China has recently released the first list of 789 important habitats for terrestrial wildlife animals in a bid to strengthen the protection of terrestrial wildlife populations and their habitats. The list covers 82.36 percent national key protected terrestrial wildlife species, according to China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA).
Based on the importance of the terrestrial wildlife species in China, their population sizes, the significance of their habitat locations, and their special representativeness, the first list of important habitats for terrestrial wildlife is divided into six categories, including the survival and breeding area for rare and endangered species, as well as the distribution areas for wildlife clusters.
These areas are spread across 31 provinces, regions and municipalities, covering the habitats, breeding grounds and migratory sites of 565 species of the national first- and second-class key protected wildlife animals including 127 mammal species, 339 bird species, 62 amphibian and reptile species, and 37 insect species.
According to the requirements under China’s Wildlife Protection Law that strengthens the protection of important wildlife habitats, the NFGA organized experts to collect the information and data of China’s wildlife resources obtained from the surveys conducted over the past two decades.
The experts classified and sorted out the characteristics of the species’ natural distributions, population dynamics, and biological habits of the wildlife animals in China, and formulated the interim measures for the identification of important habitats for terrestrial wildlife animals. The interim measures determine the technical specifications for identification criteria, assessment procedures, file information, demarcation of scope and naming rules for important habitats of terrestrial wildlife.
Through detailed analysis and evaluation, the first batch of important habitats for terrestrial wildlife was selected. Moving forward, the NFGA will further strengthen investigation, monitoring and assessment of areas where habitat conditions have continued to improve but have not been included in the list, and successively include those meet the relevant criteria into the list.
In recent years, China has established a natural protected area system focused on the country’s national parks using nature reserves as its foundation and various natural parks as secondary sites.
This system has incorporated a large number of wildlife habitats into protected areas, ensuring the protection of wildlife habitats and promoting their continuous optimization. It has played a significant role in rescuing precious endangered wildlife and maintaining the development of wildlife populations.
While the world still remembers the big snowflake from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Golden Sun Bird, logo of China Culture Heritage which symbolizes light, strength and hope, hovering over the main stadium of Dong'an Lake Sports Park at the opening ceremony of the FISU World University Games once again amazed a global audience.
With the fireworks of Chengdu city flower hibiscus blossoming in the air, the 31st World University Summer Games opened in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, on Friday. The historic city has added a fresh youthful imprint and wrote a new chapter in the world's youth engagement and exchanges.
Golden main stage, sun circle screen... In this grand event, "sunshine" was a creative element throughout the proceeding. With the theme of "Make dreams come true," the Chengdu World University Games strives to present a sunny opening ceremony to the world, showing the joy and style of young college students from all over the world gathering in Chengdu, bathing in the sunshine and accomplishing their dreams. It also calls on university students around the world to promote the realization of the common aspiration for peace and development of all mankind and to realize the common dream of building a global community with a shared future.
Guided by signboards made of Shu embroidery, university athletes entered the stadium. Colorful silk threads were projected onto the runway, forming a weaving "Silk Road," representing the bright future of the participating college athletes and the youth from all over the world.
The opening ceremony is centered on college students, reflecting the values of friendship, fraternity, fair play, perseverance, integrity, cooperation and application championed by FISU. During the athletes' entrance, a college student band performed live classical music from five continents, expressing their respect and love for the cultures and arts of all countries in the world, reflecting cultural exchanges, friendship and inner resonance.
Among the cast and volunteers of the opening ceremony, 99 percent of participants were college students, marking the start of one of the world's premier sporting events for young people.
China's tennis ace Zhang Zhizhen looks like he will make more history in his hometown Shanghai as he eyes to progress to the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters. If he succeeds, he will become the first Chinese player to reach the stage in the history of the ATP Masters event.
Currently in the last 16 at the hard-court tournament, the 26-year-old will aim to continue his historic run when he plays 16th seed Hubert Hurkacz.
"This is the second time I've been in the second week of the Masters. I'm quite happy," Zhang told media.
"I always wanted to play tennis well in my hometown and in front of my family, and finally this time I did. Hopefully, I can keep going."
Zhang played against Hurkacz at the 2019 event, but was seen off by the Polish player 2-0.
"I still remember that match. I had the opportunity to win the first set, but I didn't grasp it," Zhang said.
"Four years have passed; we are both improving. It's going to be a tough match," he said of his upcoming match against Hurkacz.
To prepare for the match, Zhang skipped his doubles match with his pair Jannik Sinner of Italy against Rajeev Ram of the US and Joe Salisbury of the UK on Monday.
"Our doubles match has been canceled, but of course we both will focus more on the singles, because singles are more important," Zhang said.
