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).
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.
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.
If you have recently taken an evening walk in a park, you might have come across some young people wearing fluorescent bracelets running and hiding to evade capture. Not only is this nothing to be scared of, but it's the latest sweeping sensation among social games in China. After frisbee became a phenomenal across the country, young people in China now "invented" a new outlet to channel their stress and socialize: Originating from some college campuses early this year, the live-action cat-and-mouse game has instantly taken many cities by storm.
If you search for the key words "cat-and-mouse game" on platforms such as Xiaohongshu or Douyin, the domestic version of Tiktok, you will find a multitude of online groups organizing the game in parks, plazas and lakes.
It takes only 7 to 19 yuan ($0.9-2.6) to sign up for one game where you will be provided a bottle of water, an insurance, fluorescent bracelets and light sticks. Dozens of participants will be divided into two teams: "cats" and "mice." The cat team is tasked with capturing as many mice as possible within the designated time and game area.
Physical contact is not allowed during the game, however a light touch by the "cat" will turn the "mouse" into a member of the "cat" group and the catcher will be awarded a light stick. The "cat" who got the most light sticks will be crowned the "king of cats."
Hide-and-seek
The rules of the game are reminescent of hide-and-seek, but technology adds a new dimension to the game and makes it a more intensive exercise.
All participants are required to turn on location sharing on their mobile phone application so that every body's real-time location is clear at a glance.
Unlike the traditional hide-and-seek where the "mice" hide in one place and wait to be found, the "mice" of this game have to keep moving and evade capture in the dark. Within an area about five kilometers wide, running and taking advantage of stairs, woods and shelters looks like a live version of Fast and Furious.
The game has quickly become a phenomenon in more than 50 cities across China including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
One social sports mini program on WeChat has launched a particular column for people to sign up for the game. On October 23, dozens of spots were available in Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu and some 40 people signed up for a Halloween-themed event in Beijing's Chaoyang Park.
Bao Jun, a 33-year-old who recently played the game in Beijing's Haidian district, told the Global Times that the game evoked his childhood memories.
"I had a lot of fun while running two kilometers that night. It's an opportunity to make new friends and relieve work pressure," said Bao.
Chen, an organizer in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, said the game has gained instant popularity in Hangzhou around the National Day holidays.
"Selecting a proper spot is key to ensure enjoyment of the game and safety. Being able to socialize while doing exercise in a fun way is appealing to many young people. It's a new pastime after work or study," said Chen.
Compared with frisbee and flag football, the game is not competitive and is widely accessible. Whether one is a "cat" or a "mouse," the game allows participants to run a lot and socialize with teammates while discussing strategies to win the game, which gives participants a sense of accomplishment.
Social tool
Humans are "social animals," and people's study, work and entertainment are often group-based. Playing "cat and mouse" is innate to human nature, according to Ding Daoshi, an internet analyst.
In the post-pandemic time, it's one of the examples of people releasing their pent-up social emotional demands, just like the rebound of tourism industry. In essence, this is a social game, said Ding.
Nie Xiaojing, a psychologist with The Fourth People's Hospital of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, said that the game is an escape from the real life.
When people are engaged in this game, there is no pressure. It doesn't matter whether you win or lose.
The sporty nature of the game is also different from regular exercises. With goals to achieve in the game, it allows participants to exercise while having fun. In addition, the social aspect is particularly important. Participants have to stick together, which is an important interpersonal link and provides a sense of belonging.
"When you try to complete a task together, the interpersonal relationships will be promoted through verbal, physical and emotional connection," said Nie.
The game went viral across the country because it is well known to the public and does not require any technical training. In addition, the adult participants experience a cognitive contrast as it is perceived to be a children's game. Without professional requirements, the set up cost of the game is quite low, according to the social sports mini program.
However, it remains a question whether the craze will survive the upcoming winter when it's too cold to play such a game outdoors, especially in northern China.
"The number of participants is likely to drop in winter. But we are trying to enrich the game with new elements. I believe the game will come back stronger in spring," said the organizer Chen.
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.
Amid torrential rain, rivers surged, houses collapsed and communications were disrupted... Under the influence of Typhoon Doksuri, heavy rainfall has persisted in Northern China, impacting regions like Beijing, the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province and setting records that haven't been seen in a century. Rescuers are racing against time, fighting to establish a "lifeline" to save lives and property.
