A college research team from East China’s Jiangsu Province has recently released China’s first large language model (LLM), a type of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that uses deep learning techniques and massively big data sets to help conduct research on Chinese ancient books.  

The LLM for ancient books was designed to intelligently process ancient texts, promote innovative development in the research and preservation of Chinese ancient books, enhance the efficiency and quality of the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, and facilitate deep integration between LLMs and the processing of ancient books.  

The LLM “Xunzi,” named after Xun Zi, one of the most famous philosophers in ancient China for his Confucian classic Xunzi, contains the vast majority of Chinese ancient books and documents including the collections of the “Complete Library in Four Sections” or “Siku Quanshu,” with a large-scale corpus of over 2 billion Chinese characters and words.  

The research on Chinese traditional classics is a painstaking and laborious work even for scholars and experts, let alone for average learners. Thus, translating ancient texts into modern Chinese is one of its most important functions, Wang Dongbo, professor from College of Information Management of Nanjing Agricultural University in Nanjing, Jiangsu, who led the research team told the Global Times. 

With the model, researchers can swiftly summarize the ancient texts and know about the themes of the ancient books. The model can also extract key information from the ancient texts, such as characters, events and places, to sort out the information with efficiency.  

Besides, the model can also automatically generate ancient poems that comply with grammar and prosody rules with the prompts the users give to it to provide inspiration for poetry lovers. It can also precisely translate ancient texts into modern Chinese to help researchers understand the original meaning and connotation of ancient texts. 

Led by Wang, the research team has been working in the area of digitization of ancient books and documents for a decade. Supported by the presence of the university’s strong computing power and based on the application scenarios provided by Zhonghua Book Company, the research team accomplished China’s first open-source LLM for ancient texts in AI.  

The LLM has been published on websites such as github.com and modelscope.cn as open-source software, allowing users to download and use it for free. 

“We trained Xunzi using big data built on ancient books which can be obtained for free on the internet just like the way OpenAI trained ChatGPT. Although we spent great effort, labor force and money into it, we still share it for free with the aim to encourage more people to study and pay attention to traditional Chinese culture,” Wang said. 

More than 5,000 Chinese suspects of economic crimes fleeing overseas have been caught and arrested from over 100 countries and regions by the public security organs across the country since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

A symposium on economic crime investigation work was recently held by the MPS in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, to emphasize the improvement of the public security organs’ professional investigative capabilities and outline the modernization of economic crime investigation work, thepaper.cn reported on Monday.

According to the meeting, since the 19th National Congress of the CPC, public security organs across the country have solved 467,000 cases of various economic crimes, recovering direct economic losses of more than 280 billion yuan ($39.28 billion), apprehended more than 5,000 suspects of economic crimes fleeing overseas from more than 100 countries and regions, and collaborated with the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Commission of Supervision to apprehend 14 individuals among the 100 fugitives on Interpol’s Red Notice.

According to meeting notes, nationwide public security economic crime investigation work has consolidated outstanding achievements in combatting against crimes, preventing risks, maintaining stability, and serving the development of other sectors.

The meeting urged to further improve the investigation work, improve the quality of the public security investigative teams, enhance investigative efficiency and deepen the understanding of the rules of public security economic crime investigation work in the new era.

The meeting noted that economic crime investigation work has to be further developed with innovation and the help of big data, to improve technical capabilities.

The work has to focus on cracking down on counterfeit currency, cards, invoices, money laundering, tax-related crimes, securities-related crimes, crimes in finance, and other key areas, to continuously improve the fight against crime.

The discipline of the public security investigative team has to be constantly strengthened to improve the professionalism and capability of the team, according to the meeting.

The death toll caused by the devastating earthquake that rattled Northwest China Monday night reached 134 as of Wednesday press time - 113 in Gansu Province and 21 in Qinghai Province. Rescue work is drawing to an end, and the focus will now turn to the treatment of the injured and the resettlement of those affected, Gansu authorities said at a press conference on Wednesday.

At present, more than 87,000 people have been temporarily evacuated and resettled in safe places, Gansu officials said at the press conference, revealing that 14,939 houses collapsed and 207,204 more were damaged during the quake, affecting 145,736 people.

A total of 78 trapped individuals have been rescued, with 6,653 people evacuated as of 6:00 am on Wednesday. Additionally, 360 tents have been set up, 683 hazardous areas have been cleared, and 47 tons of supplies have arrived at the disaster-stricken sites.

Several shelters were erected overnight in both Gansu and Qinghai. When the Global Times reporters visited shelters in Dahe village of Gansu Province and Jintian village of Qinghai Province, earthquake victims were living in tents newly set up.

