China's civil aviation industry aims to promote a significant increase in direct flights between China and the US, and promote the operation of the domestically manufactured C919 in more countries, as part of new moves to further lift air travel.

The remarks were made at the annual meeting of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Thursday, which summarized the industry's performance in 2023 and mapped out tasks for 2024.

Expanding overseas flights is among the CAAC's priorities. The CAAC forecast that China's international passenger traffic will continue to recover, and the number of flights is expected to reach 6,000 per week by year-end, recovering to 80 percent of pre-epidemic levels.

Further increasing direct flights between China and the US is at the top of the list.

International flights in 2023 recovered to more than 4,600 per week, compared with fewer than 500 per week at the beginning of last year.

Flights from China to Europe recovered to more than 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels. The number of regular direct flights between China and the US stands at 63 per week now.

Regarding Chinese-made aircraft, the CAAC said it will promote the approval review of the C919 aircraft for the European Aviation Safety Agency, which aims to allow the aircraft to operate in more countries.

In 2023, domestically built aircraft made a number of notable breakthroughs, such as the ARJ21 aircraft achieving large-scale operation and being exported to Indonesia. The model carried more than 10 million passengers in 2023.

On January 1, 2024, China Eastern Airlines welcomed its fourth C919 aircraft. The C919 completed its maiden commercial flight in May 2023. As of December 31, China Eastern Airlines' C919 fleet had operated 655 commercial flights, carrying a total of nearly 82,000 passengers.

The CAAC said that it will further improve tech innovation and prevent and resolve systemic risks that affect the long-term development of the industry.

The Chinese aviation industry is shrugging off the impact of the epidemic. CAAC data showed that domestic passenger traffic surpassed the pre-epidemic level of 2019 by 1.5 percent last year, the fastest recovery among all modes in China.

In 2024, China's domestic passenger transport will continue to grow steadily, and ridership on domestic routes is expected to reach 630 million people by year-end, exceeding 2019 by 7.7 percentage points, CAAC said.

The market watchdog in a county in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province sealed up joss paper shops and confiscated paper money in an effort to eliminate fire hazards, ahead of the traditional Chinese Winter Solstice, or Dongzhi, which falls on December 22 this year, when Chinese people burn ghost money to honor their deceased family members. 

Some joss paper merchants in Huanan county in Jiamusi city, Heilongjiang, told Chengdu-based Red Star News that their shops, warehouses and production workshops were closed down and their commodities were confiscated. 

Some photos provided by the sellers show that large quantities of confiscated ghost money were seen piled up in the courtyard of the local market supervision bureau. 

While the local market watchdog declined the interview request from media, the local government’s citizen service hotline told the media that it was a move to remove security hazards and advocated to discard outdated superstitions. 

A joss paper merchant surnamed Wang told the Red Star News that the shutting down of the paper money businesses in the county started in early December. Several major wholesalers’ shops and warehouses with particularly huge inventories have been closed down. The value of their goods amounts up to 1 million yuan ($139,237). 

According to Wang, the market supervision bureau employee told him that decision to suspend paper money shops came after a fire disaster happened to a ghost money warehouse in Zhaozhou county in Daqing city, Heilongjiang. The Huanan county market watchdog took the action in a bid to remove security risks. 

According to a news report by China Central Television (CCTV), a fire disaster causing seven deaths occurred in an aging wooden warehouse built illegally for storing ghost money in Zhaozhou county on November 20. 

The warehouse was built with poor quality and highly flammable material which was identified for the reason for multiple casualties, thepaper.cn reported on Wednesday. 

A joss paper warehouse operator surnamed Zhao from Huanan county said his processing equipment of joss paper used to produce ghost money provided to surrounding villages and towns. His warehouse was closed down around December 1 and his inventory was confiscated and that he would also be fined possibly. 

According to Wang, the local authorities in Jiamusi issued regulations on the civilized sacrifices and worshipping in 2020. According to the regulations enacted on January 1, 2021, those who produce or sell feudal superstitious sacrificial articles shall be punished with confiscation of their goods by the local market supervision and administration department together with the civil affairs department. They may also be imposed a fine of with the amount of higher than one time and lower than three times the value of the production and sales. 

