Summary: President Xi Jinping attended the second plenary session of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi and delivered a speech titled "Building a Solid Foundation for BRICS Cooperation and Strengthening the Power of the Global South." He stated that the collective rise of the Global South is a key driving force for multipolarity, and urged BRICS countries to unite Global South nations in upholding international rule of law, multilateralism, and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Xi proposed five initiatives for deepening BRICS cooperation, including the AI Open and Inclusive Initiative, Trade and Investment Facilitation Initiative, Digital Industry Cooperation Initiative, Intelligent Manufacturing Cooperation Initiative, and Science, Technology and Talent Cultivation Initiative. He stressed that China's 15th Five-Year Plan is a cooperation list for the world, and China will expand high-standard opening up and advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. The meeting was chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and UN Secretary-General António Guterres in attendance, and Cai Qi and Wang Yi participated.
Summary: President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing on the evening of September 13 after a complete success in attending the 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting. Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, along with other accompanying personnel, returned on the same flight. Senior officials of the Indian government saw him off at the airport upon his departure from New Delhi. On the way to the airport, local overseas Chinese and representatives of Chinese-funded enterprises waved the national flags of China and India, warmly congratulating President Xi Jinping on the complete success of his attendance at the meeting.
Summary: President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Summit in India from September 12 to 13, 2026, at India's invitation, and Wang Yi briefed accompanying journalists on the visit. Wang Yi stated that the visit achieved three strategic objectives: enhancing the effectiveness of BRICS cooperation, empowering the Global South, and charting the course for China-India relations. Xi proposed that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting innovative development, safeguarding peace and stability, advancing mutual learning among civilizations, and reforming global governance, while also announcing practical cooperation measures such as building a BRICS AI open-source zone. Xi held a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Modi, with both sides agreeing to be partners rather than rivals, strengthen cooperation, and properly handle border issues. Wang Yi emphasized that China will support India in serving as BRICS chair and that the improvement of China-India relations is of great importance to the Global South and the world.
Summary: Enshi City in Hubei Province is focusing on building beautiful and harmonious villages with smooth roads, scenic landscapes, and thriving industries, continuously improving the transportation network in mountainous areas to support the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. The photo was taken by Tan Hua (People's Vision).
Summary: Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the BRICS summit in New Delhi, thanking Prime Minister Modi and the Indian government for hosting the meeting. He emphasized that BRICS countries must unite the Global South, uphold international rule of law, and promote multilateralism, while rejecting the logic of "might makes right." Xi proposed five initiatives covering open-source AI, trade facilitation, digital industry, intelligent manufacturing, and science and technology talent cultivation. He also highlighted China's zero-tariff treatment for 53 African countries and its commitment to expanding opening up. The speech underscored the need for BRICS to play a positive, stable, and constructive role in international affairs.
Summary: President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting in New Delhi from September 12 to 13, delivering speeches that chart the course for high-quality development of "Greater BRICS Cooperation" and provide the world with stability and positive energy. International figures said Xi's proposals, including that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting innovative development, safeguarding peace and stability, advancing mutual learning among civilizations, and reforming and improving global governance, elevate the strategic positioning of BRICS cooperation. They noted that Xi's speech profoundly elucidates the contemporary significance of the BRICS mechanism, with China consolidating the foundation of BRICS cooperation through concrete actions and enhancing its "gold content." Xi also proposed five initiatives, including the "BRICS AI-Enabled New Industrialization Initiative" and "Open-Source AI Initiative," which experts said provide intellectual guidance and practical paths for high-quality development and will inject more stability into world peace and development. The article quotes commentators from India, the UAE, Ethiopia, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Indonesia, but does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi and delivered an important speech, summarizing the 20-year development of the BRICS cooperation mechanism and proposing that BRICS countries play the role of "four pioneers" along with five initiatives for deepening cooperation. He stressed that BRICS countries should firmly stand on the right side of history and lead the international order toward a more just and reasonable direction, while also calling on Global South countries to uphold multilateralism and reform global governance institutions. Xi proposed practical cooperation measures including an "AI Open Source and Inclusive Initiative" and a "Trade and Investment Facilitation Initiative," with China to lead in building a BRICS AI open-source zone. Leaders attending the meeting appreciated China's contribution to the BRICS mechanism and expressed support for a fairer and more inclusive international order. China will take over the BRICS presidency next year and host the 19th BRICS Summit, ready to work with all parties to open the third "golden decade" of BRICS cooperation.
Summary: President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Summit in India from September 12 to 13, 2026, at India's invitation, and Wang Yi briefed accompanying journalists on the visit. Wang Yi stated that the visit achieved three strategic objectives: enhancing the effectiveness of BRICS cooperation, empowering the Global South, and charting the course for China-India relations. Xi proposed that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting innovative development, safeguarding peace and stability, advancing mutual learning among civilizations, and reforming global governance, while also announcing practical cooperation measures such as building a BRICS AI open-source zone. Xi held a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Modi, with both sides agreeing to be partners rather than rivals, strengthen cooperation, and properly handle border issues. Wang Yi emphasized that China will support India in serving as BRICS chair and that the improvement of China-India relations is of great importance to the Global South and the world.
Summary: Wang Dongfeng, Vice Chairperson and Secretary-General of the CPPCC National Committee and Chairperson of the China Economic and Social Council, met with Oliver Röpke, President of the European Economic and Social Committee, in Hangzhou on September 13. He introduced China's experience and practices in poverty reduction and in consolidating and expanding the achievements of the battle against poverty. The two sides exchanged views on leveraging the role of the China-EU Round Table platform and promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and the EU.
Summary: A symposium and exchange meeting of Sri Lankan organizations friendly toward China was held on September 12 in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Representatives from media, think tanks, and universities in China and Sri Lanka, as well as representatives from major Sri Lankan associations friendly toward China, exchanged views on further promoting the development of traditional friendly relations between China and Sri Lanka.
Summary: Yang Wanming, President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, led a delegation on an invitation to visit the United Kingdom and Norway from September 7 to 11 local time. In the UK, he attended the China-UK Non-Governmental Friendship Seminar and the China-UK Local Cooperation Roundtable, and met with Scottish Minister for External Affairs and Energy Gillian Martin, Edinburgh Lord Mayor Robert Aldridge, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, and Salford Mayor Paul Dennett, among others. In Norway, he attended the China-Norway Non-Governmental Friendship Symposium and met with Bente Støle, Director General of the Regional Affairs Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ole Husemoen, President of the Norway-China Friendship Association. All parties unanimously stated that they will thoroughly implement the important consensus reached between President Xi Jinping and the leaders of the UK and Norway, strengthen non-governmental friendly exchanges, enhance local practical cooperation, and broaden people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
Summary: The article explains how China's oil and gas "one national network" will become more connected and efficient under the "15th Five-Year Plan," which targets 220,000 kilometers of long-distance pipelines by 2030. It highlights local examples, such as a new branch line in Changshun County, Guizhou, that connected all county-level gas networks to the national trunk line, benefiting residents who previously relied on gas cylinders. In Fujian's Kemen Park, a new pipeline saved a glass company over 4 million yuan in monthly energy costs by replacing tanker truck LNG transport with stable pipeline gas. Li Jiankang, deputy general manager of the National Pipeline Network Group, said the plan shifts focus to "new construction + renovation + interconnection," adding 20,000 kilometers of pipelines to support domestic production growth and strategic import channels. The plan includes major projects like the fourth and fifth lines of West-East Gas Transmission to enhance cross-regional allocation and energy security.
Summary: The article highlights Ninghua County in Sanming City, Fujian Province, a key departure point for the Central Red Army's Long March, where only 58 of over 6,600 local Red Army soldiers survived to reach northern Shaanxi. It features a national first-class cultural relic, the "Military Bugle Scorebook of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army," donated by veteran Red Army soldier Luo Guangmao, who protected it during the war. The county has since developed red tourism, with Fenghuangshan Village restoring revolutionary sites and boosting villagers' per capita disposable income to 24,500 yuan, while Chentang Village offers immersive experiences like Hakka lei cha making and attracts about 60,000 visitors annually. Xie Limei, deputy director of the Ninghua County Party Committee's Office of Party History and Local Chronicles Research, emphasized verifying revolutionary sites and revitalizing red historical materials to "protect well and tell well the stories of the Red Army."
Summary: High-frequency data from the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission show that consumption vitality continued to improve in August, with various consumption payments rising 2.6% year-on-year and the "Shouqianba" physical business vitality index up 1.7% from the previous month. Investment interest in frontier fields is heating up, as winning bids for computing-power-related infrastructure projects increased by nearly 80% year-on-year and capital investment in artificial intelligence and humanoid robots rose 101.6%. In foreign trade, new growth points are constantly emerging, with departure deadweight tonnage of cargo ships from major ports up 16.5% year-on-year, including a 141.0% increase for roll-on/roll-off cargo ships. In industry, major economic provinces like Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Fujian maintained positive growth in the industrial park production activity index, while Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Guangxi grew by 7.2%, 5.1%, 4.6%, and 4.4% year-on-year respectively.
Summary: The Ministry of Natural Resources released the "China Mineral Resources Report 2026," showing that as of the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China ranks first globally in proven reserves of 14 minerals, including rare earths, tungsten, and tin, and among the top four for 9 minerals such as coal, iron, manganese, and titanium. In 2025, geological exploration investment achieved positive growth for the fifth consecutive year, with 200 new non-oil-and-gas mineral occurrences discovered, including 63 large-scale ones. Fixed-asset investment in the mining industry also grew positively for the fifth straight year, while production and supply of major mineral products remained stable, and output of energy minerals like coal, crude oil, and natural gas showed good momentum. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the country completed restoration of 222,000 hectares of abandoned mines, exceeding the target by 19.6%, and in fiscal 2025 the central government allocated 5.15 billion yuan for key ecological restoration projects.
Summary: Ding Dan, a master's degree holder who returned to his village in Gao'an City, Jiangxi Province, hired skilled farming hands as "field stewards" to manage over 8,000 mu of transferred paddy fields. The article details how he overcame three hurdles—optimizing the management model, determining the optimal management area of around 500 mu per steward, and enhancing management capability through training and input standards—to boost yields and incomes. Zhu Xiying, a field steward, initially saw yields drop by more than 300 jin per mu due to delayed pest control, but after adjustments, her annual earnings exceeded 100,000 yuan. Ding Dan concluded that large-scale planting requires updated management thinking and continuous learning, not just larger areas, and many surrounding growers have since adopted similar models.
Summary: A super smart factory for ten-thousand-unit-scale industrial humanoid robots officially commenced production on September 12 in Liuzhou, Guangxi. Liuzhou has vigorously developed the artificial intelligence terminal and robotics industry in recent years, and the industry currently has 46 industrial enterprises above designated size. The photo shows workers inspecting robots about to come off the production line at the factory.
Summary: The China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing released the "China Supply Chain Development Report (2025-2026)," showing that the penetration rate of artificial intelligence applications in the logistics supply chain sector exceeds 37%, with transportation ranking first at 78%. In procurement, enterprises adopting intelligent procurement supply chains can improve procurement efficiency by more than 30% and shorten procurement cycles by more than 50% compared with traditional models. The report states that in 2025, AI applications in China's supply chain sector accelerated deployment, achieving deep empowerment in procurement management, demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and risk management. It also notes that China's supply chain going global has advanced into a new phase of "systematic going global of the industrial and supply chains." China is accelerating its evolution from a "world factory" into a "global supply chain hub" integrating research and development, production, logistics, and services.
Summary: The Jingxiong Express Line has officially launched full-line trial operation, marking a key step toward integrated operation with the Daxing Airport Line of the Beijing Subway. Spanning approximately 86 kilometers across Beijing and Hebei, it is the first rail express line in China with a design speed of 200 kilometers per hour and a bus-style operation model. Passengers can use one ticket with one code for convenient cross-Beijing-Hebei transfers.
Summary: The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, jointly with the Publicity Department, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Health Commission, revised and issued the "Five Measures" to further improve the management system for leaders of public institutions. The revision implements the requirements of upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership, emphasizing the Party's management of cadres and talents, and highlighting political requirements for leaders. It also strengthens professional competence requirements, reflects the orientation of establishing a correct view of political achievements, aims at stimulating institutional vitality, and implements strict management requirements. The revised measures align with the 2022 "Provisions on the Management of Leaders of Public Institutions" and respond to new deployments and problems in relevant industries.
Summary: The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, together with four other ministries, revised and issued the "Five Measures" on managing leaders of public institutions, with responsible persons answering reporters' questions on the revision's background and content. The revision implements Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and aligns with the 2022 "Provisions," focusing on upholding the Party's overall leadership, prioritizing political standards, and raising professional competence requirements by industry. It improves assessment systems to reflect industry characteristics, refines exchange and recusal rules—including addressing "academic nepotism"—and enhances career development and incentive guarantees, such as allowing rewards for scientific and technological achievement transformation. The revision also emphasizes strict management, including political discipline checks and adjusting leaders unsuitable for their posts.
Summary: Guo Shaoqing, a professor at Northwest Normal University specializing in educational technology, has spent 41 years using digital tools to advance educational equity in rural China, often leading students on research visits to remote schools in places like Ningxia and Gansu. His work began in 1999 with a proposal to use digital communication satellites to deliver urban curricula to villages, later expanding into models like the Modern Distance Education Project and, in 2019, a normal university teaching support service that has benefited over 400 rural schools. He has also addressed gaps in rural science education through intelligent learning centers and a science curriculum platform, now implemented in schools across Guangxi and Gansu. Guo has mentored more than 130 graduate students, many of whom have gone on to promote technology-empowered education in grassroots and academic roles. The article highlights his commitment to grounding theory in classroom practice, as reflected in his students' recollections of his hands-on mentorship and his belief that quality education for every child is a lifelong mission.
Summary: On September 13, the high-altitude glass bridge at the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon scenic area in Hunan attracted tourists arriving in large numbers from all over. The photo shows visitors experiencing and enjoying themselves on the bridge. Photo by Wu Yongbing (People's Vision).
Summary: The article reports on a "cultural caravan" installation created by students at Southeast University's School of Architecture as a social practice assignment in Nanjing's Xuanwu District. Graduate student Hu Yuhan taught local children to make pinwheels from recycled materials, explaining concepts like "turning waste into something valuable" and green architecture. Lead designer Gao Yuanhao described how the project, guided by deputy department director Jiang Nan's course on "Activating Urban Renewal with Movable Cultural Facilities," evolved from drawings to a movable solar-powered community space. Jiang Nan emphasized the course's school-local cooperation and joint education, encouraging students to combine social needs with professional development. Gao Yuanhao said the experience made urban renewal feel concrete and necessary, inspiring him to design more buildings that serve people's livelihoods.
Summary: The article presents three grassroots cadre reflections on enhancing creativity in local governance, as part of a discussion series. Shi Yaqi from Inner Mongolia argues that painstaking investigation and "meticulous effort" are essential, warning against superficial "clever ideas" and emphasizing trust-building through close engagement with the masses. Zubaida·Tohudahong from Xinjiang criticizes "sand-grasping" implementation—where effort appears vigorous but yields no results—and calls for correcting work attitudes, prioritizing key tasks, and strengthening institutional accountability and public evaluation. Li Lin from Guizhou likens grassroots service to embroidery, stressing fine, precise, and steady "threading" in supporting vulnerable groups through detailed policy application and continuous follow-up. The piece collectively urges cadres to move beyond formalism and deliver tangible results through patient, systematic, and people-centered work.
Summary: The article, an on-site commentary from the 2026 World Robot Conference, observes that embodied intelligence is shifting from performance-oriented demonstrations to pragmatic, real-world applications like order delivery and coffee shop services. It argues that a practical, hands-on approach to solving problems is essential, requiring a transformation from small-batch trial use to large-scale deployment through precise supply-demand matching. The piece highlights China's competitive edge in providing personalized solutions tailored to buyers' production scenarios, with business models evolving from one-time transactions to iterative operations. It emphasizes the need for coordinated efforts across the entire industrial chain, citing initiatives like the "Global Robot Application Exploration Plan" and the establishment of expert committees to foster open collaboration. The commentary concludes that despite current shortcomings, pooling collective wisdom and driving product iteration through application can help embodied intelligence empower a thousand industries and become a calling card of innovative China.
Summary: A Beijing court ruled that online game accounts constitute inheritable network virtual property, ordering a game company to cooperate in changing real-name authentication after a mother sought to inherit her son's 87 accounts. The article notes that digital legacy inheritance faces obstacles including unclear legal standards, gaps in the Civil Code's provisions on network virtual property, and platform agreements asserting ownership. It highlights the complexity of balancing inheritance rights with privacy concerns for decedents and third parties. Citing China's 1.125 billion internet users and 573 million online game users as of December 2025, the commentary urges continued legal and regulatory innovation. It concludes that properly handling digital legacies is both a legal matter and a question of preserving memory and emotion in digital civilization.
Summary: The State Administration for Market Regulation reported that China's organic product sales exceeded 152.2 billion yuan in 2025, up 22% year-on-year, with a five-year average annual compound growth rate of 10%. Organic consumption is shedding its niche label and integrating into daily public consumption, becoming a key driver of green consumption upgrades and agricultural green transformation. The article includes a verse by Cheng Senwen celebrating natural flavor, health benefits, and green agriculture's new chapter.
Summary: The article highlights the rise of "technology tourism" in China, where foreign visitors now come to experience futuristic innovations like driverless taxis, rocket launches, and smart factories. This trend is supported by China's growing R&D spending, which reached 2.8 percent of GDP in 2025, surpassing OECD averages. Tourists quoted include a Malaysian who wanted to "see the future" firsthand and a Brazilian who praised China for "creating cutting-edge technology." The piece argues for integrating smart-city scenarios, research venues, and industrial sites into themed tourism routes while improving inbound services. It concludes that combining Chinese civilization's tradition with innovation will present a complete, truthful image of China to overseas visitors.
Summary: The article reflects on the Chinese people's deep attachment to tree planting, highlighting efforts in deserts, islands, and plateaus, and noting that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China contributed one-quarter of the world's newly added green area. It cites General Secretary Xi Jinping's encouragement to Young Pioneers about returning to see their saplings grow, framing planting as building the "green family foundation" for the future. The piece emphasizes a "sense of certainty" derived from tangible actions, citing examples like Saihanba's replanting after disasters and volunteer efforts in Minqin, Gansu, where over 80,000 people planted more than 2 million saplings. It also mentions Chinese technology assisting vegetation coverage in Mauritania to rise from 3 percent to 22 percent and increasing incomes for over 2,000 herders in Niger, suggesting China's tree planting offers "certainty" to the world. The essay concludes that the best time to plant a tree is now, urging action over hesitation.
Summary: The article discusses the publication of *Excerpts from Xi Jinping's Discourses on Grassroots Work Methods*, which compiles 287 passages from April 1983 to April 2026 across nine topics, and argues that Xi Jinping's discourses have raised the Party's understanding of grassroots work laws to a new height. It details Xi's grassroots experience from Liangjiahe to central leadership, emphasizing his methods such as the "Four Grassroots Visits," the "Fengqiao model," and the mass line, which answer questions about what the grassroots are, how to go deep into them, and how to serve them. The piece calls for studying these discourses to consolidate the Party's governing foundation, improve grassroots governance capacity, close Party-masses relations, and temper cadre work styles, positioning them as a powerful ideological weapon for grassroots work on the new era's new journey.
Summary: The Ministry of Education's "Chinese Teacher" mini-program has released an update, adding new functions such as real-name authentication, electronic teacher certificate applications, and official service entrances accessible via WeChat or Alipay. The new version features upgrades in sharing, verification, information modification, feedback, and homepage layout, with commonly used services displayed at the top and a "New Services" section for one-click access to the latest teacher-benefit services. The third phase of the public welfare initiative to respect and benefit teachers also launched, driven by the China Educational Equipment Industry Association with 17 participating enterprises. These enterprises offer exclusive preferential services across five areas: AI teaching and research resources, medical and health care, cultural enhancement, transportation and travel, and life services. Teachers can access these benefits through the "Teacher-Benefit Services" section within the mini-program.
Summary: Construction of the southern navigation channel bridge of the Zhangjinggao Yangtze River Bridge in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, was advancing as of September 13. Once completed, the bridge will support the high-quality development of integrated Yangtze River Delta. The photo was taken by Shi Bairong (Image China).
Summary: The Yellow River Conservancy Commission launched the 2026 joint sediment-flushing operation of key reservoirs in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River on September 12, with the Liujiaxia Reservoir releasing water at a controlled flow rate of 800 cubic meters per second. The operation is scheduled to last 16 days, concluding around September 27, with total sediment discharge projected to exceed 100 million tonnes. The Commission jointly dispatched the Longyangxia, Liujiaxia, Shapotou, Qingtongxia, Haibowan, Wanjiazhai, Longkou, and Tianqiao reservoirs, taking into account upstream inflow and reservoir storage and using the irrigation suspension period in the Ningxia-Inner Mongolia reach. The operation features large flow rates, high sediment concentrations, and a long duration, prompting the Commission to issue advance notices to water resources departments in Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Shaanxi provinces (regions) and relevant reservoir management units. During the operation, the Commission will closely monitor weather conditions, conduct rolling analyses of rainfall, water, and sediment conditions, and enhance emergency duty and water-related safety management.
Summary: Chinese experts and officials highlighted that improper biogas slurry return to farmland can cause soil salinization, crop damage, and water pollution, citing cases in Shaanxi, Hubei, Shandong, and Hebei where non-compliant application led to crop deaths. Zhou Jianbin, professor at Northwest A&F University, and Wu Wenxuan, deputy dean of Guizhou University's Rural Revitalization Research Institute, attributed these problems to insufficient operator professionalism, non-standard application amounts and methods, and inadequate supervision. Local officials in Dingyuan County admitted technical standards were too complex to follow fully, while operators relied on experience rather than regulations. Experts recommended strengthening law enforcement, establishing traceability systems, promoting precision return-to-farmland through soil testing and formula fertilization, and matching breeding scale to available farmland absorption capacity. A new mandatory national standard on harmful substance limits in livestock manure returned to farmland will take effect on May 1, 2027.
Summary: An Anhui newspaper investigation found that a dairy company in Dingyuan County has been discharging manure wastewater into fields, with one plot receiving over 3,300 tons in two days, according to a local official. The company and town officials defended the practice as returning biogas slurry to fields, claiming the land needed more fertilizer, while villagers disagreed on whether it would damage the soil. An expert, Wu Wenxuan, said the practice violates technical specifications, as the application rate far exceeds recommended limits and the flood irrigation method is non-compliant, risking soil salinization and water pollution.
Summary: A resident of Nanming District, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, reported on the People's Daily Online "Leadership Message Board" that the Ergezhai Overpass has been open to traffic for over a decade, yet its streetlights have never been lit. The resident noted that the overpass, main roads beneath it, and ramps all have installed lights, but the area remains in pitch darkness at night, posing safety hazards for vehicles and pedestrians. The resident urged that the streetlights be lit as soon as possible.
Summary: The article compiles three reader suggestions from different Chinese cities. A reader from Wuzhong City, Ningxia, suggests that public restrooms should not be locked at night, proposing extended hours and 24-hour facilities in high-traffic areas to serve late-night citizens and workers. A reader from Zhengzhou City, Henan, urges that construction barriers be removed promptly after municipal renovation projects are completed to ease public travel. A reader from Leshan City, Sichuan, recommends regular pruning of roadside trees and greening that block traffic lights, calling for coordinated inspections between maintenance and traffic management departments.
Summary: The article reports that some Chinese enterprises have extended pre-employment background checks to include personal history such as credit records, family circumstances, and litigation records, creating an "invisible threshold" for job seekers. Several cases are cited, including a woman rejected due to a 2018 property dispute and a graduate denied jobs because of a lawsuit he filed to recover wages. Experts, including Wang Tianyu of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Shi Fumao of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, state that such checks violate the Labor Contract Law and Personal Information Protection Law, and that employers may face joint liability for illegal data collection. The article also highlights a black-gray industrial chain involving the sale of personal information and forged background check reports. Recommendations include refining background check standards, strengthening industry regulation, and establishing appeal channels for workers.
Summary: The People's Daily "Readers' Letters" section and the People's Daily Online "Message Board for Leaders" are jointly collecting pressing problems and needs of the masses, inviting readers to provide leads and suggestions on issues. Submissions can be made via email or through the "Exposure Platform" on the People's Daily client.
Summary: President Xi Jinping, speaking at the first plenary session of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, called on BRICS countries to be the vanguard in promoting mutual learning among civilizations, advocating for the common values of all humanity and deeper cooperation in culture, tourism, education, and youth exchanges. The article highlights China's efforts to build platforms for governance experience sharing, including the Global South Think Tanks Cooperation Alliance and the BRICS Seminar on Governance, with officials from Indonesia and South Africa praising these initiatives. It details cultural and educational exchanges, such as Chinese language classes in India, a BRICS civilization dialogue event in Brazil, and the establishment of overseas learning centers and Luban Workshops in multiple BRICS countries. Ethiopian Minister of Labor and Skills Muferihat Kamil and Russian expert Oleg Timofeev are quoted on the benefits of vocational education cooperation in transforming the "demographic dividend" into a "talent dividend." The piece concludes that BRICS people-to-people and cultural exchange platforms are expanding, creating a "BRICS model" for civilizational exchange.
Summary: The 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services concluded in Beijing on September 13, producing over 1,200 outcomes and attracting more than 1,830 enterprises offline. Exhibitors unveiled 233 new products and services, with GE HealthCare, Schneider Electric, and Cushman & Wakefield among those showcasing innovations and signing cooperation agreements. The fair expanded its international "circle of friends," featuring debut participants like Danish freight firm Scan Worldwide and a UN joint booth, while McDonald's China highlighted market vitality. A new "going global services" zone brought together professional institutions, with EY China and CPA Australia officials emphasizing support for Chinese enterprises' global expansion. Norwegian Commercial Counsellor Han Ning noted that China's continued opening up offers opportunities for European firms amid rising protectionism.
Summary: The 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services concluded in Beijing on September 13, with 134 promotion and negotiation activities held, 2,640 pieces of supply and demand information released, and over 1,200 outcomes achieved. The article highlights that China's opening up now involves mutual integration of technology, services, rules, and solutions, with the deep integration of manufacturing and services reshaping the competitive logic of Chinese industry going global. Companies such as United Imaging Group and SF Express showcased shifts from selling equipment to selling solutions and from product going global to ecosystem going global. Digital technology is expanding trade in services, with knowledge-intensive service exports growing 12.2 percent year-on-year from January to July, and institutional opening up advancing through mechanisms like Beijing's negative list for cross-border data transfer. Zhu Guangyao, second-level inspector of the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services of the Ministry of Commerce, emphasized improving the negative list management system and creating an open, transparent, and predictable market environment.
Summary: This article argues that upholding and improving an organizational system "connected from top to bottom and effective in execution" is a key component of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, essential for upholding the Party's centralized, unified leadership and advancing full and rigorous self-governance. It emphasizes that a rigorous organizational system is the source of a Marxist party's strength, citing Xi Jinping's writings and the need to transform the Party's scale advantage into a quality and political advantage. The piece details how the Party Central Committee acts as the "brain and hub," local committees as the "middle section," and primary-level organizations as the "last kilometer," all working in coordination to ensure the Party's policies are unimpeded. It stresses realizing the Party's overall leadership through this system, including achieving the "Two Upholds" and implementing strict self-governance across all Party organizations and members. The article concludes that this organizational strength provides a powerful guarantee for overcoming challenges and achieving national rejuvenation, citing examples like poverty alleviation and epidemic response.
Summary: The article, attributed to the Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the National Energy Administration, outlines principles and tasks for building a new energy system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period to support the construction of an "energy power." It emphasizes adhering to a systems approach for green and low-carbon transformation, putting the people first, bottom-line thinking for energy security, and innovation-driven development. Specific goals include reaching a comprehensive energy production capacity of 5.8 billion tons of standard coal, making wind and solar power the main body of installed capacity, and initially establishing a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient new energy system. The article details plans for improving energy spatial layout, strengthening coordination of strategic tasks, and consolidating engineering project support, with estimated investment in key energy projects exceeding 20 trillion yuan. It also calls for deepening energy market-oriented reform and improving systems and mechanisms for prices, investment, and supervision.
Summary: The article outlines the "Four Major Global Initiatives"—Development, Security, Civilization, and Governance—as landmark achievements of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, born of global transformation and aimed at addressing governance difficulties. These initiatives target the "four major deficits" through a systematic logic: development creates cooperative interests, security secures the environment, civilization consolidates consensus, and governance improves mechanisms. They mark the first time developing countries have proposed and led an overall global governance framework, rejecting a zero-sum game and inaugurating a new paradigm of interstate interaction. The initiatives are unified within the grand blueprint of building a community with a shared future for mankind, with development as the foundational premise, security as the guarantee, civilization as the spiritual bond, and governance as institutional support. The piece is excerpted from the 16th issue of *Qiushi* in 2026, authored by Fu Xiaoqiang.
Summary: The article frames the Pinglu Canal's upcoming opening to navigation through three "ledgers"—economic, livelihood, and ecological—citing figures such as an expected 18% to 30% drop in logistics costs, saving about 5.2 billion yuan annually, and over 70,000 person-times of employment with 2.6 billion yuan in labor remuneration. Officials and experts quoted include Cheng Yaofei, commander of the Pinglu Canal Engineering Construction Headquarters, and Wu Jian, director of the Institute of Regional Development at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, who calls the canal a "river of kinetic energy transformation" for Guangxi and the southwestern region. The economic ledger highlights reduced inland waterway distances by about 560 kilometers versus going to sea via Guangzhou Port, spurring industrial agglomeration and closer ties with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and ASEAN. The livelihood ledger details resettlement of 1,498 households and 6,156 people, local employment programs, and preservation of ancient trees and schools. The ecological ledger describes fishways, an animal passage bridge, mangrove restoration of 275,000 plants across 32.3 hectares, and a soil and water conservation product sale, with Deng Changqiu, director of the Water Resources Department of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, pledging to promote the "Pinglu Canal model."
Summary: The article, authored by the Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director-General of the China Meteorological Administration, discusses the newly enacted "Ecological Environment Code of the People's Republic of China" and its implications for meteorological work. It highlights that the Code establishes the legal status of meteorological departments in ecological civilization and mandates duties related to observation, pollution prevention, and climate change response. The piece outlines plans to strengthen meteorological observation systems, enhance coordination on pollution and ecological security, and support climate adaptation through scientific and technological means. It also emphasizes implementing the Code through study, legislative coordination, and public outreach, while participating in global climate governance. The author concludes that meteorological departments will transform institutional advantages into results for building a Beautiful China.
Summary: The article reports on "token export" as a new model of services trade showcased at the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services, where Chinese firms provide computing power and intelligent services to overseas users on a per-token basis. It cites data showing that Chinese large models have ranked first globally in invocation volume for 15 consecutive weeks on platforms primarily serving overseas users. Exhibitors attribute this success to collaboration across the entire industrial chain, which brings advantages in large-model technology, computing-power costs, application scenarios, and data transmission guarantees. The piece highlights supply-side adaptation for Southeast Asian markets, technology-driven cost reduction, and infrastructure guarantees from companies like China Telecom International Limited. It concludes that Chinese AI enterprises will integrate into the global division of labor in diverse forms, providing high-quality, inclusive intelligent services to more overseas users.
Summary: The State Administration for Market Regulation held an overseas antitrust compliance publicity campaign, launching an overseas antitrust compliance service platform and releasing the "Brief Introduction to Antitrust Legal Systems of Countries Along the Belt and Road Initiative." The administration has initiated a special action to enhance enterprises' overseas antitrust compliance capabilities, establishing a legal publicity system and providing Chinese enterprises with one-stop inquiry services such as "legal systems" and "typical cases" for expanding into international markets. It has also continued to hold overseas antitrust compliance lectures to improve the effectiveness of legal publicity.
Summary: The China Banking Association reported that the custody industry is operating stably and developing steadily and positively, with assets under custody reaching 198.84 trillion yuan by the end of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 9.13%. While scale expanded, the industry's business structure continued to optimize and its effectiveness in serving the real economy improved steadily. Asset custody involves banks safeguarding investors' assets and supervising investment operations on behalf of asset management institutions.
Summary: China Mobile Guangxi Company, as the main contractor for the smart infrastructure network, announced on September 8 that the Pinglu Canal's perception and transmission networks have been fully completed ahead of its opening to navigation on September 16. The company has built three major projects—wireless, dedicated transmission, and perception networks—establishing an integrated "land, water, air, and space" monitoring system covering ship locks, navigation channels, high slopes, and bridges. The perception network integrates video surveillance, automatic ship identification, radar, and hydrological monitoring, while the dedicated transmission network lays 262 kilometers of fiber-optic cable with a "5G private network + edge computing" architecture for millisecond-level local processing. The construction team overcame challenges from long spans, complex terrain, and natural disaster damage, and is conducting joint commissioning with smart maintenance, smart dispatch, and river-sea integration platforms. At the Datengxia Water Conservancy Hub, deep 5G coverage has been completed to support smart water conservancy and empower river-sea intermodal transport.
Summary: Zhang Changqin, president of the Yanhu District Volunteer Association in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, leads volunteers in preparing and delivering free hot breakfasts to over 100 sanitation workers each morning, a practice sustained for nearly a decade. The "Love Breakfast" project began in November 2016 after Zhang was moved by a sanitation worker eating cold food under a bridge, and it now operates at five dining points across the city. Despite initial doubt and ridicule, the project gained public support through media outreach and transparent donation and sign-in records, delivering more than 270,000 breakfasts with over 6,000 registered volunteers. Zhang, awarded the title of "National Outstanding Communist Party Member," insists he has only done a small thing within his power, while the association has expanded to over 1,700 volunteers and launched additional projects like "Sunshine Growth" and "Warm Sunset." He vows to continue the warm promise and hopes to attract more people to the cause.
Summary: Nanbu County in Sichuan Province has advanced urban renewal by collecting 3,460 public opinions and issuing a "Nine Major Action Plan for Livable Nanbu · Happy Homeland" covering 66 tasks and 101 sub-projects. Party branch secretary Zhang Xiaoli coordinated installation of a 76-meter safety handrail on Diaobao Mountain within 20 days after a resident's visit. The county also renovated the Silk Community after residents' suggestions were incorporated into the plan, with Zhou Yuan, head of the Nanbu County Housing Administration Bureau, noting the plan was publicized and approved before launch. Additionally, the county built a 1,150-square-meter community site with seven functional service stations, including childcare and elderly care, and started construction on six pocket parks. Infrastructure repairs this year included 8,100 square meters of roads and sidewalks, 1,863 new parking spaces, and upgrades to 21 elderly care centers.
Summary: Baidu AI Cloud has upgraded to a full-stack AI cloud for large-scale intelligent agent applications, comprising AI Infra and Agent Infra, and has systematically laid out a "chip, cloud, model, and agent" capability system. The system includes Kunlun Core chips, the ERNIE large model, and intelligent agents such as Baidu Dazi, Baidu Famou, Baidu Miaoda, Baidu Yijian, and Baidu Shengsuan. Since the beginning of this year, Baidu AI Cloud's AI cloud infrastructure revenue has grown 50% year-on-year, with GPU cloud revenue up 283%, and it ranked first among domestic cloud vendors in large model project awards in the first quarter. Practical deployments include the Guangming Power Large Model for State Grid, embodied intelligence support for over 50 enterprises including Unitree and AgiBot, and warehouse management solutions for electronics manufacturers in Suzhou. The article emphasizes that full-stack capability is essential for stable, large-scale intelligent agent deployment across industries.
Summary: Zhao Wenbo, an international-level gateball referee and physical education teacher at Xianghe County No. 1 Middle School in Hebei Province, offers guidance on playing gateball well while balancing fitness benefits with sports safety. He advises that the sport suits most people but cautions those with severe lumbar disc herniation, acute frozen shoulder, or poor balance to participate carefully. Equipment tips include choosing a telescopic mallet with a moderate weight and non-slip grip, flat-soled rubber-soled sports shoes, and optional lumbar support, while standard movements cover grip, stance, aiming, and striking techniques. Beginners should focus on swing and fixed-point straight-line strokes, progressing to long-distance and angle drills, with practice sessions ideally kept to about one hour. The article also outlines basic rules, including a 30-minute five-player format, court dimensions, scoring for passing gates and hitting the center pole, and determining the winner by higher total score.
Summary: The Chinese swimming team is preparing for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, with 44 athletes including Olympic champions Wang Shun, Zhang Yufei, and Pan Zhanle, and 19 first-time participants. A team official stated the goal is to "win gold medals of morality, gold medals of style, and gold medals of cleanliness," viewing the event as a "mid-term examination" before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Wang Shun, at 32 the oldest member, aims to swim under 1 minute 56 seconds in the 200m individual medley at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, while Zhang Yufei sees the Games as a milestone toward Los Angeles. The team has broken multiple Asian records this year, including Xu Jiayu in the men's 50m backstroke and Tang Qianting twice in the women's 50m breaststroke. Thirteen-year-old Yu Zidi, the youngest member, and Zhang Zhanshuo, who noted gaps after the Pan Pacific Championships, are among those eager to compete.
Summary: Chinese athlete Yan Ziyi took silver in the women's javelin at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hungary, with a throw of 68.05 meters, while Japan's Haruka Kitaguchi won gold with 68.92 meters. Yan led after her first throw but, hampered by a foot injury, abandoned her remaining attempts after the second. The Ultimate Championship is a new biennial top-tier event by World Athletics, limited to Olympic champions, world champions, Diamond League annual champions, and top-ranked athletes. This was Yan's sixth international competition this season, following her Diamond League annual championship win in Brussels.
Summary: Sun Xinran, a 16-year-old Chinese rising star ranked world No. 1, defeated Russian player Pushkareva 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in the girls' singles final of the 2026 US Open junior tournament on September 12 local time, claiming her first Grand Slam junior girls' singles title. She became the third Chinese Tennis Association player to win a junior Grand Slam singles title, following Wu Yibing and Wang Xiyu. This season, Sun Xinran had reached the girls' singles finals of the French Open and Wimbledon junior Grand Slam tournaments, finishing as runner-up in both, before finally lifting the championship trophy at the US Open.
Summary: The 2026 Beijing Primary and Secondary School "Three Major Ball Sports" Curriculum Expo was held at the Beijing No. 2 Middle School Economic Development Zone Campus, with over 800 related workers gathering to exchange practical achievements in teaching reform. The expo featured micro-lesson demonstrations of football, basketball, volleyball, and manipulative skills, showcasing progress in moving from single-skill teaching toward large-unit teaching, from movement practice toward real competition, and from skill acquisition toward complete education. Since the launch of the "Three Major Ball Sports Special Project" in March 2026, more than 1,000 physical education teachers have carried out unit relay teaching, jointly creating 1,200 course lessons. These lessons cover 54 experimental schools across all districts of the city.
Summary: Jiangxi Normal University reports progress in its high-quality development, anchored to the "Double First-Class" construction goal and rated "First-Class" in provincial university assessments for four consecutive years. The university highlights achievements in ideological and political education, professional restructuring, and talent cultivation, including national teaching awards and top prizes in student competitions. In research, it notes global ESI rankings for seven disciplines, increased national project approvals, and publications in journals such as *Nature* and *Science*. The university emphasizes local engagement, citing nearly 400 million RMB in achievement transformation contracts since 2024 and cooperation with cities to establish over 20 primary and secondary schools. Looking ahead, it commits to deepening reform and contributing to the construction of a strong education nation and province.
Summary: The article reports on Wuxi's "red-light stop clock" function, launched on August 17, which extends delivery time for food-delivery riders when they wait at red lights, covering all 4,253 signalized intersections in the city. Meituan project head Shao Jingran said the platform matches real-time signal data from traffic management authorities with rider location trajectories, achieving "compensate as long as you wait." Wu Tianbin, deputy captain of the Traffic Technology Brigade of the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau, said Wuxi advanced this according to full-area coverage, including Jiangyin and Yixing, and hopes to observe traffic violation and accident trends over at least one quarter. The article also details Wuxi's "Run Without Worry" initiative, launched in June, promoting food-delivery-specific electric motorcycles and electric light motorcycles, with Zhu Yunfeng, captain of the Vehicle Management Brigade, saying the goal is to satisfy riders' real delivery needs with compliant vehicles rather than illegal modifications. The reporter's notes conclude that the time and safety pressures previously borne by individual riders are becoming problems that the government, platforms, and industry face and solve together.
Summary: The Supreme People's Court recently released six typical antitrust cases, clarifying market competition rules and promoting a fair competition legal environment. The cases address issues such as abuse of market dominance through exclusive dealing, differential treatment, and unfairly high prices, as well as horizontal monopoly agreements and judicial review of antitrust penalties, covering livelihood and productive basic service industries. The courts aim to stop monopolistic conduct, protect victims' rights, and reduce livelihood costs by restoring market competition, safeguarding the people's "vegetable basket" and "money bag." One case clarifies that forcing merchants to "choose one of two" through punitive differential treatment constitutes exclusive dealing, while another achieves seamless connection between judicial handling and administrative investigation of monopolistic conduct. Going forward, the courts will strengthen antitrust justice, improve adjudication rules, and serve the construction of the unified national market.
Summary: The Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Digital Villages (2026–2030)," clarifying the thinking, goals, key tasks, and policy measures for promoting high-quality development of digital villages during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. By 2030, significant results will be achieved in digital village development, with optimized rural new-type information infrastructure and markedly elevated levels of rural industry digitalization, rural construction informatization, and rural smart governance. The Action Plan specifies 8 major development indicators, deploys 24 work measures in 5 aspects, and puts forward work requirements for strengthening organizational implementation, intensifying policy coordination and resource pooling, and establishing a correct view of political achievements.
Summary: The Department of Veterans Affairs of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region launched the 2026 "Warm Hearts for Veterans · Education Assistance for Their Children" public welfare activity, providing one-time financial assistance to 30 children of veterans in difficulty. Recipients received 3,000 yuan for senior high school stage studies (including secondary vocational education) and 5,000 yuan for regular higher education stage studies, following comprehensive screening and strict review. The activity has cumulatively assisted more than 200 children of veterans in difficulty.
Summary: The article reports on Zunyi City in Guizhou marking the 90th anniversary of the Red Army's Long March victory by promoting the Long March and Zunyi Conference spirits to pursue high-quality development. It highlights digital upgrades at the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall, including VR experiences and traveling exhibitions that have reached over 1 million people across more than 20 provinces. The piece details Zunyi's integration into the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, citing 72 introduced industrial projects with contracted investment of 15.125 billion yuan, and its growing data annotation industry serving intelligent driving. It also covers county-level economic development, such as Chishui's bamboo industry exceeding 10 billion yuan in output value and Huamao Village's tourism revenue surpassing 24 million yuan in 2025. The article notes that rural per capita disposable income reached 21,252 yuan in 2025, with the urban-rural income ratio narrowing from 2.50:1 in 2021 to 2.27:1.
Summary: The article highlights the achievements of an eight-person "D" shift team at the thermal power plant of Zunyi Aluminum Industry in Guizhou, led by party members with an average age of 36, which raised molten salt furnace thermal efficiency from 82.5 to 84 percent and implemented 14 cost-reduction measures. Team leader Gan Wei, a young party member, spearheaded the independent development of a compressed-air rotary nozzle to overcome a long-standing energy-consumption problem, extending the coil's efficient operating cycle by over 10 days. The piece also describes a party member assault team at the Tucheng Power Supply Station of China Southern Power Grid ensuring zero power outages during peak tourism, and young party members in Huichuan District promoting party building leadership over league and team building. It concludes that youthful drive across Zunyi City is fueling high-quality development.
Summary: Zunyi City in Guizhou Province is promoting rural revitalization by supporting migrant workers and graduates to return home for employment and entrepreneurship, converting talent "flow" into development "retention." Craftsman Yang Bo, who returned home in 2019, revived the local earthenware craft by building a study-tour base and nostalgia culture exhibition hall, with timely loan support from the Agricultural Bank of China's Zunyi Branch. The base now serves over 10,000 visitors annually and has driven more than 40 villagers into flexible employment. Village Party secretary Zhu Jiao noted that over 2,000 of the village's more than 3,000 former out-migrant workers have now returned. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Zunyi will implement employment stabilization policies to shift the masses from working far from home to finding jobs locally.
Summary: On September 1, Zunyi Normal College hosted a "First Lesson of the New Term" featuring a lecture by Wang Yudi, a docent at the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall, alongside immersive Red Army performances and a mobile exhibition on the Zunyi Conference. Student Cheng Yuqing said the lesson deepened her understanding of the spirit of the Zunyi Conference and the weight of the word "turning point." The activity, organized by the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall, uses a trinity of "quality ideological and political courses + performance programs + mobile exhibitions" to bring revolutionary history into classrooms across Zunyi City. Zunyi has promoted "school-museum cooperation" linking primary and secondary schools with 147 practical teaching bases, including the Zunyi Conference and Four Crossings of the Chishui River memorial halls. Ming Shufen, head of the Ideological and Political Center of the Zunyi Municipal Education and Sports Bureau, said the city will deepen the "venue + campus" collaborative education mechanism to make red culture tangible and pass on the red gene from generation to generation.
Summary: The article reports on the third "Retracing the Long March" activity for young people of the new era, held in Guizhou on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March. More than 300 youth representatives from across the country visited revolutionary sites such as the Zunyi Conference site, Mount Loushan, and the Chishui River to inherit the Red Gene and comprehend the spirit of the Long March. Participants included students, grassroots cadres, docents, journalists, engineers, and new farmers, with youth representatives speaking on integrating personal growth into the times and practicing the Long March spirit in fields like scientific and technological innovation and rural revitalization. The activity combined a 7-kilometer countryside hike, live-action performances, and a digital art museum to make history tangible and evoke emotional resonance. The article concludes that young people are measuring faith with their footsteps and striving to write a youthful answer worthy of history, the times, and the people.
Summary: The article discusses the newly revised "Measures for the Management of Museum Collections," which expands from 33 articles in 1986 to 6 chapters and 63 articles, marking a comprehensive upgrade of foundational industry regulation. The author argues the New Measures redefine collections to include fossils, specimens, and documentary materials, reflecting a cognitive shift from "cultural relics" to "cultural heritage." The measures build institutional guarantees for collection security through a rigid responsibility system while promoting revitalization and utilization through new mechanisms for public access and cultural participation. They also raise professional capability standards for practitioners, supporting the long-term development of the museum sector and the cultural heritage discipline. The author, identified as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai University and a professor, concludes the revision is a landmark step toward high-quality development in the new era.
Summary: The article uses the Cao Zhi tomb in Dong'e County, Shandong, and its excavated pottery, including "feathered goblets," to corroborate the food and drink culture of the Han-Wei era as described in Cao Zhi's poetry. It details the period's beverages, such as jiang and grain wine, and the food structure of staple foods plus side dishes, citing pictorial bricks of butchering an ox and a kitchen scene. The piece also covers banquet entertainment, including musical instruments like the yu, sheng, pi drum, duo, konghou, zheng, and se, as well as the long-sleeved dance, referencing figurines and pictorial bricks. It concludes that Cao Zhi's "public banquet" poems and his contemporaries' works, alongside excavated artifacts, mutually corroborate the dietary customs and human warmth of the Han-Wei period. The author's affiliation is the National Museum of China.
Summary: Liu Fobao, a line patrol worker with Hohhot Power Supply Company, Inner Mongolia Power Group, integrates cultural relic protection into daily inspections of a 220-kilovolt transmission line near a one-kilometer Great Wall section in Taigemu Township, adopting a "dual-line management and protection" model. The line's construction avoided the ruins by placing all towers beyond 100 meters, and patrols now use vehicles, foot patrols, drones, and telescopes to monitor both infrastructure and the wall. Liu identified fragmented daily human impacts and natural erosion—such as garbage dumping, soil removal, and rainwater scouring—as the main threats, prompting a closed-loop handling process that includes on-site cleanup, persuasion, and reporting to the Hohhot Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau. Villagers' awareness has improved, reducing damage, and Inner Mongolia Power Group has pioneered a "power + cultural relics" government-enterprise collaboration, forming volunteer teams and joint inspection ledgers covering over 1,500 sites. This network protects diverse heritage across Inner Mongolia, from the Northern Wei Great Wall to ancient lamaseries.
Summary: The article is a personal reflection on Enbo Bridge, a three-arch stone bridge in Fuyang at the confluence of the Xianpu and Fuchun rivers, rebuilt in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty and listed as a Zhejiang provincial cultural relic in 1997. The author recounts childhood memories by the bridge, its historical name changes from Tongji to Huizheng to Enbo, and a Southern Song legend of magistrate Cheng Bi's fish-release rule that inspired the name "Enbo" (grace of the waters). The piece describes the bridge's past role as a commercial dock and its scenic "Returning Sails at Xianpu," one of the Eight Scenes of the Spring River. It notes Fuyang's urban growth from 3 to 58.23 square kilometers since 1979, with highways, high-speed rail, and metro lines, and the district government's shutdown of polluting papermaking enterprises to restore the river's clarity. The bridge remains the author's most beautiful nostalgia after a thousand years.
Summary: The article details recent archaeological findings on the Peiligang culture, showing that 8,000 years ago its people had a refined life with a mixed agriculture system of foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and rice, and had mastered rice-based fermentation starters for brewing wine. They used plant aromatics like perilla for seasoning, demonstrating a shift from "edible" to "delicious," and possessed textile technology, including dyeing fabrics with plant-derived colors, as evidenced by tool use-wear and tooth wear on skeletal remains. The settlement had distinct burial and living zones, with over 170 south-facing tombs containing pottery pots as standardized wine vessels, indicating stable ritual traditions and cultural consensus. Pottery figurines, including four human-faced ones, suggest aesthetic pursuits and belief systems. The author concludes the Peiligang people were pioneers of civilization, not merely "primitive people" struggling for survival.
Summary: The article highlights Taiyuan, Shanxi, as a historically and culturally rich city undergoing ecological and economic transformation, featuring the Fen River's restoration and the city's appeal to foreign residents. Andy, an American who has visited Taiyuan 50 times over 40 years, praises the Fen River's shift from pollution to clear water, reflecting improved urban governance and livability. Maodou, a Mexican entrepreneur, leverages Taiyuan's cross-border e-commerce platforms to export Shanxi specialty products, drawing inspiration from the historical spirit of Shanxi merchants. Both foreigners appreciate Taiyuan's blend of ancient architecture and modern vitality, using digital media to share its cultural heritage with overseas audiences. The reporter's notes emphasize that ecological improvements have created development space for emerging industries, positioning Taiyuan as attractive to international talent.
Summary: The People's Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued the *Opinions on Reforming and Improving Real Estate Credit Management and Accelerating the Construction of a New Model for Real Estate Development*, alongside supporting measures from other regulators, marking a systemic reshaping of the real estate financial system. The reforms open four dimensions of space: long-term funding for rental housing construction and operation, precise financing tools for urban renewal, a smoothed "investment, financing, management, and exit" mechanism for existing stock properties, and a channel for market clearing through mergers and acquisitions. The author argues these institutional arrangements respond to market uncertainty with institutional certainty, supporting the construction of a new model for real estate development and a virtuous cycle between finance and real estate. The article emphasizes that as the measures take effect, the foundation for the real estate market to stop falling and stabilize will be consolidated, supporting sustained economic development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The piece is authored by the Deputy Director of the Department of Regional and Industrial Economic Research at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
Summary: The article reports on Guangdong's first "token loan," a 3 million yuan credit loan from Bank of China Guangzhou Haizhu Sub-branch to Guangzhou Tengyuan Digital Technology, which uses enterprises' daily operational digital production factors—such as token consumption data and computing power service contracts—as credit credentials for AI companies lacking traditional collateral. Banks across Guangdong, including China Construction Bank and ICBC, have launched similar products like the "Computing Power e-Loan," shifting credit evaluation from "looking at collateral" to "looking at data" in response to policy support from the People's Bank of China. The loans address cash flow strains from prepaid computing-power procurement and long settlement cycles, with credit lines up to 30 million yuan and terms up to three years. Banks mitigate risks like token data fraud through multi-dimensional cross-verification of contracts, call logs, and transaction flows, though the model remains exploratory without a mature risk-control framework. Experts note challenges to scaled replication, including a lack of unified token billing standards and third-party audit systems, but see the initiative as fostering a positive cycle of financial empowerment and industrial agglomeration.
Summary: The article discusses the ancient Chinese practice of "inscribing artisans' names on artifacts" as a quality control mechanism that reduced information asymmetry and enhanced reputation effects. It explains how this system worked through two complementary mechanisms: accountability for defects and positive reputational incentives for quality work. The authors note preconditions for its effectiveness, such as unified inspection standards and credible records, while acknowledging limitations like forgery and collusion. The piece concludes by suggesting modern technologies like blockchain and big data can expand this concept into "full-chain traceability" in today's unified national market. The authors are a professor at Tsinghua University and a doctoral student at Renmin University, with the article compiled by People's Daily reporter Qi Zhiming.
Summary: The article discusses the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry," issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments, which sets goals including new energy passenger vehicles accounting for 70% of total new car sales in the domestic market by 2030. It reviews China's new energy vehicle industry's leap from following to leading, noting that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, annual sales rose from 1.367 million to 16.49 million vehicles, with the share of new energy vehicles in total new car sales increasing from 5.4% to 47.9%. The Plan puts forward four sub-goals, including achieving highly automated driving on highways and some urban roads, increasing overall labor productivity by 15% compared with 2025, and cultivating several complete vehicle enterprises entering the global top ten in sales. It deploys 17 key tasks in five areas, four major projects, and three key actions, including the "artificial intelligence + automobile" development action. The Plan also requires strictly controlling conditions for new projects of independent new energy vehicle enterprises, intensifying lawful merger and reorganization, and establishing special standard systems for automotive chips, software, and data governance.
Summary: At the 7th National Breeding Bull Auction in Inner Mongolia, two Huaxi cattle breeding bulls each fetched 480,000 yuan, winning the "top bid" title for the fourth consecutive session. Developed by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences over 43 years of relay breeding, Huaxi cattle achieve leading international production performance, with adult bulls weighing about 900 kilograms and a dressing percentage of 61.3%. Li Junya, deputy director of the Institute of Animal Sciences and chief scientist of the National Beef Cattle and Yak Industry Technology System, said the breeding goals set more than 20 years ago are gradually being realized, noting that core germplasm resources were previously controlled by others. The team developed China's first commercial beef cattle gene chip, Cattle110K, reducing testing costs from 3,000 yuan to less than 200 yuan and achieving 85% domestic market share. Li Junya expressed confidence that the "Huaxi breed," cultivated with Chinese chips, data, and technology, will prop up the backbone of China's beef cattle industry.
Summary: The author, chief rice scientist of Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd., recounts 45 years in rice breeding, from a chance discovery of a sterile material in 1989 to developing the "Zhu 1S" sterile line with a critical sterility-inducing temperature of 22.6 degrees Celsius. He describes overcoming the "chills and fever" problem in two-line hybrid rice seed production through a dual-pressure stress selection system, which was evaluated by Academician Yuan Longping as a core germplasm source. In 1999, his team pioneered a "commercial breeding system" and "factory-style, segmented" model, breeding 611 new hybrid rice varieties with a cumulative promotion area of nearly 800 million mu. He emphasizes that true variety quality is measured by farmers' stable production and income gains, not just approval certificate indicators.
Summary: The author reflects on the relationship between editors and writers, noting that while editors shape supplements around themes, writers often draw from personal experience, requiring a balance between editorial intent and authorial style. He illustrates this with anecdotes, including a disagreement over framing swimming as part of China's modernization and an editor's rejection of the term "little person" in a Party admission recollection. He argues that supplements should blend solemnity with lightness, turning grand themes into personal, vivid memories, as he did writing about the 1949 founding ceremony through his waist-drum performance. He also addresses the role of media in guiding public opinion, criticizing online trends like labeling classic novels "unreadable" and misleading headlines, urging supplements to provide sincere, rational, and persuasive guidance. The piece concludes by praising China's newspaper supplements as a unique cultural garden worth cultivating.
Summary: The article profiles 79-year-old Zhang Songbin, a former tractor driver who helped build the Changgangpo Aqueduct in Luoding City, Guangdong Province, a 10.5-kilometer structure completed in 1981 that transformed the drought-prone region into a granary. It recounts his and others' labors during construction, including commander Liang Ziran securing cement and carpenter Lan Peijia's work on high scaffolding, and notes his son Zhang Yonghua returned to serve as village Party branch secretary. The piece highlights the area's revitalization under the "Hundred-Thousand-Ten-Thousand Project," boosting village income and tourism, and closes by describing the start of the second phase of the Guangdong Water Resources Allocation Project for the Beibu Gulf Rim, with militia dispatched to Zhanjiang.
Summary: The article reflects on the concept of "leaving blank space" as illustrated by autumn pruning of fruit trees, drawing on the author's childhood experience with their grandfather, who taught that removing dense and weak branches ensures a good harvest. It highlights the persimmon tree's "seven perfections" from the Tang Dynasty text *Youyang Zazu*, linking longevity to the tree's sparse, uncluttered form after leaves fall. The author extends the metaphor to classical Chinese painting, citing Song Dynasty lotus paintings and Ni Zan's Yuan Dynasty autumn scenes, where blank space conveys depth and mood. The piece concludes that leaving blank space is not emptiness but a way to enhance meaning, applying this lesson to human life: true abundance grows from sparseness and letting go.
Summary: The article is a photo report featuring the oil painting *Water Town* by Ma Changli, which is in the collection of the National Art Museum of China. No further details or statements are provided.