"Every tent is equipped with electricity and stoves to keep us warm. We have food and material pouring in from all over the country. We don't need anything now," 54-year-old Li, who lives in Jintian village, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Vegetables, meat, bread and hot soup were served as lunch on Wednesday in the Jintian village shelter. When the food was ready, people in the tents waited patiently. "We let the PLA soldiers eat first. They helped us a lot," said Li.

Li Kai, an officer from the PLA's Western Theater Command, told the Global Times on Tuesday night that he helped transfer the victims and move their belongings, such as furniture and livestock. "Some of those people are not rich so we are doing what we can to reduce their losses."

After 10 hours of nonstop efforts, all damaged roads and highways leading to the disaster area, especially near the epicenter, were cleared and reopened, including all 24 severely damaged rural roads, so that relief and supply vehicles were able to access impacted communities, the Gansu transport bureau said at the press conference.

All routes within the Lanzhou Railway Bureau, which had been delayed significantly due to the impact of the earthquake, also resumed normal operations on Wednesday morning.

Damage to the main power grid in earthquake-stricken areas of Gansu and Qinghai had been fully repaired as of Tuesday evening, according to the State Grid Gansu Electric Power Company.

A total of 423 aftershocks have been recorded as of 8 am Wednesday, including 10 aftershocks measuring 3.0 magnitude or higher.

The China Geological Survey organized 33 experts to rush to the disaster-stricken areas in Gansu and Qinghai provinces on Wednesday. The working groups will cooperate with the emergency management departments and local governments to carry out on-site geological disaster investigation and surveys, aerial drone surveys, monitoring and early warning tasks, risk assessment and emergency disposal of hazardous material.

They will also conduct seismic analysis and research on the earthquake and submit materials for disaster relief use.

The strong earthquake triggered various secondary disasters. In Minhe county, Qinghai, which borders the epicenter in Jishishan county, two villages experienced sand boils shortly after the earthquake. A significant number of houses were buried and washed away by mudslides, resulting in 16 individuals going missing. Following the incident, the Qinghai Provincial Fire Rescue Team swiftly organized overnight rescue operations.

The houses of 36 families, totaling 177 villagers, were destroyed by sand boils in Jintian village, and 13 individuals are still missing, including a pregnant woman. A firefighter on-site told the Global Times that after overnight search and rescue efforts, as of Wednesday morning, four bodies had been discovered.

When asked why usually dry areas such as Jintian village, which is also far away from rivers and has seen no rainfall, suffered such a severe landslide, Wang Tun, head of a key earthquake early warning laboratory in China's Sichuan Province, told the Global Times that after a strong earthquake, due to the shaking of the Earth's crust, water-saturated sand and soil deep underground undergo a phenomenon called liquefaction. This liquefied sand layer is then forced through certain channels and reaches the surface directly.

A rescue worker at the scene told the Global Times that rescue work in Jintian village has been difficult as the mud makes it impossible for workers to walk, and a floating bridge made of wooden planks must be used to enter the location. Moreover, when excavating the soil, the mud flows like liquid. "Whenever you remove a spoonful of it, it immediately fills up again. There is simply no way to carry out rescue efforts."

The rescue worker said he and his teammate pulled an all-nighter on Tuesday night. "We switched shifts every two hours because the night was freezing at sub-zero temperatures."

People gather for the Bala Chaturdashi Festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, Dec. 11, 202(Photo: Xinhua)

Editor's Note:

The giant pandas at the Beijing Zoo were seen happily playing in the snow after the first snowfall in Beijing this winter. (Photos: Chen Tao/GT)

What does it feel like to dive 100 meters deep under the surface of the ocean with one breath? "The hydrostatic pressure will be 11 times than that a person feels on the ground," Xu Tongtong, Chinese freediver and the country's record breaker, told the Global Times in a recent interview.

A person now titled with two record-breaking champions, the 35-year-old Xu is now the first woman of China reaching 100 meters under the sea level in history, after she claimed a gold in Constant weight (CWT) freediving discipline in Asian Freediving Cup in the Philippines in June.

The win of her first 100-meter try gave her courage. 

During July, in another competition she participated in AIDA Panglao Depth Championship in Bohol Island, the Philippines, Xu finished her another 100-meter challenge in the Constant weight bi-fins (CWTB) depth discipline, ranking second place in the world.

"If we compare the 100 meters to the height of a building, it means we are about to jump from the 30th floor to the ground and then climb back to the roof top, with one breath," Xu added. "I feel so happy when I touched and grabbed the tab underwater. 

