Volume No.

186 February 2024

INTERNATIONAL
Henry Kissinger:
Can statesman’s legacy
guide future Sino-US ties?
ECONOMY
Sky’s the Limit:
Burgeoning market for
drone shows takes off

FACTORY RESET
Chinese manufacturers are going
global. How will supply chains
adjust to the new competition?

$4.99
EDITORIAL

China seeks balance between short-term stability and

long-term growth transition

C
Published by China Newsweek Corporation
Publisher: Chen Lujun
hina’s annual Central Economic It suggests that the government will adopt
Work Conference was held in a more expansionary fiscal policy in 2024.
Executive Director:
Chen Lujun
Beijing on December 11 and 12. Economists have long argued that China
Serving to set the priorities for should adopt a more aggressive fiscal policy Editor-in-Chief: Tan Hongwei
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Zheng Zhonghai
economic policy in the next year, this year’s to allow the budget deficit to exceed the
session was closely watched, cap of 3 percent of GDP to Editorial Office
Managing Editor: Li Jia
as a robust rebound in growth boost its economy. In a rare Deputy Managing Editor: Du Guodong
in China has significant im- As the meeting and unexpected move, the Copy Editors: Kathleen Naday, James Tiscione

plications for the rest of the central government issued Lead Writer: Yu Xiaodong

world.
recognized 1 trillion yuan (US$141b)
Senior Editors: Wang Yan,Yi Ziyi

that insufficient
Editors: Xie Ying, Xu Ming, Wu Jin
In analyzing China’s overall of additional treasury bonds Address: 5th Floor, 12 Baiwanzhuang South

economic outlook in 2024, effective demand in October to fund projects

Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, China
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the meeting assessed that is the first for natural disaster relief Tel: 86-10-88395566

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challenges including “lack of expansionary the general-purpose budget Art Department

effective demand, overcapac- deficit to a record-high 3.8 Art Director: Wu Shangwen

ity in some sectors, lackluster

fiscal policy should percent. In 2024, the budget
Art Editor/Designer: Zhang Dawei

social expectations, certain pay more attention deficit could reach about 3.5 Publishing and Development Office

risks and hidden problems, to boosting percent. In the past, expan-

bottlenecks in domestic cir-
culation, as well as the rising
complexity, severity and un-
certainty of the external en-
vironment,” according to the
conference’s official readout.
consumption sionary fiscal policy focused
on tax rebates or infrastruc-
ture construction. As the
meeting recognized that in-
sufficient effective demand
is the first problem now,
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promoting stability through progress,” in In the meantime, the meeting made it clear New York Office: Wang Fan, Liao Pan
its economic policy for 2024. This means that among the country’s top priorities in Washington Office: Chen Mengtong, Sha Hanting

the priorities for China’s economic agenda 2024 is to continuously prevent and defuse Los Angeles Office: Zhang Shuo
San Francisco Office: Liu Guanguan
are stability and striking a balance between risks in major areas, including the housing London Office: Ouyang Kaiyu
short-term stability and the long-term goal market, local government debt and small- and Tokyo Office: Zhu Chenxi
Paris Office: Li Yang
of transitioning the country’s growth model. medium-sized financial institutions. It urged Bangkok Office: Wang Guoan
The principle of “establishing the new before better coordination of economic and social Kuala Lumpur Office: Chen Yue
Moscow Office: Tian Bing
abolishing the old,” which is rarely seen in policies to help stabilize expectations, growth Manila Office: Zhang Xinglong
previous central economic work meetings, and employment, and called for enhanced Berlin Office: Ma Xiuxiu
indicates that stabilizing market expectations confidence in China’s economic recovery and Brussels Office: De Yongjian
Astana Office: Zhang Shuo
to avoid a downward spiral is prioritized over long-term positive outlook. Rio de Janeiro Office: Mo Chengxiong
structural reforms to address the long-term On December 13, the Asian Development Johannesburg Office: Wang Xi
Jakarta Office: Lin Yongchuan
problems of productivity. Bank revised its growth projection for China
Pledging to maintain “reasonable growth” up to 5.2 percent from 4.9 percent previously, Legal Advisor: Allen Wu

in both quality and quantity, the conference slightly above the 5 percent growth target set
ISSN 1943-1902 CN11-5826/G2
said that the country should “strengthen by the Chinese government for 2023.
counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjust- For 2024, China may still set its annual Subscription
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prudent monetary policy with strengthened stronger economic recovery while pushing
innovation and coordination of policy tools.” forward more measured structural reforms.

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

1
CONTENTS

Shipping Out
Facing trade tensions and post-pandemic stagnation, Chinese manufacturers
are moving operations overseas. NewsChina explores how strategic offshoring
could strengthen China’s market resilience and its global ambitions

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

2
 EDITORIAL
01 China seeks balance between short-term stability and
42 Increase in juvenile sexual
long-term growth transition assault sheds light on
POLITICS inadequate sex education
14 Anti-Corruption:
Ugly on the Inside
17 Highways:
For Whom the Toll Sells 46 Pioneering sexologist
COVER STORY looks back on decades of
20 Supply Chain: groundbreaking work
Offshore Bets/Global Uplink

INTERNATIONAL
32 Henry Kissinger:
End of An Era 50 International archaeologists
team up to uncover the
ECONOMY
35 Outdoor Wear: Silk Road’s lost civilizations
Top Gear
20 38 Drone Shows:
Stellar Performance

LIFE
42 Sex Education:
Teaching Consent

CULTURE
46 Profile:
Career Climax
50 Archaeology:
Sharing the Past

INTERVIEW 54
54 Wushu:
Fight for Recognition

HISTORY
57 Painting:
Amazing Graze

OUTSIDE IN
60 Leshan and Dazu:
Giants of the Past

ESSAY
62 Kindergarten Dad
63 Wedding Bills

04 SNAPSHOTS
08 MEDIA FOCUS
09 VERBATIM
10 NEWS BRIEF
12 NETIZEN WATCH
41 CHINA BY NUMBERS
64 GOOD TASTE/REAL CHINESE

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

3
 SNAPSHOTS

1. Tourists marvel at the splendid snow

scenes at the Palace Museum in the heart
of Beijing, December 13, 2023 (Photo
by VCG)

2. The summit of Mount Laojun, Luoyang,

Henan Province, is shrouded in clouds,
December 11, 2023 (Photo by VCG)

3. A cold-water swimmer braves the

freezing water, Shenyang, Liaoning
Province, November 27, 2023 (Photo
by VCG)

4. Red-crowned cranes raise their

necks as they stand among the snow-
covered reed beds of Zhalong Nature
Reserve, Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province,
December 8, 2023 (Photo by VCG)

5. Giant panda Menglan chills out in a

tree in the panda habitat at Beijing Zoo,
December 10, 2023 (Photo by IC)

1
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

4
2

4 5

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

5
SNAPSHOTS

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

6
 1. The Wooden Pagoda, first built in 852
and rebuilt several times since, glistens
under night lights in Zhangye, Gansu
Province, December 5, 2023 (Photo by
VCG)

2. Wedding guests feast at a long banquet

table, Tonglian Village, Rongshui Miao
Autonomous County, Liuzhou, Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, November
22, 2023 (Photo by VCG)

3. Thousands of pork legs preserved for

hams hang at Damuzhi Ham Food Co
Ltd, Yafan Town, Wucheng District, Jinhua,
Zhejiang Province, December 7, 2023.
Jinhua is known for its specialty hams,
which are air-dried according to a tradition
that has lasted for more than 1,000 years
(Photo by VCG)

4.The first bullet train from the foot of

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Lijiang,
a tourist city in Yunnan Province, sets out
for Shangri-La, a county-level city in the
province’s northwest, November 26, 2023.
The railroad section, which has taken nine
years to complete, is part of the Yunnan-
Tibet Railway that is still under construction
(Photo by VCG)

5. A gold animal statue is displayed at

Nanjing Museum, November 9, 2023.
Weighing 9.1 kilograms of 99-percent pure
gold, this Western Han Dynasty (202 BCE-
8CE) masterpiece is the heaviest gold relic
ever found in China (Photo by VCG)

2 3

4 5

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

7
MEDIAFOCUS
Low Price Approach Dominates Online Shopping Spree
NewsChina, Chinese Edition November 13, 2023
On November 11, 2023, during an
annual e-commerce shopping promo-
tion known as Double 11, major
online platforms including Taobao
& Tmall Group, JD.com and short-
video site Douyin engaged in a fierce
price war. First started by Taobao in
2009, the shopping spree has evolved.
Emerging competitors like Douyin, Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu alongside Tmall
and JD.com intensified the rivalry for contracted small and medium suppliers.
Their dynamic competition has impacted upstream manufacturers, compelling
them to enhance efficiency to cut costs. Experts predict that the ongoing price
wars, extending the effect of the Double 11 promotion, will prompt a new phase
of industrial upgrading with the improvement of products’ cost performances.
Meanwhile, in the catering industry, the price war acts as a double-edged sword,
with customers enjoying constant discount coupons from e-platforms, despite
thin profit margins for the restaurants involved.
Institutional Investors Disinterested in Unicorn Startups
CEIBS Business Review June 15, 2023
In 2022, unicorn companies, privately valued startups
exceeding US$1 billion, encountered challenges as global
institutional investors grew hesitant to finance them. Invest-
ment in emerging sci-tech firms in 2022 dropped by 35 percent
year-on-year, causing the growth of unicorn firms to more than
halve. Investment in startups in China plunged by 52 percent in 2022, which was
particularly bleak with only one, Horizon Robotics, financed above US$1 billion.
With their overestimated valuations and complex stock rights, Chinese unicorns
are difficult to sell, so they turn to IPOs instead. Amid staff downsizing, conglom-
erates like Tencent and Xiaomi face pressure to expand investments. Despite the
overall decline in investment, institutional investors remain active, shifting focus
from unicorns to smaller startups, maintaining extensive financing engagement.
Film and TV Industry Transforms in Post-pandemic Era
Yi Magazine November 26, 2023
After a three-year pandemic lockdown, China’s film and TV
industry has undergone a profound shift. In the past two years,
low-cost and realistic subjects with quality screenplays have won
the favor of investors concerned more about capital liquidity.
Major streaming platforms – iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video
– slashed production costs by cutting stars’ salaries or hiring emerging directors.
Social media hashtags have replaced extravagant stunts, renowned filmmakers
and star-studded casts. However, experts caution that an over-reliance on realistic
content may lead to audience fatigue, risking a loss of diversity. Audiences may
be disappointed if the short scenes and trailers promoted online do not reflect the
quality of the show or movie. Like US studio A24 that tailors content for different
audiences, Chinese filmmakers are producing cult movies for younger people.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
8
Hero Teacher of Poverty-
Stricken Girls in Yunnan
Global People
November 16, 2023
Zhang Guimei, the dedicated principal of
Huaping High School for Girls, a tuition-free
school open to impoverished girls in mountainous
Yunnan Province, has achieved a remarkable feat
by sending about 2,000 female students to college
and university over the past 15 years. The transfor-
mative journey began in 2011, when the school’s
inaugural cohort, many of whom might otherwise
have become junior high dropouts, secured admis-
sions to higher education institutions beyond the
challenging terrain of their homeland. Armed with
quality education, these students have gone on
to pursue careers as doctors, teachers and nurses,
breaking barriers and achieving aspirations previ-
ously deemed unimaginable for their local peers.
According to the northeast-born headmaster, who
is severely ill but still works from dawn to mid-
night, girls with expanded horizons can uplift their
families and future generations from impoverish-
ment. Zhang said she will never regret her deeds
even when death approaches. Now, her story has
been immortalized on the big screen.
Four Chinese Villages Added
to ‘Most Beautiful’ List
Fortune Life
December 1, 2023
Four more Chinese villages
– Huangling Village, Jiangxi
Province, Xiajiang Village, Zhe-
jiang Province, Zhagana Village, Gansu Province
and Zhujiawan Village, Shaanxi Province – were
announced as among the most attractive tourist
destinations at the global conference of World
Tourism Organization of the United Nations
(UNWTO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on
November 19, 2023. This brings the total count
of such villages in China to eight, tying with Peru
and Spain. The UNWTO anticipates that this
selection will play a crucial role in preserving
natural indigenous landscapes, cultures, customs
and cuisines. The criteria for selection encom-
pass local natural resources, cultural legacies,
security, healthcare, welfare and public facilities.
In China, the allure of an idyllic life in these vil-
lages has become a magnet for innovative young
people seeking a place to settle down.
 VERBATIM

“As the top three economies

of East Asia, the economies of
China, Japan and South Korea
make up nearly 90 percent of
the region’s total GDP. These
three countries are important
economic partners with deeply
integrated interests. It’s a
pity that they have not made
progress in cooperation over the past four years. All three
sides must rethink the original objective and mission of
their mutual cooperation and take specific measures to
bring it back on track.”
Xiang Haoyu, distinguished researcher at the Asia-Pacific
Research Center, China Institute of International Studies,
speaking with NewsChina’s Chinese edition about Foreign
Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with his Japanese and South
Korean counterparts in Busan, South Korea on November
16, 2023

“Despite the great achievements

in opening up conventional
financial fields, countries are
still exploring digital finance,
sustainable finance and green
finance. As some countries are
working on formulating relevant
institutions and standards, “Even though people can read a wide variety of things on their
China must join international
efforts and strive for more say in those fields.”
phones, [this content] is also a kind of literature, albeit on the
Tu Guangshao, executive chairman of the organizing short side. Every good play takes a good script and all good
committee of the Bund Summit and director-general of the storytelling takes language. So, literature is ubiquitous, and its
Shanghai Finance Institute, in an interview with Financial
News in late November 2023 importance is not weakened by the internet.”
Chinese author and 2012 Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan on literature
“Many people have confused in the age of smartphones in an interview with NewsChina’s Chinese
‘insufficient consumption’
with ‘low consumption rate.’
edition in late November 2023
The former leads to short-
term deficiencies, which can
be eased by countercyclical
adjustments, proactive fiscal
policies and expansionary “Hong Kong is undergoing a transition from governance to prosperity [following the 2019 protests],
monetary policies. However, but the problems related to land, housing, youth employment and development remain. If those
low consumption rate is caused by structural or
institutional problems which cannot be resolved through problems are not solved well, or they become more severe, even if school education is improved in
short-term fiscal or monetary policies. Instead, excessive terms of Chinese culture and history, from textbooks and teachers to curriculums and even public
stimulus policies may lead to more severe problems like
intertemporal disturbances.” opinion [about the Chinese mainland], it isn’t enough. National identity cannot exist without
Liu Yuanchun, president of the Shanghai University of economic and social foundations.”
Finance and Economics, at the 6th Hongqiao International Huang Ping, director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Research Center under the Chinese Academy
Economic Forum held in Shanghai in early November 2023 of Social Sciences, on fostering national identity among Hong Kong people in an interview with news portal
guancha.cn on November 24, 2023

“How far we open up depends
on how relaxed our inner
world is... When the outside
environment is relaxed,
internal roads widen. Few
people think about the
relationship between reform
and opening-up. These two
things are inseparable.
Previously, tensions in the external environment resulted in
people having fewer choices and becoming overcautious for
fear of being criticized for capitalism or revisionism. In other
words, it is impossible to make interior reforms without a
thaw in the relationship with the outside world.”
Sun Liping, a sociologist at Tsinghua University, on his
personal WeChat account on December 3, 2023
“Mini-app short-form content already started getting popular last year when the pandemic created a
void in the film and TV industry and demand for theatrical releases declined.”
Li Jin, producer of the web series Got Old Recently released on Tencent Video in December 2021, on the
increasing popularity of short-form content in an interview with news outlet The Paper in late November
2023
“The range of China’s inflation target is no more than 3 percent. The government will not feel anxious
if inflation falls below 3 percent. Also, the public believes that the lower the CPI the better, as prices
have dropped, consumers have benefited, and everyone is happy. But we should also pay attention
to the adverse impact that too low of an inflation rate can have on enterprise profits and employee
wages.”
Economist Yu Yongding suggesting that the government set a target inflation rate slightly higher than 3
percent during the economic slowdown in a recent article for guancha.cn

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

9
NEWSBRIEF

China Releases Policies to Expand Opening-up

China’s State Council on De-
cember 7 released a plan on high-
level institutional opening-up in the
Shanghai Free Trade Zone, propos-
ing to build Shanghai into a dem-
onstration area for national insti-
tutional opening-up and deepened
reforms.
The plan lists 80 measures cover-
ing seven areas, including promot-
ing high-level opening-up in finance
and telecommunications, facilitating
cargo trading across borders by sim-
plifying formalities, implementing a
set of high-standard rules for digital
trading and exploring data sharing
and opening-up, increasing protec-
tion of intellectual property, as well
as improving reforms in govern-
ment purchasing and State-owned
enterprises.
According to analysts, the plan
emphasizes high-level opening-up
that connects to international prac-
tices and combines opening-up with
deeper reforms.
The plan is seen as one of the
highlights of the government’s
recent policy packages for expand-
ing opening-up. Just a day after
the Shanghai plan, the State Ad-
ministration of Foreign Exchange
issued a document on further fa-
cilitating cross-border trading and
investment, which will expand pre-
vious facilitation measures in pilot
areas to other parts of the country,
with an emphasis on easing cross-
border financing and technological
innovations.
The same day, China’s Commerce
Minister Wang Wentao met with
his counterpart from Singapore and
signed an agreement on upgrading
the bilateral Free Trade Agreement
which adopts overall negative lists
in cross-border services trading, in-
vestment, telecommunications and
the digital economy, and increases
trade privileges.
Wang said that the new agreement
will urge the Chinese government to
make more efforts in institutional
reform and opening-up and will fur-
ther stimulate cooperation between
China and Singapore. It is a strong
response to what Chinese President
Xi Jinping said in a letter to the 6th
China International Import Expo
(CIIE) held in early November 2023
that China will firmly advance high-
standard opening up and continue
to make economic globalization
more open, inclusive, balanced and
beneficial to all.
From November 28 to December
2, 2023, Beijing hosted the first Chi-
na International Supply Chain Expo
(CISCE), which aims to increase
the connections between upstream
enterprises and downstream ones
worldwide. The expo attracted 53
Fortune 500 enterprises, 57 of Chi-
na’s top 500 enterprises and an array
of other leading private enterprises.
More than 200 deals and coopera-
tion agreements worth a total 150
billion yuan (US$20.9b) were inked
at CISCE.
Experts spoke highly of the expo’s
effect in promoting international co-
operation in supply chains.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
has also announced measures to
show China’s strong determination
to expand opening-up, announc-
ing in late November that China
will implement visa-free travel for
people from France, Italy, Germany,
the Netherlands, Spain and Malay-
sia that come to China for business,
tourism, visiting relatives or friends
or transit, for no more than 15 days.
The new policy is effective between
December 1, 2023 and November
30, 2024.
According to the Foreign Ministry,
in the first three days, over 7,000
foreigners applied for visa-free entry,
about 39 percent of the total pas-
sengers from the six countries who
entered China in those three days.

High-orbit Satellite Network Established

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
announced in late November 2023 that China has completed
the initial setup of a high-orbit satellite internet network that
covers the whole of China and key areas along the Belt and
Road Initiative.
Orbiting at 36,000 kilometers high, the satellites can cover a
vast area. The network can provide internet services to special
areas like marine, desert, forest and mountainous areas where
internet services are often obstructed by terrain, as well as important part of the construction of 6G networks to real-
industries such as aviation. ize seamless connections and the Internet of Things, media
China is using the space-land integrated network as an reported.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

10
 Auto Industry
Releases Low-carbon
Roadmap
The China Society of Automobile
Engineers in conjunction with
government agencies and corpora-
tions released the Roadmap V1.0
for the Low-carbon Emission De-
velopment of the Auto Industry on
December 7, 2023, which proposes
to reach peak carbon emissions by
2030.
The roadmap, which was worked
out under the guidance of China’s
Ministry of Industry and Informa-
tion Technology, for the first time
clarifies the scope for calculating
auto industry carbon emissions:
direct emissions from vehicles,
fuel consumed during manufactur-
ing, and indirect emissions from
consumed electric power and heat.
The roadmap proposes to keep
improving energy-saving technolo-
gies to reduce the consumption
of traditional fuel and continue
to promote key technologies for
new-energy autos, especially zero-
carbon fuel technology.
According to Li Jun, honored
chairman of the China Society of
Automobile Engineers, vehicles are
a major source of China’s carbon
emissions, taking up 8 percent of
its total and 80 percent of total
carbon emissions in the traffic field.
Fourth-generation
Nuclear Power
Station Goes Online
After 168 hours of continuous
operation, Huaneng Shidaowan
Nuclear Power Station in Weihai,
Shandong Province went online,
starting commercial operations
on December 6, 2023. It is the
world’s first fourth-generation
nuclear station and uses high
temperature gas-cooled reactor
(HTGR) technology.
Fourth generation reactors are
more efficient and safer. In the
event of a meltdown, they can
cool naturally without any inter-
ventions, according to Tsinghua
University, who along with the
State-owned utility Huaneng
Group and China National
Nuclear Corporation, started
developing the groundbreaking
reactor in 2012. With over 90
percent of parts domestically
developed and made, the power
station first generated power in
2021.
Zhang Zuoyi, dean of the
Tsinghua University Institute
of Nuclear and New Energy
Technology and chief designer of
the Shidaowan reactor project,
told media that the reactor will
help China and the world become
carbon neutral.
Temu Owner Pinduoduo Overtakes
Alibaba in Market Value
Following a 4 percent growth on the NASDAQ
on November 29, the market value of Pinduoduo,
China’s leading e-commerce platform for the first time
exceeded that of its biggest rival Alibaba.
According to media reports, Pinduoduo’s market
value reached a peak of US$192.2 billion in intra-day
trading, US$300 million more than that of Alibaba.
Analysts attributed Pinduoduo’s rise to the growth
in revenue on its blockbuster app Temu, a cross-border
e-commerce platform which launched in September
2022 and is now popular in 47 countries.
Pinduoduo provides producers with services related
to cross-border operations, storage and logistics. The
platform boosts visibility and offers financial support
to low-priced products. Domestically launched in
2015, Pinduoduo rapidly gained popularity with a wide
variety of cheap products. Although severely criticized
for rampant copycat and low-quality products at the
beginning, the platform soon managed to outperform
some of its rivals by its vast coverage of villages and
counties. Later it focused on improving services and
providing low-cost but high-quality products.
Pinduoduo’s Q3 fiscal reports showed that its
revenue was 68.8 billion yuan(US$9.6bn), a 93.9
percent growth year-on-year, with a net profit rate of
22.6 percent.

