Summary: Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on AI Global Governance in Shanghai, advocating for a fair and equitable global AI governance system. Xi proposed four points: open and win-win innovation, risk control for safety, inclusive cultural exchange, and improved global governance through multilateralism. He highlighted China’s “15th Five-Year Plan” and its AI industry, noting the core sector has exceeded one trillion yuan. Xi announced that China will provide 5,000 AI training slots for developing countries and establish international AI application cooperation centers with various regional blocs. The event was attended by leaders including Kazakhstan’s President Tokayev and UN Secretary-General Guterres, who praised China’s role in AI governance and global cooperation.
Summary: Chinese President Xi Jinping issued instructions following a mountain collapse in Pengshui County, Chongqing, which buried multiple people, calling for scientific rescue efforts, prevention of secondary disasters, and thorough investigation of geological hazards. Premier Li Qiang also directed support for rescue, medical treatment, and disaster-affected resettlement. Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, accompanied by relevant department officials, was dispatched to the scene to oversee response operations. Local authorities in Chongqing have mobilized resources for search, rescue, and follow-up work. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul in Shanghai on July 17, 2025, where Xi emphasized the enduring "China-Thailand one family" bond and placed bilateral ties as a priority in China's neighborhood diplomacy. Xi called for enhanced strategic trust and collaboration, including advancing the China-Thailand railway and expanding cooperation in AI, aerospace, and clean energy. He also supported Thailand's independent development path and urged joint efforts to combat cross-border crimes like online gambling and telecom fraud. On regional issues, Xi expressed willingness to play a constructive role in peacefully resolving the Thai-Cambodia border dispute. The meeting was also attended by senior Chinese officials Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi, and Chen Jining.
Summary: President Xi Jinping met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Shanghai on July 17, 2026, where Xi emphasized the enduring "ironclad friendship" between China and Cambodia, calling for enhanced strategic trust and deeper cooperation under the "Diamond Hexagon" framework. Xi highlighted the need to accelerate the construction of "industrial development" and "fish and rice" corridors, foster emerging sectors like AI and the digital economy, and strengthen joint efforts to combat cross-border crimes including telecom fraud. Hun Manet reaffirmed Cambodia's unwavering commitment to the one-China principle and closer ties with China, while thanking Beijing for its support in promoting peace talks to resolve border tensions with Thailand. The meeting also touched upon global governance, with Xi advocating for a fairer international system through the implementation of four global initiatives. Senior Chinese officials including Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi, and Chen Jining were present.
Summary: President Xi Jinping met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Shanghai on July 17, praising Guterres' leadership on multilateralism and global challenges. Xi emphasized China's commitment to the UN, calling for upholding justice, innovation, and greater responsibility from major powers amid rising international instability. He stressed that no country should return to the law of the jungle, and that China seeks to inject stability into global affairs. Guterres commended China's support for multilateralism and opposition to unilateralism and protectionism. Accompanying Xi were Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi, and Chen Jining.
Summary: A Chinese official, speaking at a Shanghai AI conference, proposed four principles for global AI governance: open innovation, risk control, cultural inclusiveness, and multilateral cooperation. He announced that China will provide 5,000 AI training slots for developing countries over five years and establish international AI application cooperation centers with regional blocs. The official emphasized that AI development should be a global collaboration, not a solo act, and reiterated China's commitment to providing international public goods. The speech did not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on AI Global Governance in Shanghai, delivering a keynote address. He was accompanied by Kazakhstan’s President Tokayev, Cambodia’s PM Hun Manet, Thailand’s PM Anutin, and UN Secretary-General Guterres, along with representatives from over 100 countries and international organizations. The conference emphasized promoting the benevolent and inclusive development of AI globally, focusing on innovation, data security, and sustainable AI. It announced the signing of an agreement to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization, the first intergovernmental AI body, headquartered in Shanghai, aimed at supporting Global South nations and bridging the AI divide. The meeting stressed multilateralism, UN-centered governance, and international cooperation to ensure AI benefits all humanity.
Summary: President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai on July 17, proposing four principles for global AI governance and outlining China's policy stance. He emphasized open cooperation, risk control, inclusive development, and improved global governance, which were endorsed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The article highlights China's establishment of the World AI Cooperation Organization and its initiatives to provide AI training for 5,000 people from developing countries over five years. It positions China as a responsible power offering public goods for AI development, aiming to bridge the global digital divide. No mention was made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met UN Secretary-General Guterres and Russian Presidential Administration Deputy Chief Oreshkin in Shanghai on July 17, on the sidelines of the World AI Conference. Wang Yi conveyed President Xi Jinping’s keynote speech outlining China’s stance on healthy, safe, and orderly AI development, and expressed willingness to advance AI governance with the UN. Guterres endorsed Xi’s emphasis on AI for good, inclusivity, and safety, aligning with UN goals. With Oreshkin, Wang Yi stressed enhancing Global South capacity and making AI a new driver in China-Russia comprehensive strategic coordination. Oreshkin praised Xi’s speech as globally significant and welcomed China’s initiative to establish a World AI Cooperation Organization, which Russia is glad to join as a founding member.
Summary: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar in Shanghai on July 16, exchanging views and coordinating positions on the Iran situation. Both sides expressed concern over the deteriorating situation and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, urging parties to resume dialogue toward a comprehensive peace agreement. Wang emphasized that the first-stage US-Iran memorandum of understanding was hard-won, noting Pakistan's indispensable mediating role and urging all parties to uphold their commitments. He stated that China will continue to support Pakistan's mediation efforts and play a constructive role in de-escalation. Dar briefed on Pakistan's recent efforts, thanked China for its understanding and support, and pledged to continue promoting talks.
Summary: At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and other relevant departments released two documents: the "AI Cooperation Development Action Plan" and the "China's Wisdom Benefits the World (2026)" case collection. The Action Plan outlines eight initiatives—covering data, computing power, ecosystems, talent, rules, governance, and ethics—to support UN calls for international AI cooperation and bridging the digital divide. The case collection, published for the third consecutive year, features ten stories of China's AI international cooperation, emphasizing broader geographic coverage and a "people-centered, AI for good" approach. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: At the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), together with relevant parties, released the International AI Ethics Governance Action Plan. The plan offers a principled and actionable framework for global AI governance under the UN's Pact for the Future and Global Digital Compact. It calls on countries to strengthen policy coordination and cooperation based on the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits. MIIT will work with international organizations to implement the plan, deepen multilateral dialogue, and focus on capacity-building for developing countries. The initiative also aims to promote ethical technology development, protect vulnerable groups, and bridge the digital divide.
Summary: At the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai, China’s Cyberspace Administration proposed a Global Cooperation Initiative on Mutual Trust, Interconnection, and Interoperability of Intelligent Agents. The initiative aims to harness intelligent agents for sustainable development, prevent an intelligence divide, and foster an open, secure, and inclusive global ecosystem. It calls for joint efforts in technology R&D, standard alignment, infrastructure sharing, security safeguards, and digital literacy. No U.S. or U.S.-China relations were mentioned in the report.
Summary: Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, conducted a research trip from July 15 to 17 in Gansu Province. He emphasized adhering to Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and ensuring the Party's overall leadership over the work of the People's Congress. Zhao stressed the importance of "correct, effective, and law-based supervision" in fulfilling the Congress's constitutional duties, and called for high-quality oversight focused on public concerns and reform priorities. He also urged strict adherence to procedures in county- and township-level elections to ensure correct direction and public satisfaction. Additionally, Zhao highlighted the need to implement the Party Central Committee's directives on flood control, disaster relief, and workplace safety to protect lives and property.
Summary: Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, led a delegation to North Korea from July 15 to 17, meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and attending events marking the 65th anniversary of the Sino-North Korean Friendship Treaty. He conveyed Xi Jinping's greetings and emphasized implementing the leaders' consensus to strengthen bilateral ties. Kim Jong Un reciprocated greetings, praised the treaty's strategic importance, and reaffirmed North Korea's commitment to deepening relations with China. Wang also held talks with Jo Yong Won, a senior North Korean official, and visited memorial sites. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article reports on China's first-half economic performance, highlighting resilience and growth in high-tech industries. President Xi Jinping is quoted emphasizing the need for "more proactive and effective macro policies" to achieve quality growth and a strong start to the 15th Five-Year Plan. It details coordinated fiscal and monetary measures, including early policy deployment to counter external uncertainties—an implicit reference to U.S.-China tensions. Specific actions include lowered structural tool rates, expanded credit for tech and consumption, and targeted subsidies to boost domestic demand. The summary underscores that these policies aim to stabilize growth while fostering structural upgrades, with no accompanying officials named for Xi.
Summary: At a July 17 press conference, State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) spokesperson and deputy director Li Bin reported that China's foreign exchange market remained stable in the first half of the year, with cross-border receipts and payments reaching a record $9.2 trillion. Li announced a new package of policies to further liberalize cross-border investment and financing. Capital Account Management Department director Xiao Sheng stated that SAFE is preparing to issue a new round of QDII quotas to support residents' overseas securities investment. SAFE spokesperson and Balance of Payments Department head Zhao Yuchao noted that foreign investment in China increased by about $160 billion in the first five months, with high-tech sectors seeing a 61% year-on-year rise. Zhao added that SAFE will work to further facilitate global capital investment in China and promote long-term value investment.
Summary: On July 17, a landslide in Pengshui County, Chongqing, buried multiple people, prompting Chinese President Xi Jinping to issue instructions emphasizing scientific rescue, prevention of secondary disasters, and thorough investigation of geological hazards. Xi stressed that all regions and departments must strengthen safety responsibilities, monitoring, and risk排查 to protect public safety. Premier Li Qiang also directed support for rescue, medical treatment, and resettlement, urging comprehensive risk inspections. Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, accompanied by relevant officials, was dispatched to the site to oversee rescue operations. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Shi Taifeng, Politburo member and head of the CCP Organization Department, visited Henan from July 15 to 16, stressing the need to study Xi Jinping’s “July 1” speech and party-building thought, and to uphold the “two establishes” and “two upholds.” He toured the Red Flag Canal sites in Anyang and inspected grassroots units in Zhengzhou, emphasizing strict implementation of the correct performance view education and real, not paper, rectifications. Shi called for focusing on the outstanding issue of “new officials ignoring old debts” and for robust flood prevention during the critical “July–August” period.
Summary: Li Hongzhong, a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, led a law enforcement inspection team to Anhui and Henan from July 13 to 17 to check implementation of the Food Security Law. He stressed the need to follow Xi Jinping’s guidance on national food security and ensure the law’s full enforcement to bolster the legal foundation for food security. The team visited sites in Hefei, Fuyang, Zhoukou, and Zhengzhou, inspecting seed development, grain production, storage, processing, and farmland consolidation. Li praised Anhui and Henan for their contributions to national grain supply and called for stronger legal responsibilities, technological innovation, and conservation efforts. No mention was made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: He Lifeng, a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, conducted a research trip on foreign trade and economic work in Inner Mongolia from July 14 to 16. He emphasized the need to implement Xi Jinping’s directives and accelerate the construction of the Inner Mongolia Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) to build a key gateway for northward opening. He visited the Manzhouli area and Hailar, inspecting the FTZ, port clearance, China-Europe Railway Express operations, and manufacturing enterprises. He called for deepened multi-bilateral economic cooperation, high-level connectivity, and upgraded industrial and logistics capabilities. No mention was made of the United States or U.S.-China relations in the article.
Summary: The article reports that Chen Wenqing, a member of the Politburo and head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, addressed the 16th National Procuratorial Work Conference in Beijing. He emphasized the need for procuratorial organs to study Xi Jinping's thought on rule of law and national security, and to uphold the Party's absolute leadership. Chen called for severe punishment of crimes threatening political security, violent crimes, and economic crimes like illegal fundraising, in service of "Chinese-style modernization." He stressed strengthening legal supervision across criminal, civil, administrative, and public interest litigation to ensure fairness. Ying Yong presided over the meeting; the article does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article reports on a mountain collapse in Pengshui County, Chongqing, on July 17, which buried multiple people. In response, the Ministry of Emergency Management activated a Level II national geological disaster response and dispatched a working group led by relevant officials to the site. The National Disaster Prevention, Reduction, and Relief Committee initiated a Level IV disaster relief response and sent a team to assess the situation. Multiple state rescue forces, including 206 personnel from the national fire and rescue service and 100 specialized engineers, were deployed for search and rescue operations. The central government allocated 50 million yuan in emergency relief funds and 8,000 relief items to support the disaster response.
Summary: A landslide in Pengshui County, Chongqing, on July 17 buried multiple residential buildings, killing 8 and leaving 34 missing as of 6:30 PM. Local grid member Peng Di detected early warning signs and initiated evacuation, leading to over 1,100 residents being safely relocated. The county activated a Level I geological disaster response, deploying 200 rescue personnel and 40 pieces of equipment. Rescue efforts, led by the county's fire brigade and supported by China Aneng Group with heavy machinery, were conducted in three phases focusing on surface search, mechanical excavation, and eventual controlled blasting. No mention was made of U.S. involvement or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: A landslide in Pengshui County, Chongqing, has left multiple people missing, prompting urgent rescue efforts. Authorities are implementing directives from President Xi Jinping to organize scientific search and rescue, treat the injured, and handle aftermath. The article emphasizes the need to strengthen safety responsibilities, improve monitoring systems combining human and technological measures, and conduct dynamic inspections before, during, and after flood seasons. It calls for heightened vigilance as China enters the main flood season with increased extreme weather risks. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: On July 17, China's State Council Information Office held a press conference featuring six local officials and representatives, including Cai Rangtai (Tibet Autonomous Region) and Li Xuetao (Yunnan), who discussed ethnic unity and development. Cai Rangtai highlighted Tibet's economic growth and cultural heritage protection, while Li Xuetao emphasized the implementation of the new Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law to boost local industries. Huang Long (Inner Mongolia) spoke about grassland conservation through rest policies, and Li Yongren (Qinghai) showcased traditional embroidery as a symbol of ethnic unity. Wu Suiling (Guangzhou) and Amira Gul (Xinjiang) shared grassroots experiences of fostering interethnic harmony through community and educational efforts.
Summary: China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, along with five other departments, jointly issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Soil, Groundwater, and Agricultural and Rural Ecological Environmental Protection." The plan sets a target for 2030, aiming to ensure the safety of agricultural and construction land soil, improve groundwater quality, and advance the construction of beautiful countryside. It emphasizes preventing new soil pollution from enterprises, particularly in the chemical industry, and strengthening risk control for vacated land plots. For groundwater, the plan calls for coordinated protection of sources and regional environments, screening for emerging contaminants like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and heavy metals. Rural efforts include systematic restoration at the county level and optimization of wastewater treatment facilities.
Summary: The article reports that on July 17, 20 top "great country craftsmen" from across China, alongside local craftsmen in Qinghai, assisted 13 enterprises in sectors including salt lake chemicals, clean energy, and biopharmaceuticals, resolving 147 technical issues. This initiative is part of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions' "Model Workers and Craftsmen Assisting Enterprises" campaign, a key measure in reforming the industrial workforce. Over 5,000 service teams have been formed through innovation studios and工匠 colleges, supporting the transformation of traditional industries and the growth of emerging sectors. Since 2026, more than 50,000 model workers and craftsmen have served 31,000 enterprises, solving 43,000 technical problems and training 614,000 workers. The article does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
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Summary: Wang Di, a former soldier from Xiao County, Anhui, leads a volunteer fleet of veterans that provides free roadside assistance and emergency rescue, stating that "though the uniform is off, the original aspiration must not change." He recounted his frontline service during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, where he wrote a suicide note and was inducted into the Party under fire. After returning home, he founded the Xiao County Veterans Entrepreneurship Association in 2019 to help fellow veterans transition to civilian life, offering training, loans, and job fairs. Wang Di also described leading rescue missions during the 2023 floods in Zhuozhou, Hebei, where he dove into murky water to clear debris and evacuate a paralyzed elderly man. He has received multiple national honors, including "National Outstanding Party Worker," and vowed to continue serving his community and comrades.
Summary: Vice Chairperson of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Wu Weihua, led a law enforcement inspection team on the Food Security Law in Shandong from July 13 to 17. Wu emphasized the need to fully implement the law and strengthen legal safeguards for national food security. The team conducted field inspections in several cities, affirming Shandong's progress in enforcing the law. Wu highlighted the importance of developing new agricultural productive forces and technological self-reliance to ensure food security. He also stressed upholding the strategies of "storing grain in the land" and "storing grain in technology" as a political responsibility.
Summary: Prosecutor General Ying Yong addressed the 16th National Procuratorial Work Conference in Beijing, emphasizing adherence to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Xi’s thought on Party building and rule of law. He stressed the need to fully grasp the procuratorial work’s mission for the 15th Five-Year Plan period and to ensure absolute Party leadership across all aspects of prosecutorial work. Ying called for a focus on high-quality case handling, deepening judicial reforms, and strengthening the prosecutorial team to serve the national interest and the people. The conference did not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: At the Ninth Cross-Strait Youth Development Forum in Hangzhou, Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Song Tao cited Xi Jinping’s speech on youth as the driving force for national rejuvenation, pledging more opportunities for cross-strait youth to advance peaceful reunification. Former Kuomintang chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu, who accompanied Song, called on youth to promote integration and peaceful unification through concrete actions.
Summary: Song Tao, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, met with former Kuomintang chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu in Hangzhou. Song conveyed greetings from Xi Jinping and stated that Xi's speech on the 105th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party charts the course for cross-strait relations. He called on young people from both sides to promote peaceful development and unification. Hung emphasized that peace must be based on national reunification. No mention was made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article reports that the world's first commercial supercritical CO2 waste heat power generation system, "Supercarbon No. 1," has achieved dual-unit operation at Shuicheng Steel in Liupanshui, Guizhou. Meng Wei, deputy director of the steel plant's equipment engineering department, stated that a single unit generated over 32.856 million kWh in six months, with full-load production expected to yield 15 million kWh monthly from August. He explained that the technology replaces the century-old "boil water" steam cycle with CO2, reducing energy loss and improving thermal efficiency by 75% while halving the footprint. Yang Luguang, operations manager of Jigang's supercritical project, noted that many enterprises have already visited to assess the technology, which is suitable for high-temperature industrial waste heat and has broad future applications. The project also cuts the plant's electricity costs to about 0.5 yuan per kWh and is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by over 50,000 tons annually.
Summary: Wang Guangqian, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, addressed the opening of the fifth China Tibet "Trans-Himalaya" International Cooperation Forum in Nyingchi. He emphasized the shared responsibility of protecting the Trans-Himalayan region and highlighted achievements in environmental governance and green development under Xi Jinping's ecological thought. Wang called for deepening political trust, practical cooperation, and multilateral collaboration to promote harmony between humanity and nature. The forum was hosted by the Tibet Autonomous Region government, with representatives from 29 countries and regions in attendance.
Summary: The article reports on a July 14-17 event in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, organized by the National New Social Strata Service Group under the guidance of the Central United Front Work Department. The event focused on "digital-intelligence empowering cultural tourism" and "technology empowering high-quality industrial development," including industry exchange meetings and service inspections in Yudu and Xingguo counties. No specific officials were quoted or named as accompanying the delegation. The article does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article reports that the Liuzhou-Wuzhou railway project in Guangxi is nearing completion, with track-laying now entering the Xiangzhou County and Liujiang District sections. Over 70% of track work is done, and all bridge, embankment, and tunnel works are essentially finished. The railway is a key component of the Liuzhou-Guangzhou line, designed to strengthen transportation links between Guangxi and the Greater Bay Area. No officials are quoted or mentioned as accompanying any activities. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: China's Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs, and State Taxation Administration jointly announced a phased adjustment to consumption tax on certain battery products, effective from September 2026. From September 2026, taxes on batteries like lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride will be set at 2%, rising to 4% in September 2027; photovoltaic batteries will face a 2% tax from April 2027, increasing to 4% in April 2028. The gradual implementation is intended to allow businesses to adjust and to support the photovoltaic industry's recovery from "involutionary" competition. Sodium-ion, solid-state, fuel cells, and specific photovoltaic batteries will remain exempt from consumption tax through December 2028. No U.S. or U.S.-China relations were mentioned in the report.
Summary: The article reports that from July 20, China State Railway Group will pilot a new ticket reservation service on over 200 trains on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed and conventional rail lines. The head of the railway’s passenger transport center stated that the service allows passengers to submit booking requests 60 to 17 days before departure, with orders fulfilled 20 to 16 days prior. The system allocates tickets based on a "long-distance priority, balancing medium and short trips" and "first-come, first-served" principle. The official explained that this initiative helps the railway better understand travel demand, optimize capacity allocation, and implement "on-demand" train operations, while also improving the passenger booking experience. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: On July 16, the 2026 Qinghai Clean Energy Development Forum was held in Xining, where the China Electricity Council reported that as of June 2026, China had 24 operational solar thermal power projects with a total capacity of 2.1 GW, ranking second globally, with 26 more projects under construction. China has achieved international leadership in fourth-generation solar thermal technology, with domestic equipment localization rates exceeding 95% and full industrial chain self-sufficiency. The forum did not feature specific officials or their accompanying individuals in the report, and no mention was made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The National Development and Reform Commission, along with seven other departments, jointly issued the "Interim Measures for Credit Management in the Bidding and Tendering Sector," effective January 1, 2027. The measures aim to strengthen credit management by establishing a full-chain mechanism for public credit information and its application in bidding activities. They specify credit constraints for four types of participants: bidders, tenderers, bidding agencies, and evaluation experts. The document also outlines requirements for standardizing public credit evaluations and expanding their application scenarios. No mention was made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The State Taxation Administration has released for public comment the "2026 Edition of the Tax Administrative Penalty Discretionary Standards," effective July 15. A department head stated that after regional unification of standards, this nationwide benchmark aims to serve the construction of a unified national market. The notice mandates strict legal enforcement, defines criteria for minor non-penalty cases, and outlines procedures to protect taxpayer rights. This move seeks to reduce arbitrary enforcement, prevent disparate penalties for similar cases, and enhance tax governance efficiency. Public feedback is invited until August 13 via the administration’s website or mail.
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Summary: During his July 15 inspection of Shanghai, Xi Jinping stressed that high-quality urban renewal is key to modernizing cities, calling for a people-centered approach that prioritizes residents' needs and feedback. The article highlights three community cultural spaces—a converted guardroom gallery in Shanghai, a repurposed warehouse gallery in Shenyang, and a factory museum in Guangzhou—as examples of this policy in action. No accompanying officials were mentioned in the report. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article promotes Lanxi, a city in Zhejiang Province, as an ideal destination for "slow travel" and "micro-vacations," highlighting its natural landscapes like Lan Lake and the underground river, cultural sites such as Youbu Ancient Town and Zhuge Bagua Village, and over 300 local snacks. It provides practical travel tips, suggesting itineraries of two to three days and noting connections to nearby cities like Hangzhou, Shanghai, Yiwu, and Huangshan via high-speed rail. No foreign policy or U.S.-China relations are mentioned.
Summary: During the holiday, Liugou Village in Yanqing District, Beijing, attracted many tourists with its traditional Huopenguo tofu feast, a dish dating back to the Ming Dynasty. The feast features various tofu made using a sour-soup coagulation method, alongside ingredients like cabbage, smoked meat, and potato vermicelli. Song Shudong, deputy party secretary and mayor of Jingzhuang Town, stated that restaurants use authentic ingredients to ensure quality, drawing repeat customers. Over the past three years, the village has hosted 1.26 million visitors, generating 110 million yuan in revenue, solidifying the dish as a key tourism asset. The article does not discuss the United States or U.S.-China relations.
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Summary: The article announces a new exhibition, "People's Cities," jointly organized by the Central Archives and the Communist Party of China History Exhibition Hall, which systematically showcases the CCP's takeover and governance of cities before and after the founding of the PRC. It highlights the Party's consistent principle of "people-centered" urban development, featuring over 420 artifacts and documents from 80 institutions, including handwritten directives by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and other senior leaders. The exhibition is structured chronologically and thematically, covering 12 representative cities such as Harbin, Shanghai, and Beijing, to illustrate diverse experiences in urban management and reconstruction. The display emphasizes the CCP's ability to transition from rural to urban focus, maintain discipline, and restore order while canceling imperialist privileges and protecting cultural heritage. The exhibition aims to draw lessons from early Party governance for contemporary high-quality urban development.
Summary: A Tang Dynasty military document from the Yiwu Army, dated 722–731 CE and unearthed at Baidun Beacon in Xinjiang, details strict regulations for beacon tower guards, including prohibitions on leaving posts and protocols for verifying patrols and engaging enemies. It prescribes rewards for vigilance and severe punishments—up to execution—for negligence, supplementing the Tang Code's general provisions. The document reflects the Tang frontier's sophisticated early-warning system and flexible command, enabling effective defense and governance in the Western Regions. This system, alongside disciplined border troops and clear rewards and penalties, underpinned Tang stability in the region. The discovery offers rare insight into the daily life of frontier soldiers and the military foundations of Tang rule.
Summary: The article recounts a personal reflection on the Dongyuan古城 archaeological breakthrough in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, which confirmed the site as the capital of the Western Han真定 Kingdom and revealed large palace foundations. The author, a local resident, recalls finding ancient coins in childhood and notes the site's transformation into a park after relocation. The report emphasizes the discovery of city grids, gates, moats, workshops, and palace foundations from 2023-2025, alongside artifacts like roof tiles inscribed with "真定长乐." The piece highlights that Shijiazhuang, often seen as a young railway city, in fact has over 2,000 years of history. No U.S. or U.S.-China relations are mentioned.
Summary: The article profiles Jiang Gongguan (Jiang Mansion) in Bozhou, Anhui, originally the home of late Qing/early Republican general Jiang Guiti. It recounts that in March 1939, Communist leaders Zhang Aiping, Peng Xuefeng, Wu Zhipu, and Zhang Zhen held a united front meeting there with local anti-Japanese commander Yu Yanong. The mansion was later occupied by Japanese forces as their headquarters from 1939 to 1945. During the Huaihai Campaign in 1948, it served as a field hospital for the Central Plains Field Army, treating over 30,000 wounded soldiers. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article highlights Jingdezhen's evolution into a global ceramics hub, driven by inclusivity and a multi-tiered inheritance model. It profiles artisans like Ruan Shunrong, who spent 17 years recreating ancient glazes through trial and error, and Cheng Tong, a preservationist restoring historic buildings with original materials. Zeng Chao, a third-generation porcelain painter, actively teaches traditional techniques in schools and communities. Retired IT engineer Dong Liquan created an immersive exhibition replicating imperial kilns to promote Chinese ceramics globally, aiming to counterbalance the influence of overseas ceramic brands. The piece underscores how diverse practitioners sustain Jingdezhen's millennium-old ceramic heritage.
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Summary: The article details how Chen Zhenlong, a native of Fuzhou, smuggled sweet potato vines from the Philippines (then a Spanish colony) to China in 1593, after three failed attempts, by hiding them in bamboo tubes. Upon his return, his son presented the vines to Fujian Governor Jin Xuezeng, who initially hesitated but ultimately approved cultivation, later writing a manual on sweet potato farming. The crop's high yield and adaptability helped alleviate famine, and Chen's descendants continued spreading it across 17 provinces. The article links sweet potato introduction to China's population growth, from 60 million in the Ming dynasty to over 400 million by the Qing dynasty. It notes that while Chen Zhenlong's personal history is poorly documented, his legacy is commemorated by a shrine and a pavilion in Fuzhou.