From 8 pm on July 29 to 7 am on August 2, extreme heavy rainfall has drenched China's capital city. The highest recorded rainfall was at the Wangjiayuan Reservoir in the Changping district, being a total of 744.8 millimeters over this period, the local meteorological department reported on Wednesday.
This extreme rainfall has significantly exceeded historical records, ranking it as the highest recorded rainfall in the past 140 years.
In Beijing, multiple areas in Mentougou district in western Beijing faced dangerous situations, while communications were disrupted in 62 villages across seven townships in Fangshan district in southwestern Beijing.
The water level of the Yongding River, the main waterway in Beijing, surged, while a bridge over the Xiaoqing River located west of Lugou Bridge collapsed.
In response to the torrential rainstorms and floods that have wreaked havoc in Beijing and its surrounding regions, authorities are mobilizing an all-out effort to safeguard the people from the impact of disasters. Various rescue teams have been working tirelessly to provide assistance.
On Thursday, the Global Times reporters saw People's Armed Police soldiers assist in the relocation of disaster-affected residents in Liulihe township, Fangshan district.
Fortunately, as water levels gradually recede, rescue operations in Fangshan are nearing completion.
Simultaneously, to alleviate flood control pressure on Beijing and Tianjin, Hebei has activated seven flood water detention areas and relocated 1.2 million residents, according to a report from the Hebei Daily on Wednesday.
Zhuozhou, a city in Hebei Province that neighbors the Fangshan district of Beijing, has seen over 130,000 people affected by the disaster and is still being heavily impacted by flooding. More than 150 civilian rescue teams arrived, and more have been summoned from across the country.
On Thursday, members of the volunteer rescue team, including the Blue Sky Rescue team, helped transfer flood-affected residents and supplies in Huangjiajie village and Mengjiajie village in Matou township, Zhuozhou. Meanwhile, more rescue supplies were arriving at the scene.
Before the arrival of the flood, residents living on low ground had been notified and relocated to safe places, the Global Times learned from local residents.
On Wednesday evening, the Global Times witnessed villagers from Mentougou district departing from Yanchi township and moving downhill along the railway to safer areas.
Meanwhile, soldiers of the People's Liberation Army rescued villagers from remote mountainous villages, especially elderly people with mobility issues, using military trucks, transporting them to temporary shelters.
During the evacuation process, an interim command center was established in the Mentougou district to coordinate various rescue efforts. Simultaneously, emergency, firefighting, medical, and other rescue and support forces were deployed.
Relief points were set up to provide drinking water, food, medicine, and other supplies to ensure the safety and basic needs of the evacuees.
Akbar Fernando Ndabung, an Indonesian student in his 20s at the Udayana University and a local singer, did not expect his rap song about the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway (HSR) to become an immediate hit on social media when it was released online in December 2022. The high tempo song is peppered with romantic lyrics interwoven into a rosy blue print of Indonesia.
When the Jakarta-Bandung HSR, with a design speed of 350 kilometers an hour, commences operation, the travel time between the capital of Jakarta and its fourth-largest city Bandung in West Java Province will be shortened from three hours to 40 minutes. Indonesia's capital of Jakarta is notorious for being among the cities with the worst traffic congestion in the world.
The positive feedback has inspired him to keep an eye on the HSR's latest development, and he plans to write more songs as the railway's public operation date draws near. "I'm breathlessly looking for any chance to be among the first group of passengers taking a ride on the HSR," Fernando noted.
Like him, there has been a palpable sense of excitement among Indonesians in recent days, as expectations are burning bright that the country will become the first in Southeast Asia to boast of a fully operational high-speed railway line.
Joining the buzz, Indonesian social media celebrities and nearby residents along the railroad, regularly record the HSR's testing at a "hotspot" mountain site near the terminal Tegalluar station and give updates on the project's latest developments.
"In addition to the operation of the first HSR, we also hope that China and Indonesia will join hands to extend the new railway to Surabaya, the country's second-largest city in East Java Province," Fernando said.
