Innehållsförteckning för Vol.67/No.38 från Beijing Review

Foreign Trade China’s foreign trade continued to demonstrate strong resilience during the first eight months of the year, despite a complex and challenging external environment, official data showed. According to the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), during this period, the goods trade volume expanded 6 percent year on year in yuan terms. Exports rose 6.9 percent year on year in the January-August period, while imports climbed 4.7 percent, according to the GACC. In U.S. dollar terms, the country’s foreign trade in goods stood at $4.02 trillion from January to August, up 3.7 percent year on year. Exports rose 4.6 percent from a year ago, while imports increased 2.5 percent year on year. Trade surplus expanded 11.2 percent year on year to $608.49 billion during the eight-month period. “China’s…

In his recent talks with visiting Comorian President Azali Assoumani in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping brought up a Chinese TV series that resonated deeply in both China and Africa. The show has been broadcast in some 50 countries and regions including the Comoros. Known as Minning Town, the series carries the more poetic Chinese title, Shan Hai Qing, or “Friendship Across Mountains and Oceans,” which highlights the collaborative anti-poverty efforts between Fujian Province in southeast China and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the northwest in the 1990s. Based on real-life events in Xihaigu, a remote and impoverished mountainous area in Ningxia, the series depicts the relocation of villagers from barren mountains to a more hospitable area called Minning Town, located near the Yellow River, with assistance from wealthier Fujian.…

Aden Barrow, 45, lives in Garissa, a town in Kenya’s northeastern region. His household uses renewable energy for all daily electricity needs, including powering their home and irrigating crops on the 1.2-hectare farm. “Solar-powered irrigation helps me produce larger quantities of crops such as tomatoes, bananas, mangoes and kale, which I then sell to nearby supermarkets and hotels. Although I am connected to the national grid, I also generate biogas from animal waste, mostly from cows and pigs,” Barrow said, adding that customers are drawn to his produce, which is grown using clean energy, as they are becoming more conscious of environmental protection. Chinese solar initiative Barrow’s solar equipment and power supply are provided by the Chinese company Jinko Solar, a global leader in solar and storage solutions, in partnership…

Every day, Yerbolson Haharman, dressed in traditional Kazak attire, assumes his role as a guide at a century-old house, which exhibits the daily life of locals in the old days in Hemu Village in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Filled with a sense of pride and purpose, he enthusiastically introduces the old dwelling of local Tuvan people to visitors. After that, he escorts them a short distance away to a performance hall. In that space, he transforms from guide to lead vocalist of the Horseshoe Band, masterfully playing the dombra, a plucked string musical instrument of the Kazak ethnic group. This ensemble, consisting of four members from three distinct ethnic groups, infuses Tuvan folk songs and melodies with new vitality. As the visitors indulge in the warmth of milk tea, the…

An exhibition area of the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) at the China National Convention Center in Beijing on September 11. Themed Global Services, Shared Prosperity, the CIFTIS took place from September 12 to 16 at the convention center and Shougang Park in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the fair. He pointed out that the CIFTIS, successfully held for 10 years, vividly illustrates the high-quality development of China’s service industry and service trade, contributing to the creation of an open world economy.…

FRANCE The closing ceremony of the 17th Paralympic Summer Games takes place in Paris on September 8 COTE D’IVOIRE The African Development Bank celebrates its 60th anniversary in Abidjan, the country’s economic capital, on September 10 PALESTINE Residents inspect the ruins of a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, following an Israeli airstrike on September 11 GERMANY Vehicles queue up at a checkpoint between Frankfurt an der Oder and Słubice, Poland, on September 10. Germany on September 9 announced it would be temporarily tightening land border controls to “reduce irregular migration and improve security” UNITED STATES Protesters gather near the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where a televised presidential debate was underway, on September 10 UNITED NATIONS The 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)…

Like many farmers, Monica Haraba wakes up at 5 a.m. to get ready to harvest her soybean crop on her farmland located on the outskirts of Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. But like last year, she is expecting lower output due to adverse weather, especially drought. “Because of poor weather conditions, I managed to harvest only 200 bags of soybeans, each weighing 50 kg, during the 2022-23 farming season, compared to 600 bags in the previous season, on my 8 acres (3.23 hectares) of land,” Haraba said. Haraba intends to sell her yield to local companies that process soybeans into finished products including cooking oil, soymeal and stock feed. According to Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture, the minimum farm gate price for strategic crops such as soybean for the 2023-24 season is pegged…

With Apple Inc. gearing up for the annual release of its latest iPhone on September 10, Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and largest assembler of iPhones, found itself headed into peak production season and in a frenzied hunt to find staff for the world’s biggest iPhone factory, located in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province. Under the title “Foxconn Is Hiring,” job posts published by local recruitment agencies have flooded the Internet, promising potential employees a 25-yuan ($3.44) hourly rate and a bonus of up to 7,500 yuan ($1,053) for those who have worked for a full three months. Within just two weeks of its release, the offer had helped Foxconn secure at least 50,000 new hires for its Zhengzhou factory, according to Ifeng.com, a Beijing-based news…

Raising Retirement Age The 11th session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on September 10 reviewed a draft decision on gradually raising the statutory retirement age in China. Experts have explained to Xinhua News Agency why the retirement age needs to be raised and whether it would affect employment. “Delaying retirement is a major reform introduced in response to population aging, and is conducive to the full utilization of China’s human resources,” said Mo Rong, head of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security. Currently, the retirement age in China for men is 60, while it is 55 for women cadres and 50 for women blue-collar workers. “The arrangement was made based on average life expectancy, working conditions and employment practices in the 1950s. Now, over…

On the rugged terrain of Altay Prefecture, along the northwestern frontier of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China’s green energy revolution is unfolding. Located on China’s border with Kazakhstan, Altay serves as an important junction along the northern stretch of the Silk Road Economic Belt, a major component of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative to boost connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. The prefecture is home to an ambitious integrated project that harnesses wind and solar energy, enabled by energy storage solutions. This project places Altay at the heart of the national strategy to capitalize on the untapped potential of deserts and barren lands for renewable energy production. Balancing with innovation In Jeminay County, a three-hour drive west of Altay City, capital of Altay Prefecture, the landscape…

The Chinese slang term tieqiubiao, or “putting on autumn fat,” refers to gaining a little weight in early autumn by eating meals rich in protein and fat, including stewed meats, dumplings and nuts. Since ancient times, people have measured their weight at lixia, one of the 24 solar terms that marks the beginning of summer, and compared it to their weight at liqiu, the beginning of autumn, to figure out how much weight they have lost due to the sweltering summer, hoping to gain sufficient weight to weather the upcoming cold season. This autumn, however, many are choosing to depart from tradition—instead shaking off the extra weight by eating what is referred to as qingshi, or literally, “light food.” “I think it’s a post-Olympic phenomenon. After you spent the summer…

The China Fashion Week 2025 Spring/Summer Collection was held in Beijing from September 3 to 13, attracting more than 400 designers from six countries—China, Austria, Russia, the United States, Australia and Viet Nam. This year’s fashion week carried on the trend of incorporating Eastern aesthetics, drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese culture while adopting contemporary features, to form distinctive Chinese-style clothing. Comments to weiyao@cicgamericas.com…