Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 60/No. 40-41 i Beijing Review

Lake Attraction Tourists visit Barkol Lake in Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on September 24. The county, which boasts a large area of wetland and grassland, has developed its tourism industry to increase incomes for local residents. Joint Ownership Housing Beijing on September 20 unveiled a scheme to introduce homes with property rights to be shared by the government and buyers. According to a document issued by the city’s housing authorities, individual buyers will be able to buy a share in such homes and still have the full right of use. The policy has several restric-tions. Buyers and their families cannot already own homes in their name. They should have no records of home transfers. Single people making purchases must be at least 30 years…

Zhang Fuyou was basking in the sunlight at the brick-paved cultural plaza of Tangyue Village, enjoying a moment of quietness. The plaza, surrounded by Western-villa-style houses that are mostly three stories high, could be mistaken as one in a high-end urban neighborhood if not for the patches of corn or vegetable fields in front of some of the houses. At the top of a hill overlooking the plaza, four gigantic Chinese characters written in red remind poverty breeds a desire for change. The four characters manifest Tangyue Village’s determination to shake off poverty. The village, located in Anshun, Guizhou Province, has a long history. Local historical records show that it was founded by expeditionary soldiers dispatched by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to quell rebellion in the…

Eradicating poverty is a common goal for human beings, and a worldwide challenge. The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese Government have long attached great importance to poverty alleviation and development as well as been an active ad-vocator and powerful promoter of the global cause of poverty reduction. Particularly, since reform and opening up began in the late 1970s, Chinese people have spared no efforts in the fight against poverty and real-ized historic achievements. China has been conducting large-scale, well-organized and planned programs on poverty alleviation and development since the mid-1980s. With the joint efforts of the entire Chinese society and support from the international community, China has lifted 700 million people out of poverty and become the first developing nation to realize the goal of eradicating extreme…

In Sino-Indian trade, India is most con-spicuously known for being a huge market for electronic goods manufac-tured by China. Of course, that’s not all that China exports to India—there are also or-ganic chemicals, boilers, milk, fuel and oil. In 2014, China edged out the United Arab Emirates to become India’s largest trade partner. By 2015, China already accounted for 15.8 percent of all Indian imports, adding up to a total of $61.5 billion. This means that, bilateral political climate aside, the Chinese and Indian economies are inextricably linked to each other. Trade is only one of the ways money moves between countries in the modern world, though, and it’s a second route that’s been gaining momentum of late: private equity and venture capital. In 2015, Chinese companies collectively invested $3.38…

The Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center (BTPAC), usually not open until afternoon, was filled with hundreds of visi-tors on the early morning of September 16. The visitors, mostly female, rushed to the famous art venue to enjoy the Women of the World (WOW) Festival which was staged in China for the first time. WOW was established in 2010 by Jude Kelly at Southbank Centre—a major arts center in London. It aims to celebrate the achievements of women and girls, and to encourage every woman to improve herself. It has been held in 20 cities across five continents in the world over the past seven years. Having reached nearly two million people worldwide, WOW has become the world’s largest cultural festival network of its kind. “I am delighted that today, WOW…

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks with a teenage guide at the Beijing Exhibition Center on September 25 while visiting an exhibition displaying China’s achievements over the past five years. Xi, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in his remarks that all Chinese should make persistent efforts to realize the nation’s two centenary goals and fulfill the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. Other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee also visited the exhibition.…

SIERRA LEONE Children play outside of settlement camps in Freetown, capital of the country, on September 22. A month earlier, a massive mudslide claimed more than 1,000 lives GERMANY Angela Merkel is set for a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor after her center-right coalition won the federal election on September 24 TURKEY President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chairs the National Security Council in Ankara on September 22 and warns of military intervention if Iraq’s Kurdish region goes ahead with a referendum for independence AFGHANISTAN NATO troops stationed in the country investigate a bomb attack in Kabul on September 24 which left three people injured MEXICO A volunteer takes a break during relief efforts on September 23, one day after Mexico City was shocked by a massive earthquake which took at least…

For decades, 48-year-old Ye Peng resided in a remote and poverty-stricken village in Caiguan Town in Guizhou Province. Deep in the mountains, in Guankou village, he led a simple life, supported by corn planting. Life, already hard enough, took a downward turn about a decade ago when his wife fell seriously ill. With medical bills to foot and two school-aged children to support, the family plunged into dire poverty. Nonetheless, a turnaround in his fortune took place this year. In April, he and his fam-ily moved into a newly furnished apartment in Caiguan Town, at no cost, under a poverty alleviation relocation program, Ye told Beijing Review. In addition to a new home, Ye was also offered a job as a security guard in the town, earning 1,500 yuan ($227.9)…