"Sinner had a very good performance in China. For me, I've also played a lot of matches in China so far, so both of us think that we need to focus more on singles."
Zhang was referring to the Asian Games matches he played. Ahead of the Shanghai Masters, he won the men's singles gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, bagging China's first gold medal in 29 years in the discipline.
He said the victory at the Asian Games has boosted his confidence.
"I am more confident after winning, though the Asian Games were not that intense. But it's still a gold medal, so that definitely boosted myself confidence. It also gives me more confidence in facing difficulties that I might encounter this week."
Zhang became the first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finalist from China in May at the Madrid Masters and rose to No.52 in the ATP rankings in July after making it into the last 32 in the French Open, the highest position ever held by anyone from the East Asian country.
He beat Casper Ruud of Norway at the US Open to become the first Chinese man to beat a top-five opponent.
Zhang also unveiled his little habits when competing.
"I go to the same place to eat, and then I drink coconut water every day. I think many people have small things that we are obsessed with, especially when we are winning," he said.
Over 1,000 ancient stone artifacts dating back to the Paleolithic era, also known as the Old Stone Age, spanning from 2.6 million years ago to 10,000 years ago, have been unearthed at the Xiacun archaeological site in North China’s Shanxi Province, according to a report by China News Agency on Tuesday.
The Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology unveiled their latest findings on Tuesday, the report said, presenting a rich collection of stone tools and artifacts found at the Ganliang site within the Xiacun ruins, which has undergone several large-scale surveys and excavations since its discovery in 1970.
A total of 1,036 stone artifacts were unearthed at the Ganliang site, with 853 belonging to the lower cultural layer and 183 to the upper cultural layer.
The stone artifacts document two developmental stages within the site’s Paleolithic culture: the lower cultural layer represents the earlier phase characterized by stone technology from lithic to microlithic, while the upper cultural layer showcases advanced microlith technology.
The archaeological findings revealed that raw materials for crafting these stone tools primarily included flint and quartzite. Quartzite and black flint were the main materials in use across the upper and lower cultural layers, with quartzite obtained locally near the Ganliang site and black flint sourced from a more distant location.
Notably, in the lower cultural layer, local quartzite was the predominant raw material.
In terms of the lithic technology, the lower cultural layer featured a direct hard-hammer percussion technique without evidence of pre-formed lithic cores, resulting in diverse and less standardized tool shapes. Some specimens bore a resemblance to microlithic blades.
The upper cultural layer employed both direct hard-hammer percussion to detach stone flakes and a pressure technique to extract microlithic blades, suggesting a more refined approach in the late Paleolithic era.
Furthermore, the tool assemblages in the lower and upper cultural layers differ significantly. Heavy tools like stone axes were absent in the upper cultural layer, indicating functional distinctions between the two layers around 30,000 years ago.
Round-edged stone scrapers in the lower cultural layer were primarily manufactured through direct hard-hammer percussion, while in the upper cultural layer, a pressure technique was predominantly used.
These discoveries have enriched the understanding of China’s late Paleolithic cultures and provided valuable insights into the cultural transition and the origins of the microlithic blade technology of the late Paleolithic era, the report said.
Nepal adheres to the one-China policy and will never allow any activities that are detrimental to China's interests, said Nepalese Foreign Minister Narayan Prasad Saud in Beijing on Sunday.
Saud noted that Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda's visit to China will further strengthen the Nepal-China relationship.
"Nepal is firmly committed to China's interests, and we appreciate China's continued support for Nepal's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national freedom," he said.
Saud made the remarks during a speech at a welcome ceremony for Prime Minister Prachanda at the Embassy of Nepal in Beijing on Sunday.
At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Prachanda is paying an official visit to China from September 23 to 30. Prachanda has visited China many times and made important contributions to promoting the development of China-Nepal relations.
Prachanda attended the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, on Saturday. During his visit, he will meet with Chinese leaders and discuss many important issues.
Saud said that Nepal and China have a long history of friendship and cultural exchanges dating back centuries. "We are committed to further strengthening and consolidating our relationship based on mutual respect, trust and understanding."
He also commended the remarkable progress that China's economy has made, while noting that there are great opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in various fields, such as trade, investment, hydropower, tourism, mining, poverty alleviation and connectivity.
China is Nepal's second-largest trading partner and an important source of foreign investment and tourism.
"Connectivity is crucial for the economic partnership between China and Nepal. The Nepalese government is committed to maintaining the normal operation of all border ports between China and Nepal, constructing border infrastructure, establishing well-equipped testing and certification laboratories at the China-Nepal border, accelerating the construction of border customs facilities, and considering it a top priority," Saud said.
"We see numerous opportunities to further strengthen economic cooperation and promote the entry of Nepalese products into the Chinese market."
