OPINION: GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY P.22 | FEATURES: BACK ON TOUR P.

28

VOL.66 NO.7 FEBRUARY 16, 2023 WWW.BJREVIEW.COM

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CONTENTS
EDITOR’S DESK OPINION 34 To Xinjiang, In Winter
02 A Digital China 22 The Belt and Road Snow tourism in the nation’s northwest
Initiative 36 Obituary for a Bear
THIS WEEK Connectivity is key to Zoo community celebrates much-loved resident
development 38 Keen as a Bean
COVER STORY
24 How a Wandering Rural township gives itself an industrial makeover
12 Fine-Tuning the Focus
Balloon Caused an Anxiety 40 Bonds Beyond Borders
The digital economy,
Attack A Jamaican expat with Chinese roots tells her
a crucial component of
Much ado about a big Beijing story
modernization
16 The Data Solution white orb
CULTURE
Technology revolutionizes 25 Taking Stock of the Market
44 Ambassador of Art
people’s giving methods Financial reform marks new
Sharing Chinese culture for three decades
18 The Growth and Future milestone
46 Hop Right In!
Of Digitalization A museum exhibition dedicated to all things “rabbit”
FEATURES
From modest start to
28 Hello World FORUM
booming business
Outbound tourists take to 48 What Will the Relaxed Birth Registration
the skies Requirement Bring Society?
Cover Design: Cui Xiaodong 32 A Pressing Issue
Adolescent mental health in
©2023 Beijing Review, all rights reserved.
the spotlight

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EDITOR’S DESK
A News Weekly Magazine
A Digital China
Published Since 1958
Residents of China have gotten accus- economic, political, cultural, social and
President: Li Yafang
Editor in Chief: Li Jianguo tomed to a cashless lifestyle in recent HFRORJLFDOÀHOGV7KH2XWOLQHRIWKHWK
Associate Editor in Chief: Liu Yunyun
Associate President: Gao Dingbo years. You don’t need a wallet to go shop- Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the Long-
Executive Editor: Yan Wei ping, traveling or dining or pay utility bills Range Objectives Throughout the Year
Associate Executive Editor: Ding Ying
Production Director: Yao Bin
across the country, just a smartphone. 2035, both issued in March 2021, call
Editor: Wang Hairong And mobile payment goes beyond dai- for fostering new advantages of the digi-
Researcher: Lan Xinzhen
Editorial Consultants: Elsbeth van Paridon, G.P. Wilson ly purchases: You can even get a loan or tal economy, accelerating the creation of
Reporters: Ji Jing, Kang Caiqi, Li Qing, Li Wenhan, Li Xiaoyang,
Liang Xiao, Lu Yan, Ma Miaomiao, Pan Xiaoqiao, Peng Jiawei, invest in money-market funds through a digital society, improving the building
Tang Yuankai, Tao Xing, Tao Zihui, Wang Jun, Wang Ruohan, your phone. of a digital government and creating a
Yuan Yuan, Zhang Shasha
Visual Director: Pamela Tobey But mobile payment is only part of sound digital ecology.
Photo Editor: Wang Xiang
Photographer: Wei Yao the efforts to construct a digital China. The Chinese Government has
Art: Li Shigong
Design Director: Wang Yajuan
Technologies associated with the Internet launched many related initiatives, such
Chief Designer: Cui Xiaodong RI7KLQJVELJGDWDDUWLÀFLDOLQWHOOLJHQFH as the Internet Plus action plan that aims
Designer and proofreader: Zhao Boyu
Editorial Administrator: Zeng Wenhui
and blockchain have been integrated into to integrate the Internet with traditional
Planning Director: Xu Bei all aspects of economic and social devel- industries, and a national big data strat-
Deputy Planning Director: Li Nan
World News Deputy Director: Li Fangfang opment. Digitalization has become not egy. China’s digital economy has ranked
Director of Digital Media: Yu Shujun
Director of Strategic Research: Zan Jifang
just a lifestyle but also an emerging pow- second in the world for several years.
Administration: Lu Ling erhouse for economic growth. Since the onset of COVID-19 in par-
International Cooperation: Sun Xuan The digital economy is the economic ticular, digital technologies have played
Legal Counsel: Yue Cheng

North America Bureau (New York City)

activity that results from billions of ev- DQLPSRUWDQWUROHLQVXSSRUWLQJWKHÀJKW
Chief: Yu Shujun eryday online connections among people, against the pandemic and resuming eco-
Executive Assistant: Zhao Wei
Tel/Fax: 1-201-792-0334 businesses, devices, data and processes. nomic activities.
E-mail: yushujun@cicgamericas.com
Latin America Bureau (Mexico City)
The speed of its development, the extent However, China’s digital develop-
Chief: Lin Yeqing of its reach and its impact in China are ment still has room for improvement.
Tel: 52-55-55127271
Fax: 52-55-55332027 unprecedented; it is becoming a critical For instance, the country needs to climb
E-mail: chinahoymx@gmail.com
3HUX2IßFH/LPD force reallocating resources, reshaping the technology ladder by seeking break-
Chief: Meng Kexin the economic structure and transforming throughs in key technologies. It should
Tel: 0051-959212702
E-mail: revistachinaperu@gmail.com global competition. also participate in international coop-
*HQHUDO(GLWRULDO2IßFH A new strategy for the country’s eration, presenting Chinese solutions to
Tel: 86-10-68996252
Fax: 86-10-68326628 information technology development, improve multilateral digital governance
Editorial Desk
Tel: 86-10-68996250 the Digital China initiative covers the and safeguard digital security. BR
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2 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023 http://www.bjreview.com

 THIS WEEK

XINHUA
BACK TO SCHOOL
Children return to a kindergarten for the new semester in Xianju County, Zhejiang Province on February 7.
Primary and secondary schools and kindergartens across China have reopened after the winter vacation.
On February 6, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan urged to further optimize school management in
accordance with the country’s adjusted COVID-19 response and fully restore the normal order of school life.

http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 3

THIS WEEK SOCIETY
)HUWLOHó*URXQG
#RTQFWEVKQPNKPGYQTMGT³NNUNCTIGDCIUCVCHGTVKNK\GTHCEVQT[KP-WPOKPI;WPPCP2TQXKPEGQP(GDTWCT[
Fertilizer companies are stepping up production to meet farmer demand for fertilizer during spring planting.
International
Exchange Centers
Beijing ranked seventh on the
International Exchange Centers
Index 2022, according to a report
released on February 8.
The report was jointly
compiled by the China Institute
for Development Planning of
Tsinghua University and Deloitte
China, a provider of audit and as-
UWTCPEGEQPUWNVKPICPF³PCPEKCN
advisory services, following com-
prehensive research on 37 cities
worldwide.
The report read that inter-
national exchange centers are
global or regional central cities
that link and serve the world, are
capable of gathering interna-
tional high-end factors, and play
a key role in global affairs. They
are crucial nodes and hubs in the
4 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
dynamic network of international
exchanges.
6JGTGRQTVFG³PGFCPGXCNW-
ation framework including three
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CVVTCEVKXGPGUUKP´WGPEGCPF
connectivity, as well as 11 second-
level indicators and 25 third-level
indicators. Beijing ranks 24th in
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and 13th in connectivity.
London, New York, Paris,
Singapore and Seoul are the top
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Standardized
Services
Chinese authorities have issued
a special action plan to improve
the standardization of senior care
and domestic services to meet
the growing market demand for
senior services and enhance the
XINHUA
quality and scale of the home
service sector, Xinhua News
Agency reported on February 2.
The document, jointly issued
by the State Administration for
Market Regulation (SAMR), the
Ministry of Civil Affairs and the
Ministry of Commerce, outlined
tasks for standardizing the two
sectors by 2025.
To improve the supply struc-
ture of senior care and home
services, the standard-setting
work will focus on supporting
management, strengthening
service quality and encouraging
the sectors’ upgrading, according
to the plan.
Efforts will be made to pro-
vide training to people working
in the two sectors on standardiza-
tion-related knowledge, and
establish evaluation systems for
personnel and service agencies
with the support of the standards,
it read.
The SAMR said it will work
with the two other ministries
to give heed to the public’s
demands and boost the two
sectors’ development in terms
of standardization, quality and
digitalization.
&29,'ó0HGLFLQHV
China has included all home-
grown drugs for COVID-19
treatment approved to enter
the market in its medical insur-
ance scheme, Xinhua reported
on February 8.
Among these drugs, two tab-
lets were temporarily included in
the medical insurance catalog,
following a conditional approval
by the National Medical Products
Administration in late January.
Money spent on these two
tablets can be reimbursed by the
medical insurance fund before
March 31, the National Healthcare
Security Administration (NHSA)
said.
Provincial healthcare au-
thorities were asked to disclose
medicine prices and act in
proper manner under public
oversight.
Currently, more than 600
medications in China’s medical
insurance catalog are used to
treat COVID-19 , according to the
NHSA.
0RUWJDJHó5DWHó&XW
Banks in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province,
have cut the mortgage rate for
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RGTEGPV³PCPEKCNPGYUCIGPE[
CLS.cn reported on February 8.
The article read some banks
in Wuxi have lowered the mort-
ICIGTCVGUHQT³TUVVKOGDW[GTU
from 4.1 percent to 3.8 percent,
and they can apply for home
mortgages at the lowered inter-
est rate from February 8.
The mortgage rates for
http://www.bjreview.com

second-home buyers remain
unchanged at 4.9 percent, ac-
cording to CLS.cn.
The reduction in mortgage
rates came as China announced
in January the establishment of
a mechanism that allows local
governments to adjust the regu-
NCVQT[´QQTQHOQTVICIGTCVGU
upon changes in local home
prices, as part of its stepped-
up efforts to promote a steady
and healthy development of the
property market.
Under the mechanism, cities
where new home prices fall for
three months in a row, on both
a monthly and yearly basis, are
allowed to temporarily maintain,
lower or cancel the local lower
NKOKVQHOQTVICIGTCVGUHQT³TUV
time buyers, the People’s Bank
of China, the country’s central
bank, and the China Banking
and Insurance Regulatory
Commission said in a joint state-
ment in January.
Forest Restoration
China’s moratorium on the com-
mercial lumbering of natural
forests had kept 332 million cu-
bic meters of trees intact by late
<JCPI.KOKPICPQH³EKCN
with the National Forestry and
Grassland Administration, told a
press conference on February 3.
The country’s campaign to
http://www.bjreview.com
THIS WEEK
XINHUA
protect natural forests since 1998
has helped increase the acreage
by 21.5 million hectares, and
markedly improved the natural
forests’ capacity to preserve wa-
ter resources and stabilize sand
and soil, Zhang said.
Total output of state-owned
forests rose from 8.22 billion
yuan ($1.2 billion) in 1997 to
49.17 billion yuan ($7.2 billion) in
2020, he added.
Data shows that around 26.7
million hectares of natural for-
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restoration, according to Zhang.
Zhang said China will ef-
fectively restore natural forests,
focusing on improving their
quality and productivity.
A Steady Hand
Artisans at a workshop in Cangxian County, Hebei Province,
hand-carve silverware on February 8. China’s longstanding silver
Dietary Handbook carving techniques are reputed to be of high artistic and historical
The National Health Commission value.
(NHC) has issued the latest
version of its diet and nutrition
handbook for children and ado-
lescents with growth retardation,
Xinhua reported on February 7. medicine, the handbook helps appropriate range for children of
The handbook aims to KPEQTRQTCVGOGFKECNN[DGPG³EKCN similar age, the handbook noted.
improve the nutritional status components into a balanced diet The handbook offers food in-
of Chinese children and HQTVJGITQWRCPQH³EKCNYKVJVJG take guidance based on season,
adolescents, reduce the growth NHC said. location and children’s health
retardation rate among them, Growth failure is a kind of conditions, and provides Chinese
and help them create healthy chronic malnutrition caused by medicated diets that promote
eating habits to develop to their VJGKPUWH³EKGPVKPVCMGQHRTQVGKPU appetite and boost digestion,
full potential. vitamins, minerals and other nu- guiding parents, school doctors
Leveraging the advantages of trients. A child with this condition and primary caregivers to better
traditional Chinese and Western always has a height below the look after the young ones.
XINHUA
Photo Op
6QWTKUVUHTQO*QPI-QPI5RGEKCN#FOKPKUVTCVKXG4GIKQPRQUGHQT
photos at Beijing’s Summer Palace on February 7. The group arrived
KP$GKLKPIQP(GDTWCT[DGEQOKPIVJG³TUV*QPI-QPIVQWTITQWR
to visit the capital after the Chinese Government downgraded its
COVID-19 management.
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 5
THIS WEEK (&2120<
Forex Reserve Up
China’s foreign exchange (forex)
reserves rose to $3.1845 trillion at
the end of January, up 1.82 per-
cent from a month earlier, data
from the State Administration of
Foreign Exchange showed.
The forex regulator attributed
the increase in said reserves to
the combined impact of cur-
rency translation and asset price
changes.
Affected by monetary policy
expectations and macroeconomic
DKNNKQPKPRTQ³VUC[GCT
data of major economies, the U.S.
dollar weakened against other
major currencies and the prices
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that month, the regulator said.
It added that China’s forex
reserves are expected to stay
generally stable as its economy
continues to recover, with endog-
enous dynamics increasing.
Green Exchange
The China Beijing Green
Exchange (CBGEX), a platform
that integrates a range of
180%(56ó
60
55
51.0 51.2
50 48.8
45
40
35
30
25
20
JAN FEB MAR
2022
6 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
environmental trading services,
was recently launched in Beijing’s
sub-center Tongzhou District.
With the aim of transforming
itself into a national-level green
exchange, the CBGEX will focus
on strengthening the capabilities
of carbon pricing, carbon emis-
UKQPUSWCPVK³ECVKQPCPFECTDQP
³PCPEGCPFRTQXKFGOQTGGOKV-
ters with more targeted services.
On February 4, the CBGEX
signed strategic cooperation
agreements on climate invest-
OGPVCPF³PCPEKPIYKVJUKZRKNQV
tinue to have a positive effect.
provincial-level administrative
units including Beijing, Shandong
and Shanxi.
+VCNUQUKIPGFITGGP³PCPEG
strategic cooperation agree-
ments with banks and insurers,
CPF³PVGEJCPFITGGPKPFWUVT[
cooperation agreements with
enterprises.
R&D Spending
Major Internet enterprises and
related services companies, or
those with an annual business
revenue of at least 20 million
China’s Comprehensive Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)
54.1
52.5
48.4
42.7
APR MAY JUN JUL
yuan ($2.95 million), saw their
spending on research and devel-
opment (R&D) increase faster in
QH³EKCNFCVCUJQYGF
Last year, the R&D spending
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yuan ($11.39 billion), up 7.7 per-
cent year on year, with the growth
rate expanding 2.7 percentage
points from that in 2021, accord-
ing to the Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology.
In 2022, the companies
raked in 141.5 billion yuan
on-year increase of 3.3 percent,
while the combined business rev-
enue of these enterprises eased
1.1 percent to about 1.46 trillion
yuan ($215.5 billion) from the
previous year, the ministry said.
Road Logistics Price
Index
The road logistics price index
stood at 104 in January, up 3.5
percent year on year, according
to a survey jointly conducted by
the China Federation of Logistics
and Purchasing and Guangdong
51.7
50.9
49.0
47.1
42.6
AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Lin’an Logistics Group.
6JG³IWTGGFIGFWR
percent month on month, thanks
to a rising market demand boost-
ed by January’s strengthened
economic recovery momentum,
the survey read.
The survey is upbeat about
the future performance of the
road logistics sector, noting that
the economic recovery has a
sound foundation and that the
implementation of policies to
stabilize the economy will con-
The index is likely to rise
COKF´WEVWCVKQPUKPVJGHWVWTG
according to the survey.
Textile and Apparel
Exports
China’s exports of textile and
apparel products reached $323.3
billion in 2022, up 2.6 percent
year on year, according to the
China National Textile and
Apparel Council.
Textile exports gained 2
percent from a year ago to about
$148 billion, while exports of
52.9
Over 50 = Expansion
Under 50 = Contraction
JAN
2023

