Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.64/No.7 i Beijing Review

It is sometimes jokingly said that you may skip a meal a day without any adverse effect but skip using your WeChat for an hour and you will feel distinctly unwell. It is an acknowledgement of the fact that the app is no longer only a fun tool but an essential part of life for millions. Launched in January 2011, this messaging, social media and mobile payment app today has more than 1 billion individual users. People use it for everything, from applying for a business license to booking a hospital appointment to keeping up with family and friends, shopping and paying bills—activities that are part and parcel of our everyday life. When it was first introduced, WeChat was only an app supporting voice, video, picture and text messages between…

NEW CPC VICE MINISTER Chen Zhou was recently appointed vice minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Founded in 1951, the CPC International Department conducts all-round, multi-channel, wide-scope and in-depth party-to-party exchanges and cooperation with more than 400 political parties and organizations in over 140 countries, most of which are either parties in office or parties participating in government. Chen, born in August 1966, started to work at the Department of Asian and African Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, in 1985. In 2019, he became chief inspector of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission at the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs. Fathers’ Presence…

In today’s hi-tech global village, no matter where you live, the most important communication question is, “What’s the go-to chat app?” In China, it’s WeChat. But the Tencent-developed app is so much more than just a messaging and social media app. It’s a payment platform, a way to buy travel tickets, a news aggregator, a taxi hailer, and amid the novel coronavirus disease pandemic, one of the leading ways to provide a QR-generated health code. The best thing about it is it’s ubiquitous. Whether you meet someone online, a company’s HR thinks you’re a suitable candidate, or you’re looking to buy someone’s second-hand TV, the logical next step is to add their WeChat. Unlike many countries that have a variety of messaging apps, there’s no question that in China, WeChat…

With the government’s decision to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, the race is on in China to switch to clean fuel. Some of the biggest energy companies in the country have increased investment in the exploration of natural gas. China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas in the country, for example, has announced that gas will account for 30 percent of its production by 2025, growing to 50 percent in 2035. The overall domestic production of natural gas has increased by more than 10 billion cubic meters for four consecutive years. It improved 9.8 percent last year, amounting to 188.8 billion cubic meters, equivalent to about 150.4 million tons of crude oil, according to data…

In addition to her full-time job, Zhao Qi, 28, is a graphic designer in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in south China who gets an added sense of satisfaction from her sideline activity—sketching illustrations and posting them on Xiaohongshu, a popular Instagram-like Chinese fashion and lifestyle-sharing platform. Chubby faces, black-pea-styled eyes and sausage-like lips are heavily featured across her depictions of both human and animal characters, pumped up by a rich variety of colors and high color saturation. “Aww!”, “cutie!”, “superb!” and “funny!” are the most frequently featured words in Zhao’s Xiaohongshu comment section. “I guess there is a child inside everyone, whatever the age,” Zhao explained. The human eye is drawn to beautiful and interesting-looking things, which is one of the key reasons she chose this particular style of painting, she…

Well-structured planning with consistent policies and achievable objectives is a necessary condition for the success of any nation. China is now a country with a governance system whose planning, goals and actions are considered a worldwide success benchmark. President Xi Jinping made an important contribution to the world by sharing his knowledge and ideas through three books collecting his thoughts on the governance of China. Speeches, lectures, written instructions and letters presented by the president over the period from November 2012 to January 2020 are included in the three volumes. It is worth mentioning that due to their importance, some themes are present in all three of Xi’s books, and are updated according to changes in context. Poverty elimination, high-quality development and a community with a shared future for humanity…

On his first day in office, Antony Blinken, newly appointed U.S. secretary of state, could not wait to claim the return of U.S. leadership on the international stage. “America’s leadership is needed around the world, and we will provide it,” he said. Over the past four years, Democrats have repeatedly emphasized the word “leadership” as a counterattack against the policy of the Donald Trump administration. President Joe Biden has also said the United States is back and prepared to lead the world. However, can America still lead the world? Americans, or at least the American elite, tend to take U.S. leadership for granted. The United States has served as a world leader for more than 70 years since the end of World War II. The role has brought tangible benefits.…