According to Saud, the Nepalese government is fully committed to providing all possible support for foreign companies investing in Nepal.
Nepalese Ambassador to China Bishnu Pukar Shrestha said at Sunday's ceremony that Nepal-China relations hold more significance as the country is aiming to move out of the category of Least Developed Countries in 2026.
"The incredible leap that China has made on the economic front and its eradication of absolute poverty will serve as a best practice example for the development endeavours of Nepal," said Shrestha.
Broadening the horizons of cooperation in the fields of infrastructure development, trade, digital economy, green energy, agriculture, tourism, investment, education and culture will benefit the people of the two countries, which will pave the way forward for bilateral relations, he said.
Wang Qiang (pseudonym) had planned to hold a grand wedding for his 28-year-old son in 2021. Having long been established in the furniture business away from home, Wang, who is in his 50s, wanted to invite as many of his friends and business partners as possible to his hometown, a village in East China's Zhejiang Province, to witness a lavish wedding, which he believed could bring him a sense of pride.
There were nearly 500 names on Wang's guest list. Hosting a 40- to 50-table (each table seats 10 people) wedding, which usually cost hundreds of thousands of yuan, used to be common in the village.
"That was too extravagant and unnecessary." Village official He Xiyang and her coworkers decided to persuade Wang to forego the grand wedding feast. After visiting Wang's home twice, he finally agreed to largely shorten his guest list to just 200.
Recently, many cities and provinces across China have intensified their efforts to rein in exorbitant "bride prices" and extravagant wedding ceremonies as part of nationwide efforts to strengthen the development of public cultural-ethical standards in the country's rural areas and create a "new-era" marriage and childbearing culture.
In Chinese culture, families play an indispensable role in providing care for the elderly and children. They offer emotional and economic support, as well as advancing production, community management, and promoting civilization and morality across society.
As China grapples with a low fertility rate, an increasingly aging population, and uneven cross-regional population growth, the concept of a "new-era" marriage and childbearing culture was proposed to meet people's aspirations for better lives with proactive measures to help foster childbearing-friendly environments and contribute to advancing Chinese modernization with support for the high-quality development of the population.
A pilot project was thus rolled out across the country with the aim to promote marriage and childbearing at appropriate ages, improving prenatal and postnatal care services, encouraging couples to share child-rearing responsibilities, and curbing the high costs of betrothal gifts and other outdated marriage customs.
Lower marriage costs The city of Huzhou, where Wang Qiang's hometown - Xiaoyuan village - is located, is just one among 20 cities selected for in the first batch of the pilot project.
A village in Huzhou's Anji county, Xiaoyuan has a population of 3,000 inhabitants. Villagers enjoy a decent life thanks to the development of a distinctive local white tea economy, with a per capita net income of nearly 40,000 yuan ($5529.1) in 2019, official data showed.
Nonetheless, high marriage costs were a huge burden to local families in earlier years with costs excluding the expensive wedding venues and the "bride price." The wedding celebration alone would cost as much as 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, village official He Xiyang told the Global Times.
He explained that before the new-era marriage and childbearing culture was introduced, an "extravagant but common" wedding in the village would include a feast for 400-500 guests, brand-name cigarettes and alcohol, wedding venue arrangements and decorations, renting luxury cars, and the hiring of a famous wedding host.
Some families even blew money on inviting a singer of some renown to perform, or renting drones to take photos and videos at the wedding, she added.
The high wedding expense could cost a young man's several years of wages. "Most of the time they had to turn to their parents," she said. "For the less affluent families, borrowing money to fund the wedding festivities was a usual occurrence."
To reduce wedding expenditure especially in rural areas, in September 2022, eight national departments jointly issued a notice to address the problems of excessive "bride prices" and extravagant wedding ceremonies, rolling out a special work plan for a nationwide campaign.
In February, the country unveiled a key policy document or the No. 1 central document for 2023, vowing to launch a special campaign against problems including extravagant wedding ceremonies.
Xiaoyuan village established a working team in 2020, promoting frugal and small-sized wedding, birthday ceremonies, and funerals among local residents. "For a wedding, we suggest that the couple keep the number of guests at around 200," said He.
He said she and her colleagues sometimes go to local hotels (wedding celebration venues) to find out how many tables are booked for an upcoming wedding there, and then estimate the number of invited guests. If the number largely exceeds the recommended guidelines, they then pay a visit to the soon to be married couples and their families, persuading them to downsize the ceremony.
Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of engaged couples are easily persuaded, as downsizing the wedding enables them to reduce the budget by at least tens of thousands of yuan.
"More importantly, today's young people are pragmatic; they don't like to keep up with the Joneses as much as the elder generations do, nor do they think holding a frugal wedding makes them lose face," He noted.
