The Inter-Civilizational Communication and Global Development Forumkicked offin Beijing on Tuesday, attractingaround 150 experts from more than 30 countries.
The three-day event, hosted by the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), takes"tradition of civilization and paths to modernization" as its theme.Politicians, entrepreneurs, think tank experts, scholars, culturalambassadorsand diplomatic envoysfrom China and abroad have gathered togetherto discuss issues concerning communication among civilizations and global development.
“The purpose of hosting this forum is to establish an international exchange platform for various parties to participate and converse with each other, contributing wisdom and strength to promote the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations among nations and to build a community with a shared future for humanity,” said Xie Chuntao,vice president of the Party School of the Central Committee of theCPC.
Dilma Rousseff, president of the New Development Bank and who gave a speech at the opening ceremony, noted that frank and respectful dialogue between different civilizations and countries will promote consensus and cooperation. She added that it is a guiding principle that the world needs to systematically follow.
“The rich diversity of human civilizations can no longer be dismissive. The different objectives and development models followed by different nations cannot be ignored. It is not possible for a multicultural world to be forced to choose a single path. Often, they are looking with a single view of democracy, which actually leads to the weakening of democracies in many countries,” she said, commenting on the significance of the forum.
Herta Daubler-Gmelin, former German justice minister, pointed out that besides cooperation in the field of economics and politics, people-to-people cooperation in fields such as academia is very crucial.
“We can do more. We can do better. This means information, as well as transparency in communication. And the recognition that every civilization contains dynamic elements. It’s not frozen. It can open itself to converse with others,” she said.
China's State Council Information Office released a white paper titledA Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actionsin September. John L. Thornton, chair emeritus of The Brookings Institution and Co-Chair of the Asia Society, quoted the white paper, pointing out that the most pressing task is to find a guiding beacon for the sustainable development of human civilization.
“There is no more important topic than the one we will be discussing this morning. I think of it as discussing the world we wish to be in, the world we wish to create for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations,” said Thornton.
He also applauded for the Global Civilization Initiative and Global Initiative. “The aspiration China has is admirable. If it can be achieved, it will be a step forward for mankind, for the world,” Thornton told the Global Times.
Three sub-forums on civilizational communication between China and Europe, China-Central Asia modernization development and leadership building, and China-Arab civilization exchange and modernization development, as well as a round-table discussion, will be held during this forum.
Lately some customers in Beijing were "shocked" to hear that Daoxiangcun, a store that sells everyday snacks, would no longer be listed as a laozihao, or time-honored brand. Fortunately, it turned out that it was a same-named store in Tianjin, rather than the renowned store in Beijing, that would lose the honor.
Together with the Tianjin Daoxiangcun, 54 other Chinese time-honored brand stores would be removed from the list of Chinese old and famous brands, including Xinluchun restaurant in Beijing, Laobanzhai restaurant in Shanghai, and Guanshengyuan store in Chongqing due to long-term poor operation, bankruptcy or loss of trademarks, according to a recent notice issued by China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC).
China's time-honored brands refer to quality products, excellent techniques or reliable services that have been passed down through generations. With distinctive regional characteristics, most of them have been widely recognized in all sectors over 100 years. In 1991, more than 1,600 businesses were conferred with this title, and in 2006 and 2011, another 1,128 enterprises were added.
According to the MOC, this move aims to improve the protection and inheritance of time-honored brands and build a long-term mechanism for their innovation development, setting well-operated ones as standards and examples for other time-honored brands.
However, some of the brands have lost their advantages due to the changing times, while their standards have fallen.
Tianjin Daoxiangcun, established in 1988, has a reputation for selling high-priced but poor-tasting pastries. Xinluchun restaurant in Beijing used to be well-known in the 1980s for serving savory steamed buns, which some Beijingers still miss. However, after it shifted to regular dishes, its business deteriorated.
Like customers in Beijing, Shanghai residents were also dumbfounded by the removal of the popular and familiar restaurant Laobanzhai. While some expressed regret about the change, others consented saying, "Laobanzhai's environment, services and dishes no longer deserve its status." Some moaned that "short-sighted operators have ruined the business of their ancestors."
Established in 1905, Laobanzhai restaurant serves pastry and Huaiyang cuisine, known for its light and fresh flavor and intricate cooking techniques. It was listed as a time-honored brand in 2006.
To respond to the quality of their services, the manager admitted that a few senior staffers have retired, which "may have caused some problems. But we are trying to improve our services, and at least the quality of the food we serve is guaranteed, and the variety is still popular."
"Now we are striving to reexamine ourselves," the manager said.
While sifting out the unqualified, quite a number of qualified businesses have remained on the list, among which the Daoxiangcun store in Beijing is a good example.
First established in 1895, Beijing Daoxiangcun was the first store to sell dishes from southern China, including pastry, meat and special food for traditional Chinese festivals such as moon cakes as well as frozen food. In 1993, it was listed as a time-honored brand, and in 2004, it won the title of "famous Chinese brand" due to the good quality and reputation of its food and products.
To protect time-honored brands, the list has been increasing instead of decreasing. In August, there were 238 old and famous brands from Beijing on the list with an average age of 140 years, an increase of 15 enterprises , including a traditional Chinese medicine company. Including the Capital Automobile Group, Beijing Tongren Optometry Store and Beijing Ruizhenhou Restaurant, they are part of the eighth batch of businesses on the list and cover more diverse sectors.
