A series of global activities will kick off on Tuesday local time in Paris to mark the anniversary of the birth of Liu Hui, a prominent figure in ancient Chinese mathematics. Co-hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), the commemorations aim to show and share the brilliant achievements of ancient Chinese mathematics to the world, as well as to promote exchanges and mutual learning among global civilizations.
Liu, born circa 225-295, was one of the founders of classical Chinese mathematical theory. He made great contributions to the history of Chinese mathematics and also gained an important position in the history of world mathematics. Liu’s commentary in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art had great a influence on a large number of mathematicians and mathematical works in later generations.
In November 2023, UNESCO held the 42nd session of the General Conference and approved the proposal made by the CAST to celebrate the anniversary of Liu’s birth. It was the first time China had successfully applied for a birthday anniversary event for a scientist at UNESCO, said the CAST.
A launch ceremony will take place at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a year-long global commemoration of Liu. A themed exhibition featuring Liu’s achievements in mathematics, and an international symposium on his academic thought, will also be held in Paris this week, according to the CAST.
Liu’s commentary on the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and his Mathematical Canon of Sea Island, were important achievements in ancient Chinese mathematics, said Zhou Xiaohan, an associate research fellow at the Institute for History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is going to deliver a keynote speech at the symposium.
“With in-depth theory and comprehensive proof, these works embodied a distinct and unique algorithmic feature in the history of mathematics,” Zhou told the Global Times. “The terminology, expressions and ways of proof in his works had a profound impact on later generations.”
“Liu’s achievements are not only a treasure to China, but also a great legacy of human thought for the world,” noted Zhou.
Andrea Bréard, a professor and the vice president of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, has also been invited to the launch ceremony and symposium in commemoration of Liu as an expert representative.
Bréard has affirmed the positive significance of the events in honor of Liu in promoting the world’s better understanding of the great achievements of ancient Chinese mathematics. “It is a good opportunity to raise awareness about the non-Western contributions to the history of mathematics in the past,” she told the Global Times via email.
Boasting elements like stone bridges, winding rivers and elegant above-water architecture, ancient towns are highlights to the landscape of China's Jiangnan. Jiangnan is a geographic area that is commonly known as the south of the mighty Yangtze River.
Built with a touch of garden aesthetics, these towns are popular touristic destinations. Comparing to renowned sites like the Zhouzhuang Town in Jiangsu Province, the Puyuan Fashion Resort, opened to public in 2023, is an emerging spot that shows how an old rural town can sustain people's modern and fashionable lifestyles.
Old yet fashionable
Puyuan is located in Tongxiang, East China's Zhejiang Province. Its history dates back to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), and the town is one of the stops where the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal flows through.
To promote the protection of the ancient canal culture heritage, in 2016, a renovation project was carried out in Puyuan, covering an area of approximately 858,000 square meters.
In order to preserve the traditional look of the town's above-water architectures, the renovation project followed the concept of "repairing old buildings by keeping their old aesthetics while also integrating new cultural and commercial elements into the town," Yao Jie, a manager of the resort, told the Global Times.
Nine well-preserved ancient bridges, including the Zong'an Bridge and the Dayou Bridge are distributed along the "H"-shaped river system of the Puyuan Fashion Resort. Many of those bridges date back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Some of those bridges connect to inns. For instance, an owner of the Xianzi Beach Inn told the Global Times that the inn is not the biggest one in the resort, but it can offer an "authentic taste of Puyuan" as guests can see the green and clear river flowing beneath their feet just by opening their bedroom's window.
Wooden boats and shuttle buses are always available in the resort. Boats take visitors underneath the bridges' arches to arrive at notable scenic spots in the ancient town. Two popular local destinations are the Meijing Theater, founded in 1947 and offering performances of the traditional Yue Opera, and the Xiangyun Taoist Temple, a symbol of the Taoist philosophy's development in the region, built in the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368).
The ancient town's time-honored locations are mixed with new buildings including modern hotels, performance plazas, and a visitor center that boasts a T-stage venue for fashion shows.
Puyuan, where the resort is located, is one of China's most dynamic centers for fashion production, especially in the cashmere and knitwear sectors. Around 700 million sweaters made in Puyuan are sold worldwide every year.