Summary: Ba Jin, a towering figure in modern Chinese literature, is celebrated for works rooted in deep love for his country and people. During the Korean War, he served as a frontline writer with Chinese volunteers, enduring U.S. bombing and collecting stories of heroes. His experiences led to the novel *Reunion*, later adapted into the classic film *Heroic Sons and Daughters*. Ba Jin emphasized that writing stems from genuine affection for one's nation and fellow citizens, not mere talent. The article reflects on his legacy, highlighting his belief that literature should cleanse the soul and bring hope.
Summary: The article describes a bustling "odd-job station" (零工驿站) in a residential community, where workers gather informally to find day labor. A resident hires a married couple from the station to fix loose tiles; the couple explains they returned from Xinjiang to care for aging parents and work locally. They work efficiently together, charging only for materials and labor, and later thank the resident for recommending them to a neighbor. The piece highlights the朴实 (simple, genuine) warmth and mutual support among the workers. No mention is made of officials or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article recounts a personal visit to Xi'an, where the author enjoyed a meat sandwich made with Fuping persimmon vinegar, a traditional fruit vinegar produced in Shaanxi's Fuping region. It describes the seasonal harvesting of persimmons after frost and the eight-month fermentation process in sealed earthen jars, catalyzed by a starter culture, to produce amber-colored vinegar. The vinegar is noted for its health benefits, including blood sugar and lipid regulation, and is now marketed as a quick-consumption beverage. The author later uses the vinegar in homemade dishes, blending Shaanxi and Sichuan flavors, and shares it with friends. No officials or U.S.-China relations are mentioned.
Summary: The article reports that a pomegranate album leaf painting by renowned Chinese artist Zhang Daqian is housed in the Liaoning Provincial Museum. No official statements or U.S.-China relations are discussed.
Summary: Zhang Yanming, a master of hand-thrown red clay teapots and fourth-generation heir of the Lao Anshun tradition, decided to "seal his hands" and cease making teapots at the height of his fame. His son, Zhang Haiyuan, collected and locked away his father's seals. Following the announcement, the market for counterfeit Zhang Yanming teapots reportedly dwindled, as even forgers lost interest, with one remarking that if the master himself would not profit, there was no point in faking his work. The article portrays this act of stopping as a form of fulfillment, allowing his genuine teapots to endure and be appreciated over time. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: This text is a poem, not an article on Chinese politics. It contains no statements or actions by Chinese officials, and no discussion of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The provided text does not contain an article for summarization—it is only a submission guideline for the People's Daily "Dadi" column, including an email address and requirements for original submissions. No official statements, actions, or references to the United States or U.S.-China relations are present. Please provide the full article for analysis.
At present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs, and global artificial intelligence technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of activity, containing both immense opportunities and facing governance challenges. Humanity has no choice but to confront the questions of the era: When machines begin to think, how should humans coexist with them? When algorithms participate in decision-making, how can security be ensured? When technology challenges ethics, how can governance keep pace? When the gap continues to widen, how can universal benefit be achieved? The Chinese side believes that all countries should uphold the principles of people-centeredness and 向上向善 (xiàng shàng xiàng shàn - "upward and toward the good," pursuing progress and goodness), making artificial intelligence an important driving force for promoting common prosperity and safeguarding common security, and jointly building a fair and reasonable global artificial intelligence governance system.
In this regard, four points of opinion are put forward: First, uphold openness and win-win cooperation to drive innovative development. Second, strengthen risk awareness to ensure safety and controllability. Third, encourage inclusiveness and mutual learning to promote inter-civilizational exchange. Fourth, advocate unity and cooperation to improve global governance.
This year marks the start of China's "15th Five-Year Plan" period. The "15th Five-Year Plan" outlines the blueprint for China's economic and social development over the next five years, and also provides a list of opportunities for the international community. In recent years, China has adhered to the combination of an effective market and a well-functioning government, strengthened scientific and technological innovation in artificial intelligence, actively promoted the "AI+" action, cultivated a healthy ecosystem where various entities coexist and thrive, and the core industry scale of the intelligent economy has exceeded one trillion yuan. "Intelligent Manufacturing in China" has become another bright name card of Chinese-style modernization. At the same time, China adheres to placing equal emphasis on development and security, continuously improving relevant laws and regulations, policies and systems, application norms, and ethical guidelines to ensure that artificial intelligence is safe, reliable, and controllable. As a responsible major country, China has always been committed to being a provider of international public goods in the field of artificial intelligence, continuously contributing Chinese solutions.
This newspaper, Shanghai, July 17 (Reporters Wu Yan, Hu Zexi) On the morning of July 17, President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance at the Shanghai World Hall and delivered a keynote speech.
By the banks of the Huangpu River, a new tide rises. The World Hall was filled with distinguished guests.
Xi Jinping took a group photo with attending heads of state, heads of government, heads of international organizations, and heads of delegations.
Amidst warm applause, Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech titled "Jointly Building a Fair and Reasonable Global Artificial Intelligence Governance System."
Xi Jinping pointed out that at present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs, and global artificial intelligence technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of activity, containing both immense opportunities and facing governance challenges. Humanity has no choice but to confront the questions of the era: When machines begin to think, how should humans coexist with them? When algorithms participate in decision-making, how can security be ensured? When technology challenges ethics, how can governance keep pace? When the gap continues to widen, how can universal benefit be achieved? The Chinese side believes that all countries should uphold the principles of people-centeredness and pursuing progress and goodness, making artificial intelligence an important driving force for promoting common prosperity and safeguarding common security, and jointly building a fair and reasonable global artificial intelligence governance system.
Xi Jinping put forward four points of opinion on this:
First, uphold openness and win-win cooperation to drive innovative development. Seize the rare historic opportunity, encourage open source, openness, cooperation and sharing, comprehensively promote scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, and scenario application of artificial intelligence, coordinately advance the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the cultivation and strengthening of emerging industries, and the forward-looking布局 (bù jú - "layout, deployment") of future industries, allowing artificial intelligence to empower all industries.
Second, strengthen risk awareness to ensure safety and controllability. Attach high importance to various endogenous and derivative risks triggered by artificial intelligence, promote the construction of a system of laws and regulations, technical monitoring, risk early warning, and emergency response, build a solid safety bottom line, prevent abuse and malicious use, and ensure that artificial intelligence is always under human control. Jointly oppose practices in the field of artificial intelligence that泛化 (fàn huà - "generalize, overextend") the concept of national security or place one's own security above that of other countries.
Third, encourage inclusiveness and mutual learning to promote inter-civilizational exchange. Use the common values of all humanity to shape the values of artificial intelligence, make good use of artificial intelligence technology to enhance understanding and tolerance among different civilizations, promote exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations, and carefully cultivate a garden of civilizations where 各美其美、美美与共 (gè měi qí měi, měi měi yǔ gòng - "each appreciates its own beauty, and together they create shared beauty," respecting diversity and fostering harmony).
Fourth, advocate unity and cooperation to improve global governance. Practice true multilateralism, effectively leverage the important role of the United Nations, strengthen the alignment and coordination of artificial intelligence development strategies, governance rules, and technical standards, and form a global governance framework with broad consensus as soon as possible, so that this cutting-edge technology can better benefit human society. Help Global South countries strengthen capacity building, bridge the digital and intelligence divide, promote sustainable development, and avoid creating new historical injustices in the field of artificial intelligence.
Xi Jinping emphasized that this year marks the start of China's "15th Five-Year Plan" period. The "15th Five-Year Plan" outlines the blueprint for China's economic and social development over the next five years, and also provides a list of opportunities for the international community. In recent years, China has adhered to the combination of an effective market and a well-functioning government, strengthened scientific and technological innovation in artificial intelligence, actively promoted the "AI+" action, cultivated a healthy ecosystem where various entities coexist and thrive, and the core industry scale of the intelligent economy has exceeded one trillion yuan. "Intelligent Manufacturing in China" has become another bright name card of Chinese-style modernization. At the same time, China adheres to placing equal emphasis on development and security, continuously improving relevant laws and regulations, policies and systems, application norms, and ethical guidelines to ensure that artificial intelligence is safe, reliable, and controllable. As a responsible major country, China has always been committed to being a provider of international public goods in the field of artificial intelligence, continuously contributing Chinese solutions.
Xi Jinping pointed out that with the joint efforts of all parties, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) came into being in Shanghai. This is a major measure by the Chinese side to respond to the calls of the Global South and unite the international community to actively promote the development and governance of artificial intelligence, and will become an important milestone in the history of artificial intelligence development. To further support global artificial intelligence development and promote global artificial intelligence capacity building, over the next five years, China will provide 5,000 special training and研修 (yán xiū - "study, training") places on artificial intelligence topics for developing countries; build international artificial intelligence application cooperation centers for ASEAN, the Arab League, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the BRICS countries; and promote the application of the meteorological intelligent early warning solution "Mazu" in 30 countries. China is willing, with a more open attitude, more pragmatic actions, and a longer-term perspective, to work with all parties to grasp and address the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence development, and jointly create a better future for human society. (Full text of the speech on page 2)
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul of Thailand, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres respectively delivered speeches. They warmly congratulated the signing ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization agreement held in Shanghai, highly evaluated China's important contributions to promoting global artificial intelligence governance, and actively echoed the initiatives and measures proposed by President Xi Jinping. All parties stated that artificial intelligence is expected to become the greatest development opportunity for humanity, but also harbors risks. China advocates for goodness, inclusiveness, universal benefit, safety, and controllability in intelligence, actively helps developing countries strengthen relevant capacity building, and promotes international cooperation in artificial intelligence, demonstrating the responsibility of a major country. Artificial intelligence technology should be shared and co-governed by all countries, benefiting all countries fairly, serving the sustainable development of all humanity, and bridging the global digital and intelligence divide and the North-South development gap. The opportunities and challenges brought by artificial intelligence transcend national borders, requiring all parties to work together to grasp and address them. It is hoped and believed that the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization will play an important role in this regard, jointly creating a safe, prosperous, and better future that leaves no country behind through open, inclusive, equal, and mutually beneficial cooperation.
The conference issued the "Chair's Statement of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance."
On the evening of July 16, Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcome banquet for attending international dignitaries at the World Hall.
Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi, and others attended the above activities.
Chen Jining presided over the opening ceremony.
Return to TopXinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 17 — At approximately 9:10 on July 17, a mountain collapse occurred in Hanjia Subdistrict (汉葭街道), Pengshui County (彭水县), Chongqing, burying multiple people who are now missing.
After the disaster, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping attached great importance and issued important instructions, pointing out that a mountain collapse in Pengshui County, Chongqing, has caused multiple people to go missing. He called for scientifically organized search and rescue efforts, prevention of secondary disasters, and proper handling of the treatment of the injured and post-incident arrangements. The cause must be identified, and lessons must be drawn from this incident to conduct thorough investigations and eliminate hidden dangers such as geological disasters.
Xi Jinping emphasized that all regions and relevant departments should further strengthen their responsibility for safety work, enhance monitoring, early warning, patrols, and hazard elimination, and implement all tasks meticulously and concretely to effectively protect the safety of people's lives and property.
Li Qiang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Premier of the State Council, made instructions, pointing out that guidance and assistance should be provided to Chongqing to fully carry out rescue and disposal operations, treatment of the injured, and resettlement of the affected people, while strictly preventing secondary disasters. Responsibilities of all regions and relevant parties must be further consolidated, comprehensive risk and hazard investigations must be conducted, and disaster prevention and response efforts must be solidly carried out.
In accordance with Xi Jinping's important instructions and Li Qiang's requirements, Zhang Guoqing, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, led relevant department heads to the site to guide rescue and disposal operations. Chongqing has mobilized forces to fully carry out on-site search and rescue, treatment of the injured, and post-incident handling. Currently, the relevant work is ongoing.
Return to TopThis newspaper, Shanghai, July 17 (Reporters Gong Han and Wang Rong) On the afternoon of July 17, President Xi Jinping met at the Shanghai Xijiao State Guesthouse with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who was in China to attend the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance and to conduct an official visit.
Xi Jinping pointed out that China-Thailand friendship has lasted for a thousand years and has grown stronger with time. The two sides treat each other with sincerity and connect with each other heart to heart, forging a bond of "China and Thailand as one family." China places its relationship with Thailand in an important position in its neighborhood diplomacy and has always been a trustworthy and reliable strategic cooperative partner for Thailand. China and Thailand should further enhance strategic mutual trust, strengthen strategic coordination, jointly meet challenges, and accelerate the building of a China-Thailand community with a shared future that is more stable, more prosperous, and more sustainable, thereby contributing to each other's modernization process and making positive contributions to regional peace, stability, development, and prosperity.
Xi Jinping emphasized that China firmly supports Thailand in taking a development path that suits its own national conditions and supports the smooth governance of Thailand's new government. Facing the complex, profound, and changing international situation, China and Thailand should maintain close high-level exchanges, make good use of the "2+2" strategic dialogue mechanism between the two countries' foreign and defense ministers, and push strategic coordination to a higher level. They should accelerate the construction of the China-Thailand Railway and the connectivity of the China-Laos-Thailand Railway, and expand cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, aerospace, and clean energy. They should strengthen cooperation in tourism, media, education, and other areas, bringing the people of the two countries closer together. They should continue to vigorously combat cross-border crimes such as online gambling and telecom fraud, creating a safe environment for practical cooperation and personnel exchanges between the two countries. China supports Thailand in playing a greater role in international and regional affairs and is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Thailand within multilateral mechanisms such as APEC, China-ASEAN, and Lancang-Mekong Cooperation. Properly handling the border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia serves the common and long-term interests of the peoples of both countries. It is hoped that both sides will adhere to dialogue and consultation to peacefully resolve the dispute, and China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in this regard.
Anutin expressed that he is very pleased to make his first official visit to China as Prime Minister and warmly congratulated the Communist Party of China on the 105th anniversary of its founding. China has always been a good friend that Thailand can rely on and trust. The two countries have always respected, trusted, and supported each other. Thailand firmly adheres to the One-China policy. Thailand is committed to deepening relations with China, maintaining close high-level exchanges, expanding practical cooperation in trade, investment, high technology, connectivity, and other fields, jointly combating online gambling and telecom fraud, and carrying out cooperation in global AI governance, so that the China-Thailand comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership can better benefit the peoples of both countries. President Xi Jinping's four major global initiatives demonstrate a commitment to multilateralism, which Thailand actively supports. Thailand is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China to promote peace, stability, development, and prosperity in the region and the world. Thailand is committed to peacefully resolving the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia and appreciates China's fair and just role in this regard.
Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi, and Chen Jining attended the meeting.
Return to TopThis newspaper, Shanghai, July 17 (Reporters Chen Shangwen, Huan Xiang) On the afternoon of July 17, President Xi Jinping met at the Shanghai Xijiao State Guesthouse with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, who was in China to attend the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance and to conduct a working visit.
Xi Jinping pointed out that China and Cambodia have shared weal and woe and stood together through thick and thin, and their ironclad friendship has withstood the test of time and the baptism of wind and rain. History has proven that China-Cambodia friendship is not a matter of a single moment or a single event, but a consensus that transcends changing circumstances and is passed down from generation to generation, and is a common precious asset for both sides. The two sides should inherit the ironclad friendship forged by the elder generation of leaders of both countries, enhance strategic mutual trust, maintain close unity and cooperation, enrich the connotation of the "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework, and continuously push the building of a China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era to a higher level, so as to better benefit the people of both countries.
Xi Jinping emphasized that the Communist Party of China has formed a thought on Party building in the new era through the great practice of governing and managing the Party, revitalizing and strengthening the Party, which will continue to凝聚 (níngjù - "cohere, gather") the mighty force for Chinese-style modernization. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Cambodian People's Party. China is willing to strengthen exchanges of experience in Party governance and state governance with Cambodia, and firmly walk the path of China-Cambodia friendly cooperation in the new era. The two sides should leverage the role of the China-Cambodia Intergovernmental Coordination Committee, accelerate the construction of the "Industrial Development Corridor" and the "Fish and Rice Corridor," optimize traditional industries such as electricity and agriculture, cultivate emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and the digital economy, and coordinate the promotion of infrastructure construction projects that benefit Cambodia's national economy and people's livelihood. The two sides should make good use of the China-Cambodia "3+3" strategic dialogue mechanism covering diplomacy, national defense, and public security, jointly crack down hard on cross-border crimes such as counterfeiting, smuggling, online gambling, and telecom fraud, and safeguard common interests and security. China is willing to work with Cambodia to jointly promote the implementation of the four major global initiatives and promote the building of a more just and equitable global governance system. Consolidating the ceasefire situation between Cambodia and Thailand and gradually building mutual trust are in the fundamental and long-term interests of both countries. China supports Cambodia and Thailand in finding solutions through dialogue and negotiation, and is willing to continue to play an active role in this regard.
Hun Manet stated that he congratulates China on the successful hosting of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, and that the important concepts and propositions put forward by President Xi Jinping are of great significance to global AI governance. High-level exchanges between Cambodia and China are frequent, and cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results. He thanked China for its long-term selfless support and assistance to Cambodia's economic and social development. No matter how the international situation changes, Cambodia's policy of close friendly cooperation with China will never change, and it will actively commit to jointly building a Cambodia-China community with a shared future. Cambodia firmly adheres to the One-China principle, is willing to carry forward the traditional friendship with China, implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, deepen political mutual trust, expand bilateral trade, carry out cooperation on major projects such as infrastructure, intensify efforts to combat telecom fraud, and promote the development of bilateral relations to achieve more results. Cambodia thanks China for actively promoting peace and talks and facilitating the peaceful resolution of the Cambodia-Thailand border dispute. Cambodia will adhere to dialogue and negotiation to ease the situation.
Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi, and Chen Jining attended the meeting.
Return to TopOur newspaper, Shanghai, July 17 (Reporter Yang Qiaochu) On the afternoon of July 17, President Xi Jinping met with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at the Shanghai Xijiao State Guesthouse, who was in China to attend the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance.
Xi Jinping pointed out that during Secretary-General Guterres’ ten years in office, he has led the United Nations in firmly upholding multilateralism, actively responding to global challenges such as climate change, promoting global governance in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, and launching the UN reform process. China highly commends this. This year marks the 55th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. Over the past 55 years, China has consistently acted as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order, and has always firmly supported the United Nations. An important consideration behind my proposal of the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind and the four major global initiatives is to uphold the status and authority of the United Nations. China will, as always, deepen cooperation with the United Nations, promote the cause of world peace and development, and work to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
Xi Jinping emphasized that at present, the turbulent and volatile aspects of the international situation are becoming more prominent, making it necessary to further practice true multilateralism and revitalize the status and role of the United Nations. First, uphold fairness and justice. Every country is an equal member of the international community, and the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and legitimate rights and interests of every country should be respected. The world must never be allowed to return to the era of the law of the jungle. Second, uphold 守正创新 (shǒu zhèng chuàng xīn - “uphold the fundamental and innovate,” meaning to maintain core principles while innovating). Upholding the fundamental means abiding by the purposes of the UN Charter and safeguarding the international system and international rules established after the end of World War II; innovating means promoting the UN to change with the times, courageously engage in self-reform, and further improve quality and efficiency. Third, uphold responsibility and action. More than 190 countries in the world are riding in a big ship with a shared destiny, and they should 同舟共济 (tóng zhōu gòng jì - “cross the river in the same boat,” to work together to overcome difficulties) and join hands to address global challenges. Major countries should assume more responsibility and show greater vision. China has always actively promoted the exploration of the right way for major countries to get along in the new era through concrete actions, injecting more stability and certainty into the world.
Guterres stated that under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping, no matter how difficult and complex the international situation becomes, China has always firmly supported multilateralism, supported the cause of the United Nations, and promoted international cooperation, setting an example for the world. China has been committed to correcting development imbalances, addressing climate change, promoting AI for good, bridging the development gap, and upholding fairness and justice, and has put forward a series of major concepts and initiatives, which is admirable. The United Nations will continue to strengthen cooperation with China, oppose unilateralism, protectionism, and hegemonic bullying, uphold the UN Charter and international law, promote the process of multipolarity in the world, and safeguard the common interests of the international community.
Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi, Chen Jining, and others attended the meeting.
Return to TopBy: 中华人民共和国主席 习近平
Distinguished Colleagues, Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends,
Seventy years ago, a group of young scholars first put forward the concept of artificial intelligence at the Dartmouth Conference in New Hampshire, the United States. Over the past seventy years, AI scientists and researchers from around the world have continuously sought knowledge in the unknown, advanced through twists and turns, and achieved breakthroughs through perseverance. Seventy years later, facing a new wave of vigorous AI development, we gather here on the banks of the Huangpu River to jointly discuss how to steer global AI toward the direction of 向上向善 (xiàng shàng xiàng shàn - "upward and toward the good," promoting progress and goodness) and benefiting humanity. This is of great significance. On behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, I extend a warm welcome to all of you.
Looking back at history, the invention of the steam engine ushered in industrial civilization, the spread of electricity illuminated modern society, and the birth of the Internet connected the entire world. Every technological revolution has profoundly reshaped the way humans produce and live, driving a substantial leap in economic and social development.
At present, the world is undergoing accelerated transformation unseen in a century, and a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs. Global AI technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of activity. Intelligent technologies featuring the interconnection of all things, human-machine collaboration, cross-border integration, and co-creation and sharing are releasing enormous energy in a compounding manner. This presents both immense opportunities and governance challenges. Humanity must directly confront the questions of the era: When machines begin to think, how should humans coexist with them? When algorithms participate in decision-making, how can security be ensured? When technology challenges ethics, how can governance keep pace? When the gap continues to widen, how can universal benefit be achieved? These questions require deep reflection and joint answers from the international community.
China believes that all countries should uphold the principles of people-centeredness and 向上向善 (xiàng shàng xiàng shàn - "upward and toward the good," promoting progress and goodness), making AI an important driving force for promoting common prosperity and safeguarding common security, and working together to build a fair and reasonable global AI governance system. Here, I put forward four points.
First, adhere to openness and win-win cooperation to drive innovative development. AI is a new engine for world economic growth and an accelerator for the transition between old and new drivers of growth. It is moving from the "digital world" to the "physical world." We should seize this rare historic opportunity, encourage open-source, openness, cooperation, and sharing, comprehensively promote AI technological innovation, industrial development, and scenario application, and coordinately advance the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the cultivation and strengthening of emerging industries, and the forward-looking布局 of future industries, enabling AI to empower all industries and sectors.
Second, strengthen risk awareness to ensure safety and controllability. AI should become a trustworthy tool for humanity. We must attach great importance to various endogenous and derivative risks triggered by AI, promote the construction of systems for laws and regulations, technological monitoring, risk early warning, and emergency response, fortify the bottom line of safety, prevent misuse and malicious use, and ensure that AI remains under human control at all times. At the same time, we should jointly oppose the practice of泛化 the concept of national security in the AI field and placing one's own security above that of other countries.
Third, encourage 包容并蓄 (bāo róng bìng xù - "tolerant and inclusive," embracing diversity) to promote mutual learning among civilizations. The development and application of AI should not erode or damage the diversity of world civilizations and the uniqueness of each country's culture. We should use the common values of all humanity to shape the values of AI, make good use of AI technology to enhance understanding and tolerance among different civilizations, promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and carefully cultivate a garden of civilizations where 各美其美、美美与共 (gè měi qí měi, měi měi yǔ gòng - "each beauty its own beauty, beauty shared together," each civilization appreciating its own beauty and jointly appreciating the beauty of all).
Fourth, advocate 和衷共济 (hé zhōng gòng jì - "with united hearts to cross the river," working together in solidarity) to improve global governance. AI is the crystallization of wisdom and a precious treasure shared by all humanity. We should practice true multilateralism, give full play to the important role of the United Nations, strengthen alignment and coordination of AI development strategies, governance rules, and technical standards, and as early as possible form a global governance framework with broad consensus, so that this cutting-edge technology can better benefit human society. We should extensively carry out international cooperation, help Global South countries strengthen capacity building, bridge the digital and intelligence divide, promote sustainable development, and avoid creating new historical injustices in the AI field.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends!
This year marks the start of China's "15th Five-Year Plan" period. The 15th Five-Year Plan draws a blueprint for China's economic and social development over the next five years and also provides a list of opportunities for the international community. In recent years, China has actively embraced AI development, adhered to the combination of an effective market and a well-functioning government, strengthened AI technological innovation, actively promoted the "AI+" (人工智能+) action, cultivated a healthy ecosystem where various entities coexist and thrive, and the core industry scale of the intelligent economy has already exceeded one trillion yuan. Various types of intelligent terminals have entered millions of households, effectively benefiting people's livelihoods. "Intelligent Manufacturing in China" (中国智造) has become another shining name card of Chinese-style modernization.
At the same time, China has always adhered to equal emphasis on development and security, grasped the trends and laws of AI development, continuously improved relevant laws and regulations, policies and systems, application norms, and ethical standards, ensured that AI is safe, reliable, and controllable, and enabled this 千里马 (qiān lǐ mǎ - "thousand-li horse," a steed that can run a thousand li in a day, metaphor for a talented person or thing) of AI to run both fast and steadily.
As a responsible major country, China has always been committed to being a provider of international public goods in the AI field. Since I put forward the Global AI Governance Initiative (全球人工智能治理倡议), China has successively promoted the United Nations General Assembly to adopt by consensus a resolution on international cooperation on AI capacity building, released the AI Capacity Building普惠 Plan (人工智能能力建设普惠计划) and the "AI+" International Cooperation Initiative (“人工智能+”国际合作倡议), proposed the establishment of the World AI Cooperation Organization, and continuously contributed Chinese solutions.
The Chinese often say, "A single string cannot make a melody, a single tree cannot form a forest." AI development should not be a solo performance by one country, but a symphony of global cooperation. With the joint efforts of all parties, the World AI Cooperation Organization came into being in Shanghai as the times required. The vision from a year ago has been transformed into concrete results. This is a major move by China to respond to the calls of the Global South and unite the international community to actively promote AI development and governance. It will become an important milestone in the history of AI development.
To further support global AI development and advance global AI capacity building, I announce that in the next five years, China will provide 5,000 training opportunities for AI-themed研修 programs for developing countries; build international AI application cooperation centers for ASEAN, the Arab League, the African Union, CELAC, the SCO, and BRICS; and promote the application of the intelligent meteorological early warning solution "Mazu" (妈祖) in 30 countries, watching over the lights of ten thousand households and safeguarding peace across the four seas.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends!
"The wise change with the times; the knowledgeable adapt to circumstances." The more rapidly AI technology advances by 一日千里 (yī rì qiān lǐ - "a thousand li in a day," advancing at a tremendous pace), the more correctly the direction of 向上向善 (xiàng shàng xiàng shàn - "upward and toward the good," promoting progress and goodness) and benefiting humanity must be anchored, the more precisely the scale of regulatory governance must be grasped, and the more timely the measures to prevent loss of control must be improved. We must always use human wisdom and international consensus to guide AI development, making it a powerful positive energy that truly enhances the well-being of all humanity and promotes the progress of human civilization.
China is willing, with a more open attitude, more pragmatic actions, and a longer-term vision, to work with all parties to grasp and address the opportunities and challenges of AI development, and jointly create a better future for human society!
Thank you all!
(Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, July 17)
Return to TopFrom July 17 to 20, 2026, the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance was held in Shanghai, China. President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the conference and delivered a keynote speech. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul of Thailand, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, as well as official representatives from over 100 countries and international organizations, and guests from industry, academia, and research, attended the conference. At this important historical juncture where a new wave of intelligence is sweeping the globe, the conference, with the theme "Intelligent Partners, Co-Creating the Future," jointly explored how to promote the beneficial and inclusive development of global artificial intelligence.
