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China had 1.09 billion netizens as of December 2023, an increase of 24.8 million from the number in December 2022, bringing the internet penetration to 77.5 percent, according to a new report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Friday.

Data from the 53rd Statistical Report on China's Internet Development released by the CNNIC shows that the internet has been playing an important role in promoting new industrialization, developing new quality productive forces and assisting economic and social development, as the overall recovery and improvement of China's economy continue to consolidate.

Liu Yulin, director of the China Internet Network Information Center, told the Global Times on Friday that as one of the most important digital technology breakthroughs in 2023, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has become deeply integrated with the real economy. The number of AI enterprises in China has exceeded 4,400. With the strong promotion of AI and other digital technologies, the transformation of the real economy toward digitization, intelligentization and greenization has been accelerating continuously to empower economic and social development.

According to the report, more people have shared the benefits of the development of the internet as it has become more accessible.

In 2023, China continued to accelerate the popularization of information services and narrowed the digital divide, with the urban-rural internet gap further narrowing. As of December 2023, the internet penetration in rural areas reached 66.5 percent, increasing by 4.6 percentage points from December 2022. The number of internet users in rural areas reached 326 million, an increase of 17.88 million compared to December 2022. Besides, application scenarios have continued to increase as the network infrastructure construction in rural areas has advanced.

Meanwhile, the digital divide between different groups continued to narrow in 2023, with the access to digital life for the elderly and the disabled increasingly guaranteed. According to the report, 2,577 websites and applications commonly used by the elderly and the disabled have completed aging-friendly and barrier-free renovations, with over 140 million smartphones and smart TVs upgraded to be elderly-friendly.

The public service applications in terms of transportation and health services are accelerating their coverage. The scale of users of online car-hailing and internet hospitals increased by 90.57 million and 51.39 million compared with the number in December 2022, up 20.7 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively.

Zhang Xiao, deputy director of the China Internet Network Information Center, told the Global Times on Friday that netizens' demand for transportation and travel was fully released in 2023, with the scale of users of car-hailing and online travel booking services increasing by 80 million compared with 2022.

The online car-hailing regulatory information exchange system received over 9 billion order messages throughout the year, up 30.8 percent year-on-year. Indicators such as the number of travelers and tourism revenue during major holidays surpassed the figures from the same period in 2019.

The report also showed that the development of internet applications allowed for more consumption and development of the digital economy, helping to boost the recovery of China's economy.

According to Li Mingtao, chief e-commerce expert at China International Electronic Commerce Center, the scale of online shopping users in China increased to 915 million as of December of 2023, an increase of 69.67 million from December 2022, up 8.2 percent. This led to national online retail sales of 15.4 trillion yuan ($2.13 trillion) in 2023, contributing to the continuous 11-year leadership of online retail sales in the world.

According to Li, China's cross-border e-commerce maintained rapid growth in 2023, becoming an important new driver for foreign trade. The total import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce reached 2.38 trillion yuan for the whole year, an increase of 15.6 percent.

The report showed that entertainment and tourism consumption, characterized by immersive and cultural experiences, have seen accelerated recovery. As of December of 2023, the number of online travel booking users reached 509 million, an increase of 86.29 million compared with December 2022, representing a growth rate of 20.4 percent.

Domestic trendy products continued to constitute an important component of residents' online shopping consumption. Over the past six months, 58.3 percent of internet users have purchased such trendy products online.

China's online video environment also continues to improve, with content supply being constantly enriched.

Zhou Jie, deputy secretary-general of the China Netcasting Services Association, said on Friday that as of December 2023, the scale of online video users in China reached 1.06 billion, accounting for 97.7 percent of the overall internet users. Among the 24.8 million new internet users, 37.8 percent used online video applications when they used the internet for the first time, which was 21.7 percentage points higher than the second-ranking instant messaging (16.1 percent).

The report also showed the construction of digital infrastructure in China was further accelerated in 2023, with the number of IPv6 addresses reaching 68,042 blocks/32 and the registered number of ".cn" domain names growing to 20.13 million as of December 2023.

In terms of the Internet of Things (IoT), 3.37 million 5G base stations had been set up and there were 2.33 billion cellular IoT terminal users as of December 2023. The number of cellular IoT terminal users increased by 488 million compared with December 2022.

The high-quality development of mobile communication networks has driven innovation and development in various fields such as smart manufacturing, smart cities, rural revitalization and cultural tourism, providing a solid foundation and strong support for building a digital China.

Compared with Japan in 1990s, China's economic growth potential is substantially greater. So, with the right policies, China should not end up like Japan, renowned British economist Martin Wolf, associate editor, and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, told the Global Times in Beijing.

He suggested that China should reduce the national savings rate and stimulate consumption. And a key lesson is not to "allow deflation to set in," otherwise monetary policy will become very ineffective. If this happens, policymakers will be forced to use fiscal policies massively, which is very expensive.

Wolf made the remarks in an interview with the Global Times on the sidelines of a seminar on Globalization and the Chinese Economy organized by the think tank Center for China and Globalization (CCG).

"Today is a moment in Chinese economic history that may be quite important for the next 10 or 20 years," he said.