According to a law enforcement notification issued by the Huanan county people’s government, the production and sales of ghost money, joss paper, and gold and silver ingots made of tin foil, paper figures, paper cows, paper horses and all kinds of houses, transportation tools, daily necessities, certificates made of paper and other feudal superstitious sacrificial articles, are prohibited in the administrative area of the county. Burning and using sacrificial articles are prohibited in the whole county under the regulation. 

According to Red Star News, the county has carried out multiple rectification campaigns over the past two years to prohibit business of feudal superstitious sacrificial articles. 

Chinese mainland has detected seven cases of contracting COVID-19 subvariant JN.1 in about one month. The possibility of the variant becoming a dominant strain in the country cannot be ruled out, according to the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration.

Experts suggested the public not to overact about the new variant as infectious diseases are inevitable for all mankind but warned health threats posed by overlapping of various pathogens, including the dominant influenza and mycoplasma pneumonia with COVID-19.

Outside of China, since November this year, the proportion of JN.1 variant as a share of circulating strains has increased rapidly, from about 4 percent in early November to about 30 percent in early December. As of December 10, the variant has been detected in at least 40 countries worldwide.

The proportion of JN.1 variant in Europe was the highest, and its proportion in the US and other continents also showed a rapid growth trend.

On the Chinese mainland, the main strains at this stage are still EG.5 and its subvariants. Since the local JN.1 variant was first discovered in November, as of December 10, a total of seven JN.1 variants have been detected in the country.

"Although the current prevalence level of the JN.1 variant in China is extremely low, due to the subsequent impact of international epidemic strains and imported cases, the possibility of the JN.1 variant becoming a dominant epidemic strain in the country cannot be ruled out," the administration noted.

A Beijing-based immunologist who preferred not to be named told the Global Times more cases of JN.1 variant are expected as virus has no boundary and infectious diseases are the common destiny of all mankind. But it is not a concern of the public because new variants of the novel coronavirus can appear in the future anytime.

Only by improving immunity system can the public manage various pathogens infection and improve overall resistance to respiratory infections, the immunologist said.

Lu Hongzhou, head of the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, pointed out that although the immune escape ability of JN.1 had increased, there was no evidence to show that the pathogenicity of JN.1 variant had increased. According to the ministry, the seven JN.1 infections are mild and asymptomatic cases.

Some Chinese experts said people who have had the flu are more susceptible to contracting COVID-19. After being infected with the flu, it takes several months for CD4+ T cells in the body to recover. During the recovery process, the body's immune system is weaker, making it more susceptible to infection with the COVID-19.

According to latest weekly report by China CDC, the positive rate of influenza virus in southern and northern provinces of China slowed down between December 4 and 10, and some provinces showed a downward trend. The subtype A(H3N2) was predominant, followed by B(Victoria).

A US government report on Monday found no evidence that foreign governments compromised the vote during the 2022 midterms, but experts said the investigation itself shows the intensifying political divisions in the US have led American politicians to eagerly promote the topic of foreign interference in elections to smear their competitors and win votes. 

"There is no evidence that this activity prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information or any ballots cast during the 2022 federal elections," the report issued by the US Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security concluded, Reuters reported.

The report represents a declassified overview of the US government's assessment of election security in 2023, according to the AP.

US politicians have a "habit" of describing its external environment as being threatened, so they can constantly create rumors in this regard, while also using these rumors to vilify their so-called competitors, experts pointed out. 

When they spread rumors about foreign interference in elections, they usually point fingers at China or Russia, depending on the preferences of different political parties. They completely fabricate a story based on their own competitive situation, and once it becomes a focal point of public opinion, relevant departments will claim to investigate, but the result is always without evidence, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

This kind of sensationalism is not uncommon, and in recent years, due to intensified partisan struggles, these American politicians are even more eager to tarnish each other by accusing their main rivals of receiving support from foreign governments, in order to gain votes from the electorate, experts said.