The conference believes that artificial intelligence is restructuring the model of human economic and social development in all dimensions, and will have a profound impact on the progress of human civilization. The opportunities and challenges brought by artificial intelligence are rising simultaneously. On one hand, artificial intelligence is deeply integrated into many fields such as industry, people's livelihoods, and scientific research, injecting strong momentum into economic transformation, technological breakthroughs, and efficiency improvement. On the other hand, in the process of continuous iteration of artificial intelligence, issues such as technological ethics, data security, and regulatory systems are also becoming prominent.
The conference believes that artificial intelligence is the latest subject of global governance, and it is necessary to uphold the spirit of 同球共济 (tóng qiú gòng jì - "sharing the same globe and mutual assistance," to work together for the common good of the planet), and establish a new paradigm for global governance through international coordination on artificial intelligence. It is necessary to统筹发展和安全 (balance development and security), 平衡创新和治理 (balance innovation and governance), 兼顾本国利益和全球福祉 (take into account both national interests and global well-being), adhere to the principles of people-centeredness, beneficial intelligence, fairness and inclusiveness, and collaborative co-governance, strengthen international cooperation on artificial intelligence, discuss and resolve the major issues and urgent challenges facing humanity in the intelligent era, place international cooperation on artificial intelligence capacity building in a prominent position in global AI governance, strive to address prominent issues such as uneven distribution of resources and unfair allocation of power, help Global South countries benefit equally in the process of AI development, assist in the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.
First, innovation is the core driving force for the development of artificial intelligence. We advocate cultivating an innovation ecosystem with enterprises as the main body, the market as the牵引 (driver), application as the orientation, scientific research as the foundation, and talent as the root. Humans play a key role in the development of artificial intelligence, and great importance should be attached to cultivating talent in the field of artificial intelligence who possess digital and humanistic literacy, innovation ability, and a global perspective.
Second, promote artificial intelligence to empower thousands of industries and enter millions of households. Artificial intelligence has a distinct empowering attribute. The "AI+" model should be actively promoted to stimulate global innovation vitality, explore new scientific research paradigms, create new forms of intelligent economy, cultivate a new token economy model based on large models and led by agent-driven approaches, coordinately promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the cultivation and growth of emerging industries, and the布局 (layout) of future industries, and advance the application of artificial intelligence in fields such as science, education, industry, agriculture, health, transportation, climate, environment, and government affairs.
Third, open source and openness are important paths for the inclusive development of artificial intelligence. The co-building of an open-source ecosystem should be encouraged in a responsible manner, an open and inclusive international open-source community should be actively built, the independent choices of enterprises should be respected, and on the premise of attaching importance to intellectual property protection, the sharing of AI research results and technical experience should be promoted, and the accessibility of AI technologies and services should be enhanced.
Fourth, data plays an important role in the development of artificial intelligence. The characteristics of high mobility and high empowering capacity of data should be grasped, the development and utilization of data resources should be deepened, data security should be effectively guaranteed, personal information protection should be jointly strengthened, the construction of basic systems such as data property rights should be accelerated, ensuring that data is manageable, controllable, and traceable, and promoting the safe, orderly flow and efficient development and utilization of data.
Fifth, develop sustainable artificial intelligence and promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence and energy systems. By deploying large-scale intelligent computing clusters in areas rich in new energy, guiding the coordinated dispatch of computing load and power resources, paying attention to the impact of artificial intelligence on energy consumption and the ecological environment, promoting the green and low-carbon development of artificial intelligence, and promoting the two-way empowerment of artificial intelligence and energy.
Sixth, pay attention to the impact of artificial intelligence technology on social transformation, systematically assess and respond to the impact of artificial intelligence on the employment structure, tap the potential of artificial intelligence in creating jobs, actively carry out AI education and skills training, stimulate the vitality of innovation and entrepreneurship in the whole society, effectively safeguard the rights and dignity of workers, and build a more warm intelligent society.
Seventh, attach importance to the security risks brought by artificial intelligence, actively promote the construction of legal regulations, technical monitoring, risk early warning, and emergency response systems, adhere to risk-oriented and agile governance, explore classified and graded management, build a solid security bottom line, prevent abuse and malicious use, and ensure that artificial intelligence is always under human control.
Eighth, the upgrading and iteration of cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies have complex impacts on cybersecurity, posing potential threats to key infrastructure such as finance, electricity, communications, and transportation. Globally leading AI enterprises should advance AI research and development with a prudent attitude, install necessary guardrails for large AI models, ensure the safe deployment of cutting-edge models, and prevent systemic risks brought by artificial intelligence.
Ninth, intelligent agents are a new form of AI products and services. Decision-making authority and behavioral boundaries should be clearly defined, behavior tracing and risk warning mechanisms should be established, efforts should be made to enhance the intrinsic security capabilities of intelligent agents, and the derivative risks of applications should be mitigated.
Tenth, we should jointly prevent and combat the abuse and malicious use of artificial intelligence technology by terrorism, extremist forces, and transnational organized criminal groups, and establish necessary crisis management and emergency response mechanisms internationally.
Eleventh, we should practice true multilateralism, give play to the core role of the United Nations in global governance, pay attention to the fragmentation of global AI governance, support the role of the two mechanisms of the United Nations Global AI Governance Dialogue and the International Scientific Panel on AI, further consolidate global consensus, share best practices, and ensure equal rights, equal opportunities, and equal rules for all countries.
Twelfth, explore jointly building international economic and trade rules for artificial intelligence, promote inclusive cooperation in the AI industry chain and supply chain, support the greater participation of developing countries in the global division of labor, ensure fair participation of enterprises from all countries in international competition, and maintain the stability of the AI industry chain and supply chain.
Thirteenth, in view of the serious lag in the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we should persistently advance the implementation of the UN General Assembly resolution on "Strengthening International Cooperation on AI Capacity Building," carry out practical cooperation based on the actual needs of developing countries, support countries in tapping their own potential and unique advantages, and share the dividends of AI development.
Fourteenth, accelerate the formulation and revision of safety, industry, and ethical standards, take into account technological progress, risk prevention, and social ethics, establish a standard framework that is widely consensual, scientific, transparent, and inclusive, promote mutual recognition of standards among countries, and reduce the cost and threshold of international cooperation on artificial intelligence.
Fifteenth, respect the differences in history, culture, social systems, and forms of civilization among countries, and protect the diversity of world cultures. Promote the adaptation of artificial intelligence technology to multicultural scenarios, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of the cultures of various countries, and safeguard the diversity of world civilizations and the cultural uniqueness of each country.
During the conference, the signing ceremony of the Agreement on the Establishment of the World AI Cooperation Organization was held in Shanghai. The World AI Cooperation Organization is the world's first intergovernmental international organization on artificial intelligence, with its headquarters to be located in Shanghai. The World AI Cooperation Organization adheres to the principles of beneficial and inclusive development, aims to support Global South countries in accelerating AI development, enhancing comprehensive capabilities in innovation, application, and governance, catching up with the wave of technological revolution, and bridging the intelligence divide. The basic principles of the World AI Cooperation Organization are to follow the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, respect the sovereignty and diversity of civilizations of all countries, adhere to equal treatment, practice multilateralism, uphold the concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. The World AI Cooperation Organization is open to all countries and will maintain communication with other international organizations to explore appropriate forms of cooperation.
(Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, July 17)
Return to TopOn July 17, President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai and delivered a keynote speech, putting forward four points of opinion on global AI governance, comprehensively and systematically elaborating China’s policy stance and conceptual propositions regarding AI development and governance. “China’s propositions provide clear thinking for the development of the global AI industry” “China’s concept of open and shared AI development will benefit all of humanity”… The international community highly appraises the important contributions China has made to promoting global AI governance, believing that the initiatives and measures proposed by President Xi Jinping provide a Chinese solution for bridging the global digital and AI divide and promoting the beneficial and inclusive development of global AI.
At present, the world’s centennial transformations are accelerating, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs, and global AI technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of activity, containing both enormous opportunities and facing governance challenges. When machines begin to think, how should humans interact with them? When algorithms participate in decision-making, how can security be ensured? When technology challenges ethics, how can governance keep pace? When the gap continues to widen, how can inclusiveness be achieved? Faced with these questions that humanity must answer together, President Xi Jinping put forward four points of opinion in his keynote speech: “uphold openness and win-win cooperation to drive innovation-driven development,” “strengthen risk awareness to ensure safety and controllability,” “encourage inclusiveness and mutual learning to promote inter-civilizational exchange,” and “advocate solidarity and cooperation to improve global governance,” providing important guidance for jointly building a fair and reasonable global AI governance system, which has received broad recognition and positive response from the international community. UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed full agreement with the important propositions put forward by President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech, especially emphasizing the beneficial, inclusive, and safe nature of AI, which is highly consistent with the UN’s strategic goals and concepts.
As a responsible major country, China has always been committed to being a provider of international public goods in the field of AI. Since proposing the Global AI Governance Initiative, China has successively promoted the UN General Assembly to adopt by consensus a resolution on international cooperation on AI capacity building, released the AI Capacity Building普惠 Plan and the “AI+” International Cooperation Initiative, continuously contributing Chinese solutions to promoting the beneficial and inclusive development of AI. With the joint efforts of all parties, the World AI Cooperation Organization was established in Shanghai as the times require. This is a major measure by China to respond to the calls of the Global South and unite the international community to actively promote AI development and governance, and will become an important milestone in the history of AI development. All parties expressed hope and belief that the World AI Cooperation Organization will play an important role, through open, inclusive, equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly creating a safe, prosperous, and bright future that leaves no country behind.
Adhering to the concept of people-centeredness and upward and beneficial orientation, China continuously empowers global common progress with its own AI development, truly making it a powerful positive energy for enhancing the well-being of all humanity and promoting the progress of human civilization. In recent years, China has strengthened AI technological innovation, actively promoted the “AI+” action, with the core industry scale of the intelligent economy breaking through the trillion yuan mark, and its technological innovation capability and scenario implementation level firmly ranking among the top in the world. From “AI clinics” landing in Saudi Arabia to optimize primary-level medical services, to autonomous driving technology helping Singapore’s logistics industry transform and upgrade, a batch of high-quality Chinese intelligent products and solutions have gone abroad and benefited all corners of the world, effectively improving the well-being of people in various countries, making “Intelligent Manufacturing in China” a bright international business card of Chinese-style modernization.
This year marks the first year of China’s “15th Five-Year Plan,” a new blueprint for China’s development and also a new opportunity for global cooperation. To further support global AI development and promote global AI capacity building, over the next five years, China will provide 5,000 training opportunities for special AI research and study programs for developing countries; build international AI application cooperation centers with ASEAN, the Arab League, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the BRICS countries; promote the application of the meteorological intelligent early warning solution “Mazu” in 30 countries, watching over the lights of ten thousand homes and protecting peace across the four seas. The above measures by China will inject new impetus into strengthening capacity building and promoting sustainable development for Global South countries.
A single string cannot make a tune, a single tree cannot make a forest. AI development should not be a solo performance by one country, but a symphony of global cooperation. China is willing, with a more open attitude, more pragmatic actions, and a longer-term vision, to work with all parties to grasp and respond to the opportunities and challenges of AI development, and jointly create a better future for human society.
Return to TopPeople's Daily, Shanghai, July 17 (Reporter Huan Xiang) — Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, met in Shanghai on the 17th respectively with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Office Dmitry Oreshkin, who were in China to attend the World AI Conference.
When meeting with Guterres, Wang Yi stated that President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the conference's opening ceremony, comprehensively elaborating China's positions and propositions on how to develop artificial intelligence in a healthier, safer, and more orderly manner. China is willing to work with the United Nations to advance the governance of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Guterres stated that he fully endorses the important propositions put forward by President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech, especially the emphasis on AI's beneficence, inclusiveness, and safety, which are highly aligned with the strategic goals and concepts of the United Nations. The UN is willing to maintain close communication and cooperation with China.
When meeting with Oreshkin, Wang Yi stated that China is willing to work with Russia to focus on enhancing the capacity building of Global South countries, and also to make artificial intelligence an important increment in the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. The two sides should follow the important consensus of the two heads of state to push bilateral relations 百尺竿头更进一步 (bǎi chǐ gān tóu gèng jìn yī bù - "at the top of a hundred-foot pole, take one more step," to make further progress).
Oreshkin stated that President Xi Jinping's keynote speech has worldwide significance, reflecting China's profound understanding and strategic vision for the development of artificial intelligence. The establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization is a major Chinese initiative that benefits the entire globe, and Russia is very pleased to become a founding member state.
Return to TopThis newspaper, Shanghai, July 17 (Reporter Chen Shangwen) On the evening of July 16, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, met with Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar in Shanghai, where they exchanged views on the Iran situation and coordinated positions.
The two sides expressed concern over the deterioration of the current situation, called on the parties concerned to immediately cease hostilities, strive to overcome difficulties, remove interference, restart contacts, resume dialogue, and endeavor to ultimately reach a comprehensive peace agreement through negotiations, and the international community should also continue to provide assistance for this purpose.
Wang Yi stressed that the first-phase memorandum of understanding (第一阶段谅解备忘录) reached between the United States and Iran was hard-won; it is not only the result of negotiations between the two parties, but also inseparable from the joint efforts of the international community, especially the indispensable coordinating and mediating role played by the Pakistani side. The core provisions of the memorandum not only conform to the fundamental and long-term interests of the parties concerned, but also meet the common expectations of the international community; they should be all the more cherished and need to be carefully nurtured. Peace is right before our eyes; we must not 功亏一篑 (gōng kuī yī kuì - “fail to complete a mound for lack of one basket of earth,” to fall short of success at the last moment), still less allow it to be gained and then lost again. All parties should fulfill their commitments and abide by the provisions of the memorandum. China will, as always, support Pakistan’s mediation efforts, and will also continue to play a constructive role in its own way in promoting the easing of the situation. Dar introduced the recent efforts made by the Pakistani side, thanked China for its understanding and support, and stated that Pakistan will face difficulties head-on and continue to actively urge peace and facilitate talks.
Return to TopBeijing, July 17 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Liu Zhiqiang (刘志强)) On July 17, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance was held in Shanghai. At the meeting, the National Development and Reform Commission (国家发展改革委), together with relevant departments, jointly released two outcomes: the "AI Cooperation and Development Action Plan" (《人工智能合作发展行动计划》) and the "China Wisdom Benefits the World (2026)" case collection (《中国智·惠世界（2026）》案例集).
The "AI Cooperation and Development Action Plan" proposes eight actions from the aspects of data, computing power, ecosystem, empowerment, talent, rules, governance, and ethics: high-quality data supply, inclusive intelligent computing power, open-source ecosystem sharing, deep AI empowerment, co-cultivation of digital and AI talent, joint construction of rules and standards, security governance collaboration, and AI for good (人工智能向善). It responds with practical measures to the United Nations' initiatives on strengthening international cooperation in AI, bridging the digital divide, and promoting AI-empowered sustainable development.
The "China Wisdom Benefits the World (2026)" case collection is the third consecutive year that the National Development and Reform Commission has released it. It collects 10 vivid stories of China's international cooperation in the field of AI. Compared with previous editions, the coverage of regions and countries is broader, the "AI+" application cooperation scenarios are richer, the concept of "people-centered, AI for good" (以人为本、智能向善) is more prominent, and it gathers valuable achievements in international AI cooperation, demonstrating China's wisdom and China's solutions contributed to global AI development.
Return to TopXinhua News Agency, Shanghai, July 17 (reporters Zhou Yuan (周圆), Yang Youzong (杨有宗)) — On the 17th, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (2026世界人工智能大会暨人工智能全球治理高级别会议) held in Shanghai, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工业和信息化部), together with relevant parties, jointly guided the release of the International AI Ethics Governance Action Plan (《国际人工智能伦理治理行动计划》), contributing to global AI governance an action framework that combines principled guidance with operational feasibility.
The Action Plan is an important public good that China provides to the international community. Within the framework of the United Nations Pact for the Future (《未来契约》) and its annex the Global Digital Compact (《全球数字契约》), it calls on all countries to take active action in light of their own realities and to strengthen policy coordination and practical cooperation in the spirit of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, focusing on directions such as full-lifecycle ethical governance of artificial intelligence, risk classification and tiered prevention and control, agile governance mechanism building, cultivation of an industry-chain collaborative ecosystem, and creation of a social atmosphere.
In the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will join with relevant international organizations to continuously promote the implementation of the Action Plan: deepen multilateral coordination mechanisms to encourage dialogue and collaboration among governments, industry, and academia; strengthen the universal accessibility of governance capacity, with a focus on carrying out cooperation with developing countries on ethical governance capacity building; enrich the soil of the governance ecosystem by promoting the clarification of rights and responsibilities for all entities in the industry chain, encouraging the research and development as well as open-source sharing of ethical governance technologies such as explainability, privacy protection, and bias correction, while simultaneously integrating science and technology ethics education into the national education system, and effectively safeguarding the rights and interests of vulnerable groups such as women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, thereby bridging the digital divide.
Return to TopXINHUA Shanghai, July 17 (Xinhua) -- On July 17, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (2026世界人工智能大会暨人工智能全球治理高级别会议) held in Shanghai, the Cyberspace Administration of China (国家互联网信息办公室), together with relevant parties, put forward the Global Cooperation Initiative on Mutual Trust, Interconnection, and Interoperability of Intelligent Agents (智能体互信互联互操作全球合作倡议).
It is learned that intelligent agents, as one of the most transformative technological forms in the era of artificial intelligence, have their levels of mutual trust, interconnection, and interoperability profoundly affecting the degree of integration of the global digital economy and the future of human society. The proposal of the initiative aims to unleash the potential of intelligent agents to empower sustainable development, prevent the formation of an intelligence divide, consolidate consensus among all parties, and jointly build an open, trustworthy, safe, and inclusive intelligent agent ecosystem with global partners.
The initiative calls for: strengthening technological research and development to drive collaborative innovation; promoting mutual recognition of standards to eliminate ecological barriers; jointly building infrastructure to ensure connectivity and accessibility; jointly advancing application deployment to accelerate scenario demonstration; jointly promoting industrial collaboration to prosper the global ecosystem; jointly building a safety bottom line and adhering to ethical norms; promoting data flow and strengthening universal protection; enhancing resource sharing to bridge the intelligence divide; fostering an inclusive culture and respecting diverse governance; and improving digital literacy to ensure that everyone benefits.
Return to TopXinhua News Agency, Lanzhou, July 17 — Zhao Leji (赵乐际), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, conducted research in Gansu from the 15th to the 17th. He emphasized the need to adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, uphold the Party's overall leadership over the work of the People's Congress, conscientiously fulfill the functions and duties entrusted to the People's Congress by the Constitution and laws, establish and practice a correct view of political performance, and promote the high-quality development of People's Congress work while making progress amid stability.
Zhao Leji visited Lanzhou City, Dingxi City, and Baiyin City, going deep into "homes of People's Congress deputies," enterprises, scientific research institutions, villages, and farmers' households. He exchanged views with People's Congress deputies and the public, listened to opinions and suggestions, and stressed that People's Congress deputies must perform their duties according to law, maintain contact with the masses through flexible and diverse methods under the leadership of Party organizations, closely collaborate with functional departments, sub-districts and communities, and enterprises and public institutions, and work together to solve the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the people.
At the provincial People's Congress and the People's Congress organ of Huining County, Zhao Leji investigated and learned about the election work for county and township-level People's Congress deputies, budget online supervision, and other situations. He visited cadres of the organs and presided over a symposium. He emphasized that the key to doing a good job in People's Congress supervision is to deeply understand and comprehensively implement the requirements of "correct supervision, effective supervision, and lawful supervision" put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping. Adhering to correct supervision means upholding the Party's leadership, firmly grasping the positioning and direction of People's Congress supervision, embedding support within supervision, working in the same direction and forming synergy with other state organs, and promoting the implementation of the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments. Adhering to effective supervision means centering on the core tasks and serving the overall situation, taking issues related to the overall situation of reform, development, and stability, the immediate interests of the masses, and matters of general social concern as priorities, conducting in-depth and solid preliminary research, on-site inspections, and meeting deliberations, and effectively putting forward high-quality opinions and suggestions. Adhering to lawful supervision means exercising powers strictly in accordance with the scope, methods, mechanisms, and procedures of supervision stipulated by law. People's Congress supervision is a process of practicing whole-process people's democracy. It is necessary to promote the improvement of work and the resolution of problems through methods such as listening to opinions, putting forward suggestions, and communication and consultation. After more than 70 years of development, especially the vivid practice of more than 10 years in the new era, the system of People's Congresses has become more mature and more定型 (dìng xíng - "fixed in form," established and finalized). It is necessary to strengthen institutional confidence, effectively uphold, improve, and operate the system of People's Congresses, fully leverage its institutional advantages, and better transform them into governance effectiveness.
Zhao Leji pointed out that it is necessary to conscientiously implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, uphold Party leadership, fully promote democracy, and strictly act in accordance with the law. The election work for county and township-level People's Congress deputies must be carried out rigorously and meticulously to ensure the correct direction and clean atmosphere of the election work, and that the election results satisfy the people.
Zhao Leji emphasized the need to conscientiously implement the important instructions and requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee. Based on actual conditions, following the laws, and adapting measures to local conditions, all efforts must be made to do a good job in flood prevention and drought relief, emergency rescue and disaster relief, and post-disaster reconstruction. The string of production safety must be kept taut at all times, and major and extraordinarily serious accidents must be resolutely prevented to ensure the safety of people's lives and property.
During the research, Zhao Leji visited the former site of the Huining rendezvous of the Red Army and viewed the themed exhibition commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March.
Return to TopOur newspaper, Wonsan, DPRK, July 17 (Reporter Liu Rong (刘融)). At the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, led a Chinese Party and government delegation on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK from July 15 to 17. In Pyongyang, he met with Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission; jointly attended with Pak Thae Song, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission, and premier of the Cabinet, the commemorative reception for the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance; and held talks with Jo Yong Won, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, secretary of the Central Committee, and director of the Organization Guidance Department.
When meeting with Kim Jong Un, Wang Huning conveyed the cordial greetings and good wishes of General Secretary Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China. Wang Huning said that this year marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. Not long ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping's state visit to the DPRK achieved complete success. General Secretary Xi Jinping and Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un had in-depth exchanges over a long period, reached a series of important consensuses, drew a beautiful blueprint for the development of Sino-DPRK relations in the new era, and injected strong impetus into the socialist cause of both countries. The Chinese side is willing to work with the DPRK side to resolutely implement the important consensuses of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, effectively play the strategic guiding role of exchanges between the top leaders, ensure that the relations between the two parties and two countries always develop in a direction conducive to consolidating their respective socialist causes and promoting their respective national modernization, closely communicate and exchange between the two parties through various forms, further enhance the effectiveness of practical cooperation between the two countries, continuously consolidate the public opinion foundation of Sino-DPRK friendship, and constantly inject new era connotations into the Sino-DPRK traditional friendship.
Kim Jong Un first conveyed cordial greetings and good wishes to General Secretary Xi Jinping, and expressed warm congratulations on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Kim Jong Un said that solemnly commemorating the 65th anniversary of the signing of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was a consensus reached between him and General Secretary Xi Jinping in June this year. The signing of the treaty clarified the strategic nature of DPRK-China relations and guaranteed the strategic direction of bilateral relations. General Secretary Xi Jinping's historic visit to the DPRK not long ago became a milestone in building DPRK-China relations into a model of socialist state relations. The DPRK side will adhere to regarding the development of DPRK-China relations as the most important strategic undertaking, continue to carry forward and inherit the spirit of the treaty, strengthen high-level exchanges with the Chinese side, deepen exchanges of experience in party building and other areas, enhance political and strategic mutual trust, expand cooperation in economy, science and technology, health, culture and other fields, and better benefit the peoples of the two countries.
During talks with Jo Yong Won, Wang Huning said that the exchange of high-level delegations between China and the DPRK and the solemn holding of commemorative activities for the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance demonstrated the high importance and firm determination of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries for developing China-DPRK relations, and demonstrated the distinctive features, strategic value, and era connotations of the China-DPRK traditional friendship. The Chinese side is willing to work with the DPRK side to carry forward the traditional friendship between the two countries and push China-DPRK relations to a higher level. Wang Huning also introduced the connotation and essence of Xi Jinping's thought on party building (习近平党建思想).
Jo Yong Won said that the profound friendship and strategic guidance of General Secretary Kim Jong Un and General Secretary Xi Jinping are the fundamental cornerstone and inexhaustible driving force of DPRK-China relations. The DPRK side will follow the will of the leaders of the two countries, strengthen the sharing of experience in party governance and state governance with the Chinese side, and promote the continuous development of the socialist cause of both countries.
During the visit, Wang Huning also paid homage to the Sino-DPRK Friendship Tower, went to the Chinese People's Volunteers Martyrs' Cemetery in Sunan, Pyongyang to pay respects, paid homage to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, and visited the Central Cadre School of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Wang Huning also went to Wonsan city for inspection and visit, accompanied by Jo Yong Won and others.
Wang Dongfeng (王东峰) and others participated in the above activities.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 王 观
The first-half economic performance "report card" was released recently: China's economy, under pressure, has continued its development trend of overall stability, moving toward the new and the excellent, demonstrating strong resilience and vitality. A batch of new industries with high technological content and strong resilience provide solid support; a series of new demands that match industrial upgrading and quality consumption are accelerating their release; a host of new enterprises with vigorous innovation vitality and deep cultivation in细分 fields are emerging.
Behind the achievements lie the front-loaded and forceful implementation of macro policies, the successive advancement and implementation of various policies, and the direct flow of funds to the real economy, benefiting enterprises and the people.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Implement more proactive and effective macro policies, promote the economy to achieve qualitative effective improvement and quantitative reasonable growth, maintain social harmony and stability, and strive for a good start to the '15th Five-Year Plan'."
Since the beginning of this year, various regions and departments have taken the initiative and implemented comprehensive measures, precisely and effectively implementing more proactive and effective macro policies. A more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy move in the same direction, using proactive front-loading to hedge against external uncertainties, using precise drip irrigation to break structural bottlenecks, and using multi-dimensional coordination to improve governance efficiency, laying a solid foundation for a good start to the "15th Five-Year Plan."
Forward-looking layout, policies front-loaded to seize the window——
On January 15, the People's Bank of China announced the introduction of eight policy measures, simultaneously lowering the interest rates of various structural monetary policy tools and improving structural monetary policy tools while increasing support intensity, taking into account both increasing the enthusiasm for credit allocation in key areas and assisting economic structural transformation and optimization.
On January 20, the Ministry of Finance introduced six policy measures, four supporting private investment and two supporting consumption promotion, including credit, interest subsidies, guarantees, and compensation, covering a wide range of areas with strong support.
Fiscal policy increases counter-cyclical adjustment intensity, monetary policy closely follows with forward-looking management. The policy toolbox was intensively released at the beginning of the year, firmly grasping the window period of resuming work and production, concentrated project starts, and consumption recovery at the start of the year, achieving early policy introduction, early fund allocation, early project commencement, and early dividend release.
Seize time, be good at acting. In the first quarter of this year, national general public budget expenditure was 7.4706 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%, with the expenditure progress being the fastest in the past five years. Not long ago, the third batch of "two major" (两重) construction projects for 2026 was issued, allocating a total of 193.5 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special government bonds. So far, the list of "two major" construction projects for this year has been fully issued, gaining greater initiative for projects to seize the golden construction period and form physical workload as early as possible.
Data shows that in the first half of the year, investment in high-tech industries increased by 4.6% year-on-year, investment in the internet and related service industries increased by 39.9% year-on-year, investment in emerging fields continues to "increase momentum," and investment in new infrastructure "benefits the long term." Looking ahead, there is still broad scope for expanding effective investment.
