Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol.67/No.50 i Beijing Review

As China transitions to hi-tech-driven development, one of the most promising emerging sectors is the low-altitude economy. Defined as the economic use of airspace below 1,000 meters, this sector is unlocking an entirely new physical and economic space for development, poised to revolutionize logistics, transportation and tourism. The market value of China’s low-altitude economy reached 505.95 billion yuan ($70 billion) in 2023, up 33.8 percent year on year, and is expected to surpass 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) by 2026, according to a report by market research firm CCID Consulting. Drones, at the forefront of this revolution, have greatly enhanced delivery efficiency, especially in remote areas where traditional logistics faces challenges. Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, which can serve as taxis and family vehicles, are now available for sale,…

The Fifth China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on December 1, saw extensive discussions among the foreign ministers on comprehensively advancing cooperation and making political preparations for the second China-Central Asia Summit scheduled for next year. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired the meeting. Attendees included Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtleu, Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kulubaev Zheenbek Moldokanovich, Tajikistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmenistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov. Wang noted that the China-Central Asia Mechanism has been in place for four years, during which the six countries, driven by good neighborliness, solidarity and pragmatism, have worked together to promote its development. He…

‘The heroic life is the sphere of danger, violence and the courting of risk whereas everyday life is the sphere of women, reproduction and care,” writes British sociologist Mike Featherstone in his 1971 paper The Heroic Life and Everyday Life. Though this perspective today may seem dated, the division of gender roles between public and private spheres remains evident in contemporary cinema. In Her Story, a newly released Chinese comedy film directed by Shao Yihui, however, these traditionally separate spheres are deconstructed and interwoven to form a new kind of narrative. The film follows three women living in an old Shanghai neighborhood: Tiemei, a fiercely independent single mother and a former investigative journalist; Moli, her 9-year-old daughter; and Xiaoye, a foley artist grappling with romantic entanglements and alcohol addiction. One…

On November 25, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump rattled international markets by announcing his plan to slap a 25-percent tariff on all goods America imports from Mexico and Canada and add “an additional 10-percent tariff, above any additional tariffs” on imports from China. Just a day later, Trump doubled down on his tariff rollout by nominating Jamieson Greer, who played a key role in imposing tariffs on China during Trump’s first term, and who sees China as a “generational challenge” to the U.S., as the next U.S. trade representative. When Trump resumes office on January 20, 2025, his implementation of these and other tariffs as a blunt instrument to reshape trade relationships is possibly going to upend the stability of global markets. In addition to the opposition voiced by international counterparts,…

In his keynote speech at the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in October 2023, President Xi Jinping announced eight major steps China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. In his December 2 speech, Xi said BRI development should be guided by these steps. Their key points follow: First, building a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network. China will speed up high-quality development of the China-Europe Railway Express, participate in the trans-Caspian international transportation corridor, host the China-Europe Railway Express Cooperation Forum, and make joint efforts to build a new logistics corridor across the Eurasian continent linked by direct railway and road transportation. Second, supporting an open world economy. China will establish pilot zones for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation,…

China expanded its unilateral visa-free policy to include ordinary passport holders from nine additional countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia and Japan, effective from November 30 to December 31, 2025. Under the unilateral visa-free policy, visitors can enter China visa-free for stays of up to 30 days for purposes such as business, tourism, family visits, exchanges, and transit. Since it was first implemented a year ago, the policy has been extended to 38 countries. Meanwhile, China has established mutual visa exemption agreements with 157 countries, covering multiple passport types. These initiatives underscore the country’s commitment to fostering global exchange and mobility, reinforcing its dedication to greater openness as the world’s second largest economy. Developing inbound tourism is especially important, playing an important role in both economic…

Located in Xiamen City, southeast China’s Fujian Province, Kulangsu Island is abuzz with attractions and shops that welcome tourists from all over the world all year round. Amid all the hustle and bustle, one place offers a small oasis of calm—the island’s bead embroidery studio. The studio’s director Xie Liyu is a representative inheritor of Xiamen bead embroidery, a technique listed as a form of national intangible cultural heritage. Pearl on the island Bead embroidery is a form of needlework that uses beads to create decorative designs on fabric. Since the 1970s and 80s, Xiamen bead embroidery has been a calling card of the city, but its history can be traced back over 100 years. “The existing bead embroidery objects demonstrate that the bead embroidery technique in Xiamen has been…