"China is, relatively speaking, much further from high-income status than Japan was in 1990. So its growth potential is substantially greater. There is much less reason for the productivity slowdown that occurred in Japan. In that sense, with the right policies, China should not end up like Japan," Wolf told the Global Times.

He pointed out that the similarity between Japan and China in history is that they both have very high savings rates. The saving rate stood at about 40 percent of its GDP at its peak in Japan. This is great for a rapidly developing manufacturing country building a modern economy from scratch, as these savings can be converted into investments when it grows at 10 percent.

However, when Japan became a high-income country and caught up with most of Europe, its savings rate still accounted for 35 percent of GDP, but the investment rate declined and the account surplus exploded.

At that time, Japan did not make the wise decision to reduce the savings rate in a timely fashion, but instead decided to expand domestic investment, aggressively lower interest rates, and expand credit, leading to Japan experiencing the largest real estate boom in world history, reaching its peak in 1990. However, this economic bubble burst in the 1990s. When the economic bubble collapsed, the Japanese government did not implement effective artificial stimulus, nor did it change the macroeconomic structure in the early 1990s, leading to deflation.

"This is the lesson from Japan's experience," Wolf told the Global Times.

"Do not allow deflation to set in. It's very important not to let it because then you've got falling prices. If you've got expectations of falling prices, monetary policy becomes very ineffective. You then are forced to use fiscal policies massively, which is very expensive," he said.

The British economist believes that a key goal of China's macroeconomic policy is to transform the country into a full, all-around, and high-income nation. Despite facing more challenges at present, this goal is still achievable.

He argues that in order to achieve this goal, an important task is to improve underlying productivity, namely Total Factor Productivity (TFP). TFP is an indicator that measures the ratio of total output to all factor inputs.

In recent years, China's total factor productivity has not been growing rapidly, mainly due to the country's previous high investment rates. However, in recent years, the investment rate has been slowing down, mainly due to declining profits and instances of "overinvestment" in some regions in previous years.

Wolf told the Global Times that China can seek new large-scale domestic investment projects that are efficient and productive, absorbing resources and savings that cannot currently be effectively absorbed. "In my view, the most plausible large-scale investment that is already happening is various forms of renewable energy."

He noted that China can also increase investment in manufacturing. However, it is important to be aware that investing in manufacturing may lead to overcapacity. If this excess capacity is exported to Europe or the US, it will face fierce resistance. At the same time, other developing markets are not that big and have a limit.

In the field of investment, He said that two issues need to be emphasized. First, as most of China's infrastructure has already been built, real estate will no longer play a significant role in investment.

Second, it is important to produce good "valuable GDP," which means generating GDP that actually benefits the current or future welfare of the Chinese people, rather than creating things that will never be used in reality.

The creation of useless GDP should be avoided, he warned. For instance, if you build vast numbers of tower blocks which are not occupied, that is not productive GDP," he said.

Compared with investment, the more important thing is to drive up consumption, he stressed to the Global Times.

Currently, China's national savings rate is the highest in the history of the world for a country at this level of development and size, comparably.

"The national savings rate is too high to be productively absorbed in the economy at current levels of GDP. There is no plausible investment with one exception which can offset that. And the last one that did absorb a lot of these savings is this huge real estate building boom. But that's pretty clearly coming to an end," he told the Global Times.

Therefore, there is an urgency to boost consumption. "Consumption has to rise and the drivers [for economic growth] will be consumption because that's what they've been for every country that got to the sort of level of GDP that China has now. The question is only how it's done."

According to him, the consumption could be public consumption or private consumption. Public consumption, it means taxation, while for the private consumption, it means some combination of lower household savings and redistribution of income.

"This is going to be fantastically difficult," he said, adding that driving consumptions can be done in many different ways.

When discussing globalization and China's role in the world economy, Wolf believes that the fundamental driving forces of the process of global economic integration over the last two centuries have been the resource and cost advantages, transportation and communication technology innovations, and policy and political openness.

In recent years, the vitality of these driving factors has weakened, leading to a slowdown in globalization. However, the end of the "hyper-globalization" era does not mean the end of globalization. Despite facing pressures from economic adjustment costs and tensions among major powers, the momentum of globalization remains strong.

In recent years, Western companies have increasingly focused on political risks and sought to diversify supply chains for hedging purposes, but this does not mean de-globalization. The current issue lies in whether a framework of trust and cooperation can be established, for which both China and the West must work very hard, he noted.

The upcoming elections in Pakistan do not affect its interaction with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) or other international organizations. The SCO works with states, regardless of the government in power, said Pakistan's Director General SCO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Altamash Wazir Khan.

Khan also told the Global Times that Pakistan's relationship with Iran was not a topic of discussion during the SCO meetings this time round, as there was a full agenda of about 30 issues to cover. But he highlighted the de-escalation of tensions between Pakistan and Iran, underscored by the Iranian Foreign Minister's recent visit to Pakistan.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian recently visited Pakistan, when both sides announced the establishment of a high-level consultative mechanism to oversee the progress in various areas of cooperation between the two countries, including counter-terrorism, Xinhua reported.

Khan made the above remarks during a recent meeting between coordinators of the SCO member countries and media representatives in Beijing.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had previously announced that February 8 would be the official date for the general elections in the country, read a Xinhua report. The Pakistani coordinator emphasized that the election results will not influence Pakistan's relations with the SCO and other international organizations.