apparel and accessories rose 3.2
percent to over $175 billion.
Large textile enterprises saw
their combined operating rev-
enue climb 0.9 percent year on
year to nearly 5.26 trillion yuan
($776.38 billion) in 2022.
6HUYLFHó2XWVRXUFLQJ
%JKPGUG³TOUKPMGFUGTXKEGQWV-
sourcing contracts worth roughly
2.44 trillion yuan ($360.14 bil-
lion) last year, up 14.2 percent
year on year, according to data
from the Ministry of Commerce.
The executed contract value
came in at 1.65 trillion yuan
($243.54 billion) in 2022, marking
a yearly increase of 10.3 percent.
Outsourcing refers to hiring
an outside party to carry out
services or produce goods typi-
cally undertaken by in-house
employees.
Of the total, the value of
offshore service outsourcing
contracts rose 16.7 percent year
on year to about 1.32 trillion
yuan ($194.83 billion).
In terms of executed
China’s Manufacturing PMI
60
55
50.1 50.2 49.5 49.6 50.2 49.0 49.4 50.1 49.2
50 47.4
45
40
35
30
25
20
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN
2022
contract value, offshore service
outsourcing with members of
the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership and Belt
and Road Initiative participating
countries went up 4.2 percent
and 12.7 percent, respectively.
In 2022, the offshore service
outsourcing undertaken by the
private sector accounted for 31.8
percent of China’s total, while that
conducted by foreign-funded
companies took up 43.4 percent.
Green Loans
China’s green finance continued
to see rapid growth in 2022
with outstanding green loans in
renminbi and foreign currencies up
38.5 percent year on year to 22.03
trillion yuan ($3.25 trillion), a report
by the People’s Bank of China, the
country’s central bank, showed.
The growth rate was 5.5
percentage points higher than
a year ago and 28.1 percentage
points faster than the average
growth rate of all types of loans,
the report said.
A green loan refers to a form
50.1
48.0 47.0
2023
QH³PCPEKPIYJGTGHWPFUIQVQ
areas that make contributions to
environmental protection and
improvement.
According to the report,
green loans for projects with di-
rect or indirect carbon-reduction
DGPG³VUUVQQFCVVTKNNKQP
yuan ($1.27 trillion) and 6.08
trillion yuan ($897.4 billion),
respectively. Together, they
accounted for 66.7 percent of
overall green loans.
Outstanding green loans for
infrastructure upgrading, clean
energy and energy conservation
expanded 32.8 percent, 34.9
percent and 59.1 percent year on
year, respectively.
Foreign Trade
Priorities
China will expand imports this
year under a strengthened
cooperation network with trading
RCTVPGTU.K:KPISKCPCPQH³EKCN
with the Ministry of Commerce,
said on February 2.
Li told a press conference
the country would leverage the
China’s Non-Manufacturing PMI
60
54.7 53.8
55
51.1 51.6
50 48.4 47.8
45 41.9
40
35
30
25
20
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN
2022
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW
THIS WEEK
advantage of its super-large
market and increase imports
of quality products from other
countries to stabilize the global
trade and supply chains.
China’s imports in 2022 totaled
$2.71 trillion, according to Li.
With a record foreign trade
volume of $6.3 trillion, China re-
mained the largest goods trading
country for the sixth straight year
in 2022. Net goods and services
exports contributed 17.1 percent
to the country’s GDP growth.
Given the rising risk of a
global economic recession and
a decelerated growth of external
demand this year, Li said more
efforts will be made to improve
the trade structure and ensure
that exports play a steady role in
supporting the economy.
6JGQH³EKCNCFFGF%JKPC
YQWNFHWNN[TGUWOGKVUQH´KPG
trade fairs, appropriately expand
imports, promote new trade mod-
els like cross-border e-commerce,
as well as encourage processing
trade in the central, western and
northeastern regions.
54.4
52.6
50.6
48.7
46.7
41.6
2023
(Source: National Bureau of Statistics)
7
THIS WEEK WORLD
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8 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023 http://www.bjreview.com

 THIS WEEK

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http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 9

THIS WEEK PEOPLE & POINTS
¾ ASSISTANT MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Nong Rong was appointed Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, China’s State
Council announced on February 7.
Born in Mashan in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 1967,
Nong spent the majority of his career in the region, which has played a crucial role
in connecting China with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
He worked at the Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau
in Guangxi for eight years and was once Assistant to the Secretary
General of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat.
He became mayor of Guigang in 2015 and was named head of
the regional commission of ethnic and religious affairs in 2019.
Prior to his new posting, Nong had been Chinese ambassador
to Pakistan since October 2020. He hosted a farewell reception in
January in Islamabad, announcing his departure. Cultural Conservation
Outlook Weekly
Preschool Years Extended Health Commission, as of 2021, China had
about 42 million children under the age
January 16
A vast and varied collection of cultural
Guangming Daily of 3, and a third of them were in need of heritage has always been an intrinsic
February 3 childcare services. part of the country’s cultural identity,
According to a recently published gov- Decision makers should keep in mind anchoring the Chinese people in a sense
ernment solution for promoting public that better childcare is not the simple expan- of belonging and a collective memory of
wellbeing, Beijing is planning to expand sion of preschool education admissions, but the nation’s past. As of November 2022,
preschool and childcare admissions to a complex project that involves the establish- China had 56 properties inscribed on
include children aged 2-3. A pilot project ment of clear entry qualifications for staff, UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This
is already underway, and a small group of reassessments of classroom activities, sustain- number is a testament to the combined
toddlers have been already accepted into able financial support, and the continuous efforts of all sectors of society in the pres-
several institutions. management of potential safety hazards. ervation of cultural assets.
The solution aims to address the chal- Therefore, government authorities, pre- Recent years have seen the comple-
lenges that young working parents face in schools and childcare centers should work tion of a series of restoration works
juggling work and the daily task of feed- in tandem to ease the burden of young par- on historical monuments, including
ing, caring for and educating children. ents by giving their toddlers a safe, stable, the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, a
According to data released by the National and stimulating learning environment.

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10 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023 http://www.bjreview.com

 THIS WEEK
constellation of 492 Buddhist sanctuaries in Digitalized Classics to a wider audience has always been the
fundamental paradox for the treatment of
Gansu Province, and the Mountain Resort
Beijing Daily ancient literature.
and its Outlying Temples, an imperial gar-
February 3 Fortunately, technological advances
den complex in Chengde, Hebei Province.
On January 4, the National Library of have pointed a way out of this dilemma:
Archaeology makes up another front
China and five other libraries together While scanning and micrographics have
in the continuous expansion of China’s
launched 6,786 volumes of digitized an- helped prevent potential damage caused
OLVWRIFXOWXUDOKHULWDJH0RGHUQVFLHQWLÀF
cient books, bringing the total number of by the repeated flipping of pages in recent
methods, such as DNA testing and radio-
digitized ancient books to 130,000. This GHFDGHVDUWLÀFLDOLQWHOOLJHQFHSRZHUHGQHZ
carbon dating, have sped up the discovery
newly released collection covers a wide technologies, such as text recognition and
of historical sites. Important finds in the
variety of genres, ranging from anthologies full text research, are now largely realizing
past decade include beautifully preserved
and chronicles to manuscripts and stone in- ancient works’ potential and usability for
ancient gold masks and other histori-
scriptions, many of which are rare or even research purposes.
cal wonders at the Sanxingdui ruins in
unpublished documents. Since the initiation of the Chinese
Sichuan Province, as well as the sites of
Striking a careful balance between pre- Ancient Books Preservation Project in 2007,
sunken battleships from the First Sino-
serving the physicality of material books China has been picking up speed in the digi-
Japanese War (1894-95).
and manuscripts and making them available tization of ancient books and manuscripts.
The past decade has also witnessed
the retrievals of more than 1,800 looted ¾ HEAD OF THE STATE ASSETS REGULATOR
ancient artifacts. A series of bilateral
Zhang Yuzhuo was appointed chairperson of the State-Owned Assets Supervision
agreements were signed between China
and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.
and Western countries to crack down on
Born in Shouguang, Shandong Province, in 1962, Zhang began his career in
WKHLOOLFLWWUDIÀFNLQJRIFXOWXUDOSURSHUWLHV
1985 after obtaining a master’s degree in mining engineering. He has held senior
Continuous innovation is also contrib-
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uting to the preservation of these pieces of
China Association for Science and Technology.
cultural heritage. On top of virtual tours,
As a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Zhang
museums across China have launched
has made many innovative achievements in China’s new coal
online gift shops selling creative souve-
chemical industry.
nir products. Popular items include the
The SASAC’s functions include supervising and managing
Forbidden City calendar, landmark-shaped
the state-owned assets of enterprises under the supervision of the
popsicles and mystery treasure boxes that
Central Government, guiding and pushing forward the reform
allow archaeology lovers to do their own
and restructuring of SOEs and advancing their establishment of
digging.
modern enterprise systems.

“China has passed the long ´&KLQDóKDVóPDGHóHQRUPRXVóVWULGHVó

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http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 11

 COVER STORY

FINE-TUNING
THE FOCUS
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$VWDIIPHPEHULQVSHFWVHTXLSPHQWDWDGDWDFHQWHURI&KLQD0RELOHDOHDGLQJLQIRUPDWLRQDQGFRPPXQLFDWLRQVWHFKQRORJ\SURYLGHU
LQ&KLQDLQ*XL]KRX3URYLQFHRQ0D\

hen shopping
at a local
food market
in Bazhong
C i t y o f
Sichuan Province on January 18,
Dylan Austin Walker, a young
American who was in the area
visiting his girlfriend’s family to
ring in the Chinese New Year—on
January 22 this year, could simply
whip out his digital wallet to pay
12 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
for groceries even in this remote area of the Chinese
mainland. “Mobile payment is used widely in China
by young and old, in big and small cities—even in
villages,” Walker told Beijing Review.
Tobias Bauer, a young German and a partner at
Blockchain Founders Fund, an early-stage venture
capital firm, echoed Walker’s remarks. For ex-
ample, when Bauer was living in China in 2017 and
2018, he found that almost nothing was based on
cash anymore. Transactions generally went through
Alipay, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s payment app,
and Weixin Pay, referred to as WeChat Pay in
overseas markets, a digital wallet
connected to the eponymous app.
As of late 2022, Weixin, or
the Chinese version of WeChat,
had 811 million monthly active
users in China, accounting for
57.9 percent of the total popula-
tion, according to Statista.com.
They use the app to communicate
with friends and colleagues, create
group chats, order food and play
mobile games. “Effectively, your
http://www.bjreview.com

XINHUA
whole life is captured in one app,”
Bauer said at a webinar discussing
the digital economy on January
18. The webinar was supported by
THINC, a 12-month fellowship
program established by China’s
tech giant Tencent, also the archi-
tect of Weixin, and the Beijing-
based non-profit foundation Viva
la Vida. The program gathers a
community of carefully selected
young global leaders, Bauer being
http://www.bjreview.com
one of them, to conduct open dialogue on a range of
topics related to tech and humanity.
The digital economy is the economic activity
that results from billions of everyday online connec-
tions among people, businesses, devices, data and
processes, according to Deloitte, a global profes-
VLRQDOVHUYLFHVÀUPWKDWRIIHUVDXGLWLQJFRQVXOWLQJ
advisory and tax services.
Mobile payment is a prime example of China’s
digital economy, Liu Yangsheng, a senior fellow
with the Taihe Institute, a public policy think tank
based in Beijing, said during the webinar. He also
commended the large scale of the country’s digital
economy market.
Major growth engine
Ranking second worldwide for many years only
after the United States, China’s digital economy
has become a major growth engine for the country,
according to a white paper titled Jointly Build a
Community With a Shared Future in Cyberspace
released by China’s State Council Information
2IÀFHRQ1RYHPEHU%\LWVYDOXHKDG
reached 45.5 trillion yuan ($6.3 trillion), accounting
for 39.8 percent of the country’s GDP, the white pa-
per read.
It will be worth over 60 trillion yuan ($8.84 tril-
lion) by 2025, according to estimates from the China
Academy of Information and Communications
Technology, a government think tank.
The digital economy has become a new, higher
economic form after the agricultural and industrial
economies and is becoming a new commanding asset
in global competition, Ouyang Rihui, Assistant Dean
at the China Center for Internet Economy Research
under Central University of Finance and Economics
in Beijing, wrote in an article for Governance, a
Chinese weekly, in June 2020.
Also, “the digital economy is a booster and
a significant component of modernization of the
present stage,” Bai Ming, Deputy Director of the
International Market Research Institute at the Chinese
Academy of International Trade and Economic
Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, told
Beijing Review. It has become a major way of pro-
moting high-quality development.
China has been highly focused on its digital eco-
nomic development and to streamline the process and
seize more growth opportunities, it has implemented
national cyber development and big data strategies. It
has also issued a series of policies to better regulate
e-commerce and create smart cities.
The country’s first five-year
plan on the digital economy, un-
veiled in January 2022, highlighted
the sector’s role in reshaping the
global economic structure and in-
ternational competition, and rolled
out targets for its development
through 2025. The document laid
out measures for upgrading national
infrastructure, bolstering the role of
data as an important factor of pro-
duction and promoting the digital
transformation of industries.
The four traditional categories
in economics are usually termed as
land, labor, capital and entrepre-
neurship. By 2025, the added value
of core digital economy industries
is expected to account for 10 per-
cent of the country’s GDP, up from
7.8 percent in 2020, the document
read.
An integrated process
The deep integration of the digital
and real economies has long been
a goal for China. “In pursuing eco-
nomic growth, we must continue to
focus on the real economy… We
will accelerate the development of
the digital economy, further inte-
grate it with the real economy, and
build internationally competitive
digital industry clusters,” accord-
ing to the report delivered by
Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the
Communist Party of China (CPC)
Central Committee, to the 20th CPC
National Congress on October 16,
2022.
“The two are not paradoxi-
cal and, in my opinion, the real
economy covers the digital one,”
Bai said. For example, online ride-
hailing services are a real industry,
he explained, adding, “We must
not mistake the digital economy for
a virtual one.”
“Simply put, we should further
focus on the process of industrial
V
V
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 13
 XINHUA
digitization and digital industrializa-
tion, which are important ways of
real-digital integration,” Bai added.
On the one hand, a host of
new digital methods have been
introduced to upgrade traditional
and existing industries. The white
paper said the digital transforma-
tion of China’s manufacturing
industry continues; 55.3 percent of
the key processes of large industrial
enterprises had become digitally
controlled and the application of
digital research and development
tools was as high as 74.7 percent
by February 2022. China’s digital
transformation of its agriculture is
making steady progress. For ex-
ample, 5G, the Internet of Things
(IoT), big data and artificial intel-
ligence (AI) have all been applied
in agricultural production and man-
agement. Moreover, online medical
services, online education and work-
ing remotely have accelerated the
digitalization of the service industry.
On the other hand, the data- $VWDIIPHPEHUZRUNVRQWKHDVVHPEO\OLQHRI=KHMLDQJ9,(6FLHQFHDQG7HFKQRORJ\&R/WGoV
driven digital economy is also GLJLWDOZRUNVKRSLQ=KXML=KHMLDQJ3URYLQFHRQ6HSWHPEHU
cultivating different emerging in-
dustries; for example, e-commerce telecommunications, but has already been incorpo- scientific research as the country
is flourishing. According to a rated in transportation, into industrial systems. has built different national key
report released by the Ministry of By June 2022, China had 1.05 billion Internet laboratories to boost its scientific
Commerce, China’s total e-com- users and the Internet penetration rate had reached research levels; take the excellent
merce transaction volume hit 42.3 74.4 percent, the white paper read, adding the solutions in data safety, for in-
trillion yuan ($6.15 trillion) in 2021, country hosted the world’s largest 5G network and stance,” she added.
and online channels accounted for had become one of the global leaders in 5G stan- “However, our commercializa-
24.5 percent of total retail sales of dards and technology, with 1.85 million 5G cell tion of technological achievements
consumer goods. China has been the towers and 455 million 5G mobile subscriptions. is relatively slow,” Lyu continued.
world’s largest online retail market “Digital technology covers a wide range, for She suggested a better alignment
for nine consecutive years. example, AI and big data,” Lyu Pengyue, a senior of the communication between
partner with ZGC (short for Zhongguancun, a tech- key laboratories and industry sec-
Digital, fundamental nology hub in Beijing’s Haidian District) Industry tors might prove useful.
The development of China’s digi- Institute, told Beijing Review, adding how “one
tal economy goes hand in hand advantage of China is that we have plenty of appli- Global vision
with that of the country’s digital cation scenarios for digital transformation.” The growing digital economy and a
infrastructure. Liu said the latter “We hold advantages in some digital technol- globally accelerating digital trans-
is probably more advanced than ogy, but still need to bridge the gap in some other formation have become important
all of its peers worldwide. For sectors,” Lyu said. For example, there’s plenty of factors affecting the world’s
example, the most technologi- URRPIRUJURZWKLQWKHÀHOGVRILQGXVWULDOVRIWZDUH economic landscape. China has
cally progressive 5G system is in and data processing capacity. highlighted the necessity to expand
China: 5G is no longer just about “China has made marked achievements in international cooperation and bring
14 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023 http://www.bjreview.com

