Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 62/No. 5 i Beijing Review

Globalization 4.0 Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan called on countries to work together to shape the global architecture in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on January 23, with the vision to create a better future for all humanity. While addressing the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2019, Wang said it is imperative to respect national sovereignty and refrain from seeking technological hegemony or interfering in other countries’ domestic affairs. He called for efforts to uphold multilateralism and jointly build a system of rules for technology and a new international cooperation framework featuring peace, security, democracy, transparency, inclusiveness and mutual benefit so that all people can gain from technological innovation. Pointing out that new technologies bring opportunities and also create risks and challenges, Wang said countries need to…

On January 21, when the travel rush for the traditional Chinese New Year holiday began, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the 2018 economic figures. The data have met the official growth target and shown the domestic economy’s resilience despite volatility. China’s economy grew 6.6 percent year on year in 2018, reaching the target of around 6.5 percent. The GDP totaled 90.03 trillion yuan ($13.32 trillion), crossing the 90-trillion-yuan milestone for the first time and increasing by nearly 8 trillion yuan ($1.17 trillion) over 2017. China remained the largest driving force of the world’s economy, contributing over 30 percent of global economic growth, Ning Jizhe, chief of the NBS, said at the news conference where the figures were released. “The economy performed within a reasonable range in 2018, achieving…

The China-U.S. diplomatic relationship, which turned 40 this year, is now the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world and should not be affected by trade tensions or other differences, politicians, officials and scholars from both countries said. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter set the tone when he said the bilateral relationship is “too important to be destroyed or set back by hatred or misunderstanding between the two countries” at a symposium commemorating the 40th anniversary of the normalization of China-U.S. relations in Atlanta from January 17 to 19. “Instead of celebrating, many Americans, inside and outside of the government, are questioning the benefits of the diplomatic relations and our policy of engagement. This policy, that has given us 40 years of peace, is unfortunately deeply troubled,” Stephen Orlins, President…

I was once a Chinese TV star. Actually, I ’ m neither Chinese nor a star, but for two seasons, I was the French voice of one of the major characters in a famous Chinese soap opera. So of course, no one recognized me on the streets of Beijing and the paparazzi never followed me around, but whenever people found out the name of my Chinese alter ego, they always got overexcited. China has put a lot of effort into sharing its culture with the world. As part of this effort, Chinese movies and TV shows have been dubbed into various languages in order to share these cultural products with the rest of the world. As a result, many companies have tried to enter this growing market and the ads…

The first test plane lands on the runway of the Beijing Daxing International Airport on January 22, indicating the project has entered the stage of inspection and handover. Located on the border of Beijing and Langfang in north China’s Hebei Province, the new airport will take pressure off the overcrowded Beijing Capital International Airport in the city’s northeastern suburbs. The airport, 46 km south of Beijing’s center, will serve as another air traffic hub for north China.…

MEXICO Rescuers at the site of a pipeline explosion in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo State, on January 19. At least 66 people were reported killed SWITZERLAND IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks at a press conference in Davos on January 21. The IMF projected the world’s economy will grow at a rate of 3.5 percent in 2019 THAILAND Representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) pose for a photo before the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Chiang Mai on January 18 GERMANY A band plays amid tulips at the Netherlands booth during the 83rd International Green Week Berlin, which attracted more than 1,700 exhibitors from all over the world, on January 1 UNITED STATES A musician performs at the 41st annual “Original” MLK Jr. Parade in Los…

‘Given the government’s measures to deepen the reform of value-added tax (VAT) launched in May, ‘Given our company expects to save more than 10 million yuan ($1.47 million) in taxes this year,” said Zhang Dexi, head of Dengkou County branch of dairy giant Mengniu Dairy Co. Ltd., in December 2018. The company in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is an example of how tax cuts have benefited businesses in the country. When discussing the Chinese economy in 2018, “tax cuts” will always feature as a notable keyword. From the reduction of VAT rates and personal income tax reform to the tax incentives to support innovation-driven companies, the theme was dominant in all aspects of the economy. It is expected that 1.3 trillion yuan ($191.7 billion) can be saved across…