Summary: Sister Jing, a former barbershop owner, now cuts hair for elderly residents under a pine tree in her residential compound after selling her shop to care for her paralyzed mother-in-law. She explains that her husband, an only son working in a government department in the Qinling Mountains, cannot tend to his mother, and she considers her mother-in-law her own mother. Sister Jing provides home visits to bedridden elderly, charging 7 yuan per haircut, and is praised by residents like Auntie Wang for her skill and warmth. The article highlights her sacrifice and the community's appreciation, with an elderly man tearfully giving her a thumbs-up. No mention is made of the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article describes a visit to Nan'ao Village, where the author encounters a horse farm in an apple orchard, noting that horses had not been heard in the village for years due to agricultural mechanization and urban migration. The horses were purchased from Inner Mongolia grasslands by a young orchard operator, who uses them for patrols, while the scientifically managed apple trees reportedly yield tens of thousands of yuan per mu and are sold overseas. The author reflects on the village's history, including a great-grandfather's generation youth who rode a white horse to join the Eighth Route Army, and notes the current land transfer system where outsiders operate the land, providing rental income for aging farmers. The piece concludes with a scene of villagers selling a good Dahongpao prickly ash harvest, beaming with smiles despite modest prices.
Summary: The People's Daily "Dadi" literary supplement is calling for submissions for a special section titled "Our National Day Stories" within its "Dadi Fenghua" series, to be published during the National Day holiday. Readers are invited to submit prose, essays, or poetry depicting new scenery, new life, and new experiences across the country during that period. Submissions should feature authentic and moving characters and stories with literary merit, with no subject restrictions and a preferred length of no more than 1,200 characters. Entries should be sent to dadi@peopledaily.cn with the subject line "National Day Story Submission."
■ At present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, and the collective rise of the Global South has become a key driving force for multipolarity. At the same time, the international situation is fraught with turbulence and change, with various risks and challenges emerging one after another without end (层出不穷, ceng chu bu qiong - "layer, emerge, not, stop"). To stabilize and improve the world, BRICS countries must seize the historical initiative, unite the vast number of Global South countries, play a positive, stabilizing, and constructive role in international affairs, and enhance the common well-being of humanity.
■ Global South countries should jointly uphold the international rule of law, safeguard basic norms of international relations such as sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and peaceful settlement of disputes, and ensure that international law and international rules are applied equally without double standards; they should hold high the banner of multilateralism, uphold the authority and role of the United Nations, support the reform and efficiency enhancement of multilateral institutions, promote the WTO reform in the right direction, reform and improve the international financial architecture, and increase the representation and voice of developing countries; they should adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and promote the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; they should work together to advance security governance, jointly address traditional and non-traditional security threats, improve global climate governance, and accelerate the formation of a broadly consensual global AI governance framework so that emerging technologies illuminate the path to shared prosperity.
■ For the "greater BRICS" to achieve greater accomplishments and greater development, it must build a solid foundation for practical cooperation. It should leverage its advantages of being backed by emerging markets and connected to the Global South, adhere to open cooperation and mutually beneficial outcomes (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual, benefit, together, win"), maintain the stability and smooth flow of industrial and supply chains, cultivate an integrated large market, build innovation incubators, upgrade traditional industries, develop emerging industries, and lay out future industries. Five initiatives were proposed for deepening BRICS cooperation: First, the AI Open and Inclusive Initiative. Second, the Trade and Investment Facilitation Initiative. Third, the Digital Industry Cooperation Initiative. Fourth, the Intelligent Manufacturing Cooperation Initiative. Fifth, the Science, Technology and Talent Cultivation Initiative.
■ This year marks the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan. The 15th Five-Year Plan is not only a development blueprint for China itself, but also a cooperation list for the world. China will continue to promote high-quality development, expand high-standard opening up, implement the Global Development Initiative, advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, share opportunities and create prosperity with countries around the world, and jointly write a new chapter of unity and self-strengthening for the Global South.
(People's Daily, New Delhi, September 13) (Reporters Meng Xianglin, Qian Yibin) On the morning of September 13 local time, President Xi Jinping attended the second plenary session of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi and delivered an important speech titled "Building a Solid Foundation for BRICS Cooperation and Strengthening the Power of the Global South."
Xi Jinping pointed out that at present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, and the collective rise of the Global South has become a key driving force for multipolarity. At the same time, the international situation is fraught with turbulence and change, with various risks and challenges emerging one after another without end. To stabilize and improve the world, BRICS countries must seize the historical initiative, unite the vast number of Global South countries, play a positive, stabilizing, and constructive role in international affairs, and enhance the common well-being of humanity.
Xi Jinping stressed that Global South countries should jointly uphold the international rule of law, safeguard basic norms of international relations such as sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and peaceful settlement of disputes, and ensure that international law and international rules are applied equally without double standards; they should hold high the banner of multilateralism, uphold the authority and role of the United Nations, support the reform and efficiency enhancement of multilateral institutions, promote the WTO reform in the right direction, reform and improve the international financial architecture, and increase the representation and voice of developing countries; they should adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and promote the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; they should work together to advance security governance, jointly address traditional and non-traditional security threats, improve global climate governance, and accelerate the formation of a broadly consensual global AI governance framework so that emerging technologies illuminate the path to shared prosperity.
Xi Jinping pointed out that for the "greater BRICS" to achieve greater accomplishments and greater development, it must build a solid foundation for practical cooperation. It should leverage its advantages of being backed by emerging markets and connected to the Global South, adhere to open cooperation and mutually beneficial outcomes, maintain the stability and smooth flow of industrial and supply chains, cultivate an integrated large market, build innovation incubators, upgrade traditional industries, develop emerging industries, and lay out future industries. Xi Jinping proposed five initiatives for deepening BRICS cooperation:
First, the AI Open and Inclusive Initiative. China will take the lead in building a BRICS AI open-source zone, support cooperation in the development and application of large language models, carry out AI-themed research and training programs, and build an open AI ecosystem.
Second, the Trade and Investment Facilitation Initiative. China proposes building a BRICS special economic zone partnership, setting up smart portals, conducting policy alignment, and creating new heights of open development. China will host the BRICS Service Trade Forum next year to cultivate new growth points for economic and trade cooperation.
Third, the Digital Industry Cooperation Initiative. China will promote the establishment of a BRICS digital industry cloud platform, carry out digital skills training, technical exchanges, and industrial linkage, and jointly promote the development of the digital economy.
Fourth, the Intelligent Manufacturing Cooperation Initiative. China is willing to assist BRICS countries in building smart factories, developing standards and regulatory systems, and jointly promoting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.
Fifth, the Science, Technology and Talent Cultivation Initiative. China proposes establishing a BRICS engineers training alliance and carrying out joint training of engineers and mutual recognition of competency standards. China will implement a BRICS youth science and technology innovation exchange program to cultivate more high-end scientific and technological innovation talents.
Xi Jinping stressed that this year marks the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan. The 15th Five-Year Plan is not only a development blueprint for China itself, but also a cooperation list for the world. China will continue to promote high-quality development, expand high-standard opening up, implement the Global Development Initiative, advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, share opportunities and create prosperity with countries around the world, and jointly write a new chapter of unity and self-strengthening for the Global South. (Full text on Page 2)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Crown Prince Khaled of Abu Dhabi of the UAE, and the foreign ministers of Brazil and Saudi Arabia, leaders or representatives of BRICS partner countries and guest countries, as well as heads of international organizations including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, attended the meeting. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the meeting.
Before the meeting, Xi Jinping posed for a group photo with the attending leaders.
Cai Qi, Wang Yi and others participated in the above activities.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) On the evening of September 13, President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing after a complete success (圆满成功, yuan man cheng gong - "complete, full, succeed") in attending the 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting.
Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, along with other accompanying personnel, returned on the same flight.
(People's Daily, New Delhi, September 13) (Reporters Yuan Jirong, Qiang Wei) At noon local time on September 13, President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing after a complete success in attending the 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting.
Upon leaving New Delhi, senior officials of the Indian government saw him off at the airport.
On the way to the airport, local overseas Chinese and representatives of Chinese-funded enterprises waved the national flags of China and India, warmly congratulating President Xi Jinping on the complete success of his attendance at the 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) From September 12 to 13, 2026, at the invitation of India, President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Summit in India. At the conclusion of the visit, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, briefed accompanying journalists on the visit.
Wang Yi said that September has ushered in a new busy season for head-of-state diplomacy. President Xi Jinping had just concluded his visits to Central Asia and the Middle East, and now embarked on a journey to South Asia. This was a major diplomatic action toward Global South countries in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and it holds strategic significance for leading the high-quality development of "Greater BRICS Cooperation" and promoting the unity and self-reliance of the Global South. In less than 24 hours in New Delhi, President Xi Jinping attended nearly 10 events in a packed schedule, discussing major development plans and seeking new chapters of cooperation with BRICS leaders, and holding in-depth talks with Indian Prime Minister Modi to chart the course for China-India relations. Domestic and international media paid close attention, believing that against the backdrop of international turmoil and frequent regional conflicts, BRICS countries have focused on development issues, promoted practical cooperation, upheld multilateralism, improved global governance, and addressed global challenges, further consolidating the consensus of the Global South and sending a strong BRICS message. The two leaders of China and India have held bilateral meetings for three consecutive years, which carries the important significance of "stabilizing the region and radiating influence across the broader landscape."
Wang Yi stated that this visit was pragmatic, efficient, precisely positioned, and fruitful, achieving complete success and realizing three strategic objectives.
First, enhancing the effectiveness of BRICS cooperation. Twenty years ago, the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, and China held their first meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, opening the prologue to BRICS cooperation. Guided by the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, BRICS countries have transformed their differences into momentum for mutually beneficial cooperation, regarded each other's successes as the cornerstone of common development, and formed an all-round, multi-tiered cooperation architecture, becoming being true to one's name (名副其实, ming fu qi shi - "name, match, real, truth") the first echelon of the Global South and the primary platform for South-South cooperation.
President Xi Jinping summarized the course of BRICS development with three keywords: "self-reliance and self-improvement, facing difficulties together, and fruitful achievements." Over the past 20 years, BRICS countries have actively explored development paths suited to their own national conditions, providing valuable inspiration and useful reference for developing countries. BRICS countries have joined hands to address various risks and challenges, safeguarding and expanding the legitimate rights and interests of the Global South. Cooperation across various fields among BRICS countries has flourished, and through historic expansion, the grouping has entered a new stage of high-quality development in "Greater BRICS Cooperation." As President Xi Jinping pointed out, unity and cooperation have always been the source of strength for the BRICS cause. Inspired by the BRICS spirit, the BRICS mechanism has continued to grow and strengthen, becoming the world's most influential cooperation organization of emerging markets and developing countries. This is the most important experience from 20 years of braving wind and rain on a journey (风雨兼程, feng yu jian cheng - "wind, rain, simultaneously, journey") in BRICS cooperation, and it will also provide the most solid foundation for BRICS cooperation to achieve sustained and steady progress in the future.
Standing at a new historical starting point and facing the earnest expectations of Global South countries, President Xi Jinping focused on addressing the global peace deficit, development deficit, security deficit, and governance deficit, and forcefully and resoundingly (掷地有声, zhi di you sheng - "throw, ground, have, sound") proposed that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting innovative development, pioneers in safeguarding peace and stability, pioneers in advancing mutual learning among civilizations, and pioneers in reforming and improving global governance, once again defining the historical mission for BRICS cooperation and pointing out the direction forward. The "four pioneers" have elevated the strategic positioning of BRICS cooperation and boosted the determination and confidence of BRICS countries in pursuing unity and self-reliance. Leaders attending the meeting positively assessed the important role of BRICS cooperation in world economic growth and addressing global challenges, believing that the BRICS mechanism has broad representativeness, enormous development potential, and bears the important responsibility of speaking for the Global South and defending multilateralism. All parties agreed to continue upholding the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, deepen cooperation in various fields, enhance economic resilience, promote a more fair and inclusive international order, and build a safe and prosperous multipolar world.
Over 20 years of journeying together through wind and rain, China has always been a shaper and practitioner of BRICS cooperation. China has served as BRICS chair three times. President Xi Jinping has personally promoted the development of BRICS cooperation, from the "three-wheel drive" cooperation architecture to the "five BRICS" strategic layout, from initiating the "BRICS Plus" cooperation model to proposing the important concept of "high-quality development of Greater BRICS Cooperation." One after another, Chinese initiatives have become BRICS propositions and BRICS actions, leaving a distinctive Chinese imprint and injecting strong Chinese momentum into the process of BRICS cooperation.
Next year, BRICS will usher in its fourth "China Year," and China will once again take on the important responsibility of the chairmanship. President Xi Jinping solemnly announced that China is willing to take this opportunity to build consensus with all parties, create the future together, open the third "Golden Decade" of BRICS cooperation, and jointly create a bright prospect for BRICS prosperity and progress. Leaders attending the meeting highly praised China's key role in the growth and strengthening of the BRICS mechanism, actively responded to the important propositions put forward by President Xi Jinping, supported China in successfully hosting the 19th leaders' meeting next year, and eagerly looked forward to the next "China Year" pushing BRICS cooperation to a new level, demonstrating new achievements, and opening up new prospects.
Second, empowering the Global South. The wind rises in the South, and the tide surges across the five continents. The collective rise of the Global South is a distinctive hallmark of the major transformation of the world. At the same time, the current international governance system has not adapted to the changes of the times. The representation and voice of Global South countries are seriously insufficient, and their legitimate demands have not received due attention. This imbalance has not only slowed the pace of revitalization of developing countries but also weakened the ability of the international community to jointly address common challenges. The world expects BRICS countries to better represent and safeguard the common interests of the Global South and play a greater role in reforming and improving global governance.
During this summit, President Xi Jinping put forward four important propositions on strengthening the strength of the Global South: jointly upholding international rule of law and ensuring the equal application of international law and international rules; holding high the banner of multilateralism and safeguarding the authority and role of the United Nations; adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and promoting the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and jointly advancing security governance and jointly addressing traditional and non-traditional security threats. These important propositions closely follow the trend of the times, grasp the general trend of human progress, respond to the common expectations of Global South countries, and provide a feasible path for enhancing the influence and voice of the Global South in international affairs.
In supporting the unity and self-reliance of the Global South, China has not only far-sighted concepts but also concrete measures. Focusing on the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, President Xi Jinping put forward initiatives such as BRICS AI empowering new industrialization, open-source AI for universal benefit, digital industry cooperation, and intelligent manufacturing cooperation, and announced that China will take the lead in building a BRICS AI open-source zone, establishing a BRICS digital industry cloud platform, and implementing a BRICS youth science and technology innovation exchange program, among other practical cooperation measures, which were warmly welcomed by all countries. From the Global AI Governance Initiative to the establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, China has always upheld the concept of openness, inclusiveness, and universal benefit, committed to helping Global South countries enhance their capabilities and benefit equally, avoiding new historical injustices in the field of artificial intelligence, and letting emerging technologies illuminate the path to shared prosperity. International opinion believes that China, as a major AI power, does not seek digital hegemony or engage in technology blockade, but is willing to transform advanced technology into public goods and create opportunities for developing countries on the frontier track that determines the future, reflecting China's unique broad-mindedness and commitment to the world.
Wang Yi said that one flower does not make spring, and one tree does not make a forest. President Xi Jinping pointed out that the 15th Five-Year Plan is not only a blueprint for China's own development but also a cooperation list for the world. China will always keep the Global South in mind, take root in the Global South, empower the Global South, adhere to sharing opportunities and pursuing common development, use Chinese modernization to help the Global South jointly advance toward modernization, and work together to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
Third, charting the course for China-India relations. Following the meetings in Kazan and Tianjin, President Xi Jinping held another bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi, which attracted widespread attention from the international community. Under the strategic guidance of the two leaders, China-India relations have gradually emerged from the trough, achieving "re-elevation" from "restart," with the cooperation list continuously lengthening, trade volumes hitting new highs, and people-to-people exchanges becoming more active. The improvement and development of China-India relations are not only welcomed by the more than 2.8 billion people of the two countries but are also an inherent part of strengthening Global South cooperation.
President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi had candid and in-depth exchanges on strategic, long-term, and directional issues concerning the two countries, and the most important consensus reached was that China and India should be partners. President Xi Jinping pointed out that China and India have different national conditions and can fully learn from others' strengths to offset one's own weaknesses (取长补短, qu chang bu duan - "take, long, supplement, short"), support each other, achieve mutual success, and pursue common development. As the two most populous countries in the world and important members of the Global South, the two sides should calibrate their direction with objective and rational strategic perception, achieve mutual success with the concept of win-win cooperation, eliminate interference with the political wisdom of mutual respect and mutual understanding, and benefit all people under heaven (兼济天下, jian ji tian xia - "broadly, benefit, heaven, below") through open and inclusive multilateral coordination, jointly promoting the sustained and steady progress of China-India relations. Prime Minister Modi responded positively, stating that India has always viewed India-China relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, is willing to be a partner rather than a rival with China, and regards each other's development as an opportunity rather than a challenge. India's development of relations with China is not influenced by third parties, and no force will be allowed to engage in anti-China activities in India. India is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with China on the basis of mutual respect and mutual trust, strengthen strategic communication, intensify people-to-people exchanges, and promote greater development of bilateral relations.
The two leaders agreed to focus on development as the greatest common denominator, strengthen friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, expand cooperation in areas such as people-to-people exchanges and direct flights, enhance mutual understanding between the Chinese and Indian peoples, and improve the popular foundation of bilateral relations. The two sides agreed to further enhance political mutual trust, properly handle differences and disputes, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. The two sides will support each other in serving as BRICS chairs, strengthen coordination within multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the G20, promote Global South cooperation, advance multipolarity in the world, and serve as a force for stability and progress in a turbulent world.
Wang Yi stated that the respective development of China and India is an opportunity for each other, and the impact of China-India cooperation far exceeds the bilateral scope, being of great importance to the Global South and the entire world. The improvement of China-India relations has not come easily and is worth cherishing. It is hoped that India will work with China in the same direction, implement the important consensus reached by the two leaders, persist in being partners rather than rivals, push bilateral relations forward without stagnation or regression, place the border issue in its proper position in bilateral relations, make dialogue and cooperation the mainstream, accelerate the realization of respective development and revitalization, and jointly make due contributions to regional and world peace and prosperity.
Wang Yi concluded by saying that President Xi Jinping attended two major multilateral summits, the SCO and BRICS, in quick succession, sending a strong message of multilateralism, lighting the light of unity and cooperation amid turbulent changes, and writing a vivid chapter of helping each other in times of need (守望相助, shou wang xiang zhu - "guard, watch, mutually, help") and joint progress between China and the Global South. The wind gathers the strength of a thousand sails, and we row hard to set sail on a new voyage. We must unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, adhere to self-confidence and self-reliance, openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation, promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and continuously open up new prospects for major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.
Return to TopEnshi City in Hubei Province is focusing on building beautiful and harmonious villages with smooth roads, scenic landscapes, and thriving industries, continuously improving the transportation network in mountainous areas to support the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas.
Photo by Tan Hua (People's Vision)
Return to TopBy: 中华人民共和国主席 习近平
Your Excellency Prime Minister Modi,
Dear Colleagues,
I thank Prime Minister Modi and the Indian government for hosting this meeting.
At present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, and the collective rise of the Global South has become a key driving force for promoting multipolarity in the world. At the same time, the international situation is marked by intertwined changes and turbulence, with various risks and challenges constantly emerging and never-ending (层出不穷, ceng chu bu qiong - "layer, emerge, not, exhausted"). To stabilize the world and make it a better place, BRICS countries must grasp the historical initiative, unite the vast number of Global South countries, play a positive, stable, and constructive role in international affairs, and enhance the common well-being of humanity.
A world without rules is like an intersection without traffic lights, where chaos and disorder are inevitable. Fairness and justice are what people aspire to. International rules should be jointly written by all countries. The logic of "might makes right" does not work and should have long been discarded. Global South countries should jointly uphold the international rule of law, safeguard such basic norms of international relations as sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and peaceful settlement of disputes, and ensure that international law and international rules are applied equally without double standards.
Countries, regardless of their size, strength, or wealth, are equal members of the international community. Global South countries should hold high the banner of multilateralism, uphold the authority and role of the United Nations, support the reform and efficiency enhancement of multilateral institutions, and provide guarantees for the equal participation of all countries in international affairs. We should promote the reform of the World Trade Organization in the right direction, uphold principles such as most-favored-nation treatment, and actively explore the formulation of new rules oriented toward the future. We should support the operation and development of the New Development Bank and promote cooperation among the Global South. We should reform and improve the international financial architecture and increase the representation and voice of developing countries.
Those who accomplish great things must put people first. Global South countries should adhere to the people-centered development philosophy and promote the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Since China proposed the Global Development Initiative five years ago, it has carried out more than 2,000 cooperation projects with various parties, trained over 200,000 personnel of various types, and benefited the people of more than 120 countries. China's door of opening up will open wider and wider. China has already implemented zero-tariff treatment comprehensively for the 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with it, and will continue to expand independent opening up and unilateral opening up, sharing development opportunities with all countries.
In the face of constantly emerging global challenges, we should adopt a comprehensive approach that addresses both the symptoms and the root causes (标本兼治, biao ben jian zhi - "mark, root, treat, govern"). Global South countries should work together to advance security governance and jointly address traditional and non-traditional security threats. We should improve global climate governance and promote the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. Upholding the principles of people-centeredness and striving for goodness and progress, we should accelerate the formation of a global artificial intelligence governance framework with broad consensus, so that emerging technologies can illuminate the path to common prosperity.
Dear Colleagues,
For the "Greater BRICS" to make great achievements and achieve great development, it must build a solid foundation for practical cooperation. We should leverage our advantages of being backed by emerging markets and connected to the Global South, adhere to open cooperation and mutual benefit and win-win outcomes (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual, benefit, together, win"), maintain the stability and smoothness of industrial and supply chains, and cultivate an integrated large market. We should build innovation incubators, upgrade traditional industries, develop emerging industries, and lay out future industries. To this end, I propose five initiatives.
First, the Initiative on Open Source AI for All. China will take the lead in building a BRICS open source AI zone, support cooperation in the development and application of large language models, carry out special AI training programs, and build an open AI ecosystem.
Second, the Initiative on Trade and Investment Facilitation. China proposes building a BRICS partnership of special economic zones, setting up smart portals, conducting policy alignment, and creating new highlands for open development. China will host the BRICS Service Trade Forum next year to cultivate new growth points for economic and trade cooperation. All parties are welcome to actively participate.
Third, the Initiative on Digital Industry Cooperation. China will promote the establishment of a BRICS digital industry cloud platform, carry out digital skills training, technical exchanges, and industrial connectivity, and jointly promote the development of the digital economy.
Fourth, the Initiative on Intelligent Manufacturing Cooperation. Through the implementation of this initiative, China is willing to assist BRICS countries in building smart factories, establishing standards and norms systems, and jointly promoting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.
Fifth, the Initiative on Science, Technology, and Talent Cultivation. China proposes establishing a BRICS engineers' training alliance to carry out joint training of engineers and mutual recognition of competency standards. China will implement a BRICS youth science and technology innovation exchange program to cultivate more high-end scientific and technological innovation talents.
Dear Colleagues,
This year marks the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan. The 15th Five-Year Plan is not only a development blueprint for China itself, but also a cooperation list open to the world. China will continue to promote high-quality development, expand high-standard opening up, implement the Global Development Initiative, advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and share opportunities and create prosperity with countries around the world. Let us work together with one heart and mind (勠力同心, lu li tong xin - "exert, strength, together, heart") to advance "Greater BRICS cooperation" and jointly write a new chapter of unity and self-strengthening for the Global South!
Thank you all!
(Xinhua News Agency, New Delhi, September 13)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 强 薇 郑 翔
From September 12 to 13, President Xi Jinping attended the first and second phases of the 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting in New Delhi, India, and delivered important speeches titled "Shouldering Our Shared Responsibilities and Forging Ahead as Pioneers" and "Consolidating the Foundation of BRICS Cooperation and Strengthening the Force of the Global South" respectively. International figures interviewed by our reporter said that the series of important proposals and initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping in his important speeches chart the course for high-quality development of "Greater BRICS Cooperation" and provide the world with stability and positive energy.
"Profoundly elucidating the contemporary significance and far-reaching impact of the BRICS cooperation mechanism"
President Xi Jinping emphasized that BRICS countries should firmly stand on the right side of history, boldly act as pioneers of the times, lead the international order toward a more just and reasonable direction, and work together to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. President Xi Jinping proposed that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting innovative development, pioneers in safeguarding peace and stability, pioneers in advancing mutual learning among civilizations, and pioneers in reforming and improving global governance, elevating the strategic positioning of BRICS cooperation and boosting the determination and confidence of BRICS countries to unite and strengthen themselves.
"President Xi Jinping's proposal that BRICS countries should be pioneers in reforming and improving global governance comes at the right time and injects new impetus into promoting the building of a more just and reasonable international order." Jayanth Jacob, foreign affairs editor of India's The New Indian Express, said that BRICS countries emphasize mutual respect, sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and win-win cooperation. The expansion of BRICS has created valuable opportunities for more emerging markets and developing countries to participate in global governance, enhancing the inclusiveness, representativeness, and global influence of the BRICS cooperation mechanism.
"Facing the current international environment where multilateralism and the international order are under impact, it is particularly important to uphold and promote the BRICS spirit of 'openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation' and jointly defend multilateralism. President Xi Jinping's important speech points the way for promoting the formation of a more just and reasonable international order." Mohammed Ali, director of the Trends Research & Advisory Center in the United Arab Emirates, said that the BRICS cooperation mechanism continues to grow and strengthen, the overall strength and international influence of emerging markets and developing countries continue to rise, and China's role is evident to all.
"President Xi Jinping's important speech profoundly elucidates the contemporary significance and far-reaching impact of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, gathering more consensus for further strengthening unity and cooperation among BRICS countries." Baru Demissie, senior advisor at the Policy Studies Institute of Ethiopia, said that China is promoting "Greater BRICS Cooperation" to deepen and solidify, demonstrating the responsibility of a major country.
"Since its establishment, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has always been an important platform for cooperation among Global South countries." Paulo Batista, former vice president of the New Development Bank and Brazilian economist, said that President Xi Jinping's proposal that BRICS countries play the role of "four pioneers" provides important guidance for addressing global challenges and promoting common development.
"Consolidating the foundation of BRICS cooperation with concrete actions and continuously enhancing the 'gold content' of BRICS"
This year marks the 20th anniversary of BRICS cooperation. Over the past 20 years, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has continued to grow and strengthen, demonstrating vigorous vitality and becoming the most influential cooperation platform for emerging markets and developing countries in today's world. President Xi Jinping emphasized that over the past twenty years of facing hardships and traveling long distances (风雨兼程, feng yu jian cheng - "wind, rain, endure, journey"), unity and cooperation have always been the source of strength for the development of the BRICS cause. We should adhere to treating each other with frankness and sincerity (坦诚相待, tan cheng xiang dai - "frank, sincere, mutually, treat") and seeking common ground while reserving differences (求同存异, qiu tong cun yi - "seek, same, preserve, difference"), respect each other's core concerns, enhance mutual understanding and properly handle contradictions and differences through communication and dialogue, and ensure that BRICS cooperation maintains steady progress to achieve long-term success (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk, steady, reach, far").
"President Xi Jinping's important speech profoundly summarizes the development achievements of the BRICS cooperation mechanism over the past 20 years and also points the way for BRICS countries to move forward hand in hand under the new circumstances." Mohammed Saqif, secretary general of the India-China Economic and Cultural Promotion Association, said that the development course of the BRICS cooperation mechanism reflects the common aspiration of BRICS countries to adhere to independence and enhance development capacity, "China has always consolidated the foundation of BRICS cooperation with concrete actions and continuously enhanced the 'gold content' of BRICS."
Dmitri Mayatsky, associate professor at St. Petersburg State University in Russia, said that President Xi Jinping pointed out that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting innovative development, which will greatly stimulate the potential and vitality of BRICS innovation cooperation and development. The initiatives proposed by President Xi Jinping, such as the "BRICS AI-Enabled New Industrialization Initiative" and the "BRICS Open-Source AI and Inclusive Benefits Initiative," will surely provide stronger technical support and broader development opportunities for deepening AI cooperation among BRICS countries and other Global South countries, promote the common realization of industrial upgrading and sustainable development, and further improve global science and technology governance.
"I pay close attention to the viewpoints and initiatives in President Xi Jinping's important speech, because when China puts forward a goal, it is a commitment that will truly be implemented." Busi Mabuza, chairperson of the BRICS Business Council of South Africa, said that Global South countries deeply understand the importance of "leaving no country behind." The fruitful results achieved by BRICS cooperation show that although BRICS countries have different development models, they share common interests and can carry out fruitful cooperation.
Shaharee, associate professor in the Department of Chinese Studies at Somaiya University in India, said that President Xi Jinping's important speech emphasized being pioneers in advancing mutual learning among civilizations, which will build a solid foundation of public support for BRICS cooperation, "This also means respecting the diversity of civilizations and actively building more platforms for different civilizations to strengthen communication and enhance mutual understanding."
"Injecting more stability and certainty into world peace and development"
At present, the world is undergoing accelerated transformation unseen in a century, and the collective rise of the Global South has become a key driving force for promoting world multipolarity. President Xi Jinping proposed the "Open-Source AI Initiative," "Trade and Investment Facilitation Initiative," "Digital Industry Cooperation Initiative," "Intelligent Manufacturing Cooperation Initiative," and "Science and Technology Talent Cultivation Initiative," pointing the way for high-quality development of "Greater BRICS Cooperation."
Abdulaziz Al-Shabani, researcher at the Riyadh Political and Strategic Studies Center in Saudi Arabia, said that the five initiatives proposed by President Xi Jinping have important practical significance for promoting the high-quality development of the BRICS cooperation mechanism. Especially in the development of emerging and future industries, the series of initiatives proposed by China will bring more opportunities for strengthening cooperation in the development and application of emerging technologies.
Diaa Helmy, member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, said that President Xi Jinping's important speech emphasized adhering to open cooperation and mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, "The five initiatives provide intellectual guidance and practical paths for the high-quality development of 'Greater BRICS Cooperation' and will surely have a profound impact on the reform of the global economic governance system."
Anil Sooklal, South Africa's High Commissioner to India and former BRICS Sherpa of South Africa, said that President Xi Jinping's important speech addressed multiple important topics of common concern to the Global South and put forward important initiatives. At present, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has become an important platform for the Global South to unite and strengthen itself, build consensus, and participate in the global agenda. As a member of the Global South, China attaches great importance to the common challenges facing BRICS countries and plays a leading role in enhancing the voice of Global South countries in global governance.
"President Xi Jinping's important speech systematically elaborates the profound connotation of BRICS countries working together for mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, providing important guidance for deepening and solidifying BRICS cooperation." Ayanda Holo, head of the Africa channel of BRICS TV, said that BRICS countries, as the first echelon of the Global South, conform to the trend of the times of the rise of the Global South. The BRICS cooperation mechanism brings tangible benefits and development opportunities to the people of emerging markets and developing countries.
Fajar Hirawan, senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia, said that in the face of the intertwined and turbulent international situation and the emerging one after another without end (层出不穷, ceng chu bu qiong - "layer, emerge, not, exhausted") risks and challenges, BRICS countries further consolidate the strength of the Global South, "deepening practical cooperation in areas such as promoting the reform and improvement of global governance, scientific and technological innovation and green transformation, and promoting people-to-people and cultural exchanges, injecting more stability and certainty into world peace and development."
(Reporters of People's Daily: Ren Yan, Yuan Jirong, Meng Xianglin, Chen Zhenkai, Zhang Penghui, Che Bin, Zhang Zhiwen, Xiao Xinxin, Shi Yuanhao, Shen Xiaoxiao, Ren Haoyu, Cao Shiyun, Qian Yibin, Lin Zihan, Han Xiaomeng participated in the reporting)
Return to TopChina is ready to work with all parties to build consensus, create a new future, open the third "golden decade" of BRICS cooperation, jointly create a bright prospect of prosperity and progress, and jointly write a new chapter of unity and self-strengthening for the Global South.
From September 12 to 13, President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, and delivered an important speech, systematically summarizing the development achievements of the BRICS cooperation mechanism over the past 20 years, proposing that BRICS countries play the role of "four pioneers," and putting forward five initiatives for deepening BRICS cooperation, charting the course for the high-quality development of "Greater BRICS Cooperation." "China is the mainstay of support (中流砥柱, zhong liu di zhu - "middle, stream, support, pillar") of the BRICS cooperation mechanism," "The BRICS cooperation mechanism has opened the door of hope for the Global South," "We look forward to China leading Greater BRICS Cooperation toward achieving long-term success through steady progress (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk, steady, reach, far")"... The international community paid close attention to President Xi Jinping's attendance at this BRICS leaders' meeting and positively evaluated China's key role in rallying BRICS strength, advancing BRICS cooperation, and promoting the development and revitalization of the Global South.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of BRICS cooperation. Over the past 20 years, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has continued to grow and strengthen, demonstrating vigorous vitality and becoming the most influential cooperation platform for emerging markets and developing countries in today's world. At the first plenary session of the 18th BRICS Summit, President Xi Jinping summarized the 20-year development journey of the BRICS cooperation mechanism with three keywords: "self-reliance and self-strengthening," "facing difficulties together through thick and thin (风雨同舟, feng yu tong zhou - "wind, rain, same, boat")," and "yielding fruitful or abundant results (成果丰硕, cheng guo feng shuo - "result, fruit, abundant, plentiful")." At present, unilateralism and power politics are surging countercurrents (逆流涌动, ni liu yong dong - "reverse, current, surge, move"), multilateralism and the international order are under impact, and the peace deficit, development deficit, security deficit, and governance deficit are growing rather than shrinking. President Xi Jinping stressed that BRICS countries should firmly stand on the right side of history, "be pioneers in promoting innovative development," "be pioneers in safeguarding peace and stability," "be pioneers in promoting mutual learning among civilizations (文明互鉴, wen ming hu jian - "civilization, mutually, learn, reflect")," and "be pioneers in reforming and improving global governance," leading the international order toward a more just and reasonable direction and jointly working to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
The once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, and the collective rise of the Global South has become a key driving force for world multipolarity. To stabilize and improve the world, BRICS countries must grasp the historical initiative, unite the vast number of Global South countries, play a positive, stabilizing, and constructive role in international affairs, and enhance the common well-being of mankind. At the second plenary session of the 18th BRICS Summit, President Xi Jinping stressed: "Global South countries should hold high the banner of multilateralism, safeguard the authority and role of the United Nations, support the reform and efficiency improvement of multilateral institutions, and provide guarantees for all countries to participate in international affairs on an equal footing. Promote the reform of the World Trade Organization to maintain the correct direction, uphold principles such as most-favored-nation treatment, and actively explore the formulation of new rules oriented toward the future. Support the operation and development of the New Development Bank and promote Global South cooperation. Reform and improve the international financial architecture, and increase the representation and voice of developing countries." Leaders attending the meeting appreciated China's important contribution to the growth and strengthening of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, and expressed that all parties should uphold the BRICS spirit, promote the formation of a fairer and more inclusive international order, and build a secure and prosperous multipolar world.
For "Greater BRICS" to achieve greater accomplishments and greater development, it must consolidate the foundation of practical cooperation. How can "Greater BRICS Cooperation" leverage its advantages of being backed by emerging markets and connected to the Global South, build innovation incubators, upgrade traditional industries, develop emerging industries, and lay out future industries? President Xi Jinping proposed the "AI Open Source and Inclusive Initiative," the "Trade and Investment Facilitation Initiative," the "Digital Industry Cooperation Initiative," the "Intelligent Manufacturing Cooperation Initiative," and the "Science and Technology Talent Cultivation Initiative," pointing out the direction for the high-quality development of "Greater BRICS Cooperation." China will take the lead in building a BRICS AI open-source zone, support cooperation in the development and application of large language models, carry out special AI training programs, and build an open AI ecosystem; propose the establishment of a BRICS special economic zone partnership, set up smart portals, carry out policy alignment, and create new heights of open development; promote the establishment of a BRICS digital industry cloud platform, carry out digital skills training, technical exchanges, and industrial alignment, and jointly promote the development of the digital economy; propose the establishment of a BRICS engineers training alliance, and carry out joint training of engineers and mutual recognition of competency standards... These practical measures demonstrate China's firm actions in upholding the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation, and win-win to promote "Greater BRICS" to achieve greater development.
Over the past twenty years of continuing the journey despite hardships or weather (风雨兼程, feng yu jian cheng - "wind, rain, simultaneously, journey"), unity and cooperation have always been the source of strength for the development of the BRICS cause. China will take over the BRICS presidency next year and host the 19th BRICS Summit. China is ready to work with all parties to build consensus, create a new future, open the third "golden decade" of BRICS cooperation, jointly create a bright prospect of prosperity and progress, and jointly write a new chapter of unity and self-strengthening for the Global South.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) From September 12 to 13, 2026, at the invitation of India, President Xi Jinping attended the 18th BRICS Summit in India. At the conclusion of the visit, Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, briefed accompanying journalists on the visit.
Wang Yi said that September has ushered in a new busy season for head-of-state diplomacy. President Xi Jinping had just concluded his visits to Central Asia and the Middle East, and now embarked on a journey to South Asia. This was a major diplomatic action toward Global South countries in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and it holds strategic significance for leading the high-quality development of "Greater BRICS Cooperation" and promoting the unity and self-reliance of the Global South. In less than 24 hours in New Delhi, President Xi Jinping attended nearly 10 events in a packed schedule, discussing major development plans and seeking new chapters of cooperation with BRICS leaders, and holding in-depth talks with Indian Prime Minister Modi to chart the course for China-India relations. Domestic and international media paid close attention, believing that against the backdrop of international turmoil and frequent regional conflicts, BRICS countries have focused on development issues, promoted practical cooperation, upheld multilateralism, improved global governance, and addressed global challenges, further consolidating the consensus of the Global South and sending a strong BRICS message. The two leaders of China and India have held bilateral meetings for three consecutive years, which carries the important significance of "stabilizing the region and radiating influence across the broader landscape."
Wang Yi stated that this visit was pragmatic, efficient, precisely positioned, and fruitful, achieving complete success and realizing three strategic objectives.
First, enhancing the effectiveness of BRICS cooperation. Twenty years ago, the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, and China held their first meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, opening the prologue to BRICS cooperation. Guided by the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, BRICS countries have transformed their differences into momentum for mutually beneficial cooperation, regarded each other's successes as the cornerstone of common development, and formed an all-round, multi-tiered cooperation architecture, becoming being true to one's name (名副其实, ming fu qi shi - "name, match, real, truth") the first echelon of the Global South and the primary platform for South-South cooperation.
President Xi Jinping summarized the course of BRICS development with three keywords: "self-reliance and self-improvement, facing difficulties together, and fruitful achievements." Over the past 20 years, BRICS countries have actively explored development paths suited to their own national conditions, providing valuable inspiration and useful reference for developing countries. BRICS countries have joined hands to address various risks and challenges, safeguarding and expanding the legitimate rights and interests of the Global South. Cooperation across various fields among BRICS countries has flourished, and through historic expansion, the grouping has entered a new stage of high-quality development in "Greater BRICS Cooperation." As President Xi Jinping pointed out, unity and cooperation have always been the source of strength for the BRICS cause. Inspired by the BRICS spirit, the BRICS mechanism has continued to grow and strengthen, becoming the world's most influential cooperation organization of emerging markets and developing countries. This is the most important experience from 20 years of braving wind and rain on a journey (风雨兼程, feng yu jian cheng - "wind, rain, simultaneously, journey") in BRICS cooperation, and it will also provide the most solid foundation for BRICS cooperation to achieve sustained and steady progress in the future.
Standing at a new historical starting point and facing the earnest expectations of Global South countries, President Xi Jinping focused on addressing the global peace deficit, development deficit, security deficit, and governance deficit, and forcefully and resoundingly (掷地有声, zhi di you sheng - "throw, ground, have, sound") proposed that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting innovative development, pioneers in safeguarding peace and stability, pioneers in advancing mutual learning among civilizations, and pioneers in reforming and improving global governance, once again defining the historical mission for BRICS cooperation and pointing out the direction forward. The "four pioneers" have elevated the strategic positioning of BRICS cooperation and boosted the determination and confidence of BRICS countries in pursuing unity and self-reliance. Leaders attending the meeting positively assessed the important role of BRICS cooperation in world economic growth and addressing global challenges, believing that the BRICS mechanism has broad representativeness, enormous development potential, and bears the important responsibility of speaking for the Global South and defending multilateralism. All parties agreed to continue upholding the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, deepen cooperation in various fields, enhance economic resilience, promote a more fair and inclusive international order, and build a safe and prosperous multipolar world.
Over 20 years of journeying together through wind and rain, China has always been a shaper and practitioner of BRICS cooperation. China has served as BRICS chair three times. President Xi Jinping has personally promoted the development of BRICS cooperation, from the "three-wheel drive" cooperation architecture to the "five BRICS" strategic layout, from initiating the "BRICS Plus" cooperation model to proposing the important concept of "high-quality development of Greater BRICS Cooperation." One after another, Chinese initiatives have become BRICS propositions and BRICS actions, leaving a distinctive Chinese imprint and injecting strong Chinese momentum into the process of BRICS cooperation.
Next year, BRICS will usher in its fourth "China Year," and China will once again take on the important responsibility of the chairmanship. President Xi Jinping solemnly announced that China is willing to take this opportunity to build consensus with all parties, create the future together, open the third "Golden Decade" of BRICS cooperation, and jointly create a bright prospect for BRICS prosperity and progress. Leaders attending the meeting highly praised China's key role in the growth and strengthening of the BRICS mechanism, actively responded to the important propositions put forward by President Xi Jinping, supported China in successfully hosting the 19th leaders' meeting next year, and eagerly looked forward to the next "China Year" pushing BRICS cooperation to a new level, demonstrating new achievements, and opening up new prospects.
Second, empowering the Global South. The wind rises in the South, and the tide surges across the five continents. The collective rise of the Global South is a distinctive hallmark of the major transformation of the world. At the same time, the current international governance system has not adapted to the changes of the times. The representation and voice of Global South countries are seriously insufficient, and their legitimate demands have not received due attention. This imbalance has not only slowed the pace of revitalization of developing countries but also weakened the ability of the international community to jointly address common challenges. The world expects BRICS countries to better represent and safeguard the common interests of the Global South and play a greater role in reforming and improving global governance.
During this summit, President Xi Jinping put forward four important propositions on strengthening the strength of the Global South: jointly upholding international rule of law and ensuring the equal application of international law and international rules; holding high the banner of multilateralism and safeguarding the authority and role of the United Nations; adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and promoting the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and jointly advancing security governance and jointly addressing traditional and non-traditional security threats. These important propositions closely follow the trend of the times, grasp the general trend of human progress, respond to the common expectations of Global South countries, and provide a feasible path for enhancing the influence and voice of the Global South in international affairs.
In supporting the unity and self-reliance of the Global South, China has not only far-sighted concepts but also concrete measures. Focusing on the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, President Xi Jinping put forward initiatives such as BRICS AI empowering new industrialization, open-source AI for universal benefit, digital industry cooperation, and intelligent manufacturing cooperation, and announced that China will take the lead in building a BRICS AI open-source zone, establishing a BRICS digital industry cloud platform, and implementing a BRICS youth science and technology innovation exchange program, among other practical cooperation measures, which were warmly welcomed by all countries. From the Global AI Governance Initiative to the establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, China has always upheld the concept of openness, inclusiveness, and universal benefit, committed to helping Global South countries enhance their capabilities and benefit equally, avoiding new historical injustices in the field of artificial intelligence, and letting emerging technologies illuminate the path to shared prosperity. International opinion believes that China, as a major AI power, does not seek digital hegemony or engage in technology blockade, but is willing to transform advanced technology into public goods and create opportunities for developing countries on the frontier track that determines the future, reflecting China's unique broad-mindedness and commitment to the world.
Wang Yi said that one flower does not make spring, and one tree does not make a forest. President Xi Jinping pointed out that the 15th Five-Year Plan is not only a blueprint for China's own development but also a cooperation list for the world. China will always keep the Global South in mind, take root in the Global South, empower the Global South, adhere to sharing opportunities and pursuing common development, use Chinese modernization to help the Global South jointly advance toward modernization, and work together to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
Third, charting the course for China-India relations. Following the meetings in Kazan and Tianjin, President Xi Jinping held another bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi, which attracted widespread attention from the international community. Under the strategic guidance of the two leaders, China-India relations have gradually emerged from the trough, achieving "re-elevation" from "restart," with the cooperation list continuously lengthening, trade volumes hitting new highs, and people-to-people exchanges becoming more active. The improvement and development of China-India relations are not only welcomed by the more than 2.8 billion people of the two countries but are also an inherent part of strengthening Global South cooperation.
President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi had candid and in-depth exchanges on strategic, long-term, and directional issues concerning the two countries, and the most important consensus reached was that China and India should be partners. President Xi Jinping pointed out that China and India have different national conditions and can fully learn from others' strengths to offset one's own weaknesses (取长补短, qu chang bu duan - "take, long, supplement, short"), support each other, achieve mutual success, and pursue common development. As the two most populous countries in the world and important members of the Global South, the two sides should calibrate their direction with objective and rational strategic perception, achieve mutual success with the concept of win-win cooperation, eliminate interference with the political wisdom of mutual respect and mutual understanding, and benefit all people under heaven (兼济天下, jian ji tian xia - "broadly, benefit, heaven, below") through open and inclusive multilateral coordination, jointly promoting the sustained and steady progress of China-India relations. Prime Minister Modi responded positively, stating that India has always viewed India-China relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, is willing to be a partner rather than a rival with China, and regards each other's development as an opportunity rather than a challenge. India's development of relations with China is not influenced by third parties, and no force will be allowed to engage in anti-China activities in India. India is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with China on the basis of mutual respect and mutual trust, strengthen strategic communication, intensify people-to-people exchanges, and promote greater development of bilateral relations.
The two leaders agreed to focus on development as the greatest common denominator, strengthen friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, expand cooperation in areas such as people-to-people exchanges and direct flights, enhance mutual understanding between the Chinese and Indian peoples, and improve the popular foundation of bilateral relations. The two sides agreed to further enhance political mutual trust, properly handle differences and disputes, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. The two sides will support each other in serving as BRICS chairs, strengthen coordination within multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the G20, promote Global South cooperation, advance multipolarity in the world, and serve as a force for stability and progress in a turbulent world.
Wang Yi stated that the respective development of China and India is an opportunity for each other, and the impact of China-India cooperation far exceeds the bilateral scope, being of great importance to the Global South and the entire world. The improvement of China-India relations has not come easily and is worth cherishing. It is hoped that India will work with China in the same direction, implement the important consensus reached by the two leaders, persist in being partners rather than rivals, push bilateral relations forward without stagnation or regression, place the border issue in its proper position in bilateral relations, make dialogue and cooperation the mainstream, accelerate the realization of respective development and revitalization, and jointly make due contributions to regional and world peace and prosperity.
Wang Yi concluded by saying that President Xi Jinping attended two major multilateral summits, the SCO and BRICS, in quick succession, sending a strong message of multilateralism, lighting the light of unity and cooperation amid turbulent changes, and writing a vivid chapter of helping each other in times of need (守望相助, shou wang xiang zhu - "guard, watch, mutually, help") and joint progress between China and the Global South. The wind gathers the strength of a thousand sails, and we row hard to set sail on a new voyage. We must unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, adhere to self-confidence and self-reliance, openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation, promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and continuously open up new prospects for major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, Hangzhou, September 13) (Reporter Duan Jingjing) Wang Dongfeng, Vice Chairperson and Secretary-General of the CPPCC National Committee and Chairperson of the China Economic and Social Council, met in Hangzhou on September 13 with Oliver Röpke, President of the European Economic and Social Committee, to introduce China's experience and practices in poverty reduction and in consolidating and expanding the achievements of the battle against poverty. The two sides exchanged views on leveraging the role of the China-EU Round Table platform and promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and the EU.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Colombo, September 13) (Sun Guangyong, Hannan Jilani) A symposium and exchange meeting of Sri Lankan organizations friendly toward China was held on September 12 in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Representatives from media, think tanks, and universities in China and Sri Lanka, as well as representatives from major Sri Lankan associations friendly toward China, exchanged views on further promoting the development of traditional friendly relations between China and Sri Lanka.
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, London, September 12) From September 7 to 11 local time, Yang Wanming, President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, led a delegation on an invitation to visit the United Kingdom and Norway.
During the visit to the UK, he attended the China-UK Non-Governmental Friendship Seminar and the China-UK Local Cooperation Roundtable, met with Scottish Minister for External Affairs and Energy Gillian Martin, Edinburgh Lord Mayor Robert Aldridge, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, and Salford Mayor Paul Dennett, and conducted working exchanges with heads of institutions including the Britain-China Centre, the China-Britain Business Council, the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, the UK National Committee on China, the Scotland China Association, the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, the University of Edinburgh, and King's College London.
During the visit to Norway, he attended the China-Norway Non-Governmental Friendship Symposium and met with Bente Støle, Director General of the Regional Affairs Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ole Husemoen, President of the Norway-China Friendship Association, among others.
All parties unanimously stated that they will thoroughly implement the important consensus reached between President Xi Jinping and the leaders of the UK and Norway, strengthen non-governmental friendly exchanges, enhance local practical cooperation, broaden the fields and channels of people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and contribute to new developments and new achievements in China-UK and China-Norway relations.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 王云杉 苏 滨 施 钰
Across the vast expanse of the land, an oil and gas pipeline network that is moderately forward-looking, economically efficient, regionally balanced, interconnected, green and low-carbon, safe and stable is accelerating its growth.
The "15th Five-Year Plan" for Oil and Gas Development (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") makes clear that by 2030, the scale of the national long-distance oil and gas pipeline network will reach 220,000 kilometers, and the oil and gas "one national network" will be more thoroughly connected and efficient.
How can this network better benefit the people and enterprises, and firmly hold the bottom line of energy security? Our reporter conducted an interview.
Opening up the "last kilometer" of livelihood services
"Cooking and bathing are both convenient, and daily expenses have also saved quite a bit"
At the Changshun distribution station of Guizhou Province Pipeline Network Co., Ltd. under the National Pipeline Network Group, staff are debugging equipment, completing debugging tasks item by item.
As the gas supply instruction was issued, clean natural gas surged along the pipeline, and piped natural gas in Changshun County was officially put into production recently. With this, all 6 branch lines of the "county-county connection" of natural gas in the Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province were fully connected, with the final section of the pipeline network connected to the national natural gas trunk network.
Zhang Xikai, manager of the Guiyang East Operation Area of Guizhou Province Pipeline Network Co., Ltd. under the National Pipeline Network Group, introduced that the Changshun branch line is an important node in the extension of Guizhou Province's piped natural gas transmission and distribution network to the county level, and its completion and operation has filled the gap in county-level gas supply.
One pipeline connects every household (千家万户, qian jia wan hu - "thousand, families, ten thousand, households"), opening up the "last kilometer" of livelihood services.
"Previously, cooking relied entirely on gas cylinders. Carrying the cylinders and changing the gas was physically exhausting, and I was always tense about safety." Kou Jinxing, a resident of the Tiandengpo Commercial Street residential community in Changshun County, said that in the past, a corner of the kitchen always had to be set aside to stack heavy gas cylinders, and when gas ran low, one had to run to the service outlet to exchange cylinders, and during peak holiday usage periods, one even had to queue for gas.
Now, with the natural gas pipeline connected to the residential community, the problem has been solved. Walking into Kou Jinxing's home, the kitchen is clean and bright, with gas stoves and water heaters connected to the pipeline, providing 24-hour gas supply. With a light turn of the switch, flames rise, cooking heat is stable, hot water flows continuously, and daily life is worry-free and comfortable.
"With a turn of the switch, there's fire. Cooking and bathing are both convenient, and daily expenses have also saved quite a bit." Kou Jinxing said with a smile that bidding farewell to coal smoke and steel cylinders, the home environment has taken on an entirely new look.
From carrying cylinders to exchange gas to piped gas supply, what has changed is not just the way of cooking and bathing, but more importantly, the tangible sense of gain for the people. At present, the Changshun County branch line natural gas pipeline has covered surrounding townships, with more than 28,000 users eligible to open accounts for use, and more than 3,500 households already covered.
The Plan makes clear that provincial-level pipeline networks and direct supply pipelines will be advanced in an orderly manner. The planning alignment of national trunk lines and provincial-level and below pipeline networks will be strengthened, the coverage scope of pipeline network gas supply will be enhanced, and the gas supply guarantee capacity of key cities will be strengthened.
Li Jiankang, deputy general manager of the Strategy and Execution Department of the National Pipeline Network Group, believes that striving forward in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the oil and gas "one national network" will shift from focusing on "new construction" to placing equal emphasis on "new construction + renovation + interconnection." It is necessary not only to fill shortcomings by building necessary trunk lines, but also to advance the interconnection of inter-provincial and intra-provincial pipeline networks, better unblocking pipeline network breakpoints and bottlenecks, so that more clean energy can benefit every household.
Providing stable and reliable energy guarantees for industry
"In just one month, energy costs alone have saved more than 4 million yuan"
In the Kemen Park of the Lianjiang Economic Development Zone in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, the workshop of Fujian Ruibo Glass Co., Ltd. is busy but orderly — natural gas is delivered into the plant through pipelines from the Kemen high-medium pressure pressure-regulating station, undergoes secondary pressure reduction, is transported through internal pipelines to the gas holder, and is then injected into the kiln of the float glass production line for continuous combustion, maintaining a constant high-temperature environment inside the kiln so that the molten glass remains in a liquid state.
"At this time in previous years, we would have to contact the gasification station and repeatedly verify the natural gas reserve situation." Liu Xingfu, special assistant to the chairman of Fujian Ruibo Glass Co., Ltd., introduced that once the kiln of the float production line is shut down, the molten glass inside the kiln cools and solidifies, and the entire kiln would be directly scrapped. In the past, enterprises in the Kemen Park relied for a long time on tanker trucks to transport LNG (liquefied natural gas) from outside for gas use, which was delivered to the gasification station, and after gasification was completed, it was then supplied to each enterprise's production through pipelines.
"Tanker truck transport 'depends on the weather.' Whenever severe weather such as typhoons approaches, the gasification station always reserves one tanker truck as a temporary reserve to guarantee gas supply." Liu Xingfu said.
In March of this year, the 33-kilometer-long sub-high-pressure gas pipeline of the Kemen Park was fully connected, extending all the way from the Jiangnan gate station in Lianjiang, Fuzhou, to the Kemen LNG gasification station, opening up the "last kilometer" between the national trunk line and the Kemen Park.
For enterprises, using "pipeline-transported gas" has significantly improved supply stability and made energy use more economical. "Natural gas costs account for more than 40% of our enterprise's production costs, and a 600-ton production line uses 3.4 million cubic meters of gas per month." Liu Xingfu introduced that compared with LNG transported by tanker trucks from outside, pipeline-transported gas sources implement a single annual price settlement, avoiding the disturbance of market price fluctuations in the short term. "Calculated at the current natural gas price, we save more than 4 million yuan in energy costs alone in just one month."
At present, the daily newly added pipeline-extracted gas volume of the Kemen regional pipeline-transported gas source is 130,000 cubic meters, achieving a dual gas source complementary guarantee of "pipeline transport as the mainstay, tanker truck emergency as a supplement."
According to the Plan, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the coordinated layout of gas-fired power generation and large industrial projects with national trunk lines and provincial-level pipeline networks will be strengthened. On the premise of prioritizing the use of existing facilities such as urban gas, direct supply and direct sales to large users such as key industrial parks, large enterprises, and gas-fired power plants will be supported, compressing gas supply tiers and reducing gas use costs.
"The improvement of gas supply infrastructure supporting facilities has enhanced the competitiveness of the park in attracting investment." Lin Xunbi, deputy director of the Kemen Park Service Center, introduced that the connection of the pipeline-transported gas source has filled the shortcomings of insufficient natural gas supply stability and high costs within the park, not only providing stable and reliable energy guarantees for industries such as chemicals, textiles, and new materials in the park, but also creating favorable conditions for the subsequent development of the park.
Better safeguarding China's oil and gas security
"The quantitative anchor point for the quality improvement, capacity expansion, and high-quality development of China's oil and gas infrastructure"
According to the Plan, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is expected that 20,000 kilometers of new long-distance oil and gas pipelines will be added.
"This target is not a simple expansion of scale, but rather the quantitative anchor point for the quality improvement, capacity expansion, and high-quality development of China's oil and gas infrastructure." Li Jiankang said.
Oil and gas pipelines, on one end, connect supply, and on the other end, connect consumption.
Inwardly, they must adapt to increasing oil and gas reserves and production. China is intensifying oil and gas exploration and development and efforts to increase reserves and production, and by 2030, domestic oil and gas supply will reach 440 million tons of oil equivalent. As domestic oil and gas production capacity continues to be released, new pipelines are needed to transport resources from production areas to consumer markets.
At the same time, the demand for domestic oil and gas consumption growth must be guaranteed. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with the rapid development of new energy, refined oil consumption will decline rapidly, but the consumption demand for urban gas, industrial fuel, aviation kerosene, and chemical light oil in China will continue to rise, requiring new oil and gas infrastructure to match new consumption demand and guarantee the security of oil and gas supply.
Outwardly, they must connect with strategic import channels. China is continuously strengthening international cooperation in oil and gas, continuously improving the diversified import system, and newly added overland oil and gas imports and coastal LNG resources need to rely on the "one national network" to achieve cross-regional allocation.
Around these goals, the Plan has made extensive arrangements. For example, consolidating strategic oil and gas corridors. Major projects such as the Heihe-Daqing-Changling, Hulin-Changchun-Shijiazhuang, and the second line of Sichuan Gas East Transmission will be completed; construction of the Wuqia-Turpan section of the fourth line of West-East Gas Transmission and the fifth line of West-East Gas Transmission will be started at an appropriate time, and new channels for Sichuan gas to move south will be planned, enhancing cross-regional resource allocation and emergency mutual assistance capabilities.
Another example is advancing provincial-level pipeline network construction in an orderly manner. The national trunk pipeline network is responsible for transporting resources to each province, and provincial-level pipeline networks receive the gas sources from the national trunk lines, radiating to cities and counties within the province, filling intra-provincial transmission shortcomings, and solving the problem of unbalanced gas supply among cities within the province.