However, experts believe that the release of such reports still carry a strong partisan bias to some extent. 

"It is an attempt to shift the blame for their failure of governance onto China and Russia. In the 2024 US election, the narrative of foreign interference, especially Chinese and Russian interference, is unlikely to disappear. On the contrary, it will be hyped up by certain political factions or media outlets in the US because this topic can attract wide attention and increase viewership. Therefore, from the perspective of narrow political self-interest and expanding media influence, such a narrative will continue to proliferate in the US, which actually reflects the extremely unhealthy political and public opinion atmosphere in the US," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

Year 2023 witnessed a fascinating catching-up game worldwide since OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022. In the coming year ahead, Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360 Security Technology, said he is "still quite optimistic" about the overall development of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry in China.

The speed of development of China's large model is already a miracle. The world needs to be patient with China's large models. The industrial revolution of the internet has been going on for at least 10 years, and the turning point of AI has only emerged in the past year or two, Zhou told the Global Times.

In March, Baidu took the lead by introducing its first extensive language model ERNIE, named as "Wenxin Yiyan" in Chinese. Following its step, on March 29, 360 Security Technology unveiled its artificial intelligence strategy along with the release of Zhinao, or "intelligent brain"

Shortly after, on April 11, Alibaba introduced its "Tongyi Qianwen" large-scale model at the Alibaba Cloud Summit. On May 6, iFlytek launched its Xinghuo large-scale model, with Chairman Liu Qingfeng expressing their goal to surpass ChatGPT in Chinese and catch up with ChatGPT in English by October 24. Additionally, Huawei, JD.com, ByteDance, Sensetime, as well as other companies, have also released their own large-scale model products in succession.

Confidence toward China's AI industry in the coming year is pretty high among Chinese leading AI developers and industry observers, the Global Times found, though facing the fact that Google has also reemerged in the arena, marking its strong comeback with the release of Gemini on December 13.

Zhou admitted that there is still a gap between the Chinese model and ChatGPT-4. But the gap does not prevent China from building its own GPT.

Xiao Yanghua, a computer science professor at Fudan University, also director of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Data Science, also agreed that "Chinese enterprises should be a smart follower, actively explore our own competition track under the premise of ensuring that we do not lag behind."

Zhou told the Global Times that China possesses great industry dividends, saying the key for China's development of large-scale models is to seize the dividends of various AI-generated scenes.

China has the most comprehensive industrial categories in the world with complete supply chain and industrial chain. The greatest opportunities lie in industrialization, specialization and verticalization of the technology, also move toward deep customization, Zhou noted, calling on the wide utilization of GPT in industries, sectors, and within organizations, combining them with vertical AI-generated scene.

Having one large-model to fit all needs of various industries is way too broad and unrealistic. China's large-model products can be more fine-grained, Zhou said. In one industry, the large model can empower different aspects, specific links and tasks, such as in the financial sector, customer service is a relatively detailed aspect and in the field of intelligent connected vehicles, intelligent cabins, intelligent navigation or intelligent entertainment could be very detailed options.

"Many untapped blue oceans are out there," Xiao also told the Global Times, mentioning embodied large-scale models, medical large-scale models, scientific large-scale models and other specified fields.

But Xiao also warned that ChatGPT has formed a "flywheel effect," where iteration and optimization are pushing the technology into a self-reinforcing phase of rapid development, or possibly leading the industry to a situation in which in the future only one or two models will be the dominant players.

Adopt AI, think later?

Should AI technology, with a mix of fear and awe, progress faster or should it slow down? Or should we develop it while at the same time regulate it?

The Global AI Governance Initiative, proposed by Chinese leader this year advocates upholding a people-centered approach in developing AI and promoting the establishment of a testing and assessment system based on AI risk levels, so as to make AI technologies more secure, reliable, controllable and equitable.

Zhou concluded that the foreseeable challenges brought by AI include technical security issues mainly focused on network security and data security, as well as content security issues caused by the ability of large models to "fabricate" content.

