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Villagers enjoy better quality of see sales surge Messi divorce

life after moving to urban areas amid outbreak Barcelona club digs heels in following
wing
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Xi, Putin salute opening of science, innovation year ‘Made in China’

By MO JINGXI opening of the China-Russia Year reform and building a community comprehensive strategic partnership

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn
President Xi Jinping called on
Wednesday for all-around and mul-
tilevel communications and
exchanges in a wide range of areas
between scientists and the scientific
sectors of China and Russia.
He made the remark in a letter
offering his congratulations on the
of Scientific and Technological
Innovation.
Xi said that China and Russia are
major scientific and technological
countries with significant influence,
adding that the two major powers
should follow the trend of the times
and keep up with development so as
to make greater contributions to
advancing global governance system
with a shared future for mankind.
Xi said that China and Russia
pulled together to provide support
and assistance to each other as the
novel coronavirus epidemic spread
across the world.
The event being held as scheduled
despite the COVID-19 pandemic fully
demonstrates the high-level and
unique nature of the China-Russia
cannot easily
of coordination for a new era, he said.
The president said that he
believed that the two countries’ suc-
cessful practice of cooperation in
the face of the pandemic will be
transformed into a strong impetus
for boosting bilateral exchanges
and cooperation.

See Letter, page 4

be replaced
Nation boasts important technological
President urges police to preserve security, justice advantages, according to top experts
By ANDREW MOODY
andrewmoody@chinadaily.com.cn

Consumers in the United States

President Xi Jinping confers the police flag on China’s police force at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday.
JU PENG / XINHUA
By CAO DESHENG
caodesheng@chinadaily.com.cn
President Xi Jinping has ordered
the nation’s police to serve the peo-
ple wholeheartedly and make every
effort to enhance people’s sense of
fulfillment, happiness and security.
Xi, who is also general secretary
of the Communist Party of China
Central Committee and chairman
of the Central Military Commission,
made the remark on Wednesday
HELPING
HANDS
while addressing a ceremony to
confer a special flag on the Chinese
people’s police at the Great Hall of
the People in Beijing.
Under the new historical condi-
tions, Xi said the people’s police
must be loyal to the Party, impar-
tial in law enforcement and strict
in discipline and serve the people.
Xi called the people’s police an
important force to ensure the
country’s security administration
and criminal justice. He said its
missions are to safeguard national
security, uphold social stability,
protect people’s lives, freedom and
legitimate property as well as pub-
lic property, and prevent, restrain
and punish violations of the law
and criminal activities.
Xi asked police to resolutely fol-
low the instructions and command
of the CPC, adhere to the people-
centered philosophy, uphold a
holistic view of national security
and protect people’s interests.
He underlined the importance of
upholding social fairness and justice
and urged police to strengthen train-
ing and oversight in law enforcement
and keep improving the credibility of
law enforcement and the judiciary.
Efforts should be made to allow
the people to enjoy fairness and jus-
tice in every case in which they are
involved, Xi added.
The red and blue flag for the
people’s police is seen as a symbol
of its professional development.
Central bank
test of digital
and other Western countries face
rising prices as a result of Chinese
companies being isolated from
global supply chains, according to
leading experts.
The aggressive trade policy being
pursued by the US administration,
particularly in relation to the tech-
nology sector, is likely to backfire,
pushing up the price of many goods,
especially those in the consumer
electronics sector, the experts said.
The economist Stephen Roach,
senior fellow at Yale University’s
Jackson Institute for Global Affairs,
said US companies are likely to
source components from higher-cost
producers.
“The result is the functional equiv-
alent of a tax hike for US consumers,”
he said.
Richard Martin, managing direct-
or of IMA Asia, the influential peer
group forum for regional CEOs, said
attempting to cut China out of sup-
ply chains is destined to fail and will
also result in rising costs.
He said some US-bound produc-
tion is being moved from the Chinese
mainland to Vietnam, Taiwan, India
and Indonesia, but invariably all these
locations then import components
and materials from the mainland.
“Ultimately, it is not really decou-
pling the US and China, just forcing
trade diversion, which raises the cost
for the US,” Martin added.
There is evidence that since the US
unilaterally imposed tariffs on Chi-
nese goods in 2018, global supply
chains have felt the impact.
Last year, Chinese exports of a
basket of 1,200 products accounted
Ex-US envoy: Washington
should accept Beijing as it is
By ZHAO HUANXIN in Washington
huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com
July 23 speech at the Nixon Presi-
dential Library in California, in
which he declared that the former
A former top US trade envoy and president’s outreach to China a half
veteran diplomat said Tuesday that century ago had utterly failed.
for 22 percent of the global total,
down by 3 percentage points from
the previous year, according to a
study by law firm Baker McKenzie
and economics consultancy Silk
Road Associates.
However, the focus this year has
been on the technology sector. On
Aug 17, the US administration said it
aimed to cut off supplies of foreign
semiconductors to Chinese telecom-
munications giant Huawei and 38 of
its affiliated companies, escalating a
move made initially in May.
The announcement caused con-
sternation among US semiconductor
manufacturers that rely on sales to
China.
“These broad restrictions on
commercial chip sales will bring
significant disruption to the US
semiconductor industry,” said
John Neuffer, president and CEO of
the US Semiconductor Industry
Association.
To add to the confusion, US Presi-
dent Donald Trump this month
ordered a ban on WeChat, the Chinese
messaging, social media and mobile
payment app, being available on
Apple devices.
The decision could have disas-
trous implications for Apple, which
derives 20 percent its sales from
China. WeChat, owned by Tencent
Holdings, is a vital platform for
many US retailers and gaming com-
panies. It is still not clear where or
how such a ban would be applied.
See Goods, page 2

Foreigner currency set it’s misleading to label cooperation Zoellick said that drawing from US
with China a failure, and it’s dan- experience, people have held the belief
gerous to have the relationship pre- of China as the “great commercial

shows love to expand cipitate toward free fall, which may dream”, the great commercial market.
cause miscalculations.
“There’s a new conven-
“To be fair, China was our fastest-
growing export market for
By CHEN JIA tional wisdom that has crept 15 years prior to the Trump
for country chenjia@chinadaily.com.cn

China is expected to expand the

in that cooperation with
China failed and that infus-
es a lot of the thinking,” said
administration”,
embraced protectionism,
which

Zoellick said. “There are a

he adopted
Editor’s note: When the planet’s
most populous country thrives,
the rest of the world does, too, and
friends from other lands have
been willing to help. This series
explores the contributions of
foreigners to China’s success.
By WANG RU and SHAN JUAN
in Dali, Yunnan
In 1983, a young carpet cleaner
in the United States, Brian Linden,
saw a notice at a night school say-
ing the Chinese government was
offering scholarships for foreign
students. Although he thought
China would not accept him — a
person who was poor and unable
to gain admission to a US universi-
ty — he applied anyway, but with
little hope.
Brian Linden, founder of the Linden Centre hotel in Dali, Yunnan
province, offers a soda to farmers in July. LIU RANYANG / CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Three months later, when he
received a call from China inform-
ing him that he had been awarded a
scholarship to study at Peking Uni-
versity, he was flabbergasted.
“So there is no one else applying
for it? I am only a carpet cleaner with-
out any supportive background,” Lin-
den remembered saying. The person
on the other end of the line laughed
and said, “Of course there are many
applicants. But you need it the most.”
Recalling that life-changing
moment, Linden, now 58, said in a
choked voice: “China was very poor
in 1983, but still wanted to help a
poor man in a rich country. I will be
grateful for it for my entire lifetime.”
That phone call was the start of Lin-
den’s long relationship with China,
which extends to today. The chance to
go to a top university in China created
more opportunities, enabling him to
play roles in several films, find a job at
the CBS network and pursue a doc-
torate at Stanford University.
In 2004, he “missed China so
much” that he sold his house in the
US and returned to China to settle
down with his wife and two sons. He
ultimately chose Xizhou, Yunnan
province, a town close to Erhai Lake
and Cangshan Mountain in the Dali
Bai autonomous prefecture.
See Hotel, page 4
central bank’s digital currency pilot
programs to a broader range later
this year or early in 2021, focusing
on retail use. That may replace
some functions of bank cards, a
former State bank executive said.
China is implementing pro-
grams to test the digital currency
in Shenzhen, Guangdong prov-
ince; Chengdu, Sichuan prov-
ince; Suzhou, Jiangsu province;
and Xiong’an in Hebei, with
some facilities to be used during
the 2022 Winter Olympics,
according to the People’s Bank of
China, the central bank.
The currency has been tested
within a small scope and in some
cases, such as payments of retail
sales and salaries, and it has
matured sufficiently to go public
on a wider scale, said Li Lihui,
former president of Bank of China.
See Money, page 4
Robert B. Zoellick, a former
US deputy secretary of state
lot of US companies, a lot of
US workers, that have bene-
and US trade representa- fited from that relationship.”
tive. “I hope people don’t Robert B. Still, China is the third-
take for granted some of the Zoellick largest market after Canada
things that have been and Mexico for US exports,
accomplished with China.” valued at nearly $105 billion in 2019,
Speaking during a virtual book according to the US-China Business
launch event at the Peterson Insti- Council, which reported in a recent
tute for International Economics, survey that 91 percent of US compa-
Zoellick listed a litany of things that nies operating in China are profitable.
challenge the assumption that coop- In the latest sign that the two
eration with China has failed. countries are seeking to improve
Zoellick’s new book, America in trade relations, top trade officials on
the World: A History of U.S. Diplo- Monday reaffirmed their commit-
macy and Foreign Policy, explores ment to the phase-one trade deal
the traditions of US foreign policy. they signed in January.
The topic has been revived by US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s See Ties, page 3
国内统一编号: CN11-0091 国际标准编号: ISSN0253-9543 邮发代号:1-3
© 2020 China Daily
All Rights Reserved A member of the
Vol.40 — No.