Foreign Ministry Releases Paper on Israel-Palestine Conflict

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
released a paper stating China’s position on
resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on
November 30, stressing that the fundamen-
tal way out of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
lies in a two-state solution and building
international consensus for peace.
The paper, cited by the State-run Xinhua
News Agency, calls for parties to the
conflict to truly implement the relevant UN
General Assembly and UN Security Coun-
cil resolutions, and immediately realize a
durable and sustained humanitarian truce.
The paper emphasizes the importance
of protecting civilians, and appeals to stop
violent attacks against civilians and viola-
tions of international humanitarian law. It
suggests the Security Council sends a clear
message on opposing the forced transfer
of the Palestinian civilian population and
calling for the release of all civilians and
hostages held captive.
The paper also urges the international
community to ensure and improve hu-
manitarian assistance to Gaza where the
military conflict has caused heavy civilian
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
casualties and a serious humanitarian
disaster..
The two-state solution is based on estab-
lishing an independent State of Palestine
that enjoys full sovereignty based on the
1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its
capital. To achieve this, the paper suggests
the UN should hold a “more broad-based,
authoritative and effective international
peace conference” as soon as possible
to “formulate a concrete timetable and
roadmap” for the two-state solution and
the solution to the question of Palestine.

11
NETIZENWATCH

The biopic Beyond the Clouds,

based on the inspiring story of
a rural educator, has generated
significant controversy online due
to its portrayal of its heroine and
other female characters.
Zhang Guimei, a 66-year-
old rural school principal, has
touched the hearts of millions
with her remarkable life story.
After her husband’s passing in
1996, Zhang moved to the small
town of Huaping in the remote
mountain area in Lijiang, Yunnan
Province. Since then, she has
dedicated herself to teaching
underprivileged children. In
2008, she founded the Huaping
High School for Girls, China’s
first tuition-free school of its
Biopic Blasted Over Adaptation, kind. Over the past 15 years, the
school has enabled about 2,000
Inaccurate Female Portrayals girls from impoverished families
to pursue higher education.
However, Beyond the Clouds has
Netizen Comments: faced significant backlash online
• Frankly speaking, the film distorts the image of a strong female warrior into that of a lovesick wife. The since its November 24 release.
screenwriters’ unimaginative and uninspired minds fail to understand the depths of this remarkable and noble Many criticized the film for its
spirit. inaccurate portrayal of Zhang and
• Essentially, this film changes a story about a Party member serving the people through her unwavering faith her female students.
into a conventional Western narrative where a traumatized individual saves herself. Two particularly contentions
• The film’s greatest flaw lies in the creators’ disbelief that idealists like Zhang Guimei exist. They don’t believe that points involve the gender swap of
her commitment as a Communist Party member serves as the primary driving force behind her accomplishments. an alcoholic and abusive father in
They’d rather believe that it’s her undying love for her husband that gives her the most strength. the story to a mother, and shift-
Source: Zhihu ing from Zhang’s unwavering
commitment to Party ideals to a
Expert Comments: focus on her love for her husband
China Movie Channel (under State broadcaster CCTV): Those who watched the film would clearly recognize that as the main source of her inner
it places little emphasis on male characters, instead devoting significant efforts to diverse and vibrant portrayals strength.
of female teachers and students. This approach by no means diminishes, isolates or belittles women. This film has The film’s screenwriter, Yuan
unfortunately been tarnished by malicious selective comments that deconstruct and stain a story that shines with Yuan, dismissed the accusations.
humanity.
She defended her decision to
Source: China Movie Channel official Weibo account
depict the alcoholic parent as a
Zhang Yiwu, professor of Chinese language and literature at Peking University: Biopics should strive to mother, arguing that it showcased
authentically portray figures, as Zhang is emblematic for the nation and her experiences are already deeply
“women helping women.” This
moving. While artistic embellishments are permissible, they should remain true to the core essence of the
character. However, irrational and excessive criticisms against the movie are not acceptable. response further fueled debate.
Source: Global Times In contrast to the heated com-
ments from netizens, media has
Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association: While not every viewer may accept this adaptation, we
still should defend the film creators’ freedom of expression. The film adopts a poetic approach to Zhang’s story, generally provided more mea-
partially because its directors – Zheng Dasheng and Yang Jin – are skilled arthouse filmmakers. This film explores sured feedback on the film. Many
an innovative combination of documentary and poetic expression. experts have praised the film’s
Source: a seminar held by the China Film Association in Beijing, November 28, 2023 quality and called for a more
rational approach to critiques
from the public.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

12
Hot Debate Erupts
Over Haidilao’s
Viral Dance Craze
A viral clip of a dancing waiter that
inspired a marketing strategy for China’s
largest hot pot restaurant chain has
stirred debate over worker’s rights.
The dance, known as “Subject 3” on
social media, draws from a folk dance
in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region that features lots of
knee swinging and hip twisting accom-
panied by a catchy mix of Western disco
and folk singing. In early November,
the waiter surnamed Pang performed
it to celebrate a customer’s birthday
at a Haidilao restaurant in Qingzhou,
Shandong Province. The posted video of
the tableside show quickly became an
internet sensation.
Recognizing a valuable opportunity,
management at over 1,400 Haidilao
branches started training their employ-
ees to perform the dance in order to
attract customers. Diners could request
servers to perform the dance whenever
they wanted. The strategy paid off, as the
dance has boosted business. Videos with
the hashtag “Haidilao Subject 3” had
garnered an impressive 1.8 billion views
on Douyin (China’s TikTok) as of De-
cember 1. Additionally, a young server at
a Haidilao restaurant in Dalian, Liaoning
Province, gained over 470,000 followers
on Douyin with his dancing videos.
Haidilao’s strategy has also attracted
criticism. Some customers complained
that the performances are too disruptive,
while others called them “cheesy and
vulgar.” Many netizens argued that Hai-
dilao requiring its employees to dance
infringes on their rights, as the majority
of its restaurants are reportedly not
paying them bonuses for their perfor-
mances. Many employees have com-
plained of exhaustion and some have
sustained ankle injuries from dancing
multiple times every day. In response,
some Haidilao restaurants have put a
stop to the dances, while others now
designate specific times and areas for the
performance.
INFLUENCER
Auntie Goose Legs
Chen Xiufeng, also known as “Auntie Goose Legs,” became a viral sensation in China
in late November after the 54-year-old food vendor gained immense popularly among
college students in Beijing for her sought-after snacks.
Since 2018, Chen has split her time selling roast goose legs outside Peking University
and the Renmin University of China. Every day, she roasts around 200 goose legs and
delivers them to students who had ordered via WeChat. In November 2023, Chen relo-
cated her stall from PKU to Tsinghua University. As PKU students mourned the loss of
their favorite goose legs, Tsinghua students eagerly welcomed Auntie’s arrival. Tsinghua
students helped her set up WeChat groups where customers could place orders. Word
spread among Beijing’s popular student area of Wudaokou. As a result, 20 WeChat
groups were created to order goose legs, which would sell out instantly. Students who
could not get a coveted goose leg expressed their disappointment through memes.
News of the competition for Auntie Goose Legs soon drew attention on social media.
The hashtag “Tsinghua vs PKU battle for Auntie Goose Legs” quickly shot to the top of
the Hot Search list on Weibo, attracting 170 million views. However, this sudden surge
in popularity has placed tremendous pressure on Chen. On November 29, she opened
an account on Douyin and posted
three short videos expressing her
frustration and anxiety. “I’m just
an ordinary person and I just want
to do my business in peace. But
now there’s too much attention
out there. Too many people.
It stresses me out. I’m afraid I
have to take a break for the time
being,” an emotional Chen said in
one of her posted videos.
Noise Over Taiwanese Rock Band’s Alleged Lip-
Syncing Continues
An influential Taiwanese rock band has recently faced controversy over allega-
tions of lip-syncing during their most recent Chinese mainland tour.
Making its debut in 1997, Mayday has a massive following in China. Known for
their upbeat rock anthems, tickets to their concerts often sell out within seconds.
The controversy began on November 30 when popular vlogger “Maitian Nongfu”
posted a clip on the video-sharing platform Bilibili, in which he scrutinizes the
audio from 12 songs Mayday performed in Shanghai on November 16.
He alleged that five of the songs were lip-synced, while one had a mix of live and
pre-recorded vocals. The accusation quickly went viral, making it the top trending
topic on Chinese social media in early December.
In response, the Shanghai Cultural and Tourism Bureau launched an investiga-
tion on December 4 to determine if lip-syncing had indeed occurred. On the same
day, Mayday’s management company, B’in Music, strongly denied the accusation in
a statement. The investigation is still ongoing as of December 10.
It’s important to note that in China, deceptive singing is strictly prohibited
at commercial concerts. Violators may face a maximum fine of 100,000 yuan
(US$14,000).
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
13
POLITICS
Anti-Corruption
Ugly on the Inside
After a number of officials were found guilty of accepting large bribes for costly cosmetic
services, experts are calling out the toxic culture within China’s officialdom that
excessively values appearance and beauty
By Tong Xizhong
D
espite being in her 50s,
public servant Liu Guang-
ming had gained a reputa-
tion for having “the best
butt in Anshan.”
Turns out it cost a fortune in public
funds, and the government was not will-
ing to turn the other cheek.
Liu, former director of the Anshan
city’s tax bureau in Liaoning Province,
vanished from the public eye in 2006
when she was detained on corruption
charges. She was reportedly sentenced
to 10 and a half years in prison. Media
reports revealed that Liu had embezzled
millions of yuan to finance a series of
plastic surgeries.
She then reportedly used her nipped-
and-tucked looks to “entice” higher-lev-
el officials, enabling her to carry out em-
bezzlement and other illegal practices,
according to court records.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
14
Though an older case, Liu’s name
resurfaced in media reports following
the release of a document by the Cen-
tral Commission for Discipline Inspec-
tion (CCDI) on November 16, 2023.
The document aims to rectify the toxic
culture prevalent among officials and
warned against their pursuit of ex-
travagant lifestyles, including excessive
spending on cosmetic procedures.
Just a month prior to the document’s

release, Chen Guifen, former vice-
chairman of the district-level Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Confer-
ence in Yanqing District, Beijing, was
investigated for accepting bribes. It was
reported that a significant portion of the
money she received was spent on plastic
surgery.
Experts warn that such procedures
have become a leading form of corrup-
tion that is affecting both female and
male officials.
Under the Surface
Media reported in 2022 that Liu
Guangming had undergone exten-
sive cosmetic surgery, from a nose job
and facelifts to buttock implants. The
constant stream of compliments she
received about her beauty helped her
overcome any fears she had about get-
ting on the operating table, she said.
Liu spent at least 5 million yuan
(US$700,000) on skincare treatments
in Hong Kong. Her buttock lift surgery
alone cost 500,000 yuan (US$69,917),
media reported.
Liu’s is not an isolated story. Xu
Ailian, the former mayor of Manzhouli,
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
who was investigated in June 2020 and
later sentenced to 11 years in prison,
was found to have accepted bribes and
covered up the activities of local crimi-
nal organizations. The Procuratorate Daily
newspaper revealed she had received
expensive cosmetic services paid for by
a company, including beauty injections
that cost 150,000 yuan (US$20,975)
each.
The same year, Shen Zhili, former
vice-president and standing member of
the Party commission of the North Chi-
na University of Technology in Beijing
also came under investigation. Media
revealed she regularly underwent plastic
surgery and beauty treatments. Records
show that she spent at least 4.5 million
yuan (US$600,000) on cosmetic servic-
es, with the largest transaction amount-
ing to 690,000 yuan (US$96,485).
Shen was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for taking bribes.
The CCDI’s website details several
cases of officials involved in corrup-
tion related to cosmetic services, with
amounts reaching in the millions of
yuan. In some cases, indulgence in cos-
metic procedures led to the downfall of
these officials.
For example, Cao Shujie, a former
official at the Ministry of Human Re-
sources and Social Security, came under
investigation after reports claimed that a
woman surnamed Du spent a significant
amount of public funds at a beauty salon
between 2007 and 2010. Investigators
confirmed that Du was Cao’s daughter.
In 2014, Cao was sentenced to 10
years in prison for corruption.
Similarly, Bai Hong, a former member
of the Party commission of the Beijing
health bureau, faced multiple accusa-
tions in 2011 of indulging in luxurious
beauty treatments at a beauty salon.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
15
An investigation revealed that Bai em-
bezzled 4 million yuan (US$560,000) in
public funds and spent it on 100 treat-
ments at the high-end beauty salon.
Bai was ultimately sentenced to 15
years in prison.
Male officials are not immune to
such corruption. Kong Xianghui, for-
mer vice chairman of the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Confer-
ence of Haixi, Qinghai Province, was
exposed for spending over 3 million
yuan (US$400,000) on cosmetic ser-
vices with his wife in Chengdu, Sichuan
Province and Shanghai. Mo Bin, former
director of the Party commission of a
district-level People’s Congress in Nan-
ning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region, was revealed to have accepted
high-end cosmetic services paid for by
local businesspeople.
Kong was sentenced to 13 years in
prison in 2023 for bribery, while Mo Bin
has been removed from his office and
expelled from the Party. His case is still
under investigation.
Psychologist Zhou Xu has analyzed
the possible causes of cosmetic service-
related corruption. “On one hand, the
power held by officials can amplify their
personal desires and drive them to sat-
isfy their basic instincts. On the other
hand, people in positions of power with
resources often prioritize their appear-
ance and hope to appear younger and
more energetic. They perceive it as a
means to increase their power and re-
sources,” Zhou told NewsChina.
Toxic Trend
Zhou’s analysis highlights Liu Guang-
ming’s case, where her obsession with
appearance and beauty contributed to
her rapid rise through the ranks.
“Objectively speaking, good looks can
boost confidence and attractiveness in
many professional settings, including
officialdom. As people age and their
beauty fades, many, including officials,
turn to cosmetic services to maintain
their appearance,” Zhou said.
POLITICS

Chen Guifen, former vice-
chairman of the People’s Political
Consultative Conference in
Yanqing District, Beijing, is
investigated in October 2023 for
accepting bribes with a significant
portion spent on multiple plastic
surgeries
Xu Ailian, former mayor of
Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, who was
investigated in June 2020 and later
sentenced to 11 years in prison,
was found to have accepted bribes
including beauty injections that
cost 150,000 yuan (US$20,975)
each, as well as covering up
the activities of local criminal
organizations
Shen Zhili, former vice-president
and standing member of the
Party commission of the North
China University of Technology
in Beijing, came under
investigation in 2020 for alleged
corruption. She is reported to
have spent at least 4.5 million
yuan (US$600,000) on cosmetic
services
Liu Guangming, former director
of the taxation bureau in Anshan,
Liaoning Province, was detained
in 2006 and sentenced to 10 and
a half years in prison on corruption
charges. She reportedly embezzled
millions of yuan to finance a series of
plastic surgeries

In April 2019, a court verdict shed
more light on this specific brand of cor-
ruption. The case involved Zhang Hon-
ghong, a former official at the Ministry
of Natural Resources, who embezzled
public funds to indulge in expensive
cosmetic services, including hormone
therapy and detox regimens in Thai-
land that cost more than 1 million yuan
(US$140,000). In China, Zhang under-
went “vaginal rejuvenation” that cost
more than 520,000 yuan (US$72,714),
skin treatments that cost nearly 150,000
yuan (US$20,975) and other beauty ser-
vices. According to the verdict, Zhang
was found to have embezzled over
10 million yuan (US$1.4m) in public
funds.
Another case involved Ji Rongjuan, a
former official with the Hunan provin-
cial government stationed in Shenzhen
who had a penchant for massages. Ac-
cording to the 2018 verdict, she spent
thousands of yuan at different massage
parlors in Shenzhen and also underwent
several facial cosmetic surgeries.
In some instances, bribes accepted
by male officials were directed toward
their wives. For example, Hu Ran, wife
of Wen Shuzhong, former director of a
district-level public security branch in
Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, spent more
than 670,000 yuan (US$93,689) on a
single treatment at a local salon, accord-
ing to the CCDI website.
“She got plastic surgery on nearly ev-
ery body part you could, from head to
toe,” a salon employee told media.
Wen was removed from his post and
put under investigation in 2020. Media
reported that the list of bribes he had
taken was 10 pages long.
Bad Look
Experts acknowledge that corruption
involving cosmetic services has become
a concerning trend.
“The CCDI does not oppose cosmetic
services. It’s fine for officials to enjoy
these services with their own money.
The key issue lies in whether the money
they use is legally obtained,” said a
professor at the National Academy of
Governance who spoke with NewsChina
on condition of anonymity, adding these
transactions are more difficult for inves-
tigators to track.
“Thanks to alternative payment
methods like gift cards, many cosmetic
services are hard to detect,” Peng Xinlin,
a law professor at Beijing Normal Uni-
versity, told NewsChina.
“Such corruption is like water. If we
fail to curb it, it may lead to a flood,”
Wei Changdong, a standing council
member of the China Against Corrup-
tion Law Association and professor at
the East China University of Political
Science and Law said.
He views this an escalation from
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
earlier forms of corruption. “Early cor-
ruption often revolved around desires
for good food. It was a desire based in
physical need. But the current pursuit
of cosmetic services represents a desire
for a luxurious and extravagant life,” he
told NewsChina.
“Corrupt officials, especially female
ones, care more about their appear-
ance and what beauty can bring them.
This incentivizes their subordinates and
stakeholders to go to great lengths to
satisfy that need, leading to more ram-
pant cosmetic service-related corrup-
tion,” Zhao Chi, a council member of
the Chinese Society of Criminology and
a professor at Changzhou University,
told NewsChina.
Experts suggest that rectifying the ex-
cessive focus on appearance and beauty
within officialdom is crucial to combat-
ing such corruption.
“This bad atmosphere should be
cracked down on in step with corrup-
tion to prevent it from leading to more
corruption,” Peng said.
Encouraging the right aesthetic val-
ues in officialdom is essential, as it helps
prevent corruption and ensures officials
are evaluated based on their true merit.
“An official’s image should be based
on their dedication to work and serv-
ing the people. The people’s comments
create the best image,” the anonymous
professor said.

16
 Highways
For Whom the Toll Sells
For decades, China’s extensive network of highways has largely remained toll-free.
However, local governments are pushing harder than ever before for tolls to help
cover costs and pull them out of debt
By Chen Weishan
T
he impending opening of a
toll highway in East China’s
Jiangsu Province has stirred
new doubts over the central
government’s decades-long attempts to
create a free highway network through-
out the country.
The charges approved for the stretch
of national highway 205 (G205) be-
tween the cities of Suqian and Huai’an
range between 10 and 50 yuan (US$1.4-
7) depending on the type of vehicle,
Jiangsu government stated on October
20.
Suqian has a population of nearly 5
million, while Huai’an has just over 4.6
million residents, according to official
data. The distance between the two cit-
ies is about 95 kilometers.
While it may not be the first, as more
than 10 highway sections across China
have introduced toll stations since 2021,
the Su-Huai highway is not likely to be
the last, chengdu.cn reported on No-
vember 7, 2023.
Just six days later, Shanxi Province
announced a new toll station at the
junction of highways G241 and G336.
The toll station covers the route from
Yangfangkou through Shuozhou to Pin-
glu, with fixed charges ranging from 10
to 70 yuan (US$1.4-9.8) over a period
of 28 years.
On November 22, Shanxi govern-
ment granted permission for another
toll station at Lüliang New Area along
G209. The charges will be in place for
30 years.
These new approved toll charges,
which have the potential to disrupt the
envisioned nationwide toll-free highway
network, have sparked controversy. The
Ministry of Transport (MOT) stated
that the charges are within the bounds
of current rules and regulations, which
allow local authorities to implement
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
17
tolls without approval from the central
government.
While authorities argued that tolls
generate revenue for local governments
burdened with debt created from road
construction during economic down-
turns, the decisions prompted outcry
over concerns that tolls will increase
transport costs and dampen the coun-
try’s overall economic recovery.
Moreover, this has put the central
government in a tight spot, as local debt
is a mounting concern for China.
Outstanding local government debt
in 2022 was 35.1 trillion (US$4.9t), a
growth of 15.1 percent year-on-year,
the Ministry of Finance (MOF) revealed
on December 5. In 2021, the growth
rate was nearly 18.7 percent. Accord-
ing to the ministry, the central govern-
ment has tightened control over local
government debt, requiring stringent
supervision and auditing to prevent it
POLITICS
from threatening the country’s financial
stability or further building-up.
Cost of Charging
The Su-Huai highway toll received
approval from Jiangsu Provincial De-
velopment and Reform Commission
in 2018. Shuyang County paid around
68.65 million yuan (US$9.61m) for the
toll station, which is expected to pay
off the county’s nearly 1 billion yuan
(US$140m) debt in government loans
for road construction.
The section is not the only toll on
the G205 highway, which runs from
Shanhaiguan, on the East China coast
in Hebei Province to Shenzhen, Guang-
dong Province, on the border with Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region.
About 93 kilometers north of the Su-
Huai Section, the Xinyi toll in Xuzhou,
Jiangsu Province was supposed to have
stopped charging in 1998.
After a costly renovation project, the
toll was extended for an additional 16
years to 2014. However, the section
still has not ceased charging. As of July
2023, it accepts digital payment.
“Highway tolls can be utilized to
upgrade the quality of transportation
infrastructure and ease pressure on lo-
cal governments for debt repayment,”
Jiangsu Provincial Development and
Reform Commission said in a 2018
document.
China’s highways have four classes.
Class I are two-way multi-lane roads
with an average capacity of 15,000 to
30,000 vehicles per day. Class II are two-
lane roads with a daily use averaging
between 3,000 and 7,500 vehicles. Class
III and IV are county and village routes.
These highways differ from China’s
expressway system, which is extensively
tolled.
According to toll regulations imple-
mented in 2004, Class I highways can
set up toll booths with a minimum
distance of 50 kilometers between
them. However, tolls are not permitted
on other highway classes, except for
those designated by the central govern-
ment in China’s less-developed central
and western regions.
As of 2022, Jiangsu had 16 sections of
national and provincial highways with
tolls. However, Jiangsu is not the only
province experiencing a surge in toll sta-
tions on its Class I highways.
Two toll stations installed along a
Class I highway in Jingmen, Hubei Prov-
ince increased the city’s toll revenue by
over 47 percent from 58.7 million yuan
(US$8.22m) in 2021 to nearly 111 mil-
lion yuan (US$15.54m) in 2022.
Pros and Cons
According to the 2004 regulations, lo-
cal governments above the county level
have the right to charge for the use of
Class I and II highways to repay debt or
for “profit-driven operations.”
But in 2018, based on years of public
opinion surveys, the transport ministry
drafted an amendment that would ban
tolls on all new highways, viaducts and
tunnels.
The draft also restricted provinces
from building new toll roads if they are
unable to pay off the debt or afford their
maintenance.
But from 2021 to 2023, the amend-
ment was absent from the central gov-
ernment’s annual legislative agenda,
allowing authorities to continue going
into debt to construct roads and repay
it through tolls.
Despite this, the number of highway
tolls has decreased over the past few
decades.
In February 2009, a scheme was imple-
mented to gradually reduce tolls on Class
II highways through collaborative efforts
from the National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC), the trans-
port ministry and the MOF.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
18
The plan included denying approval
for new Class II toll highway projects in
certain regions and setting clear time-
lines to terminate tolls on secondary
roads. As a result, from 2009 to 2012,
Class II highway tolls in eastern and
some central areas were revoked, result-
ing in a 60 percent reduction in tolls
overall. However, provincial govern-
ments in western China still have the
power to decide whether to toll.
During the first decade of China’s
reform and opening-up, there was a
slogan around the country saying that
“road construction leads to lives of af-
fluence.” Road construction surged over
the next decades, stretching from less
than 900,000 kilometers of highways
in 1978 to 4.77 million kilometers in
2018. During that time, China also built
136,000 kilometers of expressways,
the Xinhua News Agency reported on
November 17, 2018.
However, new roads are costly. By
2019, cumulative investment in toll
roads reached nearly 10 trillion yuan
(US$1.4t), with around 70 percent built
with loans from banks, Zhong Ninghua,
a professor of economics and finance at
Shanghai’s Tongji University, told South-
ern Weekend on August 29, 2021.
According to Zhong’s research into
local debt, local government bonds for
special purpose projects, mainly for des-
ignated economic and social infrastruc-
ture projects, issued from 2015 to 2020
reached 12.9 trillion yuan (US$1.81t),
with an average growth of 30 percent
year-on-year. In 2020, around 18 percent
of these project bonds were allocated to
transport infrastructure, 40 percent of
which were used for building toll roads.
The risk is that the average payoff term
for the transport project bonds was 14.5
years, much longer than the average
term for project bonds, Zhong warned.
Despite the substantial debt that
may hinder the toll-free policy, the
 However, by the end of 2008, the
State Council initiated a reform to
gradually replace tolls on Class II roads
with annual subsidies of 26 billion
yuan (US$3.64b) funded by a fuel tax.
This change was intended to reduce
the burden on drivers and encourage
local governments to provide toll-free
roads.
In 2022, China’s national consump-
tion tax generated 1.6 trillion yuan
(US$220b), surpassing the central gov-
Pictured is the toll for the Su-Huai highway between the cities of Suqian and Huai’an, Jiangsu Province. ernment’s budget forecast by 111.6 per-
The stretch of National Highway 205 was approved to become a toll road on October 20, 2023 cent. The surplus was attributed largely
(Screenshot)
to increased levies on petroleum and
tobacco, according to the annual budget
report released by the State Council on
China's local government special debts for economic and social June 26.
facilitiesand national investment on non-expressway roads(US$trn) “Highways should not be defined as
Source: Ministry of Finance of China, Ministry of Transport of China publicly invested assets that solely rely
3.0 2.88
on government funding. Actually, fund-
ing sources for road construction could
2.5 2.33 be diverse, and charges could vary ac-
China's local
government special cordingly,” Wen Laicheng, a professor of
debts for economic
2.0 Beijing’s Central University of Finance
1.8
and Economics, told NewsChina.
“However, if funds come from bank
1.5 1.31 loans or non-public funded investments,
1.03 including PPP (public-private-partner-
1.0 ship) projects with low-risk guarantees
social facilitiesand
national investment on from the government, tolls may be in-
non-expressway roads
0.5 evitable,” Wen said, adding that most
0.20 0.13 0.15 0.14 0.15 PPP projects only involve expressways.
Concerns about highway tolls have
0.0
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 grown among the general public.
For years, residents from Shuangzhao
and Qian counties in Xianyang, Shaanxi
Province expressed their dissatisfaction
State Council, China’s cabinet, issued a Navigating Alternatives with two toll stations along the G312.
circular in September 2016, urging the According to former transport minis- Many complained that over the past
transport ministry, NDRC and MOF to try spokesperson He Jianzhong, 95 per- 20 years, the tolls had increased trans-
work together to gradually terminate cent of expressways, 61 percent of Class portation costs and hindered local eco-
Class II highway tolls to reduce national I highways and 42 percent of Class II nomic development.
logistics costs. highways had tolls as of 2009. “To circumvent the charges, many
Zhong also emphasized that efficient “In the coming years, road tolls will drivers, including our fellow villagers,
use of roads is more crucial for sustain- remain indispensable to raise funds for choose to drive around the tolls,” a local
able development than merely exacting the construction of transport facilities,” resident told media. The two stations
tolls. He said during a 2009 press conference. were finally closed in November.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