More specifically, AI is at risk of being predominantly utilized as a tool for initiating cyberattacks, producing deceptive media or propagating false information and offensive language, industry observers warned.

Zhang Linghan, from China University of Political Science and Law and a member of the UN High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, told the Global Times China's stance has always advocated active promotion of AI technology development, while attaching importance to security.

Various laws and regulations, including the Data Security Law, regulations for managing internet information service algorithms and deep synthesis, and interim measures for governing generative AI services, have also been established to form a comprehensive AI regulatory framework, Zhang noted.

More risks and threats are expected to emerge, according to industry observers, as now AI industry has accelerated its evolution to "multimodal models."

To address the security issues of large models, "it is necessary to make technological breakthroughs rather than relying solely on the self-discipline of large model enterprises," Zhou said. He attributed this to the fact that large models have capabilities surpassing humans is already evident, and they are on the verge of becoming "superhumans" in the near future.

"We must prevent any 'irreversible' consequences from happening," Zhou emphasized. To realize it, humans should avoid relinquishing control of the system to the large model right from the start. Instead, prioritize the involvement of humans in the decision-making loop and ensure that crucial decisions are made by humans.

He went on to say that safety measures can be implemented in the agent architecture to address security and controllability issues that may arise from the utilization of various knowledge, skills and tools by large models.

Will AI become conscious?

This year, Elon Musk threw a bomb to the world saying artificial intelligence is "one of the biggest threats to humanity." Prominent figures in the sector, including representatives from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic, have united to caution about the potential of AI causing human extinction.

As for the ultimate challenge brought by large models, Zhou believes that AI has not yet reached that stage. ChatGPT-5 will not appear overnight, and ChatGPT also needs to have "hands and feet" to connect with the real world in order to pose a real threat. So it is too early to worry about it now.

However, Xiao brought up a more practical emerging problem which is the addiction to use AI in daily work, simply allowing the machine to replace their thinking.

"Over-reliance on AI for thinking could potentially steer us toward intelligence degeneration, as human intelligence is intricately woven into our evolutionary-driven nature," he said.

"In history, no technology has developed at a speed comparable to AI. If traditional technology is a rifle, AI is a hydrogen bomb, completely different in scale," Xiao said.

But he said human activity protection zones that AI cannot interfere with can be established as a way of prevention measure, such as basic education for minors for the sake of thinking degeneration among young generations.

"When we have delegated a large number of writing tasks to machines, which means deprives ourselves of opportunities for mental exercise, resulting not only in the decline of generative abilities, such as writing, but also in the decline of human evaluation abilities."

As for machine consciousness, Chinese observers believe it is more about blurring boundaries between science and science fiction that people try to get attention from making sensational statements.

But letting the imagination go wild, Xiao said, now, machines possess a brain, known as large models, and further acquire a body, known as embodied intelligence, then they may evolve in human society or virtual worlds, and when a sufficiently large group of machine intelligences learn and collaborate with each other, it is not impossible for consciousness to emerge.

In that case, the bottom line is to set up a forbidden zone for AI cognitive systems. "For AI machines, the identity of human beings, as 'the creator' of the AI world, should be hidden," Xiao said.

A sculptor takes a photo of a giant snow sculpture at the Sun Island scenic area in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Dec. 12, 2023. With numerous snow sculptures constructed in the theme park titled "snow world", the city of Harbin, known as China's "ice city" in the northeast, is witnessing the coming of its high season for tourism.(Photo: Xinhua)

We believe in China's women's national soccer team not for their past achievements but for the mental strength they exhibit at each and every game, especially at crucial moments. 

The Steel Roses have embarked on their eighth journey to the FIFA Women's World Cup with their feet standing on solid ground. 

The 2023 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, will kick off on Thursday. 

This will be the first time in the tournament's history that it will have an expanded format of 32 teams drawn in eight groups. 

Despite going to the tournament as the Asian Champions, the Steel Roses are maintaining their composure, vowing to demonstrate their never-say-die attitude on the court.