Time-honored brands do not just represent the best of the business world, they also have profound cultural significance.
Before a brand was set up, choosing the right name was a major priority as an auspicious name carries the great expectations of the owner of the business.
Normally, owners selected names from famous verses in ancient Chinese literary works such as Dream of Red Mansion to pray for a thriving business, or to show their political aspirations such as jianhua, meaning "building the Chinese nation."
Some entrepreneurs in southern China named their stores with a distinctive local style. A catering business in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, located in a typical waterside building was named Caizhizhai, or "Collecting Water Lilies." It also serves various, exquisitely made pastries that have been well-received all over the country.
Besides cultural connections, these businesses also uphold customer-centered principles. For instance, each season, Beijing Daoxiangcun will promote different foods to customers and remind them of Chinese traditions.
These time-honored brands represent the best of traditional Chinese culture. Those who have remained on the list demonstrate their success in maintaining the businesses of their ancestors, the continuity of their products and services, and the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture. Those who have vanished must learn to catch up and adapt to the changing times. In this way, they can not only preserve their brands, but also do their bit for the protection of the traditional Chinese culture.
The final competition of the Beijing Central Axis Culture Communication Young Envoy, a sub-track of the 2023 Beijing Central Axis Cultural Heritage Inheritance and Innovation Competition, was held over the weekend.
The event attracted hundreds of young artists from home and abroad to participate in the talent show named: "My Story with the Beijing Central Axis."
The Beijing Central Axis is a 7.8-kilometer-long area that runs through the center of the city from the Drum Tower and Bell Tower north of the Forbidden City to Yongding Gate in the south.
A total of 650 groups from 16 districts were selected to enter the semi-finals. Among these 120 groups of Chinese and foreign contestants entered the final round, including contestants from the US, the Philippines, Canada, Russia, South Korea and Azerbaijan.
The contestants showed their understanding of the Beijing Central Axis culture through on-site displays of paper-cut art, Beijing wool monkey art, silk wrapping crafts, fashion shows, piano performances, lyric, street dance and dramatic performances, and for the shows they used Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Korean and other languages to tell their stories and express their love for the Beijing Central Axis.
The sub-track was officially launched on June 15 and received strong support from the district education commissions and primary and secondary schools in Beijing.
Additionally, it also collected works based on the Beijing Central Axis Heritage Culture Protection Base Schools.
The organizing committee of the event invited 23 experts from the fields of education, culture and history to serve as the final judges for the three sessions of this sub-track.
"Compared with last year, the overall quality of this year's competition has improved significantly and this was reflected in their understanding of the concept of the Beijing Central Axis," said Yu Dan, a Chinese cultural scholar and professor of Beijing Normal University.
"The understanding of the central axis is not simply in language, but more importantly, a lifestyle. The inheritance of the Beijing Central Axis requires the participation of the public, and this competition starts from the children," Yu said.
During the competition, a special contestant impressed the judges. Wei Jiahong, a hearing-impaired student from the Dongcheng District Special Education School in Beijing, who brought a sketch of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests inside the Temple of Heaven, explained his work and background in his own language.
Guo Hongxia, the principal of Haidian Experimental Second Elementary School, told the Global Times that as a child who has grown and lived in Beijing, he feels obligation to inherit the central axis culture.
"I think the Beijing Central Axis is a tangible line, and the children are the 'extension line' of the Chinese culture gene," he said.
The Sanxingdui Museum is currently showcasing four new exquisite cultural relics - a bronze basin, a bronze round ornament, a bronze bird, and a bronze kneeling figure holding a zun, as announced by the Sanxingdui Museum's official WeChat account on November 8.
The newly introduced bronze bird is referred to as the "Angel with Broken Wings" due to its appearance, giving the impression that it is poised to take off and soar into the sky despite its damaged wings. The bronze basin, discovered in the No.3 hall of the Sanxingdui Ruins, has a shape similar to a contemporary basin. However, casting a bronze basin is an exceptionally heavy and labor-intensive process, and meticulous work is required to fold the rim of the basin into a wave-like shape. Further details regarding the use of the basin are yet to be disclosed. The bronze round ornament resembles an owl gazing at the sky. The bronze plaque features a hole on each of its four sides and might have been worn as a decoration, according to the Sanxingdui Museum. Another highlight is the new bronze kneeling figure holding a zun, a type of ancient wine vessel, which shares similarities with a previously exhibited bronze placed on a large bronze altar in another hall after the opening of the new Sanxingdui Museum in July.
Chinese netizens praised the museum for these new treasures, expressing admiration for their beauty and significance. Comments on Sina Weibo highlighted Sanxingdui as a true repository of treasures.
A staff member at the Sanxingdui Museum, surnamed Ran, conveyed the museum's commitment to updating cultural relics, aiming to provide fresh experiences for visitors. Zhang Guoyong, deputy researcher at the Xingtai Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Research Center, endorsed the continuous introduction of newly excavated cultural relics, emphasizing their role in enriching cultural activities and keeping researchers and heritage enthusiasts informed about the progress of Sanxingdui's archaeological excavations.
