Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.64/No.46 i Beijing Review

The Fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) took place in Shanghai from November 5 to 10, in online-offline hybrid format. This is an important event for the international community to boost global economic and trade growth in a context of fatigued international trade during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the expo denotes China’s determination in the quest for global economic growth as the country resumes energetic recovery. Nearly 3,000 businesses from 127 countries and regions attended the physical trade fair, with 58 countries and three international organizations joining the online exhibition. The numbers of both participating countries and businesses exceeded those of a year ago. In his keynote speech delivered via video link during the opening ceremony of the Fourth CIIE, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated that China will firmly promote…

During the Double 11 online shopping festival season, Liu Lu, a 28-year-old restaurant owner in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, “purchased” something rather special on Taobao, one of China’s leading online shopping platforms. With 66 yuan ($10.32), he made a donation to the online store of the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund (CCTF), which will be used to buy stationery, sports goods, musical instruments and other things for children in need, such as those who suffered accidents, or those living in remote rural areas whose parents work in large cities—the left-behind children. This charity program called HELLO Kids was initiated by the CCTF in 2015. The online store reads that 3 yuan ($0.47) can get the children a skipping rope; 10 yuan ($1.56) will get them a set of colorful crayons to…

FOUNDER OF NEW ORIENTAL EXPLORES NEW PATHS Yu Minhong, a founder of educational services group New Oriental, announced that the company would establish an agricultural platform to sell products in support of rural revitalization during a live-stream on November 7. Founded in 1993, the largest provider of private educational services in China saw nearly 67.9 million students enroll. In 2006, it went public on the New York Stock Exchange. After the government implemented an initiative aiming to rectify the off-campus tutoring market and reduce students’ burden, New Oriental’s private education business was affected, sparking a big transformation. The firm has donated nearly 80,000 sets of desks and chairs to rural schools and closed down 1,500 learning centers across the country. In the future, New Oriental will use its existing platforms…

Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow with the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, said that in this small, interdependent world where countries share many common interests and challenges, China and the U.S. must find areas for cooperation instead of confrontation, during an interview with Beijing Review reporter Wen Qing. In his book Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy, Mahbubani discusses his observations of China-U.S. relations. This is an edited excerpt of the interview: Beijing Review: In your book, you wrote that if both China and the U.S. were to focus on improving their peoples’ wellbeing, they would find no contradictions in their long-term strategies. It seems that China has been doing so, but the U.S. seems to be preoccupied with retaining its global dominance.…

Supporting Tool The People’s Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, said on November 8 that it had rolled out a supporting tool for carbon reduction as part of efforts to facilitate the country’s goal of carbon neutrality. The PBC will provide low-cost loans for financial institutions through the mechanism, and will guide those institutions to provide loans to firms in key carbon-reduction fields on the premise of independent decision-making and risk-taking, according to a statement released by the PBC. The interest rates provided by the financial institutions should, in general, be in line with benchmark lending rates, or the loan prime rates, it said. Financial institutions will be able to apply for the low-cost funding from the central bank after the loans for carbon reductions are made. The PBC…

On the sidelines of the Fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10, Paulo Estivallet de Mesquita, Brazilian Ambassador to China, Fernando Lugris, Uruguayan Ambassador to China, and Luciano Tanto Clement, Argentina’s Consul General in Shanghai shared their thoughts on trade between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries with Beijing Review. Below are edited excerpts of their views: Paulo Estivallet de Mesquita, Brazilian Ambassador to China China has been Brazil’s main trading partner since 2009, and Brazil ranked ninth as China’s main trading partner in 2020. Last year, Brazil and China established a record-high bilateral trade flow, with over $102 billion. A new bilateral trade record has already been achieved in 2021: From January to September, Brazil-China trade has surpassed $105 billion. Thus,…

A high-profile meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted a resolution on the major achievements and historical experience of the CPC’s 100 years of endeavors. The document was reviewed and adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, held in Beijing from November 8 to 11. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made an important speech at the session, which was attended by 197 members and 151 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee. The following is an edited excerpt of a Xinhua News Agency report on the resolution: Since the Party’s 18th National Congress in 2012, the Central Committee’s authority and its centralized, unified leadership have remained robust and, through revolutionary tempering, the Party has grown stronger. China’s economic…

Much to the surprise of climate observers worldwide, China and the United States issued a statement announcing to strengthen cooperation to tackle climate change at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, the UK, on November 11. It’s an especially bold statement on the part of the U.S., considering that ever since the Donald Trump administration, the official American position had bordered on the mockery of almost any carbon emission reduction talk. Before reaching their common statement, China and the U.S. had admittedly seen a few counterproductive exchanges. U.S. President Joe Biden and his special climate envoy John Kerry accused China of “not doing enough” and “declining to make stronger commitments.” China subsequently pushed back by citing facts, responding it had, on average, been adding about 12,000 hectares…

One seemingly trivial issue has vexed Liu Wenyan for over 30 years. Liu only needs one shoe, but every time she goes shoe shopping she has to buy a pair. Growing up in Guizhou Province in southwest China, Liu lost one leg in a traffic accident at the age of 4. Now aged 37, she has spent over three decades searching for either a seller of single shoes, or someone else with whom she can share the pair. Paralympic high jump star Gui Yuna, who is the same age as Liu, faces the same problem. Gui comes from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and, at 7, also lost her leg in a car accident. The accident didn’t discourage her from pursuing her athletic passion and in 2007 she broke the high…

‘Wisilver or flowers a girl thout won’t be a girl,” an old Miao minority saying goes. Silver is an important part of their culture, found to this day mostly in Guizhou Province, but also across Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan, Hunan, and Hainan provinces. All political affirmations and connotations aside, China’s various traditional minority dress codes have had an extensive influence on clothing hangers (inter) nationwide, comprising the full scale from hard-to-handle fabrics to exuberant embroidery to fantastical earrings. Traditionally, their textiles, techniques, and accessories are used to preserve some of the histories of the minorities who never used a written language to document their stories. They are a source of artisanally treasured inspiration. Located in China’s utmost western region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with its green grasslands, icy…