19
COVER STORY

SHIFT CHANGES
China aims to reposition itself in the global value chain. While
diversification poses challenges, the country must embrace self-
reliance and upgrade if it is to expand its international presence

An industrial park, Bac Giang Province,

Vietnam, June 17, 2023 (Photo by VCG)

NEWSCHINA
NE
EWSCHIN
SCH I February
Feb
Fe
ebrru
uary 2024

20
 The first Hanoi-bound
cargo train departs from
Shijiazhuang, Hebei
Province, July 24, 2023
(Photo by VCG))

Workers arrive at PT.Indonesia Morowali

Industrial Park (IMIP) for a shift change,
Morowali, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia,
August 2, 2023. (Photo by VCG)

Workers sew garments at

Maxport Limited, a Hanoi-
based manufacturer of
products for international
brands like Nike and
Lululemon, September 21,
2021 (Photo by VCG))

PT. Indonesia Morowali Industrial

Park, a joint investment of Chinese
and Indonesian companies, Morowali,
Central Sulawesi, Indonesia (Photo by
VCG))

NEWSCHINA
NEW
EWSCH
WSCH NA
N I February
F bruar
Feb uary 2024
2

21
2
COVER STORY
Supply Chain
Offshore Bets
As export-oriented Chinese manufacturers offshore production in response
to tariff regimes, experts see deeper integration of regional and global supply
chains
By Xu Ming
J
in Gang, a plastics manufacturer in
Zhejiang Province, never thought
of building a plant overseas until
it became harder to export his
goods. But after struggling for two
years with mounting pressure from his
US clients, at the end of 2022 he de-
cided to move part of his operation to
Vietnam. The clients no longer wanted
to buy direct from China. Some cut
orders by 50 percent, Jin said. “We had
no choice,” Jin, who has been exporting
for 20 years, told NewsChina.
Jin is among the many Chinese
export-oriented small- and medium-
sized manufacturers to offshore partly
or wholly to Southeast Asian and other
countries to save their businesses. They
were the first to suffer after Sino-US
trade tensions developed in 2018,
which were then exacerbated by years
of Covid lockdowns after 2020.
Many companies relocated due to
client pressure. When multinational
giants like Apple diversify operations
to countries like Vietnam and India,
contractors like Foxconn, Wistron and
Luxshare follow. The countless suppli-
ers that depend on these contractors
have to move as well.
You must adapt to survive, several
companies NewsChina interviewed said.
Offshoring, though a passive and an
individual choice at first, is becoming
an important driving force for economic
integration in Asia and enhancing
China’s position in the regional indus-
trial chain, noted Chai Haitao, a former
Ministry of Commerce official and now
senior researcher with Beijing-based
think tank Center for China & Global-
ization (CCG).
Way Out
Increased tariffs, political bias
against Chinese-made products and the
three-year Covid lockdown, all of which
impacted global trade, are commonly
cited as the main reasons behind the
shift.
Jin Gang’s plastics enterprise, with
an annual output value of 200 million
yuan (US$28m), is a market leader
in Zhejiang Province. Their products
are used in everything from cups and
screens to cellphones and computers.
His business is entirely export-oriented.
He started to feel the chill about two
years ago. Some US clients put pressure
on him to open factories in Vietnam or
risk losing orders. “That’s the only way
out for us as our domestic business was
zero. As a medium-sized business, we
couldn’t have continued without orders
from abroad,” Zhao said.
Jin spent about 5 million yuan
(US$697,730) to build a plant in Ho
Chi Minh City at the end of 2022. They
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
22
are still moving materials and equip-
ment. “The clients have confidence in
us now after seeing we have a factory
there and they promised to give us new
orders,” Jin said. The Vietnam facility
now accounts for about 20 percent
of his company’s total capacity and
provides 20 local jobs.
Zhu Xingbing, manager of Bonsen,
an office and household supplies manu-
facturer based in Dongguan, Guang-
dong Province, told NewsChina they
went to Vietnam before the additional
tariffs were levied in 2018.
“At that time there were already
increased duties for some household
products. We bet our products would
be put on the list soon,” Zhu said. The
company, which mainly exports to
Europe and the US, built a factory in
2018 in Hai Duong, Vietnam, becom-
ing the first in the industry to manufac-
ture products abroad. It also serves as
an OEM and ODM factory for Chinese
companies back home.
“If the products are made in China,
they [European and US clients] simply
ignore your talk about orders. It’s not
about the prices or tariffs. There’s
prejudice against Chinese-made prod-
ucts,” Zhu said.
“Our clients were told they would be
dropped once alternative suppliers were
found in Southeast Asia. American

Top: Workers changing shift wait in traffic near PT.Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, Morowali, Central
Sulawesi, Indonesia, August 2, 2023 (Photo by VCG))
Bottom: Vietnamese workers on a production line at a Bonsen factory, Hai Duong, Vietnam, December
2023 (Photo Courtesy of Zhu Xingbing)
companies that have close links with
the government or involve government
purchasing are particularly clear about
that,” said Wang Li, CEO of 1Station
Vietnam Co, Ltd, a consulting and
information platform based in Hanoi.
“Many companies rely on clients
in Europe and the US. If they didn’t
relocate, they would have to shut
down,” said Zhao Bin, president of the
Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Park
in eastern Thailand, which was built in
2006 and is home to over 200 Chinese
companies.
Migration Season
Zhou Heng, manager of Dinghua
Consulting Company based in
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
23
Vietnam, has helped 80 companies of
all sizes relocate to Vietnam. He told
NewsChina the number of companies
coming to Vietnam to research loca-
tions surged in 2023 after Covid travel
restrictions were lifted. In the first half
of 2023, he was seeing 20 clients a
month. Eight percent of his total clients
eventually decided to open a branch in
Vietnam.
“In previous years, it was only 3 per-
cent,” said Zhou. “It’s a big proportion,
considering that many people like me
are doing this business here.”
Zhou told NewsChina that his busi-
ness first surged in 2019, before the
Covid-19 outbreak. In the second half
of 2021, companies started the process
again. “Many companies just moved a
small part of their production to test
the waters,” said Zhou, who started the
business in 2017.
After the Sino-US trade conflict
began, many electronics companies,
particularly from Guangdong Prov-
ince, and their suppliers shifted some
production to Vietnam, Zhou said. In
recent years, more and more companies
from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces
followed.
As of August 2023, more than 40
listed Chinese companies based in
Shenzhen, Guangdong Province had
invested in Vietnam, according to a
survey by Wang Li’s company. He
estimated there were around 300 listed
Chinese companies in Vietnam by
COVER STORY

China’s export and import with the top three trading partners（US$bn）
December 2023, as well as countless Source: General Administration of Customs of China
SMEs. In the first seven months of 1000
The EU 975.3
2023, China ranked third in registered ASEAN
investment, with over US$2.33 billion The US 847.3
invested in Vietnam, accounting for 800
14.4 percent of the total and rising 705.3 684.6
77.8 percent year-on-year, according 759.4
to Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and 649.5 567.4
600 641.5
Investment. 586.7
Besides Vietnam, which has become 541.4 535.1
a top investment destination for 488.3
400
Chinese companies for its advantages
in transportation and tariffs, as well as
preferential tax policies, countries like
200
Thailand, Indonesia and Mexico, one
of the US’s top three trading partners
along with Canada and China, are
attracting more and more Chinese 0
2019 2020 2021 2022
manufacturers.
Zhao Bin noticed an obvious increase
in the number of companies in his
industrial park in Thailand in the
first half of 2023. He puts it down
to delayed relocations due to Covid
restrictions, and because companies in
Europe and the US want to enhance
supply chain resilience and security.
Yet, according to a first-quarter
outlook report released by HSBC in
January 2023, the increased tariffs on
Chinese-made products are pushing
production to other Asian countries –
friendshoring – instead of onshoring to
the US.

Giants’ Steps
“Before the trade conflict, the reloca-
tion was sporadic, involving only a few
industries. Now it has expanded to
more and more industries,” Wang Li
said.
Companies in low-end industries like Left: Cambodian workers leave for the day, Sihanoukville Special Economy Zone, a landmark project of
clothing, toys, textiles and plastics were the Belt and Road Initiative, Cambodia, May 2023 (Photos by VCG)
the first to arrive in Vietnam in the Right: Pictured is Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Park located 115 kilometers outside Bangkok, Thailand,
early 2000s. Industries like electronics, April 2019 (Photos by VCG)

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

24
electromechanical equipment, electric
tools, electrical vehicles and photo-
voltaics (PV) followed, Zhou said. For
example, there are 171 Chinese funded
projects in Bac Giang Province, 50
kilometers away from Hanoi, including
PV production lines, making China the
largest source of foreign direct invest-
ment in the province, according to the
Party newspaper People’s Daily.
Zhou noticed an increase in the
number of upstream manufacturers as
place of origin rules for raw materials
have grown stricter in certain industries
in some Asian countries.
“In the PV industry, more and
more companies began expanding
production of raw materials, including
silicon wafers in Vietnam, to comply
with US Commerce Department
requirements,” Wang Li said.
In August 2023, the US finalized a
decision to impose import duties on
solar panel products manufactured
by Chinese companies in Thailand,
Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. But
it will not take effect until June 2024
to give more time to domestic manu-
facturers to ramp up. Companies will
have to produce wafers and other key
components outside China to prove
they are not circumventing tariffs.
“This has directly caused a surge in
raw material production in those Asian
countries. Some Chinese companies
even built plants in the US to play it
safe,” Wang said.
In recent years, many Chinese fur-
niture makers established factories in
Mexico after the US levied extra tariffs
on China-made household products in
2019. The relocated capacity is also get-
ting increasingly higher-end. Chinese
companies in the Thai-Chinese Rayong
Industrial Park mainly manufactured
auto and motorcycle parts at first.
Now emerging industries such as new
energy and electronic components have
arrived, Zhao said. Chinese investment
in high-tech, information and telecom-
munication, new energy and e-com-
merce is rising significantly in Vietnam,
the People’s Daily report says.
Many go in step with international
giants at the top of the value chain. By
2022, 30 of Samsung’s core suppliers,
including Shenzhen-headquartered
AAC Technologies and Dongguan-
based Goertek, had established
factories in Vietnam. Below these big
suppliers are a large number of SMEs
who rely on these big companies. It
is the same with the relocation of
Foxconn, Apple’s biggest supplier, to
India and Vietnam.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
25
Deja Vu?
“This kind of shift happens every
few decades, which is inevitable,” Chai
Haitao told NewsChina. “China’s global
network production will gradually
surpass its GDP, as with developed
countries.”
After World War II, international
companies started the globalization
process to optimize efficiency and
profit. This caused three big-scale
labor-intensive industrial transfers –
first from the US to Japan and Germany
in the 1950s and 1960s, then from
Japan to Asian developing economies
between the 1970s and 1990s, then
from developed countries to China
since the 1980s. “The last transfer
lasted for over 30 years and allowed
China to build up its status as a global
manufacturing power,” Chai said.
“This type of shift is symbolic of eco-
nomic globalization. Labor, land cost,
infrastructure and industry type affect
the direction of the transfer,” Chai said.
At the end of 2021, the total volume
of foreign direct investment from Chi-
nese companies totaled over US$2.7
trillion, surpassing the foreign invest-
ment China attracted, which amounted
to US$2.6 trillion, according to the
National Development and Reform
Commission.
“It’s a result of China’s deepening
cross-border resource allocation and
integration into the global economy,”
Chai said.
He admitted that non-economic
factors, such as Sino-US relations, have
forced their hand. “Some companies
might not have planned to invest
overseas in the short term. But they’ve
had to speed up,” he noted.
But he believes the current relo-
cations are “healthy.” “There’s no
COVER STORY

large-scale transfer of supply chains

away from China. Businesses offshor-
ing are concentrated in the final as-
sembly link. It’s hard to move links that
involve many supporting industries,”
Chai said.
Even the low-technology clothing
industry involves hundreds of moving
parts. “In China one could source the
required items from within 100 kilome-
ters. But it’s hard for other countries.
Such industrial concentrations take a
long time,” Chai said.
But there are inevitable convulsions.
Zhang Qiang, a factory worker in Kun-
shan, Jiangsu Province, said he has not
had any weekend shifts since the start
of 2023. In 2022, his company, a small
link in the Apple chain, began to move
production to Vietnam. His hourly
wage, which is linked to the amount of
Top left: Job seekers check posted want ads, Jiangsu Province, July 2023 (Photo by Xu Ming)
orders, has dwindled. He had to take
on other jobs, like express delivery on Top right: Workers take a shuttle bus to Luxshare, a supplier of Apple, Kunshan, Jiangsu Province,
July 2023 (Photo by Xu Ming)
weekends, to keep his salary at the
same level. Bottom: Pictured is a Foxconn factory, Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, July 2023 (Photo by Xu Ming)
“Some factories prefer hiring
temporary workers who they can fire
at a lower cost when orders are slack,”
Zhang told NewsChina. industries, they have to transport particularly as startup costs include
everything from China, which increases buying land, facilities and transport-
Twists and Turns costs and reduces efficiency. ing equipment. Latecomers found the
Chai believes it is important for “Usually, it takes 40 days to finish an costs are even higher. “In 2018, one
SMEs to move offshore. He believes order at home, but in Vietnam it takes mu (667 square meters) of industrial
they can help complete China’s supply 80 or even 90 days,” said Jin Gang. park land cost around 200,000 yuan
chain overseas, connecting the domes- “The clients are not satisfied either (US$28,082). The price quadrupled
tic and overseas markets. way.” this year,” said Zhou Heng, manager
“If Chinese companies go out and His products involve dozens of pro- of Dinghua Consulting Company in
get embedded into every corner of the cedures, and it is not realistic to move Vietnam. There is a shortage of factory
world, it will be impossible to exclude them all to Vietnam, as they are short facilities to rent.
China [from the core global value of skilled technicians, and efficiency Jin Gang said some of his friends in
chain],” Zhu Xingbing said. tends to be lower at the beginning. the industry who went to Vietnam two
But it is not easy. Plastics manufac- Even though Vietnam is associated years ago have since returned. “Some of
turer Jin Gang told NewsChina that as with low costs, Wang revealed pro- the promised orders didn’t materialize.
Vietnam lacks equipment and support duction costs can actually be higher, They had problems finding suppliers
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

26
and managing local employees due to
language and cultural barriers,” he said.
But what he worries about most
is policy uncertainty. He feels Viet-
nam plans to tighten requirements
for foreign investment. “I originally
planned only on assembling there as a
stopgap. But we can see there will likely
be increasing requirements over the
localization of raw materials and work-
ers. I’m considering the ramifications,”
Jin Gang said.
He revealed that he plans to focus
more on cultivating the domestic
market, so they can withdraw one day if
it becomes necessary.
Consultant Zhou Heng acknowl-
edged it is hard in the early stages,
particularly for those without overseas
experience. “It’ll take a couple of years
for them to get used to local policies
and culture. But as long as they have
orders, things will get better,” Zhou
said. Some of his clients that came in
2018 developed quickly in Vietnam.
“Now they’re investing in South
America and Eastern Europe.”
Zhu Xingbing, whose company was
the first to manufacture paper shred-
ders in Vietnam, told NewsChina their
exports to the US doubled or even
tripled in the past two years.
In 2020, challenges rose as orders
surged. The company struggled with
the 800-strong Vietnamese workforce
when Chinese managers could not
leave China due to the Covid lockdown.
“It isn’t cheaper than manufacturing
in China and managing local workers
is challenging,” Zhu said. However, he
is happy to see his local employees are
becoming more professional. “They’re
very young and they keep growing and
they are cooperative. I feel a sense of
achievement seeing their growth. It’s a
win-win situation,” Zhu said.
He sees it is a good opportunity, for
companies and for China. “If Chinese
companies don’t relocate, and instead
companies from other countries come
to Vietnam and build the supply chain,
we’ll just die at home. Now we’re
building the chain overseas and pur-
chasing parts from China, so we’re still
supporting domestic industries.”
Upstream Supplier
The HSBC report published in Janu-
ary 2023 shows that emerging markets,
particularly in Asia, are rising in the
share of export destinations for China.
Their imports of intermediate goods
from China have been climbing since
2008, accounting for nearly 20 percent
of their total intermediate goods
imports in 2021. In Vietnam and South
Korea, the share reached about one-
third. Bilateral trade between China
and ASEAN members has surpassed
that between China and Europe and
the US since 2020, Chinese data shows.
Even though many companies manu-
facture overseas, they still have to buy a
large proportion of raw materials, parts
and equipment from China.
The HSBC report said that global
manufacturing continues to shift
eastward. The market share of South-
east Asian countries in labor-intensive
products is expanding, while China is
becoming a supply center for higher-
value parts.
Chai believes that in the long run,
offshoring will help enhance China’s
cooperation with other Asian countries
and regional economic integration,
as well as with domestic indus-
trial upgrading. “It will strengthen
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
27
the cohesiveness of the supply chain
in Asia as a whole and consolidate its
important position in the chain. In the
future, it might be time for ‘made in
Asia,’” he said.
He added that it is especially so since
the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership), the world’s
largest free trade agreement, took effect
for all 15 members in June 2023. “It
greatly facilitates cross-border trade and
mutual investment within the region.
China will be more closely linked with
other countries in the supply chain,”
Chai said.
In practice, companies should pay
greater attention to risks and adher-
ing to international trade rules and
local laws to avoid unnecessary losses,
experts said. “Companies should avoid
crowding any one field over a short
period, which could cause homogeniza-
tion and disordered competition. There
could be more coordination among
companies within an industry,” said Li
Bingshu, secretary general of the China
International Chamber of Commerce
for the Private Sector.
Zhu believes that it is important to
make the world a real global village,
where companies from any country can
flow freely based on market needs.
He is impressed with the success of
TTI (Techtronic Industries), a multina-
tional power tool manufacturer, which
started in Dongguan in the 1980s mak-
ing branded products for export. Now
they have plants worldwide including
Mexico and Vietnam. “This could be
a chance for our company to take off
too,” Zhu said.
Jin Gang and Zhang Qiang are
pseudonyms
COVER STORY
Supply Chain
Global Uplink
As the relocation of manufacturing away from China becomes inevitable,
China must intensify its efforts in independent innovation to help consolidate
and elevate its position within the global value chain
By Xu Ming
I
n September 2023, Apple took a
major step toward global supply
chain diversification, releasing
iPhone 15 units manufactured in
India alongside those made in China.
The move was a break from prece-
dent, where only older iPhone genera-
tions were assembled in India, with
new devices produced there six to nine
months after their initial release.
Notably, Apple’s capacity in Vietnam
has also expanded, with JP Morgan ana-
lysts predicting that by 2025, India will
produce 25 percent of all iPhones while
Vietnam will manufacture 20 percent
of all iPads and Apple Watches. In line
with Apple’s strategy, major contractors
like Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron and
Luxshare are investing heavily in both
countries to boost production capacity.
Apple is not alone in seeking di-
versification beyond China. Since the
trade war initiated by former US pres-
ident Donald Trump in 2018, many
international brands like Samsung,
Sony and Dell have increased invest-
ment in Southeast Asia. These emerg-
ing markets offer advantages with
lower labor costs, preferential taxation
and reduced geopolitical risks. Addi-
tionally, developed economies like the
US, Japan and Europe are encouraging
manufacturing re-shoring, nearshor-
ing and friendshoring.
Chinese manufacturers are starting emphasized that China must strive
to relocate parts of their production to maintain a strong position in the
processes overseas. Between September supply chain through continued open-
10-12, four listed Chinese companies in ness and technological progress. This
industries like photovoltaics, electron- approach is crucial to prevent China
ics and appliances announced plans to from getting caught in the middle and
invest in factories in Vietnam, citing ensuring its sustained relevance in the
cost reduction, mitigating the influence evolving global landscape.
of geopolitics on international trade
and expanding their global presence. NewsChina: Do these relocations
Vietnam, India and Thailand are popu- threaten China’s position in the global
lar investment destinations, with South supply chain or shut it out entirely?
America and Europe also attracting Zhao Zhongxiu: If your
attention.
The relocation of production capacity,
whether by American, European, Japa-
nese or Chinese companies, mirrors
trends that began in the 1960s when
emerging markets established assembly
lines for multinationals from developed
countries.
Despite the reduced reliance on
China, the country’s well-developed
production capacity, supported by a
large pool of skilled technicians and
continuous technological advance-
ments, suggests it is unlikely to be
marginalized in the global supply chain,
according to Zhao Zhongxiu, president
of the University of International
Business and Economics and an expert
in international trade and industrial
economy. Zhao Zhongxiu (Photo: Courtesy of Zhao
In an interview with NewsChina, Zhao Zhongxiu)
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
28

Top: Visitors experience a Wuling Air electric vehicle (EV) at Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show
(GIIAS), Tangerang, Indonesia, August 18, 2022 (Photo by VCG)
Bottom: Worker in a garments factory, India, March 22, 2021(Photo by VCG)
advantages in some aspects are gone
and you are incapable of upgrading
and rely too much on foreign capital,
you will lose business. But China’s
strength lies in replacing the previous
foreign-led industrial chain and it
can now export its own [production]
overseas.
Chinese production has been
upgrading. Previously, processing trade
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
29
accounted for over 50 percent of overall
foreign trade. It has since dwindled to
around 20 percent. This means more
parts and components are produced in
China. The country’s ability to absorb
technology and continually upgrade is
exemplified in [the quick adaptation
capability of] Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen
[the world’s biggest electronic market,
also called “China’s Silicon Valley”].
Notably, China’s electric vehicle
industry has rapidly caught up with
developed countries, showcasing its
agility in development.
Given its robust manufacturing
capability and system, kicking China
out of the global core value chain is im-
possible. Moreover, China is becoming
more open and establishing stronger
connections with the rest of the world.
It is making efforts against decoupling
and aiming for deeper integration with
the world.
Yet the process is not without
its challenges. For example, some
companies relocated to Vietnam only to
return after finding it lacked support-
ing industries or after failing to fulfill
orders. It takes time for businesses to
find the most suitable locations.
Meanwhile, we need to keep in mind
that China cannot take the entire mar-
ket. Despite its manufacturing strength,
China does not produce the majority
COVER STORY

of the world’s goods. The relocation

of certain capacities is not a significant
concern, as long as it will not result in
excessive reliance on imports.