Precise发力, targeted policies to break bottlenecks——
Located in Tianqu New District (天衢新区), Dezhou, Shandong, Shandong Zhuojian Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (山东卓健医疗科技股份有限公司) is a provincial-level specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative (专精特新) science and technology innovation service enterprise cultivated locally. As market demand continues to expand, the enterprise urgently needs funds to upgrade production equipment, strengthen technology research and development, and expand the supply of people's livelihood health services. However, limited by its light-asset nature, the financing threshold under the traditional credit model is high and cost pressure is large.
Hengfeng Bank Dezhou Branch innovated a credit model exclusive to the science and technology innovation service industry, focusing on "looking at technology, looking at patents, looking at prospects, looking at services," and provided the enterprise with 3 million yuan in special credit loans. At the same time, relying on the policy dividend of fiscal interest subsidies for the service industry, the enterprise's comprehensive financing cost was significantly reduced.
Extension, increase in quota, expansion of scope—this year, the optimized and upgraded loan interest subsidy policy for service industry business entities is more "thirst-quenching," effectively alleviating the funding pressure on service industry business entities, truly achieving financial profit transfer, policy benefiting enterprises, and burden reduction for entities.
Front-loaded发力 solves the rhythm problem of "when to act," precise用力 answers the structural question of "where funds go and who policies help."
To activate domestic demand, this year 250 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special government bonds were arranged to support the trade-in (以旧换新) of consumer goods, and a 100 billion yuan special fund for fiscal-financial coordination to promote domestic demand was established; to empower science and technology innovation, the relending quota for technological innovation and technological transformation was expanded to 1.2 trillion yuan, the "technology board" of the bond market was built with high quality, and a bond risk-sharing tool for technological innovation and private enterprises was merged and established; to hold the bottom line, local government special bonds continued to be issued for replacing existing隐性 debt, and the risk resolution of small and medium financial institutions was promoted in a forceful, orderly, and effective manner... Since the beginning of this year, macro-control has further allocated resources in a targeted manner around the pain points and bottlenecks of the real economy, with funds following industries and policies following demand, improving policy effectiveness, while stabilizing growth, continuously optimizing the economic structure, and cultivating new momentum for high-quality development.
From the data on loan allocation, financial water continues to "nourish" key areas and weak links: at the end of June, the balance of inclusive small and micro loans increased by 8.3% year-on-year, the balance of medium- and long-term industrial loans increased by 5.9% year-on-year, and the balance of medium- and long-term service industry loans excluding real estate increased by 9.2% year-on-year, all higher than the growth rate of total loans in the same period.
Converging forces, multi-dimensional policies resonate at the same frequency——
"Buying a mobile phone not only enjoyed the trade-in subsidy, but also could participate in a lottery when issuing the invoice, saving nearly 600 yuan in total!" At the Dongguan Fashion Appliance (莞城) main store in Guangdong, citizen Ms. Zeng was very surprised to see the prize-involved invoice winning page on her phone.
Zeng Xiaoxia, the financial officer of Dongguan Fashion Appliance Co., Ltd., introduced that this year, the company actively seized the business opportunities brought by a series of policy benefits, quickly adjusted commodity procurement rules and service processes, and carried out promotional activities combining national subsidies, provincial subsidies, manufacturer subsidies, and enterprise subsidies at 12 stores across the city. Driven by multiple benefits, the company's second-quarter sales revenue increased by about 8.9% compared with the first quarter.
Through the implementation path of the combination of measures to promote consumption, one can clearly understand the distinct orientation of macro-control in coordinating the synergistic发力 of various policies: the fiscal side provides funds to implement trade-in subsidies; the financial side matches consumer loans to "divert water"; the commerce department links up with supermarkets and stores to build scenarios and promote sales and profit concessions; the tax and market supervision departments simultaneously optimize services and standardize measures... Various tools cooperate with each other, and long-term and short-term policies are organically connected, so that promoting consumption is not a single department or a single tool fighting alone, but rather 握指成拳 (wò zhǐ chéng quán - "clench fingers into a fist," unite forces) to truly give enterprises and residents a sense of gain.
Data shows that as of June 20, this year's trade-in sales of consumer goods exceeded 1 trillion yuan, benefiting 136 million person-times, and the leverage ratio of subsidy funds increased from 1:7.8 in 2025 to 1:10.3. In the first half of the year, total retail sales of social consumer goods and services increased by 2.7% year-on-year, service consumption showed good momentum, commodity consumption improved in quality and expanded in scale, and the vitality of new consumption growth points emerged.
Whether it is stabilizing growth, promoting transformation, or focusing on reform and benefiting people's livelihoods, the policy logic of 十指弹琴 (shí zhǐ tán qín - "ten fingers playing the piano," coordinating multiple tasks) runs through all aspects and links of macro-control.
The construction of the "six networks" (六张网) is being promoted in a coordinated manner, and special plans for the "15th Five-Year Plan" such as urban renewal, new energy system construction, and expanding consumption have been issued one after another. A set of policy combinations with sufficient foresight, strong targeting, and high linkage will continue to help China's economy operate smoothly and move toward the new and the excellent.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 葛孟超
The State Council Information Office held a press conference on July 17 to introduce the data on foreign exchange receipts and payments for the first half of the year. Li Bin (李斌), spokesperson and deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (国家外汇管理局), stated at the press conference that since the beginning of this year, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has continuously deepened reform and opening up in the foreign exchange field, increased the supply of policies to facilitate cross-border trade and investment, strengthened foreign exchange market supervision, effectively responded to external impact challenges, and assisted the healthy development of the foreign-related economy. Overall, in the first half of the year, China's foreign exchange market operated smoothly, with active trading and greater stability.
The scale of foreign-related receipts and payments reached a new high. In the first half of the year, the total foreign-related income and expenditure of banks on behalf of clients amounted to 9.2 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 21%; the total scale of banks' foreign exchange settlement and sales amounted to 2.9 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 24%, both setting new historical highs for the same period.
The trading volume of the foreign exchange market grew steadily. In the first half of the year, the total trading volume of the onshore renminbi foreign exchange market was 22.1 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 5%, with the growth rate 1.5 percentage points higher than that for the full year of 2025.
Cross-border funds showed a net inflow. In the first half of the year, cross-border funds from non-bank sectors such as enterprises and individuals recorded a net inflow of 247.2 billion US dollars.
Foreign exchange market expectations were stable. In the first half of the year, the foreign exchange income settlement rate, which measures the willingness to settle foreign exchange, was 65%, and the foreign exchange expenditure sales rate, which measures the willingness to purchase foreign exchange, was 61%, showing little change compared with 2025.
"Since the beginning of this year, in the face of external shocks, China's foreign exchange market has operated steadily, fully demonstrating that internal factors play a decisive role in the trend of the foreign exchange market. China's high-quality development is accelerating, high-level opening up is steadily expanding, foreign trade shows strong vitality, and the resilience of the foreign exchange market has increased. Multiple positive factors will continue to support the stable operation of China's foreign exchange market," Li Bin said.
Since 2023, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has launched a "package" of policies to facilitate cross-border investment and financing for three consecutive years, successively introducing nearly 20 policy measures, strengthening support and guarantees for the real economy. Facing the new situation, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange plans to launch another "package" of policies to further enhance the level of facilitation for cross-border investment and financing:
First, to raise the level of facilitation for direct investment. Further simplify the procedures for settlement and payment of capital account items, support the consolidation of stability and promotion of excellence in attracting and utilizing foreign investment. Orderly simplify the review of fund remittances, ensuring the efficient and convenient use of funds for normal business operations of enterprises.
Second, to expand high-level opening up of cross-border financing. Further expand the scope of applicable entities for cross-border financing facilitation policies, and promote the green foreign debt pilot nationwide. At the same time, further optimize the macro-prudential management policy measures for enterprise cross-border financing.
Third, to optimize the registration management of capital account business. Transfer some registration businesses to be handled directly by banks, and increase the types of capital account businesses that can be handled online.
Xiao Sheng (肖胜), director of the Capital Project Management Department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, stated that relevant preparatory work is being pushed forward intensively, striving to issue a new round of Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) quotas as soon as possible, to better support and serve the genuine and compliant overseas securities investment needs of domestic residents.
Since the beginning of this year, foreign investment in China has generally shown a positive trend. Balance of payments data show that in the first five months, various types of foreign investment in China increased by about 160 billion US dollars net, significantly better than the same period last year. From the perspective of direct investment, in the first five months, foreign equity investment in China increased by more than 50 billion US dollars net. From the perspective of capital flows, the structure of attracting foreign investment continues to move toward new and superior directions. In the first half of the year, the scale of foreign capital inflow into high-tech services and high-tech manufacturing increased by 61% year-on-year, accounting for 36% of total capital inflow.
"In the future, foreign investment in China is expected to continue its positive trend. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange will work with relevant departments to systematically plan reforms in the field of foreign investment, orderly raise the level of facilitation for cross-border investment and financing, and build an institutional framework that is compatible with high-level opening up and high-quality development, with scientific management, concise rules, convenient operation, and clear orientation, to further facilitate global capital investment in China and continuously promote more foreign capital to engage in long-term value investment," said Zhao Yuchao (赵玉超), spokesperson of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and head of the Balance of Payments Department.
Return to TopXinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 17 — At approximately 9:10 on July 17, a mountain collapse occurred in Hanjia Subdistrict, Pengshui County, Chongqing, burying multiple people and leaving them missing.
After the disaster occurred, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping attached great importance and issued important instructions, pointing out that the mountain collapse in Pengshui County, Chongqing, had caused multiple people to go missing. He called for scientifically organized search and rescue efforts, prevention of secondary disasters, and proper handling of the treatment of the injured and follow-up work. The cause must be identified, lessons must be drawn from this incident to prevent similar occurrences, and thorough investigations must be conducted to eliminate hidden dangers such as geological disasters.
Xi Jinping emphasized that all regions and relevant departments should further strengthen their responsibility for safety work, enhance monitoring, early warning, patrols, and hazard elimination, and implement all tasks meticulously and thoroughly to effectively safeguard the safety of people's lives and property.
Li Qiang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Premier of the State Council, made instructions pointing out that guidance and assistance should be provided to Chongqing Municipality to fully carry out rescue and disposal operations, treatment of the injured, and resettlement of affected residents, while strictly preventing secondary disasters. Responsibilities of all regions and relevant parties must be further consolidated, comprehensive risk and hazard investigations must be conducted, and disaster prevention and response efforts must be solidly carried out.
In accordance with Xi Jinping's important instructions and Li Qiang's requirements, Zhang Guoqing, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, led relevant department officials to the site to guide rescue and disposal operations. Chongqing has mobilized forces to make every effort to carry out on-site search and rescue, treatment of the injured, and follow-up disposal work. Currently, the relevant work is ongoing.
Return to TopXinhua News Agency, Zhengzhou, July 17 (Xinhua) — From July 15 to 16, Shi Taifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, emphasized during his research trip in Henan that it is necessary to thoroughly study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech on July 1, study and implement Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building (习近平党建思想), deeply comprehend the decisive significance of the “two establishments” (两个确立 - “two establishments,” referring to the establishment of Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and the establishment of the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era), resolutely achieve the “two upholds” (两个维护 - “two upholds,” referring to upholding Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and upholding the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee), and with higher standards and stricter requirements, do a good job of studying and education on establishing and practicing a correct view of performance, tightening the mainspring, maintaining intensity, being good at achieving results and seeing things through, and starting well and ending well.
Shi Taifeng came to Anyang City, visited the Red Flag Canal Cadre Academy and the Red Flag Canal Memorial Hall, to understand the inheritance of the Red Flag Canal spirit and the use of positive models to promote study and education; he went into villages, communities, hospitals, and government service centers in some districts and counties of Zhengzhou City, went deep into the fields and project construction frontlines, to understand the progress of study and education and the promotion of rectification and remediation, and listened to opinions and suggestions.
Shi Taifeng pointed out that at present, the tasks of study, inspection, and rectification are relatively heavy. It is necessary to further align the schedule, further refine measures, and for those that have not been implemented or have not yet met the standards, step up efforts to tackle key problems and push forward in a staggered manner. It is necessary to focus on studying and implementing Xi Jinping’s thought on Party building as the key point to do a good job of study and discussion, organize Party members and cadres to read the original works, study the original texts, and comprehend the principles, thoroughly read and study the Selected Works of Xi Jinping on Party Building (《习近平党建文选》) and other materials, and continuously enhance the consciousness and firmness of establishing and practicing a correct view of performance. It is necessary to do a good job of genuine investigation and practical rectification with the spirit of driving nails (钉钉子精神 - “spirit of driving nails,” meaning to work with persistence and precision), strictly check and approve the cancellation of rectification items, do a good job of evaluation and verification, and resolutely prevent paper rectification and false rectification. In particular, we must keep a close eye on the concentrated rectification of the prominent problem of “new officials ignoring old accounts” (新官不理旧账 - “new officials ignore old accounts,” referring to the failure of incoming officials to address outstanding issues left by predecessors), with top-down linkage, combination of vertical and horizontal lines, joint management, and implement each item one by one. Relevant responsible units should focus on the key tasks of concentrated rectification of the prominent problem of “new officials ignoring old accounts,” conduct in-depth research, pool wisdom, put forward practical and feasible methods based on facts and in accordance with laws and regulations, and steadily and orderly promote rectification. It is necessary to tighten and consolidate leadership responsibilities, with Party committees (Party leadership groups) at all levels carefully sorting out and taking stock, promptly checking for omissions and filling gaps, and the guidance groups and supervision groups insisting on genuine supervision and guidance, and solving problems together. It is necessary to carefully sort out the experience and practices of study and education, and establish and improve a long-term mechanism for establishing and practicing a correct view of performance.
Shi Taifeng stated that establishing and practicing a correct view of performance is concrete and practical, reflected in every decision made and every practical matter done for the masses. At present, it is necessary to do detailed and solid work on flood prevention preparations, disaster relief, and emergency rescue during the critical flood season of “seven-down, eight-up” (七下八上 - “seven-down, eight-up,” referring to the period from late July to early August when the main rain belt moves northward, the peak flood season in northern China), and go all out to ensure the safety of people’s lives and property. It is necessary to closely integrate the study and education with the promotion of central work, plan long-term goals more deeply, implement immediate tasks more solidly, and effectively transform the results of study and education into practical results that promote high-quality development.
Return to TopXinhua, Zhengzhou, July 17 — Li Hongzhong, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, led a law enforcement inspection team of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from July 13 to 17 in Anhui and Henan to inspect the implementation of the Food Security Law. He emphasized that it is necessary to adhere to the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on national food security, promote the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Food Security Law, and provide a legal guarantee for consolidating the foundation of national food security.
The law enforcement inspection team conducted on-site inspections in Anhui and Henan successively. During the stay in Anhui, they visited Hefei to inspect the development and revitalization of the seed industry, the production, operation, and safety control of grain food, examined the effectiveness of concentrated and contiguous land consolidation, and investigated the operation of grassroots practice stations for whole-process people's democracy; they went to Fuyang to inspect the construction of grain production bases, agricultural services, and grain procurement, storage, and processing. During the stay in Henan, they went to Zhoukou to inspect the industrialization development of wheat improved variety breeding, propagation, and promotion, socialized services benefiting farmers, the connection of grain and oil products to the unified national market via water transport, and the supply guarantee and reserve of agricultural materials; they went to Zhengzhou to inspect the development of deep grain processing industry, and investigated the operation of the National Engineering Laboratory for Wheat and the breeding and application of improved varieties.
The law enforcement inspection team respectively heard reports from the Anhui Provincial Government and the Henan Provincial Government on the implementation of the Food Security Law. Li Hongzhong pointed out that Anhui Province and Henan Province have deeply studied and implemented the important speeches and important instructions made by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his previous inspections, earnestly implemented the Food Security Law, continuously developed and innovated grain production advantages in light of their respective provincial realities, raised the level of food security guarantee, made important contributions to the country's stable grain production and supply guarantee, and demonstrated the sense of responsibility of major grain-producing provinces.
Li Hongzhong emphasized that General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on national food security provide the fundamental guidance and action guide for comprehensively implementing the national food security strategy in the new era and firmly grasping the initiative in food security. It is necessary, from the height of firmly supporting the two establishments and resolutely achieving the two upholds, to thoroughly implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee on food security work during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and to stabilize the role of food security as the ballast stone for high-quality development. It is necessary to earnestly implement the statutory responsibilities for food security, improve the investment mechanism for food security guarantee, persist in promoting farmland protection and the construction of high-standard farmland, increase the empowerment of science and technology for seed industry revitalization, strengthen grain reserve, circulation management, and emergency guarantee, promote whole-chain grain saving and loss reduction, improve comprehensive grain production capacity and quality efficiency, and better mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers to grow grain and major grain-producing areas to focus on grain. It is necessary to strengthen law enforcement supervision and legal popularization propaganda, and enhance the legal synergy of the whole society in safeguarding national food security.
Return to TopHOHHOT, July 17 (Xinhua) — He Lifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, conducted research on foreign trade and economic work in Inner Mongolia from July 14 to 16. He Lifeng pointed out that it is necessary to thoroughly study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on the work of Inner Mongolia, earnestly implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, build the Inner Mongolia Pilot Free Trade Zone with high quality, strengthen the development momentum of the port economy, continuously deepen international economic and trade cooperation, and accelerate the construction of an important bridgehead for opening up to the north.
He Lifeng successively visited the Manzhouli area and Hailar of the China (Inner Mongolia) Pilot Free Trade Zone, conducting field research on the construction of the pilot free trade zone and the economic development zone, railway and highway port clearance, the operation of China-Europe freight trains, the development of the land port international logistics center, and gaining in-depth understanding of the production and operation of relevant foreign trade, economic, and manufacturing enterprises, as well as the import and export of foreign trade.
He Lifeng pointed out that the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Pilot Free Trade Zone is an important measure to improve the national pattern of opening up and to consolidate the platform and carrier for opening up to the north. It is necessary to seize the favorable opportunity of the pilot free trade zone construction, strengthen institutional and mechanism innovation, deepen multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and promote the solid and substantive progress of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” and the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor. It is necessary to accelerate the construction of a high-level connectivity network, continuously improve the multimodal transport services of railways and highways, and, while ensuring safety, constantly enhance the comprehensive service efficiency of port clearance. It is necessary to fully leverage the role of China-Europe freight trains and land port international logistics centers, actively promote the development of cross-border e-commerce and cross-border logistics, and further promote the upgrading of the corridor economy to a hub economy and an industrial economy. It is necessary to earnestly carry out risk identification and prevention work in key areas such as inspection and quarantine and cross-border data, and establish and improve a risk prevention and control system that adapts to high-level opening up.
He Lifeng demanded that, relying on advantages in resource endowments, location, and technology, it is necessary to continuously promote green and intelligent transformation, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of industries such as non-ferrous metals and equipment manufacturing, and actively explore feasible paths for the coordinated development of green electricity and computing power for local consumption. It is necessary to continue to develop the real economy based on manufacturing, strongly support the high-quality development of manufacturing, promote the expansion of capacity and improvement of quality in the service industry, and make every effort to promote the stable operation of the economy and its development towards innovation and excellence.
Return to TopThe 16th National Conference on Procuratorial Work was held in Beijing from July 16 to 17. Chen Wenqing, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, attended the conference and delivered a speech. He emphasized that procuratorial organs nationwide must study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, Xi Jinping's thought on the rule of law, and the holistic approach to national security; earnestly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and directives on procuratorial work; uphold the Party's absolute leadership over procuratorial work; unswervingly follow the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics; adhere to justice for the people; focus on core responsibilities and main duties; strengthen legal supervision; safeguard fairness and justice; and provide robust judicial guarantees for comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese-style modernization.
Chen Wenqing pointed out that it is necessary to focus on serving the central tasks and the overall situation; strictly punish criminal activities that endanger national political security in accordance with the law; lawfully crack down on gang-related and evil-force crimes as well as serious violent crimes such as individual extremism; lawfully combat economic crimes including illegal fundraising and financial fraud; and, through high-quality procuratorial work, vigorously advance the construction of a higher-level Peaceful China and ensure high-quality economic and social development. It is necessary to concentrate on core responsibilities and strengthen supervision; fully leverage the functional role of the state's legal supervision organs; comprehensively fulfill the "four major procuratorial" functions of criminal, civil, administrative, and public interest litigation; comprehensively strengthen supervision over case filing, investigation, trial, and enforcement activities; conduct supervision according to law, dare to supervise, and be adept at supervising; and strive to ensure that the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case. It is necessary to fulfill the political responsibility of governing the Party and managing the Party; establish and practice a correct view of performance; solidify political loyalty, enforce strict discipline and work style, and hone solid professional skills; and make every effort to forge a procuratorial iron army for the new era.
Ying Yong presided over the meeting.
Return to TopBEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) — At approximately 9:10 a.m. on July 17, a mountain collapse occurred in Hanjia Subdistrict (汉葭街道), Pengshui County (彭水县), Chongqing, burying multiple people and leaving them missing.
Upon receiving the report, the Ministry of Emergency Management immediately deployed and coordinated rescue and relief operations, activated a Level II national geological disaster emergency response, and sent a working group led by relevant officials to the site to guide rescue and disposal efforts. The National Commission for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief activated a Level IV national disaster relief emergency response and dispatched a working group to the disaster area to inspect the damage on the ground.
The Ministry of Emergency Management deployed 100 professional rescue personnel from the Natural Disaster Engineering Emergency Rescue Center (China Anneng Group) with equipment to the site for disposal. A total of 49 vehicles and 206 personnel from the national comprehensive fire and rescue teams had been dispatched to the scene to carry out rescue operations. The National Center for Work Safety Emergency Rescue directed and guided the National Mine Rescue Chongqing Team and the National Tunnel Rescue China Communications Construction Chongqing Team to dispatch 21 vehicles and 75 personnel to the scene to participate in rescue and relief efforts, and instructed the National Work Safety Emergency Rescue Survey Team to provide technical support through slope radar monitoring.
The Ministry of Natural Resources activated a Level III geological disaster defense response at 10:00 a.m. on the 17th, and raised it to Level II at 12:00 p.m. The Ministry of Natural Resources organized professional forces to install more than 10 sets of specialized monitoring equipment on the unstable parts of the mountain behind the incident site and in the search and rescue area to support and ensure rescue safety. At the same time, it activated an emergency surveying and mapping response, organizing relevant units to carry out on-site emergency surveying and mapping data collection, and urgently produced pre- and post-disaster remote sensing image planar comparison maps and real-scene 3D comparison maps, which were provided to the frontline rescue command.
The National Health Commission quickly supported Chongqing in carrying out work such as the treatment of the injured and psychological counseling. It immediately arranged for the national emergency medical rescue team and the Chongqing municipal emergency medical rescue team to assemble, and dispatched medical personnel and ambulances to the scene.
The Office of the National Commission for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief, together with the Ministry of Emergency Management and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, allocated 8,000 items of central disaster relief supplies to Chongqing, including tents, folding beds, folding tables and stools, blankets, towel blankets, and family emergency kits. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management urgently pre-allocated 50 million yuan in central natural disaster relief funds to support Chongqing in carrying out emergency rescue and relief operations for the mountain collapse and in assisting affected residents. The Ministry of Finance required the Chongqing Municipal Finance Bureau to promptly disburse the funds to the disaster area, strengthen oversight of disaster relief funds, ensure that all relief funds are used for the disaster area and affected residents, and effectively protect the safety of people's lives and property.
(Reported by our correspondents Liu Wenxin, Chang Qin, Bai Jianfeng, Qu Zhehan, and Wang Donghui)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者
Around 9:10 a.m. on July 17, a mountain collapse occurred in Hanjia Subdistrict (汉葭街道), Pengshui County (彭水县), Chongqing, burying rows of residential buildings at the foot of the mountain. Our correspondents learned from the press conference on the mountain collapse disaster in Pengshui County that as of 6:30 p.m. that day, the disaster had caused 8 deaths despite rescue efforts and 34 people missing.
Pengshui County is located in the core area of the Wujiang River Gorge, with high mountains, steep slopes, and fractured rock layers, making it prone to geological disasters such as landslides and collapses. Around 8:00 a.m. that day, Peng Di (彭迪), a grid community worker in Shatuo Community (沙沱社区), Hanjia Subdistrict, was conducting a routine inspection and discovered that gravel was continuously falling from the cliff face and unusual sounds of rock layer dislocation were heard. Peng Di immediately reported to the subdistrict and community, and simultaneously issued an evacuation warning through the residents' group and the village-wide broadcast system. Based on the grid worker's initial evacuation of more than 60 households near the cliff, the local authorities simultaneously expanded the control scope, conducting phased evacuation of residents along a one-kilometer stretch of slopes and low-lying buildings, with a total of more than 1,100 people safely evacuated from the surrounding area.
Our correspondents saw at the scene that the entire mountain's rock and soil had slid as a whole, with more than 10 residential buildings along the street completely covered by the collapsed earth. The road was completely blocked, and power and water supply lines along the river were damaged. The scene was a jumble of huge rocks and rubble.
After the disaster, Pengshui County immediately activated a Level 1 emergency response for geological disasters, mobilizing more than 200 local rescue personnel from emergency response, firefighting, public security, and natural resources planning departments, and deploying 40 units (sets) of various rescue equipment to carry out search and rescue, slope monitoring, personnel resettlement, and other emergency rescue operations.
Rescue personnel from the Pengshui County Fire Rescue Brigade arrived first at the scene, using simple breaching tools to conduct searches and successfully rescued several trapped people from shallow depths.
Rescue personnel used drone aerial photography to map the distribution of rubble, combined with search dogs and multiple types of life detection instruments to locate life signals, and simultaneously coordinated large-scale breaching equipment and engineering machinery to clear the rubble.
China Anneng Group (中国安能集团) brought 15 units of heavy professional equipment to the scene, dividing the area into eastern and western work zones for simultaneous two-way operations. Large machinery first cleared the thick surface layer of collapsed earth, and then rescue personnel with detection instruments and listening devices manually conducted fine searches in narrow buried spaces to avoid injuring survivors with mechanical operations.
Wan Ping (万平), commander of the Chongqing Professional Emergency Rescue Corps (重庆市专业应急救援总队), introduced that the on-site rescue was carried out in three phases: the first phase involved personnel carrying life detection instruments and search dogs to search shallow areas; the second phase used excavators to work simultaneously from the eastern and western work zones, and also prepared to set up a floating bridge from a boat for excavator operations; the third phase, after the search was completed, would involve targeted loose blasting of large rocks to conduct a comprehensive search with no死角 (blind spots).
(Reported by our correspondents Li Zenghui (李增辉), Jiang Feng (姜峰), Liu Xinwu (刘新吾), Wang Xinyue (王欣悦), and Shen Jingran (沈靖然))
Return to TopBy: 桂 常
A mountain collapse occurred in Pengshui County (彭水县), Chongqing, causing multiple people to be missing, which is deeply worrying, and search and rescue efforts are being carried out against the clock. It is necessary to implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions, scientifically organize search and rescue, and properly handle the treatment of the injured and follow-up arrangements.
Life is heavier than Mount Tai; safety: 一失万无 (yī shī wàn wú - "one loss means nothing left," a single failure leads to total loss). Geological disasters are characterized by concealment, suddenness, and strong destructiveness. How to minimize disaster losses and effectively protect the safety of people’s lives and property? Further implementing the responsibility for safety work is the key.
