The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) has called on the US to respect the law of market economy and the principle of fair competition in a recent statement over Washington’s investment curbs targeting China, saying the move will jeopardize the normal business exchanges between the two countries and the security and stability of the global industrial supply chain.
US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on August 9, banning new US investment covering key technology sectors in China such as semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. Later in mid-August, the US Treasury Department provided an explanation of the specific legislative plans for the executive order and initiated a 45-day period for public comment, with the deadline for submitting comments arriving on September 28.
The China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC) has officially submitted comments on behalf of the Chinese business community to the US government, hoping that the US government will genuinely listen to rational voices and carefully consider the relevant rules, according to a CCPIT spokesperson through an official statement.
The US investment ban categorizes China as the only "country of concern" under this ban, designating the related industries as "specifically sensitive technological areas with significant national security implications." The regulations pertaining to restricted investment entities, restricted investment targets, and restricted transaction types are vague and overly broad, the spokesperson said.
The investment oversight applies “indiscriminately” to both civilian and military purposes, employing a one-size-fits-all approach, the spokesperson claimed, noting that this approach not only increases transaction risks and compliance costs but also introduces significant uncertainty. Furthermore, it will disrupt the industry chains that heavily rely on global division of labor and cooperation.
China is an indispensable part of the global industry chains in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and quantum information technology. The restrictions will harm US companies in international competition, hinder technological progress, and ultimately undermine US interests, the spokesperson said.
The Chinese business community believes that open and free market access and equal and benign competition are the cornerstones of economic development. A free, fair international economic order and stable global division of labor and cooperation are in the common interest of the global business community，the trade body noted.
Win-win cooperation is the shared vision of the Chinese and American industrial sectors. The Chinese community is willing to strengthen exchanges and collaborate on development with industries from various countries, including the US, the spokesperson said.
In early August, the Chinese Foreign Ministry blasted the US' investment restrictions as "economic coercion" and "tech bullying," urging Washington to immediately withdraw its wrong decision while vowing to firmly safeguard the country's rights and interests.
China deplores and firmly rejects the US' investment restrictions targeting a number of high-tech industries in China and has lodged stern representations with the US side, the ministry said.
China's eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays wrapped up on Friday, with the number of domestic trips and tourism revenue seeing robust growth and exceeding that of 2019, underscoring the robust recovery of the world's second-largest economy.
The bustling scenes seen across the country during the Golden Week holidays offered the latest sign of strong vitality in China's consumption, a major economic growth driver, and the vast potential of China's steady economic recovery, in stark contrast to the dire predictions made by Western media and politicians, analysts said.
While downward pressure remains, China's economy will continue to rebound in the rest of the year and could make a full recovery at the end of 2023, thanks to robust recovery in consumption and other areas and a range of policy measures taken to boost growth, analysts noted.
Bustling tourism
A total of 826 million domestic passenger trips were made in China during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, a year-on-year increase of 71.3 percent and up 4.1 percent from 2019. Holiday tourism generated 753.43 billion yuan ($104.68 billion), up 129.5 percent year-on-year and 1.5 percent increase from 2019, official data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed on Friday.
Some 59.89 million trips were expected to be made on Friday during the return peak, a year-on-year increase of 58.4 percent, data from the Ministry of Transport showed on Friday. Among them, a total of 18.8 million passengers will travel via the railway with 12,571 trains to be operated, according to China Railway.
Domestic consumption experienced a strong pickup during the holidays, showing the best performance since 2019. For instance, the average daily consumption scale of service retail jumped by 153 percent compared with the same period of 2019, while the consumption scale for dine-in surged by 254 percent, according to data from China's e-commerce platform Meituan.
Multiple provincial-level regions rolled out their tourism reports for the holidays on Friday and Thursday, which returned to or even exceeded the 2019 level.
Shanghai welcomed a total of 21.30 million tourists for the holidays with transactions related to tourism recording a year-on-year increase of 29.7 percent to 29.24 billion yuan, official data showed on Friday.
The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region received a total of 14.53 million domestic tourists in the first five days of the holidays, a yearly increase of 5.38 times and 1.29 times more than the same period in 2019, thepaper.cn reported on Thursday. The region generated a total of 9.93 billion yuan in tourism revenue, a year-on-year increase of 6.31 times and 1.12 times increase compared with 2019.
