Innehållsförteckning för Vol.66/No.7 från Beijing Review

Residents of China have gotten accustomed to a cashless lifestyle in recent years. You don’t need a wallet to go shopping, traveling or dining or pay utility bills across the country, just a smartphone. And mobile payment goes beyond daily purchases: You can even get a loan or invest in money-market funds through your phone. But mobile payment is only part of the efforts to construct a digital China. Technologies associated with the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain have been integrated into all aspects of economic and social development. Digitalization has become not just a lifestyle but also an emerging powerhouse for economic growth. The digital economy is the economic activity that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data and processes.…

Antony Blinken’s first trip to China as U.S. secretary of state should have made headlines during the first weekend of February. But a stray balloon reportedly made him postpone the highstakes diplomatic trip, casting yet another dark shadow over the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. The “balloon episode” can be summed up as follows: A Chinese high-altitude balloon was first detected near the Aleutian Islands on January 28, but it wasn’t until February 1, when it traversed Canada and reentered U.S. airspace, that it attracted a great deal of public attention and was seen as a violation of U.S. sovereignty. The Republicans in opposition also took the opportunity to launch a political attack on the ruling Democratic administration, demanding President Joe Biden show a tough stance toward China.…

The missing of 15-year-old student Hu Xinyu since last October from a residential school in Yanshan County, Jiangxi Province, had once raised fears over kidnapping. But after the police confirmed on February 2 that he had committed suicide, leaving behind audio clips about his desire to end his life on a digital voice recorder, people have turned their attention to the real culprit—mental disorder. Local police said he was suffering from mental health issues related to poor grades and interpersonal relationships, and stresses from puberty. He had difficulty sleeping, woke up early, suffered from memory loss, emotional problems and feelings of guilt and helplessness, local police said, adding that he had shown clear signs of being world-weary and wanting to commit suicide. Hu’s case has drawn national attention to the…

Sitting under the glaring spotlight, Gong Xinsun, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Liufang Township Committee in east China’s Jiangxi Province, waved at the camera as he launched into a sixhour-long e-commerce live-streaming marathon to sell bean-made products. Gong and his two cohosts talked nonstop, yelling “Buy it now!” all night long. They raked in 1,000 orders, a solid outcome. This tiny snippet from Liufang, Hukou County of Jiujiang City, where people’s lives center on several kinds of beans—from growing to processing and selling them, exemplifies the bigger picture of China’s rural revitalization strategy, which makes e-commerce undertakings, like the one in Liufang, possible. At the 19th CPC National Congress in October 2017, President Xi Jinping proposed the country’s rural revitalization strategy, with the general requirements of achieving…

ASSISTANT MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS Nong Rong was appointed Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, China’s State Council announced on February 7. Born in Mashan in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 1967, Nong spent the majority of his career in the region, which has played a crucial role in connecting China with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He worked at the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau in Guangxi for eight years and was once Assistant to the Secretary General of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat. He became mayor of Guigang in 2015 and was named head of the regional commission of ethnic and religious affairs in 2019. Prior to his new posting, Nong had been Chinese ambassador to Pakistan since October 2020. He hosted a farewell reception…

On February 1, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced it would solicit suggestions from market participants on the draft rules for the full implementation of the registration system of stock issuance it had issued that same day. Used in most mature markets, the registration-based system refers to a stock issuance mechanism that gives the market a decisive role in initial public offerings (IPOs) and also facilitates the listing of growth-oriented companies. The IPO reform is designed “to give the right of choice to the market,” and make IPOs more transparent and predictable, the CSRC said in a statement. In the making for one decade, China’s stock issuance regime is finally ready to adopt the registration system, marking a milestone in the country’s financial supplyside reform. China’s capital market now…

Though you wouldn’t immediately tell by looking at her, Victoria Elizabeth Cann, a Jamaican living and working in Beijing, actually has some Chinese roots. Jamaica, an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea and famous for its natural scenery, Blue Mountain Coffee, Reggae music and some of the world’s fastest athletes, is far from China. However, in the 19th century, some people from China’s coastal regions went to work in Jamaica and eventually settled down on the island. Cann’s great-grandfathers were among them. “My great-grandfathers on both my mother’s and father’s side were Chinese. They were from Guangdong Province in south China,” Cann told Beijing Review. Cann first came to China in 2015 to pursue her Ph.D. at the Communication University of China (CUC). She went on to teach at…

Late last year, the Health Commission of Sichuan Province abolished a restriction requirement according to which only legally married parents are allowed to register their children. Household registration is a must for children to receive a national identity card and to access basic services such as compulsory education and basic national healthcare insurance. The new rule has triggered widespread discussions of social values and consequences. The province responded that the measure aims to increase the accuracy of population monitoring by ensuring pregnant women, either married or unmarried, register their children and have access to basic medical insurance services. Cao Yubing (Modern Express): Historically speaking, births out of wedlock are seen as somewhat “heretical.” However, demographic changes and corresponding birth policy adjustments are increasingly making the “decoupling” of birth from marriage…

Introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative is a key feature of China’s foreign policy, consistent with Xi’s push to advance what he describes as a new era of major-country diplomacy. Substantively, the initiative aims to promote mutual economic development and inter-regional connectivity. This is consistent with China’s need to assume a greater international leadership role given its fast rising position as a global power in an increasingly multipolar world, and can be described as a liberation-oriented effort that’s trying, once and for all, to break cycles of underdevelopment and poverty, reversing colonial and neo-colonial exploitations, and resisting old and new hegemonies. Win-win strategy Belt and Road is a succinct English translation of the Chinese term, “one belt, one road” (yidai yilu). Belt refers to…

Yu Danqing hosted her first art exhibition in Beijing in late 1992, at the age of 21. It was at that event she met two expats who were so enraptured by her work, and by Chinese painting, that they asked her if she would become their teacher. Three decades later, Yu, now an internationally renowned and multi-awardwinning artist, is still helping visitors and expats understand Chinese culture, teaching traditional wash painting, calligraphy and history. “Art has no borders. It is one of the best channels to build understanding, reduce estrangement and prejudice, and create a peaceful world,” Yu told Beijing Review. “It’s wonderful to feel the Chinese art,” Hendy Yuniarto, an Indonesian working as a lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said after completing his first painting during Yu’s painting…