East China’s Jiangsu Province reported on January 14 that its GDP reached more than 9.2 trillion yuan ($1.36 trillion) in 2018, becoming the first Chinese mainland province to officially announce that its economic aggregate has topped the 9-trillion-yuan hallmark. Jiangsu’s economy has surpassed that of Australia, the 13th largest in the world. Governor Wu Zhenglong unveiled the figure at the annual session of the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress, the provincial legislature. In addition to Jiangsu, governments of other provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland all released their work reports at local legislative sessions in January, where people’s congress deputies gathered to discuss local issues and made decisions regarding economic and social development in 2019. In the meantime, members of provincial-level committees of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the…

OPINION The Need for Ethical AI Across Asia, countries are putting in place plans to lead the way in the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven era. From China’s Made in China 2025 and Singapore’s Smart Nation plan to Japan’s focus on automating more tasks in a bid offset an aging workforce, it is clear Asia is taking adequate policy steps. Blue-chip companies are leading the way with AI. Alibaba has used the Singles’ Day Shopping Festival as a testing ground for the power of virtual reality to drive shopping decisions. The Tencent slogan—AI in all—represents the company’s directional thinking. The big boys of e-commerce are also battling it out on the AI investment front in research and development in the hunt to find the next big thing to revolutionize the industry. In 2018,…

Of Mice and Women Tourists pose for photos with Disney characters at the Shanghai Disney Resort on January 21, when performances and souvenirs to greet the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year were on display. Housing Renovation China exceeded the housing renovation target for rundown urban areas in 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on January 22. Construction began on 6.27 million homes in dilapidated areas in 2018, accounting for 107.4 percent of the annual target, NDRC spokesperson Meng Wei said at a press conference. A new three-year renovation plan to address housing in rundown urban areas has seen construction on 5.8 million units start by the end of 2018. This is part of the government’s efforts to improve the living conditions of people with housing difficulties. China…

Families in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, consume a high amount of wheat flour. As the Spring Festival approaches, they have started preparing for reunion feasts and wheat flour is an essential item on their shopping list. However, one of them, 50-year-old Lian Hui, has made a daring decision this year. She plans to experiment with imported flour to make noodles and steamed bread. “I was told that Kazakhstan grows quality wheat, but I didn’t come across the wheat before,” she said. “This time, I saw it in the supermarket, so I have decided to try it out.” Due to its conducive soil and weather conditions, Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country, is a premium wheat producer. However, before 2013, Kazakhstan barely exported wheat to neighboring China due…

‘When I was a primary school student, the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program was always mentioned during school broadcasts,” said Wang Tianran, a resident of Tianjin, which is part of an ecological project that covers northwest, north and northeast China. In the late 1990s, Wang attended a wedding and noticed that the bride wore a veil to protect her makeup from the dust. Wang couldn’t understand why the environment had not improved since the large afforestation program had been launched 20 years before and asked the question in one of her school compositions. “My teacher said that I needed to wait,” Wang told Beijing Review. “And I think time has proven her right.” Green Great Wall Sandstorms, which were a nightmare, have drastically dropped in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in recent years.…

In 2018, realistic films, which reflect contemporary Chinese lives and thinking, achieved immense success, as the popularity of Dying to Survive showed. Directed by Wen Muye, the black comedy is based on the true story of Lu Yong, a leukemia patient from east China’s Jiangsu Province. Lu sold affordable Indian anti-cancer drugs to fellow sufferers who were unable to buy the expensive medicines available in Chinese hospitals. However, though humane, it was also an illegal act since the Indian medicines were not authorized for sale in China. The moving film not only achieved commercial success, raking in 3.1 billion yuan ($456 million), but also prompted the government to extend medical insurance cover to more anti-cancer drugs. In addition to Dying to Survive, a number of other realistic films performed well…

On January 20, Pinduoduo, a Chinese e-commerce platform where buyers can get discounts by shopping as an online group, announced that it had suffered losses of millions of yuan due to an uncontrolled avalanche of discount coupons online. Due to a glitch in the company’s computer system, users were able to top up their phones by 100 yuan ($14.74) while paying only 0.4 yuan ($0.06) and many users used this opportunity to top up their phones multiple times. In a statement on its official account of China’s leading microblog platform Weibo on the following day, Pinduoduo said it had rectified the problem and reported the incident to police. It also said it was tracking the online orders that used those coupons. Such glitch-caused catastrophes, though rare, did happen. In early…