Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 62/No. 1 i Beijing Review

NORTH KOREA Guests take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for a rail and road connection between South and North Korea at Panmun Station in the town of Kaesong on December 26, 2018 YEMEN A United Nations team to monitor the ceasefire in the port city of Hodeidah arrives at Sana’a International Airport on December 22, 2018 AFGHANISTAN A security force member in a military vehicle near the site of an attack in Kabul on December 24, 2018. A blast hit the city and killed at least 32 people GERMANY People visit a Christmas market at Alexanderplatz Square in Berlin on December 25, 2018 INDONESIA Boats and debris are seen in a damaged village in Banten Province on December 25, 2018, after it was hit by at sunami, killing more than…

In 1972, at the Jinjiang Hotel in downtown Shanghai, the Shanghai Communiqué was signed by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and U.S. President Richard Nixon, establishing the framework for the normalization of bilateral relations, which would be realized on January 1, 1979, with the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America. Currently, China-U.S. ties are one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. Sound Sino-U.S. relations are in line with the fundamental interests of the two peoples and the broad-based expectations of the international community, Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 1, 2018. Nevertheless, opportunities and challenges facing bilateral relations are both unprecedented against…

Bunches of plump dark purple grapes hang from trellises in a vineyard in Siba Town in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Tracing the grapevines to the ground, one can see that they are rooted in stone cracks rather than soft soil. The vineyard was cultivated on a stony hill in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County, which features typical karst topography, so its hills mostly have a thin layer of soil over limestone bedrocks. When surface soil is eroded, bedrocks are exposed, leading to rocky desertification. Grape plantation has effectively curbed rocky desertification in the county, said Huang Jianyou, Deputy Director of the county forestry bureau. Thanks to grape plantation in 2017, rocky desertification area in the county shrunk by 15.3 square km, he told the media. So far, the county…

Li Zhengde regards the Yangtze River as the highway of his youth. Born in a small town in south China’s Hunan Province, Li grew up near the Zijiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze, and in 1976, boats were the major mode of transport there. In the 1990s, he had to take a year off from school due to illness and sailed to nearby Wuhan Province on his cousin’s wooden junk. It was his first trip outside Hunan and the one-month sailing experience is etched indelibly in his mind. He still remembers graphically how the finless porpoises would leap out of the water, marking curves in the spray. Li is now a photographer living in Shenzhen who has since seen a larger world. Though 20 years have elapsed since he…

To British writer and editor David Ferguson, in terms of China’s external discourse, poverty alleviation is the most important topic the country has to present to the world because it’s China’s biggest success story. That’s also the story that interests him most in Understanding China, a series of 22 books in both Chinese and English launched on December 16, 2018. “China can genuinely say that it leads the world in poverty alleviation both in terms of its strategy and also in terms of its projects. I think from an international perspective, the world has a lot to learn from China about its poverty alleviation program,” said Ferguson, who is also one of the editors of the series. Chronicling change The series, describing the dramatic changes in China in recent decades,…

Fire Stunts A folk artist performs fire-breathing for tourists at the Hongya Valley scenic spot in north China’s Hebei Province on December 22, 2018, the Winter Solstice, one of China’s 24 Solar Terms. Various folk custom-themed activities were held on the day to celebrate. Patent Award The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced the names of the recipients of the 20th China Patent Award, the nation’s top award for patents, on December 25, 2018. Altogether 40 patents, including 30 for invention and utility models and 10 for industrial designs, won the gold. As of the end of 2017, products and projects related to the 40 gold award winners had created 83.5 billion yuan ($12 billion) of sales revenue, 13.9 billion yuan ($2 billion) in profit and 18.6 billion yuan…

January 1, 2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. Looking back, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter once told Li Qiangmin, Chinese Consul General in Houston, that the most correct thing he had done during his presidential tenure from 1977 to 1981 was normalizing U.S.-China relations. The decision changed China, the United States, and the world, Carter said. It has not only changed, but also benefited, the two countries and the world, Li replied. “It is an appropriate time to analyze and reflect upon the state of U.S.-China relations,” Carter wrote in a congratulatory letter to a forum co-hosted by the RUC (Renmin University of China) North America Alumni Association and the China Program of the Carter Center in Atlanta on…

Zheng Tiantian and Ren Guoqing had three wedding ceremonies in 2018. One was in her hometown in Hebi City, central China’s Henan Province; one in his hometown in Juxian County, east China’s Shandong Province; and the third was in Shandong’s Qingdao City, where the two work at a public institution. “It’s quite common to have more than one wedding ceremony for couples like us who are from different cities. On some occasions, if the newlyweds work for different companies, they even have two banquets for each side of their colleagues,” Zheng told Beijing Review. The three wedding ceremonies cost the couple about 70,000 yuan ($10,000), which is equivalent to over three months of their combined income. “A wedding is one of the most important events in a person’s life, so…