Xiushui Village looks exactly like one would imagine an “ancient town” in south China to appear, with log cabins lining both sides of a stream and boulders jutting out of river banks. Nonetheless, its facilities are brand new, as the village has been rebuilt in recent years to develop tourism and alleviate poverty. Located among the mountains in Puding County under the jurisdiction of Anshun City, Guizhou Province, the village has 3,823 residents in 1,165 households. Grain plantation and labor outsourcing used to be villagers’ major sources of income. In 2014, it had 453 households living under the national poverty line. But with help from the Xingwei Group, a private company, villagers have grown vegetables, planted nut trees and developed tourism in order to free themselves from destitution. These efforts…

Showing violence, gore, and light porno-graphic material, Chinese-made animated film Dahufa is the first movie in China to rate itself PG-13, following the enactment of the Film Industry Promotion Law on March 1. It is a story about a warrior named Dahufa saving his prince from a dystopian village. The villagers, which are peanut-shaped humanoids, are ruled by a fake god whom they must obey. To save the prince, Dahufa has to find ways to defeat his enemies and unveil the conspiracy. Unlike some other animated movies based on existing concepts from ancient tales or classics, this is an original story. Dahufa, a short, triangle-shaped martial arts master in red, often talks to himself in a humorous manner, and sometimes even philosophically. “This movie was initially not planned to be…

U.S. financial service agency S&P lowered China’s sovereign credit rating from AA- to A+ on September 21, citing economic and financial risks from China’s fast credit growth. Tom Orlik, Bloomberg’s chief Asia economist, told Xinhua News Agency that the move by S&P is likely to have little impact on investor sentiment. Khoon Goh, head of Asia Research at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said that there shouldn’t be much impact judging from the market reaction following the Moody’s downgrade a few months back. The markets were generally undisturbed by rating agency Moody’s move to lower China’s credit rating in May. Since Moody’s decision, the Shanghai Composite Index has maintained bullish momentum, breaking above a ceiling of 3,300 points at the end of August. The Chinese yuan has also…

A Feast of Art Vietnamese artists perform during the opening ceremony of the 15th Asia Arts Festival in Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang Province, on September 23, when the event kicked off. Left-Behind Children As of the end of August, over 680,000 previously unsupervised “left-behind children” in rural areas have been placed in the custody of guardians, according to an office af-filiated to the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA). The term “left-behind children” refers to children whose parents have left their homes in rural areas to become migrant workers in towns or cities, leaving behind their children either unsupervised or in the care of relatives or neighbors. Since November 2016, a total of 11,821 left-behind children who had dropped out of school have re-sumed their education, according to the office under…

Rows upon rows of concrete poles are neatly arrayed along a hillside in Miluo Township. Beside the poles stand kiwi trees, about 2 meters tall, whose branches spread out along a wire net knitted at the top of the poles, giving the scene the resemblance of a vineyard. The kiwi orchard in Miluo in Shuicheng County, in Liupanshui in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, is also a poverty alleviation project. Green, egg-sized, oval kiwifruits hide beneath dense leaves, escaping the attention of unskilled eyes. “Here they are,” said Xie Mengjie, Deputy Secretary of the Miluo Township Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), pointing at two kiwifruits that he had spotted. As kiwifruits mature in summer, by September, most of those in the orchard have already been harvested, he said.…

Zpdwa Zokalala, a brand marketing manager of South African Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone, had a busy schedule of business meetings during the 2017 China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, from September 18 to 21. “South Africa has signed cooperation agree-ments with many Chinese provinces. China has advantages in technologies and profes-sionals, while South Africa has advantages in bulk commodities. If we can combine these advantages, bringing Chinese technolo-gies and professionals to South Africa and exporting South African commodities to China, both countries will benefit from these opportunities,” he told Beijing Review while attending the opening ceremony of the CIFIT on September 18. As Xiamen was also the host city of the ninth BRICS Summit held earlier in September, inbound and outbound investment…

Mamat Rixat starts making bronze ar-ticles at 10:30 a.m. every day, just as the Kashgar Old City starts welcoming tourists from around the world. The area in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is renowned for its collection of intan-gible cultural heritage passed down through the generations since Kashgar existed as a cross-roads on the ancient Silk Road. The 35-year-old man is a sixth-generation inheritor of the craft of Uygur bronze-work. He rented a unit in the core area of the old city after the area was restored in 2009. “I mainly focused on craftsmanship and sold hand-made products to retailers in the past,” Rixat told Beijing Review. But now, tourists come to his shop, and some buy his products via his WeChat online shop. “More and more people buy…