For example, accurately identify potential geological disaster points, continuously improve the monitoring and early warning system of 人防+技防 (rén fáng + jì fáng - "human prevention + technical prevention"), and implement the dynamic prevention and control requirements of 汛前排查、汛中巡查、汛后核查 (xùn qián pái chá, xùn zhōng xún chá, xùn hòu hé chá - "pre-flood investigation, during-flood inspection, post-flood verification") in place.
Only by drawing inferences from one instance, consolidating responsibilities, and strengthening monitoring, early warning, patrol inspection, and hazard elimination can we identify and eliminate hidden dangers such as geological disasters.
Currently, China has fully entered the main flood season, with extreme weather and climate events occurring frequently and intensely, and multiple risks such as floods, mountain torrents, and geological disasters are intertwined and superimposed. All regions and relevant departments must grasp and implement various tasks with a sense of responsibility of 时时放心不下 (shí shí fàng xīn bù xià - "always unable to rest assured," constant vigilance), and the whole society must enhance safety awareness and disaster prevention and avoidance capabilities, working together to build a stronger bottom line of safety.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 刘博通
On July 17, the State Council Information Office held a meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists, inviting six representatives of local cadres and the masses to meet and exchange views with Chinese and foreign journalists around the theme "Promote Unity and Progress, Inspire the Power of Struggle."
Liuguo Village (柳果村), Nanmulin County (南木林县), Shigatse City, Tibet Autonomous Region, was once a typical impoverished village. In 2025, the per capita income of Liuguo Village exceeded 30,000 yuan. "This is a microcosm of the development of Tibet's rural and pastoral areas, and such examples are 比比皆是 (bǐ bǐ jiē shì - "everywhere," found everywhere) in Tibet," introduced Cai Rangtai (才让太), member of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee and head of the United Front Work Department. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Tibet's regional GDP crossed two 100-billion-yuan thresholds in succession.
"We have 3,845 items of various types of intangible cultural heritage and 3,156 representative inheritors of various types of intangible cultural heritage. World-famous historical and cultural heritage sites such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Norbulingka, and Sakya Monastery have been very well protected," Cai Rangtai said. "Today, cadres and masses of all ethnic groups in the entire region have consciously become guardians, practitioners, and promoters of the cause of ethnic unity and progress."
This year is the first year of implementation of the Law on the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Progress (民族团结进步促进法). Speaking about this law, Li Xuetao (李雪涛), member of the Standing Committee of the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture Party Committee in Yunnan Province and vice governor in charge of daily work, said his most intuitive feeling is "more confidence, more solid responsibility, and higher requirements." Li Xuetao stated that the implementation of the law should be closely integrated with promoting common prosperity, further strengthening Nujiang's advantageous and characteristic industries such as caoguo, coffee, Chinese medicinal materials, cultural tourism and outdoor activities, so that the people's wallets are fuller and their lives are better.
"Nujiang Prefecture currently has 11 ethnic traditional culture protection zones, 21 townships of song and dance, 354 intangible cultural heritage items, and 587 representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage," Li Xuetao said. The cultures of all ethnic groups shine brilliantly and flourish in inheritance and protection, jointly nourishing the common spiritual home of the Chinese nation.
"There is a saying on the grassland: 'If you keep your eyes on the Big Dipper, you will not lose your way.' As a cadre of an ethnic minority, guarding the border and building the frontier are our bounden duties," said Huang Long (黄龙), deputy secretary of the Party Committee and banner chief of Darhan Muminggan United Banner (达尔罕茂明安联合旗), Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
"In the past two years, we have implemented a grazing rest policy across the entire area, from April 5 to May 20 each year, giving the grassland a 'holiday,' letting livestock into pens, giving the grassland 'paid leave,' and protecting the grassland well," Huang Long introduced. Damao Banner also protects the grassland through the "Three-North" project (三北工程), managing 1.45 million mu of forest and grassland.
Li Yongren (李永仁), deputy secretary of the Party Committee and town chief of Wushi Town (五十镇), Huzhu Tu Autonomous County (互助土族自治县), Haidong City, Qinghai Province, displayed on site the Tu ethnic group's pan embroidery (盘绣) "Sunflower" hand-embroidered by embroiderers of Banyan Village (班彦村). "The flower grows toward the sun, symbolizing that the children of the Tu homeland always have their hearts toward the Party Central Committee; the seven-colored petals and silk threads interweave, each petal sharing the same heart, reflecting the real scene of interaction, exchange, and integration among all ethnic groups."
Banyan Village was once located deep in the mountains, with poor transportation and lack of industries. After years of development, relying on policy support such as relocation for poverty alleviation (易地扶贫搬迁), the area systematically cultivated multiple industries such as Tu pan embroidery, rural tourism, photovoltaic power generation, and characteristic planting and breeding, forming a pattern of wealth-generating industries supported by multiple points. The masses of all ethnic groups, in the process of jointly building homes, jointly developing industries, and jointly sharing dividends, have drawn closer and integrated deeper.
"There are more people, exchanges are closer, and life has more prospects." Wu Suiling (吴穗玲), Party secretary and neighborhood committee director of Baohan Community (宝汉社区), Dengfeng Subdistrict (登峰街道), Yuexiu District (越秀区), Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, has worked in this community for over 10 years. "In recent years, more and more people from Xinjiang, Qinghai, and other places have come to settle in Baohan Community," Wu Suiling said. "During the Spring Festival we write spring couplets, during the Dragon Boat Festival we make zongzi, during the Mid-Autumn Festival we make mooncakes, and during Eid al-Adha we roast lamb skewers together. Feelings are slowly accumulated through these small things."
"Community work does not involve any earth-shattering big events; it is about doing every small thing well in serving the masses. Do one thing well, and people's hearts draw a bit closer; do ten things well, and the community warms up by one degree," Wu Suiling said.
"I have been engaged in education work at the grassroots level for 24 years, interacting with children and parents of all ethnic groups all year round, and have truly witnessed the tremendous changes in rural preschool education brought about by ethnic unity," introduced Aimilaguli Abudu (艾米拉古丽·阿不都), deputy secretary of the Party branch and principal of Tongmeng Kindergarten (童梦幼儿园) in Bachu County (巴楚县), Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The state has strongly supported preschool education in southern Xinjiang, and standardized kindergartens have been built in all townships of Bachu County, complete with teaching buildings, multimedia facilities, and everything else.
"Children of all ethnic groups study and play together, parents of all ethnic groups often exchange parenting experiences, everyone lives in harmony, and the strong atmosphere of ethnic unity is deeply rooted in the countryside," Aimilaguli Abudu said.
Return to TopBeijing, July 17 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Kou Jiangze (寇江泽)) The Ministry of Ecology and Environment (生态环境部) and five other departments recently jointly issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Soil, Groundwater, and Agricultural and Rural Ecological Environmental Protection" (土壤、地下水和农业农村生态环境保护“十五五”规划) (hereinafter referred to as the Plan).
Anchoring the goal of building a Beautiful China (美丽中国) by 2035, the Plan clarifies phased objectives: by 2030, the soil environmental safety of agricultural land and construction land will be effectively guaranteed, the quality of soil and groundwater environment will be stable and improving, the level of green agricultural development will be significantly raised, and new major progress will be made in the construction of Beautiful Villages (美丽乡村).
In terms of soil pollution prevention and control on construction land, the Plan clarifies: strictly prevent new soil pollution from enterprises, focus on industries such as chemicals, highlight source prevention and control, and curb soil pollution during the period when the responsible entity is clear and has the governance capacity and financial guarantee. Strictly control the pollution risk of vacated plots, strengthen the list system for soil pollution risk control and remediation on construction land, and improve whole-process quality management.
In terms of groundwater pollution prevention and control, the Plan clarifies: strengthen the coordinated protection of water sources and regional environment, screen potential pollution risks from perfluorinated compounds, heavy metals, etc., delineate key areas for groundwater pollution prevention and control, and achieve a strategic extension from "protecting a single water source" to "protecting regional water resources."
In terms of Beautiful Village construction and rural ecological environmental protection, the Plan clarifies: take county-level areas as the basic unit for rural ecological protection and restoration, adhere to overall planning, contiguous remediation, and systematic restoration, and promote in echelons the construction of Beautiful Villages to achieve full coverage. Systematically promote the optimization and adjustment of inefficient and ineffective rural domestic sewage treatment facilities, and advance in echelons the investigation and remediation work for small and micro water bodies (小微水体) in rural areas.
Return to TopOur newspaper Xining, July 17 (Reporter Yi Shuran) On the 17th, 20 master craftsmen from across the country, together with local master craftsmen from Qinghai, went deep into the local salt lake industry, clean energy, biopharmaceuticals, electric power operation and maintenance, intelligent manufacturing, and other fields, helping 13 enterprises and institutions solve 147 technical problems.
"Model Workers and Master Craftsmen Assist Enterprises in Action" is an important measure of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions to deepen the reform of the industrial worker workforce. Trade unions at all levels, relying on model worker and master craftsman innovation studio alliances, model worker associations, and craftsman academies, have formed over 5,000 service teams, carrying out the "Model Workers and Master Craftsmen Assist Enterprises in Action" through online and offline integration, actively playing a role in serving the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, serving the growth and expansion of emerging industries, and serving the cultivation and growth of future industries.
Since 2026, trade unions at all levels have organized over 50,000 model workers and master craftsmen, served 31,000 enterprises, helped solve 43,000 technical problems, and trained 614,000 employees.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 田先进
In the streets of Xiao County (萧县), Suzhou City, Anhui Province, one can often see vehicles with the slogan "If you encounter difficulties, please flag us down" printed on them. This is the Xiao County Veterans Love Car Team (萧县退役军人爱心车队). From helping drivers tow cars to picking up and sending off emergency patients, the Love Car Team has for many years upheld a public welfare heart, free of charge solving difficulties for the masses. The initiator of this volunteer service is precisely Wang Di (王迪), Party branch secretary and president of the Xiao County Veterans Entrepreneurship Association (萧县退役军人创业协会). "As a retired soldier, helping others for pleasure, unity and dedication, are qualities engraved in the bones. Although the military uniform has been taken off, the original aspiration cannot change," Wang Di said.
Wang Di was born in Xiao County in 1986. Growing up in the countryside, he often heard the older generation tell stories of the Huaihai Campaign, and the seed of joining the army to serve the country was planted early in his heart. After graduating from technical secondary school in 2004, Wang Di joined the army, fulfilling his childhood wish.
After the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, Wang Di, with his unit, immediately threw himself into earthquake relief work. Facing dangers such as frequent aftershocks, mountain collapses, and barrier lakes that could burst at any time, Wang Di and his comrades had only one belief in their hearts: 争分夺秒 (zhēng fēn duó miǎo - "race against time," to seize every minute and second) to rescue trapped people. Regardless of his own safety, Wang Di repeatedly applied to charge forward, and wrote a suicide note. On the ruins, facing the bright red Party flag, he solemnly swore, joined the Party on the front line, and turned to throw himself into even more dangerous disaster relief operations. "The army career tempered my character, strengthened my original aspiration, and will benefit me for life," Wang Di said.
After five years of service, Wang Di left the army and returned to his hometown, becoming a militia instructor in the local People's Armed Forces Department (人武部), and in 2014 threw himself into the wave of entrepreneurship. "Without funds, without skills, I led a dozen retired veterans to work on construction sites, helped enterprises sell seedlings and fertilizer, and even set up stalls to sell clothes," Wang Di recalled. In the winter of 2015, he didn't even have money for gas, lived in a construction site shed, and had only one jin of dried noodles left. "We tasted many hardships, but we did not give up," Wang Di said. Under unremitting efforts, gradually, Wang Di and the others' business improved. Life got better and better, and Wang Di had a new idea. In 2019, he initiated the establishment of the Xiao County Veterans Entrepreneurship Association, driving more retired veterans to achieve transformation.
First is employment and entrepreneurship assistance. "We run a Veterans Entrepreneurship Lecture Hall (创业大讲堂), free of charge explaining entrepreneurship policies, planting and breeding techniques, etc.; set up an entrepreneurship training base, established a 'one-stop' employment supermarket (一站式就业超市), and jointly held special job fairs with a hundred enterprises, providing a total of more than 2,200 positions," Wang Di introduced. The association also liaised with banks to implement discount interest loans, truly solving problems for veterans such as lack of funds and channels for entrepreneurship.
A few years ago, retired soldier Dai Xinqiao (代新桥) wanted to start a farmhouse restaurant locally, but lacked start-up funds and operational ideas. After learning of this, the association found a way to secure a 500,000 yuan special entrepreneurship loan for him, and invited experts to plan a business plan. Now, Dai Xinqiao's farmhouse restaurant has become an internet-famous check-in spot, and regularly employs six retired soldiers.
Having taken off the military uniform for over ten years, no matter where a disaster occurs, he immediately organizes the association's veterans to rush to the front line. Heavy rain, floods, earthquakes... whenever there is a need, Wang Di's figure always appears in time. In 2023, a flood disaster occurred in Zhuozhou, Hebei (河北涿州). Wang Di led 12 association core members and 4 high-horsepower assault boats to rush to rescue. In a village, a paralyzed elderly person was trapped at home, the iron door jammed by underwater debris, unable to approach. Wang Di dived into the turbid accumulated water several times to clear obstacles, finally pried open the door, and carried the elderly person on his back to transfer to the assault boat. When reaching the village entrance, undercurrents struck the boat hull; the team members held onto the ropes tightly to stabilize the boat, only then avoiding the danger of being swept away by the flood. For several consecutive days thereafter, Wang Di and his comrades shuttled through streets and alleys to search and rescue, transferring people and transporting supplies. "Even though hands and feet were soaked white and festering, no one proposed to rest and withdraw," Wang Di said.
Besides participating in emergency rescue, the association also regularly conducts various types of public welfare volunteer services. "We carry out activities such as Love Exam Transport (爱心送考), voluntary blood donation, organize free physical examinations for veterans, and regularly visit and comfort elderly party members in difficulty," Wang Di said.
Over the years, Wang Di has received honorary titles such as "China Good Person (中国好人)," "National 'Four 100s' Advanced Model of Lei Feng-style Volunteer Service, Most Beautiful Volunteer (全国学雷锋志愿服务‘四个100’先进典型最美志愿者)," "National Good Youth Who Strive Upward and Toward Goodness (全国向上向善好青年)," and "Anhui Province's Most Beautiful Retired Soldier (安徽省最美退役军人)." In July this year, he was awarded the title of "National Outstanding Party Worker (全国优秀党务工作者)." "Once a soldier, lifelong service to the country. In the future, I will continue to take root in the homeland, serve comrades and the masses, and use practical actions to interpret the sincere original aspiration of forever following the Party," Wang Di said.
Return to TopJINAN, July 17 (Reporter Peng Bo) — From July 13 to 17, Wu Weihua (武维华), Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, led a law enforcement inspection team on the Food Security Law in Shandong to conduct inspections. He emphasized the need to thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on national food security and the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, fully implement the Food Security Law, lawfully ensure the security of supply of grain and other important agricultural products, comprehensively consolidate the foundation of food security, and use high-level rule of law to safeguard national food security.
The inspection team conducted on-site inspections in Zaozhuang, Jining, Tai'an, Dezhou, and other locations, and affirmed the achievements made in Shandong Province in implementing the Food Security Law. Wu Weihua pointed out the need to deeply understand the significant importance of developing new quality productive forces in agriculture for safeguarding national food security, adhere to the leading role of scientific and technological innovation in the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, strengthen the support of agricultural science and technology, and accelerate the achievement of high-level self-reliance and self-strengthening in agricultural science and technology. It is necessary to steadfastly implement the strategies of 藏粮于地 (cáng liáng yú dì - "store grain in the land," to protect arable land for food production capacity) and 藏粮于技 (cáng liáng yú jì - "store grain in technology," to rely on technological progress for food security), adhere to the coordinated advancement of development and security, and resolutely shoulder and firmly uphold the political responsibility for food security.
Return to TopBEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) — Ying Yong, Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, stressed at the 16th National Conference on Procuratorial Work on the 16th that it is necessary to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply study and implement Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building and Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, comprehensively and accurately grasp the missions and tasks of procuratorial work during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, and consciously implement the Party's absolute leadership in all aspects and links of procuratorial work.
Ying Yong pointed out that it is necessary to take the theme of continuously advancing the procuratorial practice of Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, take strengthening legal supervision as the main line, take handling every case with high quality and efficiency as the orientation, take deepening procuratorial reform as the driving force, take building an excellent procuratorial team as the support, firmly establish and practice a correct view of performance, fulfill the duties of the state's legal supervision organ, keep pace with the times to improve the legal supervision system, advance strict governance of the procuratorial system, better serve the overall situation, serve the people in the administration of justice, and assume responsibility for the rule of law, promote the construction of a higher level of Safe China and Rule of Law China, and advance the steady and long-term development of the Party's procuratorial cause.
Return to TopThis newspaper, Hangzhou, July 17 (Reporter Zhang Shuo) — The ninth Cross-Strait Youth Development Forum, themed “Youth Grow Together, Build the Future with One Heart,” opened on the morning of the 17th in Hangzhou. More than 1,000 guests and youth from both sides of the strait participated in the forum activities, discussing youthful ideals together and jointly creating a bright future.
Song Tao (宋涛), Director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, stated in his address that General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, pointing out that youth are the 生力军 (shēng lì jūn - “fresh force,” the main force) for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and that we must value youth, care for youth, support youth, and create conditions for youth to grow and succeed. We will thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech, provide more opportunities for youth from both sides of the strait to grow and succeed, and inject more youthful energy into the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and the advancement of national reunification. Youth from both sides of the strait should set lofty aspirations, bravely shoulder the responsibilities of the era,凝聚守护共同家园和平安宁的青春共识 (níng jù shǒu hù gòng tóng jiā yuán hé píng ān níng de qīng chūn gòng shí - “gather the youthful consensus to protect the peace and tranquility of our common home”), demonstrate youthful actions in promoting cross-strait exchange and integration, stimulate youthful momentum in inheriting and promoting Chinese culture, sound the youthful clarion call to jointly contribute to the great cause of national rejuvenation, and create achievements worthy of the people and worthy of the era on the new journey of the new era.
Hong Xiuzhu (洪秀柱), former Chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang and Chairperson of the China Youth Swan Peace Education Foundation (中华青雁和平教育基金会), stated that youth from both sides of the strait are 同根同源 (tóng gēn tóng yuán - “same root, same origin,” sharing the same ancestry) 炎黄子孙 (yán huáng zǐ sūn - “descendants of Yan and Huang,” the Chinese people), jointly bearing Chinese culture. She looks forward to youth from both sides of the strait using concrete actions to promote cross-strait integration and peaceful reunification, and with youthful strength to jointly create a prosperous, strong, and bright future for the Chinese nation.
During the ninth Cross-Strait Youth Development Forum, youth from both sides of the strait will go to Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou and other places to participate in study camps and other activities.
Return to TopHangzhou, July 17 (Reporter Zhang Shuo) — Song Tao, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council (中共中央台办、国务院台办), met in Hangzhou on the 17th with Hung Hsiu-chu, former chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang and chairperson of the board of the China Youth Eagle Peace Education Foundation (中华青雁和平教育基金会), and her delegation.
Song Tao conveyed General Secretary Xi Jinping’s greetings to Hung Hsiu-chu. Song Tao stated that General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the ceremony marking the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, which charted the course for the development of cross-strait relations. We will thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech, unite our compatriots in Taiwan, and firmly promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and advance the great cause of national reunification. It is hoped that compatriots on both sides of the strait, especially young people, will bravely shoulder the responsibilities of the times, become steadfast promoters of exchanges and integration, steadfast guardians of our common home, and steadfast drivers of national rejuvenation, firmly holding the future of cross-strait relations in the hands of the Chinese people themselves.
Hung Hsiu-chu thanked General Secretary Xi Jinping for his greetings and stated that peace must be built on the foundation of national reunification. Young people on both sides of the strait share the same roots and origin, are connected by blood, and jointly bear Chinese culture. They should walk hand in hand, jointly promote cross-strait integration and peaceful reunification, and jointly create a bright future for the Chinese nation.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 陈隽逸
In the plant area of Shougang Shuicheng Iron and Steel Group (首钢水城钢铁集团) in Liupanshui City (六盘水市), Guizhou Province, the second 15 MW supercritical carbon dioxide power generation unit recently achieved grid connection, and the world’s first commercial supercritical carbon dioxide waste heat power generation demonstration project, “Super Carbon No. 1” (超碳一号), realized dual-unit commissioning. From the formal commercial operation of the first unit in December 2025 to the present, this new technology, which breaks the century-old “boil water” power generation model, has been operating stably on the front line of steel production for more than half a year, continuously converting industrial waste heat into clean electrical energy.
Entering the main control room of “Super Carbon No. 1,” dozens of screens display real-time operating parameters such as temperature and pressure. Meng Wei (孟玮), Deputy Director of the Equipment Engineering Department of Shuigang (水钢), pointed to the monitoring screen and presented the half-year operating results: “A single unit alone has accumulated over 32.856 million kWh of power generation in half a year, all supplied for self-use within the plant; after full-load production in August, the two units can stably generate 15 million kWh per month.”
The traditional steam waste heat power generation system built by Shuigang in 2010 had low power generation capacity and low waste heat utilization efficiency, requiring technological transformation. It happened that the supercritical carbon dioxide power generation technology of the CNNC Nuclear Power Institute (中核集团核动力院) was seeking commercial application, and the transformed Jigang Group (济钢集团) possessed engineering construction and operation capabilities. The needs of the three parties aligned, and ultimately the world’s first commercial project was implemented in Liupanshui.
Unlike the “water-steam” power generation logic that has been used for over a hundred years, the key breakthrough of “Super Carbon No. 1” is the use of carbon dioxide to replace water as the “energy carrier.” “Traditional power generation is just ‘boiling water’ — water turns into steam, steam turns back into water, and energy loss is very large,” Meng Wei explained. Carbon dioxide enters a “supercritical state” at 31 degrees Celsius and 73 standard atmospheres, possessing both the high density of a liquid and the low viscosity of a gas, significantly reducing energy loss.
The R&D team has overcome more than 200 technical difficulties in total, all of which are independently controllable. The practical test of more than half a year of operation has also rapidly improved the technology’s maturity. “With the first unit, we were crossing the river by feeling the stones, and commissioning took considerable effort; the second unit was commissioned successfully in less than three months, and operation is becoming smoother and smoother,” Meng Wei said.
Data show that after the project was put into operation, the power generation per ton of sinter ore reached 36 kWh, directly doubling the industry’s traditional advanced level, and the thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency increased by 75% compared with traditional steam power generation. In addition, this equipment is especially suited to the conditions of Guizhou’s mountainous plant sites: its floor area is reduced by more than half compared with a steam unit of the same power, no large cooling towers need to be built, and daily operation and maintenance require only two or three people on duty. “Over more than half a year of operation, the system has demonstrated advantages such as fast response, strong adjustability, and convenient operation,” said Yang Luguang (杨鲁光), Operations Manager of the Super Carbon project at Jigang Group.
For the enterprise, the most tangible benefit is the reduction in electricity costs. Meng Wei did the math: the external purchase price of industrial electricity for the plant is about 0.65 yuan per kWh; the waste heat power generation cost of “Super Carbon No. 1” is calculated at about 0.5 yuan per kWh, saving several thousand yuan in electricity costs per day when running at full load. At the same time, based on Shuigang’s annual output of 5.6 million tons of sinter ore, after the project is fully put into operation, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50,000 tons per year.
Yang Luguang revealed that many enterprises have already come for visits and discussions. This technology is suitable for medium- and high-temperature industrial waste heat above 300 degrees Celsius, and is especially well-matched to the waste heat characteristics of high-energy-consuming industries. In the future, it can also be combined with solar thermal power generation and molten salt energy storage, offering broad application scenarios.
Return to TopOur correspondent Linzhi (林芝), July 17 (Reporter Xian Gan (鲜敢)) — The Fifth China’s Tibet “Trans-Himalaya” International Cooperation Forum (中国西藏“环喜马拉雅”国际合作论坛) opened in Linzhi, Tibet on the 17th. Wang Guangqian, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.
Wang Guangqian pointed out that the Trans-Himalaya region is the summit of a thousand mountains and the source of ten thousand rivers; guarding this pure land well is the common responsibility and historical mission of all countries in the region. Since the launch of the China’s Tibet “Trans-Himalaya” International Cooperation Forum, the Chinese side has deeply implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization (习近平生态文明思想) and has extensively carried out exchanges and cooperation with all participating parties in fields such as environmental governance, green development, and mutual learning among civilizations, achieving fruitful results.
Wang Guangqian stated that the Chinese side will take this forum as an opportunity to deepen political mutual trust with the participating parties, strengthen practical cooperation, promote people-to-people connectivity, and intensify multilateral coordination, jointly advancing the harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, jointly building a clean and beautiful world, and jointly creating an even better tomorrow for the Trans-Himalaya region.
This forum is hosted by the People’s Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region (西藏自治区人民政府). Representatives from 29 countries and regions attended.
Return to TopOur newspaper Nanchang, July 17 (Reporter Yang Yanfei (杨颜菲)). From July 14 to 17, the national new social strata (新的社会阶层人士) "New Long March (新的长征) — New Strata Walk the New Era Long March Road" themed activity was held in Ganzhou, Jiangxi. This activity was guided by the Central United Front Work Department, hosted by the National New Social Strata Service Group (全国新的社会阶层人士服务团) and the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee United Front Work Department, and organized by the Ganzhou Municipal Party Committee United Front Work Department.
During the activity, the National New Social Strata Service Group focused on the two major themes of "digital intelligence empowering cultural tourism integration" and "technology empowering high-quality industrial development" to conduct in-depth dialogues, held a Ganzhou key industry exchange meeting to further discuss cooperation intentions, and went to Yudu County (于都县), Xingguo County (兴国县) and other places, focusing on red education, industrial chain development, cultural tourism promotion, etc., to carry out service inspections.
Return to TopThe construction of the Guangxi Liuzhou-Wuzhou railway project is about to enter the sprint phase. Currently, track-laying operations have entered the section of Xiangzhou County (象州县), Laibin City, and Liujiang District (柳江区), Liuzhou City. The bridge, culvert, subgrade, and tunnel works along the entire line are basically completed, and track works are over 70% complete.
It is understood that the Liuzhou-Wuzhou railway is an important component of the Liuzhou-Guangzhou railway. After the project is completed, it will significantly strengthen transportation connectivity between Guangxi and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and promote economic and social development along the line. The photo shows a track-laying machine laying track on the Liuzhou section of the Liuzhou-Wuzhou railway on July 17. Photo by Li Hanchi (黎寒池) (People's Vision (人民视觉)).
Return to TopBeijing, July 17 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Qu Zhehan (曲哲涵)) Recently, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Taxation Administration issued the "Announcement on Adjusting the Consumption Tax Policy for Certain Batteries," which will, starting from September 1, 2026, adjust the consumption tax policy for certain battery products in stages.
According to the announcement, consumption tax will be restored on certain batteries in stages. From September 1, 2026, a reduced consumption tax rate of 2% will be levied on mercury-free primary batteries, nickel-metal hydride batteries, lithium primary batteries, lithium-ion batteries, and all-vanadium redox flow batteries; from September 1, 2027, the consumption tax will be levied at a rate of 4%. From April 1, 2027, a consumption tax at a rate of 2% will be levied on photovoltaic cells; from April 1, 2028, the consumption tax will be levied at a rate of 4%.
Industry insiders believe that this arrangement fully takes into account the actual production and operation of enterprises, is conducive to enterprises adjusting their production and operation, promotes the smooth implementation of the policy, and also takes into account that the photovoltaic industry, after comprehensive rectification of "involution-style" competition, is currently in a period of gradual stabilization and recovery, so the restoration of taxation on photovoltaic cells has been appropriately postponed.
