Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.63/No.43 i Beijing Review

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) since the State Council authorized the establishment of the first four SEZs in 1980. The 40-year development process of the city in Fujian Province, southeast China, also reflects China’s growth after reform and opening up. Each of the four SEZs, the other three being Shenzhen, Shantou and Zhuhai in Guangdong Province in the south, followed their unique development path. Xiamen carried out the trans-island development strategy. When the Xiamen SEZ was established, it had only an area of 2.5 square km on the main island. By March 1984, the SEZ was extended to the entire island but the resulting 131 square km was still not sufficient for the growing population and the ensuing economic development. Ultimately in…

Xiamen has a long trading history. Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the ancient Tea Horse trade route had run through it and other cities in Fujian Province, southeast China. Caravans carried tea, seafood and other goods to sell them to distant places. The port city was also a trade hub on the ancient Maritime Silk Road. Currently, it has become an important platform for Belt and Road cooperation and international exchanges. Getting things started In 1998, U.S. computer maker Dell chose Xiamen to establish its first factory in China. Later, BAX Global, a U.S.-based international shipping company, came to Xiamen as Dell’s partner, providing delivery and vendor-managed inventory services. Zhang Xiaobin, then an employee of BAX, recalled that when BAX got registered in Xiamen in 1999, the concept of logistics…

One of the most challenging tasks for Western scholars is understanding China. The differences in their cultures overshadow the interpretation of China in Western discourse. As a result, China is regularly portrayed according to Western expectations or standards. China’s progress in the last decades has been the result of hard work, systematic action and careful planning. Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume III offers a valuable account of Chinese political thinking and the priorities in the governance of the country structured around 19 thematic units. China finds itself at a crossroads due to the volatile international environment. President Xi Jinping is leading the country during a period of unprecedented challenges, which had been apparent even before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As he says, “One should…

● States should handle data security in a comprehensive, objective and evidence-based manner, and maintain an open, secure and stable supply chain of global information and communications technology (ICT) products and services. ● States should stand against ICT activities that impair or steal important data of other states’ critical infrastructure, or use the data to conduct activities that undermine other states’ national security and public interests. ● States should take actions to prevent and put an end to activities that jeopardize personal information through the use of ICTs, and oppose mass surveillance against other states and unauthorized collection of personal information of other states with ICTs as a tool. ● States should encourage companies to abide by laws and regulations of the state where they operate. States should not request…

Recently, placards with slogans of stop wasting food and “Clear Your Plates” have been popping up on tables in restaurants across the country, where waiters are now gently notifying diners when they’ve ordered more than enough food. Public service announcements featuring Chinese celebrities have also appealed to Chinese citizens to reduce food waste, as part of a waste reduction movement that is sweeping the nation. The movement is part of a long-term campaign, initiated in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, and gets new energy from the president’s recent emphasis on preventing food wastage. In August, Xi highlighted the importance of food security awareness, even in times of plentiful harvests. His message centered on taking the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on food security as a call for vigilance.…

CHINESE PHYSICIST HONORED WITH U.S. AWARD Lu Chaoyang, a professor with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), recently has won the Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing of the Physical Society (APS) for his significant contributions to optical quantum information sciences, especially on solid-state quantum light sources, quantum teleportation and optical quantum computing. Lu, born in Zhejiang Province, east China, in December 1982, was admitted to USTC in 2000 and earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2011. He has made significant research with international influence on quantum light sources and quantum teleportation. Founded in 1899, the APS is the world’s largest not-for-profit membership organization on physics with more than 50,000 members from all around the world. It established…

Seventy-five years ago, our fathers’ generation won the epic victory of the World Anti-Fascist War through years of heroic struggles. The ensuing decades witnessed the founding of the United Nations on October 24, 1945, the best hope of humankind to facilitate international cooperation and coordination and establish a new international order to avoid a third world war following two such cataclysms. From organizing peacekeeping missions to implementing the Millennium Development Goals and then the Sustainable Development Goals, from promoting South-South and North-South cooperation to implementing its Development Program, World Food Program and Environment Program, and from offering humanitarian and development assistance to children and mothers through its Children’s Fund to recognizing World Heritage Sites by its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN has been the guardian of international peace…

When the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the only museum in the country on Chinese volunteers’ participation in the Korean War (1950-53), reopened in the border city of Dandong, Liaoning Province in northeast China, in September, it triggered widespread reminiscences, especially this year being the 70th anniversary of the war. Beijing resident Sun Yuhong’s father and uncle took part in the war. Finally, her father came back but her uncle didn’t. She began trying to find out what happened to him in 1979, due to her grandparents’ concern over their missing son. He was 20 when he went to the war as a member of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV). In 2014, along with others who too were searching for relatives missing in…

($1=6.7 yuan) China’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) Growth China’s CPI Growth by Type China’s Producer Price Index Growth China’s courier sector saw fast expansion in September, with business volume standing at around 7.6 billion parcels, up 35.7 percent year on year. The growth hit a four-year high. The civil aviation sector continued to recover in September. Airports throughout China handled a total of 375,300 outbound flights in the month, down 6.86 percent compared to the same period last year but up 1.6 percent month on month. Beibu Gulf Port in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, saw its cargo throughput rise 21.68 percent year on year to about 181.67 million tons in the first three quarters. The robust growth was primarily due to the accelerated construction of the New International…

When our family moved to Xiamen in the southeastern province of Fujian in 1988, it was hard to believe that only a century earlier many Westerners had claimed that Xiamen boasted the wealthiest square mile on earth. For centuries, Xiamen had been famed for both its deep natural port and “a kindlier spirit, a more generous feeling, predominant at Amoy [Xiamen], toward foreigners, and traders, and visitors, than at other parts of China,” as authors Thomas Allom and George Wright wrote in their 1843 book China in a Series of Views, Displaying the Scenery, Architecture, and Social Habits of That Ancient Empire. Xiamen was not only rich but also talented, producing pioneers such as Dr. Lin Qiaozhi, mother of modern obstetrics and gynecology in China, John Ma, father of modern…

On September 8, China proposed the Global Initiative on Data Security to meet the new challenges emerging in global digital governance. State Counselor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the proposal while addressing the International Seminar on Global Digital Governance via video link. Besides the eight points (see box) the initiative is based on, Wang highlighted a few other issues. The response to the novel coronavirus pandemic has seen digital technologies play an important role in keeping society and the economy running. Wang likened the ensuing explosive growth of data to the discovery of oil, providing a new source of energy for economic growth and industrial transformation. However, since different countries have different data laws and regulations, it is pushing up the compliance costs for global businesses. Therefore collective governance…

Three years ago, when Zhang Chen was a university sophomore in Wuhan, Hubei Province in central China, she started forgetting things and feeling drowsy all the time. “I could never remember what happened the day before, and in the afternoon I would forget what I did in the morning. I would fall asleep during class and my classmates couldn’t wake me up,” she told ThePaper.cn. Then she was diagnosed with depression. Thunderstruck at first, she gradually traced her symptoms of depression to her high school years. She recalled that at that time she was bullied by other students but the teachers and her family ignored it. She often felt a sharp pain in her chest, especially during exams. She still managed to finish high school and go to university. But…