The earnest expectation displayed among the people in Indonesia, where the original proposal for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was revealed a decade ago, comes as local skepticism and concerns about BRI projects have steadily been losing ground in the face of the 10th anniversary of the initiative. At a time when multiple BRI projects are gear up and entering the sprint stage, it also sends a resounding signal that the West's intensified smear campaign against the BRI has been in vain.
Over the last 10 years, Western countries have coined numerous terms to denigrate BRI projects in Southeast Asia, from the cliché of "debt trap" rhetoric, hypes of "economic colonization," doubts on projects' environmental sustainability and construction quality, to a recently invented subject, "sunk cost fallacy trap."
However, the Global Times' recent visits to a galaxy of BRI projects in Southeast Asia nations, including those in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, found such narratives were unwarranted. They were part of a US-led geopolitical game that aims to instigate anti-China sentiments and create discourse to obstruct otherwise normal economic cooperation under the promising initiative.
While the expanding network of mutually beneficial cooperation under the BRI should have been welcomed and hailed on the global stage, certain Western countries' kneejerk hostility toward the BRI tide has unmasked their "sour grapes" mentality, industry insiders noted.
The accusations levied against the China-proposed initiative have also laid bare the deeply-rooted hegemonic and Western-centric mindset of the certain Western countries, in particular the US, that reflexively imagine that actions taken by China are replicas of its unscrupulous colonial model.
Under Washington's approach, it unilaterally imposes its own will on recipient countries and issues loans with political strings attached, with the ulterior aim of pocketing US streams of revenue at the cost of cooperative partners' interests. It is vastly different from the BRI cooperation platform, which exemplifies the adage "teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime," and genuinely leads to new growth and enhanced capacities for self-driven development in BRI countries.
Steering through the choppy water
"It is important that we maintained a strategic focus and are committed to doing the work. Step by step, the positive development of BRI projects is set to burst every lie," said Zhang Chao, executive director of the board of PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), when summarizing the last eight years of hard work that have put Western naysayers to shame.
The KCIC is a consortium of Indonesian and Chinese firms responsible for developing and operating the Jakarta-Bandung HSR line. Zhang is a founding board member of the KCIC, present since the joint venture was set up in 2015.
Looking outside Zhang's office in the KCIC building in Jakarta, the HSR's inaugural station - Halim Station - is within view, with dozens of local workers on the lattice roof, working in full swing to finish the project.
Zhang saw how the Halim Station was built from scratch. And the beginning is always the most difficult.
Back in 2015 and 2016, Zhang said the implementation of the project faced tremendous hardships, in particular from the local community, which at the time, showed a certain level of distrust, partly due to Western propaganda schemes.
"We received a lot of complaints at that time. Protestors even demonstrated in front of our office building. Some locals remained skeptical of whether Chinese bidders could perform better than Japanese bidders in railway technology," Zhang recalled, adding that doubts grew further with the Western-driven "debt trap" narrative as well as other exaggerations on the project's schedule delays.
Li Zhenkui, the deputy manager of the station project department at the China Railway Fourth Bureau Group Corporation, which is the main Tegalluar station contractor, also recalled that initially, local residents didn't fully comprehend the HSR's necessity and believed it wouldn't hold much practical significance for them.
"During that time, they couldn't grasp or envision the immense economic and transportation benefits that the high-speed railway would bring," Li noted.
But as the project progressed and delivered benefits to the society, local support inevitably grew. Zhang said that in about 2019, the KCIC started receiving warm responses, with more inquiries coming about when the HSR would be completed.
Locals' attitudes saw a further positive shift as the HSR enters its intensive testing phase this year, paving the way for the full commercial operation.
"We are extremely grateful for the high-speed rail project, which has connected our small village to a larger world. It has brought us closer to the capital Jakarta and has demonstrated efficiency and diverse economic development. Indonesians warmly welcome and eagerly anticipate increased Chinese involvement in infrastructure projects," a local villager, Asip Cenghar, who operates a small shop in front of the Tegalluar station, told the Global Times.
As Asip's words shed a light on positive hopes harbored by Indonesians, the HSR has already demonstrated various dimensions of spillover effects. The Global Times learned that to date, the project has provided 51,000 jobs to the local community. The income of these employees is about 30 to 50 percent higher than the local average.