Relying on the Town's solid foundation in the clothing industry, the resort has found its niche character of promoting shows and exhibitions that connect to the international market.
One of its strategies is to collaborate with the entertainment industry. It has invited highly popular reality shows such as Funny Team 2024 to film at the resort. In the show, Chinese stars such as Na Ying and Huang Zitao run around the resort, taking audiences on a visual journey around Puyuan's beautiful scenic spots.
In 2023, the resort organized a successful campaign in collaboration with the Chinese version of the fashion magazine Gentlemen's Quarterly, also known as GQ. By having superstars such as Fei Xiang (also known as Kris Phillips, is a Chinese-American pop icon and musical singer) posting photos of the resort, the fashion title of the ancient town was accentuated.
"There are many ancient towns in China, and we need to give them unique themes to make them stand out. This is the creative strategy we need to promote Chinese ancient towns," Xiao Junfu, a marketer of the touristic industry, told the Global Times. Niche interests
Other than Puyuan, the Wuzhen Town and Xitang Town, two ancient water towns nestled in Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang Province, have also embarked on a journey of remarkable transformation.
Wuzhen Town, whose roots trace back over 1,000 years, found a way to bridge the gap between past and future. Its once quiet canals, lined with Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1368-1644) buildings, became the stage for a new kind of digital dialogue: the town's transformation began with its establishment as the permanent home of the World Internet Conference, cementing its role as a digital pioneer.
But it was the birth of the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in 2013 that truly brought Wuzhen's spirit into full bloom. The event integrated Wuzhen's historical landscape with cutting-edge theater, making the town a beacon of artistic and cultural exchange.
A few kilometers away, Xitang Town embarked on its own revival journey. Originally created back in the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC), the town still thrives nowadays thanks to its own unique cultural initiatives. For example, the Xitang Hanfu Culture Week showcases not only the town's past but also its deep connection to Chinese tradition. During the week, people dress in elegant Hanfu attire strolling through the streets, bringing the past vividly to life as workshops and parades make the town a living museum of ancient fashion.
The Xitang Ancient Town Protection Regulations of Jiaxing City released in 2023, further promote the construction of an ecological cultural tourism zone and the integration of ancient town culture and tourism, while continuing to protect the cultural heritage and traditional architecture of the ancient town.
Together, the Wuzhen and Xitang water towns breathe a new life, exemplary for the cultivation of a new cultural ecology in historical towns, one that honors the past while embracing the future.
The Consulate General of the Argentine Republic in Guangzhou held an Argentine film tour themed "River, Dream, Distance," launched on September 19 and will run until October 10.
The event aims to attract all movie lovers and Hispanophiles to explore Argentina's rich natural scenery and wonderful human stories. It is presented as not merely a feast of movies, but also an exchange of hearts.
The Consulate General of the Argentine Republic in Guangzhou expressed hope that the audience would have an in-depth cultural dialogue with the culture and spirit of Argentina through movies.
The movie viewers were encouraged to explore the unknown river, chase the distant dream, and find the distance in the hearts in this feast of vision and soul.
With a rich and diverse history, Argentine films are also well-known around the world.
The Embassy of the Czech Republic in China and the Czech-China Contemporary Art Gallery jointly inaugurated the exhibition "My Room," which was opened at the Czech Embassy in Beijing on August 20.
Featuring artists Feng Runde, Li Lang, Jiri Straka, Wu Zixian and Yang Yuzhe, the exhibition provides a platform for young artists from the Czech Republic and China to learn and exchange ideas, and has won unanimous praise from Chinese and foreign visitors.
The people-to-people exchanges between the Czech Republic and China are expected to continue to expand into new areas. The exhibition aims to help young artists and show the public their ideas and experiences in the face of a complex world independently.
"The works of the five artists have some common features that impress me: The appearance of their works is very different from the works of their elders; regardless of where they live, their art is close to the real life," said curator and artist Shu Yang.
The year 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of German-speaking Bohemian novelist Franz Kafka's death. The Embassy of Germany in China held a session titled Literatur abend Der unendliche Kafka (or Literature Evening the Infinite KafKa in English) in Beijing on August 30.