Zhang told the Global Times that these newly introduced relics offer valuable research materials, guiding researchers to explore Sanxingdui and ancient Shu culture. This, in turn, enhances public understanding of history and the ancient Shu culture associated with the ruins.
Following the discovery of six sacrificial pits containing 13,000 artifacts in 2019, the Sanxingdui Museum has displayed numerous exquisite cultural relics. In October, a beautiful bronze bird from the Shang Dynasty (c.1600BC-1046BC) was showcased. Additionally, the new Sanxingdui Museum, opened in July, features over 1,500 sets of cultural relics, including pottery, bronze, jade, gold, and ivory wares. More than 600 items are on display for the first time, with over 300 newly unearthed items from the No.3 to No.8 sacrificial pits since 2020.
In September 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, in which he proposed the idea of the "Silk Road Economic Belt." Since then, an initiative that would have a significant impact on the world's development and prosperity has taken root. Over the last decade, the vision of high-quality construction of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has achieved substantial and fruitful results in Kazakhstan and across the Central Asia region. Recently, Global Times reporters Lin Xiaoyi and Xia Wenxin (GT) interviewed former Uzbek deputy prime minister and former minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Saidmukhtar Saidkasimov (Saidkasimov) in Uzbekistan. The diplomat shared his views on how the BRI and Chinese wisdom have primed Central Asian countries to usher in a new era of development in the past decade. GT: What were your impressions when you first heard about the concept of "the Silk Road Economic Belt" (the "Belt") and BRI in general? How does Uzbekistan view this initiative?
Saidkasimov: It is no exaggeration to say that the initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping 10 years ago, generated tremendous interest around the world from the very beginning. It was not only a very bold, but also a hitherto unprecedented large-scale interregional project. What attracted attention to this project, above all, was its practical and applicable orientation, covering all the direct economic interests and benefits of dozens of countries and peoples.
For the first time in history, an unprecedented plan for the formation and development of an interconnected transportation infrastructure across the entire Eurasian continent was presented. Its implementation truly opened up broad prospects for the creation of a fundamentally new transport configuration across the vast expanse of our planet.
Obviously, such an initiative could not go unnoticed at the global level. Indeed, over the last decade, a large number of countries have shown their interest in participating in this ambitious project to create new trade routes, transportation, and economic corridors closely linking the countries of Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Another important goal of the BRI is that it is ultimately aimed at overcoming poverty, social disadvantages, and the enormous development gap in many countries and regions that are breeding grounds for international terrorism, extremism, and illegal migration. All this requires overcoming inequality, domestic stagnation, and stagnation in global economic development.
From the very beginning, Uzbekistan was one of the first countries to highly appreciate and greatly support the BRI for many reasons. On the one hand, the idea of active trade permeates the entire centuries-old history of our region. Uzbekistan and Central Asia in very distant years practically connected trade relations of the whole of Eurasia. On the other hand, geographically, Central Asia has been the center and the main route of the legendary Silk Road for centuries, being a strategically important trade hub.
It is noteworthy that the idea of reuniting hundreds of peoples and countries of Eurasia into a single belt of mutually beneficial cooperation was proclaimed by China, where the Silk Road historically originated. China itself demonstrates to the world a great example of successful social development. In a historically short period, a huge number of Chinese people were able to escape poverty and backwardness and achieved a fairly high level of development. This achievement by the Chinese people is a rare, unique phenomenon in world history.
GT: What impact has the BRI had on Uzbekistan's development over the last decade?
Saidkasimov: Uzbekistan attaches great importance to strengthening cooperation with China for joint development in various areas and constantly measures its plans against the potential of the BRI. A huge number of examples convincingly demonstrate the creative power of the broad, multifaceted, and constantly growing cooperation between Uzbekistan and China within the BRI, confirming the reality and validity of the great promising expectations of our peoples to further strengthen friendly ties.
For many years, China has firmly occupied the position of one of the main economic partners of Uzbekistan. A number of interstate, intergovernmental, and interagency agreements and arrangements create the necessary legal framework for the growing investment cooperation. Projects in industrial cooperation, infrastructure modernization, transport, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and the creation of joint industrial parks of high technologies with the participation of companies from both countries have been successfully implemented. The volume of Chinese investments in Uzbekistan's economy in recent years has exceeded $10 billion.
Significant joint projects are being promoted. All four strings of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline pass through the territory of Uzbekistan. The railroad tunnel through Kamchik Pass, the longest in our region, is now operational. The throughput potential of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) highway corridor and the railroad is increasingly opening up. Cooperation on the construction of the CKU railway will expand the geography of trade and transportation from China through Uzbekistan to Europe and the Gulf States from the south. It will also transform Uzbekistan from an inland state into an important communications hub in the region.
Uzbekistan, with the help of China, is significantly diversifying export destinations, modernizing infrastructure, and reorienting investment flows to new areas, increasing their potential. China has also become the main exporter of electric cars to Uzbekistan.
Cultural and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries is also actively developing. In this important sphere, joint mass events are increasingly being organized, including art festivals, gala concerts, exhibitions, and seminars. Cooperation is expanding in such areas as student exchanges, translation and publication of literary works, cinematography, translation and broadcasting of television programs, inter-regional contacts, and personnel training, which effectively contribute to the rapprochement of our peoples.
GT: Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is expected to visit China to attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in October. What are your expectations from this visit?