He emphasized that Pakistan's main focus in the SCO is on mutual benefit and economic development, as well as humanitarian cooperation. Security is also a priority, but bilateral discussions on sensitive issues are avoided.

Regarding the SCO development bank, Khan said that experts are currently working on the drafts, and while it may take some time, progress is being made. He said that the idea is not just about constructing a building, but about creating an entire financial system which takes time for it to be realized.

When asked about Pakistan's priorities at the SCO, Khan mentioned that Pakistan's focus is on economic cooperation, financial cooperation, humanitarian cooperation, and connectivity. Connectivity not only includes physical infrastructure like roads and railways but also connectivity among people through digital platforms.

Talking about the role that the SCO can play in the Afghan issue, he mentioned that official contact with Afghanistan is currently not possible. The SCO operates on the basis of consensus, and official contact cannot be established until all member states recognize the Taliban government. Nonetheless, Pakistan does participate in meetings related to Afghanistan.

The SCO currently has 9 member states, including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, and Iran, as well as 3 observer states, including Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia.

From January 31 to February 1, the SCO held the meeting of the SCO National Coordinators Council in Beijing. The National Coordinators Council is the coordinating and managing body for the daily activities of the SCO. This council is responsible for necessary preparations for the organization's meetings of heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers, according to media reports.

Talking about plans for the coming months, he revealed that Pakistan is set to host over 80 events until November this year, emphasizing various aspects of collaboration within the SCO framework. Since assuming the chairmanship in October of the preceding year, Pakistan has efficiently executed more than 20 events within the last two and a half months.

Witnessed by 150 scientists from eight countries, the International PlateauPlus Association (PlateauPlus) was established Thursday in Beijing, during the PlateauPlus Workshop held by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

PlateauPlus is a platform proposed by Chinese scientists that aims to unite top research institutions and scientists from more than 20 countries across the globe where giant plateaus are located. It is designated to serve as an international platform for mega plateau research and to develop a new model of interdisciplinary and cross-regional global cooperation in Earth system science, read a statement the ITPCAS sent to the Global Times.

The association will focus on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Iranian Plateau in Asia, the Colorado Plateau and Columbia Plateau in North America, the Altiplano Plateau in South America, the East African Plateau in Africa and the Alps in Europe. It will conduct research on the formation and evolution of plateaus, environmental effects, biodiversity changes and human adaptation. It will also decipher the coupling mechanism between plateau uplift and surface environmental changes, and reveal the changes in plateau habitability and human social evolution, according to the ITPCAS.
Mega plateaus have significant impacts on the environment, biodiversity, and human survival. Previously, the ITPCAS mainly focused on studying the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which has also attracted many foreign scientists. However, besides the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, other mega plateaus around the world also have a tremendous impact on these aspects. So it's a good idea to unite scientists all around the world to jointly examine all these mega plateaus and find out what factors have played a vital role or how these plateaus affect each other in shaping the current environmental landscape, rivers as well as human migration and adaptation, Ding Lin, an ITP researcher and Academician of the CAS and one of the initiators of PlateauPlus, told the Global Times.

"Although aspects of the orographic development of the Tibetan region are still actively debated, collaboration across disciplines and testing ideas within the rigor of mathematical models are honing our understanding of the highly complex natural processes inherent to the Tibetan geo/ecosystem. If humans are ever going to manage our planet in a responsible and informed way, then the lessons we have learned from Tibetan Plateau research must be applied more widely to other orographically complex systems. These lessons are not just those relating to the science itself, but how we do the research, how we improve our methodologies, how we nurture international collaboration and integrate local knowledge with broader global perspectives," said Robert Spicer, emeritus professor of Earth Sciences at The Open University in the UK.

"We now have a magnificent toolbox of methodologies and ideas that can be used to investigate other plateaus worldwide, so it is time to explore and integrate plateau system research globally," Spicer said. He noted that as a world leader in science, China is very attractive for foreign scientists.

During the two-day PlateauPlus Workshop, global scientists discussed the formation and evolution of plateaus, environmental effects, biodiversity changes, and human adaptation.

Ding said that in the future the ITPCAS will host workshops in different countries, fostering a truly global perspective.

Field excursions in various global mega plateaus will be a crucial part of the journey, offering hands-on experience and deeper insights. A key focus will be engaging more and more local institutions, especially from regions like East Africa and South America, which are currently underrepresented, according to Ding.

Strengthening these connections is essential for a more comprehensive understanding and inclusive approach to the research, he noted.

In mid-December 2022, after China started to ease COVID-19 restrictions that had lasted for three years, the world keenly anticipated a swift and robust recovery in China's economy in 2023. But at a tone-setting economic conference, top Chinese policymakers, while stressing that "an overall recovery and improvement is expected," also offered a sobering assessment of the difficulties that lay ahead.

"Economic work in 2023 will be complex," Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, concluded in a speech at the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) on December 15, 2022. The meeting, aimed at setting priorities for economic work in 2023, demanded making economic stability a top priority and pursuing steady progress while ensuring economic stability.