Li Jiankang stated that overall, strategic corridors grasp the source, national trunk lines handle cross-regional allocation, provincial-level pipeline networks serve as intra-provincial hubs, and direct supply pipelines reach key users directly, forming a complete transmission chain with multiple sources complementing each other and multi-level dispatch. When encountering winter supply guarantees, extreme weather, or supply-demand fluctuations, resources can be rapidly reallocated across regions, better safeguarding China's oil and gas security.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 钟自炜
"Ninghua, Qingliu, Guihua, the road narrow, the forest deep, the moss slippery. Where do we head today? Straight to the foot of Mount Wuyi. Below the mountain, below the mountain, the wind unfurls red flags like a painting." In 1930, Comrade Mao Zedong wrote the poem "Dreamlike Song · New Year's Day" with a flourish of his brush. The places mentioned in the poem are precisely Ninghua County, Sanming City, Fujian Province.
Ninghua County was one of the main departure points for the Central Red Army's Long March. In 1934, approximately 14,000 soldiers of the Central Red Army set out from Ninghua on the Long March. Of the more than 6,600 Red Army soldiers from Ninghua who took part in the Long March, only 58 survived to reach northern Shaanxi.
Inside the Ninghua County Revolutionary Memorial Hall, the rich exhibits recount those years of war and flames, and the treasure of the hall is a military bugle scorebook whose pages have yellowed with age.
"This is a national first-class cultural relic — the most completely preserved 'Military Bugle Scorebook of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army' in the country," explained Yang Liting, a docent at the memorial hall. The scorebook contains more than 300 bugle call scores, with content covering information on the Red Army's daily life, training, combat commands, and more.
The owner of the scorebook was none other than Luo Guangmao, a veteran Red Army soldier from Ninghua. Luo Guangmao joined the Red Army at age 15 and became a bugler. In 1934, Luo Guangmao was seriously wounded in battle and lost contact with the main force. In order to protect the scorebook, he secretly slipped back to his hometown and handed it to his mother for safekeeping.
However, his mother had grown old and forgotten where she had hidden it. It was not until 1974, when the family renovated their house, that this scorebook, which had lain dust-covered for decades beneath the wooden boards of the grain barn, was discovered. In 1975, Luo Guangmao donated the scorebook together with the bugle mouthpiece he had used.
Having passed through the extraordinary and momentous years (峥嵘岁月, zheng rong sui yue - "lofty, steep, years"), today the red soil has sounded a resounding bugle call for inheriting and carrying forward red culture.
In Fenghuangshan Village, Huaihu Town, Ninghua County, the "Red Army Street," so named because the Red Army once stationed there, has now become a red tourism scenic area.
Fenghuangshan Village has continuously advanced the restoration of former revolutionary sites, the reconstruction of their original appearance, and the construction of cultural tourism supporting facilities, relying on the scattered revolutionary sites to create high-quality red tourism routes. "The protection and revitalization of red resources has brought various development opportunities. Last year, villagers' per capita disposable income grew to 24,500 yuan," said Wang Xinggang, secretary of the Fenghuangshan Village Party branch and director of the village committee.
In Chentang Village, Shibi Town, Ninghua County, a two-story Hakka ancient building with a courtyard is the site of the former Fourth Red Army Hospital of Chentang. Today, it has been built into a national AAA-level tourist scenic area.
"In recent years, the village has carried out red study tours, built intangible cultural heritage experience workshops, and developed immersive experience projects such as Chinese herbal medicine science popularization, Hakka lei cha making, pottery, and rubbing printing, enriching the consumption scenarios of the red scenic area," said Zhang Yanbin, secretary of the Chentang Village Party branch and director of the village committee. Red resources have been continuously transformed into momentum for rural development, and the area now attracts approximately 60,000 visitors each year.
Xie Limei, deputy director of the Ninghua County Party Committee's Office of Party History and Local Chronicles Research, introduced that in recent years Ninghua has verified and added more than 50 revolutionary sites and relics, compiled a roster of martyrs from Ninghua who died in the Battle of Xiangjiang, and revitalized red historical materials through diverse forms such as special documentaries and online knowledge competitions. "Protect well and tell well the stories of the Red Army, and hold fast to our spiritual roots," Xie Limei said.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Liu Zhiqiang) High-frequency data released by the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission show that in August, consumption vitality continued to improve. Offline consumption big data show that in August, the amount of various types of consumption payments increased by 2.6% year-on-year, with the growth rate up 0.4 percentage points from the previous month, rising for two consecutive months. The "Shouqianba" physical business vitality index, which reflects the vitality of small and medium-sized merchants, stood at 83.3, up 1.7% from the previous month, of which the holiday consumption activity index increased by 2.9% from the previous month.
In terms of investment, interest in frontier fields is heating up. In August, the amount of winning bids for computing-power-related infrastructure projects increased by nearly 80% year-on-year. Capital investment data show that in August, capital investment in frontier fields such as artificial intelligence and humanoid robots increased by 101.6% year-on-year.
In terms of foreign trade, new growth points are constantly emerging (不断涌现, bu duan yong xian - "not, continuous, emerge, appear"). In August, the departure deadweight tonnage of cargo ships from major ports increased by 16.5% year-on-year, of which container ships increased by 23.4% year-on-year, roll-on/roll-off cargo ships increased by 141.0% year-on-year, and automobiles maintained a relatively good export momentum.
In terms of industry, all regions are supported by multiple pillars and developing in a gradient pattern. In August, the industrial park production activity index of major economic provinces such as Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Fujian maintained positive growth, while provinces such as Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Guangxi grew by 7.2%, 5.1%, 4.6%, and 4.4% year-on-year respectively, with relatively prominent growth rates.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Tianjin, September 13) (Reporters Li Xiaoqing, Wang Pingping) The Ministry of Natural Resources recently released the "China Mineral Resources Report 2026."
The report shows that as of the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China ranks first in the world in proven reserves of 14 minerals, including rare earths, tungsten, and tin; and ranks among the top four in the world in proven reserves of 9 minerals, including coal, iron, manganese, and titanium. In 2025, China's geological exploration investment achieved positive growth for the fifth consecutive year, and mineral prospecting continued to make important progress. The country newly discovered 200 non-oil-and-gas mineral occurrences, including 63 large-scale, 57 medium-scale, and 80 small-scale ones.
In terms of mineral resource development and utilization, fixed-asset investment in China's mining industry achieved positive growth for the fifth consecutive year, production and supply of major mineral products remained stable, and the mineral resource industry chain and supply chain became more solid; energy mineral products such as coal, crude oil, and natural gas showed good momentum of output growth. In terms of green development of the mining industry, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the country completed restoration and treatment of 222,000 hectares of abandoned mines left over from history, exceeding the expected target task by 19.6%; in fiscal year 2025, the central government allocated 5.15 billion yuan in funds for key ecological protection and restoration treatment, continuing to advance demonstration projects for ecological restoration of abandoned mines left over from history.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 周 欢
Morning light pierced through the thin mist, spilling onto the emerald-green, short and upright sword-shaped leaves; between the leaf sheaths, rice panicles were quietly emerging. In Wenjia Village, Shinao Town, Gao'an City, Jiangxi Province, the late-season rice was growing vigorously.
"This is the booting stage of the late rice, a critical phase for yield formation. We must keep a close watch on pest conditions, especially the prevention and control of rice planthoppers and sheath blight..." Villager Zhu Xiying said as she patrolled the fields. She was not patrolling her own fields, but was hired by a large grain grower to manage the land. The villagers all called her a "field steward."
The one who hired Zhu Xiying was Ding Dan, a villager from Dingjia Village. Ding Dan, who earned his master's degree in 2015, worked elsewhere for two years before choosing to return to the village to run a grain and oil processing plant with his parents. He successively transferred more than 8,000 mu of paddy fields and hired skilled farming hands to serve as field stewards.
At first, each field steward was responsible for managing nearly 1,000 mu of paddy fields on average. "We took some detours," Zhu Xiying said. "Managing one's own small plot of land and managing hundreds or thousands of mu are two completely different things."
The first hurdle was that the management model needed optimization.
In early 2018, Zhu Xiying came on the job. When the early rice reached the yellow-ripe stage, she patrolled more than 100 mu of land on the first day and found the crop growing well; a week later, she finally finished patrolling all the plots. Little did she know that the first 100-plus mu she had patrolled developed rice planthoppers just two days later. By the time she discovered it, the plants had already withered to varying degrees, and as a result, the average yield per mu dropped by more than 300 jin.
"Some skilled farming hands excel at meticulous and intensive farming practices (精耕细作, jing geng xi zuo - "careful, meticulous; cultivate, fine; do, make") on small plots, but they may not necessarily adapt to large-scale cultivation." Ding Dan realized that managing large tracts of paddy fields tests the field steward's comprehensive judgment, planning, and coordination abilities. To this end, he brought together the field stewards and the technical team to systematically sort through field management issues. Everyone expressing their own views (各抒己见, ge shu ji jian - "each, express; self, own; opinion, view"), they generally reported that they "could not manage it all." The following year, two chief stewards were added. Field stewards regularly reported patrol conditions and farming plans to the chief stewards, who then conducted on-site spot checks, gave opinions and suggestions, and, based on the conditions of each area, staggered the scheduling of farming operations.
With the management model straightened out, why was there still a loss when the accounts were settled at year's end?
The problem lay in the second hurdle — determining the optimal area for management.
Drawing on the knowledge he had gained while studying economics and management in university, Ding Dan repeatedly reviewed the data and found: the smaller the area a field steward managed, the better the returns; those responsible for more than 1,000 mu basically all lost money.
To maximize benefits, how large an area should each field steward manage?
Recording costs throughout the process, tracking crop growth, and calculating returns, the final results showed that the smaller the area, the finer the management, and the yield was indeed higher. But when the area fell below 300 mu, costs for labor, agricultural machinery, and the like rose again, and overall benefits declined. "After comprehensive comparison, around 500 mu is the most suitable," Ding Dan said.
After the adjustment, Zhu Xiying was responsible for managing 500 mu of paddy fields. "A rotation every two or three days means problems are detected more promptly, and patrol frequency is higher," Zhu Xiying said. Since then, there have been no more cases of delayed pest and disease control.
To fully bring out the initiative of the field stewards, Ding Dan also designed a profit distribution model of "base salary + year-end dividend" — each field steward earns an average monthly salary of 4,000 yuan and can also share in a portion of the profits each year. But some field stewards also complained: "Busy from the start of the year to the end, yet we don't earn much money."
With "base salary + year-end dividend," why still no profit?
This required clearing the third hurdle — insufficient management capability.
After sorting through the records, Ding Dan and the accountant found that some field stewards had problems such as excessive fertilizer application. "Agricultural input costs were too high, literally 'eating up' half the returns." To this end, Ding Dan designed standards for agricultural input use and carried out technical training for field stewards three times a year to enhance refined management capabilities.
"Being a good field steward means gaining skills and fattening one's pockets — there is a bright future." At the end of last year, Zhu Xiying's base salary and dividends together totaled more than 100,000 yuan. The paddy fields Ding Dan had transferred achieved an average yield of more than 2,300 jin per mu; compared with five years ago, output and profit increased by 15% and 12%, respectively.
As the field steward model gradually matured, many large grain growers from the surrounding areas came to learn from it. "Some farmers believe that as long as the planting area is large, costs can be reduced and efficiency increased — this is a misconception," Ding Dan said. "The key is that management thinking and concepts must keep up, and one must maintain enthusiasm for learning about new developments in agricultural machinery, agricultural technology, and other fields." Ding Dan found that after exchanges and discussions, many large grain growers proactively explored large-scale planting models suited to the characteristics of their own plots, achieving improved quality, reduced costs, and increased efficiency.
This issue coordinated by: Zhang Anyu
Return to TopOn September 12, a super smart factory for ten-thousand-unit-scale industrial humanoid robots officially commenced production in Liuzhou, Guangxi. In recent years, Liuzhou has vigorously developed the artificial intelligence terminal and robotics industry, and the industry currently has 46 industrial enterprises above designated size.
The photo shows workers inspecting robots about to come off the production line at the super smart factory for industrial humanoid robots.
Photo by Li Hanchi (Image China)
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Ouyang Jie) The China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing recently released the "China Supply Chain Development Report (2025-2026)." The report shows that in the logistics supply chain sector, the penetration rate of artificial intelligence applications exceeds 37%, with the transportation segment ranking first at a penetration rate of 78%, while safety compliance and intelligent warehousing stand at 52.73% and 47.27% respectively; in the procurement sector, enterprises adopting intelligent procurement supply chains can improve procurement efficiency by more than 30% and shorten procurement cycles by more than 50% compared with traditional models.
The report states that in 2025, artificial intelligence applications in China's supply chain sector began to accelerate their deployment, achieving deep empowerment in such areas as procurement management, demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and risk management, significantly enhancing the responsiveness, decision-making precision, and operational resilience of supply chains.
The report states that China's supply chain going global has advanced from the early-stage "product export" and "production capacity cooperation" into a new phase of "systematic going global of the industrial and supply chains." China is accelerating its evolution from a "world factory" into a "global supply chain hub" that integrates research and development, production, logistics, and services into one.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Xiong'an, September 13) (Reporter Shao Yuzi) The Jingxiong Express Line has officially launched full-line trial operation. As a landmark project of the one-hour metropolitan circle between Beijing and Xiong'an, this full-line trial operation marks a key step toward integrated operation between the Jingxiong Express Line and the Daxing Airport Line of the Beijing Subway. Starting from Xiong'an Intercity Station, the Jingxiong Express Line spans two provinces/cities and three cities across Beijing and Hebei, with a total length of approximately 86 kilometers. It is the first rail express line in China with a design speed of 200 kilometers per hour and a bus-style operation model. Passengers only need to hold one ticket with one code to achieve convenient cross-Beijing-Hebei transfers.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Zhang Yang) Recently, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, jointly with the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Health Commission, revised and issued the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Public Institutions in the Publicity, Ideological, and Cultural Systems," the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Institutions of Higher Education," the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Primary and Secondary Schools," the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Scientific Research Public Institutions," and the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Public Hospitals" (hereinafter referred to as the "Five Measures"), further improving the management system for leaders of public institutions and providing stronger institutional safeguards for building a high-quality, professional team of leaders of public institutions.
The Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the management of leaders of public institutions. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important expositions and instructions on the reform, development, and cadre team building of public institutions in industries such as publicity, ideology, and culture; education; science and technology; and health. To implement the deployment requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Party Central Committee, in 2015 the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Leaders of Public Institutions," and in 2017 the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, jointly with relevant industry competent departments, drafted and issued the "Five Measures," forming a "1+5" institutional system with the Interim Provisions as the overarching framework and measures for key industries as supporting documents, which became the basic institutional basis for the management of leaders of public institutions and played an important role in practice. In 2022, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee revised and issued the "Provisions on the Management of Leaders of Public Institutions," and the "Five Measures," as supporting documents, needed to be revised to align with them. At the same time, the new deployments and new requirements made by the Party Central Committee for relevant industries in recent years need to be implemented and reflected, and new problems encountered in the management of leaders of public institutions also need to be studied and resolved. To this end, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, jointly with relevant industry competent departments, revised the "Five Measures."
This revision adheres to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, comprehensively implements Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building, earnestly implements the new deployments and new requirements of the Party Central Committee, implements the relevant spirit of deepening the reform of public institutions, organically links with relevant new policies and new systems revised or formulated and issued in recent years, summarizes and absorbs the good experiences and good practices explored and formed in the practice of various localities and departments, actively responds to new situations and new problems arising in work, follows the characteristics and laws of the management of leaders of public institutions in different industries, and makes targeted improvements to relevant policy measures. The newly revised "Five Measures" implement the requirements of upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership, emphasize adhering to the Party's management of cadres and the Party's management of talents, give full play to the Party organization's role in leadership and gatekeeping, and improve the Party's leadership systems and mechanisms; highlight the political requirements for leaders, making a profound understanding of the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立), strengthening the Four Consciousnesses (四个意识), firming the Four Confidences (四个自信), and achieving the Two Upholds (两个维护) the primary requirements for leaders' tenure, emphasizing the need to do solid and thorough political quality inspections and strengthen political supervision; strengthen the professional competence requirements for leaders, putting forward clear requirements for having corresponding professional backgrounds or professional work experience according to the actual conditions of different industries and job needs; reflect the orientation of establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, emphasizing in tenure goals the need to lay foundations, benefit the long term, and seek practical results, improving the content of assessment and evaluation, and focusing on prominent issues to put forward requirements for preventing and correcting deviations in the view of political achievements; aim at stimulating the vitality of public institutions, emphasizing increasing positive incentives and strengthening humanistic care; implement the requirements of strict management, further clarifying the focus of supervision on key areas and key links, and refining the specific circumstances for promoting the able and dismissing the unable in light of industry realities.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 张 洋
Recently, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, together with the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Health Commission, revised and issued the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Public Institutions in the Publicity, Ideological and Cultural System," the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Institutions of Higher Education," the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Primary and Secondary Schools," the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Scientific Research Public Institutions," and the "Measures for the Management of Leaders of Public Hospitals" (hereinafter referred to as the "Five Measures"). Responsible persons from the five ministries and commissions accepted an interview on this matter and answered reporters' questions.
Question: Please introduce the background and necessity of revising the "Five Measures"?
Answer: The Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the management of leaders of public institutions. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important expositions and instructions on the reform and development of public institutions and the building of the cadre contingent in industries such as publicity, ideological and cultural work, education, science and technology, and health. To implement the deployment requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Party Central Committee, in 2015, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Leaders of Public Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Interim Provisions"); in 2017, considering that the publicity, ideological and cultural system, institutions of higher education, primary and secondary schools, scientific research units, and public hospitals are the main body of public institutions, and that their industry characteristics are distinct, and implementing the principle of classified management of cadres, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, together with the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the former National Health and Family Planning Commission, drafted and issued the "Five Measures," forming a "1+5" institutional system with the "Interim Provisions" as the guide and supporting measures for key industries. Over the years, this institutional system has played an important role in strengthening the management of leaders of public institutions and has become the basic institutional basis for the management of leaders of public institutions. In 2022, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee revised and issued the "Provisions on the Management of Leaders of Public Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions"); as supporting documents, the "Five Measures" needed to be revised to align with them. At the same time, the new deployments and new requirements made by the Party Central Committee for related industries in recent years need to be implemented and reflected, the new spirit put forward by deepening the reform of public institutions needs to be connected and implemented, and the new problems encountered in the management of leaders of public institutions also need to be studied and solved. To this end, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, together with the relevant industry competent departments, revised the "Five Measures."
Question: Please introduce the guiding ideology and overall considerations of the revision of the "Five Measures"?
Answer: This revision adheres to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, fully implements Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building, follows the characteristics and laws of the management of leaders of public institutions in different industries, and improves relevant policies and measures in a targeted manner, so as to provide stronger institutional guarantees for building a high-quality and professional contingent of leaders of public institutions. The revision work focused on the following aspects: First, implement the new deployments and new requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Party Central Committee on the reform and development of public institutions in related industries and the building of the cadre contingent, implement the relevant spirit of deepening the reform of public institutions, align with the "Provisions," and coordinate with the cadre work policies and important industry policies issued in recent years. Second, adhere to a problem-oriented approach, focus on the common problems existing in the management of leaders in related industries, as well as the problems discovered in inspections and patrols, and put forward targeted solutions. Third, highlight industry characteristics, adapt to the public welfare, service, professional, and technical characteristics of public institutions, reflect both common requirements and consider the differences between different industries, and refine policy measures with industry characteristics that are easy to operate and implement. Fourth, implement the relevant requirements for improving the style of writing and appropriately reduce the length.
Question: What are the requirements for upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership?
Answer: This revision, centering on upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership, further clarifies relevant requirements. In the general provisions, it clearly puts forward "upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership" and "implementing the Party's organizational line and cadre work policies in the new era," and emphasizes "adhering to the Party managing cadres and the Party managing talents"; in terms of qualifications and conditions, it emphasizes "implementing democratic centralism," and requires that the secretary of the Party organization should be "politically strong, understand Party building, and understand professional work" and possess "possessing the ability to command the overall situation" (驾驭全局, jiayu juquan - "drive, control; whole, global"), etc.; in terms of selection and appointment, it emphasizes "giving full play to the leadership and gatekeeping role of the Party organization," etc. At the same time, centering on improving the Party's leadership systems and mechanisms, it puts forward requirements in the relevant industry measures for upholding and improving the administrative leader responsibility system under the leadership of the Party committee, and emphasizes "improving the deliberation and decision-making mechanism and clarifying the list of decision-making matters," etc.
Question: What are the provisions on the political requirements for leaders?
Answer: This revision adheres to putting political standards first and further strengthens the political gatekeeping for the selection of leaders. In the general provisions, it emphasizes "adhering to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide and fully implementing Xi Jinping's Thought on Party Building," etc.; in the part on conditions and qualifications for appointment, it takes "profoundly comprehending the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立), enhancing the Four Consciousnesses (四个意识), strengthening the Four Confidences (四个自信), and achieving the Two Upholds (两个维护)" as the primary requirement, and further highlights the requirements for the political quality of leaders in light of the actual conditions of the industry; in the part on selection and appointment, it emphasizes "doing a deep and solid job of political quality inspection," and further clarifies the focus of the inspection by distinguishing the characteristics of the industry; in the part on career development and incentive guarantees, it takes "Party theoretical education" and "Party spirit education" as the focus of education and training; in the part on supervision and restraint, it further highlights the requirements for political supervision and emphasizes strengthening supervision over the implementation of the Two Upholds, etc.
Question: What are the requirements for the professional competence of leaders?
Answer: This revision, based on the characteristics of the industry and the needs of the post, puts forward higher requirements for the professional competence of leaders. The measures for the publicity, ideological and cultural system emphasize "having the theoretical level, professional knowledge, and professional quality to be competent for the duties of the post, and consciously enhancing foot strength, eye strength, brain strength, and pen strength"; the measures for institutions of higher education require that "leaders who have engaged in teaching and scientific research work should generally account for about half of the members of the leading group"; the measures for primary and secondary schools emphasize that "the secretary of the Party organization should generally have more than 5 years of experience in Party affairs or educational management in the education system, and the principal should generally have more than 5 years of experience in education and teaching"; the measures for scientific research units emphasize that "the chief administrative officer and the deputy officers in charge of professional work should generally have experience in scientific research management or scientific research work in the industry field"; the measures for hospitals emphasize "having more than 5 years of experience in medical and health work or management experience in other related fields," etc.
Question: What are the provisions on improving the assessment and evaluation system?
Answer: This revision, with a view to improving the assessment and evaluation system for the leading groups and leaders of public institutions that reflects the characteristics of the industry, highlights the need to "pay attention to differentiation, enhance targeting, and effectively give play to the role of assessment as a baton." In terms of assessment content, it further highlights the key points according to the characteristics of different industries. For example, the measures for the publicity, ideological and cultural system emphasize "strengthening the responsibility for the management of ideological positions"; the measures for institutions of higher education and primary and secondary schools emphasize "strengthening the requirements for the construction of teachers' professional ethics and conduct"; the measures for scientific research units emphasize "highlighting scientific and technological innovation capability, quality, effectiveness, and contribution"; the measures for hospitals emphasize "paying attention to aligning with the performance monitoring work of public hospitals and preventing the tendency to pursue profit," etc. In terms of assessment methods, it emphasizes "paying attention to listening to the opinions and evaluations of service objects" and "optimizing procedures," etc. In terms of the determination of assessment results, with reference to relevant provisions and in light of the actual conditions of public institutions in the industry, it makes specific provisions on the proportion of the annual assessment of leading groups and leaders rated as excellent, providing a policy basis for practical operation.
Question: What are the provisions on improving the exchange and recusal systems for leaders?
Answer: The "Provisions" revised and issued in 2022, in response to problems such as the relatively few exchanges of leaders of public institutions and the insufficiently standardized recusal, specifically added a chapter on "exchange and recusal" and clarified the relevant requirements. This revision of the "Five Measures," according to the characteristics and actual conditions of different industries, further makes targeted provisions. In terms of exchange, with a view to optimizing the layout of higher education and the allocation of regional educational resources, the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education and urban-rural integration, and promoting the expansion and sinking of high-quality medical resources and the balanced layout of regions, it puts forward requirements for the exchange of leaders of institutions of higher education, primary and secondary schools, and public hospitals respectively. At the same time, it emphasizes that attention should be paid to giving full play to the professional expertise of leaders with strong professionalism in exchange, so as to prevent misallocation of resources and waste of talent. In terms of recusal, considering that the "Provisions" and the "Provisions on Recusal in Personnel Management of Public Institutions" already have specific provisions, this revision of the "Five Measures" clearly states that "the scope and circumstances of recusal shall be implemented in accordance with relevant provisions." At the same time, in response to phenomena such as "academic nepotism" in public institutions such as institutions of higher education, scientific research units, and public hospitals, it clarifies that leaders should recuse themselves when, in the course of performing their duties, they are involved in graduate students directly supervised by them, their own academic team and the interests of its members, or other circumstances that may affect the fair performance of their duties; for primary and secondary schools in rural areas, remote and impoverished areas, and other small-scale or special circumstances, it clarifies that the recusal of leaders from appointment can be handled according to the actual situation.
Question: What are the policies on career development and incentive guarantees for leaders?
Answer: This revision, with a view to encouraging leaders to take responsibility and act, engaging in entrepreneurial activities and work (干事创业, ganshi chuanye - "do, affairs; start, business"), fully mobilizing their enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity, further improves relevant measures in light of the actual conditions of the industry. First, strengthen the requirements for training and education, clarify the key training content by industry, and require that "in principle, leaders should be covered by training in full every 5 years." Second, emphasize improving the normalized working mechanism for cultivating and selecting outstanding young cadres, and require primary and secondary schools and public hospitals to "strengthen the cultivation and reserve of compound leaders who are strong in both Party building and professional work." Third, emphasize implementing the normal growth mechanism for wages and deepening the reform of the income distribution system, and clarify that leaders of institutions of higher education and scientific research units "may obtain rewards for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in accordance with relevant provisions." Fourth, emphasize improving the list of powers and responsibilities between the government and public institutions and guaranteeing the autonomy of the units in accordance with regulations. Fifth, emphasize increasing positive incentives and strengthening humanistic care and concern for physical and mental health, etc.
Question: What are the requirements for implementing strict management?
Answer: This revision, conscientiously implementing the requirements of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party and strict management of cadres, and according to the characteristics and actual conditions of the industry, puts forward a series of measures for standardized management and strict requirements. The main ones are: taking "strictly abiding by political discipline and political rules" as the basic condition for the appointment of leaders; emphasizing in selection and appointment "strictly checking the political pass, moral conduct pass, ability pass, work style pass, and integrity pass"; further improving the relevant content of the tenure system and the tenure target responsibility system in light of the actual conditions of the industry, and putting forward requirements for doing a good job of the handover of the main responsible persons of the leading group; strengthening the application of assessment results and clarifying that they should be used as an important basis for the construction of the leading group and the selection and appointment, training and education, management and supervision, incentive and restraint, and accountability of leaders; focusing on key areas and key links, and further clarifying the focus of supervision by distinguishing different industries; implementing the requirements for promoting the promotion and demotion of leading cadres, and improving the specific circumstances under which those who are unsuitable for their current posts should be adjusted by industry, etc.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 吴 月
Guo Shaoqing is a professor at Northwest Normal University, yet he loves to visit primary and secondary schools. The more remote the school, the more it tugs at his heart. As a scholar in the field of educational technology, he continuously explores using digital technology to promote educational equity, writing his papers on the fields of rural education.
Before this year's Teachers' Day, Guo Shaoqing led graduate students into primary and secondary schools in Longde County, Guyuan City, Ningxia. They brought small stools and sat in the back of classrooms to observe lessons, pondering how to further improve local education quality through technologies such as artificial intelligence.
From Lanzhou, Gansu, to Guyuan, Ningxia, the journey takes nearly four hours; after daytime research visits, he would lead students in discussions late into the night. Is it hard? "It's nothing. Compared to earlier years, conditions in every way are much better!" Guo Shaoqing said.
Traversing mountains and ridges (翻山越岭, fan shan yue ling - "cross, mountain, leap, ridge") and staying rooted at the front line have become Guo Shaoqing's normal working pattern. In his view, "Theory cannot be left on the bookshelf; it must go into the fields and be planted in the soil of the rural classroom." In 41 years of teaching, he has never stopped moving, committed to using digital technology to build bridges across mountains and rivers, so that quality educational resources benefit millions of rural children.
His concern for rural education began with explorations many years ago. In 1999, at a consultation meeting on using technology to promote rural education development, Guo Shaoqing put forward an idea: could digital communication satellites be used to deliver quality urban curriculum resources to remote villages?
Hauling cement, erecting satellite antennas, and adjusting signals, Guo Shaoqing and his team carried out practices in Huining County and Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County in Gansu, bringing the quality courses of the Primary School Affiliated to Northwest Normal University to the countryside. Later, this model was promoted in the Modern Distance Education Project for Rural Primary and Secondary Schools.
"What I can never forget is the light shining in the children's eyes when they saw the outside world through the screen," Guo Shaoqing said. At that time, he deeply felt the significance of educational technology. "At that moment I became even more convinced: enabling every child to receive fair and quality education is the mission of us educators. This is something worth doing for a lifetime."
Over the years, technology has developed rapidly, and Guo Shaoqing has continuously discovered and solved educational problems through practice.
In response to the problem of weak courses such as music and fine arts in some rural schools, Guo Shaoqing proposed in 2019 a new model of teaching support services by normal universities, allowing senior normal students to teach rural children through online classrooms. Eight normal universities in Gansu Province participated in this model, benefiting more than 400 rural schools in 16 counties.
"At a primary school in Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, when a normal student was giving a music lesson to third graders, first and second graders also gathered outside the window to listen. Later, the principal gathered the children together for class, and moving singing echoed across the campus." Guo Shaoqing's student Shen Junru recalled. "This showed me the genuine needs of rural children and strengthened my determination to use technology to empower rural education."
In response to the problem of rural schools lacking full-time science education teachers and equipment, Guo Shaoqing also proposed solutions, using intelligent learning centers to build a new ecology for rural science education and developing a science curriculum platform.
Now, in the science class at Xike Primary School in Ganjia Town, Xiahe County, Gansu, students use tablet computers to scan QR codes in their guided learning manuals, allowing them to study videos on the National Smart Education Platform and converse with a science education intelligent agent. This solution has been implemented in rural schools in Guangxi, Gansu, and other places, and the light of science has lit up the dreams of more rural children.
"The students saw silkworm babies for the first time through videos, and there was also a teacher who designed a Chinese language class integrating artificial intelligence. Scene after scene like this made me understand what Teacher Guo often says: 'Sitting only in the library, you cannot write good articles.'" Doctoral student Song Yu said. "By staying rooted in rural schools and feeling the changes of front-line teachers and students, research has more confidence behind it."
As a teacher at a normal university, Guo Shaoqing's teaching by both words and example (言传身教, yan chuan shen jiao - "speech, transmit, body, teach") influences his students and also shapes the future "gardeners."
"When going to remote mountainous areas and high-altitude regions for research, Teacher Guo eats and lives together (同吃同住, tong chi tong zhu - "same, eat, same, live") with us. During the day he visits to understand the needs of teachers and students, and at night he leads us in discussions until late, working even harder than us young people!" Doctoral student Hua Xiaoyu said. "After graduation, I want to strive to become a teacher like him—warm, steadfast, and responsible."
Over the years, Guo Shaoqing has cultivated more than 130 graduate students. Like dandelion seeds, they fly to places where the country needs them, injecting vitality into rural education.
This Teachers' Day, Guo Shaoqing again received messages from students across the country. Wang Jiayang, who works at a university in Yunnan, voluntarily took a temporary post at the grassroots level to promote technology-empowered education; Shen Junru, who once researched the normal student teaching support model, returned to teach at a normal university in his hometown of Henan, cultivating new normal students... Seed after seed is taking root and sprouting in the fertile soil of rural education.
Return to TopOn September 13, at the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon scenic area in Hunan, the high-altitude glass bridge spanning the valley attracted tourists arriving in large numbers (纷至沓来, fen zhi ta lai - "arrive, continuously, flood, come") from all over. The photo shows visitors experiencing and enjoying themselves on the high-altitude glass bridge.
Photo by Wu Yongbing (People's Vision)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 姚雪青
As night fell, on the small square of the D9 Block in Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu, a row of wooden installations lit up with warm-colored lights.
This is a movable "cultural caravan." Under its semi-transparent canopy, books and posters are neatly arranged, a few children sit in a circle doing handicrafts, and adults sit nearby enjoying the cool air. Lately, the caravan has become a favorite spot for nearby residents.
"Brother, how is this made?" Xiao Ding, a 7-year-old boy living in a nearby residential community, was drawn to the colorful pinwheels hanging on the "cultural caravan," so he tugged at the "instructor" — Hu Yuhan, a graduate student at the School of Architecture of Southeast University — and asked him to teach him how to make a pinwheel.
Hu Yuhan handed Xiao Ding a paper cup and began teaching him step by step — first, cut the cup wall into four petals to form the shape of a pinwheel; then cut decorations out of colored ribbon and glue them onto the pinwheel's "blades"; finally, thread a paper straw through the bottom of the cup, and a colorful pinwheel is complete. When the night breeze blew, the pinwheel spun with a whirring sound.
"I recognize all these characters, but what do they mean when put together?" Xiao Ding pointed at the words "green," "architecture," "environmental protection," and "space" on the display board and asked. Hu Yuhan patiently explained: "The cups, straws, and colored ribbons are all unused idle materials that we collected from nearby supermarkets and residential communities. This is called turning waste into something valuable (变废为宝, bian fei wei bao - "change, waste, become, treasure"). The 'cultural caravan' is made of biodegradable wood, which saves resources and reduces waste — that is green architecture."
This "cultural caravan" is the "social practice assignment" of students at the School of Architecture of Southeast University.
Gao Yuanhao, a graduate student at the School of Architecture of Southeast University and the lead designer of the "cultural caravan," introduced that last semester, Jiang Nan, deputy director of the Department of Architecture at the School of Architecture, offered a graduate design course themed "Activating Urban Renewal with Movable Cultural Facilities." Around this theme, the students discussed: what kind of installation could both add vitality to old residential communities and popularize environmental knowledge? Everyone conducted research and design, and drew this "cultural caravan" on paper: the top is a solar canopy, the middle is a wooden display rack and seating, and the bottom is fitted with wheels so it can move flexibly.
The drawings were completed, but the course continued — the "cultural caravan" was to be pushed out to the street block to undergo the test of practice.
"Questions such as how the 'cultural caravan' can achieve standardized production, what seat height is convenient for children to use, and how large the characters on the display board need to be for the elderly to read clearly were all resolved one by one under the teachers' guidance," Gao Yuanhao said. What impressed him most was that as soon as the "cultural caravan" was transported to the street block's small square, it attracted many residents to gather around.
By day, the "cultural caravan" serves as an outdoor display board and reading corner, with solar panels charging the built-in battery; by night, it transforms into a community living room, where neighbors sit together chatting under the lights. In addition to teaching children to make pinwheels, the team members also planned a series of activities. "Some old residential communities in the main urban area lack public living space, and they are precisely in need of the 'cultural caravan' to beautify the community environment and bring everyone together," Hu Yuhan said.
"This is a practical course held in the community, with school-local cooperation and joint education," Jiang Nan introduced. Through the two-way empowerment of classroom education and social practice, the school encourages students to combine social needs with professional development, solving real problems and honing real skills in real-world settings.
Gao Yuanhao said that for him, urban renewal used to be a concept that remained on the pages of books, but the "cultural caravan," having gone from drawings to a physical object and from the classroom to society, allowed him to truly feel, in empowering communities and popularizing environmental protection, that promoting the functional transformation, business upgrading, and vitality enhancement of old street blocks is concrete and necessary. "I want to design more buildings that are both attractive and practical, to better serve people's livelihoods," Gao Yuanhao said.
Return to TopTo take on responsibility and act, one must not only improve execution but also enhance creativity. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized, "Every Communist Party member must, with a strong sense of mission, shoulder the responsibilities that ought to be shouldered, keep pace with the demands of the times, keep pace with the demands of practice, keep pace with the demands of the people, and carry out work creatively." In this installment of "Everyone's Discussion," we have selected three contributions to share with our broad readership, reflecting together on how to enhance creativity in grassroots work.
—Editor
The Meticulous Effort Cannot Be Omitted
Shi Yaqi, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia
A grassroots cadre shared his work insights: "At first, I always wanted to have 'clever little ideas,' to win with a single move. Later, I discovered that the truly effective methods are often 'painstaking effort.'" Many colleagues deeply concur with this.
Only when one puts in deep effort can one grasp the situation accurately. When going from village to village and door to door, one often hears the saying, "One must go along with the temperament of the soil." Doing grassroots work well is the same. Each lock has its own key; which plot of land is suitable for growing what, which village is suitable for developing what — all of this requires settling one's mind, doing solid and down-to-earth investigation and research, and getting a clear picture of the "temperament of the soil." If one skips this meticulous effort, sooner or later one will have to come back and make up for it.
Painstaking effort is not foolish. Only after putting in painstaking effort can one develop good ideas. Why is it that some things are done, yet the masses do not appreciate them? In many cases, it is because the cadres are enthusiastic on one side while the masses watch from the sidelines. Sitting on the low benches in the masses' homes, accepting the coarse porcelain bowls they hand over, visiting and communicating with each household one by one — this not only allows for a deep understanding of what the masses are thinking, hoping for, and expecting, but also brings everyone's hearts together, and can also pool wisdom and ideas to increase effectiveness (集思广益, ji si guang yi - "collect, thoughts, broaden, benefits") and find good methods.
The world of the grassroots favors those who put in painstaking effort. Methods come from the soil, feelings grow through interaction, and trust is accumulated through solid work. Taking steady, incremental steps (一步一个脚印, yi bu yi ge jiao yin - "one, step, one, foot, print"), stepping firmly before taking the next step, one can blaze a good path forward.
Guard Against "Sand-Grasping" Implementation
Zubaida·Tohudahong, Fuyun County, Xinjiang
During grassroots visits, one hears a saying — "sand-grasping" implementation, meaning that although one appears to exert great effort to grasp sand, in reality all the sand slips through the fingers. "Sand-grasping" implementation makes it difficult to achieve work results and undermines the masses' trust.
The emergence of this phenomenon is due both to deviations in work attitude and to problems with work methods. Some cadres treat "having done it" as "having done it well," treat "leaving traces" as "achievements," using busy processes to cover up hollow results and avoiding deep-seated contradictions; others lack systematic thinking, trying to handle everything at once without prioritization (眉毛胡子一把抓, mei mao hu zi yi ba zhua - "eyebrow, beard, one, handful, grab"), appearing to cover everything but in reality doing things superficially without going deep (浅尝辄止, qian shang ze zhi - "shallow, taste, then, stop"). All of this makes it difficult for implementation to truly reach the mark.
To solve this problem, it requires not only cadres themselves to correct their view of political achievements and master work methods, but also institutional reform and innovation. From the perspective of cadres, on the one hand, they need to strengthen their sense of responsibility, do less "paperwork skill," and solve more concrete problems; on the other hand, they need to distinguish priorities and sequence, identify and grasp the "ox nose" (the key link), avoid doing things in a haphazard, uncoordinated manner (东一榔头西一棒槌, dong yi lang tou xi yi bang chui - "east, one, hammer, west, one, club"), and achieve targeted force and precise problem-solving. From the perspective of mechanisms, the orientation toward actual results should be strengthened: for matters that have been decided, track each one closely and advance them in a closed loop; for problems that have been solved, regularly conduct "look-back" reviews; at the same time, expand the weight of public evaluation, so that those who do real work have motivation and those who put on "showy displays" are constrained.
Standing on "substance" and measuring by "results" — only then can we respond to the masses' expectations with solid, tangible achievements.
Being Skilled at "Threading the Needle"
Li Lin, Guiyang, Guizhou
When I first arrived at the grassroots, a senior colleague told me: "Grassroots work is like doing needlework — you can't rush it, you can't be false about it; you have to thread it stitch by stitch, and guide it step by step." Working in street-level services for the "elderly, young, low-income, and vulnerable" groups, I have felt the truth of these words deeply.
The thread must be fine. A few years ago, during community screening, we identified a single mother who was paralyzed on one side, raising a minor daughter alone and living in difficulty. We did not stop at helping her apply for subsistence allowances; we also connected her with a handicraft workshop so she could increase her income through labor. Twisting the thread finer, thinking one more layer ahead, doing one more step — only then can good deeds be done well.
The needle must be precise. The policies for safeguarding disadvantaged groups have many provisions; for good policies to benefit the masses, staff must thoroughly understand the policies while also accurately grasping the complex circumstances of different families. Thoroughly understanding the higher-level situation and connecting with the lower-level situation — only then can the embroidery needle land precisely where it should.
The hand must be steady. When the hand is steady, the stitches will be even, and the embroidered garment will look good. A steady hand comes from deep understanding of the material, and also from polishing one's craft day after day. Regularly visiting disadvantaged residents, dynamically following up with one file per person, ensuring every appeal receives a response... As grassroots cadres, we must make daily work deeper, more solid, and more meticulous.
Those who attend to small things achieve great things; accumulating small successes to achieve great things (积微成著, ji wei cheng zhu - "accumulate, tiny, become, prominent"). Threading finely, placing the needle precisely, and guiding the needle with care — one can embroider a beautiful picture stitch by stitch.
Return to TopBy: 潘俊强
Stepping into the 2026 World Robot Conference site, one impression comes straight at you: embodied intelligence is shedding its "performance attribute" and becoming more pragmatic and capable.
Through a mini-program, audience members place random orders, and Xinghaitu robots independently recognize and complete the entire sequence of actions from order-taking to delivery; in the "human-machine symbiotic immersive robot coffee space," Boundless Power robots provide services such as beverage delivery, table cleaning, and chair repositioning... Unlike previous performances of somersaults and dancing, the services of embodied intelligence today are closer to everyday needs.
In developing embodied intelligence, a practical and hands-on approach (真刀真枪, zhen dao zhen qiang - "real knife, real gun") to solving problems is the hard truth. Theoretically speaking, embodied intelligence can be widely applied in fields such as industrial manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, emergency rescue, border inspection and security, and domestic services. But like all emerging equipment, for robots to make the leap from "moving on the stage" and "running on the competition field" to "being used in the home" and "working in the factory," they must also complete the transformation and upgrading of outcomes from "small-batch trial use" to "large-scale deployment." Promoting precise matching between supply and demand is precisely the key move for stimulating the real productive force of robots.
High-level supply-demand matching requires both stimulating new demand through new supply and leading new supply with new demand. Looking back at previous World Robot Conferences, embodied intelligence was still in the "popularization period," with exhibitors mainly selling complete machines and promotional highlights focused on hardware appearance and demonstration effects. Today, the "solution subscription" model is becoming popular. For example, in the JD.com exhibition area at this year's conference, sections such as "Cyber Training Camp," "Real-Scene Industrial Park," and "Future Life Home" collectively showcased the real-scene deployment capabilities of embodied intelligence.
Relying on a solid manufacturing foundation and mature application deployment advantages, providing personalized solutions tailored to buyers' production scenarios is precisely the core competitiveness of China's intelligent manufacturing. Enterprises both deepen hardware manufacturing and refine intelligent algorithms; the business model of embodied intelligence is evolving from one-time transactions to iterative operations and maintenance. Is this not a vivid footnote to the deep integration and mutual promotion of advanced manufacturing and modern services?
To promote achieving long-term steady development (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk steadily, reach far") of embodied intelligence, coordinated efforts across the entire industrial chain are indispensable. The "Global Robot Application Exploration Plan" has been launched, selecting 1,000 application scenarios worldwide each year for free trial use and secondary development; the World Model Expert Committee of the Chinese Institute of Electronics has been established to set the direction for technological evolution; the OpenAtom Open Source Foundation has released a talent certification system for the humanoid robot open-source community, pooling the wisdom of global developers... Seeking cooperation through openness and pooling strength through coordination has become a distinctive feature of the development of China's embodied intelligence industry.
From the national-local co-built Embodied Intelligence Robot Innovation Center establishing the "Hui Si Kai Wu" open-source ecosystem, to computing power enterprises consolidating the intelligent computing foundation, to platform enterprises advancing ten-million-hour-level data collection plans... Looking ahead, by singing well the "grand chorus" of collaborative innovation among industry, academia, research, and application, and continuously improving the industrial ecosystem jointly composed of "brain," "cerebellum," "body," "data," and "computing power," the foundation for industrial development will become increasingly solid.
At present, embodied intelligence technology still has shortcomings in its ability to adapt to the real world, and application scenarios still need further expansion. From exhibition booths to workshops, from pilot projects to scale, by pooling collective wisdom and strength (凝聚众智众力, ning ju zhong zhi zhong li - "condense, public wisdom, public strength"), driving product iteration and upgrading with application as the traction, and promoting a two-way push between supply and demand, we can help this strategic new technology accelerate its empowerment of a thousand industries and make it a bright new calling card of innovative China.
(The author is a reporter of the Beijing branch of this newspaper)
Return to TopBy: 靳 山
[Phenomenon] Not long ago, the People's Court of Shijingshan District, Beijing concluded a dispute case involving the inheritance of online game accounts, drawing public attention and discussion to the inheritance of digital legacies. In response to a mother's claim to inherit the 87 game accounts registered by her son during his lifetime, the court, after trial, determined that online game accounts fall within the category of network virtual property, that the user enjoys a right of use over the accounts, and that this right of use is inheritable, and ruled that the game company must cooperate in handling the change of real-name authentication information. This is another case in which game accounts have been recognized as virtual property in judicial practice. In reality, however, digital legacy inheritance still faces many obstacles that need to be overcome.
[Commentary]
In the digital age, many people leave rich personal footprints in the digital world. When a person passes away, what fate awaits these digital traces? Can digital legacies be inherited like traditional legacies? As digital technology accelerates its penetration into the capillaries of production and daily life, unraveling these question marks has become increasingly urgent.
Some people may have such doubts: how is it that the game accounts I spent money on cannot be inherited? Can I not enjoy the income brought by the online store that my loved one painstakingly operated for years? These thoughts are all consistent with common sense and common feeling. But in reality, the problems that digital legacy inheritance must solve are far more complex than anticipated.
First, standards have yet to be improved. The concept of digital legacy is not explicitly mentioned in relevant legal norms, and there is no unified classification standard for its content or form. Categories generally include monetary types (such as balances in social accounts), account types (such as social media accounts and game accounts), and digital information types (such as chat records and cloud drive photos). Some judicial practice divides them into property-type, personality-type, and mixed-type. The differences between different types of digital legacies are considerable, and whether they can be inherited and how they should be inherited clearly cannot be subject to making sweeping generalizations (一概而论, yi gai er lun - "one, generally, discuss").
Second, gaps remain in the law. Article 127 of the Civil Code clarifies the basic position that network virtual property is protected by law, but how specifically to protect it still lacks clear provisions and operational norms. Some legal professionals have stated that in recent years the number of lawsuits related to digital legacies in China has grown relatively quickly, but many cases have remained unresolved for a long time (久拖不决, jiu tuo bu jue - "long, drag, not, decide") or cannot be executed due to legal gaps and technical barriers.
The complexity of the issue also stems from the large number of parties involved. Take social accounts, for example: some people want to preserve beautiful memories of their loved ones through inheritance, but if handled improperly, this could lead to privacy leaks and damage to personal dignity. This privacy concerns not only the decedent but also a large amount of other people's private information. Moreover, the inheritance of accounts cannot bypass platforms, and many platforms stipulate in their agreements that "account ownership belongs to the platform, and users only enjoy the right of use." Digital legacies are invisible and something intangible or impossible to grasp (摸不着, mo bu zhao - "touch, not, reach"), and their protection and inheritance face many unforeseeable risks, which determines that related work must be comprehensively considered and made with great caution (审慎落子, shen shen luo zi - "careful, drop, chess piece") in the course of advancement.
It cannot be rushed, nor can it be delayed. Data show that as of December 2025, China's internet user base reached 1.125 billion people, the internet penetration rate exceeded 80 percent, and the scale of online game users reached 573 million people. From the gradual advancement of age-friendly adaptation from improving "basic functions" such as enlarging fonts to "experience optimization" such as reducing advertisements, to some mobile phone manufacturers and internet companies allowing users to designate legacy contacts, to the Personal Information Protection Law and the "Measures for Identifying Illegal and Non-compliant Collection and Use of Personal Information by Apps" building a solid barrier for personal information security, only by continuing to explore and innovate without stopping and to establish rules and regulations without ceasing can we better seize opportunities and meet challenges, allowing the fruits of digital development to benefit more people.
The message conveyed by the film "Coco" has moved many people: death is not the end of life; forgetting is. In the digital age, as people fight against "time" and "forgetting," the rule of law is an indispensable tool.
Digital legacies not only have property attributes but also carry stories and pasts worth remembering. In this sense, regulating the identification, protection, and inheritance of digital legacies so that they are properly handled is not only a legal issue but also concerns the continuation of memory and emotion and the warmth of digital civilization construction.
Return to TopThe latest data from the State Administration for Market Regulation show that in 2025, total sales of organic products in China exceeded 152.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%. Over the past five years, the average annual compound growth rate of organic product sales has been 10%. Organic consumption is gradually shedding its niche label and beginning to integrate into the daily consumption of the general public, becoming an important force in driving the upgrade of green consumption and promoting the green transformation of agriculture.
Here is a verse:
One bite brings a mouthful of fragrance,
Natural flavor benefits health.
The tide of consumption trends has turned,
Green agriculture writes a new chapter.
Cheng Senwen
Return to TopBy: 宋东泽
Taking a ride in a driverless taxi and checking in at the "Eye of Shenzhen"; heading to the beaches of Wenchang, Hainan, to admire the coconut-palm scenery while waiting for a rocket to soar into the sky; stepping into a smart factory to watch robotic arms work with high efficiency and feel the extraordinary charm of the factory of the future... As the popularity of "China Travel" continues to climb, a distinctive new trend of "technology tourism" is quietly catching on.
In the past, foreign tourists came to China mostly to visit renowned mountains and rivers (名山大川, ming shan da chuan - "famous, mountain, big, river") and savor Chinese cuisine, but today many people are no longer satisfied with "seeing the sights" — they come specifically to "see the future." A Malaysian tourist put it plainly: "What you see on a screen is not real. I want to experience with my own eyes how amazing life here is."
The rise of "technology tourism" is underpinned by China's ever-growing hard strength in scientific and technological innovation. Just look at the track record of recent years: the "Jiutian" drone completed its maiden flight; "Tianwen-2" flew into deep space to "chase the stars"; the superconducting quantum computing prototype "Zuchongzhi 3.0" was unveiled; the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, a major scientific facility in Guangdong, was put into operation; and domestically developed AI large models are deeply engaged in global innovation... A set of hard data is even more convincing: in 2025, China's total spending on research and experimental development grew 8.1 percent year on year, and R&D intensity reached 2.8 percent, surpassing the average level of OECD member countries for the first time.
The appeal of technology comes from "being there." A French tourist captured the awe-inspiring scene of the rocket launch at Wenchang and took the initiative to share it on social media platforms, recommending that other tourists check it out; a Brazilian tourist walked into the Leapmotor smart factory and, after watching the robotic arms perform their "group calisthenics," remarked: "China is no longer just manufacturing goods — it is creating cutting-edge technology." That is no exaggeration. When innovation moves from the laboratory to the production line and then becomes a "sight" in the eyes of tourists, this real-world transformation is more effective than any promotional video.
Now that "technology tourism" is booming, it is all the more important to think about how to continuously enrich the supply of technology-and-culture tourism offerings and truly "weld" scientific and technological innovation resources together with tourism resources. Looking to the long term, we should further integrate urban smart-city scenarios, research venues, and industrial tourism sites to create differentiated, themed technology tourism routes; we should also continue to improve supporting services for inbound tourism, open up science-and-innovation scenarios to the public, and balance the needs of general sightseeing with those of professional study tours, so that more cutting-edge innovation outcomes can step out of laboratories and industrial parks and come before the public.
The long-standing tradition (源远流长, yuan yuan liu chang - "source, distant, flow, long") of Chinese civilization is our confidence, and the full vigor and vitality (蓬勃向上, peng bo xiang shang - "thriving, upward") of innovation is our vitality; together they sketch a complete, truthful, approachable, and credible image of China. Riding the tailwind of "technology tourism" and continuously offering technology-and-culture tourism products that are perceivable, interactive, and extendable, we will surely attract more and more friends from overseas to come to China and understand China.
(Excerpted and adapted from Liaoning Daily, original title: "'Technology Tourism' Opens Another Window onto Understanding China")
Return to TopBy: 邹 翔
Recently, an American friend, "Sycus," reunited with desertification-control model Yin Yuzhen after 26 years apart. This friendship, spanning mountains, seas, and time, has moved many people and also shown more people the Chinese people's special affection for "planting trees."
The Chinese people love planting trees. They plant in the cracks of rocks on islands, deep in the deserts of Xinjiang, and on the northern Tibetan Plateau, overcoming challenges such as high altitude, strong winds, poor soil, and low ground temperatures. They turn barren mountains into green hills and transform the Gobi into oases.
The Chinese people are skilled at planting trees. In the past, they carried saplings on their shoulders and backs; now, drones precisely transport saplings to planting sites. They first use straw checkerboard barriers to stabilize sand, plant shrubs such as willow and caragana, and only after the sandy ground is stabilized do they plant trees, improving sapling survival rates. In 2025, China completed 127 million mu of land greening tasks, and during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China contributed one-quarter of the world's newly added green area.
Why this fondness for and persistence in planting trees?
"It is very meaningful." General Secretary Xi Jinping once cordially told the Young Pioneers planting trees with him: "In 10 years, in 20 years, you can return to this place to see how the saplings you planted with your own hands have grown." Continuously thickening the "green family foundation" means increasing advantages and planting for the future.
"Planting trees" has value that goes beyond the trees themselves. It is desertification control, forest development, enriching the people, and the green, low-carbon transition. The "green scarf" planted in the Taklamakan Desert has given rise to new business forms such as specialty planting and economic forests, bringing new development opportunities. The sense of responsibility for our planetary home carries a strong sense of value.
The sense of value stems from a sense of certainty. Digging the hole, placing the sapling, backfilling the soil, and watering—every step is visible and tangible. Every bend, squat, and swing of the shovel turns the grand narrative of expanding, revitalizing, and protecting green spaces into a tangible, achievable practice.
A sense of certainty is a spiritual force. The 200,000 mu of trees painstakingly planted were damaged by a severe ice storm, and 126,000 mu of trees died in a once-in-a-century drought... They replanted what fell, and replanted what withered, and only thus was the million-mu forest sea of Saihanba created, along with the Saihanba spirit of remembering the mission, working hard under difficult conditions, and pursuing green development. A sense of certainty also manifests as the power to act. In the desert of Minqin, Gansu, more than 80,000 volunteers from across the country have planted over 2 million saplings, with public-interest afforestation area exceeding 6,500 mu. Not every sapling survives, so why do people come year after year to plant trees? As long as you plant, there will be hope.
Those who plant trees are also like saplings.
What does saxaul taste like? A friend who returned from the Aksu Prefecture of Xinjiang said, "Bitter and salty!" The local soil is heavily saline-alkaline, and shallow groundwater is mostly bitter and salty. The saxaul "absorbs" the bitterness of the land, giving rise to the million-mu oasis of the Kekeya desert. The people here can also endure hardship, generation after generation, "planting" their youth in the Gobi and nurturing the sweetness of industry on barren, bitter land.
A sense of certainty does not mean yielding immediate results (立竿见影, li gang yi ying - "stand, pole, immediately, shadow"), just as not every planting yields blossoms and fruit. By choosing the right methods and approaches, planting one crop after another, and working generation after generation, we will surely see providing lush shade with greenery (绿树成荫, lv shu cheng yin - "green, tree, become, shade"), turning the bitterness of planting trees and the "bitter trees" planted into the sweetness of fruit.
Some say planting trees is a form of romanticism—it signifies change, rebirth, and permanence. Every citizen has the obligation to plant trees, and everyone can plant a tree in their heart—it can be a career, a conviction, a good habit, or a "small but certain happiness." Once you have set your mind on it, do not hesitate; with unswerving persistence (坚持不懈, jian chi bu xie - "persist, not, unremitting") in watering, tending the soil, and caring for it, it will become our anchor of value, transforming into the courage and resolve to traverse wind and sand.
The Chinese people's love of planting trees is influencing the world. With the assistance of Chinese technology and experience, vegetation coverage in pilot areas of Mauritania has increased from 3 percent to 22 percent, and more than 2,000 herders in Niger have increased their incomes through ecological projects... The Chinese people's "trees" have crossed the oceans, sowing the future in foreign lands. Is not the green spreading across the earth yet another precious certainty that China offers to the world?
Rather than waiting, it is better to act. The best time to plant a tree is now.
Return to TopBy: 中共中央党史和文献研究院
When the grassroots are strong, the country is strong; when the grassroots are secure, the world is secure. Whether during his time working in local positions or after moving to work at the central level, Comrade Xi Jinping has always valued the grassroots, cared about the grassroots, gone deep into the grassroots, and supported the grassroots, exploring and forming a series of grassroots work methods of great theoretical significance and practical value, scientifically answering major theoretical and practical questions such as what the grassroots are, how to go deep into the grassroots, and how to serve the grassroots, and greatly enriching the Party's ideological treasury of grassroots work methods with a series of creative new concepts, new ideas, and new judgments, providing important guidance and a guide to action for doing grassroots work well in the new era. The recently published Excerpts from Xi Jinping's Discourses on Grassroots Work Methods (hereinafter referred to as the Excerpts), divided into 9 special topics, contains 287 passages of important discourses by Comrade Xi Jinping from April 1983 to April 2026. Studying these important discourses earnestly is of great significance for establishing a clear orientation toward grasping the grassroots with great effort, establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, following well the Party's mass line in the new era, continuously consolidating the grassroots foundation of Chinese modernization, and enabling Chinese modernization to have the most reliable, deepest, and most enduring source of strength.