12576 Asia News Network
2 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
PAGE TWO
Goods: China holds manufacturing edge
From page 1
Meanwhile, China is boosting its
semiconductor industry in the hope
of becoming a player in advanced
chips, with the State Council
announcing that some manufactur-
ers will be exempt from corporate
tax for up to 10 years.
Abishur Prakash, a geopolitical
futurist at the Center for Innovating
the Future, a strategic consultancy
company based in Toronto, Canada,
said recent events have been very
confusing for many companies in the
technology sector, but he thinks it will
be difficult to extricate China from
supply chains.
“While companies move supply
chains — from manufacturing to
parts — to Southeast Asia, these fac-
tories are not producing the most-
critical components. In the short
term, companies will remain
dependent on China,” he said.
However, Prakash is concerned
that the world of technology is
becoming polarized.
“Both the US and China realize
that dependency on each other,
from a tech point of view, isn’t going
to work. The US doesn’t want Chi-
nese technology such as TikTok (the
video-sharing service also at the
center of a US-China dispute) or
Huawei’s 5G, and China doesn’t
want to be dependent on US tech-
nology such as chips, software and
servers,” he said.
Prakash believes that companies
faced with this situation will increas-
ingly begin to look for neutral desti-
nations to source products.
“It’s not about economic benefits,
it’s about business. By moving supply
chains, companies are ensuring that
their lucrative products aren’t hin-
dered by geopolitics,” he said.
Roach, from Yale University, the
author of Unbalanced: The Code-
pendency of America and China,
said the US’ aggressiveness in try-
ing to block China out of supply
chains belies its own weak eco-
nomic position.
The former Asia chairman of
investment bank Morgan Stanley,
where he was also chief economist,
said, “For the US, with its massive
shortfall of domestic savings, there
can be no decoupling in the broad
sense from the rest of the world.
“With the savings shortfall going
from bad to worse in the face of the
COVID-related explosion of feder-
al budget deficits, the current
account and trade deficit will rise
dramatically.
“Politically-inspired decoupling
with China will simply shift the Chi-
nese piece of America’s overall mul-
tilateral trade deficit, which it had
with 102 nations in 2019, to another
producer. This is akin to rearranging
the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Edward Tse, an expert on the
Chinese technology sector and
author of China’s Disruptors: How
Alibaba, Xiaomi, Tencent and Oth-
er Companies are Changing the
Rules of Business, said despite the
pressure from the US, China
remains highly resilient.
He cited the rapid recovery from
the coronavirus pandemic by Asian
supply chains, many of which are
centered on China.
“East Asian countries have han-
dled the COVID-19 pandemic better
than most other nations, particular-
ly the US. We can also see manufac-
turing supply chains beginning to
recover,” he said.
Tse, the founder and CEO of man-
agement consultancy Gao Feng
Advisory, said the scale and sophisti-
cation of Chinese supply chains are
often overlooked in the current
debate.
“China can do things that other
countries simply cannot do.
When external customers want
innovative new products, they
want people who can quickly
do design, prototyping and
can manufacture quickly in
batches. The Chinese are
very good in doing that.
They are very entrepre-
neurial and what you
have in China is a very
dynamic process,” he
said.
Aidan Yao, senior
emerging Asia econ-
omist at Axa Invest-
ment Managers in
Hong Kong, said
LI MIN / CHINA DAILY
that while the US has turned up the
heat on supply chains, the pandem-
ic has hit companies so hard that
they will be unwilling to make any
drastic changes.
He argues that it costs money to
switch production, and many com-
panies are now so low on cash that
they cannot make major investment
decisions.
“Even if some companies want-
ed to move out of China, invest-
ment plans have been
significantly scaled back because
of the pandemic,” he said.
Yao also believes many companies
have fostered such strong supply net-
works in China that it will be difficult
for them to move.
“China didn’t become the world’s
factory overnight. It was 30 or 40
years in the making, and there are
reasons why multinationals have
put their supply chains in China. It
is not because they necessarily love
China — they are there for sound
commercial and economic rational-
ities. None of these have changed.”
Thomas Luedi, a partner based in
Shanghai for Bain and Co, the man-
agement consultancy, said that no
matter the politics, many compa-
nies will avoid making rash moves.
He said that in recent years compa-
nies have tended to pursue a China-
Plus-One strategy in constructing
their supply chains, which could
involve having a production plant in
China and another in Southeast Asia.
“Companies do this in a strategic
manner. There is no sud-
den closing of plants in
China and haphazard opening of
other ones in new countries. Com-
panies who do this, in fact, don’t
tend to close their China operations
at all. It is all part of their long-term
planning,” he said.
Costs ‘too high’
Prakash, the strategist, believes
China-Plus-One sounds good in
theory, but is extremely difficult to
implement in practice.
“Supply chains are unbelievably
difficult in terms of sourcing
CHINA DAILY
materials, dealing with local import
rules, training factories and work-
ers,” he said.
“The only other countries in Asia
that could challenge China are
Japan and South Korea, except in
both cases the costs are too high,” he
said, adding that nations such as
India have poor infrastructure, ren-
dering them unattractive.
The advantages of basing supply
chains in China are fully understood
by US companies, in particular.
In March, a survey by the Ameri-
can Chamber of Commerce in China
and PwC China found that more
than 70 percent of senior executives
from 25 large US companies had no
plans to relocate their production
and supply chains outside China.
Greg Gilligan, chairman of
AmCham China, said in an inter-
view with CGTN, “Overwhelmingly,
people still value and plan to contin-
ue with their sourcing and supply
chain operations in China.”
Yao, author of the paper “Preserv-
ing Made in China in the Age of Glo-
balisation”, due to be published next
month, argues that China will
remain central to most global sup-
ply chains.
He points to the scale of the coun-
try’s capacity, but believes there will
be an evolution from “Made in Chi-
na” to “Made around China”.
“China is already central to a lot of
Asian supply networks, particularly
electronics. China has the whole eco-
system, an educated and skilled
labor force, favorable government
policies, and the logistics not just to
move goods around the country but
around the world,” he said.
The pandemic triggered a major
shortage of personal protective
equipment, or PPE, with the world
depending on China as a supplier.
Many countries also managed to
start their own production facilities.
Prakash believes that if China
were to lose some of this relatively
low-tech production, it would not be
a major issue.
“In the short term, finding the
scale, reliability and cost that exists
in China will be difficult, but this
will be overcome,” he said.
He believes that governments will
set up key manufacturing zones
where robots can be programmed by
algorithms to produce goods in
emergency situations.
“They (robots) may constantly be
tasked and re-tasked to produce dif-
ferent goods, including PPE,” he said.
Martin, at IMA Asia, said the pan-
demic has highlighted a number of
issues regarding supply chain relia-
bility.
“You could put volcanoes and
earthquakes in the mix as well, as
the 2011 quake in Japan highlighted
an over-reliance on Japan for cer-
tain chemicals and electronic com-
ponents,” he said.
Ian Goldin, professor of globaliza-
tion and development at Oxford
University and co-author of the just-
published Terra Incognita: 100
Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years,
believes some of the US administra-
tion’s thinking on global supply
chains is outdated.
He said the original aim was to
return jobs to the US by bringing
back manufacturing from China
and elsewhere.
“That really is the past. Employing
people won’t drive decisions about
where to locate things anymore. As a
result of automation, robotics and
artificial intelligence, a lot of the jobs
will increasingly be done by
machines and robots. So you won’t be
restoring jobs, but machines,” he said.
Manufacturing in China is clearly
no longer about low labor costs, but
more to do with the sophistication
and scale of the country’s supply
chains.
The Chinese economy does not rely
anymore on making and exporting
cheap goods, and the country is on
track to achieve a key goal of becom-
ing a global technology leader by
2035.
Many major multinationals will
also need to have their supply chains
in China to reach the country’s grow-
ing middle-class market, which
management consultancy McKinsey
and Co predicts will grow to some
600 million people by the middle of
this decade.
Luedi, at Bain and Co, said, “The
China market is no longer driven
by exports, but by domestic con-
sumption.
“This domestic market is vital for
a whole range of global industries,
from electronics to chemicals. It is
one of the largest markets and com-
panies need to be there to serve it.”
 CHINA DAILY
TOP NEWS
Govt to ease
procedures for
new businesses
Li: ‘We need to do everything we can
to help market entities survive, thrive’
By ZHANG YUE
zhangyue@chinadaily.com.cn
China will work to ensure that
the registration of businesses will
be entirely processed online
before the end of the year in a fur-
ther move to transform govern-
ment functions and reinvigorate
market entities, the State Council’s
executive meeting chaired by Pre-
mier Li Keqiang decided on
Wednesday.
“The reform of transforming
government functions and deliv-
ering the fiscal and financial relief
polices must be progressed in par-
allel,” Li said.
“So far, the special transfer pay-
ment mechanism that directly
channels funding support to pri-
mary-level governments has played
a crucial role. In the meantime, we
must continue to lower the market
threshold to stimulate market vital-
ity and public creativity.”
Business registration will be
entirely processed online before
the end of the year. Separate regis-
tration of corporate domiciles and
business premises will be piloted
and a company may register more
than one business premises.
“We need to do everything we
can to help market entities survive
and thrive. If the 100 million-plus
businesses could keep running, we
Fighting crime
An unmanned drone LED light show illuminates the night sky in
Shanghai on Tuesday to help raise awareness of online fraud
and cybercrime. YIN LIQIN / CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Ties: Free fall of relationship
‘dangerous’, former envoy says
From page 1
During Tuesday’s event, Zoellick
said China cut its global current
account surplus from about 10
percent of GDP to around zero,
meaning that its demand has
fueled worldwide expansion.
He also said that Beijing’s stimu-
lus program during the global
financial crisis in 2008 had helped
counteract what could have been
another depression.
“If we approach this (China rela-
tionship) with the idea that cooper-
ation produced nothing, you’re
misleading yourself about what can
be accomplished,” he said, citing
the example of intellectual property
rights protection, a chronic com-
plaint from some foreign business-
es and the Trump administration.
“Many people may know China
has actually created these courts.
They’re finding for foreigners about
90 percent of the time,” he said, refer-
ring to the new Chinese IPR courts.
In an article titled The China
Challenge, published in the March-
April issue of The National Interest
magazine, Zoellick also said those
courts have ruled in favor of the
“vast majority of international
complaints”.
“If you’re going to deal with the
world of climate change, or pan-
demics and biological security, or
economic growth or prolifera-
tion, you’re going to need to figure
out a way to work with China,”
said Zoellick, who was president
will be able to meet the goal of cre-
ating 9 million new urban jobs this
year,” Li said.
To ease business operations,
expand opening-up and support
agricultural and rural develop-
ment, administrative licensing of
49 items with overlapping exami-
nation and approval requirements
will be canceled, and the approval
authority for four items will be del-
egated to the provincial level.
Where law revision is needed,
these new measures will be imple-
mented after the Standing Com-
mittee of the National People’s
Congress approves the proposed
law revisions.
The meeting stressed the impor-
tance of stepping up oversight
alongside proper deregulation.
“While canceling the approval
requirements or delegating
approval authority, responsible
departments must ensure sound
compliance oversight,” Li said.
“It takes more than monetary
input for the Chinese economy to
grow. The reform of government
functions could further bring out
the ingenuity and industriousness
of the Chinese people, and
enhance the efficacy of govern-
ment oversight and services. This
is a reform that could lead to
greater fairness and efficiency,” Li
added.
of the World Bank Group from
2007 to 2012.
He said the problem with the
US’ China policy is that people
want to have a “simplistic” solu-
tion, and that’s not going to work.
“I guess what I would counsel peo-
ple is, whatever your view is on Chi-
nese performance and behavior, ask
yourself what you want to get done
and how you’re going to try to
achieve it with others, as opposed to
just throwing global bombs,” he said.
He noted that one of the US tra-
ditions is to try to convert China,
wanting the Chinese to be like
Americans through Christianity,
republicanism and capitalism.
“You can see when China decides
not to become a ‘junior America’ but
instead to become China, there’s a
very harsh reaction,” he said.
“So I guess my starting point is,
it’s always useful to recognize China
as it is, as opposed to how we might
want it to be,” Zoellick said.
In his National Interest article,
Zoellick said, “We are now witness-
ing just the vanguard of woes for
America and China — and the
world — if the two major powers
slide into mutual animosity and
zero-sum calculations.”
He further cautioned on Tues-
day that the US-China relation-
ship, which is in free fall right now,
is “quite dangerous”.
“People need to be aware that mis-
calculations can happen. And issues
with Taiwan and others can sort of
move to a dangerous zone,” he said.
Wang calls on Canada to release Huawei CFO
By ZHOU JIN
zhoujin@chinadaily.com.cn
State Councilor and Foreign Min-
ister Wang Yi has called on Canada
to make independent decisions to
eliminate major barriers in bilateral
relations amid Ottawa’s prolonged
detention of Meng Wanzhou, the
financial chief of Chinese telecom-
munications company Huawei.
Wang made the remark on Tues-
day when meeting with Canadian
Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe
Champagne in Rome during an
eight-day European trip.
China and Canada do not have any
historical contradictions or conflicts of
interest, Wang said, adding that their
bilateral ties encountered severe diffi-
culties, however, after Canada arbi-
trarily detained the Chinese citizen.
“He who started the trouble should
end it,” Wang said, urging Canada to
properly understand the issue.
This year marks the 50th anniver-
sary of the establishment of China-
Canada relations. Wang said that 50
years ago, Canadian leaders resisted
external interference and withstood
pressure to establish diplomatic
relations with China, which was the
correct step.
However, ties between the two
nations have become strained since
Canadian police detained Meng in
US ‘walking on thin ice’ with spy plane flight
By ZHANG ZHIHAO
and WANG QINGYUN
Chinese experts warned that the
United States military is “walking
on thin ice” by allowing one of its
U-2 spy planes to trespass into a
no-fly zone over Chinese live-fire
military drills, calling the move
extremely provocative and prone to
misjudgement.
On Tuesday, a Lockheed U-2 high-
altitude reconnaissance aircraft
trespassed into the no-fly zone that
is hosting a live fire drill by the Peo-
ple’s Liberation Army Northern
Theater Command, Senior Colonel
Wu Qian, spokesman of the Minis-
try of National Defense, said in a
statement on Tuesday.
Wu said the trespass had “serious-
ly disrupted China’s regular training
activities” and violated China-US
maritime and flight safety codes and
international norms.
“The incident could very easily
lead to misunderstanding and
misjudgment, and may even lead
to an accident,” he said. “It is also a
blatant provocation that China
resolutely opposes.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian said in a news briefing
on Wednesday that China resolutely
opposes the US trespass and urged
the US to immediately stop such
provocative acts and take concrete
measures to maintain regional
peace and stability.
The US Pacific Air Forces said in a
statement on Tuesday that a U-2
flight had been conducted in the
Indo-Pacific region and it had oper-
ated within the accepted interna-
tional rules and regulations
governing aircraft flights.
“Pacific Air Forces personnel will
continue to fly and operate any-
where international law allows, at
the time and tempo of our choos-
ing,” it added.
The South China Sea Strategic Sit-
uation Probing Initiative, a Chinese
nonprofit research institution, said
a US RC-135S intelligence aircraft
entered air space above the South
China Sea on Wednesday morning
December 2018 on a US extradition
warrant. China has repeatedly
accused Canada of acting as an
accomplice of the US in the incident.
Zhang Tengjun, an assistant
research fellow at the China Institute
of International Studies, said that if
Meng’s case continues dragging on,
it will have more negative effects on
normal cooperation and mutual
trust between China and Canada.
“Canada should realize that it is
impossible to continue suppressing
Meng and Huawei while expecting
to maintain normal exchanges with
China,” Zhang said.
Only by resolving Meng’s case in a
timely and effective manner can the
tension in China-Canada relations
be eased, he said.
Canada is under no obligation to
cooperate with the US to suppress
Chinese high-tech companies, and it
has set a bad example, he said.
In a statement issued by the Cana-
dian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday,
during their meeting, Champagne
called for immediate consular access
to Michael Kovrig and Michael Spav-
or. The two Canadians were
detained in December 2018 on char-
ges of engaging in activities endan-
gering China’s national security.
In response to Champagne, For-
eign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
said at a daily news briefing on
It is extremely dangerous to deliberately
trespass into a no-fly zone after receiving clear
notification, because the radars on live missiles
may pick up the wrong signal and pursue the
wrong target, causing accidental damage.”
Major General Zhang Shaozhong, military commentator
via a flight path above the south-
eastern waters of Hainan province,
where the Chinese military is hold-
ing a drill nearby.
Naval drills
According to local maritime safe-
ty administrations, China is holding
major naval drills in all four of its
major adjacent waters, namely the
Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East
China Sea and the South China Sea.
Since late July, the Chinese military
has conducted a total of 22 drills in
these waters.
The exercise in the Bohai Sea,
which is the northwestern and inner-
most gulf of the Yellow Sea bounded
by the coastlines of Hebei, Shandong
and Liaoning provinces, began on
Aug 21 and ends on Friday. The drill
in the South China Sea began on
Monday and ends on Saturday.
On Wednesday, the local mari-
time authority in Zhejiang province
said the Chinese military will con-
duct “real weapons training” in the
East China Sea from Thursday to
Sunday, and prohibited ships from
entering the training area.
Major General Zhang Shaozhong,
a military commentator, said
according to international norms,
any nation has the right to declare a
temporary no-fly zone for military
testing and training, and the
announcement must be made in
public and in advance.
“It is extremely dangerous to
deliberately trespass into a no-fly
zone after receiving clear notifica-
tion, because the radars on live
missiles may pick up the wrong sig-
nal and pursue the wrong target,
causing accidental damage,” he
said on microblogging platform
Wednesday that
China has been
telling Canada
to respect the
spirit of the rule
of law as well as
China’s judicial
sovereignty.
The current
Meng difficulties in
Wanzhou bilateral ties
were not caused
by China, Zhao said, and he urged
Ottawa to immediately take effec-
tive measures to correct its mistakes
and create conditions to bring bilat-
eral ties back on the right track.
New Cold War opposed
In another development, Wang
told reporters after meeting with his
Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio
on Tuesday that China has no inten-
tion of launching, and opposes pro-
moting, a new Cold War, in
reference to the deterioration of
Sino-US relations.
Starting a new Cold War is a step
backward. It takes the people of the
whole world hostage to serve one’s self-
ish interests, Wang said, adding that
he believes that the attempt will meet
opposition from various countries.
Italy is the first stop of Wang’s first
overseas trip as the COVID-19 pan-
demic eases. During the two foreign
Sina Weibo on Tuesday.
A military historian who spoke on
condition of anonymity said seeing
a U-2 spy plane trespassing into a
Chinese no-fly zone is like seeing a
“ghost of the Cold War”, because the
plane is infamous for its aggressive
intelligence gathering capability
and had been shot down multiple
times in the 1960s.
Developed in the early 1950s, the
U-2 is a single-pilot, high-altitude
spy plane known for conducting
photo-reconnaissance deep into
enemy territory and picking up
radio signatures from radar, data
links and telecommunication
equipment from an extreme operat-
ing height of 21.3 kilometers.
“It is a notoriously high-profile
target that no competent military
could allow to roam freely around
their borders,” the historian said,
adding that the plane played a major
role in the Cuban missile crisis, the
Vietnam War and the Gulf War.
“The recent trespass was in a tem-
porary no-fly zone, not our territori-
al airspace. It would be a perilous
overreaction and escalation if we
tried to intercept or shoot the plane
down, and the US knows we can’t
risk this,” the historian said.
“But the US military is also walk-
ing on thin ice here. Flying a Cold
War relic directly in China’s face, our
military will not take this insult
lightly.”
Zhu Feng, executive director of
the Collaborative Innovation Center
of South China Sea Studies, said the
US is sparing no effort to stir up ten-
sion in the South China Sea and
around China, and is hoping to “arti-
ficially manufacture a China crisis”.
“History has repeatedly shown
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 3
Having a ball
People take part in a water vol-
leyball tournament in Xuan’en
county, Enshi Tujia and Miao
autonomous prefecture, Hubei
province, on Wednesday. More
than 50 teams participated in
the tournament.
SONG WEN / FOR CHINA DAILY
ministers’ meeting, Wang called on
China and Italy to resume
exchanges at all levels in an orderly
manner, strengthen their intergov-
ernmental cooperation mechanism
and restart landmark cooperation
projects at an early date.
China and Italy should also focus
on the Belt and Road cooperation, he
said, urging the two countries to make
good use of the fast track for person-
nel exchanges and accelerate the
resumption of work and production.
The two countries, he added,
should jointly uphold multilateral-
ism and trade liberalization, safe-
guard the security of global
industrial and supply chains, and
help promote global anti-pandemic
cooperation and economic recovery.
Wang said he hopes Italy and
Europe can provide Chinese compa-
nies with a fair and transparent
business environment.
Di Maio said that Italy hopes to
further strengthen the existing
cooperation mechanism between
the two countries and will push for
new progress in important coopera-
tion projects within the Belt and
Road framework.
Italy stands ready to serve as a bridge
for East-West communication and a
link for China-EU exchanges, he said.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
that the only way to heal a divided
US is for it to tackle a serious exter-
nal threat, so people could rally
around the American flag,” he said.
“We must see through this insidi-
ous ploy and remain calm and col-
lected.”
Groundless claims
In another development, Foreign
Ministry spokesman Zhao on
Wednesday rebuked an article by
US Secretary of Defense Mark
Esper, published in The Wall Street
Journal on Monday, saying his
claims about the role of the PLA
were “totally groundless”.
Zhao said China upholds a defen-
sive national defense policy, and the
Constitution of the Communist Par-
ty of China and the Constitution of
the People’s Republic of China have
made it clear that China follows a
path of peaceful development and
opposes hegemony.
“Can the US make such a declara-
tion?” Zhao asked.
“Which country owns hundreds
of military bases around the world,
waged war or conducted military
actions illegally against countries
such as Iraq, Syria and Libya, and
sent vessels and aircraft to flex its
muscles in distant waters away from
its own territory?” he said.
“Which country is sticking to a
Cold War mentality, withdrawing
from treaties and organizations,
wielding its ‘clubs and fists’ and
undermining global rules wanton-
ly?” Zhao said.
Also, China has sent more peace-
keeping troops than any other per-
manent member of the United
Nations Security Council, Zhao said,
pointing out that since 1990, the
Chinese military has participated in
more than 20 UN peacekeeping
operations and sent more than
40,000 peacekeeping troops.
Contact the writers at
zhangzhihao@chinadaily.com.cn
Inside
• Editorial, page 8
4 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
CHINA
China’s soybean
imports will
keep increasing
With the virus’ impact on trade limited,
nation will boost purchases from the US
By WANG XIAOYU
wangxiaoyu@chinadaily.com.cn
China’s soybean imports will con-
tinue to rise in the coming months
as the impact of the COVID-19 pan-
demic on trade is limited, and the
purchases of soybeans from the
United States will be ramped up,
the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Affairs said on Wednesday.
The country imported over 55.1
million metric tons of soybeans
from January to July, up 17.6 percent
year-on-year.
In July alone, 10.1 million tons of
soybeans were imported, a 16.8 per-
cent increase from last July, accord-
ing to Tang Ke, head of the ministry’s
market and economic information
department, who cited data from
the General Administration of Cus-
toms during a news conference.
Disruptions caused by the pan-
demic on supply chains and port
operations have been limited so far.
On the contrary, the spread of the
novel coronavirus and low oil prices
have dampened global demand for
soybeans, thus creating a favorable
environment for expanding soy-
bean imports, according to Tang.
“Global supplies of soybeans are
sufficient to meet demand, and
overall prices for soybeans on the
international market are stable,
both of which bode well for soybean
imports into China,” Tang said.
“In the future, soybeans produced
in North America will be released
into the market. With the imple-
mentation of the Phase 1 trade deal
between China and the United
States, imports of soybeans, includ-
ing shipments from the US, are
expected to rise, contributing to sta-
ble prices and sufficient supplies of
soybean meal and oil in China,” he
said.
In addition, domestic soybean
stocks and newly harvested soy-
beans will gradually enter the mar-
ket, further securing supplies and
helping drag down prices recently
buoyed by rising demand, according
to Tang.
Monitoring data show that in
July, purchase prices for domestic
edible soybeans in Heilongjiang
province — a major soybean-plant-
ing region — stood at 5.5 yuan (80
cents) per kilogram, up 51.2 percent
year-on-year.
Sky bound
A light sports plane, designed in China, takes off as its maiden flight
gets underway at Jingmen Zhanghe Airport in Hubei province on
Wednesday. XINHUA
Letter: Scientific teamwork
vital for countries, Putin says
From page 1
Russian President Vladimir Putin
said in his congratulatory letter that
scientific and technological innova-
tion is one of the most promising
channels of cooperation between
China and Russia. It is crucial for
the two countries’ development and
also influences the improvement of
people’s livelihoods, he said.
According to Putin, the Year of
Scientific and Technological Inno-
vation will cover activities such as
scientific research, exhibitions and
academic exchanges.
He also highlighted the close coop-
eration between the two countries’
In China, imported soybeans are
mainly used to make vegetable oil
and soybean meal for livestock feed-
ing. Brazil, the United States and
Argentina are the top three exporters.
The country buys about 80 million
to 90 million tons of soybeans annu-
ally, which would otherwise take up
over 40 million hectares of fields if
being produced domestically,
according to Pan Wenbo, head of the
ministry’s plantation department.
“Among all major grains in China,
the largest supply gap exists in the
soybean sector,” Tang said.
“Though areas growing soybeans
have increased from 6.7 million hec-
tares to 9.3 million hectares in
recent years, the gap between pro-
duction and demand continues to
widen. Maintaining a moderate
amount of soybean imports has now
become part of efforts to ensure
food security.”
Meanwhile, ministry officials
stressed that China will remain
largely self-sufficient in supplies of
rice, wheat and corn.
Though the disease outbreak,
regional drought and flooding this
year have cast uncertainties over
grain production, China is set to see
a bumper harvest in the absence of
major disasters for the rest of the
year, according to Tang.
Grain reserves are also abundant,
with current stockpiles of rice and
wheat equaling the total consump-
tion amounts of urban and rural res-
idents in one year, he said.
Corn reserves are being consumed
at a rapid pace, and the purchase pri-
ces for corn in northeastern and
northern regions have soared by 30
percent compared to the beginning
of this year.
Tang said the price increases are
reasonable and will soon stabilize
thanks to new harvests and expand-
ing imports.
He also appealed to consumers,
farmers and traders to refrain from
hoarding or panicking due to uncer-
tainties triggered by the COVID-19
pandemic.
“In the first half of this year, China
has seen sufficient grain stocks,
strong processing capacity, power-
ful market regulation, an emergen-
cy response mechanism and a well-
developed logistics system,” he said.
“There is no need to be overly
anxious or resort to panic buying.”
governments as well as medical and
scientific research departments
regarding the COVID-19 pandemic,
saying that a series of important out-
comes has been achieved.
Putin said he sincerely wished
the event success, which will enrich
the China-Russia comprehensive
strategic partnership of coordina-
tion for a new era.
Xi and Putin jointly decided to des-
ignate the “Year of Scientific and
Technological Innovation” in both
countries during Xi’s visit to Russia
last year. Previously, the two countries
had held similar programs featuring
languages, tourism, youth exchanges,
media and subnational exchanges.
Vision checks
Parents take their children to check their eyesight at Zhengzhou Second Hospital in Henan province
on Wednesday. More children were brought in during the final days of summer vacation, during
which many spent their time watching a lot of television, using their computers or playing on their
mobile phones. WANG ZHONGJU / CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Cooperation sought to pilot
green growth of Yangtze zone
By XING YI in Shanghai
xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn
The demonstration zone for the
integration of the Yangtze River
Delta called for the participation of
different parties to pilot green
growth in the region during a
developers’ conference in Shang-
hai on Wednesday.
The zone sits at the border of
Shanghai and two neighboring
provinces with an area of 2,300
square kilometers. It will lead the
implementation of the region’s
integration, a national strategy
announced by President Xi Jinping
in 2018.
Li Qiang, secretary of the Shang-
hai Municipal Committee of the
Communist Party of China, said in
his opening speech at the confer-
ence that rice and fish have been
abundant in the area since ancient
times. He added that the demon-
stration zone should embody the
concept of sustainable develop-
ment, break down administrative
barriers and accelerate innovation.
“The area will be a land of mira-
cles, and to achieve our goals we
need a group of ambitious develop-
ers with passion and entrepreneur-
ship,” he said.
Twelve entities founded a devel-
opers’ alliance during the confer-
ence, including companies such as
Huawei and Alibaba; academic
representatives from Fudan Uni-
versity and the China Academy of
Urban Planning and Design; and
Money: Security key for digital currency
From page 1
“But the pilot program is rela-
tively limited right now, involving
a small group of people. The trials’
expansion may take more time; it
would be a gradual process,” said
Li, who is head of the blockchain
research group of the National
Internet Finance Association of
China, in an exclusive interview
with China Daily on Monday.
“Trials of the central bank digital
currency may be expanded within
the year or early next year, but
whether it will quickly be intro-
duced to the whole country still
requires observation.”
One of the premises Li described
is that the underlying technology
and the whole digital currency sys-
tem should meet certain stan-
dards, such as stable operation and
applications that satisfy public
needs. It would be accepted by a
broader range of users when the
digital renminbi really reaches
market competitiveness, he said.
Once the pilot program is
expanded — especially in devel-
oped regions in China with a huge
number of consumers — the digital
currency system will have to be able
to serve a “hypermarket” with a
technology infrastructure process-
ing data from users in a fast, highly
secure and resilient way, he added.
“If the pilot program started in
the Hong Kong and Macao special
administrative regions, the
designers and supervisors would
financial institutions such as the
US-China Green Fund and the Chi-
na International Capital Corpora-
tion.
The China Three Gorges Corpo-
ration will serve as the first rotat-
ing chair of the alliance.
Wang Lin, general manager of
the Three Gorges company, said the
corporation will work with other
members to explore ways to devel-
op the delta while protecting the
environment.
Also during the conference, offi-
cials from the National Develop-
ment and Reform Commission,
Shanghai and the city’s two neigh-
boring provinces called for design
plans for a 35-square-kilometer
area called “The Living Room of
the Jiangnan Watertown”, which is
located in the middle of the dem-
onstration zone.
“We are looking for ideas across
the globe that can incorporate
international standards with Chi-
nese characteristics in building an
environmentally sustainable water-
town,” Duan Jin, an academician of
Chinese Academy of Sciences, said
during his keynote speech on the
guiding principles of the develop-
ment of the area.
Duan added that details about
the submission will be released
online on Thursday.
A slew of developmental projects
and agreements were signed during
the conference, including the crea-
tion of an integration index to assist
policymaking, a collaboration
need to consider
the correspond-
ing institutional
arrangements. If
the digital cur-
rency is for cross-
border use, a
more complicat-
Li Lihui ed technology
platform should
be adopted to
connect with outbound transac-
tion systems.”
The digitalized renminbi
issued by the PBOC is called the
“digital currency and electronic
payment”, or DC/EP. Its goal is to
replace part of the cash in circula-
tion, the central bank said earlier.
The central bank may coordi-
nate with electronic payment ser-
vice providers, such as Alipay and
WeChat Pay, to promote the new
digital renminbi at the initial
stage, which is a way to save costs
and have the form of payment
more easily accepted by the pub-
lic, Yang Dong, head of the Finan-
cial Technology and Blockchain
Research Center of the Law and
Technology Institute at Renmin
University of China, told China
Daily last week.
From the design information
disclosed earlier by the central
bank, the DC/EP could eventually
replace bank card business to
some extent. While the DC/EP is
expected to become one of the
main payment instruments along
with mature third-party payment
agreement between design and
urban planning institutions, and
the integration of healthcare sys-
tems among Shanghai, Jiangsu and
Zhejiang and Anhui.
Xia Kejia, director of the Shang-
hai municipal healthcare security
bureau, said they have completed a
cross-city medical expense system
in more than 5,000 hospitals in all
the 41 cities in the Yangtze River
Delta last year.
“By July, around 2.1 million
patients have used that direct pay-
ment service with total transac-
tions of 17.5 billion yuan ($2.5
billion) in medical expenses,” Xia
said.
Xia added that the bureaus are
working on removing other incon-
veniences.
For example, they are seeking a
resolution that would enable peo-
ple to pay for healthcare in other
cities in the zone by using their
health insurance. Currently, people
who visit hospitals outside of the
city where they pay their premi-
ums must pay for medical proce-
dures out of pocket, or apply for
insurance in the city where they
are receiving care.
Liu Jun, president of Bank of
Communications, said the bank
will provide financing services to
green projects in the delta region,
such as upgrading environmental
protection equipment and rein-
venting traditional industries.
“We believe being green has its
value,” Liu said.
platforms for a certain period of
time, it will not replace them in the
short term, according to Li.
“The DC/EP will support offline
payment, supported by “near field
communication” technology, or
NFC, which is a big breakthrough
compared with online transac-
tions and it doesn’t need to be tied
to any bank account. Another
advantage is that the digital cur-
rency may support large-sum pay-
ment,” he added.
Before the currency is tested in
a broader range, standards for
digital currency technology,
applications and market promo-
tion should be created, tested and
approved by a third-party certifi-
cation body to steadily improve
the experimental process, Li said.
Efficient supervision
“The regulatory authorities
must issue rules and regulations to
ensure efficient supervision of the
whole system, which will require a
longer period for preparation.”
Cross-border usage of the digital
renminbi may require currency
swap arrangements, depending on
more complicated conditions, and
the whole international financial
system will be influenced by the
birth of new central bank digital
currencies, according to Li.
“It will not be easy for the DC/EP
to enter the international market,
and it is not designed, as of today,
for financial assets trading or
cross-border investment.”
CHINA DAILY
Hotel:
Visitors
gain better
awareness
of culture
From page 1
He was attracted by the beauti-
ful landscapes in Dali and an old
compound having distinctive fea-
tures of the Bai ethnic group. The
compound was built in 1948 and
once belonged to the family of
businessman Yang Pinxiang, a
trader who had gained great
wealth in the early 1900s. The
property had fallen into disrepair,
though it was put under national
protection in 2001.
Linden applied to renovate it
using his entire savings of about
4 million yuan ($580,000). He
and his wife, Jeanee, created the
Linden Centre hotel.
“Restoring old buildings
requires more money, time and
care than building a new one,” he
said. “We believe our efforts to pre-
serve the structures would pro-
mote China’s cultural heritage.”
His efforts are well under-
stood by his guests.
“I sat on the wooden bed and
looked out the small window,
staring at the mountain and
farmland from the same angle
that its owner did dozens of
years ago, and tried to replicate
the feeling,” a guest commented
on TripAdvisor, a major online
travel site. “The hotel tries to
bring visitors to the old times
and arouse people’s respect for
history and culture.”
Linden’s efforts have also
touched local residents like
Zhang Bin. “Linden makes us
consider the importance of local
culture and the environment, and
encourages us to be more confi-