Chinese tourists were able to experience the holidays in diverse forms, from touring domestic and international scenic spots and enjoying leisure time in third- and fourth-tier cities to becoming involved in emerging experiences such as cultural and tourism integration projects, night markets, and musicals, according to reports from Chinese travel agencies.
Flight bookings for top domestic destinations during the holidays surged by nearly five times compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, with bookings for flights departing on September 29 - the first day of the holidays - hitting a record high on Chinese online travel agency platform Qunar, the company told the Global Times on Friday. Bookings for domestic hotels in popular destinations doubled compared with the pre-COVID period. The top destinations included Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai and other cities.
In addition to visiting well-known cities and metropolises, some Chinese travelers also opted to enjoy the nation's rich cultural heritage and breathtaking natural scenery.
A female traveler surnamed Zhao from Southwest China's Chongqing visited the Bingling Temple Grottoes in Northwest China's Gansu Province -a world cultural heritage with a history stretching back more than 1,600 years. Zhao told the Global Times on Friday that she also encountered some foreign visitors during her visit.
Meanwhile, the ongoing 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, sparked a consumption craze in sports and related fields throughout the holidays. The order volume for service consumption within the province exceeded 195 percent this year compared with 2019, while the dine-in order volume in Hangzhou increased by 443 percent and orders related to sports and fitness increased by 762 percent, per media reports.
At the same time, outbound tourism witnessed a strong rebound for the recently passed holidays. Orders for overseas travel on Chinese online tourism platform Ctrip.com increased by more than eight times year-on-year, according to a report sent to the Global Times on Friday. Meanwhile, bookings for international flights for the holidays on Fliggy reached a peak within the year.
The boom in tourism also spurred a consumption craze. In the first seven days of the holidays, sales of key monitored retail and dining enterprises increased by 9 percent year-on-year, while the major passenger flow in key commercial areas in 36 cities increased by 164 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed on Friday. The domestic box office also topped 2.5 billion yuan, a yearly increase of 70 percent.
Experts attributed the rebound in consumption to China's steady economic recovery and effective macroeconomic stimulus policies, showing the nation's strong resilience and huge potential in consumption, which will also play a vital role in bolstering economic growth in the fourth quarter.
Boosting GDP growth
China's economic performance outperformed 2019 in some aspects after nearly one year of post-epidemic growth, shown by the consumption rebound for the holidays and gradual recovery in trade along with other indicators, Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Friday, expecting a full recovery by the end of 2023 or at the latest by February next year.
China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index for September came in at 50.2, its first time in positive territory since April and after a consecutive increase over the last four months, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on September 30.
The consumption boom reflected the strong resilience and driving force of the spending power of Chinese residents, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday.
Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, echoed Zhang's view and added that the targeted policy measures had further noticeable effects during the Golden Week, stressing the importance of continuing to implement the policies moving froward.
Cong told the Global Times on Friday that the consumption rebound during the holidays reflected China's huge consumption potential while also serving as a significant factor to further shore up market confidence and bolster domestic demand.
This confidence will play a vital role in promoting continuous economic growth while also elevating supply, Cong noted.
Zhang expected the consumption momentum to become an indispensable engine for advancing the economy, as the fourth quarter is also a peak season for domestic consumption, with major consumption events like the Double 11 online shopping festival.
In response to the bearish outlook on the Chinese economy painted by some Western media outlets and politicians, experts said China's consumer market is showing strong recovery and growth signs despite downward pressure with its strong market potential, resilience and confidence.
Cong noted that China maintains its market confidence as the world's second-largest consumption market, especially amid the process of rapid structural upgrading. He also stressed the importance of stepping up efforts in sectors such as infrastructure investment and support for the private economy to ignite market dynamics.
China's economic development should be the least worrying one during the global economic recovery process, Cong said.
After concluding six-month stay at the China Space Station and completing first-ever direct handover in orbit in the country’s aerospace history, three taikonauts of the Shenzhou-14 manned spaceflight mission have safely returned to the Dongfeng landing site in the Gobi Desert, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Sunday.
