4.2 trillion yuan ($622.9 billion) in 2022, amid the country’s efforts to stabilize the macroeconomy, the top tax authority said on January 31. The total consists of approximately 2.46 trillion yuan ($364.8 billion) worth of value-added tax credits that have been refunded to taxpayers’ accounts, over 1 trillion yuan ($148.3 billion) of tax and fee cuts, and 750 billion yuan ($111.2 billion) of deferred tax and fee payments, Wang Daoshu, deputy head of the State Taxation Administration, told a press conference. About 1.5 trillion yuan ($222.5 billion) of tax and fee payments were rebated, deducted or deferred for enterprises in the manufacturing sector last year, accounting for 35 percent of the total, Wang…

Lisa Cao, a 20-something office worker in Beijing, enjoyed a special Spring Festival holiday this year. She traveled to Laos during the weeklong break, which ran from January 21 to 27, after spending the festival, formally known as Chinese New Year, in China for the past two years. “After outbound travel resumed earlier this year, I was so excited that I decided to go abroad as soon as I could,” Cao told Beijing Review. This is the first Spring Festival holiday since China optimized its COVID-19 response policies last December and removed all quarantine requirements for inbound passengers on January 8. Group travel from China to designated countries also resumed on February 6. As an avid traveler, Cao visited domestic and overseas destinations during holidays before the pandemic. She returned…

On the third floor of Bitaomai Life Plaza, a shopping mall in Beijing, is a comedy club named Kangaroo Comedy. It is a place where people can catch a live stand-up comedy show, still a novelty to many Chinese, and indulge in hours of laughter. “Influenced by the popularity of online variety shows, stand-up comedy has gone viral in China over the past few years; more and more audience members are coming to watch offline shows and enjoy the live comedy,” Zhou Shenglong, founder of Kangaroo Comedy, said. According to Zhou, the growing audience number indicates the huge potential of China’s stand-up comedy market. Local stand-up Some of the online comedy and talk shows that have been trending in China in recent years include Qi Pa Shuo (U Can U Bibi),…

A group of men play the lusheng, a reed-pipe wind instrument, during the Pohui Festival in Antai Township of Rongshui Miao Autonomous County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on February 1, the 11th day of the first lunar month. Pohui is a traditional festival observed by the Miao ethnic group from the third to the 17th day of the first lunar month in Rongshui. People partake in a range of activities such as lusheng competitions, dragon and lion dances, as well as horse racing. The festival is also traditionally seen as an opportunity for young people to express their romantic interest in each other.…

PAKISTAN A man takes a closer look at the site of a suicide bombing in Peshawar on January 31. The death toll of the attack on a mosque on January 30 has risen to 100, with over 200 people sustaining injuries EGYPT A photo taken on January 26 shows a restored piece of pottery at the archaeological excavation site of ancient tombs near the Pyramids of Giza, south of Cairo. The country’s renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass announced the exploration of the tombs had revealed a 4,300-year-old mummy SWITZERLAND People leave the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva on January 30, the same day the organization stated the COVID-19 pandemic still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, the WHO’s highest alert level CUBA People attend an activity commemorating…

fire does not destroy, it hardens,” ‘What illustrious Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde wrote in his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in 1890. It was the quote that somehow sprang to this author’s mind as she gazed into the languid flames struggling to stay alive inside a towering hotpot sculpture at an annual winter festival in Longqingxia Scenic Area, a two-hour drive away from downtown Beijing. Just to dot the i’s, hotpot is a flavorful broth brought to a boil at table; raw ingredients, including fish, meat and vegetables, are put into the simmering broth and thus cooked throughout the meal. It’s possibly China’s ultimate comfort food. As the winter festival in Longqingxia was celebrating north China’s ice lantern tradition, the huge hotpot sculpture was made entirely…

Since it was first held in 2014, the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit has struggled to meet its stated goals of fostering trade, development, security and health on the continent. Iterations of the summit have drawn considerable media attention but have shown little continuity, had few results to report and even fewer new initiatives to announce. Between 2014 and now, Power Africa, the signature initiative of former U.S. President Barack Obama, aimed at doubling access to power in Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than two thirds of the population live without electricity and more than 85 percent of those living in rural areas lack electricity, has mostly floundered. John Rice, then Vice Chairman of General Electric, gave a scathing verdict several years after the initiative was launched, noting that the number of megawatts…

How can cooperation be strengthened in a fragmented world? The answer from China is to dig deep into the causes of fragmentation, promote positive-sum games, identify the possible converging areas of cooperation, and explore the mechanisms for doing so. Countries need to uphold the right principles and maintain the effective international economic order, strengthen international macro policy coordination and strike a good balance between inflation and growth, and join in a global response to climate change, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 17. Famous for its winter sports and WEF activities, the mountain resort Davos, which had been quiet for two winters, came alive again when the 2023 session took place offline from January 16 to 20.…

Central Axis Protection A protection plan for Beijing’s Central Axis was released on January 28, ahead of its application to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The plan, for the period from 2022 to 2035, pinpointed the conservation area’s heritage and buffer zones, which had not been specified before. The heritage zone covers an area of about 5.9 square km, including 15 heritage sites such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. The buffer zone covers 45.4 square km. A local official with the office for cultural heritage application and protection said the plan is a required aspect of Beijing’s application for its Central Axis to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. The Central Axis, or Zhongzhouxian, which can be traced back to the Yuan…

The films released for this year’s Spring Festival holiday (January 21-27) made up a platter of diverse genres: a historical twist-filled comedy, a sci-fi epic, an espionage thriller set during World War II, a modern romantic comedy, and two animations targeting different groups—one family friendly and the other more for grown-ups seeking a tearful movie experience. By the end of the holiday, these films had yielded combined box office revenues of 6.76 billion yuan ($1 billion), the second-highest for the Spring Festival holiday in China, right after the 7.8 billion yuan ($1.16 billion) of the holiday period in 2021, and much higher than the 6.04 billion yuan ($901 million) of the holiday period in 2022. The winners Many expected The Wandering Earth II would top the holiday lineup in terms…

The 29th International Dinosaur Lantern Festival, which lit up on January 17, brightened the dark night in Zigong City, Sichuan Province in southwest China. As the city’s calling card, the lantern spectacular attracted more than 300,000 visitors during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday from January 21 to 27. Ticket sales rose 77 percent year on year to 51.3 million yuan ($7.6 million). The smallest prefecture-level city in all of Sichuan, Zigong is home to some of the world’s oldest dinosaur fossils, a 1,000-year-old well salt culture, lantern craftsmanship and a myriad of local delicacies that cater to every foodie’s tastes. The city welcomed a whopping 1.06 million tourists over the holiday period, which was also the first Spring Festival break following the easing of China’s pandemic control policies, up 46.6…