dent in cultural communication.”
It is so attractive
that I hope the world
will love it (Chinese
culture) through my
eyes, and share my
passion for China.”
Brian Linden, founder of the
Linden Centre hotel
Linden and his wife hope the
hotel will provide more than a
place to sleep and eat. They’d like
it to function as an international
communication center. To make
that happen, they restored two
other old compounds to enlarge
the scale with the support of the
local government. They worked
with many schools in Europe and
the US on some projects to ena-
ble young foreigners to complete
part of their education in China.
“Some of the children were
born into political families and
may become future politicians.
They studied in Xizhou for five
months and cried when they left,”
Linden said. “I know they will not
misunderstand China in the
future like many current people
do. I believe such children’s emo-
tional relationship with China
will be influential in the future.”
Unlike many other homestays,
60 percent of the Linden Centre
blends into public spaces, includ-
ing a library and gym, which are
also available for local people to
use. Linden employs about 100
locals and provides free opportu-
nities for local students to
engage in education projects.
“I may not have much money,
but I really would like to lead
more local people to live a better
life,” Linden said.
Zhang said, “Linden has gone
deep into our hearts with his
respect and tolerance. His smile
and passion always touch us.”
Linden said he is satisfied with
his current life, and is devoted to
spreading Chinese culture, which
he calls “my most important job”.
“It is so attractive that I hope
the world will love it through my
eyes, and share my passion for
China. As a foreigner, I should do
that, want to do that, and love to
do that. China deserves the
world’s respect.”
Li Yingqing and Chen Yuehua
contributed to this story.
 CHINA DAILY
CHINA
New border facility
to boost cargo flow
Control point between Hong Kong and
Shenzhen opening to private cars later
By CHEN ZIMO in Hong Kong
mollychen@chinadailyhk.com
The opening of the Heung Yuen
Wai Control Point marked a mile-
stone in cooperation between the
Hong Kong Special Administra-
tive Region and Shenzhen,
Guangdong province, as the new
cross-boundary facility will fur-
ther facilitate the flow of cargo
and people within the region,
Hong Kong Chief Executive Car-
rie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on
Wednesday.
The new control point, named
Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Con-
trol Point in Hong Kong and Lian-
tang Port in Shenzhen, is the
seventh land-based control point
on their border.
The new crossing, which has
been under construction since
2013, started operating at 4 pm on
Wednesday, but because of COV-
ID-19 restrictions, only cargo
trucks are currently allowed.
Speaking at the opening cere-
mony, Lam said the new port
would greatly reduce travel time
HK youth’s firm touts mainland study
By LI WENFANG in Guangzhou
liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn
A resident of Hong Kong, Chris
Tsang graduated from Jinan Uni-
versity in Guangzhou, Guangdong
province, two years ago and sensed
there was business potential in
serving Hong Kong students seek-
ing higher learning on the main-
land.
Despite the COVID-19 epidemic,
Tsang launched his company, Ying-
cai Shengshi Education Technolo-
gy (Guangzhou) Co, in the Nansha
district of Guangzhou in March.
Tsang got the inspiration for his
company while interning during
university study in Malaysia,
where he worked at an institution
helping Malaysian Chinese stu-
dents who wanted to study in uni-
versities in China.
“There is a market for the servi-
ces, and such services are far from
sufficient,” Tsang said. He cited the
fact that more than 7,000 Hong
Kong high school students applied
for mainland universities last year,
and more than 10,000 did so this
year, projecting the figure to grow
further.
Some Hong Kong students
desire mainland universities for
the lower cost, job prospects on the
mainland and — in the case of uni-
versities in Guangzhou, for exam-
ple — proximity to Hong Kong and
the development potential in the
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao
Greater Bay Area, though the stu-
dents lack knowledge about main-
land schools and cities, Tsang said.
The mainland is highly devel-
oped in many aspects such as
e-commerce and e-payment
thanks to its market structure, he
said.
“If one lives on the mainland for
some years and notices the oppor-
The newly renovated Xi’an Bell Tower opens to the public on
Wednesday. The tower, with a history of 600 years, underwent
renovation for more than 70 days due to long-term weathering.
ZHANG JIE / FOR CHINA DAILY
between eastern Hong Kong and
eastern Shenzhen and strengthen
Hong Kong’s collaboration with
neighboring mainland cities.
Lam said the opening repre-
sents another major step in
achieving the “one-hour living
circle” plan within the Guang-
dong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater
Bay Area, offering a key infra-
structure link for regional devel-
opment.
After the control point opens to
travelers and private cars, the
facility will have the capacity to
handle daily traffic of 30,000 pas-
sengers and 17,850 vehicles,
including 15,000 trucks, 2,000
cars and 850 buses.
Shenzhen customs has
installed updated surveillance
equipment that can detect contra-
band materials without the need
to open containers for inspection.
Passenger areas are 5G ready for
commuters’ convenience.
Located in the east of both cit-
ies, the new crossing was built
mainly to ease the flow of cargo at
two existing ports: the 42-year-
To me, the Bay
Area means
co-sharing, not
only in products,
but also talent.”
Chris Tsang, a Hong Kong resi-
dent who started an agency for
students outside the Chinese
mainland seeking higher
education on the mainland
tunity, after graduation, he or she
may identify the development
course or more opportunities
here,” he explained. “To me, the Bay
Area means co-sharing, not only in
products, but also talent.”
Tsang’s company targets appli-
cants for mainland universities
from Hong Kong, Macao and Tai-
wan, as well as some foreign coun-
tries.
It offers services from the point
of high school graduation to poten-
tial university enrollment, includ-
ing the preparation for entrance
examinations and the selection of
universities and majors.
Although the epidemic has hin-
dered the effort to promote the ser-
vices in Hong Kong, the staff,
currently composed of five people,
has been devoted to enhancing its
products.
For example, it is working with a
high school in Beijing on the devel-
opment of online classes, which
are expected to become available
later this year. Thanks to an inves-
tor in Nansha, the company is
building a 600-square-meter cam-
pus in the district. It is also work-
ing with firms in Hong Kong to
promote its services.
In choosing Nansha, which is
old Man Kam To Control Point
and the 35-year-old Sha Tau Kok
Control Point.
Stanley Chaing Chi-wai, chair-
man of the Lok Ma Chau China-
Hong Kong Freight Association,
estimated that the transit time
through the new control point
would be 45 to 50 minutes less
than through Sha Tau Kok point
as the new port is directly con-
nected to highways on both sides.
Chaing said the industry is
looking forward to the improve-
ment of service and facilities in
the vicinity, such as service sta-
tions and shopping malls to facili-
tate customs clearance for cargo
drivers.
Tsang Yuk-on, vice-chairman of
Sha Tau Kok District Rural Com-
mittee, believes the new crossing
will boost the travel industry in
the eastern parts of Hong Kong
and Shenzhen, which have abun-
dant travel resources such as
beautiful beaches and mountains.
He hopes the control point will
open to passengers and private
cars as soon as possible after the
pandemic.
Kathy Zhang contributed to this
story.
part of the China (Guangdong)
Pilot Free Trade Zone and is a bit
far from the city center, Tsang said
the district is a suitable place for a
startup company.
Like other districts in
Guangzhou and other cities in
Guangdong province, the Nansha
government has rolled out a series
of policies supporting entrepre-
neurial endeavors by — and the
employment of — youths from
Hong Kong and Macao, with some
terms highly preferential.
In Tsang’s case, corporate regis-
tration procedures are free, office
space is free for three years, and
both the company and its employ-
ees from Hong Kong and Macao
receive subsidies. Well-decorated,
low-cost apartments are available
near the company.
While Tsang was studying at uni-
versity, he learned various policies
for promoting startups by Hong
Kong and Macao youths, as well as
for hiring of such people.
“Those policies are very practi-
cal,” he said. “When students are
aware that the government is tak-
ing care of them, it somewhat
encourages them in their decision-
making.”
Lam Shing, also a Hong Kong
resident and Jinan University
graduate, joined Tsang’s company
after working at another company
in Guangdong and in Hong Kong.
Lam is engaged in promoting
the company’s services through
various multimedia platforms.
“With our company, we can help
some young people in Hong Kong
plan for the future, apart from my
personal achievements. We can
help them better understand the
Bay Area.”
Guo Jingyu contributed to this
story.
Newly renovated Xi’an Bell Tower reopens to tourists
By XIN WEN in Xi’an
xinwen@chinadaily.com.cn
A landmark bell tower with a his-
tory of over 600 years in the center of
Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province,
reopened to tourists on Wednesday
after more than 70 days of mainte-
nance work on its roof and rafters
was completed.
The Bell Tower, built in 1384 dur-
ing the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), is
a 36-meter wood-and-brick struc-
ture known as one of the largest and
best-preserved bell tower in China.
To prolong the life of the tower,
the Museum of Xi’an Bell and Drum
Towers began to repair the roof and
outer golden columns on June 12.
Wang Lei, director of the muse-
um, said due to long-term exposure
of wind, rain and sunshine, the tow-
Rail builders work on tracks of the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway at Fuzhou South Railway Station in Fuzhou,
Fujian province, on Wednesday. HU PENG / FOR CHINA DAILY
Cross-sea bridge starts load tests
By ZHANG YI in Beijing
and HU MEIDONG in Fuzhou
China’s first cross-sea bridge
accommodating both vehicles and
railway traffic — the longest of its
type in the country — has started its
static load tests and is expected to
open to traffic by the end of this year,
according to the China Railway Nan-
chang Bureau Group.
Two heavy freight trains with a
combined load of 2,392 metric tons
started a six-day test on the Pingtan
Haixia Rail-Road Bridge on Saturday
to see if the overall performance of
the bridge can meet the safety
requirements.
The 16.3-kilometer bridge, which
began construction in 2013, is
designed to support six lanes of vehi-
cles with a maximum speed of 100
kilometers per hour on its upper
path, and two tracks below carrying
trains traveling up to 200 km/h.
The span is built over seawater,
where about 300 days a year the
wind is heavy and impedes construc-
tion, and had to overcome severe
meteorological, hydrological and
Rare typhoon to bring rain, gales to Liaoning
By LI HONGYANG in Beijing
and WU YONG in Shenyang
Typhoon Bavi may land in Liaoning
province on Thursday, bringing gales
and torrential rains to the area after
forming on Saturday and subse-
quently accelerating north, the
National Meteorological Center said.
The center predicted that Bavi will
land between Liaoning’s Zhuanghe
city and the North Pyongan province
of the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea on Thursday morning.
Winds up to 136 kilometers per hour
and heavy rainfall are expected to
strike Liaoning and parts of Shan-
dong, Jilin and Heilongjiang provin-
ces through Thursday night.
On Wednesday, the center issued
a red alert for the storm — the high-
est of the four-tier warning system.
Under the guidance of the Minis-
try of Transport, the Liaoning gov-
ernment has started to evacuate
ship crews and has suspended all
ferry, railway and highway services
that will be affected by the typhoon.
On Wednesday, Dalian Internation-
al Airport in Liaoning canceled 32
flights due to weather risks. Interpro-
er roof suffered from rain leakage
and partial peeling of its ornaments.
“The most difficult part of the ren-
ovation was gilding the roof,” he said.
“We used 3,800 pieces of gold foil,
weighing about 70 grams, to reno-
vate the roof, which was being
restored for the first time in 25 years.
The roof has four layers, with the
innermost a wooden core wrapped
up in a copper sheet. The copper
skin is scraped with putty covered
with gold foil.
Workers needed to climb stairs
for the repair, since the roof is about
4.53 meters high, Wang said.
Meanwhile, a three-month exhi-
bition has opened to the public,
offering comprehensive introduc-
tion of the bell tower’s history, build-
ing crafts, architectural functions
and previous overhauls.
Fuzhou-Pingtan railway
Fuzhou
Pingtan Haixia
Rail-Road Bridge
Pingtan
CHINA DAILY
geological problems, according to
the company.
The dual-use bridge is an impor-
tant section of the Fuzhou-Pingtan
railway, with a length of 88 kilome-
ters connecting downtown Fuzhou,
Fujian province, and the island coun-
ty of Pingtan off the east coast of Fuji-
an. The railway is also expected to be
put into use by the end of this year.
Pingtan is the nearest mainland
county to the Taiwan Island — just 68
nautical miles from Taiwan’s Hsin-
chu city. It has been a development
vincial passenger ship services along
the Bohai Strait between Shandong
and Liaoning were suspended on
Wednesday afternoon, Qilu Evening
News, a local newspaper reported.
The sustained rainfall that has been
affecting Liaoning since Sunday will
exacerbate the situation and cause
geological disasters such as landslid-
es, urban flooding and debris flow, the
provincial government said.
Shenyang, the provincial capital,
announced that starting on
Wednesday afternoon, night fairs
and outdoor tourist spots would be
suspended, and schools and nurs-
ing homes would be shut down tem-
porarily.
After making landfall, Bavi will
subside and move through the
northeastern provinces, the nation-
al meteorological center said.
If Bavi makes landfall in Liaoning
at the predicted strength, it will be
the most powerful of the 13 storms
that have landed in Liaoning over
the past 71 years, said Zhang Juan, a
weather analyst at the China Mete-
orological Administraiton.
“Typhoons that arrive in the Yel-
low Sea tend to move east toward
The restoration work was the
sixth made to the tower since 1949,
and the last overhaul was in 2011,
according to the museum.
Local residents and tourists from
home and abroad applauded the
reopening of the ancient tower.
“I was looking forward to the
reopening,” said Zhang Zhen, a native
of Xi’an who works near the tower.
“Even if you just take a look outside
during the day, you will feel very famil-
iar and close to the building because
it’s a landmark in my hometown.”
Cheng Beiyi, a 12-year-old stu-
dent, said after visiting the tower
she felt the ancient people were full
of wisdom.
“Many modern buildings need
electricity and technologies to be
maintained, but the Bell Tower is
still standing after more than 600
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 5
bottleneck because of poor transpor-
tation in the past.
In 2010, the Strait Bridge began
operating for cars only. It links Ping-
tan with an outlying county of Fu-
zhou and is currently the only
entrance and exit for the island. It
takes about two hours to get from the
island to downtown Fuzhou.
After it is put into use, the new
span will cut travel time from two
hours to about 30 minutes between
the two areas, the company said.
“As an important passage connect-
ing to Taiwan in the long-term, the
bridge will play a positive role in pro-
moting cross-Straits infrastructure,”
it said.
In the draft outline of the 13th
Five-Year Plan (2016-20), a high-
speed railway linking Beijing and
Taipei, Taiwan, was proposed. The
Fuzhou-Pingtan railway represents
the southeast end of that railway. For
the remainder of the distance —
Pingtan to Taiwan — an underwater
tunnel has been proposed.
Contact the writers at
zhangyi1@chinadaily.com.cn
the Korean Peninsula, and it is not
easy for them to land in China’s
northeastern provinces,” she said.
The center said that if Bavi lands in
Liaoning, it would be the first
typhoon to land in the region since
2005, although several storms have
since affected the area after landing
in the Korean Peninsula.
Moreover, Bavi will also be the
second typhoon since 1949 to make
its first landfall in Liaoning, the oth-
er having hit in 1964.
“During the past seven decades,
typhoons in Liaoning were mostly
‘secondhand’, which means they
landed in other areas before arriving
in the province, and weakened dur-
ing the first landfall,” Zhang said.
“However, this year, unusually
high sea temperatures in the East
and Yellow seas have energized Bavi
and helped maintain its strength.”
Zhang warned that northern are-
as are vulnerable due to their lack of
experience responding to typhoons,
and cold air there combined with a
typhoon will trigger heavier rainfall.
Contact the writers at
lihongyang@chinadaily.com.cn
years without much technology
involved,” she said.
Adrie van den Berk, a project man-
ager at a gas shipping company in
Shanghai, took a tour of the tower with
his wife on Wednesday afternoon.
“We just saw the tower by accident
when we had a bicycle tour in the city
today,” he said. “I was amazed by the
structure of the building and was
lucky to see its whole appearance.”
By noon on Wednesday, more
than 1,000 tourists had visited the
Bell Tower, twice the number of
tourists that had visited on the
mornings before the repair, accord-
ing to the museum staff.
The museum has also decided to
extend the bell tower’s opening time
by one hour every night before Oct
10 to give tourists more sightseeing
time.
6 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
CHINA
XIAOKANG@GRASSROOTS
Relocation gives families a fresh start
Move to urban communities improves lives of rural residents. ZHAO XINYING reports from Xi’an.
S
itting in a factory workshop
near the center of Laoxian,
Ankang city, in the north-
western province of
Shaanxi, Zhang Yundi used a sewing
machine to turn fragments of cloth
into a toy bear.
Across the way stood a well-
planned, well-constructed resi-
dential community featuring rows
of six-story modern apartment
buildings with clean white walls
and black roof tiles. That’s where
Zhang’s new home is located.
Working in the factory as a toy-
maker, Zhang can earn 2,000 yuan
($290) a month.
Her children attend a school
just a few minutes’ walk from
home and her husband works at
another factory nearby, earning
3,000 yuan a month.
The 40-year-old’s life is any-
thing but poverty-stricken, but
before she and her family moved
to the community three years ago,
things were very different.
At the time, Zhang, her husband
and their three children lived in
Wanfushan, a village in a moun-
tainous part of Laoxian, where
there was no tap water, electricity
or sealed roads to connect resi-
dents with the outside world.
Drinking water had to be car-
ried uphill in buckets to their
home, a poorly constructed mud-
and-brick building. The 70 kilome-
ter trip to the downtown took
hours along dirt roads.
Zhang’s family led an extremely
hard life. The household’s com-
bined annual income amounted to
just a few thousand yuan, and
relied on Zhang doing farm work
in the village while her husband
was a migrant worker on con-
struction sites in large towns.
“Once, my eldest daughter fell ill
and was very weak. My husband
was away from home and couldn’t
be reached because neither I nor
anyone in the village had a land-
line or a cellphone. I didn’t even
have 10 yuan in my pocket to pay
for her treatment,” Zhang said, try-
ing to hold back her tears as she
recalled those difficult days. “I felt
so hopeless.”
Improvements
Things began to improve in
2017, when the family of five was
relocated to an apartment in the
Jinping residential community.
The compound was specially
constructed near the center of
Laoxian to house impoverished
families who lived in areas that
lacked convenient transportation
and other modern infrastructure.
“We Chinese often say ‘Each
place has its own water and soil to
support its inhabitants.’ But if the
water and soil can’t provide enough
support for the inhabitants or can’t
guarantee a good life for them, relo-
cating people to a new area is a bet-
ter option,” said Yang Juqiao, Party
chief of Laoxian.
“That’s why we decided to build
the community. We wanted to
move people from areas that
lacked transportation facilities or
contact with the outside world
and were prone to natural disas-
ters, such as floods and landslides,
to places where it would be conve-
nient for them to go to work,
school or the hospital.”
According to Yang, construction
of the community started in 2011
and was completed last year.
So far, 4,173 people have relocat-
ed from 11 settlements in Laoxian,
including Wanfushan, Zhang’s
home village.
In recent years, local govern-
ments in Shaanxi have frequently
lifted people out of extreme pover-
ty by relocating them to places
with better living conditions, facil-
ities and job opportunities.
One successful example is a resi-
dential garden community in Yun-
gaisi, a town in Zhen’an county,
Shangluo city. The community
houses at least 515 families, some
of whom are still classified as
impoverished.
Before, Zhen’an natives lived in
densely populated regions or
mountainous areas in the west of
the county, where the poor roads
resulted in constant traffic jams
and educational, medical and oth-
er resources were scarce.
To improve living conditions for
local people, construction of the
garden community started in
Zhen’an, a county in Shangluo city, Shaanxi province, is seen nestled in the wooded slopes of the Qinling Mountains.
From left: Zhang Yundi makes toys at a factory in Laoxian, Ankang city, Shaanxi, last month. ZHAO XINYING / CHINA DAILY A woman displays
hand-reared chickens via a livestream at a coop in Siping village, Shangluo, Shaanxi, on July 20. LIU XIAO / XINHUA
Workers make socks at a factory in Ankang on April 22.
SHAO RUI / XINHUA
2012. Since then, 50 residential
blocks have been built, all
equipped with running water,
electricity and the internet, as well
as a kindergarten, a health clinic, a
public square, sealed roads and a
parking lot, said Jiang Weijie, Par-
ty chief of Yungaisi.
Bu Mingqing and her family are
among those who have benefited
from the project.
In 2017, the family relocated
from a barren, underdeveloped
region of Zhen’an to a 105-square-
meter apartment in the residen-
tial community.
Factories
When Bu first moved to the
community, her lack of education
and work experience meant she
was unable to find a job.
“I was so concerned about how
to make a living. My family was so
poor, and I had children to raise —
I really didn’t know what to do,”
she recalled.
Under an arrangement with the
local government, she finally got a
job as a cleaner at a factory near
the community, earning 1,100
yuan a month.
In the area around the garden
community, 18 buildings have
been constructed for the use of
labor-intensive factories, such as
those manufacturing clothes and
components for electronic devi-
ces, and plants that process agri-
cultural produce.
The factories have provided 870
jobs for local residents and helped
raise the incomes of 185 impover-
ished families, Jiang said.
The change has improved Bu’s
life beyond measure. “Before mov-
ing to the community, I had to bor-
row money to keep afloat, as
harvests from the barren land
were too poor to live on,” she said.
“Now, living in such a beautiful
community with good facilities
and having a job that brings a sta-
ble income every month, my life is
something I never dared dream
of. I’m really grateful to the local
government.”
Yang, Party chief of Laoxian,
noted that relocation is not an end
in itself. “Even living in better pla-
Now, living in such a
beautiful community
with good facilities
and having a job that
brings a stable
income every month,
my life is something I
never dared dream
of.”
Bu Mingqing
resident whose family relocated
from an underdeveloped area to
a residential garden community
in Yungaisi town
ces, people still need jobs to keep
going,” he said, adding that to
meet residents’ needs, the Laoxian
government attracted investment
from other provinces and set up
four businesses near the Jinping
community in 2015.
“So far, the factories have hired
at least 155 residents, and 55 of
them are from impoverished fami-
lies,” he said.
The government of Gaobadian
township, Shangluo, has helped
provide better lives for people who
relocated to its Fuqiao community
by setting up factories that pro-
vide job opportunities.
The factories, which specialize
in a wide range of activities
including fungi cultivation, egg
processing and the manufacture
of electronic components, employ
at least 580 residents, with 320
coming from impoverished fami-
lies, according to Yang Hao, Gao-
badian’s Party chief.
In August last year, Fuqiao resi-
dent Li Xiaoyun started work at an
electronic components factory.
Working five days a week, she
TAO MING / XINHUA
can easily earn more than 2,000
yuan a month.
“Before I started work here, my
two sons and I relied totally on my
husband for support, which meant
life was very difficult,” she said.
“Now, with the salary I earn at
the factory, our lives are much
better.”
Vocational training
In addition to providing jobs,
some local governments have
gone a step further by organizing
vocational training to allow resi-
dents to acquire work skills.
In Fuqiao, the human resources
and social security bureau has
held three training sessions since
August last year.
The goal is to help local women
master skills such as housekeep-
ing that will help give them an
edge in the job market, Yang Hao
said.
At least 100 residents took part
in each session. Late last month,
Le Shuyun, a 40-year-old former
full-time housewife, attended one
of the week-long training sessions.
In the old days, Le stayed at
home to take care of her four chil-
dren, which left her husband as
the family’s sole breadwinner.
To reduce the burden on him, Le
decided to learn some skills and
look for a job. She said the training
classes were very helpful.
“The teacher was very patient
and taught us well,” she said. “I
gained a lot of knowledge and
learned techniques for cooking and
caring for children and seniors.”
Now, she is planning to find a
job as a babysitter or waitress in
the town and is optimistic about
the future.
“I think I can land a good job,
thanks to the training,” she said.
Xin Wen contributed to this story.
Contact the writer at
zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn
CHINA DAILY
Kids enjoy
home from
home at
care center
By ZHAO XINYING
A day care center in a residen-
tial community for relocated
families in Shaanxi province is
helping “left-behind” children,
whose parents work away in
large cities and towns.
In 2016, a child development
center was established in the
Xiyuan residential community,
which is home to more than 180
poor families in Shiquan county.
The center cares for many chil-
dren in the community, but espe-
cially those whose parents are
working outside the county, said
Lu Longjun, the community’s
Party chief.
“Many of our residents lived in
underdeveloped parts of the
county and led hard lives. In 2015,
they were moved into our com-
munity with the help of the coun-
ty government. Some are now
working in other counties or cit-
ies to earn more money,” he said.
“The center was set up to
reduce their burden by looking
after their children.”
More than 60 children now
attend the center, with about 80
percent classified as “left
behind” and living with their
grandparents.
During the summer holiday,
the children are sent to the cen-
ter in the mornings by their
grandparents.
After studying, playing games
and socializing, they return
home in the afternoon.
On school days, they stay at the
center after school and return
home at dinnertime.
Volunteer Tang Yong teaches at
the day care center last month.
ZHAO XINYING / CHINA DAILY
80
percent
proportion of center attend-
ees who are classified as
“left-behind” children
Lu said that more than 40 vol-
unteers oversee the children to
ensure their safety and help with
their studies. Most of the volun-
teers are local residents, but a
few are college students who vol-
unteer to work there during the
holidays.
Tang Yong, 35, is one of the vol-
unteers. The former teacher in
East China’s Zhejiang province
returned to Shiquan in 2016.
“My hometown was develop-
ing rapidly thanks to a number of
helpful policies. Its further devel-
opment requires the efforts of
talented young people,” he said.
During his shifts at the center,
Tang teaches the children to read
and write Mandarin. Sometimes,
he talks with them, adopting the
role of a parent.
“Although the kids can have
video chats or telephone calls
with their parents, they still miss
them and thirst for parental care
and love,” he said, adding that he
hopes to bring comfort to the
lonely children.
Liu Yuxin started attending
the center last year. The 8-year-
old’s mother works for a toy man-
ufacturer in the county, while her
father is a migrant worker in
Ankang city, 60 kilometers away.
Yuxin said she likes the center
because she is treated well there.
“What I enjoy most is doing
my English homework under the
teacher’s guidance,” she said.
“The teacher always encourag-
es me, saying I’ve done a good job.”
Sun Ruonan contributed to this
story.
 CHINA DAILY
CHINA
Clockwise from left: Zhang Linchang on his way to deliver letters and parcels to Peilong village in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Guizhou province,
on July 28. Zhang walks on the trail to Shao’ai village in Jinping township on July 29. He takes a ferry boat across the Qingshui River on his way to work on July 29.
PHOTOS BY YANG XIAOHAI / FOR CHINA DAILY
Rain, hail or dental work,
the postman always delivers
Dedicated worker overcomes challenges of remote mountain routes
By YANG JUN and WANG KEJU
Zhang Linchang is no ordinary
postman.
The 55-year-old has to trek dozens
of kilometers every day on foot,
negotiating dense forests and dan-
gerous paths to deliver letters and
parcels to inaccessible villages in the
mountains of Guizhou province.
Over the past three decades,
Zhang has come across snakes,
boars, yellow weasels and other
wild animals in the line of duty as
he trudged along valley riverbanks
and crossed streams to reach the
villages.
Zhang is the only postman in
Jinping township, Qiandongnan
Miao and Dong autonomous pre-
fecture, where the postal service is
severely limited because of the
steep mountain paths and the scat-
tered population.
He started the job after being dis-
charged from military service in
1987. “Before I took the job, I was
told that no one was able to stick to
it for more than three years as the
Yellow River raftsmen ride changing currents to tourism profits
YINCHUAN — After making sure
that the tourists were sitting secure-
ly on his sheepskin raft, Tong Jin-
ding leaned forward and pushed the
vessel from the shore with an oar. To
the splash of the water, he chanted a
local folk song about the Yellow Riv-
er, the country’s second-longest
waterway.
“The tourists take photos and vid-
eos of the scenery as we drift on the
water,” he said. “They are happy, and
so am I.”
Tong, 37, lives in Shapotou village
and works at a scenic spot in Zhong-
wei, Ningxia Hui autonomous
region, through which 397 kilome-
ters of the Yellow River flows.
As the COVID-19 epidemic wanes
in China, the Shapotou scenic spot
has once again started to embrace
tourists.
Tong’s village is less than 1 km from
the scenic spot, and it is where the Yel-
low River and the Tengger Desert, the
fourth-largest in China, meet.
It is believed it was the place
where the Tang Dynasty (618-907)
poet Wang Wei wrote that “in the
boundless desert lonely smoke rises
straight, over the endless river the
sun sinks round”.
Tong said when he was a child he
wondered why the poem was so
beautiful “but life here was so hard”.
Before the 1980s, villagers sur-
vived for generations from farming,
although the barren land often fail-
ed to produce enough wheat and
90-km postal route is dangerous
and intimidating,” he said.
His postal round covers 200
square kilometers and 23 villages,
and it takes him four days to deliver
all the mail. To make his job possi-
ble, Zhang puts the mail into two
large bags, which he attaches to the
ends of a yoke that he carries across
his back.
Without anyone to keep him com-
pany, he said keeping boredom at
bay was a major problem he had to
deal with. “I can’t be any happier
when I come across a bunch of vil-
lagers who I can talk to for a while
after walking by myself for half a
day,” he said. “They often invite me
for tea and food at their homes.”
When it gets dark, he asks the
local township government or vil-
lagers if he can stay the night before
setting off early in the morning.
Accidents will happen
Navigating steep, rugged trails —
even when it’s rainy, windy or snowy
— means accidents are an occupa-
tional hazard.
corn for them to earn extra income.
They also had no opportunities to
run businesses.
To support their families, Tong’s
father and other villagers used to
transport goods and passengers in
their traditional rafts made from
inflated sheepskins and lengths of
wood.
When winter came, villagers
relied on frozen pears, dates and
coal from upstream.
Carrying wooden oars and deflated
sheepskins, his father led a team
upstream for more than 30 km. Once
they had purchased their goods, they
assembled the sheepskin rafts and
drifted downstream. “It took one day
for my father to tramp over the hills
and get there, and another day to drift
back home,” Tong recalled.
However, there were submerged
rocks and whirlpools on the way
back home, posing a challenge for
the raft operators.
Villager Tong Facai remembers
that they had to navigate their 2-me-
ter-wide raft through a narrow
waterway churned by two whirl-
pools.
“It was challenging. I had been
rowing rafts for 30 years, however, I
still had a lingering fear every time I
zipped through the waterway,” the
55-year-old said.
In recent years, infrastructure,
including transportation, has
improved a great deal in Zhongwei.
A picturesque location surround-
picked up the letters scattered
around the blood-stained rock and
kept walking until he arrived at the
village.
While most postal workers would
be given time to recuperate after
such an ordeal, there was no substi-
tute to do Zhang’s job.
“If I had taken leave, who would
have delivered letters for the 25,000
villagers?,” he said. “No one wanted
to take the risk of going into the
wild. So, I chose not to take leave.”
At the end of that year he was
ordered to have his teeth fixed,
when the county director of the
State Post Bureau saw Zhang’s man-
gled mouth. In order to ensure the
mail was delivered, Zhang request-
ed that a dentist treat him at home
so he didn’t have to travel to a city
for the dental work.
Similar accidents have been
repeated over the decades, but
Zhang has never considered quit-
ting his job.
Well aware of the dangers, he
worries about children who travel
the same paths as he does when
they go to school. Zhang has
adjusted his schedule so he can
escort some of the students to
school in the morning and back
home in the afternoon.
Zhang delivers a parcel to a resident at Yuhe village, Jinping town- “I am a veteran, I have experi-
ship, on July 28. enced training in the melting pot of
the army. I joined the Party when I
was in the army. I will not forget the
On a wet afternoon in September tered it with blood. Zhang said his purpose of serving the people
2005, Zhang, was rushing to deliver lips were swollen like two thick pie- wholeheartedly. I will continue to
a heavy parcel to Miaohou village ces of toast and he almost fainted move forward until the day I can’t
when he slipped and rolled down a from the pain. But it was getting walk,” he said.
30-meter slope. dark and he didn’t want to be alone
He had three front teeth knocked in the wild as it was too risky. Contact the writers at
out after his face hit a rock and splat- Enduring the severe pain, Zhang wangkeju@chinadaily.com.cn
ed by desert and water, the city has
also been attracting an increasing
number of tourists from home and
abroad. More than 6 million visits
were made last year and tourism
revenue totaled over 5.3 billion yuan
($763 million), according to local
statistics.
The increase in tourism has pro-
vided more job opportunities for the
villagers, with men typically
employed at the scenic spots and
women running homestay busi-
nesses.
According to He Tianbao, former
Party chief of the village, 51 house-
holds are running homestays, and
the annual per capita disposable
income of villagers reached 24,000
yuan last year.
About 40 villagers, including
Tong Jinding and Tong Facai, con-
tinue to work as raftsmen at the sce-
nic spot.
Apart from his full-time job as a
raftsman, Tong Jinding also runs
homestay with his wife. Their 70
rooms are often fully booked, espe-
cially during the summer holidays,
generating an annual income of
nearly 300,000 yuan.
“Thanks to the Yellow River and
the desert, we now make a living
from tourism. It’s busy in the peak
tourist season, and then we can
From top: A villager carries a sheepskin raft at a scenic spot in enjoy our lives for the rest of the
Zhongwei, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. CAO ZHIZHENG / FOR CHINA year,” Tong Jinding said.
DAILY Visitors ride a sheepskin raft on the Yellow River in Yinchuan,
Ningxia. ZHOU YONG / FOR CHINA DAILY XINHUA
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 7
Students,
farmers
plot success
together
SHIJIAZHUANG — Instead
of returning home or traveling
during his summer vacation,
postgraduate student Ye Song-
lin toils in the field every day
in Hebei province, 400 kilome-
ters from his university in Bei-
jing.
One of his tools is a ruler he
uses to measure and record the
growth of corn in the morning.
In the afternoon he analyzes
the data he has collected in a
lab. The research helps him
monitor the effects different
amounts of water and fertiliz-
er have on corn varieties.
“Sometimes, I’m too busy to
have a sip of water,” the
23-year-old said.
Ye is one of 21 postgraduates
from the China Agricultural
University working at eight
rural stations in Quzhou county.
The rural stations, also
known as “tiny yards of science
and technology”, allow stu-
dents like Ye to perform field
research on farmers’ plots,
while farmers gain direct
access to advanced agricultur-
al techniques.
The students stay at the sta-
tions from spring to fall, moni-
toring the crops, training
farmers and conducting field
research. In winter, they return
to campus for courses and to
meet their instructors and fel-
low students.
It is the second summer
vacation Ye has spent in
Wangzhuang village, Quzhou.
Born into a farming family in
Henan province, Ye is not new
to rural life.
The student from the univer-
sity’s Resources and Environ-
mental Sciences School has
learned to operate farm machin-
ery and even knows how to
troubleshoot in case the equip-
ment needs a quick fix.
“Local farmers often come
along to consult on technical
questions about farming. I’m
happy to offer some help,” Ye
said, adding that he will refer
to documents or ask his
instructors to answer some of
their questions, which he
believes is helpful for his study.
Zhang Hongyan, an associate
professor at the university, said
the students study smart
machines, special cultivation
methods and high crop yields in
the summer vacation.
They also teach new skills to
farmers.
According to Zhang, the first
rural station in Quzhou was set
up in 2009. The site was chosen
after CAU instructors and stu-
dents, at the central govern-
ment’s urging, investigated ways
to reclaim saline and alkaline
land to end a long history of low
yields.
In Qianya village, fertigation
as well as interplanting grapes
with other crops such as pean-
uts and sweet potatoes, have
been promoted.
Fertigation is the applica-
tion of fertilizer with irrigation
water. The process has been
applied to more than 130 hec-
tares of crops.
“Farming in a more scientif-
ic way does pay off,” said Guo
Liancheng, a local villager.
“Under the guidance of the
students I’ve had another
grape harvest this year.”
Long Shuyun, Party chief of
the village, said with improved
farming techniques, grapes
have been better quality and
produced higher yields.
Together with the interplanted
crops, this has brought local
farmers an additional 15,000
yuan ($2,150) to 45,000 yuan
per hectare.
With the higher income, farm-
ers have gradually developed
trust in the young students. A
WeChat group has been set up so
that farmers can ask them ques-
tions, Long said.
Li Huili, a student stationed in
the village, said, “Only better
crop yields can prove the effec-
tiveness of my study and techni-
cal guidance.”
XINHUA
8 | Thursday, August 27, 2020 CHINA DAILY