At 8:09 pm Sunday, the return capsule of the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft carrying three taikonauts conducted successful touchdown in the Dongfeng landing site. The medical personnel confirmed that the taikonauts were in good health, marking a complete success of the return mission, the Global Times has learned from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Sunday.
The Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft successfully separated with the China Space Station combination at 11:01 am Sunday. Before their departure, the Shenzhou-14 crew, with the help of a local ground team, completed the handover with the Shenzhou-15 crew, and other tasks including downloading the experiment data, the CMSA said earlier.
“It marked the first return mission after the completion of China Space Station’s T-shape basic structure assembly, the first after gathering of six taikonauts at the space station, and also a first that has taken place in the winter night at the Dongfeng site,” Peng Huakang, the person-in-charge of the manned spacecraft recovery team with the spacecraft developer China Academy of Spacecraft Technology (CAST,) told the Global Times.
The return of the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft consisted of five stages before the final touchdown, including the separation of spacecraft from the space station, the braking maneuver, the re-entry to atmosphere and decelerating before landing.
Adopting a rapid return strategy similar to previous missions, the Shenzhou-14 craft rounded Earth only five times before making its re-entry. Then the orbiter capsule separated with the return capsule. And with the help of the propelling capsule in two braking maneuvers, the combination of the return capsule and propelling capsule then descended from 400-kilometer orbit to 100-kilometer one before their separation, the CAST explained in a statement provided to the Global Times.
The propelling capsule was burnt up during re-entry to the atmosphere and the return capsule took on a well-calculated trajectory to be headed back to Earth’s atmosphere and to the Dongfeng site.
Besides personal items, the "luggage" carried by the three taikonauts back also includes a batch of medical science experiment samples, mainly body fluid and cytology samples, which can allow the ground research team to better understand the changes inside human body during their life in space, the Global Times learned from the CMSA.
According to Li Yinghui, a researcher with the Chinese astronaut training system, the "luggage" includes astronauts' blood, urine, and saliva. Researchers can study human adaptability to the environment with in-depth, at the level of cells, molecules, and genes, which enables China to have its own genetic resource bank for environmental adaptation in orbit.
Search and rescue work for the Shenzhou-14 return capsule is of great significance in boosting China’s international image, as the task marks the conclusion to the construction stage of the China Space Station, Bian Hancheng, the deputy chief designer of the manned space project landing site system, told the Global Times.
China has signed agreements with more than a dozen countries and regions to carry out space experiment projects on the China Space Station, and this is the first time that space application system has participated in the search and rescue works at Dongfeng, according to Bian, who is also a senior engineer with the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China’s Gansu Province. The task has opened a new normal for the landing site to recover space application payload from domestic and foreign customers, he said.
The biggest challenges facing the search and rescue mission s extreme cold and night conditions that could lead to most complicated and difficult situations, according to the Dongfeng landing site authorities.
Bian explained that it is more difficult to identify and locate the target craft at night than during daytime and it is also extra hard to arrive at the landing site, as landing a helicopter would be more difficult given the poor visibility of surroundings during the night time in remote Gobi Desert.
Dubbed the China Space Station’s busiest crew to date, Shenzhou-14 mission commander Chen Dong and his fellow crewmembers Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe conducted three extravehicular activities or known as the spacewalks, delivered a new episode of the Tiangong Classroom space lecture sessions, carried out multiple space experiment and application projects, and above all, participated and witnessed the completion of the China Space Station’s three-module T-shape basic structure assembly.
They also greeted the incoming Shenzhou-15 crew on Wednesday, handing over the key to the China Space Station to the Shenzhou-15 taikonauts on Saturday, in addition to completing the country’s first-ever in-orbit work handover.
Moreover, Chen Dong the mission’s commander also became the first taikonaut to have worked and lived in orbit for more than 200 days during the Shenzhou-14 mission that lasted more 183 days. He previously worked in orbit for 33 days during the Shenzhou-11 mission in 2016.
Tianjin University's neuroscience team has made a groundbreaking achievement by launching a high-speed brain-computer interface (BCI) with 216 targets during the 7th World Intelligence Congress 2023.