Saidkasimov: The upcoming Belt and Road forum is an important event. Undoubtedly, it will cause a huge resonance on a global scale, because it will most likely deal primarily with plans to further expand the transport capabilities of regional and global trade and economic cooperation, in which Uzbekistan is also interested.
It is no coincidence that President Mirziyoyev took an active part and introduced new initiatives at the first Forum in 2017, and at the second in April 2019. There is no doubt that President Mirziyoyev's upcoming visit to China will make a new contribution to the stable and consistent development of the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership and give a powerful impetus to the further expansion and deepening of Uzbek-Chinese cooperation.
GT: Speaking of the CKU railway, what do you think the three countries can expect from this project?
Saidkasimov: The latest news has shown more positivity. An agreement was signed a year ago and the three countries have already started working on this project. At present, agreements on all technical and financial matters are on a mutually acceptable basis.
This railway, as well as many others, is not a noble gesture by China. All three countries are equally interested in this project. Everyone will benefit from it, be it China, Kyrgyzstan, or Uzbekistan. It is always a great advantage for any country to have a network of good railroads because all countries profit from the opportunity to use them for transportation.
GT: Is Uzbekistan interested in China's development model? What aspects your country is interested in the most?
Saidkasimov: Uzbekistan is very closely following the development of China as a reliable strategic partner. We are increasingly interested in all aspects and spheres of its development. Uzbekistan is studying China's modernization plan because we feel very close to many of China's approaches to solving problems.
Uzbekistan first paid special attention to the development of China's real economy, the improvement of the income distribution system, and ensuring grain security. In addition, the development strategy of President Mirziyoyev emphasizes the development of science and technology. In this regard, China's approach of considering science and technology as the main productive force and innovation as the main driving force of growth is in line with and interesting to us. China's experience in developing high-tech industry is of special interest to our republic.
Uzbekistan will closely follow China's commitment to focus on breakthroughs in advanced technologies while enhancing the resilience and capabilities of industrial and logistics chains in terms of strengthening the foundation for building production capacity and developing its own solution for restructuring international industrial chains, modernizing through stimulus measures in areas such as manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transport, cyberspace, and digital development.
Second, as President Mirziyoyev has repeatedly noted, Uzbekistan pays special attention to China's experience in achieving inclusive social justice, pulling more and more people out of poverty, and increasing the size of the middle class, thus achieving universal equality in society. China's success in this area is well-known in Uzbekistan. On the initiative of President Mirziyoyev, a special program of cooperation to introduce China's experience in overcoming poverty has been developed and is being actively implemented in our republic. Such rich experience in overcoming the country's historically complex and multidimensional social problems is being carefully studied.
Third, the strategic aspirations of China and Uzbekistan also coincide in the sphere of harmonious coexistence between human and nature. This goal is among the main ones in the long-term program proposed by President Mirziyoyev. As in China, innovativeness, coordination, environmental friendliness, openness and sharing, and the maximum protection of nature and the environment are introduced in this sphere in our republic. The experience of the emerging carbon trading market and clean power generation system, as well as China's willingness to work with other countries to promote the transformation to a clean and low-carbon development model, are also noteworthy.
In general, the policy of President Mirziyoyev, aims at the constant expansion of comprehensive cooperation with China, is immensely fruitful in the most diverse spheres of social development, and has the full support of the people of Uzbekistan.
GT: How has Uzbekistan's attitude toward China changed over the years?
Saidkasimov: In recent years, some top European Union leaders have visited our country. Some of them wanted to create the illusion that "China is dangerous." But Uzbekistan's response was unambiguous and confidently principled that we decide our relations with other countries based on our national interests. That is, no one needs to teach Uzbekistan how to conduct its relations with other countries. And for us, we see only positivity in developing good relations with China.
GT: We know that Uzbekistan has been going through reform in recent years under President Mirziyoyev. Could you please tell us what has changed over the years during this reform?
Saidkasimov: Uzbekistan began to change dramatically after President Mirziyoyev took office. The Uzbekistan before Mirziyoyev and after Mirziyoyev is completely different: Back then, it was a closed state; foreign relations were very limited, even with our four neighbors; we had a completely closed press, freedom of expression was prohibited; and we did not carry out any reforms, neither in the economy nor in other spheres. After Mirziyoyev took office, this all began to change radically.
Many Chinese experts called Mirziyoyev a reformer, indeed the Uzbek Deng Xiaoping. Knowing what a huge role Deng played in the fundamental transformation of Chinese society, I would fully agree with such an assessment.
He knows well the situation and all the problems in Uzbekistan. Now he is pursuing a policy to transform Uzbekistan in all directions to build a "New Uzbekistan."
First of all, in foreign policy, he started to actively develop relations with all friendly countries. Among his main priorities, he made a state visit to China. He also visited European Union countries and the US. We have dramatically increased the number of embassies in other countries. Many other countries also opened their embassies in Tashkent.
In terms of the economy, we see the development of entrepreneurship. All restrictions for both large and small businesses have been removed. The state has begun to provide this influential support, primarily to small and medium-size businesses. In this case, financial support was very well provided, while various benefits were created for entrepreneurs. For the first time, we also opened foreign bank branches. As a result, our GDP per capita has changed noticeably over these seven years.
In general, great changes have taken place in the economy, social life, and cultural development. That is to say, today we can say that Uzbekistan is developing as a modern state in a very free, calm, and even manner.