A panel discussion was held among Professor Benno Wagner from the School of International Studies of Zhejiang University, Professor Han Ruixiang from the Department of German of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), and Professor Zhang Yan from the Institute of German Studies of BFSU.
The experts focused on the topic of the modernity of Kafka's works, Kafka's roots in China, and Kafka featured on social media.
As one of the most-read German-language writers in the world, Kafka's image and works are much more colorful than they are stereotyped to be.
He is the best writer at writing about Entfremdung, which has also strongly influenced the life in the digital age. There is a Kafka fan community on TikTok, and the number is growing rapidly.
Since 2000, there have been 11 collections of Kafka's essays, nine collections of letters, six diaries, five conversations, two collections of paintings, and one collection of proverbs on the Chinese book market, according to statistics from the data center of the China National Archives of Publications and Culture.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Tanzania. Their economic and trade ties have flourished, with major investments boosting local industrialization and job creation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aligning with Tanzania's Development Vision 2025. Following the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Chen Mingjian (Chen) talked to the Global Times (GT) reporter Yin Yeping in an interview, sharing insight into the strengthening of China-Tanzania relations and the prospect for future cooperation.
GT: As China and Tanzania celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations this year, how do you assess the bilateral achievements so far, and what are your expectations for future relations?
Chen: Tanzania is a China's long-standing friend and the place where China's Africa policy in the new era was first proposed. In the 1950s and 1960s, the elder generation of leaders such as late Chairman Mao Zedong and Julius Nyerere, the founding President of Tanzania, together forged the friendship between China and Tanzania.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping proposed, during his state visit to Tanzania, the principles of China's Africa policy - sincerity, real results, amity, and good faith, and he solemnly declared that "China and Africa have always been a community with a shared future."
Since the advent of the new era, China has adhered to the principles, working together with Tanzanian friends to continuously enrich the content of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Tanzania, build a high-level China-Tanzania and China-Africa community with a shared future, and establish a backbone for South-South cooperation and a model for international relations.
I am pleased to share some memorable and touching stories from the China-Tanzania relationship.
In 1971, when the 26th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the UN, thunderous applause erupted in the General Assembly Hall. At that moment, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, then representative of Tanzania to the UN, wearing a Zhongshan suit, couldn't help but cheer joyfully on the spot, which left an unforgettable memory.
China and Tanzania have long upheld the principle that all countries, regardless of their size, strength, and wealth are equal, and have fought shoulder to shoulder against imperialism and colonialism, and have always stood for justice in a changing international landscape. This is the "sincerity" of the China-Tanzania relations.
Over the past 60 years, economic and trade cooperation between China and Tanzania has yielded substantial results.
Once completed, the Chinese-built Magufuli Bridge, which connects Misungwi and Sengerema districts in the Mwanza region, will reduce the transit time between the two sides of Lake Victoria from two hours to just five minutes.
The mega Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project, which addresses the national power shortage with renewable energy, is considered the African equivalent of Three Gorges Project in China.
Each landmark project has brought tangible benefits to the local people, which exemplifies the "real results" of China-Tanzania relations.
In recent years, the enthusiasm for learning the Chinese language in Tanzania has been continuously growing.
The bond between nations is built on mutual affinity among their peoples. The people of China and Tanzania have a natural sense of closeness. This is the "amity" of China-Tanzania relations.
While Western countries, driven by political motives, turned a blind eye to Tanzania's plight, China, despite its own challenging conditions, tightened its belt to assist in building the TAZARA Railway, establishing an enduring monument in the history of China-Africa relations. This is the "good faith" of China-Tanzania relations.
During the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, leaders of China, Tanzania, and Zambia jointly witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding on revitalizing TAZARA railway.
China and Tanzania, as well as China and Africa, will seize 2024 FOCAC summit as an opportunity to embark on a new journey toward modernization, working together to create a better future for their people and to write a new chapter in building a China-Tanzania and all-weather China-Africa community with shared future for new era.
GT: Since joining the BRI cooperation in 2018, Tanzania has seen significant development. How do you evaluate these results, and what are your expectations for future cooperation?