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to the people of all countries.
The Digital Silk Road is an im-
portant part of the China-proposed
Belt and Road Initiative, which aims
to boost connectivity along and
http://www.bjreview.com
XINHUA
Maria Adele Carrai, an assis-
tant professor of Global China
Studies at New York University
6KDQJKDLWKHÀUVW6LQR$PHULFDQ
higher learning institution, said
at a THINC event last December.
Chinese companies are responsible
for much of the digital infrastruc-
ture and smartphone use in Africa,
according to Carrai. A 2021 study
by the Atlantic Council, a U.S.
think tank, found that Chinese
telecommunications equipment
manufacturers Huawei and ZTE
have built nearly 80 percent of
3G network infrastructure, while
Huawei has built 70 percent of all
4G networks, on the continent.
“China promised to spend
trillions of dollars on infrastruc-
ture through the Belt and Road
Initiative, giving hope to a lot of
developing countries,” Carrai told
XINHUA
Beijing Review.
Affordable smartphones made
in China and exported to Africa
help locals enjoy mobile money
transfer services, according to Liu.
We can also promote interna-
tional cooperation through more
platforms and agencies, Lyu said.
For example, founded in 2007, the
Zhongguancun Forum has become
a national platform facilitating
global exchanges and cooperation
on hi-tech innovation, with top sci-
entists and leading entrepreneurs
exchanging ideas on cutting-edge
trends and hot topics in science
and technology around the globe.
“The exchanges between
Chinese and overseas players in
the field can serve global compa-
nies coming to China and Chinese
companies going global,” Lyu
beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. Helping Belt and concluded. BR
Road participating countries to bridge the digital divide
through infrastructure construction and the digitaliza-
tion of traditional infrastructure is one example in this
major undertaking. &RS\HGLWHGE\(OVEHWKYDQ3DULGRQ
“China’s tech investment in Africa is astonishing,” &RPPHQWVWRWDR[LQJ#FLFJDPHULFDVFRP
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 15
 COVER STORY

THE DATA SOLUTION

'LJLWDOWHFKQRORJ\WUDQVIRUPV&KLQDoVFKDULWDEOHXQGHUWDNLQJV%\7DR;LQJ

O
ver the past decade,
Liang Haiguang, founder
of the nonprofit organi-
zation Stars Youth Development
Center (STARS), and his col-
leagues have been on a mission to
encourage literacy in young chil-
dren across China’s remote rural
areas.
“These children usually have
relatively little reading resources
and low reading levels,” Liang
told Beijing Review, adding that
establishing STARS libraries is
one of his organization’s key proj-
ects. The organization cooperates
with participating schools to con-
struct libraries and helps arrange
empower charitable undertakings and improve ef-
ficiency,” Liu Jichen, founder and CEO of Clear
Plate, told Beijing Review.
The Clear Plate team tackles China’s food
waste issue. After a meal, users take photos of
their clean plates, post them in the Clear Plate mini
program, a sub-application of Weixin, the Chinese
version of the WeChat superapp, and can then col-
OHFWSRLQWVRQFHWKHLPDJHLVYHULÀHGYLDDUWLÀFLDO
intelligence. Users can convert their accumulated
points to physical gifts or charity donations.
Social participation
The above are two examples of digital philanthropy
or doing good through digital technology. In re-
cent years, whether it’s Clear Plate, or Ant Forest,
a green initiative in e-commerce giant Alibaba’s
ubiquitous Alipay app, people can
participate in charitable activi-
ties with a tap of their smartphone
screen.
Launched by Ant Financial
Services Group, Ant Forest pro-
motes greener lifestyles by inspiring
users to reduce carbon emissions in
their daily life. Users are encour-
aged to record their low-carbon
footprint through daily actions like
taking public transportation or pay-
ing their utility bills online. For
each action, they receive “green
energy points” and after they accu-
mulate a certain number of points,
an actual tree is planted. Users

XINHUA
activities and events on campus to
raise students’ interest in reading.
In the organization’s early
stages, people could only sign up
for the project manually—at the
libraries, in person. “So after the
launch of a library, we were never
sure how it actually performed
because we couldn’t accurately
follow up,” Liang said. Thanks
to the development of digital
technology, STARS has since
been able to develop its own tech-
driven database.
According to Liang, they can
now learn about the utilization of
each library through cloud com-
puting rather than traveling to
WKHVHSODFHVWRÀQGRXWLQSHUVRQ
“The digital applications help us
understand the operation of each
library in real time,” he added.
“Digital technology can
16 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
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can view images of their trees in
real time on their smartphones via
satellite.
“We have a similar form of
point collecting to promote read-
ing,” Liang said. The STARS team
developed the READATHON
(a portmanteau of “reading” and
“marathon”) mini program.
When children, in urban or rural
areas, read a book, they can submit
the book’s ISBN code to the mini
program and then record their read-
ing time and thoughts on it. They
can donate their reading time, and
STARS’ partner enterprises and
foundations will then match their
actions to make real donations to
help more children in need. These
are called “matching donations,” or
funds donated to a certain charitable
cause in proportion to the amount
donated by a user of the mini
program.
The main page of the
READATHON mini program
showed that as of February 8, the
http://www.bjreview.com
WEI YAO
already matched donations from various enterprises
and foundations stood at 284,198 yuan ($41,843)—
the amount of real donations to children in need
generated by the users’ donated reading time.
“It’s a method to encourage more children, and
their parents, to actively engage in charitable under-
takings in a fun and easy way,” Liang said.
Via the Clear Plate mini program, users can ex-
change their points for cups, soaps, books or cash
to charities supporting, for example, children left
behind by their parents seeking work in cities or se-
nior citizens living alone in rural areas. These gifts
come from Clear Plate’s business partners, Liu said.
Businesses can donate their inventory surplus, releas-
ing their stock pressure and contributing to society
on the one hand and winning consumer appreciation
on the other, a win-win-win solution.
“Doing so also makes them eligible for tax
deductions,” Liu added. In China, corporations
and individual donors can claim tax deductions
IRUGRQDWLRQVWRDQ\OLFHQVHGQRQSURÀWFKDULWDEOH
organization.
Launched in 2018, Clear Plate currently has
nearly 10 million users. Clearing your plate in it-
self is a kind of low-carbon action, Liu said. As of
February 8, the users’ 97 million clean plates are
equivalent to a staggering food waste reduction of
3,686.3 tons. According to the orga-
nization’s calculations, every time
someone clears their plate, their
individual carbon emissions can be
reduced by about 147 grams.
The platform effect
Today, STARS also raises funds
on the philanthropic platform of
Chinese tech giant Tencent, the
creator of WeChat. Thus far, some
20,000 charitable agencies are users
of this platform. “We can introduce
our projects on the platform and
connect with a huge number of ne-
tizens and have them become our
supporters,” Liang said. Previously,
the nonprofit only had very few
sources to raise funds from.
Many a mickle makes a muck-
le. The emergence of different
online charity platforms provides
the wider public in China with
new and more channels to make
contributions.
“Plus, digital technology en-
sures our actions are 100 percent
transparent,” Liang added. On
the STARS website, viewers can
check the related information such
as financial statements and the
project’s impact. “The public can
oversee our operations on our dig-
ital platform,” Liang said, adding
this builds more trust and gains
the organization more support.
“We built a bridge to connect
with the wider public through dig-
ital technology and inspire them
to participate in our anti-food
waste initiative,” Liu said. Digital
philanthropy not only helps solve
social problems, but also transmits
love among people.
“The possibilities for more and
more targeted philanthropy are
endless, thanks to digital technol-
ogy,” Liu concluded. BR
&RS\HGLWHGE\(OVEHWKYDQ3DULGRQ
&RPPHQWVWRWDR[LQJ#FLFJDPHULFDVFRP
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 17

THE GROWTH AND
FUTURE OF DIGITALIZATION
A China’s edge
white paper issued by
the China Academy
of Information and
Communications Technology
(CAICT) in mid-2022 estimated that
China’s digital economy stood at
$6.3 trillion in 2021, ranking second
only to the United States’ $15-tril-
lion market in the same period.
Information and technology
accounts for nearly 40 percent of
China’s overall GDP, constituting
a doubling of value in the last 10
years.
Digital ubiquity is an as-
tounding and at the same time
mundane fact of life in China and
its economy. Growing from relative
LQVLJQLÀFDQFHWRSHUFHQWRI*'3
in under 20 years is a testament to
how rapidly and smartly the country
made technological innovation and
adoption central to its overall mod-
ernization and economic growth.
In the mid-2000s, a perfect
storm of factors came together to
jumpstart China’s rise as a global
technology superpower. And ironi-
cally, it was not what China had
that made the difference; it was
what it didn’t have. It was the blank
slate that served the country well.
Digital emergence
Prior to the year 2000, China had
an extremely low rate of personal
communication and productivity
device penetration, given home
SKRQHVKRPHFRPSXWHUVDQGRIÀFH
18 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
COVER STORY
%\0LFKDHO=DNNRXU
computers were quite rare at that time, never mind
mobile phones. It had virtually no digital retail and
consumer infrastructure or culture. Consumers relied
almost entirely on cash for purchases (even bringing
bundles of renminbi to buy new cars) and the country
did not have a modern banking and credit system in
place.
The almost simultaneous introductions of smart-
phones, e-commerce and digital payments between
2003 and 2008 ushered in what could have been a
20- to 30-year period of incrementally improved tech
HFRQRP\DQGFRPSUHVVHGLWLQWRÀYH\HDUVRIPDV-
sive adoption and growth. China’s blank slate proved
to be the perfect environment to rewrite the rules
of Chinese, and in many cases global, technology,
consumption and communication protocols and ap-
plications.
From this modest start, by June 2022, China had
1.05 billion Internet users and its Internet penetration
rate had reached 74.4 percent.
But digital commerce was just the beginning. It
was the launch pad for a technology and data science
revolution that would make China’s new infrastruc-
ture the envy of much of the world.
The decade that followed marked a time when
private, public and hybrid entities marshaled their
FRPELQHGUHVRXUFHVWRÁLSWKHVFULSWIURP´&RS\FDW
China” to “China the Creator.”
Since 2010, the government has made further dig-
itization of everyday life and activities a high priority
and has focused its energy on indigenous innovation
to make China a self-reliant digitally driven economy
and to ensure it becomes a net-exporter of tech with
world-beating brands, products and systems.
As one example, while 5G has been a disappoint-
ment in other parts of the world, China hosts the world’s
largest 5G network and has become a global leader in
5G standards and technology, with 1.85 million 5G cell
towers and 455 million 5G mobile subscriptions.
Digitally powered economies the
world over will continue to grow
and the percentage of global GDP
driven by digital commerce, com-
munications, and information
technology will also grow.
To stay competitive on the global
stage in industries as diverse as auto-
PRWLYHPDQXIDFWXULQJÀQDQFHUHDO
estate and fashion, China must con-
tinue to invest in digital leadership.
:HKDYHVHHQRYHUWKHODVWÀYH
years that China continues to be
ahead of the rest of the world in
digital commerce, retail, consumer
and retail tech and the integration
RIRQOLQHDQGRIÁLQHVXSSO\FKDLQV
technology, and content. Companies
like fast fashion e-commerce plat-
form SHEIN, e-commerce giant
Alibaba and tech titan Tencent are
the leaders others will follow.
China is taking a prominent po-
sition in the development of next-
JHQHUDWLRQWHFKWUHQGVOLNHDUWLÀFLDO
intelligence (AI), the metaverse and
digital supply chains.
Duplicating that kind of success
across front- and back-end systems
in all industries will be critical in
the next 10 years.
These developments are the en-
gines of growth and China cannot
afford a retreat from them.
The digital economy is playing a
key role in China’s competitiveness
on the global stage. The government
http://www.bjreview.com