Also, many Indonesians the Global Times met during the visits said that they now deem the landmark BRI project to be a symbol of "national pride" and the long-lasting friendship between China and Indonesia.
Such changeover is also a process of weaving China-Indonesia bonds closer, noted industry insiders. Similar transformations have also been taking place in other Southeast Asian countries.
Abdul Majid Ahmad Khan, the former Malaysian ambassador to China, told the Global Times that Malaysian people have started to correct their misconceptions about China with the rapid progression of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), a BRI project connecting four underdeveloped areas and serving as an economic corridor.
There was initial confusion and controversy among local residents due to the large areas of land earmarked for the project. But soon after, Malaysian local communities came to realize that the BRI project not only boosts domestic market and reduces costs, but also creates employment opportunities, he said.
"The HSR, along with certain BRI projects, is sort of a novel thing to people in Southeast Asia, and that's why their views were distorted by manipulative Western plots at the beginning. But, seeing is believing. The situation is quite different now. The startling decade of achievements by the BRI offers the best piece of evidence to debunk Western fear-mongering," a senior executive at a BRI project based in Malaysia, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times.
"We're confident that actions which produce concrete results speak louder than words and lies," the executive noted.
Vicious mindset VS Bright reality
As the US, Japan, and other Western countries increasingly grow restless over the BRI's steady rise, Western media outlets - in collusion with politicians and non-government organizations - have been churning out a flurry of bearish reports on BRI project this year, using sensational headlines and hyping the sheer size of claimed "predatory debt" to discredit normal BRI cooperation.
Japanese media outlet Nikkei Asia published a lengthy piece claiming that the Jakarta-Bandung HSR could mire Indonesia in a "Sri Lanka-like debt trap."
In March, the Voice of America (VOA) concocted the term "Sunk Cost Fallacy Trap," alleging that continuous investment in the HSR, which adds up to the existing cost, will create a huge burden for the Indonesian government, with no way out.
Such stories are simply regurgitations of the "debt trap diplomacy" cliché, propagandist rhetoric loudly trumpeted by a number of Western political figures including former US vice president Mike Pence and former US secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spenser.
But the Global Times reporters' field investigation finds that such clamoring is nothing more than barefaced lies fabricated by the Western media and anti-China politicians. The "debt trap" cliché attack is to politicize ideologize economic issues based on the misrepresentation of the reality on the ground.
"There's a major logic flaw in the 'debt trap' theory because, for any major infrastructure project to kick off, you must borrow, regardless of whether from the US, Japan, or China… That's where the debts come from, and is essentially a normal phenomenon following economic rules. The creation of debt does not amount to a debt crisis," said Zhang.
What's at the core is how the operator calculates how to manage the debt level, and "China is obviously doing a good job" in that regard.
In the case of the Jakarta-Bandung HSR, the project's financing is in the form of commercial loans granted to the joint venture KCIC, rather than sovereign borrowing.
"It is a business-to-business model with risks borne by both the Chinese and Indonesia companies involved, which the Indonesian government is comfortable with," Zhang explained, noting that this model also embodies the BRI concepts of "extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits."
What's at the core is how the operator calculates how to manage the debt level, and "China is obviously doing a good job" in that regard.
In the case of the Jakarta-Bandung HSR, the project's financing is in the form of commercial loans granted to the joint venture KCIC, rather than sovereign borrowing.
"It is a business-to-business model with risks borne by both the Chinese and Indonesia companies involved, which the Indonesian government is comfortable with as it won't increase its foreign debt," Zhang explained, noting that this model also embodies the BRI concepts of "extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits."
Wirun Phichaiwongphakdee, director of the Thailand-China Research Center of the Belt and Road Initiative, noted that the frequently hyped profitability and sustainability issues associated with BRI projects are, in fact, "logically deceptive."
"The West has resorted to its common practice of telling fragmented BRI stories and concealing the most important parts, so as to instigate dissatisfaction among the Southeast Asian people and shape stereotypical misperceptions of the BRI in wider scope," Wirun told the Global Times.
In Thailand, hopes for the early opening of the China-Thailand HSR have been floating high, since the operation of the landmark China-Laos Railway BRI project in December 2021 that provides a complete picture of the instilled economic boost, the Global Times learned.