As 2023 draws to an end, what transpired in the Chinese economy over the last year is consistent with that assessment. The economy faced serious downward pressure from shrinking demand, supply shocks, and weakening expectations - "triple pressures" as officials put it. But it also mounted an impressive recovery, with the GDP growth rate widely expected to meet or even exceed an initial target of around 5 percent, a remarkable improvement from the previous three years during the pandemic. More crucially, China also achieved solid progress in high-quality development, with the rise of domestic consumption, scientific and technological innovation, and green development.

All told, China's recovery has become one of the biggest highlights for the global economy in 2023 amid a severe downturn and a complex geo-economic situation - China is expected to be the fastest-growing major economy and contribute roughly one-third of global growth, according to Chinese and foreign economists. Beyond the direct contribution to growth, faster growth in China also has positive spillover effects on the rest of the world: A single percentage point of growth in China, on average, increases output in other economies by 0.3 percent over the medium term, according to the IMF.

Behind such a hard-won, impressive outcome are objective and scientific decision-making by Chinese policymakers under Xi's leadership, a series of targeted and effective policies to tackle risks and challenges head-on, as well as the effective execution of those policies - the quintessential Chinese governance model that underpins China's long-running economic miracle, economists said.

This also vividly demonstrated how Xi Jinping's economic thought, which, among other things, stresses high-quality development, is put into practice to address problems and promote high-quality development, they noted.

Hard-won, impressive outcome
China's economic recovery was by no means smooth in 2023.

"In fact, the post-pandemic economic recovery was full of difficulties and challenges. Some were unprecedented. Despite all these [challenges], China took a series of measures and deepened reforms and opening-up. We achieved an effective improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity," Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International under the Bank of China, told the Global Times. "This indeed is a very hard-won outcome."

China's economy grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, and the full-year GDP growth rate is expected to exceed the official growth target of around 5 percent. That is a remarkable comeback from a 3 percent rate in 2022 and significantly higher than the average growth rate of 4.5 percent between 2020 and 2022. Globally, a 5-percent growth rate in China would also largely outpace a projected global growth rate of 3 percent, 1.5 percent in advanced economies, and 4 percent in emerging markets and developing economies, according to the IMF.

What's more, international organizations have constantly upgraded China's growth forecasts, in stark contrast to grim predictions hyped by some Western economic pundits and media outlets.

"We recently upgraded our 2023 forecast to 5.4 percent. This forecast was increased by 0.4 percentage points in November," Steven Alan Barnett, senior IMF resident representative in China, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview. "At 5.4 percent growth, China by itself would explain around one-third of global growth in 2023."

Apart from growth in quantity, China's high-quality development also made significant strides in 2023, reflected in the rapid rise of new emerging industries, breakthroughs in critical technologies, the transition toward consumption-led growth, and the expansion of green development.

High-quality development
Barnett highlighted China's rapid growth in new industries like electric vehicles (EVs) and green technologies that offered a cushion against other downward pressures. "China, in fact, stands out as a technological leader in the production of green technologies such as solar panels and EVs," he said.

In a remarkable example, China surpassed Japan to become the world's biggest auto exporter in the first quarter of 2023, thanks to the new-energy vehicles (NEVs) sector. In the first 11 months, NEVs output grew by 34.5 percent to 8.426 million units, while sales increased by 36.7 percent to 8.304 million units, according to the latest industry data. More than 64 percent of global NEVs sales were in China during the period, according to the 2023 World New Energy Vehicle Congress.

Also highlighting progress in China's innovation-driven high-quality development, in November, the added value of high-tech manufacturing above designated size increased by 6.2 percent year-on-year, 4.4 percentage points faster than that of the previous month. High-tech products such as solar cells, service robots, and integrated circuits continued their stellar performance, with their output rising 44.5 percent, 33.3 percent, and 27.9 percent, respectively.

That helped promote high-quality development in China's foreign trade, with the upgrade of the export structure. In the first 11 months, China's exports of NEVs, lithium batteries, and solar cells - collectively known as "the three new items" of China's exports - jumped by 41.7 percent to about 79.9 billion yuan.

Also underscoring China's optimizing trade structure, "during a period of declining orders from the US and Europe, China's trade with emerging markets continues to grow," Wei Jianguo, former Chinese vice minister of commerce and executive deputy director of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told the Global Times.

Another highlight of China's high-quality development is the rise of domestic consumption as the main economic growth driver. In the first 11 months, total retail sales, a main gauge of consumption, grew by 7.2 percent year-on-year to about 42.8 trillion yuan, with a 10.1 percent growth in November. "Consumption explained around 80 percent of growth in the first three quarters of the year," Barnett said.

Innovation-led and consumption-driven growth is a crucial part of China's high-quality development, which is at the front and center of China's economic policymaking. This year's CEWC, held on December 11 and 12, stressed that it is imperative to uphold high-quality development as the unyielding principle of the new era. The phrase has drawn much attention as it resembles the popular Chinese saying "development is the absolute principle," popularized during the decades of reform and opening-up that ushered in China's rapid economic rise.

Decisive top-down leadership

How did China overcome difficulties and challenges and achieve these hard-won gains? Decisive top-down leadership is the key, economists said.

Over the last year, at major meetings and inspection tours across the country, Xi has repeatedly called for efforts to tackle challenges, stabilize growth, and promote high-quality development.