British professor Hugo de Burgh dons a flowery T-shirt as he sits comfortably in his office at the China Media Center, which is affiliated with the University of Westminster, where he told Beijing Review there are many things about Chinese society that attract him. Flexibility is one admirable trait de Burgh attributes to Chinese people. In his opinion, British and U.S. people are very often bound by rules and conventions. “Chinese people are more flexible,” he said. “This also has its disadvantages, but I think this is the pragmatism and flexibility of Chinese thinking.” “This is why China is so successful economically,” he added. De Burgh started his exploration of China as a reporter in the 1970s, making him the envy of many Europeans. At the time, however, China left…

The No.7 Middle School in Chengdu, southwest China, is a star in its own right. In 2017, more than 30 students who passed out of the school got enrolled in prestigious universities like the University of California, the United States, and over 70 entered Tsinghua University and Peking University. Recently, another feat by the school has gone viral. It was reported that 248 middle schools in remote and impoverished areas in Yunnan, another province in southwest China, which lack resources and are not doing well have an innovative tie-up with the star school. When the No.7 Middle School holds classes, the lessons are shared with 72,000 students from the Yunnan schools through live broadcasts, thanks to a program launched by the school with Eastedu, a sci-tech company. Since the initiative…

Supporting Smaller Enterprises China will intensify its support for the development of the private sector, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to boost the vitality of market entities and enhance their confidence, an executive meeting of the State Council, China’s cabinet, decided on December 24, 2018. Premier Li Keqiang called for giving stronger support to private businesses and SMEs to ease their financing woes and promote the integrated development of businesses of all sizes. “To boost the private sector of the economy and micro and small businesses, it is crucial to create a level playing field, especially in property protection and market access, for these businesses to compete in a law-based, neutral environment,” Li said. Stronger innovation capacity will be supported. Catalogues of recommended products and services will be issued…

One day after the celebration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, the Central Economic Work Conference, China’s annual meeting to set the agenda for the economy, was convened on December 19-21, 2018. It reviewed the economic performance in 2018 and outlined major tasks for 2019. The conference focused on ensuring stable growth and further reform and opening up. A statement issued after the conference said economic growth remained steady despite increasing downward pressure and mounting uncertainties, both at home and abroad, in 2018. Other achievements included an initial victory in the three tough battles against financial risks, poverty and pollution, as well as new progress in supply-side structural reform. To turn the challenges into impetus for high-quality development, a proactive financial policy, a prudent monetary policy and…

The ice collection season was launched on the frozen waters of the Songhuajiang River in Harbin, capital city of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, on December 7, 2018. Ice collected by teams of workers will be used to build Ice-Snow World, a spectacular theme park in the city. Liu Shujuan is a team leader with more than 20 years of experience, having learned from her father since the age of 16. Her responsibilities include selecting the ice area for collection and judging and controlling the conditions for work. “Look at the ice in the sunshine, see how clear it is,” Liu said with satisfaction. A promising market A stable water flow in the Songhuajiang River contributes to the generation of the crystal clear ice formed during winter, the main reason why…

($1=6.9 yuan) 109 mln The number of China’s market entities at the end of November 2018, surging from 490,000 at the early stage of reform and opening up $2 tln Predicted total imports of China in 2018, setting a new record 16 tln yuan China’s digital economy in the first half of 2018, accounting for 38.2 percent of the GDP, up from 32.9 percent in 2017 6 tln yuan China’s fiscal spending on medical services from 2013 to 2017, with an average annual increase of 11.7 percent Fixed Assets Investment Growth in China (% y.o.y.) Fixed Assets Investment Growth by Sector January-November (% y.o.y.) Primary industry: Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery Secondary industry: Mining, manufacturing, construction, and electricity, thermal, fuel gas and water production and supply Tertiary industry: Services…

Considering the spiciness of its fabled cuisine, Chengdu is remarkably laid-back and mellow. Maybe the heat of the chili and the tingling of the Sichuan pepper that tickles the taste buds also balances a person out. On a weekend visit to the city with my husband and a friend, I was determined to experience Chengdu in all its fabulousness. Of course, I began with the food. I have read Fuchsia Dunlop’s memoir of her time in Chengdu and China, Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, and so was looking forward to exploring the many flavors of Sichuan cuisine even if I didn’t know enough Chinese to take cooking lessons like she did. My first lunch was a large spread with new friends from Sichuan…