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RQ-XO\
has been actively promoting its
development and has implemented
policies to support the growth of
tech companies. Additionally,
China is looking to expand its digi-
tal economy globally through trade
and investment initiatives, such
as the Belt and Road Initiative, a
China-proposed initiative that aims
to boost connectivity along and be-
yond the ancient Silk Road routes.
China’s digital economy is
unique in several ways:
—It has the world’s largest
online market and a vast domes-
tic consumer base, providing a
huge potential market for digital
businesses;
—The country has effectively
integrated its digital economy with
its traditional economy, which has
led to the rapid growth of sectors
such as e-commerce, fintech and
mobile payments;
—The Chinese Government is
investing heavily in research and
development of cutting-edge tech-
nologies, such as AI and 5G, which
will drive the growth of its digital
economy in the future;
—China’s digital economy is
heavily driven by data, with the
country having a vast amount of
data generated by its large popula-
tion of Internet users. This data is
http://www.bjreview.com
XINHUA
being used to drive innovation and improve services
in areas such as personalization and recommendation
systems.
The CAICT white paper notes that China is
vigorously cultivating new technologies and ap-
plications such as the Internet of Things and next-
generation communication networks to accelerate the
transformation from digitalization and network-based
service to AI in various economic and social sectors.
$OOLQDOOLQQRYDWLRQKDVEHFRPHDGHÀQLQJIHDWXUH
of the country.
What’s next?
This is a period of transition for China. The series of
laws and regulations (2020-22) that apply to big tech,
HFRPPHUFHÀQWHFKDQGQH[WJHQHUDWLRQWHFKFRP-
panies have had far-reaching consequences.
Some have been positive, like a more competitive
landscape that prevents a small group of companies
from holding too much power and promoting great
innovation and support for startups.
Some have had mixed results, such as the erasure
of almost $2 trillion in market cap from China’s
homegrown tech champions and the potentially
negative effects of cross-border data transfers that
run the chance of sparking a great “tech decoupling”
between China and the West.
On that last note, there is far more to be gained for
China, the U.S. and the rest of the world through coop-
eration and friendly competition than in a “digital cold
war” scenario in the realms of digital economies. There
will be disagreements and plays for global influence,
as there should be. There should be great competition
in which the best ideas, products, systems, hardware,
software and social applications should win.
What China can do to ensure the
growth of its digital economy over
the coming years, is to encourage
and invest in startups, research and
development, and new technologies
that can drive digital transforma-
tion. The country should:
—improve domestic Internet
connectivity, data centers and cy-
bersecurity measures to support
the growth of the digital economy
nationwide, encourage the adoption
of digital payments and financial
services to drive efficiency and
financial inclusion and invest in
education and training programs to
build a skilled digital workforce;
—encourage the growth of
digital trade through improved
regulatory frameworks and partner-
ships with other countries, as well
as establish strong data privacy
and security laws to build trust and
promote the growth of the digital
economy;
—foster partnerships between
government and private companies
to drive the growth of the digital
economy.
A post-pandemic China faces
a number of challenges, including
keeping up employment, demo-
graphic changes, jobs for a large
group of educated workers, and
food, resource and environmental
security.
Technology in China, as else-
where, is not the “the end” but
rather the means to the end. Finding
the balance between the needs of the
people, the economy and the coun-
try, and the power of technology is
of paramount importance and that
is where the true power of a future
digital economy lies. BR
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FRQVXOWLQJILUPV1HZ'LJLWDODQG&KLQD
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FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 19
OPINION GOVERNANCE
The Belt and Road Initiative
%\-RVHI*UHJRU\0DKRQH\
I
ntroduced by President Xi Jinping in
2013, the Belt and Road Initiative is
a key feature of China’s foreign policy,
consistent with Xi’s push to advance what he
describes as a new era of major-country di-
plomacy. Substantively, the initiative aims to
promote mutual economic development and
inter-regional connectivity.
This is consistent with China’s need to
assume a greater international leadership
role given its fast rising position as a global
power in an increasingly multipolar world,
and can be described as a liberation-oriented
effort that’s trying, once and for all, to break
cycles of underdevelopment and poverty,
reversing colonial and neo-colonial exploita-
tions, and resisting old and new hegemonies.
Win-win strategy
Belt and Road is a succinct English transla-
tion of the Chinese term, “one belt, one road”
(yidai yilu). Belt refers to the Silk Road
Economic Belt, a network of overland road
and rail routes the initiative has already built,
is building or has proposed, primarily through
Central Asia. Its name deliberately recalls
the historical Silk Road, a network of trade
routes that preceded it centuries ago, connect-
ing east and west in positive ways for more
than 1,000 years. Road refers to the 21st-
Century Maritime Silk Road, and includes
sea routes and ports linking Chinese waters
with Pacific island nations, Southeast Asia,
South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and
Europe, with Latin America on the horizon.
Studies published by leading schol-
ars and international organizations have
emphasized the transformative effect Belt
and Road projects can have on the world
economy and, above all, the Global South.
For example, last year, the World Bank
estimated these projects will increase par-
ticipating countries’ trade by an average of
4.1 percent while also cutting their trade
22 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
KEY CONCEPT
costs by as much as 2.2 percent.
Developing countries in East Asia
DQGWKH3DFLÀFUHJLRQWKDWDUHMRLQ-
ing Belt and Road projects might
expect GDP increases in the range
of 2.6-3.9 percent.
Also, last year, the Center
for Economics and Business
Research, an economic consul-
tancy based in London, published
a study estimating Belt and Road
projects will help grow the global
GDP by $7.1 trillion per year by
2040, particularly as improved
infrastructure makes trade cheaper
and easier. This explains why 151
countries around the world have
already signed up for inclusion in
the initiative, and why more are
expected to join.
Some leading international me-
dia have referred mistakenly to the
Belt and Road Initiative as being
written into China’s Constitution
in 2018 (that said, we shouldn’t
be surprised if it’s included in
possible amendments this year dur-
ing the annual National People’s
Congress session in March).
However, the initiative is mentioned
in the Communist Party of China
Constitution in a key section discuss-
ing China’s foreign policy values.
There, it is linked with following
“a path of peaceful development”
consistent with a “win-win opening-
up strategy,” which not only helps
foster a “favorable international
environment for China’s reform,
opening up, and modernization,” but
does so in ways that promote “peace,
development, fairness, justice, de-
mocracy, and freedom... to build a
community with a shared future for
mankind.” The commitment of working to “de-
velop good neighborly relations between China
and its surrounding countries” is being asserted,
along with working to “strengthen unity and co-
operation between China and other developing
countries.” In this context, the initiative is noted
to follow the “principle of achieving shared
growth through discussion and collaboration.”
Counter-initiatives
Although some have fretted over it as
an initiative that will position China as a
new global superpower, and perhaps the
only superpower, these kinds of narratives
are generally based on misunderstand-
ings and, in some cases, intentional fear-
mongering. Nevertheless, the Belt and Road
Initiative has encouraged other countries to
more actively engage in trying to advance
similar efforts in a competitive, if not zero-
sum, mode of strategic thinking, but none of
the West’s counter-initiatives have yet dem-
onstrated the Belt and Road Initiative’s
scope or commitment, including an mish-
mash of primarily U.S.-led initiatives,
including the Blue Dot Network (2019),
the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy
(2019), and B3W or Build Back Better
World (2021). The key difference here of
course is that the China-proposed initia-
tive aims primarily to help participating
countries, especially developing countries,
develop, while the U.S.-led efforts aim
principally to knock back China, i.e., a devel-
oping country the U.S. fears will effectively
resist American hegemony.
On the one hand, if such counter-initia-
tives also help developing countries advance,
then such competition should be applauded,
as some scholars have argued. On the other
hand, there are reasons to worry that these
alternatives only offer empty promises, sim-
ply aiming to dissuade more countries
from joining the Belt and Road Initiative.
http://www.bjreview.com
 OPINION

XINHUA
However, if some of these anti- Yellen and like-minded crit-
China efforts gain traction, they ics have also ignored China’s
risk creating uncoordinated demonstrated willingness to
projects that may imperil ef- restructure and even forgive
forts overall, and threaten the debts, or use lend-lease op-
wellbeing of developing coun- tions when both countries agree
tries struggling to realize their and changing financial circum-
potential. This raises the specter stances make them sensible. Of
of a postmodern imperialist course, most Belt and Road proj-
competition, and may well be ects are long-term investments,
the byproduct of U.S. moves to particularly those related to in-
foster “great-power competi- frastructure, and are expected to
tion.” It may prove reminiscent pay off in a decade or two at the
of Western colonialism in the earliest. Given the normal ups
developing world, which his- and downs experienced in the
torically veered from exploiting global economy, felt more acutely
and deliberately underdeveloping by developing countries and all
the countries it seized to then ne- the more so given repeated black
glecting them later, as the famed swan events in the past few years,
African scholar Walter Rodney the Belt and Road will some-
times be bumpy, but China has
first described in his famous 7KH.DURW+\GURSRZHU3URMHFWLQ3XQMDE3URYLQFH3DNLVWDQ
study in 1972. LQ0DUFKDQG-XQH7KHSURMHFWGHYHORSHGZLWKLQ made long-term investments and
WKHIUDPHZRUNRIWKH%HOWDQG5RDG,QLWLDWLYHZHQWLQWR assumed tremendous risks that
Such risks in some respects RSHUDWLRQLQ-XQH
no others have, including many
have become even more pro-
leading Western countries that
nounced in the wake of the COVID-19 remain bright for the simple
ÀUVWEHFDPHULFKDQGSRZHUIXOE\H[SORLWLQJ
pandemic, which put a lot of downward reason that China’s economy is
weaker nations.
pressure on development projects around expected to make a robust post-
Ultimately, the Belt and Road
the world, including those associated with C O V I D r e c o v e r y t h i s y e a r
Initiative offers concrete opportunities for
the Belt and Road Initiative. In fact, U.S. mis- and next, and then remain a
other developing countries to break out
management of the outbreak at home led it to global engine for growth and de-
of the old cycles of underdevelopment
implement massive, debt-financed stimulus velopment, with the Belt and Road
while also providing China with oppor-
packages that did little to create sustainable Initiative growing in turn. tunities to realize its own full potential
growth but did much to contribute to global in tandem with the large public goods
LQÁDWLRQZKLFKWKHQLQWHUVHFWHGZLWK86OHG Long-term associated with global peace and socio-
provocations in Europe via NATO, resulting commitment economic justice. Increasingly, contrary to
LQWKHRQJRLQJFRQÁLFWLQ8NUDLQH Some leading policymakers concerns the Belt and Road projects pose
The U.S. in turn has accelerated the con- like U.S. Secretary of Treasury environmental risks, many are intersect-
ÁLFWDVDSUR[\ZDUDJDLQVW5XVVLDZKLFKKDV Janet Yellen continue to re- ing positively with Beijing’s fast developing
contributed to more food and energy insecurity p e a t l o n g d e b u n k e d c l a i m s “ecological civilization” values, as well
around the world, particularly in developing that the Belt and Road Initiative is as China’s leading position in developing
countries. This led the U.S. Federal Reserve to prone to creating “debt traps,” green solutions and renewable energy. These
raise interest rates to protect Americans from and that it does so intention- developments have already produced many
their own government’s failures and misadven- ally, while ignoring the larger achievements, and many more will soon
tures, and created spillover effects worldwide, and more unregulated financial be realized. BR
especially in the Global South, where it has roles Western governments and
now become much more costly to borrow lenders still play proportionately
PRQH\DQGVHUYLFH7KLVKDVPDGHLWGLIÀFXOW in the historical debt problems that 7KHDXWKRULVDSURIHVVRURISROLWLFVDQGLQWHUQDWLRQDOUHODWLRQV
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for some Belt and Road projects to advance, have accumulated in developing ZLWKWKH,QVWLWXWHIRUWKH'HYHORSPHQWRI6RFLDOLVPZLWK&KLQHVH
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http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 23

OPINION PACIFIC DIALOGUE
How a Wandering Balloon
Caused an Anxiety Attack
A
ntony Blinken’s first trip to China
as U.S. secretary of state should
have made headlines during the
first weekend of February. But a stray bal-
loon reportedly made him postpone the high-
stakes diplomatic trip, casting yet another
dark shadow over the relationship between
the world’s two largest economies.
The “balloon episode” can be summed
up as follows: A Chinese high-altitude bal-
loon was first detected near the Aleutian
Islands on January 28, but it wasn’t until
February 1, when it traversed Canada and
reentered U.S. airspace, that it attracted a
great deal of public attention and was seen
as a violation of U.S. sovereignty. The
Republicans in opposition also took the op-
portunity to launch a political attack on the
ruling Democratic administration, demand-
ing President Joe Biden show a tough stance
toward China. Eventually, the balloon was
shot down off the coast of South Carolina by
DQ)ÀJKWHUMHWRQ)HEUXDU\
China repeatedly stated this balloon was
a civilian airship mainly used for meteoro-
logical research. Affected by the westerlies
and with limited self-steering capability, the
airship had deviated far from its planned
course and unintentionally drifted into
American airspace, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs said. Yet very few Americans
seemed willing to believe China’s explana-
tion, even if it did sound reasonable: At
such a sensitive time in the China-U.S. re-
lationship, China does not need to employ
a “surveillance balloon” that is so easily de-
tected—and rather impractical.
Now imagine the balloon belonged to
the United Kingdom, Japan, or any other
24 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
%\/LDQJ;LDR
American ally... presumably, the
U.S. simply wouldn’t care so
much.
It was precisely because the
balloon came from China, a coun-
try the U.S. considers a long-
term strategic competitor, that it
triggered a diplomatic maelstrom
and blew up all over the news.
Whether it flies into American
airspace intentionally or uninten-
tionally, the U.S. will regard it as
a major security threat.
This brings us to what might
be the root cause of the current
low ebb in the Sino-American
relationship: The U.S. might have
suffered from hegemonic anxiety
and subsequently viewed any
action by China as potentially un-
dermining its own power.
The “balloon episode” is not
an isolated case; there are many
more “anxiety-inducing” ex-
amples. Not too long ago, a corn
processing plant in Grand Forks,
North Dakota, was considered
a major threat to U.S. national
security after receiving invest-
ment from a Chinese company,
because the plant was about 24
km away from a U.S. Air Force
base. Chinese telecommunication
companies participating in the
construction of 5G infrastruc-
ture in the U.S. are suspected of
stealing personal information
from their American subscribers.
Chinese scientists and students
going to the U.S. for exchange and study
purposes are suspected of stealing advanced
technologies. Even the super popular TikTok
app, originally developed by Chinese tech
titan ByteDance, has been branded an elec-
tronic substance that poisons the American
youth and collects too much of its users’
data. These ideas which sound absurd to the
Chinese nevertheless prevail among their
American peers.
$VWZRUXQDZD\&KLQHVHEDOORRQVÁRDWHG
across the skies of North America and Latin
America in early February, with the sec-
ond one’s accidental entry into the regional
airspace confirmed by China’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs on February 6, cinemas in
&KLQDZHUHVFUHHQLQJDVFLÀÀOPFDOOHGThe
Wandering Earth II, which, along with its
2019 precursor The Wandering Earth, tells
the story of a near future where Sun is rap-
idly burning out and the world has to come
together to escape from the solar system, tak-
ing planet Earth with them, and find a new
home for humanity.
And so, with the drifting vessel trending
on Chinese social media, one of the most
popular memes dubbed it “The Wandering
Balloon”—a play on the movie, with ne-
tizens turning photos of the white orb into
movie posters.
Indeed, as a champion of planet Earth,
the U.S. should perhaps be a little more
concerned about the future of humanity,
rather than letting unintentional incidents
balloon. BR
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http://www.bjreview.com