In his speech at the CEWC last year, Xi stressed "We need to bear in mind the overall strategic picture and focus on major problems" and offered clear guidance on how to tackle them. He called for efforts to expand domestic demand, build a modern industrial system, develop the public sector and support the non-public sector, attract and utilize foreign investment, and forestall and defuse risks in areas such as real estate, financial market and local government debt.

This guidance has since turned into policy actions over the last year. Overall, China has adopted proactive fiscal and prudent monetary policies that have supported economic recovery. In the budget adopted in March, consumption, technological innovation, and high-quality development were prioritized.

Throughout the year, Chinese officials both at the central and local levels released an array of policy measures to support consumption, investment, and the private sector.

China also welcomed a long stream of global business executives and hosted many high-level trade fairs to boost cooperation.

Then in July, amid new challenges and weakening expectations, Xi presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC, to set priorities for economic work in the second half of the year. While noting "new difficulties and challenges," the meeting called for solid efforts to expand domestic demand, shore up confidence, and prevent risks. That also led to strong policy measures in the second half of the year, including a plan to issue an additional 1 trillion yuan in treasury bonds in the fourth quarter.

The meeting also stressed that China's economic recovery was a "wave-like" and "zigzag" process. That demonstrated top officials' confidence in the economy, as they are trying to convey a message that China's economy may face high waves but it will always break through and it may zigzag but it will always move forward.

This is very typical of Chinese policymaking - confident in China's development, responsive to new situations, and swift and effective in responding to them, economists said.

"[Top officials] grasp issues in a very objective manner and take measures in a very swift and targeted manner," Guan said.

This has not only helped underpin China's stable economic recovery in 2023 but has also boosted confidence in China's 2024 economic recovery, despite lingering risks and challenges.

"Amid high winds and strong waves in the global economy, China's economy is making solid progress toward the future, forming synergy through optimization and balance, continuously releasing strong development momentum, and demonstrates bright prospects," Cheng Shi, chief economist of ICBC International, told the Global Times.

This year's CEWC, which sets the economic agenda for 2024, noted that some difficulties and challenges must be tackled to achieve further economic recovery and pledged a series of policy measures in a wide range of areas.

"The favorable conditions for China's development outweigh the unfavorable ones, and the overall trend of economic recovery and long-term improvement remains unchanged," it said.

As a Chinese say, "A gift may be small, but its symbolic value is significant," exquisite gifts from around the world not only represent the culture and craftsmanship of their countries of origin, but also bear witness to the historical friendship between China and these nations.

The Central Gifts and Cultural Relics Management Center, located in the heart of Beijing, showcases over 670 representative gifts exchanged between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and government leaders in diplomatic activities since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

These gifts, which embody the profound friendship between the Chinese people and the people of all countries in the world, record the diplomacy of the Party and the country, standing witness to the great journey and brilliant achievements of New China under the leadership of the CPC.

The center features gifts from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Oceania, encompassing over 100 countries and regions. Each gift tells a story of national culture and history.

For instance, a model of the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood given by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019 is an architectural masterpiece. It is strikingly opulent in appearance. It also witnessed the moment when two heads of China and Russia make the decision to elevate their relations to a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for a New Era."

The porcelain swans gifted by former US president Richard Nixon to late Chairman Mao Zedong stand out in the center's exhibition hall. One swan is resting, and the other is spreading its wings, symbolizing a hope for peace and friendship.

The meeting between Mao and Nixon in February 1972 marked the end of longstanding hostilities between China and the US. It was a major event in the history of China-US relations and had a significant impact on the international situation.

Before that, in 1971, the famous "Ping Pong Diplomacy" marked the beginning of the "thaw" in China-US relations. Behind the swans are a set of table tennis paddles and a ball presented to premier Zhou Enlai by a US Detroit businessmen. The paddles, which show a dove with an olive branch in its beak and the words "a generation of peace," express an appreciation for the "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" between China and the US.

Additionally, another distinctive exhibition hall prominently displays state gifts presented by China at major diplomatic events. These are quintessentially Chinese style and include cloisonné, white porcelain, silk and even copies of "The Analects of Confucius."

Besides these precious gifts, the exhibition also features over 40 photographs and nearly 100 documents, extracts, and new media materials. Focusing on major diplomatic events since the founding of New China, it illustrates China's diplomatic journey. 

Notable among these are a telegraph paper from October 2, 1949, marking the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet government and the Chinese government, and a telegram from the United Nations recognizing the People's Republic of China's legitimate seat.

Gifts received by China's leaders illustrate one aspect of the diplomatic history of our Party and country. They show witness to the great journey and brilliant achievements of the People's Republic of China under the Party's leadership and demonstrate the profound internship that exists between China and the governments, parties, peoples, and international organizations of the world. At the same time, they demonstrate China's outstanding contributions to the safeguarding of world peace and development.

These gifts tell the story of the friendly exchanges between China and other countries and of China's efforts in promoting the development of a global community with a shared future. 

Editor's Note:

As of October 22, over 1.4 million people were displaced and over 6,000 fatalities have been reported amid the latest round of the Israeli-Palestinian armed conflict. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, warns and armed conflicts have characterized relations between the two sides. Historically, Jews and Arabs, who created concurrent Jewish and Arab civilizations respectively have, until the 20th century, coexisted peacefully before the emergence of seemingly irreconcilable differences.