NC: What challenges will supply

chain relocation bring to China?
ZZ: China is stuck in an awkward
situation where it faces competition
from countries with cost advantages
for producing lower-end products
and constraints on developing high-
end products due to restrictions on
technology due to current geopolitical
tensions. This may hamper China’s
upgrading and potentially lead to the
middle-income trap.
But this may also motivate China
to accelerate progress to overcome
the tech blockade. As we all know, the
Chinese government can mobilize and
allocate necessary resources to enhance
technology development and achieve
breakthroughs of core technologies.
It’s doing this now. At the very least,
China has substitutions for most core
technologies. Despite lagging efficiency,
it can improve over time. Now that the
global distribution and cooperation
system has been disrupted, China is
forced to make significant efforts in
developing substitutes for self-reliance
while simultaneously strengthening Top: A display illustrating a hydrogen supply chain at the first China International Supply Chain Expo
international cooperation. China is held in Beijing from November 28 to December 2, 2023 (Photo by VCG)
cornered, but an opportunity might Bottom: Visitors at the first China International Supply Chain Expo held in Beijing from November 28 to
come from it. December 2, 2023 (Photo by VCG)
China’s past dependence on the glob-
al distribution system led to oversight
of many critical issues. For instance,
China only recognized the urgency of
producing its own microchips when cheaper to buy than manufacture, so to curb Chinese development only
faced with export restrictions from there was no urgency to make techno- works in the short term. The US will
other countries. It’s the same with large logical breakthroughs. be harmed too in the long run. China
aircraft. In the past, it was easier and Of course, using trade as a weapon is the biggest semiconductor market.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

30
The US cannot really interrupt China’s
long-term development. Meanwhile,
China is making efforts to closely link
with the world. I don’t think China can
be completely isolated in this manner.
NC: Is self-dependent innovation the
solution?
ZZ: Since the reform and opening-
up policy, the inflow of foreign invest-
ment has significantly boosted China’s
development and upgrading. However,
we cannot overly rely on foreign invest-
ment as the sole lifeline for progress.
Fortunately, China has been actively
introducing and absorbing advanced
science and technology, which serves as
a foundation for further innovation. If
further innovation were to be ignored,
foreign investment would lead China
by the nose.
China lacks a self-dependent produc-
tion ecology that can drive techno-
logical upgrading. While some regions
focus on improving their business
environments, they might not prioritize
developing technology and lack strong
local manufacturing. But I think Shen-
zhen has done well in transforming
into a sci-tech oriented growth model
and has many high-tech companies.
NC: How can Chinese companies
secure and strengthen their positions
in the supply chain on the international
market?
ZZ: As a big country, China still
holds the initiative in its develop-
ment. The ongoing trade conflicts and
technology wars have forced China to
abandon the illusion [of depending on
others]. That’s a good thing. Other-
wise, China might have continued to
use the most advanced products from
other countries without producing
them domestically. Under these circum-
stances, China needs to accelerate the
pace of upgrading and foster innovation
to maintain and strengthen its position
in the supply chain. We hope to safe-
guard the stability of the global supply
chain and utilize our vast domestic
market to counter the anti-globalization
movement. After all, the potential of a
domestic market of 1.4 billion people
should not be underestimated.
On the other hand, China has
been successful in exporting readily
applicable technologies and organizing
production overseas. China boasts a
complete production system. It’s also
exporting technologies in key areas
like high-speed rail. In these challeng-
ing times, Chinese companies need
to be more ambitious and strive to
prove themselves in the international
market.
In fact, more and more Chinese
companies are expanding globally, first
by engaging in manufacturing and now
taking steps to organize the production
chain [rather than join existing ones] to
increasingly integrate with the world.
Chinese companies are also pushed
into a corner, so they feel the urgency
to expand and play a more important
role.
Currently, there is a lot of discus-
sion about chain leader enterprises.
These enterprises have control over the
production ecology and bring together
suppliers within their chain. They serve
as a node with extensive reach and
exert strong control over the chain,
organizing production and technology
collaboration. Apple, for example, con-
trols a supply chain with its intellectual
property, not investment. Companies
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
31
like Huawei and some new energy
companies are examples of such chain
leader enterprises that have primary
and secondary suppliers. Given the
backdrop of production relocation, I
hope more and more Chinese compa-
nies can go global and become leader
companies.
NC: How will the global value chain
evolve and what will China’s position
be in it?
ZZ: The global value chain con-
sists of three sub-chains or interre-
lated production hubs: one in North
America, another in Asia and a third
in Europe, centered around the US,
China and Germany. In the past, these
hubs were interconnected, forming a
comprehensive network. Now they are
increasingly regionalized. Competi-
tion between China and the US in
technology makes it hard for China
to upgrade, but it is a necessary step
China must take. The US is attempting
to build a global system that excludes
China based on its own values, which I
believe will not be fully realized unless
there is a large-scale military conflict,
which would push the whole thing out
of control.
I’m cautiously optimistic about the
future. In the end, the US might realize
that conflict with China does itself no
good. It also depends how long the
US’s domestic manufacturing system
could sustain itself [if it chooses to
decouple with China]. We may see the
result in five to 10 years. In the mean-
time, China needs to push forward
and speed up efforts to strengthen its
weak links to secure a higher and more
influential position in the global value
chain.
INTERNATIONAL
Henry Kissinger
End of An Era
Chinese officials and scholars bid farewell to
Henry Kissinger and the bygone era of stable
relations between China and the US that the
famous strategist helped to build and sustain
By Yu Xiaodong
H
enry Kissinger, the former
US secretary of state who
played a pivotal role in
shaping US foreign policy
during the Cold War, died on Novem-
ber 29, 2023 at the age of 100. Leaving
behind a complex and controversial dip-
lomatic legacy, including negotiating the
US’s exit from the costly Vietnam War,
masterminding the notorious coup in
Chile, and reaching a detente with the
Soviet Union, Kissinger’s passing was
met with polarized reactions from both
within the US and the rest of world.
But in China, Kissinger was widely
revered for the historic role he played
in normalizing ties between the US and
China in the 1970s, when he served as
secretary of state and national security
advisor in the administrations of presi-
dents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
Just before his passing, he was expected
to continue to play an important role in
stabilizing the world’s most important
bilateral relationship.
Historical Role
Embarking on a secret trip to China
in 1971, Kissinger held unprecedented
talks with Chinese leaders including
Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier
Zhou Enlai, and paved the way for Nix-
on’s groundbreaking visit in 1972.
Bound by their shared perceived se-
curity threat from the Soviet Union, the
two countries eventually reached a his-
torical rapprochement, establishing the
formal diplomatic relationship in 1979
that helped to fuel China’s reform and
opening-up policy and set the founda-
tion for the bilateral relationship over
the next four decades.
After leaving public office in 1977,
Kissinger maintained close relation-
ships with subsequent Chinese lead-
ers and reportedly visited China more
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
32
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger
receives an award during a ceremony at the
Pentagon honoring his diplomatic career, May 9,
2016, Washington, DC (Photo by VCG)
than 100 times. His most recent trip to
China was in July 2023, when he met
with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who
was quoted as saying that the Chinese
people “never forget our old friends, nor
your historic contributions to promot-
ing the growth of China-US relations
and enhancing friendship between the
two peoples.”
It is no surprise that Kissinger’s
passing was received with a tidal wave
of tributes from current and former of-
ficials, academics, and ordinary people.
In a message of condolence sent to US
President Joe Biden, Xi said that Kiss-
inger’s historic contributions to the
normalization of China-US relations has
not only benefited the two countries but
also changed the whole world.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Foreign
Minister Wang Yi also sent messages of
condolence to Kissinger’s family and US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken. While
mourning Kissinger at the US Embassy question during his negotiations with told China News Service (CNS).
in Beijing on December 5, Wang said China on a joint statement after Nixon’s As the China-US relationship dete-
that “time has proven and will continue visit. The Taiwan question was the stick- riorated to its nadir following former
to prove that the political decision made ing point in the negotiation. House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s contro-
by Dr. Kissinger and the Chinese lead- In the end, the two sides accepted versial visit to Taiwan in August 2022,
ers at that time is in line with the funda- Kissinger’s proposal. The English ver- Kissinger warned publicly that the
mental interests of the two peoples, the sion of the 1972 Shanghai Communi- deterioration of the Cross-Strait and
trend of the times, and the international qué– one of three communiqués that China-US relationships could lead to
community’s expectations.” serve as the political foundation of the catastrophic conflict.
There is no doubt that Wang’s com- China-US relationship – states that The In a June interview with Bloomberg,
ments were made in reference to the US “acknowledges that all Chinese on Kissinger said that “on the current tra-
deteriorating bilateral relationship be- either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain jectory of relations, I think some mili-
tween China and the US over the past there is but one China and Taiwan is tary conflict is probable,” and that “the
few years. Given this, the passing of a part of China.” Speaking with News- current trajectory of relations must be
Kissinger is also thought to mark the China, former Chinese diplomat Lian altered.”
end of an era in which the bilateral re- Zhengbao quoted Zhou Enlai at the “On one hand, having lived through
lationship was mostly cordial and far time as saying, “We couldn’t have come the trauma and damage caused by
more stable and predictable. up with something like this even if we World War II and experienced the enor-
had racked our brains.” mous risks of nuclear war in the Cold
Realpolitik Approach The statement allows both China and War, Kissinger highly valued the pre-
For many Chinese scholars, what set the US to find a mutually acceptable ex- ciousness of peace, stability and order
Kissinger apart from other strategists pression on the Taiwan question. While on a global scale,” Xin Qiang told CNS,
and politicians both in his time and in not entirely satisfactory to either side, it “On the other hand, he was involved in
later periods, is his realpolitik approach enabled the two sides to break the ice the entire process of establishing diplo-
to foreign policy that allowed him to and move toward normalization, Xin matic relations between China and the
look beyond ideological differences at Qiang, deputy director of the Center for US, and was well aware of the sensitiv-
the height of the Cold War to engineer American Studies at Fudan University, ity and danger of the Taiwan question.
the rapprochement between China and
the US.
“Kissinger was an exemplar of a polit-
ical realist, who emphasized the impor-
tance of national interests and power,
and stressed the need to look beyond
ideology to seek the desired balance of
powers,” Zhu Feng, a senior fellow with
the Center for International Security
and Strategy with Tsinghua University
and director of the Institute of Inter-
national Studies at Nanjing University,
told NewsChina.
“Having visited China many times, he
possessed a considerable understanding
of the Communist Party of China, and
harbored no significant biases against
China,” Zhu said. “In more recent years,
he repeatedly emphasized the need to
manage China-US relations to prevent
the bilateral relationship from descend-
ing into conflicts or even an all-out war,”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits the US Embassy in China to mourn the passing of former US
he added. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, December 5, 2023 (Photo by Xinhua)
Kissinger’s pragmatism was typically
reflected in his handling of the Taiwan
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

33
INTERNATIONAL
Therefore, he genuinely hoped the US
would not continue to dilute and hollow
out the ‘One-China’ principle, challeng-
ing China’s strategic red lines.”
Post-Cold War
Compared to the Cold War pe-
riod, Kissinger had far less influence
on American policymakers in recent
years. Following the collapse of the So-
viet Union, the US increasingly adopted
what many describe as a liberal interna-
tionalist approach in its foreign policy,
focusing on exporting its ideologies.
The Biden administration, for example,
explicitly claimed to take a “value-
based” approach to foreign policy.
According to Jin Canrong, associ-
ate dean of the School of International
Studies with the Renmin University of
China, a major cause of the decline of
realist thinking among American poli-
ticians and strategists is that they lack
historical depth compared to their Cold
War-era predecessors.
“During the Cold War, the US had a
group of exceptionally talented strate-
gists. George Kennan, who advocated
for a containment policy against the
Soviet Union, and Henry Kissinger,
who opened the door to reconciliation
between China and the US, are notable
examples. Tadeusz Brzeziński, who
played a role in formalizing diplomatic
relations with China under the adminis-
tration of US president Carter, was also
commendable,” Jin said in an interview
with guancha.cn.
“What they share in common is that
they all experienced World War II and
witnessed life-or-death situations. In
comparison, foreign policymakers in the
US of the post-Cold War period grew up
in an era of peace,” Jin added.
Jin said that American strategists
“may be graduates of prestigious schools
like Harvard and Yale, but lack histori-
cal depth in their thinking as they have
Henry Kissinger meets with Chinese ping-pong
players outside the White House, April 18,
1972 (Photo by Xinhua)
navigated their lives quite easily with
rather simple life experiences.” “There-
fore, they may be intelligent individuals,
but lack great wisdom,” Jin said.
Wang Yizhou, associate dean of
the School of International Studies at
Peking University, attributed the waning
influence of Kissinger to the change in
political atmosphere around the globe.
“Kissinger is not the friendship am-
bassador imagined by many Chinese,”
Wang said, “Rather, he viewed the US’s
need to advance its ties with China to
weaken and confront the Soviet Union
from a perspective of his country’s na-
tional interest.”
“The essence of Kissinger’s diplomat-
ic legacy lies in that he took diplomacy
as a more complex and more power-
ful tool than the sheer use of power,
and for Kissinger, diplomacy is a skill,
even an art,” Wang said in an interview
with Hong Kong-based ifeng.com on
December 2.
By comparison, Wang said that in to-
day’s world, rising populism and global
economic stagnation has made it in-
creasingly attractive for policymakers to
resort to direct use of power and bully-
ing rather than intricate diplomacy. “Di-
plomacy has increasingly been reduced
to a simplistic tool, even to the extent
of it being a dowry-like settlement or a
bonded servant,” Wang added.
Wang’s sentiment is shared by Zhu
Zhiqun, a political science professor
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
34
at Bucknell University in Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania. “Kissinger was a symbol
of a bygone era when the US and China
were willing to meet each other halfway
to pursue common interests,” Zhu said
in an article published on thinkchina.sg
on December 2.
“Despite the ups and downs in the
bilateral relationship, Kissinger was the
most significant and consistent voice on
managing the complex and challeng-
ing relationship through engagement,”
Zhu said. “Today, Kissinger’s views on
China are not well received by many
in Washington, who favor zero-sum
competition with China and countering
its growing power and influence,” Zhu
added.
Warning that the China-US relation-
ship is experiencing “the most difficult
time since his first trip to China in
1971,” Zhu called on both countries
to “heed Kissinger’s warnings about
the danger of a new cold war between
two nuclear powers” and “carry on his
belief that cooperation is the only way
to move the US-China relationship for-
ward and upward.”
According to a statement by China’s
Foreign Ministry, in a call with Blinken
on December 6, Foreign Minister Wang
Yi said that Kissinger’s diplomatic leg-
acy is worth being carried forward and
developed by future generations. The
legacy he referred to includes Kissinger’s
advocacy for the two countries’ mutual
respect, progress and fulfillment of their
due international responsibilities. Wang
particularly noted Kissinger’s repeated
calls for the US to fully understand the
importance of the Taiwan question to
China.
Both sides agreed to deliver the posi-
tive understanding reached by the presi-
dents of the two countries in mid-No-
vember in San Francisco, confirmed by
statements from China’s Foreign Minis-
try and the US Department of State.

Outdoor Wear
Top Gear
To sustain the market for outdoor jackets in China, domestic manufacturers and
retailers must prioritize their brands’ core values rather than solely relying on
low prices to drive sales
By Meng Qian
W
hile browsing at Faya
Factory Outlet between
Beijing’s Second and
Third Ring roads, a
shopper was surprised to find Chinese
outdoor brand Toread’s latest outdoor
jacket for women selling for 1,799 yuan
(US$246). He said it was expensive,
considering he only paid about 800
yuan (US$109) for a blue three-layered
jacket by The North Face around five
years earlier.
“This is our latest design,” the shop
assistant said, pointing out the ivory-
colored jacket, “Its first layer is super
waterproof, and the second has down
feathers to keep you warm in Beijing’s
freezing weather.”
These features and prices challenge
An Arc’teryx store at the GR Shopping Mall, Beijing, February 2023
(Photo by VCG)
general perceptions of the brand among
Chinese consumers. On a popular post
from October 21, 2021 on Q&A forum
Zhihu, Toread was described as a “low-
end” outdoor brand priced at no more
than 1,000 yuan (US$140).
Regardless of the price hike, the shop
assistant said outdoor jackets from
domestic brands are a major source of
revenue.
Though still in their nascent stages,
Chinese outdoor brands such as Camel
and Pelliot have profited handsomely
from the surge in demand for outdoor
jackets despite the competitive market.
In the first half of 2022, Camel
secured nearly 40 percent of outdoor
jacket sales on Douyin, China’s TikTok,
and 80 percent in the second half,
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
35
ECONOMY
news outlet The Paper reported on
October 8. That year, sales of outdoor
wear on Douyin totaled 2 billion yuan
(US$270m), a year-on-year increase of
382 percent.
From January to July 2023, the
momentum continued with growth of
337 percent, reaching 1.3 billion yuan
(US$180m) in sales, among which
Camel netted nearly 800 million yuan
(US$109.52m), The Paper reported.
Revenues for Pelliot hit 500 million
yuan (US$68.45m) in 2022, and are
expected to reach 1.5 billion yuan
(US$210m) this year, online portal
NetEase reported on August 5.
But industry experts warned that
low prices are not enough to maintain
sustainable growth, and the gap in
ECONOMY

material tech and branding strate-

gies between domestic and overseas
producers will continue to widen if
Chinese manufacturers rely on pricing
tactics alone.