The announcement stipulates that from September 1, 2026 to December 31, 2028, sodium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries, fuel cells, and among photovoltaic cells, perovskite cells, tandem cells, and gallium arsenide cells will be exempted from consumption tax.
Return to TopBeijing, July 17 (Reporter Li Xinping (李心萍)) — A reporter learned from the Passenger Transport Center of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (中国国家铁路集团有限公司) that starting July 20, the railway department will pilot a new train ticket reservation purchase service on more than 200 trains on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and the Beijing-Shanghai Railway. Passengers can submit reservation requests through the "Reservation Ticket Purchase" (预约购票) section of the Railway 12306 (铁路12306) mobile app, from the 60th day to the 17th day before the train departs, and the Railway 12306 system will fulfill the reservation orders from the 20th day to the 16th day before departure.
According to the introduction, each Railway 12306 account can simultaneously submit three pending reservation orders, and a single order can include up to 19 passengers. The currently piloted new train ticket reservation purchase service is only available to ordinary passengers; group reservations for more than 19 people are not supported for now.
The Railway 12306 system will intelligently match ticket quotas based on the principles of "long-distance priority, with consideration for medium and short distances" and "first-come, first-served."
A responsible person from the Passenger Transport Center of China State Railway Group introduced that implementing reservation ticket purchase is conducive to the railway department's ability to understand and grasp passenger travel demand in advance, scientifically allocate transport capacity resources, optimize the ticket quota distribution mechanism, better match the relationship between capacity and demand, and achieve "operating trains according to demand"; it is also conducive to further improving the passenger ticket purchase experience and creating more favorable conditions for passengers to plan their itineraries in advance.
Return to TopBEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) — (Reporter Wang Yunshan (王云杉)) On July 16, the 2026 Qinghai Clean Energy Development Forum was held in Xining. Data released at the forum by the China Electricity Council showed that, as of the end of June 2026, China had built and put into operation 24 concentrated solar power (CSP) projects, with an installed capacity of 2.1 million kilowatts, ranking second globally; 26 projects were under construction, with an installed capacity of 3.2 million kilowatts. China has become an important force in the world's new CSP installations.
The development of the CSP industry cannot be separated from the impetus of technological innovation. At present, China has reached an internationally leading level in the field of fourth-generation CSP technology, has successfully mastered mainstream CSP technologies such as tower, trough, and Fresnel, and has built a globally leading full industrial chain for CSP, with the domestic production rate of technical equipment exceeding 95%. Core materials and equipment such as high-temperature heat absorption, thermal storage, and heat collection have achieved independent controllability, and power station operation and maintenance technology continues to improve.
In December 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission (国家发展改革委) and the National Energy Administration (国家能源局) issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Large-Scale Development of Concentrated Solar Power," which clearly states that by 2030, the total installed capacity of CSP is to strive to reach approximately 15 million kilowatts.
Return to TopBEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) -- (Liu Zhiqiang, Wang Shuyan) Recently, to further strengthen credit management in the field of tendering and bidding, and to regulate public credit evaluation and the application of evaluation results, the National Development and Reform Commission and seven other departments jointly issued the Interim Measures for Credit Management in the Field of Tendering and Bidding (招标投标领域信用管理暂行办法), which will come into effect on January 1, 2027.
The interim measures put forward a series of requirements centered on establishing and improving a full-chain management mechanism for public credit information, promoting the better application of public credit information in tendering and bidding activities. They focus on four categories of participants in tendering and bidding—namely, the tenderee, the bidder, the tendering agency, and the bid evaluation expert—specifying, item by item, the specific circumstances and methods for implementing credit constraints. They also set forth specific requirements for regulating public credit evaluation and expanding application scenarios, deepening the application of public credit evaluation results in the field of tendering and bidding.
Return to TopBEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) — (Reporter Wang Guan) The State Taxation Administration recently issued a public notice, and the "Discretionary Benchmark for Tax Administrative Penalties (2026 Edition)" has been opened for public comment starting from the 15th.
A responsible official from the relevant department of the State Taxation Administration introduced that in recent years, regions including the Northeast, Southwest, Northwest, Central South, North China, and East China have successively unified their regional discretionary benchmarks for tax administrative penalties. This has played a positive role in standardizing tax law enforcement and strengthening tax collection, and has also laid the foundation for unifying the discretionary benchmark for tax administrative penalties at the national level. To better serve the construction of a unified national market, the State Taxation Administration has studied and formulated the "Discretionary Benchmark for Tax Administrative Penalties (2026 Edition)," implementing a unified discretionary benchmark for tax administrative penalties nationwide. This also aligns with the expectations of grassroots tax law enforcement and the general public.
The notice clarifies that tax authorities should strictly implement penalties in accordance with laws and regulations, and make penalty decisions within the scope of the discretionary benchmark. At the same time, it also specifies a list of matters for "minor violations not subject to penalties" and collective review procedures, safeguards for the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers and fee payers, and requirements for the dynamic adjustment of the discretionary benchmark.
The notice unifies the national standards for tax administrative penalties, which is conducive to compressing the discretionary space in tax administrative law enforcement, preventing different penalties for the same case, equally protecting the legitimate rights and interests of various business entities, and further enhancing the effectiveness of tax governance.
This public comment period will last until August 13. The public can submit opinions and suggestions by logging onto the State Taxation Administration website, sending postal mail, or other means.
Return to TopOn July 15, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during an inspection in Shanghai that advancing urban renewal with high quality is an important lever for urban modernization. It is necessary to fully implement the people's city concept, adhere to asking the people about their needs, asking the people for their advice, and asking the people about results, to deepen, refine, and solidify all work on urban renewal, and continuously enhance residents' sense of gain, happiness, and security.
The Gatekeeper Art Museum (门卫美术馆) in Liangcheng New Village Subdistrict (凉城新村街道), Hongkou, Shanghai; the Jixian Art Museum (寄闲艺术馆) in Beiling Community (北陵社区), Shenyang, Liaoning; the Juanma Community Museum (绢麻社区博物馆) in Guangzhou, Guangdong... The steaming "small yet beautiful" cultural practices are being carried out in various places, becoming vivid footnotes to the full implementation of the people's city concept and high-quality advancement of urban renewal.
— Editor
Shanghai Hongkou Gatekeeper Art Museum: A Tiny Space Filled with Artistic Atmosphere
By our reporter Shen Wenmin (沈文敏)
At the entrance of the Fudan Residential Compound (复旦小区) in Liangcheng New Village Subdistrict, Hongkou District, Shanghai, an 18-square-meter space is particularly eye-catching —
The "Gatekeeper Art Museum" (门卫美术馆) was transformed from an old gatekeeper's room, with residents occasionally stopping to view and children asking curious questions.
The Fudan Residential Compound was originally the Liangcheng dormitory area of Fudan University. Today, its residents are relatively elderly, with retired faculty and staff accounting for one-third of the population. In 2019, the compound completed the "Beautiful Home" (美丽家园) construction, and the original gatekeeper's room of Zone 7 became idle, gradually turning into a storage room for clutter.
At the same time, although the compound had basic leisure facilities, it lacked high-quality cultural space. Residents who wanted to see exhibitions had to travel far to museums in the city center, which was especially inconvenient for elderly residents.
In April 2023, Liangcheng New Village Subdistrict launched an art community planning project, inviting the "Community Hub Station" (社区枢纽站) artist team to conduct on-site inspections. Curator Wang Nanming (王南溟) immediately took a liking to this idle gatekeeper's room: the building's sense of age, its location on the necessary route in and out of the compound, and its environmental advantage adjacent to a leisure green space gave it natural conditions for transformation into a public art space.
Following the concept of "activating and utilizing idle spaces, focusing on residents' actual needs," the Subdistrict Party Working Committee broke through traditional renovation approaches, using micro-renewal to give new life to idle resources. During the renovation, the construction team preserved the original window frames and wall colors, removed internal non-load-bearing walls, and created two display spaces — one large and one small — both respecting the building's historical memory and meeting the functional needs of exhibitions. After discussion by the Fudan Residential Area Retired Teachers Council (复旦居民区老教师议事会), the museum was finally named "Gatekeeper Art Museum."
The museum also formed a volunteer docent team, with a group of young volunteers explaining the design concepts of the exhibits to visitors for free, making abstract art easy to understand. Community schools organized supporting activities such as art lectures and parent-child workshops, promoting the rooting of art in the community.
As Shanghai's first gatekeeper art museum, this tiny space is continuously meeting residents' diverse cultural needs.
For elderly residents, the art exhibition at their doorstep solves the problem of inconvenient travel. Fang Jiaju (方家驹), a resident over 80 years old, said with emotion: "Being able to receive artistic熏陶 without traveling far is very friendly for us elderly." For young people, visiting and explaining can broaden their aesthetic horizons. The figures of children exploring the neon light exhibits have become the most beautiful scenery in the community. More importantly, the museum has built a bridge of communication between the elderly and the young, and the community atmosphere is increasingly warm.
From an idle storage room to a new art space, the micro-renewal of Liangcheng New Village Subdistrict has truly brought art into daily life. The "Gatekeeper Art Museum" is not only a transformation of physical space but also uses art as a medium to fill the gap in community cultural supply, allowing residents of different ages to find spiritual belonging, providing a replicable model of cultural empowerment for urban renewal.
Liaoning Shenyang Jixian Art Museum: Cultural Charm Hidden Among Buildings
By our reporter Liu Jiahua (刘佳华)
At the Jixian Art Museum (寄闲艺术馆) located in Beiling Community (北陵社区), Xinle Subdistrict (新乐街道), Huanggu District (皇姑区), Shenyang, Liaoning Province, outside the window the river flows quietly; at the entrance, large green plants are planted; inside, in a space of less than 200 square meters, the layout is meticulous, calligraphy and paintings cover the walls, and music is soothing. Although this art museum is opened in an old residential community and transformed from an idle warehouse, it is exceptionally elegant and refined, becoming a "treasure small museum" in the hearts of many nearby residents.
"Before, this place was a grocery store, a milk station, a warehouse — I never thought it could become an art museum." Gao Yulan (高玉兰), now in her 70s, has lived in Beiling Community for more than 40 years and has witnessed the changes here. Since the art museum officially opened in November 2024, she has hardly missed any exhibition or activity.
"The art museum often changes exhibits, and sometimes invites local masters," Gao Yulan said. "At our age, it's not easy to go out to a big museum or big art museum. Now, without leaving the community, we can experience the charm of art at our doorstep — how wonderful!"
Since its establishment, in addition to the permanent exhibition of works by Liaoning masters, the Jixian Art Museum has also held several special exhibitions such as "Clear Breeze of Calligraphy and Ink" (翰墨清风), "Flowers Blooming on the River" (川上花开), "Zen Heart of Ink Rhyme" (墨韵禅心), and "Ink Frost" (墨霜). Currently, an exhibition of calligraphy and Chinese painting sketches is underway. "The art museum is rooted here, providing residents with an art space at their doorstep," said Wang Xin (王昕), curator of the Jixian Art Museum.
"Each new exhibition can attract several hundred visitors, including residents of this community and people who come from other places after hearing about it," Wang Xin said. Currently, the art museum is open for 8 hours a day. While visiting, visitors can also listen to detailed explanations. "We also organize public welfare activities such as intangible cultural heritage handcraft classes to enrich everyone's cultural life."
Beiling Community has 87 buildings and more than 4,200 households. There are many elderly people, as well as many students and parents accompanying them, so the demand for cultural life is high. How to solve this?
"In the process of urban renewal, we leverage the resource integration advantages of the community Party committee to promote idle spaces into public cultural spaces, helping to build a 'Happy New Community' (幸福新社区)," said Song Xilong (宋喜龙), secretary of the community Party committee.
Not only the Jixian Art Museum, but among the old buildings of Beiling Community, several exquisite small cultural venues are also dotted: the "Jiugao Art Museum" (九皋艺术馆) was once an abandoned factory, and now it allows people to learn calligraphy, painting, and guqin; "Guyue Linxi" (古月林溪) was originally an abandoned bicycle shed, now it is a new landmark for tea culture and also serves as the "Three Cups of Tea Meeting Hall" (三杯茶议事厅) for mediating community disputes; "Xing Art Museum" (行艺术馆) focuses on dance; "Zhongyi Painting Academy" (中艺画院) focuses on oil painting...
"Although this is an old community, it has several art museums. Life is full of poetry and painting, and we are proud from the bottom of our hearts. When I post photos on my Moments, my friends are all very envious," said Fu Yanhui (富艳辉), a community resident in her 70s.
In Huanggu District, cultural positions like these have been embedded into the daily lives of ordinary people. Among the 13 intangible cultural heritage studios, 10 are in communities. Traditional skills such as Lu's Cotton Painting (鲁氏棉花画) and Wang's Clay Figurines (王氏泥人) have been revitalized. Cultural positions cover all subdistricts in the district, and new diversified public cultural spaces are linked into a network. Residents can enjoy services such as library reading, art exhibitions, and skills training within a 10-minute walk.
Wang Zhi (王智), member of the Standing Committee and head of the Propaganda Department of the Huanggu District Committee, introduced that Huanggu District strives to build a public cultural service matrix, holding nearly 3,000 cultural benefit activities and over 240 nationwide reading activities annually, truly allowing culture to take root in subdistricts and communities.
Guangdong Guangzhou Juanma Community Museum: Industrial Memory Preserved in the Depths of Alleys
By our reporter Wang Yunna (王云娜)
Pushing open the door of the Juanma Community Museum (绢麻社区博物馆) in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, the old photos and old objects that come into view pull the thoughts of Kuang Zemian (邝泽棉), over 70 years old, back to the bits and pieces of his time working at the Guangzhou Juanma Textile Mill (广州绢麻纺织厂).
In front of a display case, he stopped. "This is my work ID from back then. I kept it for decades before donating it to the museum," Uncle Kuang said proudly.
Juanma Community (绢麻社区) is located in Yuancun Subdistrict (员村街道), Tianhe District (天河区), Guangzhou, and was established on the site of the Juanma Factory (绢麻厂). In 2019, in accordance with district requirements, Yuancun Subdistrict guided Juanma Community to carry out an appearance and quality improvement campaign.
Beyond hardware renovation and renewal, how could the historical heritage and cultural connotation be better tapped to stimulate new vitality in the old community?
"What we first thought of was the Juanma Factory, this precious asset of the community," Fan Hongmei (范红梅), recently retired former secretary of the Juanma Community Party Committee, told reporters. Although the Juanma Factory had long been demolished, many of its former workers still live in Juanma Community. Building a museum could preserve the history of the Juanma Factory, and many residents expressed support for this.
Why is a closed factory worth commemorating?
"In the process of China's reform and opening up and in the history of Guangzhou's light industry, the Juanma Factory made considerable contributions," Fan Hongmei said.
The Guangzhou Juanma Textile Mill was a key construction project of Guangdong Province's First Five-Year Plan. It was not only once the largest ramie textile mill in the country and one of the first factories in the country to directly engage in foreign trade, but also won the National Science and Technology Progress Award. At its peak, the factory had more than 5,000 employees.
With urban changes and industrial restructuring, the Juanma Factory exited the historical stage in the early 21st century. It can be said that the Juanma Factory came first, and only later did the Juanma Community emerge.
Where was the site for building this museum?
"Building 18 Bungalow" (18号平房) was once part of the Juanma Factory. "The house has an area of 230 square meters. Embedding it into the community museum just achieved efficient use of the space," Fan Hongmei said.
After the site was selected, where did the exhibits come from?
Former employees of the Juanma Factory not only actively contributed ideas and suggestions for the museum's construction but also donated items they had treasured for many years. Work IDs, certificates of merit, souvenirs... a total of more than 150 exhibits were collected.
Cui Yuguang (崔玉光), over 80 years old, lives in another district but returned to the community many times to assist with the museum's construction, and provided free of charge the historical and photographic materials of the Juanma Factory he had collected over the years, as well as his large-scale watercolor painting "The Majestic Posture of Guangzhou Juanma Textile Mill" (广州绢麻纺织厂雄姿).
After the Juanma Factory was demolished, a pair of stone lions in front of the gate tower were preserved by the Tianhe District Museum (天河区博物馆). Upon learning that Juanma Community was going to build a museum, the Tianhe District Museum transferred the pair of stone lions to the community, and these lifelike little lions returned here. Moreover, the Tianhe District Museum also guided Juanma Community in excavating and organizing the chronicle of events of the Juanma Factory, carefully arranging the exhibition.
In December 2019, the Juanma Community Museum opened its doors to visitors, displaying the historical memory of the Juanma Factory and the struggle journey of the "Juanma people," and also allowing people to understand the stories that happened here.
"I started working at the Juanma Factory in 1965, found a spouse and started a family there, and have lived in the community ever since. Seeing those old photos and old objects, past events come to mind," Kuang Zemian said. Now, former employees often gather at the museum to chat about interesting anecdotes from those days. Some former employees who have moved away also "often come home to visit."
"The museum preserves the community's industrial memory, nourishes urban culture, and has become a brand-new cultural名片," said Xia Qianning (夏乾宁), secretary of the Juanma Community Party Committee and director of the community residents' committee.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 窦瀚洋
"Lanxi is like a book full of intriguing surprises — every page you turn brings a delight." Not long ago, Xu Qian, a post-2000s travel enthusiast, shared this sentiment in her social media feed after concluding a two-day, one-night trip to Lanxi City, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province.
In recent years, "micro-vacations" and "slow travel" have quietly emerged. Lanxi City has become a popular tourist destination,凭借其兰江环抱、峰峦叠翠的江南秀色，古村深巷、千年文脉的古城风韵以及鲜香味美的浙中美食.
Stepping into Lanxi, one first takes in its scenic spots.
Lanxi's natural scenery is fresh and elegant, with leisure hidden in every corner. Lan Lake, located on the city's outskirts, boasts over 3,000 mu of tranquil waters, surrounded by verdant tea gardens and rows of metasequoia trees. Riding a retro mini-train through the woods or boating on the lake's center, time itself seems to slow down.
At the Liudong Mountain Scenic Area, one can explore the Underground Long River. This 2,500-meter-long subterranean river maintains a constant temperature of 18 degrees Celsius year-round, earning it the nickname of a natural "air-conditioned room." As the boat glides slowly in, the sound of gurgling water fills the ears, while stalactites in myriad shapes, illuminated by colored lights, appear magnificent and fantastical, showcasing nature's uncanny craftsmanship.
As night falls, one can take a boat tour of Lanxi's mother river — the Lan River. The cruise ship slowly departs the dock, lights on both banks flickering on one by one. Scenic spots such as the ancient city wall and Zhongzhou Park reveal their full charm in the night.
Lanxi's cultural and historical ambiance is equally worth savoring.
Youbu Ancient Town is among the fifth batch of Zhejiang Province's historically and culturally famous towns. In olden times, it was a bustling hub of merchants and busy docks; today, it still retains a strong sense of everyday life. In the ancient town, sights such as the Wuma Guicao Ancient Bridge cluster, the Lang Jingshan Memorial Hall, and the sauce workshop are too numerous to take in all at once. To experience authentic, slow-paced local life, one can step into the town's "One Yuan Old Teahouse" — for just one yuan, you can sit quietly, sip tea, listen to a Wuju opera performance, and enjoy the leisure and tranquility found there.
Zhuge Bagua Village, located in Zhuge Town in western Lanxi, is a settlement of descendants of Zhuge Liang, the famed prime minister of the Shu Han kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period. The village is laid out according to the pattern of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams formation, with eight small lanes radiating outward, interspersed with the Dagong Hall and the Chancellor's Ancestral Hall. From time to time, the village hosts parade performances and scene reenactments, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the Zhuge family traditions and traditional rites.
Food is also a moving symbol of Lanxi's vibrant everyday life.
Lanxi beef noodles are a must-try signature dish. Most noodle shops in the city adhere to the tradition of "one bowl, one stir-fry." The hand-pulled noodles are supple and chewy, paired with tender beef, pickled mustard greens, diced bamboo shoots, and tomatoes, resulting in a rich, savory flavor.
To sample local flavors, one might visit a local eatery tucked away in the streets and alleys to try dishes such as fermented lettuce leaf soup with tofu, stir-fried white peppers with meat, Lanxi-style vegetarian wraps, and black fish hotpot. Among these, the fermented lettuce leaf soup with tofu "smells pungent but tastes delicious," with a particularly distinctive flavor from fermentation. The Lanxi-style vegetarian wrap is made by wrapping a filling in tofu skin and then frying it on both sides; the filling includes Lanxi's特有的 emerald-green "daxian" vegetable, making it a local favorite.
This small city also boasts over 300 varieties of specialty snacks, each with its own unique flavor: chicken egg cakes, tofu soup dumplings, flatbread with fried dough sticks, and meat-stuffed eggs. The meat-stuffed egg is a Lanxi specialty: fresh meat is stuffed into an egg, which is then boiled, seasoned with yellow wine and chopped green onions. The soup is savory and the meat filling generous — it is an old, cherished taste that locals cannot bear to give up.
Lanxi's four seasons each have their own character: In spring, a hundred flowers bloom, golden rapeseed fields stretch across the landscape, and tea gardens sprout new buds — it is the perfect time for an outing. In autumn, a golden breeze brings cool air, the countryside's rice turns golden, and chestnuts and persimmons hang heavy on the branches; strolling through ancient villages and the wild mountains, the autumn charm is palpable. Summer's climate is suitable for visiting the Underground Long River or indoor exhibition halls to escape the heat. In winter, one can sip tea in an ancient town teahouse, explore local cuisine, or go birdwatching at Lan Lake, experiencing a different kind of winter tranquility. Additionally, from May to July each year, Lanxi's landmark agricultural products — loquats and bayberries — are in season; visitors can enter the orchards to pick and taste the fresh fruits.
Wandering amidst Lanxi's landscapes and ancient charm, one can appreciate the true meaning of "slow living" and come to understand this treasure of a small city, gently treated by time.
■ Tips
Lanxi's scenic spots are relatively scattered. The driving time between Zhuge Bagua Village, Youbu Ancient Town, and the Underground Long River is about half an hour each. It is not advisable to schedule too many distant attractions in a single day. A two-day, one-night trip allows for a relaxed visit to the main sights, while a three-day, two-night itinerary enables an in-depth experience of the city's full character.
For transportation, Lanxi East Station offers direct high-speed rail connections to cities such as Hangzhou and Shanghai. If traveling by air, the nearest options are Yiwu Airport and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport.
If visiting Lanxi, one can also combine it with trips to surrounding cities. A 10-to-20-minute high-speed train ride from Lanxi takes you directly to Jiande, where you can transfer to another high-speed train to Huangshan in Anhui Province — an excellent route for taking in natural mountain and river scenery. Alternatively, starting from Lanxi, one can embark on a central Zhejiang tour in Jinhua: a 30-minute taxi ride reaches Yiwu, where you can experience the vitality of the "world's supermarket" at the International Trade Mart; from Yiwu, a one-hour ride on the rail transit system leads to Hengdian World Studios, launching a journey through film and television.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 施 芳
During the holiday, Liugou Village (柳沟村), Jingzhuang Town (井庄镇), Yanqing District (延庆区), Beijing, was thronged with visitors. Tourists strolled through the ancient village and toured the Great Wall; when tired, they found a farmhouse courtyard, sat around a table, and tasted the fire-basin pot tofu feast (see photo, taken by Guo Xiaohan (郭晓晗)), enjoying the rustic atmosphere and relaxed feeling amid the steaming heat.
Liugou fire-basin pot tofu originated in the Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty. According to legend, when garrison soldiers had no time to set up cooking fires between battles, they would toss tofu, vegetables, meat, water, and the like into their helmets, gather firewood on the spot, and boil it, creating this simple and quick dish. Later, this cooking method spread locally, and the cooking vessel changed from a helmet to a stew pot. To this day, the fire-basin pot still retains the tradition of not covering the lid, making it unique among many pot dishes.
In the fire-basin pot tofu feast, tofu is the "protagonist." According to an introduction, the key to making Liugou tofu is "sour brine curdling" (酸浆点卤). The sour brine is naturally fermented from the liquid squeezed out when the tofu is pressed into molds. When curdling, the concentration and timing must be precisely controlled; if the sour brine is too sour or the curdling is too fast, the tofu will become tough. It must be added slowly in small amounts multiple times until the bean curd floats on the surface, then the fire is increased to bring it to a boil. The bean curd is placed into a mold, pressed to set, and after 10 minutes, the soft, tender, smooth tofu is ready.
Liugou tofu comes in many varieties: yellow soybean tofu for beauty and skin care, black soybean tofu for nourishing the kidneys, mung bean tofu for clearing heat and reducing fire, as well as frozen tofu, fried tofu puffs, dried tofu, and so on.
The preparation of the tofu feast also has its intricacies. Chinese cabbage is cut into small pieces; tofu and smoked meat are sliced thin; fresh potato vermicelli is washed clean. The ingredients are layered in the stew pot, from bottom to top: cabbage, three-color fresh tofu, fried tofu, frozen tofu, vermicelli, and smoked meat. The broth is made from pork bones, chicken and duck carcasses, trimmings, etc., boiled over high heat in clear water, skimmed of foam, then simmered over low heat for 6 hours.
Into the layered fire-basin pot are added scallion, ginger, soy sauce, salt, MSG, and white pepper; the broth is poured in, the pot is set on the fire-basin and stewed until it boils, then sprinkled with cilantro and served. The dish has a rich, mellow flavor; the smoked meat is oily but not greasy, and the tofu is fragrant, tender, and delicious.
The traditional Liugou fire-basin pot tofu feast features one main pot in the center, surrounded by three auxiliary pots, four large bowls, eight cold dishes, and six staple foods. As times change, people continuously innovate, and many specialty restaurants have launched upgraded versions of the fire-basin pot tofu feast, introducing Anhui-style tofu feast, spicy fish pot tofu feast, seafood fire-basin pot tofu feast, and other flavors, further enriching tourists' dining choices.
"Restaurants almost never repeat themselves, insisting on genuine ingredients so that tourists can eat with peace of mind and confidence, attracting many 'repeat customers,'" said Song Shudong (宋树东), Deputy Party Secretary and Town Mayor of Jingzhuang Town. Today, the fire-basin pot tofu feast is not only a home-style delicacy but has also become the culinary calling card of Liugou Village's tourism. Relying on its "salty, fragrant, and delicious" old flavor, Liugou Village has become a well-known folk-custom tourism village on the outskirts of Beijing, receiving a total of over 1.26 million tourists in the past three years and achieving revenue of 110 million yuan.
Return to TopLayout design: Shen Yiling (沈亦伶)
Return to TopBy: 曹 艺 王 杨
The special exhibition "People's Cities — The Communist Party of China's Takeover and Governance of Cities Before and After the Founding of New China," jointly hosted by the Central Archives (中央档案馆) and the Museum of the Communist Party of China (中国共产党历史展览馆), opened to the public on June 28 in the fourth-floor special exhibition hall of the Party History Exhibition Hall. This exhibition presents for the first time a holistic and systematic display of the Communist Party of China's takeover and governance of cities before and after the founding of New China, aiming to use the Party's valuable experience in taking over and governing cities during the early days of the Republic to provide reference and inspiration for promoting high-quality urban development and building modern people's cities.
Building cities with the people at the center, governing cities by relying on the people, and developing cities for the people are the consistent and unwavering governing philosophy and value pursuit of the Communist Party of China, from which the exhibition's name is derived. The scenes of the times change, the tasks of development change, and the modes of governance change, but the fundamental stance, value core, and original aspiration and mission of the Communist Party of China's urban work have never changed. Every cultural relic and every picture in the exhibition is a historical footnote to the concept of "people's cities."