This was a goal I set for myself three years ago, and I feel nice that the world can see the efforts we made as Chinese freediving athletes," she told the Global Times in an interview on the phone at her home in the Philippines.

The two records Xu set pushed China to reach the next level: Since then the depth record of Chinese women in freediving has entered the 100-meter level.

'First try'

Xu now lives in Boho Island, an area covering an area of 3,269 kilometers and known as top island in the Philippines.

The Boho Island has been boasting its hospitality of the freediving lovers. And it is also among the most popular freediving destinations in the country where international competitions are often held here.

But for Xu, the place means much more than a freediving heaven, as both of the two competitions she participated in with record breaking also took place here in Boho Island.

June's competition is her first ever try in challenging 100 meters freediving. "I made it," recalled Xu. "That was an unprecedented experience for me as I remembered my smile as I swam up out of the surface." 

Before heading to the competition, she undergone a three-month systematic training where her coach developed a training program cut out for her. 

"There were different proportions I needed to devote to in including the physical training and muscle training."

Based on her training plan, the last training Xu had the free diving reached 98 meters under the water. "By two meters deeper during each try, I would reach 100 meters by the time of my competition day."

"This needs a stable state of mind. If you're nervous you fail, but if you're not you win," Xu added.

Explaining the trick of the sport, Xu said that it is the opposite of the others as one needs to calm her/him down to be "as stable as possible in order to slow down the heart rate, which is essential to reduce the oxygen consumption."

A yearn for ocean

Born in Anhui, a landlocked province in East China, the 35-year-old free diver has a nickname Mutou, translated as wood often known by her friends. She also named her social media atlas after Mutou.

She believed in the flexibility of the wood as "a piece of wood can be carved into anything you want. And I wish I can have the quality just as the wood."

Xu started her swimming training as early as 8. Being a professional swimmer, Xu has participated in a string of competitions nationwide, where she won second place as her best result. 

Xu's free diving enlightenment came from a video she accidentally came across on social media. As early as 2012, when she saw the famous French freediving champion Guillaume Néry "flying" in the ocean.

"Normally we swim horizontally, but I never try swimming vertically. And I decided to have a try."

From 2012 to 2017, Xu has traveled to islands across the world for freediving, where she would immerse in the enjoyment the ocean brought her.

"If we carry gas cylinders, the bubbles that pop out will keep those sea creatures from approaching us. We are just 'guests' in the ocean, and in the ocean, we are so small," said Xu.

In the years of her career in ocean, she also received help from Israeli freediving legend Aharon Solomons, who she met in China when the later traveled there for freediving classes.

According to Solomons, freediving is a kind of sport that requires intelligence, commitments and common sense, where he believed that Xu has all of them. 

Among many sports, freediving can be dangerous, but "she has been outstanding," Solomons told the Global Times in an interview.

"I also feel honored that he coached me during my entering stage of the sport, and I've never experienced from a single injury," Xu recalled her experience when learning from Solomons.

Now in Israel, Solomons is still preparing for more competitions as he told the Global Times.

"I love adversity. Stay tuned." 

China's first naturalized basketball player Li Kai'er, who made a scoreless debut for Team China at the FIBA World Cup on Saturday night in Manila, posted the two lines, coupled with a Chinese national flag icon and heart emojis, on social media on Sunday morning. 

Contributing only four rebounds and four assists, the 29-year-old, 2.06-meter-tall Minnesota Timberwolves forward, better known to National Basketball Association (NBA) fans as Kyle Anderson, missed all his nine shot attempts during the World Cup game against Serbia on Saturday. Team China swallowed a tough 105-63 loss with Li struggling to deliver a pace-setting performance.

Disappointed Chinese basketball fans rated Li's debut a meager 4.6 out of 10 points, one of the lowest of the team squad, with some even saying that his "assimilation" to the team should not mean playing at their level. 

When asked to comment on Li's first game with Team China in the World Cup, Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) Hall of Famer Liu Yudong told media that even in the NBA, Li is not a main scorer. 

"It would be difficult to rely on his individual performance to compete in the World Cup. Basketball fans should not overestimate the capability of him or the team." 

However, it is still too early to feel deflated or to look down on Team China's recruitment of its first naturalized player since growing pains are inevitable for both the team and its new floor general Li as the young squad goes through a period of adaption and adjustment.

Admittedly, despite having a shining resumé and being active for nine years and counting in the NBA, Li has hit a "rookie wall" in the international game under the FIBA basketball rules, Su Qun, one of the best-known basketball commentators in China, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Li has not played against any European powerhouses as strong as Serbia throughout his decade-long career within the NBA. It is hard for his signature slow-motion game style to cut when facing Serbia's well-disciplined defence, Su said. 