Warming Up
Zhou Yao, a member of the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Confer-
ence in Sanmen, a county in Taizhou,
Zhejiang Province, has been tasked
with promoting the area’s outdoor
brands to help boost the local economy
since June 2022.
Two months after he took on the
assignment, Zhou set up a team with
Zhejiang Taizhou Senmo Outdoor
Sports Products Co Ltd to sell their
outdoor jackets factory-direct through
livestreams. Sales skyrocketed from
around 800 jackets a day to over
5,000 by September 2022. Over the
next months, the number of accounts Top: A store of the outdoor wear brand The North Face at a shopping mall in Beijing, August 11, 2022
livestreaming their products grew (Photo by VCG)
from one to 12, one of which peaked at Bottom: Chinese outdoor wear brand Kailas displays clothing and equipment at the 9th ISPO Beijing, a
second in the sales rankings for its cat- leading multi-segment sports exhibition in Asia, Beijing, February 27, 2013 (Photo by VCG)
egory on Douyin, next only to Camel.
“Now is the season for outdoor
jackets, and sales on our most popular
livestreaming channel are expected to (US$22.82b) in 2015 to 357.5 billion The colossal demand for jackets
reach about 10,000 a day,” Zhou told yuan (US$48.87b) in 2021, registering has been largely fueled by first-time
NewsChina. a compound annual growth rate of 13.5 buyers, who largely turn to influencers
Zhou attributes the recent success percent. In 2025, it is forecast to hit on lifestyle platforms like Douyin and
of outdoor wear brands to China’s 600 billion yuan (US$82.02b). Xiaohongshu for advice.
three-year pandemic lockdown. Before Among these products, outdoor Xiaohongshu racked up 1.08 million
the outbreak in 2020, outdoor sports jackets are raking in the largest profits. short videos on outdoor jackets, while
in China registered a participation rate Sales of outdoor jackets on top trending hashtags pulled in more than
of a mere 10 percent of the country’s e-commerce platforms Douyin and Tao- 58 million views on Douyin.
total population. By 2022, the rate grew bao reached a total of 9.29 billion yuan Compared with expensive down-
to 28 percent, according to industry (US$1.29b) between January 2022 and filled clothing which can end up piled
think tank vzkoo.com on November 11, September 2023, up around 81 percent high in warehouses if there is a mild
2022. year-on-year, according to e-commerce winter, the outdoor jacket market is
That rate is more than 50 percent marketing and data analysis platform immune to changes in the weather,
in developed countries like the US, Moojing Market Intelligence (MMI). an anonymous industry insider told
leaving much more room for growth, Engaged in outdoor jacket e- NewsChina.
vzkoo.com reported. commerce for over 10 years, Huang Multi-layered detachable outdoor
According to global market analysis Min told NewsChina that one of her jackets are much more versatile. “They
platform Euromonitor and its Chinese colleagues netted 29 million yuan can be worn for months regardless of
counterpart Insight and Info, the mar- (US$3.96m) in a single day in 2022 how the weather changes,” an MMI
ket scale of outdoor sports products in selling a lesser-known brand, exempli- analyst speaking on condition of
China soared from 166.9 billion yuan fying last year’s burgeoning market. anonymity told NewsChina.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

36
Low-price Dilemma
Despite the large sales volume,
Zhou said an outdoor jacket priced at
199 yuan (US$27), which includes a
30-percent added value, is extremely
low compared to international brands
such as US’s North Face and Colombia.
He attributed the thin margins to the
lack of high-tech innovation, which
confines domestic brands to the low-
end market.
“The value of outdoor jackets
depends on their protective functions,
such as defending against extremely
cold weather, which requires advanced
materials and manufacturing tech-
nologies,” Huang Yubing, dean of the
Sanmen Research Institute, Zhejiang
Science-Technology University in
Hangzhou, told NewsChina.
“But many domestic manufacturers
lack advanced technologies and make
products suited only to mild weather
conditions, pricing them on par with
ordinary clothing,” Huang added.
In 2016, the China Standardization
Administration (SAC) released quality
standards for outdoor jacket manufactur-
ing, covering waterproofing, material du-
rability and color resilience. On Septem-
ber 7, SAC upgraded several standards
for materials, coatings and moisture
permeability. The US, Japan and Europe
also have their own unique criteria.
However, these moves have done
little to change the market landscape,
nor have they helped raise the prices of
big domestic brands.
According to MMI, current prices for
Camel and Pelliot jackets average at 598
and 647 yuan (US$82-88), while aver-
age prices for North Face and Colombia
are 1,706 (US$233) and 1,410 yuan
(US$193), and Canada-based Arc’teryx
averages 3,921 yuan (US$536).
Experts blame lagging technology
and marketing strategies for the gap.
According to Huang, supplies for in-
ternational brands such as North Face,
Arc’teryx and Mammut of Switzerland
are meticulously calculated to sell out
stock quickly before rolling out new
products. In contrast, Chinese produc-
ers, which compete fiercely in constant
price wars to reduce inventories, are
more exposed to fluctuations in market
demand.
“Because major international brands
established outdoor sports businesses
much earlier than domestic ones, they
have the background and experience
necessary to carve out their niche
markets,” a representative for Toread’s
sales department told NewsChina.
Sun Na, brand director for mid-range
outdoor sports supplier Kailas, head-
quartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong
Province, told NewsChina that growing
demand for low-priced outdoor wear
will wane as Chinese outdoor enthu-
siasts become more sophisticated in
their purchases and seek out quality
specialized products.
Zhou said shoppers on their
livestreaming channels are asking more
specific questions about their jackets’
protective functions. “They are increas-
ingly more informed,” he said.
Core-tech Conundrum
The greatest challenge for domestic
manufacturers looking to compete for
higher-end market share is materials
technology, which is key to the quality
and pricing of outdoor jackets.
“When we sell our fabrics at 20 yuan
(US$3) per meter, big international
brands can increase their prices tenfold
in added value. That is hard to catch up
with,” Pan Litai, head of the Outdoor
Jackets Association of Sanmen County,
told NewsChina.
Dominating the high-end outdoor
jacket market for over six decades,
materials manufacturer Gore-Tex,
which supplies many high-profile
outdoor brands like Arc’teryx up to
the aerospace and military industries
with its waterproof, breathable fabrics,
poses the greatest threat to Chinese
manufacturers.
“Even North Face, which attempted
to dethrone Arc’teryx by setting up
their own material production lines,
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
37
has had to admit that the extreme
weather fabric technologies of Gore-
Tex are difficult to challenge, let alone
replace,” Tian Xiaomeng, founder of
outdoor jacket online retailer Wanwux-
inxuan, told NewsChina.
First serving as factories for major
overseas brands, manufacturers from
Sanmen County are now seeking to
upgrade their technologies after the
local government became aware of the
potential risk of overlapping capacity.
Partnering with Zhejiang University
of Science and Technology since 2019,
local entrepreneurs have implemented
technologies like thermal storage,
graphenic anti-bacterial material and
color-changing dyes. Their coopera-
tion includes developing designs that
appeal to younger consumers and
market feedback analysis. But their
collaboration still needs time to prove
its effectiveness.
Other brands such as sun-protective
clothing maker Beneunder and fashion
brand Bosideng are also entering the
outdoor jacket market.
But Cheng Weixiong, founder of
Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management
Co Ltd, told NewsChina that unlike
ordinary clothing, the tech threshold to
the outdoor jacket market is high.
“The fundamental problem for
Chinese brands is their overlapping
designs, which are easy to replicate and
surpass,” Cheng said.
According to MMI, Chinese brands
need to shoot for mid-range products
with diverse designs to broaden their
influence, which in the future may
increase their chances of accessing the
high-end market.
“A brand cannot become popular
overnight,” a representative from an
outdoor sports brand designer told
NewsChina. “Every big brand has a
flagship product, meaning producers
who want to access high-end markets
need at least one exclusive technol-
ogy and must explore it thoroughly
enough before launching a spectacular
roll-out.”
ECONOMY
Drone Shows
Stellar Performance
Across China, drone shows have increasingly replaced fireworks and light
shows to dominate China’s urban skies, at festivals and at corporate events
and tourism destinations
By Li Mingzi and Yu Xiaodong
T
o celebrate Mid-Autumn
Festival and National Day on
September 30, the skies over
Hong Kong and Shenzhen
were lit up by 1,200 drones, swooping
and twisting to form flowers, birds,
flags and buildings. It was the first
drone show collaboration between the
two neighboring cities, lighting up the
night sky over Victoria Harbour in Hong
Kong and OCT Harbour in Shenzhen.
Hundreds of drone shows took place
across the country during the National
Day holidays running from September
29 to October 6, 2023. In Shenzhen, a
city dubbed China’s Silicon Valley and
a major global center for drone produc-
tion, there were more than 200 drone
performances in 2023.
While drone shows have become
common in China’s big cities such
as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and
Guangzhou, they are becoming much
more popular in smaller cities, and this
has fueled the rapid growth of the drone
show industry.
Market Takeoff
Firework displays were a traditional
feature of major public events, celebra-
tions and commercial promotions in
many countries. Now, as drone technol-
ogy has advanced so rapidly, high-tech
drone shows are more likely to illumi-
nate the sky during special events. The
trend is particularly pronounced in Chi-
na, the world’s largest drone producer.
Efy Technology, a Tianjin-based drone
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
38
manufacturer, presented over 100 drone
performances in over 30 cities across 20
provinces and municipalities during the
National Day holiday.
Qi Juntong, founder of Efy Technol-
ogy, told NewsChina there is rising en-
thusiasm for drone shows among local
governments and enterprises.
“We sent a drone show team to Xin-
jiang Uygur Autonomous Region in
September to present a show booked by
a local government, and it was very suc-
cessful,” Qi said.
Other drone display companies are
flying high on the heated market. “From
the Labor Day holiday until now, we’ve
done performances every day. We don’t
have enough capacity to meet the de-
mand,” said Qin Haiqun, deputy-general
Left: More than 1,000 drones fly in a show above the South Gate of the City Wall in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, April 29, 2018 (Photo by VCG)
Center: Spectators watch a splendid drone show above Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, as the drones form Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting Girl
with a Pearl Earring, September 27, 2023 (Photo by VCG)
Right: 1,500 drones from a giant dragon during the National Day Holiday, Xiangyang, Hubei Province, October 4, 2023 (Photo by VCG)
manager of Shenzhen Damoda, one of
the market leaders in China.
Qin said their shows have to be
booked at least one month in advance.
“All our operations and technical sup-
port staff are out on assignment,” he
said, pointing to the empty desks in the
company’s office.
Late, But Fast
Chinese companies are latecomers
to the drone performance market. The
world’s first outdoor drone performance
was at an electronic arts festival in the
northern Austrian city of Linz in 2012,
which attracted 90,000 spectators.
The 2017 Super Bowl half-time show
in Houston, Texas pushed drone per-
formances into the mainstream, when
hundreds of Intel’s Shooting Star drones
formed a glittering backdrop for singer
Lady Gaga. Then in 2018, a drone per-
formance made a global sensation when
Intel used 1,218 illuminated drones to
create the Olympic rings and other im-
ages during the opening ceremony of
the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in
South Korea on February 9, 2018.
China’s first outdoor drone
performance was in 2016 at an event
hosted by the State-run China Central
Television (CCTV). Although quite a
few drone startups had emerged by that
time, they were all focused on the con-
sumer market to become the next DJI,
the Shenzhen-based drone company
that accounts for a significant propor-
tion of global consumer drone sales.
They did not appreciate at first how lu-
crative the drone show business would
become.
“CCTV approached almost all the
drone companies in Shenzhen, and
Damoda was the first to dare take a
chance with the booking,” said Qin Hai-
qun, vice general manager of Damoda,
a Shenzhen-based drone manufacture
and one of the market leaders in China.
Qin said that Damoda was estab-
lished in 2015 and had only developed
a drone control system and a prototype
drone model. Its products were not yet
for general sale. But the air show involv-
ing 80 drones was an immediate hit,
and Damoda was soon flooded with
drone show bookings.
Many other drone startups soon
joined the fray. According to the
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
39
Shenzhen UAV Industry Association,
China’s drone show market is currently
dominated by four major companies,
Damoda, HighGreat, Efy Technology
and EHang, which have a combined do-
mestic market share of 90 percent.
At a drone show in May 2021, Shen-
zhen HighGreat set four Guinness
World Records: the highest number
of drones flying simultaneously with
5,164, the largest light image composed
by 5,184 drones, the longest animation
show performed by drones (26 minutes
and 26 seconds), and the most different
consecutive formations by a single fleet
at 88 maneuvers.
“From a technical perspective, con-
trolling tens of thousands of drones for
a performance is not a problem at all,
though it exceeds current market de-
mand,” Li Chenliang, chief innovation
officer of HighGreat, a Shenzhen-based
drone manufacturer, told NewsChina.
“Setting records for the sake of it has
become less and less meaningful.”
But China has emerged as a global
drone show market leader. “Overseas
companies pioneered drone perfor-
mances, but they didn’t swiftly develop
ECONOMY
it into a separate niche market,” Li said.
Intel, for example, primarily utilized
drone performances to promote its
corporate image and technological ca-
pabilities rather than expanding into the
drone show market.
By comparison, since making their
maiden flights in China in 2016, drone
shows quickly developed into a signifi-
cant market. According to a 2022 report
released by the Tourism Data Innova-
tion Alliance (TDIA), a tourism data
provider, 7,228 outdoor drone shows
were presented in 2021 throughout
China.
Another report released by market re-
search publisher QYResearch in August
2022 showed that the value of the drone
show market in China reached US$104
million in 2021, accounting for 60.8
percent of the global market, which was
valued at US$170 million. The report
estimated that the global market will
expand to US$719 million in 2029, with
the Chinese market projected to ac-
count for 65 percent of the global total.
“Chinese companies lead in both the
quality of drone performances and mar-
ket share,” Yang Jincai, chairman of the
World UAV Conference and founding
president of the Shenzhen UAV Indus-
try Association, told NewsChina, “Chi-
nese companies are now highly sought
after by organizers of overseas festivals
and exhibitions given their technologi-
cal capability and competitive pricing.”
Seeing the Light
According to Yang, demand from
governments at various levels played a
significant role in promoting the devel-
opment of the drone display industry in
its initial phase. Yang estimated that in
the early years, over half the orders for
drone displays came from government
agencies, State-owned enterprises and
public-funded organizations.
Compared to fireworks, drone shows
have several advantages. “While fire-
works can create a jubilant atmosphere,
drone shows are customizable and can
present more specific information,”
Yang said, “They are safer and more
environmentally friendly, and with their
high-tech touch, are a next-generation
communication platform.” This is be-
cause drone shows can be a platform
for all kinds of communication-related
projects like advertising and campaign-
ing, as it can deliver specific messages,
unlike firework and light shows.
It is no coincidence that the rise
of drone shows came after tightened
regulatory control of fireworks displays.
After the central government issued a
safety regulation on fireworks and fire-
crackers in 2016, more than 1,100 cit-
ies across China imposed restrictions
on firework displays, with more than
400 cities banning fireworks altogether.
It upped safety rules over the whole
production, transportation and use of
fireworks, put in place punishments for
violations, and required more costly and
comprehensive permits and documen-
tation. It deterred many local authorities
from putting on displays.
In the meantime, urban illumination
projects, including light shows, were
also put on hold. As the finances of lo-
cal governments started to decline in
the late 2010s, the once popular-light
shows were increasingly considered
“vanity projects” and a waste of taxpayer
money.
In 2019, several senior officials from
Wanquan County, Hebei Province, then
a nationally recognized impoverished
county, were removed from their posts
after its government spent 40 million
yuan (US$5.5m) on a large performance
involving light shows, laser projections
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
40
and musical fountains. The scandal
prompted the central government to
issue a decree to curb “excessive land-
scape lighting projects.”
Soaring Potential
As fireworks and light shows came
under tight control, local governments
turned to drone shows. However, it also
caused new concerns that drone shows
could be subject to the same problems
and become a new breeding ground for
corruption and lavish spending.
Following a failed drone performance
in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province in
April 2018, when many of the 1,374
drones involved either flew out of sync
or fell from the sky, it was found that
the show was booked by the local gov-
ernment and cost 10.5 million yuan
(US$1.4m). It immediately led to public
outcry.
However, according to Yang Jincai,
as fierce competition has substantially
driven down the price of drone shows
in the past couple of years, they are
unlikely to become a major financial
burden for local governments. “Cur-
rently, a drone show involving about
1,000 drones costs about 800,000 yuan
(US$109,600), which is less than a
tenth of what it was,’ Yang said.
Announcements released by the
government of Guangzhou, capital of
Guangdong Province, show that the
winning bid for a promotional drone
show in Guangzhou this year was only
123,500 yuan (US$16,917).
According to Ye Qing, a professor
from Zhongnan University of Econom-
ics and Law in Wuhan, Hubei Province,
as control over the budget management
of local governments continues to tight-
en, lavish spending on public events has
become history.
In the meantime, there is growing
 China By Numbers
55.8 The opera-
tion expecta-
58 57.5

tion index
The operation expecta- of China’s 55.5 55.5 55.8
56
tion index of China’s manufactur- 55.1
manufacturing, an ing between 55.6
54.1
55.6 55.6

demand from corporate users. Qi indicator of manufac- January and 54 54.7

November
Juntong from HighGreat told News- turers’ confidence in 2023 53.4
business prospects, in
China that orders from corporate cus- November 2023 52

tomers now account for 60 percent of

Source: National Bureau of
the company’s drone show business. Statistics of China 50
“The share of government book-

20 1
20 2
20 3

20 5
20 6
20 7
20 8
20 9
.10
.11
.4
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
23
23
23

23
23
23
23
23
23

23
23
20

20

20
ings is slowly dropping,” Qi said. He
added that unlike government orders,
which usually follow a fixed schedule, 0 2 4 6 8 10
11.7% Industries
Wholesale 8.90
demand from corporate customers with over
a million and retail million
tends to fluctuate. “Right now, we Year-on-year new self-
are witnessing soaring demand that
increase in new employed Accommodation 2.52
self-employed businesses and catering
exceeds what the market can supply,” businesses in the in the
million

Qi said. first three quarters

first three
quarters
Agriculture,
forestry, animal 1.36
The future of drone shows lies far of 2023, totaling of 2023 husbandry and million
beyond replacing fireworks in public 17.2 million fishery

events and celebrations. With the Source: State Administration

Residential 1.34
services million
ability to create captivating and cus- for Market Regulation
tomized aerial displays, drone shows
can carry ads. According to an esti-
mate by Efy Technology, 85 percent of
drone show spectators film the show, 2.57 million 31%
and more than 60 percent post it on The number of new work- Year-on-year growth
social media, making it a powerful ers employed in water in China’s total
conservancy construction lithium battery out-
advertising platform. put between January
projects between January
According to the TDIA report, 36 and November 2023, a and October 2023,
percent of drone shows purchased year-on-year increase of 9.1 totaling 765 GWhs
in China in 2021 were by tourism percent, among which 2.06 (gigawatt hours)
projects and attractions. Other major million are from rural areas Source: Ministry of In-
clients are real estate developers and Source: Ministry of Water Resources dustry and Information
of China Technology of China
automakers.
Li Chenliang said he once received
an order from a real estate developer
who was not looking for intricately
choreographed aerials. “All they 49.9 percent
wanted was to show a static adver- The share of installed
renewable power ca- Biomass Hydro
tisement in the sky, and it was a big Proportion
success,” Li said. pacity among China’s of different
renewables
3.1% 29.9%
total installed power
For Yang Jincai, drone shows have capacity by the end of
among total
installed Solar
great potential to expand into other October 2023, total- renewable
industries once they catch on to ing over 1.4 billion power capac- 38.2%
ity by the end
the advertising and communication kilowatts of October Wind
power. “They can integrate with all Source: National
2023
28.8%
kinds of industries with the promise Energy Administration
of substantial new growth
Tianshan andin con-
Glacier of China
Yili, Xinjiang Uygur
sumption trends,” Yang said.
Autonomous Region,
May 2022 (Photo by
VCG) NEWSCHINA I February 2024

41
LIFE
Sex Education
Teaching Consent
The concerning rise in juvenile sexual bullying and sexual crimes sounds the
alarm about the inadequate state of sex education in China’s schools and
the reluctance to go beyond basic information
By Huo Siyi
O
n September 16, 2023, a
severe incident of sexual
assault and bullying at
Dacheng Bilingual School,
a primary school in Datong, North
China’s Shanxi Province shocked the
entire country. According to media re-
ports, two 9-year-old boys abused, beat
and sexually assaulted a 10-year-old
boy, who had been their room-mate
for 18 months. The father of the victim
posted a statement online, accusing the
two boys of abusing, sexually bullying
and raping his son. The graphic details
included of the assault appalled the pub-
lic, especially as it involved boys of such
a young age.
According to a white paper issued
by the Supreme People’s Procurator-
ate in June 2023, two alarming trends
concerning juvenile delinquency require
significant attention. First, there has
been a noticeable increase in the juve-
nile crime rate – the number of suspects
aged 14 to 16 has risen from 5,259 in
2020 to 8,710 in 2022. Second, in 2022,
36,957 minors were charged with rape
and sexual assault, an increase of 20.4
percent from a year earlier.
In the Datong case, the school ar-
ranged a meeting between the parents
of the three, and the two abusers con-
fessed what they had done. Their par-
ents wrote apology statements and ex-
pressed willingness to bear the medical
examination expenses.
The public security bureau criticized
the two boys, requesting both to attend
psychological counseling and behav-
ioral correction. Their parents were also
criticized and asked to apologize to the
victim and his guardians. The school
principal was fired, as were the deputy
principal and the boys’ teachers.
The lack of sex education, as many
experts emphasized, is the key reason
behind the increase in juvenile sex
crimes. Worse still, with the widespread
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
42
use of smartphones and the popularity
of short videos, livestreaming and social
media, children and teenagers are being
exposed to a wide range of online por-
nography. This poses a significant chal-
lenge for educators.
‘Let Pornography Teach’
“Wiener-grabbing” – in which boys
try to grab each other’s genitals – has
become a popular game in primary
schools in China, many teachers have
observed.
Zhang Xiao, who teaches psychol-
ogy at a primary school in Chengdu,
Sichuan Province, told NewsChina that
several years ago, this type of “horse-
play” rarely occurred. But it has become
very common in the last two years. She
is worried, as sometimes, the game
turned violent.
Many teachers and parents perceive
it as innocent play driven by children’s
curiosity. However, Hu Zhen cautioned
that children and teenagers engaging in awareness of what constitutes a sex were subjected to even more porno-
such sexual acts are exhibiting a lack of crime may have contributed to a rise in graphic material on the internet [as they
fundamental respect for each other’s reported offenses. Also, increased expo- spent more time online, often without
bodies, and identifies this as a contrib- sure to online pornography and other parental supervision]. Pornographic
uting factor to the alarming increase in sexualized content may be to blame for memes sprouted like mushrooms and
juvenile sex crimes. the increase. they would spread among young kids
“As far as I know, sexual bullying is Due to the absence of proper sex in less than a week,” Zhang Xiao told
increasingly common at primary and education from schools and families, NewsChina.
secondary schools, though most of it children and teens might turn to online In 2018, a short surveillance video
isn’t as cruel as the Datong incident,” sources or other ways to access sexual went viral online, in which a young boy
Hu said. content. A 2022 report on underage in- in Longyan, Fujian Province, forcibly
As an educational psychology profes- ternet users by the Chinese Academy of kissed a girl of the same age inside an
sor at Chengdu University and chief Social Sciences shows the rate of inter- elevator, even though she tried to resist.
expert of the Adolescent Sex Education net usage among Chinese minors aged His forced kiss lasted until the elevator
Popularization Center of Sichuan Prov- 10 to 16 increased from 25 percent in door opened and she ran away.
ince, Hu has been involved in adolescent 2012 to 99.9 percent in 2022. According “This video reflects how misguided
sex education for the last two decades. to another report by the Chinese Acad- minors’ attitudes towards sex have be-
According to Hu, many teachers and emy of Social Sciences in 2018, about 10 come,” Hu told our reporter. “The boy
parents tend to overlook the sexual percent of children under 5 had already equated violence with bravery. He took
aspects of certain school bullying in- accessed the internet, and 33 percent of it for granted that when he liked a girl,
cidents. This avoidance stems from underage internet users had been ex- it was acceptable to forcibly kiss her and
adults’ discomfort or shame about sex. posed to online pornography. corner her. He also regarded the girl’s
In contrast, children naturally possess “Particularly during the three-year resistance as effective acquiescence, or
a curiosity about sex when they are pandemic period when primary school even encouragement,” Hu said.
young. students attended classes online, they She added that in many Chinese
“‘Wiener-grabbing’ and the Datong
incident are essentially the same. If
teachers and parents fail to properly
guide children from the aspect of sex
education in time, this horseplay will
very likely evolve into sexual bullying
eventually,” Hu told NewsChina.
Severe sexual bullying can escalate
into sex crimes. According to statistics
provided by the Youth Detention Cen-
ter of Chengdu, since 2018, the rate of
sex crimes has surpassed other criminal
behaviors such as intentional homicide,
intentional injury, robbery and drug
dealing, making it the most prevalent
offense among minors. In June 2022,
33.6 percent of minors detained in the
center were sex offenders. The figure
rose to 39 percent by March 2023.
Alarmingly, the percentage skyrocketed
from 8 percent in 2012 to 39 percent in
2023, with a growth rate of 387 percent
in merely a decade. Psychological consultant Wang Juan gives a sex education lesson to students at Jinhu Primary School,
Hefei, Anhui Province, March 18, 2021 (Photo by VCG)
While the center did not provide an
explanation for the trend, increased
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