Since construction started, the China-Thailand HSR has often been a target of intensive Western slandering, citing the hefty construction cost that could drive up Thailand's public debt.
"It is hilarious to see how the West tallies the economic books. They only calculate the benefits based on revenue from passenger ticket prices and cargo transportation. This is biased because it should also include the comprehensive income along the economic corridor, including commercial development," Wirun said, while noting that construction of public facilities amid economic slowdown are also an economic stimulus.
With regard to sources where the debts stem from, scholars from Southeast Asian think tanks have stressed that it is neither fair nor objective to blame China, as the majority of debt by developing countries is owed to international multilateral institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, while loans from China only account for a small proportion.
"The debt issue of countries along the BRI route is a result of multi-year accumulation of unsustainable financial distress. It is not the development of the BRI that inflicted the crisis," Yu Hong, senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, told the Global Times.
Statistics showed that multilateral institutions and commercial creditors account for over 80 percent of BRI countries' debts, the biggest source of their debt burden.
In the case of Sri Lanka, which in Western narrative is portrayed as a "victim of the BRI debt trap," loans from China accounted for only about 10 percent of Sri Lanka's total foreign debt in 2021, roughly the same as Japan, and much less than market borrowings and multilateral development banks, relevant data showed.
If there's anyone to be blamed for debt defaults in Southeast Asian countries, it should be the US whose irresponsible monetary policy drives to strengthen the dollar, which then squeezes the liquidity of developing countries, fuels inflation and increases their debt repayment costs, observers pointed out.
'Sour grapes' mentality
During in-depth talks with locals in Southeast Asian countries including in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the Global Times noticed the extensive endorsement on Chinese railway technologies. Various qualities such as construction efficiency, advancement of technologies, the application of Chinese standards and how to apply the experience learned have all been applauded by residents in BRI countries.
Chinese engineers recalled that the competition for infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia can be quite intense in the bidding process, but China has exceeded Japanese and European companies aided by its overwhelming industrial strength.
In the case of the Jakarta-Bandung HSR, a consortium of Chinese companies won the contract over their Japanese counterparts back in 2015, Zhang noted.
"To the envy of Western countries, China has undertaken numerous BRI infrastructure construction projects across Southeast Asia. So their vilification against BRI projects could be out of a 'sour grapes' mentality," the anonymous executive said.
Chinese project managers also stressed that Chinese investments come with great sincerity, without any terms attached and are there for the long term, which is the nature of BRI cooperation.
China's long-term pledge was on vivid display when the Global Times visited the construction site of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) in the Kemasul Forest Reserve. The railway passes through this forest reserve, which serves as a habitat for various wild animals, including Asian elephants, wild boars, black panthers, and bears.
At the site, numerous culverts of different sizes have been designed to accommodate the wildlife. Some of these culverts are approximately 6 meters wide and 5 meters high, allowing for adult elephants and other forms of wildlife to pass underneath the railway during the construction phase.
Gao Xiaoyue, the environmental manager of the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) ECRL Section 6, told the Global Times that once the railway is completed, they will restore the land and animal habitats to the best of their ability, in accordance with the requirements of the local authorities.
Observers said that the Western accusations against BRI projects are fraught with hypocrisy mindsets. For example, US investment depletes local resources for the sake of reaping short-term gains and demands strong obedience to the political terms attached, which would leave recipients firmly under Washington's thumb.
The US is interpreting the China-proposed public good from its own past coercive exercises, Chinese analysts said. By contrast, BRI investment truly generates new growth engines, and supports the self-sustainable development needs of countries along the BRI route.
MarzukiAlie, former speaker of the People's Representative Council of Indonesia, told the Global Times that the Jakarta-Bandung HSR project has exhibited a number of observable aspects, including "technology transfer that contributes to the overall growth of Indonesia's transportation and technology … and a positive impact on the growth of tourism and the regional economy."
"China and Southeast Asia are both developing countries, which means they understand each other better and can easily accommodate each other's complementary economic development demands," Wirun explained.
The denigration of China's strengthened BRI cooperation with Southeast Asian countries is based on Western-centric thinking meant to maintain the unipolar hegemonic order under US domination. But the vibrant BRI feats achieved won't be derailed by vicious Western attacks, as the world is growing tired of US coercion and increasingly desires a different, multipolar order, analysts said.
