Innehållsförteckning för Vol.67/No.9 från Beijing Review

As the most important annual celebration in Chinese culture, the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year holiday, from February 10 to 17 this year, brings much more than just family reunions and traditions. It provides a significant annual boost to China’s economy. Thanks to increased consumer spending, many industries, from transportation and retail to entertainment and services, saw a significant uptick in revenue during the holiday period. At its core, the holiday is about strengthening relationships—whether with immediate family or distant relatives and community members. Many Chinese living in other cities returned to their hometowns to be with family, resulting in high demand for air, train and bus tickets. Domestic tourism spiked as people visited cultural or seasonal hotspots. At the same time, from medical professionals who continued to care…

Chinese New Year is traditionally a time for family reunion. The excitement leading up to the celebration focuses on taking a break from work to enjoy good times and good food with loved ones. Each year, however, duty requires many to forego rest, relaxation and family reunion to keep the nation running during the festival. These essential workers staff hospitals, supermarkets, train stations and many other places to benefit holiday travelers and their communities. Beijing Review pays tribute to three of them in the following pages. Beneath the February skies, the Greater Khingan Range wears a cloak of white, with its vast forests becoming an expanse of wintry solitude. Located at China’s northern extremity, the range extends through Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province, occupying a place of pride…

On the sidelines of the 60th Munich Security Conference, held from February 16 to 18 in the German city of Munich, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Wang urged the U.S. side to stop the unwarranted harassment and interrogation of Chinese citizens and do more things conducive to enhancing mutual understanding between the two peoples. “An act of kindness, no matter how trivial, is worth doing, while an act of evil, no matter how small, must be shunned,” he quoted an old Chinese saying. Wang’s remarks stemmed from recent incidents involving Chinese students facing uncalled-for questioning upon their arrival at U.S. airports. At Washington Dulles International Airport alone, at least eight Chinese students with legal and valid travel permits have been pulled aside,…

‘Why are governments around the world increasingly concerned about relative gains and losses? How can world leaders promote an open and rules-based international order that better delivers on its promised mutual benefits—and thus grows the proverbial pie for more states?”—These are questions outlined in the Munich Security Report 2024, released before the 60th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), which took place in Munich, Germany, from February 16 to 18. Answers to these questions still seem to be beyond reach. Pessimism and anxiety now are the elephants in the room, and are difficult to dispel, both inside and outside of the MSC venue, Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Academy of Regional and Global Governance of Beijing Foreign Studies University and Deputy Director of Chinese Association for European Studies,…

This Spring Festival holiday was an especially happy one for Bai Changli, an employee of a pharmaceutical company in Jinan, Shandong Province, as pandemic control measures and work had kept him from reuniting with his family during the previous three Spring Festivals. This year’s official Spring Festival holiday lasted from February 10 to 17, one day more than previous years. On February 8, Bai, his wife, their 2-year-old daughter and his mother who looks after her in Jinan made the more than 1,500-km high-speed-rail journey home to Yuzhong County in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. His grandparents and father welcomed them with a meal at home. Although Bai often talks with his grandparents and father via video chat, he still had a lot to share about his life and work when he…

A digital immersive exhibition centered on the Sanxingdui Site at the Meet You Museum in Beijing’s 798 Art Zone has attracted a steady stream of visitors with its interpretation of the culture of Sanxingdui, a major site of Bronze Age civilization in Guanghan, Sichuan Province in southwest China, by combining sound, light and image technologies. The show presents the site’s archaeological discoveries as well as the daily life, sacrificial culture and belief system of the ancient Shu Kingdom, a civilization that existed in southwest China some 4,800 years ago and was once only hinted at in myths and legends. It further features large-scale scene simulation and restoration, an exhibition of cultural relics and digital multimedia interaction. One of the highlights of the exhibition is the light show, where visitors can…

Ruan Xiangyan, a 59-year-old doctor in Beijing, has not sat down for a Chinese New Year reunion dinner with her family for many years. Ruan is the director of the Department of Gynecological Endocrinology at Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, affiliated with Capital Medical University. Each year, she remains on duty at the hospital so her colleagues can go home to their families. On every Chinese New Year’s Eve, families gather for one of the most important meals of the year. Sometimes called the “reunion dinner,” the meal is what many love most about the holiday. It usually features their families’ best recipes, as well as many laughs, toasts and a warm, festive atmosphere. “My husband and daughter are both doctors. We’re too busy even to pose for a family…

On February 11, Joe Biden, President of the United States, became one of the more than 1 billion users of TikTok, the international short video platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. His account was created just one year after the White House mandated all federal agencies remove the app from their devices and systems, citing “data security” concerns. The Biden team claims the account is simply part of their campaign strategy, and that the Biden-Harris campaign team will be regularly posting content on TikTok just as they do on other social platforms, including X, Threads, Instagram and Facebook. However, despite facing widespread criticism from political opponents within the U.S., viewing the move from the perspective of Sino-U.S. relations, the U.S. president’s TikTok account conveys a clear positive signal. The…