The Global Times will publish a series of in-depth reports on the "Past and Present of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," exploring the historical, religious, and cultural clashes, delving into the various wars and internal struggles between Israelis and Palestinians, and analyzing the power struggles triggered by external influences from Europe and the US, in an attempt to clarify how the past has influenced the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One land, two names

"We will not leave, we will not leave, we will not leave, and we will remain on our land," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday when addressing the Cairo Peace Summit. He warned of any attempts to displace people from the war-torn Gaza Strip, and attempts to displace Palestinians from their homes, media sources reported. Following the outbreak of this round of conflict, Israel demanded that approximately 1.1 million residents in the northern Gaza evacuate to the south to facilitate military operations to eliminate the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a deep struggle, intertwined with historical and religious narratives that have shaped its course for generations," read a Fox News article on October 12.

"Central to this conflict is the land of historical and religious significance to both Jewish and Palestinian communities. The Bible plays a pivotal role, with its promise of the land of Canaan to the descendants of Abraham. For Jewish people, this territory represents the biblical Promised Land, where their forebears settled following their exodus from Egypt … From a Palestinian perspective, their connection to the land is also rooted in biblical heritage, tracing their origins back to the ancient Canaanites and Philistines," read the Fox News article.

Canaan, the ancient name for Palestine, lies at the intersection of three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe, including what is now Israel, Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank. According to Israeli historical books, Semites who migrated from the Arabian Peninsula migrated to the area from about 3000 BC to 2500 BC, and both Semitic Jews and Arabs once lived here.

According to publicly available information, ancient Jews originated in the Mesopotamian plain approximately 4,000 years ago. They later migrated to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, known as the Crescent, to escape natural disasters. They then migrated again to the eastern part of the Nile Delta in Egypt due to famine. According to Israeli historical books, around the first half of the 13th century BC, Jewish people, who were unwilling to be enslaved, left Egypt under the leadership of Moses and wandered in the Sinai Peninsula desert for more than 40 years before being led into Canaan by Joshua. Similarly, in the late 13th century BC, another large group called the "Sea Peoples" or Philistines entered Canaan and named the land "Philistia," meaning "the land of the Philistines." In the 5th century BC, Greek historians began using the term "Palestine" to refer to this region.

Around 1000 BC, Jewish people established the Kingdom of Israel in Canaan. The second king of the kingdom, King David (1010 BC-970 BC), is also reported to have led the capture of Jebus (Jerusalem). As with the construction of the palace and the temple of Yahweh, Judaism became the state religion. The scope of the Jewish "Promised Land" also changed due to King David's expansion. According to the Bible, the promised land for God's chosen people was roughly the territory that lay between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, read a New York Times article. During King David's reign, his kingdom extended from deep within the Sinai Peninsula to the Euphrates River, including large areas of present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. This is reflected in the description of the Promised Land in the Five Books of Moses, according to publicly available materials.

According to media reports, records show that in around 931BC, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah (the origin of the term "Jewish") existed in tandem. Around the same time, the Philistines occupied the southern coastal plain of Israel. In around 722 BC, the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and as an ancient geographical term, "Israel" ceased to exist. Over a century and a half later, the Kingdom of Judah was also overthrown, and many of its inhabitants were exiled to Babylon. Subsequently, this land was conquered by ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. In 4 BC, 6 AD, 66 AD, and 132 AD, the local Jewish population staged multiple uprisings against Roman occupation, but they were brutally suppressed. From 70 AD to 132 AD, most Jews were forced to leave Canaan, marking the end of the Jewish people's settlement in the region. In 135 AD, after suppressing the uprising, the Roman Empire abolished the province of Judea and merged it with the province of Syria to eliminate memories associated with the Jewish people.

In the year 637 AD, the Arabs defeated the Eastern Roman Empire army and Palestine was incorporated into the Arab Empire. During the Umayyad dynasty (661 AD to 750 AD), Jerusalem, which was once a holy site for Judaism and Christianity, became one of the three major holy sites of Islam, along with Mecca and Medina. Present-day Jerusalem, with an area of only 126 square kilometers, is home to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount for Jews, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Via Dolorosa for Christians.

According to an article published on the news website The Conversation, "Israel" and "Palestine" are two names for one land. "Israel" first appears near the end of the 13th century BC within the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, referring apparently to a people (rather than a place) inhabiting what was then "Canaan," read the article.

"Palestina took its name from the coastal territory of the ancient Philistines, enemies of the Israelites (ancestors of the Jews). Subsequent to the Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the seventh century, Arab peoples began to settle in the former 'Palestina.' Apart from about 90 years of Crusader domination, the land fell under Muslim control for just under 1,200 years. Although Jewish habitation never ceased, the population was overwhelmingly Arab," said the article.

Genesis of Zionism

Palestine became a part of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. After World War I, the defeated Ottoman Empire, which was allied with Germany, reluctantly handed over the region, including Palestine, to British mandate rule. In the late 19th century, the Zionist movement, particularly among European Jews who feared extinction, began to emigrate in large numbers to the Palestinian-inhabited areas.