I. Xi Jinping's Important Discourses on Grassroots Work Methods Have Raised the Party's Understanding of the Laws of Grassroots Work to a New Height
Comrade Xi Jinping is a leader of a major party and major country who grew up from the grassroots and from among the masses, and he has always harbored deep affection for the people and has profound insight into the laws of grassroots work. The Excerpts truthfully record and systematically reflect a series of profound thoughts on grassroots work methods formed by Comrade Xi Jinping in his long-term practice from the local level to the central level.
During his seven years as an educated youth in Liangjiahe, Comrade Xi Jinping ate, lived, and labored together with the villagers, led the masses in developing production, and knew what the people were worried about and what they were hoping for, "understood what is called reality, what is called seeking truth from facts, and what is called the masses," and also cultivated the firm conviction of "doing practical things for the people." During his work in Zhengding, Hebei, Comrade Xi Jinping insisted on going to the grassroots to seek the "source of living water," spending more than one-third of his time each year going deep into the grassroots, setting up tables on the main streets to listen to the opinions of the masses, making great efforts to build up the grassroots leadership teams in rural areas, proposing the development path of taking the "semi-suburban" economy, and "gaining personal experience and understanding of the functions and operations at the county level and the role of the county party secretary." During his more than seventeen years of work in Fujian, Comrade Xi Jinping advocated and practiced the work style of "handling matters immediately and doing solid work with real effort," vigorously advocated and personally practiced the "four grassroots visits," promoted the "four ten-thousand households" activities, and his footprints covered the land of Fujian, leaving behind many fine stories such as "three visits to Xiadang" and "seven visits to Jinjiang," and gaining a deeper understanding and grasp of the laws of grassroots work at the municipal and provincial levels. During his work in Zhejiang, Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized and practiced "governing with the focus on the grassroots, tilting work toward the grassroots, and passing on care to the grassroots," and after visiting all counties, cities, and districts in Zhejiang, he drew up the "Eight-Eight Strategy," planned and promoted the "Thousand-Village Demonstration and Ten-Thousand-Village Improvement Project," put forward the "four rathers" concept for flood prevention and typhoon defense, endowed the "Fengqiao model" with new contemporary connotations, and proposed that Zhejiang should "do solid work in practice and stand at the forefront," giving his grasp of grassroots work greater strategic vision and overall perspective. During his work in Shanghai, Comrade Xi Jinping actively explored new models of urban management, gave play to the leading role of Party building, used the "three visits and three services" to promote cadres going into the grassroots, expanded the coverage of the Party's work, and actively explored doing grassroots work well in megacities. After moving to work at the central level, Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized the need to devote more energy to grasping the grassroots and laying a solid foundation, carefully guiding intra-Party centralized education, cadre education and training, grassroots Party building, and other work, and pouring a great deal of effort into consolidating the grassroots foundation.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, Comrade Xi Jinping, standing at the strategic height of consolidating the Party's governing foundation and ensuring the long-term stability and peace of the country, has placed grassroots work in a more prominent position, frequently going deep into the grassroots frontline to lead by example, guiding grassroots practice, leading the entire Party to make great efforts to strengthen grassroots foundation work, promoting the sinking of resources, management, and services to the grassroots, continuously stimulating the vitality of grassroots reform and innovation, making grassroots Party organizations stronger and grassroots political power more consolidated, continuously raising the level of modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity, and achieving historic achievements and historic changes in grassroots work in the new era. In this great process, Comrade Xi Jinping has integrated his rich practical experience and profound theoretical thinking on grassroots work at the provincial, municipal, county, and village levels into the great practice of governing the country and managing the Party in the new era, forming new major judgments, theoretical generalizations, and strategic arrangements, and raising the Party's understanding of the laws of grassroots work to a new height.
Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods are lofty in conception, rich in content, and profound in thought, containing far-reaching political considerations, full of sincere feelings for the people, embodying a distinct practical character, and demonstrating a strong sense of historical responsibility. They are an important component of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This series of important discourses adheres to the fundamental requirement of the Two Integrations (两个结合), combining the Marxist mass stance and mass viewpoint with the reality of contemporary Chinese grassroots governance, and linking them with the governance wisdom in the excellent traditional Chinese culture, arriving at scientific understandings that conform to objective laws and making correct answers that conform to grassroots reality and the requirements of the times. This series of important discourses adheres to the combination of theory and practice, focusing on solving the problem of the "bridge" and the "boat" while deploying the task of "crossing the river," and deeply elaborating on the standpoints, viewpoints, and methods that should be upheld and mastered in doing grassroots work well. It is the concrete embodiment of the "six musts" proposed in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Party in grassroots work, and contains the scientific worldview and methodology for doing grassroots work well. This series of important discourses inherits and carries forward the Party's fine traditions, fully absorbs the Party's historical experience in grasping the grassroots and strengthening the foundation, innovates and develops in light of the new characteristics of the times, endows classic methods with new contemporary connotations, and provides scientific guidance for solving the difficult problems of grassroots work and striving to open up a new situation in grassroots work on the new journey of the new era. This series of important discourses systematically elaborates on governance concepts, governance systems, governance mechanisms, and governance methods that embody Chinese characteristics, providing not only a "golden key" for the world to understand China's governance but also contributing Chinese wisdom and useful reference for countries around the world to solve social governance problems and explore effective ways of grassroots governance.
II. Scientifically Answering Major Questions Such as What the Grassroots Are, How to Go Deep into the Grassroots, and How to Serve the Grassroots, Forming a Systematic, Comprehensive, Logically Rigorous, Rich in Content, and Organically Unified Scientific System
Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods scientifically answer major questions such as what the grassroots are, how to go deep into the grassroots, and how to serve the grassroots, and constitute a systematic and complete scientific theory. The Excerpts fully reflect the scientific system, rich connotations, and original contributions of this series of important discourses through the scientific setting of special topics and the careful selection and compilation of passages.
(1) Closely centering on the major question of "what the grassroots are," deeply elaborating on the major significance and fundamental stance of grassroots work. The relevant important discourses of Comrade Xi Jinping included in the first and second special topics of the Excerpts provide a concentrated reflection of this.
The first special topic, "The Grassroots Are the Foundation of the Party's Governance and the Source of Its Strength," clearly expounds the major significance of grassroots work from the political attribute. To do grassroots work well, one must first correctly understand the grassroots; this is the epistemological foundation for carrying out all work. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that the grassroots are the foundation. The focus of our Party's work is at the grassroots, its governing foundation is at the grassroots, and its source of vitality is also at the grassroots. The grassroots are the landing point of all work. To consolidate the Party's governing foundation, the grassroots foundation must be consolidated. Grasping the grassroots and laying a solid foundation must be made a long-term plan and a fundamental strategy, and must not be relaxed in the slightest, so that grassroots organizations can be relied upon, can be deployed, and can win when it counts. If the foundation is not solid, the earth will shake and the mountains will move. Only by building grassroots Party organizations strong and consolidating grassroots political power well can the foundation of socialism with Chinese characteristics be stable, and can our Party and our country have a deep source of strength and a solid organizational foundation for prosperity, development, and long-term stability and peace. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that grassroots Party organizations are the fighting fortresses of the Party in social grassroots organizations and the foundation of all the Party's work and combat effectiveness, and this status is conferred by the Party Constitution. It is precisely by relying on extensive grassroots organizations that the Party has a solid foundation and forms a united and integrated whole; it is also precisely by relying on these grassroots organizations that the Party can take deep root among the masses and smoothly realize the Party's leadership. It is necessary to highlight grasping the grassroots, strengthening the foundation, and consolidating the fundamentals, and create better conditions for the grassroots to start undertakings and do work.
The second special topic, "Bringing Benefit to the People Is the Greatest Political Achievement," clearly expounds the fundamental stance of grassroots work from the value attribute. Our Party is a party that establishes the party for the public good and governs for the people, a party that serves the people wholeheartedly. Only by continuously promoting the development of the Party's and the country's cause and benefiting the people with good political achievements can the Party's purpose be practiced well and the Party's historical mission be accomplished well. The question of the view of political achievements is a fundamental question, concerning establishing the party for the public good and governing for the people. Comrade Xi Jinping has always attached importance to establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, emphasizing that one must remember that bringing benefit to the people is the greatest political achievement, take benefiting the people as the fundamental value orientation, and when planning and advancing work, one must adhere to the people-centered development thinking, adhere to development for the people, development relying on the people, and development achievements shared by the people, and do good things and practical things to the satisfaction of the masses. What counts as good things and practical things must be considered from the immediate needs of the masses, and must not be subjectively assumed or simplified or one-sidedly judged. Wherever the people have needs, there good things and practical things can be done, and there achievements can be created; whether achievements are good or not depends on the actual feelings of the masses and is judged by the masses. One must think more about how to make the lives of the masses and their handling of affairs more convenient, how to make the channels for the masses to express their demands smoother, and how to make the masses feel safer and happier, solve the major and minor matters around the common people well, strive to solve livelihood problems at the grassroots, and truly enable a myriad of families to personally feel the warmth of the Party and the government.
(2) Closely centering on the major question of "how to go deep into the grassroots," deeply elaborating on the important magic weapon, effective mechanisms, valuable experience, and inherent requirements for doing grassroots work well. Comrade Xi Jinping has deeply grasped the characteristics and laws of grassroots work and put forward a series of down-to-earth, popular, practical, and effective ways and methods for going deep into the grassroots. The third to sixth special topics of the Excerpts centrally reflect Comrade Xi Jinping's profound thinking and incisive discourses on this question.
The third special topic, "The Mass Line Is the Party's Lifeline and Fundamental Work Line," clearly expounds the important magic weapon for going deep into the grassroots. The mass line is the fundamental work method that our Party has always adhered to, and it is also an important heirloom for our Party to maintain eternal youthful vitality and combat effectiveness. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that regardless of the past, present, or future, we must adhere to everything for the masses, rely on the masses for everything, come from the masses, and go to the masses, turn the Party's correct propositions into the conscious actions of the masses, and implement the mass line throughout all activities of governing the country. To implement the Party's mass line, it is necessary to use "knowledge" to promote "action" and "action" to promote "knowledge," achieving unity of knowledge and action (知行合一, zhi xing he yi - "knowledge, action, combine, one"), solving both the problem of raising understanding and the problem of conscious action, so that the mass viewpoint and the mass line take root firmly and are deeply embedded. It is necessary to follow well the mass line of the new era, do mass work well face to face, heart to heart, and with real results, and in the practice of going deep into reality and going deep into the masses, enhance feelings for the masses, grasp the pulse of the masses, serve the masses precisely, meet the multi-level and diverse needs of the people, and always breathe the same breath as the people, share the same fate, and be heart to heart with them. The Internet is an important front for doing mass work well in the new era, and also an important means. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that leading cadres must learn the Internet, understand the Internet, and use the Internet, and learn to follow the mass line through the Internet. It is necessary to adhere to the combination of online and offline, do a good job of ideological guidance and cohesion services for new employment groups, and continuously consolidate the Party's class foundation, mass foundation, and social foundation for governance.
The fourth special topic, "Fully Implementing the 'Four Grassroots Visits' System," clearly expounds the effective mechanism for going deep into the grassroots. Taking the propaganda of the Party's line, principles, and policies to the grassroots, taking investigation and research to the grassroots, taking petition reception to the grassroots, and taking on-site work to the grassroots — these are the work methods and work systems formed by Comrade Xi Jinping through vigorous advocacy and personal practice during his work in Fujian, and the spiritual requirements contained therein, as well as the leadership methods, thinking methods, and work methods running through them, remain ever fresh over time. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that it is necessary to fully implement the "Four Grassroots Visits" system, actively do a good job of propaganda, mobilization, and ideological education of the masses, publicize the Party's policies in vivid and popular forms so that the broad masses can understand and comprehend them; make investigation and research deeper and more solid, stay grounded and informed about the situation below, comprehensively understand the situation, deeply study problems, grasp the essence and laws of things, and find ways and paths to solve difficult problems; change the masses going to petition upward into leaders going down to receive petitions, use the petition channels to find out the wishes and demands of the masses, find the gaps and deficiencies in work, and draw inferences from a single instance (举一反三, ju yi fan san - "lift, one, reverse, three") to improve and better serve the masses. Comrade Xi Jinping particularly emphasized that it is necessary not only to "physically enter" the grassroots, but also to "mentally arrive" at the grassroots, sincerely listen to the voices of the masses, truthfully reflect the wishes of the masses, genuinely care about the hardships of the masses, accurately understand the worries and hopes of the masses, and make decisions more in line with reality and more in line with the wishes of the people.
The fifth special topic, "Uphold and Develop the 'Fengqiao Model' Well," clearly expounds the valuable experience of going deep into the grassroots. In the early 1960s, the "Fengqiao model" created by the cadres and masses of Fengqiao, Zhuji, Zhejiang, is a valuable experience in China's grassroots social governance. The "Fengqiao model" in the new era is the inheritance and development of the "Fengqiao model," and its scientific connotation is: adhere to and implement the Party's mass line, under the leadership of the Party, fully mobilize the masses, organize the masses, and rely on the masses to solve the masses' own affairs, achieving "small matters do not leave the village, major matters do not leave the town, and contradictions are not handed upward." Comrade Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out that the most important achievement and the most distinctive feature of the development of the "Fengqiao model" to this day is the realization of the unity of self-discipline and heteronomy, rigidity and flexibility, governing the body and governing the mind, and human effort and technology, and it is necessary to summarize and promote this achievement. It is necessary to vigorously promote the core socialist values, strengthen ideological education and moral cultivation, and fill the whole society with righteousness and justice; adhere to handling affairs according to law, establish "clear rules" and break "hidden rules" for the whole society; improve the grassroots mass self-governance mechanism and build a social governance community in which everyone has responsibility and everyone fulfills their responsibility; improve the social psychological service system and counseling mechanisms and crisis intervention mechanisms, and shape a social mentality of self-respect and self-confidence, rationality and equanimity, kindness and fraternity; accelerate the construction of a three-dimensional, information-based social security prevention and control system, take the integration and sharing of data resources as a basic project, and continuously enhance the capacity and level of social governance.
The sixth special topic, "Strengthening and Innovating Grassroots Social Governance," clearly expounds the inherent requirements of going deep into the grassroots. A modern society should be both full of vitality and have good order, presenting an organic unity of vitality and order. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that it is necessary to strengthen and innovate grassroots social governance, make greater efforts in strengthening grassroots foundation work and improving grassroots governance capacity, and make every social cell healthy and active. It is necessary to improve the social governance system and improve the systems and mechanisms for social work, improve the urban-rural grassroots governance system under the leadership of Party organizations that combines self-governance, rule of law, and rule of virtue, and realize the positive interaction between government governance, social regulation, and resident self-governance. It is necessary to adhere to shifting the focus of work downward, ensure that grassroots affairs are handled at the grassroots, grassroots power is given to the grassroots, and grassroots affairs have people to handle them, make great efforts to solve the prominent problems of employment, education, medical care, and elderly care that the people are concerned about, continuously improve the level and quality of basic public services, improve the grassroots governance platform with grid-based management, refined services, and information-based support, raise the level of informatization, intelligence, precision, and convenience of government services, provide the people with quality services and refined management at their doorsteps, and make the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security more substantial, more guaranteed, and more sustainable.
(3) Closely centering on the major question of "how to serve the grassroots," deeply elaborating on the scientific concepts, practical orientation, and political guarantees for doing grassroots work well. The relevant important discourses of Comrade Xi Jinping centrally collected in the seventh to ninth special topics of the Excerpts provide a guide to action for doing all the work of serving the masses deeply, meticulously, and thoroughly.
The seventh special topic, "Carrying Out Work Creatively in Light of Local Conditions and in Combination with Reality," clearly expounds the scientific concept of serving the grassroots. Adhering to proceeding from reality in everything is the starting point and landing point of our thinking about problems, making decisions, and handling affairs. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that on the basis of thoroughly understanding the situation above and clearly grasping the situation below, it is necessary to be good at concretizing the guiding spirit of the higher authorities, earnestly implement it, and form work ideas and methods with one's own characteristics. It is necessary to base oneself on resource endowments and the stage of development, conduct in-depth investigation and research, adhere to the unity of goal orientation and problem orientation, pay attention to reflecting one's own characteristics and giving play to comparative advantages when determining development ideas and strategic measures, in light of local conditions, promote strengths and make up for weaknesses, make the ideas, measures, and plans one thinks of conform to the actual situation, conform to economic laws and natural laws, explore and walk out a path of high-quality development that conforms to each one's own reality, ensure that the final results conform to the decision-making intentions and policy original intentions of the Party Central Committee, and better serve and integrate into the overall national development situation.
The eighth special topic, "Doing All Work Solidly, Meticulously, and Thoroughly with the Spirit of Nailing," clearly expounds the practical orientation of serving the grassroots. Grasping implementation is the fundamental requirement of the Party's political line, ideological line, and mass line, and is also an important indicator for measuring the Party spirit and view of political achievements of leading cadres. Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that grasping implementation must be placed in an important position. It is necessary to improve the ability to grasp implementation, with the real energy of earnest grasping, the fierceness of daring to grasp, the skill of being good at grasping, and the tenacity of constant grasping, implement without compromise, implement with vigor and speed, implement with truth-seeking and pragmatism, implement with daring and good results, and resolutely oppose formalism and bureaucratism. Whether various policies and measures have been implemented and whether they have been implemented well, the grassroots masses have the most actual feeling. Therefore, the focus of grasping implementation must be placed on the grassroots frontline, and the ideas and methods for solving the problem of inadequate implementation must also be sought from the grassroots and the masses. It is necessary to strengthen precise thinking, adhere to "reaching the broad and great while exhausting the subtle and minute," and do work solidly and thoroughly with the effort of embroidery. Grasping implementation is valuable in perseverance, and also difficult in perseverance. Once the goal is determined and the task is clear, it is necessary to remain steadfast to a goal (咬定青山不放松, yao ding qing shan bu feng song - "bite, fixed, green, mountain, not, loosen"), and truly carry a good blueprint through to the end.
The ninth special topic, "Building Grassroots Party Organizations into Strong Fighting Fortresses," clearly expounds the political guarantee for serving the grassroots. The condition of grassroots Party organizations directly bears on the governing position and image of our Party. Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that it is necessary to comprehensively advance Party building in all fields at the county, township, and village levels, improve the grassroots Party organization system, and accelerate the realization of full coverage of Party organizations and Party work at the grassroots. It is necessary to adhere to the clear orientation of grasping the grassroots with great effort, grasp Party building to promote rural revitalization, strengthen Party building work in urban communities, advance grassroots governance led by Party building, continuously rectify weak, lax, and scattered grassroots Party organizations, and promote the comprehensive progress and comprehensive excellence of grassroots Party organizations. It is necessary to continuously promote the extension of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party to the grassroots and deepen the reform of grassroots supervision systems and mechanisms. It is necessary to promote innovation in the concepts, mechanisms, and means of Party building work, so that the leadership methods, work methods, and activity methods of grassroots Party organizations better conform to the needs of serving the masses. It is necessary to implement the long-term mechanism for rectifying formalism and reducing burdens at the grassroots, coordinate burden reduction and empowerment, and free the broad ranks of grassroots cadres from meaningless affairs so that they have more energy to grasp implementation.
III. Studying and Applying Well Xi Jinping's Important Discourses on Grassroots Work Methods, Continuously Consolidating the Grassroots Foundation of Chinese Modernization
Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods adhere to the combination of theory and practice, the integration of strategy and tactics, and the unity of worldview and methodology, providing a powerful ideological weapon for solving the difficult problems of grassroots work and promoting the implementation and landing of strategic tasks related to the overall situation of Chinese modernization. It is necessary to study and apply well Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods, adhere to the integration of learning, thinking, and application, and the unity of knowledge, faith, and action, continuously enhance the ability to do grassroots work, effectively improve the work style of the grassroots, actively explore effective good experiences and good practices, and strive to open up a new situation in grassroots work on the new journey of the new era.
Continuously consolidate the Party's governing foundation. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that the grassroots are at the node connecting the upper and lower levels, the focal point of various contradictions, and the key point of work implementation. Grassroots Party organizations are on the frontline, directly dealing with the masses, and are the bridge and bond linking the Party with the masses. The broad masses also come to know our Party through grassroots organizations. The Party's grassroots organizations and grassroots cadres work among the masses and are the most important organizational foundation for our Party's governance for the people. Attaching importance to the grassroots is the Party's fine tradition and unique advantage. Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods stand at the overall situation and height of consolidating the Party's governing foundation and governing position, firmly grasp the long-term plan and fundamental strategy of grasping the grassroots and laying a solid foundation, inherit and develop the Party's valuable experience in grassroots work, focus on solving the practical problems faced by grassroots work, always take strengthening grassroots Party building and consolidating the Party's governing foundation as a red line running through social governance and grassroots construction, and creatively put forward a series of new concepts, new ideas, and new methods centering on grasping the grassroots, strengthening the foundation, and consolidating the fundamentals. To study and apply this important discourse well, it is necessary to deeply understand the profound thinking and strategic considerations contained therein, devote more energy to grasping the grassroots and laying a solid foundation, promote the strengthening of grassroots Party organizations and the further consolidation of grassroots political power, ensure that the major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee take effect and land at the grassroots, and make the Party's governing foundation and the country's governance foundation indestructible and unbreakable.
Strive to improve grassroots governance capacity. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that the grassroots are the frontline of reform, development, and stability, and the gathering place of various contradictions and problems. Grassroots governance is the cornerstone of national governance. In China's governance, the basic unit is the county (city, district), and the grassroots foundation lies in townships (subdistricts) and villages (communities). When the grassroots service and management capacity is strong, the foundation of social governance is solid. Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods focus on improving the ability of grassroots Party organizations to lead grassroots governance, better giving play to the significant advantages of grassroots governance with Chinese characteristics, adhere to leading grassroots governance with Party building, profoundly reveal the scientific path and effective methods for strengthening and innovating grassroots social governance, guide the use of advanced concepts, scientific attitudes, professional methods, and refined standards to improve grassroots governance efficiency, and promote the construction of a new grassroots social governance system full of vitality and efficiency. To study and apply this important discourse well, it is necessary to adhere to and strengthen the Party's leadership over grassroots governance, always take serving the masses and benefiting the masses as the starting point and landing point, strengthen the capacity building of grassroots political power governance, make up for the shortcomings of grassroots governance, adhere to and develop the "Fengqiao model" in the new era, build a pattern of urban-rural grassroots governance with joint contribution, joint governance, and shared benefits, advance the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity, and continuously open up a new situation in grassroots governance.
Strive to close the relationship between the Party and the masses and between cadres and the masses. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that taking the people's heart as one's own heart, breathing the same breath as the people, sharing the same fate, and being heart to heart with them is the original aspiration of the Party and also the enduring aspiration of the Party. The greatest political advantage of our Party is close ties with the masses, and the greatest danger after the Party comes to power is estrangement from the masses. Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods adhere to deeply understanding the importance of always maintaining the flesh-and-blood ties between the Party and the masses from a political height, deeply study and accurately grasp the characteristics and laws of mass work in the new situation, directly confront the prominent problems that damage the relationship between the Party and the masses and between cadres and the masses, and conduct in-depth thinking and systematic planning on improving mass work methods, raising the level of mass work, and better fully stimulating and rallying the initiative, creativity, and enthusiasm of the masses. To study and apply this important discourse well, it is necessary to adhere to the supremacy of the people, always stand with the people, think with the people, and work with the people, respect the masses in thought, be close to the masses in feeling, think about problems, make decisions, and handle affairs from the standpoint of the masses, do mass work solidly, deeply, meticulously, and thoroughly, do good things and practical things to the satisfaction of the masses, and ensure that Chinese modernization has the most reliable, deepest, and most enduring source of strength.
Continuously temper the work style of grassroots cadres. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that the Party's work style is the Party's image, bearing on the support or opposition of the people and on the life and death of the Party. Grassroots cadres are the key to strengthening grassroots foundation work. The effectiveness of grassroots social governance depends decisively on grassroots cadres. The masses live and work at the social grassroots, and grassroots cadres are closest to the masses. When the masses look at our Party's work style, they first look from around them, from the grassroots. Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods, with a deep sense of urgency and a strong sense of mission, focus on the work style problems that the masses deeply detest and reflect most strongly, link treating the symptoms with treating the root causes, adhere to the simultaneous correction of the Four Malfeasances (四风) and the establishment of new practices, start from leading organs and leading cadres, seek the root causes from Party spirit and consciousness, correct from the view of political achievements and the view of power, and improve from the evaluation mechanism and reward and punishment system, pointing out the direction for tempering the excellent work style of grassroots cadres. To study and apply this important discourse well, it is necessary to adhere to advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party starting from grasping the work style, improve the institutional mechanisms for the normalization and long-term effectiveness of work style construction, effectively solve the prominent problems existing in the work style, further make great efforts to build the Party well, make our Party always receive the support and endorsement of the masses, and unite and lead the people to successfully complete the historical mission it bears.
Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods examine the trend of the times, observe the needs of the grassroots, and respond to the expectations of the people, shining with the light of truth and full of practical power. They are a powerful ideological weapon guiding Party organizations at all levels and the broad ranks of Party members and cadres in doing grassroots work well. We should, in conjunction with studying the Excerpts, deeply study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, establish and practice a correct view of political achievements, effectively enhance the ability to do grassroots work, better understand the grassroots, go deep into the grassroots, and serve the grassroots, strive to consolidate the Party's governing foundation, continuously open up a new situation in grassroots work on the new journey of the new era, and make new and greater contributions to comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Wu Yue) The reporter learned from the Ministry of Education: the "Chinese Teacher" mini-program launched by the Ministry of Education recently released an update, adding a series of practical new functions. Teachers can search for the "Chinese Teacher" mini-program on the WeChat or Alipay platforms, complete real-name authentication and apply for an electronic teacher certificate, and directly access official service entrances.
According to the mini-program development team, the new version of the mini-program has seen significant upgrades in sharing, verification, information modification, feedback, and homepage layout. The mini-program places commonly used services at the top for display, and the homepage features a "New Services" section, allowing one-click access to the latest teacher-benefit services. The page layout is cleaner and clearer, so teachers can quickly find the functions they need upon opening the mini-program.
The third phase of the public welfare initiative to respect and benefit teachers also launched recently. Driven by the China Educational Equipment Industry Association in conjunction with multiple socially responsible enterprises, a total of 17 enterprises are participating in this phase, offering exclusive preferential services across five major areas: AI (artificial intelligence) teaching and research resources, medical and health care, cultural enhancement, transportation and travel, and life services. Teachers can enter the "Teacher-Benefit Services" section within the mini-program to learn about relevant benefits with one click.
Return to TopOn September 13, construction of the southern navigation channel bridge of the Zhangjinggao Yangtze River Bridge in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, was advancing. Once completed, the bridge will support the high-quality development of integrated Yangtze River Delta.
Photo by Shi Bairong (Image China)
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Wang Hao) The reporter learned from the Yellow River Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources: at 8:00 on September 12, as the Liujiaxia Reservoir began releasing water at a controlled flow rate of 800 cubic meters per second, the joint sediment-flushing operation of key reservoirs in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River for 2026 was officially launched. This joint sediment-flushing operation is scheduled to last 16 days and is expected to conclude around September 27, with total sediment discharge projected to exceed 100 million tonnes.
The Yellow River Conservancy Commission, taking into account upstream inflow and reservoir storage, and making use of the irrigation suspension period in the Ningxia-Inner Mongolia reach, has, in accordance with the principles of safety and controllability and of taking everything into account and coordinating them properly (统筹兼顾, tong chou jian gu - "coordinate, take into account"), jointly dispatched the Longyangxia, Liujiaxia, Shapotou, Qingtongxia, Haibowan, Wanjiazhai, Longkou, and Tianqiao reservoirs.
This joint sediment-flushing operation features large flow rates, high sediment concentrations, and a long duration. The Yellow River Conservancy Commission has formulated a meticulous plan, made thorough arrangements and deployments, and issued advance notices to the water resources departments of Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Shaanxi provinces (regions) as well as relevant reservoir management units, requiring them to strengthen monitoring, forecasting, and early warning, and to strictly guard against the risk of floodwater overflowing the floodplains. During the joint sediment-flushing operation, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission will closely monitor changes in weather conditions, promptly conduct rolling analyses of rainfall, water, and sediment conditions, strengthen consultation, research, and judgment as well as real-time reservoir dispatch, enhance emergency duty and on-duty arrangements, and rigorously and meticulously carry out project inspection, defense, and water-related safety management.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 金 歆 沈童睿 人民网记者 黄 钰
After anaerobic fermentation and harmless treatment of livestock and poultry manure, the liquid residue produced (biogas slurry) can be applied to farmland as organic liquid fertilizer. This utilization method is called "biogas slurry return to farmland" and is an important pathway for the green circular economy in agriculture.
"It is generally believed that biogas slurry is rich in multiple nutrients needed for crop growth and some physiologically regulating substances, making it a valuable fertilizer resource. However, in recent years, unreasonable and unsafe application in some places has instead brought about many problems," said Zhou Jianbin, professor at the College of Natural Resources and Environment of Northwest A&F University.
Non-compliant return-to-farmland operations may turn fertilization into pollution
"At the national level, the more common problems with biogas slurry return to farmland are: disorderly flooding irrigation within the return area or discharge that fails to meet standards after treatment, causing soil salinization, crop seedling burning and death, water environmental pollution, and other problems," said Wu Wenxuan, deputy dean of the Rural Revitalization Research Institute of Guizhou University.
First, there are problems with the biogas slurry itself. "If livestock farms unreasonably use feed additives and apply antibiotics during the breeding process, the biogas slurry fermented from manure may carry risks of heavy metal and antibiotic contamination," said Zhou Jianbin. Moreover, applying inadequately decomposed and purified livestock wastewater directly to farmland may cause harm to the soil, leading to seedling burning, crop yield reduction, or even total crop failure. The problems currently emerging with biogas slurry return to farmland are mostly caused by this type of "biogas slurry."
Zhou Jianbin said that when he conducted field research in the Weibei region of Shaanxi in May, villagers reported that some apple orchards in the village had been irrigated with biogas slurry produced by livestock farms, causing apple trees to die, which may fall into this category.
Not long ago, environmental law enforcement personnel in Xiangyang City, Hubei, discovered during inspections that a large-scale livestock farm had directly discharged biogas slurry that had not been treated to standard into receiving farmland. Testing found that fecal coliform bacteria exceeded the standard by 59 times.
Second, there are non-standard application amounts and application methods. Zhou Jianbin said that application amounts and methods must comply with the agricultural industry standard "Technical Specification for Biogas Fertilizer Application" (NY/T2065-2011).
"Operations that do not comply with the standards may produce serious problems," said Wu Wenxuan. Taking the potentially large-scale flooding irrigation of biogas slurry in Dingyuan County as an example, from the perspective of soil health, it may cause salinization, destruction of soil structure, and accumulation of heavy metals; from the perspective of crop impact, the ammonia nitrogen concentration in biogas slurry is high, and excessive application will cause root dehydration and leaf yellowing.
In May this year, media reported that a livestock and poultry manure disposal enterprise in Juye County, Shandong, engaged in disorderly flooding irrigation within a leased biogas slurry return-to-farmland area, with farmland covered by black sewage, causing wheat seedlings to turn yellow and die. Wu Wenxuan said this case may also fall into this category.
Non-compliant return to farmland mostly stems from insufficient professionalism of operators
When reporters interviewed in Dingyuan County, they asked local parties whether they understood the relevant technical standards. Chen Jinlong, a relevant person in charge of the Dingyuan County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, said he knew of the standard, "but it is too complex, and in reality there is no way to fully follow the standard."
Tong Falun, head of Dingyuan County Sijixin Company, which is responsible for the specific return-to-farmland operations, said he was not clear about the specific standards. "Farming matters should be based on experience" "If the soil looks thin I apply more, if the soil is thick I apply less" "Anyway, what I apply is fertilizer, not poison."
Zhou Yuexiang, chairman of the People's Congress of Jiepaiji Town, who is specifically responsible for coordinating and supervising the biogas slurry return-to-farmland matters of the two pastures, showed reporters a "return-to-farmland plan formulated according to relevant technical standards," which specified the application amount per mu. But Tong Falun said they were in a hurry to start work, "I haven't had time to look at this year's plan yet."
Of course, the timing of return to farmland is also an important factor. A person surnamed Wang previously contracted the biogas slurry return-to-farmland business of Dajiang and Xuxiao pastures in previous years. He said that generally the best time for biogas slurry return to farmland is after wheat harvest and before corn planting (May to June each year), as well as before winter wheat planting (September each year). Once corn is planted and then slurry is returned, the corn will be "burned to death." Starting large-scale return operations at the end of July has already missed the optimal timing.
Cost issues also led to non-standard application. Tong Falun said that returning one cubic meter of biogas slurry to farmland earns him only a dozen or so yuan without counting costs. If he also had to coordinate with plowing and turning the soil, "I would lose money, so I certainly wouldn't do it."
"From the hardware perspective, supporting equipment for return to farmland is insufficient or even absent; from the software perspective, supervision is not in place. These are important reasons why liquid manure return to farmland is difficult to implement on the ground, why the return process is too crude, and why environmental and health incidents occur," said Wu Wenxuan.
Strengthen supervision and strictly investigate "discharging pollutants in the name of returning to farmland"
In recent years, relevant departments in various places have actively improved standards and regulations, addressed violations of laws and regulations, and achieved certain results. For example, in addition to the earlier "Technical Specification for Biogas Fertilizer Application" and "Technical Specification for Livestock and Poultry Manure Return to Farmland," not long ago, the mandatory national standard "Limits of Harmful Substances in Livestock and Poultry Manure Returned to Farmland" was approved and released, and will be officially implemented on May 1, 2027. According to reports, the standard clarifies the limits of harmful substances in livestock and poultry manure, sampling and sample preparation requirements, and stipulates test methods for harmful substance content.
Biogas slurry has the dual attribute of being both a resource and a pollution source, and its specific impact depends on whether it is applied scientifically and in a standardized manner. Relevant experts said that its role in the green circular economy should be fully brought into play. As for the various chaotic phenomena behind biogas slurry return to farmland, it is necessary to address problems with appropriate measures (对症下药, dui zheng xia yao - "correct target, administer medicine").
"Inadequate supervision is an important cause of many chaotic phenomena," said Wu Wenxuan. Therefore, he suggested strictly enforcing law enforcement and supervision, adopting zero tolerance for "discharging pollutants in the name of returning to farmland," and installing flow meters to achieve whole-process metering and monitoring. In addition, according to the requirements of the "Technical Specification for Livestock and Poultry Manure Return to Farmland," a strict return-to-farmland ledger and traceability system should be established and improved, so that the source, type, application amount, time, plot, and crop of manure can be traced throughout the entire chain.
Zhao, a grower in Guangzong County, Hebei, told reporters: last year, a livestock enterprise discharged biogas slurry onto his land, causing about 210 mu of Scutellaria baicalensis to suffer total crop failure. The local ecological environment bureau commissioned a third-party institution to sample and test the outlet of the livestock farm's sewage station and the sewage discharge outlet in the Scutellaria field. The results showed that the ammonia nitrogen, phosphorus, nitrogen, and other indicators of the samples from the discharge outlet all did not exceed national standards, and the enterprise was deemed to have carried out green, harmless biogas slurry return to farmland. But Zhao said, "The government says it 'meets standards,' but my crops are all dead."
Zhou Jianbin analyzed that although biogas slurry is rich in multiple nutrients needed by crops, its electrical conductivity is relatively high. If the application amount and method are incorrect during application, it may still cause harm to crops, and processing, treatment, and application methods need to be improved.
Zhou Jianbin proposed suggestions for reasonable matching of planting and breeding. He said that the scale of livestock breeding should consider the area of farmland available to absorb manure, so that organic fertilizer including treated biogas slurry can be absorbed and utilized nearby, reducing transportation costs and other expenses.
"Precision return to farmland should be promoted," said Wu Wenxuan. He said that the application amount should be determined through soil testing and formula fertilization according to the "Technical Specification for Biogas Fertilizer Application," integrated water and fertilizer management (drip irrigation, micro-sprinkler irrigation) should be promoted, biogas slurry should be diluted before application, and an effect monitoring system should be established at the same time.
"The relevant technical specifications set boundaries for application amount and method, but for each specific field, adjustments should be made flexibly according to crop type, soil fertility, biogas slurry concentration, and application method," said Zhou Jianbin. A prudent approach is to conduct small-scale trials before large-scale application, find the application amount most suitable for the field, and then promote it on a larger scale.
On August 11, a relevant person in charge of Jiepaiji Town told reporters that relevant enterprises had been urged to carry out deep plowing, rotary tillage, and soil covering operations on plots where biogas slurry return to farmland was non-standard, to enhance the soil's absorption capacity and reduce odor pollution. All rectification has now been completed. The next step is to learn from one instance to grasp others (举一反三, ju yi fan san - "lift one, reflect three") and comprehensively investigate similar hidden dangers.
"Biogas slurry return to farmland was originally a good thing, both economical and environmentally friendly. We will conduct a serious investigation and review. If there are non-standard aspects in specific operations, we will learn lessons, and with more scientific methods and attitudes, truly turn good things into well-done things and solid matters into solidly accomplished matters, so that the green circular economy in rural areas can play a greater role," said a relevant person in charge of Dingyuan County.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 金 歆 沈童睿 人民网记者 黄 钰
"A certain animal husbandry company has built two dairy cow pastures, Dajiang and Xuxiao, in Jiepai Ji Town, Dingyuan County, and recently has been discharging livestock manure wastewater directly into nearby fields." Not long ago, our newspaper received a letter of complaint from a resident, Mr. Li, of Dingyuan County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province.
On July 30, led by Mr. Li, our reporter came to a cornfield north of Tongjiagang Village, Jiepai Ji Town, Dingyuan County. Looking north, the Dajiang pasture site was visible. Deep in the cornfield, in an earthen-walled "small pond" some twenty to thirty meters long and several meters wide, black water gave off a dark green sheen, and a foul, fishy odor could be smelled on approach. Dozens of meters further north along the field path, there was another similar "black water pond."
"The manure wastewater hauled out of the Dajiang pasture is discharged directly into the fields here," a villager, Master Xu, of nearby Xuxiao Village, told the reporter. This land has been contracted by the animal husbandry company for growing corn as cattle feed, and both black water ponds were the result of discharges in early July. "These past two days they've switched to discharging near Mengwa Village, Zhangguang Town, Nanqiao District."
That afternoon, following the directions, the reporter came to the west side of Mengwa Village and saw several large trucks parked beside a plot of more than 10 mu of cultivated land enclosed by field ridges. The first truck, with license plate Wan M·6A×××, had a thick pipe attached to the rear of its carriage, gurgling as it poured "black water" into the field. Confirmed by the license plate number by Worker Zhang of the Dajiang pasture, these trucks had indeed driven out of the pasture loaded with manure wastewater some 20 minutes earlier.
From 4 p.m. until dusk, the reporter saw more than ten truckloads arrive in succession to discharge manure wastewater at this site. Zhang explained that each truck carries about 20 tons of manure wastewater, and working until the early morning every day, they can discharge 1,000 tons.
"That plot received more than 3,300 tons in two days," Tong Falun, head of Dingyuan County Sijixin Company, which is responsible for the specific field application operations, told the reporter unequivocally. "The land belongs to the village. As long as the village doesn't say stop, I won't stop."
"This is returning biogas slurry to the fields," Shi Min, Party Secretary of Jiepai Ji Town, explained. The cow manure produced in the pasture's breeding process goes through multiple processes including solid-liquid separation and harmless treatment in oxidation ponds to form biogas slurry, which is then applied to the land as fertilizer, forming a green cycle.
The person in charge of the animal husbandry company's planting division in Dingyuan County said that this land had previously been "leveled" during land improvement, leaving a thin soil layer, "so it just needs more fertilizer." Tong Falun, for his part, said the soil here had previously been compacted, and it was necessary to use more biogas slurry first to "soak the fields soft."
A staff member of the law enforcement brigade of the Dingyuan County Ecological Environment Sub-Bureau said that apart from an earlier accidental overflow of manure fertilizer from the fields due to heavy rain, the relevant field application practices did not show any obvious violations of environmental law.
On this, the villagers had differing opinions (意见不一, yì jiàn bù yī - "opinion, not, one"). A villager surnamed Yun believed that cow manure is fertilizer, and even if the amount were excessive, "this plot can just be left for a few months and then planted again."
But Granny Zhang of Mengwa Village grumbled to the reporter, "Such a large amount of fertilizer water discharged directly into the soil will certainly damage the soil. Whether crops can be grown here in the future is hard to say."
The reporter consulted relevant experts on this matter. "'Soaking the fields soft' has no scientific basis," said Wu Wenxuan, Deputy Dean of the Rural Revitalization Research Institute of Guizhou University. According to the Technical Specification for Returning Livestock and Poultry Manure Fertilizer to Fields (hereinafter referred to as the Specification), taking winter wheat, a field crop, as an example, the recommended application rate of liquid manure fertilizer for the current season is only 10 to 15 tons per mu per season. The single-day application rate on this plot of land in Mengwa has already reached 5 to 10 times or more the upper limit for an entire season. Moreover, the method of discharge is also non-compliant. The standard methods specified in the Specification are surface application (uniform spraying from tanker trucks), deep application, furrow irrigation, furrow application, hole application, drip irrigation, etc. Natural flood irrigation overflowing the farmland does not constitute any of the standard discharge methods. Furthermore, from the perspective of the water environment, flood irrigation overflow may also cause high-concentration chemical oxygen demand (COD) wastewater, ammonia nitrogen, and total phosphorus to enter ditches and rivers, leading to eutrophication of water bodies, and large-scale infiltration may cause ammonia nitrogen and nitrates to enter groundwater.
"Flooding the soil 'soft' with large amounts of biogas slurry is even more unfounded. If soil is soaked for a long time, even after plowing, residual salts and nutrients will still affect the growth of the next crop. The situation described by the Mengwa villagers, that 'it's fine to just plant after a few months,' does not exist." Wu Wenxuan stated that the Specification requires monitoring of soil water-soluble salt content after biogas slurry is returned to fields. Excessive soaking, on the contrary, causes soil aggregate disintegration and pore blockage, and after drying, the soil forms a crust and hardens, aggravating compaction and salinization. Biogas slurry return to fields must adopt standard methods such as uniform spraying and deep application, combined with soil testing and formula fertilization, appropriate application rates, and coordinated plowing, in order to truly improve the soil.
Return to TopI am a resident of Nanming District, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, and I frequently pass through the Ergezhai Overpass. This overpass has been open to traffic for over a decade, and whether on the bridge itself, the main roads beneath it, or the ramps leading to the side roads, streetlights were installed long ago—yet for unknown reasons they have never been lit (see photo).
This location is in the main urban area of Guiyang City, with heavy traffic flow. At night, the road surface is in pitch darkness (漆黑一片, qi hei yi pian - "paint, dark, one, piece"), and there are safety hazards for vehicles and pedestrians passing through. We hope the streetlights can be lit as soon as possible.
Mr. Zhang, netizen on the "Leadership Message Board" of People's Daily Online
Return to TopPublic Restrooms
Don't Lock the Doors at Night
In recent times, I have noticed that many public restrooms in my city are locked at night. But there are still large numbers of citizens returning home late, freight truck drivers, night-shift workers, and others who are out and about at night, and when they need to use the toilet they cannot find a public restroom. Some restrooms marked on maps as 24-hour public restrooms turn out to have their doors tightly locked as well. Some people, having no other choice (不得已, bu de yi - "not, can, not"), relieve themselves on the spot, which both affects environmental hygiene and damages the city's image.
Taking local conditions into account, I suggest extending the opening hours of public restrooms in areas with large nighttime foot traffic, such as main urban roads, squares, night markets, and along transportation routes, setting up 24-hour open public restrooms, and clearly marking them on maps. For public restrooms open at night, management methods can be optimized, for example by strengthening nighttime patrols and installing cameras at the entrances, to reduce concerns about safety and cleaning. By optimizing the open management of public restrooms, the level of convenient services for citizens can be raised.
Mr. Liu, Wuzhong City, Ningxia
After Construction Is Completed
Remove the Barriers as Soon as Possible
The author drove out on an errand over the weekend, but because the main streets in front of and behind the residential community were under renovation with barriers blocking the road, the car could not get out, so I had to switch to riding an electric bicycle. Later I heard from a neighbor that the project inside the barriers had already been completed and was now in the acceptance stage, but the barriers had still not been removed for a long time.
Urban renewal and renovation is a necessary measure to improve the quality of life of urban residents, and it is understandable that renovation projects inevitably cause some inconvenience to residents' lives during the construction period. At the same time, for the construction party, the impact of construction on residents' lives should be reduced as much as possible. For example, for similar municipal road renovation projects, the completion date should be clarified and publicly announced, the construction party and relevant departments should coordinate and connect well with each other, and after the project is delivered, the barriers should be removed promptly to facilitate the travel of the public.
Wang Wugang, Zhengzhou City, Henan
Don't Let Roadside Trees
Block Traffic Lights
Recently, when I passed a traffic light intersection on a national highway, I found that the branches and leaves of the roadside trees and greening plants on all sides were too lush, affecting the driving sightlines of motor vehicle drivers, and the pedestrian traffic lights were even completely blocked by the leaves, making it difficult for passing pedestrians and vehicles to see the signal indications, thereby creating hidden traffic safety hazards.
I suggest conducting a comprehensive inspection of areas such as traffic signals, traffic signs, and warning signboards along national and provincial trunk roads and county and township roads, registering one by one the hazard points where greening blocks the view, and pruning them on a regular basis. Incorporate the pruning of greening in special road areas into routine maintenance management, and establish a system of regular inspection and pruning to avoid the problem recurring. At the same time, relevant departments should establish a linkage mechanism, with greening maintenance units and traffic management departments working in coordination, to ensure that after pruning, the normal use of traffic facilities is not affected.
Mr. Chen, Leshan City, Sichuan
Return to TopBy: 向子丰 陈子玉
A property dispute, a lawful rights-defense action... These common personal experiences in daily life have nothing to do with professional competence and also involve personal privacy, yet they have become "risk items in background check reports." Recently, some readers have reported that certain enterprises have extended pre-employment background checks from reasonable categories such as education and work history to include credit records from years ago, family circumstances, social media records, and other content, with stringent requirements that have become an "invisible threshold" for job seekers.
Ms. Luo from Chengdu, Sichuan, said that in early 2025, she applied for an operations and customer service position at a certain enterprise. The human resources department head informed her that she could start work and required her to authorize a background check. As a result, a third-party background check company issued a report stating that Ms. Luo had a "litigation record" flagged with a yellow-light warning. Upon investigation, it was discovered that in 2018, a property dispute had occurred in the community where Ms. Luo lived, and she, as a co-owner of the property, had been listed as a co-defendant. After paying the property management fees in full, she thought the matter had been closed, but never expected that she would miss out on the job opportunity because of it. When Ms. Luo disclosed this property dispute experience during an interview at another company, "they said it had no direct bearing on the work," and she was ultimately hired smoothly.
Ms. Luo was flagged with a "yellow light" as a defendant, while others who lawfully defended their rights as plaintiffs have also been regarded by some enterprises as having a blemish when seeking employment. Xiao Shao, a recent graduate from Nanchang, Jiangxi, engaged in part-time work during his studies and encountered an economic dispute. He filed a lawsuit with the court and "gradually recovered part of the money, and the case was closed." Unexpectedly, this litigation experience became an obstacle in Xiao Shao's subsequent job search. He successively received hiring intentions from two banks and one e-commerce company, but during the pre-employment background check stage, he was not hired because of the litigation record.
Not only ordinary civil litigation, but also labor arbitration experiences in which individuals lawfully defended their rights have been regarded by some enterprises as "risk signals." Ms. Qing from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, passed multiple rounds of interviews at a certain internet company this year and successfully received a job offer, authorizing a background check. "The background check had only one yellow light." This "yellow light" occurred in 2021, when, because her former company had long been unable to pay wages, she participated in collective labor arbitration.
"I explained that it was labor arbitration, but I still did not pass." Ms. Qing found this difficult to accept: "How did fighting for my own legitimate rights and interests become a threshold for joining a new company?"
Employers rely so heavily on background check reports, but is the information obtained by background check companies necessarily true and accurate? The Fengtai District People's Court of Beijing once heard a case of infringement involving pre-employment background checks, in which a background check company, without verifying the truth or falsity of the information, sent a conclusion that the job seeker had "problems with values and lifestyle conduct" to the unit where the job seeker intended to work, causing negative impacts on the job seeker's employment, salary, and social evaluation. The court ultimately determined that the background check company had infringed upon the job seeker's right to reputation and should bear legal liability.
In addition to workers being rejected because of irrelevant past experiences, what deserves even greater vigilance is that background check companies illegally obtain personal information and even resell or abuse it.
Mr. Yue, a netizen on People's Daily Online's "Leadership Message Board," once publicly complained about this situation. In June 2025, he participated in the social recruitment of a certain fund company, and the recruiting enterprise initiated a background check without authorization. Mr. Yue said that the background check agency's phone call went directly to his workplace, and his job-seeking intentions were fully exposed to his leaders and colleagues. "Before the hiring result was even announced, everyone knows it (尽人皆知, jin ren jie zhi - "all, people, all, know") at my current unit."
Mr. Mo, a netizen from Beijing, passed multiple rounds of interviews at a certain information company in March of this year. During the background check, because the report showed that he had a labor arbitration record in 2021, the company revoked the offer. What deeply unsettled Mr. Mo was that there is no unified public platform for arbitration. He searched all websites but could not find information on the applicant for enforcement. So where did the background check company get it?
According to industry insiders, background check companies obtain personal information through multiple channels, such as using private relationships within the industry to obtain information, including assessment records, internal evaluations, and so on, or using "web crawler" technology to search for personal information related to job seekers on judgment documents websites, social media, and elsewhere. In addition, there are so-called personal information buying and selling transactions, in which a copy of personal information including social security status and undisclosed litigation records costs only a little over 100 yuan.
Background checks have formed a black-gray industrial chain. In addition to buying and selling personal information, people online from time to time claim to be able to provide services such as "optimizing" resumes, "handling" adverse records, and "customizing" background check reports. "Some merchants claim they can contact judges to have judgment documents removed from the internet, delete information from background check agencies' databases, and so on," said one netizen.
Wang Tianyu, deputy director of the Social Law Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that according to the Labor Contract Law, employers have the right to understand basic circumstances of workers that are directly related to the labor contract, and workers should also truthfully explain them. "However, the information employers collect about workers should be directly related to the labor contract. The Employment Promotion Law clearly stipulates the principle of equal employment, and employers may not exclude people from employment on grounds unrelated to the job position."
Background check companies' collection of sensitive personal information may constitute infringement. The Personal Information Protection Law stipulates that the collection of personal information should be limited to the minimum scope necessary to achieve the purpose of processing, and excessive collection of personal information is prohibited; otherwise, violators will face multiple legal consequences including administrative penalties, civil compensation, and even criminal liability. "If an employer knows or should know that a background check agency has obtained information through illegal means and still commissions it, the employer may constitute joint infringement with the background check agency," said Shi Fumao, an expert member of the Legal Advisory Committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
Experts suggest that multiple measures should be taken to protect workers' right to equal employment and to punish the illegal collection of personal information. Wang Tianyu believes that relevant departments should further refine the requirements and standards for background checks, systematically interpret the provisions scattered across laws and regulations such as the Civil Code, the Personal Information Protection Law, and the Labor Law, clarify items unrelated to employment such as traffic accidents, property disputes, and rights-defense records, raise the cost of illegal conduct for background check abuse, and ensure that judicial practice has laws to rely on. At the same time, the regulation and management of the background check service industry should be strengthened, and black-gray industrial chains such as the illegal acquisition and sale of personal information and the forgery of certificates and reports should be severely cracked down upon in accordance with the law.
"There is also a need to smooth the channels of relief for workers," Shi Fumao said. An appeal and review channel that is independent and open to job seekers should be established, allowing parties concerned to raise objections to false or unreasonable risk labels and apply for corrections, thereby lowering the threshold for workers to defend their rights.
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Return to TopBy: 本报记者 强 薇 郑 翔
"The BRICS countries must be the vanguard in promoting mutual learning among civilizations." On the afternoon of September 12 local time, President Xi Jinping pointed out at the first plenary session of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, the capital of India, that the BRICS countries inherit ancient civilizations and nurture diverse cultures, and should become a garden where different civilizations can coexist peacefully despite differences (包容共存, baorong gongcun - "embrace, coexist"). It is necessary to promote the common values of all humanity and advocate exchanges, mutual learning, harmony, and coexistence among civilizations. It is necessary to run the BRICS People-to-People and Cultural Exchanges Forum well, share governance experience, and gather positive energy for the stable development of inter-state relations. Cooperation in culture, tourism, education, and other fields should be deepened, youth exchanges strengthened, and frequent interactions and mutual understanding and affinity among the people promoted.
Civilizations become more colorful through exchange, and civilizations become richer through mutual learning. In recent years, the "BRICS family" has upheld the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, deeply implemented the Global Civilization Initiative, enhanced trust through dialogue, built consensus through exchange, and continuously expanded people-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation. China has proposed building a "People-Centered BRICS," actively advocated and firmly promoted exchanges and mutual learning among BRICS civilizations and mutual understanding and affinity among the people, injecting warm and enduring people-to-people strength into the high-quality development of the BRICS cooperation mechanism through practical actions.
Platforms Empower, Strengthening Exchanges of Governance Experience
China actively advocates the inclusive coexistence of different civilizations, has taken the initiative to build multiple cooperation platforms, taken the lead in establishing the Global South Think Tanks Cooperation Alliance, and held the BRICS Seminar on Governance and People-to-People and Cultural Exchanges Forum to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning of governance experience among countries.
In April this year, the launch event for the English and Indonesian editions of Volume V of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China was held in Jakarta, where participating experts and scholars conducted exchanges and dialogues focusing on topics such as the development opportunities of the 15th Five-Year Plan, common modernization, and poverty reduction experience. Ahmad Muzani, Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia, stated that this event provided an important platform for Indonesia and China to deepen intellectual exchanges, and expressed the hope that more Indonesian government officials, scholars, and youth groups would deepen their understanding of China's development path and governance philosophy.
Last year, the National School of Government of South Africa successively selected two groups of government officials to visit China to participate in a series of training programs on public servant governance capacity conducted in cooperation with Chinese government agencies, universities, think tanks, and others. The two sides conducted study and exchanges focusing on topics such as government service innovation, rural revitalization, smart city construction, and poverty reduction and development.
Busani Ncaweni, Director of the Centre for Public Policy and African Studies at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, stated that the training in China provided South African public servants with valuable opportunities to acquire professional knowledge and skills, which is of great significance for South Africa in improving the administrative efficiency of the public sector and promoting the modernization of national governance capacity.
"People-to-people and cultural exchanges are one of the important pillars of BRICS cooperation," said Maria Elena Rodriguez, Acting Director of the Brazilian BRICS Policy Research Center. "The BRICS countries are a cooperation mechanism with geographical, linguistic, and cultural diversity. The establishment of exchange platforms such as the BRICS Policy Research Center can help relevant scholars build corresponding observation perspectives and research methods around the common challenges facing the Global South, enabling a deeper understanding of each other's complex realities and respective aspirations, and helping to build a more just and reasonable international order."
Culture Builds Bridges, Advocating Harmony and Coexistence Among Civilizations
"What is your hobby?" "My hobby is playing basketball." In a classroom at the Tagore International School in New Delhi, Chinese language teacher Maria was leading students in oral practice (see photo, taken by People's Daily reporter Qiang Wei). "My name is Atreye, and I am 14 years old." "My name is Jainvi, and I am also 14 years old." Although they had only studied Chinese for less than half a year, the students all tried to communicate with the reporter in Chinese.
Tagore is an Indian poet familiar to the Chinese people, who promoted the establishment of the Cheena Bhavana (Institute of Chinese Studies) at Visva-Bharati University in India in the 1930s. Today, at this international school named after Tagore, Chinese has become a popular elective course among students.
Madhulika Sen, Chief Advisor of Tagore International School, stated that the school has had years of exchange and cooperation with Chinese educational institutions and established a sister-school relationship with Shanghai Jinyuan Senior High School in 2008. "Through various forms of interaction, we strengthen exchanges between teachers and students of the two countries and strive to become a calling card for India-China educational, people-to-people, and cultural exchange and cooperation."
The BRICS countries have different civilizational origins and distinct cultural characteristics, but they all call for respect for cultural diversity, attach great importance to inheritance, innovation, and creation, and jointly advocate international people-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation. In recent years, the wide-ranging, multi-level people-to-people and cultural exchanges under the BRICS cooperation mechanism have continuously brought the people closer together.
In June 2025, a series of activities on dialogue among civilizations (BRICS special session) with the theme "Strengthening the Bond of BRICS People-to-People Exchanges, Empowering a Bright Future for the Global South" was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To the melody of a medley of popular songs from BRICS countries, models dressed in gambiered Guangdong gauze clothing showcased the beauty of Eastern traditional craftsmanship and modern music shining brilliantly together (交相辉映, jiaoxiang huiying - "interchange, shine"), and multiple sports champions, corporate representatives, and young talents from BRICS countries shared touching stories of the people of BRICS countries uniting and cooperating in the common pursuit of development and prosperity based on their personal experiences.
Tia Ju, Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, stated that strengthening the dialogue among BRICS civilizations is of paramount importance, "When we embrace our differences and promote solidarity and cooperation, we pave the way for building a sustainable future full of understanding, peace, and shared prosperity."
