Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol.66/No.23 i Beijing Review

A recent forum on promoting ecological progress has once again underlined the importance of simultaneously delivering economic and environmental benefits to society. As President Xi Jinping has famously stated, green is gold. Centering on harmony between humanity and nature, the 2023 Erhai Forum on Global Ecological Civilization Construction gathered hundreds of participants from government bodies, international organizations, the business community and academia. Erhai is a lake in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province in southwest China. Over the past few years, the ear-shaped body of water resting at some 2,000 meters above sea level has seen its natural beauty restored courtesy of unrelenting rehabilitation efforts. It was only befitting the forum was launched there in 2021 to celebrate its achievements and, at the same time, raise awareness of the China-proposed…

Executive Chairman of the America-China Partnership Foundation John Milligan-Whyte is referred to as the “new Edgar Snow” due to his efforts in promoting the relationship between China and the United States. “China’s success speaks for itself,” Whyte said in an exclusive interview with Beijing Review reporter Tao Zihui. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow: Beijing Review: In terms of planning, organization, leadership and the ability to achieve set goals, what specific advantages would you think China’s political system holds in boosting the country’s development? John Milligan-Whyte: What China has done is that it has created socialism with Chinese characteristics and that has produced more economic development and social progress than in its history. China has created a unique form of government, which corrects the deficiencies of a lot of other…

China carried out its 32nd annual campaign for urban water conservation from May 14 to 20, bringing resource use and management once again into the national spotlight. Diligence and economy, including water conservation, are among the traditional values of the Chinese people, who have been taught from childhood that success results from these virtues and failure grows from extravagance. While delivering his speech at the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference on December 8, 2021, which specified China’s economic priorities for 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping used a quote to stress that priority should go to resource conservation in China’s new stage of development—“Utilized with restraint, resources will be abundant; otherwise, they will be scarce.” He said the nation “should implement a comprehensive resource conservation strategy and promote conservation campaigns in…

Humans have a long history of preserving artifacts of the past. The ancient Greeks coined the term “mouseion” when they first built a temple in honor of “the Muses,” goddesses who watched over the arts and sciences. The Greeks filled their temples with both sculptures and scholars. Subsequently, this tradition was emulated in regal treasure houses, where the spoils of war found their place in the grand halls of palaces and the enclosures of royal menageries. Some of the oldest public museums in the world opened in Italy during the Renaissance, generally believed to have begun in the country during the 14th century. Tracing its origins all the way back to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV (1414-84) donated a group of magnificent ancient bronze sculptures to the people of Rome,…

When Leong Ka-seng first arrived in Hengqin in 2015, he was a 22-year-old fourth-year college student harboring many hopes and dreams yet with no real direction in life. And where he landed was just a sparsely populated forest of unfinished construction sites. The first thing he noticed was the nonstop roar of pile drivers, jack hammers and electric saws. But something in him clicked and he decided to embark on his professional life in Hengqin after graduation. Fast forward eight years and Leong today is an entrepreneur with multiple businesses in interior decoration as well as the food and beverage industry. He still fondly recalls the thrill of seeing Hengqin for the first time. “The place was in the process of becoming ‘something.’ It allowed me to indulge in my…

Are they or are they not? Whether the U.S. and China, the two largest economies on the planet, are ushering in a major opportunity for the warming up of bilateral relations has become a hot topic worldwide. At a press conference following the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 21, U.S. President Joe Biden said he believed the heightened tensions between the U.S. and China should see “a thaw very shortly.” And Biden’s optimism does not appear to be wishful thinking. Since early May, an apparent desire on Washington’s part to reengage with Beijing has significantly lifted interaction between American and Chinese political and business circles. First, on May 8, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns…