Chen: Past practices have shown that China-proposed BRI and its plans and initiatives focusing on three key areas - industrialization, agricultural modernization and talent development - are highly aligned with Tanzania Development Vision 2025, aiding Tanzania for achieving industrialization and agricultural modernization.
Chinese companies have also completed and delivered major projects such as the natural gas pipeline, the Dar es Salaam Port upgrade and expansion, the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport terminal in Tanzania's Zanzibar.
In the economic and trade sector, there has been a dual increase in quality and efficiency. In 2023, bilateral trade grew by 5.7 percent year-on-year, reaching $8.78 billion, an increase of 1.25 times over the past decade. China has been Tanzania's largest trading partner for eight consecutive years.
Chinese investment in Tanzania has been significant, with investments in projects such as KEDA Ceramics, Huaxin Cement Maweni Limestone, and Wangkang Float Glass projects exceeding $100 million each, creating numerous jobs.
Looking ahead, with a new cooperation starting point, strengthening BRI cooperation between the two countries will align with Tanzania Development Vision 2025. The focus will be on transforming and upgrading pragmatic cooperation, shifting from government-led initiatives to market-oriented approaches, moving from commodity trade to supply chain cooperation, and advancing from project contracting to investment and operation. GT: For African countries, Chinese modernization has dual significance in both theory and practice. How do you evaluate the significance of Chinese modernization for the future development of China-Africa cooperation?
Chen: Civilizations have both differences and commonalities, which is two sides of the same coin. Both Africa and China possess ancient and splendid traditional civilizations.
In recent decades, Western efforts to impose so-called Western-style democracy and the "Washington consensus" on other countries have largely failed to modernize them. Comprehensive cooperation between China and Africa has yielded fruitful results and valuable experience, leading to the formation of a consensus on development concepts—the China-Africa "Dar es Salaam Consensus." The Consensus called on the international community to deepen development cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect, solidarity, win-win cooperation, openness, and common prosperity. It put forward constructive ideas on how to address current global challenges, reflecting the common voice of the Global South.
Chinese modernization emphasizes national uniqueness and autonomy while advocating for shared human values.
African countries can also follow their own experiences, integrating excellent local traditions and specific realities, to pursue an independent and autonomous path to modernization.
China will continue to work together with its African brothers, including Tanzania, as partners on the path of modernization and contribute more to building a community with a shared future for humanity.
On Sunday, China's National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce released the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access (2024 Edition). The total number of items on the negative list, or restricted sectors for foreign investment, has been reduced from 31 to 29, and all restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector have been lifted. This means that going forward, foreign investment in China's manufacturing sector will face no restrictions that differ from those applicable to domestic investment. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration, recently issued a circular on further expanding pilot programs for opening-up in the medical sector. Some media outlets referred to these two bold opening-up measures as "two major developments in one day."
The further easing of foreign investment access demonstrates China's unwavering commitment to promoting investment liberalization and facilitation, as well as its responsibility in advancing global openness and cooperation. Frankly speaking, the current global investment environment is far from ideal. The recently released Chinese version of the World Investment Report shows that global foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by 2 percent in 2023. If transit hubs for foreign investment are excluded, global FDI has declined by more than 10 percent for the second consecutive year. While investment liberalization and facilitation expand the economic pie, some major countries that should be leading this effort are clearly falling short. News headlines in those countries frequently focus on various restrictions they adopt. As the world's second-largest economy, China firmly stands on the side of openness, proactively widening the doors of opening-up. This not only offers substantial support for economic globalization but also serves as a significant boost to global confidence.
Attracting investment is a hallmark of China's opening-up. In the early stages of the reform and opening-up period, foreign investment in China was primarily attracted by low-cost advantages such as land, labor, and energy. However, foreign investors now continue to be optimistic about China due to its massive market size, high-quality labor force and comprehensive industrial chain, which have been developed over decades of growth, as well as the high-quality business environment fostered by China's high-level institutional opening-up. These advantages are more sustainable and reliable.