At the BRICS Games, athletes from various countries competed fiercely in sports such as martial arts, fencing, rhythmic gymnastics, and badminton, fully displaying the beauty of competition; the BRICS Film Festival enhances communication and understanding between countries through the big screen, paving the way for cultural exchange with light and shadow... With culture building bridges and exchanges gathering strength, the BRICS people-to-people and cultural exchange and cooperation platforms continue to expand, creating a "BRICS model" for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
Educational Cooperation, Helping Transform the "Demographic Dividend" into a "Talent Dividend"
In Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, during the 2026 World Digital Education Conference, the South Africa (Gqeberha) Overseas Learning Center, jointly established by China University of Petroleum (East China), the Open University of China, and Nelson Mandela University of South Africa, completed its signing. The center focuses on fields such as the digital economy and clean energy, and strives to build a new type of smart education hub integrating functions such as resource sharing, course co-construction, talent cultivation, scientific research cooperation, and cultural exchange.
Ayanda Holo, Head of the Africa Channel of BRICS TV, stated that this signing is a practical measure to implement China's initiative to establish overseas learning centers in BRICS countries, and also a concrete action to respond to the development needs of Global South countries, helping African countries transform from passive recipients of digital technology to active participants in capacity building.
China has established Luban Workshops in multiple BRICS countries, including Russia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia, cultivating a large number of technical talents for the BRICS countries. The Ethiopia Luban Workshop, which was inaugurated and put into operation in 2021, focuses on industrial sensors, mechatronics, industrial control, and industrial robotics, providing not only localized practical courses for teachers and students but also skills training for employees of local high-end manufacturing and automation enterprises.
Muferihat Kamil, Minister of Labor and Skills of Ethiopia, stated that through vocational education exchanges and cooperation with China, more and more Ethiopian youth have received world-class technical and vocational training. China's innovative support and investment have not only improved the quality of Ethiopia's workforce but also helped Ethiopia achieve sustainable development.
In May this year, the finals of the 2026 BRICS Industrial Innovation Competition were held in Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China, where high-quality innovation projects from BRICS countries and BRICS partner countries gathered for on-site presentations, defense, and competition on the same stage; the annual BRICS Skills Competition, focusing on new industries, new business forms, and new technologies such as high-end manufacturing and the digital economy, is currently being carried out in a vigorous and intensive manner (紧锣密鼓, jinluo migu - "tight, drum, dense") in preparation for the 2026 competition; China has taken the lead in establishing the BRICS Vocational Education Alliance to help countries jointly improve vocational education and empower youth...
Oleg Timofeev, Associate Professor at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and an international affairs expert, stated: "Vocational education cooperation has cultivated a large number of outstanding technical talents for the BRICS countries. Through the joint organization and participation of governments, enterprises, and institutions from various countries, it helps countries transform the 'demographic dividend' into a 'talent dividend,' creating more opportunities for youth and contributing to the social and economic development of all countries."
(People's Daily reporters Meng Xianglin, Che Bin, Shen Xiaoxiao, Shi Yuanhao, Cao Shiyun, and Xiao Xinxin contributed to this article)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 黄发红 褚 君 王 慧
On September 13, the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services concluded in Beijing. This year's CIFTIS produced more than 1,200 outcomes across seven categories, hosted 200 forum sessions, conferences, and matchmaking and promotional events, and attracted more than 1,830 enterprises to participate offline and more than 5,300 enterprises online. From logistics and freight to healthcare, from consumer trade to professional services, enterprises and institutions from various countries showcased innovative achievements, discussed practical cooperation, and shared market opportunities at the fair. A heavy "harvest list" of outcomes demonstrated the distinctive character of this services trade event — innovation, openness, and win-win cooperation.
The Appointment of Innovation —
World and China Premieres Compete for the Spotlight
During this year's CIFTIS, enterprises from various countries brought out their specialized skills and core expertise (看家本领, kàn jiā běn lǐng - "look at, family, original, ability"), and a batch of innovative achievements making their global or China debut were unveiled together. A total of 103 enterprises and institutions released 233 new products, new services, and new solutions, of which 119 were new-product debut outcomes, covering multiple fields including artificial intelligence, digital services, healthcare, green and low-carbon development, cross-border logistics, and professional services, injecting new momentum into the innovative development of services trade.
At the GE HealthCare booth, a C-arm medical device drew a crowd of professional visitors. According to the introduction, this debut OEC 3D intraoperative mobile three-dimensional C-arm technology can display three-dimensional images during surgery with greater precision and clarity. During the fair, GE HealthCare also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, to jointly promote the application of artificial intelligence in ultrasound diagnosis and clinical decision-making for cardiovascular diseases. Song Weiqun, Global Executive Vice President of GE HealthCare and President and CEO of GE HealthCare China, said: "Participating in CIFTIS for six consecutive years not only demonstrates our local innovation capability, but also confirms the unique value of CIFTIS as a catalyst for global healthcare services trade cooperation."
Schneider Electric released its "full-lifecycle one-stop service" and innovative outcomes, and, around the topic of "intelligent transformation and digital upgrading" of industry, explored digital and intelligent transformation and implementation paths together with industry experts and enterprise representatives. Xu Shaofeng, Senior Vice President of Schneider Electric and Head of Medium Voltage and Services Business in China, said the company is committed to deepening its presence in the Chinese market, strengthening local innovation, and reinforcing industrial cooperation. "Through the CIFTIS platform, we have conducted in-depth exchanges with partners across industries, explored opportunities together, and sought common development. Schneider Electric will continue to deepen its 'China Hub' strategy, activate new momentum for industry with 'full-lifecycle one-stop service,' and inject strong impetus into high-quality development."
Focusing on four major areas — urban renewal, green real estate valuation, real estate investment trusts for commercial properties, and lower-tier consumer markets — Cushman & Wakefield released multiple research findings and industry analysis frameworks. Hu Feng, Managing Director of Cushman & Wakefield North China, said that China continues to expand the opening up of its services industry and actively promotes the establishment of partnership relations between domestic and foreign enterprises, exploring new markets and seeking new ways of creating value, "which can both serve multinational enterprises entering China and empower Chinese enterprises going global."
"Services trade is becoming an important link connecting China's development with the global market, and in particular, digitalization and intelligentization are accelerating their integration into every aspect of services trade." He Dayong, Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group, said that many of the cases at the fair reflected the combination of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, large models, and intelligent agents with specific industrial scenarios. "Chinese enterprises going global will be increasingly reflected in their understanding of technological innovation, service capability, global operations, and of different market rules and customer needs."
The Appointment of Openness —
The International "Circle of Friends" Continues to Expand
CIFTIS is an important window for China to expand high-level opening up to the outside world, and an important platform for enterprises from various countries to explore the Chinese market and connect with global resources. Among this year's exhibitors were both "new faces" making their debut and "old friends" participating for consecutive years. Crossing mountains and seas, they gained market insights here and also acquired new partners.
At the Shougang Park venue, McDonald's China's "dual-zero" certified zero-carbon restaurant warmly welcomed guests, while pop-up stores and coffee carts supported catering services in the conference area and the exhibitor area. During this fair, McDonald's China focused on consumption stimulus and scenario innovation, releasing five offline consumption outcomes. Innovative cases such as "McDonald's Weekend" and "Central Axis Light and Shadow" expanded restaurants from a single dining space into composite scenarios for family socializing, urban leisure, and cultural experience. Gu Lei, Chief Impact Officer of McDonald's China, said that China continues to expand the opening up of its services industry, and the enormous vitality of the market provides opportunities for McDonald's continued business growth. "The Chinese market is not only of great value for enhancing the brand's global influence, but the rapidly changing market also provides fertile soil for our business innovation."
Danish freight forwarding enterprise Scan Worldwide made its debut at CIFTIS this year. "Participating for the first time not only allowed us to showcase ourselves, but also to hear the real needs of Chinese customers; the exchanges at the fair were a valuable gain." Xiao Yao, General Manager of North China at Scan Worldwide (Shanghai) International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., told reporters that the company has established a local team and service network in the Chinese market, with services covering industries such as automotive, industrial projects, high-tech electronics, healthcare, and fashion retail, and hopes to establish connections with more Chinese enterprises through the CIFTIS platform. "China is not only an important global manufacturing and trade center, but also an important market full of innovation and cooperation opportunities. We hope to continue to be a part of connecting China with the global market."
This year's CIFTIS set up a joint booth for the United Nations' "One Country, One Priority Product" and "Geographical Indication Habitat" initiatives, showcasing the cooperation outcomes between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Trade rules and standards are important factors in ensuring sustainable agricultural development and food security." Takeshi Shimizu, Deputy Regional Representative of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, said that this participation aimed to showcase how the FAO, through cooperation with China and the use of "Geographical Indication Habitat" traceability technology, can make the quality of products from small-scale agricultural producers in the Asia-Pacific region verifiable and their origins traceable, helping international enterprises better understand the potential of these products.
"We have always been optimistic about the enormous potential of the Chinese market." Yang Tianyi, Head of Marriott Media Greater China, believes that many multinational enterprises are eager to deepen their presence in the Chinese market, while Chinese enterprises are also accelerating their global expansion; both sides need to build brand awareness in their target markets. He looks forward to continuously expanding the business chain through platforms such as CIFTIS.
The Appointment of Win-Win Cooperation —
Professional Services Empower Both Directions
Services trade is not only the circulation of goods and technology, but also the connection of professional capabilities and business ecosystems. This year's CIFTIS established a "going global services" zone for the first time and set up a "going global services promotion and roadshow area" for the first time, bringing together professional service institutions in law, accounting, consulting, and other fields to help Chinese enterprises go global with high quality.
"From organizing the first series of going-global services promotion roadshows to establishing the first exhibition zone for going-global service enterprises, this year's CIFTIS brought together professional institutions for going-global services and provided one-stop solutions, allowing enterprises from various countries to truly enjoy the dividends of 'global services, mutual benefit and shared gains,' and also providing important development opportunities for more global professional service institutions." Chen Kai, Chairman of EY China and CEO of EY Greater China, said that in the next stage, the globalization competition of Chinese enterprises requires the establishment of a more complete global ecosystem, and meeting local market demand with deeper operational capabilities cannot be achieved without the support of professional services.
Dale Pinto, Global President and Chairman of the Board of CPA Australia, said that the globalization process of Chinese enterprises has accelerated significantly, and the demand for professional services has continued to grow alongside enterprises going global, creating new growth points for related industries. During this fair, CPA Australia held a themed forum titled "Services Trade Without Borders, Connecting the World — Professional Services Empowering Chinese Enterprises to Go Global," helping Chinese enterprises achieve high-quality global expansion and sustainable development. "For us, CIFTIS is not only an important window to showcase our brand and professional strength, but also a key platform for deepening connections with the Chinese market and promoting practical cooperation," said Pinto.
"As a platform that creates common interests and opportunities, CIFTIS plays a very important role." Han Ning, Commercial Counsellor of the Norwegian Embassy in China, this year's guest country of honor, believes that at a time when protectionism is on the rise, China's continued expansion of high-level opening up has enabled Norwegian enterprises to see many opportunities. He said that a number of Chinese robotics enterprises have already established cooperation with Norwegian companies. "With the development of China's high technology and artificial intelligence, European enterprises can find more business models for cooperation with Chinese partners and win the future together."
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 罗珊珊 王 洲 王东辉
On September 13, the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services concluded in Beijing. A total of 134 promotion and negotiation activities were held, a year-on-year increase of nearly 80 percent; 2,640 pieces of supply and demand information were released, attracting approximately 116,000 professional visitors to register for the event; and more than 1,200 outcomes across seven categories were achieved, bringing genuine and substantial (实实在在, shi shi zai zai - "real, real; solid, solid") cooperation opportunities to enterprises.
Through the fair, one can see that China's opening up today is no longer simply about buying and selling goods, but rather the mutual integration and connectivity of technology, services, rules, and solutions. At a time when global economic uncertainty is rising and China's economy has entered a critical stage of transformation and upgrading, promoting openness and cooperation in the services sector is of great significance and comes at the right moment.
The deep integration of manufacturing and services reshapes the competitive logic of Chinese industry going global
For a long time, Chinese manufacturing going global relied mainly on the export of hardcore products, competing on equipment performance, delivery cycles, and product prices. As Chinese manufacturing advances toward the mid-to-high end of the value chain, supporting services such as R&D and design, after-sales operations and maintenance, technical training, and software iteration have become increasingly prominent in the importance of the industrial chain. The deep integration of advanced manufacturing and modern services is gradually becoming a new paradigm for Chinese industry going global.
At the fair, United Imaging Group highlighted its original AI (artificial intelligence)-driven domestically produced first photon-counting energy-spectrum CT, integrated ring CT linear accelerator, and other innovative products.
"From United Imaging's practice, trade in services is becoming the key to enhancing product added value, strengthening customer stickiness, and building long-term competitiveness." Sun Weisen, head of public affairs at United Imaging Healthcare, summarized the new trends in enterprises going global: shifting from selling equipment to selling solutions — United Imaging not only delivers high-end imaging equipment overseas but also provides digital-intelligent integrated solutions; shifting from remote support to localized full-lifecycle services — United Imaging has deployed regional service centers, spare parts warehouses, and professional engineer teams globally, with overseas service revenue growing 63.84 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, and services becoming an independent growth pole; shifting from product going global to ecosystem going global — United Imaging works with global innovation partners across industry, academia, research, and medicine to promote clinical research collaboration and multi-product-line synergy, allowing "Intelligent Manufacturing in China" to become deeply integrated into the global healthcare system.
At the fair, people saw more traditional services leaping and upgrading into modern services.
The Baichuan technology platform exhibited by SF Express at the fair is essentially a supply chain intelligent management system that connects all business scenarios including orders, warehousing, transportation, and settlement. Logistics is no longer merely cargo transshipment; it is both the foundational support for domestic industrial operations and the supporting base for enterprises going global. Relying on more than 350,000 self-operated and partner outlets domestically and more than 90,000 overseas, 111 all-cargo aircraft, and a network spanning the globe, SF Express both helps domestic brands sell their products overseas and undertakes warehousing, distribution, and customs clearance needs for overseas enterprises entering the Chinese market; it also extends its service network to scenarios such as cultural tourism and convenience services for the public, and major event support.
Digital technology expands the boundaries of trade in services, empowering intelligent iterative upgrading
At this fair, Kingsoft Office's WPS 365 government edition and organizational-level AI office intelligent agent were unveiled at the Digital Friendly Solutions Exhibition, collectively showcasing full-scenario AI capabilities for government office work including document drafting, intelligent proofreading, and data reporting. Visitors could experience on-site functions such as intelligent proofreading, intelligent typesetting, and AI PPT, intuitively feeling AI's leap from "producing documents" to "actually doing the work."
"The WPS 365 government edition uses a fully self-developed technology foundation and has already been implemented in more than 20 high-frequency scenarios including document creation, intelligent proofreading, and automatic typesetting in multiple regions, with efficiency improvements exceeding 80 percent." A relevant person in charge of Kingsoft introduced that since the beginning of this year, WPS 365 has carried out deep cooperation with domestic and international partners including Huawei, Oman Telecommunications, and Vietnam's FPT, and has deployed overseas data centers in Germany, Singapore, and other countries, helping enterprises improve quality and efficiency while also ensuring compliance.
The biggest change digital technology has brought to trade in services is breaking the geographical restrictions on service delivery. At the same time, with the widespread application of technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, trade in services is iterating and upgrading toward digitalization and intelligence, driving rapid growth in knowledge-intensive service exports. Data show that from January to July this year, China's knowledge-intensive service exports grew 12.2 percent year-on-year, accounting for 53.5 percent of total service exports.
Changhong Jiahua debuted its "AI Video Advertising Solution" practical results at this fair: relying on AI technology from its global strategic cooperation with Microsoft, it uses algorithmic large models and computer vision to automatically identify insertable positions in videos, overlaying brand materials in real time without modifying the original footage, achieving precise delivery of "a thousand people, a thousand faces." It has already integrated more than 10 Southeast Asian media platforms including those in Indonesia and Thailand, and has completed technical validation and commercial implementation overseas.
Institutional opening up continues to advance, creating an open, transparent, and predictable market environment
BeiDou time-space information services allow China's time-space reference standards to serve the world; the Xintong Chain open-source ecosystem practice connects cross-border trade document cross-system collaboration, linking the entire chain of trade, logistics, and banking; a globalized end-to-end pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization platform can provide global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and research institutions with full-process services from preclinical to market launch... This year's fair established for the first time a China Service Cases exhibition area, centrally showcasing enterprises' innovative practices. Through these cases, global partners saw China's pragmatic exploration in opening up and cooperating in the services sector.
In Beijing E-Town, inside the production workshop of USANA, mixers, high-speed tablet presses, and capping machines operate in coordination, with multiple categories of health products rapidly coming off the line. This foreign enterprise with an annual output value exceeding 3 billion yuan was once stymied by cross-border data transfer difficulties.
"Product consumption information from the Chinese market is very important for us to develop products that better fit market demand and provide customers with better services," said Liu Xinran, senior legal manager of USANA.
To smooth the cross-border flow of data factors, the Beijing Pilot Free Trade Zone issued the country's first scenario-based, field-level negative list for cross-border data transfer in pilot free trade zones. "Matters not on the negative list are exempt from assessment or filing, and the list's clear, field-based declaration guidelines make the enterprise declaration process simple and smooth, significantly reducing the burden on enterprises," Liu Xinran said. In May this year, Beijing expanded the negative list management mechanism for cross-border data transfer from the pilot free trade zone to the entire city.
Zhu Guangyao, second-level inspector of the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services of the Ministry of Commerce, said that it is necessary to improve the negative list management system for cross-border trade in services and steadily and orderly promote the opening of the services market. Accelerate the construction of national demonstration zones for innovative development of trade in services and build important platforms for opening up and cooperation in trade in services. Promote the efficient, convenient, and safe cross-border flow of factors such as talent, capital, and data, create an open, transparent, and predictable market environment, and let the dividends of the development of trade in services benefit more countries and all types of business entities.
Return to TopBy: 张 鹏
Organizational building is an important foundation of Party building. Upholding and improving an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution is one of the "Fourteen Commitments" of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, and is where the Party's strengths and power lie. As an important original concept and landmark measure of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, upholding and improving an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution is of great significance for upholding the Party's leadership, especially the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, in the new era, and for persistently advancing full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, providing a strong guarantee for governing the Party, running the Party strictly, strengthening the country, and achieving national rejuvenation.
A rigorous organizational system is where the strengths and power of a Marxist political party lie
In the first volume of Selected Works of Xi Jinping on Party Building, in the article "Strict Party Organizational Discipline and Strengthen Organizational Discipline," General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Party's strength comes from its organization, and organization can multiply strength. Our Party is a political party established in accordance with the Marxist principles of Party building. Our Party takes democratic centralism as its fundamental organizational system and leadership system. Rigorous organization is the Party's glorious tradition and unique advantage." Over more than 100 years since its founding, our Party has worked hard in difficult conditions (栉风沐雨, zhi feng mu yu - "comb, wind; bathe, rain"), weathered hardships, continuously advanced from victory to victory, and developed into the world's largest governing party with significant global influence. Rigorous organization has been an important guarantee.
Focus on organizational system building. Marxist political parties have attached great importance to organizational building since their birth. In the course of its founding and development, our Party established a rigorous organizational system including the Party's central organizations, local organizations, and primary-level organizations. Relying on its strong organization, it effectively accomplished the Party's missions and tasks in various historical periods. Entering the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has profoundly grasped the Marxist principles of Party building, scientifically summarized the historical experience of Party organizational building, combined the characteristics and requirements of the new era, and creatively proposed the Party's organizational line for the new era, emphasizing "focus on organizational system building," and incorporating "improving an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution" as an important component of improving the system for full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. This highlights the foundational status of organizational building and the requirements for systematic construction, points out the direction, focus, and path for Party organizational building in the new era, and greatly deepens the understanding of the laws of the Marxist principles of Party building.
An important measure demonstrating the unique advantages of a major party. As of the end of 2025, the total number of Communist Party of China members was 101.286 million, and the Party had 5.431 million primary-level organizations. With the increase in the number of Party members and primary-level Party organizations, our Party must continuously address a series of major practical issues in the building of a major party. The large number of Party members brings problems such as diverse identities, multiple structures, wide distribution, and increased difficulty in education, management, and supervision of Party members; the large number of primary-level Party organizations brings problems such as complex organizational structures, broader coverage areas, greater management difficulty, especially the rapid development of emerging fields, new organizational forms and modes of operation, high mobility of Party members, and relatively weak Party building work. At the same time, phenomena such as some Party members and cadres having weak Party consciousness, loose organization, and lax discipline still exist to a certain extent. By weaving a dense and strong Party organizational system, implementing the requirements of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party without any discount in every Party organization and for every Party member, thereby building all Party organizations strong and managing all Party members well, the scale advantage of a major party can be transformed into a quality advantage and political advantage, making the whole Party united and consolidated into "a piece of hard steel" capable of overcoming all powerful enemies and all difficulties and obstacles.
The source of strength for responding to risks and challenges and accomplishing the Party's missions and tasks. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "To strengthen confidence and continue the struggle, we must actively respond to risks and challenges on the road ahead. China's development is in a period where strategic opportunities and risks and challenges coexist, and uncertainties and unpredictable factors are increasing. We need to be prepared at all times to withstand major tests of high winds and rough waves, or even violent storms." On the new journey, the Party unites and leads the entire people to comprehensively advance the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization, and to achieve the Second Centenary Goal. It must continuously consolidate its own organizational foundation, enhance the political functions and organizational functions of Party organizations at all levels and of all types, fully leverage the Party's organizational strength and organizational advantages, and gather a strong joint force for united struggle through a strong organizational system, providing a strong organizational guarantee for continuously improving the Party's political leadership, ideological guidance, mass organization, and social appeal.
Continuously improve an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution
The Party's organizational system is a rigorous and unified whole that is organized according to the Party's program and constitution, in accordance with democratic centralism, covering Party organizations at all levels and of all types, extending vertically to the bottom and horizontally to the edges, connected from top to bottom, and effective in execution. In the second volume of Selected Works of Xi Jinping on Party Building, in the article "Implementing the Party's Organizational Line for the New Era," General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Only when the Party's central organizations, local organizations, and primary-level organizations are all strong and effective and fully play their roles can the advantages and power of the Party's organizational system be fully demonstrated." Only by focusing on improving an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution, making all levels of Party organizations sound and competent, can the Party's leadership achieve acting with seamless coordination and efficiency (如身使臂，如臂使指, ru shen shi bi, ru bi shi zhi - "as, body, use, arm; as, arm, use, finger").
The Party Central Committee is the brain and the hub. In the edifice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Party Central Committee is the pillar. The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Party formally established General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position in the Party Central Committee and the whole Party. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has led by example (以身作则, yi shen zuo ze - "use, self, act, rule") and taken the lead, starting with the formulation and implementation of the Central Committee's the Eight-Point Regulation (八项规定), formulating important laws and regulations such as the Several Guidelines on Political Life Within the Party Under the New Situation, requiring leading comrades of the Central Committee to set benchmarks and examples for all Party comrades in observing discipline and rules, fulfilling political responsibilities for governing the Party, and clearly proposing that "comrades of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee start with me personally." Continuously deepen the reform of Party and state institutions, optimize Party organizational structures, strengthen the functional role of the Party Central Committee's decision-making and deliberation coordination bodies, strengthen the Party Central Committee's centralized, unified leadership over all fields and all major work, strengthen the leadership position of Party organizations among organizations at the same level, and ensure full coverage of Party leadership. Strictly implement the system of reporting to the Party Central Committee for instructions and reports, promote the concretization, precision, and normalization of political supervision, promote the whole Party's profound understanding of the decisive significance of the "Two Establishments," and resolutely achieve the "Two Upholds." The measures and achievements of the Party Central Committee in strengthening its own building have made important demonstrations and political guidance for strengthening the building of the Party's organizational system, fully demonstrating the role of the Party Central Committee as the brain and hub, and ensuring the authority of the Party Central Committee in making a final, decisive determination (一锤定音, yi chui ding yin - "one, hammer, decide, sound") and being the sole authority.
Party organizations at all levels are effectively connected. Although Party organizations at all levels have different functional roles, they all bear the important responsibility of upholding the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized, unified leadership, and implementing the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee. In implementing the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, central and state organs are the "first kilometer" and must conscientiously perform the functions and duties entrusted by the Party and the state, bear in mind the two overall situations, and walk in the first phalanx of practicing the "Two Upholds," without any "roadblock." Local Party committees are the "middle section," occupying a key position connecting the upper and lower levels, bearing major responsibilities. They must resolutely obey the command of the Party Central Committee, firmly grasp and vigorously implement what the Party Central Committee has decided, while closely combining with the actual conditions of their own regions to enhance work initiative and creativity, without any "midway obstruction." Primary-level Party organizations are the "last kilometer" and are the closest link for the Party to contact and serve the masses. They must ensure that all Party policies and requirements are implemented 100 percent, without any "dead-end road." Only when Party organizations at all levels and of all types each take their proper position and perform their respective duties, work in coordination, efficiency, and unison under the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, can the overall effectiveness of the Party's organizational system be continuously improved, ensuring that the Party Central Committee's policies and orders are unimpeded and its prohibitions are observed, thereby multiplying the Party's strength.
Adhere to the clear orientation of focusing on primary-level organizations. Primary-level Party organizations are the "nerve endings" of the Party's body. When primary-level Party organizations in all fields make comprehensive progress and become comprehensively competent, the Party's organizational system will have smooth meridians and qi and blood, and the Party's governing foundation will be solid and stable. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has established a clear orientation of focusing on primary-level organizations, improved the village-level organizational system led by village Party organizations, fully leveraged the leadership role of sub-district and community Party organizations, promoted the sinking of resources, services, management, etc. to the primary-level front line, filled the shortcomings of primary-level Party organizations in leading primary-level governance, continuously reduced burdens and empowered primary-level organizations, and deeply advanced Party building to promote comprehensive rural revitalization and Party building to lead primary-level governance. On the basis of tangible coverage, promote effective coverage, innovate methods and approaches, use internet technology and information-based means, and strive to achieve full coverage of Party organizations and Party work both online and offline. Like regularly cleaning house, continuously rectify weak and lax primary-level Party organizations, and forge every primary-level Party organization into a strong fighting fortress. Strictly and practically strengthen the building of the Party member contingent, improve the quality of Party member development, put political standards first and strictly control the entry gate, strengthen centralized education within the Party and regular education of Party members, and fully leverage the fighting fortress role of primary-level Party organizations and the vanguard and exemplary role of Party members.
Realize the Party's overall leadership and all work through a strong organizational system
In the second volume of Selected Works of Xi Jinping on Party Building, in the article "Speech at the National Conference on Organizational Work," General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Party's overall leadership and all Party work must be realized through the Party's strong organizational system." This profoundly clarifies the interactive relationship between the Party's organizational system and the Party's leadership, Party building, and the Party's cause: the Party's leadership sets the direction and clarifies the requirements for the Party's organizational system, making it systematic, complete, and effectively connected; Party building perfects the functions and enhances the capabilities of the Party's organizational system, making it standardized, rigorous, and effective; the Party's cause endows the Party's organizational system with missions and tempers its quality, making it pragmatic, effective, and full of vitality; the Party's organizational system provides material support and powerful impetus for upholding the Party's leadership, strengthening Party building, and advancing the Party's cause.
Uphold and strengthen the Party's overall leadership. The Party's leadership is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee is the highest principle of the Party's leadership. The key to making the Party's organizational system rigorous is to uphold the authority of the Party Central Committee and centralized, unified leadership, and the fundamental is to achieve the "Two Upholds." Take the "Two Upholds" as the highest political principle and fundamental political rule for Party organizations at all levels and all Party members, embody them in various systems and regulations of the Party and the state, and implement them throughout the entire process and all aspects of all work. Uphold the "four subordinations" stipulated in the Party Constitution. All Party organizations and all Party members, regardless of the field or level they are in, must always uphold the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, and adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Establish and improve the organizational system, institutional system, and working mechanisms for upholding and strengthening the Party's overall leadership, improve the Party's leadership institutional system that commands the overall situation and coordinates all parties, improve the implementation mechanism for major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, improve and perfect the institutional mechanisms for local Party committees, Party groups, and Party working organs to implement Party leadership, and effectively implement Party leadership in all fields, aspects, and links such as reform, development, stability, internal affairs, foreign affairs, national defense, governing the Party, governing the country, and governing the military. Innovate and improve the Party's leadership methods, strengthen and innovate primary-level social governance, mobilize all factors that can be mobilized, unite all forces that can be united, unite and gather the broad masses through a strong organizational system, continuously consolidate the Party's class foundation, mass foundation, and social foundation for long-term governance, and ensure that the Party always remains the strong leadership core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Persistently advance full and rigorous self-governance of the Party. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Only when the Party's organizational system is rigorous and the political functions and organizational functions of Party organizations at all levels are fully brought into play can full and rigorous self-governance of the Party continue to advance in depth." To implement and guarantee full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with a strong organizational system, we must adhere to taking the Party's political construction as the guide, strictly enforce political discipline and political rules, seriously conduct political life within the Party, strictly implement the Party's organizational life systems such as democratic life meetings and organizational life meetings, and promote Party organizations at all levels and all Party members to profoundly understand the decisive significance of the "Two Establishments" and resolutely achieve the "Two Upholds." Adhere to the organic combination of organizational Party building and ideological Party building, both "shaping the form" and "casting the soul," implement systems such as the "first agenda item," theoretical learning center groups of Party committees (Party groups), and theoretical learning of primary-level Party organizations, carry out centralized education within the Party on a regular basis, and unremittingly use the Party's innovative theories to unite hearts and cast souls. Strengthen the leading and gatekeeping role of Party organizations, highlight political standards in selecting and appointing cadres and political guidance in attracting talents, fully leverage the education, management, and supervision role of Party organizations at all levels, improve the Party member management mechanism, improve the mechanism for strict management and supervision of cadres, improve the normalized mechanism for rectifying work styles and enforcing discipline, improve the responsibility system for the Party's leadership of the fight against corruption, improve the working mechanism for simultaneously promoting the deterrence of corruption, the constraint of systems, and the enhancement of ideological and moral education, take intra-Party supervision as the leading force, promote the coordination and integration of various types of supervision, and improve a supervision system under the Party's unified leadership, with full coverage and authority and efficiency. Coordinate the advancement of the construction of intra-Party laws and regulations and the reform of the Party building system, establish and improve a complete organizational system including organizational setup, organizational life, organizational operation, organizational management, and organizational supervision, promote Party organizations at all levels and all Party members to consciously study, abide by, implement, and uphold the Party Constitution, strictly implement democratic centralism and various intra-Party laws and regulations, and consolidate the achievements of full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with the effectiveness of the whole Party in implementing systems.
Gather the mighty force for strengthening the country and achieving national rejuvenation. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Party's governing mission must be accomplished through the outstanding work of hundreds of millions of Party members. The Party must govern the Party and strictly govern the Party, which must be implemented in the management of the Party member contingent." Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has upheld and strengthened the Party's overall leadership, unswervingly advanced full and rigorous self-governance of the Party, continuously made the Party's organizational system rigorous, and promoted the effective transformation of the Party's organizational advantages into national governance effectiveness. In decisively completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, General Secretary Xi Jinping personally took command, personally led the campaign, and personally supervised the battle. Party secretaries at five levels grasped poverty alleviation, the whole Party was mobilized to promote the battle, working together with one heart and mind (力求同心, li qu tong xin - "strength, seek, same, heart"), and the best forces were dispatched, winning the largest-scale battle against poverty in human history. In fighting the impact of the century-defining epidemic, more than 4.6 million primary-level Party organizations charged into battle (冲锋陷阵, chong feng xian zhen - "charge, wind, fall, array"), and more than 39 million Party members and cadres across the country fought on the front line. In flood prevention, flood fighting, emergency rescue, and disaster relief, Party committees and governments at all levels responded immediately and commanded from the front, primary-level Party organizations fulfilled their duties and bravely shouldered responsibilities, and Party members and cadres shouldered heavy burdens and charged ahead. Wherever the disaster was most severe and wherever the masses needed it most, there the Party flag flew high. In responding to external suppression and containment, Party organizations took the lead in tackling key projects, Party member backbone personnel "posted challenges and took command," and talents in all fields charged into battle, accelerating the breakthrough of key "bottleneck" technologies in important fields, transforming the Party's organizational strength into momentum for tackling difficulties. In the various work of reform, development, and stability in the new era, hundreds of millions of Party organizations and Party members have taken responsibility and acted, tackled difficulties, and overcome obstacles, providing a strong organizational guarantee for overcoming great storms and major tests. On the new journey, upholding and improving an organizational system that is connected from top to bottom and effective in execution will inevitably organize Party members, gather talents, and mobilize the masses more effectively and forcefully, and better continuously transform the Party's political advantages, organizational advantages, and advantages of close ties with the masses into the winning advantages for strengthening the country and achieving national rejuvenation.
(The author is the Vice President in charge of daily work of the China Executive Leadership Academy Jinggangshan)
Return to TopBy: 王宏志
Energy security and safety bear on the national economy and the people's livelihood. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Accelerate the planning and construction of a new energy system to ensure energy security." The Recommendations of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party and the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan put forward "building an energy power," providing fundamental guidance and a program of action for high-quality energy development. The 15th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of a New Energy System details and implements the relevant tasks. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to deeply implement the new energy security strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation" (energy consumption revolution, energy supply revolution, energy technology revolution, energy system revolution, and all-round strengthening of international cooperation), accelerate the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient new energy system, and ensure that the energy rice bowl is firmly held in our own hands.
Fully understand the principles and requirements for the construction of a new energy system
At present, the world's century-old changes are accelerating, the global energy landscape is undergoing deep adjustment, and China's energy development faces both strategic opportunities and risks and challenges. Accelerating the construction of a new energy system is an inevitable choice in keeping with the general trend of energy development and a key path to building an energy power. It is necessary to deeply study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on energy security and grasp the following principles and requirements.
Adhere to a systems approach and promote the green and low-carbon transformation of energy. Green and low-carbon development is a complex project and long-term task in the comprehensive transformation of economic and social development. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must improve our strategic thinking ability and run the systems approach through the entire process of the 'dual carbon' work." At present, the safe and reliable substitution capacity of new energy needs to be improved, and fossil energy faces the dual pressure of transformation and carbon reduction and of underpinning guarantees. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to properly handle the relationships between supply and consumption, new energy and traditional energy, the present and the long term, and the overall situation and the parts, strengthen the orientation toward energy conservation and carbon reduction, adhere to the simultaneous development of multiple energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear, and first establish the new before abolishing the old to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of energy.
Adhere to putting the people first and realize the sharing of development achievements. The level of energy use for people's livelihood is an important standard for measuring the degree of modernization of a country or a region. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "It is necessary to make overall plans to ensure the supply and stable prices of important livelihood commodities and the guaranteed supply of coal, electricity, oil, and gas transportation." At present, energy development between urban and rural areas and among regions in China is still unbalanced, and the people's energy use needs are transforming from "whether there is any" to "whether it is good." During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to deeply practice the concept of energy serving the people, give play to the role of the energy industry in driving employment and increasing income, comprehensively improve the level of energy service guarantees, and better meet the people's growing energy use needs for a better life.
Adhere to bottom-line thinking and strengthen energy security guarantees. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Energy security bears on the overall situation of economic and social development." At present, the international situation is complex and changeable, and China's energy development faces a series of challenges such as huge demand pressure, many supply constraints, and arduous tasks of green and low-carbon transformation. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to enhance the resilience of the energy production, supply, storage, and marketing system, effectively prevent and defuse various risks, and respond to the uncertainty of the external environment with the certainty of domestic energy supply. At the same time, adhere to the diversification of energy imports and strengthen energy security under open conditions.
Adhere to innovation-driven development and enhance the momentum of energy development. Innovation is the primary driving force leading energy development. The Recommendations of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party made systematic arrangements for innovation in energy science and technology, industry, and systems and mechanisms. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, on the one hand, it is necessary to focus on key energy fields and major demands, promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, develop new quality productive forces in the energy sector in light of local conditions, and build a high-level, self-controllable energy industry chain. On the other hand, it is necessary to focus on deep-seated problems restricting high-quality energy development, strengthen innovation in systems and mechanisms, promote the market-based allocation of energy factors, encourage the development of new models and new business forms, improve the energy price formation and transmission mechanism, and solve development problems through reform measures.
Accurately grasp the direction and goals of the construction of the new energy system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period
The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly states that "a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient new energy system will be initially established," which is the overall direction of energy work in the next five years and has rich connotations.
Greater security and resilience. Energy is an important cornerstone of economic and social development. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the comprehensive energy production capacity should reach 5.8 billion tons of standard coal, and domestic oil and gas supply should reach 440 million tons of oil equivalent; the total installed power capacity nationwide should reach 5.4 billion kilowatts, the adequacy of power supply should remain at a reasonable level, and the complementary and mutually supportive capacity and security resilience of the power system should be comprehensively improved; the types, scale, and methods of energy reserves should be more reasonable, imports should remain diversified and controllable, and emergency response and risk management and control should be more effective and efficient.
A greener energy structure. Energy is the main battlefield for promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to promote the proportion of wind power and solar power installed capacity to exceed 50% and become the main body of power installed capacity, the proportion of non-fossil energy power generation to reach 50% and become the main body of electricity, the carbon emissions per unit of power generation to decrease by more than 10%, accelerate the coverage of newly increased electricity consumption by newly increased clean energy power generation, and the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption to reach 25%. Coal and oil consumption should peak, supporting the achievement of the carbon peak goal on schedule.
Renewed system forms. In recent years, the forms and operation modes of China's energy system have been continuously innovated. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to initially build a new power system, as well as a new power grid with coordinated main, distribution, and micro grids, with the power demand response capacity reaching more than 5% of the maximum power load, source-storage regulation capacity increasing by more than 40%, the accelerated construction of smart grids and micro grids, and the extensive development of new models and new business forms such as virtual power plants and vehicle-grid interaction. Electricity, heat, hydrogen, and other energy sources should develop in a complementary manner, and hydrogen energy and green fuels should achieve cross-regional pipeline transportation. Energy should be deeply integrated with energy-consuming industries, and electricity and computing power should be highly coordinated.
Stronger innovation vitality. Reform and innovation are the source of power for promoting high-quality energy development. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, key technologies and equipment in the energy industry chain should achieve overall self-controllability, strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new energy storage, and advanced nuclear power should develop in clusters, the strategic layout of future energy industries such as hydrogen energy should be initially formed, and a number of typical application scenarios of "artificial intelligence +" energy should be created. The market and price mechanisms adapted to the new energy system should be accelerated and improved, a national unified power market system should be basically established, and the vitality of high-quality energy development should be significantly enhanced.
Solidly promote the implementation and effectiveness of the 15th Five-Year Plan
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to anchor the strategic goals of the new energy system and the construction of an energy power, take planning implementation as the starting point, and effectively promote the implementation of various major strategic tasks, major reform measures, and major engineering projects.
Improve the energy spatial layout. Build high-quality growth highlands for non-fossil energy, construct wind power and photovoltaic bases in the "Three Norths," integrated water-wind-solar bases in the southwest, coastal nuclear power bases, and offshore wind power bases, and vigorously develop distributed energy. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, newly added wind power and photovoltaic installed capacity should be about 1 billion kilowatts. Consolidate the production foundation of fossil energy, optimize the construction of five coal supply guarantee bases in Shanxi, Western Inner Mongolia, Eastern Inner Mongolia, Northern Shaanxi, and Xinjiang, and strengthen oil and gas production capacity construction in key basins and sea areas such as Ordos, Tarim, and Bohai Bay. Promote the coordinated layout of energy development and energy-consuming industries, coordinate the use of western electricity in the west and the transmission of western electricity to the east, strengthen the coordinated layout of industrial transfer and clean energy, and promote the coordinated development of computing and electricity. Coordinate and optimize the layout of key energy backbone channels, promote the capacity of transmitting western electricity to the east to reach more than 420 million kilowatts, continuously optimize the layout of transporting western coal to the east and northern coal to the south, and strengthen the construction of the "one national network" for oil and gas. Expand diversified energy import channels, consolidate the four major strategic oil and gas import channels, and consolidate and improve the pattern of coal import channels.
Strengthen the coordination of strategic tasks. Focus on holding the energy rice bowl firmly, build a strong and resilient energy security guarantee system and a three-dimensional and diversified energy international cooperation system, coordinate energy strategic security, transformation security, and emergency security, consolidate the foundation of domestic production and supply, and enhance the capacity for diversified energy guarantees. Focus on energy transformation and development, build an advanced and adaptable new energy infrastructure system and a green and low-carbon energy consumption system, implement a ten-year doubling action for non-fossil energy, and accelerate the construction of a new power system with the new power grid as the focus; at the same time, promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in key areas with greater efforts, deeply implement clean energy substitution, and promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the heating system. Focus on energy reform and innovation, build a self-reliant and self-strengthening energy science and technology innovation system and a coordinated and efficient modern energy governance system, coordinate and promote the innovative development of traditional energy industries, emerging industries, and future industries, and promote the two-way empowerment of artificial intelligence and energy; deepen energy market-oriented reform and improve the systems and mechanisms for energy prices, investment, operation, and supervision.
Consolidate the support of engineering projects. Engineering projects are an important starting point for planning implementation. On the one hand, implement a number of major strategic projects. Build major projects such as the Yaxia hydropower project with high quality, accelerate the construction of new energy bases such as the "desert, Gobi, and barren land" bases, integrated water-wind-solar bases, and offshore wind power bases, and actively, safely, and orderly promote the construction of coastal nuclear power projects. Coordinate and promote the construction of major new power grid projects, and increase investment and construction efforts in inter-provincial transmission channels, inter-provincial mutual assistance projects, the main grid framework, and distribution networks. Improve the "one national network" for oil and gas, and strengthen the construction of trunk pipelines and interconnection projects. On the other hand, actively build projects for new industries and new business forms. Implement a project to improve the electric vehicle charging network, lay out and build integrated wind-solar-hydrogen-ammonia-alcohol bases, build solar thermal power generation projects, accelerate the development of direct green electricity connection and smart micro grids, and build a number of zero-carbon parks. It is estimated that investment in key energy projects and new business forms during the 15th Five-Year Plan period will exceed 20 trillion yuan.
Improve the planning implementation mechanism. Under the overall guidance of the National Energy Commission, consolidate the primary responsibility for implementing the goals and tasks, clarify the timetable and roadmap, and strengthen coordination and connection across fields, departments, and regions. Strengthen policy coordination for planning implementation, formulate policy documents supporting the goals and tasks of the plan, strengthen the guarantee of factors for project construction, and implement fiscal, tax, financial, investment, price, science and technology, and environmental protection policies that promote green and low-carbon energy development. Improve the working mechanism for planning implementation, strengthen the analysis of the energy development situation and monitoring and evaluation, do a good job of connecting annual plans with planning implementation, and ensure that the plan is implemented and effective.
(The author is Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the National Energy Administration)
Return to TopThe Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative (hereinafter referred to as the "Four Major Global Initiatives") were born of the transformation of the world and established in response to the difficulties of governance. They provide strategic guidance for promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and are landmark achievements of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy that possess both epochal innovation and global influence.
The Global Development Initiative aims to address the problem of imbalanced global development. The Global Security Initiative aims to find a way out of the security dilemma caused by bloc confrontation. The Global Civilization Initiative aims to eliminate the man-made estrangement of civilizational opposition and confrontation. The Global Governance Initiative aims to promote the reform of the global governance system.
The Four Major Global Initiatives directly confront the real difficulties of the once-in-a-century transformation, applying targeted measures to the "four major deficits" while integrating them into a systematic whole — creating cooperative interests through development, securing the environment for cooperation through security, consolidating consensus for cooperation through civilization, and improving cooperation mechanisms through governance. They precisely respond to the challenges of the times and possess extremely strong practical relevance. This systematically integrated governance logic has achieved historic breakthroughs in such dimensions as governance actors, governance architecture, and governance paradigms. It is the first time developing countries have proposed and led the overall framework for global governance. It builds a systematic global governance framework from the four dimensions of development, security, civilization, and governance. It inaugurates a new paradigm of interstate interaction that rejects a zero-sum game (零和博弈, ling he bo yi - "zero, sum, gambling, game").
The systematic implementation of the Four Major Global Initiatives at the practical level ultimately points toward the grand goal of a community with a shared future for mankind. The Global Development Initiative is the foundational premise, addressing the fundamental question of the material base; the Global Security Initiative is the solid guarantee, consolidating the security foundation of peace and stability; the Global Civilization Initiative is the spiritual bond, building the basic consensus of people-to-people connectivity; the Global Governance Initiative is the institutional support, improving the long-term mechanism of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits. The Four Major Global Initiatives are not isolated policy declarations, but are unified within the grand blueprint of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
— Excerpted from the 16th issue of Qiushi in 2026, author: Fu Xiaoqiang, original title: "The Four Major Global Initiatives Light the Way Forward for a Turbulent World"
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 李维俊
On September 3, the Pinglu Canal held a comprehensive drill of all elements for ship navigation, making final preparations for its official opening to navigation.
After it opens to navigation, logistics costs are expected to drop by 18% to 30%, saving approximately 5.2 billion yuan in social transport costs annually; since excavation began, it has absorbed more than 70,000 person-times of employment and issued more than 2.6 billion yuan in labor remuneration; a cumulative total of 14,490 mu of mangroves has been cleaned, and some mangroves have been restored off-site at three times the area, with 275,000 plants restored and a restoration area reaching 32.3 hectares...
Behind each of these figures are the real changes brought by the Pinglu Canal's careful accounting of the economic ledger, the livelihood ledger, and the ecological ledger.
The economic ledger —
Injecting vitality into regional development
On the Xijiang River, a cargo ship loaded with goods sails downstream. After the Pinglu Canal opens to navigation, cargo ships passing Hengzhou in Guangxi can turn into the Pinglu Canal at the Pingtang River mouth and sail south toward Qinzhou Port to reach the sea. The southwestern hinterland thus gains a convenient water route connecting rivers to the sea.
On September 5, the first "rail-river-sea" intermodal train of the Pinglu Canal, departing from Liuzhou, arrived at the Liujing operation area of Nanning Port. Special cement loaded in 10 containers will be transferred to cargo ships and delivered directly to Yangpu Port in Hainan once the canal opens to navigation. The "one container to the end" transport mode, with efficient intermodal linkage of river, sea, and rail, is about to arrive.
At the Liujing operation area of Nanning Port, Ling Guixiong, general manager of Nanning Kaixin New Materials Co., Ltd., stood by the dockside watching a shipload of sand and gravel aggregate being loaded. "Not far upstream is the starting point of the Pinglu Canal, and this location advantage is very attractive to us," he said. In the past, shipping goods required repeated comparison of transport modes and routes; after the canal opens to navigation, the enterprise will hand more of its cargo to water transport.
The shortening of distance is tangible. Goods from the southwestern region going to sea via the Pinglu Canal can shorten inland waterway transport distance by about 560 kilometers compared with going to sea via Guangzhou Port. "Logistics costs are expected to drop by 18% to 30%, saving approximately 5.2 billion yuan in social transport costs annually," said Cheng Yaofei, commander of the Pinglu Canal Engineering Construction Headquarters.
For one enterprise, this is a decline in transport costs; for a region, it is an opportunity for industrial re-layout. In 2025, the Pinglu Canal Guigang Economic Development Zone newly signed 10 projects with a total investment of about 13.3 billion yuan, of which 5 projects achieved contract signing and construction start in the same year, and the total output value of industrial enterprises above designated size in the park grew 18.5% year on year. In Qinzhou, Shanghai Huayi Group has laid out an integrated chemical new materials base with a total investment of about 100 billion yuan, planning to use the canal to expand markets and link upstream and downstream; Guangxi Jinhui Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd. is also planning to build a wharf along the canal so that raw materials such as timber and calcite can reach the factory directly by water.
The decline in logistics costs is being transformed into the attractiveness of industrial agglomeration and new momentum for regional development. At the Liujing port area of Nanning Port, berths have completed upgrades from the 2,000-ton class to the 5,000-ton class; 11 river-sea intermodal berths at Qinzhou Port have completed renovation, and a new corridor of "navigable upon opening, with cargo upon opening" is taking shape at an accelerated pace. Beibu Gulf Port has already sent teams to Chongqing, Sichuan, and Yunnan to survey and connect on cargo sources; Funing Port in Wenshan, Yunnan, is planning to link with the Pinglu Canal via the Youjiang River and the Pearl River system to form a new sea passage; cross-border corridors such as the China-Laos Railway are also expected to connect with inland water transport.
"The Pinglu Canal is not just a physical waterway, but also a 'river of kinetic energy transformation' for Guangxi and even the southwestern region," said Wu Jian, director of the Institute of Regional Development at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences. As transport costs decline, industry, logistics, and producer services are expected to agglomerate along the canal, and Guangxi's industrial ties with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and ASEAN will also become closer.
The livelihood ledger —
Enabling people along the route to live in peace and prosperity
The Pinglu Canal has changed the flow of goods, and it also affects the lives of people along the route.
Entering the Shaping township resettlement site in Lingshan County, Qinzhou, rows of townhouses stand in neat order, with supporting facilities such as leisure squares, farmers' markets, kindergartens, and supermarkets all in place. The three towns of Luwu, Jiuzhou, and Shaping in Lingshan County have planned and built a total of 13 centralized resettlement sites, resettling a cumulative total of 1,498 households and 6,156 people, with all resettlement housing delivered.
At the Shaping township resettlement site, relocated resident Chen Jidong is quite satisfied with his new home. The ground floor of the new residence has a reserved storefront, and the supporting facilities at the resettlement site are close to home and complete. "In the past, markets and schools were scattered in the villages and far away; now they are integrated into a living circle just minutes away, which is very convenient," Chen Jidong said. His family not only moved into a new home but also purchased a transport vehicle and had been running transport at the Pinglu Canal construction site. "After the canal opens to navigation, there will be more transport demand, and life has more and more hope."
After moving into her new home, relocated resident Chen Fengcan began planning a new livelihood. "I plan to develop indoor specialty breeding," she said. After moving to the resettlement site, the population is more concentrated and facilities are more complete, and many people are preparing to do business or develop specialty industries.
Having a settled home is only the first step; stabilizing livelihoods is what makes a real livelihood ledger.
Huang Zhenjie, 34, has participated in the "Pinglu employment" service for more than 3 years and once introduced a returning migrant worker to work as a steel fixer at the canal construction site, where after becoming skilled he earned a monthly wage of 12,000 yuan. "We not only recommend positions but also organize trial work and training," Huang Zhenjie said.
Employment opportunities at the doorstep are extending to more people. In the second half of 2025, "Pinglu employment" organized more than 60 rural women to work at the project site as kitchen helpers, greening maintenance workers, and road cleaners, with daily wages of 180 to 200 yuan. "What we receive is wages, and it is also the confidence for our lives," the participating workers feel very secure.
"To date, the Pinglu Canal construction has cumulatively absorbed more than 70,000 person-times of employment and issued more than 2.6 billion yuan in labor remuneration," said Tang Ceqian, deputy chief engineer of Guangxi Pinglu Canal Construction Co., Ltd. of the Pinglu Canal Group.
Improving people's livelihoods also means preserving nostalgia.
An ancient camphor tree more than 200 years old, originally growing at the entrance of Liangwu Village in Shaping Township, was transplanted to the township resettlement site during the relocation. "The ancient tree accompanied us as we grew up; with it, home is complete," said relocated resident Liang Yongjian, who has been hired as the ancient tree caretaker, responsible for daily maintenance, and who immediately contacts forestry professionals for treatment once pests or abnormal branches are detected. "The Pinglu Canal project has cumulatively relocated and protected 36 ancient trees, including camphor trees, lychee trees, and longan trees," introduced Zhang Shoulong, an engineer in the Engineering Management Department of Guangxi Pinglu Canal Construction Co., Ltd. of the Pinglu Canal Group.
Six schools have also been newly built or rebuilt at relocation sites along the route. In the new semester, children will witness the canal's opening to navigation in new classrooms.
The ecological ledger —
Safeguarding lucid waters and lush mountains through attention to detail
As the canal extends forward, ecological protection keeps pace all along the way. Safeguarding a stretch of clear water, a patch of greenery, and a community of living creatures is for the green of the present, and even more for long-term development.
Beside the Qingnian Junction, a 480-meter-long composite fishway and smart monitoring and assessment system have been put into use. The Qingnian Sluice, built in 1959, once blocked fish migration; now, a vertical-slot fishway and an eel ladder have reconnected the upstream and downstream waters. "Since being put into use in 2025, the sonar system has monitored more than 76,000 upstream-migrating fish and more than 115,000 downstream-migrating fish, with more than 10 fish species successfully migrating," said Chen Zhu, resident engineer at the Qingnian Junction of the Pinglu Canal Engineering Construction Headquarters.
Fish now have a migration passage, and terrestrial animals also have a safe path to "cross the river." Near the Madao Junction, a 240-meter-long, 20-meter-wide animal passage bridge spans the canal. The bridge deck is covered with soil, planted with native plants, and equipped with rock piles and water collection points, so that wild animals can travel as much as possible in familiar surroundings.
Mangroves also have a "new home." Qin Xiaofeng, business manager in the Engineering Management Department of Pinglu Canal Group Co., Ltd., introduced that the project has implemented in-situ protection for 19.8 kilometers of disturbed areas outside the red line, transplanted 9,572 mangrove plants that could not be retained within the red line to nearby locations, and restored 275,000 plants off-site at three times the area, with a restoration area reaching 32.3 hectares; during construction, a cumulative total of 14,490 mu of mangroves was cleaned and 2,340 mu of pests and diseases were managed. Today, bird species in the mangrove protection area have increased from 28 to 34, and the ecological corridor has been basically completed.
Protecting the ecology also means putting resources into circulation.
Tang Xiaofu, associate professor at the College of Agriculture of Guangxi University, led a team in conducting nearly three years of experiments at the Madao Junction, comprehensively utilizing excavated and backfilled soil from the canal. The experimental fields have already produced small tomatoes, eggplants, melons, and peppers, and the comprehensive utilization rate of excavated earth and rock across the entire line exceeds 98%. The Shajing Qinjiang Bridge temporary access bridge used recycled concrete prepared from demolition solid waste; after its demolition in May 2026, the materials will return to the laboratory for "secondary recycling" research.
Ecological protection is beginning to generate value. In August 2025, the 10-year contracted management rights for soil and water conservation ecological products at the SP02 stockpile site of the Pinglu Canal were sold for 1.84784 million yuan, with the proceeds to be used for soil erosion control, ecological function enhancement, village infrastructure improvement, and increasing people's incomes. "We will deeply practice the 'Two Mountains' concept and promote the Pinglu Canal model," said Deng Changqiu, director of the Water Resources Department of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
From the shortening of one shipping route to the agglomeration of a batch of industries; from the settling of one resettlement site to the change in people's livelihoods; from the connection of one fishway to the renewal of a stretch of mangroves — these three ledgers calculate the comprehensive benefits of the Pinglu Canal: what it connects is rivers and seas; what it links is development, people's livelihoods, and the ecology.
Return to TopBy: 陈振林
Good laws and sound governance safeguard the construction of an ecological civilization. The "Ecological Environment Code of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Code") has officially come into force. This is China's second law named with the title "Code," a code that is guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization and Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and that possesses Chinese characteristics, reflects the features of the times, embodies the will of the people, and is systematic, standardized, and coordinated. It is the latest achievement of our Party in upholding comprehensive law-based governance and advancing the institutionalization and standardization of ecological civilization construction. The Code directly mentions "meteorology" in 8 articles and 10 places, and multiple articles involve meteorological-related content such as "weather," "climate," and "climate change." It establishes, in the form of national legislation, the legal status of meteorological departments as subjects of statutory coordination in the field of ecological civilization, elevating mature practices such as ecological meteorology, coordinated pollution prevention and control, and climate change response into legal institutions, thereby providing solid legal guidance for meteorological services to safeguard the construction of a Beautiful China. Meteorological departments must comprehensively and thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on meteorological work, firmly grasp the statutory duties conferred by the Code, accelerate the modernization of meteorological scientific and technological capabilities and the modernization of social services, and contribute meteorological strength to better realizing the modernization of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.
Based on statutory duties, consolidate the foundation of meteorological observation data for ecological governance. Climatic factors are the most active driving factors in the evolution of ecosystems. The Code clarifies the statutory responsibility of meteorological departments to participate in the construction of the ecological environment monitoring network. At present, China has built a comprehensive meteorological observation system composed of 10 Fengyun meteorological satellites, 842 weather radars, 131 upper-air meteorological observation stations, and more than 100,000 ground meteorological observation stations, and the national comprehensive monitoring and identification rate for disastrous weather reaches 83%. We will continue to strengthen the space-air-ground three-dimensional comprehensive meteorological observation system, optimize the layout of observation stations in key ecological function zones such as the "three zones and four belts," rely on Fengyun meteorological satellites to carry out dynamic remote sensing monitoring of vegetation, drought, and sand and dust, rely on 18 national atmospheric background stations to carry out global and regional atmospheric background monitoring, and fill the gaps in ecological observation in remote areas. We will improve the cross-departmental mechanism for sharing and jointly using monitoring data, break down data barriers, optimize series products such as the National Ecological Meteorology Bulletin, jointly carry out climate-ecological surveys, censuses, and zoning of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, provide continuous and reliable meteorological basic data for ecological status assessment and the evaluation of ecological restoration effectiveness, and support the integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts.