"We know what is best for us… And I would suggest that some countries not interfere and create chatter about China-ASEAN cooperation [under the BRI]," Wirun noted.
Chinese people believe that letters are as valuable as gold. For thousands of years, letters, across mountains and oceans, have been delivering writers' sentiments and conveyed friendship and expectations.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, has managed to find time to reply to some letters from different parts of society and the world despite his busy work schedule.
Through his letters, Xi has corresponded with international friends from all walks of life on numerous occasions, part of a series of excellent stories of China's international exchanges in the new era. The letters have also added vivid color to the diplomacy between China and other countries.
The Global Times traced and contacted some of the recipients of Xi's letters, to hear the inspiring stories behind the letters and their communication with the president.
In this installment, Global Times reporters spoke with technicians from the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) Shenyang Liming Aero-Engine Co, Ltd to learn about their stories of devoting themselves to the research and development of China's domestic aero engines and how Xi encouraged them to inherit and carry forward the spirit of a great country's craftspeople, along with a thorough review of how China gradually created its own aero engines.
"A workman must first sharpen his tools if he wants to do his work well," is a Chinese saying that emphasizes not only the importance of tools of a craft, but indicates the vital role of the craftsman who creates the tools.
"Your work is important and honorable," Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, told technicians at the Li Zhiqiang Class in Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) Shenyang Liming Aero-Engine Co Ltd, while Xi visited the corporation in 2013 to review its work in developing and producing aero engines.
A decade later, in a letter to the class on September 1, Xi spokes highly of the contribution of technicians in the research and development process of China's aero engines.
Xi emphasized that aero engines are a vital national asset and an important reflection of the country's scientific and technological strength and innovation capabilities. "I hope you will remember your mission and responsibilities, firmly uphold the aspiration of serving the aviation industry, promote the spirit of model workers and craftsmen, strive to make more technological breakthroughs, accelerate the pace of independent research and development of aviation engines, and enable Chinese aircraft to have a stronger 'Chinese heart,'" Xi said in the letter.
Until recently, aero engines had been a shortcoming in China's aircraft development, but that impression changed drastically when the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force's most advanced stealth fighter jet, the J-20, made its first public appearance equipped with a pair of domestically developed engines in 2021, replacing imported engines used in the past.
Aero jeweler The aero engine is deemed the "crown jewel" of modern industry. An aero engine is composed of tens of thousands of components of different shapes and materials. The circuit of the engine is like blood vessels around the human body, which requires a very high degree of precision to assemble and allows no room for error.
Technicians from the Li Zhiqiang Class, named after national model worker and national technical expert Li Zhiqiang, are exactly the people who are responsible for assembling aero engines and gas turbines.
"At that time, the president said our work 'is important and honorable.' He also said that the turbine vanes and blades are as valuable as diamonds. We always recall such acknowledgement and encouragement and use them as fuel to keep striving forward," said Li Zhiqiang, recalling Xi's visit a decade ago.
In a letter to Xi, Li and seven other technicians reported achievements made in strengthening technological innovation and promoting independent research and development in the aero industry over the last decade, expressing their determination to accelerate the pace of independent research and development of aero engines and build a strong aviation nation.
As the initiator among a total of eight technicians from the class who wrote the letter, Li told the Global Times that Xi's reply letter showed "extreme recognition, was encouraging, and inspirational" to the team. He shared the letter's contents to all 62 members of the team. "We must keep in mind his care, trust, and ardent expectations, firmly follow the new path of independent innovation and development of aero engines, and ensure that China's domestically made aircraft will use a stronger 'Chinese heart' in the future," he said.
One of Li's primary work principles is to "never give up before all problems are solved." In the last decade, Li, together with his colleagues, made use of various methods, including 3D simulation, to elaborately lay out processing plans for different products in accordance with their characteristics, efficiently increasing assembly quality and reducing the production period.
A typical example of the class implementing the principle is the aero engine accessory case. In the past, the case needed to be held together by several people when trying to install it in the belly of the engine, which is difficult and inefficient. This problem greatly bothered Wen Shangzhi, the current leader of the class. To solve it, Wen and his team members made use of their spare time to discuss, search materials, and conduct experiments, finally creating a new method, which obtained certification from experts and effectively improved installation efficiency.