Since China released its first negative list for foreign investment in 2013, it has undergone several revisions and reductions over more than a decade. This reduction is not simply a matter of crossing off items on a list; each reduction signifies a more open sector. While these sectors may face fiercer competition, they also present significant opportunities. China continues to make "subtractions" in terms of foreign investment access while making "additions" to the business environment. Foreign investors can share the dividends of an open China, and Chinese enterprises that can withstand the competition will emerge stronger. Confidence in opening-up has become a firm consensus throughout China. Regardless of changes in the external environment, China's commitment to the logic of opening-up has remained unwavering.
From promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade, optimizing the business environment at ports, to deepening the opening-up of the service industry and advancing the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, China's steps toward opening-up to the outside world have been bold while maintaining stability. In addition, China's ability to manage and coordinate these two aspects has further improved, which, in turn, is more conducive to expanding high-level opening-up and creating a virtuous cycle of "opening-up promoting further opening-up." Currently, foreign investment in China encompasses 20 industry categories and 115 major industry sectors. From 2017 to 2023, China's actual utilization of foreign capital grew by 25 percent, with the proportion of foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing rising to 37.4 percent. This growth is not only rapid in quantity but also effective in quality.
Currently, there is significant attention, both domestically and internationally, regarding the new regulations on the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals and the entry of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector. China has reached, or is close to reaching, an internationally advanced level of opening-up in these two areas, gaining the initiative. This not only marks a step forward in China's commitment to a higher level of opening-up but also conveys China's determination to participate deeply in the global division of labor in manufacturing and services. In today's era of economic globalization, the development of others does not equate to a loss for you; the fundamental truth is that we must work together to expand the pie. The distorted logic that being open is unpromising while being closed has an optimistic outlook exists only in the fantasies of certain Western opinions; it does not exist in reality.
Workers assemble pet water dispensers at a factory in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu Province on September 10, 2024. In 2023, China's urban pet consumption market stood at 279.3 billion yuan ($39.23 billion), and it is expected to reach 361.3 billion yuan by 2026. With increasing demand and a growing industry scale, the country's "pet economy" has an upbeat outlook. Photo: IC
Chinese biotechnology firms including BGI, MGI as well as WuXi AppTec on Tuesday refuted the wrong allegations in a US bill passed by the US House of Representatives on Monday, stressing that the companies do not have access to Americans' personal data in their operations.
"We are deeply disappointed that the US House of Representatives has voted to advance the BIOSECURE Act," BGI said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.
The bill is a false flag targeting companies under the premise of national security, and it serves to strengthen the monopoly in the genomics market held by a dominant US player that has been lobbying for the legislation, the company said.
"We reiterate that BGI poses no national security risks, that we strictly follow rules and laws, and we have no access to Americans' personal data in any of our work," it continued, saying that "We are disappointed that the US legislative process is being used to pick winners and losers."
The comment came as the US House passed the drafted BIOSECURE Act by 306 to 81 votes, which would prohibit the US government from contracting with, or providing grants to, companies that do business with a "biotechnology company of concern." It names five Chinese companies including BGI, MGI and its subsidiary Complete Genomics, WuXi AppTec, and Wuxi Biologics.
"As we have stressed repeatedly, MGI and Complete Genomics, as equipment vendors, do not have access to, collect, or maintain patient genetic data, our customers retain full control over any data they generate," MGI said in a statement sent to the Global Times.
Former FBI cybersecurity experts at FTI Consulting have validated the security of our technology and concluded it did not have any vulnerabilities nor capability to transmit data, MGI said.
"Baseless bills like this one, drafted under the guise of national security, are more likely to jeopardize global biosecurity by slowing the sector's progress, stifling our innovation, and making it harder for global companies to benefit and share from important medical breakthroughs. And less competition in the market will drive up costs for our industry and harm the people whose lives depend on research conducted on our sequencers," MGI said.
Wuxi AppTec said the company "has not posed, does not pose, and will not pose a security risk to the US or any other country," while reiterating that it does not have a human genomics business or collect human genomic data in the US, China or anywhere else.
The designation of Wuxi AppTec as a "biotechnology company of concern" is a preemptive and unjustified designation without due process, which the company strongly objects to, it said in a stock exchange filing.
China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, was up 0.6 percent year on year in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.