Taking Stock of the Market
O
n February 1, the China Securities
Regulatory Commission (CSRC)
announced it would solicit sug-
gestions from market participants on the
draft rules for the full implementation of
the registration system of stock issuance it
had issued that same day. Used in most ma-
ture markets, the registration-based system
refers to a stock issuance mechanism that
gives the market a decisive role in initial
public offerings (IPOs) and also facilitates
the listing of growth-oriented companies.
The IPO reform is designed “to give the
right of choice to the market,” and make
IPOs more transparent and predictable, the
CSRC said in a statement.
In the making for one decade, China’s
stock issuance regime is finally ready to
adopt the registration system, marking a
PLOHVWRQHLQWKHFRXQWU\·VÀQDQFLDOVXSSO\
side reform. China’s capital market now
stands ready to take another step toward the
international capital market in terms of list-
ing procedures.
Established in 1990, China’s capital
FACT CHECK OPINION
%\/DQ;LQ]KHQ
state-owned enterprises (SOEs)
went public this way.
From 2001 onward, the
Chinese capital market under-
went a series of reforms, spurred
by the country’s accession to the
World Trade Organization in
December that same year. That
was the moment governments
at all levels ceased to offer ad-
ministrative guidance. Brokers
started offering pre-listing train-
ing to potential issuers and the
CSRC would conduct the listing
help them tap into the Chinese capital mar-
ket more easily—and bolster their growth.
The old approval system for stock is-
suance demanded potential stock issuers
submit their materials to regulators for fur-
ther examination. The regulators would not
only verify the validity of these materials,
but would also confirm these companies’
financial positions and even draft revenue
and expenditure estimates. Unqualified
companies were prohibited from going
public. By contrast, the registration system
allows companies to submit all their related
information and materials to regulators in
the form of legal documents. Regulators
will no longer be outlining potential prof-
its and losses, but only check whether the
materials they have received are false or
misleading in any way.
The simplified procedure amplifies
information transparency while reducing in-
tervention and accelerating the listing. This
way, promising but cash-strapped compa-
nies can pocket some much-needed money
to give their business a shot in the arm, even
market is based on domestic economic and
social realities while taking notes from
mature market systems. The most striking
difference between China’s capital market
and its Western peer is that China initially
adopted an examination and approval sys-
tem for stock issuance.
In the early 1990s, the capital market was
a novelty in China. Under the initial quota
management system, the securities regula-
tory authority would cap the listing quota
number according to the requirements of na-
tional economic development and the status
quo of the capital market, and subsequently
distribute these quotas to local governments
and industrial regulators according to the
economic status and needs of their respec-
tive regions and industries. These would
WKHQPDNHWKHÀQDOGHFLVLRQRQZKLFKHQWHU-
prise could issue shares. A large amount of
http://www.bjreview.com
examination of a stock. During
this period, many non-SOEs, too,
managed to secure a listing on
the exchanges.
Today, this approval system
has come to an end. The ongo-
ing replacement is happening
not because a certain stock
issuance system outperforms an-
other, but because every system
has its due role to play at the
different stages of China’s capi-
tal market development.
Compared with the 1990s and
early 2000s, China’s capital mar-
ket today is far better capable of
countering risks thanks to contin-
uous improvement. Meanwhile,
different economic entities hope
the system’s latest overhaul will
LIWKH\DUHQRWWXUQLQJDSURÀW\HW
Addressing the reservations of some
market participants that the quality of listed
companies might go down under the new sys-
tem, which would be increasingly dangerous
to investors, the CSRC insisted the system
does not mean less stringent quality control.
“It doesn’t mean any company can list
as long as it wishes to,” the regulator said,
reiterating candidates must meet certain
thresholds and strict information disclosure
requirements.
The registration system will also entail
upgraded information disclosure, account-
ing and other fundamental systems, in turn
better arming the Chinese capital market
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&RS\HGLWHGE\(OVEHWKYDQ3DULGRQ
&RPPHQWVWRODQ[LQ]KHQ#FLFJDPHULFDVFRP
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 25
FEATURES TRAVEL

XINHUA
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Hello World
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ing messages, and a group of officials
and local tourism operators greeted two
Chinese tourist groups when they stepped into
Bangkok, Thailand, on February 6.
After a three-year COVID-19-induced break,
China resumed outbound group travel to 20 coun-
tries, including Thailand, the Maldives, the United
Arab Emirates, Russia and New Zealand, on
February 6.
7KHVHÀUVWWZRJURXSVRIWUDYHOHUVWR7KDLODQG
from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province
in south China, were welcomed at Bangkok’s Don
Mueang International Airport by officials from
28 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
the Thai tourism authority and the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, among oth-
ers. One banner at the airport read, “Welcome, my dear Chinese jiarenmen!”
Jiarenmen is a Chinese online buzzword, mainly used by young people to
greet their family members or close friends. The groups, each of around 20
WRXULVWVYLVLWHGWKHFRXQWU\IRUVL[GD\VÀUVWWRXULQJ%DQJNRNEHIRUHUHOD[LQJ
at a southern seaside resort.
The move came after the country downgraded its management of
COVID-19 from that of a Class A infectious disease to that of a Class B one
on January 8. Resuming outbound travel is one of the measures undertaken as
part of China’s adjustment of its COVID-19 response.
A stellar welcome
“Thailand is honored to be among the 20 countries chosen to once again
welcome tour groups from China. We are extremely pleased to receive
http://www.bjreview.com
 FEATURES
WKHVHÀUVWJURXSVWRGD\DQGORRNIRUZDUGWRVHHLQJPDQ\PRUHµ<XWKDVDN seafood market, they were immediately sur-
Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said at the wel- rounded by a group of vendors. One of the
come ceremony at the airport. Thai shopkeepers was very enthusiastic. “He
Acknowledging the contribution Chinese tourists make to Thailand’s sells his products in standard Chinese and even
WRXULVPHFRQRP\ZKLFKPDNHVXSDURXQGDÀIWKRILWV*'3<XWKDVDNVDLG knows a lot of Chinese online buzzwords,”
“Our thanks go out to China, the Chinese tour operators and the Chinese Gao laughed. “Some vendors said he had been
WRXULVWVWKHPVHOYHVIRUWKHLUFRQWLQXHGFRQÀGHQFHLQ7KDLODQGDVDSUHIHUUHG waiting for Chinese tourists to return for three
holiday destination.” years.”
´$VDWRXULVPSUDFWLWLRQHU,P\VHOIZDQWWRSDUWLFLSDWHLQWKHÀUVWEDWFK After the announcement of China’s orderly
of outbound tourism groups after the resumption,” Xu Xiaolei, CBO of the resumption of outbound tourism, Gao read some
CYTS Tours Holding Co. Ltd., one of China’s leading travel agencies, told playful comments on social media, like “The
Beijing Review, “I really want to share in everyone’s happiness, both the PRQNH\VDW7KDLODQG·VVFHQLFVSRWVZLOOÀQDOO\
tourists and our friends from the destination countries.” be saved!”
CYTS’ first outbound group departing from Beijing flew to Phuket, And this is not an exaggeration. At the
7KDLODQGRQ)HEUXDU\0RVWRIWKHÀUVWJURXSVRIRXWERXQGWRXUVGHSDUW- beginning of 2020, the number of tourists in
ing from other large cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou on February 6 Thailand dropped sharply, and the monkeys in
were destined for Thailand, Singapore and the Maldives. the scenic area ran out of food and began to grab
For Gao Lei, a Beijinger, wandering around the beautiful island of food on the street, disturbing the residents.
3KXNHWLVMXVWOLNHUHYLVLWLQJDVHFRQGKRPH7KLVLVDOVRWKHÀUVWRYHUVHDV But aside from these “funny” incidents, the
trip for his family of four in the past three years. “The feeling of revisiting tourism industry overall suffered during the
Thailand is both familiar and strange, like seeing an old friend,” he told pandemic. “In the three years that followed,
Beijing Review. “It’s exactly the same as the country in my memory.” whether it be directly related to travel agencies,
´7KDLODQGLVP\ÀUVWFKRLFHIRUYDFDWLRQVµ*DRVDLG´,W·VYHU\FRQYH- airlines, visa services, hospitality or consumer
QLHQWWRWUDYHOWKHUHE\GLUHFWÁLJKWDTXLWHFRVWHIIHFWLYHWUDYHOH[SHULHQFH entertainment, almost all industries in travel
and the Thai people have always been friendly to us.” destinations were continuously affected,” Xu
Local residents, too, have been eagerly awaiting the return of Chinese said.
tourists. When Gao and his family were visiting the island’s largest Before the pandemic, China was the world’s
biggest outbound travel market. According
XINHUA

to the World Tourism Organization, Chinese

tourists spent $254.6 billion overseas in 2019,
accounting for nearly one fifth of global tour-
ism expenditure. Arguably, no country has had
a greater impact on global tourism than China
over the past decade.
While 11.15 million travelers visited
7KDLODQGLQWKDWÀJXUHSDOHVLQFRPSDUL-
son to the record set in 2019—nearly 40 million
international tourist arrivals. That year, Chinese
tourists accounted for more than a quarter of the
total.

Prelude and preparation

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3KQRP3HQK&DPERGLD)HEUXDU\
Actually, tourism recovery within China raised
the curtain before February 6. During the seven-
day Spring Festival holiday from January 21 to
27, China saw nearly 2.9 million cross-border
trips, made by individual travelers, up 120.5 per-
cent year on year; and 308 million domestic trips,
up 23.1 percent year on year and back to 88.6
percent of the 2019 level for the same period.
Yu Jiali, General Manager of Spring
V
V

http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 29

FEATURES TRAVEL
Airlines Southeast Asia, told People’s Daily
that Spring Airlines has resumed 24 inter-
national and regional routes, including 16
to Southeast Asia. Since the Spring Festival
holiday, the passenger load factor on interna-
tional flights has reached an average of over
SHUFHQWDQGPDQ\ÁLJKWVKDYHUHDFKHG
percent.
At the same time, on major online travel
platforms, bookings for outbound travel
products have also increased accordingly.
According to data from Ctrip, China’s lead-
ing online travel agency, in the week after the
Spring Festival holiday, the booking volume
of outbound group tours and “air ticket plus
hotel” packages increased by more than three
times compared with the actual seven-day
holiday.
The recovery of tourist confidence is also
reflected in the gradual pick-up in demand for
RYHUVHDVORQJGLVWDQFHWUDYHO2Q&WULSWKHÀUVW
tour group to New Zealand, departing on March
18 at an average cost of 27,999 yuan ($4,129)
per person, was sold out immediately after it
went on sale.
“Chinese tourists have always been our
&KLQHVHWUDYHOHUVDUULYHDW'RQ0XHDQJ,QWHUQDWLRQDO$LUSRUWLQ%DQJNRNRQ)HEUXDU\
30 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
main tourism source. At present, we have started the preliminary prepara-
tions for group tours,” Erin Zhang, who works at a travel agency based
in Queenstown, New Zealand, told Beijing Review. “New Zealand is
in summer now, which is a good time to travel.” Zhang has been busy
communicating with China’s travel agencies and customizing the latest
tour itineraries to prepare for Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand this
summer.
“The New Zealand tourism industry is very excited about the upcoming
arrival of Chinese tourists,” Zhang said. Actually, before the COVID-19
pandemic, China was already New Zealand’s second biggest source of in-
ternational tourists after Australia, and spending by Chinese visitors hit 1.7
billion New Zealand dollars ($1.07 billion) in 2019, according to the coun-
try’s statistics agency Stats NZ.
For countries that rely on tourism revenue, the comeback of Chinese
tourists has brought hopes of economic rebound and, more importantly,
adds optimism and helps them pull through from a possible economic
downturn.
The effect of stronger tourism activity due to the resumption of China’s
outbound group tours could boost Malaysia’s GDP by at least 1 percent,
UOB Global Economics & Market Research said on February 3, according
to Xinhua News Agency.
According to the research house’s economists, the boost will further
support their baseline GDP growth forecast for Malaysia of 4 percent for
2023. Moreover, according to a report released by Fitch Ratings in January,
Chinese tourists are expected to further lift the tourism economy across the
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http://www.bjreview.com
 FEATURES
Resurrecting the champ (SARs) starting from February 6, group tours
Although the outbound travel business has not been active in the past three between the mainland and the two SARs have
years, the communication and exchanges between Chinese travel agencies also resumed.
Tourists from the Chinese mainland have
and overseas tourism enterprises have never ceased, according to Xu.
long made up the majority of visitors to Hong
China’s outbound tourism supply chain is ready for market recovery.
Kong, accounting for 78.29 percent of the 55.91
“The exchanges and communication between travel agencies in China and
million arrivals in 2019.
reception links at destinations such as overseas consulates, tourism bureaus,
On February 6, a total of 135 people from
hotels, and airlines have never stopped,” he said.
six mainland tour groups arrived in Macao. The
However, due to the pandemic, “We need to admit that many overseas trav-
0DFDR*RYHUQPHQW7RXULVP2IÀFHKRVWHGZHO-
el agencies and some other tourism-related resources have undergone changes, come ceremonies at Hengqin Port and Macao
which has also generated challenges for the recovery of outbound travel,” he International Airport, respectively, presenting
explained. souvenirs to tour group members. Also, the
Particularly, the impact on small tourism agencies overseas was quite ÀUVW0DFDRWRXUJURXSRISHRSOHVHWRXWIRU
obvious. “We will help some local travel agencies to restore their reception Hengqin Port that same day.
capacity as soon as possible, and help them restore the industrial chain,” Data from Ctrip showed that as of February 4,
Xu said. “We hope the industry will return to normal operation as soon as bookings for Hong Kong and Macao trips for the
possible.” following week by mainland residents were up
“It’s still a prelude,” Xu illustrated, introducing that the company now 228 percent year on year.
RQO\ODXQFKHGSURGXFWVIRUWKHÀUVWSLORWEDWFKRIFRXQWULHVDWWKH Meanwhile, 20 Hong Kong tourists arrived
moment, about one 10th of the number for the pre-pandemic level in 2019. at Beijing Capital International Airport on the
´:HH[SHFWE\WKHHQGRIWKHÀUVWTXDUWHURUWKHEHJLQQLQJRIWKHVHFRQG afternoon of February 6, starting a four-night
quarter, China will resume group tours to more countries, in preparation for DQGÀYHGD\WRXURIWKHFDSLWDOBR
the traditional ‘travel golden period’ starting from May,” he concluded.
At the same time, with the Chinese mainland’s full resumption of &RS\HGLWHGE\*3:LOVRQ
&RPPHQWVWRWDR]LKXL#FLFJDPHULFDVFRP
normal travel with Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions
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http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 31
FEATURES 0(17$/ó+($/7+