Outside failing to score, statistics showed that Li could be considered the worst performing individual in the China-Serbia faceoff - when he was on the court, China was losing 35 points more than when the team was without him. 

It also marked the most embarrassing debut at an international basketball game for any naturalized player worldwide so far, which, according to Su, shows that Li has not fully adapted to playing with the rest of the squad and that China's tactics system built around him has not yet been established.

Naturalizing Li so he could play for Team China before the World Cup and Paris 2024 Olympic Games was a carefully considered decision and so there is good reason to believe that Li and Team China can deliver well-engineered games, Wei Qi, a basketball commentator with the Beijing Radio and Television Network, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Also, it would be unrealistic to expect that the young man from New York could instantly adapt himself to the European basketball style that China's new head coach Aleksandar Djordjevic, who is from Serbia, is known for, Su noted. 

The only nine shot attempts showed that Li has a strong will to better coordinate with Djordjevic's team basketball play style, Wei said.  

Chinese basketball commentators and fans still have high faith in Li, and there could be a strong rebound in the remaining two games in the World Cup group competitions, where Team China is set to take on South Sudan and Puerto Rico. As they won't be going up against powerful Serbia, that means victory is much closer in reach for the team.  

Players with South Sudan who are mostly playing in the development league of the NBA or at that level are entirely different than those with Serbia. Although they also have great physicality, Li may find that kind of game more familiar and there is a great chance Li can deliver a great comeback individual show in the next game on Monday with South Sudan. 

The bad performance China had battling Serbia could also be the result of a "strategic retreat" for the sake of better preparation for matchups with more evenly matched rivals, which is quite common in international tournament games, analysts said. Therefore, there is only more hope that China will bounce back with force in the next games. 

China aspires to be the best-performing Asian team in order to win direct qualification for the Paris Olympics in 2024. All six Asian teams competing in the World Cup, including tournament hosts Japan and the Philippines, suffered losses in the first round. 

The Chinese duo Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping bagged the first gold medal of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou in the women's lightweight double sculls. The pair shared their proud feelings of winning in the hometown and their top goals for the Paris Olympics 2024. 

During an interview on Sunday afternoon, the duo shared with the Global Times their shiny gold medals, as well as their calloused and scarred hands.

They said they didn't feel exhausted or laborious because of it. "People in all walks of life have hard times. Since we chose this path, we must strive to be the best we can be," Qiu told the Global Times.

Talking about the match, Qiu said that she was extremely excited when she saw the national flag and heard the national anthem as they rowed past the terminal line. 

Zou, a Hangzhou local, was excited over the support she received at her hometown. "Usually, we only hear (spectators cheering) in the last 250 meters of the red buoys, but today we can hear it in the 500 meters, which is quite exciting.

Qiu also shared the excitement over the home crowds. "I would like to thank you all for coming today," she said. "I saw so many people paying attention to rowing today. I am really touched. I hope everyone will pay more attention to rowing in the future."

Speaking of the next goal - Paris 2024, the pair did not hide that they are reaching for the top podium. 

"Since we walked off the Hangzhou podium, Paris has become our goal," Qiu said. "We will restart from zero, completing every training session whole heartedly. We wish to go to the top in Paris."

Zou noted that the gold medal in the Asian Games will help them prepare and build self-confidence.

Zou said that she and her partner have developed a tremendous rapport in life. "We eat, live and sleep together, and will get to know each other more and more in life, from every detail, and then bring this tacit understanding to the boat."

In the match on Sunday morning, Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping finished well clear the other rowers, finishing at 7:06.78, about 10 seconds ahead of Team Uzbekistan in second, while Indonesia claimed the bronze medal.

Since joining hands, they have achieved a series of impressive results. In 2022, they finished second in this event at the World Rowing Cup in Belgrade. The pair has already qualified for the Paris Olympics through the 2023 Rowing World Championships.

On Sunday, the first matchday of the Hangzhou Asian Games, China's rowing bagged six gold medals, taking their all-time Asian Games rowing total to 104, including 98 golds, and they are likely to surpass the 100 gold medal-mark on Monday.

Former Liaoning sports official Song Kai was elected as president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) at the organization's membership national conference on Monday. Soccer fans have pinned their hopes on Song to revitalize Chinese soccer following the start of an ongoing anti-graft campaign since November 2022 that has seen more than a dozen soccer-related officials investigated.

The 58-year-old has been working as a vice head of the preparatory group for the CFA election since June. Song has been the man at the helm of China's sports powerhouse Liaoning Province in Northeast China since 2016. 