COMMENT
Editorials
Dave Granlund
Spy plane incursion into no-fly zone
betrays US’ dangerous arrogance

T
he entry of a United States Air Force U-2
reconnaissance plane into a no-fly zone
China announced for live-fire military
drills being conducted by the Northern
Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army
on Tuesday, is anything but acceptable rule-based
behavior.
China has more than enough reason to lodge
stern representations with the United States.
It is normal practice for a country to announce in
advance a no-fly zone when conducting live-fire mil-
itary drills, and entry into such a zone will naturally
be considered a violation of safety norms and thus a
provocative act.
As such, what the US did is a deliberate act aimed
at interfering with China’s military drills. In a state-
ment issued late on Tuesday, China’s Defense Minis-
try said the action had “seriously interfered in
normal exercise activities” and “severely incurred
the risk of misjudgment and even of bringing about
an unintended air-sea incident”.
But as US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper wrote
in an article published in The Wall Street Journal
ahead of his trip to Palau, Guam and Hawaii this
week, the US is willing to do all it can to maintain its
military advantage.
China is entitled to develop a strong military,
which it has repeatedly affirmed is to safeguard Chi-
na’s sovereignty, security and development inter-
ests. The unwarranted speculation of the US about
the motivations for PLA’s modernization drive are
Onus on Ottawa to mend relations
nothing but attempts to portray China as an aggres-
sor so as to drive a wedge between it and other coun-
tries in Asia.
As well as collecting as much intelligence as possi-
ble about the PLA’s military capabilities, the US
incursion into the no-fly zone was intended to high-
light the drills and reinforce this false perception
that China’s military is a threat.
But sending a U-2 reconnaissance plane into the
no-fly zone China announced in advance was not
only presumptuous, it was also potentially risky.
The tragic collision between a Chinese military jet
and US Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane in April 2001
is a lesson Washington and the Pentagon should have
learned. They must have forgotten the apologies they
had to make for that fatal coming together.
That its own interest and the maintaining of its
advantage over all countries in all aspects take pre-
cedence over anything else are the fundamental rea-
son the US engages in such provocative and reckless
behavior.
Being the world’s sole superpower and maintain-
ing that status get the better of the rationality of US
politicians and its military authorities, who, thanks
to their corresponding arrogance, lack any respect
for rules, conventions and international norms. Opinion Line
The fact that it has long bullied the world has
made the US paranoid that should it not be able to
bully another, it will end up being bullied itself.
But that is no excuse for the US’ behavior, which is
beyond the pale.
Shenzhen considers vacations,
workers’ fingers are crossed

C
Shenzhen, Guangdong prov- comed the regulation, but some been granted to employees uni-
ince, one of the country’s pio- doubt it will be effectively imple- formly because of the incomplete
hina’s State Councilor and Foreign Minis- operational notes — are kept under wraps, Ottawa’s
neers in reform and opening-up, mented. labor protection system.
ter Wang Yi made clear in his meeting with shameful collusion with Washington can be kept is now piloting measures to bet- More than 11,000 out of the Many private sector employees
Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Phil- out of the spotlight. ter protect laborers’ physical 23,000 people surveyed by peo- do not even enjoy paid leaves as
ippe Champagne in Rome on Tuesday that Thus the Canadian legal system that Ottawa has and mental health, including ple.cn on its official Sina Weibo they fear losing their jobs. But the
Canada’s unwarranted detention of Huawei Chief so proudly claimed to be impartial has shown itself launching a compulsory vaca- account on Tuesday supported employers who violate the labor-
Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is the reason that to be nothing more than an accomplice in a politi- tion system. the compulsory vacation system ers’ legal rights and interests have
Canada has “encountered serious difficulties” in its cal kidnapping carried out on the order of Wash- The draft amendment to the in Shenzhen, and suggested its hardly ever been punished for
relations with China. ington. Shenzhen Special Economic Zone nationwide promotion. such violations.
That the Federal Court of Canada on Tuesday cit- What makes Ottawa’s pantomime even more Health Ordinance, which was But more than 4,000 people, What’s worse, some entrepre-
ed “national security” and “international relations” obvious is that Champagne in his meeting with submitted on Monday for a sec- who agree it is a good policy, neurs that are only keen on
as the reasons for denying Meng’s defense team Wang once again tried to link China’s detainment of ond review by the standing com- said it is difficult to actually making profits publicly advocate
access to intelligence documents that her lawyers Michael John Kovrig and Michael Spavor — two mittee of Shenzhen people’s implement it. a 9 am-to-9 pm, six-days-a-week
say support their claim of abuse of process, only Canadians held on charges of spying — with Meng’s congress, requires employers to And about 7,500 people don’t work schedule, which not only
serves to reinforce the fact that Meng’s detention is a detention. reasonably space out employees’ even expect the policy to get undermines employees’ rights
political maneuver at the behest of the United In fact, Beijing has exercised considerable working hours. implemented; they just hope and interests but also disturbs a
That means employees han- their employers will guarantee healthy laborer protection envi-
States, which is ostensibly seeking her extradition restraint in its dealings with Ottawa, because, it is
dling heavier physical and men- workers a two-day weekend vaca- ronment in society.
on fraud charges while actually using the case as well aware, as Wang said, that the past 50 years have tal workloads should work in tion and do away with compulso- It is hoped that Shenzhen will
part of its pressure campaign against the Chinese seen the thriving of bilateral relations, and the two shifts and have vacations desig- ry overtimes. take the lead in exploring new
telecommunications company. countries “have no historical disputes or actual con- nated to avoid excessive physical Although the Employee Paid measures to better protect labor-
Although Justice Catherine Kane said that the flict of interest”. or mental pressure. Annual Leave Ordinance has been ers’ interests and reverse the
information contained in the documents is not rele- So if Canada really wants to find a way to resolve The suggested amendments around for more than a decade, unhealthy mindset of some enter-
vant to the abuse of process alleged by Meng’s legal the problems in bilateral relations, as Champagne have provoked heated discussions since being implemented in 2008, prises.
team, it takes no professional legal knowledge to see claimed, it had better look at itself first, as it is online. Many laborers have wel- in reality paid leaves have not — WANG YIQING, CHINA DAILY
that as long as the six key documents involved in the always better for the doer to undo a wrong that has
case — which include situational reports by the been done. The Canadian side should have a correct
Canadian Security Intelligence Service, an e-mail
reporting information provided by the US Federal
understanding of its actions.
The onus is on Ottawa to remove the obstacles
Platforms should put an end to risky videos
Bureau of Investigations, handwritten notes and currently impeding the progress of relations.
A 3-year-old girl normally been done. Even if Peppa’s par-
weighs around 14 kilograms. But ents now stop forcing food down
3-year-old Peppa, who borrows her throat, it will still take months
Banning Huawei hurts India’s interests her online name from a popular
cartoon, weighs 35 kilograms.
before her weight reduces to what
it should be.