It is in this way that the Li Zhiqiang Class found solutions and overcame obstacles one by one over the last decade, by inventing new methods, new technologies, and new tools. In total, the team solved 52 technical problems in scientific research and assembly, independently developed 312 tools and obtained more than 50 invention patents, the Global Times learned from the corporation.
When two J-20 fighter jets appeared the sky on the hot and humid opening day of the Airshow China 2021, on September 29 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, not many spectators fully understood what they had just witnessed.
The two jets started their flight performance with a low tandem flyby above the air show site. Then, one of the aircrafts drastically pulled up and soared into the sky, while the other pulled left and performed a tight spiral maneuver before vanishing into the clouds, in a display of the aircraft's outstanding power and maneuverability.
Immediately after the flight performance, Senior Colonel Li Jikuan, commander of the J-20s' flight performance, announced at a press conference at the air show that it was the J-20's first public performance after being fitted with domestically built engines.
Experts told the Global Times that the domestically built engines provide more powerful thrust that helps the J-20 in super-maneuverability and supersonic cruise, while the engines' serrated nozzles can improve the aircraft's stealth capability.
Another important aspect of converting to use domestically built engines is that it enables mass production of aircrafts, since there are no import restrictions, experts said.
The J-20 is not the only aircraft to use domestically developed engines. Also at the Airshow China 2021, Tang Changhong, chief designer of the Y-20 large transport plane, announced that the Y-20 would be equipped with two types of domestically developed engines. After being equipped with these engines, the Y-20's capabilities have received a boost, Tang said.
Compared with imported engines, the Chinese engines could boost the Y-20's range, endurance, and cargo capacity by providing more powerful thrust and using less fuel, while also allowing the plane to take off and land on shorter runways, analysts said.
Another key member of the "20 aircraft family," the Z-20 utility helicopter, also uses domestically developed engines.
The developers of the Z-20 told the Global Times in October 2019 that the domestically developed engines are powerful enough to enable the helicopter to fly in low-oxygen plateau regions.
Observers noted that the primary battle aircrafts owned by the PLA had converted to domestically developed engines as of this year, but that does not mean China's continued efforts in aero engine development have reached their goal.
Toward stronger future
In the 2022 edition of the Airshow China, AECC showcased five variants of the Taihang series turbofan engines, which are used by different aircraft.
The Taihang engine has received continued improvements and upgrades, and its performance, reliability, safety, stealth capability, power extraction, environmental adaptability, endurance, and thrust vectoring - among other factors - have all received technical boosts.
This is expected to comprehensively enhance the aircraft's survivability and combat capabilities, and has realized the complete independent support of domestically developed engines.
One of the five Taihang engines on display has a 2D thrust vectoring control nozzle, which attracted the attention of visitors.
Li Gang, the pilot of the J-20 stealth fighter jet's first flight, said in a media interview that he would like to see the J-20 eventually be upgraded with engines with 2D thrust vectoring nozzles.
Thrust vectoring control can greatly enhance the maneuverability of an aircraft, usually a fighter jet, by providing thrust directly to a desired direction in addition to using aerodynamics, and this will give the aircraft many tactical advantages in combat, Wei Dongxu, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times at the event.
An aero engine with a thrust vectoring control nozzle is mechanically and structurally more complex than an engine without one, and this means that thrust vectoring control usually causes a certain level of thrust loss. A 2D nozzle could lose even more thrust than a 3D nozzle. China's development of a turbofan engine with a 2D thrust vectoring control nozzle means the engine has sufficient power to manage the loss of thrust, Wei said.
A 2D nozzle usually has better radar and infrared stealth capability than a 3D nozzle, and that makes the 2D nozzle a generally better option, if the engine itself can provide enough power, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, told the Global Times.
At Airshow China 2018, a J-10B thrust vector control demonstrator aircraft equipped with an engine with 3D thrust vectoring control nozzle delivered a flight performance. An engine with a 3D thrust vectoring control nozzle was also on display at the Airshow China 2022 as one of the five Taihang variants.
It is widely expected that China will continue to develop more advanced aero engines and use them on its advanced warplanes.