This cutting-edge device enables users to type at impressive speeds using their thoughts while wearing a compact BCI device and interacting with a virtual keyboard featuring 216 keys. The system also incorporates commonly used syllables in both Chinese and English spelling, offering seamless one-click switching between Chinese and English input methods, Global Times learned from the team.
BCI establishes a "dialogue" between the brain's electrical activity and an external device. It is categorized into invasive and noninvasive types, with the noninvasive variant, based on electroencephalography (EEG) signals, being safer, more convenient, efficient, and holding tremendous potential for commercial and industrial applications, according to the team.
The number of targets and commands is a key indicator of how well BCIs can decode the brain's intentions, Xu Minpeng, a professor from the neuroscience team at Tianjin University, told the Global Times.
Tianjin University's team has gained global prominence by developing the first high-speed BCI with over 200 targets.
At present, the team has built a domestic full-chain noninvasive BCI technology including chip, electrode, algorithm and system. Three core indicators, the EEG recognition accuracy, the number of targets and information transmission rate have reached the highest international level, according to the team.
An extraordinary story has emerged with the recent discovery of a rare fossil dating back approximately 125 million years ago, through joint efforts between Chinese and Canadian researchers. This fossil unveil a remarkable encounter where a large herbivorous dinosaur fell victim to an attack by a carnivorous mammal.
About the size of a large dog, the dinosaur fossil was identified as Psittacosaurus whereas the badger-like mammal fossil is an example of Repenomamus robustus, one of the largest mammals during the Cretaceous - a time when mammals had not yet become the dominant animals on Earth.
The two were found "locked in mortal combat," and "intimately intertwined," said Dr Jordan Mallon, the palaeobiologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature who handled the fossils.
The discovery of these two species Psittacosaurus and Repenomamus robustus was not a "novel finding" in and of itself, but the "predatory behaviour" on display is a rare find, Mallon emphasized.
Wu Xiaochun, a core figure on the project, told the Global Times that the fossils reveal the mammal was not feasting on an already dead dinosaur, but was actively attacking the animal.
"Similar articles that feature a predator mammal have been published before, but only until this one can we show it had its prey alive," said Wu, who is also the head of the Paleobiology Research and Collections Department of the Canadian Museum of Nature. A typical case of a smaller predator attacking bigger prey, the fossils show, according to Mallon, that they had both lost their lives in the "roily aftermath."
While the fossil had been researched for years since it was first excavated in 2012 in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, the study was only published on Tuesday in Scientific Reports, a scholarly journal. Mallon is the co-author of the paper.
From excavation to publication, Wu played a pivotal role in bringing the researchers from China and Canada together for the project.
In 2012, the fossil was collected in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, more exactly from the Liujitun fossil beds, which are dubbed "China's Dinosaur Pompeii." After excavation, the fossils were in the care of study co-author Dr Han Gang in China, and later Wu helped Han connect with Mallon.
The research projects between China and Canada "will continue in 2023," Wu revealed to the Global Times.
"Joint research projects such as one on a marine reptile in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, is coming along," Wu said.
Some towns in Yancheng, East China's Jiangsu Province, were hit by a tornado on Sunday afternoon. The tornado took two lives and injured 15 people, according to the local authorities.
The tornado hit Yancheng at around 4:15 pm Sunday, in some towns in Dafeng district, Yancheng, under the influence of strong convective weather. The tornado was identified by experts as EF2 level (medium intensity), China Central Television (CCTV) reported Sunday.
The wind speed of a EF2-level tornado is estimated at 178 to 217 km per hour and usually causes a considerable damage. Under a EF2-level tornado, whole roofs ripped off frame houses, interiors of frame homes damaged, and small, medium, and large trees uprooted. Weak structures such as barns, mobile homes, sheds, and outhouses have been completely destroyed. Cars were lifted off the ground.
According to local authorities, two deaths and 15 injuries were reported from the disaster. All of the injured have been sent to hospital for treatment and none of the injuries are life-threatening.
According to preliminary verification, 283 agricultural houses and 32 vegetable greenhouses have been damaged. The damage is being further verified, CCTV reported.
All the affected people have now been properly relocated, while post-disaster recovery and reconstruction work is being carried out in an orderly manner, according to CCTV.