T
That is because her par- Besides, being overweight
he Indian government has not issued any market rules, it will likely push India’s trade and ents livestreamed or exposes her to diabetes and high
formal ban on Chinese suppliers, yet “the economic relations with China to a new low. China posted videos showing blood pressure, which are lifelong
government is not going to allow Chinese has previously warned that there could be conse- Peppa gobbling up ailments.
equipment” to be used, a top telecom quences for Indian companies operating in China hamburgers, rice, In some of the videos, the girl is
industry executive was quoted by the Financial should India not provide a fair, just and nondiscrim- roasted meat and sausa- seen walking with difficulty, her
Times as saying in a report on Tuesday. “It’s really inatory commercial environment for Chinese enter- ges almost daily as a way legs being unable to support her
game over,” he said, adding that India’s telecoms prises’ investment and operations. to make money. weight.
Media reports say that in one JIN DING / CHINA DAILY Her parents should be held
department “has already disallowed 5G testing with Excluding Huawei would run counter to the
Chinese vendors”. “national treatment” principle of the World Trade video the girl is clearly seen say- accountable for her torment.
ing she cannot eat any more, Livestreaming platforms, which
If so, the decision to phase out Huawei and other Organization, and New Delhi’s readiness to disre-
but her parents force her to eat, After users complained to the promote such risky videos to
Chinese equipment companies from India’s tele- gard market rules for political expediency reveals the intention being to create a livestreaming platform, it deleted attract eyeballs should not be able
communications networks is another consequence the capriciousness of its domestic policies, which “big stomach queen” to draw Peppa’s videos and shut her par- to shirk their responsibilities
of the deadly border clash in mid-June, which has are at the whim of its appeals for public favor. eyeballs and bonuses from audi- ents’ user account. either.
strained relations between the two countries. Yet the witch hunt against Huawei is a double- ences. However, the harm has already — ZHANG ZHOUXIANG, CHINA DAILY
India gave the green light for Huawei to partici- edged sword that will also hurt India’s own inter-
pate in its 5G trials last year, as the Chinese telecom ests, by compromising its economic growth and
equipment giant has already established a major delaying the rollout of next-generation mobile ser- What They Say
presence in the world’s second-largest mobile mar- vices. It has been estimated that blocking Huawei
ket over the past two decades. Huawei’s 4G smart- from participating in the country’s 5G rollout may
phones are popular in India, and the company has
invested more than $2 billion in the country. Its
result in a loss of at least $4.7 billion for India by
2035, according to a report of Oxford Economics
Take smartness beyond smartphones
research and development center in Bengaluru, last year. The report also projected that the cost of
where core technologies are being developed, is the India’s 5G network will increase by 8 percent to 27
company’s largest outside China. percent if Huawei is not involved. Although the novel coronavirus observation; a red code means eo losing his cool at a subway sta-
outbreak has largely been con- its holder is possibly infected tion in Dalian, Liaoning province,
Yet China-India trade and economic ties have tak- The move, of course, will win approval from the
trolled on the Chinese mainland, with the virus and must immedi- for being unable to show his
en a nose-dive in recent months after the deadly United States administration which has done all people still need the health code ately seek treatment at the near- health code.
clash on the border, with the Indian government it can to strangle Huawei and blunt China’s tech- app, which records their recent est clinic. Reportedly, about 250 million
having already blocked about 60 Chinese apps such nological edge globally. It is sad that despite its whereabouts, to gain access to The health code app is based people in the country lack the
as TikTok and WeChat on the pretext of national proclaimed foreign policy independence, New most public places, including on big data. It combines data skills to use a smartphone or do
security. Catering to rising nationalistic sentiment Delhi has chosen to join Washington’s anti-China public transport. from the transport, public securi- not use one. However, they should
in the country with the additional boycotting of chorus, even at the expense of its own national Only green code-holders are ty and public health depart- not be left untended on the other
Huawei not only constitutes a gross violation of interests. allowed to enter public sites, like a ments, and its reliability has side of the digital divide. After all,
supermarket, a bank and a hospi- made it a useful tool for contain- the government is duty-bound to
tal, as long as their body tempera- ing the contagion. guarantee them access to basic
CHINA DAILY WORLDWIDE ture, measured on the spot, is But there are some people, public services.
Contact us at: China Daily UK China Daily USA
below 37.3 C. mostly elderly citizens, who do While bragging about how
90 Cannon St, London EC4N 6HA, UK 1500 Broadway, Suite 2800, A green code means its holder not use smartphones, on which smart the cities are, the govern-
China Daily +44 (0) 207 398 8270 New York, NY 10036 is not likely to have been in close the health code app works. That ment should not forget that
15 Huixin Dongjie Chaoyang District, editor@chinadailyuk.com +1 212 537 8888
contact with people infected means they will face problems smartness does not discriminate
Beijing 100029 editor@chinadailyusa.com
News: +86 (0) 10 6491-8366 China Daily Asia Pacific with the novel coronavirus over even if they are not infected and against the elderly.
editor@chinadaily.com.cn China Daily Hong Kong China Daily Africa the past 14 days; a yellow code would have been green code-hold- Although this is the informa-
Advertisement: +86 (0) 10 6491-8631 Unit 1818, Hing Wai Centre, 7 Tin Wan P.O. Box 27281-00100, Nairobi, Kenya means its holder might have ers had they been using the app. tion age, people still have a right
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App: www.chinadaily.com.cn/mobile/daily.html editor@chinadailyasia.com subscription@chinadailyafrica.com tined for 14 days for medical senior citizen who is seen in a vid- — LI YANG, CHINA DAILY
 CHINA DAILY
VIEWS
Ke Bingsheng
Saving food is traditional Chinese virtue
P
resident Xi Jinping’s “Clean
Plate 2.0” campaign has turned
public focus on China’s food
security, with some people fear-
ing that the COVID-19 pandemic and
the floods across southern China may
reduce food production and supply.
But the fact is China’s summer har-
vest increased 0.9 percent year-on-year
in 2020, with output reaching to 142
million tons, according to the news con-
ference of Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Affairs on Wednesday. Crops to be
harvested in the fall are also in good
health.
The novel coronavirus outbreak and
the severe floods in the southern
region will certainly have an impact on
China’s agricultural output, but it will
not be significant. Barriers set up in
the early stage of the pandemic for a
short while, which hampered transpor-
tation of fertilizers and seeds, have
been lifted.
And since China experiences drought
conditions and floods in one place or
the other almost every year, this year’s
floods, which are limited to the Yangtze
River basin, will not significantly reduce
the total output in China compared
with the previous years.
China enjoys absolute food security,
particularly in staples (rice and
wheat).
Since grain rationing practice of
food stamps was abolished nation-
wide in 1993, Chinese people have
never faced any problem in purchas-
ing rice and flour, whose prices, taking
into account annual inflation, have
stayed stable.
Yet a recent report by
the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, which
said China is expected to
face a supply gap of 130
million tons of
food around
2025, has raised
concerns over
the country’s
ability to feed its
people. But even
if this projection
is true, it will not
be an abrupt
increase, but a
continuation of
the trend in
recent years. And
the increased import
will be feed, mainly
soybean and some
coarse grains.
China has imported
on average 111 million
tons of grains and soy-
bean from 2015 to 2019,
among which around 90
million tons were soy-
bean, and the rest were
rice, wheat, corn, barley and
sorghum. With continued
improvement in income, the
demand for livestock products,
including meat, milk and eggs, are
Mari Pangestu
Harnessing the digital ID power for common good
C
OVID-19 has tested the ability
of governments to deliver
financial and other forms of
support to vulnerable people.
Although 200 countries and territories
have planned or implemented social-
protection measures in response to the
pandemic, many governments have
struggled to identify informal workers
who are not covered by existing welfare
programs or social security schemes for
formal sector employees. Social distanc-
ing rules and quarantines have made it
even more challenging to help those in
need.
But in some countries, digital ID sys-
tems have enabled the authorities to
identify populations reliably and
remotely, and to make emergency cash
transfers to vulnerable groups — such
as women and girls, the poor, informal
and migrant workers, people living in
remote areas, and refugees.
For example, a digital ID system
allowed Chile to rapidly pre-enroll mil-
lions of new beneficiaries in social pro-
grams and enabled people to check and,
if necessary, appeal their support status
online. In Thailand, where more than
28 million people applied for a new ben-
efit for informal workers affected by the
pandemic, the government was able to
filter out those who would receive
assistance from other schemes. And the
Indian authorities recently claimed they
were able to make quick payments
under a financial-inclusion program to
more than 200 million women as a
increasing rapidly, resulting in a dra-
matic rise of feed demand. With 18 per-
cent of global population and just 10
percent of world’s cultivable land, Chi-
na produced 25 percent of the world’s
meat in 2019.
Also, this is not the first time that Xi
has emphasized thriftiness and high-
lighted the importance of reducing food
wastage and losses. In fact, food waste
has been significantly reduced in the
last seven years since President Xi gave
a similar call in 2013 to reduce food
waste. This is especially true for events
such as official receptions using public
money. And many Chinese people have
developed the habit of packing and tak-
ing home leftovers, if any, when dining
out.
Yet extravagance and food wastage
still exist. Ordering extra dishes and
leaving food on the dining table, many
times untouched, is a common way of
showing respect to and honoring guests
in China, especially for important fami-
ly events, such as weddings and other
result of improved processes that
included linking an individual’s account
to their digital ID.
But digital ID systems alone are not a
silver bullet for reaching vulnerable
groups. Above all, such schemes require
affordable access to digital infrastruc-
ture. Where this exists, a digital ID pro-
vides a foundation upon which other
important applications and systems can
be built. Because digital ID systems
allow people to make remote transac-
tions, they can also enable digital pay-
ments (through cashless transactions)
and improved data governance (by ena-
bling paperless transactions while pre-
serving privacy).
Digital ID, digital payments, and data
governance are each important individ-
ually. Together, they add up to a power-
ful public good.
This combination is as crucial to
today’s economies as roads and railways
were to those of the 20th century. For
example, countries such as Estonia and
Singapore have advanced digital ecosys-
tems that allow people to access govern-
ment and business services entirely
online, thus partly mitigating the eco-
nomic disruption caused by COVID-19.
As digitalization advances, attitudes
toward data protection are undergoing
a profound shift. High-profile data
breaches and misuses are rightly mak-
ing people more aware of threats to
their privacy. New norms and regula-
tions are giving citizens greater agency
over their personal data, and new
celebrations. And instead of opting for
buffet, popular in the West, Chinese
people prefer a la carte when dining
out, which also invariably leads to food
waste.
The total estimated food waste last
year was 17-18 million tons, which could
feed 30-50 million people for a year,
according to a study by the Chinese
Academy of Sciences and the World
Wide Fund for Nature.
China has seen consecutive bumper
grain harvests and enjoyed high grain
output in the past years. The abundant
food supply is attributable to favorable
policies, significant technical progress,
and farmers’ efforts over the past four
decades of reform to improve agricul-
tural production and national food
security.
However, China should never be com-
placent where food security is con-
cerned, and should take preemptive
measures against food storage. With
urbanization and rising living standards,
people’s demands for nutrients from ani-
decentralized online models aim to shift
power from third parties to users. Poor-
ly planned digital ID systems can create
or exacerbate risks to personal data, but
with careful design, systems can pro-
mote responsible use and re-use of data
by enabling people to exercise control.
Digital ID systems must also be
designed with inclusion and trust in
mind. Inclusion means not only ensur-
ing that all can register, but also that
everyone can use their digital IDs to
receive assistance and empower them-
selves economically — including those
with low literacy and limited access to
technology. And it is crucial that people
have confidence in the integrity of the
system, including its ability to preserve
privacy and individual rights. This
requires effective transparency and
accountability mechanisms.
Good digital ID systems not only
enhance the capacity of governments
and enterprises to operate, but also ben-
efit and protect the public. A variety of
models are emerging that reflect local
contexts. While some countries need to
start with a foundational ID system so
all people can prove their official identi-
ty, others, including Australia, Canada,
and France, are beginning to create digi-
tal ID “ecosystems” that give people a
choice of public- and private-sector ID
providers.
Whatever form they take, such sys-
tems are urgently needed. One billion
people around the world still have no
official ID, which prevents them from
mal-based products will continue to
grow.
How to balance the gap between peo-
ple’s demand for more, better and safer
food with relatively limited cultivable
land, and declining underground water
table and labor force, will remain a long-
term challenge for China.
Wasting food is not just a waste of
money, but more importantly, it is a
waste of very scarce and priceless
natural resources, which has high
ecological and environmental conse-
quences.
Therefore, no matter whether food
supply is abundant or not, there is no
excuse for wasting food. To save food is
a traditional virtue in China, which we
should never forget.
The author is former president of China
Agricultural University. The article is
an excerpt of his interview with China
Daily’s Yao Yuxin.
The author’s views don’t necessarily
represent those of China Daily.
SHI YU / CHINA DAILY
accessing financial systems and social
services. Half of them are in Africa.
Through the Identification for Develop-
ment (ID4D) initiative, the World Bank
is investing $1.2 billion across more
than 30 developing countries to reduce
the number of unregistered people, and
to build better digital ID and civil regis-
tration systems that can contribute to
inclusive economic growth.
The COVID-19 pandemic has high-
lighted the urgent need for digital ID
systems that will allow governments to
deliver social assistance and financial
support faster and more accountably to
households and businesses. To continue
the search for innovative solutions,
ID4D recently launched its second Mis-
sion Billion Challenge — a global call for
new ways to enable the world’s most
vulnerable people to register for and use
digital IDs safely.
As countries focus on “building back
better” after the pandemic, they have a
crucial opportunity to leapfrog to a
more digital economy — and to do so
responsibly. Whichever model they
choose, governments can transform the
lives of people everywhere by building
digital ID systems designed to maximize
privacy, inclusion and trust.
The author is the World Bank manag-
ing director of Development Policy and
Partnerships.
Project Syndicate
The views don’t necessarily represent
those of China Daily.
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 9
Shen Minghao
Shenzhen reflects
the success of
reform, opening-up
T
hat Shenzhen has been at the forefront of
reform and opening-up is evident from the
fact that it has transformed from a small
fishing town to not only an internationally
important city but also an innovation hub with the
country’s highest per capita GDP among the cities in
only four decades.
“The miracle of Shenzhen” truly demonstrates the
effectiveness of China’s reform and opening-up.
Over the past four decades, Shenzhen has
achieved fast and continuous economic growth.
Shenzhen’s average annual GDP growth is the high-
est among all Chinese cities. In 1979, Shenzhen’s
GDP was less than 0.2 percent that of Hong Kong,
but today it exceeds Hong Kong’s GDP. And its per
capita GDP increased from 606 yuan ($88) in 1979 to
206,700 yuan ($29,912) in 2019 — equivalent to
many developed countries’.
Shenzhen’s sustainable development capacity, too,
has improved over the past years. Last year Shenz-
hen’s patent ownership was more than 90 for every
10,000 residents, which is 10 times the average
nationwide. In 1979, there was almost no technology
industry in Shenzhen, while in 2017 the production
value of Shenzhen’s high-tech industry was more than
2 trillion yuan. And yet the city’s average energy and
water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP in 2019 is
only one-third and one-tenth compared with the
national average.
Shenzhen has always made significant break-
throughs in reform and opening-up. The Shekou
Industrial Zone is the first pilot zone of reform and
opening-up. Shenzhen is also the first Chinese city to
break the assigned employment system and introduce
free job selection, the first to initiate land-use rights
auction, the first to explore the modern enterprise sys-
tem, and the first to establish a stock market. As for
the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it has made two
significant contributions to not only China but also the
world — initiating the socialist market economic sys-
tem, and developing a courageous innovation spirit.
Shenzhen has gradually changed from a global orig-
inal-equipment manufacturing (OEM) base to an
international high-end manufacturing and innova-
tion center. Till the early 1990s, Shenzhen’s economic
development as a labor-intensive, high-energy con-
suming and highly polluting OEM base highly
depended on Hong Kong.
Thanks to its market advantage
and strong industrial capacity,
Shenzhen gradually built a good
development environment for high-
tech and financial industries,
which played key roles in each
other’s promotion and success.
However, Shenzhen realized the necessity to trans-
form its economic structure based on its own advan-
tages in order to become a global high-tech and
financial center. So it began to restrict and shift the
traditional processing industries to other cities and
encourage high added value industries to set up shop
in the city. It also took measures to boost the develop-
ment of electronics and information and communica-
tions technology industry clusters, and began
cultivating potential global high-tech leaders such as
Huawei, Tencent and DJI, and top domestic financial
institutions such as Ping An Insurance and China
Merchants Bank. And to Shenzhen’s credit, the major-
ity of the more than 300 A-share listed companies in
the city are privately owned hi-tech companies.
Thanks to its market advantage and strong indus-
trial capacity, Shenzhen gradually built a good devel-
opment environment for high-tech and financial
industries, which played key roles in each other’s pro-
motion and success. Today, Shenzhen has the highest
number of high-tech industries and the most vibrant
financial industry on the Chinese mainland.
In Shenzhen, enterprises run more than 90 percent
of the research and development institutions, employ
more than 90 percent of the research scholars, fund
more than 90 percent of the research, and hold more
than 90 percent patents.
Large-scale technology marketization, which pro-
motes innovation in high-tech and improves the inter-
national business environment, has made Shenzhen
the best city on the mainland in terms of achieving
scientific and technological breakthroughs, and
attracting talents for the science and technology sec-
tor from across the country, even the world.
Shenzhen has transformed from a “world factory”
to a high-tech innovation center thanks to its non-
stop reform and innovation. All these achievements
notwithstanding, Shenzhen should continue promot-
ing reform and opening-up to even higher levels, set-
ting an example for other Chinese cities to follow.
In the following decades, Shenzhen should further
pursue high-quality development in urban manage-
ment, legal construction, technology innovation, soft
power, financial strength, living environment, social
security and social welfare, as well as take measures to
improve socialist market economy.
Explorations and breakthroughs have made Shenz-
hen a vigorous, energetic and innovative international
metropolis. Shenzhen now also shoulders the respon-
sibility of building the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao
Greater Bay Area and the Pilot Zone for Socialism
with Chinese Characteristics, sharpen its competitive
edge, and boost its innovative capacity and influence.
The author is director of the Institute of Studies for the
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. The views
don’t necessarily represent those of China Daily.
10 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
WORLD
Pompeo’s partisan line
in convention speech
sparks House probe
WASHINGTON — Joaquin Cas-
tro, a Democratic member of the
US House of Representatives, said
he had opened an investigation
into Secretary of State Mike Pom-
peo’s speech to the Republican
National Convention, or RNC, on
Tuesday.
In a letter to Deputy Secretary of
State Stephen Biegun, Castro said:
“It is highly unusual, and likely
unprecedented, for a sitting secre-
tary of state to speak at a partisan
convention for either of the politi-
cal parties. It appears that it may
also be illegal.”
In a recorded video from a Jeru-
salem rooftop during an official
trip, Pompeo described on Tuesday
what he called Trump’s foreign pol-
icy successes, including the presi-
dent’s decision to move the US
embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and
his holding talks with the leader-
ship of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea.
Castro, chairman of House For-
eign Affairs panel’s subcommittee
on oversight and investigations,
noted later on Tuesday that Pom-
peo’s speech to the convention
might violate the Hatch Act and
State Department policies.
The Hatch Act is a federal law
that prohibits employees in the
executive branch of the federal gov-
ernment, except the president,
vice-president and certain desig-
nated high-level officials, from
engaging in some forms of political
activities.
Castro said that Pompeo, who is
on official travel in the Middle East,
also broke the Foreign Affairs Man-
ual, which prohibits State Depart-
ment officials from engaging in
partisan political activities abroad.
He wants Biegun to answer a
Awash with determination
Men push a truck down a flooded road during monsoon rains
that caused havoc in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday.
AKHTAR SOOMRO/ REUTERS
Briefly
LEBANON
Israel hits Hezbollah
as tensions escalate
Israeli aircraft struck posts
belonging to the Lebanese group
Hezbollah early on Wednesday
after shots were fired from Leba-
non toward its troops, Israel’s
military said. No Israeli troops
were wounded in the firing, the
military said. Soldiers deployed
illumination flares, smoke shells
and live fire after the shots from
the Lebanese side of the frontier,
it said. Referring to the Israel
Defense Forces, or IDF, the mili-
tary said in a statement that “in
response, overnight, IDF attack
helicopters and aircraft struck
observation posts belonging to
the Hezbollah”. There was no
immediate comment from Hez-
bollah. Tension has been running
high on the border.
SYRIA
Caretaker PM tasked
with forming Cabinet
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on
Tuesday appointed caretaker prime
minister Hussein Arnous to draw up
a new Cabinet, according to a state-
ment from the president’s office.
Formerly the minister for water
resources, Arnous replaced Imad
Khamis in June and served as inter-
im prime minister until parliamen-
tary polls were held last month.
Khamis was sacked following a
wave of public criticism over the
government’s handling of an eco-
nomic crisis that has seen the value
series of questions by no later than
Sept 1 and arrange a briefing for
lawmakers by the same date.
Also on Tuesday, US first lady
Melania Trump offered sympathy
for victims of the coronavirus pan-
demic and a plea for racial under-
standing in a Republican
convention speech aimed directly
at female voters.
Warm tone
On the convention’s second day,
the speech’s warm tone was out of
step with a Republican gathering
that featured harsh rhetoric about
Democratic challenger Joe Biden
and sometimes apocalyptic warn-
ings about the dangers of Demo-
cratic governance.
Trump’s wife acknowledged the
pain of the pandemic in sharp con-
trast to most other speakers at the
party’s national convention, nota-
bly her husband, assailed by Dem-
ocrats for his lack of solace during
a US health crisis that has killed
more than 178,000 people.
“I want to acknowledge the fact
that since March, our lives have
changed drastically,” Melania
Trump told a crowd seated in the
White House Rose Garden, with
the president in the front row. “My
deepest sympathy goes out to
everyone who has lost a loved one.”
The first lady also reflected on the
racial unrest that has swept the
country in the months since the
death in May of George Floyd under
the knee of a white policeman in
Minnesota.
“I urge people to come together
in a civil manner so we can work
and live up to our standard Ameri-
can ideals,” she said.
XINHUA—AGENCIES
of the Syrian pound plummet
against the dollar on the black mar-
ket. He had served as premier for
four years. Arnous’s government
will also have to oversee efforts to
combat the country’s coronavirus
outbreak. Arnous, 67, hails from
Maaret al-Numan in Idlib Province,
half of which is controlled by jihad-
ists and allied rebels.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban strike army
base in revenge attack
A Taliban-claimed suicide attack
killed at least three people in
northern Afghanistan on Tuesday
as neighboring Pakistan pushed
for delayed peace talks to begin.
The suicide bomber detonated
explosives in a truck near an
Afghan army base in the northern
province of Balkh, military
spokesman for the region Hanif
Rezayee said. Taliban spokesman
Zabiullah Mujahid said on Twitter
that the attack was revenge for a
video circulating online that
appeared to show Afghan troops
desecrating the bodies of Taliban
soldiers in the south. The defense
ministry has launched an investi-
gation into the video, which sur-
faced earlier this month. The
assault on Tuesday killed two
civilians and a commando and
wounded more than 40 others,
Rezayee said. Pakistan has said
negotiations are the only way for-
ward in Afghanistan and sees its
role as a “facilitator”.
AGENCIES VIA XINHUA
Fleeing the hurricane
Residents of vulnerable communities gather as they prepare to board buses on Tuesday ahead of the
expected arrival of Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Laura is expected to hit somewhere
along the US Gulf Coast late on Wednesday or early on Thursday. More than 500,000 residents were
being evacuated. JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Anxieties fire up
gun sales across US
Riots, criticism of police spur demand
amid pandemic strains, researchers say
By SCOTT REEVES in New York
scottreeves@chinadailyusa.com
Jim Hinsdale, owner of Chuck’s
Firearms in Atlanta, said he’s seen
a sharp increase in sales since the
rioting in Minneapolis spread to
Seattle and Portland, Oregon,
among other cities.
“People feel they’re on their
own,” he said. “They’re afraid and
concerned about lack of police,
failure of courts to enforce the law.
They’re interested in anything
related to home and personal
defense — handguns, shotguns
and rifles, but not hunting or
marksmanship rifles.”
Hinsdale said men and women,
young and old, now buy weapons
in about equal numbers. While
gun sales are booming across the
United States, ammunition is in
short supply because production
hasn’t met demand.
In Atlanta, murders soared 86
percent in June from the same
month a year ago. Ninety-three
people reportedly were shot from
May 31 to June 27, compared to 46
for the same period last year, the
Atlanta Black Star reported, citing
police figures.
The right of private citizens to
“keep and bear arms” is guaran-
teed by the US Constitution’s Sec-
ond Amendment.
There have been similar upticks
in gun sales in the past.
Gun sales spiked after the New-
town, Connecticut, school shoot-
ings in 2012; the San Bernardino,
California, office shootings in
Storm Francis wreaks havoc in UK
By JONATHAN POWELL in London
jonathan@mail.chinadailyuk.com
Storm Francis swept through the
United Kingdom with strong winds
and heavy rain damaging property
and infrastructure late on Tuesday,
while some residents were forced to
evacuate their homes.
Trees and power lines were
brought down and rail and road
lines blocked, as the unusual sum-
mer weather wreaked havoc, with
Wales and Northern Ireland suffer-
ing the worst.
The Environment Agency had 36
flood alerts and five flood warnings
in place for England due to the grim
conditions, while Wales had 17 and
Scotland 11, according to ITV News.
Wales Online reported that
police were involved in two sepa-
rate water searches for people spot-
ted in the River Taff near Cardiff,
and fire crews had to rescue holi-
daymakers from a flooded camp-
site in the town of St Clears,
2015; the Orlando, Florida, night-
club shootings in 2016; and then
the riots following the death of
George Floyd, an unarmed black
man, in police custody in Minne-
apolis, said Wellesley College eco-
nomics professors Phillip Levine
and Robin McKnight in a report
published by the Brookings Insti-
tution.
In 2016, gun and ammunition
sales surged in part on fears that
Democrats would win the presi-
dential election and impose new
gun-control laws, but concerns
eased with the election of Donald
Trump, a Republican endorsed by
the National Rifle Association, the
Wellesley economists said.
Personal safety
“The 2020 spike is less about con-
cerns regarding access to firearms
than personal safety,” Levine and
McKnight concluded.
“In March, concerns about per-
sonal safety arose from both a dead-
ly new virus and an economy in
free-fall. By June, concerns about
the virus and the economy
remained, and were compounded
by new evidence of racial injustice
in policing, widespread protests,
and discussions of defunding the
police.”
There are about 400 million guns
in the US, or more than one for each
of the nation’s 330 million people,
the researchers said.
“When public goods are not pro-
vided by the government or are pro-
vided on a scale that some consider
to be inadequate, individuals turn
Carmarthenshire, after river levels
rose from the sea.
The BBC reported that in the
county of Gwynedd, about 40 peo-
ple were evacuated because of
flooding, and that the River
Ogwen burst its banks in some pla-
ces, requiring evacuation of prop-
erties in the area coordinated by
police, mountain rescue teams and
the North Wales Fire and Rescue
Service.
Power cuts
Thousands of homes in Wales
were affected by power cuts accord-
ing to the BBC, though service was
restored by Wednesday morning.
The Daily Mirror reported that
elderly residents had to be rescued
from the County Down coastal
resort town of Newcastle, in
Northern Ireland, after a river
burst its banks.
The newspaper reported that in
Draperstown, County Londonder-
ry, rescuers had to help nine peo-
to private provision of services,”
they said.
In July, the FBI conducted 3.64
million firearms background
checks — the largest monthly total
since the agency began background
checks in 1998.
Background checks aren’t the
same as total guns sales but serve as
a proxy for first-time buyers. The US
government does not track gun pur-
chases.
Other trends also seem to have an
effect on gun sales.
Some states have released prison-
ers as part of efforts to curb the
spread of the coronavirus among
the incarcerated.
That parallels calls by the “Black
Lives Matter” and Antifa move-
ments, among other groups, to
“defund” the police.
In New York City, nonfatal shoot-
ings in July increased 177 percent
over the same month a year ago,
jumping to 244 from 88, police said.
In a recent earnings call with
investors, Chris Metz, chief execu-
tive officer of manufacturer Vista
Outdoor, said ammunition sales
surged last quarter and were driven
by a 40 percent increase in first-time
gun buyers.
Metz said apparent stockpiling by
gun owners suggests ammunition
sales will remain strong.
“Industry data continues to high-
light unprecedented demand for
ammunition and firearms,” said Jim
Chartier, an analyst at Monness,
Crespi & Hardt, in a research note to
investors.
“Google Trends (search) data
shows a similar acceleration for
ammunition given concerns around
COVID, civil unrest and the upcom-
ing election.”
ple from inside a house.
“Working in challenging condi-
tions, firefighters, with the sup-
port of other agencies, rescued 37
people from floodwater,” a state-
ment from the local fire service
said. Up to 300 homes were affect-
ed and streets left under as much
as 1.2 meters of water, a represent-
ative told local media.
Parts of the UK were reported to
have witnessed record breaking
wind speeds of 130 kilometers per
hour that were just short of the
August record for the UK of 140 kph,
recorded in 1996, according to ITV.
The Guardian quoted Met
Office chief meteorologist Steve
Ramsdale, who said: “Wind
speeds this strong are unusual
during August and may come as a
surprise to people spending time
outdoors trying to catch the last
few days of summer.”
The Met Office ended its yellow
warnings for wind and rain on
Wednesday morning.
CHINA DAILY
‘Offensive’
Navalny
allegations
rejected
By REN QI in Moscow
renqi@chinadaily.com.cn
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tues-
day described as offensive Western
allegations that opposition politician
Alexei Navalny had been poisoned, in
a position bolstered by a Kremlin
assertion that no investigation is
required into Navalny’s illness.
The ministry issued a statement
following a meeting between Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and
US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen
Biegun, during which Navalny’s case
was raised, among other issues.
Lavrov pointed out the “suspicious
haste” with which the narrative
about Navalny’s alleged poisoning
was picked up in Washington and
Brussels.
Navalny is being treated at a hospi-
tal in Berlin after being flown to Ger-
many last weekend.
The ministry said that accusations
of a cover-up made against the Rus-
sian doctors who first treated Naval-
ny were untrue. Navalny was initially
treated in the Siberian city of Omsk.
These are allegations
that absolutely
cannot be true and
are simply empty
noise.”
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin press
secretary
“We regard as deeply offensive the
accusations of ‘covering up the truth’,
directed from some Western capitals
to the doctors in Omsk, who immedi-
ately rendered highly professional
aid to Navalny,” the ministry said.
Navalny, a leading opposition poli-
tician in Russia, fell ill during a flight
from Tomsk to Moscow last Thurs-
day, and was taken to a hospital in
Omsk, where his condition was stabi-
lized. His wife and associates had
requested that he be flown to Germa-
ny for treatment, and he arrived on
Saturday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
on Monday called on Russia to inves-
tigate the suspected poisoning of
Navalny, and to hold the perpetrators
accountable. That day, European
Union Vice-President Josep Borrell
condemned the “attempt on Mr
Navalny’s life”, stressing that the
international community is
“demanding the facts behind Mr
Navalny’s poisoning”.
Transparent investigation
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
said on Tuesday that “Navalny’s fami-
ly and the Russian people deserve to
see a full and transparent investiga-
tion carried out, and for those
involved to be held accountable”.
But Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin
press secretary, countered that any
investigation into the case would
come if a substance were found
inside Navalny’s body, and that it
was identified.
“We need a reason to investigate,”
said Peskov, in rejecting accusations
that Navalny’s sudden onset of illness
was caused by an assassination
attempt.
“These are allegations that abso-
lutely cannot be true and are simply
empty noise.”
On Monday, German doctors said
Navalny was poisoned by a sub-
stance from a group of cholinester-
ase inhibitors, but were unable to
say which one.
Russian health officials contradict-
ed that finding, saying Navalny had
tested negative for cholinesterase
inhibitors at the hospital in Omsk last
week.
The Omsk hospital’s unit chief
Alexander Sabayev, also on Monday,
said that the activist had tested nega-
tive for any drugs, including cholines-
terase inhibitors.
Peskov called the use of the term
“poisoning” by German doctors “has-
ty”, adding that the doctors at the
Omsk hospital had battled for three
days in treating Navalny and possibly
saved his life.
The security committee of the Rus-
sian parliament has begun an investi-
gation into whether foreign
governments were involved in harm-
ing Navalny’s health, State Duma
speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.
各位同学：

