Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol.66/No.30 i Beijing Review

China registered a GDP growth rate of 5.5 percent in the first half of this year, the highest among the world’s major economies, according to data released so far. Given the complexities in both the domestic and international environments, it is essential to have a nuanced understanding of China’s economic conditions. Growth of 5.5 percent may seem modest for China, a country that has long been known for rapid growth. However, it is higher than last year’s 3 percent and the first quarter’s 4.5 percent. Moreover, it was achieved against the backdrop of a weak world economy and sluggish growth among other major economies. Global inflation has remained high this year, and tightening monetary policies among major developed economies have created a serious spillover effect, leading to a slower global…

Participating World Trade Organization (WTO) members announced on July 6 that they had concluded text negotiations on the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD), the world’s first multilateral investment agreement. The IFD focuses on improving investment policy transparency and predictability, simplifying and accelerating investment approval procedures, and promoting international cooperation. Negotiations on multilateral investment have always been a crux in the formulation of global trade and investment rules. The WTO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have failed several times in their attempts to establish multilateral investment rules. On the basis of the Group of 20 (G20) Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking established at the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit, China and other WTO members launched discussions on investment facilitation at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires,…

Zooming in on a chip, you will see millions, even billions, of tiny transistors existing in an incredibly small space, sometimes just the size of a fingernail. Yet these miniatures power our modern world. Computers, smartphones, electronic devices, even the most powerful military weapons, they all rely on… chips. When it comes to China, the country’s annual chip imports even exceed those of oil. However, the Joe Biden administration’s crippling October 2022 ban on American firms selling chips or advanced chip manufacturing equipment to China disrupted the global supply chain. Major U.S. allies in the semiconductor sector have followed suit. Effective from July 23, Japan tightened rules on exports of 23 types of advanced chip manufacturing equipment. As of September 1, the Netherlands, too, will impose a similar ban. Their…

A lunchbox neatly packing a few pieces of steamed broccoli, three baby carrots, a slice of cheese and half a boiled egg—this culinary “feast” is now trending on Chinese social media. Young netizens from all over the country are posting pictures of similar minimum-effort maximum-veggie meals online as a demonstration of their (often newly adopted) low-effort lifestyles. The hashtag unifying their posts—bairenfan, literally “white people meals”—has become one of the hottest phrases on various platforms and local media in the past two months. The views expressed under the tag have since also made their way onto Twitter, where many English language users found them hilariously true. But what’s the underlying life philosophy here? Is it really about “white people” and their “meals”? No, it definitely goes a deeper than that.…

I am sure you have read before all about the grandness of China. But in these few lines, I would like to talk about two of the things that impressed me most on my first-ever visit to China: parks and QR codes. Forget for a while anything you know about parks and using QR codes in your country. In China, they are totally different concepts. For me, they served as a great metaphor for how a society can evolve toward modernity without losing the traditional values that stitch it together harmoniously. It all started with the tiny park in front of my hotel in Shenzhen. It was a small yet beautiful park, so one day, I decided to buy some dumplings and sit on a bench there to eat them…

On July 3, 10 and 17, Zheng Shanjie, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), chaired three entrepreneur symposiums, welcoming the top executives of at least 14 private companies, and listened as they elaborated on their operational status, the difficulties they face and their suggestions. Attendees represented enterprises involved in engineering, new energy resources, express delivery services, information technology, food processing, and more, including small, medium-sized as well as large companies located in the eastern, central and western regions of the country. This mix of differently sized companies made it possible to obtain firsthand information from a highly diverse range of sectors. Zheng said at the July 10 gathering that the opinions of private businesses on China’s macroeconomic policies, together with their suggestions based on their own development,…

On July 13, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met for the second time in less than a month on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related meetings in Jakarta, Indonesia. Wang, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, represented China at the Jakarta meetings after China had announced Foreign Minister Qin Gang would not attend due to health reasons. At a news briefing hosted by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin in Beijing the following day, a journalist from China Central Television quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying that at the meeting, the American side had raised the issue of its government network having been…

No. 1650, Hongqiao Road, Shanghai, is a special place for Xin Lili. It’s where the Shanghai Dance School and Shanghai Ballet are located, and where she has been studying and working since 1973. Around the age of 9, Xin began as a student dancer at the school before joining the Shanghai Ballet in 1979 upon graduation. “I was somehow destined or born to do it,” Xin, now the head of the Shanghai Ballet told Beijing Review. “That is how ballet is. It’s so amazing and it seems to have its own soul. Fall in love with it, and you’ll find happiness.” Dancer and administrator “I’ve been dancing since I was a kid, and there hasn’t been a single day that my body hasn’t hurt. Even now, either my lower back,…

NO.1 PICK OF THE CBA DRAFT Chen Guohao, a basketball player from the Guangdong University of Technology (GUT), was the first pick by the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) during the 2023 CBA draft in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on July 15. He will join the Beijing Royal Fighters, a professional men’s team based in the capital. Born in Jieyang, Guangdong Province, in 1999, Chen began professional training at 15. In 2017, he began to display top-level talent, leading the Guangdong team to win the National Middle School Games Championship. Playing center, Chen led the GUT team to win the 25th China College Basketball League National Finals, and was named the game’s most valuable player. This is the ninth draft in the history of the CBA. Seventy-one candidates participated in this year’s…

Chinese authorities have issued a guideline on boosting the growth of the private economy, promising to improve its business environment, enhance policy support, and strengthen the legal guarantee for its development. The document was released by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council on July 14. The country will help grow, improve and strengthen the private economy so that it can play a bigger role in advancing national rejuvenation, the document said. To provide an improved environment for the private economy, China will work to remove barriers in market access and fully implement policies and mechanisms for fair competition. The country will protect intellectual property rights, the property rights of private firms and the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs as part of the legal guarantee…

Humanity has a history of civilization dating back millennia. While civilizations have arisen and developed on different continents and at different times, they have prospered and innovated through mutual exchanges and mutual learning. The ancient Silk Road, which began in China, is one of the greatest examples of this. Through this network of routes, Roman remains have been found in China and Chinese silk and coin remains have been found in the markets of ancient Rome. Admiral Zheng He (1371-1433) introduced the products of Chinese civilization to Southeast Asia and East Africa, while merchants and traders from the Middle East found their way to China, over time becoming part of the great, diverse but united family of the Chinese nation. China’s history is by no means devoid of conflict, but…

On the night of July 16, at a park in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, rock and roll band MorningBoss began their performance with an English song Rock Home Town. The band’s lead singer Hao Qing told Hebei Daily that the song was written in 2016 for the city, the hometown of all the five members of the band. The song expresses their pride in their hometown. Rock Home Town is the word-for-word translation of the Chinese characters of the city’s name “shi,” “jia” and “zhuang.” The translation first emerged as a joke because the fashionable music genre forms a contrast with the rustic image of the city, the name of which literally means “Stone family village.” However, the city is now poised to turn the joke to its economic…

From television presenter of culture news, to blogger and teacher, Andrea Mella’s different professional roles have given her a deeper knowledge of China and its culture, while at the same time helping to foster cooperation between China and Latin America. Fond memories Mella has gained a keen understanding of China by living in the country. “I miss my everyday life in Beijing so much: friends and meetings at Annie’s Italian Restaurant, going to the Forbidden City, walking safely, eating Beijing duck,” Mella said from Santiago, capital of Chile, where she currently lives. Although five years have passed since she left Beijing, she continues to be closely linked to China, and many memories rush to mind when she recalls the nine years she spent in the country. For the young Chilean,…