Strengthen coordination and linkage, and empower pollution prevention and ecological security safeguards. The Code makes clear institutional arrangements for monitoring and early warning of heavily polluted weather, protection of desert ecosystems and sand prevention and control, and prevention and control of electromagnetic radiation pollution. Meteorological departments will strictly implement statutory coordination responsibilities, deepen joint consultation mechanisms with departments such as ecological environment authorities, accurately assess atmospheric diffusion conditions, do a good job in forecasting meteorological conditions for heavily polluted weather, and support regional emission reduction control and precise, scientific pollution control. We will jointly work with departments such as forestry and grassland authorities to do a good job in forecasting and early warning of meteorological grades for sand and dust and forest and grassland fire risks, and strengthen meteorological support for comprehensive desertification control and the construction of key ecological projects such as the "Three-North" Shelterbelt Program. We will strictly implement regulatory responsibilities related to electromagnetic radiation, standardize meteorological equipment technical standards, perform industry supervision obligations in accordance with the law, and build a solid meteorological line of defense for ecological security. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, nationwide artificial precipitation (snow) enhancement operations have cumulatively increased precipitation by approximately 167.7 billion tons, and we have continuously carried out ecological restoration-type weather modification operations for ecological protection zones such as the Sanjiangyuan area and the Qilian Mountains. We will continue to make good use of relevant scientific means to support water source conservation and ecological restoration.
Shoulder the mission of the times and continuously strengthen scientific and technological support for climate change response. The Code devotes a special chapter to "Climate Change Response," emphasizing adherence to giving equal weight to mitigation and adaptation, and putting forward clear requirements for greenhouse gas monitoring, climate risk assessment, and the construction of a climate-adaptive society. Against the background of global warming, extreme weather and climate events occur frequently and intensively, posing severe challenges to ecological security. We will continue to do a good job in monitoring greenhouse gases and the climate system, and regularly release the "Blue Book on Climate Change in China" and the "China Greenhouse Gas Bulletin." We will deepen climate trend research and judgment, climate risk zoning, and climate feasibility demonstration, and provide climate risk assessment services for territorial spatial planning and major engineering construction. Focusing on key areas such as agricultural and rural ecology, public health, urban living environments, and population health, we will enhance the comprehensive early warning and assessment capability for extreme weather disaster chains, coordinate and advance the synergistic effect of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, actively serve the construction of a climate-adaptive society and resilient cities, and help the work of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality take root and produce results.
Adhere to integrating learning with practical application (学用贯通, xue yong guan tong - "learn, use, connect, through"), and promote the transformation of the Code's institutional provisions into governance effectiveness. The vitality of law lies in its implementation. We regard the study and implementation of the Code as an important political task, and incorporate the Code into the key content of the Party group theoretical learning center group and cadre education and training. Benchmarking against the requirements of the Code, and in conjunction with the new "three determinations" provisions for meteorology, we will sort out and decompose statutory duties and clarify task divisions. We will accelerate research on supporting institutions related to the protection and utilization of climate resources, strengthen the construction of the standard system for climate change response, and guide local meteorological departments to do a good job in legislative coordination. We will carry out law popularization and publicity for society, and enhance the whole society's awareness of ecological meteorological safeguard work. At the same time, we will deeply participate in global climate governance, accelerate the promotion of the application of the meteorological intelligent early warning solution "Mazu" in 30 countries, and share China's practices in meteorological disaster prevention and reduction and climate adaptation.
When the law is established, mountains and rivers turn beautiful; achieving success requires steadfast and solid work. On the new journey, meteorological departments nationwide will anchor on the statutory duties conferred by the Code, adhere to rule-of-law guidance and science-and-technology empowerment, continuously strengthen ecological meteorological services, transform institutional advantages into actual results in the construction of a Beautiful China, safeguard lucid waters and lush mountains, and provide solid meteorological safeguards for realizing the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.
(The author is Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director-General of the China Meteorological Administration)
Return to TopBy: 人民网记者 方经纶
At the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services, a new model of "going global" that does not involve containers or large cargo ships drew widespread attention — token export, namely a new type of services trade that provides computing power and intelligent services to overseas users on a per-token basis.
A token is the smallest unit of information processed by AI (artificial intelligence) large models. It is estimated that generating an 800-character article with an AI tool consumes roughly 1,500–2,000 tokens.
As AI technology shifts from an "auxiliary tool" to the "main body of productivity," Chinese token export is ushering in new opportunities. Data from International Data Corporation shows that in 2025, global daily token consumption grew nearly 300-fold. At the same time, according to data released by OpenRouter, a global AI model aggregation platform, as of early August this year, on large-model invocation platforms primarily serving overseas users, the invocation volume of Chinese large models has ranked first globally for 15 consecutive weeks.
Behind these impressive figures, what does Chinese token export rely on? At the fair site, multiple exhibitors gave the answer: collaboration across the entire industrial chain has brought the industry advantages in large-model technology, computing-power costs, application scenarios, data transmission guarantees, and other aspects, making the token export business happen naturally as conditions develop (水到渠成, shui dao qu cheng - "water, arrive; channel, form").
— Supply-side adaptation opens new markets. "In the field of AI short dramas, the Southeast Asian market has a strong demand for technology and data." Jiang Linfeng, general manager of Nanning Peak Value Culture Communication Co., Ltd., said the company uses its self-developed generative AI platform to "customize" video material datasets that fit local cultures for enterprises in multiple Southeast Asian countries, making content closer to local markets and user preferences.
— Technology-driven cost reduction wins new customers. "Our computing-power infrastructure products and services can help customers reduce costs and improve efficiency through open-source technology. Over the past year, the number of customers coming to consult about such products has multiplied several times compared with before." Ran Hao, overseas technical lead at EasyStack, said.
— Infrastructure guarantees safeguard new businesses. "We have 256 network nodes overseas, 15 self-owned IDCs (Internet Data Centers), and more than 300 partner IDCs, providing guarantees through these related resource advantages." Kang Yuanji, solution manager at China Telecom International Limited, said.
In fact, the collaboration across the entire industrial chain formed by China's "East Data, West Computing" project, the green-power direct-connection model, and the computing-power staggered-peak dispatch mechanism is driving a significant reduction in the comprehensive cost of the AI industry. For example, thanks to green-power supply, the "East Data, West Computing" industrial park in Qingyang, Gansu, has achieved an electricity price at the user's doorstep of no more than 0.4 yuan per kilowatt-hour.
In June this year, the National Data Administration issued the "Implementation Plan on Promoting the Action for Building High-Quality Datasets in Industries," proposing to "establish and improve mechanisms for the safe and orderly cross-border flow of datasets and promote mutual recognition of cross-border flow rules," further leveraging rules and standards to pave the way for enterprises to participate in global data ecosystem development.
"Since the second quarter of this year, inquiries from technology companies about going global have increased markedly." Li Ying, general manager of Yande International Market, said that around new business forms such as large-model export and computing-power export, the company has formed compliance consulting services covering the full cycle.
Technology going out, scenarios being validated, capabilities iterating again... Token export is becoming a vivid microcosm of "Chinese services" going global. Looking ahead, Chinese AI enterprises will also integrate into the global division of labor in diverse forms, providing high-quality, inclusive intelligent services to more overseas users.
(Yang Xiaorui contributed to the reporting)
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Lin Lili, Zhang Hanyan) The State Administration for Market Regulation recently held an overseas antitrust compliance publicity campaign, during which it launched an overseas antitrust compliance service platform and released the "Brief Introduction to Antitrust Legal Systems of Countries Along the Belt and Road Initiative."
The State Administration for Market Regulation has launched a special action to enhance the overseas antitrust compliance capabilities of enterprises, established an overseas antitrust compliance legal publicity system, and launched an overseas antitrust compliance service platform, providing Chinese enterprises with one-stop inquiry services such as "legal systems" and "typical cases" for expanding into international markets (走出去, zou chu qu - "walk, go out, area"); it has continued to hold overseas antitrust compliance lectures, continuously improving the effectiveness of legal publicity.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Zhao Zhanhui) The reporter learned from the China Banking Association: The "China Asset Custody Industry Development Report (2026)" shows that the custody industry is operating overall in a stable manner and developing steadily and positively (稳步向好, wen bu xiang hao - "steady, step; towards, good"). As of the end of 2025, the scale of assets under custody reached 198.84 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.13%. While the scale expanded steadily, the industry's business structure continued to optimize, and its effectiveness in serving the real economy improved steadily.
Asset custody mainly refers to banks, entrusted by asset management institutions such as fund companies or wealth management companies, safely safeguarding investors' assets and supervising the investment and operation of those assets.
Return to TopThe Pinglu Canal is the first canal project connecting rivers to the sea to be planned and constructed at the national level since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it is also a backbone project of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the western region. It will be completed and opened to navigation on September 16. As this world-class golden waterway is about to officially open to navigation, the digital foundation for shipping coordination and smart operations has already been put in place in advance. On September 8, on the eve of the canal's opening to navigation, China Mobile Guangxi Company, as the main contractor for the smart infrastructure network, together with Zhongyi Construction, announced that the canal's perception network and transmission network have been fully completed, pressing the "digital-intelligence acceleration button" for the smooth opening of the Pinglu Canal to navigation and its future smart operations.
Building three major projects to establish a monitoring and perception system
For the canal to open to navigation, information must come first. China Mobile Guangxi Company has tailored three major projects for the Pinglu Canal — the wireless network, the dedicated transmission network, and the perception network — establishing an integrated "land, water, air, and space" monitoring and perception system covering all scenarios including ship locks, navigation channels, high slopes, and bridges.
The perception network is like the canal's "sensory system," integrating more than ten technical means such as video surveillance, automatic ship identification systems, radar, and hydrological and meteorological monitoring, providing real-time data support for canal dispatch, operation and maintenance, and emergency command. The dedicated transmission network undertakes the mission of "nerve fibers," laying a total of 262 kilometers of high-speed dedicated fiber-optic network along both banks of the canal, ensuring that massive amounts of data such as video, radar echoes, and hydrological measurement reports can "run smoothly and transmit stably." At the same time, an innovative "5G private network + edge computing" dual-engine architecture has been introduced, enabling ship identification, video analysis, and other services to achieve millisecond-level local processing, ensuring that command and dispatch instructions remain precise and direct even under extreme weather or high-concurrency traffic conditions.
Tackling technical difficulties, network optimization welcomes the opening to navigation
Facing challenges such as the long span along the canal, the large number of construction sections, complex terrain, and deep intersection with the main civil works, the construction team of China Mobile Guangxi Company went down to the front line, seized operation windows, overcame difficulties in erecting poles and laying cables one by one, and withstood the pressure of emergency repairs caused by optical cable damage from natural disasters, orderly completing the deployment of perception points and the connection of links along the entire line.
With the opening to navigation imminent, network optimization continues to follow up. Recently, the technical team used drones carrying 5G test modules to conduct special testing of water-surface network coverage, ensuring that after the canal opens to navigation, the network can meet diverse needs such as water-surface intelligent monitoring, high-definition data transmission, and emergency communications. At present, the team is in full swing (紧锣密鼓, jin luo mi gu - "tight, drum, dense, close") carrying out joint commissioning of the dedicated transmission network, perception network, and command and dispatch center equipment, and is cooperating with business systems such as smart maintenance, smart dispatch, and the river-sea integration platform to advance data access and integration, ensuring "smooth network as soon as navigation begins."
Building smart water conservancy, empowering river-sea intermodal transport with digital intelligence
At the same time, at the Datengxia Water Conservancy Hub, a key node for shipping coordination on the Pinglu Canal, deep 5G network coverage has been fully completed, helping traditional water conservancy transform and upgrade toward smart water conservancy, providing solid digital-intelligence support for the river-sea intermodal transport system after the canal opens to navigation.
At present, China Mobile Guangxi Company is making every effort to advance project completion and network operation monitoring, empowering the smooth opening of the Pinglu Canal to navigation and its smart operations with stable and reliable digital-intelligence strength, and injecting strong digital-intelligence momentum into the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the western region and the high-quality development of the Pearl River–Xijiang River Economic Belt.
Data source: China Mobile Guangxi Company
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 马睿姗
At 4 a.m., before dawn, the kitchen of the Volunteer Association of Yanhu District, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, was already a scene of bustling activity.
"It's about time!" said Zhang Changqin, president of the Yanhu District Volunteer Association. The mung bean porridge in the pot began to boil; he put on a mask and prepared to stir-fry the dishes. Once the oil was hot, volunteer Li Jun poured the shredded potatoes into the large wok, and Zhang Changqin, holding a metal spatula, added seasonings and then stir-fried repeatedly. By the time the shredded potatoes came out of the wok, Zhang Changqin's shirt was soaked through with sweat.
Stir-fried shredded potatoes, cold dressed shredded bamboo shoots... With two dishes, one porridge, one soup, and steamed buns, Zhang Changqin and the volunteers who had come to help in the kitchen worked for nearly two hours to prepare breakfast for more than a hundred people, packed it into insulated buckets and boxes, and delivered it to the dining points by box truck. To make it convenient for sanitation workers to eat, the association selected five dining points across the city, covering the eastern, southern, western, northern, and central areas, and delivered to them in rotation by area each day. Just after 6 a.m., more than 100 sanitation workers were already queuing at the dining points. Several volunteers set up the simple tables and chairs they had brought, while others unloaded the breakfast and prepared to serve the sanitation workers.
"Before, I often went to work in the morning on an empty stomach, or just grabbed a quick bite at home; the love breakfast is free and tastes good, and I've been eating here for over six years!" said Zhang Xianzi, a sanitation worker in Yanhu District. Watching the sanitation workers eat happily, Zhang Changqin wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled with relief.
This year, Zhang Changqin was awarded the title of "National Outstanding Communist Party Member," yet he feels he has only persisted in doing a small thing within his power (力所能及, li suo neng ji - "strength, can, reach").
Zhang Changqin still remembers that one morning in November 2016, when gusts of cold wind (寒风阵阵, han feng zhen zhen - "cold, wind, gusting") blew, a sanitation worker was squatting under a bridge, holding a cold steamed bun in one hand and a bottle of cold water in the other, eating and drinking at the same time. Zhang Changqin asked: "It's so cold out — aren't you chilled eating only this?" The sanitation worker just smiled: "What's there to be chilled about? Treat it like eating an ice pop — as long as it fills the stomach, that's fine!" This scene deeply moved Zhang Changqin. At that time, the Yanhu District Volunteer Association had already been established for over a year, and the association's accounts held more than 6,000 yuan raised by volunteers themselves. Zhang Changqin took the lead in launching the "Love Breakfast" public welfare project, providing sanitation workers with a hot breakfast at a standard of 4 yuan per person per meal.
On November 17, 2016, on the very first morning of the "Love Breakfast" project, 30 sanitation workers came, and along with them came much doubt and ridicule. Many people did not believe the free breakfast could last, and some even questioned Zhang Changqin's motives. He realized that doing things could not rely on a burst of enthusiasm (一腔热情, yi qiang re qing - "one, chest, passion") alone; he also needed more citizens to understand the significance of this public welfare project. So he proactively contacted news media, shared his ideas, and gradually won more and more understanding and support. Warm-hearted citizens kept donating, and caring enterprises sent supplies one after another. Each month, the association had designated personnel compile donors and donation amounts into the "Yanhu District Volunteer Association 'Daily Good Deed' Donation Summary Table," and record the sanitation workers who came to eat breakfast each day into the "Yanhu District Volunteer Association Service Recipient Sign-in Table," for volunteers and the public to supervise.
Li Jun joined the Yanhu District Volunteer Association in 2021 and has been at it for five years. Whenever time permits, he signs up in advance on the China Volunteer Service Collaborative Platform as a food-preparation volunteer, and his figure "helping in the kitchen" can always be seen there. "Moved by the volunteers' willingness to dedicate themselves (甘于奉献, gan yu feng xian - "willing, at, devote"), and seeing the sanitation workers eat happily, I feel happy too. I never feel tired and will keep doing it," Li Jun said.
Under Zhang Changqin's leadership, the Yanhu District Volunteer Association has continued to grow, from an initial small volunteer team of just a few people into a "big family" of more than 1,700 volunteers, having mobilized tens of thousands of citizens to participate in volunteer service. Over the past nearly 10 years, the Yanhu District Volunteer Association has delivered more than 270,000 love breakfasts in total, attracting over 6,000 registered volunteers to participate. In addition to the "Love Breakfast" project, the association has also launched public welfare projects such as the "Sunshine Growth" volunteer service project for caring for children in difficult circumstances and the "Warm Sunset" project for caring for the elderly.
"We will continue to honor this warm promise, and we hope to bring more people into this cause," Zhang Changqin said.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 王明峰
"The book collection is rich, and the environment is comfortable," said citizen Liu Lin. After the new library of Nanbu County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, was officially unveiled and put into use, Liu Lin brought his child to read there.
This year, Nanbu County completed the renovation of 15 cultural and sports activity venues, coordinated the free opening of the county's cultural and sports venues to the public on weekends and holidays, released the social service efficiency of infrastructure, and made the city more livable.
In recent years, Nanbu County has adhered to asking the people about their needs, seeking advice from the people, and evaluating results by the people, continuously promoting urban renewal, so that the urban structure is constantly optimized, quality steadily improved, and governance efficiency enhanced.
A brand-new handrail was recently installed on the mountain road up Diaobao Mountain on Southeast Back Street. Such a change originated from a community visit. Resident Feng Chaojie recalled that one early morning not long ago, Zhang Xiaoli, Party branch secretary of the South Section Community of Zhenxing Street, Binjiang Subdistrict, Nanbu County, knocked on his door during a visit: "Brother Feng, has life been going smoothly recently? If there is anything difficult or troubling, you can tell me."
A warm word opened Feng Chaojie's heart, and he voiced his concern: the mountain road up Diaobao Mountain has no safety protection facilities, and there are hidden dangers to travel safety.
The slope has a large elevation difference, and the road is narrow and steep, which indeed poses safety hazards. After inspecting on site, Zhang Xiaoli also believed that protective facilities must be installed as soon as possible.
Subsequently, Zhang Xiaoli quickly contacted the relevant departments, reported the hazard in detail, coordinated professional personnel to conduct on-site surveys, and repeatedly communicated on the rectification plan. From collecting the appeal to verifying on site, from departmental coordination to the implementation of construction, in only 20 days, a 76-meter-long safety handrail stood firmly beside the steep slope.
Since the beginning of this year, Nanbu County has collected 3,460 opinions and suggestions from the public through channels such as online surveys and door-to-door visits. After item-by-item sorting, they were summarized into 66 specific tasks and 101 sub-projects in 9 aspects, including smooth roads, improved housing quality, guaranteed supply, and quality education and medical care. The "Nine Major Action Plan for Livable Nanbu · Happy Homeland" was issued, and project-based, list-based, and responsibility-based management was implemented for each task.
"The problem of water accumulation and leakage in the old pipe network must be solved," "The corridor walls are dirty; can they be whitewashed and renovated?" ... At the renovation opinion-seeking meeting for the Silk Community in Nanbu County, residents put forward suggestions on the community renovation.
Because it was built long ago, some infrastructure in the Silk Community has aged and supporting functions are missing, directly affecting residents' quality of living. Renovation and quality improvement are the common aspiration of the residents.
In 2025, the renovation of the Silk Community was approved for project initiation. "Based on residents' suggestions, taking into account practicality, feasibility, and benefits to the people, we repeatedly deliberated and polished, optimized and adjusted the plan, and precisely solved various difficulties in the community renovation," said Zhou Yuan, head of the Nanbu County Housing Administration Bureau. After the plan was finalized, it was publicized to residents for opinions, and the renovation was officially launched only after receiving unanimous approval from everyone.
Nanbu County, focusing on key livelihood difficulties and annual livelihood practical projects, invites county people's congress deputies, county CPPCC members, and village (resident) representatives to discuss together. It promotes the transformation of livelihood work from "unilateral arrangement by the government" to "joint planning by cadres and the masses," making livelihood measures more grounded and more in line with public opinion.
The area around Wuzhouxing Pocket Park is a highly concentrated residential area. "There is still a lack of cultural, entertainment, and learning venues for 'the elderly and children.'" With such public feedback, the community placed rectification and improvement on the agenda, determined to build a comprehensive service matrix with the Party and mass service center as the focus and seven functional service stations, including childcare services, elderly care services, fitness parks, and community canteens, as nodes, creating an all-age-friendly community. At present, a 1,150-square-meter community site has been built, achieving a dynamic and static zoning of sports venues and learning venues. Twelve merchants were promoted to enter the business district, which, while meeting the diverse needs of citizens, revitalized the community's idle assets.
Some vacant plots in the city, if left untended for a long time, can easily become neglected or ignored by everyone (无人问津, wu ren wen jin - "no one, ask, arrive") messy corners. Nanbu County, in light of local conditions, plans and builds such scattered plots into pocket parks at the doorsteps of the masses, making full use of idle land. This year, construction of 6 pocket parks has been started, and 2 of them are about to be completed and put into use.
Since the beginning of this year, Nanbu County has repaired 8,100 square meters of damaged urban roads and sidewalks, added 1,863 parking spaces, and comprehensively renovated and improved 21 regional elderly care service centers.
Return to TopHow to enable intelligent agents to operate stably and reliably in industrial scenarios is a common intelligent-transformation challenge across all industries. Baidu AI Cloud is strengthening its full-stack capabilities, achieving a comprehensive evolution of "chip, cloud, model, and agent," and helping thousands of industries advance their intelligent upgrades.
Upgrading to a full-stack AI cloud for large-scale intelligent agent applications
With the iterative development of technology, intelligent agents have achieved a leap from AI answering questions to autonomously decomposing tasks, invoking tools, executing multi-step processes, and taking responsibility for results. Driving the deployment of intelligent agents in more industrial scenarios requires building a more solid underlying foundation—from the stable supply of computing power to the reasoning capability of models, and then to permission control and result verification during task execution. A shortcoming in any single link will cause intelligent agents to "drop the ball" in real business operations. Therefore, full-stack capability is shifting from adding something to make it even better (锦上添花, jin shang tian hua - "brocade, on, add, flower") to becoming an important foundation for the large-scale deployment of intelligent agents.
In May this year, Baidu AI Cloud announced its upgrade to a new full-stack AI cloud for large-scale intelligent agent applications. This full-stack capability comprises two major parts: AI Infra (computing power infrastructure) and Agent Infra (intelligent agent infrastructure). AI Infra provides AI computing power with stronger performance per watt and higher cost-effectiveness; Agent Infra is dedicated to optimizing the intelligence level per unit Token (token). Baidu AI Cloud believes that the competition among general-purpose intelligent agents will ultimately be competition among AI clouds, and only with full-stack AI cloud capability can stable, large-scale delivery be achieved.
Systematically laying out "chip, cloud, model, and agent" to support intelligent agent deployment
Facing the challenge of large-scale intelligent agent applications, Baidu has built a full-chain capability system covering chips, cloud infrastructure, large models, intelligent agent platforms, and industry applications, known as "chip, cloud, model, and agent."
At the bottom layer, AI chips represented by Kunlun Core and the new generation of AI infrastructure together form the AI Infra computing power foundation, providing stable support for large-scale model training and high-concurrency inference. At the model layer, the ERNIE large model continues to evolve, providing general-purpose reasoning and task planning capabilities for intelligent agents. At the intelligent agent operation layer, the general-purpose intelligent agent Baidu Dazi, along with vertical intelligent agents such as Baidu Famou, Baidu Miaoda, Baidu Yijian, and Baidu Shengsuan, relies on the Agent Infra intelligent agent operation foundation composed of engineering capabilities such as task scheduling, permission governance, and result verification, transforming the "probabilistic generation" of large models into "controllable, auditable" task execution.
This system has brought tangible business growth: since the beginning of this year, Baidu AI Cloud's AI cloud infrastructure revenue has grown 50% year-on-year, of which GPU (graphics processing unit) cloud revenue has grown 283% year-on-year. According to statistics from the cloud industry research institution Smart Hyperparameter, in the first quarter of this year, among the large model project awards by major domestic cloud vendors, Baidu AI Cloud ranked first with 25 awarded projects.
Practical exploration of full-stack capabilities serving thousands of industries
The value of full-stack capabilities must ultimately be tested in industrial practice.
In the energy and power sector, State Grid, with the help of Baidu AI Cloud, has built a hundred-billion-parameter multimodal power industry large model—the Guangming Power Large Model—and has deployed equipment recognition intelligent agents in scenarios such as distribution network overhead lines and substation inspection. At present, transmission line defect recognition covers 9 major categories and 225 subcategories, with inspection efficiency improved by more than 50%; the recognition accuracy for 17 types of typical distribution network defects exceeds 86%; and inspection time for large substations of 500 kV and above has been reduced from no less than 2.5 hours for manual inspection to approximately 45 minutes. In the embodied intelligence field, Baidu AI Cloud has served more than 50 key enterprises in the industry chain, including Unitree and AgiBot, providing full-stack AI cloud technical support covering model training and inference acceleration, data services, embodied voice interaction and teleoperation, and embodied safety. In the electronics manufacturing sector, Baidu AI Cloud has cooperated with consumer electronics manufacturers in Suzhou, using Baidu Famou to help enterprises solve three major challenges in warehouse management—"high frequency of dynamic water-level adjustments, large fluctuations in shipping rhythm, and reliance on experience for manual judgment"—increasing the direct loading satisfaction rate by more than 20 percentage points and driving a 30% increase in daily shipping speed.
Relying on the systematic coordination of the full chain of Baidu AI Cloud's "chip, cloud, model, and agent," intelligent agents play an important role in core business scenarios across different industries such as energy, manufacturing, and embodied intelligence. The real business data generated by scenario deployment, in turn, feeds back into continuous model iteration and capability improvement, thereby further supporting the deployment of more intelligent agents adapted to complex scenarios, forming a virtuous cycle of mutual promotion between technology and industry.
From energy and power to intelligent manufacturing, from financial risk control to daily office work, Baidu AI Cloud's "chip, cloud, model, and agent" full-stack AI system is continuously demonstrating systematic value across business scenarios in all industries. Baidu AI Cloud adheres to systems engineering thinking, connecting the entire chain of chips, cloud infrastructure, large models, intelligent agent platforms, and industry applications, providing reliable and sustainable technical support for the intelligent upgrade of thousands of industries.
Data source: Baidu
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 史自强
Gateball features slow, gentle movements, combining competitiveness with enjoyment. Nowadays, gateball courts across the country continue to increase in number, and events and activities are held on a regular basis. How does one play gateball well? How does one balance fitness benefits with sports safety? Let's hear the advice of Zhao Wenbo, an international-level gateball referee and physical education teacher at Xianghe County No. 1 Middle School in Hebei Province.
Suitable Participants and Equipment Selection
Gateball is suitable for people of all ages, including middle-aged and elderly fitness enthusiasts, those seeking light outdoor exercise, and people who enjoy intellectually engaging, cooperative team activities. Two groups of people should participate with caution: first, those with relatively severe lumbar disc herniation or in the acute phase of frozen shoulder, as repeated body twisting and swinging of the mallet can aggravate physical discomfort; second, those with poor balance who are prone to falling.
How does one select equipment? The mallet is used to strike the ball and consists of a mallet head and a mallet handle, forming an inverted T shape overall. Beginners can choose a telescopic mallet and adjust the handle length according to their height. A moderate overall weight and a non-slip, comfortable grip are preferable, avoiding a mallet that is too heavy and adds burden to the shoulders and lower back.
When playing gateball, it is best to choose flat-soled, non-slip rubber-soled sports shoes. The soles should not be too thick, and leather shoes or slippers should not be worn. Those with lower back discomfort may wear a lumbar support. During competition, players may not add attachments such as non-slip strips or positioning blocks to their shoes on their own.
Standard Movements and Common Misconceptions
I. Grip and Stance
Hold the mallet handle with both hands, one above the other, spaced 10 to 15 centimeters apart, which can be fine-tuned according to arm length. The web of the hand faces downward, with the middle, ring, and little fingers naturally and lightly wrapping the handle. The arms are naturally relaxed, the shoulders level, and the shoulders should not be hunched.
Basic beginner stance: feet spread apart at shoulder width, toes pointing parallel to the direction of the stroke, knees slightly bent, and the waist and back naturally leaning slightly forward. In addition, there are mainstream competitive stances such as the single-foot-close stance and the double-foot-close stance: the single-foot-close stance has the inside of the left foot (or right foot) pressed against the mallet head, with the feet staggered slightly front and back; the double-foot-close stance is a high-precision stance commonly used in competition, with the feet parallel and apart, leaving only enough space between the insides of the two feet for the mallet head to swing.
II. Aiming and Striking
When aiming, the target (the other ball or the center of the gate), the player's own ball, and the mallet head should all be in a straight line. When striking, the upper arm drives the forearm forward with force, the wrist controls the angle and range of the mallet's release, the force is applied gently and evenly, and the mallet remains stable at the moment of impact. Never swing the mallet too forcefully — not only is direction difficult to control, but the lower back is also prone to strain.
Basic Practice and Advanced Techniques
At the beginner stage, one should focus on practicing the swing and fixed-point straight-line strokes. Place target balls at distances of 1 to 5 meters from the player's own ball, repeatedly aim and strike, and consolidate the fundamentals of stance, grip, and aiming. Do simple gate-crossing drills, sending the ball toward the center of the gate from close range.
At the advanced stage, one can add long-distance strokes of 5 to 8 meters to practice control of force. Focus on practicing techniques such as sending the ball accurately into position and close-range brushing. One can invite fellow players to practice together to strengthen ball feel and coordination; add gate-crossing angle drills, crossing the gate diagonally and controlling the landing point of the ball. A single practice session should preferably be kept to about 1 hour, avoiding excessive fatigue.
Tips
Basic Rules of Gateball
Format: The five-player game is divided into a red team and a white team, with 5 players on each team. Red balls are numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9; white balls are numbered 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. Balls are struck in rotation in order from 1 to 10, with a total game time of 30 minutes.
Court: Gateball matches are usually held on artificial turf, natural grass, and similar surfaces. The court is divided into a playing area and a restricted area, with the playing area measuring 20 meters long and 15 meters wide. The court contains Gate One, Gate Two, Gate Three, and the center pole. At the start of the game, the ball must be struck into play from the starting area.
Scoring: A validly moving ball scores 1 point for passing through Gate One, Gate Two, or Gate Three, and 2 points for hitting the center pole.
Determining the winner: When the game ends, the total scores of the two teams are added up, and the side with the higher score wins.
Return to TopBy: 孙龙飞 马博文
In the lanes, athletes paddle with all their might, sending up bursts of spray; at poolside, coaches and support teams are each performing their own specific duties (各司其职, ge si qi zhi - "each, undertake, its, duty"), ensuring the efficient execution of training plans; in the gym, barbell plates stack layer upon layer, bearing witness to the athletes' steadily improving physical fitness...
The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games swimming competition will be held from September 20 to 25 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Among the 44 athletes of the Chinese swimming team, Olympic champions such as Wang Shun, Zhang Yufei, and Pan Zhanle anchor the squad, Asian record holders Tang Qianting and Yu Yiting serve as the backbone, and 19 are participating in the Asian Games for the first time.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Chinese swimming team stood on the podium in 39 of all 41 events, winning 28 gold, 21 silver, and 9 bronze medals, its best result since first participating. "The team's goal this time is to win gold medals of morality, gold medals of style, and gold medals of cleanliness, striving for results with real substance," a relevant official of the Chinese swimming team said. The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games is a "mid-term examination" before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The team assembled in Beijing on August 30, seizing the time to fix omissions and make up for shortcomings (查缺补漏, cha que bu lou - "check, deficiency, patch, leak"), and to meet the test in high spirits.
At this Asian Games, 32-year-old Wang Shun will return to the venue where he won the men's 200m individual medley gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics five years ago, and this will also be his fifth Asian Games campaign. As the oldest member of the team, physical recovery and speed improvement are his training priorities this year. From the two domestic selection meets in the first half of the year to now, he has gradually reached his target times, feeling much more settled. Facing fierce competition, he hopes to swim under 1 minute 56 seconds in the event, "striving to raise the national flag and play the national anthem at the competition venue."
After the 2024 Paris Olympics, butterfly stroke star Zhang Yufei experienced a relatively long period of fluctuating form. Facing pressure, she changed her training methods to seek a breakthrough. She regards this Asian Games as an important milestone on the road to the Los Angeles Olympics, hoping to test her training results in competition and swim her ideal times. Pan Zhanle, returning from overseas training, has gained much in mentality and technical details; Qin Haiyang said he is currently in his best form of the year and will face the fierce competition in the breaststroke events with a calm mindset.
Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese swimming team has broken multiple Asian records. Xu Jiayu broke the Asian record in the men's 50m backstroke, and Tang Qianting twice refreshed the Asian record in the women's 50m breaststroke. Yu Yiting, the Asian record holder in the women's 200m individual medley, has a wide span of events at this competition. Recently she has mainly been making up for deficiencies in details such as turns and finishes, adjusting her physical condition to cope with the dense schedule.
Thirteen-year-old Yu Zidi is the youngest member of the Chinese swimming team. At the 2025 Singapore World Aquatics Championships she emerged as a prominent figure (崭露头角, zhan lu tou jiao - "show, reveal, head, corner"), demonstrating considerable strength. Facing her first Asian Games journey, she is full of anticipation and excitement: "Train hard, show my level, and strive to surpass myself." Young athlete Zhang Zhanshuo, after competing in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships this August, saw the gap between himself and the world's top-level athletes. This time he will compete in multiple freestyle events. "I will keep a calm mindset and challenge for the gold medal as an underdog."
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Liu Shuoyang) From September 11 to 13 local time, the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship was held in Budapest, Hungary, featuring 28 events with 381 athletes from 65 national (regional) teams competing. In the women's javelin throw, Chinese athlete Yan Ziyi claimed the runner-up spot with a throw of 68.05 meters, while Japanese athlete and Paris Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi took the title with 68.92 meters.
In the women's javelin at the Ultimate Championship, athletes had a maximum of four attempts. Yan Ziyi performed excellently on her first throw, recording 68.05 meters to take a commanding lead. Thereafter, hampered by a foot injury, she abandoned her remaining attempts after the second throw. Haruka Kitaguchi, with her second throw of 68.92 meters, surpassed others by coming from behind (后来居上, hou lai ju shang - "later, come, reside, up"), ultimately claiming the championship.
The Ultimate Championship is a newly established top-tier international event by World Athletics, to be held biennially starting in 2026, with eligibility limited to Olympic champions, world championship winners, Diamond League annual champions, and athletes ranked high in the world standings in each event. This edition of the Ultimate Championship was the sixth international competition Yan Ziyi participated in this season. Previously, she secured the Diamond League annual championship in Brussels, Belgium.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Li Shuo) On the 12th local time, in the girls' singles final of the 2026 US Open junior tournament, world No. 1-ranked 16-year-old Chinese rising star Sun Xinran defeated Russian player Pushkareva 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 to claim her first Grand Slam junior girls' singles title. She also became the third Chinese Tennis Association player to win a junior Grand Slam singles title, following Wu Yibing and Wang Xiyu.
This season, Sun Xinran successively reached the girls' singles finals of the French Open and Wimbledon junior Grand Slam tournaments, finishing as runner-up in both. In this US Open final, she finally lifted the championship trophy.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Tao Xiang'an) The 2026 Beijing Primary and Secondary School "Three Major Ball Sports" Curriculum Expo was recently held at the Beijing No. 2 Middle School Economic Development Zone Campus, with more than 800 related workers gathering together at the scene (齐聚现场, qi ju xian chang - "gather together, present scene") to jointly exchange practical achievements in the teaching reform of "Three Major Ball Sports" courses. This curriculum expo, featuring micro-lesson demonstrations of football, basketball, volleyball, and manipulative skills oriented toward the three major ball sports as its carrier, presented the phased construction achievements of Beijing's primary and secondary school physical education classrooms in "moving from single-skill teaching toward large-unit teaching, from movement practice and learning toward real competition, and from skill acquisition toward complete education." Since the launch of the "Three Major Ball Sports Special Project" in March 2026, more than 1,000 physical education teachers in Beijing have carried out unit relay teaching, jointly researching and creating 1,200 "Three Major Ball Sports" course lessons, covering 54 experimental schools across all districts of the city.
Return to TopJiangxi Normal University is deeply rooted in the land of Ganpo, carrying forward the red gene, and adhering to the mission and duty of normal education. It runs the university's motto of "quiet contemplation and resolute action, upholding the mean and holding fast to integrity" throughout the entire process of school governance. In recent years, the university has anchored itself to the goal of "Double First-Class" construction, striving to be at the forefront, and has achieved new results in various undertakings. The university was selected as one of the third batch of "National Civilized Campuses" and has been rated as "First-Class" in the comprehensive assessment of provincial-managed universities for four consecutive years.
Adhering to cultivating virtue and nurturing people (立德树人, li de shu ren - "establish, virtue, plant, person"), nurturing talents on the three-foot podium
The university implements the fundamental task of cultivating virtue and nurturing people, and with the comprehensive reform of education and teaching as the starting point, it has built a talent cultivation system with Jiangxi Normal University characteristics.
Ideological and political education casts the soul, coordinating integrated construction. Relying on the platform of the National Key Marxist College, the university has innovatively created an integrated education model for ideological and political education in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools featuring "red leadership, three-dimensional integration, and five-link drive." It has been approved as a 2025 Red Culture Promotion Base and selected as a pilot unit for the "Co-construction Action between University Marxist Colleges and New Era Civilization Practice Centers." It has created the "Great Master" party building brand, established famous counselor studios, and implemented the "One College, One Brand" cultural brand cultivation action.
Professional foundation building, solidifying curriculum connotation construction. Focusing on national strategies and the economic and social development needs of Jiangxi, the university has completed the adjustment of over 30% of its professional structure. It has cumulatively established 40 national first-class professional construction sites and recognized 48 national first-class undergraduate courses. Since 2018, it has won 5 national teaching achievement awards. By pooling resources such as first-class teaching teams and virtual teaching and research offices, the level of teaching support ranks among the top tier in Jiangxi Province.
Cultivating top-notch talents, deepening the integration of science, innovation, and competitions. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the university won 2 national third prizes in the Young University Teachers' Teaching Competition, and 6 national second prizes and 3 third prizes in the Teacher Teaching Innovation Competition. It has deepened the reform of the training model for top-notch talents and normal students, and around the construction of "Zhengda" Students 3.0, it has established Bailu Academy and Xiansu Academy, building a distinctive training system of "academy education + professional empowerment." In 2025, students won 107 top awards in national A-level competitions, achieving full coverage of awards in the three major national science and innovation competitions. The university has won the Advanced Collective Award at the China International College Students' Innovation Competition for five consecutive sessions, accumulating a total of 13 gold awards.
Open exchange, steadily expanding international cooperation. The university actively connects with and deeply integrates into the high-quality co-construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, cooperating with overseas universities to build 3 Confucius Institutes. In 2026, it will recruit international students from more than 20 countries and regions. The "Jiangxi Normal University Novosibirsk Digital Intelligence College" has been approved as a Sino-foreign cooperative education institution, introducing high-quality international educational resources and building a new platform for cultivating international talents.
Focusing on innovation and breakthroughs, scaling new heights in teaching and research
Guided by the "Double First-Class" construction, the university continues to deepen the reform of the scientific research system, optimize the disciplinary layout, and steadily enhance its comprehensive scientific research strength.
Disciplinary construction advances in an echelon. The chemistry discipline ranks in the top 1.74‰ globally in ESI, and 7 disciplines are firmly in the top 1% globally in ESI. 25 disciplines were selected for the "2025 ShanghaiRanking's Best Chinese Subjects Ranking" list. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, 5 first-level discipline doctoral programs and 1 professional degree doctoral program were added, bringing the total number of doctoral programs to 15.
The quantity and quality of research project approvals have both increased. In 2026, 80 projects were approved under the National Natural Science Foundation of China, achieving a breakthrough from zero for the university's Young Scientists Fund projects (Category A). During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, a cumulative total of 379 projects were approved under the National Natural Science Foundation of China and 176 under the National Social Science Fund, including 10 major projects and 20 key projects; 10 awards were won for Outstanding Achievements in Scientific Research of the Ministry of Education (Humanities and Social Sciences category). Multiple achievements have been published in journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and its sub-journals, and Social Sciences in China, with academic influence continuously rising.
Platforms gather talent, mechanisms unleash energy. The university has added national-level platforms such as the Jinggangshan Revolution Museum—Jiangxi Normal University National Revolutionary Cultural Relics Collaborative Research Center, and is orderly advancing the preparation of the Jiangxi Provincial Laboratory for Fully Continuous Intelligent Manufacturing and the optimization and restructuring of the National Engineering Technology Research Center for Monosaccharide Chemical Synthesis. It has deepened the reforms of "posting tasks and accepting challenges" and "one college, one policy," formed interdisciplinary clusters, and stimulated innovation vitality. A breakthrough from zero was achieved for the "National Innovation Prize for Excellence." During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the total number of national-level talents increased by nearly 3 times compared with the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Independent cultivation of national-level leading talents has achieved successive breakthroughs, the construction of "large teams" in key development disciplines has achieved remarkable results, and the talent team continues to grow.
Based on local needs, rooted in Ganpo, demonstrating responsibility
The university actively integrates into the overall regional development situation, actively leverages its educational advantages, and adds momentum to local high-quality development.
The transformation of scientific and technological achievements is turning achievements into tangible economic benefits (落地生金, luo di sheng jin - "land, fall, grow, gold"). Since 2024, the university has successively signed achievement transformation agreements with enterprises such as Yantai Wanhua Chemical, Chengdu Aobang Pharmaceutical, and Jiangxi Fuxiang Pharmaceutical, with a cumulative contract funding of nearly 400 million RMB. The university ranks first in the 2024 ranking of achievement transformation among provincial universities. In the 2025 performance evaluation of the Jiangxi Province scientific and technological achievement transfer and transformation service system, it was rated "Excellent" in the category of achievement transformation centers of scientific research institutes; "Fully Continuous Flow Micro-Nano Asymmetric Industrial Synthesis of Carbapenem Drugs" and "Development of Fully Continuous Flow Synthesis Process and Equipment for Carbapenem Drugs" were selected as major special projects of Jiangxi Province's "2030 Pioneer Project" in science and technology, and "Key Technologies and Series of Processes for Intelligent Micro-Nano Continuous Flow Manufacturing" was selected as one of the top ten typical cases of scientific and technological achievement transformation in Jiangxi Province in 2025.
The popularity and quality of serving basic education are at the forefront. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the university cooperated with Nanchang, Ganzhou, and other places to establish more than 20 primary and secondary schools, and took the lead in forming the "Jiangxi Province Alliance for Collaborative Quality Improvement between Universities and County Basic Education." The university undertakes national training tasks for primary and secondary school party secretaries, principals, and backbone teachers across the province, undertakes research and training tasks for party organization secretaries, principals, and backbone teachers of primary and secondary schools in the province, actively participates in the Ministry of Education's Teacher Education Collaborative Quality Improvement Plan, carries out cross-regional assistance and co-construction for normal universities, and has become the "power engine" of Jiangxi's basic education. It has strengthened think tank construction, successively reaching strategic cooperation with 6 places including Xinyu City, providing decision-making support for local governance.
Striving forward in the 15th Five-Year Plan, Jiangxi Normal University will continue to deepen party building leadership and reform and innovation, comprehensively enhance the capacity for talent cultivation, scientific research innovation, and social service, and contribute to the construction of a strong education nation and a strong education province.
Data source: Jiangxi Normal University
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 白光迪
During the midday delivery peak, with five or six orders in hand at once and a red light ahead counting down more than 100 seconds — such scenes are nothing new for Hong Zhiqiang, a food-delivery rider working in Wuxi, Jiangsu.
Having worked in food delivery for more than three years, Hong Zhiqiang delivers fifty to sixty orders a day and spends eight or nine hours on the road. In the past, a long red light often made him anxious. "Waiting one or two minutes at one intersection, and after several intersections in a row, the time is suddenly 'eaten up.'" When he encountered a long red light, the string in his mind would immediately tighten: Will the remaining orders still be on time? Will they be late?
Sometimes, seeing few vehicles at the intersection, or with only the last few seconds left on the red light, he also had the thought of running through it. "It's just these dozens of seconds — if I run through, this order won't be late." Hong Zhiqiang admitted that sometimes he would grit his teeth and run through, but afterward he would feel a lingering fear, "there really is risk."
Now, when the same red light comes on again, Hong Zhiqiang steadily stops his vehicle, waits for the green light, and then heads to the next stop. "However long I wait, the system makes up that much time." Hong Zhiqiang said, "My mindset is steady now; I no longer need to take risks for those dozens of seconds."
The change comes from the "red-light stop clock" function launched in Wuxi on August 17 this year, covering all 4,253 signalized intersections in the city. When a food-delivery rider stops and waits at a red light, the system identifies the waiting behavior based on real-time signal status, the rider's location trajectory, and order status, and extends the actual waiting time to the delivery duration of the relevant orders.
"This time, the 'red-light stop clock' has changed from 'average estimation' to 'precise recording,' truly achieving 'compensate as long as you wait.'" Shao Jingran, head of Meituan's "red-light stop clock" Wuxi project, said that the platform matches real-time signal data from traffic management authorities with rider location trajectories, making delivery times closer to the real road conditions riders face.
As of the end of the interview, the "red-light stop clock" in Wuxi had cumulatively added time to 1.7 million orders, benefiting riders nearly 170,000 times, with an average of 54 seconds added per order. Dozens of seconds may not seem long, but for riders, they may be exactly the buffer between "rushing through" and "waiting it out." "Efficiency should be efficiency under the premise of safety; it must not come at the cost of sacrificing safety." Shao Jingran said.
While the platform "changes its algorithm," urban traffic data also needs to be "connectable." Wuxi is one of the first batch of pilot cities for "vehicle-road-cloud integration" applications in the country, with approximately 1,674 square kilometers and 5,000 kilometers of roads included, and signal status latency stably controlled within 1 second. "From the very beginning, Wuxi has advanced this according to full-area coverage, including the subordinate cities of Jiangyin and Yixing — all intersections are connected." Wu Tianbin, deputy captain of the Traffic Technology Brigade of the Traffic Management Detachment of the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau, said.
In the view of the traffic management authorities, the purpose of the "red-light stop clock" is to reduce, as much as possible, the time cost for riders to lawfully wait at red lights through coordination between platform algorithms and urban traffic governance, so that riders are willing to stop and can afford to wait. As for whether traffic violations and accidents will decline as a result, Wu Tianbin did not rush to draw conclusions: "We hope to observe this over a longer period, at least one quarter." In the next step, on the basis of ensuring the stable operation of the Meituan platform pilot, it will be gradually promoted to other platforms.
The protection of food-delivery riders is not just about making them "able to afford waiting at red lights." Last month, Wuxi food-delivery rider Xia Wenzhong obtained an F-class driver's license and subsequently began using an electric light motorcycle specially designated for food delivery. Previously, he had ridden old-standard electric bicycles and new-standard electric bicycles. Since his daily deliveries mainly use a battery-swapping model, where he can replace the battery when it runs out, the difference in range between different vehicles was not obvious to him; what he truly felt was the difference was in the vehicles' load capacity, stability, and compliance.
"Compared with new-standard electric bicycles, food-delivery electric light motorcycles have a larger load capacity, ride more steadily, and can reach a speed of 40 kilometers per hour — that's enough." Xia Wenzhong said. In contrast, some old-standard and over-standard vehicles have gradually become unable to be properly registered and legally driven on the road, adding a layer of concern for food-delivery riders. Xia Wenzhong said: "Now the vehicle can be legally registered, and I've also obtained the F license myself. I just ride according to the rules for motor vehicles, and I no longer need to worry about whether the vehicle is compliant."
Why not simply require all riders to switch to ordinary new-standard electric bicycles? Zhu Yunfeng, captain of the Vehicle Management Brigade of the Traffic Management Detachment of the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau, found in his research that food delivery has vehicle needs different from daily commuting. In the past, some riders, in order to meet needs for speed and load capacity, would remove speed limiters from electric bicycles or add batteries. "Since riders have real delivery needs, we considered whether we could satisfy them with compliant vehicles, rather than having them solve the problem through illegal modifications." Zhu Yunfeng said.
In June this year, the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Municipal Party Committee Social Work Department, together with the industry and information technology, market supervision, and other departments, launched eight measures under the "Run Without Worry" initiative, promoting the standardized use of food-delivery-specific electric motorcycles and electric light motorcycles, and providing supporting services around driver's license examinations, license plate applications, road-use management, and platform cooperation. Relying on the local electric vehicle industry base, Wuxi has cooperated with relevant manufacturers to produce compliant vehicles better suited to food-delivery scenarios, made available to riders through leasing.
In the early stage of the pilot, the relevant vehicles were free for the first three months of trial use, with subsequent monthly rent in principle controlled at a little over 200 yuan; earlier market research showed that riders leasing ordinary electric bicycles typically needed to pay 400 to 500 yuan per month, not including the battery. As of the end of the interview, nearly 500 relevant vehicles had been put into pilot use in Wuxi, and the number is still increasing.
Reporter's Notes
Jointly Resolving the Time and Safety Pressures Borne by Riders
Prioritizing safety (以安全为重, yi an quan wei zhong - "take, safety, as, weight"), reducing the burden on riders. The exploration of the "red-light stop clock" is now being carried out in multiple places across Jiangsu. Suzhou took the lead in launching the "red-light stop clock" for Meituan food-delivery riders, and Nanjing's Qinhuai District and Jiangning District have also introduced a "waiting at lights does not count time" mechanism.
A red light and a delivery vehicle may seem like two small details in the work of food-delivery riders, but behind them lies the same governance question: as the instant-delivery industry continues to develop, how can delivery efficiency be ensured without making riders rely on running "red lights" or modifying vehicles to meet delivery needs?
From optimizing algorithms and opening up traffic signal data, to adding one more option for food-delivery vehicles, the time and safety pressures that were previously borne more by individual riders are now becoming problems that the government, platforms, and the industry face and solve together.
For riders, it means a little less anxiety when waiting at red lights and a little more peace of mind when riding; for platforms, it means delivery rules that are closer to real scenarios and more standardized management of personnel and vehicles; for traffic management authorities, it means responding to the actual needs of new business forms and guiding riders to be willing to follow the rules and able to follow the rules, making road traffic safer and more orderly. Ensuring that those who follow the rules do not lose out, and that the pursuit of efficiency need not come at the cost of taking risks — this is precisely the direction these governance explorations are striving toward.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Wei Zhezhe) The Supreme People's Court recently released six typical antitrust cases, further clarifying market competition rules and promoting the formation of a fair competition legal environment. The typical cases involve important legal issues such as abuse of market dominance through exclusive dealing, differential treatment, and unfairly high prices, identification of horizontal monopoly agreements, and judicial review of antitrust administrative penalties and administrative guidance, covering livelihood industries such as agricultural product wholesale, motor vehicle inspection, cement, and concrete, as well as productive basic service industries such as electroplating wastewater treatment and pipeline thermal steam.
Some monopolistic conduct occurs in livelihood industries, and the cost of illegal conduct is ultimately passed on to ordinary consumers, directly affecting people's daily lives. The people's courts stop monopolistic conduct in accordance with the law, protect the lawful rights and interests of victims, reduce livelihood costs by restoring market competition, maintain fair competition order, and earnestly safeguard the people's "vegetable basket" and "money bag."
Among them, the "case of dispute over abuse of market dominance between Tan Mou and a certain agricultural products company" clarifies that forcing merchants to "choose one of two" through punitive differential treatment constitutes exclusive dealing conduct, drawing a legal boundary for the competitive conduct of operators in the agricultural product circulation field; the "monopoly dispute case between a certain motor vehicle inspection company D and companies A, B, and C" involves the inspection fee burden of the broad community of motor vehicle owners, and by accurately identifying monopoly issues in the trial of contract disputes and lawfully transferring jurisdiction and transferring clues of illegal conduct, it achieves a seamlessly connecting two processes (无缝衔接, wu feng xian jie - "no seam, connect") between judicial handling and administrative investigation of monopolistic illegal conduct.
Going forward, the people's courts will continue to strengthen antitrust justice, hear all types of monopoly cases fairly and efficiently in accordance with the law, continuously improve and consolidate antitrust adjudication rules, and use more forceful judicial measures to serve and safeguard the construction of the unified national market, creating a fair competition market environment for high-quality development.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 13) (Reporter Jin Xin) The reporter learned from the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission: The Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Digital Villages (2026-2030)," which clarifies the thinking, goals, key tasks, and policy measures for promoting high-quality development of digital villages during the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan. By 2030, significant results will be achieved in the development of digital villages, the new-type information infrastructure in rural areas will be optimized and improved, the overall level of digitalization of rural industries, informatization of rural construction, and smart governance of rural areas will be markedly elevated, the mechanism for sustainable development of digital villages will be further improved, and farmers' sense of gain, happiness, and security in sharing the fruits of informatization development will be more substantial.
Centering on the main development goals of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the Action Plan specifies 8 major development indicators to be achieved by 2030, deploys 24 work measures in 5 aspects, and puts forward work requirements for strengthening organizational implementation, intensifying policy coordination and resource pooling, establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, and advancing the achieving practical results (落地见效, luo di jian xiao - "land, fall; see, effect") of all tasks.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Urumqi, September 13) (Reporter Shang Rongzheng) The Department of Veterans Affairs of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region recently launched the 2026 "Warm Hearts for Veterans · Education Assistance for Their Children" public welfare activity, with 30 children of veterans in difficulty receiving special education assistance funding. In the early stage of the activity, the veterans affairs department conducted a comprehensive and precise screening, strictly reviewed each level, and strictly adhered to the project's funding scope and conditions, ultimately identifying 30 children of veterans in difficulty as funding recipients, providing one-time financial assistance of 3,000 yuan for those studying at the senior high school stage (including secondary vocational education) and 5,000 yuan for those studying at the regular higher education stage. The "Warm Hearts for Veterans · Education Assistance for Their Children" public welfare activity has cumulatively assisted more than 200 children of veterans in difficulty.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 马跃峰 陈隽逸
On the land of northern Guizhou, the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall is crowded with people (人头攒动, ren tou zan dong - "person, head, crowd, move"), bamboo groves along the Chishui River sway in the wind, production lines in industrial parks run at high speed, and the fertile fields of harmonious and beautiful villages are full of vitality.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March. Zunyi City in Guizhou firmly grasps its historical status as the "place of the great turning point" and its strategic positioning as the "provincial sub-center," vigorously promotes the Long March spirit and the Zunyi Conference spirit, and strives to blaze a new path of high-quality development.
Inheriting Red Culture, Promoting the Integration of Culture and Tourism
Putting on VR (virtual reality) equipment, one sees billowing smoke before one's eyes and hears roaring gunfire in one's ears — in the exhibition hall of the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall, visitors experience the fierce battle of the Loushan Pass victory from a first-person perspective. This digital exhibition project, which supports 50 people experiencing it simultaneously, breaks the static limitations of traditional display panels and, with the help of technology, brings the history of the Long March back to life before the audience's eyes.
"Digital means can enable Red resources to realize greater value. Through digital preservation and scenario-based presentation, every cultural relic can become a vehicle for telling the story of the Long March," said Huang Chao, deputy director of the Information Technology Department of the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall. In 2025, taking advantage of the 90th anniversary of the Zunyi Conference, the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall completed an upgrade of its digital exhibitions, focusing on the renovation of its projection system, presenting key scenes of the Long March in a combination of virtual and real forms, and achieving a transformation of Red narratives from static viewing to dynamic experience.
The inheritance of Red culture does not stop at the exhibition hall. Relying on physical exhibitions, digital technology, traveling exhibitions, and the lending of cultural relics, the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall has created a "walking ideological and political course." Since the launch of the "Memorial Hall on the Move" in 2016, over the past 10 years, more than 40 traveling exhibitions have been held in more than 20 provinces including Shanghai, Fujian, Guangxi, and Tibet, with explanations of the history of the Zunyi Conference delivered cumulatively to more than 1 million people of all ethnic groups, bringing the spirit of the Zunyi Conference into thousands of households.
As the core area of the Guizhou key construction zone of the Long March National Cultural Park, Zunyi has successively carried out protective restoration and environmental improvement of key revolutionary sites including the site of the Zunyi Conference, the former site of the Red Army's Four Crossings of the Chishui River, and the tomb of Deng Ping. The city has registered 542 Red cultural resources and 358 sites of Long March relics and remains across 474 locations, published 173 immovable revolutionary cultural relics, and built 11 Red tourist attractions rated 3A or above, forming a graded, classified protection system covering the entire region.
Red resources provide development momentum for the integration of culture and tourism. Since its premiere in 2024, the large-scale immersive live performance "The Great Turning Point" has been performed more than 2,400 times and received nearly 800,000 visitors. The 360-degree rotating stage combined with a water-scenery ring screen has become a "new window" for telling the story of the Long March. In 2025, Red tourist attractions across Zunyi received 28.735 million visitors, and the site of the Zunyi Conference received 8.5349 million visitors. In the first seven months of this year, the site of the Zunyi Conference has already received more than 4.147 million visitors, with the average daily number of visitors during the summer vacation remaining above 34,000.
Integrating into National Strategies, Strengthening Advantageous Industries
In the Guizhou Loushan Pass Economic Development Zone, inside an automobile seat manufacturing company, machines run at high speed. Online stitching, finished product inspection, packaging and shipment... every day, more than 10,000 automobile seat covers are shipped from here to automobile manufacturing enterprises in Chongqing.
Huichuan District of Zunyi City has proposed to "develop industry by supporting the Chengdu-Chongqing region," closely focusing on the needs of chain-leading enterprises in the Chengdu-Chongqing region, precisely carrying out supply-demand matching, promoting the completion and operation of projects such as the scientific research and production base for precision components of special materials for aerospace, and continuously enhancing industrial supporting capacity; it is actively exploring the model of "R&D in Chengdu-Chongqing, transformation in Huichuan" to accelerate the implementation of scientific and technological achievements.
"Integrating into the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle is a two-way empowerment and complementary advantage of the industrial chain and the innovation chain," said Hu Xiuwu, member of the Party Leadership Group and deputy director of the Development and Reform Commission of Zunyi City. From 2025 to the present, the city has introduced 72 industrial projects from the Chengdu-Chongqing region, with contracted investment reaching 15.125 billion yuan, and 109 industrial enterprises cooperating with Chengdu-Chongqing have completed output value of 12.593 billion yuan.