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 CHINA DAILY
WORLD
BEHIND THE MASK
Editor’s note: This news column showcases stories from around the world
that bring a touch of positivity to the fight against the deadly coronavirus.
Sri Lanka students sweat it
out in quest for safe water
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — In
August, Sri Lanka is extremely hot
and dry. And when most people
choose to stay indoors to escape
the summer heat, four Sri Lankan
students, who earlier studied in
China, have been collecting water
samples under the guidance of
their Chinese tutor.
“The dry season is the season
with the worst water quality in Sri
Lanka. Prof Wei asked us to collect
water samples before the end of
the season in order to collect basic
data for our water purification
research,” said Suresh Indika Jaya-
wardhana, referring to Professor
Wei Yuansong, director of the Lab-
oratory of Water Pollution Control
Technology at the Research Center
for Eco-Environmental Sciences,
or RCEES, at the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, or CAS.
While Indika was collecting
water samples in the city of Anu-
radhapura, his companion Ishanka
Wimalaweera was busy in the labo-
ratory conducting tests on them.
In January, Wimalaweera
returned home from China for his
winter vacation. He had originally
planned to join the RCEES to do
research after returning to Beijing
and choose the subject of his doc-
toral thesis. But COVID-19 not
only disrupted his plans but made
returning to school a distant
prospect.
So, in order not to let time go to
waste, Wei reformulated the study
plan for his Sri Lankan students
and guided them on field research
and data collection in Sri Lanka.
He and his students hold regular
weekly video conferences to dis-
cuss their progress.
Speaking about the conferences,
Indika, a master’s student
researching drinking water safety
in Sri Lanka, said: “The weekly
video is the moment I look for-
ward to the most. Although I com-
municate with teachers in my
daily life, the video conference is a
face-to-face opportunity for me to
Student Suresh Indika Jayawardhana collects water samples in
Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, on Aug 3. XINHUA
Africa declared free of wild polio
By OTIATO OPALI in Nairobi, Kenya
otiato@chinadaily.com.cn
The independent Africa Regional
Certification Commission, or ARCC,
officially declared on Tuesday that
the continent is free of wild polio.
The announcement marks the
eradication of the second virus from
the face of Africa since smallpox was
eliminated four decades ago.
According to Rose Leke, ARCC
chairwoman, the decision to
declare Africa free of wild polio has
come after an exhaustive, decades-
Concern over drug pairing for COVID-19
By ANGUS MCNEICE in London
angus@mail.chinadailyuk.com
A study has called into question the
safety of administering hydroxychlo-
roquine alongside azithromycin, two
drugs that have been used in combi-
nation to treat COVID-19 patients.
The study, published in the medi-
cal journal The Lancet, found that
short-term courses of hydroxychloro-
quine and azithromycin, which is an
antibiotic widely used for respiratory
infections, produce increased risk of
angina, chest pain and heart failure.
Short-term use of hydroxychloro-
meet the teacher and learn a lot
from his guidance.”
Sri Lanka has never faced a
shortage of water, but lacks safe
drinking water. Sri Lanka has also
been plagued by a chronic kidney
disease with unknown etiology,
known as CKDu, in recent years.
Due to the efforts of the Chinese
experts such as Wei and his Sri
Lankan partners, the CAS
launched the Program of China-
Sri Lanka Joint Center for Water
Technology Research and Demon-
stration in 2015.
The center not only has CKDu
and drinking water safety as the
core objectives of the research, but
also regards training water profes-
sionals for Sri Lanka as its respon-
sibility.
Practical solutions
Over the past few months, Isuru
Shamika Yapabandara has been
taking the train from Kandy to
Colombo’s Kelani River to collect
water samples.
“Only by understanding water
quality can we come up with prac-
tical solutions for the next step,
namely, water purification,” he
said.
Although the collection of sam-
ples was done as the epidemic
raged, the students’ on-site investi-
gation went very well.
Sujithra K. Weragoda, the
director of the China-Sri Lanka
Research Grant Project, said:
“Under the premise of ensuring
epidemic prevention, Prof Wei will
inform Sri Lankan partners in
advance every time about the stu-
dents’ research plans so that we
can help them get through all the
steps.
“Wei’s work is also helping Sri
Lanka’s development because he
is dedicated to mentoring Sri
Lankan students and wants to
train them to be pillars of water
research in Sri Lanka.”
XINHUA
long process of documentation and
analysis of polio surveillance,
immunization and laboratory
capacity of the region’s 47 member
states of the World Health Organi-
zation, or WHO. The process includ-
ed field verification visits to each
country.
“Today is a historic day for Africa.
The African Regional Certification
Commission for Polio Eradication is
pleased to announce that the region
has successfully met the certifica-
tion criteria for wild polio eradica-
tion, with no cases of the wild
quine by itself was not correlated
with heart problems, however long-
term use of the drug was linked to an
increase in cardiovascular-related
mortality, according to the study,
which was coordinated by a consor-
tium of researchers called the Obser-
vational Health Data Sciences and
Informatics collaborative, or OHDSI.
Hydroxychloroquine has been
explored as a potential treatment
for COVID-19, both alone and in
combination with other drugs.
Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, an epide-
miologist at the University of Oxford
who co-authored the study, said that
Ali Akbar Salehi (left), head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, holds a news conference with Rafael
Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Teheran on Tuesday. REUTERS
Security Council rejects
US bid on Iran sanctions
Washington left isolated after failing to
secure backing for push to reimpose curbs
By HONG XIAO at the United Nations
xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com
The United Nations Security
Council on Tuesday blocked a bid by
the United States to reimpose inter-
national sanctions on Iran, saying it
could not proceed with the disputed
move.
Indonesia, which assumed the
presidency of the council in August,
said it is “not in a position to take fur-
ther action” on Washington’s request.
During a video conference on the
Middle East, Indonesia’s Ambassa-
dor to the UN Dian Triansyah Djani
cited the lack of consensus in the
UN’s highest body on the US strate-
gy as the main reason.
The administration of US Presi-
dent Donald Trump accuses Iran
of failing to comply with the terms
of the historic 2015 Iran nuclear
deal, demanding that the Security
Council reimpose sanctions on the
country.
Washington had insisted on its
legal right to trigger the disputed
procedure, called “snapback” —
despite pulling out of the deal two
years ago.
In a related development, Iran’s
nuclear body said it held “construct-
ive” talks on Tuesday with the visit-
ing head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency.
The US’ move in the Security
Council had threatened to torpedo
the Iran accord and plunge the body
into crisis, while widening the gulf
between the US and almost every
other member on Iran policy.
Thirteen of the 15 council mem-
poliovirus reported in the region for
four years,” Leke said.
The last case of wild poliovirus in
Africa was detected in 2016 in Niger-
ia. The WHO said that since 1996,
polio eradication efforts have pre-
vented up to 1.8 million children
from crippling lifelong paralysis and
saved approximately 180,000 lives.
Eradication efforts
In 1996, African heads of state com-
mitted to eradicate polio during the
32nd Ordinary Session of the Organi-
zation of African Unity in Yaounde,
the team was relieved to find “no
worrying side effects in the short-
term use of hydroxychloroquine”.
Caution urged
“However, when prescribed in
combination with azithromycin, it
may induce heart failure and cardio-
vascular mortality and we would
urge caution in using the two
together,” Prieto-Alhambra said.
Hydroxychloroquine is a drug best
known for its use to treat and prevent
malaria, and it is also used to treat
some autoimmune diseases includ-
ing rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
bers had written to the Indonesian
presidency to reject its validity.
The US “is alone” in its approach,
and “their ultimate goal is to destroy
the nuclear agreement when they
have already imposed (national)
sanctions on Iran,” one diplomat
who spoke on condition of anonym-
ity told Agence France-Presse.
Another said that, with the sound
rejection of the US bid by almost the
entire council, “normally the matter
is closed”, according to AFP.
Zhang Jun, China’s permanent
representative to the UN, said: “Chi-
na attaches great importance to the
Iranian nuclear issue. We are com-
mitted to upholding multilateral-
ism, safeguarding the international
nuclear nonproliferation regime
and maintaining peace and stability
in the Middle East.
‘No legal ground’
“The US is no longer a JCPOA
(Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action) participant. JCPOA partici-
pants and the overwhelming major-
ity of council members believe that
US demand for restoring UN sanc-
tions on Iran has no legal ground
and goes against common views,
and the snapback mechanism shall
not be deemed as invoked.
“We stand ready to work with oth-
er parties to push forward the politi-
cal settlement of the Iranian nuclear
issue.”
During the conference, Zhang also
called on the international commu-
nity to act on the Middle East peace
process with a sense of urgency.
Growing tensions between Pales-
Cameroon. At the time, polio was par-
alyzing an estimated 75,000 children
annually on the continent.
In the same year, Nelson Mandela
with the support of Rotary Interna-
tional jump-started Africa’s com-
mitment to polio eradication with
the launch of the Kick Polio Out of
Africa campaign. Mandela’s call
mobilized African nations and lead-
ers across the continent to step up
their efforts to reach every child
with polio vaccine.
Speaking just hours before the
ARCC declared Africa free of the
wild poliovirus, Matshidiso Moeti,
WHO Regional Director for Africa,
said that this is a momentous mile-
stone for Africa since future genera-
The medication caught the atten-
tion of mainstream media in March
when United States President
Donald Trump said the US Food and
Drug Administration, or FDA, was
looking to approve its use as a treat-
ment for COVID-19.
Dispensed co-prescriptions of
hydroxychloroquine and azithromy-
cin increased by 1,044 percent from
February to March this year in the US,
according to data from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hydroxychloroquine made head-
lines again in May when Trump said
he had been taking the drug.
In June the FDA reversed the
emergency use authorization for
hydroxychloroquine as a treatment
for COVID-19, saying that “known
tine and Israel “have put the peace
process in jeopardy and heightened
the risk of regional conflicts,” he said.
Zhang added that the interna-
tional community should firmly
promote a peaceful settlement
based on a two-state solution.
“Independent statehood is the
inalienable national right of the Pal-
estinian people, and it cannot be
compromised or bargained away,”
he said.
“We hope that relevant parties
will take concrete actions to
advance the political process and
pave the way for early resumption of
peace talks between Palestine and
Israel on an equal footing.”
Zhang also said that relevant UN
resolutions, the “land for peace”
principle and the two-state solution
set the course for a final settlement.
“They are important parameters
in the Middle East peace process and
must be observed and reaffirmed,”
he said.
With a recent escalation of ten-
sion on the Gaza Strip, Zhang urged
relevant parties to exercise maxi-
mum restraint and refrain from any
hostile actions that may further
aggravate the fragile security situa-
tion. He reiterated that Secretary-
General Antonio Guterres’s call for a
global cease-fire should be heeded.
Zhang also noted with concern the
increased demolitions of Palestinian-
owned structures in the West Bank
that lead to more displacement.
“Concrete efforts must be made to
implement Security Council Resolu-
tion 2334, including ceasing all set-
tlement activities, stopping
demolitions and preventing vio-
lence against civilians,” he said.
Agencies contributed to the story.
tions will live free of wild polio.
“This historic achievement was
only possible thanks to the leader-
ship and commitment of govern-
ments, communities, global polio
eradication partners and philan-
thropists. I pay special tribute to the
front-line health workers and vacci-
nators, some of whom lost their lives
for this noble cause,” Moeti said.
“However, we must stay vigilant
and keep up vaccination rates to
avert a resurgence of the wild polio-
virus and address the continued
threat of the vaccine-derived polio.”
Moeti said the expertise gained
from polio eradication will continue
to assist Africa in tackling COVID-19
and other health problems.
and potential benefits no longer out-
weigh the known and potential risks”.
The OHDSI study involved a retro-
spective analysis over a 20-year peri-
od of more than 950,000 rheumatoid
arthritis patients who had been pre-
scribed hydroxychloroquine alone or
in a combination treatment.
It found that hydroxychloroquine
treatment in the long term had a 65
percent relative increase in cardiovas-
cular-related mortality, compared to
sulfasalazine, another arthritis drug.
Hydroxychloroquine and azithro-
mycin used together as a short-term
treatment had a cardiovascular mor-
tality risk that was more than double
that associated with sulfasalazine.
Scientists from multiple nations
contributed to the OHDSI study.
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 11
Pummeled
hotels in
long wait
for recovery
By SCOTT REEVES in New York
scottreeves@chinadailyusa.com
The novel coronavirus has bat-
tered the US hotel industry as
state-imposed travel restrictions
probably mean bookings won’t
recover until the third quarter of
2021 at the earliest, industry offi-
cials said on Monday.
Many hotel operators have
had trouble making mortgage
payments, and federal aid or oth-
er government programs such as
funds for temporarily housing
the homeless, while welcome,
are viewed as stopgap measures.
The effect of the COVID-19
pandemic on the industry is nine
times greater than the decline in
bookings following the Sept 11,
2001, terrorist attacks in New
York and Washington, the Amer-
ican Hotel and Lodging Associa-
tion said.
Simply put, there are not
enough customers to keep hotels
financially sound.
Mike Somers, CEO of the New
Hampshire Lodging and Restau-
rant Association in Concord, was
downbeat on the industry’s
immediate prospects.
“Demand is soft,” he said.
“Customers are terrified about
traveling. Anyone coming to
New Hampshire from outside
New England must quarantine
for 14 days. That puts pressure
on the industry.”
Hotel stocks
underperformed
again in July as
industrywide
occupancy growth
continued to
moderate on a
weekly basis.”
Michael Bellisario, senior
hotel research analyst
at Baird
Somers said he expected little
change until a vaccine is devel-
oped and widely distributed.
“Elected officials are being
cautious and want to avoid a
spike in cases,” he said. “Things
are’t going to get significantly
better anytime soon.”
It’s a nationwide problem.
The Baird/STR Hotel Stock
Index is down 42.7 percent
through July 31 as investors flee
the hospitality industry.
“Hotel stocks underperformed
again in July as industrywide
occupancy growth continued to
moderate on a weekly basis,” said
Michael Bellisario, senior hotel
research analyst at Baird, an
investment bank and wealth
management company based in
Milwaukee, in a report.
“Investors remain focused on
the impact of rising coronavirus
case counts on broader travel
trends, and prior optimism
about prospects for business
travel to return in a meaningful
way this fall has faded.”
Companies tracked in the
index include Extended Stay
America, Hilton, Hyatt, InterCon-
tinental, Marriott and Wyndham.
“The (hotel) industry in New
York City is facing its worst crisis
in nearly 100 years,” said Vijay
Dandapani, CEO of the Hotel
Association of New York City, in
an e-mail to China Daily.
“The consensus is that a recov-
ery will not begin until the third
quarter of next year with revenue
approaching 2019 levels in 2025.”
He said about 200 of the city’s
700 hotels have closed tempora-
rily or permanently and another
200 are housing the homeless as
part of an effort to limit the
spread of the virus.
“Federal aid can help, but it’s a
bit like keeping a patient on dial-
ysis — debilitated and never able
to be self-reliant,” Dandapani
said.
During the coronavirus out-
break, the city moved roughly
9,500 homeless people from shel-
ters into 63 hotels across the city,
32 of which are in Manhattan.
12 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
From left: Clouds shroud the landscape in the Laotudingzi national nature reserve at the county-level city Linjiang of Baishan. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY A fisherman casts a net on Longshan Lake, Baishan city.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Visitors take photos of a waterfall at Wangtiane scenic area in Changbai county. WANG CHUNBAO / FOR CHINA DAILY
Baishan uses its natural resources
to encourage economic growth
Clean environment
enriches farmland,
tourism industries
By YUAN SHENGGAO
The prefecture-level city of Bai-
shan in Northeast China’s Jilin
province is making the most of its
heavily-forested natural environ-
ment to promote agriculture,
medicinal herbs and tourism.
Meaning “white mountain”, Bai-
shan is situated in the heartland of
the famous Changbai Mountain,
which has the largest stores of natu-
ral medicinal herbs in Northeast
Asia.
The city is a core production
area for Chinese ginseng with
plantations covering more than
2,500 hectares and an output of
21,000 metric tons annually,
according to news portal The
Paper.
Maintaining arable farmland,
the city has introduced a series of
measures to make sure the soil
remains fertile, including rotating
crops and reducing the use of pes-
ticides and fertilizers.
Today, from mountains to
plains, the city has more than
17,000 square kilometers of organ-
ic plantations.
By utilizing its precious natural
environment of green mountains,
water, ice and snow, Baishan has
been able to realize a considerable
economic transformation, said
Wang Bing, Party secretary of the
city. “We have focused on ecologi-
From left: Farmers pick leek flowers at the Huangjiawaizi village in Fusong county. Fungus planting in Linjiang city is expected to provide
300 job opportunities for local villagers. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Modern agriculture fostering green development
By YUAN SHENGGAO
Playing a key role in green devel-
opment, modern agriculture has
been a highlight in Baishan’s all-
round transformation in recent
years.
Under the guidance of the Bai-
shan city government, local authori-
ties have rolled out supportive
policies allowing the building of
bases for specific local industries
and developing cooperatives or fam-
ily farms.
At Xinfeng village in Fusong
county, 87 new commercial crops
have been introduced including qui-
noa, ice wheat, upland rice and kiwi
fruit.
In 2019, Fusong county invested
280,000 yuan ($40,500) in building
a pilot base for planting new varie-
ties of crops.
Zhang Jinpeng, a resident from
Changbai county, chose to start a
business growing jade fungus in
Clockwise from top: Camping is a popular activity in Changbai Mountain. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Jinjiang Muwu village of Baishan is known
for its log cabins and rustic architecture. SUN LIMIN / FOR CHINA DAILY A sea of flowers at the Baoma bridge in Baishan city.
LIAN CHENGHAO / FOR CHINA DAILY
cal protection and are guided by a
green philosophy in our high-
quality development.”
The harmonious integration of
the city and its natural ecology has
Farmers pick organic
strawberries in Jiangyuan
district.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
his hometown after graduating
from Jilin Agriculture University.
Adopting modern agricultural
technology and management,
Zhang said his greenhouses can pro-
duce nearly 10 metric tons of jade
fungus a year.
The sound ecology of the Chang-
This page is sponsored by the information office of the Jilin provincial government.
also led Baishan to become a cen-
ter for green tourism.
In 2018, Baishan issued a guide-
line on developing tourism center-
ing on the natural environment and
bai Mountain area benefits the pro-
duction of high-quality jade fungus,
Zhang said.
The city’s development of its
organic and medicinal herb indus-
try is bringing new opportunities
for companies, Zhang said.
By 2019, Baishan had granted 116
million yuan in financial support to
promote the local agricultural trans-
formation.
In Weishahe town of Linjiang city,
there are more than 100 hectares of
blueberry plantations managed by a
local cooperative.
“We don’t need to transport our
blueberries to market for sale,” said
Wang Xiaowu, a manager of the
cooperative.
“Regular clients from places such
as Hebei and Shandong provinces
contact us and buy our products
online,” Wang said.
“Planting safflower is one of our
projects in the agricultural devel-
opment plan,” said Xu Zhongguo,
health. The city’s White Mountain
Resort, the Changbaishan Luneng
Resort and the Changbaishan cul-
ture industrial park, have developed
rapidly and attract considerable
Party secretary of Cuocaogou vil-
lage in Weishahe town.
“With the guidance and support
of policies, villagers are also plant-
ing plums and raising cattle.
“These industries featuring
local characteristics help increase
the income of the locals,” he said.
Focusing on promoting green
development in agriculture, Bai-
shan city has launched a plan to
replace chemical fertilizer with
organic fertilizer. By 2019, the use of
pesticides and fertilizers in the city
decreased by 54.7 percent and 59.3
percent, respectively, according to
the Jilin government.
In addition, Baishan is dedicated
to building organic agricultural
brands, as part of its effort to pro-
mote more of its agricultural prod-
ucts to the market, according to
local officials.
Han Junhong contributed to this
story.
numbers of visitors every year.
In 2019, its administrative coun-
ties of Fusong and Jingyu were list-
ed among the top 10 summer
tourism destinations and tourism
City promotes host of
key ecological assets
By YUAN SHENGGAO
Home to a wealth of natural
resources, Baishan is aiming to
mobilize its ecological treasures to
develop industries, improve the
business environment and
encourage innovation, local offi-
cials said.
The city aims to boost its eco-
nomic development by promoting
organic products and medicinal
herbs, said Wang Bing, Party secre-
tary of the city.
The city plans to do this by con-
necting to economic belts includ-
ing the Bohai Economic Rim area
and the Belt and Road Initiative, as
part of the effort to build Baishan
as an economic hub city in North-
east China, Wang said.
This year, Baishan issued a
guideline to promote the city’s
high-quality development and
boost its economy.
It has rolled out more than 30
incentive measures ranging from
supporting the development of
small and medium-size enterpris-
es and establishing a collaborative
working mechanism to setting up
An organic corn field is ready for harvest at a village in Changbai
county. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
CHINA DAILY
17,400
sq km
of organic plantations have
been developed in Baishan.
models in China. Changbai county
has ranked No 1 for air quality in
China for the past three years, local
officials said.
Official data showed that in 2019,
Baishan received more than 12.9
million visits and generated 20.8 bil-
lion yuan ($3 billion) in tourism rev-
enue.
In developing its integrated
green industry, the city is sparing
no effort to establish an industrial
network with more support and
diversified development in sectors
incorporating green products,
resource processing, all-round
tourism, its business environment
and digital information, Wang
said. To this end, the city is using
its ecological resources to benefit
industrial and economic develop-
ment, he added.
Baishan, with a forest coverage of
84.1 percent, has become China’s
first national-level tourist resort
which is predominantly forest,
ranking top among prefecture-level
cities in the country.
It is also internationally recog-
nized as a natural biosphere and
species gene bank with the largest
number of biological species for its
latitude on Earth.
Han Junhong contributed to this
story.
comprehensive financing systems.
“The government should be
more effective in providing servi-
ces for companies,” Sun Weidong,
director of the administration cen-
ter of the Baishan industrial park,
told Chinanews portal.
As of March, the city had agreed
a total of 46 projects, with a
planned investment of 26.86 bil-
lion yuan ($3.9 billion), according
to the Jilin government.
Focusing on the ecological econ-
omy, Baishan is developing five
new industries of green food, med-
ical and healthcare services, min-
eral new materials, tourism and
logistics. Official data showed that
these industries account for 62.1
percent and 55.2 percent of the
city’s GDP and fiscal revenue.
By 2025, the city said it is expect-
ed to welcome 50,000 new market
players, 30 provincial entrepre-
neurship incubation bases, 56 sci-
ence and technology-based SMEs
and 35 national high-tech enter-
prises.
Han Junhong contributed to this
story.
 BUSINESS CHINA DAILY | CHINADAILY.COM.CN/ Thursday, August 27, 2020
RIGHT TRACK
Fiscal fund transfers
stimulate economy
Special payment mechanism enables
local govts to quickly help businesses
By CHEN JIA
chenjia@chinadaily.com.cn
China has nearly completed the
special transfer payment of 2 tril-
lion yuan ($289.72 billion) to local
governments to support the econo-
my, Vice Finance Minister Xu
Hongcai said on Wednesday.
It took less than a month from
making the policies to implement-
ing the fiscal fund transactions, said
Xu. He called the special transfer
payment mechanism, a channel
that was established this year to
directly transfer funds from the
central government to the grass-
roots units, as “a great achieve-
ment” of fiscal system reform and
innovation.
The central government said in
May that funds would be made
available to the prefecture-and
county-level governments, through
the special transfer payment mech-
anism, as a part of the nation’s fis-
cal stimulus package to support the
government’s basic operations and
mitigate the COVID-19 impact on
businesses and households.
Of the 2 trillion yuan, 1.675 tril-
lion yuan have been allocated to
local governments and 1.45 trillion
yuan of these have been injected
into specific projects. The balance
300 billion yuan will be used to
support the government’s tax and
fee cuts for this year, Xu said.
The purpose of the special fund
transfer mechanism, designed
amid the COVID-19 outbreak, is to
ensure that the funds can be trans-
ferred directly to the primary-level
governments and injected into pro-
jects immediately, and not allow
provincial-level authorities to
retain any money for their own use,
said analysts.
Briefly
SF Express net profit
up 21% in first half
Delivery giant SF Express said on
Wednesday that its revenue rose by 42
percent on a yearly basis during the
first six months of this year to 71 bil-
lion yuan ($10.28 billion), as the novel
coronavirus epidemic boosted
demand for delivery services. The
company said net profit rose by 21
percent on a yearly basis to 3.76 billion
yuan. Express deliveries — the compa-
ny’s core business — stood at 3.66 bil-
lion parcels, up 81.3 percent on a
yearly basis, while the average indus-
try growth rate was about 22 percent.
Anta Sports says Fila
cushioned virus effect
Anta Sports Products Ltd, a leading
sportswear company based in Xia-
men of Fujian province, said on
Wednesday that buoyant demand
for its fashion sports brand Fila
helped cushion the novel coronavi-
rus epidemic’s impact on the compa-
ny’s revenue during the first six
months of this year. The group said
revenue in the first half of the year
fell by 1 percent on a yearly basis to
14.67 billion yuan ($2.13 billion). The
revenue of its main brand Anta
declined by 10.7 percent to 6.78 bil-
lion yuan while Fila maintained its
revenue growth, increasing 9.4 per-
cent to 7.15 billion yuan.
Tesla Model Y cars
available for preorders
Tesla China said it has started taking
bookings for its made-in-China Mod-
el Y and production of the preor-
dered cars will start from next year.
Two models of Model Y are currently
available for preorder, with starting
prices of 488,000 yuan ($70,600)
and 535,000 yuan respectively, said
the company, adding that the cur-
rent booking price is only an esti-
mate and the actual price will be
subject to final announcements.
CHINA DAILY - XINHUA
The funds raised by
the special
treasuries have been
sent to the local
governments in
advance, and the
local governments
are injecting the
funds into specific
projects, helping
boost the real fiscal
expenditure.”
Wang Xiaolong, head of the
national treasury department
at the Ministry of Finance
The fund allocation process has
been faster than scheduled and
more efficient than the other fund
transfers between the central and
local governments. This has guar-
anteed the use of the funds and
boosted investment, consumption
and exports, said Xu.
A part of the funds was used for
long-term COVID-19 epidemic pre-
vention and control measures and
for construction of public health
systems, according to officials
from the finance ministry. Wuhan
in Hubei province, a hard-hit city,
has set aside 4.73 billion yuan to
support the reconstruction of hos-
pitals in 11 central urban areas and
for beefing up the city’s primary
medical and health service system.
Nearly 50 percent of the so-called
“direct funds” was raised through
bonds for COVID-19 control. The 1
Ant to use 40% of STAR float proceeds for innovation efforts
By HE WEI in Shanghai
hewei@chinadaily.com.cn
Ant Group, owner of popular
mobile wallet Alipay, plans to allo-
cate 40 percent of the 48 billion
yuan ($6.95 billion) it plans to raise
from its initial public offering in the
STAR Market, China’s version of
Nasdaq, on innovation and tech-
nology-related investments, it said
in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
The company, which is also plan-
ning a public offering in the Hong
Kong bourse, said innovation and
technology-related investments are
areas that “hold the key to success
and serve as the foundation for an
inclusive ecosystem”.
Ant said it holds 26 indigenous
core technology products, 18 inter-
national and national awards for
key technologies, and some 26,000
patents or patent applications
across 40 countries and regions,
spanning multiple technology
realms from artificial intelligence,
risk control, security to blockchain
and robot advisory services.
“China’s capital market is warm-
ly embracing new economy enter-
‘She’ to power wealth management
By WANG ZHUOQIONG
wangzhuoqiong@chinadaily.com.cn
More women on the Chinese
mainland are taking center stage in
managing wealth and making
investment decisions in a field that
has been traditionally dominated
by men, the highest among their
global peers, said a recent industry
report.
Swiss bank UBS Group AG said in
its Own Your Worth 2020 report on
the wealth value of high net worth
female individuals that globally
about 58 percent of the women
respondents allowed their spouse to
trillion yuan quota for the purpose
was completed by the end of last
month, and the finance ministry
has asked local governments to
complete their annual quota for
local government special bond
issuances by the end of October.
The average issuance interest
rate of the COVID-19 treasuries was
2.77 percent, 10 basis points lower
than the average yields of general
treasuries trading in the secondary
market, the ministry said.
“The funds raised by the special
treasuries have been sent to the
local governments in advance, and
the local governments are injecting
the funds into specific projects,
helping boost the real fiscal expend-
iture,” said Wang Xiaolong, head of
the national treasury department
at the Ministry of Finance.
“The ministry will further
strengthen the management of
issuing general treasuries and
local government bonds, to
smoothly complete the govern-
ment bond issuance task through-
out the year,” said Wang.
To ensure that all the funds can
be used effectively, the ministry
recently clarified that local govern-
ments can transfer some of the
“direct funds”, which cannot be
spent this year, to other qualified
projects, said Li Jinghui, head of
the budget department at the Min-
istry of Finance.
The central government has reit-
erated that fiscal funds should be
used to ensure focus remains on the
“six priorities” of employment, peo-
ple’s livelihoods, development of
market entities, food and energy
security, stable operation of industri-
al and supply chains, and smooth
functioning at the community level,
and to ensure stability in the six are-
as of employment, finance, foreign
trade, foreign investment, domestic
investment and market expecta-
tions.
prises like Ant, which encourages
the use of science and innovation to
optimize the distribution of social
resources,” said Pan Zijian, a part-
ner on capital market research at
KPMG China.
According to the prospectus,
Ant’s revenues rose by 38 percent
during the first six months of the
year to 52.5 billion yuan on a yearly
basis.
The increasing bulk, or 56.2 per-
cent of Ant’s revenue last year, came
from what it called digital finance
technology platform, which col-
lects technology-service fees from
banks and insurance firms. These
financial institutions bank on Ali-
pay to make loans, sell mutual
funds and other products.
“Unlike traditional financial
institutions, Ant charges technolo-
gy service fee rather than the inter-
est rate spreads, which banks on
the power of data for monetization
and is more sustainable,” said You
Xi, a researcher at the Beijing Kan-
dong Research Institute, a technol-
ogy-focused think tank.
“Data can pinpoint and predict
customer needs, offer customized
take the lead in financial decisions.
The ratio is 54 percent in the United
States and 62 percent in the United
Kingdom, while it is only 14 percent
on the Chinese mainland.
Nearly half of the female respon-
dents on the mainland took the
lead in such matters, while 37 per-
cent made decisions jointly with
their spouse, higher than the 23
percent and 19 percent globally.
When it comes to making short-
term financial plans, more than 80
percent of the women respondents
from the mainland were deeply
involved in making decisions
including managing daily expens-
Customers waiting to enter an Ikea store in Shanghai.
Ikea to cut prices of 250 items in China
By SHI JING in Shanghai
shijing@chinadaily.com.cn
Ikea said on Wednesday that it will
cut prices of 250 products, which
account for about 5 percent of its total
inventories in China, from Sept 1 as
the Swedish furniture giant looks to
further tap into the country’s growing
demand for quality lifestyle products.
The company said it was well
geared up to embrace opportunities
from the expected rapid growth of
the furniture industry in China.
Zhang Lina, vice-president of Ikea
China, said the price reductions will
lead to cost savings of about 200 mil-
lion yuan ($29 million) for Chinese
consumers. At the same time, the
firm will also launch 2,000 new prod-
ucts in China for the 2021 fiscal year,
with 700 having sustainable or eco-
friendly characteristics, said Zhang.
The company will have a green
approach to deliveries in China.
While Ikea uses new energy vehicles
in five Chinese cities for deliveries at
present, it will have all its goods
delivered by NEVs in 17 Chinese cit-
ies from next year, said Liu Rui, vice-
president of Ikea China.
Ant Group’s exhibition hall in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY
solutions, and hence gather more
clients,” You said. “The growing
customer base will in turn generate
more data it can leverage to perfect
its services.”
Three out of the company’s nine
board members are from technolo-
gy-related backgrounds, including
CEO Hu Xiaoming. Over 60 percent
es, payment and bills.
For example, a third of the
respondents on the mainland con-
sider insurance as a top priority.
Seven out of 10 respondents consid-
er long-term medical care services
and retirement plan as essential,
said the report.
The report garnered responses
from nearly 4,400 married,
divorced and widowed women
from 11 markets worldwide includ-
ing United Kingdom, United States
and Singapore between September
2017 and November 2019. This was
the first time that the report
involved more than 400 women
WANG GANG / FOR CHINA DAILY
Zhang said the new pricing policy
and the company’s increasing
emphasis on sustainable develop-
ment are efforts to gauge the chang-
ing demands of Chinese consumers,
which have become more noticeable
since COVID-19 epidemic.
“On the one hand, Chinese con-
sumers are showing more prefer-
ence for products with high cost. On
the other hand, their pursuit of con-
sumption upgrade in expenditure
on daily necessities has remained
unchanged,” she said.
Global consultancy KPMG said in a
recent report that 51 percent of the
1,027 Chinese respondents in a survey
considered high cost as the top priori-
ty when they make a purchase deci-
sion.
Bruno Lannes, China partner of
global market consultancy Bain &
Co, said the trend of Chinese con-
sumers focusing more on cost start-
ed to take shape in 2019 and the
trend has become more noticeable
after the COVID-19 epidemic.
But analysts from Shenzhen-
based market consultancy ASKCI
said Chinese consumers’ demand
for lifestyle products will increase as
of Ant employees are in technology-
related posts, whereas research and
development expenditure account-
ed somewhere between 7.3 percent
and 8.8 percent of the group reve-
nue during the last three years.
Ant is also involved in shaping
China’s digital currency architec-
ture, according to the filings, which
from the mainland.
Among the factors that prevented
14 percent of the women from mak-
ing financial decisions, acknowl-
edgment that the spouse had better
knowledge of such affairs account-
ed for 93 percent, while focus on
other matters stood at 84 percent.
Lyu Zijie, director of wealth
management at UBS China, said
that this was the first time that
women on the Chinese mainland
were expressing their opinion on
wealth-related matters. “We are
happy to see an increasingly inde-
pendent side of women on the
mainland as She-economy has
become an impetus in social and
economic development.”
She said the incentives for women
to take charge of wealth management
they have stayed at home for a long
period due to the epidemic. The
momentum is expected to carry on
and the Chinese furniture industry
will see exponential growth in the
second half of the year, they said.
Ikea opened seven new stores in
China over the past 12 months, a pace
unprecedented, said Francois Brenti,
a vice-president of the company in
China. It opened a smaller scale Ikea
store in central Shanghai last month.
According to Brenti, the company will
open more such stores in the first-tier
Chinese cities and in the Guangdong-
Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
More traditional stores that are usual-
ly located in the exterior areas of cities
will be opened in Fuzhou, Kunming,
and Nanning, he said.
In March, the company launched
an online flagship store on e-com-
merce platform Tmall, with the
number of online followers exceed-
ing 1 million in a week’s time.
To fuel the rapid growth of Ikea in
China, it will add at least 2,000 new
jobs in the country, mainly to help
build the new stores and better
serve the company’s digitalization
strategy, said Brenti.
stated it is “one of a number of pow-
erful commercial institutions” that
the People’s Bank of China, the cen-
tral bank, summoned in late 2017 to
develop the digital currency sys-
tem.
“Over the past two years, the
company has been actively
involved in the development and
testing of digital yuan, and has been
conducting closed-door pilots in
cities like Shenzhen, Suzhou,
Xiong’an and Chengdu to prep for
the forthcoming Winter Olympics
scenarios,” it said.
Unlike general electronic pay-
ment tools, digital yuan is posi-
tioned as the equivalent of notes
and coins in circulation outside of
the banking system, including cash
held by institutions and individu-
als.
Ant said the Alipay mobile app
handled 118 trillion yuan worth of
transactions in the Chinese main-
land in the first half, in the year to
June, while international transac-
tions stood at 622 billion yuan.
Some 80 million businesses have
adopted the service till date, for
which Alipay charges a fee, it said.
are the general awareness of longer
life expectancy among women than
men and the necessity of and urgency
in long-term financial plans, such as
making preparations for retirement
and medical care services.
Vera Wang, a wealth manager at
a leading company in the securi-
ties industry, said more money is
pouring into the hands of women
in China, mostly through inherit-
ances in single-child families or
via self-made wealth from emerg-
ing industries.
“Women are more sensitive and
rational in managing household
finances and investment,” said
Wang. “When selecting financial
portfolios, women are good at risk-
control and less interested in prod-
ucts with high leverage.”
14 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
BUSINESS
Visitors check out cars during an auto expo in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, on Aug 13.
Auto sector to stay on track
Favorable policy support, recovering
demand to lift earnings in second half
By MA SI
masi@chinadaily.com.cn
China’s automobile sector is
expected to maintain its recovery
momentum in the second half of the
year thanks to favorable policy sup-
port and a revival in demand by con-
sumers, but carmakers need to
make more efforts to adapt to the
changing shopping preferences of
young consumers to ensure long-
term growth, industry experts said.
Fu Bingfeng, secretary general of
the China Association of Automo-
bile Manufacturers, said the sales of
new-energy-vehicles are expected to
maintain a stable performance in
the second half of this year. Fu add-
ed that so far, China has 4.6 million
new energy vehicles on the road.
“The number is scheduled to hit 5
million units by the end of this year.
I think the target can be met, judg-
ing from the current situation,” Fu
said.
The comments came after local
governments rolled out favorable
policies to support the development
of new energy vehicles. China, for
instance, has extended subsidies for
new energy vehicles until 2022 and
such vehicles will remain exempt
from purchase taxes for another two
years as well.
To spur sales, the Beijing munic-
ipal government also said it would
Snack makers report robust sales as epidemic keeps more people at home
By ZHU WENQIAN
zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn
Major snack retailers in China
have seen burgeoning sales growth
in the first half of this year, as more
people stayed at home longer and
enjoyed more snacks since the out-
break of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first six months, Hunan-
based snack maker Yanjin Shop Food
Co Ltd recorded sales revenue of 945
million yuan ($137 million), jumping
up by 47.53 percent year-on-year.
During the same period, its net
profit reached 130 million yuan, sur-
ging 96.44 percent year-on-year. The
amount was higher than the whole-
year net profit it posted last year.
The Shenzhen-listed company
generated most of its sales from sell-
ing fish tofu, dried beans, candied
roasted seeds nuts, and potato
chips. The retailer expected its sales
to continue to grow in the third
quarter, it said in a statement.
“Earlier this year, residents were
staying at home for most of the time
to prevent possible infections from
the contagion. As the epidemic is
getting under better control in Chi-
na, people have returned to work.
Still, many people have fostered a
habit of spending more leisure time
at home and thus consume more
snacks,” a research report of Sealand
Securities said.
“On the whole, frozen food and
offer an additional 20,000 electric
car plates for carless families in
the capital city this year. Other cit-
ies such as Shanghai, Hangzhou in
Zhejiang province, and
Guangzhou and Shenzhen in
Guangdong province also
announced similar plans in offer-
ing more license plates.
Such policies will trigger pent-up
demand from new customers,
which can help offset the impact of
the COVID-19 pandemic to some
extent, the experts said.
The epidemic significantly
harmed the sales of vehicles in Chi-
na until April when the first month-
ly increase in car sales showed up as
the contagion was brought under
better control in the country.
In July, the overall sales of vehi-
cles in China rose 16.4 percent
year-on-year compared with the
year-earlier level to 2.11 million
vehicles, marking the fourth con-
secutive rise in monthly vehicle
sales, according to data from the
China Association of Automobile
Manufacturers.
The association estimated vehi-
cle sales to further grow in the sec-
ond half of the year, but it said
China’s auto market is likely to fall
around 10 percent for the entire
calendar year because losses in the
first quarter of the year were too
big.
Middle-end and high-
end snacks are
foreseen to draw
more consumers,
and lift the
average price of
snacks in the
domestic market.”
Neil Wang,
president of Frost & Sullivan
in China
fine dried noodles have seen better
sales performances than dairy and
meat products. Sales of snacks
through e-commerce platforms,
supermarkets and convenience
stores have fared better than alcohol
and condiments,” the report found.
Other major snack and food mak-
ers have also done well in the first
half of the year. During the period,
Anhui province-based Qiaqia Food
Co Ltd, one of the largest Chinese
producers of roasted seeds and nuts,
gained a net profit of 295 million
yuan, up 33.97 percent year-on-year.
During the first six months,
Chongqing-based Youyou Food Co,
the country’s main distributor of
pickled chicken feet, realized a net
profit of 129 million yuan, up 37.74
XIAO YIJIU / XINHUA
In the long term, Generation Z
consumers will emerge as an impor-
tant buying group for automobiles
in China, as about 40 million of
them will fuel demand and be will-
ing to buy cars over the next five
years, one expert said.
Zhang Jingyu, co-president of
auto information provider Auto-
home, said young consumers have
their own distinct consumption
preferences compared with their
predecessors, which will bring new
opportunities and challenges to car-
makers.
Generation Z consumers are
more willing to spend on cars and
are more eager than their predeces-
sors to use financial products such
as loans to buy cars, according to a
joint report released by Autohome
and consultancy Deloitte.
Generation Z consumers’ spend-
ing in China accounts for 15 per-
cent of the household
expenditures, in comparison with 5
percent in France and 4 percent in
the United States, the report
released at the China Automotive
New Consumption Forum earlier
this month said.
They also have different shopping
habits, which will prompt automo-
bile makers and retailers to make
more efforts such as upgrading their
marketing strategies and after-sales
services, to adapt to the changing
shopping preferences of Generation
Z consumers, Zhang said.
The annual sales volume of new
energy vehicles in China is likely to
Yanjin Shop snacks are displayed at a supermarket in Beijing.
percent on a yearly basis, their latest
earnings reports said.
It is notable that frozen food such
as frozen dumplings and glutinous
rice balls, frozen meat, and fish
products have gained in popularity
as they are convenient to cook and
easy to preserve.
hit 3 million units in 2025, thanks
to technological advancements
and consumption upgrades
including the desire for better
products by Generation Z consum-
ers, another report released by
Autohome said.
In comparison, the sales of NEVs
in China were about 1.2 million
units in 2019, data from the Minis-
try of Industry and Information
Technology showed.
Xin Guobin, vice-minister of
industry and information technolo-
gy, said China is speeding up the
promulgation of the sector’s devel-
opment plan from 2020 to 2035.
He said the plan has been submit-
ted to the State Council for approval.
Based on a draft plan released in
2019, China aims to be a globally
leading country in terms of new
energy vehicle-related technologies.
New energy vehicles are expected to
account for 25 percent of vehicle
sales by 2025.
When it comes to the annual sales
of passenger vehicles in China, the
report released by Autohome esti-
mated the number would hit 30 mil-
lion units by the end of 2029, with
domestic brands becoming more
popular among local consumers.
The number in 2019 was 21.44 mil-
lion units.
Li Xianjun, director of automo-
tive development research center at
Tsinghua University, said the auto-
mobile industry needs to seize the
strategic opportunity to achieve
high-quality development.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Zhengzhou Sanquan Foods Co
Ltd, a major frozen food retailer,
netted sales revenue of 3.73 billion