Coach Shui Qingxia, who took the helm when the team was in a slump and masterminded the surprise triumph at the Asian Cup last year, has said that China have not returned to the top echelon of women's soccer despite winning the Asian title. 

She said China have not outclassed Japan and South Korea in Asia. 

There is also a gap in quality when comparing the team with the European heavyweights.

"But the most important thing in the World Cup is to show our fighting spirit against the odds," she said.

China reached the last 16 at the 2019 World Cup that featured 24 teams. Shui believes getting out of a group that also features European champions England, Denmark and debutants Haiti should be a success. 

China's progress to the knockout stage is likely to hinge on the outcome of their opening match against Denmark on Saturday. 

On paper, it is a nip and tuck with Denmark ranking at world No.13, one place above China. 

Against these physical opponents, the team must give full play to their attacking nous and find a way to ­neutralize Dane captain Pernille Harder.

With a blend of youth and experience, China's squad is spearheaded by ace striker Wang Shuang, the 2018 Asian Women's Footballer of the Year who plays for Racing Louisville FC in the US. 

It will be exciting to see how Wang will link up with Scotland-based ­midfielder Shen Mengyu and Spain-based midfielder Tang Jiali. 

Additionally, 22-year-old Zhang Linyan, who was named the Swiss Women's Super League Player of the Year last season, is one of the rising stars that could provide creativity and vitality to the offense when the team gets stuck. 

On July 28, China will play a must-win game against Haiti. 

With most of their players from the French league, the diamonds in the rough have the potential to shock their bigger names in the tournament. 

If China wants to make it out of this group, they need to be solid at both ends against Haiti.

The Steel Roses will face the European champions England in the last group game on August 1. 

The Lionesses have entered the World Cup as one of the favorites. 

Versatile captain Wang Shanshan, who will make her third World Cup appearance and has scored 55 goals for China, may move to the back line to call the shots. 

Conceding just five goals during the successful Asian Cup campaign, China has the determination to thwart England's run. 

This is the very moment when the Steel Roses are expected to show their mettle.

"We will take one game at a time. We will try to close the gap between us and the European powerhouse through this tournament," Shui noted. 

Apart from the athletic performance, the women's team has another lofty goal in attracting more girls to play soccer.

"World Cup is a stage for us to show the beauty of the women soccer players. We are happy, confident and in good shape," Shui said. 

"Taking part in sports make us more beautiful both physically and mentally. The World Cup is more than a sporting event. It's a grand cultural party that transcends borders." 

China was the host of the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991 and finished runners-up in 1999 after an agonizing loss to the US on penalties in the final. China has not advanced beyond the quarterfinal stage since that showpiece, with a round of 16 defeat in 2019.

Despite receiving little attention outside of major tournaments, China's women's team is a source of national pride thanks to team members' never-give-up attitude.

The internationalization of Chinese football youth training is very important, said Chinese Football Association (CFA) President Song Kai at a launch ceremony for the Bundesliga Dream project in Shanghai on Wednesday. "We are working on it by both introducing international youth football coaches to China, and sending young athletes and coaches to learn and train abroad, including in Germany," Song told the Global Times.

Song noted the significance of strengthening youth training and overseas cooperation for the development of Chinese football. "Germany's youth football training system is probably the most advanced in the world, and it is worth learning from it," Song said in a speech at the ceremony.

Bundesliga Dream is a cooperative project between Bundesliga International and the CFA. Set to take place between February and March in 2024, a group of talented Chinese players from the U16 national team will train at the youth academies of several Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs, as well as playing against youth teams from around Germany, according to Bundesliga International.

Under the project, Chinese youth players will follow a structured training plan curated by the CFA in collaboration with the Bundesliga and participating clubs. This plan focuses on several key in-match scenarios, including the transition from defense to attack.

"We also encourage young football players from all cities, especially from our 16 key 'football cities,' to have the opportunity to get trained in countries like Germany," Song said, in response to a question raised by the Global Times at the Wednesday ceremony.

Song mentioned China's 3-0 home loss to South Korea in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Zone qualifying tournament second stage on the previous evening.