In terms of content structure, the core challenge faced by the curatorial team was how to present both the overall historical thread of urban takeover and governance and the various facets of urban takeover and governance within the limited exhibition space, while also reflecting the different features of representative cities. Ultimately, we adopted a display strategy of "combining a timeline with thematic sections."
The exhibition is divided into a prologue and three parts, totaling four sections. Overall, it follows a chronological order: from the time of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, when the Party proposed preparing to seize large cities; to the period of the War of Liberation, when the People's Army won successive victories and more and more cities were liberated and taken over; to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party, which decided to shift the Party's work focus from the countryside to the cities; and finally to the comprehensive governance and construction of cities nationwide after the founding of New China. At the same time, a thematic structure is adopted to systematically present the historical scenes of liberating and taking over cities. Part One, "Strategic Shift of the Party's Work — Taking the City as the Focus," presents a complete picture of the Party taking over cities and shifting its work focus from multiple dimensions, including putting forward the concept of "cities belong to the people," strengthening Party leadership, summing up experience, discipline building, cadre training, and underground struggle. Part Two, "Building a New World — The Takeover and Management of Cities," displays the Party's urban construction adhering to the concept of "people's cities" from multiple dimensions of urban governance such as political power building, economy and finance, culture and education, social transformation, and foreign relations, forming a logically clear thematic narrative.
The curatorial team carefully selected 12 typical cities, covering different geographical regions, different city sizes, different modes of liberation, and different urban functional orientations, constituting Part Three of the exhibition.
Harbin was the earliest large city liberated in the country, witnessing the historic moment when the democratic parties and the Communist Party of China jointly discussed the founding of the nation. Shijiazhuang was the first large city captured by our army through assault tactics during the War of Liberation; the Central Work Committee promptly summarized its takeover experience and circulated it to the entire Party. Shenyang was the largest industrial and commercial city in the Northeast; the "Shenyang experience" (沈阳经验) explored during its takeover became a model for urban takeovers nationwide.
The liberation of Tianjin created the "Tianjin method" (天津方式), creating favorable conditions for the peaceful liberation of Beiping; after liberating Tianjin, the Party led the people in taking over bureaucratic capital, abolishing imperialist privileges, protecting national industry and commerce, and rapidly restoring and developing production. The peaceful liberation of Beiping returned this famous historical and cultural city intact to the hands of the people, giving the thousand-year-old ancient capital a new lease on life. Nanjing, as the political center of Kuomintang rule, its liberation marked the downfall of the Kuomintang's 22 years of reactionary rule.
After the liberation of Wuhan, the three towns were merged into one administrative division, forming a powerful agglomeration effect, expanding the city's development pattern, and laying a solid foundation for building a central city and industrial base in Central China. The liberation of Xi'an completely changed the situation in the Northwest battlefield where the enemy outnumbered us, and the ancient city wall of Xi'an was completely preserved under the leadership of Xi Zhongxun, which can be regarded as a model in the history of cultural relic protection. Shanghai is an international metropolis that affects the national economic lifeline; after liberation, it won the "Silver Dollar Battle" (银元之战) and the "Rice and Cotton Battle" (米棉之战), laying a solid foundation for the economy of New China. The peaceful liberation of Urumqi (Dihua) was a major victory for the Party's ethnic policy and united front policy. The liberation of Guangzhou destroyed the strongholds of the remnants of the Kuomintang and imperialism in South China. Chongqing, as the last large city liberated in the War of Liberation, opened a new era of "building a new Chongqing of production for the people."
The 12 cities each have their own emphasis and characteristics, striving to allow visitors to appreciate the diverse features of urban takeover and governance before and after the founding of New China in a single exhibition.
This narrative strategy of "balancing sections and blocks, combining points and surfaces" gives the exhibition both a macroscopic sense of historical depth and a microscopic vividness of scenes, achieving in-depth presentation.
To set forth empty words is not as good as to cite actual objects. Cultural relics are the cornerstone of the exhibition. This exhibition extensively collected more than 420 pieces (sets) of cultural relics, objects, and archival documents from over 80 units across the country. The collection network covers national-level archival institutions such as the Central Archives and the People's Liberation Army Archives, as well as provincial and municipal archives, museums, and memorial halls.
Among the more than 100 archival items from the Central Archives are a large number of manuscripts by older-generation revolutionaries such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping, and Chen Yun. For example, on January 9, 1948, Mao Zedong's instruction on a report concerning acts of discipline violation after our army captured Gaojiabao: "The acts of discipline violation at Gaojiabao should be investigated for responsibility, and policy education and discipline education should be carried out throughout the army"; on May 7, 1949, Zhou Enlai's directive requiring frontline troops to "specially protect, for the sake of culture," the Liu family Jiaye Hall (嘉业堂) library building in Nanxun Town, Zhejiang, and the Pushen Temple (普善寺) in Taiyuan, Shanxi, which housed the Southern Song carved Qisha edition of the Tripitaka (碛砂版《大藏经》); on November 27, 1950, Zhu De's personal letter to Wang Zhen regarding the issue of carrying out production and construction in Xinjiang, and so on.
In terms of physical objects, the signature flag of the meeting between the underground Communist Party of China in Chengdu and the People's Liberation Army, and the list of underground Party members of Tsinghua University publicly posted by the General Party Branch Committee of Tsinghua University, reflect the Party organization's transition from covert struggle to open development; the wooden plaques of the Taiyuan City and Tianjin City Military Control Commissions and the seals of the people's governments of Shandong, Henan, and Gansu provinces at the time of their establishment bear witness to the establishment of local people's democratic political power in New China; the notice of the Beijing Military Control Commission to recover foreign barracks demonstrates the Chinese people's firm determination to abolish imperialist privileges and safeguard national sovereignty.
To create a better exhibition effect, we added interactive facilities and special display items. For example, in the section on liberating various cities, touch screens were added; visitors can click on icons to view historical footage of the liberation of corresponding cities, enhancing the sense of participation. In the section displaying Beijing's urban governance, a dedicated area was set up to recreate the scene of the Longxu Ditch (龙须沟) remediation, with comparative photos before and after the remediation and real footage from the renovation. As Mr. Lao She wrote in Longxu Ditch: "Before, this was a stinking ditch; the people's government turned it into a road!" The remediation of Longxu Ditch became the best testimony to the Party's "building a new world" in the cities.
"A bright mirror can reflect shapes; past events can illuminate the present." Looking back at history through the exhibition helps us better move toward the future. "People's cities are built by the people; people's cities are for the people." This is both a resounding declaration of the times and a practical truth that runs through history. We hope this exhibition will allow visitors to see the ambition, the strong ability to govern the whole country, and the superb wisdom demonstrated by the Communist Party of China in facing the challenge of taking over and governing cities. It will also enable more people to understand that the resources of the city belong to the people, the construction of the city relies on the people, the development of the city is for the people, and the future of the city is created by the people, thereby gathering the mighty force to build a modern people's city with Chinese characteristics.
(The author's affiliation: Museum of the Communist Party of China)
Return to TopBy: 王永强
During the Tang Dynasty, beacon towers were widely established along the border frontiers, where watchmen would raise beacon fires to transmit military intelligence. During the reigns of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong, beacon towers spread across all four directions; according to research, within the four circuits of Guannei Circuit, Hedong Circuit, Hebei Circuit, and Longyou Circuit alone there were over 3,000 beacon towers. The warning signals from beacon posts concerned the safety of the state; therefore, the Tang Code Commentary: Palace Guards and Prohibitions (唐律疏议·卫禁) established strict punitive measures for beacon towers failing to alert. A Tang Dynasty Yiwu Army (伊吾军) document was unearthed at the Baidun Beacon Tower (白墩烽燧) in Balikun County, Xinjiang, titled "Document of the Yiwu Army to Pingquan Beacon (平泉烽) Concerning Beacon Post Soldiers and Others Keeping Watch in the Tenth-Something Year of the Kaiyuan Reign of Tang" (唐开元十某年伊吾军牒平泉烽为诸烽铺子等守烽事); it is a directive issued by the Yiwu Army to the beacon posts under its jurisdiction. This document confirms and supplements the Tang Code Commentary: Palace Guards and Prohibitions, and is important empirical evidence for studying Tang military orders and governance of the Western Regions.
At the end of the document are the characters "Kaiyuan ten" (开元十), so the document was issued between the tenth and nineteenth years of the Kaiyuan reign, i.e., 722–731 AD. The document records that beacon soldiers from elsewhere had been captured after descending from their beacon, causing garrison settlements to be destroyed and common people to be lost; to respond to the current situation, specific and strict beacon defense measures were formulated: when a beacon inspection envoy came to inspect the beacon tower, the beacon soldiers had to remain stationed on the tower, not a single person could descend; the beacon inspector had to hoist a token up to the tower, verify it, then lower it back down; after the inspection was completed, the inspector had to leave immediately, and the beacon soldiers were not allowed to descend to see him off; if the Yiwu Army grand commander personally came to the beacon tower, the beacon soldiers still could not descend to pay respects; for anyone approaching near the beacon tower, whether known or unknown, close or distant, when the person was one hundred paces from the tower, they had to be loudly ordered to halt; if it was one of their own, they were allowed to leave; if it was an enemy, they immediately drew bows and shot arrows, and lit the beacon fire to give warning according to regulations; during the busy farming season, when soldiers and common people were farming in the garrison settlements, the beacon soldiers had to scout even more carefully, assess the enemy situation, and so on. If they saw the enemy and lit beacons according to the Beacon Regulations (烽式), responded appropriately, and made no mistakes, the beacon soldiers could receive rewards and promotions. If their watch was unclear and errors occurred, they would be beaten sixty strokes or even executed according to military law. If a beacon inspector came to the tower and did not act in accordance with this order, "he would also be guilty of the same crime."
The punitive measures recorded in the Tang Code Commentary: Palace Guards and Prohibitions differ somewhat from those in the document; sentencing was based on the severity of the violation and the extent of losses caused. For relatively minor cases, the punishment was one to three years of penal servitude; for cases causing losses of soldiers or common people, or destruction of city walls, the punishment was death by hanging. However, "the number of beacon fires to be lit is fully set forth in the Regulations text; the matter is secret and cannot be cited in full. If there is an offender, judgment is made temporarily according to the Regulations." Tang history expert Cheng Xilin (程喜霖) has studied and believes that the Tang Code's punishment for beacon towers failing to alert was a principled provision; officials at all levels in charge could flexibly handle matters based on the Tang Code Commentary: Palace Guards and Prohibitions and the Beacon Regulations, so as to fully utilize the warning function of beacon towers and better respond to enemy situations.
The document's record that beacon soldiers "could receive rewards and praise, and advance their status and name" (得赏褒，進身名) likely refers to material rewards and bestowal of merit official titles. The Tang established twelve grades of merit official titles (勋官) to commend meritorious service. The Keyak Kuduke Beacon Tower site in Yuli County (尉犁县克亚克库都克烽燧) also yielded multiple merit notifications or related documents, recording the circumstances of soldiers guarding the beacon towers and surrounding garrisons receiving merit rewards for their achievements. The duty at beacon posts was extremely arduous; not only did they have to constantly watch and light beacons, facing challenges of life and death, but they also had to endure year-round strong winds, scorching sun, bitter cold, and the test of mental solitude. These places were far from the central government, transportation was difficult, supplies were hard to deliver, and the garrison soldiers also had to plow fields for grain, gather and store firewood, and make miscellaneous tools for lighting beacons. There were rewards and punishments, 赏罚分明 (shǎng fá fēn míng - "reward and punishment are clear," to be strict and fair in meting out rewards and punishments), which ensured the normal functioning of the beacon tower system.
Surveys show that to the northwest and north of Dahe Ancient City (大河古城) there are a total of 21 Tang Dynasty beacon towers, forming two early warning lines; the Baidun Beacon Tower (Tang name "Pingquan Beacon") is one of them. The document records the governing bodies of the beacon posts, the beacon inspection system, punitive measures for watchkeeping failures, miscellaneous tools for beacon defense, etc. From this, it appears that the beacon posts were directly managed by the Yiwu Army. At that time, it happened to be a wartime period, the enemy situation was complex, and they were to act according to the new orders of the Yiwu Army. The military orders recorded in the document are detailed, embodying the experience of Tang border prefectures in facing and responding to the enemy. The military orders were both strict and flexible; the border army commander could judge according to the code and formulate specific measures and reward-punishment standards suited to the military situation, ensuring that beacon post soldiers acted according to orders and kept watch clearly.
What enabled the Tang Dynasty to stabilize its border regions was precisely its highly effective elite border armies, its rigorous and meticulous beacon tower early warning system, and its strict military regulations and orders with clear rewards and punishments. The Baidun Beacon Tower was an insignificant one among the Tang's ten-thousand-li border fortifications; fortunately, this document has survived, with just a few hundred characters, allowing a glimpse into the lives of ancient border garrison soldiers and revealing the military foundation and governance strategy for the Western Regions during the great Tang dynasty in its prime.
Return to TopBy: 吕吉祥
Earlier this year, media reported that a major archaeological breakthrough had been achieved at the Dongyuan Ancient City site in Shijiazhuang, Hebei. The scale of the city site and the distribution of key foundations were largely clarified, confirming that Dongyuan Ancient City was the capital of the Zhending Principality of the Western Han Dynasty; the large-scale palace architectural foundations discovered are rare surviving remains of a marquisate palace from the Han Dynasty.
Seeing the report, I recalled my school days when I passed through this place every day on my way to school in a neighboring village. At that time, classmates from the surrounding villages would occasionally show off a few round or knife-shaped copper coins, claiming they had found them in their own fields. Not being so lucky myself, I had to shamelessly beg a coin from a classmate.
Many years passed in a flash. New roads were built in this area, new residential quarters were constructed, and the villages where my classmates and I lived underwent urban village redevelopment. During the redevelopment process, the cultural relics department conducted surveys again, and archaeologists discovered the ancient city site here. Consequently, the village was demolished, and this area was turned into the Dongyuan Ancient City Site Park. When the park first opened in 2022, I made a special trip to visit it; its scale was truly considerable. From the introductions in the park, I learned that this site had been discovered as early as 1956 and was announced as the seventh batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level in 2013. It originated in the Warring States period, was an important city of the Zhongshan State, and served as a northern military and administrative hub during the Qin and Han dynasties...
From 2023 to 2025, the cultural relics department conducted proactive excavations in this area, determining the layout of three vertical and three horizontal main roads within the city, discovering living remains such as city gates, moats, and handicraft workshops, and also uncovering large-scale palace foundations built with fine materials. Eaves tiles bearing inscriptions such as "Zhending Changle" (真定长乐) and "Fuchang Changle" (富昌长乐) were unearthed. Only then did I understand that because the village was built directly on the site, my classmates back then could find knife coins from the Yan and Zhao states, as well as Ban Liang and Wu Zhu coins from the Western Han period, while working in the fields.
This year, the enhancement project for the Dongyuan Ancient City Site Park was also completed. Every morning when I wake up and look out the window at that land, I am filled with emotion. People used to say that Shijiazhuang is a young city built on railways; it turns out it is also a city with an ancient history spanning over two thousand years! How fortunate I am that this weight of history lies right before my eyes, within my reach.
Return to TopBy: 余 艳
Old Bozhou people often say, “Good sons need not be many; one is Ma Sanyuan (马三元), one is Jiang Laoguo (姜老锅).” These two names are not unfamiliar to people of Bozhou, Anhui. Both were Bozhou-born generals who 叱咤风云 (chì zhà fēng yún - “shout and command the wind and clouds,” to ride the whirlwind and dominate the scene) during the late Qing and early Republic. This Jiang Laoguo is Jiang Guiti (姜桂题), the original owner of Jiang Mansion (姜公馆) at No. 29 Xuejia Lane (薛家巷) next to my home. Jiang Mansion, once a siheyuan with multiple rows and three main lanes, is now a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit (省级文物保护单位) bearing witness to Bozhou’s century of vicissitudes.
The red-lacquered wooden door is engraved with the grain of time; the gray-tiled wall tops sway with the whisper of the breeze. According to the elders, the mansion once had over a hundred rooms, with 雕梁画栋 (diāo liáng huà dòng - “carved beams and painted rafters,” richly ornamented architecture), very imposing. Now, although only three structures remain—the main gate, the principal room, and others—through the patterns of the bluestone slabs and the carvings on the wooden beams, one can still discern its original scale and layout.
In the hearts of the neighbors, it is an “old neighbor” that has accompanied generations through wind and rain, and even more so a “living history book” bearing witness to the 峥嵘岁月 (zhēng róng suì yuè - “towering years,” eventful and extraordinary times) of Bozhou’s War of Resistance against Japan and War of Liberation. In March 1939, Comrades Zhang Aiping (张爱萍), Secretary of the CPC Henan-Anhui-Jiangsu Border Region Provincial Committee (中共豫皖边省委); Peng Xuefeng (彭雪枫), Commander of the New Fourth Army Guerrilla Detachment; Deputy Commander Wu Zhifu (吴芝圃); Chief of Staff Zhang Zhen (张震); and others, in the main hall of this mansion, discussed matters of the Anti-Japanese united front with Yu Yanong (余亚农), Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Route Army of the Anhui Provincial Anti-Japanese People’s Self-Defense Force. This meeting amid the flames of war sowed the spark for the consolidation of anti-Japanese forces in northern Anhui.
This cluster of light was once mercilessly shrouded by darkness. In April 1939, Bo County (亳县) town fell for the second time, and the Japanese army broke into Jiang Mansion, setting it up as the Bozhou garrison headquarters. During those more than six years of dark times, the old Bozhou people always held a pent-up determination in their hearts—our Chinese homeland must never be wantonly trampled by outsiders! This unyielding spirit is hidden in every brick and tile of Jiang Mansion, and is also deeply engraved in the bones and blood of every Bozhou person.
After the wind and rain, the dawn finally arrived. In early winter 1948, the bugle of the Huaihai Campaign sounded, and Jiang Mansion welcomed a new mission. President Wang Taijun (王太钧) and Political Commissar Wu Zhaotong (吴钊统) of the Central Plains Field Army Hospital brought over 3,000 medical staff to Bo County, setting this century-old courtyard as the rear general hospital. The entire city was mobilized: government cadres, students, and ordinary people all pitched in—some swept the yard, some moved bed boards, some delivered supplies, and every household sent whatever they could use to this place. Branch hospitals were also set up in towns and villages around the mansion such as Weigang (魏岗). Transport teams and stretcher teams shuttled through the streets and lanes of Bo County. The slogan “Blood is shed at the front, sweat is shed at the rear” shouted out the full fervor of Bozhou people supporting the front lines. By the end of the Huaihai Campaign, this courtyard had received and treated over 30,000 wounded soldiers. Later, the Bo County People’s Government relied on Jiang Mansion to prepare for the establishment of the county people’s hospital, and more lives have been protected generation after generation.
From a famous family’s former residence in the Qing dynasty, to a venue for united front meetings during the War of Resistance; from a dark lair under the iron heel of the Japanese invaders, to the rear general hospital of the Huaihai Campaign, and now to a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit—every brick and every tile of Jiang Mansion holds stories. It is like a silent old man, standing quietly in Xuejia Lane, watching the changes of the old city, guarding a local cultural lineage.
Return to TopBy: 李 鑫
“Rome was not built in a day.” It took about a thousand years for Jingdezhen to grow from a small settlement into a clearly division-of-labor pottery and porcelain handicraft town. Compared with other famous porcelain-producing areas, the core reason Jingdezhen could emerge from nothing and become a center of porcelain production lies in the inclusiveness and diversity of “craftsmen come from eight directions,” as well as a multi-level living transmission model. Practitioners of all kinds related to ceramic production precisely position themselves, 各展所长 (gè zhǎn suǒ cháng - “each displays their strengths”), and the symbiotic and co-progressive economic system has forged a thousand-year cultural lineage.
Ruan Shunrong (阮顺荣) is called the “King of Test Shards” by people in the industry. When he was young, he lived in an old house in Zhushi Xialong (朱氏下弄) of Jingdezhen, and his living conditions were not good. Speaking of the contrast between past and present, he sighed: “Compared with the dilapidated and messy environment of my childhood, today’s Zhushi Xialong is as beautiful as a palace.” In his youth, Ruan Shunrong won a hard-tipped pen calligraphy award at school, and many people asked him to write various characters on the porcelain body with a pencil, to be used as the base for blue-and-white and underglaze red — this was his first contact with porcelain production. In the 1990s, as state-owned porcelain factories were restructured and closed, a large number of small workshops emerged, and Ruan Shunrong and his two brothers also joined the ranks of porcelain production. By chance, Ruan Shunrong resolved to restore ancient glaze techniques.
“Of all ceramic vessels, glaze is the essential need.” Glaze color plays a decisive role in porcelain production. Firing ancient glazes has no ready-made formula; it can only be done through repeated trial firings and constant adjustments. Ruan Shunrong, regardless of cost, fired more than 10,000 test shards in succession, and was laughed at as “stubborn.” At first, he thought he could replicate the 温润如玉 (wēn rùn rú yù - “warm and smooth like jade”) luster of ancient glazes in a short time, but unexpectedly it took 17 years of trials. These more than 10,000 test shards were experimental pieces, and even more so, marks of his failures along the way. Glaze materials, kiln temperature, firing duration… most of the key information during trial firings he recorded at any time on discarded cigarette pack paper. Those yellowed cigarette pack paper scraps are his unique “craftsmanship ledger.” Long-term persistence finally paid off; multiple ancient glazes were successfully replicated, restoring the unique aura of ancient porcelain. At the moment the kiln was opened, years of fatigue dissipated completely, and a resonance of craftsmanship across time and space arose spontaneously.
Cheng Tong (程通), an employee of Jingdezhen Taoci Cultural Tourism Group, is responsible for coordinating on-site surveys, ancient building restoration, historical source tracing, and scene revitalization in the renovation of old city buildings. In his view, the old city streets and lanes are the most intuitive physical witnesses of porcelain industry civilization. To completely preserve the original ancient charm of the streets and lanes, whenever he encounters old bricks, old stones, or old wooden components during work, he tries to reuse them as much as possible. Faced with the color difference problem between new and old wooden components during repairs, he abandoned industrial coatings and blended natural plant-based pigments for coloring treatment, which both clearly distinguishes the repaired parts and maintains the overall rustic texture of the buildings.
During one repair, Cheng Tong cleaned out a gold-lettered signboard reading “Yihechang (怡和昌)” from a wall. After verification by cultural history experts and cross-referencing with old Republic-era photographs, it was confirmed as an old-style money house or bank, corroborating Jingdezhen’s mature and complete porcelain industry commercial supporting facilities. At the same time, he cleaned out a late-Qing donation stele and a Republic-era rebuilt main beam at Siwang Temple (泗王庙), clarifying the temple’s evolution and the development of merchant guilds; at Fuqiang Shanglong (富强上弄), he rescued three Ming-dynasty porcelain merchant old residences on the verge of collapse, preserving precious Ming-dynasty handicraft remains. He interviewed elderly residents and old craftsmen of the old streets, relying on oral history to restore the original functions of ancient buildings and fill in gaps in documentary materials, making the old streets a living historical carrier that can be verified and interpreted. Through the repairs and renovations he led, the money houses, porcelain firms, pigment shops, charcoal shops, etc., in the area were completely preserved, displaying the full industrial chain layout of ancient ceramics.
Zeng Chao (曾超), a representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, comes from a family of porcelain painting. His grandfather Zeng Weikai (曾维开) was from Xingning, Guangdong. In 1959, he was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, and after graduation he worked successively at Jingdezhen Jianguo Porcelain Factory, Jingdezhen Ceramic Research Institute, etc. Influenced by him, his son Zeng Yalin (曾亚林) and daughter Zeng Yaqin (曾亚琴) both followed their father’s career, deeply engaged in painting on porcelain, strictly adhering to traditional brush-and-ink rules. Zeng Chao, having been 耳濡目染 (ěr rú mù rǎn - “to be influenced by what one hears and sees”) in ceramic workshops since childhood, has mastered the complete set of core porcelain painting techniques and has taken up the responsibility of his family’s porcelain painting inheritance.
Besides diligently honing his own porcelain painting skills, Zeng Chao actively popularizes porcelain painting culture and never keeps his family’s techniques secret. He goes into schools and communities to offer free public porcelain painting classes, exchanging and sharing skills with a wide range of ceramic art enthusiasts. The family art gallery is open to the public year-round, creating a space for study and exchange. At the same time, he systematically organizes his ancestors’ paintings and manuscripts, properly preserving the family’s ceramic historical materials. Three generations have taken turns steadfastly engaging in porcelain painting creation, with craftsmanship 代代相传 (dài dài xiāng chuán - “passed down from generation to generation”).
Dong Liquan (董利全), an engineer who worked in the IT industry for a long time, came to Jingdezhen after retirement. His experience living overseas made him see the gap between Chinese and foreign ceramic development: a large number of high-craft Jingdezhen ancient porcelains are preserved overseas, but the public knows very little about the thousand-year craft heritage behind the objects; conversely, many overseas ceramic brands have formed broad influence through mature operating systems. This gave him the idea of letting more people understand the beauty of ancient Chinese porcelain and using porcelain to tell China’s story well.
Together with friends who shared the same feeling, he built the “Imperial Tribute Production (内廷恭造)” themed exhibition hall, revitalizing imperial kiln techniques through realistic scene reproduction and imperial porcelain restoration. The hall reproduces palace spaces such as Shoukang Palace (寿康宫), Chuxiu Palace (储秀宫), and the Imperial Workshops (造办处), supplemented by graphic explanations and cultural creative exhibits, fully laying out the entire process of imperial porcelain supervision, firing, presentation, and display. The immersive exhibition has gained widespread popularity, with daily visitor flow reaching ten thousand during peak season. This revitalization model of realistic scene popularization and object restoration has the potential to be replicated and promoted; related themed exhibition halls can go overseas to tell the story of Jingdezhen’s ceramics to the world.
In Jingdezhen, there are many more such stories. Tens of thousands of practitioners 各司其职 (gè sī qí zhí - “each performs their own duties”), silently guarding, driving the thousand-year porcelain-making cultural lineage to continue for a long time, 生生不息 (shēng shēng bù xī - “continuous growth and endless vitality”).
(The authors are affiliated with Jingdezhen Ceramic University)
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Return to TopBy: 林那北
For foreign things, Fuzhou people like to add the character "fan" (番) in front: tomatoes are called "fanqie" (番茄), chili peppers are "fanjiao" (番椒), and sweet potatoes are no exception, called "fanshu" (番薯). When I was young, rice was insufficient, and my stomach was often filled with sweet potatoes. Lifting the steaming bamboo steamer, the pot was forever filled with their plump bodies lying crisscross. Sweet potato rice (番薯米) is an extension of the sweet potato, produced by a sharp grater, appearing as thin, long strips. Sweet potato coins (番薯钱) are another extension — cut crosswise into thin slices. They are not in their original flavor; first, the starch is washed out with water to be used for thickening, then they are spread out and dried in the sun. All things considered, starch is the essence of the sweet potato; once it is removed, losing nutrition and sweetness, only the residue remains, which is then stored to cope with meals throughout the four seasons.
