Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.65/No.26 i Beijing Review

Halfway through 2022, the global economy is not looking as bright as people had hoped for at the beginning of the year. The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy is now more serious than that of the international financial crisis in 2008. Against this backdrop, the United States, the world’s largest economy, faces the worst inflation in decades, and its unilateral actions to combat inflation are delivering new shocks to the already sluggish global economic growth. The pandemic has hurt the global supply chain. Waning supplies, courtesy of a worldwide shutdown, and the resulting declines in capital goods demand, trade stability and domestic and international investment, are ultimately reflected in a deteriorating economic growth. The negative spillover effect of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy is likely to trigger…

Investment Destination Although the global supply chain has entered a new round of reconstruction, China is still an important investment destination for multinational companies around the world, according to a report released during the Third Qingdao Multinationals Summit in the coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong Province. The country has consistently attracted multinationals’ investments in the manufacturing sector due to its huge market and complete supply chain, the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce said in the report. China’s manufacturing sector used $33.73 billion of foreign investment in 2021, up 8.8 percent year on year, the report read. The growth was 1.1 percentage points higher than that for global manufacturing enterprises. Paid-in foreign direct investment in the Chinese hi-tech manufacturing sector reached $12.06 billion…

In a recently published speech, President Xi Jinping sheds light on China’s path for developing human rights. The remarks were first delivered at a group study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in late February. Xi, also General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, begins by stating that it’s a common pursuit of human societies to protect and value life and dignity, and to try to ensure that everyone enjoys human rights. He notes Chinese philosophers have emphasized similar points since ancient times. He quotes Confucius from the Book of Rites: “In ancient governance, the love of humanity was the greatest point.” He also quotes Mencius on benevolence, Xunzi on the “preciousness” of people, and Mozi on the value of “universal…

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the 14th BRICS Summit via video link on June 23 in Beijing, calling on BRICS countries to safeguard world peace and tranquility, boost development, and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation. Xi said it is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division. He stressed that the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which advocates a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, follows the philosophy that humanity is an indivisible security community, and aims to create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum. “China would like to work with BRICS partners to operationalize the GSI and…

Classical ballet made a pas de bourrée into Du Youling’s life when she was 60—in 2017. She had been folk dancing for well over a year following her retirement at the age of 55, when she learned her local cultural center, a public institution for organizing cultural activities, was putting together a ballet troupe for senior women. Du began to develop a passion for ballet when she was a teenager after watching a professional stage performance. “I was fascinated by the dancers’ graceful moves,” she told Beijing Review. “But there were no ballet training classes back in the 1960s, so pursuing this type of career was a dream well beyond my reach.” So, over the ensuing four-plus decades, she went to college, got a degree and became a professor of…

‘What is your favorite sound of Beijing, and why?” This question was put to hundreds of Beijingers in 2005 as part of the Sound and the City project. The resulting field recordings are still available to stream online, with titles such as Pigeon Whistles in the Sky, Hutong (narrow alleys) Quiet and Walking on Ginko Leaves. The acoustic ecology (where human and environment meet through sound) of China’s capital has long captivated, as when British official John Barrow noted in 1793, “the buz [sic] and confused noises of [the] mixed multitude.” Confused noises to the outsider who “looks but sees not, listens but hears not,” to borrow a Chinese phrase. With time and the practice of deep listening, such “noise” resolves into richness. Rich enough for the 100 hours of…

‘Foreign capital withdraws from China,” “Viet Nam to replace China as the world’s workshop…” Headlines like these are gaining much attention in the West. Citing the Chinese economic slowdown in the first half of this year amid COVID-19-induced lockdowns, the “China collapse” rhetoric is on the rise, again. However, a report issued by the Third Qingdao Multinationals Summit, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and Shandong Provincial Government, held from June 19 to 21 in Qingdao, shows that China remains an important investment destination for transnationals. These companies are steadily increasing their input in China and optimizing the mix, with operating profits going up. Although the global supply chain is currently undergoing a new round of restructuring, China still occupies a powerful position. As the biggest manufacturer in the world,…

NEW PRESIDENT OF PEKING UNIVERSITY Optical expert Gong Qihuang becomes the new president of Peking University (PKU). Born in Putian City, Fujian Province, Gong started working as a lecturer after getting his Ph.D. from PKU’s School of Physics in 1989. In 1995, he became a professor. Before his new appointment as PKU’s president, he was its vice president and dean of its graduate school. Also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a member of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries, Gong has been working on nonlinear and quantum optics, micro- and nanophotonics, heading several national research projects and teams. He has published more than 500 papers in journals such as Nature Photonics and Nature Physics. Sheltering New Graduates Guangzhou Daily…

‘Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the industry and information technology sector has achieved remarkable growth, with the industrial system and the industrial chain becoming more complete, and the overall strength, quality, innovation capacity, competitiveness and risk-resistance capability being significantly improved,” Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said at a press conference on June 14. From 2012 to 2021, the country’s industrial value-added output, an important economic indicator, grew from 20.9 trillion yuan ($3.11 trillion) to 37.3 trillion yuan ($5.56 trillion); the resilience and competitiveness of industrial and supply chains have improved; the world’s largest network of infrastructure has been built, using leading technology for reliable operation, and a large number of major innovation results have taken Chinese manufacturing to…

‘If no one fought except on his own conviction, there would be no wars,” the fictional character Andrei Bolkonsky stated in Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece War and Peace (1869). Today, the line still applies. After more than four months of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the world still awaits any signs of peace in the making. On June 16, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi took the same train to Kiev, capital of Ukraine, for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The day before their departure, Macron publicly called for Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, reiterating that “long-term hostilities with Russia were not a viable solution to European security.” Tragically, the fate of Ukraine does not seem to lie in its own…

‘I am a granddaughter, through the maternal line, of Chinese grandparents who arrived in Cuba in the first decade of the 20th century. This basically means I grew up with a very Chinese-style education, surrounded by customs and traditions that took root in me and shaped my personality,” is how Professor Montes de Oca Choy begins her interview, indicating her family tree carries a lot of personal significance. The Chinese-Cuban interviewee, who has been a university teacher for 50 years and has taught specialized courses and hosted conferences in countries such as China, the United States, Mongolia, and across Latin America, has long been promoting Asian culture in every corner of the world she visits. Pride is non-negotiable “The pride of being Chinese has always been strong,” Montes de Oca…

Setting up a tent and having a picnic surrounded by beautiful mountains and clear waters over the weekend has become one of the most popular lifestyle choices for China’s young urbanites. Camping has become increasingly popular in the country since 2020, also referred to as the “first year of camping” in the domestic outdoor recreation industry. To certain extent, the popularity of camping directly relates to COVID-19. Due to pandemic prevention and control measures in recent years, indoor spaces such as shopping malls, movie theaters and bars are no longer the most attractive venues for urban residents to spend their free time, prompting them to venture into the less crowded suburbs with their natural sceneries. The country’s economic development also contributed to the industry’s boom. The average income has been…