At minus 30 degrees Celsius, the bitter cold is more than just a number. Expose yourself to the cold for more than 10 minutes and your skin will start tingling and your eyelashes and hair will stiffen. Since 1976, the U.S. state of Iowa has held caucuses, political party meetings to select U.S. presidential candidates every four years. The tradition, an important indicator of a candidate’s likely success, usually takes place in the cold months of January or February. But January 15 this year saw voters head to the coldest caucuses ever, with wind chills falling as low as minus 34 degrees Celsius. Nevertheless, the freezing gales could not dampen the fervor of attendees, nor did it deter a Chinese university delegation from observing the opening act of the U.S.…

China’s new-energy vehicle (NEV) industry has taken the global lead in breaking through technological barriers. It has secured the world’s top position in production and sales for nine consecutive years, with a market share of more than 60 percent. This achievement signifies the establishment of a highly resilient and competitive complete industrial chain, making it a signature industry of high-quality development, said Wang Chuanfu, Chairman of China’s leading NEV manufacturer BYD, at a conference on February 18. In China, the term NEV is used to refer to automobiles powered entirely or predominantly by electric energy, which includes plug-in electric vehicles and fuel-cell electric vehicles. “Currently, the automotive industry is undergoing profound changes, with electrification progressing rapidly and intelligent transformation gaining momentum. The development of NEVs will only accelerate, giving us…

Fu Chao, a white-collar worker in Beijing, faced quite the predicament ahead of this year’s Spring Festival, China’s biggest annual holiday and a time for family reunion. She’d planned to spend the eight-day holiday, starting from February 10, in her hometown of Zibo, Shandong Province, given her busy work schedule generally prevented her from visiting throughout the year. However, her beloved kitty posed a challenge. What to do with her feline companion? When she posted this question in her “cat lovers” group chat on Weixin, China’s omnipresent super app, on February 6, suggestions instantly came flooding in: home-based pet feeding services, pet hotels, flying with her cat… Within 30 minutes, more than 300 messages were exchanged, weighing the security, cost and convenience of each option. Bringing love home In the…

As an international student pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Tianjin University, I have been living in Tianjin, a metropolis in north China, for four and a half years. During this time, I have had the privilege of participating in the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, celebrations with my Chinese friends as well as other students from different countries. Through these experiences, I have discovered the richness and diversity of Chinese culture and the sense of belonging and community that the Spring Festival fosters. The Spring Festival is the most important and celebrated festival in China, marking the end of winter and the beginning of a new year. For many Chinese, it is a time to reunite with family, honor ancestors and enjoy a range of traditional customs. But, as…

NEW WORLD BANK MANAGING DIRECTOR Senior financier Zhang Wencai was appointed the World Bank (WB) Group’s managing director and chief administrative officer on February 20. According to the WB, Zhang will oversee the group’s budget, planning and strategy, as well as information and technology services. Born in 1964, Zhang began his career at the WB Department of the Chinese Ministry of Finance in 1989. In late 2018, he became head of the Department of International Economic and Financial Cooperation at the ministry. In the past decade, Zhang has also held positions such as vice president of the Agricultural Development Bank of China and vice president of the Asian Development Bank, where he led operations in South, Central and West Asia and promoted knowledge sharing and adoption of innovative technologies. Immediately…

Li Tengfei, a traffic police officer in Sanhe, a small city in the northern Chinese province of Hebei, is now in her 27th year of public service. But she still remembers a note her son wrote many years ago when he was little. “It read, ‘The soaked rice in the pot has swollen too much to cook, but my mother still isn’t home yet.’ I was always too late to make and have dinner with him. As I ran my fingers across his big, messy scribblings, I just felt for him,” Li told Beijing Review, adding that her son had gotten used to her busy work schedule as a child. Owing to Sanhe’s unique geographical position, Li’s work is very demanding. The city lies east of Beijing’s Tongzhou District and…

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a keynote speech titled A Staunch Force for Stability in a Turbulent World during the Conversation With China session at the 60th Munich Security Conference on February 17. Wang’s key message to his European colleagues: No matter the changes in the world, China will be “consistent and stable” and a “force for stability.” Wang further called for China and Europe to “stay clear of geopolitical and ideological distractions” and work together. But as recent Western media reports have shown, the Western world, especially the United States, seems skeptical of the narrative. Still, the vast majority of the world’s response to Wang’s speech has been positive. From February 16 to 18, this year’s Munich Security Conference, an annual conference on international security policy held in…

According to data released by the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government on February 15, the country’s GDP shrank at an annualized pace of 0.4 percent in the last three months of 2023 after having contracted by an annualized 3.3 percent, causing it to lose its position as the world’s third largest economy to Germany. One month ago, a report from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in China was released, pointing out that Japanese companies operating in China perceived a modest improvement in its economic performance in 2023. More than half of Japanese companies increased or maintained their investments in China last year and 88 percent of the companies surveyed considered China one of their most important markets globally, the report said, adding most Japanese companies hope…

Passion and effort are what led to Wang Jing becoming a CEO in her 20s. She took on the role in June 2022. Though the e-commerce company she runs has only 10 employees, it’s playing a big role in boosting the economy of the village where she was born. Wang, 29, is one of the many village CEOs taking up roles across China in recent years. Village CEOs, also known as agricultural managers, were among the 13 new professions added in 2019 to the official list of professions jointly administered by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS), the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Bureau of Statistics. According to the MHRSS, village CEOs are those who manage rural economic cooperation organizations such as agricultural cooperatives,…