GT: You founded the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in 1992. What motivated you to create this university?
Saidkasimov: It has more to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union. After the collapse, 15 former republics became independent. The point is that during the Soviet era, only Moscow was in charge of these republics' foreign policy, because the Soviet Union was a unified state, and therefore a unified foreign policy was implemented with the center. Moreover, foreign policy specialists and diplomats were trained only in Moscow.
When we became independent, we had to open an embassy and accept foreign diplomats, but then we found out that Uzbekistan has no specialists or national diplomats. After all, diplomacy is a special sphere of activity that needs its own professionals who defend the national interests. Therefore, having experience in this sphere as a professor in universities in Moscow to prepare diplomats, I felt it necessary to establish such a study institution in Tashkent. Our university was the first of such in the former Soviet Union states. Our university had a special status and requirements, and we selected the strongest trained young people. As a result, everything went successfully, creating a highly professional national corps of Uzbek diplomats. Today, many Uzbek Ambassadors are graduates of this university.
The Hangzhou Asian Games was full of bright and impressive sports victories of participants. Among them, the national team of Uzbekistan won 71 medals - 22 gold, 18 silver, and 31 bronze medals - entering the top 5 of Asian countries and regions.
In recent years, Uzbekistan has consolidated the image of a country with outstanding athletes - chess players, boxers, judoists, weightlifters and the like. At the Asian Games in Hangzhou, the audience witnessed the appearance of Uzbek sports stars in boxing, taekwondo, athletics, fencing, rowing, etc.
Observers noted that this was the result of the development of sports in the country. An effective system of training professional athletes, coaches, medical staff and judges has been created in Uzbekistan, a spokesperson of the Uzbek Embassy in Beijing told the Global Times. The implementation of these goals in every way contributes to the wide promotion of a healthy lifestyle, the education of comprehensively developed youth, and the further development of physical culture and sports.
Measures for the development of physical culture and sports are defined in the Development Strategy of the New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026. In 2022, expenses allocated for the development of sports in Uzbekistan increased five times from 2017, according to the embassy.
One hundred and eighteen large sports facilities have been put into operation in the country and 110 more facilities have been reconstructed. Thanks to the sports infrastructure, Uzbekistan has become a venue for major international competitions, including the World and Asian championships in boxing, taekwondo, freestyle wrestling, fencing and other sports. Preparations are underway for the Asian Youth Games in 2025.
A healthy lifestyle is widely approved among young people in the country, and mass sports are provided. Uzbek athletes, achieving victories at prestigious international competitions including the Hangzhou Asian Games, demonstrate the high sports potential of Uzbekistan. The results achieved by athletes in Hangzhou vividly present Uzbekistan to the sports community of the world as a country where sports are developing at an accelerated pace, the spokesperson told the Global Times.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez visited the Memorial of the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s First National Congress in downtown Shanghai, on October 15, before he attended the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.
Staffers at the memorial shared stories of how the young CPC pioneers founded the Party a century ago with Fernandez during his visit. At the hall in the memorial, Fernandez took photos of the full-body bronze statues of the 13 delegates of the CPC's first National Congress.
According to the memorial's staffers, Fernandez carefully listened to the docent's introduction and periodically asked questions. He inquired about the statue of Li Hanjun, who was one of the 13 delegates and the site's owner at that time. The site of the CPC's first National Congress was originally a traditional Shanghai-style "shikumen" apartment.
"The memorial's display and presentation are very well done," praised Fernandez.
Argentine Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja also accompanied the Argentine President on the Sunday visit.
During the visit to the memorial, Narvaja shared that his Chinese name "Niu Wangdao" came from a renowned Chinese translator Chen Wangdao, who was the first person to translate The Communist Manifesto into Chinese in 1920. Shanghai was the first stop on Fernandez's China tour.
China has assumed the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for November and sees promoting a cease-fire in the Israel-Palestine conflict as a "top priority," said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, as the number of dead has passed 10,000 for both sides since October 7, with 9,000 in the Gaza Strip.
"It is imperative to promote a cease-fire and halt the fighting, prevent further civilian casualties, prevent a larger-scale humanitarian disaster and prevent the conflict from spilling over," Ambassador Zhang Jun said during a news briefing on the work of China's presidency of the UN Security Council on Wednesday local time.
The latest Israel-Palestine war has quickly become the deadliest and most destructive of the five wars fought since Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip in 2007, the AP reported. Since this conflict began, nearly 9,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank, and 1,400 in Israel.
With Israel's ground operations continuing and the conflict further intensifying, the death toll will keep rising.
Chinese analysts said that due to the different stances held by the US and other members of the UN Security Council on a cease-fire, it is very difficult to see a breakthrough in adopting UN resolutions, as the US will keep using its veto power to defend Israel's "right of self-defense," which means Israeli military forces will continue their bombardments and attacks against Gaza.
Wang Jin, an associate professor at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies of Northwest University, told the Global Times on Thursday that the president of the UN Security Council has the duty to speak on behalf of the Security Council when the members reach consensus, and host formal and informal meetings of the council.
It seems symbolic but it can also play a constructive role, for instance, "agenda setting," Wang said.
China will work with other members of the Security Council to keep promoting peace and negotiation, and will make efforts to build humanitarian corridors to link Gaza and the outside world.
