Innholdsfortegnelse for January 7, 2016 i Beijing Review

MIDDLE EAST Police inspect a crime scene outside of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem after two Palestinians stabbed two Israelis, leaving one dead on December 23, 2015. One of the two attackers was killed by Israeli forces THE UNITED STATES A crowd gathers in Times Square on December 28, 2015, to shred last year’s bad memories, which is an annual Good Riddance Day event in New York City SOUTH KOREA South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se (right) and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida speak at a press meeting in Seoul on December 28, 2015 after the two countries reached a final, irreversible agreement on Japan’s wartime sex slavery of Korean women NEPAL An elephant participates in a beauty pageant which is part of the 12th Elephant Festival held in…

China and India, two emerging econo-mies looking to obtain materials and resources required for the continued infrastructure and commercial development of their own countries, are investing heavily in Africa. Yet the large focus of diplomatic efforts and financial resources by the two most populous countries on Earth has also inspired rumors that the two are competing in Africa, and that the continent is a stage on which a new rivalry is being played out. When it comes to African policy, are China and India rivals? Are their interests in competition with one another? One cannot say there is no competition between the two countries when they interact with African nations, but calling it a rivalry would be an overstatement. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Africa’s trade volume with…

Thirty years ago, Chen Hesheng, now an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), inadvertently became the first postdoctor in China. When Chen graduated from the United States’ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a PhD in Physics in May 1984, Nobel Laureate Tsung-Dao Lee was in the midst of advocating for a postdoc system in China. In March 1983 and again in May 1984, Lee wrote to China’s top leaders suggesting the system be set up in the country. At that time, Chinese students who went overseas to pursue doctoral degrees, just as China was implementing the reform and opening-up policies in the late 1970s, had either just graduated or were about to graduate. Meanwhile, researchers in China were not well paid and the personnel system in China…

Does the term “Chinese spirit” embody patriotism, reform and innovation? That was one of the topics for a trans-lation workshop held in Beijing in December 2015. Karen S. Kingsbury was wrestling with fellow elite translators from China, the United States, Britain and Mexico about the exact meaning of the Chinese phrase—zhongguo jingshen at the meeting. The results are still inconclusive. The workshop, jointly hosted by the China International Publishing Group and the China Academy of Translation, aimed to tackle some of the most difficult problems in the translation of Chinese literary as well as non-literary works into English. Given the vast differences between the two languages and the cultures that they reflect, participants underlined the need to adopt a narrative style that makes these works more accessible to international readers.…

White World Artists work on a snow sculpture, which is the highest in the world, at Sun Island in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, on December 24, 2015. The 51-meter-high exhibit was created for the 28th Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo, which kicked off on January 5, 2016. Smoking Condition The secondhand smoke exposure has dropped in China despite an increase of 15 million smokers in the past five years, said a report released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on December 28, 2015. of 15,095 people aged 15 years and above in urban and rural areas. It showed that compared with 2010, the secondhand smoking exposure rate fell from 34.6 percent to 17.2 percent in primary and middle schools and from 54.9 percent to 38.1 percent…

We are living on the edge of tomorrow— the dawn of a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is a change that is likely to be so thoroughly profound that it is hard to imagine how exactly our world might look like even a few decades from now. Imagine the astonishment of the Wright brothers if they had known that, from their invention of the first successful airplane in 1903, Buzz Aldrin would set foot on the moon just 66 years later. Yet the changes that rocked the world thanks to those achievements in avionics may wither in comparison to what lies in store for future breakthroughs in AI. Baidu, the Internet search engine giant based in Beijing, recently announced their own bid into the AI sector by launching…

AIIB Established The China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a complement to the existing international financial system, was formally established in Beijing on December 25, 2015 and is expected to start its operations this year. The establishment of the AIIB marks a milestone in the reform of the global economic governance system, according to Lou Jiwei, China’s Minister of Finance. The AIIB will become opera-tional after its board of directors and executive council meet for the first time. The meetings are slated to run from January 16 to 18 in Beijing, ac-cording to Lou. The bank’s president will then be officially appointed and the management team will be in place at the meetings. The bank, headquartered in Beijing, now has 57 members. China, India and Russia are AIIB’s three largest…

In an effort to stabilize economic growth, the Chinese top leadership has set out a reso-lute plan for its 2016 course of actions. A strong commitment has been made to reform the supply side of the economy. At present, the main theme of China’s economic development is discovering, adapting to, and guiding the “new normal” situation, a conclusion reached at the annual Central Economic Work Conference held from December 18 to 21, 2015. While the Chinese economy has yet to tap into the full potential that its populace and businesses have to offer, a large number of obstacles have emerged. In the first three quarters of 2015, the country’s economic growth hovered around 6.9 percent. According to a statement released by the Central Government in November 2015, China’s economy should…

Chinese Foreign Minister Paying First-of-the-Year Visit to Africa From January 8 to 16, Wang Yi visited Kenya, Sudan, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wang’s trip continued the tradition in the past 25 years of Chinese foreign ministers beginning their first overseas visit of the year to Africa. In Sudan, Wang also participated in the special consultation in support of IGAD-led South Sudan peace process, putting forward China’s initiative. This demonstrated China’s efforts to promote the peace pro-cess in South Sudan. The Third Africa-China Young Leaders’ Forum Convened The Third Africa-China Young Leaders’ Forum, co-sponsored by the Communist Party of China and Tanzania’s ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi, was held in Arusha, Tanzania, from March 28 to 30. Hundreds of young representatives and entrepreneurs from China…

The Second World Internet Conference, the most high-profile Internet-related event in China, was held in the pictur-esque town of Wuzhen, located on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in east China’s Zhejiang Province on December 16-18, 2015. The conference ended with the an-nouncement of the Wuzhen Initiative, which calls on all countries to promote Internet development and share its benefits, foster cultural diversity, and ensure peace and security in cyberspace, as well as improve global Internet governance. When addressing the opening ceremony, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged all countries to respect Internet sovereignty, jointly safeguard cybersecurity, cooperate with an open mind, and improve Internet governance together. Digital nation Since it was first connected to the Internet in 1994, China has witnessed the rapid development of its online industries. China…

The era of free-flowing and cheap money is ending, as the United States’ Federal Reserve (Fed) raises its bench-mark interest rates from rock bottom for the first time in years. At a press conference following the announcement of the rate hike, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said that even after this increase, the stance of monetary policy remains “accommodative.” That is to say, the rates are still low—the hike should not endanger the stability of the global economy. This action “recognizes the considerable progress that has been made toward restoring jobs, raising incomes and easing the economic hardships of millions of Americans.” Yellen added that the process of normalizing interest rates is likely to proceed gradually. The biggest reason why the Fed has chosen to act recently may be that there…