yuan in the first six months, grow-
ing 22.6 percent on a yearly basis. Its
net profit reached 452 million yuan,
soaring 409.61 percent year-on-year.
Fujian province-based Haixin
SIX PRIORITIES
Ride-hailing firms
ramp up efforts to
sustain employment
By MA SI
Chinese car-hailing companies
are playing an important role in
creating jobs, as orders on their
platforms recovered rapidly as
the COVID-19 outbreak is
brought under better control in
the nation.
Didi Chuxing, China’s largest
ride-hailing company, said it will
invest 200 million yuan ($28.9
million) as a special fund to pro-
mote employment for those
affected by the epidemic, the
unemployed and poor family
members based on its platform.
The company plans to give sub-
sidies for car rentals, income and
insurance purchases for begin-
ners who join Didi’s ride-hailing
fleets. Drivers in poor areas can
enjoy special poverty-relief funds,
and freelancers can participate in
skill training courses for free.
Didi has also been creating jobs
for poverty-stricken counties and
donated shared bikes to poor are-
as, with the operation revenue
used to set up public welfare posts
for locals.
It also created 8,000 flexible
jobs for Hubei province, which
was hit hard during the epidemic,
to help it stabilize employment
and pick up the economy.
Didi said it has created 10 mil-
lion flexible jobs, including ride-
hailing drivers, designated drivers
and operation and maintenance
staff for its bike-sharing service.
Flexible employment opportuni-
ties represented by car-hailing
drivers are playing the role of “sta-
bilizer” and “power bank” for socie-
ty, creating more income
opportunities for people who are
affected by the epidemic, Didi said.
Didi, which has about 550 million
users on its platform, said the num-
ber of ride-sharing orders on its
platform at this time has exceeded
that of the same period last year.
Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi, said on
Wednesday that the peak daily
orders on the company’s platform
surpassed 50 million for the first
time, reflecting reviving con-
sumption and economic recovery.
Other car-hailing companies
are also seeing rapid recovery in
their orders and they are working
to create more job opportunities.
Wei Dong, CEO of Shouqi Lim-
ousine and Chauffeur, said the
company’s car-hailing business
has recovered to nearly 70 percent
of its pre-epidemic level.
Zhou Guangsu, an associate
professor at the School of Labor
and Human Resources at Renmin
University of China, said online
platforms such as ride-hailing and
Foods Co Ltd, a producer of frozen
food such as frozen fishball prod-
ucts, saw its net profit come in at
42.6 million yuan in the first half of
the year, spiking 507.21 percent year-
on-year.
More people have also fostered a
hobby of baking while spending
CHINA DAILY
800
million
number of monthly active
users Didi aims to reach by
2022
food-delivery companies are mak-
ing contributions to increasing
employment.
The moments came as rider-
sharing becomes increasingly
popular in China.
From 2016 to 2019, the penetra-
tion rate of online car-hailing
users among netizens has
increased from 32.3 percent to
47.4 percent, and its relevant ser-
vice expenditures accounted for
11.4 percent of all transportation
costs by urban residents last year,
the latest report from the Sharing
Economy Research Center under
the State Information Center said.
Last month, the National Devel-
opment and Reform Commission
unveiled a guideline to encourage
the development of new business
models including ride-sharing to
boost consumption and create
more jobs.
The rapid growth of digital
technology has created several
new business models despite the
novel coronavirus outbreak and
played a key role in the prevention
and control of the epidemic, apart
from boosting the slowing econo-
my and stabilizing employment,
NDRC said.
Based on the new guideline,
China will look to foster the inte-
grated development of online and
offline businesses, boost industri-
al digitalization and encourage
self-employment ventures.
Didi also said it is working to
expand its presence in more new
business areas such as on-de-
mand freight services and deliv-
ery services in multiple cities in
the hope of offering more employ-
ment opportunities.
Didi officially unveiled the Uber
freight-like service on its app in
June, with the service initially
available in 10 cities which
include Beijing, Shanghai, Shen-
zhen in Guangdong province and
Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang
province.
The official launch came after
Didi said in a statement it is hiring
580 van and truck drivers in 10 cities
which include Beijing and Shang-
hai to offer truck-hailing services.
Cheng from Didi said in June
that the company wanted to
achieve 100 million global orders
per day and accumulate 800 mil-
lion monthly active users globally
by 2022.
more time at home, and this has
driven the consumption of yeast for
baking cakes and pastries.
During the first six months, Angel
Yeast Co Ltd, a Shanghai-listed
major yeast maker in the country,
achieved sales revenue of 4.34 bil-
lion yuan, up 16.91 percent year-on-
year. Its net profit hit 719 million
yuan, expanding 54.85 percent year-
on-year. The company said it has
benefited from family purchases
and rapid sales growth through
e-commerce channels.
“Quality-conscious Chinese con-
sumers will spend more money on
snacks in pace with their income
growth. They are expected to have a
rising demand for premium,
healthy and safe snacks, and pay
more attention to the appearance
and packaging of snacks,” said Neil
Wang, president of consultancy
Frost & Sullivan in China.
“Middle-end and high-end snacks
are foreseen to draw more consum-
ers, and lift the average price of
snacks in the domestic market,” he
said.
Compared with developed mar-
kets such as Europe, the United
States, Japan and South Korea, the
per capita consumption volume and
value of snack foods in China
remain relatively low. Therefore
growth potential of snacks in the
China market remains bullish, said
Frost & Sullivan.
 CHINA DAILY
BUSINESSFOCUS
Hydrogen to drive clean energy moves
Experts call for greater use of non-polluting fuel in sectors like transport, buildings, power generation
By ZHENG XIN
zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn
Experts believe it’s time to tap
into hydrogen’s potential to allow it
to play a key role in China’s clean
and safe energy mix.
Supplying hydrogen to industrial
users is now a major business
around the world, including in
long-haul transport and the pro-
duction of chemicals, iron and
steel. Policies and projects around
the world involving the clean fuel
have been expanding rapidly since
2018, said the International Energy
Agency in its recently released
report.
With the global energy sector
in a state of flux, the versatility of
hydrogen is also attracting
stronger interest from a diverse
group of governments and com-
panies, it said.
The Hydrogen Council, a global
initiative of leading energy, trans-
port and industry companies, esti-
mates that the fuel is expected to
account for almost one-fifth of total
final energy consumption world-
wide by 2050 when deployed at
scale.
According to Gan Yong, an acade-
mician at the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, hydrogen will
account for 10 percent to 15 percent
of China’s energy system by that
time.
With only 64 hydrogen stations
nationwide, China is not a leading
player in global hydrogen develop-
ment, and lags behind in overall
planning, laws and regulations,
Gan said.
China included the develop-
ment of hydrogen stations for new
energy vehicles for the first time
last year in its Government Work
Report. This was a result of the
government’s endorsement of
hydrogen stations and the country
then sold 2,737 hydrogen fuel-cell
vehicles in 2019, up 79 percent
year-on-year.
With more than 6,165 hydrogen
fuel-cell vehicles, 64 hydrogen
refueling stations with 52 operat-
ing nationwide, the country has
also seen many provinces actively
developing hydrogen energy in
recent years and laying out pro-
vincial-level development for the
chemical, including Jiangsu,
Henan and Shandong. Some cit-
ies are also coming up with gui-
dance on hydrogen cells
including Suzhou, Foshan,
Maoming and Ningbo.
As many as 12 State-owned com-
panies — including China Nation-
al Petroleum Corp, China
Petroleum and Chemical Corp
(Sinopec), China Energy, China
Baowu Steel Group, State Grid
Corp of China, China Huaneng
Group Co Ltd, State Power Invest-
ment Corp Ltd, China Three Gorg-
es Corp, China National Nuclear
Corporation and China General
Nuclear Power Group — are all
actively laying out their hydrogen
plans, believing the cleaner fuel
will become a vital sector in the
long run.
While Sinopec expects to fur-
ther take advantage of its more
than 30,000 gas stations nation-
wide to further step up its more
than 3 million metric tons of
annual hydrogen production
capacity, China Energy — with
annual hydrogen production
capacity exceeding 4 million tons
Sinopec unit committed to sustainable alternatives
By ZHENG XIN
Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical
Co, a subsidiary of China Petroleum
and Chemical Corp (Sinopec),
pledged to further push forward
research and development of hydro-
gen fuel-cell vehicles through coop-
eration with automaker BAIC
Group.
The petrochemical company said
it would further cooperate with
BAIC to supply hydrogen fuel — a
fuel that does not result in the
release of carbon dioxide — to take
advantage of its existing network of
more than 30,000 retail stations
and its experience in producing
hydrogen for its refining and chemi-
cal plants.
The two sides will further
Officials launch a hydrogen-powered tramcar designed by CRRC Qingdao Sifang Co Ltd in Foshan, Guangdong province, in December
2019. ZHANG JINGANG / FOR CHINA DAILY
For hydrogen to play
a significant role in
decarbonization, the
industry will need to
transform upstream
and expand
significantly
downstream.”
Xiao Ting, an analyst with
BloombergNEF
and the capability to provide 40
million vehicles with hydrogen —
also aims to further promote
hydrogen use to meet China’s com-
mitment to combating climate
change.
Demand for hydrogen, which has
grown more than threefold since
1975, continues to rise. This sug-
gests that companies should have
clear long-term goals, especially key
sectors including refining, chemi-
cals, iron and steel, freight, long-
distance transport, construction,
power generation and storage, said
the IEA.
For hydrogen to make a signifi-
cant contribution to clean energy
transitions, it needs to be adopted
in sectors where it is almost com-
pletely absent, such as transport,
buildings and power generation, it
said.
According to the agency, global
spending on hydrogen energy
research, development and dem-
onstration by national govern-
ments has risen over the past few
years, with the majority of targets,
mandates and policy incentives
cooperate in scientific innova-
tion and energy application to
come up with a hydrogen fuel-
cell vehicle demonstration
industry cluster.
Many developed countries have
been actively deploying their stra-
tegic hydrogen industrial layout,
including the United States and
Japan. China also plans to have
50,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles
on its roads by 2025 and 1 million
by 2030.
China Petroleum and Chemical
Corp is one of China’s largest pro-
ducers of hydrogen, producing
over 3 million metric tons last
year, mostly made from fossil
fuels or produced as a by-product
of its refining and chemical opera-
tions. For example, Sinopec’s
64
total number of hydrogen
stations in China at present
focused on transport, including
passenger cars, vehicle refueling
stations, buses, trucks and other
vehicles.
Kou Nannan, a senior associate
with Bloomberg New Energy
Finance’s advanced transport sec-
tor, said heavy trucks could run
cheaper on hydrogen than diesel by
2031, although batteries remain a
cheaper solution for cars, buses and
light trucks.
“Storing and moving hydrogen is
challenging. For hydrogen to
become as ubiquitous as natural
gas today, a huge, coordinated pro-
gram of infrastructure upgrades
and construction would be need-
ed,” Kou said.
The latest Hydrogen Council
report shows that the cost of hydro-
gen solutions will fall sharply with-
in the next decade, by up to 50
percent by 2030, as scaleups in
hydrogen production, distribution,
equipment and component manu-
facturing continue.
Hydrogen can be transported in a
gaseous state via pipelines and as a
liquid by ships, much like liquefied
natural gas (LNG). It can also be
transformed into electricity and
methane to power homes and fuel
factories, and can also be used to
propel cars, trucks, ships and
planes.
However, the clean energy is
believed to have not yet reached
full potential to support clean
energy transitions. Ambitious,
targeted and near-term action is
needed to further overcome bar-
Shanghai hydrogen refueling sta-
tions are supplied by purified
by-product hydrogen from the
Gaoqiao petrochemical facility
based in the city.
It had already built four com-
bined oil-hydrogen refueling sta-
tions that combine hydrogen
refueling infrastructure with con-
ventional diesel and gasoline filling
facilities in 2019. It plans a further
20 combined oil-hydrogen fueling
stations in Guangzhou, Guangdong
province.
Joseph Jacobelli, an independent
energy analyst and executive vice-
president for Asia at Cenfura Ltd,
said China has had a good track
record in developing clean or
renewable energy technologies such
as solar and onshore wind, and
riers and reduce costs, said the
IEA.
Xiao Ting, an analyst with
BloombergNEF, said that like all
other clean energy technologies,
green hydrogen needs government
support before it can become an
affordable feedstock, or serve as a
fuel for power and heat.
“For hydrogen to play a signifi-
cant role in decarbonization, the
industry will need to transform
upstream and expand significantly
downstream. Hydrogen produc-
tion will need to move to zero or low
carbon processes, and consump-
tion will need to expand to new sec-
tors where fossil fuels are
dominant,” Xiao said.
She added that China now only
provides subsidies to downstream
players, specifically fuel-cell vehi-
cles. Lack of government support
for upstream players results in
diminished enthusiasm for green
hydrogen production in the coun-
try.
The China Hydrogen Alliance
said 67 percent of the more than 20
million tons of hydrogen that China
produces every year is made from
fossil fuels, with a further 30 per-
cent produced as a by-product of
industrial processes such as coking,
steelmaking and chemical produc-
tion. Only 3 percent is made from
renewable resources.
Xiao said most of the
announced new facilities for
hydrogen generation are based on
coal gasification, which corre-
sponds to the cheapest hydrogen
in China but does not help cut car-
bon emissions.
As a result, vehicles consuming
hydrogen made by this process
release more carbon dioxide
through their whole life cycle com-
3
million tons
Sinopec’s hydrogen production
last year
hydrogen will take longer until
appropriate infrastructure is in
place.
Hydrogen is an inevitable
choice for the country to reduce
emissions and develop the auto-
mobile industry in the long term,
Jacobelli said.
Sinopec is also constructing a
by-product hydrogen purification
plant at its Yanshan Petrochemi-
cal facility in Beijing, with a purifi-
cation capacity of 2,000 cubic
meters an hour. This will also sup-
pared with those burning gasoline,
she said.
Kou said for hydrogen to have net
environmental benefits, it must be
produced from renewable power
and other clean sources instead of
fossil fuels, which is the usual meth-
od at this time.
“The cost of producing hydrogen
from renewables is set to fall, but it
is necessary to first create demand
to drive down costs and build a
wide range delivery infrastructure,”
he said. “That won’t happen with-
out new government targets and
subsidies.”
Policy recommendations for
the development of China’s
hydrogen and fuel-cell industry
by the China Hydrogen Alliance
envisage hydrogen being pro-
duced from renewables and fossil
fuels with carbon capture and
storage.
Xiao said: “China can still lower
its carbon emissions by enhancing
the penetration of renewable pow-
er technologies including solar and
wind, which have needed few subsi-
dies this year and will not become a
financial burden for the govern-
ment from 2021.”
According to the IEA, in addition
to the cost of producing hydrogen
from low-carbon energy, the devel-
opment of hydrogen infrastructure
is also slow and holding back wide-
spread adoption.
Hydrogen prices for consumers
are highly dependent on how many
refueling stations exist, how often
they are used and how much hydro-
gen is delivered per day. Tackling
this is likely to require planning
and coordination that brings
together national and local govern-
ments, industry and investors, it
said.
Employees from Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical Co operate a
hydrogen production equipment in Beijing. HU QINGMING / FOR CHINA DAILY
port the sustainability agenda of
the Winter Olympics in 2022,
when there are expected to be
more than 2,000 fuel-cell vehicles
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 15
Industrial
system to
be set up in
Guangzhou
By ZHENG XIN
Guangzhou, capital of Guang-
dong province, aims to further
intensify efforts to develop a sophis-
ticated hydrogen energy industrial
system and have its hydrogen ener-
gy industry reach 200 billion yuan
($28.6 billion) in value within 10
years.
The South China city plans to
come up with a hydrogen energy
industrial chain with a produc-
tion value of over 60 billion yuan
by 2025, and an industrial system
that consists of production, stor-
age, transaction and application
with an output value of 200 bil-
lion yuan by 2030, said Chen Jian-
rong, deputy director of the
Guangzhou municipal develop-
ment and reform commission.
The city aims to develop more
than 100 companies related to
hydrogen energy and fuel-cells by
2022, with the percentage of fuel-
cell vehicles in public transporta-
tion and environmental
sanitation sectors to be no less
than 30 percent.
Having introduced 20 hydrogen
energy projects with investment
totaling over 4 billion yuan in the
past few years, the city will further
explore the use of the energy in
fields such as public transport,
drones, mechanical equipment and
shipping in the near future as
Guangzhou has been stepping up
efforts to reduce reliance on fossil
fuel energy.
An employee explains the
benefits of hydrogen-powered
buses to the general public in
Guangzhou, Guangdong
province in May.
HE YUSHUAI / FOR CHINA DAILY
Experts said that as hydrogen is
mostly used in oil refining and for
fertilizer production, it’s necessa-
ry that the clean energy is also
adopted in sectors where it is com-
pletely absent at the moment,
such as transport and power gen-
eration.
According to Li Can from the Chi-
nese Academy of Sciences, China
has enhanced policy support for
research and development in hydro-
gen fuel cells in recent years, mak-
ing a significant contribution to
clean energy transitions.
Investment in hydrogen can help
foster new technological and indus-
trial development in economies
around the world, creating skilled
jobs, said the International Energy
Agency.
IEA analysis said the cost of pro-
ducing hydrogen from renewable
electricity could fall 30 percent by
2030 as a result of declining costs of
renewables and the scaling up of
hydrogen production.
Fuel cells, refueling equipment
and electrolysers (which produce
hydrogen from electricity and
water) can all benefit from mass
production, it said.
in the Zhangjiakou Olympic com-
pound, which will then require a
significant increase in refueling
infrastructure.
16 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
LIFE
A broken vase with dragon dec-
oration, from the reign of Yongle
(1403-24), is on show.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
U
nlike the fire-breathing,
treasure-guarding
winged monsters of
ancient European imagi-
nation, Chinese dragons, or long, are
creatures that represent power and
prosperity.
Consequently, dynasty after
dynasty, the dragon was a symbol of
the emperors.
In recent decades, archaeologists
have unearthed a myriad of porce-
lain shards in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi
province, which is known as “Chi-
na’s ceramic capital”.
Reassembling the fragments with
long patterns not only revealed
state-of-the-art craftsmanship but
also put together a puzzle that
reveals different facets of imperial
China.
These are being revealed to the
public at the exhibition, Exalted
Beings: Imperial Porcelain with
Dragon Decorations from the Yuan
(1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and
Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, at Bei-
jing’s Poly Art Museum that runs
until Sept 12.
It displays over 60 items, includ-
ing works restored from pieces
unearthed in Jingdezhen and intact
artifacts that were for royal use and
are now in the collections of Poly
and several other institutions.
“These pieces’ long motifs reflect
the Chinese emperors’ aesthetics
and the dynamic changes of their
times,” says Wang Guangyao, a por-
celain researcher at the Palace
Museum in Beijing, who is also
curator of the exhibition.
The exhibition initially planned
to display 150 artifacts, but the COV-
ID-19 pandemic reduced the num-
ber. However, all items in the
original catalogue are being digital-
ly showcased on Poly’s website.
Viewing the plates, bowls, vases,
jars and other daily-use items
emblazoned with long invites view-
ers to imagine them in the emper-
ors’ dining rooms, bedrooms and
studies.
But many of the works on show
never made it into the emperors’
hands.
Imperfect pieces were deliberate-
ly broken rather than sent to the
Forbidden City, the imperial palace
from 1420 to 1911, which is known as
the Palace Museum today.
Jingdezhen rose as a porcelain
hub in the Northern Song Dynasty
(960-1127), and an official workshop
was established there during the
Yuan Dynasty.
Its heyday came in 1369, a year
after Zhu Yuanzhang established
the Ming empire. A kiln exclusively
serving the royal family was built in
Jingdezhen.
“Anyone who copied the shapes
and patterns of ceramics from the
imperial kiln would certainly be exe-
cuted,” Wang says.
“If the color was not bright
enough or the dragon was not per-
fectly drawn, the porcelain would be
broken. Not even the slightest blem-
ish was acceptable. But (the broken
pieces) just prove how exceptional
the surviving imperial porcelain
items in Beijing are.”
It’s a precious opportunity to view
these artifacts, since many national
treasures aren’t put on public dis-
play.
An unfinished cup and a broken
shard belong to what is commonly
considered one of the most valuable
antique varieties.
A “chicken cup”, so called because
it bears chicken patterns, created
during the reign of Chenghua (1465-
87) is celebrated for its exquisite
craftsmanship and demanding
technique combining overglaze col-
ors and underglaze blue.
In 2014, Chinese art collector Liu
DRAGON
TALES
An exhibition of imperial porcelain reveals how
depictions of the creatures have changed with society
over the centuries, Wang Kaihao reports.
Clockwise from top: A blue-and-white incense burner with dragon decorations from the reign of Wanli (1573-1620), a Yuan Dynasty
plate inscribed with a dragon, a ceramic plate with dragon decorations from the reign of Kangxi (1662-1722) and a broken bowl with
dragon motifs from the reign of Hongzhi (1488-1505) are among the items on show. Below: Wang Guangyao, curator of the exhibi-
tion, checks the press-hand cup. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY AND BY WANG KAIHAO
Yiqian bought a similar cup for
about $45 million, setting a record
for Chinese art sold at an auction.
Even the Palace Museum has only
one chicken cup. Several were taken
to Taipei in 1949.
According to Wang, the prototype
of today’s long dates back over 5,000
years to the late period of Yangshao
culture.
As early as the Western Zhou
Dynasty (c.11th century-771 BC),
Chinese rulers began to give them-
selves titles as embodiments of
“Dragons from Heaven”.
“Different peoples began to
revere and worship long over the
centuries, as Chinese civilization
spread from the Central Plains,”
Wang explains.
For example, when the Khitan
people ruled northern China by
establishing the Liao Dynasty (916-
1125), they continued to use the
dragon as the symbol of the throne.
If you go
9 am-5 pm, last entrance at
4:30 pm. Closed on Sundays,
through Sept 12. Online
reservation needed. Poly Art
Museum, 9/F, New Poly Plaza,
Chaoyangmen Bei Dajie,
Dongcheng district, Beijing.
010-6500-8117.
The same goes for the Mongols, who
ruled China during the Yuan Dynas-
ty, and the Manchu rulers of the
Qing Dynasty.
“It demonstrates their recogni-
tion of traditional Chinese culture,
as represented by long,” Wang
These pieces’ long motifs reflect the explains.
Chinese emperors’ aesthetics and the “That mixture shows the inclu-
dynamic changes of their times.” siveness of Chinese civilization.”
In 1299, the Yuan emperor even
Wang Guangyao, porcelain researcher released an edict strictly regulating
CHINA DAILY
An unearthed fragment of press-
hand cup is on display in Poly
Art Museum.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
the use of dragon decorations for
different ranks.
The dragon with five claws was
considered the highest-level, and its
use was restricted to the emperor.
The Ming and Qing inherited the
rule.
Wang explains that a complicated
ritualistic system was developed for
imperial porcelain that also includ-
ed color codes. For example, during
the Qing Dynasty, even the royal
family couldn’t arbitrarily use a
bowl decorated with long.
“If a bowl was both yellow inside
and outside, only the emperor, the
empress and the empress dowager
could use it,” Wang says.
“But if a yellow bowl was white
inside, its ranking was lower, and
the highest-ranking concubines
could use it. And the status of green
and purple bowls was even lower.”
As the exhibition reveals, the
artistic styles of the dragon motifs
on the porcelain also continued
evolving throughout three dynasties
and thus offer key references to
study the bigger picture of social
changes.
After all, artisans in Jingdezhen
couldn’t decide what to make.
That was the sole purview of the
emperor.
For instance, Wang points out,
early Ming dragons look strong
and solemn to portray a sense of
tension, echoing the diligent
emperors’ ambitions to consoli-
date the dynasty’s rule.
However, when the Ming Dynasty
entered its middle period in the lat-
er part of the 15th century, after the
empire had experienced several
major setbacks — an emperor even
became a prisoner of war — the
dragons also became “gentle and
subtly beautiful”, Wang says.
“The dragons’ eyes protrude as if
they were wearing glasses,” he
says.
When the dynasty entered its
final century, Ming emperors’
ostentatious aesthetic preferences
produced porcelain with exotic
colors and lines, and perfunctory
portrayals of dragons.
“The business-based urban
economy boomed at that time,”
Wang says.
“Even imperial porcelain items
were then contracted to privately
owned workshops in Jingdezhen
under government supervision.”
But every era has its exceptions.
A blue-and-white press-hand cup
(a heavy vessel small enough to fit
in the palm of a hand) with a flared
rim and deep rounded sides is a
signature item believed to have
belonged to emperor Yongle — the
first emperor to live in the Forbid-
den City — as is indicated by the
marks on their bases.
“But many scholars remained
skeptical about when it was pro-
duced because its thick body,
which was shaped into an elegant
form, was different from other
artifacts from the reign,” Jingdez-
hen Ceramic Archaeology
Research Institute researcher
Jiang Xiaomin says.
Only five of such items are
known to have survived, four of
which are housed in the Palace
Museum.
Experts had long disputed
whether the reign mark was relia-
ble, but shards of a press-hand cup
unearthed in Jingdezhen in 2018
from an archaeological stratum of
the period of Yongle’s reign has
finally answered the riddle.
This exhibition marks the first
time for this precious piece to be
exhibited publicly.
Contact the writer at
wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn
 CHINA DAILY
LIFE
Left: An unofficial portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang, in which his appearance differs from royal paintings, is on display at Harmony of Figures and Spirits, an ongoing exhibition at the National Museum of China.
JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY Center: An Elegant Gathering of Literati on show. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Right: A portrait of emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY
Face to face with history
New exhibition seeks to unravel mystery of Ming Dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang’s visage
and offers a wide view of the evolution of portrait art in China, Lin Qi reports.
T
he landscape of history is
littered with mysteries for
people today to dig up and
unravel. One such
unsolved conundrum from the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) regards
the visage of the founding emperor
Zhu Yuanzhang, who rose from
humble beginnings as an illiterate,
destitute peasant to that of a victori-
ous rebel leader who built a new
empire.
Official portraits released by the
Ming royal court show Zhu as a
good-looking, dignified man with a
round face, replete with bushy
beard and moustache, depicting the
emperor both in his prime and his
twilight years.
Zhu was portrayed more than any
other member of the Ming monar-
chy: He appears on 13 out of 62 roy-
al portraits of Ming emperors and
empresses, which were once
housed at the Forbidden City’s
Nanxun Hall.
Meanwhile, dozens of unofficial
portraits that circulated outside the
royal court among the country’s
commoners presented the emperor
with a totally different appearance.
In these paintings, he has an elon-
gated face which features an unusu-
ally protruding lower jaw, with high
and wide cheekbones, a bulbous
nose and a wide mouth to present
skeletal disharmony. In some of
them, there are black moles all over
Zhu’s face to make it look impress-
ively worse.
Discussions among historians
about which of these representa-
tions is more accurate continue
unabated.
This puzzling chunk of history is
one of the hooks at Harmony of Fig-
ures and Spirits, an ongoing exhibi-
tion at the National Museum of
China, showing dozens of colored
ink portraits from its collection of
Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasty
art.
A Qing-era royal portrait which
shows Zhu vigorous in the prime of
his life is displayed side-by-side
A visitor looks at a female portrait of the Qing Dynasty, part of the current exhibition at the National Museum of China.
with an unofficial Ming-era portrait
of the emperor whose dysmorphic
face is covered with moles.
Although Zhu favored the many
imposingly good-looking portraits,
it is said that he might have con-
sented to, and even started, the cir-
culation of the less flattering
portraits outside the royal court.
Zhu Wanzhang, an art historian
at the National Museum of China,
says the disproportional facial fea-
tures were considered by some peo-
ple at the time as “distinguished
and belonging to someone out of
the ordinary, someone who was
destined to accomplish great
things”.
He says the unpleasant portraits
could have been made to deify Zhu
Yuanzhang, a man from a humble
background, and to glorify his
establishment of a new dynasty by
overthrowing the old one and
declaring himself emperor. There-
fore, he says, Zhu Yuanzhang was
happy with the rumors the alterna-
tive portraits encouraged and
might have even helped to promote
them.
“There is also the possibility that
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was known
for being paranoid, hired painters
to make portraits that did not look
like him at all, in order to mislead
his enemies and prevent suspected
assassination attempts,” Zhu Wanz-
hang says.
Portraits, as one of the oldest
forms of art in the world, continue
to entice audiences today, as they
provide clues to the depth of cultur-
al and social transformations over
centuries.
Liu Wanming, the exhibition
curator and deputy director of the
National Museum of China, says the
museum boasts a collection of more
than 1,000 Ming and Qing portraits,
and works currently on display at
the Harmony of Figures and Spirits
exhibition are on public show for
the first time.
He says the exhibition focuses on
JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY
the spiritual approach of Ming and
Qing artists. “They were scholarly.
They carried forward a tradition of
art, consisting of refined tech-
niques, a temperament of simplici-
ty and elegance alongside a sense of
humanity, beginning since the Song
Dynasty (960-1279) and continuing
through the Yuan Dynasty (1271-
1368).”
He says a painter was traditional-
ly critiqued for not only his tech-
niques, but also his attainment in
other cultural aspects, including lit-
erature, calligraphy, seal engraving
and appreciation of other forms of
art, such as dancing and opera. The
works show the artists’ brilliance in
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 17
their incorporation of the essence of
the various arts.
Liu adds another distinctive
aspect of classical Chinese portraits
is to reinforce the philosophy of
tian ren he yi — achieving harmony
between people and nature through
various activities, through which
the literati class attempted to ele-
vate themselves to a higher level of
self-improvement.
Works that reflect the idea are
mainly group portraits that depict
well-educated individuals attend-
ing yaji — an elegant gathering — to
engage in various cultural pastimes,
such as practicing calligraphy or
artistic and musical appreciation,
in a garden decorated with beauti-
ful plants and well-crafted objects.
Or, they show scholars, often
accompanied by young helpers, on
excursions in the wild, surrounded
by mountains, trees, streams and
springs. This combination of the
styles of portraiture and landscapes
delivers a sense of serenity.
Visitors might also be able to spot
the difference between Ming and
Qing portraits at the exhibition,
which is the adoption of figurative
techniques by Qing painters after
they were introduced to oil painting
by visiting European missionaries.
Zhu Wanzhang says this kind of
portrait shows physical accuracy
and were well received in the mar-
ket; people ordered commissioned
portraits depicting their senior fam-
ily members, and after they passed,
the portraits were placed in ances-
tral halls at home for remembrance.
Liu says it’s possible to see how
the artists at the time embraced the
new technique with interest, and
experimented to combine it with
the Chinese art traditions rooted in
their DNA. While their attempts
show immaturity in shaping and
coloring, he notes, they are still
arresting for their adventurous
spirit.
Contact the writer at
linqi@chinadaily.com.cn
18 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
LIFE
I’m worrying about the rain, just worrying about the rain
Whoever writes, speaks in public
or otherwise openly makes any
statement about the weather does
so at their great
peril. Just ask any-
one who has dared
to do it.
Legend has it
that the biblical fig-
ure Noah once
John argued with a
Lydon neighbor about the
Second weather, saying he
Thoughts could feel in his
bones that it was
going to rain. The neighbor scoffed
at the idea and argued that it almost
never rained in their neighborhood.
Candid camera: Room with a view
With their proud but anxious relatives looking on, children holding the pipa wait to sit a music exam
organized by the Jiangsu Provincial Musicians’ Association in Hai’an, Jiangsu province, on Wednesday.
XU JINBAI / FOR CHINA DAILY
Piano man, 60, hits the high notes online
By WANG QIAN
wangqian@chinadaily.com.cn
When Yang Su’s piano rendition of
Moscow Nights was posted by a
friend on short video platform Dou-
yin in November 2017, nobody
expected that it would restart the
60-year-old man’s musical career.
The 15-second impromptu per-
formance sees Yang flutter his fin-
gers quickly between notes from his
living room in Beijing. It racked up
about 3 million views within hours.
“It is beyond my expectations. As
the internet opens a new world to
me, it helps to share my musical tal-
ent with more people,” Yang says.
Since then, he has posted hundreds
of videos, including piano renditions
of popular songs, like Jay Chou’s
recent single Mojito and A Moonlit
Night on the Spring River, a signa-
ture pipa (a four-stringed lute) piece
of the Chinese classical repertoire,
and classical music pieces, such as
the famous Carmen melody and
French solo piano music Wedding of
Love.
Attracted by his tunes, his Douyin
account has lured 2.4 million follow-
ers with over 15.7 million likes so far.
In a space commonly dominated
by the younger generation, Yang
doesn’t feel the burden of his age. In
his words, he “has always stayed
young at heart and never given up”.
Starting with the basics of Douyin,
he learned how to record, edit and
upload video clips on the platform.
To play a song without making mis-
takes, he repeats one song dozens of
times at first. Setting up a phone
holder, adjusting it to the right angle
with the right lighting and starting
to play piano has been his routine in
the past two years. Every Friday, he
presents a live performance on Dou-
yin for two hours.
These videos have gone viral on
social media and many internet
users have nicknamed him “Pianist
Grandpa”. Comments include that it
was “an absolute joy” and some
“cannot stop listening”.
As we all know, dark clouds later
appeared on the horizon and rain
fell for weeks until it covered Earth.
Poor Noah barely had time to build
his great ark and gather on board a
male and female of every species,
saving himself, his family and the
animal kingdom from the Great
Flood. Everyone else perished,
including the quarrelsome neighbor.
Ok, I made up that bit about the
neighbor, but you get the idea, don’t
you?
Some of you might remember I
once wrote about telling my young
boys before we came to Beijing that
the winters brought plenty of snow
to play with and their subsequent
Yang Su records a piece for a video app. The pianist has enjoyed a
dramatic revival in his musical career. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
His first post on Douyin had more
than 31,000 comments and around
2.4 million likes and 78,000 reposts.
“Their passion for music reminds
me of my days learning the piano,
when it was an instrument unheard
of by most people,” Yang recalls.
Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang
province, Yang’s mother arranged
for him to learn piano at 11.
His lessons started on a piece of
paper with the keys drawn on it by
his father. At the age of 14, his mother
sent him to Beijing for further study
and in 1978, Yang entered the Shang-
hai Conservatory of Music to study
piano. He was among the first batch
of the country’s art college students.
That year marked the resumption of
gaokao (national college entrance
examination) for art students after a
decade-long suspension.
Graduating in 1982, he got work at
the Harbin Opera House and in
1983, he was transferred as a solo
pianist to the Shenzhen Symphony
Orchestra. With a stable and com-
fortable job, Yang was still not satis-
fied and he wanted to see the world
“beyond the 88 keys”, he says.
In 1989, he joined Shenzhen Inter-
national Exhibition Center, where
he was in charge of an advertising
company, a model company and a
magazine under the center.
disappointment on finding that it
almost never snows in Beijing.
And what happened the week aft-
er that was published? Snow. The
heaviest (though still a bit sparse)
snowfall I’ve seen yet in Beijing.
Let’s just take it as established
fact that to speak of the weather is
to tempt fate ... but I just can’t stop
myself.
At work last night (I’m writing this
on Aug 12), my colleagues told me that
rain of biblical proportions would fall
for three days and three nights.
Now that would be a problem.
Unlike many of my foreign colleagues,
I don’t live at the China Daily com-
pound, but a few kilometers away.
In 1992, Yang left the center. He
tried various jobs, including profes-
sional bowling and screenwriting.
He has been through “ups and
downs” in the past three decades, he
says.
Since leaving the orchestra, he had
rarely played the piano until his vid-
eo was posted on Douyin in late 2017.
“It is like returning to the starting
point,” Yang says, adding that look-
ing back on the past experiences, he
realizes that the essence of life is to
know who you are and stay simple.
Facing his fame online, Yang is
quite calm and he has tried to
respond to most comments under
his posts and offers an on-demand
jukebox service to interact with his
fans.
“I hope to bring piano, something
considered classy, closer to the pub-
lic through the internet,” Yang adds.
Some viewers asked if he can teach
piano, so he has opened a piano
course online for adults, charging
between 600 yuan ($87) and 2,000
yuan for 40 to 60 lessons. So far,
more than 4,000 people from home
and abroad have attended his course.
Their ages range from 20 to 60.
“At the peak time, I need to teach
over the screen at the dinner table or
even in the bathroom,” Yang says.
Last year, Yang became an art pro-
Is anyone familiar with the 1952
classic Hollywood film Singing in
the Rain? I’m just not as easygoing
as Gene Kelly. You won’t catch me
blithely skipping through deep pud-
dles and dancing with my umbrella
on the way to work and back.
Take a taxi? I still have too healthy
a fear of COVID-19 to voluntarily
place myself in small closed space
with a stranger.
So I awoke much too early this
morning and began a fitful vigil at
the windows, checking the weather
and hoping for the best, but fearing
the worst.
It wouldn’t be the first time I got
stuck in a downpour on my way to
Online
Scan the QR code for
subscription or to get a
copy of today’s paper.
moter for Douyin to make the instru-
ment more accessible.
Videos of everyday people show-
casing their talent have proved par-
ticularly popular on social media,
which leads to the intensifying com-
petition to snap up good content cre-
ators for video platforms.
These platforms have sweetened
their offerings, such as support
teams and funding, for top-ranking
creators, like Yang, to help them
make money through their videos.
Recently, Yang signed a two-year
contract with ByteDance to provide
exclusive original content to its vid-
eo apps of Douyin and Xigua and its
news portal Toutiao.
According to Xigua, there were
more than 600 video creators, who
earned over 500,000 yuan in 2018.
In September last year, Douyin
launched DOU Art Project to pro-
mote art education to the public.
As of June, art videos on Douyin
has been viewed more than 1.5 tril-
lion times and since the COVID-19
outbreak, nearly 1,000 artists, such
as dancers, violinists, opera perform-
ers, painters, sculptors and calligra-
phers, have livestreamed lessons to
help people pass the time at home,
according to statistics from Douyin.
In June, internet search giant Bai-
du’s Haokan video app launched a
plan to support vloggers in eight cat-
egories, including culture and art.
Bilibili has opened up its match-
making service Sparkle to increase
commercial chances for creators.
Embracing the short video age,
scholars say that the technology
helps make art more accessible and
attractive to the younger generation.
Wang Jie, a professor at College of
Media and International Culture
under Zhejiang University, told Eco-
nomic Information Daily at a recent
seminar on short video platforms’
role in art and cultural promotion
that “the popularity of the short vid-
eo platforms has blurred the bound-
aries between artists and ordinary
people and boosted creativity and
imagination in art creation’’.
work. Once last spring, I got caught
when an initial light sprinkling
turned into a deluge so copious that
by the time I was halfway there, I was
trudging through ankle-deep pools.
When I reached the newsroom,
every bit of my clothing disgorged
trails of water behind me. Every
step I took went accompanied by a
resounding SQUISH!
When it came time to leave for
work today, the afternoon’s pelting
rainfall had moderated to just a
light shower. I was hopeful, but
mindful, too, of what happened that
time last spring.
I found a share-bike and set out,
one hand on the handlebar, the oth-
Rural bloggers cultivate
loyal followers on social
media and boost income
LOS ANGELES — Rural China
is now becoming the birthplace
for the next generation of social
media influencers, generating
revenues for and promoting the
development of villages, experts
said this week.
“Rural China is giving birth to
the next generation of internet
celebrities,” said Clayton Dube,
director of University of Southern
California (USC)’s US-China Insti-
tute, during a webinar titled
Rediscovering the Chinese Coun-
tryside in the Age of Social Media.
During the current COVID-19
pandemic, with people stuck at
home, many viewers in China and
around the world have turned to
videos made by farmers, rural
couples, and enterprising young-
sters for a respite from their
stressful lives.
On the sideline of the webinar,
USC’s professor Han Li explained
that one of the first that started
this trend was Qiaofu Jiumei,
meaning the 9th sister of a clever
woman in English.
Her nephew, a college student
with a degree in media studies,
returned to her home province
Guangxi and started the program
by recording her everyday life
before using short videos and
social media platforms to sell
products on the internet.
“Her character and personality
allow viewers to connect with her,
the video format is simple in qual-
ity, authentic, with an amateur
feeling to it, as if she is genuinely
trying to share her real life with
the viewers,” Li says.
Viewers watch as Jiumei plants
and harvests vegetables, cooks
local dishes, hangs out with her
family and neighbors, and takes
her wares to market. To date, she
has 3 million followers on TikTok
and YouTube, many of them from
outside China.
“These viewers are attracted by
the exotic rural environments
that are very different from urban
living, with their pleasing visuals,
slower pace, harmonious family
life and the ability to consume
their products from a distance,”
says Li.
Dube points out that these
types of blogs draw much of their
appeal on Youtube for Western
viewers as a form of “Orientalism”
that relies on a more romanti-
cized view of rural life in China
and other parts of Asia.
“It’s a utopian, timeless, apoliti-
cal image of rural, yet high-cultur-
al, China,” he adds.
Another unexpected side effect
of the celebrity status of these
rural bloggers is their growing
Qiu Kai, a beekeeper in Changxing county, Zhejiang province,
introduces his locally-produced wares during a livestream. Local
governments have encouraged farmers and beekeepers to pro-
mote sales of agricultural products. XU YU / XINHUA
CHINA DAILY
er holding an umbrella. It was slow-
going, but I arrived not too wet and
in not too much time.
For the past few hours, I’ve kept
my mind focused on news items.
That is, until a few minutes ago,
when a colleague — who lives on the
compound — told me he was run-
ning out to do a quick errand
because of heavy rain that came as
expected this evening, he wouldn’t
be able to do it later.
So what’s the Beijing weather
forecast for tonight? One-hundred
percent chance of heavy rain.
Contact the writer at
lydon@chinadaily.com.cn
power as market influencers.
By establishing an online com-
munal sales portal for the fresh
fruits and vegetables grown local-
ly by other farmers from her vil-
lage, Jiumei has been able to
support her own family and make
a fortune for her home village.
Meanwhile, they attract big
Chinese internet companies
which then lure them onto their
platforms to capture their follow-
ers.
Dianxi Xiaoge, a young local
woman living in Baoshan, China’s
southwestern Yunnan province,
has enjoyed an even bigger
bonanza from her homespun,
bucolic blogs.
Unlike most of the other rural
bloggers who rely on a more
authentic, amateur style of cam-
erawork, Dianxi Xiaoge, now with
2.4 million followers on TikTok
and 5.8 million followers on You-
Tube, specializes in highly-styl-
ized, artistic and professional
cinematography.
Capitalizing on the return to
the global simpler life movement,
Dianxi Xiaoge has built an even
bigger brand for herself and
attracted millions of devoted fol-
lowers around the world, which
generates enormous revenues for
her and her web-provider, and at
the same time helps promote the
development of rural China.
The Chinese government has
long been committed to eradicat-
ing poverty in China, promoting
engagement of China’s youth in
rural affairs, and encouraging
urban workers to return to rural
provinces to help foster their eco-
nomic development.
Over the past few decades, until
rural bloggers came along, this
had been an uphill battle, since
rural living in China had acquired
the stigma of poverty, unsanitary
conditions, and the sad associa-
tion of parents having to leave
their children at home with
grandparents to go off to work in
the city.
But now that there is a real
opportunity for enterprising
farmers to become internet celeb-
rities, things are looking up and
more urban Chinese are heading
back to their roots in their home
provinces to try their luck.
Jiumei, who used to work in a
noodle factory in the city before
returning to her village, said in a
recent interview, “I used to think
only the very beautiful or hand-
some could become internet celeb-
rities, but now a village woman
like me can become one.”
XINHUA
 CHINA DAILY Thursday, August 27, 2020 | 19