Verdant villages prospering in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, Yangtze finless porpoise, also called the "panda in the water" for its rarity, being spotted more often in rivers, scientific expedition team members seeing lakes on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau with clearer water… all these significant changes over the past decades have marked China's continuous efforts to achieve a core concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," which gave inspiration to the country's first National Ecology Day.
On August 15, China's first National Ecology Day, Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the whole society to vigorously promote and act as role models in practicing the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.
Ecological conservation is of vital importance for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, Xi said.
On the new journey of building a modern socialist country in all aspects, efforts should be made to maintain strategic resolve in advancing ecological progress and promote high-quality development in sync with high-standard protection, Xi said.
With a focus on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the country should facilitate the gradual transition from dual control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption to dual control over the amount and intensity of carbon emissions, Xi noted.
The country has already set ambitious goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
Observers believe that the National Ecology Day will not only help raise ecological awareness across society, but also provide an opportunity to share China's story of ecological civilization construction with the international community, allowing better participation in global environmental and climate governance.
Today marks the inaugural National Ecology Day, a pioneering and symbolic commemoration, reflecting the significant position of ecological civilization construction in the new era, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference on Tuesday. It embodies the steadfast determination to promote the construction of a Beautiful China and also demonstrates China's firm stance in actively participating in global environmental and climate governance, as well as its commitment to fostering a shared future for humanity.
Vigorous efforts
According to a bluebook on China's ecological conservation red lines released by the Ministry of Natural Resources on Tuesday, the red line of ecological conservation is approximately 3.19 million square kilometers, covering all 35 priority areas for biodiversity conservation in China and over 90 percent of typical ecological system types.
The ecological conservation red line refers to areas within an ecological space that have particularly important ecological functions and must be strictly protected on a mandatory basis, including water conservation, biodiversity maintenance, soil and water conservation, windbreak and sand fixation, and coastal ecological stability, as well as environmentally sensitive and fragile areas prone to soil erosion, land desertification, rock desertification and salinization.
China is a mega-diverse country in terms of biodiversity. The protection of biodiversity has been elevated to a national strategy and has become a consensus and action for the entire society, Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
"Over the past years, China has actively promoted biodiversity conservation, taking a series of robust measures, including the innovative establishment of the ecological conservation red line system," Ma said.
"Based on what we have observed, the demarcation of the ecological red line has been essentially completed across the entire country," he added.
Besides drawing the red lines, Chinese authorities make full use of resources such as satellites, manned and unmanned aircraft, fixed ground and mobile patrol monitoring to construct an integrated ecological quality monitoring network from "sky to ground," according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Those monitoring measures focus on natural reserves, ecological conservation red lines and key ecological function areas, Huang Runqiu, head of the ministry, told a press conference on July 27.
More than over 5,000 key issues were identified in national nature reserves, and 79 ecological damage issues were found in five pilot provinces with ecological conservation red lines up to July 27.
Currently, China has over 30 laws on ecological and environmental protection, more than 100 administrative regulations, and over 1,000 local regulations, the National People's Congress said in a post on Tuesday. They lay a solid foundation for establishing and improving the system of ecological civilization.
Chinese authorities released a guideline on Tuesday to enhance the integration of law enforcement and administering justice in forestry and grassland affairs.
Jointly issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the guideline is centered on building a coordination mechanism for administrative law enforcement and prosecutorial public interest litigation in forestry and grassland affairs.
In the past decade, the national forest coverage rate increased from 21.63 percent to 24.02 percent, according to a statement sent by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration to the Global Times on Tuesday.
China has contributed one quarter, the most in the world, to the increase in global green coverage. Grasslands have an overall vegetation coverage of 50.32 percent and their status has transformed from production to ecological purposes, the authority said.
Core concept
As the birthplace and first demonstration site of the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," residents in East China's Zhejiang Province, especially Huzhou, have a more vivid experience of the concept.
Huzhou's Yucun village, previously the largest limestone mining area in Anji county, is an example as it transformed the local economy from mining to greener industries.
The air in the village used to be shrouded with coal dust and the green bamboo leaves on the mountains were covered in soot. Miners who came out of the mines looked all the same - all covered in black.