The corrupt custom of high "bride prices" has also faded in Xiaoyuan village with the concept of gender equality gradually taking root in the hearts of local residents, said He.
Gender equality matters
In a traditional and somewhat outdated concept, men usually contribute financially to a marriage, while women contribute time and energy in housework and child-rearing instead.
Chinese demographers reached by the Global Times pointed out that an obvious negative effect of this concept is that many young Chinese people, especially women, are reluctant to get married. Lots of self-proclaimed women who opt out of marriage have said on Chinese social media sites that they fear married life due to the loss of independence and being trapped in household affairs.
The decline in marriage rates is a natural result of social development, said Xu Tianli, head of the Shanghai Marriage Introduction Organization Administration Association.
With more women becoming socially and economically independent, marriage is no longer regarded as a way for women to make a living by relying on their husbands, Xu told the Global Times.
Therefore, the lowering of wedding costs and curbing of objectifying women through "bride prices" being advocated for in China's new-era marriage and childbearing culture, are important steps toward gender equality in marriage, as they signal that men should contribute more in housework and child-rearing, "rather than simply shrinking such responsibility, and giving money to their wives like arrogant bosses," a demographer told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.
It is worth noting that in practice, people should emphasize both the rights and duties of men, the demographer noted. "Cracking down on high 'bride prices' does not mean that men are acquiescing in not taking responsibility for raising children," he added, as new-era marriage and childbearing culture highlights gender equality, and stresses that parents should share in child-rearing responsibilities.
In the latest effort, the China Family Planning Association announced in May the launch of the second pilot project in 20 cities to further build the new-era marriage and childbearing culture.
Ningde in East China's Fujian Province, for instance, was among the latest batch of pilot cities. It recently released a series of posters publicizing the culture. One of the posters, showing the cartoon images of a young couple and three children on it, reads: "Husband and wife jointly share parenting responsibilities."
In Anji county in pilot city Huzhou, volunteers shared with the Global Times a case of in which they convinced a disgruntled wife to give her negligent husband a second chance. The husband in question "neither worked nor looked after the children after an entrepreneurial attempt failed."
The volunteers are from "the magpie bridge guardian league," a nonprofit group under the Anji Social Organization Service Center that was built to help couples deal with marital issues and conflicts. The volunteers educated the husband to take on his family responsibility, and shared with him recruitment information.
"The couple decided to give their marriage another go after the husband reflected on his shortcomings, and promised to better care for the family, and secured a job at a furniture company," the service center's director Ye Wubin told the Global Times. In the past, women bore the vast majority of child-rearing responsibilities, and many men, especially in some male chauvinism-influenced areas, employed a largely hands-off approach to child-rearing and housework, said Zhou Haiwang, a research fellow and deputy director at the Institute of Urban and Demographic Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
"It is necessary to further promote the idea of equality between men and women, and call on the two sides to bear parenting responsibilities together," Zhou told the Global Times.
Better child-rearing support
New-era marriage and childbearing culture encourages people to respect childbearing, and to marry and have children at appropriate ages. To boost fertility, authorities and related organizations across China are trying hard to offer better child-rearing supports to reduce stress and ease the burden on parents.
Last week, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and the National Healthcare Commission said that they have allocated 7.5 million yuan in special funding to support companies in providing childcare assistance for their employees.
Zheng Qiaoxing, a staffer at the Ningde Family Planning Association, told the Global Times that the association's subsequent work mainly focuses on publicizing the new-era marriage and childbearing culture to residents, and provide families in need with better nursery and child-rearing support.
The association has launched a "sunflower parent-child room" project in Ningde. Some 93 parent-child rooms have been built under the project in communities and villages citywide, open to local babies aged zero to three and their parents for free.
The parent-child rooms regularly hold parenting lectures, parent-child activities, and child health check-up. "It is so convenient for me to learn about infant health from medical personnel at the parent-child room built in my village," young mother Lin Weiwei, a resident of Ningde's Anban Village, told the Global Times. "My daughter also enjoys the music and handwork lessons there," she added.
Many other Chinese cities, such as Shanghai and Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province, have also launched similar nonprofit nursery projects to help busy parents take care of their babies, the Global Times reporter learned.
The supportive policies of building a marriage- and childbearing-friendly society are just the very first step, said Zhou. "The decline in fertility is a long-standing global problem, and we have a long way to go."
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized dozens of diplomatic envoys to visit Urumqi, Kashi and Aksu in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in early August. Foreign envoys had in-depth exchanges with residents from various ethnic groups and experienced the economic and social development of the region.
A total of 25 ambassadors from countries such as the Commonwealth of Dominica, Myanmar, Iran, Samoa and Mexico participated in the event. They spoke highly of Xinjiang's stability, economic development and prosperous culture. "People in Xinjiang are enjoying a happy life," they said, and affirmed how Xinjiang-related lies fabricated by certain Western media outlets do not correspond to the real situation.