As a whole, the Chinese economy grew 2.3 percent year on year in 2020, becoming the world’s only major economy to achieve positive growth amid disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus disease. More encouragingly, 20 provincial-level regions reported GDP increase faster than the national level, according to statistics unveiled by provincial governments at the annual meetings of local lawmakers. Altogether, 30 of the 31 provincial economies on the Chinese mainland expanded, except for Hubei in central China which was the hardest hit by the epidemic in the first months of the year. The improvement of 19 was more than 3 percent. Thanks to measures including boosting work and production resumption, enhancing cross-border trade, improving fiscal and financial support, and expanding consumption through issuing coupons, all regions saw a steady resumption…

The Year of the Ox, niu in Chinese, is being celebrated with hundreds of creative ox-themed products, videos and art. The ox, the second sign in the Chinese zodiac, is associated with industriousness and perseverance. The National Art Museum of China in Beijing heralded the Chinese New Year with an exhibition of masterpieces inspired by the ox. The Vitality of Art has brought together nearly 600 traditional Chinese paintings, oils, calligraphy, sculptures and folk art. They include images by Chinese masters such as Qi Baishi, known for his whimsical water colors, and Feng Zikai, also admired for his cartoons and essays. In addition, there is a section of paintings depicting significant moments during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) containment, a tribute to the efforts of medical workers and people across…

Had Zhang Xiaolong gone out and played pool that fateful night 11 years ago instead of sitting down to write his boss an e-mail about developing a new social media platform, the lives of millions would have been different today. Zhang got the inspiration for the innovation from Kik, a Canadian messaging app that appeared in October 2010, offering people free chats on their mobiles. The result of the inspiration, WeChat, the instant messaging app developed by Tencent in 2011, is today a one-stop shop for social media, banking, shopping and more. With over 1.2 billion monthly active users, it has become a necessity and a lifestyle, Zhang said at an event celebrating the 10th birthday of the app. For many, it is also a means to embrace entrepreneurship. Content…

Two speeches on foreign policy are being parsed for their implications for China-U.S. relations going forward. The first was delivered to the National Committee on United States-China Relations by Yang Jiechi. Known as China’s top diplomat, Yang spoke directly about the past four years and what will be necessary for relations to improve as the Joe Biden administration finds its footing. The second speech was by U.S. President Biden, delivered at the State Department, where he emphasized in contrast with his predecessor that U.S. “diplomacy is back,” and the U.S. will rekindle ties with allies but will also seek cooperation with adversaries and competitors. The Chinese position After four years of destructive, anti-diplomatic, “misguided” policies from Washington under Donald Trump—when the White House demonized Beijing, attacked China racially and culturally,…

On January 31, China unveiled its latest action plan for guiding the construction of a high-standard market system in the next five years. The plan proposes more than 50 specific measures covering five aspects: the basic institutions of the market, efficient allocation of factor resources, market environment and quality, high-level opening up and the oversight mechanism of the modern market system. The creation of such a high-standard market system is both a crucial decision for forging a new development model, and a major step toward the improvement of a socialist market economy system with Chinese characteristics. In late October 2020, a new development model was put forward, featuring a dual-circulation pattern in which the domestic and overseas markets reinforce one another, with the domestic market serving as the overall mainstay.…

At a recent high-level economic symposium, the question of whether or not countries should set GDP growth targets became a hot topic of debate. Some economists pointed out that all of the world’s developed countries and the majority of middle-income countries have abandoned GDP growth rates as a target of macroeconomic control. Should China follow suit? The practice of using GDP as a key measure of economic development is not flawless, and some experts therefore suggest it be abandoned. However, others believe the GDP index still has a role to play in China’s economy, that doing away with it would impact wide-ranging aspects of Chinese society, and that identifying a substitute index is problematic. Ma Jun (finance.sina.com.cn): At the beginning of 2020, due to uncertainties caused by the novel coronavirus…