Launched at the 2023 Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing in late May, China’s new-generation quantum computing cloud platform Quafu is capable of more than just performing complex computations for scientists. Its introduction makes quantum computing accessible to those outside the scientific research community, as the technology is expected to be applied in more fields such as logistics in the years to come, Fan Heng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Physics, told the forum. Quafu’s release was among the highlights of the forum, which ran from May 25 to 30 and gathered 650 enterprises and institutions from around the world. Themed on Open Cooperation for a Shared Future, the event featured more than 150 activities. Its exhibition showcased many innovations in the fields of intelligent manufacturing, green…

CHINA SENDS FIRST CIVILIAN INTO SPACE Three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, flew the Shenzhou-16 spaceship to the Tiangong space station on May 30 and, for the first time, two of them are professionals without backgrounds as military pilots. Gui Haichao (left), 36, is a professor of space vehicle technology at Beihang University’s School of Astronautics in Beijing. He is participating in the mission as a payload expert, responsible for undertaking scientific experiments in the space station. He is the first civilian China has sent into space. Zhu Yangzhu (right), also 36, is China’s first flight engineer heading to space. He is a former associate professor with a research focus on dynamics. In 2005, he joined the military as a student at the National University of Defense Technology before going on…

For the past 45 years, Alfred Pitterle, a professor of silviculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria, has engaged in China-EU programs with a focus on forest management. In 2008, he was awarded the Friendship Award, China’s highest award for professionals from overseas who have made significant contributions to the country’s development, in recognition of his commitment to promoting China-EU ties in ecological protection. In an exclusive interview with Beijing Review reporter Peng Jiawei, Pitterle shared his views on how China and Europe can work together to build a global eco-civilization, in which humans and nature harmoniously coexist. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow: Beijing Review: You have been working with China on afforestation for over 40 years. How did this decades-long process of collaboration first begin?…

The alleged packaging of China’s first 4-nanometer (nm) chip has recently become a trending topic on the country’s social media platforms, with many netizens considering this a breakthrough in China’s semiconductor manufacturing. Packaging is one of the final steps in semiconductor manufacturing. While chipmakers in the United States, the Netherlands and the Republic of Korea are working on 2-nm chips, the Chinese excitement about the 4-nm chips reveals a sense of national self-confidence as the U.S. has imposed multiple bans on chip and chip equipment sales to China since 2018. As core components of computers and an array of intelligent appliances, chips play an increasingly important role in the era of smart technology. However, China heavily relies on imported high-end chips. In response to the American restrictions, the Chinese Government…

On the Ar Horqin Grassland, where north China’s farming areas meet its grasslands, herders maintain the ancient and traditional nomadic customs that have existed there for thousands of years. They live in harmony with nature, ensuring both their own livelihood and ecological sustainability. In May, the Ar Horqin Grassland Nomadic System was designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). On May 22, which also marked International Day for Biological Diversity, the FAO awarded certificates at its headquarters in Rome, Italy, to 24 new GIAHS sites. They are located in 12 countries, including China—home to four new sites. These new sites were the first to be recognized by the FAO since 2018. Many of the GIAHS had become “reservoirs of…

‘It all started with an ‘I do’!” Cristóbal Minguez, a native of the Basque region in north Spain, said of his first encounter with China. The year was 2005, when a friend asked him if he wanted to take a trip to China. Although the adventure was a brief one, barely two weeks, it would become a turning point not only in his career, but in his life. “The last day, right before returning to Spain, I emptied out my backpack and stuffed it with souvenirs,” he recalled. “But what I didn’t know was that something else had made its way into that bag, a seed that was about to sprout.” As soon as he arrived back in Spain, where he was leading a quiet and comfortable life working for…

I visited China for the first time 1.5 years before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games at the invitation of Deng Guoyuan, an eminent painter and then professor at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. He officially invited me to Tianjin for a teaching position. Since then, I have traveled to the country every year, sometimes three or even four times a year, and the more often I’m here, the less foreign I feel. The country has changed enormously, of course. During my first visits, I noticed this turbo speed of change in how quickly the cities were changing architecturally. It goes without saying that this speed of remodeling leaves traces in the development of art because art can be described as a reflection of life. The fact that the…