During his tenure, the province successfully revitalized its "three major ball" games - soccer, basketball and volleyball - highlighted by its basketball team the Liaoning Flying Leopards' triple triumphs in the domestic basketball league CBA. 

"We will try our best to build a more united, more hardworking, more open, more transparent and more courageous CFA in the future," Song was quoted as saying at the conference.

Li Yingchuan, an incumbent deputy minister of China's General Administration of Sport, was elected the Party secretary of the CFA.

"We should learn from the profound lessons of systemic corruption in soccer, resolutely abandon the idea of quick success and instant benefits, be prepared for a long and hard struggle and adhere to the long-term success step by step," Li was quoted as saying.

Sun Wen, Yuan Yongqing, Yang Xu and Xu Jiren were elected as vice presidents of the CFA, with Chinese women's soccer legend Sun being the only vice president who remains in her position from the previous membership conference.

The 50-year-old Yuan, also named the CFA secretary-general, has past experiences serving in the Chinese Basketball Association. Yang, previously president of China's softball governing body, has been tasked to supervise China's professional soccer leagues in the future. Xu is a senior sports journalist from the Xinhua News Agency.

Gao Hongbo, a former vice president of CFA who remained intact amid the ongoing anti-graft campaign and was among the preparatory group for the CFA election, has been elected as the technical director of the association.

In addition to the president and vice presidents, the new 20-member executive committee elected by the conference includes female soccer star Wang Shuang and former men's national team captain Zheng Zhi. 

Earlier this year, Du Zhaocai, former deputy head of the General Administration of Sport of China and CFA vice chairman; Chen Xuyuan, former CFA president; as well as several other senior Chinese soccer officials have been put under probes for taking bribes since November 2022.

As the anti-corruption campaign is still underway, the possibility still exists that other soccer officials will be investigated, according to a Beijing-based soccer industry insider.

"It is wishful thinking to say that the damage done to the CFA due to corruption can be fully removed with new leadership," the expert said.

Archaeologists will perform desalination on the Nanhai (South China Sea) No.1, the shipwreck of a cargo ship from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and remove caissons for permanent protection, an expert from the Maritime Silk Road Museum of Guangdong in Yangjiang, South China's Guangdong Province, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Starting in 2013, excavation work on the shipwreck was officially finished in November, 2023. The upcoming work marks the beginning of a new phase as the focus of efforts shifts from excavation to overall preservation, research, interpretation, use, exhibition, and academic exchanges, according to a press release the museum sent to the Global Times on Friday.

Chinese archaeological teams have transferred the ship's hull to the museum, the press release said.

After the completion of a long-term support structure for the Nanhai No.1, the plan for the upcoming years involves the removal of a submerged box that has accompanied the ship's hull for many years. This will allow the public to have a closer look at the true appearance of the ship's body, read the release.

Ye Daoyang, deputy director of the museum's Underwater Archaeology and Technology Department, told the Global Times that the National Cultural Heritage Administration initiated the comprehensive protection and excavation project for Nanhai No.1 in November 2013. 

From 2013 to 2023, Chinese archaeologists have focused on the comprehensive excavation phase after salvaging the entire ship, which involved cleaning the silt and artifacts inside the ship's body, leaving only the ship's structure. The next steps will include mapping the ship's body and performing desalination protection.

According to Ye, protecting and preserving a sunken wooden ship from the sea is a global-level challenge, and the Nanhai No.1, an 800-year-old shipwreck, is entering a critical phase in the long-term protection, research, and restoration of the ship's body and underwater artifacts. Various tasks, including the effective removal of sulfur-iron compounds and soluble salts, and dehydration and shaping, will be undertaken in the coming years to ensure the long-term and safe preservation of the Nanhai No.1 and its underwater artifacts.

In August 2023, archaeologists successfully completed the extraction of artifacts from the ship's hold. Exceeding 180,000 items, the recovered artifacts include various kinds of ceramics, gold, silver, copper, human remains, marine life, and terrestrial plants and animals, as well as glass and other material specimens. The ceramics include products from most of the ceramic kiln sites of the ship's era. The total weight of iron concretions exceeded 130 tons, CCTV reported.

Archaeologists once commented that the Nanhai No.1 archaeological project has set a benchmark for underwater archaeology in China, while providing a Chinese solution for the comprehensive protection of sunken cultural heritage worldwide. This excavation has enriched the historical records of the Maritime Silk Road, offering a clear glimpse into international maritime trade 800 years ago and showcasing the history of this important trade route to the world in the 21st century, according to CCTV.