Zionism, also known as Jewish nationalism, takes its name from Mount Zion, a small hill outside the Old City of Jerusalem, symbolizing the ancestral homeland of Israel. Despite the industrial revolution and modernization, anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jews in Europe persisted. Increasingly, secular European Jews supported the idea of returning to their own homeland and establishing a Jewish state, even though a large number of Jews at the time did not endorse the idea of national restoration. Followers of Zionism believed that only by establishing a purely Jewish state could the fate of oppression and exile that Jews had endured for nearly two millennia be resolved. However, it cannot be ignored that their desired destination, Palestine, was not an "uninhabited land," and the idea of a purely Jewish state inevitably clashed with the basic rights of the indigenous Arab population. The founders of Zionism attempted to reach an agreement with the Ottoman Empire, which would overrule the existence of Palestine at the time, but were unsuccessful. As a result, they focused their efforts on gaining support from Western powers.

World War I brought a significant turning point to the once stagnant Zionist movement. Chemist Chaim Weizmann, who had made important contributions to the British army during the war, became the leader of the Zionist movement. He united with Jewish elites such as the Rothschilds and gained the support of the British government.

However, although the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the war and the UK began its mandatory colonial rule in Palestine, the British did not promptly fulfill their promise to the Jewish people. Instead, they tightened restrictions on Jewish immigration.

At the same time, Palestine witnessed a wave of immigration of Jewish people facing persecution in Eastern Europe. Prompted by the wave of immigration, the leaders of the Zionist movement considered finding a piece of land in Argentina to be their homeland, and the British government also proposed allocating land from its colony, Uganda for a Jewish settlement. However, due to the special religious and historical significance of Palestine, especially Jerusalem, to the Jewish people, the Zionist movement ultimately insisted that returning to Palestine was the only truly satisfactory outcome for the establishment of a homeland.

Far from this decision bringing a satisfactory outcome, it marked the beginning of suffering. Starting from the late 1920s, Arab nationalists, began to push back against the Zionist movement. They organized armed attacks on Jewish settlements and pressured the British to completely close Jewish immigration channels. As the strategic importance of oil increased, the British turned against Jewish people and supported the Arabs, causing further chaos.

The rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and the outbreak of World War II accelerated the "return" of Jews to Palestine. The brutal fact that 6 million Jews perished in the German Nazi-mandated holocaust during the war quickly changed the mainstream opinion in Europe and America, leading to support for the establishment of Israel. Exhausted and depleted from the war, the UK had no choice but to adjudicate the Palestine issue to the United Nations. In November 1947, UN Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine was passed, marking the official establishment of an Arab state and a Jewish state in the region. This resolution was met with jubilation by the Jewish people, but the allocation of about 55 percent of the land to Israel and the subsequent opposition from Palestinians and other Arab countries sparked controversy.

Hope for peaceful coexistence

On the second day after Israel declared its independence, the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 broke out. By the end of the war in 1949, Palestinians had lost nearly four-fifths of the territory allocated to them by the United Nations, and over 750,000 people were displaced from their homes. The core issues of territory, refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and Jewish settlements have created significant disagreements between Israelis and Palestinians, becoming obstacles to peace talks.

Today, with the exception of very few countries, the rights and political status of the Jewish people are guaranteed. Against this backdrop, how to promote progress within Israel along the only viable and nonviolent path, and save both Palestinians and Israelis from "imminent catastrophe", are questions that many historians contemplate. Some of them believe that the prolonged turmoil is a result of negligence toward the interests of the Palestinian population during the nation-building process. They argue that Zionism, as an ideological mission for the establishment of Israel, should not supersede the rights of other minority groups in any subsequent system.

Some observers believe that throughout history, the Jewish people have endured great suffering but have also achieved great accomplishments, becoming a driving force in the progress of global civilization. The Palestinian people, on the other hand, have inherited the tragic fate of the Jewish people, who have been without a country, wandering for nearly 2,000 years. Today, Hamas represents the extreme aspirations of the Palestinian people to establish a state on equal footing with Israel. As long as this goal is not achieved, there will be people who will follow the path of Hamas. As China has consistently maintained, the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in the "two-state solution," which means establishing an independent Palestinian state. Only through this can peaceful coexistence between Palestine and Israel be achieved, and harmony between the Arab and Jewish nations be realized.

Chinese tech company EHang Holdings Limited has begun to sell its self-developed unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft EH216-S on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao at a cost of 2.39 million yuan ($332,032) per unit, the Global Times observed on Monday.

He Tianxing, a deputy president of EHang, told the Global Times that it was not only for online sale, but also aimed to inform the public the development potential of low-altitude economy in the future. 

The EH216-S last December obtained the standard Airworthiness Certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which marked the eVTOL aircraft becoming eligible for commercial operation. 

EH216-S Passenger-Carrying UAV System Obtains Standard Airworthiness Certificate from CAAC and the Certified Aircraft Delivered to Customer in Guangzhou.

Aside from its main selling points including its small size, easy take-off, landing and re-charge ability, as well as quietness, EHang made multiple backups for core parts such as propellers, electric engine, flying control system and batteries.

The Government Work Report released during the recently concluded two sessions earlier this month stated that China will foster new growth engines in fields such as biomanufacturing, commercial spaceflight, and the low-altitude economy.