The change started in 2002 when Yucun village began shutting down the mines. The momentum of green development became stronger after Xi, then Party Chief of Zhejiang, raised the "two mountains" concept on August 15, 2005 during his inspection trip to the county.
Nowadays, former miners are able to wake up breathing fresh air every day and have sought out ways to make a living in industries related to eco-tourism, such as running guest houses and shops, as well as high-tech agriculture.
The "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" concept for local people is that they are able to enjoy beautiful and green ecology and at the same time live an abundant life, Chen Guangju, the deputy head of the "Two Mountains" Concept Research Institute affiliated with Huzhou University, told the Global Times.
What other places can learn from the Zhejiang experience is that the practice should first prioritize ecology and seek a development path that fits local conditions so as to reach the goal of common prosperity, Chen said.
The "two mountains" concept is and will lead to a new form of human civilization, Chen said.
China's ecological governance approach not only addresses domestic environmental issues but also has a positive impact on global sustainable development and climate management, Sun Shao, a senior researcher at Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
China's practices in ecological restoration and sustainable development can offer insights and lessons for other countries, propelling worldwide environmental conservation efforts, Sun said.
"Through collaborative initiatives, technology sharing and international cooperation, China plays a vital role in global environmental management, contributing to addressing global challenges such as climate change," he added.
Nearly 35 percent of a group of 15.8 million Chinese adults were classified as overweight, while the prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher in northern China than southern China, according to media reports on Monday, citing a study on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in China. The topic of obesity triggered a wide discussion online on Monday, with many calling for a focus on healthier lifestyles.
A study titled "Prevalence of obesity and associated complications in China: A cross-sectional, real-world study in 15.8 million adults" was published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, a journal of pharmacology and therapeutics on August 17.
The study showed a digital version of the China obesity situation based on the BMI (body mass index) classification of overweight and obesity in the country, with 34.8 percent of the 15.8 million adult participants being considered overweight, and 14.1 percent diagnosed as obese.
Being overweight and obesity were more prevalent in male than female participants, with 41.1 percent of male participants being overweight. The prevalence of being overweight peaked at age 50-54 years-old in males and at age 65-69 years-old in females, according to the study.
The study was based on data obtained from 519 Meinian health check-up centers across 243 cities, with eligible participants aged 18 years-old and above. The prevalence rates of overweight and obesity nationwide were standardized according to the 2010 China census by age group and sex, according to the study.
According to both WHO and Chinese BMI classifications, the prevalence of both overweight individuals and obesity was higher in northern China than southern China, with the highest prevalence seen in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, East China's Shandong Province and North China's Hebei Province, according to the study.
Experts have noted that several factors have contributed to the high obesity rates in China such as sedentary lifestyles and a decrease in physical activity. Especially in teenagers, instances of being overweight or obese have become one of the serious challenges faced by young people, as it is reported that about 30 million teenagers are dealing with being either overweight or obese.
The country has recognized the severity of the obesity and has carried out measures to address the rising trend. In a notice released in July on improving China's basic public health services in 2023, the country has stressed the work in health services on key groups including prevention of overweight and obesity in children.
In 2020, Chinese authorities set a goal of reducing the average annual growth rates of overweight and obese children and adolescents by 70 percent from a baseline in the next 10 years.
The Senj Wind Farm, a project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is an example of the mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation between Croatia and China, said Luci Veljacic, manager of the Grupa Company in southern Croatia, in a recent interview with Xinhua.
"For me and my company it was a great honor to be part of the Senj Wind Farm project," Veljacic said, adding that in July 2019, the Grupa Company was offered a contract for supervision and implementation of safety and health protection, fire protection and environmental protection during construction of the Senj Wind Farm project.
Despite numerous unfavourable conditions, including the extremely complex mountainous terrains, the COVID-19 pandemic, snow, strong winds and thunderstorms during the construction process, the Senj Wind Farm, undertaken by China's Norinco International Cooperation Ltd. (Norinco International), was completed on schedule and "without any worker injuries, deaths or incidents," Veljacic noted.
"During the construction, all legal regulations of Croatia and the European Union (EU) and all safety measures were observed to the maximum," Veljacic said.