"That match made me feel deeply that if Chinese football wants to improve, first, we must do a good job in cultivating the young people; and second, we must examine the development of our youth football from a global perspective," he said.

"So I'm glad to sign a long-term cooperation agreement with the Bundesliga," Song said. "Last night, German Jurgen Klinsmann led the South Korean team to a 3-0 victory over the Chinese team. I hope that one day, there will be a German head coach who leads the Chinese football team to a 4-0 victory over South Korea," he joked, drawing laughter and applause.

Peer Naubert, head of marketing at Bundesliga International, said that the Bundesliga Dream is mostly committed to working with Chinese football in supporting its youth development system and projects on a long-term basis. "We aim to create a long-term pathway for talented Chinese players … hopefully following the path of former Chinese players such as Shao Jiayi, Yang Chen, and more recently Liu Shaoziyang, who signed for Bayern Munich in 2021," Naubert said in a speech at the ceremony.

Renowned Bundesliga stars Shao and Lothar Matthäus also attended the ceremony.

"I'm happy to have this Bundesliga Dream for the Chinese young generation," Matthäus said. When the young Chinese players go to Germany, they will have the opportunities of playing against stronger players, and the competition can make them better, he added.

China's golfing prodigy Yin Ruoning has climbed to the top of the leader board as the world No.1 in ladies' professional golf on Sunday after finishing third at the LPGA Queen City Championship.

The 20-year-old became the second Chinese woman to claim the world No.1 ranking after Feng Shanshan, who held on to her top standing from November 2017 to April 2018.

"It means a lot. For me it's like a dream come true," Yin said. "I've got Goosebumps. World No.1 is the next big step on the way to living up to Shanshan's legacy."

Yin, who needed a top-four result to overtake American Lilia Vu for the LPGA top spot at the Queen City Championship, will play on the Chinese team coached by Feng at the Asian Games, which opens on September 23 in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province.

"I didn't get a lot of chance to chat with Shanshan," Yin said of her predecessor.

"But I'm looking forward to going back to China, playing at the Asian Games, spending more time with her, and learning from her."

Yin has said her greatest wish is to play for China in the Asian Games and Olympic Games.

When talking about her expectations for the upcoming Asian Games, Yin told the Global Times that she and her teammates only have one goal in the competition - to see "China's national flag raised" and hear "the national anthem played."

Speaking on Yin's achievement, Feng said she believes Yin could set more records.

"Behind [her] meteoric rise to the top is a decade of steady work," Feng wrote on Weibo after Yin's rise to world No.1. "The new generation will continue to set more and more records."

Feng retired from pro golfing in August 2022, leaving with a major, 10 LPGA Tour victories and the title of world No.1 ranking under her belt.

Yin won her first major title in June at the Women's PGA Championship, two months after collecting her first LPGA victory at the LA Open.

Yin had not yet started playing golf when Feng won the Women's PGA Championship in 2012 to become the first Chinese player to win a major.

The Hangzhou Asian Games were one of the coolest and most beautiful competitions he had ever participated in, Kuwaiti shooter Abdullah Alrashidi said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, the gold medalist in the men's skeet individual event praised the organization, beauty, and cleanliness of the entire city for the Games.

Alrashidi said he was very pleased that he had won the gold medal, which also matched the world record in the event.

He noted Asia's remarkable progress in the shooting discipline, highlighting its impressive track record of winning numerous world championships.

"Countries such as China, Kazakhstan, Qatar, and Kuwait have a rich history in this sport on both the continental and global levels," he said.

"China is one of the most important and largest countries represented in all sports," said the Kuwaiti shooter, noting that "China has made great progress and consistently won medals in the Olympics and other world competitions."

On Wednesday, Kuwait's Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Muhammad Al-Aiban, received Kuwaiti players who had won medals in shooting and athletics competitions at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

In a statement, Al-Aiban expressed pride in the outstanding achievements of the Kuwaiti medalists at the Hangzhou Asian Games, where they won two gold, three silver, and one bronze medals.