At Philipxin (Zunyi) Digital Technology Co., Ltd., located in the Zunyi High-tech Zone, data annotation specialists stare at screens, quickly outlining street view contours and object frame lines with their mouses — these precisely annotated road condition data are precisely the "digital fuel" for the iteration of intelligent driving. As a leading domestic enterprise in AI (artificial intelligence) data production, this Chongqing enterprise took only three months from contract signing to landing and operation. "Choosing to settle in Zunyi, we valued the business environment here, and also valued the location advantage here of connecting Chengdu-Chongqing and radiating to Southwest China," said Wen Wei, general manager of the company.
Relying on its location advantage, Zunyi City has become the "bridgehead" for Guizhou's digital industry to integrate into the digital economy and intelligent industry chain of the Chengdu-Chongqing region. With the provincial-level digital intelligence industrial park as its carrier, Zunyi's data annotation industry has achieved initial results: it has cumulatively provided more than 1,500 digital employment positions, and Aidouyun Technology Co., Ltd.'s revenue exceeded 20 million yuan in 2025; based on Zunyi's advantageous industries such as sauce-flavored liquor, culture and tourism, and medicine, it customizes industry-specific datasets, promotes annotated data to empower the digital upgrading of traditional industries, enabling the data industry to both generate large-scale revenue and serve the transformation of the local real economy.
Revitalizing Industry, Strengthening Counties, and Enriching the People, Increasing Urban and Rural Residents' Income
In the processing workshop of Taisheng (Guizhou) Bamboo Resources Development Co., Ltd., located in Chishui City, bamboo slices are transformed into household base paper through processes such as green skin removal, steaming, and bleaching. "We purchase more than 1.3 million tons of bamboo slices annually, driving an average annual income increase of more than 4,000 yuan per person for 180,000 bamboo farmers," said Xu Duanxiang, general manager of the company.
Chishui City currently has 1.328 million mu of bamboo forest. In 2025, the city's total bamboo industry output value exceeded 10 billion yuan, cultivating more than 200 bamboo-related enterprises, forming more than 1,000 products in more than 10 series including bamboo pulp papermaking, bamboo home furnishings, and bamboo shoot food, exported to Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia, and other regions.
This is a microcosm of Zunyi's development of county economies in light of local conditions: Renhuai City ranks among the top 100 counties in the country by virtue of its baijiu industry; Zheng'an County relies on its guitar industry to cultivate the "Zheng'an Guitar Craftsman" labor service brand, cumulatively driving 15,000 people to employment and entrepreneurship...
In the pottery and creative cultural block of Huamao Village, Fengxiang Town, Bozhou District, Zunyi City, tourists are following inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to experience earthenware pottery throwing. Huamao Village has adopted the model of "village party organization + cooperatives + farmers," developing large-scale modern agriculture, deeply exploring characteristic culture such as earthenware pottery and ancient papermaking, building a nostalgia market and a pottery and creative cultural block, and promoting the deep integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism. "In the past, young people in the village all ran out; now that homestays and pottery shops have opened, you can earn money at your doorstep," said Peng Longfen, director of the Huamao Village committee. In 2025, Huamao Village's total tourism revenue exceeded 24 million yuan, and the per capita disposable income of villagers reached 29,650 yuan.
Taking the "Four in the Countryside · Harmonious and Beautiful Village" as its starting point, Zunyi continues to broaden channels for increasing farmers' income. In 2025, the per capita disposable income of permanent rural residents in the area reached 21,252 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%; the urban-rural resident income ratio narrowed from 2.50:1 in 2021 to 2.27:1.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 苏 滨
With an average age of 36, party members taking the lead, and engineers working in coordination with technicians, what achievements has such an eight-person "D" shift team made?
The thermal efficiency of eight molten salt furnaces rose from 82.5 percent to 84 percent, 14 measures for reducing costs and increasing efficiency were implemented, and a long-standing energy-consumption problem that had plagued the industry for years was overcome — in the first half of this year, they jointly hung the "National Model Workers' Vanguard" award on the honor wall.
Stepping into the main control room of the molten salt process at the thermal power plant of Zunyi Aluminum Industry in Guizhou, one sees parameter curves jumping in real time on the screen. The "D" shift keeps a close watch on key indicators such as molten salt temperature and furnace operating conditions, with on-site operations and remote monitoring linked in two-way coordination to ensure the stable operation of the molten salt system.
Alumina production requires large amounts of thermal energy, and the molten salt furnace is known as the "thermal heart." The initial design thermal efficiency was only 75 percent, and energy consumption remained high for a long time. "One of the difficulties lies in the coil interlayer, which is 12 meters deep with gaps only ten finger-widths wide, making it prone to ash accumulation and scaling that hinder heat transfer," said Gan Wei, team leader of the "D" shift of the molten salt process at the thermal power plant of Zunyi Aluminum Industry. Relying on traditional compressed-air purging and high-pressure water flushing proved ineffective — addressing symptoms rather than the underlying cause (治标不治本, zhi biao bu zhi ben - "treat, symptom, not, treat, root").
The thermal power plant decided to form a tackling team, with party members taking the lead and technical backbone participating — this was the later molten salt process "D" shift. Gan Wei led the team to immerse themselves in drawings and literature, carrying out five rounds of tackling, repeatedly deducing and trial-and-error testing, continuously optimizing the nozzle structure and dimensions, and ultimately independently developing a compressed-air rotary nozzle that produces high-pressure airflow.
"Everyone has their own Long March. I am a member of the thermal power plant, and moreover a young party member; driving energy conservation, consumption reduction, cost reduction, and efficiency increase in the production process is my Long March." Thanks to the efforts of Gan Wei and his colleagues, the efficient operating cycle of the coil was extended by more than 10 days. They also innovatively implemented technologies such as "furnace ash re-combustion," cumulatively implementing 14 cost-reduction measures and becoming a backbone force in the enterprise's transformation.
Party members set the example, and young people shoulder responsibility. On this red hot land of Zunyi, the broad ranks of party members, especially young party members, take root at the grassroots and bravely take on heavy burdens, carving the willingness to take responsibility, the courage to take responsibility, and the ability to take responsibility into their bones, blending it into their blood, and putting it into action.
The Women Red Army Street in Tucheng Town, Xishui County, features contiguous wooden buildings. During every peak tourism season, it must bear the electricity consumption peak brought by one million visitors. The Tucheng Power Supply Station of the Zunyi Xishui Power Supply Bureau of China Southern Power Grid organized a party member assault team, dividing important scenic areas into party member responsibility zones and formulating a "one museum, one plan" power guarantee scheme. "The assault team conducts irregular inspections and patrols every day to ensure zero power outages at key venues," said Luo Jun, Party Branch Secretary of the Tucheng Power Supply Station.
In Renhe Garden Community on Xima Road Street, Huichuan District, young party members take the lead in fulfilling their duties and mobilize young people in the jurisdiction. At present, they have successfully recommended six Communist Youth League members to join the party organization and selected four community youths as party membership applicants, forming a positive interaction of "party building leading league building and team building."
From factory workshops to fields, from urban street corners to rural lanes, youthful drive is being transformed into tackling perseverance, injecting surging momentum into the high-quality development of Zunyi City.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 苏 滨
Stepping into the courtyard of a study-tour base, more than 60 pottery wheels line the walls in rows. Craftsman Yang Bo stands at the center of the workshop, his blue cloth apron dotted with specks of mud, a pair of calloused hands kneading a lump of white clay — the unique clay found only in Huamao Village, Fengxiang Town, Bozhou District, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, and the key to this craft's century-long heritage.
"Classmates, watch me do it once first." Yang Bo's voice is not loud, but it is as steady as kiln fire. More than a dozen children gather around, their eyes fixed in unison on the lump of white clay. As the turntable slowly rotates, Yang Bo presses down with his palm and gently applies pressure with his thumb; the clay mass gradually rises and stretches upward. In just a few minutes, the rough shape of a well-proportioned clay pot takes form.
"It looks easy, but once you try it yourself, you know it's hard," Yang Bo says with a smile. "Craftsmanship requires settling and accumulation — just learning to knead the clay takes the better part of a year."
To promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and industrial upgrading, in recent years Zunyi City has guided and supported groups such as migrant workers and graduates of colleges and secondary vocational schools to return home for employment and entrepreneurship. Through measures such as policy support, skills training, and platform building, it has converted the "flow" of talent into the "retention" of development.
In 2019, seeing the promising development prospects of his hometown, Yang Bo, who had been working away from home for many years, resigned from his high-paying job and returned home to start a business.
"My hometown has been built so beautifully — it is a rare development opportunity, and it can also help increase the incomes of the masses." Having returned to the mountains, Yang Bo decided to carry on his hometown's traditional earthenware craft, and at the same time collect folk earthenware works of collectible value to open a nostalgia culture exhibition hall.
He went to every single household (家家户户, jia jia hu hu - "every, every, household") in the village, and over the course of several years collected more than 5,000 pieces of assorted old earthenware objects. To bring the old craft "back to life," with the support of the village, he revitalized, renovated, and upgraded an abandoned grain depot and an old school building, building the Huamiaotian Earthenware Base and Nostalgia Culture Exhibition Hall, which integrates earthenware display, study-tour experiences, and cultural heritage, and opened it to the public free of charge.
"When we were expanding the study-tour base, we faced a funding shortage. Fortunately, the Agricultural Bank of China gave me a timely helping hand," Yang Bo said with emotion. At the time, the Zunyi Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China proactively came to the door to make contact, efficiently completing the loan investigation, approval, and disbursement, effectively easing the funding pressure. Since 2025, the Zunyi Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China has supported more than 120 people in returning home to start businesses. "Now the base can provide study-tour, catering, accommodation, and other services, receiving more than 10,000 visitors each year." Yang Bo has also driven more than 40 villagers to flexible employment.
With thriving industry, a better environment, and more opportunities, "in the past, more than 3,000 people from the whole village went out to work; now more than 2,000 have returned home for employment and entrepreneurship," said Zhu Jiao, secretary of the general Party branch of Huamao Village.
Outflow has turned into return flow, and entrepreneurship is driving employment. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Zunyi City will implement policies for stabilizing employment and securing jobs, promoting a shift for the masses from going far from home to work to finding employment at their doorstep.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 程 焕
On September 1, coinciding with the start of the new school term, the Long March Lecture Hall at Zunyi Normal College was completely full of people (座无虚席, zuo wu xu xi - "sit, no, empty, seat"), where a completely new approach or style (别开生面, bie kai sheng mian - "separate, open, fresh, face") of "First Lesson of the New Term" was delivered.
Wang Yudi, a docent at the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall, combined detailed historical materials with professional narration to fondly review the arduous years of the Long March and profoundly expound the spirit of the Zunyi Conference. Before her words had even faded, two actors dressed in Red Army uniforms took the stage, recreating the era of war through immersive situational performance, pushing the atmosphere on site to a climax.
After the public lesson, a mobile exhibition themed "Zunyi Conference — Great Turning Point" was also set up outside the lecture hall. Display boards with images and text reviewed revolutionary history, and teachers and students felt the power of the red legacy amid the vivid historical narrative.
"This lesson gave me a deeper understanding of the spirit of the Zunyi Conference, and in particular, I truly grasped the weight of the word 'turning point,'" said Cheng Yuqing, a social work major, after finishing the "First Lesson of the New Term," her emotions stirred.
This ideological and political teaching activity, the "First Lesson of the New Term" hosted by the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall, began its first session at Zunyi Normal College and then extended to multiple primary and secondary schools in Zunyi City. The activity changed the traditional teaching model, using the trinity of innovative carriers — "quality ideological and political courses + performance programs + mobile exhibitions" — to bring the history of the Zunyi Conference and the Four Crossings of the Chishui River into campus classrooms, creating an immersive "walking ideological and political course" that combines both depth and warmth.
Red resources are not dusty specimens but surging living water of the times. In recent years, Zunyi City has used "school-museum cooperation to jointly build a 'grand red ideological and political classroom'" as its fulcrum, promoting paired linkages between the city's primary and secondary schools and 147 practical teaching bases, including the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall and the Four Crossings of the Chishui River Memorial Hall, transforming the advantages of red cultural resources into advantages for ideological and political teaching in the curriculum.
Since 2023, the touring exhibition and lecture "Walking Ideological and Political Course — The Zunyi Conference Radiates Glory, the Four Crossings of the Chishui River Produce Surprise Troop Movements," hosted by the Four Crossings of the Chishui River Memorial Hall, has left its footprints in campuses at both the municipal and county levels. The lecturers use revolutionary relics as tokens, historical stories as carriers, and the spiritual core as the soul, advancing in tandem through both narrative explanation and situational performance, making the words in textbooks resonate as echoes deep in the heart. Today, this three-year red cultural dissemination project has painted a vivid picture of red education on the land of northern Guizhou.
"Let cultural relics 'come alive,' let stories 'move,' and let red culture be tangible, perceptible, approachable, and accessible," said Ming Shufen, head of the Ideological and Political Center of the Zunyi Municipal Education and Sports Bureau. She stated that the city will continue to deepen the "venue + campus" collaborative education mechanism, promote the curricularization and regularization of red resources through walking and experiential practices, guide young people to build a firm foundation of faith through the unity of knowledge and action, and let the red gene be endless and continuous growth or life (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, cease") and passed down from generation to generation on the land of northern Guizhou.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 黄 娴 程 焕
In September, northern Guizhou is clad in deep mountain green, and the first waves of rice ripples rise along the banks of the Chishui River.
History is the best textbook, and also the most vivid ideological and political lesson. On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March, the third "Retracing the Long March" activity for young people of the new era was grandly held in Guizhou.
More than 300 youth representatives and others from all over the country, treading in the footsteps of their forebears and crossing the mists of time and space, revisited those years of ordeal tempered by blood and fire beneath the old locust tree at the site of the Zunyi Conference, amid the thousand-ren sheer cliffs of Mount Loushan, and in the shimmering waves of the Chishui River, comprehending the majestic power unleashed by ideals and convictions.
Inheriting the Red Gene
During the Long March, the Red Army stayed longest and ranged most widely in Guizhou, convened the Zunyi Conference, a great turning point in the history of the Party, created classic battle examples such as the Four Crossings of the Chishui River, and carved out a new red world.
In those years, the Central Red Army advanced through Guizhou for more than four months. On this journey, every stop embodies an irreplaceable spiritual connotation.
Setting out from the site of the Zunyi Conference, the old locust tree that has weathered wind and rain still stands tall and vigorous; it once witnessed a historic choice that changed the course of the Chinese revolution. Standing at the Red Army battle site on Mount Loushan, looking down at the peaks like halberds and the surging sea of clouds, the artistic conception of "green mountains like a sea, the setting sun like blood" leaps before one's eyes. Entering the Memorial Hall of the Four Crossings of the Chishui River, a broken clay jar, two mottled copper coins, and three weathered door planks silently tell of the deep bond between the army and the people. At the Monument to the Red Army Martyrs of Qinggangpo, walking slowly through the solemn cemetery, one comes to understand the revolutionary forebears' convictions that never wavered even unto death...
Never forget the road one has traveled, and one will know where to go. The Long March was never merely a geographical marching route; it is even more a spiritual thread linking history and reality, fusing ideals and action. The "Retracing the Long March" activity for young people of the new era breaks through simple ceremonial procedures, moving the ideological and political classroom into former meeting sites, battle sites, and memorial halls, so that young people from all walks of life can comprehend the spirit of the Long March through walking the ground in person.
Sun Huajian, a student at the School of Big Data of Zunyi Normal University, said with deep emotion: "Every brick and tile in the revolutionary sites, the bullet holes clearly visible on the rock faces, and the names engraved on the tombstones make history no longer distant and abstract, but a scene that can be touched, felt, pondered, and comprehended."
Gathering the Strength of Youth
When the Long March set out, the average age of commanders was under 25, and the average age of fighters was under 20. Over the long journey, it was precisely this young contingent that, with searing hot blood, wrote a tragic yet glorious epic of the long march in human history.
The smoke of gunpowder has dispersed, but the spirit endures. When the baton of history is passed into the hands of young people of the new era, a dialogue of youth spanning a century unfolds gradually with resounding footsteps.
Among the more than 300 participants in this activity are both students on university campuses and grassroots cadres in the fields; both docents deeply engaged in red heritage sites and young journalists active on the internet; both engineers tackling "bottleneck" technologies and new farmers returning home to start businesses... This portrait of the youth collective is a vivid footnote to how the spirit of the Long March has taken root, blossomed, and flourished in contemporary China.
At the launching ceremony, the speeches of youth representatives were plain yet fervent, integrating personal growth into the torrent of the times and answering the proposition of youth with a posture of striving; at the ideological and political lesson site, young people combined their own career plans to speak freely about how to practice the spirit of the Long March in positions such as scientific and technological innovation, rural revitalization, and cultural inheritance.
In Huamao Village, Fengxiang Town, Bozhou District, Zunyi, barren wasteland fields have been transformed into a beautiful countryside with luxuriant flowers and lush foliage. Peng Longfen, director of the Huamao Village Villagers' Committee, stepped forward and, following the white walls and dark tiles and the crisscrossing fields before her eyes, narrated in detail the village's journey of struggle in recent years to improve the environment and develop industry. "As a grassroots Party member and cadre, one must listen attentively to the voices of the masses, solve the difficulties of the masses with genuine feeling, and do everything possible to lead the villagers toward ever better days." This original aspiration, rooted in the grassroots and never fading, gave the young people a vivid and lively Party lesson.
Jointly Embarking on a New Journey of the Times
During the Long March, the Red Army fought bloody battles all the way, passed through trial after trial, and the situation was transformed and the prospects renewed. The times change, but the red gene rooted in the bloodline never changes.
Each generation has its own mission. This activity takes "walking" as its method, "observation" as its path, "thinking" as its core, and "expression" as its extension, so that the spirit of the Long March is truly internalized as the spiritual coordinates and conscious action of young people of the new era.
A 7-kilometer countryside hike, from the site of the Gouba Conference to the "Path of Truth" and then to Huamao Village, connects on one end the years of ordeal and on the other the great transformation of the mountain countryside. "Good days are achieved through hard work; happiness is won through struggle!" Mu Huan, a cadre of Fengxiang Town, paused before a northern Guizhou dwelling and remarked with emotion, "Only through continuous struggle and hard, solid work can we support the people's solid happiness."
The empowerment of science and technology also makes history tangible and knowable. In the live-action performance "The Great Turning Point," as the suspension bridge soars overhead and water splashes fly, at the moment the "Red Army soldiers" charge forward one after another, the heartbeats of the young people seem to resonate in the same frequency as history; in the Guizhou Long March Culture Digital Art Museum, holographic imagery recreates the conference scenes, interactive installations restore the marching routes, and innovative expression evokes strong emotional resonance.
During the "Retracing the Long March" period, red-story storytelling activities on Long March themes were carried out simultaneously.Through scene reenactment and in-depth excavation of historical materials, the narrators told the moving stories behind old objects and old photographs one by one, leading everyone to revisit that magnificent revolutionary era. Those little-known people and events stood up, came alive, and warmed the hearts of the young people.
When the young people set out on their return journey, following the light of the spirit of the Long March, what they bring back is not only photographs and notes, but also a weighty faith. On the examination paper of the times for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, young people of the new era are measuring faith with their footsteps, interpreting loyalty with practical work, and striving to write a youthful answer worthy of history, worthy of the times, and worthy of the people.
Return to TopBy: 段 勇
Recently, the "Measures for the Management of Museum Collections" (hereinafter referred to as the "New Measures") completed its revision and was published. After 40 years, expanding from the 33 articles of the 1986 edition to 6 chapters and 63 articles, this foundational industry regulation has been comprehensively upgraded.
Previously, some museums had weak links in collection management, such as ambiguous responsibility boundaries and poor coordination between procedures. Deep-seated bottlenecks at the institutional level urgently needed to be resolved through institutional iteration. The promulgation of the New Measures is a product of the high-quality development of China's museum sector, setting a new benchmark for museum collection work in the new era. Through the New Measures, we can clearly see the two-way empowerment of institutional development and disciplinary advancement, and the profound logic of the cultural heritage sector acting in synchronized harmony (同频共振, tong pin gong zhen - "same, frequency, resonate, vibrate") with the people's expectations.
The Cognitive Upgrade from "Cultural Relics" to "Cultural Heritage"
Collections are an important material foundation for museum operations and the core material carrier for museums to fulfill their function of protecting and inheriting cultural heritage. However, collections are not equivalent to cultural heritage in the broad sense; rather, they are specific resources that museums incorporate into their collection systems based on their own functional positioning. One of the important breakthroughs of the New Measures is its clear and systematic definition of the concept of collections, bringing cultural relic collections with historical, artistic, and scientific value, as well as other collections such as fossils, specimens, and documentary materials, into the management scope.
This definition aligns with the logic of the cognitive upgrade from "cultural relics" to "cultural heritage," breaking through the limitations of the narrow concept of cultural relics, incorporating diverse evidence of human civilization and nature into the museum collection system, responding to the trend of continuously expanding protection targets, while also making the scope of collection management clearer and its positioning more precise.
The conceptual iteration from "cultural relics" to "cultural heritage" is intended to emphasize the holistic continuity and sustainable development of the cultural lineage. This breakthrough lays a theoretical foundation for the establishment of the discipline of cultural heritage and provides an academic basis for the upgrading of museum collection management systems.
Building Institutional Guarantees for Security and Revitalization
Publicness is an important attribute of cultural heritage. The public's concern about museum collections is essentially a demand for the sustainable transmission and fair sharing of public culture. The New Measures adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, responding to the core concern of collection security with a rigid responsibility system, while also meeting the practical needs of public cultural participation through open mechanisms.
Collection security is the lifeline of cultural heritage protection and the most direct and simple cultural concern of the people. The New Measures runs security responsibility through the entire process of collection management, building a responsibility system with clear rights and responsibilities and coordinated linkage, requiring that security responsibilities be implemented at specific posts, specific procedures, and specific personnel. By fixing posts and responsibilities, it consolidates primary responsibility; through departmental collaboration, it forms a joint force for management and protection. From acquisition and grading, to warehousing and preservation, to restoration and utilization, to deregistration and filing, every link has clear responsible entities and normative requirements, effectively guarding the bottom line of collection security. At the same time, it promotes the implementation of a systematic protection concept, encourages the application of various modern technological means, and builds a dual guarantee system of physical protection and digital inheritance—both preserving the authenticity and integrity of the collection itself and retaining the complete information of cultural heritage. This is the inherent requirement of the cultural heritage discipline to use modern technology to assist protection, dissemination, and inheritance, responding to the common aspiration of the whole society to safeguard the cultural roots.
As the people's spiritual and cultural needs continue to escalate, the public increasingly expects to deeply understand the value and connotation of cultural heritage and participate in the process of cultural inheritance. The New Measures break the traditional concept of prioritizing collection over utilization (重藏轻用, zhong cang qing yong - "heavy, store, light, use"), specially adding Chapter IV "Collection Protection and Utilization," clearly making revitalization and utilization an important component of collection management, supporting museums in deeply exploring the cultural connotation of collections, and promoting the opening of collection resources to the public through multiple paths such as academic exchange, exhibitions, and cultural creativity. By further enhancing interpretive and communication capabilities and telling the historical and cultural stories behind collections in ways that are easy for the public to understand and accept, the achievements of cultural heritage protection and development will benefit all the people more and more fairly.
Providing Professional Support for the Long-Term Development of the Museum Sector
The level of professionalism in collection management is both a practical manifestation of disciplinary development achievements and an important driving force for improving the disciplinary system.
In the past, limited by the stage of development, collection management positions mostly focused on physical preservation skills. Practitioners had relatively homogeneous knowledge structures, and training in value construction and public communication of diverse collections was insufficient, making it difficult to adapt to the functional requirements of value management and public service in the new period. The New Measures, centering on the entire chain of value construction, put forward comprehensive requirements for the capability structure of professionals. These requirements include not only traditional skills such as artifact appraisal and conservation and restoration, but also comprehensive abilities such as value research, exhibition interpretation, and public service; practitioners must not only master the technical methods of physical management and protection, but also possess the academic literacy for interpreting the value of cultural heritage. This will further enhance the level of professionalism in the industry.
Practical capability standards will in turn promote the optimization of disciplinary development and talent cultivation. The development of the cultural heritage discipline cannot be separated from the soil of practice. The new requirements and new practices in the field of collection management will provide clearer training objectives for museum professional education under the cultural heritage disciplinary system, promoting the shift of talent cultivation from single knowledge transmission to systematic capability construction, forming a virtuous cycle in which disciplinary development supports talent cultivation and the talent team drives the development of the cause. This two-way interaction between theory and practice is the inherent law of the development of the cultural heritage discipline and the fundamental guarantee for the museum sector to maintain steady progress to achieve long-term success (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk, steady, reach, far").
The revision of the "Measures for the Management of Museum Collections" is a landmark measure for the museum sector to move toward high-quality development in the new era. It vividly reflects the development orientation of the cultural heritage discipline in sublimating academic understanding on the basis of practical accumulation and then returning to guide industry practice; it profoundly responds to a series of contemporary issues such as the functional transformation of museums, the protection of public cultural rights and interests, and the development of the cultural heritage discipline. We look forward to this New Measure taking root and bearing fruit in practice, promoting a new leap in the level of museum collection management in China, allowing more collections to radiate new brilliance and display new charm in the new era, and allowing the historical lineage to be passed down from generation to generation and to develop endlessly and continuously (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, cease") through effective protection and active utilization.
(The author is Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanghai University and Professor at the School of Cultural Heritage and Information Management)
Return to TopBy: 李重蓉
The Cao Zhi tomb, located at the western foot of Yushan in Dong'e County, Shandong, is one of the few Cao Wei princely tombs that have been archaeologically excavated and whose occupant can be clearly identified. The tomb was excavated in 1951, yielding 132 artifacts, mostly pottery. Among them, 17 pottery double-eared cups are all of gray pottery, with flared mouths, shallow bellies, double ears, and flat bottoms. The eared cup is a wine cup, also bearing the poetic name "feathered goblet" (yushang). Together with the "feathered goblet," the many excavated artifacts corroborate the Han-Wei style and features described in Cao Zhi's poetry and prose. Taking this as a window, we can understand the broader food and drink culture of the Han and Wei dynasties.
The main beverages of the Han and Wei people were jiang (a type of sweet or fruit drink) and wine; jiang included honeyed drinks and fruit drinks, while wine was mostly grain wine. Cao Zhi wrote of wine, "clear liquor fills the goblet" and "fine wine is clear and the dishes sweet," showing that the quality standard for wine at the time was clarity. How was good wine brewed? His phrase "the floating ants in the golden lei" reveals the secret. After the Han dynasty used yeast to ferment grain, the large amount of lees and floating dregs in the fermented mash needed to be filtered out, and before filtering, these lees and dregs clustered together like ants, hence "floating ants" was used as a metonym for wine.
From the Han dynasty onward, a food structure of staple foods plus side dishes began to take shape. Pork, mutton, beef, poultry, and fish were the main varieties at the time. Consider a Wei-Jin dynasty pictorial brick of butchering an ox, collected in the Gaotai County Museum in Gansu. In the image, the ox has already been struck down by a knife and lies on its back with its four hooves pointing skyward, yet it is still struggling in its death throes. On the left, a butcher holds a knife in his right hand and grips one of the ox's still-kicking front hooves with his left, his expression calm and composed, giving a strong sense of doing something with ease due to experience (驾轻就熟, jia qing jiu shu - "drive, light, easy, become skilled"); on the right, an assistant grips the ox's two hind legs with both hands to prevent it from breaking free, and not far away a basin for catching blood has been placed. Meat preparation methods were quite varied, including cooking with fire such as roasting, boiling, stewing, and steaming; making meat into dried forms such as cured meat and jerky; pickling such as in sauces and pickled vegetables; and eating raw. Consider also the Eastern Han dynasty kitchen pictorial stone from Hanwang Town, Tongshan District, Xuzhou, Jiangsu. The image is divided into three layers. In the upper layer, hams and fish hang from the kitchen wall, with chickens and dogs on the ground; on the right, one person cuts vegetables on a board while another holds a fan and roasts skewers of meat, using it to disperse the smoke.
Music and dance performances were the most important entertainment at banquets at the time, as the saying goes, "The people of Qi present marvelous music, and singers come from Western Qin." Instruments included wind instruments, percussion instruments, and stringed instruments. From the pre-Qin period to the Han dynasty, the yu (a type of mouth organ) served both as the main melodic instrument in ensemble playing and as the standard for tuning all other instruments, holding an important position. A funerary yu was unearthed from Han Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan. Cao Zhi wrote, "The sheng and qing are set up," in which the sheng is a wind instrument. The "pi duo" belongs to the percussion category. The pi drum is a hand-held drum of relatively small size, mostly used in imperial processions or military music. The right wall of the front chamber of Tomb No. 1 at Yangzishan in Chengdu, Sichuan, is decorated with a pictorial brick of riders playing music, on which six mounted musicians are molded; the person at the far left of the back row is striking a pi drum. The pi drum could also be used in acrobatic and musical performances. A pottery figurine of a drummer-singer was unearthed from an Eastern Han cliff tomb at Tianhui Mountain in Chengdu; the small flat drum carried by the figurine is a pi drum. The duo is a bell-like instrument with a clapper. A bronze duo was unearthed from an Eastern Han tomb in Beizhuang, Ding County, Hebei.
In Cao Zhi's "Yin of the Konghou," the lines "The Qin zheng, how vigorous; the Qi se, harmonious and soft" mention stringed instruments. A konghou (a type of harp) from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods was unearthed from the Yanghai cemetery in Shanshan County, Xinjiang; its sound box, neck, and neck head were carved from a single piece of round wood, with a hole drilled in the neck head to mount the string rod. The zheng is an instrument that plays open strings and was mainly popular in the state of Qin. A pictorial brick of a banquet scene was unearthed on the outskirts of Chengdu; in the upper left corner of the brick, a person is playing a zheng. The se is also an instrument that plays open strings, with one string per note. A se unearthed from Han Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui in Changsha is the most complete Han dynasty se discovered to date.
Cao Zhi wrote of dance, "Yang'a performs marvelous dances, and the capital produces famous songs." Yang'a was skilled in dance, and later generations borrowed its name to refer to a type of dance. The long-sleeved dance common in the Han dynasty was performed by dancers wearing belted dance costumes with long sleeves, flowing and graceful, light and exquisite. The National Museum of China houses a painted pottery dancer figurine from the Western Han dynasty unearthed at Baijiakou in Xi'an, Shaanxi. The figurine wears an inner garment of a cross-collared, long-sleeved dance skirt, over which is a cross-collared, wide-sleeved, belted long robe; the knees are slightly bent, with the feet placed one in front of the other; the right arm is raised backward, the left arm hangs down and swings back, and the two long sleeves form smooth lines that echo each other, one low and one high, giving the figurine's body a relaxed and elegant bearing.
The "public banquet" poems of Cao Zhi and his contemporaries, the Seven Masters of the Jian'an period, record the grand feasting of the Han-Wei era. Chen Lin wrote in his "Poem on a Banquet," "A good friend invites me to roam, a grand gathering feasts in the inner chambers." "Going up to the hall to enjoy ourselves together, presenting seasonal delicacies from within and without," "Sitting close together, lifting the layered curtains, passing round the full feathered goblets," "Fine dishes fill the round and square vessels, sweet wine fills the golden lei"... Wang Can and other poets left behind numerous poems titled "Public Banquet." In the poems, "round and square" refers to food vessels of different shapes, "sweet wine" means fine wine, and "golden lei" is a wine vessel. Cao Zhi used "Autumn orchids cover the long slopes, red lotus blooms over the green pond" to describe a public banquet, with vivid colors; the single characters "cover" and "blooms" highlight the flourishing postures of the autumn orchids and red lotuses. The scene of a banquet where host and guests gather together in a hall full of distinguished people (济济一堂, ji ji yi tang - "crowded, one, hall") can be corroborated by a banquet pictorial stone unearthed from the Han tomb at Dahuting in Xinmi, Henan. In a realistic style, the stone vividly reproduces the living atmosphere of a wealthy household throwing a grand feast.
Cao Zhi's poetry and prose and the excavated artifacts corroborate each other. Through this, we can catch a glimpse of the dietary customs and culture of the Han-Wei period, and also feel the human warmth and the spirit of vigor and enterprise conveyed therein. These material cultures and emotional memories have settled into part of our nation's traditional culture, touching our hearts for a long time to come.
(Author's affiliation: National Museum of China)
Return to TopBy: 张 枨
Within the territory of Taigemu Township, Tumd Left Banner, Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a section of Great Wall ruins remains, approximately 1 kilometer in length. After thousands of years of wind, sun, and terrain changes, this section of the Great Wall now resembles a continuous rammed-earth mound in appearance; the relatively well-preserved portion spans four to five hundred meters, with the wall rising and falling in height, generally reaching nearly the height of a person, exceeding two meters at its tallest point, and only passing the knee at its lowest. An ordinary passerby would find it difficult to recognize this as a precious ruin. But for Liu Fobao, this section of the Great Wall is an "old friend." Liu Fobao is a line patrol worker in the Transmission Management Division of Hohhot Power Supply Company, Inner Mongolia Power Group. On his daily patrols of the 220-kilovolt Youge transmission line, he always passes by the Great Wall ruins. As a result, he and his colleagues in the work team have integrated cultural relic protection into power inspections, launching a "dual-line management and protection" model.
The line was put into operation in September 2019, and its construction phase already fully accommodated the protection requirements of the Great Wall ruins. Within 50 meters of the ruins is a core construction-prohibited zone, and within 100 meters is a construction control zone; all tower and equipment sites along the entire line were selected beyond 100 meters from the ruins, preventing engineering construction from damaging the cultural relics at the source. Liu Fobao's work team conducts full-line inspections every day using vehicle patrols, foot patrols, drone aerial photography, and telescope observation. "In the past, when patrolling the line, our eyes were only on towers, conductors, and equipment. The cultural relics were right beside us, yet we were ignoring something that is clearly visible (视而不见, shi er bu jian - "look, but, not, see"). Now it's different. Every line and every ruin, we keep in our hearts and patrol in our daily routine," Liu Fobao said.
Through years of patrol and protection, Liu Fobao has found that the greatest threat to the ruins is not large-scale engineering damage, but rather the fragmented, long-term, easily overlooked daily human impacts and natural erosion. This section of ruins is adjacent to Taigemu, with over a hundred households of villagers living nearby. The ancient Great Wall thus "hides" in an open manner right at the villagers' doorsteps. "Household waste and agricultural waste are often scattered around the ruins, which both damages the appearance of the ruins and, as debris blows onto high-voltage conductors, can easily cause line short circuits and tripping. Long-term accumulation also continuously erodes the rammed-earth wall," Liu Fobao said. In addition, in the past, a small number of villagers took soil from nearby areas or climbed over the wall. Although the scale of damage was relatively minor, for a thousand-year-old rammed-earth site with fragile texture, every disturbance causes irreversible damage. Moreover, during flood season, rainwater converges and scours the wall surface, and accumulating steadily over a long period of time (日积月累, ri ji yue lei - "day, accumulate, month, pile up") also causes the wall to peel and partially collapse.
In response to various hidden dangers, they have developed a mature closed-loop handling process: when scattered garbage is found during patrols, it is cleaned up and collected on the spot, then centrally transported to designated disposal points; when man-made damage or illegal operations are encountered, on-site persuasion and stopping are carried out immediately; for persistent issues such as rainwater erosion, garbage accumulation, and environmental hazards, staff accurately record point coordinates, on-site images, and hazard descriptions, report them level by level to the department and the company's production division, and simultaneously file reports with the Hohhot Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau. When encountering villagers farming or passing near the ruins during daily patrols, Liu Fobao and his colleagues proactively conduct publicity and explanations. Now the villagers' awareness of cultural relic protection has noticeably improved, and the situations of casually dumping garbage and damaging the wall have greatly decreased. The villagers have gradually come to understand that cultural relics are not far away but right beside them, and that protecting the Great Wall means protecting the history at their own doorsteps.
Inner Mongolia has vast territory, with a large number and wide distribution of immovable cultural relics such as the Great Wall, ancient cities, ancient ruins, and ancient tombs. Many cultural relic sites are interwoven with transmission and distribution line corridors. In recent years, Inner Mongolia Power Group, in conjunction with the regional Cultural Relics Bureau, has taken the lead nationally in exploring a new model of "power + cultural relics" government-enterprise collaborative protection. Relying on the power grid inspection system spread across urban and rural areas, it has formed "power + cultural relics" cultural relic protection volunteer service teams, embedding cultural relic protection into the entire process of grid planning, construction, operation, and maintenance. While ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power grid, it also safeguards every cultural heritage site. At present, the entire Inner Mongolia region has established joint inspection cultural relic ledgers covering more than 1,500 sites, forming a cultural relic protection network that covers the whole region, assigns responsibility to each post, and assigns tasks to each person.
From the Northern Wei Great Wall to Ming and Qing ancient buildings, from the Yinshan rock paintings to the Qin Zhidao, from the Jin boundary trenches to ancient lamaseries... one precious historical heritage site after another, thanks to this collaborative protection network, continues to exist safely and securely.
Return to TopBy: 丁一峰
I have crossed many bridges, but only the Enbo Bridge of my hometown (pictured, photo provided by Ding Yifeng) stands firmly in my heart.
Enbo Bridge sits at the confluence of the Xianpu River and the Fuchun River. A three-arch stone bridge, it is 57 meters long and 6 meters wide, and was in ancient times an important hub connecting Hangzhou and Yanzhou. The bluestone slabs are laid in staggered courses, with stone railings facing each other on both sides, and the baluster posts are carved with hanging lotuses, lotus seedpods, hibiscus, and stone lions. Having gone through cycles of ruin and repair, this stone arch bridge, rebuilt in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, still spans the Xianpu River in its entirety, full of ancient charm. In August 1997, Enbo Bridge was listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Zhejiang Province.
My grandmother's home was right by the bridge. In my childhood memories, my grandmother countless times took my little hand and led me down to the foot of the bridge, where we set paper boats into the river one by one and watched them drift slowly with the current toward the distance. When I was a bit older, my grandfather took me to fly kites on the bridge. He taught me hand in hand to discern the wind direction and gauge the wind force—to reel in when one should reel in, and let out when one should let out. The kite flew higher and higher, shrinking into a "little tadpole" in the sky, and my heart soared with it into the clouds.
In my youth, I left my hometown with my parents. When I read the lesson "Zhaozhou Bridge" in my textbook, the Enbo Bridge of my hometown would appear before my eyes. I often pestered my father to tell me legends and anecdotes connected with Enbo Bridge.
Enbo Bridge was originally a wooden bridge. According to the Fuyang County Gazetteer, in the ninth year of the Taiping Xingguo reign of the Northern Song Dynasty (984), the bridge collapsed; in the second year of the Zhiping reign (1065) it was rebuilt and renamed "Tongji Bridge"; after repairs in the fourth year of the Shaoxing reign of the Southern Song Dynasty (1134), it was renamed "Huizheng Bridge," and later changed again to "Enbo Bridge"; in the forty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1565), the wooden bridge was demolished and a stone bridge was built in its place, briefly renamed "Yongji Bridge," and later restored to the name "Enbo Bridge"; during the Shunzhi and Kangxi reigns of the Qing Dynasty it was repaired twice. In 1982, the People's Government of Fuyang County repaired it once again.
Behind the origin of the bridge's name "Enbo Bridge" lies a warm story. During the Jiading reign of the Southern Song Dynasty, the county magistrate Cheng Bi, kind and loving toward the people, set down a rule: before the day's fish market opened its scales, the largest fish was to be selected and released back into the river, as thanks for the bounty of the waters. The people's prosperity was bestowed by this fine river; when taking from nature, one must also know how to give back. The fishermen gladly complied, and so this bridge came by the name "Enbo" (grace of the waters). From then on, the two characters "Enbo" took deep root in the hearts of the people of Fuyang, and to this day roads, shops, parks, and inns named "Enbo" are very common (比比皆是, bi bi jie shi - "compare, compare, all, are").
My grandfather often said that when he was a child, Enbo Bridge stood at the western gate of Fuyang city, serving as the old town's commercial dock and sheltered harbor. Shops lined the surrounding streets, and above and below the bridge, stall keepers, tea drinkers, and idle chatterers formed a bustling crowd of people (人头攒动, ren tou zan dong - "person, head, crowd, move"), lively in the extreme. At dusk, the fishing fleets and passenger boats from distant voyages all gathered beneath the bridge; seen from atop the bridge, sails dotted the river in patches and returning oars speckled the water—this was the "Returning Sails at Xianpu," one of the Eight Scenes of the Spring River. On rainy nights, Enbo Bridge lay quietly in the darkness. Rain fell on the boat awnings and on the bridge stones, and together with the lamplight of the teahouses and the lone wild goose at the edge of the sky, it wove a "Picture of Enbo in the Night Rain." This mood bore no small measure of different approaches yielding similar results (异曲同工, yi qu tong gong - "different, tune, same, work") to the poetic realm of Zhang Ji's "Mooring by Maple Bridge at Night."
After middle age, every time I return to my hometown, I always take a walk on Enbo Bridge. The hanging lotuses and lotus seedpods on the bridge remain as before, and the stone lions are still charming and endearing in a simple way (憨态可掬, han tai ke ju - "silly, manner, can, scoop"). In 1979, the urban area of Fuyang covered no more than 3 square kilometers; today it has grown to 58.23 square kilometers. Highways, high-speed rail, and metro lines extend in all directions (四通八达, si tong ba da - "four, through, eight, reach") here, and Fuyang has merged into the metropolis and linked up with the Yangtze River Delta. In recent years, the district party committee and district government completely shut down the heavily polluting papermaking enterprises, returning to the river a stretch of clear water as green as blue.
Enbo Bridge has passed through a thousand years of time, and at this moment, it is my most beautiful nostalgia for home.
Return to TopBy: 武笑迎
What kind of life did the Central Plains ancestors live 8,000 years ago? The latest archaeological findings show that the life of the Peiligang people was far more refined and abundant than previously imagined.
In the Central Plains region 8,000 years ago, the Peiligang people moved away from pure foraging, fishing, and hunting, establishing a mixed agriculture system where foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and rice coexisted. Rice held a particularly special status—it was not only a grain that could fill stomachs, but also a raw material for brewing fine wine. A large number of rice phytolith remains have been discovered at the Peiligang site, and abundant rice starch grains have been detected on the inner walls of some pottery vessels. The rice harvest was very likely carried out by cutting the entire stalk, and the rice brought back to the settlement awaited a miraculous transformation. The key to this was a tiny fungus—red yeast rice mold. Archaeologists have discovered starch grains, phytoliths, and fungi in pottery residue; the co-occurrence of these three types of remains indicates that the Peiligang people had already mastered the technique of using rice to make fermentation starters.
The perilla floated out from the Peiligang site far exceeds that of ordinary wild plants, and even more excitingly, spice components were also detected in the residue of a pottery ding vessel. This means that 8,000 years ago, the Peiligang people already knew how to use the aromatic substances of plants to season their food. This was no longer simply about filling one's stomach, but rather a pursuit and blending of food flavors. From "edible" to "delicious," the Peiligang people took a crucial step forward.
Perilla is a "versatile player" in medicine and food sharing the same origin (药食同源, yao shi tong yuan - "medicine, food, same, origin"), capable of relieving exterior syndromes and dispelling cold, promoting qi flow and harmonizing the stomach. They recognized this plant, treasured it, and brought it home in batches. This recognition itself was wisdom tasted out over generations, accumulating a simple understanding of plant medicinal properties passed down by word of mouth (口耳相传, kou er xiang chuan - "mouth, ear, mutually, pass").
What did the Peiligang people "wear"? The research team analyzed subtle residues in two tombs, determined the way tools were used through use-wear analysis, searched for microfibers attached to them through residue analysis, and then used replicated stone tools for simulated experiments, step by step restoring the functions of these tools—stone sickles were used to harvest the stalks of hemp plants; long stone spades very likely helped separate fibers from the stem bark; scrapers were used to remove residual bark and impurities after retting; stone pestles or grinding rods were used to pound fibers, making them soft and strong.
Some microfibers extracted from these tools and the surfaces of human bones may have come from hemp or ramie. The fibers on the surfaces of the arm and leg bones were more concentrated. Of all the fibers extracted, more than one-fifth bore traces of blue, red, and black dyeing. The dyes very likely came from plants. Eight thousand years ago, the Peiligang people not only mastered textile technology, but also knew how to obtain dyes from nature, adding multiple colors to what were originally plain fabrics.
A key piece of evidence came from a tomb buried with the same type of artifacts, where severe wear was found on the outer sides of three molars in the left lower jaw. This is highly consistent with the biting habits involved in processing plant fibers or furs—when one bites down on a thread with the teeth while pulling the other end with the hand and stretching it taut, twisting the end fibers into yarn, day after day of such labor would wear the teeth into this shape. Occupational identity was thus carved into the bones as an indelible mark. From this it can be inferred that within the Peiligang settlement, some people had already mastered a complete set of procedures for spinning thread and weaving cloth. And the fact that these textile tools were concentrated in specific tombs suggests that spinning and weaving were not a universal skill known to everyone, but a craft mastered by a specific group of people—they may have been the settlement's earliest "textile artisans."
The Peiligang people's settlement site had clearly defined functional zones for the burial area and the living area, demonstrating a profound understanding of the natural environment and the ability to utilize it. The more than 170 newly discovered tombs are all south-facing vertical earthen pit tombs, and pottery pots are almost a "standard feature" of every tomb, placed in remarkably consistent positions. This shows that a fairly stable ritual tradition and cultural consensus had already formed within Peiligang society. Residue analysis shows that these pottery pots were specialized wine vessels. Wine vessels appearing in funerary contexts became an important medium connecting the living and the dead.
A batch of pottery figurines was discovered in buildings in the eastern part of the site, among which finely crafted and vividly rendered human and animal heads stand out. The most striking are four human-faced pottery figurines—four faces, four temperaments.
The Peiligang people were no longer "primitive people" merely struggling for survival, but pioneers of civilization possessing aesthetic pursuits, ritual traditions, and belief systems.
Eight thousand years ago, someone drank sweet rice wine, someone tasted the pungent fragrance of perilla, someone walked across the high ground in colorful clothing, someone gently placed a pottery pot into a tomb... Together they sank into the depths of time. Eight thousand years later, archaeologists are piecing together these fragments lost in time, one by one, and trying to approach their daily lives.
(Author's affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 郑洋洋
Taiyuan, Shanxi, is a nationally renowned historical and cultural city and an important birthplace of Jin culture and the spirit of Shanxi merchants. Surrounded by mountains on its east, west, and north sides, with the Fen River flowing through the city from north to south, it boasts a unique landscape of "three mountains embracing, one river dividing," and has long enjoyed the reputation of being a "splendid Taiyuan city." Today, Taiyuan is a modern city with a sound ecology, surging vitality, and a blend of ancient and contemporary elements, embodying the qualities of a city that is livable, business-friendly, and tourist-friendly.
The Clear Fen River Bears Witness to an Ecological Transformation
A sound ecology is becoming a shining city card for Taiyuan. For Andy, an American friend who has been connected to this city for over 40 years, the transformation of the Fen River is particularly intuitive—from once insufficient water volume and shrinking ecological space, to today's clear water, verdant banks, and stretches of greenery, the Fen River records the improvement of Taiyuan's ecological environment and also reflects the shift in development philosophy and lifestyle of an industrial city.
"This city has changed so much. My father and brother couldn't believe it when they saw what the Fen River looks like now!" Andy has come to Taiyuan 50 times, staying for several months each visit. Recently, he shared aerial footage of the Fen River with relatives who once lived in Taiyuan, and the city's new look left them extremely amazed (惊叹不已, jing tan bu yi - "startle, not, end").
In the 1980s, Andy came to Taiyuan with his father, and the two both worked as English teachers at Shanxi University, living and working here for more than three years. "Back then, the sky was always gray and hazy, and water and power outages were common. If you wore a white shirt outside, it would easily turn black," Andy said. At that time, Taiyuan was a typical industrial city. While industrial development injected vitality into the city's growth, it also placed considerable pressure on the ecological environment and urban infrastructure.
In Taiyuan's ecological transformation, the Fen River is the most representative observation window. As the second-largest tributary of the Yellow River and the mother river of Shanxi, the Fen River at the end of the last century once fell into the predicament of "floodwater in the rainy season, no flow in the dry season, and sewage at ordinary times." To restore the Fen River's ecology and improve the urban living environment, Taiyuan has continuously advanced comprehensive management of the Fen River, with the management effort spanning more than 20 years. From water storage and flood control and river channel management, to wetland restoration and sponge city construction, and then to the creation of cultural landscapes, the local government has coordinated the management of the water environment, water ecology, water resources, water safety, and water culture, implementing supporting measures such as diverting water from the Yellow River to the Fen River and reservoir water transfers, making the Fen River an important space for citizens to get close to nature and enjoy urban life.
Today, the Taiyuan section of the Fen River has formed a 12-level stepped water storage lake surface and ten thousand mu of constructed wetlands, with a stable water surface of 11.5 square kilometers flowing clear throughout the four seasons, and a storage capacity of 30 million cubic meters building an ecological barrier. "The Fen River went from polluted to clear. Through this transformation spanning 20 years, one can see the determination of urban governance," Andy said. In recent years, every time he returns to Taiyuan, he goes for a walk along the Fen River. "I see many citizens cycling by the river, and everyone looks relaxed and at ease."
The current banks of the Fen River are lush with vegetation and stretches of greenery, with more than 230 species of flowers and trees planted and a riverside green space area of 8.5 square kilometers, attracting 165 species of birds such as swans and egrets to roost and breed. An 88-kilometer riverside cycling path and 25 bridges of various designs connect the river, green spaces, urban spaces, and public life.
"What I most enjoy doing in Taiyuan is taking evening walks with friends along the Fen River. The lights on the riverside buildings and bridges light up and keep changing colors, like a rainbow," Andy said. "I like Taiyuan. It is a very livable place."
The Spirit of Shanxi Merchants Inspires Entrepreneurial Vitality
"Look at this beautiful bridge, and the long dragon decoration in the river." As night falls, Maodou, an entrepreneur from Mexico, often livestreams near Yingze Bridge. In front of the camera is Taiyuan's resplendent and colorful (流光溢彩, liu guang yi cai - "flow, light, overflow, color") city nightscape; on the other end of the internet are the more than 100,000 Latin American netizens who follow his account.
Three years ago, Maodou settled in Taiyuan with his wife Yang Miao, and through this began to get to know the city—Taiyuan is becoming a new fulcrum for the inland region to connect domestic and international markets through industrial transformation, cross-border e-commerce platform development, and the growth of the digital economy.
At the start of his entrepreneurial journey, Maodou relied on mature supply and production chains in places like Yiwu, Zhejiang, to do a daily goods foreign trade business. But as homogeneous competition intensified, Maodou found it difficult to maintain an advantage in the same industry, so after settling in Taiyuan he began to look for new possibilities.
"Taiyuan brings together suppliers and specialty products from all over Shanxi, so I can inspect sources on the ground without traveling back and forth." Through his research, Maodou found that specialty products such as Shanxi aged vinegar, millet and coarse grains, and intangible cultural heritage handicrafts highly match the consumption preferences of the Latin American market and have unique advantages for export. This inspired him to adjust his entrepreneurial approach and shift toward exporting Shanxi specialty products. "Many specialty products are beautifully packaged and suitable as gifts. I am currently negotiating export cooperation for several products with suppliers," Maodou said.
Relying on platforms such as the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone and the Wusu comprehensive bonded zone, Taiyuan continues to improve supporting facilities for cross-border trade such as customs clearance, logistics, and warehousing, and builds platforms for enterprise exchanges, resource matching, and capacity training through channels such as industry associations. Although Maodou's business entity is registered in Mexico and cannot directly enjoy the relevant policies for now, in Taiyuan he can still communicate face-to-face with local suppliers and cross-border practitioners through regular industry exchange activities.
"I attend some cross-border e-commerce forums and exchange activities to broaden my network," Maodou said. To date, Taiyuan has provided consulting services to more than 10,000 enterprises cumulatively through channels such as offline salons and self-media outreach, with more than 2,000 person-times of industry practitioners participating offline.
In his search for "Shanxi good products," Maodou also found a "key" to understanding Taiyuan and Shanxi—the spirit of Shanxi merchants. At the Shanxi Merchants Museum, the history of commercial exchanges from hundreds of years ago fascinated Maodou. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shanxi merchants, located inland, set out from Taiyuan, opened up markets through honest management and mutual cooperation, and sold Shanxi products throughout the country and even overseas, forming a commercial map of "goods reaching all under heaven" and writing a commercial legend of "spanning nine thousand li across Europe and Asia, dominating the business world for five hundred years," which also forged Taiyuan's inclusive, open, and accessible urban character.
"I discovered that hundreds of years ago, Shanxi merchants traveled all over China, working hard and steadily (踏实肯干, ta shi ken gan - "step, solid, dare, work"), and built up their trade through integrity and courage. These have greatly inspired my short video creation and cross-border trade development," Maodou said. "For example, although Shanxi does not produce much tea, back then it could sell tea to Russia, ten thousand li away. Today, although Taiyuan is not on the coast, it can still rely on digital platforms, industrial hinterland, and open channels to send local specialty products to the world."
Drawing on the Shanxi merchants' approach of differentiated competition and rooting in local strengths, Maodou has settled in Taiyuan, explored Shanxi's specialties, and used his familiarity with the Latin American market and his strength in short video communication to find the intersection between China's local specialty products and overseas consumer demand. "Shanxi specialty products and exquisite intangible cultural heritage handicrafts are deeply loved by Latin American people and have great market potential. This is my biggest opportunity," he said.
Since the beginning of this year, Taiyuan has launched a professional cross-border digital industrial park, promoted the integrated development of "cross-border e-commerce + specialty industry belts," continuously improved the foreign trade ecosystem, and attracted more and more practitioners.
"I feel that the e-commerce trade atmosphere in Taiyuan is getting stronger and stronger, with more and more practitioners. Everyone exchanges experience and shares resources, helping each other just like the ancient Shanxi merchants," Maodou said.
Cultural Heritage Blends the City's Past and Present
For Andy and Maodou, what attracts them to Taiyuan is not only the greenery along the riverbanks and entrepreneurial opportunities, but also the long-standing cultural lineage. They visit ancient buildings, museums, and historic districts, using their cameras to record the city's changes and also presenting a more three-dimensional and diverse Taiyuan to overseas netizens.
"Many foreigners don't know that Taiyuan hides so many thousand-year-old ancient buildings and profound culture," Maodou said. Taiyuan's cultural and tourism resources have unique value for overseas dissemination. Here, there are both ancient buildings and historical relics that bear witness to the civilization of the Three Jin region, and constantly updated urban spaces and cultural tourism formats. The blend of ancient and modern provides a unique observation window for foreign visitors to understand China.
Maodou especially enjoys appreciating ancient Chinese architecture. He visits the Jinci Temple, the Twin Pagoda Temple, the Governor's Mansion, the Northern Qi Murals Museum, and others, using his camera to record architectural details such as dougong brackets, mortise-and-tenon joints, and decorative patterns, transforming professional historical and cultural knowledge into visual language that overseas audiences can easily understand.
At the Dou Dafu Shrine in Taiyuan, Maodou pointed his camera at the Yuan Dynasty structure with a history of several hundred years, explaining the bagua caisson ceiling in the offering hall while filming: "The circle symbolizes the sky, and the square symbolizes the earth. The entire caisson ceiling uses not a single nail, relying entirely on mortise-and-tenon joinery, as exquisite as a giant Lego set." Zooming in, he carefully explained the coiling dragon patterns on the Yuan Dynasty plank doors of the main hall, turning professional and obscure knowledge of ancient architecture into intuitive and vivid stories. "Every ancient building in Taiyuan contains Eastern wisdom," he said.
At the Northern Qi Murals Museum—China's first mural museum built on its original site—Maodou put on virtual reality glasses to immersively experience the process of archaeological excavation and mural conservation. "Modern technology allows viewers to understand tomb murals more intuitively and clearly," he said. Technology has not diminished the sense of historical depth; rather, it has made the ancient civilization more tangible and comprehensible.
This is a microcosm of Taiyuan's efforts to promote the protection and revitalization of cultural heritage. At present, Taiyuan has 2,237 above-ground cultural relics and historic sites, 541 cultural relic protection units at various levels, and 108 museums across the city. More and more historical relics are entering the public eye through museums, digital technology, public cultural spaces, and other carriers, turning the cultural lineage of the Three Jin region, once scattered across the city, into cultural resources that can be visited, experienced, and narrated.
At night, Maodou and his wife stroll along Bell Tower Street. Heritage buildings and modern commerce complement each other, and traditional streets are integrated with new business formats such as dining, performing arts, and cultural creativity. "Today's Taiyuan has both ancient history and trendy vitality. The urban character that combines dynamic and static elements is especially appealing," Maodou said.
The new ecological scenery along the Fen River, the new entrepreneurial opportunities in cross-border e-commerce, and the new cultural charm of ancient buildings and streets... The splendid Taiyuan is presenting a new flourishing scene. Andy said that over the past 40-plus years, he has returned to Taiyuan again and again, and each time he tells the story of this city to the foreign friends around him, "urging them to come to China and to Taiyuan to see for themselves."
Reporter's Notes
Ecological Leeway Wins New Development Space
A livable environment—this is the unanimous assessment of Taiyuan by many foreign friends who have settled here. For a traditional industrial city, such an assessment is especially precious.
Taiyuan, which started on the basis of heavy industry, was once constrained in its development by ecological shortcomings. In recent years, Taiyuan has anchored itself to the direction of high-quality development, broken away from its previous development inertia, and pursued transformation and upgrading based on the city's endowments, simultaneously improving industrial quality, ecological quality, and quality of life, blazing a distinctive development path that prioritizes ecology and empowers through green development.
The core of urban governance is people, and the living environment lays the foundation for people's livelihood. Bluer skies, clearer water, and better air quality—although these do not directly create economic benefits, they all serve human development. For more than 20 years, Taiyuan has carried the baton in tackling challenges, continuously advancing the ecological restoration of the Fen River, resolutely eliminating traditional production capacity that is high-energy-consuming and highly polluting, and trading ecological leeway for development space for emerging industries such as cultural tourism, health and wellness, livestream e-commerce, and high-end services.