The Grupa Company is one of the more than 70 contractors from across Croatia participating in the construction, and among the daily turnover of about 300 workers during the construction, more than half of them were from Croatia, Veljacic said, adding that most Croatian workers were from the local Lika-Senj County.
Moreover, participation in the project has made many Croatian companies gain extensive professional experience, which will certainly make them more competitive in the EU market, not just in Croatia, Veljacic said.
Veljacic hailed the "exceptional" cooperation with the Chinese side during the construction process.
"We had an exceptional cooperation, both professional and friendly, with all Chinese companies and workers at the Senj Wind Farm project," Veljacic said, noting that in spite of the language barrier, "we successfully communicated, negotiated, solved daily problems and performed work safely."
In addition, "We also found time to socialize during the project, getting to know the cultures of the two countries ... we talked about history, music, education, customs and the like," Veljacic added.
Veljacic was deeply impressed by the hard work and expertise of the Chinese workers during the construction process.
"During this project, Chinese workers performed the most demanding work and showed exceptional expertise, professionalism, endurance and technological progress," she said, adding that she and her company colleagues also received a lot of help from Chinese engineers who "were always ready to help with their professional knowledge and experience."
The Senj Wind Farm, located on the Adriatic coast of western Croatia and inaugurated in December 2021, produces about 530 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green electricity each year and reduces Croatia's carbon dioxide emissions by about 460,000 tonnes per year.
In the eyes of Veljacic, the Senj Wind Farm is a project valuable and important not only for the Lika-Senj County but also for the whole Croatia, as it can significantly contribute to the total annual production of electricity from clean and renewable sources, reduce electricity imports and further promote low-carbon development.
"With this project, Norinco International has become one of the largest investors in green energy and the green economy in Croatia ... The example of the Senj Wind Farm project, the joint successful cooperation of Chinese and Croatian workers and companies will certainly be further developed," Veljacic said.
Most people don’t live close to a coral reef. If we want to visit one, we have to travel far, to the tropical waters that are home to these beautiful and diverse ecosystems. But, it turns out, most coral reefs aren’t that far from people. And it’s those really accessible reefs that we should be worrying about, a new study argues.
Eva Maire of the University of Montpellier in France and colleagues started by breaking up all of the world’s coral reefs into 1-kilometer-square cells. They then calculated how much travel time sat between each of those cells and the nearest human settlement, doing their best to account for whether a person would have to use a boat, a road or a meager track to reach the reef. Fifty-eight percent of the cells are less than 30 minutes from people, the group reports February 15 in Ecology Letters. Most of those reefs can be found in the Caribbean, the Coral Triangle off Southeast Asia, the Western Indian Ocean and around islands in the Pacific. Others, such as those in the Coral Sea or the northwest Hawaiian Islands, are largely inaccessible, requiring 12 hours or more to reach — too far for a quick fishing jaunt.
Being close to people means that a reef and its resources can be more easily accessed and exploited. Proximity to a market — a source of income for fishermen with easy access to a rich catch — may make that even easier. The researchers found that a quarter of the reefs were within four hours of a major market, and nearly a third were more than 12 hours away. And how close a reef sat to a market appears to matter when it comes to the amount of fish swimming on the reef — those that are closer have lower amounts of fish, the team calculated.
Then the group looked at the pattern of protection for reefs. Many reefs are in marine protected areas that have been set up to limit exploitation. But the reefs most likely to be in a protected area are those that are far from people. An isolated coral reef is more than twice as likely to be protected than average.
The pattern is easy to explain. To set up a protected area, a government has to get everyone who is using that swath of ocean — for fishing, recreation, tourism or anything else — on board with the restrictions that will be placed on usage. And it’s a lot easier to do that with remote patches that not many people are using.
The problem with this, Maire and her colleagues note, is that it means that we may be protecting areas of the ocean that don’t really need protection. And it’s possible that the global goal of protecting 10 percent of the ocean by 2020 “can be met without actually reducing human impacts on the seascape,” they write.
There needs to be more work analyzing the pattern of marine protected areas before any such conclusion can be drawn. And there’s also something to be said for protecting coral reefs now, before they’re totally exploited. Corals already face an uphill battle for survival, given the threats of climate change and ocean acidification. Setting some reefs aside before fishermen and others can do damage doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