Located in the hinterland of Asia, Xinjiang used to an important hub on the ancient Silk Road that connects East and West. As China expands its high-level opening-up to the outside world, Xinjiang has been transformed from a relatively closed inland area into a frontier of opening-up to the outside world. Iranian Ambassador to China Mohsen Bakhtiar believes that Xinjiang plays an irreplaceable role in the Belt and Road Initiative.
People from all ethnic groups in Xinjiang have created a diverse and colorful culture. The Kizil Caves of the Thousand Buddhas in the Aksu region has endured thousands of years of baptism, and the stunning murals in the cave show the colorful culture of this land.
"China has made every effort to protect the original appearance of the Buddhist caves and murals, and it has embraced the diverse cultures of various regions," said a diplomat from the Peruvian Embassy in China.
The Xinjiang-related lies fabricated by some Western media sources do not correspond to the real situation in Xinjiang and the Chinese Government is committed to preserving the culture and languages of ethnic minorities in the region, foreign envoys said.
In September 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, in which he proposed the idea of the "Silk Road Economic Belt." Since then, an initiative that would have a significant impact on the world's development and prosperity has taken root. Over the last decade, the vision of high-quality construction of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has achieved substantial and fruitful results in Kazakhstan and across the Central Asia region. Recently, Global Times reporters Lin Xiaoyi and Xia Wenxin (GT) interviewed former Uzbek deputy prime minister and former minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Saidmukhtar Saidkasimov (Saidkasimov) in Uzbekistan. The diplomat shared his views on how the BRI and Chinese wisdom have primed Central Asian countries to usher in a new era of development in the past decade. GT: What were your impressions when you first heard about the concept of "the Silk Road Economic Belt" (the "Belt") and BRI in general? How does Uzbekistan view this initiative?
Saidkasimov: It is no exaggeration to say that the initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping 10 years ago, generated tremendous interest around the world from the very beginning. It was not only a very bold, but also a hitherto unprecedented large-scale interregional project. What attracted attention to this project, above all, was its practical and applicable orientation, covering all the direct economic interests and benefits of dozens of countries and peoples.
For the first time in history, an unprecedented plan for the formation and development of an interconnected transportation infrastructure across the entire Eurasian continent was presented. Its implementation truly opened up broad prospects for the creation of a fundamentally new transport configuration across the vast expanse of our planet.
Obviously, such an initiative could not go unnoticed at the global level. Indeed, over the last decade, a large number of countries have shown their interest in participating in this ambitious project to create new trade routes, transportation, and economic corridors closely linking the countries of Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Another important goal of the BRI is that it is ultimately aimed at overcoming poverty, social disadvantages, and the enormous development gap in many countries and regions that are breeding grounds for international terrorism, extremism, and illegal migration. All this requires overcoming inequality, domestic stagnation, and stagnation in global economic development.
From the very beginning, Uzbekistan was one of the first countries to highly appreciate and greatly support the BRI for many reasons. On the one hand, the idea of active trade permeates the entire centuries-old history of our region. Uzbekistan and Central Asia in very distant years practically connected trade relations of the whole of Eurasia. On the other hand, geographically, Central Asia has been the center and the main route of the legendary Silk Road for centuries, being a strategically important trade hub.
It is noteworthy that the idea of reuniting hundreds of peoples and countries of Eurasia into a single belt of mutually beneficial cooperation was proclaimed by China, where the Silk Road historically originated. China itself demonstrates to the world a great example of successful social development. In a historically short period, a huge number of Chinese people were able to escape poverty and backwardness and achieved a fairly high level of development. This achievement by the Chinese people is a rare, unique phenomenon in world history.
GT: What impact has the BRI had on Uzbekistan's development over the last decade?
Saidkasimov: Uzbekistan attaches great importance to strengthening cooperation with China for joint development in various areas and constantly measures its plans against the potential of the BRI. A huge number of examples convincingly demonstrate the creative power of the broad, multifaceted, and constantly growing cooperation between Uzbekistan and China within the BRI, confirming the reality and validity of the great promising expectations of our peoples to further strengthen friendly ties.
For many years, China has firmly occupied the position of one of the main economic partners of Uzbekistan. A number of interstate, intergovernmental, and interagency agreements and arrangements create the necessary legal framework for the growing investment cooperation. Projects in industrial cooperation, infrastructure modernization, transport, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and the creation of joint industrial parks of high technologies with the participation of companies from both countries have been successfully implemented. The volume of Chinese investments in Uzbekistan's economy in recent years has exceeded $10 billion.