SPORTS
SOCCER

A Barcelona crisis about to

fter dozens of titles, hun-
dreds of goals and count- Leo lowdown
less records, Lionel
Messi’s spectacular career
at Barcelona could be coming The facts and figures behind Lionel
to an abrupt end. The divorce looks Messi’s Barcelona career, which could
be coming to an end after the player

become extremely Messi

likely to turn ugly, too.
Messi told Barcelona on Tuesday
that he wants to leave after nearly
two decades at the club, having
grown unhappy after a trophy-less
season ended with a humiliating
loss to Bayern Munich in the Cham-
pions League.
Barcelona confirmed to Associat-
ed Press that Messi sent the club a
document expressing his desire to
leave. But the club hinted that a
legal battle could be coming and
said it won’t automatically grant the
Argentina great his wishes. Barcelo-
na said it told Messi in response that
it wants him to stay and finish his
career at the club.
The dispute centers around a
clause in Messi’s contract.
Barcelona said the document sent
by Messi referenced a clause allow-
ing him to leave for free at the end of
the season. However, the club said
the deadline for triggering that
clause expired in June and that it
would seek legal advice. Messi’s con-
tract also includes a 700 million
euro ($826 million) buyout clause.
The Spanish season would nor-
mally have ended in May but was
pushed back because of the corona-
virus pandemic.
“If Messi is to leave Barcelona by
activating a release clause, then I
hope the club (tries) to help, not hin-
der him,” former England and Barce-
lona striker Gary Lineker said on
Twitter. “He’s been fiercely loyal and
their greatest ever player. It would be
terribly sad if it finished with a fight
between the player and the club.”
If Messi can leave for free, he will
have no shortage of suitors. Howev-
er, only a handful of clubs could real-
istically afford to pay his wages even
without a transfer fee — with mega-
rich Paris Saint-Germain and Man-
chester City widely seen as perhaps
the most likely destinations.
The chance to link up again with
coach Pep Guardiola, whom Messi
enjoyed his greatest success with at
Barca, is thought to be an advantage
for City, with some reports claiming
the pair have already discussed a
reunion.
The 33-year-old Messi has won a
record six Ballons d’Or during his
time at Barca, and has helped the
club win 10 La Liga titles and four
Champions League crowns.
Messi’s announcement came 11
days after Barcelona’s 8-2 thrashing
by Bayern in the Champions League
quarterfinals. The defeat capped a
difficult season for Barcelona — the
first without a title since 2007-08.
Spanish giant digs heels in following superstar’s bombshell transfer request
Lionel Messi has stunned Barcelona by notifying the Spanish giant he wants to leave after nearly two decades at the club. However, his
chances of a move appear to hinge on the interpretation of a release clause in the Argentine’s contract, which has been complicated by the
delayed conclusion to the season due to the coronavirus pandemic. AP
Messi had been outspoken about
his dissatisfaction with some of Bar-
ca’s decisions this season, talking
about the team’s problems and con-
testing club directors. Sporting
director Eric Abidal, who was criti-
cized by Messi, left the club last week.
Messi had been silent since the
loss to Bayern, though, raising
doubts about his future. The defeat
may have been the tipping point for
the playmaker. He and his team-
mates faced furious Barcelona fans
who confronted them and criticized
the team at the club’s training center
after the squad returned from
Portugal.
Club president Josep Bartomeu
had said he was confident that Mes-
si would finish his career with Bar-
celona, and that he was a crucial
part of incoming coach Ronald Koe-
man’s plans for the team.
Koeman met with Messi last week
and the player reportedly told the
Dutchman that he saw himself
more out than in at the club.
The coach reportedly had already
told other key pieces of the squad
that they were not in his plans,
including Luis Suarez, Arturo Vidal,
Samuel Umtiti and Ivan Rakitic.
After the loss to Bayern, Barcelo-
na announced it would make “pro-
found” changes to the first team and
a “wide-ranging” restructuring of
the club. The changes began with
the firing of coach Quique Setien a
few days after the Champions
League defeat in Lisbon, and new
presidential elections were called
for March.
Spanish media said an emergency
board meeting was expected to take
place on Wednesday, when the club
had already scheduled the official
presentation of 20-year-old forward
Francisco Trincao, who has arrived
in a 31-million-euro deal from Portu-
guese side Braga.
Messi arrived at Barcelona as a
teenager in 2001, joining the club’s
famed La Masia youth academy. He
made his first-team debut in 2003 as
a 16-year-old, and since then has led
Barca to 34 titles. He holds most
individual records at the club, scor-
ing 634 goals and making 276 assists
in 731 appearances with the club.
Former Barca defender Carles
Puyol, who was club captain during
much of Messi’s career, tweeted his
support to the Argentine.
“Respect and admiration, Leo,”
Puyol wrote. “You have all my sup-
port, friend.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
asked to leave the club on Tuesday:
Full name: Lionel Andres Messi
Cuccittini
Date of birth: June 24, 1987
Place of birth: Rosario (Argentina)
Nationality: Argentine
Height: 1.69 meters
Weight: 72 kilograms
Career
Position: Forward
Club: Barcelona (since 2004)
Argentina: 138 caps, 70 goals
International honors
2005: Under-20 world champion
2008: Olympic gold
Club honors
Champions League: (2006, 2009,
2011, 2015)
La Liga: (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010,
2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019)
Copa del Rey: 2009, 2012, 2015,
2016, 2017, 2018)
European Super Cup: (2009-2010,
2011-2012, 2015-2016)
Spanish Super Cup: (2005-06,
2006-07, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12,
2013-14, 2016-17, 2018-19)
World Club: (2009-10, 2011-12,
2015-16)
Individual honors
Ballons d’Or: (2009, 2010, 2011,
2012, 2015, 2019)
UEFA’s best European player of the
season: (2011, 2015)
World Cup Golden Ball best player
award: 2014
Best Copa America player: 2015
Top Champions League scorer:
2008-09 (9 goals); 2009-10 (8);
2010-11 (12); 2011-12 (14); 2014-15:
(10); 2018-19 (12)
Top La Liga scorer: 2009-10: (34);
2011-12 (50); 2012-13 (46); 2016-17:
(37); 2017-18 (34); 2018-19 (36);
2019-20 (25).
Best player at an Olympics: 2008
Best player at Under-20 World
Cup: 2005
Records
Most Ballon d’Or awards: 6
Most goals scored in La Liga: 444
Most goals scored in one season in
a major league: 50 (2011-12)
All-time top scorer for Argentina:
70 (2006-19)
Most goals scored in a calendar
year in all competitions: 91 (2012)
Most goals scored in a season in all
competitions: 73 (2011-12)
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Koeman clear-out part of ‘profound’ Camp Nou changes

With or without Lionel Messi,
new Barcelona coach Ronald Koe-
man seems to be clear about who
won’t fit into his squad next season.
Among them are some key play-
ers from recent years, including Luis
Suarez, Arturo Vidal, Ivan Rakitic
and Samuel Umtiti.
Messi told the club on Tuesday he
wants to leave, but there could still
be a legal battle ahead over a clause
in his contract.
Neither the club nor the coach
have said publicly who is staying
and who is leaving, but those four
players reportedly have already
been told that they are not in Koe-
man’s plans.
Their departures would certainly
be part of the “profound” changes to
the first team that the club
announced after its season ended
with a humiliating 8-2 loss to Bay-
ern Munich in the Champions
League quarterfinals.
Barca president Josep Bartomeu
and Koeman had said they wanted
Messi to stay, but both acknowl-
edged that there was a need to
revamp an aging squad that left the
club without a title for the first time
since 2007-08.
The club’s restructuring began
with the firing of coach Quique
Setien a few days after the loss to
Bayern, and new presidential elec-
tions were called for March.
Catalan radio station RAC1 said
Suarez was one of the first to get a
call from Koeman saying he wasn’t
going to be used anymore, in what
some reports claimed was the last
straw for Messi, who enjoys playing
alongside the Uruguayan.
The 33-year-old Suarez joined
Barcelona from Liverpool in 2014
and helped the Spanish club win a
series of titles, including four Span-
ish leagues, four Copa del Rey finals
and one Champions League. He
scored nearly 200 goals in more
than 280 appearances with the club.
Luis Suarez (left) and Arturo Vidal could be leaving Barcelona.
“Never forget that you are the
architect of your own destiny,” Sua-
rez posted on Instagram recently.
Among the players touted as pos-
sible replacements for Suarez were
Lyon’s Memphis Depay and Inter
AP
Milan’s Lautaro Martinez. Already
on the team and ready to contribute
in attack are Martin Braithwaite
and youngster Francisco Trincao.
Also reportedly getting the call
from Koeman was the 32-year-old
Rakitic, the Croatia midfielder who
also arrived in 2014 from Sevilla.
Rakitic was a regular starter
throughout the years but hadn’t
been getting as many minutes
recently.
Young Dutchman Frenkie de Jong
joined the club last year and Barce-
lona will also be counting on Miral-
em Pjanic, who was signed from
Juventus in a trade involving
Arthur.
The 33-year-old Vidal was set to
leave after only two years with Bar-
celona. The Chile midfielder had
been playing more often than Rakit-
ic but could also lose space with the
arrival of Pjanic.
“When you cage a tiger, it doesn’t
give up, it fights,” Vidal said on Twit-
ter on Tuesday.
The fourth player reportedly out
was Umtiti, a 26-year-old central
defender who has struggled with a
series of injuries since joining from
Lyon in 2016. Clement Lenglet had
been the regular starter in defense
along with captain Gerard Pique.
The 33-year-old Pique was the
first to call for a major restructuring
of the club after the loss to Bayern,
saying he would even step aside
himself if it helped the club.
There were still doubts about the
future of Sergio Busquets, Jordi
Alba and Sergi Roberto.
The youngsters who have already
been contributing include Ansu Fati
and Riqui Puig, while Carls Alena is
due to return after a loan with Real
Betis. Among the young players
joining the club this season are Ped-
ri, Matheus Fernandes and Gustavo
Maia.
The squad changes are expected
to help Barcelona financially, as the
club was hit hard by the coronavirus
pandemic.
Barcelona finished second to Real
Madrid in the Spanish league.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Scoreboard

BASEBALL W L Pct GB W L Pct GB NY Yankees at Atlanta, 1st game ICE HOCKEY Results on Tuesday in New York (x denotes
Tampa Bay 20 11 .645 _ Atlanta 16 12 .571 _ Boston at Toronto seed):
Results of the MLB games on Tuesday (home NY Yankees 16 9 .640 1 Miami 14 11 .560 ½ Baltimore at Tampa Bay Results of the National Hockey League Confer- Men’s 3rd rd
team in CAPS): Toronto 14 14 .500 4½ Philadelphia 11 14 .440 3½ Chicago Cubs at Detroit ence semifinal games on Tuesday: Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt David Goffin (BEL x7)
HOUSTON 6 LA Angels 3, 7 innings, 1st game Baltimore 14 15 .483 5 Minnesota at Cleveland At Toronto 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Daniil Medvedev (RUS x3) bt Aljaz
NY Mets 12 16 .429 4
LA Angels 12 HOUSTON 5, 7 innings, 2nd game Boston 10 20 .333 9½ NY Yankees at Atlanta, 2nd game Tampa Bay 4 Boston 3 (OT) Bedene (SLO) 6-3, 6-3; Roberto Bautista (ESP x8)
Washington 11 16 .407 4½
Boston 9 TORONTO 7 Central Division Oakland at Texas (Best-of-seven series is level at 1-1) bt Karen Khachanov (RUS x11) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Novak
TAMPA BAY 4 Baltimore 2 W L Pct GB Central Division At Edmonton, Alberta
W L Pct GB Kansas City at St. Louis Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Tennys Sandgren (USA) 6-2,
DETROIT 7 Chicago Cubs 2 Minnesota 20 11 .645 _ Seattle at San Diego Vancouver 5 Las Vegas 2 6-4; Reilly Opelka (USA) bt Matteo Berrettini (ITA
CLEVELAND 4 Minnesota 2 Chi White Sox 18 12 .600 1½ Chicago Cubs 18 11 .621 _ (Best-of-seven series is level at 1-1)
Philadelphia at Washington x6) 6-3, 7-6 (7/4); Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE x4) bt
NY Yankees at ATLANTA, ppd Cleveland 18 12 .600 1½ St. Louis 10 9 .526 3 John Isner (USA x16) 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4); Milos
Chicago Cubs at Detroit
CHICAGO WHITE SOX 4 Pittsburgh 0 Detroit 12 16 .429 6½ Milwaukee 13 15 .464 4½ Miami at NY Mets SOCCER Raonic (CAN) bt Andy Murray (SCO) 6-2, 6-2; Filip
MILWAUKEE 3 Cincinnati 2 Kansas City 12 18 .400 7½ Cincinnati 11 17 .393 6½ Cincinnati at Milwaukee Krajinovic (SRB) bt Mton Fucsovics (HUN) 6-2, 6-1
Philadelphia 8 WASHINGTON 3 West Division Pittsburgh 7 18 .280 9 Colorado at Arizona
UEFA Women’s Champions League Women’s 3rd rd
Miami 4 NY METS 0, 7 innings, 1st game W L Pct GB LA Dodgers at San Francisco Semifinal result on Tuesday: Elise Mertens (BEL/N.14) bt Veronika Kudermet-
West Division At San Sebastian, Spain
MIAMI 3 NY Mets 0, 7 innings, 2nd game Oakland 21 10 .677 _ W L Pct GB ova (RUS) 6-2, 6-3; Anett Kontaveit (EST/N.12) bt
Oakland 10 TEXAS 3 Houston 17 14 .548 4 Wolfsburg 1 (Rolfo 58) Barcelona 0
LA Dodgers 22 9 .710 _ BASKETBALL Wednesday, Aug 26
Marie Bouzkova (CZE) 6-3, 6-3; Johanna Konta
Kansas City 5 ST. LOUIS 4 Seattle 12 19 .387 9 (GBR/N.8) bt Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 6-4, 6-2; Jes-
San Diego 18 13 .581 4 At Bilbao, Spain
Seattle 8 SAN DIEGO 3 Texas 11 18 .379 9 Results of the NBA first-round playoffs in Orlan- sica Pegula (USA) bt Aryna Sabalenka (BLR x5)
Colorado 5 ARIZONA 4 Colorado 15 15 .500 6½ do on Tuesday: PSG v Lyon (1800)
LA Angels 10 22 .313 11½ 6-2, 2-6, 6-3; Naomi Osaka (JPN x4) bt Dayana
SAN FRANCISCO 10 LA Dodgers 8 (11 innings) San Francisco 15 16 .484 7 Denver 117 Utah 107 Final on Aug 30 in San Sebastian (1800) Yastremska (UKR x16) 6-3, 6-1; Victoria Azarenka
Arizona 13 18 .419 9 (Utah leads best-of-seven series 3-2) (BLR) bt Alize Cornet (FRA) 6-4, 7-5; Ons Jabeur
NATIONAL LEAGUE LA Clippers 154 Dallas 111 TENNIS
AMERICAN LEAGUE (TUN) bt Christina McHale (USA) 6-3, 6-0; Maria
East Division Wednesday’s games (LA Clippers lead best-of-seven series 3-2) Sakkari (GRE x13) bt Serena Williams (USA x3)
East Division W L Pct GB
W L Pct GB Pittsburgh at Chicago White Sox ATP/WTA Western & Southern Open 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
20 | Thursday, August 27, 2020
SPORTS
Leaps ahead
Wolfsburg’s Ewa Pajor fires a spectacular overhead shot on goal during the UEFA Women’s Champions League semifinal against Barce-
lona in San Sebastian, Spain, on Tuesday. Sweden international Fridolina Rolfo stabbed in the decisive goal in the 58th minute as the
German side, a two-time winner of the competition, triumphed 1-0 to book a place in Sunday’s final. AP
SOCCER
Kicking off with renewed positivity
By SHI FUTIAN
shifutian@chinadaily.com.cn
The return of the CFA Women’s
Super League sends another “posi-
tive” message to the rest of the
world that Chinese soccer is bounc-
ing back strongly from the corona-
virus pandemic, according to the
legendary Sun Wen.
Hot on the heels of the men’s top
flight returning last month, the
women’s league followed suit last
Sunday after a hiatus of 336 days.
“The return of the women’s
league has sent a very positive mes-
sage to the outside world,” said
former Team China captain Sun,
now vice-president of the Chinese
Football Association. “For the play-
ers and coaches, it has been very
difficult that there were no match-
es to play. Everyone is eager to
return to the pitch.
“The Wuhan squad, for example,
had a very tough time during the
preseason period. But they still
kept training and maintained a
competitive condition. I’m expect-
ing all 10 teams can have great per-
formances.”
The season is being contested at
a locked-down national sports
training center in Kunming, Yun-
nan province, with Wuhan Chedu
Jiangda getting the action under-
way with a 2-1 victory over Henan
Jianye on Sunday.
The league’s return only became
possible thanks to China’s contain-
ment of the COVID-19 epidemic
and, in turn, the CFA’s success in
staging the men’s Chinese Super
League at bio-secure venues in Su-
zhou and Dalian.
“We learned a lot from the Chi-
nese Super League’s experience. We
went to Suzhou to study the opera-
MOTOR SPORTS
Fans forlorn but philosophical as Shanghai race canceled
By SHI FUTIAN
shifutian@chinadaily.com.cn
“We miss you, Shanghai,” read a
post on Formula 1’s official Weibo
account on Tuesday. It was the news
Chinese F1 fans had been dreading,
with the numerous “We miss you
too” responses showing petrol
heads are already looking forward
to welcoming back the Chinese
Grand Prix next year.
Given the current global health
crisis, the cancelation of the 2020
race this week was hardly surpris-
ing. Nonetheless, the decision was
still tough to swallow for fans, who
had hoped that the race could be the
first major international sports
event to be staged in China since
February, now that the COVID-19
outbreak is under control in the
country.
tion there and train our staff,” Sun
told Xinhua on Tuesday.
“Based on the situation in Kun-
ming, as well as the needs of the
women’s game, we devised specific
and detailed regulations and gui-
dance. In a few days, we finished
nucleic acid testing on a total of 956
people.”
As with the men’s league, the pri-
ority remains to ensure the safety
of everyone involved. That means
observing strict virus-prevention
protocols at the venue, which has
been under lockdown since Aug 18.
Throughout the season, only one
entrance can be used to access the
site. Similar to the CSL’s operation,
a color-coded system limits the
movements of players and coaches,
who are assigned to a ‘blue zone’,
although a recreational area is
amply equipped to allow time for
some much-needed rest and
relaxation.
As well as needing to pass nucleic
acid tests upon their arrival at the
The announcement became a hot
topic on Chinese social media, with
related news generating over 10 mil-
lion views on Weibo by Wednesday
morning.
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic
forced the sports world to hit the
pause button, Juss Sports has been
maintaining communication with
Formula 1, the FIA, the Federation
of Automobile and Motorcycle
Sports of China and Shanghai
Sports Bureau, and we have kept
assessing the possibility of hosting
this year’s race at a different time,”
read the announcement from event
organizer Shanghai Juss Sports
Development (Group) Co Ltd.
“We also made several contingen-
cy plans to deal with all possibilities
hoping we could set a time for the
race. However, despite the COVID-
19 epidemic being under control in
The return of the
women’s league has
sent a very positive
message to the
outside world. For
the players and
coaches, it has been
very difficult that
there were no
matches to play.”
Sun Wen, vice-president of the
Chinese Football Association
Kunming venue, everyone on site is
tested on a weekly basis for the
coronavirus.
Olympic boost
Sun believes the return of the
women’s league will also benefit
Team China’s preparations for its
delayed Olympic qualifiers.
The Steel Roses’ chances of book-
ing a ticket to the postponed Tokyo
Games hang in the balance after
they came through a tough third-
round qualification tournament in
Australia in February.
Their Group B matches were
originally supposed to take place in
Wuhan but had to be moved as the
virus outbreak gripped the city.
Refusing to wilt in the face of
such sizable difficulties, Team Chi-
na battled bravely Down Under to
secure a playoff spot against South
Korea after narrowly failing to
secure automatic qualification for
the Tokyo Games.
The two-legged tie was original-
China, the outlook for the pandemic
is still not optimistic.
“And according to the announce-
ment of the General Administration
of Sport of China in July, apart from
the test event of the 2022 Beijing
Winter Olympics, no international
events should be held this year in
principle. Based on all the factors,
we don’t have the conditions to host
such a big international sports
event.”
Taking all those points into con-
sideration, the majority of fans have
reluctantly accepted the decision.
“I don’t feel too bad about the can-
celation of this year’s Chinese Grand
Prix... even if it was staged, we prob-
ably wouldn’t have a chance to
watch the action inside the venue,”
said Gu Ning, an office worker in
Beijing and a self-professed hard-
core fan of six-time F1 world cham-
ly scheduled for March, but has
now been penciled in for February
2021.
“The return of the women’s
league will help all national team
players level up their game and the
coaching team will closely monitor
their performances and scout for
new players,” said Sun.
Of all the Team China players in
Kunming, the kickoff is particular-
ly welcome for Wuhan ace Wang
Shuang.
The former Paris Saint-Germain
playmaker, who was sorely missed
during China’s qualifiers in Februa-
ry, had to endure a two-month-long
self-quarantine at her home in
Wuhan during the epidemic.
“When I realized I couldn’t play
with the national squad at that
time, I had a hard time accepting
it,” Wang told media last week.
“I’d prepared for the qualifiers
for a long time, and I was raring to
prove myself on the international
stage again. But the head coach (Jia
Xiuquan) kept encouraging me,
telling me I was still one of the
best.”
Just like Wang, the CFA Women’s
Super League also harbors ambi-
tions of growing its global profile,
and Sun says that lessons can be
learned from the journey the men’s
CSL has been on in recent years.
“After all, the men’s league has
better resources and facilities
which can all benefit the women’s
league in terms of branding and
marketing,” she said. “It would be
good too if more men’s clubs could
launch women’s squads.
“However, it’s important that we
don’t just keep comparing our-
selves to the men’s league. We
should look to grow in our own way
too.”
pion Lewis Hamilton. “To be honest,
I’m satisfied enough watching F1 on
the TV this year, despite the races
tending not to be as exciting or
intense as they were before.
“This is an important year for
Hamilton to fight for his seventh
world title. So when I heard the orig-
inal opening race was canceled, I
was so disappointed. I just hoped
that the championship would
resume and I’d see him win again.”
Juss Sports has offered full
refunds to ticket holders who had
bought tickets through official
channels for the Shanghai race,
which was originally scheduled to
take place in April.
The delayed season got underway
behind closed doors with a double-
header in Austria in July. It had been
suggested the Chinese GP might be
rescheduled as part of an Asian leg
SPEED SKATING
Ahn’s arrival
a real golden
opportunity
Olympic great set to join national team
in boost to host’s 2022 medal chances
By SUN XIAOCHEN
sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn
China’s reported recruitment of
short-track speed skating great
Viktor Ahn comes as a major boost
to the country’s Olympic gold-medal
ambitions.
According to the Sports Seoul
newspaper, the six-time Olympic
champion will sign up with the Chi-
nese national team as a coach to
help the host prepare for the 2022
Winter Games in Beijing.
A source at China’s National Win-
ter Sports Administrative Center
told China Daily on Wednesday that
“the team has not received any offi-
cial notice from the top governing
body regarding the confirmation of
the news”. The source spoke on con-
dition of anonymity.
South Korea-born Ahn is now
self-isolating after arriving in Qing-
dao, Shandong province, according
to the Sports Seoul report, which
says he will sign a contract worth 3
million yuan ($430,000) a year.
Speculation surrounding Ahn’s
potential move to China first
swirled in March after the 34-year-
old competed in the men’s 1,000m at
an internal Team China test event in
Beijing, just a month before he
announced his retirement on April
27 citing a knee injury.
The closed-door competition was
held as an evaluation for China’s
best skaters, including reigning
men’s 500m Olympic champion Wu
Dajing, to fill the void left by the can-
cellation of the world champion-
ships due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Should his signing be confirmed,
the coaching role will open a new
chapter in Ahn’s storied career after
the Seoul native switched nationali-
ty to Russia in 2011 following a feud
with the South Korean skating asso-
ciation. He later competed for Rus-
sia as a naturalized athlete at the
2014 Sochi Winter Games.
Born Hyun-soo, Ahn burst onto
the short-track scene at 20 by win-
ning three gold medals and a bronze
for his native country at the 2006
Turin Games.
However, citing a lack of support
from South Korea’s skating authori-
ties during his recovery from a
severe knee injury leading up to the
2010 Vancouver Games, Ahn accept-
ed an offer to join the Russian team
and changed his name to Viktor.
Ahn added three more golds in
Sochi to bring his Olympic title col-
lection to six, becoming the Winter
Games’ most successful short-track
speed skater. He also won 20 indi-
vidual world championship titles.
Ahn is expected to join compatri-
ots Kim Sun-tae, South Korea’s
former short-track squad manager,
and physical trainer Kim Chang-
back on Team China’s coaching
of the championship, possibly with
back-to-back races at the Shanghai
International Circuit.
However, F1 announced on Tues-
day that four more races have been
added to the 2020 calendar, bring-
ing the total to 17 for the season.
The Turkish Grand Prix will be
contested on Nov 15 followed by a
double-header in Bahrain (Nov 29
and Dec 6). The season will con-
clude with the Abu Dhabi Grand
Prix on Dec 13.
“Sadly, we will not be racing in
China this season and want to thank
our partner Juss Sports for their
support and engagement in recent
months and hugely look forward to
returning to Shanghai next year,”
read an F1 statement.
“Due to the ongoing fluidity of the
COVID-19 pandemic we continue to
maintain close dialogue with all
CHINA DAILY
Viktor Ahn
crew, which also features former
Team Canada men’s coach Derrick
Campbell.
The Chinese short-track team has
gone through a series of personnel
changes since May 2019, when long-
term head coach Li Yan was
replaced by her former student
Wang Meng — a move which result-
ed in plenty of raised eyebrows.
Kim, who led the host to three
golds, one silver and two bronze
medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang
Winter Olympics, was hired by Chi-
na following the appointment of
Wang, whose four Olympic golds
make her China’s most successful
short-track skater.
After serving just 11 months as
head of a merged short- and long-
track national team, Wang was sur-
prisingly removed from the post,
with cross-country skiing team
leader Zhang Bei taking over as an
interim manager.
Ahn’s arrival is expected to draw a
line under the management reshuf-
fle as the 2022 Winter Games
approach.
China’s short-track skaters have
contributed 10 out of the 13 golds
the country has won since its Winter
Olympics debut in 1980.
However, the team’s inability to
keep pace with South Korea and the
Netherlands during a turbulent
2019-20 season has sounded alarm
bells ahead of the 2022 Games.
The short-track team finished the
six-leg World Cup season with 10
gold medals — far behind arch-rival
Korea’s haul (24). No Chinese skat-
ers managed to top overall stand-
ings in any of the circuit’s nine
disciplines, allegedly resulting in
Wang’s removal.
China has hired a glittering cast of
international winter sports experts
as it targets a record number of gold
medals at Beijing 2022. They
include Norway’s eight-time Olym-
pic champion biathlete Ole Einar
Bjoerndalen, Bud Keene — the
former coach of snowboard legend
Shaun White — and retired German
bobsledder Andre Lange, a four-
time Olympic gold medalist.
promoters and local authorities to
ensure we operate in the safest way
possible and monitor each national
situation closely — including travel
restrictions and local health
procedures.”
Chase Carey, the chairman and
CEO of Formula 1, echoed those sen-
timents, saying: “This year has pre-
sented Formula 1 and the world
with an unprecedented challenge
and we want to pay tribute to every-
one across Formula 1, the FIA, the
teams, and our partners who have
made this possible.
“While we are all disappointed
that we have not been able to return
to some of our planned races this
year we are confident our season
has started well and will continue to
deliver plenty of excitement with
traditional, as well as new, races that
will entertain all our fans.”