Pangdonglai, a Chinese supermarket chain with multiple outlets across Xuchang and Xinxiang in Henan Province, is often celebrated for its exceptional service. This reputation stems from the company’s widely reported commitment to prioritizing employee wellbeing. Related initiatives include a “grievance award,” which compensates employees for mistreatment by customers. On November 20, Yu Donglai, Pangdonglai founder and Chairman, announced on social media that new company policies will take effect in the coming year. They include discouraging employees from accepting bride prices or marriage gifts—a traditional practice where a groom or his family provides a monetary gift to the bride’s family before marriage, hosting lavish weddings, or relying on their parents for purchasing homes or cars. The aim, Yu explained, is to inspire a more fulfilling life by promoting genuine love and…

Railway Passenger Traffic China’s railway network transported over 4 billion passengers in the first 11 months of 2024, setting a record, according to China State Railway Group Co. Ltd. (China Railway) on December 3. As the modern railway system continues to expand, the country’s total railway operating mileage now exceeds 160,000 km, with high-speed railways accounting for over 46,000 km, according to China Railway. Over 3,300 railway passenger stations are currently operational nationwide, including more than 1,300 dedicated high-speed railway stations. The network now covers 99 percent of Chinese cities with populations exceeding 200,000, while the high-speed railway network serves 97 percent of cities with populations over 500,000. Commercial Circulation System China has released a plan to build a modern commercial circulation system integrating domestic and global markets, bridging urban…

OUTSTANDING SCIENTIST AWARDED Li Jiayang, a distinguished plant molecular geneticist, received the prize for scientific and technological achievement at the 2024 Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Awards ceremony on December 3. Li established a gene mapping and cloning technology system for rice, laying the foundation for plant functional genomics research in China. He is dedicated to cultivating new strains that are high-yielding, high-quality, multi-resistant and efficient. Born in 1956, Li is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was elected as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. in 2011. The Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation was founded in Hong Kong in 1994 by prominent financiers Ho Sin Hang, Leung Kau-Kui, Ho Tim and Lee Quo-Wei to honor outstanding Chinese…

A group of central government departments have joined forces to tackle problems related to the use of algorithms by online platforms. These algorithms are used to collect, process and use data from users, and the rapidly increasing power they offer platforms is necessitating rapid developments both in the rules that guide their use and the mechanisms that supervise compliance. Problems identified include “information bubbles” created by homogenized content recommendations, illegal manipulation of and intervention in trending topics, the blind pursuit of profits that infringes on the rights and interests of those delivering services via online platforms, and big data-enabled price discrimination. Also, tech for good, a principle that technology should be deployed to make a positive impact on society, has yet to be internalized, resulting in infringements on the legitimate…

Forty years ago, driving through Hotan Prefecture in south Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region meant skirting the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, China’s largest desert and the world’s second largest shifting desert. Back then, the solitary bus stations that emerged at intervals from the billowing dust were among the only sources of supplies, but they now have become a distant memory. A decades-long struggle between human and nature is entering a new phase this year, as the last few challenging gaps have been filled in a green wall encircling the desert. This “wall” is basically a vast network of shelterbelts—areas of trees and shrubs planted to protect farmland from wind and soil erosion. The perimeter of the Taklamakan Desert stretches approximately 3,046 km and by the end of 2023, a…

British archaeologist Gordon Childe believed that archaeology is the study of researching and comparing an assemblage of artifacts and sites. He emphasized the importance of using the comparative method in the discipline. By making comparisons, historians and archaeologists can uncover clues and piece them together to form a clearer picture of the past, tracing the development of civilizations and establishing connections across different places and periods. Although comparison has long been a key tool in the field, comparing civilizations from two distant and disconnected continents is relatively uncommon due to the vast geographical distances and the substantial differences in many aspects of their cultures and societies. In a documentary series co-produced by Chengdu Radio and Television, archaeological teams from both China and the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region examined…