Significant joint projects are being promoted. All four strings of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline pass through the territory of Uzbekistan. The railroad tunnel through Kamchik Pass, the longest in our region, is now operational. The throughput potential of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) highway corridor and the railroad is increasingly opening up. Cooperation on the construction of the CKU railway will expand the geography of trade and transportation from China through Uzbekistan to Europe and the Gulf States from the south. It will also transform Uzbekistan from an inland state into an important communications hub in the region.
Uzbekistan, with the help of China, is significantly diversifying export destinations, modernizing infrastructure, and reorienting investment flows to new areas, increasing their potential. China has also become the main exporter of electric cars to Uzbekistan.
Cultural and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries is also actively developing. In this important sphere, joint mass events are increasingly being organized, including art festivals, gala concerts, exhibitions, and seminars. Cooperation is expanding in such areas as student exchanges, translation and publication of literary works, cinematography, translation and broadcasting of television programs, inter-regional contacts, and personnel training, which effectively contribute to the rapprochement of our peoples.
GT: Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is expected to visit China to attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in October. What are your expectations from this visit?
Saidkasimov: The upcoming Belt and Road forum is an important event. Undoubtedly, it will cause a huge resonance on a global scale, because it will most likely deal primarily with plans to further expand the transport capabilities of regional and global trade and economic cooperation, in which Uzbekistan is also interested.
It is no coincidence that President Mirziyoyev took an active part and introduced new initiatives at the first Forum in 2017, and at the second in April 2019. There is no doubt that President Mirziyoyev's upcoming visit to China will make a new contribution to the stable and consistent development of the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership and give a powerful impetus to the further expansion and deepening of Uzbek-Chinese cooperation.
GT: Speaking of the CKU railway, what do you think the three countries can expect from this project?
Saidkasimov: The latest news has shown more positivity. An agreement was signed a year ago and the three countries have already started working on this project. At present, agreements on all technical and financial matters are on a mutually acceptable basis.
This railway, as well as many others, is not a noble gesture by China. All three countries are equally interested in this project. Everyone will benefit from it, be it China, Kyrgyzstan, or Uzbekistan. It is always a great advantage for any country to have a network of good railroads because all countries profit from the opportunity to use them for transportation.
GT: Is Uzbekistan interested in China's development model? What aspects your country is interested in the most?
Saidkasimov: Uzbekistan is very closely following the development of China as a reliable strategic partner. We are increasingly interested in all aspects and spheres of its development. Uzbekistan is studying China's modernization plan because we feel very close to many of China's approaches to solving problems.
Uzbekistan first paid special attention to the development of China's real economy, the improvement of the income distribution system, and ensuring grain security. In addition, the development strategy of President Mirziyoyev emphasizes the development of science and technology. In this regard, China's approach of considering science and technology as the main productive force and innovation as the main driving force of growth is in line with and interesting to us. China's experience in developing high-tech industry is of special interest to our republic.
Uzbekistan will closely follow China's commitment to focus on breakthroughs in advanced technologies while enhancing the resilience and capabilities of industrial and logistics chains in terms of strengthening the foundation for building production capacity and developing its own solution for restructuring international industrial chains, modernizing through stimulus measures in areas such as manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transport, cyberspace, and digital development.
Second, as President Mirziyoyev has repeatedly noted, Uzbekistan pays special attention to China's experience in achieving inclusive social justice, pulling more and more people out of poverty, and increasing the size of the middle class, thus achieving universal equality in society. China's success in this area is well-known in Uzbekistan. On the initiative of President Mirziyoyev, a special program of cooperation to introduce China's experience in overcoming poverty has been developed and is being actively implemented in our republic. Such rich experience in overcoming the country's historically complex and multidimensional social problems is being carefully studied.
Third, the strategic aspirations of China and Uzbekistan also coincide in the sphere of harmonious coexistence between human and nature. This goal is among the main ones in the long-term program proposed by President Mirziyoyev. As in China, innovativeness, coordination, environmental friendliness, openness and sharing, and the maximum protection of nature and the environment are introduced in this sphere in our republic. The experience of the emerging carbon trading market and clean power generation system, as well as China's willingness to work with other countries to promote the transformation to a clean and low-carbon development model, are also noteworthy.
In general, the policy of President Mirziyoyev, aims at the constant expansion of comprehensive cooperation with China, is immensely fruitful in the most diverse spheres of social development, and has the full support of the people of Uzbekistan.
GT: How has Uzbekistan's attitude toward China changed over the years?
Saidkasimov: In recent years, some top European Union leaders have visited our country. Some of them wanted to create the illusion that "China is dangerous." But Uzbekistan's response was unambiguous and confidently principled that we decide our relations with other countries based on our national interests. That is, no one needs to teach Uzbekistan how to conduct its relations with other countries. And for us, we see only positivity in developing good relations with China.