43
LIFE

romance movies, TV series and popular

fiction, the male love interest is usually
portrayed as wealthy and of high social
status but domineering and controlling.
This “bossy lover” archetype in Chinese
pop culture has had a significant influ-
ence, leading to misguided notions of
“forcible love and sex” among children
and teens.
Li Yanhong, a former project officer
at UNESCO’s office in China, has dedi-
cated years to advocating for youth sex
education and school bullying preven-
tion. Li told NewsChina that if educa-
tors avoid talking about sex and fail to
provide minors with proper guidance
on understanding love and sex from a
healthy perspective, they are “letting
the pornography play the teaching role.”
Li points out that wherever a sexual
bullying incident occurs at school, the
public tends to shift focus from the
core problem. “The bullies, to some
extent, are also ‘victims.’ We can’t just
condemn individual juvenile offenders.
More importantly, we should focus on
the institutional challenges behind the
cases – the crux of the Datong sex bully-
ing incident is that Chinese children and
teens are in desperate need of proper
sex education,” Li stressed.
Absent from Class
While Chinese society no longer
treats sex as a taboo in public discourse
as it did decades ago, conservative and
outdated views persist when it comes to
sex education for children and teens.
In 1987, Wu Jieping, vice chairman
of the China Association for Science
and Technology, points out in an essay
that many Chinese adults believe that
knowledge about sex can be acquired
naturally without the need for explicit
education. Moreover, another prevailing
opinion is that the earlier teens know
about sex, the more likely they are to
Ge Yeyi, a professionally trained sex education teacher, uses props to teach children knowledge about
sex, Cixi, Zhejiang Province, August 23, 2020 (Photo by VCG)
engage in sexual behavior.
Hu Zhen argues that even today, the
majority of society still holds these opin-
ions. Many parents and teachers who
oppose sex education still fear that it
will awaken desires in innocent children
and teens.
These deeply ingrained attitudes hin-
der the development of sex education.
As of June 2021, the concept of “sex
education” had not been clearly men-
tioned in any official document issued
by Chinese educational authorities.
For a long time, most schools in Chi-
na did not offer a dedicated sex educa-
tion course for students. Instead, related
topics, particularly those concerning
puberty, would be scattered through-
out courses such as physical education,
health, psychology, science, biology, mo-
rality and law. These topics were often
taught by teachers without any specific
background in sex education.
The shortage of professional sex ed-
ucation teachers is another challenge.
Gou Ping, a psychology professor at
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
Chengdu University and director of
the Adolescent Sex Education Popu-
larization Center of Sichuan Province,
points out that a qualified sex educa-
tion teacher should possess interdisci-
plinary knowledge encompassing fields
including sexuality, anthropology, soci-
ology, anatomy, medicine and psychol-
ogy. Moreover, an ideal sex education
teacher should be open-minded, toler-
ant and willing to discuss sex-related
issues with teens without bias or ste-
reotypes. These qualities require pro-
fessional training.
As of 2010, only Chengdu University
offers a sex education program as part of
a teaching degree. The number of grad-
uates remains relatively small. “Since
there are no dedicated positions for sex
education teachers in primary or junior
high schools in China, training a large
number of professionals seems point-
less,” said Yang Rong, a Chinese teacher
at Wenchuan No.1 Primary School in Si-
chuan Province, who has been promot-
ing sex education for years.

44
 On June 1, 2021, China for the first
time included “sex education” in the
Law on the Protection of Minors. The
revision explicitly requires kindergar-
tens and schools to provide age-appro-
priate sex education.
Although a positive step, two years
have passed with no substantial prog-
ress. “Everyone says the spring of sex
education has come. But I still can’t feel
the slightest touch of a spring wind,”
Yang Rong told our reporter.
Tang Kun, an associate professor at
Tsinghua University’s Vanke School of
Public Health, told NewsChina that al-
though the law has been enacted, the
lack of implementation policies makes
it difficult for educational institutions to
put the ideas into practice.
“Sex education involves a compre-
hensive and complex course system.
Generations of Chinese have grown up
in an environment devoid of sex educa-
tion. It’s unrealistic to expect teachers
and parents to fully understand how to
teach kids and teens about sex,” said
Tang, who is also co-chair of the World
Health Organization Advisory Group
for Adolescent Health Metrics.
From Gou Ping’s perspective, if sex
education continues to rely solely on
the efforts of civil organizations, it will
remain in a pilot stage and scattered
among a few schools, unless authorities
mandate compulsory classes.
One key problem she encounters
when promoting sex education in
schools in Sichuan Province is the in-
consistent attitudes of school adminis-
trators. A sex education class is likely
to be canceled if there is a change in
principal.
“We often say that ‘there would be
no difficulty if the principal doesn’t say
‘no,’” Gou said, highlighting that after
all these years, very few schools have
consistent sex education programs.
Evolving Values
A study by Beijing Normal University
examined and summarized 82 research
papers on China’s sex education issued
from 2000 and 2019. The study found
that most of the existing sex education
programs in schools focus on physi-
ological aspects of sex, such as puberty
development, reproductive health and
HIV prevention. Such content fails to
address contemporary teenagers’ grow-
ing curiosity and need for knowledge
about love, healthy relationships, gen-
der traits and sexual orientation.
In response to this gap, Zhang
Yaohua, director of an education charity
organization in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province,
launched the “Niwo Mates” project in
2016, which provides sex education
courses for children and teens aged 6
to 18. The courses have been taught in
3,500 primary and secondary schools to
more than 3.5 million students.
Zhang Yaohua told NewsChina that
today, questions about sexual orienta-
tion and gender traits concern teenage
students most, such as “Am I homo-
sexual?” and “Is it normal that I have a
thing for a same-sex friend?” However,
many teachers in China consider these
questions “abnormal, wrong and some-
thing not to bother with.”
Zhang Xiao has also observed this
change. She said that a decade earlier,
most students had very limited knowl-
edge of sex. They wanted to know how
they were born, and girls had questions
about menstruation. Today, teenagers’
knowledge of sex has expanded beyond
physiological health, with many already
aware of the details of sexual behaviors.
She argues that while this phenom-
enon is inevitable as society develops,
it has occurred earlier in China than
was expected. “Many teachers prefer to
ignore it and gloss over changes in the
students’ attitudes. It’s because they
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
45
can’t accept the changes themselves. It’s
closely related to their own sexual val-
ues and morals,” Zhang told NewsChina.
As the public becomes more aware of
juvenile sex assault cases, parents and
teachers recognize the importance of
sex education. But experts have voiced
concerns that sex education is be-
ing narrowed down to “sexual assault
prevention.”
Li Hongyan stressed that solely focus-
ing on sexual assault prevention may
not be effective and could even have
adverse effects. Overemphasizing pro-
tection may mislead minors’ perception
of sexual behaviors and reduce sex edu-
cation to “abstinence education.”
“Teaching children to say ‘no’ to cer-
tain offensive sexual behaviors is not
enough. When a child feels uncomfort-
able about certain acts, it’s still not easy
for them to say ‘no.’ It seems easy to ar-
ticulate this word, but in fact, to clearly
say ‘no’ is based on one’s clear under-
standing of self – self-esteem, self-rights
and self-awareness, and also a clear un-
derstanding of boundaries.
If they are being harassed, children
must trust their feelings and never
doubt or negate themselves. Teaching
children to avoid perpetrating certain
sexual assault behaviors is far from
enough,” Li stressed.
Hu Zhen explained that although
teenagers’ knowledge about sex has ex-
panded, their sexual values and moral-
ity have not improved accordingly. For
instance, many teens do not understand
the importance of “respect” when it
comes to sex.
“A core value of a healthy sex educa-
tion is ‘every individual’s body should
be respected,’” she said, adding that
establishing ethical and unbiased sexual
values and attitudes is crucial for future
educators in helping students develop a
healthy understanding of sex.
CULTURE
Profile
Career Climax
Renowned as a pioneer of sexology, Pan Suiming talks
with NewsChina about his extensive academic career, his
research on China’s underground sex industry and the
evolving attitudes toward sexuality
By Li Jing
“
People often fail to realize that
our sexual lives are heavily in-
fluenced by socially constructed
preconceptions. Society quietly
instills notions of obscenity, ugliness
and immorality as we mature. Many
people’s greatest regret in life is not a
lack of indulgence in lust, but rather
the absence of blissful, carefree and
ecstatic sexual experiences.”
These words were penned by Pan
Suiming, one of China’s most esteemed
sexologists, in his latest Chinese-
language book The Trail of Wind.
The 73-year-old founder and former
dean of the Institute of Sexuality and
Gender at the Department of Sociol-
ogy at the Renmin University of China
in Beijing has made groundbreaking
contributions to the field: He trail-
blazed the first sex-related courses in
Chinese colleges during the mid-1980s,
surveyed the gay communities of four
major cities in 1992, conducted field
research into the country’s sex indus-
try, and carried out four unprecedented
nationwide surveys on people’s chang-
ing attitudes toward sex over a span of
15 years.
In his autobiography The Trail of Wind
released in September, Pan encapsu-
lates his research since the 1980s, and
his recent observations and thoughts.
Sexual discourse has long been
taboo in China’s public sphere, and
sexology continues to remain on the
fringes of the country’s social sciences.
“Perhaps only an unorthodox student
who hadn’t received any academic
training before like me would be crazy
enough to study sex. Formally trained
students would never risk their careers
to set foot in such a field,” Pan told
NewsChina.
He addresses the importance of the
study of sex in his latest book, where
Pan writes it represents “the conver-
gence and interpenetration of various
disciplines, offering humans the key
to unlocking the deepest secrets of
self-knowledge.”
‘Brazen-Faced’
Born in 1950 into a family of civil
servants, Pan Suiming experienced a
significant upheaval in his early life. At
9, his father was politically persecuted
during the Anti-Rightist Campaign
(1957-1959) and subjected to unfair
treatment. Like many urban teenag-
ers during the Cultural Revolution
(1966-1976), Pan became a “sent-down
youth,” assigned to work on a farm
in China’s northeastern province of (Top) The Trail of Wind (2023）
Heilongjiang. (Above) Existence and Absurdity: A Survey of
On the farm, the only sex-related China’s Underground Sex Industry (1999)
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
46
 material Pan encountered were local
folk songs with implicit sexual innu-
endos. “That was my first sex course,”
he said.
Despite his rough academic start,
Pan enrolled in Northeast Normal
University in Changchun, Jilin Province
to study ancient and medieval world
history in 1981. The college boasted an
impressive collection of Western and
English-language books, to which Pan
was given access as a post-graduate
student. It was during this time that
he first came across scholarly works on
sexual culture and customs, sparking
his interest in the field.
As a father to an infant, Pan believed
he already had a reasonable under-
standing of sex. However, the texts
he encountered in the early 1980s
drastically altered his perception and
career. One that left a profound impact
Above: Social on him was Sexual Life of Primitive People
Research on
Methods: (1921) by German anthropologist Hans
Quantitative Fehlinger. “Its descriptions of the di-
and Qualitative
Sociological Studies verse range of human sexual behaviors
in Chinese Contexts exceeded my wildest imagination,” he
(2023)
said.
Left: The Change of Pan began jotting down notes on
Sex: The Sexual Life of
Chinese People in the cards for a secondary research project.
21st Century (2013) These cards, totaling 5,100, became the
foundation for his first book, Mysterious
Fire: Sociological History of Sex (1988).
Unfortunately, the meticulously col-
lected cards, sealed in a plastic bag,
disappeared from his home after a
thief mistook it for a sack of money.
“That might be the first time I taught
someone about sex,” Pan joked.
As Renmin University’s newest his-
tory lecturer in 1985, Pan took on his
first groundbreaking endeavor – intro-
ducing an undergraduate history course
on sex and sexuality. Mindful of avoid-
ing any potential offense, he carefully
chose the course title: “The Develop-
ment of Foreign Sexual Concepts.”
The course stirred up controversy
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

47
CULTURE
from the outset. Certain faculty mem-
bers and school administrators
disapproved, and forced Pan to cancel
it within a month of its launch. Some
of his earliest students criticized him
as “brazen-faced.” Faced with such
opposition, Pan contemplated giving
up. However, Li Wenhai, dean of the
history department, openly praised the
course in front of the entire faculty and
encouraged Pan to continue.
As the years passed, Pan’s sexology
course increased in popularity, and it
was opened to all students as a general
course. Pan dedicated nearly two de-
cades to teaching sex and sexuality at
the university. “The students who have
taken my course already outnumber the
disciples of Confucius,” Pan wrote in
The Trail of Wind.
‘Many Called Me Papa’
Pan’s second achievement was even
more daring. In 1997, he embarked on
extensive field research on the under-
ground sex industry in South China’s
Guangdong Province. He visited beauty
salons, karaoke bars, bathhouses and
massage parlors, where he engaged in
deep conversations with sex workers
over the course of several months.
To fully grasp their reality, Pan
emphasized the importance of natural
conversations rather than simply asking
questions. “You couldn’t pretend to be
a customer. That would be meaning-
less, because if you did, all you would
get were professional performances,”
Pan said.
Pan discovered that these women,
who led monotonous lives within a
confined world, were primarily con-
cerned with whether a person would
harm them or not. Initially uninterest-
ed in his research or its purpose, they
gradually opened up to Pan, sharing
stories about their relationships, family,
children and their innermost thoughts
and feelings.
Due to the age gap, they regarded
him as a mentor. “Many called me
‘papa.’ Some even called me ‘grand-
papa,’” he told NewsChina.
From 1998 to 2010, Pan and his team
conducted field research in 23 red-light
districts, conducting interviews with
1,132 sex workers, 239 madams and
pimps, and 212 clients. He subse-
quently published eight influential
books on China’s sex industry, includ-
ing Existence and Absurdity: A Survey of
China’s Underground Sex Industry (1999),
Subsistence and Experience: Investigation on
an Underground Red-light District (2000)
and I’m on the Spot: A Field Survey Note on
Sex Sociology (2017).
Through this decade-spanning re-
search, Pan formulated conclusions that
challenge public stereotypes about sex
workers. In his classes, he often asked
his students: “What is the biggest risk
[for a male researcher] conducting
field research in red-light districts?”
Common responses included concerns
of being blackmailed, scammed or even
seduced. Only once did a young male
student provide the answer he was
looking for – the greatest danger is that
“the sex workers will very likely fall in
love with you.”
Pan told NewsChina that most sex
workers are never treated as equals
by men, let alone respected. In many
instances, they would shed tears simply
from having a decent conversation with
an understanding researcher free from
bias. “In their world, even their fathers
or brothers never treat them as equals
like this,” Pan said.
In 2007, Pan introduced the theory of
“subjective constructionism” based on
his extensive research on sex work-
ers and the country’s sex industry.
Previous studies had often treated
sex workers as objects to be observed
by researchers rather than dynamic
individuals who actively construct their
own lives and environments. Pan em-
phasized that they possess their own
voice and agency to freely speak about
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
48
their true feelings and inner desires to
actively shape their lives and influence
their surroundings.
“If I hadn’t engaged in communica-
tion with them for such an extended
period, I wouldn’t have been able to
discover and comprehend the essence
of ‘subjective constructionism,’” Pan
told NewsChina.
He highlighted the importance for
researchers in any humanities or social
sciences discipline to first understand
this subjective agency. “Subjects have
the capacity to construct their own
identities and the world around them,”
Pan said.
‘Historic Opportunity’
Pan said that he was fortunate to
catch “a historic opportunity.” China’s
transition from a planned economy
during the reform and opening-up pol-
icy, which launched in 1978, brought
about significant social changes.
Over the four decades since then,
China witnessed significant shifts in
values regarding sex, love and marriage.
However, few could accurately express
to what extent. Most are limited to
speculation based on their personal
experiences, observations of others,
and the internet.
Pan and his team conducted
quantitative surveys on the changes
in Chinese people’s sexual values and
behaviors from 2000 to 2015, offering
concrete statistics to further shed light
on these issues.
Pan and his research team at Renmin
University completed four random
sampling surveys in 2000, 2006, 2010
and 2015. For better historical com-
parison, the surveys used the same
sampling method, questionnaire and
locations. Each survey interviewed
5,000 respondents aged 18 to 61 from
25 provinces and municipalities, with
an equal distribution of males and
females. In total, the four surveys
contained 23,147 samples.
 The results yielded interesting find-
ings. In 2000, 23 percent of married
men admitted to having extramarital
affairs, a number that significantly
increased to nearly 60 percent in 2015.
Similarly, the percentage of married
women engaging in extramarital affairs
rose from less than 10 percent in 2000
to 33 percent in 2015.
Additionally, Pan’s statistics show
a growing trend among young Chi-
Pan Suiming
nese who choose to remain single or
embrace a celibate lifestyle. In 2000,
among the interviewed group aged
27-35, only 2.5 percent of men and 0.7
percent of women reported never hav-
ing engaged in sexual activity. In 2015,
the number increased to nearly 12
percent of men, five times the figure in
2000. Similarly, the number of celibate
women increased 14-fold, with nearly
10 percent reporting no sexual experi-
ence. Pan speculated that if a similar
survey were conducted in 2020, these
numbers would double those of 2015.
Some critics argue that Pan’s studies
lack explanations for the observed
trends, describing the “what” without
providing the “why.” Others have
criticized his work for lacking “meta-
physical reflection.”
Pan acknowledges his drawbacks and
limitations as a scholar. “My academic
training was inconsistent. I didn’t do
an undergrad degree. I was a middle
school graduate who went directly to
a post-graduate history program. After
that, I didn’t pursue a doctorate.”
He admits to not reading the work of
Sigmund Freud until his post-graduate
studies, and his disinterest in Freudian
theories like the Oedipus complex or
the Jungian Electra complex.
“I always felt the Freud complexes
were so pretentious,” Pan said.
According to Pan, Han Chinese
culture lacks a written “philosophy of
sex,” something he hopes later genera-
tions can achieve.
“Han culture has dealt with the
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
49
issues of sex in an excessively secu-
lar and private way. […] The Taoist
philosophy of yin (femininity) and yang
(masculinity) is overly general and
vague, and cannot influence people’s
specific opinions and values on sex.
To better understand sex, it is of
great necessity to have a ‘philosophy
of sex.’ But since I am not inclined
toward philosophical thinking, I hope
the younger generations will further de-
velop these aspects of sexual studies,”
Pan told NewsChina.
Despite the concerns over falling
birth rates in China, sex sociol-
ogy generally remains a marginalized
discipline. Pan has yet to receive any
academic prizes or social honors. “Even
within Chinese sociology, studying
sex is considered interesting but not
important,” Pan said.
In 2012, Pan faced penalties for alleg-
edly “swindling State scientific funds”
for failing to provide formal invoices for
payments made during interviews with
sex workers. He was eventually de-
moted and forced to retire early. Some
sympathized with Pan, explaining that
it is almost impossible for researchers
who interview sex workers to obtain
formal invoices, as the transactions
are typically conducted informally to
protect the workers’ anonymity. Pan
retired from his position as dean of the
Institute of Sexuality and Gender in
2013.
Pan has largely withdrawn from the
intellectual community and rarely gives
public lectures. But he continues to ob-
serve and study the evolving landscape
of sex in Chinese society, documenting
his new observations and thoughts in
his latest book.
“The Trail of Wind, as the title sug-
gests, is a fleeting gust of wind from a
past era. I have documented the traces
left by that fleeting wind to prove its
existence. As for the present and the
future, I have no words to offer,” Pan
said.
CULTURE
Archaeology
Sharing the Past
Chinese archaeologists, along with their Central Asian counterparts, are
exploring the Silk Road to unlock some of the greatest mysteries of ancient
migrations and kingdoms
By Ni Wei and Wang Yan
E
steemed archaeologists Pro-
fessor Bakyt Amanbayeva
from Kyrgyzstan and Profes-
sor Ahmadali Askarovich
Askarov from Uzbekistan have known
each other since the 1980s, when
both were citizens of the former So-
viet Union. Thanks to an archaeological
expedition held in late September in
Fergana, Uzbekistan in 2023, in which
researchers from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan and China participated, the
two old friends were able to hold their
customary animated discussions about
recent findings in Central Asia.
On the afternoon of September 24,
2023, the pair and their old friend,
archaeologist Isomiddinov Muham-
madjon from Uzbekistan, sat beneath a
poplar tree in the Fergana countryside
to reminisce. They told NewsChina they
had been unable to meet for a long
time, due to closed borders between the
two countries. Professor Wang Jianxin,
chief scientist of the Silk Road Archaeo-
logical Cooperation Research Center at
Northwest University in Xi’an, Shaanxi
Province, also numbered among the
group. He said that joint investigations
and academic exchanges conducted in
Fergana among the four countries pro-
vided a welcome opportunity to reunite
these old friends from Central Asia.
When the team arrived at the heri-
tage site of the city of Akhsikent, also
in Fergana, Uzbekistan, Professor Bakyt
Amanbayeva spied her old classmate
from the former Institute of Archaeol-
ogy of the Soviet Academy of Sciences
Anarbaev Abdulhamid, lead archae-
ologist at the Akhsikent site. The two
greeted each other with a big hug. “We
can’t meet often, but we keep in touch
regularly,” Amanbayeva said.
The Fergana Valley, in the border re-
gions where eastern Uzbekistan, north-
ern Tajikistan and southwestern Kyr-
gyzstan meet, is today one of the most
densely populated regions in Central
Asia. The ancient city of Akhsikent dates
back to the second century BCE and
was one of the largest cities of ancient
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
50
An excavation site of the ancient city of
Akhsikent, Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan,
September 2023 (Photo by Ni Wei)
Fergana in the state of Davan, and a
major settlement along the Silk Road.
The pride of Davan was thoroughbred
horses, famed throughout Central Asia.
Two of China’s most important histori-
cal figures, Han Dynasty (203 BCE-220
CE) explorer Zhang Qian, who died in
114 BCE, and Tang Dynasty (618-907)
monk and scholar Xuanzang (602-664)
visited the valley. The abundance of ar-
chaeological sites attracts archaeologists
from all over the world.
Today, despite the barriers caused by
modern national borders, international
archaeologists are collaborating to un-
cover the rich archaeological past of
Central Asia.
Rich Findings
The many modern boundary disputes
between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan resulted in enclaves and
boundary villages which exacerbated
jurisdiction challenges and caused long-
term conflicts. Squabbles over natural
resources caused 32 border conflicts
between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in
2014 alone.
In 2011, a team of researchers led by
China’s Northwest University planned
to investigate sites in Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan, but found there was no cross-
border transportation between the two.
It was not until 2018 that the three
neighbors opened their borders and
granted visa-free access for their citi-
zens. That year, academic cooperation
started to flourish. Northwest Univer-
sity had by then established bilateral ar-
chaeological cooperation with all three
countries. Professor Wang invited ar-
chaeologists from all three countries to
Xi’an in a bid to increase international
communication.
As an ice-breaking gathering, it al-
lowed researchers from the four coun-
tries to discuss opportunities for re-
search, and they decided on the Fergana
Valley as first step.
In 2019, Professor Bakyt Amanbayeva
from Kyrgyzstan coordinated a joint
research expedition between the four
countries to survey Osh State in the Fer-
gana Valley in Kyrgyzstan. There was a
second multilateral research expedition
program in September 2023, as well as a
two-day forum at Fergana State Univer-
sity in Fergana, Uzbekistan.
The ancient Fergana Valley was a cen-
ter of silk production. Archaeologists
have unearthed rich findings, including
Han Dynasty bronze coins and mirrors
and silk, proof of the close connections
between tribes in Central Asia and Han
peoples.
On September 26, 2023, archaeolo-
gists from the four countries arrived at
the ancient settlement of Mingtepa,
some 30 kilometers from the city of
Andijan in Uzbekistan. The 2,000-year-
old fortress is surrounded by farmlands.
Villagers and a large herd of black goats
passed by, stirring up a dust cloud. The
government has fenced off the main
area of the site and designated it as a
cultural preservation site.
Chinese archaeologists have been
working with their Uzbek counterparts
at Mingtepa since 2012. Major discover-
ies include the foundations of the outer
city walls and the remains of the in-
ner city’s road system and workshops.
The entrance is flanked by two huge
mounds with a gap in the middle. Ac-
cording to Liu Tao, associate researcher
of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences, it was the
fortification’s west gate.
The Mingtepa site spreads over 270
hectares, four times the area of the
Forbidden City in Beijing. Previously
thought to have been just a garrison, it
was discovered that it was also a city, the
largest in the Fergana Valley at the time.
Some scholars speculate that Ming-
tepa might be the famous Ershi, capital
of the ancient state of Davan, where the
Fergana horses were bred. However,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
have all claimed they are home to an-
cient Ershi.
“The academic circle has yet to reach
a consensus on where Ershi really
was. Unless we can sit down together
to discuss it, we can only talk from a
single perspective,” Wang Jianxin told
NewsChina.
During the recent joint field trip, de-
spite scholars from different countries
speaking different languages, as the
reporter observed, they all diligently
discussed even trivial details of findings
with the help of translators.
International Digs
Wang, 70, first visited Central Asia
over a decade ago, just as a tourist. At
that time, no Chinese archeological
team had ever conducted an interna-
tional dig. In the years since, he has
visited most of the major sites in the re-
gion, in pursuit of his passion – proof of
the fate of a loose nomadic tribe known
as the Yuezhi, who lived in northwest
China in the first millennium BCE.
The first recorded mentions of the
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
51
Yuezhi come in the Records of the Grand
Historian by Han historian Sima Qian,
written around the late 2nd century
BCE, and the Book of Han, finished in the
year 111. The accounts place the Yuezhi
around the Hexi Corridor, in today’s
northwestern Gansu Province.
In the 2nd century BCE, the Yuezhi
were attacked and defeated by a no-
madic tribe called the Xiongnu, living
in what is roughly Mongolia today, and
considered to be the forebears of the
Mongolian people. Initially the stronger
group, in 176 BCE the Yuezhi suffered
a huge defeat at the hands of the Xion-
gnu. The survivors split into two groups
and set off on a westward migration.
The larger group – the Greater Yuezhi
– went to Central Asia, and the Lesser
Yuezhi trekked southwest to the edge of
the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Their arrival
in all areas displaced existing tribes,
especially in Central Asia, and changed
the course of history.
In 138 BCE, the seventh Han Em-
peror Wudi (156 BCE–86 BCE) dis-
patched envoy Zhang Qian to search for
the Greater Yuezhi in the west, hoping
to unite with them against the Xion-
gnu. Returning to the Han capital of
Chang An (now Xi’an) in 126 BCE, he
reported that the Yuezhi were no longer
interested in fighting the Xiongnu. Yet,
his mission was not a failure. He went
as far as Bactria, which had been part
of the ancient Persian empire, located
in northern Afghanistan and southern
Uzbekistan. He brought back informa-
tion on the new lands, and the impact of
his trip echoed down the ages, initiating
the emergence and formation of the Silk
Road from China to the Mediterranean
region.
The Greater Yuezhi settled in Central
Asia and regained their strength, dis-
placing already settled tribes. They con-
tinued to communicate with the Han.
While 17 bamboo slips excavated in the
1990s from the Xuanquanzhi Ruins, an
ancient posthouse in Gansu Province,
CULTURE