A Pressing Issue
7KHPHQWDOKHDOWKRIFKLOGUHQDQGDGROHVFHQWVGHVHUYHVPRUHDWWHQWLRQ
%\-L-LQJ

T
he missing of 15-year-old student Hu
Xinyu since last October from a residen-
tial school in Yanshan County, Jiangxi
Province, had once raised fears over kidnapping.
%XWDIWHUWKHSROLFHFRQÀUPHGRQ)HEUXDU\WKDW
he had committed suicide, leaving behind audio
clips about his desire to end his life on a digital
voice recorder, people have turned their attention
to the real culprit—mental disorder.
Local police said he was suffering from
mental health issues related to poor grades and
interpersonal relationships, and stresses from
puberty.
He had difficulty sleeping, woke up early,
suffered from memory loss, emotional problems
and feelings of guilt and helplessness, local police
said, adding that he had shown clear signs of be-
ing world-weary and wanting to commit suicide.
Hu’s case has drawn national attention to
the psychological wellbeing of children and
adolescents.
High prevalence
LQDSSURSULDWHSDUHQWLQJVW\OHVDQGLQÁXHQFHVIURPWKHVXUURXQGLQJHQYLURQ-
ment. It pointed out that many parents are yet to become aware of the negative
impacts they may be having on their children.
High pressure
Zhang Yonghua, a psychiatrist with the Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional
Chinese Medicine, told Hangzhou Daily that the number of teenagers with
mental health issues is increasing as academic pressure increases, their time
for sleep and rest decreases and parents’ expectations become higher.
=KDQJ·VRIÀFHZDVSDFNHGZLWK\RXQJSDWLHQWVDV&KLQD·VZLQWHUVFKRRO
vacation was coming to an end and the new term was about to begin.
A 17-year-old girl surnamed Zhu had just finished a second counseling
VHVVLRQZLWK'U=KDQJ&RPSDUHGZLWKZKHQVKHFDPHLQIRUWKHÀUVWWLPH
she had changed a lot, the doctor said. She was able to walk into the doctor’s
RIÀFHE\KHUVHOIDQGWDONDERXWKHUFRQFHUQVLQKHUVWXGLHVDQGGDLO\OLIH
+RZHYHU=KDQJVDLGZKHQ=KXÀUVWFDPHLQVKHZDVUHOXFWDQWWRWDONWRWKH
doctor and her mother had to talk to the doctor about her conditions on her behalf.
Zhang said Zhu had been a happy and lively girl before she went to high
school and had good grades. However, after entering a boarding high school,
she became unwilling to talk to her parents when she came home during the
weekends and would lock herself in her room.
´$WÀUVWKHUSDUHQWVWKRXJKWVKHZDVVWXG\LQJKDUGWRJHWEHWWHUJUDGHVEXW

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Depression among juveniles is prominent and has
severely affected many young lives.
A study, co-authored by Zheng Yi, a professor
IURP%HLMLQJ$QGLQJ+RVSLWDODIÀOLDWHGWR&DSLWDO
Medical University, and published in 2021, found
a 17.5-percent prevalence of mental disorders
among Chinese school children and adolescents
aged 6 to 16, including depression, anxiety and
insomnia.
The results of a survey of about 60,000 people
showed that the incidence of depression among
adolescents was 24.6 percent in 2020, while that
of severe depression was 7.4 percent.
The Report on National Mental Health
Development in China (2019-20), published by
the Institute of Psychology under the Chinese
Academy of Sciences in March 2021, noted
that mental illnesses are caused by several fac- 6WXGHQWVOHWRIIVRPHVWHDPXQGHUWKHJXLGDQFHRIDSV\FKLDWULVWDWDKLJKVFKRRO
tors, including pressures imposed by families, LQ+XDLEHL$QKXL3URYLQFHRQ0D\
32 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023 http://www.bjreview.com

then they found out Zhu’s grades had actually gone down. They talked to her
teacher and found that she seldom spoke to her classmates and had told her
teacher she felt pressured, indifferent and meaningless,” Zhang said.
Zhu’s parents were worried about her and took her to the hospital. Zhang
diagnosed her with psychological problems and gave her both medicine and
psychological treatment.
Zhang also suggested Zhu’s parents learn more about her feelings and try
to understand her. Zhu has been seeing the doctor every one to two weeks and
her conditions have improved a lot.
Chen Yu, a psychiatrist in Shanghai, has interviewed more than 60 chil-
dren over the past three years in an attempt to identify the cause of their mental
health issues.
Through the interviews, Chen realized the children were much less happy
than their parents assumed. They often asked themselves questions such as
“What is the purpose of studying?” and “Why do we live?”
“It’s regrettable that parents have failed to give feedback to these ques-
tions,” Chen told Portrait, a monthly magazine.
“The biggest disagreement between parents and children is that parents
want their children to be obedient and hardworking and have high scores but
they ignore the children’s emotions and feelings,” Chen said.
Chen talked about a typical case of a high school student from Shenzhen,
Guangdong Province, who had contacted her three days before taking the col-
lege entrance exam in 2022.
The girl from Shenzhen said since the beginning of primary school, she
KDGEHHQWROGE\KHUSDUHQWVQRWWRZDVWHDQ\WLPHDQGWRFRPHÀUVWLQDOOKHU
exams.
As a result of the pressure, she developed obsessive-compulsive disor-
der—a mental illness that causes repeated unwanted thoughts or sensations or
the urge to do something over and over again—when she was in junior middle
school. For instance, she would repeatedly check whether the personal infor-
PDWLRQVKHÀOOHGRXWRQKHUH[DPSDSHUZDVFRUUHFWLQVWHDGRIIRFXVLQJRQWKH
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FEATURES
exam questions.
Chen said she found that most parents of chil-
dren like the girl in Shenzhen have changed their
own fate by getting into university and finding
a decent job in cities. Such parents often equate
their children’s value to scores and tell their chil-
GUHQWRJRWRJRRGXQLYHUVLWLHVÀQGJRRGMREVDQG
make more money.
Chen said these parents usually don’t allow
their children to fail an exam. As a result, their
children often feel worried before taking exams
and, when they don’t do well, they start doubting
WKHLUDELOLWLHVDQGORVLQJFRQÀGHQFH
Chen said children can go further when they
are not judged by a single value system.
“This age provides more possibilities for chil-
dren. If they are not good at academics, they can
choose other paths. As long as they can give full
SOD\WRWKHLUDGYDQWDJHVDQGÀQGDZD\WRVXUYLYH
they’re on the right track,” Chen said.
The way out
Zhang said parents, schools and the wider com-
munity should pay more attention to juvenile
mental health.
He listed some signs of psychological issues
to help parents identify the problems early on.
If children’s personalities change suddenly, for
instance, an outgoing child becomes unwilling
to talk to people or go out, or a child with a mild
personality become irritable, they are likely to be
suffering from mental health issues.

Zhang suggested parents show less doubt and

give more support and company for children when
the latter exhibit psychological symptoms. “Parents
should not focus only on children’s academic per-
formance but encourage them to take part in group
activities to make more friends,” he said.
Dong Wuzhi, a lecturer at the Chinese Football
College, Beijing Sport University, said regular phys-
ical activity can boost not only children’s physical
growth, but also their psychological health.
While Zhang also wants to tell teenagers to
look for ways to let off steam and avoid relying
on electronic devices to ease anxieties, he did add,
“When they can’t solve their problems by them-
selves, they should not hesitate to seek medical
help.” BR
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http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 33
FEATURES WINTER SPORTS

To Xinjiang, In Winter
;LQMLDQJoVZLQWHUVSRUWVDGGPRUHIXQIRUYLVLWRUV%\/L)DQJIDQJ

A
ustrian ski instructor Platon Kerau trav- destinations for winter travel has been growing
eled to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region along with more than 100
Chinese skiers on a charter flight from Beijing
during the Spring Festival holiday last month. The
trip was organized by a Beijing-based ski club
known as Idol Club. The main goal of the group
was to ski at the Jikepulin International Ski Resort
in Hemu Village of Altay Prefecture, a border area
neighboring Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
“I’m really impressed by how fast and nicely
these kinds of things develop in China,” Kerau
told Beijing Review when talking about the growth
of winter sports facilities.
The resort has a ski season lasting for longer
than 210 days a year. It is not windy in winter,
and its temperatures during the ski season are
more comfortable than those of the ski areas in
other areas across China. The powder snow, mild
weather, plus the long snow period have gained
Altay the reputation of being the country’s “snow
capital.”
Additionally, the services on offer at the resort
have greatly improved over the past year. “Last
year, as I heard from my friends, there were no
cabins or snowboards for rent yet,” Kerau said,
“One year later, there is a beautiful huge service
center with really high quality equipment for
rent.”
Skiing in the resort comes highly recom-
mended by many experienced skiers. “Once
you’ve skied in Xinjiang, you won’t want to go
anywhere else,” Wu Yihao, a sports graduate and
experienced skier who was also the group’s guide
as well as their interpreter and photographer, said.
Outside of his routine office job in Beijing, the
sports buff often travels around China in search of
great places to ski.
A popular destination
Summer and autumn have traditionally been
regarded as the best seasons to visit Xinjiang,
but the region’s reputation as one of China’s top
34 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
in recent years. During the recent Spring Festival 3HQJ&KDRFHQWHU
holiday, from January 21-27, sites in Xinjiang D+HPXUHVLGHQWDQGVNL
received 4.8 million tourists, an increase of more HQWKXVLDVWZRUNVZLWKWKH
than 30 percent year on year. Of these, the num- UHVFXHWHDPRIWKH
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ber of tourists from outside Xinjiang increased 6NL5HVRUWLQ$OWD\
VLJQLÀFDQWO\ ;LQMLDQJ8\JXU
Xinjiang is located 2,000-3,000 km west to $XWRQRPRXV5HJLRQ
and two time zones away from Beijing. Since WRFRQGXFWDULVN
DVVHVVPHQWIROORZLQJ
all of China operates on Beijing Time, ski re- KHDY\VQRZIDOO
sorts in Xinjiang often open as late as 10 a.m., RQ-DQXDU\
offering tourists a relaxed holiday schedule.
“Skiers can get a good night’s sleep and still ,QDGGLWLRQWRVNLLQJ
DQGVQRZERDUGLQJ
be fully geared up before the slopes open in the YLVLWRUVWR+HPX
morning,” Wu said. ;LQMLDQJFDQHQMR\PDQ\
Peng Yuchan from Sichuan Province in RWKHUDFWLYLWLHVGXULQJWKH
southwest China flew some 2,500 km to the ZLQWHULQFOXGLQJKRWDLU
EDOORRQLQJDQGVOHGULGHV
city of Altay with two friends on January
22. The friends had been longing to visit the
Jiangjunshan ski resort in the city for months,
thanks to its popularity on social media.
“I was planning to go to the warmer and
closer Yunnan Province this winter holiday
as the pandemic controls were lifted; but my
friends said they wanted to go to Xinjiang to
ski, so I just joined them,” Peng told Beijing
Review. The three stayed and skied in the city
for two days and then drove some 300 km in a
hired SUV to another ski resort in Hemu, the
northernmost village in Xinjiang.
Hemu, a small Tuvan village in Altay
Prefecture, is hailed as one of the six most
beautiful villages in China. In addition to stay-
ing in the village, travelers often visit Kanas
Lake, a large glacial lake famed for its resem-
blance to those in Switzerland, some 60 km
away from Hemu.
Travel information platform Lonely Planet
suggests that May and June are great times to
visit Hemu, when the blossoms are thick on
the trees, while September is a riot of autum-
nal colors. But the description needs updating
as Hemu’s best travel seasons have included
http://www.bjreview.com

winter in recent years, given the addition of new ski infrastructure has
made traveling in winter more convenient and entertaining.
Olympic heritage
In 2005, the earliest evidence of skiing was discovered in Altay, with
cave paintings dating the use of skis to more than 10,000 years ago. This
evidence was recognized by international historians in January 2015,
six months before Beijing won the bid to host the 2022 Olympic Winter
Games. Despite the early beginnings of the region’s ski culture, China’s
XINHUA
LI FANGFANG
http://www.bjreview.com
FEATURES
snow sports development lags far behind that
of ice sports, probably because skiing requires
more funding and infrastructure.
Beijing’s winning of the bid for the 2022
Winter Olympics aroused people’s enthusiasm
in winter sports and boosted Xinjiang’s develop-
ment of winter entertainment facilities.
Many Chinese skiers who used to ski abroad
now have more choices in their own country. “It
is convenient, of course, to ski domestically,”
Wu said. He learned to snowboard in 2006 when
he was a teenager. However, he did not continue
to pursue the sport at the time, largely because
Beijing didn’t have quality slopes or services then.
Wu began snowboarding again in 2016 and
has made new friends because of the sport. He
enjoys the sport. “When I’m snowboarding, the
freezing cold and the speed get me in touch with
my inner self,” Wu said.
Wu noticed that the hosting of the Beijing
Winter Olympics attracted a large number of
QHZFRPHUVWRVQRZVSRUWV´7KLVLVGHÀQLWHO\DF-
celerating the growth of the industry,” he said.
More ski enthusiasts from outside the region
have been drawn to Xinjiang, while Altay is
widely seen as the first choice for skiing in the
autonomous region. Its Spring Festival holiday
tourism has grown significantly in recent years.
The number of tourists to the prefecture during
the holiday week has grown 14 times from about
50,000 in 2015 to more than 730,000 in 2023.
To further meet tourist demand, Altay’s lo-
cal tourism authority this year opened direct
ÁLJKWVIURP*XDQJ]KRXLQ*XDQJGRQJ3URYLQFH
and Beijing to Altay and a tourist train from
Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi to Altay to facilitate
skiers’ journeys.
However, accidents have occurred on the
slopes, some of which have exposed a lack of
professional instruction and safety measures. This
year, Kerau was invited by the Jikepulin resort
to help with avalanche testing before new runs
opened to the public.
“Fast-developing ski resorts like that need a lot
RISURIHVVLRQDOVTXDOLÀHGLQVWUXFWRUVVDIHW\VWDII
and many other personnel,” Kerau said. BR
(Reporting from Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region)
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FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 35
FEATURES $1,0$/ó3527(&7,21
Obituary for a Bear
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A
handwritten obituary was pasted on the
outer wall of the Bear Valley exhibit at
Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo in Jiangsu
Province on January 1, one day after a sun bear
named Lao Ma passed away.
It was written by the staff of the Bear Valley,
with over 400 Chinese characters in six para-
graphs outlining the bear’s life and contributions
to the zoo, and memorializing beautiful moments
that he’d had at the zoo. “Lao Ma passed away
peacefully in his sleep on the last day of 2022, at
the age of 33,” the obituary read. “We are lucky to
have met Lao Ma and to spend time with him dur-
ing our lives.”
Rest in peace
Originally from a circus, Lao Ma was moved
to the zoo in 1993 at the age of 4 and had lived
there ever since. The general life expectancy of
sun bears is around 20 years but Lao Ma far out-
lived that, reaching the age of 33, which is said
to equal 100 in human years. The bear’s passing
took staff by surprise. They said that although
he had begun eating less and sleeping more in
KLVÀQDOGD\VWKH\EHOLHYHGKHZRXOGFRQWLQXH
living a little longer as his general condition was
good.
Guo Chenxu, a keeper at the bear pavilion got
the news of Lao Ma’s death at noon on December
31. He was on vacation but returned to the zoo
immediately. “We knew he would leave soon, but
didn’t expect it to be so soon,” Guo said.
Guo introduced that in order to help Lao Ma
survive the winter, keepers made a warm straw
nest with bales of hay and two electric heaters. As
Lao Ma had only one tooth left and was unable
to chew, staff made warm vegetable mash and
fed him with a special feeder. They also smeared
honey in places close to Lao Ma, so that he could
enjoy his favorite food any time he wanted.
Spending most of his life at the zoo, Lao Ma
got married there and witnessed the develop-
ment of the zoo over the past three decades.
36 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Visiting Lao Ma at the zoo has also made child-
hood memories for many in Nanjing. Lao Ma
spent most of his time in his enclosure and, two
RUWKUHHWLPHVDZHHNZDVWDNHQWRDQRXWHUÀHOG
for basking in the sunshine and roaming around
a larger area.
In 2019, when his wife passed away, Lao Ma
was relocated temporarily to a zoo in Yangzhou,
another city in Jiangsu Province, due to renova-
tions at the Bear Valley. In early 2021, after the
renovation was completed, he moved back to
Nanjing.
At that point, he was not in good health, 5LQJWDLOHGOHPXUVEDVN
spending most of his time alone in his enclosure.
LQWKHVXQDW1DQMLQJ
+RQJVKDQ)RUHVW=RR
In the process of his recovery, the bear became a RQ)HEUXDU\
bigger star as it was cast in a documentary depict-
ing animals’ lives at Hongshan Forest Zoo. Lao
Ma’s story was the first episode and has been
viewed over 20 million times on the online video
SODWIRUPRIWHFKQRORJ\JLDQW7HQFHQWVLQFHLWÀUVW
aired in 2021.
2QHGD\LQ0DUFKKHÀQDOO\UHFRYHUHG
enough to make it to the outer field. The staff
described that day in the obituary. “It was a nice
sunny spring day. Lao Ma sat beside rapeseed
ÁRZHUVORRNLQJXSDWWKHÁ\LQJEXWWHUÁLHVDVWKH
warm breeze reached him from the city.”
Shen Zhijun, Director of the zoo, got a close-
up of Lao Ma while live-streaming on China’s
short video platform Douyin in 2021. “I heard
its breath, saw its winkles and slow steps,” he
said. “The keepers sat on a rock and Lao Ma lay
on another one. It was like a picture of grandfa-
ther and grandchild together.”
However, the keepers’ care didn’t stop the
bear’s natural aging process. His deteriorating
eyesight made the move outdoors a risky adven-
ture, so the staff began following him when he
wandered outside.
“Lao Ma’s condition made me think about
what getting old means and how we should deal
with that,” Peng Peila, a zookeeper, said in the
documentary.
http://www.bjreview.com

