Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.64/No.43 i Beijing Review

The leaders of three countries—President Joe Biden of the United States, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia declared the establishment of a military alliance known as AUKUS—which stands for Australia, UK and U.S.—on September 15. Among the consensus reached within AUKUS is the allocation of nuclear-powered submarine technology from the U.S. to Australia. In addition, AUKUS also covers support in terms of cyber capability, artificial intelligence, quantum technology and underwater aptitude. However, the main focus of this alliance lies on the growth of military proficiency. As a result, Australia will acquire long-range attack capacities for both its air and naval forces. From the announcement of AUKUS, even though the U.S., the UK and Australia did not mention they would be targeting…

The image of a red truck exiting a tunnel on its way to Dulongjiang Township in Yunnan Province has been printed on a stamp issued on October 15 during the Second United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference (UNGST Conference). The stamp shows how the development of transport can help alleviate poverty. Prior to 2014, Dulongjiang did not have a paved road and the only footpath that led to the outside world was closed for six months every year due to heavy snowfall. In 2014, a new road opened to traffic and changed the life of locals. As transportation became more convenient, villagers developed rural tourism to improve their livelihoods. As of the end of last year, the township’s per-capita income had reached 12,000 yuan ($1,880) and 80 percent of local…

Early this year, one Beijing drama troupe had plans to adapt a story from an ancient Chinese novel into a modern play. While racking their brains trying to figure out how to embed modern elements into an ancient story, a consultant suggested they take the concept one step further: Why not set the play in the future? The consultant, Zheng Jun, is a science fiction writer. Inspired by his idea, the team, mostly born in the 1990s, decided to set the story in the year 2677, 1,000 years after the novel’s completion. Using the same plot, they developed scenes set more than 600 years from the present, and invited a magician, to create futuristic stage effects. The producer of the play, Star Theaters, decided not to use the term “science…

Solar Energy Solar energy could meet 43.2 percent of China’s electricity demand in 2060 at under 2.5 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, according to a study published on October 19. Researchers from Harvard University in Massachusetts, Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China in Beijing, and Nankai University in Tianjin developed an integrated model to assess solar photovoltaic potentials and costs from 2020 to 2060 in China with multiple spatiotemporal factors considered. A spatiotemporal analysis of solar photovoltaic power potential, which can be technically feasible, cost-competitive and grid-compatible, is crucial for China to forge the energy pathway ahead, read the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a U.S.-based peer-reviewed scientific journal. “The findings highlight a crucial energy transition point, not only for China but for other…

The Olympic flame was ignited on October 18, in Ancient Olympia, Greece, marking a milestone for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Present at the flame lighting ceremony was Yu Zaiqing, a special representative of Beijing 2022, who also witnessed years ago such a ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Hosting the Winter Olympics makes Beijing the first ever city to host both the Summer and Winter Games, he said at this ceremony. “There may be more cities like this in the future, but Beijing being the first bears extraordinary significance,” he told Xinhua News Agency. The flame was then handed over by the Hellenic Olympic Committee to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG) on October 19 at the Panathenaic Stadium in…

In the field of architecture, Zhang Li is undoubtedly one of the authorities. He is dean of the School of Architecture and vice principal of the Architecture Design and Research Institute at Tsinghua University, and designer in chief of several competition venues for the upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. In the past 10-plus years, Zhang has participated in the design of China’s world-type facilities like the Roof Garden of the China Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the reconstruction following the 2010 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai Province, among other undertakings. Furthermore, he is curator of the Chinese Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Biennale. “In our experience, this event-type public facility is actually motivating a process of urban renewal. It should not be created just for…

Joan Hinton never could have imagined that China would become the destination of her lifetime. She came, saw, experienced, anticipating more progress and development to occur nationwide, and then just ended up living here her whole life. In 1945, 23-year-old Hinton was one of the few female nuclear physicists involved in the Manhattan Project, the code name for the American project set up in 1942 to develop an atom bomb. Even as she rejoiced in the endeavor’s success, she was deeply shocked when the U.S. dropped two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945 to force a Japanese surrender during World War II (WWII). She then quit the project and left the U.S. “I did not want to spend my life figuring out how to kill people,” she…

In the run-up to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, the cream of the winter sports athletic world is upping their training to the most intensive levels. Nearly 2,900 athletes will compete for only 109 coveted pieces of Olympic gold from February 4 to 20 next year, according to the organizing committee of the Beijing 2022 Games. Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon Comments to wanghairong@bjreview.com…

Beijing recently released a new white paper providing a comprehensive over-view of a multitude of efforts to achieve a xiaokang, or moderately prosperous, society, on schedule in 2021, coinciding with the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). First described in the modern era by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, subsequent generations of Chinese leadership made this concept central to national development goals. The term is attributed originally to Confucius, with initial references found in the Book of Poetry and Book of Rites—the latter providing a fuller description and likely compiled more than 2,000 years ago during the tumultuous Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) in Chinese history. In the Book of Rites account, Confucius describes establishing a xiaokang society as reaching a new threshold of social and…

‘Competition, yes. Enemies, no.” This was how Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, characterized relations between the world’s two largest economies during the First Global Economic Development and Security Forum (GEDS) of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), which took place in Changsha, Hunan Province, on October 18-20. In a video speech, Gutierrez expressed his concerns about the recent deterioration. “Technology competition seems to have expanded beyond just the commercial leaders, and supply chains built over many years are not functioning,” he said. However, it is his hope that the U.S. and China can solve their problems through dialogue. “Because we have done better in the past. Talking, listening, arguing, but always with the goal of fixing the problem, always with the goal of understanding and minimizing impact. We…

If you are a big fan of Tibet but worry about the altitude, the Beijing-based Tibet Culture Museum may be a good option for you to get a closer look at the plateau. A special exhibition featuring 61 artifacts and more than 350 old photographs is hosted in the museum, which aims to illustrate the region’s development over the past seven decades, ever since it was peacefully liberated on May 23, 1951. The exhibition, with descriptions in both Chinese and English, focuses on seven topics, including Tibet’s relationship with the Central Government before 1951, the development of Tibet’s political system and economy, poverty alleviation, support from the Central Government, and the partnership assistance program in the region. It started on June 29, and will run for one year. It’s one…