GT: We know that Uzbekistan has been going through reform in recent years under President Mirziyoyev. Could you please tell us what has changed over the years during this reform?
Saidkasimov: Uzbekistan began to change dramatically after President Mirziyoyev took office. The Uzbekistan before Mirziyoyev and after Mirziyoyev is completely different: Back then, it was a closed state; foreign relations were very limited, even with our four neighbors; we had a completely closed press, freedom of expression was prohibited; and we did not carry out any reforms, neither in the economy nor in other spheres. After Mirziyoyev took office, this all began to change radically.
Many Chinese experts called Mirziyoyev a reformer, indeed the Uzbek Deng Xiaoping. Knowing what a huge role Deng played in the fundamental transformation of Chinese society, I would fully agree with such an assessment.
He knows well the situation and all the problems in Uzbekistan. Now he is pursuing a policy to transform Uzbekistan in all directions to build a "New Uzbekistan."
First of all, in foreign policy, he started to actively develop relations with all friendly countries. Among his main priorities, he made a state visit to China. He also visited European Union countries and the US. We have dramatically increased the number of embassies in other countries. Many other countries also opened their embassies in Tashkent.
In terms of the economy, we see the development of entrepreneurship. All restrictions for both large and small businesses have been removed. The state has begun to provide this influential support, primarily to small and medium-size businesses. In this case, financial support was very well provided, while various benefits were created for entrepreneurs. For the first time, we also opened foreign bank branches. As a result, our GDP per capita has changed noticeably over these seven years.
In general, great changes have taken place in the economy, social life, and cultural development. That is to say, today we can say that Uzbekistan is developing as a modern state in a very free, calm, and even manner.
GT: You founded the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in 1992. What motivated you to create this university?
Saidkasimov: It has more to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union. After the collapse, 15 former republics became independent. The point is that during the Soviet era, only Moscow was in charge of these republics' foreign policy, because the Soviet Union was a unified state, and therefore a unified foreign policy was implemented with the center. Moreover, foreign policy specialists and diplomats were trained only in Moscow.
When we became independent, we had to open an embassy and accept foreign diplomats, but then we found out that Uzbekistan has no specialists or national diplomats. After all, diplomacy is a special sphere of activity that needs its own professionals who defend the national interests. Therefore, having experience in this sphere as a professor in universities in Moscow to prepare diplomats, I felt it necessary to establish such a study institution in Tashkent. Our university was the first of such in the former Soviet Union states. Our university had a special status and requirements, and we selected the strongest trained young people. As a result, everything went successfully, creating a highly professional national corps of Uzbek diplomats. Today, many Uzbek Ambassadors are graduates of this university.
In the eyes of some Westerners, China is accused of posing a "systematic challenge" to the "world order." However, failing to specifically articulate this challenge or threat, many across the West resort to citing a list of fabricated claims regarding China's internal political affairs including the status of the island of Taiwan as well as pointing toward territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
While the West often depicts these territorial disputes as exclusively between China and the rest of the region, omitted is the fact that all other claimants in the region also have disputes with each other. Despite the sometimes heated nature of these disputes, these nations still maintain close ties with one another and with China, revealing this as an excuse rather than a genuine reason to label China as the biggest threat to global security and prosperity.
While Western leaders struggle to justify labeling China as a challenge or threat, the collective West led by the US has participated in the worst acts of aggression of the 21st century. The US, for example, led an invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. This was followed by a bloody occupation that spanned two decades ending only as recently as 2021.
In 2003, the US yet again led the West into an act of unprovoked military aggression, this time against Iraq. The war resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. US troops remain in a deeply divided and destabilized Iraq to this day.
In 2011, a US-led attack against the Libyan government destroyed, destabilized and divided Libya. One of the enduring outcomes of the war is modern-day slavery including slave auctions flourishing in the failed state, as US-based Time Magazine reported in 2019.
In just the 21st century alone, the US and its allies have cut a swath of death and destruction from North Africa to Central Asia, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing or otherwise disrupting the lives of tens of millions. The instability the US has sown globally has created a climate of insecurity as weapons the US surges into proxy wars, including now in Ukraine, are finding their way to battlefields elsewhere around the globe.
For the collective West and the US especially to cite ordinary maritime disputes in the South China Sea among nations that otherwise maintain constructive ties with each other as "evidence" of China's "challenge" or threat to the world, goes far beyond hypocrisy.
In reality, the West does not fear China because it threatens global security and prosperity. The West fears China because its rise represents the end of the West's ability to threaten the world with impunity.
China's only war in this 21st century has been against poverty within its borders. Having succeeded in overcoming poverty at home, China now drives to connect its economy with others around the globe through its Belt and Road Initiative.