Grateful for them, at least they allowed me to fill my stomach; as spring passed and autumn came, my limbs had the nutrition for normal growth. Only much later did I learn that the sweet potato is actually surnamed Chen; over 400 years ago, Chen Zhenlong (陈振龙) of Changle, Fuzhou, brought it back from Luzon Island, i.e., the Philippines, planted it, propagated it, and it spread in all directions. At that time, the Philippines was still a Spanish colony, and sweet potatoes, along with potatoes, corn, and other items, were treated as strategic materials strictly forbidden from leaving, with customs layers of inspection. The more common account now is that Chen Zhenlong tried a total of three times; the first two failed, he was fined, nearly imprisoned, unwilling to give up, he again risked placing several feet of sweet potato vines inside a bamboo tube, then tied it with rope to the side of the ship's gunwale, floating in the sea, after a seven-day-and-night long voyage, arriving in Fuzhou in May of the 21st year of the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, i.e., 1593.
I flipped through several local gazetteers, but did not find any record of major events directly related to the people's livelihood in Fujian that year; however, droughts, floods, and insect infestations should have been the norm, coupled with the ongoing Japanese pirate (倭寇) troubles at sea, life was naturally constrained and tense. The people of Fujian were truly terrified of hunger; the province has eight parts mountains, one part water, and one part farmland, and this limited farmland, under continuous natural disasters, always yielded meager harvests. In the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, a certain merchant had successfully introduced from Champa (占城), i.e., what is now south-central Vietnam, a variety of Champa rice that could ripen twice a year, morning and evening — whether this merchant was from Quanzhou or Fuzhou is not settled, and his name, age, are even less known. This merchant, whose name is not even preserved, had a flash of insight and brought the rice seeds back, planted them, and the harvest doubled, so much so that in the fourth year of the Dazhong Xiangfu reign of the Northern Song, Emperor Zhenzong Zhao Heng sent envoys to Fujian to take 30,000 hu (斛) of Champa rice seeds for promotion to the Jiang, Huai, and Liangzhe regions. But it was still not enough; the Central Plains were in chaos from war, the gentry fled south, more and more people escaped, and making a living was still very difficult. The characteristics of the sweet potato were high yield, easy to grow, adaptable to mountain drylands, edible raw or cooked, and its leaves could be used as vegetables — this was precisely the reason Chen Zhenlong risked his life to bring it back to his hometown. He first conducted trial planting in the marginal land behind the house at Shamachi (纱帽池), Dadaopu (达道铺), Fuzhou, and succeeded; in just four months, the tubers were "small as fists, large as arms."
This matter, besides courage, boldness, and enthusiasm, should also have had many elements of luck. Even if the sweet potato vines were hidden ever so securely, Chen Zhenlong could still have been stopped again at the foreign customs, then fined, imprisoned, or killed; he could also have been swallowed by wind and waves at sea, killed by bandits or Japanese pirates; he could also have had the vines mold and roots rot, gaining nothing (一无所获 - yī wú suǒ huò - "not a single gain," to get nothing at all); he could even have been regarded as a heretic or heterodox doctrine, with the masses rising up to resist and refusing to accept it. None of that happened. Everything astonishingly took a 峰回路转 (fēng huí lù zhuǎn - "peaks turn, paths twist," a sudden turn for the better) and 绝处逢生 (jué chù féng shēng - "meet life in a desperate place," to find a way out of a desperate situation); he stubbornly gambled like a 飞蛾扑火 (fēi é pū huǒ - "flying moth darts into the flame," to court destruction) and miraculously became the winner that year and month, and the greatest stroke of luck was encountering Jin Xuezeng (金学曾), a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. After bringing back the sweet potato vines, Chen Zhenlong had his son Chen Jinglun (陈经纶) present to the Fujian governor a "Memorial Presenting the Method of Sweet Potato Vines and Planting" (《献薯藤种法禀帖》), listing the various benefits of the item, praying for permission to plant and promote it. The governor was Jin Xuezeng, born into a family of officials, always accustomed to 锦衣玉食 (jǐn yī yù shí - "brocade clothes and jade food," a life of luxury), skilled in poetry, lyrics, songs, and rhapsodies, also proficient in cursive script, but not necessarily understanding spring planting and autumn harvest. Moreover, this was something from outside the realm, previously 闻所未闻 (wén suǒ wèi wén - "heard what has never been heard," unheard of), and ultimately the outcome was hard to predict. But heaven blessed the land; after a few moments of concern that "the soil might not be suitable," Jin Xuezeng still gave his consent. A few months later, seeing the sweet potato planting succeed, he was 大喜过望 (dà xǐ guò wàng - "great joy beyond expectation," overjoyed), not only promoting it but also summarizing Chen Zhenlong's process of growing sweet potatoes, writing the book Seven New Accounts from Overseas (《海外新传七则》), introducing to the 饥肠辘辘 (jī cháng lù lù - "hungry intestines rumble," starving) populace the growth characteristics, breeding, cultivation, and storage essentials of sweet potatoes.
Thus sweet potatoes stepped onto the dining table and entered our stomachs. "Hoeing grain at noon, sweat drips onto the soil beneath." And from then on, in the soil, by simply pruning and inserting the vines as cuttings, the sweet potato vines could take root freely, grow on their own, and then boldly produce sweet potatoes that could save people from the suffering of famine. At this node in history, these two men of similar age miraculously met and together completed a great feat. To commemorate them, sweet potatoes were once renamed after Jin Xuezeng's surname, becoming "Jin sweet potatoes" (金薯), while Chen Zhenlong was crowned with the glory of "Father of Chinese Sweet Potatoes." But very strangely, the materials about Chen Zhenlong are very limited; the year of his birth is only recorded in historical texts as "approximately 1543," and the time he became a xiucai (秀才) is also an approximate — "before the age of twenty," and the number of times he failed the provincial examination is "many times." As for which year he moved from his hometown to live at Shamachi, Dadaopu in Fuzhou city, when he set out for the South Seas, who he went with, where he lived in Luzon Island, what occupation he engaged in, as well as his marriage, height, appearance, etc., there are no reliable records. But Chen Zhenlong's birthplace is clear: it is Qingqiao Village (青桥村), Heshang Town (鹤上镇), on the outskirts of Fuzhou. There stands a three-story tower-like building, bearing a conspicuous large plaque reading "Chen Zhenlong Memorial Hall" (陈振龙纪念馆), and the hall is built near the Chen family ancestral home.
I made a special trip to Qingqiao Village that day. The village was very quiet, with few people to be seen, but whenever I asked about Chen Zhenlong, everyone happily pointed the way. The Chen family ancestral home is very rustic, a Ming dynasty building, rebuilt in the Qing dynasty, covering an area of over 600 square meters, with a timber-and-earth structure, a width of over 20 meters; it is said that Chen Zhenlong was born here. The house is already dilapidated, yet it has an exhibition hall of a scale beyond imagination, displaying the achievements of several generations of Chen Zhenlong's family in introducing and promoting sweet potatoes. I bent down to examine two charts closely. One was the propagation path of sweet potatoes: after being introduced to Fuzhou, they were successively promoted to 17 provinces including Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Chongqing, and Taiwan; the northernmost was the Tongzhou area of Beijing, the westernmost were Yunnan and Guangxi. The other chart was even more 意味深长 (yì wèi shēn cháng - "meaning and flavor deep and long," profound and thought-provoking), concerning the national population statistics: 60 million people in the Hongwu reign of the Ming dynasty, approximately 170 million in the sixth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing, approximately 200 million in the 28th year of Qianlong, approximately 300 million in the 55th year of Qianlong, and exceeding 400 million in the 14th year of the Daoguang reign.
How much of this should be attributed to sweet potatoes? After all, only by not starving to death could people multiply.
Chen Zhenlong's descendants continued to wrestle with sweet potatoes. His third-generation grandson Chen Bangbi (陈邦弼) introduced the tubers to the Yangtze River basin; his fourth-generation grandson Chen Yizhu (陈以柱) promoted them to the Yellow River basin; his fifth-generation grandson Chen Shiyuan (陈世元) spread the tubers to various parts of Shandong and compiled the book Jinshu Chuanxi Lu (《金薯传习录》), systematically recording the process of sweet potato introduction and promotion, summarizing methods of planting, management, and storage, becoming China's first monograph on sweet potatoes; and several sixth- and seventh-generation grandsons caused sweet potatoes to grow in Hebei, Henan, and other places.
On a whitewashed wall not far from the Chen family ancestral home is inscribed the poem "Man Jiang Hong · Commemorating the 370th Anniversary of the Introduction of Sweet Potatoes into China" (《满江红·纪念红苕传入中国三百七十周年》) written by Guo Moruo in 1963: "I love sweet potatoes; when young, they served as grain. At the end of the Ming dynasty, via Luzon, they were imported into China. Three hundred seventy years in an instant, total output over ten billion dan. One season's harvest can replace half a year's grain, surpassing millet and sorghum. Original place, North and South America. Importers, the efforts of overseas Chinese. Chen Zhenlong, originally from Fuzhou, carried vines in a bamboo basket and tried a secret voyage, returning to Fujian's coast to diligently cultivate. This merit, should be compared to Shennong, who knows?" For Chen Zhenlong's historical contribution, this famous poet did not spare his deep praise.
Chen Zhenlong passed away in 1619, the 26th year after he brought back the sweet potato vines. Over 70 years old, past the age of seventy, where was he buried? Still unknown. His former residence in Fuzhou is said to be within the Shangxiahang Street area (上下杭街区) of Taijiang District, Fuzhou, and my mother's maiden home is on Xiahang Road; I am familiar with that area, yet I have never heard where the "Shamachi" (纱帽池) recorded in historical texts actually is.
In the 14th year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty, on Wushan (乌山), which overlooks the ancient city of Fuzhou, a special Sweet Potato Ancestor Shrine (先薯祠) was built to worship Chen Zhenlong and Jin Xuezeng. Later the shrine collapsed; in 1957 the city built a Sweet Potato Ancestor Pavilion (先薯亭) on the original site of the shrine, and in 2008 it was rebuilt again according to the original design. On the twin pillars in front of the pavilion is carved a very conspicuous couplet: "Introducing sweet potatoes from afar, virtue reaches Mazu; saving the people from famine, merit compares to Shennong." On a large stone beside it is also carved the "Record of the Sweet Potato Ancestor Pavilion" (先薯亭记) written by later literati.
After leaving the Philippines, Chen Zhenlong should never have returned; he gave up his business, stopped making money. Almost everything about his life is vague, but the past welded together with sweet potatoes is as clear as that shining star in the night sky. In the lands from north to south, 年复一年 (nián fù yī nián - "year after year," year in and year out) they are still diligently nourished, and the fragrant sweet potato aroma that permeates the air is the medal awarded to him.
Return to TopBy: 綦国瑞
Not long ago, I had the good fortune to enter the Sichuan Ba Jin Literary Academy (四川巴金文学院). This is a place embraced by green trees — thick banyans, tall ginkgoes, large magnolias and yellowhorn trees, along with bodhi trees personally planted by Ma Shitu (马识途) in the front and rear courtyards, and countless bamboo, nan bamboo, crape myrtle, cherry blossoms, and nameless shrubs, all spreading out here into a vast green sea.
When young I read Ba Jin’s Family, Spring, Autumn; in middle age I read his Random Thoughts. This legendary literary giant has always been a peak in my heart. Now, at last, I had the fortune to enter this literary hall; in the exhibition hall, looking up at him from close range, I felt boundless reverence for this centenarian, and at the same time I was exploring how he had climbed to the summit of art.
Ba Jin was born in Chengdu into an official family, a large feudal family. The old patriarch tyrannized over everything, and family members had not the slightest freedom. Ba Jin struggled, resisted, and finally left the family to come to Shanghai. At that time, he was not yet twenty years old.
The young Ba Jin had little writing experience, but nearly twenty years of life in a feudal family had allowed him to accumulate intense emotions. He used his pen to denounce the old ritual system, and when he set pen to paper he often stirred himself up. It was precisely amid the surging waves of love and hate that he successively completed the “Torrents Trilogy” (激流三部曲).
In the exhibition hall there is also a set of photographs of Ba Jin wearing the uniform of the Chinese People’s Volunteers and going deep into the Korean battlefield. During the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, Ba Jin was assigned by the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles to serve as the head of the battlefield creative writing team sent to Korea. He led the team to Korea twice, in Pyongyang, Kaesong, and the front line at the 38th Parallel, following the soldiers into tunnels and climbing positions, with American planes bombing overhead every day and enemy artillery fire hitting from below. Under the hail of gunfire he interviewed the mine-clearing hero Yao Xianru (姚显儒), the hero of Hill 67 Zhao Xianyou (赵先有), and other soldiers. Life on the Korean battlefield was intense; he could only sleep three or four hours a day. Once, staying in the home of an elderly Korean woman, there was no table, so he bent over a pillow to write. The heroic deeds of the Chinese People’s Volunteers soldiers often moved him, and he deeply loved these most beloved people. After returning to China, he integrated the deeds of martyrs such as Zhao Xianyou collected during his two trips to Korea and wrote the deeply moving novella Reunion, which was adapted in 1964 into the film Heroic Sons and Daughters, becoming a classic of red literature and art.
I looked, I pondered, I was moved. Suddenly, a passage set in a glass frame came into my view: “I do not write because I have talent, but because I have feeling. For my motherland and my compatriots, I have boundless love; I use my works to express my feelings.” This passage from Old Ba Jin, like a lighthouse illuminating the night sky, and like a torch lighting up my path, suddenly enlightened me. How well said it was — the origin of writing is love, love for the people, for the motherland. This passage from Ba Jin is the true essence of writing. It was precisely because he deeply sympathized with the tragic fates of Juexin and others that he gave birth to hatred for the feudal system, and was able to produce immortal works such as Family, Spring, Autumn. And it was precisely because of his utterly sincere love for his motherland, for the people, and for the soldiers that he could write a classic like Reunion, making him a giant of modern literature.
Thinking carefully, I gained some insight: in writing, only when there is love can there be feeling, can there be enlightenment, can there be thought; only then can the wings of imagination spread, only then can one move toward poetry and the distance… Love is truly the driving force and starting point of writing. Articles not written starting from love are often devoid of feeling and thought, devoid of luster and brilliance, devoid of meaning and depth; they are hard to write well and hard to go far.
Looking back on my own path of writing, it seems that it is precisely when I truly and intensely love my motherland and my people that I can write good articles. Any 虚情假意 (xū qíng jiǎ yì - “false feelings and pretended intentions,” insincerity), 逢场作戏 (féng chǎng zuò xì - “meet the occasion and put on a show,” to play along opportunistically), going through the motions to get the job done, or 哗众取宠 (huá zhòng qǔ chǒng - “to clamor for the crowd’s favor,” to curry favor by pandering to the public) — none of these can produce good writing.
“Why do people need literature?” Old Ba Jin said: “They need it to sweep away the garbage in our hearts, they need it to bring us hope, bring us courage, bring us strength, and let us see more light.” I believe this is precisely the goal that writers need to pursue.
“Clouds and waters, Ba Mountain rain; articles and words, metal and stone sound” — let me use Lao She’s inscription for Ba Jin to praise him.
Return to TopBy: 李 汀
There is a room of over 20 square meters downstairs in the residential complex. Every day it is crowded with people, exceptionally lively. This is the odd-job station (零工驿站).
At daybreak, the station has already opened. Under the eaves and inside the room, people are already seated, filling the space. The interior is simply furnished — just a few tables, stools, and a water dispenser. A renovation master grips his tool bag, polished shiny from use, and looks around; a man who moves heavy goods rests against the wall; older sisters who do housekeeping and cleaning hold their tools and wait quietly; a young man who patches walls and paints holds a small card in his hand and hawks: "Painting and wall patching!" More often, they gather together, talking about the recent wage market for odd jobs, chatting about family affairs. When they hear a shout: "Need a bricklayer," a bricklayer steps forward to take the job, and everyone smiles and offers congratulations. Those who do not get a job are not anxious; they tease each other and say to wait a bit longer.
The station has no boss; it is run in turns by the people waiting for work. No money is charged, gains and losses are not counted, and in this casualness lies the most simple warmth of everyone. Every day people come and go; amid the shouts and the talk and laughter, there is the genuine atmosphere of everyday life.
Once, a few tiles in the apartment I rented were broken. When I walked in the room, they clattered noisily, disturbing the neighbors downstairs. What to do? This small job was not worth hiring a construction crew, so I thought of the odd-job station downstairs.
I stood at the station entrance and said to the roomful of people: "Is anyone here who can lay tiles?" A man and a woman came over and said, "We can." They shouldered a small bag of cement and river sand, picked up their tools, and followed me upstairs. As we walked, we chatted. I learned that they were villagers from the nearby suburbs. At home, both of their parents were still alive, and they had two children — one in university, one in middle school. I asked: "Why didn't you go out to work as migrant laborers?" The woman replied: "In previous years we worked as migrants in Xinjiang. He learned this skill while working there. Now the old folks at home are getting on in years; they can't do heavy work and need care." The man added: "Even though we don't earn as much now as we did working away from home, we can take care of the family. When there's no farm work, we come to the city to do some small jobs to supplement the household income."
As we talked, we reached the apartment. The two squatted on the floor and carefully examined the loose tiles. They skillfully put on their work clothes. The man began to pry up the tiles, and the woman mixed the river sand and cement; they worked in perfect coordination. As he pried, the man reminded the woman not to make the cement mixture too thin. As she worked, the woman laughed and said, "I know, it's not the first time." "You've been doing this a long time, but sometimes your hands still slip." "That's because you make me angry, so I do it on purpose." The man laughed, his hands covered in cement grit. The woman also laughed, her face full of happiness.
I could not help saying: "You two work together very smoothly as a couple."
The woman laughed and said: "No choice — if we weren't smooth, it wouldn't work."
The man chuckled: "A couple shares the hardship and the toil, that's all."
So it turns out that love pours out a kind of warmth; every smile and every frown springs from the heart.
Before long, the two had re-laid the loose tiles, and stepping on them felt firm and solid. I took out the wages and handed them over. The couple was very honest; they only charged for the materials and the labor. As they left, the woman even swept the broken tile fragments that had fallen on the floor into a bag and took them away. I thanked them repeatedly. As the man packed up his tools, he said: "We should thank you — you gave us something to do." With that, he handed me a contact card: "If you ever need any repairs, just look us up." I stood at the window and watched them walk back toward the odd-job station. That small room was bright and shining in the sunlight.
Another time, a neighbor's water pipe broke. I pulled out that small card and contacted the couple for them. Soon the couple came to the door, and in a short while they had fixed it. When they saw me, they smiled and said: "Thank you! Thanks for thinking of us — you've helped us get another job." With that, the couple hurried off to their next odd job...
Return to TopBy: 徐昌斌
Many years ago, I went to Xi'an on a business trip. After finishing work, the city lights were just coming on, and my stomach was growling with hunger. By the old city wall, I saw a shop selling meat buns and turned in. I ordered one meat bun and one serving of hot-and-sour shredded potatoes. Shortly, the dishes were brought out. The meat bun had a crispy outer skin, tender meat with plenty of juice. The hot-and-sour shredded potatoes also had a slight sweetness, not the taste of aged vinegar. This sour-and-refreshing-with-returning-sweetness flavor was familiar to me. To confirm my guess, I asked what vinegar it was. The shop owner said: "Fuping (富平) persimmon vinegar, a pure naturally brewed fruit vinegar." Sure enough!
After Frost's Descent, in Fuping, located on the Weibei Plateau, the persimmons ripen, and every household begins picking persimmons. The red and hard persimmons are made into dried persimmon cakes, while the soft persimmons, after being washed and dried, are layered into earthenware jars. After more than eight months of settling, the persimmons naturally ferment and dissolve into persimmon liquid. When a faint sour aroma can be smelled, the persimmon liquid is scooped out and filtered, then blended with an old starter culture to harmonize, and then loaded back into the earthenware jars. Finally, a mud made from loess and wheat straw is stirred together and used to cover and seal the entire jar rim. Inside the sealed earthenware jar, the old starter culture catalyzes continuous changes in the persimmon liquid. This is a complex chemical process. Ultimately, after experiencing the cycle of the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter—at the moment when the mud is knocked off and the jar lid is lifted, the vinegar aroma rushes to the nose. Scooping up a spoonful, its color is like amber. The clear, fragrant, and mellow persimmon vinegar is made.
In Fuping, persimmon vinegar has long been integrated into people's daily lives; every meal cannot do without it, every dish cannot lack it. Persimmon vinegar is rich in vitamins and antioxidants, and can effectively lower blood sugar and regulate blood lipids. Persimmon vinegar with a spoonful of honey is an ideal supplementary food for boosting metabolism. In recent years, people have also made persimmon vinegar into "fast-moving consumer goods" beverages, successfully pushing them to the market.
After the start of spring, friends who had not met for a long time gathered at my home for a small party. I made a large table of delicious food, and for the spicy chicken and mouth-watering rabbit, I specially added persimmon vinegar. Amid 觥筹交错 (gōng chóu jiāo cuò - "goblets and chopsticks intermingle," describing a lively banquet scene), one friend asked: "These two cold dishes have a sourness with a slight fruity fragrance, and a long-lasting aftertaste. I wonder what secret seasoning was added?" I took out the persimmon vinegar and said proudly: "This is what was added. I blended the rich Shaanxi flavor with the spicy and numbing taste, giving birth to a new flavor. Please taste it..."
Return to TopZhang Daqian's album leaf of pomegranates, collected by the Liaoning Provincial Museum.
Return to TopBy: 洪巧俊
My hometown’s craftsmen, when they stop working forever, call it “sealing the hand” (封手).
That was more than ten years ago, on an autumn night. Zhang Yanming (章燕明) had decided to seal his hand. He stood for a long time in front of the wheeled cart that had accompanied him for half his life, his hand resting on its rim, the pads of his fingers rubbing the wooden surface that had been polished smooth and glossy by mud slurry. Finally, he said nothing, turned, and went into the house.
The next day, his son Zhang Haiyuan (章海元) gathered up the seals his father used to stamp his teapots from the workshop, laid them one by one on a piece of flannel, then wrapped them up and locked them in a safe.
The titles that had weighed on Zhang Yanming — the first person of Chinese hand-thrown red clay teapots, the fourth-generation inheritor of Lao Anshun (老安顺), a master of Chinese ceramic art — suddenly all became light, as light as the steam that rises when water is poured into a teapot, drifting unhurriedly into the air. The sound of the safe closing, though very soft, was heard very clearly by Zhang Yanming, and it made his heart somewhat heavy. What was locked away was not just a few seals, but also the more than half a century of years spent in dialogue between palm and clay.
News of Zhang Yanming sealing his hand spread quickly, and the teapot world was somewhat stunned. Some did not believe it; some sighed. It was precisely when his reputation was 如日中天 (rú rì zhōng tiān - "like the sun at high noon," at the peak of one's fame), when a single teapot was hard to come by, that he, of all people, stopped as soon as he said he would, with a decisiveness that did not resemble a businessman. But Zhang Yanming had never been a businessman; he was a craftsman.
Strangely enough, before he sealed his hand, the number of “fake Zhang Yanming” teapots on the market was as plentiful as autumn leaves, impossible to sweep away completely. In a scenic spot in Meizhou, I once saw more than thirty teapots stamped with Zhang Yanming’s mark, crammed into a glass cabinet, lit by spotlights, looking 煞有介事 (shà yǒu jiè shì - "with great seriousness," pretending to be serious). I picked them up one by one to examine them; the lines were stiff, lacking that kind of verve — not a single one was genuine. In Xiamen, the owner of a teapot shop placed the fake teapots in the most conspicuous position, and next to them, with great solemnity, he had placed the book The First Person of Chinese Hand-Thrown Red Clay Teapots: Zhang Yanming. I looked for a long time, and finally could not restrain myself, saying to him, “All the teapots of Zhang Yanming you have here are fakes.”
The shopkeeper looked me up and down. “Are you Zhang Yanming?”
I said no.
“Then you cannot speak carelessly.”
I said I was not speaking carelessly; I was a teapot connoisseur, and I pointed to the book. “This book was written by me.”
The shopkeeper’s face flushed red, then slowly turned a greenish white. That expression I still remember — like a teapot just out of the kiln whose glaze had been ruined, all luster lost, left 进退两难 (jìn tuì liǎng nán - "difficult to advance or retreat," in a dilemma) on the shelf.
But after Zhang Yanming sealed his hand, a strange thing happened. The fake teapots on the market gradually decreased day by day. Later I heard from someone that a person who specialized in imitating Zhang Yanming’s teapots, upon hearing that he had sealed his hand and would never make teapots again, was stunned for a long time. He sat down in front of his workbench, looked at the room full of half-finished imitation teapot bodies, and suddenly felt that the tools in his hands were too hot to hold. Later, he smashed all the dozens of imitation teapot bodies, and from then on washed his hands of the trade, never again imitating the work of any master. When someone asked him why, he only said, “When someone else could earn money but chooses not to, what am I still messing around for? No point.”
There were words hidden within those words. What he smashed was not just those fake teapots, but also the greed in his heart. He finally understood that a true craftsman does not live by his seal, and still less can he live by imitation. A seal can be locked away, but a reputation cannot be locked; the works will eventually circulate and let everyone judge. A man who has sealed his hand, on the contrary, causes all fakes to lose their root, like the tide receding from a beach — those things that were 鱼目混珠 (yú mù hùn zhū - "fish eyes mixed with pearls," passing off fake as genuine) are suddenly all left stranded on the shore, 无所遁形 (wú suǒ dùn xíng - "nowhere to hide," cannot escape detection).
There was also a collector, Old Zhang, who was very obsessed with Zhang Yanming’s teapots. He searched everywhere for them, and even bought a few old teapots from Taiwan. He would hold a teapot in his hands, turning it over and over to look at it, saying the clay material was different, extremely rare on the market, and he would not sell it for any amount of money. I once saw him holding an old teapot from the 1990s up to the light from the window; the body of the teapot was warm and smooth like ancient jade, the lines flowing under the light like water — that was a work from Zhang Yanming’s prime years.
Old Zhang did not speak; he just looked at it like that, with light in his eyes. I knew he was not looking at a teapot, but at the sinews and bones that a craftsman had left in the clay body. Zhang Yanming had made teapots for more than fifty years; the calluses on his fingertips were thick as armor, yet the center of his palm was as soft as spring mud. Every one of his teapots carried body temperature and heartbeat, with that subtle tremor of clay flowing between the fingers.
Sealing the hand — what is sealed is the hand, but what is opened is a heart.
Someone asked Zhang Yanming, “When you could earn money, why didn’t you?” He smiled and did not answer. Later his son spoke a sentence for him. He said his father believed that a person cannot live entirely within money; for a person to make one good teapot in a lifetime is already not easy. If you make too many, they become vulgar — are those still teapots?
By sealing his hand at the peak, Zhang Yanming had thought it through. He wanted future generations to remember a person who was worthy of his own craft. The clay material will age, the teapot walls will develop a patina, but truly good works will not be swallowed by time. After sealing his hand, the teapots he had personally thrown actually lived longer. They are scattered on desks in various places, nourished daily by tea water, rubbed year after year by palms — every one carries the residual warmth of a palm, slowly turning red and slowly settling in the passage of years. When a teapot brews tea, there is always a sound — it is the sound that the hand leaves to time.
Sealing the hand — it turns out it can also be another kind of completeness.
Return to TopBy: 张 战
I catch this moment of stillness—
a butterfly of light spreads its giant wings
and gently covers the lake's surface
Beneath its wings
schools of fish frolic and nibble with soft sounds
tiny ripples gently rock the lake's gleam
Above its wings
birds write their speech with shadows
distant mountains send forth a vast green surge
Stillness—
how could I not receive this openness and kinship of all things?
It is the willow leaves on the far shore imitating the fish
it is the fish imitating this empty boat
The boat imitates the crescent moon
and the boundless lake water
imitates the boundless sky
This edition's email: dadi@peopledaily.cn
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