Meaningful efforts
Responding to a question about how hopeful he was in being able to break the present deadlock among Security Council members and adopt a text on the situation in Gaza, Zhang said: "That's a question we are all asking ourselves, and that I am asking my colleagues. It's not just our moral duty, it's our legal duty."
However, any text that is adopted must be important as well as meaningful, and it must send a strong message to the relevant parties about a cease-fire and abiding by international law, Zhang said. While this message did not pose a problem to many council members, it did to certain ones. However, faced with the calls of civilians, children and mothers in Gaza, the Chinese delegation would not give up, the ambassador said.
The Chinese delegation will continue to work toward calling for a cease-fire, ensuring the protection of civilians, and preventing a further deterioration of tensions, as well as a humanitarian catastrophe, Zhang said, and China would focus on "meaningful action" along the lines of the General Assembly resolution.
In the October 27 resolution Zhang referred to, the US, Israel and 12 other countries voted against it, while 121, including China, Russia, France and most UN members, voted in favor and 44 abstained. The text of the resolution sent a clear message on a cease-fire, protection of civilians and the provision of humanitarian assistance.
The US has used Israel's "right of self-defense" as a pretext to veto the draft resolution for a cease-fire in the UN Security Council. Ma Xiaolin, senior professor and dean of the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean Rim at Zhejiang International Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday that any resolution to be passed in the future should have clear restrictions to prevent Israel from abusing its "right of self-defense," when many people killed in Gaza were innocent civilians like women and children.
Analysts explained that Israel's mind-set is that seeking revenge and eliminating Hamas are much more important than preventing civilian casualties, and civilian deaths in Gaza should be blamed on Hamas and not Israel, because when Israel invokes its "right of self-defense," it's hard to avoid "collateral damage."
However, the majority of the international community thinks differently, because it has nothing to do with "self-defense" when Israeli forces avenge the deaths of 1,400 Israelis with the lives of 9,000 Palestinians, most of whom innocent civilians.
Only when the US, a permanent member in the Security Council with veto power, changes its mind and starts to act like a responsible country can the UN Security Council conclude with a binding resolution that can effectively bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, said experts.
The Security Council in November will also consider issues including Syria, Yemen and Bosnia and Herzegovina; take action on the UN Assistance Mission in the Sudan, the UN Mission in the Central African Republic, and the extension of the authorization of sanctions measures for Somalia; and hold its annual regular dialogue with the commissioner of Peacekeeping Police, according to Zhang at the news briefing.
The presidency of the Security Council rotates among the 15 member states of the council monthly. China last held the rotating presidency in August 2022.
Pakistan is looking forward to taking the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into the next phase with greater vigor and hopes to see fruits of the CPEC benefit not only China and Pakistan, but the whole region, said Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives for Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal.
Iqbal was talking to the Global Times in an exclusive interview after a meeting of the 12th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of the CPEC in Beijing on Tuesday.
Iqbal, who has extensive experience and long-standing involvement in the CPEC, said he was overwhelmed at how much has been accomplished by the CPEC in just 10 years.
The beauty of the CPEC is that it is a project between two countries that enjoy a very unique relationship, Iqbal said. "Normally, countries come close when they need to, and they get farther away when they don't need each other. But in the case of China and Pakistan, it has been always spring. There has never been autumn in this relationship."
This year marks a decade of the CPEC. The landmark project was formalized on July 5, 2013.
The CPEC has done a great service to Pakistan, helping it overcome the energy crisis, develop modern infrastructure and restore the country's image as an investment destination. Prior to the CPEC the world used to look at Pakistan as a very dangerous country, the Pakistani minister said.
Pakistan would be facing an extreme energy crisis today without the projects launched under the CPEC, Iqbal emphasized.
Everyone in Pakistan has benefited from the great contribution that has been made by the CPEC, he added. If there was a lack of electricity, factories would be closed and workers would be laid off; patients in hospitals and students in educational institutions would also be stranded.
He mentioned the Thar region of Pakistan, which was once a backward area, saying the CPEC has transformed the region into a source of energy for the country. Local education, employment, hospitals and schools have also flourished.
The projects also empower local women in the region, Iqbal noted. "You will be amazed to see that local women are driving the heavy trucks, which take coal out of the mines." In total, the CPEC projects have created about 200,000 job opportunities.
Iqbal said Pakistan now has a lot more vigor to move forward on the CPEC, adding that many projects that were delayed in previous years were completed in the last year.
He said that Pakistan is looking forward to taking the CPEC into the next phase with greater vigor. "I hope that the next phase will bring many dividends for the wider region beyond Pakistan and China. We hope one day the whole of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East will benefit from the CPEC."
When talking about the mega projects within the second phase of the CPEC, Iqbal expressed his hope to see the start of major upgrades to the Main Line 1 railway between Karachi and Peshawar with China's help as soon as possible in 2023. Modernization and upgrades are urgently needed for this aging railway line, especially as it was badly damaged by the floods last year.
This $10-billion project was supposed to be done in the first phase, but it got delayed in the last four years, Iqbal said.
Iqbal refuted claims in the Western media that the CPEC has not lived up to expectations and has become a "debt trap," saying that instead it has "outperformed the expectations. The propaganda [from the West] that the CPEC is a debt trap is all false. All the negative propaganda against the CPEC has a political element. It has no reality," he told the Global Times.