mentioned the Greater Yuezhi, not

much hard evidence of them or the
route of the Greater Yuezhi Westward
Migration has ever been found.
Serious research on the Greater
Yuezhi in Central Asia only began in
earnest in the last 50 years, at first by
researchers from Europe, the US and
Japan. Wang Jianxin, who first heard
about the Yuezhi from visiting Japanese
archaeologist Takayasu Higuchi in 1991,
has made it his life’s work to uncover
the mystery, first by tracing their route
in western China, then expanding the
search to Central Asia.
The Tianshan Mountains cross the
Eurasian continent, spanning China,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
from east to west. More than two-thirds
are in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region, the Eastern Tianshan, with
the Western Tianshan range extending
across Central Asian countries. Top: The site of the west gate of the ancient city of Mingtepa in Uzbekistan discovered by a joint Sino-
In the 2000s, Wang concentrated on Uzbek archaeology team in 2012 (Photo by Ni Wei)
investigating western China, pioneering Above: Archaeologist Professor Bakyt Amanbayeva debates with his friend Professor Ahmadali
research into ancient nomadic tribes, Askarovich Askarov at Fargona Davlat University, Uzbekistan, September 2023 (Photo by Ni Wei)
and discovering hundreds of settlement
sites, upending the notion that nomadic
tribes were always on the move.
After the China-led Belt and Road sites believed to belong to the nomadic unearthing a human bone. It belonged
Initiative kicked off in 2013, with an Kangju tribe, regarded as the second- to an ancient tomb. They had found the
announcement by Chinese President Xi most important after the Yuezhi. The Rabat site in Boysun city, Uzbekistan.
Jinping in Kazakhstan, funding for inter- discovery, which was a sensation among The Rabat site is located in the north-
national digs became available to Wang. international researchers, allowed ar- ern Bactria area between Uzbekistan
By the end of 2013, Wang was cooper- chaeologists to shift the area of research and Tajikistan, and the Greater Yuezhi
ating with the Institute of Archaeology to the south as the Kangju were thought were the dominant tribe there. The
at Uzbekistan’s Academy of Sciences to have lived north of the Yuezhi. lands were formerly the Greco-Bactria
and had established a joint Sino-Uzbek At the end of 2016, the Central Asian Kingdom after Alexander the Great con-
team to investigate sites in the Western Archaeological Team were researching quered it in 329 BCE.
Tianshan. the Surkhan Darya area, the most south- Due to the work conducted by the
In 2015, his team finally found an erly part of Uzbekistan. On the last day, Central Asian archaeological team, the
ancient site they concluded belonged to Liang Yun, the excavation leader and a ancient Central Asian territories that
the Kangju some 20 kilometers south- professor at Northwest University, no- Zhang Qian visited were found and con-
west of Samarkand in Uzbekistan. There ticed a gray ashy soil layer in the river- firmed. Apart from these archaeological
they found six tombs and inhabited bed. Using his trowel, he sifted the soil, achievements, Chinese archaeologists
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

52

Mukhtarova Gulmira Railovna, director of the
Issyk State Historical and Cultural Reserve-
Museum of Kazakhstan, stands in front of the
reconstructed Issyk Golden Statue discovered
at an ancient tomb in Kazakhstan in 1970
(Photo by Ni Wei)
have set up cooperative ties with their
counterparts in Central Asian countries.
The building up of mutual trust be-
tween and among the various sides in
Central Asia promote joint archaeologi-
cal efforts in a wider platform.
What to Leave Behind
According to Mukhtarova Gulmira
Railovna, director of the Issyk State His-
torical and Cultural Reserve-Museum
of Kazakhstan, an archaeological coop-
eration project between Kazakhstan and
China has been going on at an excavation
site called Rahat at the northern foot of
the Tianshan Mountains in Kazakhstan
for seven years. Relics from the ancient
site along the Silk Road date back from
2,400 to 1,400 years ago. “When the
Chinese archaeologists find something,
they say in Russian, ‘stone, stone!’ We
can speak some simple Chinese too,”
Railovna said, emphasizing that what is
important is mutual reference of work-
ing methods and perspectives. “For
example, Chinese archaeologists attach
great importance to the strata, and they
identified nine cultural layers at the
Rahat site. Stratigraphy, a commonly
adopted method in Chinese archaeol-
ogy, has played an important role at
Rahat so far,” Railovna said.
While Central Asia has an abundance
of archaeological resources, researchers
are in short supply. According to Aman-
bayeva, there are only 20 archaeologists
in Kyrgyzstan, and only in the capital
city of Bishkek can one major in archae-
ology at university. This is why so much
research has been conducted by foreign
archaeologists. France, Britain, Japan,
South Korea, Russia and more have
sent teams. In the Soviet Union period,
archaeology in Central Asia was domi-
nated by institutions from Moscow.
Amanbayeva said Russia’s interest
in Central Asian archaeology has dwin-
dled. “We used to have close contact
with Russian archaeologists, but then
suddenly the contact stopped since they
could not get funding. Instead, funding
and projects from our country have in-
creased significantly,” she said. While
cooperating with excavations in Central
Asia, China is supporting the training of
archaeologists.
Yusufov Bakhodir, 35, from Uzbeki-
stan, is now a PhD candidate in archae-
ology at Northwestern University in
Xi’an. According to Wang Jianxin, Chi-
na’s archaeological cooperation is not
about what to take away, but what to
leave behind. “From the second half of
the 19th century to the first half of the
20th century, China suffered looting by
foreign countries. Many other countries
in Central Asia had similar experiences.
When these countries work together in
archaeological research, we will never
forget the history. Our primary principle
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
53
during the joint archaeological program
is to respect the historical and cultural
heritage of the country in which we con-
duct research,” Wang said. “Our work
must be based on the source country
itself, and our purpose is to fulfill aca-
demic studies based on sharing rather
than robbing or disputing.”
Amanbayeva said Chinese archae-
ologists are diligent and professional.
“Working with our Chinese counter-
parts is very simple, and they get to the
heart of what we care about. We build
up friendly relationships quickly,” she
said.
Over the past 10 years, China has
conducted exchanges and cooperation
with countries along the Belt and Road
routes in the field of cultural relics, car-
ried out 44 joint archaeological projects
with 24 countries including Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emir-
ates, and 11 protection and restoration
of historic sites projects in six countries,
including Uzbekistan and Cambodia.
Since 2023, Wang’s team has started
seeking archaeological cooperation with
Turkmenistan and Iran, and he expects
they can proceed with excavations in the
two countries in 2024. Cooperation ar-
eas and projects with Iran will focus on
the Silk Road heritage and archaeology
in northeast Iran, in a program initially
lasting three years. “We are also observ-
ing the security situation in Afghani-
stan, which is in the Bactria region,”
Wang said.
The exploration of the Greater Yuezhi
continues. In summer 2023, Wang car-
ried out research in Mongolia. In Yiwu,
Xinjiang, an archaeological team from
Northwest University found a large
Yuezhi tomb, which Wang believes
could be the first tomb of a Yuezhi ruler
ever to be discovered.
INTERVIEW
Wushu
Fight for Recognition
Martial arts expert Anthony Goh on how competitive wushu can expand its
reach to a wider global audience and gain Olympic recognition
By Yu Ruidong
C
hinese wushu – better
known as kung fu – has long
captured the imagination of
the West, from Bruce Lee
and Shaolin monks to Kung Fu Panda and
the genre of martial arts fantasy novels
known as wuxia.
Despite its immense popularity,
wushu has yet to become a widespread
international sport – or is widely under-
stood as a martial art. In its competitive
form, wushu integrates various forms of
traditional and modern Chinese martial
arts, including Shaolin kung fu and tai
chi, as well as lesser-known disciplines
such as the southern Chinese style of
hung gar.
In an exclusive interview with China
News Service (CNS) just ahead of the
16th World Wushu Championships held
from November 16-20 in Fort Worth,
Texas, Anthony Goh, vice president of
the International Wushu Federation
(IWUF), shared his insights on how to
transform wushu from being a cultural
icon into a popular sport embraced by a
larger global community.
The biennial World Wushu Cham-
pionships is hosted by the IWUF, and
the 16th edition was organized by the
United States of America Wushu-Kung-
fu Federation (USAWKF). The last time
it was held in the US was 1995 in Balti-
more, Maryland.
Wushu is among the four new sports
included in the 2026 Dakar Youth
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
54
Olympics alongside baseball, skate-
boarding and surfing. According to the
IWUF, around 600 athletes from 52
countries and regions competed for 40
gold medals at the Fort Worth champi-
onship. The Chinese mainland ranked
first with 15 medals, followed by Viet-
nam and China’s Macao, both with 11
medals. The US team secured nine med-
als, ranking 16.
A practitioner of wushu since child-
hood, Goh is chairman of 16th WWC
Organizing Committee and president
of USAWKF Board of Directors. “The
United States has the greatest number
of wushu talents outside of China, and
as a life-long practice to promote health,
one needs no language skill to learn
it,” said Goh at a virtual press brief- immigration – the general skill level is Chinese wushu so alluring?
ing in early November, the China Daily higher in countries with large Chinese Goh: Wushu itself is both aggres-
reported. communities. sive and expressive, which are parts of
In the 1980s and 1990s, many wushu human nature. But wushu training can
CNS: During your extensive ten- practitioners in Europe and the US came bring out this nature in a disciplined
ure in promoting wushu since the first from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. way, making it an attractive expression
World Wushu Championships in 1991, Later, more professional wushu athletes of strength and beauty.
how has wushu progressed and devel- and experienced coaches came to North I personally prefer the term “mar-
oped internationally? America and other places. As some of tial art” for Chinese wushu, because
Goh: When we first organized a them were former wushu champions it is highly artistic. There are different
wushu schools, but as a system they
make the most of human biomechanics
and generate an overall power through
sophisticated movements, which is
a pretty good art. This is how wushu
works, whether it is tai chi (which looks
relaxed and slow) or hung gar (which
features powerful and fast moves).
What is so good about this? Young
people can practice kicking, punching,
grappling, and take part in fighting com-
petitions or other events. But few West-
ern martial arts are like Chinese wushu,
where one can practice from a young
age all the way up to 80 or 90 years old.
Many hung gar masters live really long
lives. I think it fits what is required for
health in several ways. First, it is a full-
Left: A wushu demonstration at the opening ceremony of the 16th World Wushu Championships, body aerobic exercise. Second, it helps
Fort Worth, Texas, US, November 16, 2023 (Photo by VCG) train practitioners’ muscles in their
Center: A father and son visit the Wong Fei-hung Memorial Hall, Foshan, Guangdong Province, upper bodies and legs. Some Chinese
November 4, 2023. Wong Fei-hung (1847-1925) was a famous kung fu practitioner (Photo by VCG) wushu styles are very good for one’s
Right: Chen Sitan, winner of the 2nd World Wushu Championships in 1993, performs tai chi in Times health, and thus worth wider promo-
Square, New York City, December 17, 2021 to mark the anniversary of the inclusion of tai chi in the tion. Certain Chinese wushu styles are
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Photo by VCG)
highly beneficial for overall well-being
and health. Therefore, it is worthy of
wushu competition in Houston around who retired before they went abroad, wider adoption and recognition.
1986, there were about 150 participants, this created major changes in the over-
which was a big deal in the wushu com- seas wushu community. These people CNS: What should be the primary
munity. In the 1990s, our competitions played a key role in promoting com- focus in wushu’s overseas promotion
were already attracting thousands of petitive wushu. Even today, the best and further globalization?
participants. That’s a big change. wushu coaches overseas are still largely Goh: The focus should revolve
I have attended every world champi- first-generation Chinese immigrants. around making it more accessible and
onship. When the first competition was Wushu’s attractiveness and competi- easier to understand and learn. While
held in 1991, the IWUF had only 38 tiveness make it something locals are wushu has unique characteristics and
member associations. Now it has mem- willing to work on. can be challenging, we can’t keep mak-
ber associations from 158 countries and ing it excessively complex. Straying
regions. CNS: Many non-Chinese athletes too far from its essence, characteristics
Wushu’s development overseas I've encountered are strongly pas- and traditions may hinder its growth.
has been closely tied to Chinese sionate about wushu. What makes The International Olympic Committee
NEWSCHINA I February 2024

55
INTERVIEW
(IOC) values sports for everyone, and
traditional wushu is a very good exam-
ple. Therefore, when promoting com-
petitive wushu, we should also consider
accessibility. There should be a balance.
If competitive wushu were to make
its way into the Olympics, it needs to
become more visually appealing, show-
casing its gracefulness and difficulty.
Compared with 30 years ago, wushu
competitions require more challenging
movements. Many of these new move-
ments involve spinning the body. This is
particularly challenging for non-Chinese
practitioners. It takes a lot of time for
them to get on par with Chinese ath-
letes. This makes promoting wushu
more challenging.
The scoring system in competitive
wushu should also be simpler, which
helps prevent cheating and gives prac-
titioners and coaches clearer direction.
CNS: Efforts to promote wushu
as an official Olympic sport have been
going on for many years. What are the
major challenges?
Goh: According to current IOC rules,
the Summer Olympic program cannot
exceed 28 major sports. Introducing a
new sport means removing an existing
one, which requires a two-thirds major-
ity vote at an IOC Session, making it
extremely difficult.
On the other hand, the IOC does
allow the host country’s organizing
committee to include specialty sports.
For example, the Paris Olympics will
feature breakdancing due to its popu-
larity among young people. Although
wushu is popular, it has yet to become
mainstream.
There are still certain issues for
wushu to overcome to go mainstream
and become an official Olympic sport.
One challenge that needs to be ad-
dressed is enhancing its visual appeal,
Anthony Goh, vice president of the International
Wushu Federation, at the fourth Pan America
Traditional Wushu Championships, Toronto, Canada,
August 5, 2023 (Photo by VCG)
which affects its promotion, commercial
value and popularization.
While traditional wushu has achieved
widespread popularity, competitive
wushu still has a long way to go. After
all, it has only been promoted for the
past 30 years or so. Competitive wushu
needs a comprehensive competition
system encompassing rules, rating
rules, venues and facilities. Currently,
not every country and region has the
capability to host a wushu event. Com-
petitive wushu is not well developed in
every country. It is not like traditional
wushu, where a single coach can go and
do all the promotion.
As a representative of the IWUF, I
have made several presentations to the
IOC for the inclusion of wushu in the
Olympics. The most memorable expe-
rience was the one in St. Petersburg,
Russia in 2013, when I was making
a presentation to the IOC Executive
Committee, and a board member asked,
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
56
“What is the difference between wushu
and kung fu?” We told her wushu is
kung fu. The fact that an influential
person like her had limited knowledge
of wushu back then highlighted the lim-
ited awareness of wushu in many coun-
tries at the time. One of the factors pro-
fessional organizations like the IOC take
into consideration when valuing a sport
is the influence of sponsors. Currently,
the IWUF’s sponsors are primarily from
China. The IOC definitely considers the
assets and liabilities wushu brings. So
we still have a long way to go.
But in my opinion, we should not
regard an official Olympic inclusion as
the sole or ultimate path for its devel-
opment. We can make wushu a healthy
and meaningful sport with broad public
participation. In a bid to help wushu
find its way into the Olympics, we
should work to include it in more com-
prehensive sports events, such as the
World University Games and the World
Games, thus increasing its influence
and reach.
CNS: What role do you think over-
seas Chinese can play in the promotion
of wushu?
Goh: Overseas Chinese can support
the sport by encouraging their children
to learn wushu, which helps to promote
it, or volunteering at wushu events.
However, we should not support any
unethical practices in traditional wushu.
We should support its development
into a healthy, scientific and educational
sport. Overseas wushu organizations
should prioritize professionalism, open-
ness and transparency, and operate in
compliance with local laws, regulations
and social customs.
This article was originally published by
W.E. TALK, a China News Service produc-
tion. Reprinted with permission from CNS