Analysts pointed out that low-altitude transport can help reduce waste once ground transport has reached its limit in megacities. 

Following the announced policy, many cities have taken measures to develop the sector. As the country's first trial province for low-altitude air space management, Southwest China's Sichuan Province simplified low-altitude flight test applications. East China's Anhui also crafted rules to develop low-altitude economy, stating to accelerate the development of the industry in Hefei and Wuhu, two major cities there. 

In addition, Shenzhen city in South China's Guangdong Province has published a set of documents and government regulations supporting the development of the low-altitude economy in the province, according to Xinhua News Agency. 

As of 2025, the output value of low-altitude economy in China is estimated to reach 3 to 5 trillion yuan, according to a recent survey by the International Digital Economy Academy.

The US' so-called Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) is one of the most notorious laws of the 21st century. It is essentially a tool used by US politicians to destabilize Xinjiang and curb China's development, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday, responding to US suspension of garment imports from the Philippines on suspicion that cotton used is involved in "forced labor" in Xinjiang.

So-called "forced labor" in Xinjiang is the lie of the century concocted by anti-China forces to create forced unemployment and poverty in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Friday during a routine press conference. 

 "Such a lie is a tool used by US politicians to destabilize Xinjiang and curb China's development," said Wang.

Wang shared several examples during the press conference, which clearly showed that what the US has done on Xinjiang violated human rights under the banner of "human rights protection." 

One example was a private clothing company in Xinjiang, which employed more than 2,200 people as of the end of 2018, with ethnic minority employees accounting for more than 95 percent. However, due to the impact of the US and Western sanctions, the main partners of the company have cancelled all orders in 2019, resulting in direct losses of over 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) and a reduction in employees to less than 500 people. At present, most of the factory and equipment owned by the enterprise remains idle, and it is barely able to maintain its operation through domestic orders.

Another example is a Xinjiang hair ornament production enterprise which saw its order volume decrease by 40 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, after being sanctioned by the US. The company's production and operations have continued to deteriorate.

While it used to produce 50 million hair ornament products annually, with an annual export volume reaching $30 million in 2022, it also made a great contribution to solving local employment.

Wang also cited a villager living in Xinjiang's Kashi, who found a job in a wholly foreign-funded enterprise doing trade in Central China's Hunan in September 2019, with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan. In 2020, due to the impact of the US sanctions, the enterprise canceled the labor contract with the villager, which forced the villager to return to his/her hometown to make a living, and the monthly income was greatly reduced.

In addition, for the sake of so-called compliance, some US companies have unilaterally terminated the supply of medical products purchased from Xinjiang, seriously affecting the right to life and health of the Xinjiang people, Wang noted.

"Facts have proved that the so-called UFLPA is in essence a tool used by US politicians to destabilize Xinjiang and curb China's development. It not only seriously infringes on the human rights of the people in Xinjiang, but also seriously disrupts the stability of the global industrial and supply chain, and seriously undermines international economic and trade rules. It is one of the most notorious evil laws of the 21st century," the spokesperson said.

Wang also called on the international community to firmly resist the wrongful actions of the US, which smears other countries, interferes in their internal affairs, oppresses their enterprises and stifles their development under the pretext of "human rights." China will continue to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

A Hong Kong research center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has unveiled its latest artificial intelligence (AI) model for the healthcare industry, providing efficient clinical diagnosis and helping doctors in complex neurosurgery. 

The development highlights the increasingly close academic collaboration between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, showcasing the country's leading position in the sector.

Developed by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) of the CAS Hong Kong Institute of Science and Innovation, the CARES Copilot 1.0 model offers physicians enhanced accuracy in data retrieval. It can generate information and citations from academic sources, with data accuracy up to 95 percent, CAIR said on Monday.

Using the AI model for complement surgery, image navigation, and medical robotics in clinics, operating rooms and research institutes can directly assist medical staff in dealing with emergencies. They are able to provide supervision and early warnings and prevent risks during surgical procedures, Danny Chan Tat-ming, head of the neurosurgery division at the Department of Surgery in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was quoted as saying.

The CARES Copilot system is designed to work with smart medical devices, providing trustable and explainable AI for surgery. It is able to process surgical data across modalities, including images, text, voice, video and ultrasound.

The performance of the Copilot 1.0 system was strictly tested using the challenging Zero-shot Top Token Selection standard, across five public datasets and two proprietary neurosurgical knowledge evaluation datasets, according to the research team of the CARES Copilot 1.0 AI model.

"We aim to integrate the Copilot 1.0 AI model with smart medical devices in the future, based on CAIR's achievements in medical robotics. The center is now collaborating with Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, and the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou on these subjects," Xu Jun, a senior manager at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The CARES Copilot 1.0 system exemplifies CAIR's unique position and academic background, reflecting the close academic cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. 

According to CAIR's official website, the center was established under a memorandum of understanding signed between the Hong Kong SAR Government and the CAS. It is part of the Hong Kong Institute of Science and Innovation, the CAS' first affiliated branch outside of the Chinese mainland. 

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is further advancing technological cooperation. In August 2023, China's State Council issued a plan to develop the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone, aiming to deepen scientific and technological collaboration in the Greater Bay Area.