Infrastructure was the priority of the first-phase of the CPEC, and the second phase will focus on industrial cooperation and business linkage through increasing investment in sectors such as energy, agriculture, information technology and mining, according to Iqbal.
Pakistan is working on nine Special Economic Zones (SEZs) which will provide more opportunities for Chinese investment. Rashakai, one of the nine SEZs, will be inaugurated later this month, and other SEZs are also in advanced stages, Iqbal revealed to the Global Times.
In the energy sector, Pakistan is actively pursuing solar energy and is hoping to invite Chinese companies to set up solar power production plants, Iqbal noted.
Chinese officials are highly concerned about the safety of Chinese citizens in Pakistan and hope that the Pakistani side will continue to take strong security measures.
On security in Pakistan, the minister said Pakistan is taking extra precautions for the security of Chinese people, and have provided four layers of security dedicated to CPEC projects including deploying a special army force with 10,000 personnel, which has been integrated with police, paramilitary forces and local security.
As the CPEC is a strategic project with big geopolitical implications, enemies are always looking for opportunities to disrupt it either through terrorist acts or creating miscommunication, the Pakistani minister emphasized.
In China's cinematic landscape, a groundbreaking revolution is quietly taking place at the Guangming Cinema, which embraced cutting-edge digital methods to immerse visually impaired people in the magic of storytelling through the medium of film.
"Welcome to the Guangming (Light) Cinema. Here we convey film through voice and perceive art through sound. Today you will experience the movie Ne Zha," a narrator explained to a group of young opinion leaders from 15 countries.
As they settled into their assigned movie theater seats, the 16 international youth opinion leaders from 15 countries were about to have a unique viewing experience at the Guangming Cinema in China's capital of Beijing. Here, they got to "watch" a movie while blindfolded, to learn what a movie-going experience is like for those living with visual impairment.
They sat in front of a screen, listening carefully to the sounds from the movie. Throughout the movie screening, along with the character voices, film score, and background action sound, those taking part in the sensory experiment also heard the voice of a narrator describing scenes, moves, and visual effects otherwise hard to enjoy without the sense of sight.
Actually, the movie these overseas young people were "watching" is a barrier-free movie - also named voice-descriptive movie, a product specially adapted for people living with visual impairment - created by a group of volunteers at the Guangming Cinema to allow visually impaired people to enjoy the equal right of walking into a cinema and enjoying a well-rounded movie-going experience like people with sights would have.
The Guangming Cinema Audio-descriptive Movie Making and Promotion Project, a public welfare project established by the Communication University of China (CUC) in Beijing in 2017, aims to create reproducible and transmittable audio-descriptive products to meet the growing spiritual and cultural needs of the visually impaired.
The movie Ne Zha, which deeply moved the audience of young international visitors, is just one of several hundred barrier-free movies that come with complete narration and are re-recorded by volunteers.
Data showed that there are 17.32 million people living with visual impairment in China, and the number of people with dyslexia may be even higher. To meet the cultural and spiritual needs of such a large population posed a great challenge for Chinese society and related government departments in the past.
In the plan for protection and development of disabled people during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, the Chinese government pointed out the necessity of supporting people living with disabilities and enhancing the quality of public services, such as rehabilitation, education, culture, and sports. The creation of a barrier-free environment in China has become an important aspect of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.
The Guangming Cinema Project is a vivid example of the country's efforts to build a barrier-free environment for the visually impaired. Since its establishment, the project has provided rich inclusive and culturally relevant products for a large number of visually impaired people.
As of May 2023, the Guangming Cinema has produced 520 barrier-free movies and two barrier-free television series, and has carried out public welfare screenings in 31 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, and the Macao Special Administrative Region, reaching over 2 million people across the country.
Arduous but rewarding process
At the Guangming Cinema, a group of volunteers including professors, undergraduates, and postgraduate students, have devoted most of their leisure time participating in activities related to the film project, such as the re-recording of barrier-free movies, coordinating and promoting the screening of such movies, with the desire to help visually impaired people to experience and enjoy the world through cinema.
Xue Hanjie, a junior undergraduate student majoring in radio and television editing at the CUC Television School, told the Global Times that she joined the project in her freshman year and worked as a volunteer in the project's production group.
For Xue and other volunteers with the project, making barrier-free movies is not only about describing the stories in a movie, but also about helping the visually impaired to understand the meaning that the director wanted to convey to audiences. The opening shot, the landscape, the appearance and movements of a character, any and all aspects pertinent to the development of the plot are narrated, to help those who are visually impaired to gain a complete picture of what's happening in the movie.
Sometimes, when there are too many characters and different languages in a film, narrators dub the movie in Chinese and in different voices, so that the visually impaired can fully understand the plot only by listening.
In the dubbing room, volunteer Li Zhixing, a postgraduate student at the CUC, watches the scenes of a movie and actively adjusts his emotions and voice accordingly. Judging from the needs of the role, he sometimes plays the role of a young soldier, and then switches to the voice of an old man.
In order to control the voice performance of the actors and accurately convey emotions, a seemingly simple sentence has to be repeated and recorded four to five times over.
At the same time, outside the dubbing room, two volunteers at the tuning table align Li's dubbed dialogues and narrations with the appropriate scenes in the movie being worked on.