Shen would also picture himself aging. “Will we accept our aging process
in the same, calm way?”
A zoo’s mission
This is also the question Shen wants zoo visitors to contemplate when looking
at senior animals. “Animals in the zoo are not circus performers to entertain
people,” Shen said. “They also get sick, get old and die.”
Shen has been working as the director of the zoo since 2008. At that
point, many zoos in China were still in a primitive stage of caging animals on
FRQFUHWHÁRRUV+RQJVKDQ)RUHVW=RRZDVQRGLIIHUHQW7KHZROYHVDV6KHQ
recalled, were locked in hexagonal cages and no longer looked like predators.
,Q6KHQFDQFHOHGDOODQLPDOVKRZVDWWKH]RRPDNLQJLWWKHÀUVW]RR
in China to do so. It was a bold decision as 80 percent of the zoo’s income
came from ticket sales and animal shows were a major draw for people to buy
tickets.
+RZHYHUWKHGHFUHDVHRIYLVLWRUÁRZGLGQ·WVWRSKLPPRYLQJRQ+HUH-
designed quite a few exhibits, creating more spacious enclosures and natural
surroundings that allow the animals to retain their wild nature.
Leopards, for example, are actually timid cats by nature. Their enclosure
in the zoo thus has many places for them to hide. In many cases, visitors can
only spot the leopards’ eyes peering out from the bushes.
The new wolf enclosure, opened in 2020, also offers more privacy to the
wolves. It is on the slopes of a hill in the zoo and visitors can only see parts
http://www.bjreview.com
FEATURES
of the enclosure from different viewing plat-
forms. Rocks, groves, waterfalls and pools have
created a diverse and complex environment.
Many visitors have complained that they don’t
get to see many of the animals at the zoo. “Maybe,
some visitors need some time to reconsider the
mission of a zoo,” Shen said. “A zoo should be a
place that guides people to learn more about the
nature of animals and respect that.”
In the 2020 bestseller Going to the Zoo Is a
Serious Matter, the writer Chen Min, after visiting
56 zoos in 41 cities across China, rated Hongshan
Forest Zoo as one of the best public zoos in China.
0DQ\\RXQJ]RRDÀFLRQDGRVKDYHKDLOHGWKH]RR
as one of the landmarks in Nanjing.
Shen is glad to see a growing number of young
visitors. He hopes the place will be a haven for
animals that have lost their habitats. “It is animals,
rather than human beings, that should be the hosts
of zoos,” he said. BR
&RS\HGLWHGE\*3:LOVRQ
&RPPHQWVWR\XDQ\XDQ#FLFJDPHULFDVFRP
VCG
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 37
FEATURES 585$/ó'(9(/230(17

Keen as a Bean
+RZRQHWLQ\WRZQFUHDWHGDXQLTXHUHFLSHIRU&KLQDoVUXUDOGHYHORSPHQW
%\0RKDPPDG6DL\HGXO,VODP

S
itting under the glaring spotlight, Gong
Xinsun, Secretary of the Communist
Party of China (CPC) Liufang Township
Committee in east China’s Jiangxi Province,
waved at the camera as he launched into a six-
hour-long e-commerce live-streaming marathon
to sell bean-made products. Gong and his two co-
hosts talked nonstop, yelling “Buy it now!” all
night long. They raked in 1,000 orders, a solid
outcome.
This tiny snippet from Liufang, Hukou
County of Jiujiang City, where people’s lives
center on several kinds of beans—from growing
to processing and selling them, exemplifies the
bigger picture of China’s rural revitalization strat-
egy, which makes e-commerce undertakings, like
the one in Liufang, possible.
At the 19th CPC National Congress in
October 2017, President Xi Jinping proposed
the country’s rural revitalization strategy, with
Liufang has a special geographical position where the Yangtze River,
the longest river not only in China but also in Asia, and Poyang Lake,
China’s largest freshwater lake, converge.
And so, Liufang in recent years decided to make full use of its advan-
tageous resources, accelerating the pace of its development of modern
agriculture with local characteristics, striving to form a modern agricultural
development pattern, and promoting the effective connection between the
achievements of China’s poverty alleviation campaign, which saw the erad-
ication of absolute poverty nationwide in late 2020, and rural revitalization.
Liufang took the bean industry as its leading asset and transformed it into a
high-quality industry.
Liufang insisted on making every effort to create a unique bean industry
ecosystem. The township’s Bean Culture Industrial Park, for example, is an
innovative, entrepreneurial, cultural, agricultural, and tourism demonstra-
tion industrial park. The Cultural Industrial Park project in Liufang, then,
has a total investment of $74 million and started construction in 2019, inte-
grating a bean culture experimental planting area, a business and trade area,
an ecological landscape area, a bean culture tourism service area, plus a
VFLHQWLÀFUHVHDUFKDQGSURFHVVLQJDUHD

COURTESY PHOTO
the general requirements of achieving thriving
businesses, pleasant living environments, social
etiquette and civility, effective governance and
prosperity in rural areas. Among these, indus-
trial takeoff remains the top priority as it is the
basis for increasing farmer incomes, agricultural
development and rural prosperity.
In recent years, China has continuously
implemented policies and projects to support
the development of rural industries. In Liufang,
rural revitalization strides forward by relying on
a small bean which today even becomes a dish
on an overseas dinner table. A single bean can
produce hundreds of delicacies—and an entire
industry. For this township, the bean is the “pass-
word” for rural revitalization.

Making moves
As China’s only Bean Fragrance Town and one
of its origins of bean cultivation, Liufang had
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long wanted to develop and flourish. But the UHVLGHQWRYHUEHDQUHVLGXHDQGSRZGHULQ/LXIDQJ7RZQVKLS-LDQJ[L3URYLQFH
question was always: how? RQ6HSWHPEHU
38 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023 http://www.bjreview.com
 FEATURES

COURTESY PHOTO
According to Luo Deming, Board Chairman
of Fangde Food Technology, the company of-
ÀFLDOO\ZHQWLQWRRSHUDWLRQLQ1RYHPEHU
and its sales in 2023 are estimated to exceed
$1.5 million. The company’s bean products
have traversed the open waters to Australia and
Arabic countries. Both the bean residue and
powder can be recycled and reused as process-
ing byproducts, for example serving as land
snail food or as a substrate in mushroom culti-
vation, Luo said.
Then there’s the Liufang Bean Workshop,
gathering bean farmers from the township itself
as well as the surrounding area, which develops
bean products such as whitebait sauce, fried
tofu puff sauce, shrimp sauce, bean wine and
bean paste. These products are sold in shopping
malls and supermarkets nationwide.
Sitting on the bank of Poyang Lake, the
workshop is surrounded by trees, maintaining
the site’s original ecology, and neighbors the
,VODPLVLQWKHĶHOGGU\LQJEHDQVZLWKSURGXFHUVDQGIDUPHUVLQ/LXIDQJ industrial park. Walking into the bean wine
RQ6HSWHPEHU VKRSWKHDLULVÀOOHGZLWKDVWURQJDURPD7KH
wine is mainly made of glutinous rice, sor-
Making money ghum, and mung bean, and divided into three
The process of rural revitalization is largely a market-oriented industrial types such as high, medium and low alcohol
transformation and upgrading process with technology and innovation content.
as the basic driving forces. Modern agricultural production is no longer The story of Liufang is like that of Jack and
based on quantity but must focus on high-quality and green efficiency. the Beanstalk, seeing the township truly tak-
ing advantage of the opportunities that life
While protecting traditional agricultural production, it is necessary to
provides—however small they may appear.
vigorously introduce modern production factors to ensure national food
The efforts of the township’s locals in tak-
security and realize agricultural modernization. Xu Yu, one of the large-
ing their main product, a tiny bean, and using
scale bean producers in Liufang, said by getting help from the industrial
it to give their lives a complete overhaul has
park, he can sell the beans at a good price, and also create byproducts by
impressed and motivated developing countries
turning his produce into soybean sauce, wine, cakes, and more.
like Bangladesh. And Liufang is just a snap-
Fifty-year-old Liu Juan, who leads the workforce at Fangzhou
shot of the progress occurring across thousands
Ecological Agriculture Co. Ltd., said she has been working in this factory of townships in China.
VLQFH WKH FRPSDQ\ ÀUVW VWDUWHG RXW LQ  $V D ORFDO LW WDNHV KHU OHVV In Bangladesh, over 50 percent of the
than 10 minutes to get home on her electric scooter. At noon, she can go country’s workforce is engaged in agricultural
home to cook for her husband, who is in poor health. Liu earns more than production and so Liufang’s experience in in-
$295 a month, more than what she made at her previous job, but the most dustrial revitalization can prove enlightening.
important thing is that she can look after her family. Its small bean has created a “unique recipe” for
Liu Xiafeng works as a technical supervisor at Fangde Food China’s development. BR
Technology Co. Ltd. in the industrial park. She used to be a migrant
worker, seeking employment in other provinces, and would only return
to Liufang twice a year, once during the Spring Festival holiday and once
during her children’s school summer holidays. Now, her local employ- 7KHDXWKRULVD%DQJODGHVKLMRXUQDOLVWDQGDGRFWRUDOIHOORZZLWKWKH
ment sees her earn enough to support her family—and be with them every 6FKRRORI,QWHUQDWLRQDO7UDGHDQG(FRQRPLFVXQGHUWKH-LDQJ[L
8QLYHUVLW\RI)LQDQFHDQG(FRQRPLFV
day. With a basic salary of $442 per month, she can make more than $590 &RS\HGLWHGE\(OVEHWKYDQ3DULGRQ
on average per month. &RPPHQWVWROLZHQKDQ#FLFJDPHULFDVFRP

http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 39

FEATURES THROUGH THEIR EYES
Bonds Beyond Borders
+RZD%HLMLQJEDVHG-DPDLFDQSURPRWHV&KLQD-DPDLFDWLHV%\/L;LDR\DQJ
T
hough you wouldn’t immediately tell by
looking at her, Victoria Elizabeth Cann, a
Jamaican living and working in Beijing,
actually has some Chinese roots. Jamaica, an island
country situated in the Caribbean Sea and famous
for its natural scenery, Blue Mountain Coffee,
Reggae music and some of the world’s fastest
athletes, is far from China. However, in the 19th
century, some people from China’s coastal regions
went to work in Jamaica and eventually settled
down on the island. Cann’s great-grandfathers were
among them.
“My great-grandfathers on both my mother’s
and father’s side were Chinese. They were from
Guangdong Province in south China,” Cann told
Beijing Review.
&DQQÀUVWFDPHWR&KLQDLQWRSXUVXHKHU
Ph.D. at the Communication University of China
(CUC). She went on to teach at CUC from 2018 to
2021 and later at a dual-degree program between the
University of Colorado, Denver, the U.S. and China
Agricultural University. She is also an active mem-
ber of the Jamaican expat community in China and
often assists her embassy with events and media-
related affairs.
“Since coming to Beijing, I have been impressed
with the fast-paced lifestyle, the high-quality services,
COURTESY PHOTO
 