Painting
Amazing Graze
A masterpiece created nearly a millennium ago holds the distinction of being the
inaugural piece to undergo expert appraisal following the reestablishment of the
Chinese Ancient Art Appraisal Group
By Song Yimin
O
n August 31, 2023,
the Chinese Ancient
Art Appraisal Group
achieved a signifi-
cant milestone by celebrating
the 40th anniversary since it
was reestablished. The group,
composed of seven distinguished
experts from diverse disciplines,
began its journey in 1983.
In the eight years from 1983
to 1991, the Group traversed
thousands of miles to evaluate
more than 80,000 ancient Chi-
nese paintings and calligraphy
pieces. Their dedicated efforts
culminated in the creation of the
Catalog of Ancient Chinese Paintings
and Calligraphy, a comprehensive
compilation that now serves as a
valuable resource on the multi-
tude of ancient Chinese artworks
within the Chinese mainland.
In 1983, the National Cultural
Heritage Administration rein-
stated the work of the Group,
which had been interrupted for
over a decade, mainly due to the
Cultural Revolution (1966-
1976). This interim saw many
archaeological discoveries, as well as
significant donations and acquisitions,
enrich museum collections across the
country. However, the lack of a unified
A portion of the painting Grazing by the River by Qi Xu, Northern
Song Dynasty (960-1127) (Photo by VCG)
consensus regarding the authenticity,
dating and appraisal of ancient paint-
ings and calligraphy posed challenges.
Their first task was to appraise a
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
57
HISTORY
painting from the Northern
Song Dynasty (960-1127) titled
Jiangshan Fangmu Tu, or Grazing by
the River.
Landscape Masterpiece
The painting, created by Qi
Xu, portrays a picturesque
waterside scene showing 16
plowing buffalos. The artwork
captures a range of activities:
some buffalos carry herders as
they approach the shore and
drink by the water’s edge, while
others bathe or engage in playful
fights as calves chase their moth-
ers. The depictions are diverse,
vivid and captivating.
The herders have their own
variety and charm, with some
singing and others playing the
flute. In the distance, farmers
are engrossed in work while
others take a break with a game
of chess.
On the left side of the paint-
ing, there is a small bridge and
thatched cottages surrounded
by lush trees. On the right, the
lake water is clear, trees flourish,
and the mountains rise. The composi-
tion of the image is bright, orderly,
lively and well-arranged. In the upper
right corner, an inscription by Emperor
HISTORY
Wuniu Tu or Five Oxen by Tang Dynasty (618-907) painter Han Huang (Photo by VCG)
Zhangzong of the Jin (1115-1234, a
regime of the Jurchen people), Wanyan
Jing, reads: “Qi Xu’s Grazing by the
River.” This inscription serves as the
basis for identifying the work.
This painting employs a distant com-
position heavily influenced by Northern
Song artist Guo Xi, and masterfully
combines elements of genre painting,
which depicts everyday life through
ordinary people engaged in common
activities, and small landscape art.
During the Song Dynasty (960-
1279), renowned painting critic Guo
Ruoxu praised Qi Xu in his work Tuhua
Jianwen Lu, or Records of Observations
on Paintings, stating that “he excelled
in water buffalos and bull paintings,
particularly in fine paintings of flowers,
bamboo and birds.
His ingenious compositions oc-
casionally exhibit the residual style of
Dai Song.” Dai Song, a Tang Dynasty
(618-907) painter, was well-known
for his depictions of buffalos. In the
Song Dynasty, three prominent artists
specialized in painting buffalos. Qi Xu
was one of them.
Buffalos hold significant symbolic
meaning in the agricultural civilization
in the Central Plains, a major cradle of
Chinese civilization centered around
today’s Henan Province, and the afflu-
ent areas south of the Yangtze River
collectively known as Jiangnan.
Qi Xu excelled in painting buf-
falos and cats, where his mastery of
depicting animal fur is evident.
Considering inscriptions and
colophons, when their transmission is
well-documented, they can generally be
identified as genuine. In this painting,
the buffalos are depicted drinking with
lowered heads, raising their heads to
gaze, twisting their bodies, and walking
sideways – indications of exquisite
brushwork and precise modeling.
The painting was authenticated in
1983 by experts from the appraisal
group based on its artistic technique,
level of execution, and its historical
transmission. It is the sole surviving
treasure attributed to Qi Xu.
Changing Ownership
Most of China’s ancient paintings
were stored in the Forbidden City
(now the Palace Museum). During the
Republic of China era (1911-1949),
the last Qing emperor Pu Yi resided in
the palace for over a decade and had
the right to use its contents, including
paintings and calligraphy.
However, he did not have ownership
of them, nor did the government provide
timely support for the preservation of
cultural artifacts in the Forbidden City.
Pu Yi’s advisors devised a plan to
bestow these precious cultural artifacts
to his younger brother, Pu Jie. Paint-
ings and calligraphy were chosen as
they were valuable, easily portable,
and inconspicuous compared to other
items like gold, silver and jewelry. Over
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
58
1,000 paintings and calligraphy pieces
were removed from the palace, though
records vary as to the exact number.
Removing the artifacts had its
advantages. The palace was prone to
theft and fire, often perpetuated by its
resident eunuchs, resulting in the loss
of many calligraphy pieces and paint-
ings. Those taken out by Pu Yi were
fortunate to have survived.
After leaving the Forbidden City, Pu
Yi moved to Tianjin and later became
the puppet emperor of the Japanese-
controlled Manchukuo in Changchun,
Northeast China’s Jilin Province. He
relied on these artworks to maintain
his dignity and lifestyle.
In 1945, at the end of World War II,
Pu Yi left most of the artworks in his
regime’s palace, known as the Xiaobail-
ou (Small White Building), and escaped
with only a small portion. Today, it is
known as the Palace Museum of the
Manchurian Regime in Changchun.
The most valuable part of these
artworks, numbering over 260 pieces,
were said to have been carried out by
Pu Yi himself. He intended to take
them to Shenyang, Liaoning Province
and escape to Japan by plane.
However, Soviet Red Army troops
occupied Shenyang airport just as
the plane was about to take off. Pu Yi
and his associates were arrested, and
the artworks were confiscated. They
remained in China and were eventually
handed over to the Northeast Museum,
known today as the Liaoning Provincial
Museum.
As a result, ancient calligraphy and
paintings from the Qing Dynasty
(1644-1911) can be found in three
main collections: the Palace Museum
in Beijing, the Palace Museum in
Taipei (transferred by the Nationalist
government to Taiwan), and the Liaon-
ing Provincial Museum in Shenyang.
Some paintings and calligraphy that
initially were in the Liaoning Provincial
Museum have since been transferred
to the Palace Museum in Beijing,
including the famous Northern Song
painting Qingming Shanghe Tu, or Along
the River During the Qingming Festival, by
Zhang Zeduan.
The artworks that Pu Yi took to
Shenyang were few compared to those
left in Changchun. In the rush, dozens
of crates containing calligraphy and
paintings were abandoned in the pal-
ace of the Manchurian Regime. Pu Yi’s
guards seized some of them, and many
were later sold in markets in northeast
China and Beijing. Some ended up in
the hands of Nationalist Party officials.
Qi Xu’s Grazing by the River was
among the works that remained in
Changchun. It was acquired by Zhou
Juemin, commander of the Nationalist
25th Army Group. After the founding
of the People’s Republic of China in
1949, Zhou’s name was included on
the list of war criminals.
In 1983, Zhou’s wife, Li Qianyu,
donated the painting to the Palace Mu-
seum in Beijing – ultimately returning
it to where it came from.
Her donation coincided with the
resumption of work by the Chinese
Ancient Art Appraisal Group, making
Grazing by the River the first painting
among the 80,000 artworks the Group
examined.
Grazing by the River was unanimously
recognized as the only surviving
treasure of Qi Xu. According to the
Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings, a treatise
on painting written during the Song
Dynasty (960-1279), Qi Xu produced
44 works.
For more than a century this artwork
witnessed the turbulent changes in the
nation’s history. It is now considered
among China’s national treasures and
is prohibited from leaving the country.
On display to the public, its brilliant
radiance shines once again.

This article is a transcript of an episode

of NewsChina’s Podcast The Context.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music,
Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Deezer, Listen
Notes, Player FM, Podcast Index and RSS Feed.

NEWSCHINA I February 2024

59
OUTSIDEIN
Leshan and Dazu
Giants of the Past
The ancient statues of southwestern China are an authentic reminder of the
pinnacle of Buddhist rock carving
By Michael Jones
M
odern China has an eye-
watering number of fascinating
religious sites for pilgrims,
tourists, and locals to enjoy.
Moreover, for those who love religious statues,
China is home to a shocking number of the
world’s tallest and largest Buddhist statues.
However, despite their genuine beauty, many
of those statues are modern in nature and
construction. Even the locations that pertain
to a historic legacy have almost all been rebuilt
within living memory. However, along a rela-
tively narrow strip of land that constitutes the
east of Sichuan province, and the municipality
of Chongqing, travelers and pilgrims can find
a rich array of Buddhist attractions, includ-
ing many statues, that are genuinely ancient.
Visitors with abundant time should also visit
the numerous shrines and temples of Mount
Emei, one of China’s holiest mountains. Mean-
while those who can travel further afield can
visit the Rongxian Giant Buddha, encased in a
fascinating wooden structure to protect it from
the elements. However, for visitors
who love Buddhist statues, the most
important and interesting sites to see
are those that have been inscribed by
UNESCO on the World Heritage List.
The first, and most famous attrac-
tion for those that take an interest
in Buddhist history is the Leshan
Giant Buddha. This UNESCO world
heritage site was carved into the
hillside overlooking the confluence
of Minjiang River, Qingyi River, and
Dadu River in the 8th century. At
an impressive 71 meters, it is by
far the tallest pre-modern statue in
the world. As the statue is embed-
ded within the cliff face, directly at
the water’s edge, its true scale can
only really be appreciated from the
water. Thankfully, there are regular
boat tours for visitors to admire this
ancient wonder, provided that the
river conditions are suitable.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
60
Leshan Giant Buddha is 71
meters tall. Its ears are 7
meters long (Photo by VCG)
After seeing the statue from the
river, it is well worth taking the gentle
hike to see the statue up close and
personal. The incredible artwork,
and the ingenious use of wood and
clay for certain features, reveals the
engineering and artistic mastery of
the craftspeople who worked for
decades to complete this masterpiece.
Leshan Giant Buddha should not be
missed and is worth seeing even on
a crowded day. However, if possible,
it is well worth visiting out of season
on a weekday as it is one of the most
popular attractions in all of China.
Atop the mountain, behind the
Giant Buddha is a small temple,
washrooms, restaurant, and other
conveniences. There are a number of
walkways, which guide visitors away
from the Buddha’s head and leads
then towards the Oriental Buddhist
Theme Park. Remarkably, despite
being physically connected to the
Leshan Giant Buddha Park, the
Oriental Buddhist Theme Park
seems entirely void of the tourist
crowds and their mayhem. This
may be in part because the Oriental
Buddhist Theme Park requires an
extra ticket. It may also be because
it lacks some of the fame of its
ancient neighbor. Then again,
it might simply be because the
endless bus groups of tourists
from Chengdu often aim to visit
three or four major attractions on
each day trip and therefore lose
the opportunity to peacefully enjoy
the surroundings of anywhere
they visit.
The “theme park” itself is a
forested mountainside with a se-
ries of sculptures and statues that
range in size. The term theme park
is rather an unfortunate choice,
given its connotations in English,
as the park avoids most of the plastic
tackiness that can savage one’s enjoy-
ment of parks in China. Instead, one
can enjoy a peaceful and leisurely
stroll through a forest, and explore
some magnificent statues of Buddha
in peace, without throngs of tourists
destroying the atmosphere. Interest-
ingly the most impressive Buddha
of the entire area is arguably not the
famous Leshan Giant Buddha, but
rather the Pharmacist Buddha within
the Oriental Buddhist Theme Park.
While it may not be quite as large,
and lacks the ancient history of its
neighbor, the setting of the Pharma-
cist Buddha is dramatic enough to
elicit genuine gasps of amazement
from onlookers. As visitors inspect
the grandeur of the Pharmacist
Buddha, they discover that behind
the Buddha’s left foot there is a small,
almost hidden, entrance to a secre-
tive cave network called the Palace
of Buddhas. This extensive cave
network includes multiple “rooms”
of various sizes featuring fascinating
reliefs and statues, ranging dramati-
cally in size, scale and scope. The cave
Dazu Rock Carvings in Chongqing (Photo by
Michael Jones)
network has been cleverly designed
to ensure that visitors are never quite
aware of what they are about to
encounter next. While the carvings
within these caves clearly contain
modern influence, they are neverthe-
less a perfect extension to any day out
in the Leshan area.
Carvings for All
For those that crave the authentic-
ity of genuinely ancient Buddhist
culture there are further UNESCO
inscribed world heritage landmarks
within the region, known as the Dazu
Rock Carvings, in the municipality
of Chongqing. And though the site
is some 100 kilometers from the
downtown area, it can be reached by
high-speed rail. The carvings cover
75 protected sites, containing over
50,000 individual statues, although
they are concentrated in five loca-
tions. The carvings date as far back as
the 7th century, making some even
older than Leshan’s Giant Buddha.
The most magnificent of the carvings
is at Baodingshan. This location
includes a U-shaped valley, where
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
61
numerous carvings, statues, grottoes, shrines
and etchings stretch for over 500 meters. The
carvings range from the ornate, to the simple,
and from the miniature, to the massive. Many
depict classic themes, although the depictions
of violence and torture in hell are not for the
faint hearted. Perhaps the most magnificent
aspect of the carvings is the survival of exten-
sive colored pigment. Visitors exit the area of
the carvings through a large temple complex,
which serves to remind tourists that the site
is not just a location for gawping fascination
and social media photography, it is also an
important religious location.
There are further rock carvings at Nanshan,
Shizhuanshan, and Shimenshan, all classed
under the Dazu Rock Carvings World Heritage
Site. However, the other famous and popular
location to visit is the Dazu Rock Carvings
at Beishan. These carvings are possibly less
dramatic than those at Baodingshan, however
many are older and include fascinating tantric
and Taoist themes in addition to the Buddhist
iconography. The 300 meters of carvings are
protected by wooden roofs, which shelter them
from the elements and provide much needed
shelter for visitors. Indeed, after exploring so
many extensive displays of Buddhist culture,
one could be forgiven for craving relaxation
after a visit to Beishan. However, the most curi-
ous attraction awaits. At the exit, visitors with
a sharp eye will notice a couple of trails head-
ing up an adjacent small mountain. Clearly,
at some point one needed to pay to access
these paths. However, all that remains are the
remnants of turnstiles, which are now free. At
the top of the small hill visitors come across an
ancient pagoda, and two giant Buddhas side by
side. While these Buddhas are not the largest,
nor the most historic, the fact that they seem
to be abandoned, and the absence of other visi-
tors, makes them all the more fascinating.
Practicalities: Getting there: Leshan Giant
Buddha is easily accessible via regular high-speed
trains and a short taxi journey from Chengdu, capital of
Sichuan Province. The Dazu Rock Carvings, closer to
Chongqing, are spread over a larger area, and require
a car to get around, though the area is reached by high-
speed rail from Chongqing in 30 minutes.
ESSAY
Kindergarten Dad
By Sam Duckett
M
y daughter recently
completed her first year
in kindergarten, which
meant it was time for me
to participate in my first parent-teacher
conference. I was excited to find out how
she was doing at school, and at the same
time a little nervous. I had heard stories
about what to expect at these kinds of
events, but it’s fair to say it was com-
pletely different from my expectations.
In the UK parent-teacher conferences
are often a great opportunity to have
a one-to-one meeting with the school
faculty and reflect on how your child is
progressing. I recall my mum dreading
these meetings, as I was apparently quite
a handful.
However, upon arriving at the school
early on a Saturday morning, my body
reeling from a lack of sleep and caffeine,
I soon realized this was going to be a
completely different kind of meeting. We
all sat down in the classroom and the
teachers stood at the front of the class,
talking about their vision for our kids.
One single thought passed through my
mind – adults were not meant to sit in
seats designed for 3-5-year-olds.
During the 45 minutes, the teaching
staff explained the methods they are us- is a correct response, well done, Sam.”
ing to guide the development of our kids. Looking back, the whole experience
This comprehensive lesson went over was a wee bit patronizing, but hey, I still
everything, from etiquette and playing ended up smiling as I let out a gentle
well with others to following a routine sigh of relief.
and what to do during an emergency. Finally, the teachers asked us to write
While I had anticipated a more intimate a short summary of how we think the
approach where I could really get to grips school could improve. I felt incredibly
with how my daughter
was doing, I appreci-
ated the meticulous
The teacher paused and stared at me
work ethic of the with an intensity that I had not seen
teaching staff.
However, things since my university days. She took a
would then take a turn
as we moved on to
deep pause, I could feel my stomach
the second portion of twisting and turning like a tumble dryer,
the meeting – audi-
ence participation. and she finally said, “That is a correct
The teachers began
asking questions about
response, well done, Sam”
how to deal with
your children in various situations, and uncomfortable during this exercise, as
the parents raised their hands to offer it felt like an excuse to complain about
answers. I was already the only foreign the people you have put your trust in.
parent at the school, which meant I was The truth is, I have been really happy
always going to stick out to some degree, with how my daughter has grown since
but I knew if I didn’t step up and contrib- starting kindergarten. She has made lots
ute something, I would stick out for a far of friends, the teachers are friendly, she is
more embarrassing reason. Refusing to learning and the school food looks great.
be known as the dad who had nothing to However, the teachers insisted that we
say, my hand remained poised over the write our criticisms, so I knew I had to
desk, ready to shoot into the air as the write something. I had been impressed
teacher asked the first question. with all the new English words my
In response to how to deal with your daughter had learned at school, but I
child when they want to purchase a toy had noticed that she was mispronounc-
while you are out shopping, I raised my ing some of them. So, I requested that
hand, heard my name called out, and the school try to pay closer attention
gave a genuine answer. I simply said that to the pupils’ pronunciation, but also
“I would offer an alternative item to my prefaced my comment by mentioning
daughter, something that she actually how impressed I was with how much her
needs, and explain to her why we should vocabulary had grown.
get this instead.” The teacher paused As I arrived home, I was greeted by
and stared at me with an intensity that my wife, who was eager to know how it
I had not seen since my university days. went. I told her it went great, handed her
She took a deep pause, I could feel my all the notes I had made, told my daugh-
stomach twisting and turning like a ter well done for being a good bean, and
tumble dryer, and she finally said, “That went back to bed.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
62
Wedding Bills
By Mina Yan
G
rowing up, little girls are
brainwashed into believing
that their wedding is the
most important day of their
lives. Your “big day” as they called it.
You’re supposed to dream about it since
childhood and when that day finally ar-
rives, walk down the aisle like a princess
with all your friends and family dressed
to the nines, watching adoringly in the
audience. But real life isn’t directed by
Disney and in reality, weddings are any-
thing but the fairy tale day that we were
taught to believe. In China, weddings are
exhausting and more often than not, it’s
a money-making event not just for the
wedding planner, but also for the bride
and groom. It’s all a transaction packaged
in a white veil.
So how’s a typical wedding in China
different? First of all, in China, the
groom’s family is expected to pay for the
wedding. Weddings in China tend to be
massive events, and
the gifting culture
and local belief that In recent years some bridesmaids
the more people have even been seen wearing
come to celebrate the
more luck the couple QR codes around their necks for
will have plays a huge
part in that. In the wedding guests to scan to transfer
US, it’s common for their wedding gift money
the couple to have
a gift registry. But
in China, you bring
cash in red envelopes. In recent years
some bridesmaids have even been seen
wearing QR codes around their necks
for wedding guests to scan to transfer
their wedding gift money. Online, some
have praised this trend as embracing the
modern age and providing safety and
convenience for the couple, because who
wants to lug around a giant bag of cash
after a long day of entertaining? Others
call it tacky, comparing it to charging
an admission fee to watch a spectacle.
An average wedding can have 10-20
tables. That’s up to 200 guests. One
bride admitted to me that her guest list
for 40 tables consisted of friends, family
and acquaintances she knew would be
generous. It’s also an unspoken custom
in China that even if you can’t physically
attend someone’s wedding, your money
is expected to make an appearance.
Recently AsiaOne shared a story of a
bridezilla tracking down an ex-colleague
for her wedding money because she gave
one to him when he got married and
now he owes her one back, even though
he didn’t attend the party. Crazy, right?
Weddings are all about that cha-ching!
Moving on to the wedding photos.
In China when you arrive at the venue,
you’ll most likely see a giant poster of
the couple in their wedding attire before
you even make your way to the hall.
Here, there’s no such thing as bad luck
for the groom to see the bride in her dances performed, it’s time to make the
wedding dress before the big day so most rounds around the room and toast every
single guest. With possibly more than
100 people to toast, you’d better hope
that the newlyweds can handle their li-
quor. If they can’t, nowadays it’s become
socially acceptable for the couple to make
the round with a designated drinker. It’s
exactly what it sounds like. This person’s
role at the wedding is to take shots on
the couple’s behalf. Other couples have
admitted to having a designated bottle
of seriously watered-down liquor just for
themselves when they make their rounds
couples would take their wedding photos so that they can toast everyone without
in a studio in advance. To be frank, I passing out.
find this the most reasonable way to do While I personally opted out of putting
it. There’s already enough stress on the on a lavish party mainly for the enjoy-
wedding day, so why add to it by throw- ment of others, most couples choose to
ing a photo shoot in there too? go big. The bigger, the better. For many,
While guests are seated around their the wedding is a big day of celebra-
round tables, the couple makes their tion for the couple, but for the realists,
grand entrance on the stage with a putting on a wedding and inviting a
professional MC hosting the event and ton of guests is a business transaction
literally putting on a show for their to make back the money you’ve had to
audience. When the vows and rings have give to others over the years for their
been exchanged, speeches made, and weddings.
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
63
GOODTASTE
Blood-Based Foods for Every Type
By Mina Yan
Halloween may be over, but I’m still
feeling the Dracula vibes. I’m talking
about the bloody good food that’s readily
found in Chinese cuisine. Sound weird?
Perhaps only if you didn’t grow up with it.
I remember during one of my first
visits back to China, my family and I went
for a hot pot dinner and my mom ordered
blood tofu. For 13-year-old me, that
was not only confusing but also gross. I
didn’t know whether blood tofu was tofu
infused with blood, blood that looked
like tofu, or simply red-colored tofu. The
sheer thought that blood could coagulate
so much that it turns from a liquid to
a solid was baffling. No one bothered
explaining it to me.
Years later, after moving to China and
exploring local food scenes, I learned that
blood couldn’t just congeal into tofu. In
fact, consuming blood is super common
in China, where it can be boiled, steamed,
fried, mixed into sausages, infused into
alcohol, and sometimes even drank
straight.
REALCHINESE
shuangxiang benfu
run toward each other/requited love
Hidden love is a prominent theme in
Chinese romance novels of the 1980s
and 1990s. It portrayed the emotions
people experience when cherishing
someone in their hearts without the
other person being aware of it. How-
ever, this type of love is now less fa-
vored among today’s young generation,
who believe that a healthy relationship
must be built on shuangxiang benfu, or
“requited love.”
The term, literally “run toward each
other,” originated from the book A
When buying meat from supermar-
kets in the US, you rarely see the whole
animal (thankfully) and tend to forget
that there are a lot more parts to them
that don’t end up on the dinner table.
But in other parts of the world, meat isn’t
just purchased from supermarkets on
plastic-wrapped trays. It’s purchased at
wet markets, where it’s freshly butchered.
And you’d better believe that no farmer
is going to let the majority of their stock
to go waste just for a few prime cuts of
meat. In China, when animals are slaugh-
tered, every part of them gets turned into
food.
In Europe, animal blood is famously
consumed in sausages, where it’s mixed
with other ingredients. In China, blood
is consumed in a more raw state. No,
not drinking it straight out of an animal’s
vein. We’re not vampires here.
In China, the two most common
sanguineous foods are blood tofu, usu-
ally made from duck blood, and blood
sausages, which uses pig blood.
shuāng
Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson
Algren by French author and feminist
activist Simone de Beauvoir. In the
book, she expressed that a meeting
with a lover only holds significance
when the other has the same desire.
This was quoted by the Taiwanese TV
series Someday or One Day, which aired
on the Chinese mainland in November
2019. The phrase was picked up by
Chinese social media, where shuangx-
iang benfu means that both people must
be willing to make efforts to sustain a
NEWSCHINA I February 2024
64
It has actually been trending lately as
a home recipe because it’s a good source
of iron. Preparation is relatively simple:
combine equal parts blood and water
(or a 1:2 ratio if you’re looking for a
smoother texture), season it with shallots
and ginger, then strain the seasoning out
before giving it a quick steam.
People like to season it with their own
sauces, which usually contain soy sauce
and chilies, and eat it straight. While
it sounds daunting, blood is actually
pretty mild, once you get over the idea. It
doesn’t have a strong smell or taste. The
only thing that makes eating blood a bit
odd is the slightly grimy feeling you get
on your teeth and a bit of a metallic taste.
So? Are you game to try some bloody
interesting snacks?
xiàng bēn fù
lasting relationship.
The term aligns with the modern
perspective of young people who view
unrequited love as a form of mental
exhaustion that is detrimental to both
the person who loves and the one
being loved.
The term has now expanded to en-
compass various types of relationships,
such as between friends, colleagues
and even countries. It emphasizes that
the foundation for any relationship is
mutual respect and mutual efforts.
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65
 PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
PAID
PEWAUKEE, WI
PERMIT #1619

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66* NEWSCHINA I February 2021