Cai Yu, a PhD student from Television School at the CUC, and also a volunteer with the project for about six years, explained that the making of a movie is usually time consuming and detail oriented. "In the beginning, we invite a volunteer to write the narration script. Teachers and other volunteers then review and proofread the script three times, polish the details, and then we start recording in the dubbing room, and go through editing, film encoding, and finally reviewing," Cai elaborated.
On average, narrating and dubbing a 90 to 120 minutes' film usually takes two to three months. A volunteer can usually only make one film over the course of one semester, Cai said.
The professionalism and responsibility of volunteer work left a deep impression on the overseas youth opinion leaders.
"Empathy and understanding were the thoughts that came to my mind when we were exposed to the project and the movie. It was a moving experience since I was able to put myself in blind people's shoes," Jose Carlos Feliciano, deputy director of the Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies, University of the Pacific, Peru, told the Global Times after having a visually impaired movie-going experience.
Igor Alexander Bello Tasic, founder and CEO of Meta Ventures from Spain, said that when he wore the blindfold and "watched" the movie, he could feel that volunteers were not performing a technical job, but an artistic one.
They were not just trying to create a layer of information, but were narrating the story in a way similar to "Director's cut" - a human layer that connected that media with people who could experience it in its original form, Tasic said.
'Human reality' of volunteers
Due to work experience, Tasic knows some of the technologies related to visual reality and augmented reality, but at the Guangming Cinema, he said that what he felt was a sort of "human reality," a humanization of senses that he has never seen before.
The project has attracted more and more like-minded students, who want to help improve the quality of life of those living with visual impairment in the Chinese society. Cai said that each year, about 100 undergraduates and postgraduate freshmen join the project's volunteer team.
Rida Hameed, a journalist with Pakistan's K21 News, said that visiting the Guangming Cinema was the best moment of her life, giving her a sense of peace and satisfaction that there are people in this world who don't work for money but for the sake of humanity and kindness.
The Guangming Cinema now aims to produce 104 barrier-free films each year. "There are 52 weeks in a year, and we want to ensure that at least two barrier-free movies are provided for the visually impaired every week," Xue told the Global Times.
In the control room, the visitors saw printed movie narration scripts stacked into two 50-centimeter-high piles beside the tuning table. According to preliminary statistics, the number of words written by the volunteers in one year can be as many as 3 million.
"I was able to see the editing process for the voices, and realized that it really takes a lot of time and patience. The project has a long working hour process and requires great commitment (from the volunteers)," said Feliciano to the Global Times.
At the end of the year or during special occasions, the project team integrates the barrier-free movies and saves them in specially-made mobile hard disk drives and U disks, so that these movies can be played on computers even in the remotest villages in China. The team also stores movies in audio recorders with a memory card in it, allowing people with visual impairment to listen to the movies anytime and anywhere.
Pursuing for 'bright' future
In May 2022, the Marrakesh Treaty, which is the first and only human rights treaty that is copyrighted, officially came into effect in China.
The treaty allows authorized entities to produce print formats of cultural works geared toward those living with disabilities without authorization from copyright holders, from Braille books and audiobooks to films and TV shows. Experts noted that it is a practical move that China adopted to expand the country's human rights protection sphere for some 17 million print-disabled people, giving them equal access to culture and education.
Based on the Marrakesh Treaty, the Guangming Cinema has carried out many public warfare activities for people with visual impairment. Since April 2021, the project team has cooperated with the Beijing School for the Blind to screen barrier-free movies for children once a month.
In the Guangming Cinema, a special collection attracted the international visitors' attention and deeply moved them. It was a Braille text written by a little girl from the Beijing School for the Blind to the Guangming Cinema, displayed in a 6-inch red photo frame, on which it reads "Everyone is someone's light, and you are our light."
In order to allow the visually impaired to gain the full movie-viewing experience, the volunteers also chose to screen barrier-free movies in places such as the Chaoyang Theater in Beijing, a highly populated residential area with convenient transportation facilities for visually-impaired people.
"We insist on providing barrier-free movies in theaters and cinemas, because we want to help achieve equal rights for those who are visually-impaired. They deserve an equal right to walk into a cinema and enjoy a movie," said Xue.
Additionally, volunteers from the Guangming Cinema went to remote places in China to carry out public welfare screenings, so that visually impaired people in those areas and people in ethnic minority areas could also enjoy the cultural experience brought by movies. The movies and television series made for people living with disabilities by the project volunteers were also sent out to 2,244 special education schools across China.
As of 2021, there were 2,288 special education schools in China, increased from 1,933 in 2013, according to the Report on the Cause for Persons with Disabilities in China (2023) issued in May, 2023. This means that about 98 percent of special education schools in China have benefited from the project, where students in said schools can enjoy barrier-free movies made.
Feliciano told the Global Times that in Guangming Cinema, he was impressed by how digitization was used to empower philanthropy and social projects in China. "It's very interesting to see how Chinese innovative solutions can be an inspiration to other countries," he said.
He also said that he would share the digital example with his students and write articles about what he had learned on his trip in China, to let more people know about China's practices in the digital sphere.
This is really a noble cause and other countries in the world must learn from how China is taking good care of its people, not only at present but are also trying to make the future better as well, Hameed said.