40 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
amenities, convenience and the employment prospects the city has to offer. My life
here has been fantastic!” she said.
Fresh perspectives
But it’s not just the capital that appeals to Cann; in her eyes, China on the whole
comes with a myriad of enchanting aspects. “I’m interested in learning more
about traditional Chinese festivals, which showcase different facets of China’s
rich cultural heritage,” she said. She just celebrated her eighth Spring Festival,
which fell on January 22 this year, in China. In the lead-up to the festival, she
visited a Beijing fair and got lots of handmade Chinese New Year goodies—the
ancient style accessories being among her favorites.
Aside from her daily exchanges with Chinese students and colleagues, she has
been traveling across China to learn more about the country. In the past two years,
for example, she went on two trips hosted by the Global Young Leaders Dialogue
(GYLD), a program jointly initiated by the Center for China and Globalization and
the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies in 2020. The program,
among other events, regularly takes international participants on visits to different
regions of China to gain a more in-depth understanding of the country.
During her two GYLD tours, Cann traveled to Shaanxi Province and Dali
Bai Autonomous Prefecture in the southwestern province of Yunnan. Given her
undergraduate history major, she thoroughly enjoyed the visits to museums and
historical sites in the two regions. The local traditions and cultures she observed,
including the regular outdoor performances by the people of the Bai and Hui eth-
nic groups in Dali, deeply impressed her.
´(YHQLI\RXKDYHOLYHGLQ&KLQDIRU\HDUVLWZLOOVWLOOEHGLIÀFXOWWRVHHDOO
of the country’s 5,000 years of history. These trips gave me an authentic taste of
Chinese culture,” she elaborated.
COURTESY PHOTO
http://www.bjreview.com
 FEATURES
Since arriving in the country, Cann has witnessed its rapid growth. From her Jamaica show that Chinese enterprises had invested
perspective, what China has been able to achieve within the past few decades is un- over $2.1 billion in Jamaica as of 2022, creating
precedented. China has opened its doors, bringing opportunities both to its own people over 35,000 local jobs.
and to others. The country is taking on a greater role in global affairs and shouldering The island country now expects to expand
PRUHLQWHUQDWLRQDOUHVSRQVLELOLWLHVLQÀHOGVVXFKDVFDUERQHPLVVLRQFRQWURO the presence of its products in the Chinese mar-
“China is also a leader in terms of mobile payment services and e-commerce. ket. Jamaican enterprises have participated in the
:HFDQVHHKRZHIÀFLHQW&KLQD·VHFRPPHUFHSODWIRUPVDUHµVKHVDLG China International Import Expo since its incep-
She added China’s strong e-commerce services have proved quite helpful. “If tion in 2018. During 2021, China’s imports from
you order something within the same city, you may get it within the hour. I don’t Jamaica were $6 million, according to the General
think many countries have been able to catch up with China in terms of its entire Administration of Customs of China. These in-
e-commerce industry and the technology that supports it,” she explained. FOXGHGLURQVWHHOVHDIRRGOREVWHUÀVKDOXPLQXP
Cann hasn’t left China in three years—not since COVID-19 erupted in coffee, tea, spices and more.
early 2020. “Most of the time I don’t worry about the virus at all. The Chinese Cann also suggested that people-to-people ex-
Government has worked hard to ensure people have access to free vaccines and changes need to be further bolstered to improve China-
treatment when needed,” she said. Jamaica ties. For example, people in both countries
Now that China has reopened its borders, many people are once again begin- share an interest in Reggae music. In the 20th cen-
ning to travel into and out of the country. “You can see people are getting back to tury, Chinese-Jamaican record producers like Clive
QRUPDOOLIH7KLQJVDUHORRNLQJXSDQG,·PFRQÀGHQWWKHVLWXDWLRQZLOOFRQWLQXHWR Chin recorded and marketed demos of a new music
improve,” she said. genre known as dub music and contributed to the rise
of a subgenre in Reggae called the “Far East sound.”
Spanning a gap Byron Lee is another well-known Chinese Jamaican
As demonstrated by Cann’s own great-grandfathers, China and Jamaica devel- who founded a renowned band called Byron Lee and
oped ties that go as far back as the mid-1800s. “Over the past few decades, many the Dragonaires. Their music included Jamaican Ska,
people with Chinese roots have been working in Jamaica as businesspersons. Reggae, Soca and Calypso. Lee is often credited with
They have contributed much to our local economic growth,” she said. According popularizing Caribbean music all over the world.
to the Embassy of China in Jamaica, the number of people with Chinese roots “Jamaica’s cultural elements like Reggae music
in Jamaica exceeded 70,000 as of last year, which also celebrated the 50th an- will help promote more exchanges between the
niversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. people of China and Jamaica, especially the youth,”
As Cann introduced, China had been a mysterious and unknown country for Cann said.
many around the world, before the import of Chinese products and the overseas According to her, the two countries should also
operation of Chinese enterprises increased the overall awareness of China. Many expand language learning programs. In recent years,
Chinese enterprises, like China Harbor Engineering Co., where Cann used to China has attracted many international students to
work as a public relations officer, have been operating in Jamaica and driving study and live in the country. Its education programs
local economic growth and employment. Data from the Embassy of China in have promoted cooperation between developing
countries.
=+$1*:(,

9LFWRULD(OL]DEHWK “Jamaican students now get opportunities to

&DQQOHIWIURQWZLWK learn more about China, and Chinese students can
KHUIDPLO\
hone their English skills in Jamaica,” she said.
&DQQoVPDWHUQDO With the waning impact of COVID-19,
JUHDWJUDQGIDWKHURI China resumed outbound group travel services
&DQQFHQWHUDQGKLV on February 6. Cann for one hopes China and
FKLOGUHQ
Jamaica will improve their transportation connec-
$QHPSOR\HH WLYLW\WKURXJKWKHLQWURGXFWLRQRIGLUHFWÁLJKWV´,·P
GUHVVHGLQhanfuRU hoping, since the borders are now open again, that
WUDGLWLRQDO+DQ&KLQHVH more Chinese people will go and visit Jamaica,”
FORWKLQJRIIHUVWHDWR
&DQQDWDIDLULQ%HLMLQJ she said. BR
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3 &RPPHQWVWROL[LDR\DQJ#FLFJDPHULFDVFRP

http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 41

CULTURE
Ambassador of Art
$&KLQHVHSDLQWHUGHGLFDWHGWRFURVVFXOWXUDOFRPPXQLFDWLRQWKURXJKDUW
%\/X<DQ
Y
u Danqing hosted her first art
exhibition in Beijing in late
1992, at the age of 21. It was
at that event she met two expats who
were so enraptured by her work, and by
Chinese painting, that they asked her if
she would become their teacher.
Three decades later, Yu, now an in-
ternationally renowned and multi-award-
winning artist, is still helping visitors
and expats understand Chinese culture,
<X'DQTLQJWHDFKHVLQWHUQDWLRQDOMRXUQDOLVWVWRDSSO\&KLQHVHSDLQWLQJWHFKQLTXHVWRIDQV
LQ%HLMLQJLQ
44 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
teaching traditional wash painting, cal-
ligraphy and history. “Art has no borders.
It is one of the best channels to build
understanding, reduce estrangement and
prejudice, and create a peaceful world,”
Yu told Beijing Review.
“It’s wonderful to feel the Chinese
art,” Hendy Yuniarto, an Indonesian
working as a lecturer at Beijing Foreign
Studies University, said after completing
his first painting during Yu’s painting
COURTESY PHOTO
course. “It is also a very historical expe-
rience to have this hands-on training in
an art that can be traced back more than
2,000 years.”
A bridge of cultures
Yu was born in 1971 into a family in
Beijing with an illustrious artistic back-
ground. Yu Shinan, known as one of the
four great calligraphers of the early Tang
Dynasty (618-907) is her ancestor. Her
JUDQGIDWKHU<X=KRQJKHQJZDVDQDÀFLR-
nado of traditional Chinese culture and her
mother was a Peking Opera performer who
established a performing troupe together
ZLWKRWKHUIDPLO\PHPEHUV,QÁXHQFHGE\
them, Yu Danqing was exposed to the arts
at an early age and began learning Chinese
painting at the age of 7.
In addition to painting, she’d also
learned other aspects of traditional Chinese
culture from her family, including history
and customs. She also studied English and
French under the instruction of her uncle
Yu Qilong, who was a calligrapher and
worked in diplomatic service. This expo-
sure to traditional culture and her early
adoption of these languages made her a
natural ambassador for Chinese culture
and arts.
In 1992, Yu Danqing and her uncle
were invited to give a cultural lecture
at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands in Beijing, where her first
painting exhibition took place. She said in
the lead-up to their lecture, she’d rehearsed
her explanations of aspects of Chinese cul-
ture in ways that would be interesting and
easy to understand for people from over-
seas. She remembers her audience being
fascinated by Chinese culture.
When the attendees asked her how to
http://www.bjreview.com
 CULTURE

COURTESY PHOTO
remember Chinese characters, which were
too abstract for them to write, she used an
example of the ideograph for “horse.”
“Ideographs are a kind of pictograph
that looks similar to the concept they de-
scribe,” Yu Danqing said. “The original
character for horse looks like a real stand-
ing horse with its head turning back. Over
time, the character has been simplified
into the current form.” She showed the
audience what the character looked like in
different dynasties. After learning about
the evolution of Chinese characters, the
DXGLHQFHVDLGLWZDVWKHÀUVWWLPHWKH\KDG
been given an understanding of Chinese
writing and they didn’t realize how fun it
was. They told Yu Danqing they would
introduce what they’d learned to their
family members and friends at home, or
even bring them to China to learn more if
possible.
“At that time, I felt I was doing some- <X'DQTLQJoVWUDGLWLRQDO&KLQHVHLQNSDLQWLQJZRUNV
thing very meaningful,” Yu Danqing said,
adding that teaching expats Chinese cul- the viewer more room for imagination of how people view China and its
ture started to grow on her and made her and contemplation. In comparison, many culture.
happy. So far, she has taught around 1,000 Western artists apply color over the entire “I remember when I was at a vineyard
people from all over the world. surface of the piece to make the work in Cognac, France, in 1994. The owner
Today, Yu Danqing is regularly invit- look more realistic. stared at my feet for a bit and checked if
ed to give lectures at the Beijing Language Talented at painting still life, espe- my feet were bound like those of women
and Cultural Center for Diplomatic FLDOO\ÁRZHUVVKHKDVLQWHJUDWHG:HVWHUQ in ancient times,” she said. “However,
Missions, a public institution founded in painting elements into some of her more than 10 years later, when I was
1956 that specializes in teaching Chinese &KLQHVHSDLQWLQJVÀOOLQJWKHEDFNJURXQG walking on a street in Paris, a young
as a second language and offering cultural with colors and introducing focal points man tapped on my shoulder and said
courses. and sources and focuses of light, thus cre- ‘Nihao’ [Hello in Chinese], and asked if
Yu Danqing said now many foreign ating a different visual experience from he was saying it right. This is an interest-
envoys invited by government organiza- traditional ink paintings in black and gray LQJFKDQJHDQG,DPFRQÀGHQWWKDWQRZ
tions like the Foreign Ministry and the tones. “This seems to be more popular people are more up-to-date about China.”
Ministry of Commerce, as well as em- with younger audiences,” Yu Danqing Yu Danqing believes that, in addi-
ployees from overseas companies, come said. tion to paintings and calligraphy, there
to the center to participate in cross-cultural Despite the innovations she has are more platforms for people to gain an
communication activities. “In fact, the made, the fundamental essence of understanding of China, such as mov-
channels of communication are diverse. ink painting—the skill shown in the ies, television series, publishing and
It’s not restricted to the government level; brushstrokes—cannot be changed. “The even modern technologies. “Sure, there
anyone can be a messenger of culture. strength and softness of the brush strokes are challenges in transnational commu-
We’re all responsible for spreading our show unique inexpressible charms. Even nication, but as long as we respect each
ÀQHFXOWXUHDQGOHDUQLQJIURPWKHEHVWRI one seemingly simple stroke may take other’s culture and have an open mind,
other civilizations,” she added. years of practice to approach perfection,” such barriers won’t be much of a prob-
she explained. lem,” she concluded. BR
Exchange and change Over the years, she has given lectures
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http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 45
CULTURE

Hop Right In!

T
hemed on celebrating the Year
of the Rabbit, the 2023 Chinese
New Year Exhibition kicked
off at the National Museum of China in
a bronze rabbit head, one of the 12 animal
head sculptures that once formed a zodiac
water clock at Beijing’s Old Summer
Palace—built in the Qing Dynasty (1644-
Beijing on January 18, right before the
seven-day Spring Festival holiday from
January 21 to 27. Over 80 cultural relics
demonstrate the colorful Chinese zodiac
culture as well as the different traditions
surrounding Spring Festival in the coun-
try’s imperial times.
The collections span from the Shang
Dynasty (around 1600 B.C.) to the early
20th century. Diverse in genre and made
from an assortment of materials, they
include different forms of art, including
sculpting, calligraphy and painting. Many
rabbit-inspired artifacts from different dy-
nasties, too, are on display. Among them,
46 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
KDVDWWUDFWHGÁRFNVRIYLVLWRUV
Of the 12 animals of the Chinese zo-
diac, the rabbit is seen as an auspicious
animal that delivers promising pros-
pects. According to an ancient Chinese
legend, the Jade Rabbit accompanied
the Moon Goddess Chang’e to the
Lunar Palace. And so, over time, rabbits
became synonymous with the Moon
and considered a symbol of longevity in
Chinese culture. BR
(Text and photos by Wei Yao)
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 CULTURE
 

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http://www.bjreview.com FEBRUARY 16, 2023 BEIJING REVIEW 47

)2580
What Will the Relaxed Birth
Registration Requirement
Bring Society?
L
ate last year, the Health
Commission of Sichuan
Province abolished a restriction
requirement according to which only
legally married parents are allowed
to register their children. Household
registration is a must for children to
receive a national identity card and
to access basic services such as com-
pulsory education and basic national
healthcare insurance. The new rule has
triggered widespread discussions of
social values and consequences. The
province responded that the measure
aims to increase the accuracy of popu-
lation monitoring by ensuring pregnant
women, either married or unmarried,
register their children and have access
to basic medical insurance services.
Cao Yubing (Modern Express):
Historically speaking, births out of
wedlock are seen as somewhat “hereti-
cal.” However, demographic changes
and corresponding birth policy adjust-
ments are increasingly making the
“decoupling” of birth from marriage
a social consensus in China. Every
citizen deserves the right to reproduce
and this right should not be linked to
marriage. Both the Civil Code and the
Marriage Law stipulate that children
are entitled to the same rights regard-
less of their parents’ marital status.
In China, children born out of
wedlock represent only a very small
fraction of the population. The relax-
ation of birth registration requirements
protects the basic rights of this group.
&XUUHQWO\PDQ\PDWHUQLW\EHQHÀWVDUH
48 BEIJING REVIEW FEBRUARY 16, 2023
available only to married mothers and
lifting this restriction will extend these
benefits to all mothers and babies.
Additionally, allowing these children
to be registered will give the country
a clearer picture of its population size,
which may in turn help in the formu-
lation of more effective population
policies.
Even after being successfully
registered at birth, children who are
not born out of wedlock may still en-
counter difficulties besides accessing
compulsory education and basic health-
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to be settled one by one to achieve the
goal of balanced population growth.
Ma Qing (guancha.gmw.cn):
Equal access to public services is
the legitimate right of every citizen.
Pregnant women, married or not,
need public maternity healthcare and
have to register their children with
the government.
Families take various forms within
society, apart from complete families
composed of parents and children, di-
vorced or remarried families are also
common. Sometimes, a family can be a
single person.
A conventionally accepted ideal
family is of course one with both a
father and mother, but incomplete
families have always existed, whether
one likes them or not. Therefore, there
should not be too much criticism of
out-of-wedlock births or unwed moth-
ers and more attention should be paid
to offering them better public services.
The aim of these policy changes is
to encourage births, but the question
LVZLOOVLPSOLÀHGELUWKUHJLVWUDWLRQUH-
ally help increase the number of new
babies? Willingness to have children
also hinges on many other factors, in-
cluding economic circumstances and
the quality of marriages. Obviously, a
relaxed restriction on birth registration
is far from enough.
Lai Junchen (m.jrj.com.cn):
There have long been legal provisions
on the right to inheritance of children
born out of wedlock. In accordance
with China’s Civil Code, children born
out of wedlock shall have equal rights
as children born in wedlock. Equal
rights to inheritance are not designed
to encourage childbearing out of wed-
lock. These children are only eligible
to inherit the personal property of their
biological father or mother of blood
kin.
Additionally, parents are able to
make arrangements for inheritance in
wills to avoid disputes between children
born in and out of wedlock. The Civil
Code also stipulates that biological par-
ents, legally married or not, are obliged
to raise minor children. Adult children
are obliged to support their biologic
parents who are unable to work or have
difficulties providing for themselves.
Those who choose to have babies have
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Review, CICG Americas
publishes China Hoy,
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launched in 1960, aiming to bridge the gap
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