Since the turn of the century, not only did China itself go from having no high-speed rail at all to building the largest high-speed rail network on Earth, it has helped build railways, roads, seaports and airports connecting this network to other nations across Eurasia, enhancing prosperity, encouraging cooperation, and thus improving security.
An example of this includes building highways and a high-speed railway now connecting landlocked Laos' capital of Vientiane to Kunming, China. Before these projects were completed, the only way to make the trip was by traveling three days through dangerous mountain roads. The same trip now takes just 10 hours.
As a note of particular irony, the construction of Laos' high-speed railway required those Chinese engineers to first clear the route from bombs dropped by the US that have covered Laos since the Vietnam War last century, which to this day still maim and kill people across the region.
The 21st century has given rise to the adage, "America Bombs, China Builds," reflecting the stark contrast between how the West and China interact with the rest of the world.
The West regularly accuses China of possessing the "means and intent to reshape the world order." Considering the reality of what the current "world order" the West created actually represents and the demonstrable way in which China is clearly "reshaping" that order, can anyone beyond those profiting from endless war convincingly say this is an undesirable development?
It is clear that while China most certainly represents a "threat" to those who thrive on global death and destruction, the real threat to the vast majority of human beings on Earth is the nation encircling the planet with its military bases from which it launches and maintains military conflicts and occupations everywhere from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and from North Africa to Central Asia.
Thousands of workers on three key auto assembly lines went on strike after the United Auto Workers (UAW) failed to meet the deadline to agree with Detroit's Big Three automakers Thursday night. The union warned that the strike could escalate if the two sides could not yet reach an agreement.
The UAW has 150,000 members at the three companies. The three Detroit-based companies, General Motors, Stellanis Automotive (formerly Chrysler) and Ford Motor Co, have been losing market share due to stiff competition from Japanese, South Korean, European and Chinese automakers, but they remain pivotal in the US job market.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported on Friday that TikTok and the US government are rekindling negotiations, after ban threats for six months. NPR, on the other hand, repeated its earlier judgment that the Biden administration demands that TikTok be sold, or risk a nationwide ban.
Both of these seemingly unrelated events are, in fact, related to the policy of the Re-industrialization of America. And the key lies in the marketplace.
The strikes by car company workers are about the future competition of American-made cars with Chinese, Japanese and European cars in the global marketplace. And the demand for a forced takeover against TikTok shows how far Washington has gone to prevent Chinese companies from taking over the US market.
The timing of the strike is crucial, coming at a rapid change in the global auto industry and on the eve of the highly anticipated 2024 US elections.
From Obama's "Forward" (2012) to Trump's "Make America Great Again" to Biden's "Battle for the Soul of the Nation," there has always been one thread: the push to re-industrialize America. However, workers' wallets, bosses' profits, markets and the "soul of America" don't always go hand in hand.
In the case of the auto industry, the key is the ability to produce cars at competitive prices with a bigger market share. Clearly, this strike signals a move in the opposite direction.
The strike highlights a trend that has been evolving for nearly two or three decades: de-industrialization. It is reminiscent of the work stoppage between August 1986 and January 1987, which involved 22,000 employees of USX, the leading steel manufacturer in the US. It was the longest-lasting work stoppage in the history of the US steel industry and signaled the beginning of the industry's downward spiral.
The decline of the US steel industry is primarily due to fierce cost competition brought about by globalization.
While it is too early to predict a similar fate for the US auto industry, rising labor costs will certainly undermine the competitiveness of US car companies.
Relying on further policy subsidies may keep market share in the short term, but in the long run, it will only make US auto companies even less proactive and innovative.
In fact, until the Trump era, the US government has continued to give subsidies and other incentives to the steel industry, failing to save it from its decline.
The audacity of the US auto unions to ask for high prices also reflects the acute labor shortages and rising inflation. This, in turn, intensifies workers' demands for an income increase, and the price of cars has started to spiral.
Washington's protectionist trade policies and the containment of Chinese manufacturing may ensure US market dominance in some industrial sectors for some time. However, it's important to note that it's not just at the high end of the scale, like chips, but more importantly in consumer sectors like online shopping, electric cars and mobile phones, where the expanding of Chinese manufacturing can't be stopped.
TikTok is a case in point. TikTok has generated intense market aggressiveness in the consumer sector, turning people's passions into profits. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, generated a net profit of $3 billion in 2022. Washington is keen to prevent such lucrative profits from flowing into foreign coffers.
This complex interplay of industrial strategies and global market dynamics will continue to shape the future of American industry and its global influence.
The challenge for the American empire is primarily to maintain its dominance in almost all sectors of industry and their markets. It is this attempt at global market hegemony that will ultimately cause the empire to falter.