The continuously improving ecological environment outlines the urban landscape of "splendid Taiyuan," nurtures the city's dynamic charm and historical lineage, and has become Taiyuan's core competitiveness in attracting talent, stimulating vitality, and empowering long-term development. Taiyuan has proven through practice that a sound ecological environment and a rich, inclusive humanistic character can form a unique urban appeal, enabling more and more domestic and international talent to settle down and build careers, injecting fresh vitality into the city's open development.
Return to TopBy: 李金波
On August 28, 2026, the People's Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued the Opinions on Reforming and Improving Real Estate Credit Management and Accelerating the Construction of a New Model for Real Estate Development (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). On the same day, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued the Notice on Improving the Sales System for Commercial Housing, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the Opinions on Capital Market Support for Constructing a New Model for Real Estate Development, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration, either independently or jointly with relevant departments, released five supporting management measures. This "combined punch" gradually dismantles the relevant problems in China's real estate financial system, opens up new space for high-quality and sustainable development, and is of milestone significance.
Breaking is for the sake of better establishing. This set of institutional arrangements, centering on rental supply, urban renewal, revitalization of existing stock, and enterprise consolidation, opens up four dimensions of space.
Space one: long-term funding support is obtained for the construction and operation of rental housing. Article 16 of the Opinions clarifies that development loans for affordable housing are specifically used to support the development and construction of eligible sale-type affordable housing projects, with loan interest rates determined on the principle of cost recovery with minimal profit. Article 17 clarifies that development and construction loans for housing rental are used to support the construction and renovation of long-term rental housing, with the scope of support covering development enterprises, industrial parks, rural collective economic organizations, and enterprises and public institutions. Article 28 clarifies that group purchase loans for housing rental are used to support enterprises, eligible public institutions, and specialized, scaled housing rental enterprises in lawfully and compliantly purchasing in bulk existing idle housing, to be held and operated long-term as affordable or commercial rental housing, with a maximum term of no more than 30 years. Article 30 permits that, among operating loans for housing rental, the term for self-owned property projects may be up to 20 years. From affordable housing development to rental housing construction, from bulk acquisition to long-term operation, this interlocking credit ladder has taken shape: large-scale acquisition of existing idle housing converted into rental housing now has a financial channel with matched terms and affordable costs. This achieves achieving two things at once (一举两得, yi ju liang de - "one, move; two, gain") in destocking and safeguarding people's livelihoods, and the housing system of "simultaneously promoting renting and purchasing" has gained its financial foundation.
Space two: urban renewal gains more precise financing tools. Urban development has entered the era of existing stock, and the stage of large-scale incremental expansion is gradually becoming a thing of the past. Renovation of old residential communities, renewal of urban villages, and revitalization of inefficient factory buildings are increasingly becoming the major tasks of urban development. However, such projects have long cycles, slow cash flows, and low rates of return, which are completely incompatible or out of place (格格不入, ge ge bu ru - "pattern, pattern, not, enter") with the short-term, collateral-heavy nature of existing credit products, and in the past they often fell into the dilemma of "those who want to borrow cannot get loans, and those who can borrow dare not." The National Financial Regulatory Administration, together with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, formulated the Measures for the Administration of Urban Renewal Project Loans (Trial), specifically establishing the "urban renewal project loan" product category and detailing access conditions, loan purposes, repayment sources, and fund management. The intent lies precisely here: to distinguish urban renewal from general real estate development loans, to establish a separate product category and rules according to the project's own logic, to match loan terms with project construction and operation cycles, and to match repayment sources with project cash flows. Slow variables are matched with slow funds, and financial support for urban renewal thereby becomes more precise, more adapted, and more effective. Article 30 of the Opinions also makes coordinating arrangements: rental housing formed through lawful and compliant renovation of industrial plants, commercial premises, urban villages, and the like that is not self-owned property may obtain operating loans with a maximum term of no more than 5 years, with the amount in principle not exceeding 70 percent of the total receivables rent within the loan term.
Space three: the "investment, financing, management, and exit" mechanism for existing stock properties is further smoothed. The pain of the industry in the past lay precisely in emphasizing "investment and financing" while neglecting "management and exit." The opinions issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission on the same day target this crux, supporting the issuance of real estate investment trusts (REITs) based on eligible rental housing, urban renewal, and other projects, or their inclusion as assets for additional fundraising into already-listed REITs, steadily and prudently advancing the development of commercial real estate REITs, and continuously advancing the pilot of private equity investment funds for real estate, working in the same direction as the credit-side reform. Once the channel for additional fundraising opens, already-listed REITs can continuously absorb existing stock assets; with commercial real estate REITs advancing steadily and prudently, funds deposited in operating properties are expected to accelerate their circulation. On the credit side, Article 25 of the Opinions encourages eligible banking financial institutions to issue credit asset-backed securities based on individual housing loans as underlying assets, thereby diversifying credit risk. With the exit channel broadened, existing stock properties can become standardized products that are tradable, priceable, and exitable, and the closed loop of "investment, financing, management, and exit" is accelerating its formation.
Space four: the channel for promoting market clearing through mergers and acquisitions and restructuring is opened. The opinions of the China Securities Regulatory Commission support listed real estate development enterprises in refinancing through issuance to specific targets, support the comprehensive use of instruments such as shares, directional convertible bonds, and cash in mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring involving real estate assets, and where assets are purchased by issuing shares or directional convertible bonds, supporting funds may be raised as matching funds, and support is given to the issuance of corporate bonds, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), and real estate asset-backed securities (ABS). This means that high-quality enterprises can integrate the projects and production capacity of poorly managed enterprises at lower cost, and the industry's survival of the fittest (优胜劣汰, you sheng lie tai - "excellent, win; inferior, perish") gains a market-based institutional channel. With the channel opened, the gate has not been loosened: in risk prevention, the opinions of the China Securities Regulatory Commission explicitly implement the "four early" requirements, strengthen the coordinated supervision of stocks, bonds, and funds, smooth the delisting channel, and cooperate with local governments in promoting the disposal and clearing of defaulted bonds; loans extended in accordance with the Measures for the Administration of Commercial Housing Development Loans (Trial) have their corresponding projects included in "whitelist" management, linked with the urban real estate financing coordination mechanism.
Use the "stability" of the market to promote the "advance" of the economy. Responding to market uncertainty with institutional certainty, and letting the rules of the new model be established and take root, is precisely the injection of institutional momentum into the sustained recovery and improvement of the economy. Accelerating the construction of a new model for real estate development and promoting a virtuous cycle between finance and real estate — the direction is already clear, and the institutions are already in place. As the various arrangements take effect and deliver results, the foundation for the real estate market to stop falling and stabilize will be continuously consolidated, providing strong support for sustained and healthy economic development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
(The author is the Deputy Director of the Department of Regional and Industrial Economic Research at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges; compiled by People's Daily reporter Zhao Zhanhui)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 程远州
Upon receiving approval for a 3 million yuan loan, Luo Ruichang, founder of Guangzhou Tengyuan Digital Technology Co., Ltd., let out a long sigh of relief — the tightly stretched cash flow was revived! This three-year credit loan is the first "token loan" (词元贷) to be implemented in Guangdong Province, with credit extended by Bank of China Guangzhou Haizhu Sub-branch.
"In the past, when seeking bank loans, the other party valued real estate and fixed assets, and we could only rely on the legal representative to provide personal property as collateral. Not only was the credit line low and the interest rate high, but the cycle was also long," Luo Ruichang said. His company primarily engages in digital marketing for the home furnishing and home appliance, fast-moving consumer goods, and agricultural, cultural, and tourism industries. Over the past two years, revenue has doubled, yet the cash flow has grown increasingly tight — "Brand projects have long settlement cycles and downstream payment collections lag, while upstream computing-power token procurement and large-model usage licensing fees must be prepaid."
Now, banks have switched to a new "ruler" for credit extension: exploring the inclusion of enterprises' daily operational digital production factors into credit credentials, to "quench the thirst" of artificial intelligence enterprises. Can this new ruler measure accurately and go the distance? The reporter conducted an investigation.
New Questions of the "Token Economy" Await Answers
Tokens are the smallest unit of information processed by large models. In March this year, the National Data Administration positioned them as "the value anchor of the intelligent era." At the beginning of 2024, China's daily token call volume was 100 billion; by the end of 2025, it had surged to 100 trillion; in March this year, it exceeded 140 trillion — a more than thousand-fold increase in two years.
The surge in data cannot conceal the predicament artificial intelligence enterprises face when applying for bank loans: their most valuable assets are algorithms, models, and data, but with light assets, scattered cash flows, no factories, and a lack of collateral or pledges, they find it difficult to step through the doors of banks.
"Banks value physical assets, while the assets of these enterprises are code and orders. This mismatch is a structural problem standing in the way of the commercialization process of the artificial intelligence industry," said Dai Zhijie, section chief of the First Investment Promotion Section of the Investment Promotion Bureau of Guangzhou's Haizhu District.
In July this year, the People's Bank of China and eight other departments jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Development and Utilization of Data in the Field of Science and Technology Finance," supporting the removal of data barriers in science and technology finance and promoting the extension of credit evaluation from "looking at collateral" to multi-dimensional approaches such as "looking at data."
In response to the new questions of the "token economy," banking institutions across Guangdong have also made a series of explorations from the bottom-up approach (自下而上, zi xia er shang - "self, below, towards, above") —
Haizhu District took the lead in releasing the "token loan," a specialized financial product for the "token economy," with Bank of China, CITIC Bank, and Bank of Guangzhou participating in the layout, and Bank of China implementing the first credit extension; China Construction Bank Guangdong Branch, together with the Guangdong Token Trading and Service Center, launched a "token loan" and approved a 30 million yuan credit loan for an intelligent Internet of Things enterprise in Nansha, Guangzhou; ICBC Shenzhen Longgang Sub-branch implemented its first business within its jurisdiction through the "Computing Power e-Loan"...
The financing products have different names, but all revolve around the characteristics of emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and the digital economy, exploring financial products and credit evaluation methods that fit enterprises' new business models, turning enterprises' "invisible computing power consumption" into banks' "visible credit basis." "Data such as API (Application Programming Interface) call logs and computing power usage records are naturally tamper-proof," Dai Zhijie introduced. Through data cleaning and aggregation, banks can convert massive raw logs into visualized operational reports, and then, combined with cross-verification of computing power procurement contracts, downstream service contracts, and technical qualifications, break through the risk-control barriers that emphasize fixed assets and physical collateral.
"Computing Power Bills" Become the Credit Anchor
At the bank that issued the "token loan," the list of materials for enterprise loans shows new changes: previously it was property certificates, financial statements, and invoices; now it has become monthly token consumption data, computing power service contracts, and API call logs.
From looking at assets to looking at traffic, turning "computing power bills" into the credit anchor — how can this be smoothly implemented?
At Shenzhen Aizhihui Technology Co., Ltd., engineers are debugging spray-painting robots — every time a robot "learns" a new action, behind it lies the invocation of large models, the consumption of tokens, and the accumulation of bills. This specialized and sophisticated enterprise, primarily engaged in embodied intelligence training, urgently needs funds to procure large quantities of tokens to support robot iteration and upgrading, yet lacks collateral such as factories and land and finds it difficult to obtain loans, which once affected business progress.
During visits to enterprises, the Artificial Intelligence (Robotics) Office of Shenzhen's Longgang District identified the industry's pain points and, in coordination with the District Development and Reform Bureau, guided ICBC Shenzhen Longgang Sub-branch to launch the "Computing Power e-Loan," incorporating computing power procurement needs, technical service contract value, and future accounts receivable into the credit evaluation system, quickly approving a 5 million yuan credit line for Aizhihui Technology. "This loan came at a very timely moment. It not only solved the funding problem for purchasing computing power, but also represents tremendous recognition of the value of light-asset technology innovation enterprises like ours," said the person in charge of the enterprise.
Different enterprises have different methods of calculating "computing power bills," and banks have different rulers for credit extension.
"An ordinary-quality short drama consumes tokens costing up to 1,500 yuan per minute, while a high-quality one can cost up to 4,000 yuan per minute," calculated Liang Jian, marketing director of an AI (artificial intelligence) short drama production enterprise in Guangzhou. Using daily computing power consumption data as a reference basis, this enterprise applied for and obtained a 5 million yuan three-year credit loan. Another AI e-commerce livestreaming enterprise faced a different problem: computing power procurement costs must be advanced in advance, while the project payment collection cycle is as long as five to six months. Relying on computing power procurement orders, this enterprise obtained a 3 million yuan three-year credit line.
Bank of China Guangzhou Branch incorporates enterprises' historical token settlement data, token supply and consumption values, and computing power contract value as important considerations in operational evaluation, launching three "token loan" sub-products: the Computing Power Supply Loan, serving enterprises engaged in large-model construction and training that have completed national-level filing and signed computing power service contracts; the Computing Power Application Loan, serving growth-oriented enterprises that use tokens to develop their own businesses; and the Computing Power Service Loan, serving technical service providers offering AI API services, data annotation, and model fine-tuning. The maximum credit line for a single customer is 30 million yuan, and the term for working capital loans is up to three years.
China Construction Bank Guangdong Branch, on the other hand, carries out differentiated customization around the three major scenarios of supply, application, and service. For the upstream, it looks at contracts and accounts receivable, turning contracts in hand into usable funds; for the downstream, it looks at consumption and orders, examining whether AI applications are smoothly moving from samples to products; and for the middle, it looks at the settlement flows of the computing power platform side.
In this way, financial water is delivered with targeted financial support or resource allocation (精准滴灌, jing zhun di guan - "precise, exact, drop, irrigate") to every link of the industrial chain. "By looking at the relevant circumstances of computing power consumption to assess customers' real operations and production, the credit logic is gradually shifting toward dynamic data monitoring," said Li Liulan, deputy general manager of the Inclusive Finance Department of Bank of China Guangzhou Branch.
How Does the New Ruler Guard Against New Risks
Turning "invisible computing power consumption" into "visible credit basis," the new ruler also brings some new risks. After the "token loan" pilot, many industry insiders have raised concerns: there have long been market disorders such as the resale of idle tokens and backend tampering with consumption speeds. If banks lend based on manipulated data, will credit evaluation deviate? In addition, token prices fluctuate with the demand for artificial intelligence large-model calls and changes in the computing power market — is it reliable as a credit anchor?
Staff from the credit departments of several banks said that if token data were simply used as the sole credit basis, banks could face risks such as enterprises making ineffective calls, inflating consumption through fake orders, and artificially expanding business scale.
The banks' solution is multi-dimensional cross-verification: token consumption volume is only one of the main indicators, not the sole basis, and is not directly equivalent to collateral. Banks determine enterprises' comprehensive credit lines by referencing historical computing power settlement data, computing power service contract value, accounts receivable from computing power business, token commission settlement volumes, and other factors, combined with dimensions such as enterprise operations, finance, credit records, and the resumes of actual controllers. The monthly token consumption of computing power platforms and enterprise operations, revenue, and future collections are interlocking and closely connected (环环相扣, huan huan xiang kou - "ring, ring, mutually, link") and mutually corroborating.
"The core remains evaluating whether the enterprise has effective repayment capacity and whether there will be good repayment cash flow in future operations. The basic credit logic has not changed," Li Liulan said. In the final analysis, the "token loan" anchors on real computing power service consumption and enterprise operational data, not on speculative digital assets.
How can data be verified accurately? Li Liulan stated that, in response to possible token consumption data fraud, banks strengthen the penetration and verification of business authenticity during specific business operations, establish a cross-verification mechanism of "contract + token call data + transaction flows," interface with enterprises' computing power platform token metering data, verify the entire chain of token production, invocation, and settlement, confirm the authenticity of accounts receivable, and guard against the risks of fabricated computing power business, customer fake-order ineffective calls, and inflated token revenue. In the future, they will also strive to establish cooperative relationships with computing power platform enterprises, have them open system query IDs to banks, achieve real-time monitoring and verification, strengthen data authenticity control, and prevent fraud risks.
Li Liulan frankly admitted that the "token loan" is still in the exploration stage and does not yet have a mature risk-control model. It awaits continued strengthening of government-bank collaboration and bank-enterprise cooperation under policy support, exploring multiple service models adapted to the development of the computing power industry in different scenarios. At present, computing power enterprises that have received credit in the Guangzhou area are mainly credit-based loans, which are incorporated into Guangzhou's credit risk mechanism for government-bank risk sharing.
Although the exploration is prudent, the pace is not slow. At present, the total credit extended under the "token loan" by Bank of China Guangzhou Haizhu Sub-branch has reached 28 million yuan, and the first batch of credit-receiving enterprises is widely distributed across fields such as AI short dramas, e-commerce marketing, and artificial intelligence tool development, mainly small and micro enterprises in the computing power industry chain.
Xie Baojian, deputy dean of the Southern Advanced Institute of Finance at Jinan University, said that the "token loan" still faces many challenges in moving from innovative exploration to scaled replication, such as the lack of unified token billing calibers and statistical standards, and the absence of a third-party neutral audit system. But this is a good start. He believes that the deeper effect of the "token loan" lies in its leverage on the artificial intelligence industry ecosystem: the government builds the platform, banks innovate, platforms supply data, and service providers implement, constructing a positive cycle of "financial empowerment — industrial agglomeration — new financial demand."
Return to TopBy: 聂辉华 沈浩翔
Quality is the lifeline of a product. However, for most products, producers possess information about raw materials, intermediate products, and processing methods, while consumers can only see the final product. Therefore, there is information asymmetry between producers and consumers regarding product quality. At this point, moral hazard problems such as producers cutting corners in shoddy workmanship (偷工减料, tou gong jian liao - "steal work, reduce material") or passing off inferior goods as high quality (以次充好, yi ci chong hao - "use inferior, replace good") may arise. In ancient Chinese society, there was a lack of well-developed "numerical management," making it difficult to preserve complete records of the production process. So, how could craftsmen providing products or undertaking construction projects be made to guarantee product quality?
An important institutional design established in ancient China was the "inscription of the craftsman's name on the object" (物勒工名). The "Record of Rites, Monthly Ordinances" records: "Inscribe the craftsman's name on the object to examine his sincerity; if the work is improper, punishment must be carried out to fully investigate the circumstances." That is, by inscribing names on objects, product quality was linked to personal reputation. In practice, government authorities typically first stipulated dimensions, materials, and techniques, then marked the manufacturer, supervisor, or production institution on the object. When defects were discovered, one could trace back by name. The inscriptions on Warring States weapons, Qin-Han official handicraft products, and Ming Dynasty Nanjing city bricks all embody this idea of responsibility labeling.
From an economic perspective, the "inscription of the craftsman's name on the object" system essentially reduces product quality problems through two mechanisms: lowering information asymmetry and enhancing reputation effects. This traditional wisdom conforms to the principles of modern economics and is a remarkable institutional design.
First, the "inscription of the craftsman's name on the object" system, by inscribing names on products, increases the transparency of producers' information and facilitates accountability for producers' quality problems. When products are manufactured anonymously, even if defects are found upon acceptance inspection, it is difficult to determine which workshop, craftsman, or process bears responsibility. The "inscription of the craftsman's name on the object" connects the product to the responsible entity, and combined with unified standards and acceptance inspection, enables managers to trace the source from the result. This both reduces the costs of verification and evidence collection and improves the efficiency of accountability after problems occur.
Second, the "inscription of the craftsman's name on the object" system, by linking product quality to personal reputation, provides reputation value to producers of high-quality products. Under conditions of information asymmetry, if a person has a good historical record, they often receive a premium above the market average price; this positive feedback is reputation value. When a craftsman's name is preserved over the long term along with weapons, ritual vessels, or city bricks, individual skill becomes connected with public achievements, which can be seen as a cultural expression of reputational incentives.
If the main function of the first accountability mechanism is to punish those who fail in their duties, then the main function of the second reputation mechanism is to reward those who fulfill their duties. One is a negative incentive, the other a positive incentive; the two complement each other to enhance effect (相得益彰, xiang de yi zhang - "mutually, benefit, manifest") and are not contradictory.
Of course, for the "inscription of the craftsman's name on the object" system to achieve long-term and widespread effects, it depends on certain preconditions. For example, there must be unified inspection standards for product quality, records that are truthful and credible, acceptance inspection that is relatively independent, and accountability that can be implemented. Ancient weapons, ritual vessels, and city bricks and other durable goods were convenient for inscribing names, but many consumable goods or intermediate materials were difficult to label item by item. For products with multiple processes, such as silk clothing, one could often only trace back to the final manufacturer or a few responsible persons. In addition, forging names, discrepancies between accounts and goods, and collusion between manufacturers and inspectors could also distort quality labels. Another institutional environment that cannot be ignored is that in ancient society's forced labor or closed official production systems, the accountability function of name inscription may have been stronger than positive reputational incentives. Moreover, in incomplete markets characterized by regional segmentation, inconvenient transportation, and blocked information, high-quality reputations were equally difficult to realize.
Today, with the help of advanced technologies such as blockchain and big data, we can expand the ancient "one object, one name" into "full-chain traceability." QR codes, digital identity labels, electronic signatures, and databases can leave separate records for raw materials, processing, inspection, circulation, and maintenance, and can improve credibility through anti-counterfeiting and modification traceability. In terms of institutional development, a unified, open, competitive, and orderly national market expands the radius of product reputation dissemination, making it easier for high-quality products and reliable operators to obtain premiums through repeat purchases, follow-up orders, and brand value.
(The authors are respectively a professor at the School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, and a doctoral student at the School of Economics, Renmin University of China; this article was compiled by People's Daily reporter Qi Zhiming)
Return to TopBy: 王 政
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments recently issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which clearly sets forth development goals such as consolidating the advantages of the entire industrial chain of China's intelligent connected new energy vehicles by 2030, entering the ranks of the world's major automobile powers, and achieving large-scale application of vehicles with autonomous driving functions. Among these, the goal that "new energy passenger vehicles will account for 70% of total new car sales in the domestic market" has attracted particular attention.
Looking back at the course of development, the historic leap of China's new energy vehicle industry from following to leading has been inseparable from the strategic guidance of forward-looking planning and scientific layout at the national level. From the 2012 "Energy-Saving and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2012–2020)" which clearly established pure electric drive as the main strategic orientation, to the 2017 "Medium- and Long-Term Development Plan for the Automobile Industry" which clearly proposed using new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles as the breakthrough point to lead industrial transformation and upgrading, and then to the 2020 "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021–2035)" which made comprehensive arrangements for improving technological innovation capabilities, building a new industrial ecosystem, and deepening open cooperation... Under the guidance of top-level design, China's new energy vehicle industry has delivered an impressive report card: during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the scale of China's new energy vehicle industry leapt from the million-vehicle level to the ten-million-vehicle level, with annual sales increasing from 1.367 million vehicles to 16.49 million vehicles, and the share of new energy vehicles in total new car sales rising from 5.4% to 47.9%. The industrial system has become increasingly complete, with the output of new energy vehicles, power batteries, and key materials accounting for more than 70% of the global total. International influence has continued to grow, with products exported to more than 100 countries and regions.
Looking ahead to development prospects, what deserves more attention than the "70%" figure is China's firm determination and scientific deployment to continue promoting the high-quality development of the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry.
On the basis of the overall goal, the Plan puts forward four sub-goals. In addition to the average fuel consumption of passenger vehicles and the average electric energy consumption of pure electric passenger vehicles, these include: achieving highly automated driving on scenarios such as highways, urban expressways, and some urban roads; increasing overall labor productivity by 15% compared with 2025; cultivating and forming several complete vehicle enterprises entering the global top ten in sales and global top 100 component enterprises; and initially forming a new landscape of internationalized development, with Chinese automobile brands enjoying a relatively high reputation and further enhancing their voice in the formulation of international standards and regulations. These are all directions for industrial efforts over the next five years.
To ensure the realization of the goals, the Plan deploys 17 key tasks in five areas, including improving technological innovation capabilities, advancing the optimization and upgrading of the industrial system, promoting cross-sector integrated development, building a scientific and efficient industry governance system, and opening up a new landscape of global industrial cooperation. At the same time, it deploys four major projects, including the key technology research project for intelligent connected new energy vehicles, the project to enhance standards and testing and evaluation capabilities, the project to strengthen the safety foundation of intelligent connected new energy vehicles, and the project to leapfrog internationalization capabilities, as well as three key actions, including the "artificial intelligence + automobile" development action, the action for ecological construction of key components and cultivation of leading enterprises, and the action for promoting the application of intelligent connected new energy vehicles.
The Plan also clearly requires strictly controlling the conditions for new projects of independent new energy vehicle enterprises. It calls for intensifying lawful merger, reorganization, and cross-regional integration of automobile enterprises. It calls for continuously establishing and improving special standard systems for automotive chips, automotive software, data governance and application, automotive artificial intelligence, solid-state batteries for vehicles, and low-carbon development of automobiles. It also calls for regulating industry data and information release and enterprise accounts payable, and strengthening the rectification of online chaos. The above measures will accelerate the building of a scientific and efficient industry governance system, maintain a healthy and orderly market environment, optimize the industrial development ecosystem, and promote the high-quality development of China's intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry.
Maintaining a broad and long-term perspective (风物长宜放眼量, feng wu chang yi fang yan liang - "scenery, long, lasting, cast, eyes, look"). Striving forward in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the development of China's intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry will always adhere to making steady progress while maintaining stability (稳中求进, wen zhong qiu jin - "stable, middle, seek, advance") and promoting stability through progress, forging strengths through innovation-driven development, optimizing the ecosystem through scientific governance, and expanding space through open cooperation, so as to push the industry from leading in scale toward leading in quality and leading in brands. Adhering to high-quality development, China's new energy vehicles will surely run more steadily and run farther.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 喻思南
"480,000 yuan once, twice, three times, sold!" Not long ago, at the 7th National Breeding Bull Auction held in the Ulagai Management District of Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, two Huaxi cattle breeding bulls both fetched a high price of 480,000 yuan, winning the "top bid" title.
The auction is a stage for showcasing the nation's premium breeding bull genetic resources. Competing alongside Huaxi cattle on the same stage were quality domestic and foreign cattle breeds such as Angus and Simmental, yet for the past four sessions, the "top bid" title has gone to Huaxi cattle without exception.
Huaxi cattle is a specialized beef cattle breed developed by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences over many years. Why is Huaxi cattle favored? A set of measured data provides the best explanation: adult bulls weigh about 900 kilograms, average daily gain during the fattening period is 1.52 kilograms, and the dressing percentage is 61.3%... Huaxi cattle's main production performance leads internationally, which means that relying on such quality breeding bulls to produce offspring will yield considerable returns.
After watching the auction, Li Junya, deputy director of the Institute of Animal Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute") and chief scientist of the National Beef Cattle and Yak Industry Technology System, felt gratified: "The breeding goals we set more than 20 years ago are gradually being realized."
Rooted in Ulagai—
Several generations of scientists carried out relay breeding of Huaxi cattle for 43 years
"Three highs and two broads," namely high dressing percentage, high net meat percentage, and high growth rate, along with broad adaptability and broad distribution, were the goals set when the Huaxi cattle project was initiated. Why are these goals important?
Cattle in China long served as draft animals. After the focus shifted to beef production, the main approach was crossing introduced foreign breeds with local cattle. However, after beef performance improved significantly in the 1980s and 1990s, the growth rate slowed considerably. In 2011, the average carcass weight of beef cattle in China was only 257 kilograms, while beef cattle in developed countries generally exceeded 380 kilograms—not only had the gap with developed countries not narrowed, but China was even clearly lagging behind the global average level.
"Core germplasm resources were controlled by others." Li Junya explained that at the time, Simmental crossbred populations accounted for 65% of China's beef cattle production population. The population's seed stock supply depended on foreign sources, quality germplasm could not be purchased, and introduced breeds kept degenerating, causing the beef cattle industry to linger at a low level.
To break the deadlock, it was necessary to achieve self-reliance and control over beef cattle germplasm resources. From 2002 to 2003, Li Junya and his team searched for populations suitable for breeding a new beef cattle variety and ultimately "set their sights on" the Ulagai cattle population.
The cultivation of the Ulagai cattle population can be traced back to 1978. At that time, experts from the Inner Mongolia College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry joined forces with local farms to begin crossbreeding exploration around local cattle populations, gradually laying the foundation for a breeding population represented by Ulagai beef cattle. In 1993, quality germplasm resources such as beef-type Simmental cattle were introduced, and through systematic germplasm innovation, a breeding population with good genetic potential was established.
After 2003, Li Junya led the Institute's beef cattle team to take over the baton, establishing the Huaxi cattle breeding core population in Ulagai, Inner Mongolia. This was a long and arduous endeavor. "Beef cattle have low reproductive efficiency, with each generation requiring 3 to 5 years, during which continuous measurement and selection are necessary to fix the best production performance." Li Junya said.
The team went deep into the heart of the grasslands, measuring and selecting breeding pairs time and again. To improve selection efficiency, the team combined conventional breeding with genomic selection technology, establishing China's first Huaxi cattle genomic selection reference population and leading the direction of China's beef cattle breeding...
Deep coordination between the institute and the locality provided solid support for Huaxi cattle breeding. From researchers focusing on tackling key problems, to the Ulagai Management District providing experimental pastures, coordinating herders' cooperation, coordinating land and grassland resources, and providing supporting subsidies for improved breeds, the two sides worked closely together, continuously advancing Huaxi cattle breeding.
Day after day (日复一日, ri fu yi ri - "day, repeat, one, day"), year after year, on the grasslands, researchers worked from dawn to dusk (起早贪黑, qi zao tan hei - "rise, early, greed, dark"), tackling difficulties with dedication. After four generations of selection, Huaxi cattle with completely independent intellectual property rights were ultimately bred.
In December 2021, Huaxi cattle passed the national new variety approval, solving the "bottleneck" problem of China's quality beef cattle core germplasm resources. From 1978 to this point, several generations of scientists had carried the relay for 43 years.
"One chessboard" breeding—
Improving breeding efficiency and accelerating promotion and multiplication
Breeding Huaxi cattle is only the first step. Whether it can be promoted and its quality maintained is a greater challenge.
Apart from Huaxi cattle, China has also bred other beef cattle varieties. However, due to reasons such as breeding populations being too small, it is difficult to form large-scale seed supply capacity, and they can only be promoted in local areas, insufficient to drive the development of the national beef cattle industry.
"We cannot end the project just because the variety has been bred." Li Junya's team was determined to continue doing a good job of promotion and multiplication, letting Huaxi cattle enter the broader market.
Beef cattle breeding has a natural "hard constraint"—the ultra-low reproductive efficiency of "one calf per year, one calf per pregnancy." Genetic evaluation requires performance measurement data from a large number of individuals, and without a sufficiently large reference population, the accuracy of genomic selection cannot be guaranteed.
What to do? "Only through large-scale collaboration can we cultivate a large population." The team knew well that to rapidly expand the scale of the breeding population in a relatively short time, it was necessary to integrate industry forces and carry out joint breeding.
China's beef cattle enterprises are generally small in scale and dispersed in strength. Universities, research institutes, and breeding farms each fought their own battles, lacking unified measurement, evaluation systems, and data-sharing mechanisms, so breeding efficiency could not improve and market promotion was also hindered.
As early as 2015, Li Junya's team promoted 14 bull stations to begin progeny testing of beef cattle, pioneering this field.
Starting in 2017, the team planned national joint breeding. Subsequently, they united more than 40 breeding enterprises across the country to initiate the establishment of the Huaxi Cattle Breeding Federation. In 2019, Beijing Lianyu Beef Cattle Technology Co., Ltd. was established to assume the functions of the Huaxi Cattle Breeding Federation.
Gao Huijiang, a member of Li Junya's team and chief scientist of the Institute's Cattle Genetics and Breeding Science and Technology Innovation Team, later concurrently served as secretary-general of the Federation. "Through unified variety registration, performance measurement, selection and mating, genetic evaluation, and breeding bull promotion, Huaxi cattle breeding has achieved 'one chessboard' coordination." He said.
Inner Mongolia Seyeleqin Animal Husbandry Technology Service Co., Ltd. is the first Huaxi cattle core breeding farm in Inner Mongolia. The company's general manager, Li Hongtao, told reporters that thanks to "one chessboard" breeding, in recent years the uniformity of the enterprise's Huaxi cattle population has improved greatly.
With unified registration, Huaxi cattle now have pedigree certificates. Gao Huijiang said that once each animal's genetic background is clearly traceable, scientific mating, avoidance of inbreeding, and continuous improvement become possible. The "ID card" can also serve as a transaction certificate, and Huaxi cattle can bring more than 1,000 yuan more per head compared to Western crossbred cattle.
Coordinated efforts have enhanced the "Huaxi cattle" brand power. Through channels such as the breeding bull auction, quality germplasm resources obtain reasonable pricing, and Huaxi cattle "sell products" and even more so "sell the brand."
Today, the Huaxi cattle breeding population covers 14 major producing provinces across the country, with a scale of 31,600 head, frozen semen market share rising to 25%, more than 7 million head of improved beef cattle, and successful export to Laos, making it China's first independently bred beef cattle variety to go global or expand into international markets (走出去, zou chu qu - "walk, go, out, go").
"Chip" breakthrough again—
Keeping core breeding technology in our own hands
Variety approval is not the finish line. Maintaining Huaxi cattle's competitiveness requires continuous selection and improvement.
China's beef cattle industry truly started only in the 1990s, while developed countries have over a hundred years of systematic beef cattle selection history. To catch up with advanced international levels, it is necessary to apply advanced genomic selection technology, which in turn depends on gene chips.
Around 2012, during the critical period of Huaxi cattle breeding, genetic selection could not stop, yet the testing cost of a single imported gene chip was 3,000 yuan. The team was convinced: developing gene chips independently was urgent and must be done immediately (刻不容缓, ke bu rong huan - "moment, not, allow, delay"). This was not only to reduce costs, but also to keep core breeding technology in our own hands.
Since the Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences joined Li Junya's team, Chen Yan, an associate researcher at the Institute, has been engaged precisely in the work of developing gene chips. Chen Yan explained that in the past, selecting a quality breeding bull required several years of observation. With gene chips, researchers only need to analyze the genetic information of calves to accurately predict their key economic traits at the calf stage, shortening the breeding cycle through accurate genetic evaluation.
Progressing gradually from low-density biochips, Li Junya's team independently explored gene loci related to production performance in domestic beef cattle varieties. After years of tackling key problems, at the end of 2022, the team developed a specialized whole-genome breeding chip for Chinese beef cattle, Cattle110K (containing 110,000 loci), which is also China's first commercial beef cattle gene chip.
"After successful development, related foreign products dropped in price significantly." Chen Yan said that the current cost of each independently developed gene chip is less than 200 yuan. Thanks to its excellent performance and high cost-effectiveness, after its official promotion in 2023, it quickly gained market recognition, and its domestic market share has already reached 85%.
At Inner Mongolia Bolin Huaxi Cattle Seed Industry Co., Ltd., the breeding bulls here have tall bodies, full muscles, strong limbs and hooves, and straight backs and loins. These Huaxi cattle, specially used to produce frozen semen, were carefully selected and bred by researchers.
Compared with conventional breeding technology, advanced genetic selection technology has shortened the generation interval of Huaxi cattle by 40%, increased genetic progress by 20%, and brought beef cattle breeding efficiency and precision to a new level.
Setting out from a new starting point—
National support is our strongest backing
During the auction, the place of origin of Huaxi cattle was established in the Ulagai Management District. As a national base for supplying core beef cattle germplasm resources, the Ulagai Management District is cooperating with the Institute to accelerate the construction of the National Beef Cattle Germplasm Resource Conservation and Utilization Innovation Center. In the future, beef cattle researchers from across the country will be stationed here on a long-term basis to carry out systematic conservation, development, and utilization of beef cattle germplasm resources.
Achieving self-reliance and control over beef cattle germplasm resources still faces some challenges. For example, there is a continuing need to improve the accuracy of selection and expand the size of quality breeding populations.
Tang Xiangfang, deputy director of the Institute, introduced that relying on the Ulagai platform, the Institute will, on the basis of the existing breeding population, launch a new round of high-intensity selection breeding that deeply integrates whole-genome selection with intelligent phenotyping, striving to increase the annual genetic progress of the core population by more than 3%. At the same time, it will establish the world's first Huaxi cattle genomic reference database, consolidating the advantage of independent innovation from the source. "National support for the development of the seed industry is our strongest backing." Li Junya said.
In July 2021, China adopted the "Seed Industry Revitalization Action Plan." In accordance with the overall arrangement of "getting off to a good start in the first year, laying the foundation in three years, achieving results in five years, and making major breakthroughs in ten years," the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs actively promoted the seed industry revitalization action. In the same year, the "National Beef Cattle Genetic Improvement Plan (2021–2035)" was released, focusing on comprehensively improving the innovation level and international competitiveness of China's beef cattle seed industry.
In recent years, the promotion of Huaxi cattle has accelerated. Among these, the Fourth Division Chuangjin Agricultural Development Group Co., Ltd. of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has built a Huaxi cattle core quality breeding population of more than 8,000 head, becoming one of the important carriers for Huaxi cattle breeding and promotion in China.
Hou Shaohua, deputy director of the Western Agricultural Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that by leveraging Xinjiang's geographical advantages, China can in the future export "Chinese beef cattle industry solutions" adapted to local production conditions to countries in Central and West Asia.
Having attended the auction for seven consecutive years, Li Junya has growing confidence in the future of Huaxi cattle. "In the not-too-distant future, we firmly believe that the 'Huaxi breed,' cultivated with Chinese chips, Chinese data, and Chinese technology, will prop up the backbone of China's beef cattle industry."
Return to TopBy: 杨远柱
I have been engaged in rice breeding for 45 years. The seeds have changed generation after generation, and the technology has also advanced from traditional breeding to molecular breeding and intelligent breeding. But the original aspiration to keep our fellow villagers fed has not changed, and the mission of cultivating superior varieties and safeguarding food security has not changed.
In 1989, I was still engaged in conventional rice breeding at the Huaihua Municipal Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Hunan. One day in October, I accidentally discovered a sterile material among a batch of indica-japonica hybrid progeny materials. I acted with extreme caution (小心翼翼, xiao xin yi yi - "careful, small, one, one") in collecting a dozen or so seeds and preserved them with desiccant.
A trait that appears by chance only truly has scientific value after repeated verification and confirmation that it can be stably inherited. In those years, I was constantly thinking about my own breeding direction. The room for yield increase in conventional rice was becoming increasingly limited. At the same time, Academician Yuan Longping led his team to continuous breakthroughs in the field of two-line hybrid rice, which made me increasingly want to shift to hybrid rice research. In March 1993, I was transferred to the Zhuzhou Municipal Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Hunan and started researching hybrid rice from scratch. The dozen or so seeds that had been preserved for four years were also brought with me. When sown in early April, because they had been stored for too long, seed vigor had declined severely, and of the dozen or so seeds, only three finally germinated. By early June, the three rice plants successively headed. I observed them plant by plant and conducted pollen microscopic examinations, and found that two of them were normally fertile, with only one showing sterility.
When I saw that one plant, I was both delighted and nervous — of the dozen or so seeds, only three plants survived, and of those three, only this one was sterile. At that moment I had only one thought: I must preserve it and study it thoroughly. From then on, I went to the field almost every day, observing its fertility changes and examining pollen under the microscope. I kept watch from June all the way to October, when it finally turned from sterile to fertile. I immediately moved the rice clump into the greenhouse and finally harvested 42 seeds. In early December, my assistant and I took these 42 seeds to Hainan to continue propagation and observation.
Two-line hybrid rice is an important innovation in China's rice breeding field after the three-line method. But at that time there was one problem that had never been completely solved — the insecurity of seed production. In particular, the early applied thermosensitive genic male sterile lines had critical sterility-inducing temperatures generally above 24 degrees Celsius. If during the seed production period there were 2 to 3 consecutive days of low temperatures below 24 degrees Celsius, it could easily lead to large-scale seed production failure. This difficulty was vividly called "having the chills and fever" in the industry — sterile when the temperature is high, and fertility restored at low temperatures. If it could not be solved, two-line hybrid rice would always be at the mercy of the weather.
In order to screen and identify more ideal sterile lines, we used all of the 50,000 yuan special funds arranged by Zhuzhou City for the creation of a cold-water irrigation platform, and developed a dual-pressure stress selection technical system of "natural low temperature and artificial low temperature," screening generation after generation to completely eliminate those individual plant types that restored fertility upon encountering short-term low temperatures. After multiple rounds of screening, we finally bred "Zhu 1S," whose critical sterility-inducing temperature was as low as 22.6 degrees Celsius and which was insensitive to six consecutive days of low temperature at 23 degrees Celsius. It was evaluated by Academician Yuan Longping as one of the core germplasm sources of early indica thermosensitive genic male sterile lines with the safest seed production and the largest application area to date.
In 1999, amid the wave of market-oriented reform of the seed industry, we took the lead in the country in establishing a "commercial breeding system" and a "factory-style, segmented" breeding innovation model, breaking down the entire breeding process into six different stages, with each stage handled by a professional team, sharing information and operating on an assembly-line basis. This increased breeding efficiency by more than 50 percent and shortened the breeding cycle by 3 to 4 years. Over the past 27 years, my team and I have cultivated a total of 611 new hybrid rice varieties, with a cumulative promotion area of nearly 800 million mu.
We have established a multi-level testing system from preliminary testing to production trials. A variety must pass every single hurdle, and only when it performs stably across different years, different regions, and different conditions do we have the confidence to hand it over to farmers. For breeders, true variety quality is not a few indicators on an approval certificate, but whether farmers can steadily increase production and income after planting it.
(The author is the chief rice scientist of Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd., compiled from an interview by People's Daily reporter Yang Xun)
Return to TopBy: 王 蒙
I. The Editor and the Author
I have never worked at a newspaper, but I have written many articles for newspapers. A good supplement usually reflects the editor's own intentions, which often manifest as a particular theme, a particular date, a particular type of person, or a particular advocacy or lead — for example, asking authors to write about holidays, about growing up, about the achievements in flood relief or epidemic response, or about the longing for reading, and so on. The editor's ideal is to organize several pieces across one or two pages that can echo one another and form a coherent whole. This is understandable.
But writers often do not proceed entirely from the editor's intentions; rather, they set pen to paper from what they know well and what they want to develop. This is where a contradiction arises: what you most want to write happens not to fit the editor's intentions exactly; what you cherish most and find most distinctive happens to be the editor's "off-plan" material; and the fresh, distinctive highlights you write sometimes become the parts the editor deems unsuitable or difficult to use.
In my dealings with editors, I count as easy to get along with. When editors propose revisions, I accept 99 percent of them happily. Back when Guangming Daily published my "The Eyes of the Night," the veteran editor Li Ding called and said, "Your story is still 37 characters too long." I said, "Fine, I'll cut them right now." Without hanging up the phone, in less than three minutes I cut 42 characters. He said that was enough, no more cutting.
But even so, our ideas did not always align. An editor once asked me to write about swimming, saying swimming was good for health and good for one's mental outlook. But I had a different experience — I believe swimming was one of the landmark subjects in the pursuit of Chinese modernization by the previous generation and the generation before that. Chairman Mao especially advocated swimming, and by no means merely for physical exercise; he said, "Human society has developed out of great winds and great waves." My father felt that even if he accomplished nothing else in life, as long as he could swim, his life had not been lived in vain. But such a sentiment is hard for a newspaper editor to accept: how can you elevate swimming to the level of Chinese modernization?
Another example is recalling the oath of Party admission. I joined the Party on October 10, 1948, five days short of my fourteenth birthday. At the time I could sing a song composed by Xian Xinghai and An E: "The road was opened by us, the trees were planted by us, the skyscraper was built by our own hands..." After learning that my Party membership had been approved, there was no oath-taking ceremony; I walked all the way home from Shichahai singing that song. In the article I wrote: "A little person, carrying enthusiasm for communism and for the revolution, singing 'creating a new world,' walked home." I felt this description was very vivid, but the editor did not approve of the appellation "little person." That year I was only fourteen — that is a living fact. The revolutionary high tide brought about the youthfulness of revolutionaries; in the countryside there were even Party members who joined at age eleven.
So I believe that between the editor's intentions and the author's style, taste, and language, a combination and balance are needed.
II. Solemnity and Lightness
A supplement is different from an editorial or a news report; it should read more lightly. But within the lightness there is solemnity. What is lightness? It is the quality of life — no matter how grand the theme, turn it into your life, your feelings, your recollections, your memories, and carry it with interest and with something to chew on.
On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao proclaimed the founding of New China on the rostrum of Tiananmen Gate. That event was too momentous. But when I wrote about it, I wrote that I was a member of the waist-drum team of the Central Youth League School, that we had to assemble at 4 a.m. that day, draped in red and green silk, beating waist drums — I still remember the rhythm of that drumming. This is a beautiful memory of my youth, filled with the sense of happiness in a great historical turning point. In writing about the victory of the Chinese revolution, about the Chinese people standing up, about Tiananmen Square, Chairman Mao, and the military parade, one can equally write about our waist-drum beating, and can write it as flourishing and prosperous (风生水起, feng sheng shui qi - "wind, rise; water, surge"), as thunder and lightning, and can also write it with handling difficult matters with ease (举重若轻, ju zhong ruo qing - "lift, heavy; like, light") and with genuine interest.
Some things are extremely momentous, but the lightness within the momentous can also move people. I had the honor of chatting with the aerospace heroes at a National Day reception and asked them whether they saw many stars in space. They said: "There are many stars, but the clearest and most intimate sight is the Earth. More importantly, Mr. Wang, don't think that astronauts are detached from the Earth; in fact, most of the time, the place where the spacecraft stays is at the doorstep of the Earth. It is like a child — when going out, the parent says, 'Don't go too far.'" Isn't that also intimate?
Nowadays people like to speak of the breath of everyday life, but life can also be the breath of refined tranquility, the breath of books and chanting, the breath of scenery filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers (鸟语花香, niao yu hua xiang - "bird, language; flower, fragrance"). Is there any sight more great and more delightful to the eye and mind (赏心悦目, shang xin yue mu - "appreciate, heart; please, eye") than the life of the people? We have a traditional saying, "vivid and full of life" (气韵生动, qi yun sheng dong - "spirit, charm; produce, movement"). If our newspaper supplements become vivid and full of life, how could they not be filled with the beauty and strength of life?
III. Media and Public Opinion
Self-media is becoming increasingly developed; the breadth of information and the volume of clicks far exceed what many newspapers and books can match. Our online public opinion is on the whole good, but public opinion can sometimes be hard to grasp; at the slightest provocation it forms public sentiment containing negative emotions — which includes both genuine popular feeling and some admixture of irritability, a disposition to be at odds with others, a blind impulse to stir up trouble and pile on. Online public opinion is too prone to following the crowd; in a whoosh it forms public opinion, especially driving the "indignation" of complaining, of resenting officials, resenting the rich, resenting the famous, and resenting culture. At such times, the media and supplements should play a guiding role.
More than ten years ago, Guangxi Normal University Press conducted an online questionnaire survey: what is the book you find most unreadable? The majority answered Dream of the Red Chamber. Not only Dream of the Red Chamber, but Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, and Water Margin were all complained about as "unreadable." Why does a nation as cultured as ours describe its own great masterpieces as "unreadable"? What kind of nature does this public opinion actually have? In such circumstances, mainstream media such as newspapers must provide scientific, stable, and healthy guidance of public opinion. Such guidance also needs to be sincere and direct, to have cohesion and persuasiveness, to be reasonable and sensible, and extremely penetrating or profound (入木三分, ru mu san fen - "enter, wood; three, parts").
We must have sufficient confidence to let correct arguments prevail over those bizarre clickbait headlines. I recall passing through Hong Kong in 1980, together with the elder Ai Qing. The day after an interview, a newspaper said Ai Qing had made some particularly bizarre claim about literature; the headline startled me, but the content was exactly the opposite — using a contrary headline to attract readers. Now, there is too much of this kind of thing online. It is unhealthy.
This is an important topic: we must promote the construction and development of new online media, we must face public opinion objectively and listen to it rationally. But at the very least we should proceed from seeking truth from facts, starting with verifying truth from falsehood. The media must dare and be good at speaking out on hot topics, presenting their views, and better exercising the intimate and mature guiding role of our newspaper supplements in public opinion.
China's newspaper supplements are a unique marvel. Many great figures have published works in supplements, many important works began in supplements, and many famous writers were themselves supplement editors. This shows that this is a spiritual and cultural garden worthy of cherishing and worthy of cultivation.
Return to TopBy: 罗艾桦
The sky had just begun to turn pale when Zhang Songbin woke up.
He is 79 years old this year, and his home is in Guyong Village, Luoping Town, Luoding City, Guangdong Province. The "Nanyue Red Flag Canal" refers to the Changgangpo Aqueduct in his town. Construction began in 1976, with a total length of 10.5 kilometers, 132 arches, and a 5,200-meter trough body, making it at one time the longest artificial aqueduct in the world. Water began flowing in 1981, and every year it delivers the equivalent of twenty to thirty West Lakes' worth of water from the Taiping River and the Luojing River into the Jinyinhe Reservoir, irrigating fertile farmland and supplying water for production and daily life, transforming Luoding, once plagued by "nine droughts in ten years," into the "granary of Lingnan."
The year the Changgangpo Aqueduct was completed, he was 34 years old. Forty-five years have passed, and although the highest point of the aqueduct is more than 30 meters above the ground, he has never missed a visit, going up to walk along it almost every seven or eight days. Every time, what delights him most is climbing halfway up the slope, pricking up his ears, and listening to the gurgling sound of water flowing through the trough above his head.
That day, as usual, he slipped on his rubber boots in the dark, and the door hinge gave a soft creak as he went out. All the way uphill, centipede grass grew in the cracks between the stone steps, and dew quickly soaked the uppers of his boots. He walked somewhat slowly; his kneecaps were like two rounded stones worn smooth, giving a slight knock with each step he climbed. Finally he reached the highest point of the aqueduct and stood there looking down, and the view opened up before him: green rice paddies, the Changgangpo Party Member Education Base, the Chuxin Building Study and Practice Education Base, the Dang'en Ruquan Square...
During the years of building the aqueduct, Zhang Songbin had served all along as a tractor driver. Cement, steel, stone materials... almost all of the heaviest things on the project were loaded onto his "iron lump." He remembers one Spring Festival when the construction site ran critically short of cement. Liang Ziran, the on-site general commander, rushed to the cement factory to "block" the factory director, and after much cajoling and persistence managed to obtain 10 tons. When word came, Zhang Songbin set down his chopsticks and bowl and started up the tractor with a roar. The construction site was more than 40 kilometers from the cement factory, and the road was full of potholes. When hungry, he gnawed on some dry rations; when sleepy, he dozed by the roadside for a while. The hardest part was in the dead of night, when there were not even streetlights. Relying on his excellent skill and tenacity, he bumped and jolted over eighty or ninety kilometers, hauled the cement back, and ensured construction could proceed the next day.
There were no bystanders on the construction site; all the cadres were taking the lead in a difficult task (身先士卒, shen xian shi zu - "body, first, lead, act"). Some villagers even composed a little tune singing of Liang Ziran: "The general commander is always seen at the site, often covered in water and mud. He often chats with the migrant workers, encouraging everyone to dare to act."
Lan Peijia, an 18-year-old high school graduate at the time, joined the "Youth Shock Brigade" led by Liang Weifa, always grabbing the hardest jobs to do. As a carpenter, he had to climb every day onto wooden scaffolding more than 30 meters high to build the concrete formwork for pouring the aqueduct. The scorching sun baked the wooden planks until they were burning hot, and people worked suspended in midair on a "bridge" made of three planks, where the slightest hesitation or carelessness was impermissible. "Everyone had a fire burning in their hearts," he recalled years later. "A single misstep would have meant unforeseeable and disastrous consequences (后果不堪设想, hou guo bu kan she xiang - "result, not, can, think, imagine"), but we never once thought of retreating, because this was for the happiness of our fellow villagers."
Over more than four years, more than 40,000 people, relying on nothing but carrying heavy loads on one's shoulders and back (肩挑背扛, jian tiao bei kang - "shoulder, carry, back, lug"), steel pry bars, iron hammers, and other crude methods and crude tools, little by little turned the lines on the blueprints into a water-conservancy miracle on this land. On the day the water began flowing, Liang Ziran, Liang Weifa, Zhang Songbin, Lan Peijia, and the others stood excitedly by the "artificial celestial river," slowly reaching their calloused hands into the channel, tears flowing out like clear springs.
Zhang Songbin rarely mentions these old stories to others. His son Zhang Yonghua, who works in the city, called and said, "Dad, come live in the urban area. The building has an elevator; you won't have to climb." He said, "I'm used to climbing." He tried to explain to his son that standing on the aqueduct and watching the water flow through the trough built with cement he himself had hauled gives an indescribable feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.
His son Zhang Yonghua vaguely remembers that when he was three or four years old, he was playing and burned his pants, but the adults were all at the construction site, so his trip to the hospital was delayed, leaving a long scar below his knee. But the sense of responsibility of the older generation was also deeply etched into Zhang Yonghua's bones. In 2017, his old father called him to his side and said, with few words but great weight: "The village needs you! Our family can spare one person who earns money to support the household, but it cannot lack one person who handles affairs for everyone."
Without a second word, Zhang Yonghua quit his job in the city and returned to Guyong Village to serve as Party branch secretary, and he has been at it for nearly ten years. The abandoned farmland of the past has been brought back into cultivation, and waves of rice rise and fall in front of and behind the houses. Villagers say that Secretary Zhang walks with the same brisk, vigorous stride as his father did back then.
The changes in Shuanglian Village below the aqueduct are even more pronounced.
With the province-wide implementation of the "Hundred-Thousand-Ten-Thousand Project," the area around Changgangpo has taken on a completely new appearance (焕然一新, huan ran yi xin - "transform, like so, one, new"), becoming a national 3A-level scenic area. The high-quality simiao rice produced there has finally fetched good prices, the villagers' wallets have grown fuller, the smiles on their faces are noticeably more numerous, and village collective income has soared from tens of thousands of yuan to 260,000 yuan. "In all these years, we have never lived with as much hope as we do now," said Chen Weijian, the village Party branch secretary, happily.
Peach trees and bougainvillea have been planted along the aqueduct route. In spring, milk vetch and Chinese bellflowers burst into bloom, turning barren slopes and wild land into seas of flowers and wetlands. Whenever an intangible cultural heritage performance is about to begin and the opening gongs and drums sound, Zhang Songbin crouches at the top of the trough and looks down. Tourists he has just met point their phones and cameras at him, and he always waves his hand: Don't photograph me, photograph the canal, photograph the water.
Perhaps, before the old man's eyes, the scene from early this year of a long contingent assembling beneath the aqueduct reappears: the second phase of the Guangdong Water Resources Allocation Project for the Beibu Gulf Rim had begun construction, and Yunfu City organized militia to rush a long distance to provide assistance (千里驰援, qian li chi yuan - "thousand, li, gallop, aid") at the first opportunity, hurrying to Zhanjiang to take part in dredging work. At the departure ceremony, unit flags fluttered and snapped in the wind, and everyone solemnly signed the military pledge...
Every generation has its own Changgangpo, and above the aqueduct runs a spirit passed down from generation to generation.
Return to TopBy: 孙君飞
After autumn arrives, the autumn wind prunes the branches of every fruit tree in the orchard. This is nature's way of "leaving blank space" for the fruit trees. At a leisurely pace (不疾不徐, bu ji bu xu - "not fast, not slow"), the lush green of the whole tree is reduced to a sparse openness. At this moment, the fruit no longer needs the embrace of green leaves; they themselves are vitality and beauty.
When I was a child, our family had an orchard. When I followed my grandfather to prune the fruit trees, I was always hesitant, unwilling to cut off those branches and leaves that were growing perfectly well. My grandfather said that only by removing the dense, weak, and redundant branches could one avoid abundant flowers but little fruit (花繁不实, hua fan bu shi - "flower, abundant, not, fruit") and lush foliage with no harvest. When the autumn harvest season arrived, because the pruning had been done properly, every fruit tree indeed was bearing abundant fruit (硕果累累, shuo guo lei lei - "large, fruit, heavy, heavy"). My grandfather's practice was also a way of "leaving blank space" for the fruit trees.
When it comes to "leaving blank space," one cannot fail to mention the persimmon. In the villages of my hometown, many farming households plant persimmon trees in their own courtyards. People love not only the sweet fruit of the persimmon tree, but also the charm it brings to the rural autumn. The red persimmons hang high on the branches, and as the autumn wind blows over them again and again, they become ever more vivid and ever sweeter. Against the backdrop of the pruned branches and the blue sky, each little red lantern becomes ever more eye-catching. In the collection of notebook stories Youyang Zazu by Duan Chengshi of the Tang Dynasty, the persimmon is summarized as having "seven perfections": "First, longevity; second, abundant shade; third, no bird nests; fourth, no insects; fifth, frost-touched leaves to be admired; sixth, fine fruit; seventh, large fallen leaves." Of these "seven perfections," some can be seen at a glance, while others can only be understood when the persimmon tree "leaves blank space." Take "longevity," for example: I believe it refers not only to a long life, but is also embodied in the persimmon tree's leaves falling while the fruit remains, and its body being free of superfluous form. The autumn frost carries away the lush verdure of the whole tree, leaving no vain abundance behind, and only then does the persimmon tree possess the upright and elegant (挺拔脱俗, ting ba tuo su - "upright, break, transcend, mundane") appearance of a long-lived one after "leaving blank space."
Come autumn, persimmons, pomegranates, tangerines, chestnuts — which of these is not a fine thing? Hanging on the branches, some are bustling with abundance, some are free-spirited in their stillness — sincere, complete, and self-content. This is both the harvest after cultivation and the settling after leaving blank space.
It is not only those fruit trees. The sights and scenes of autumn are sparse and open everywhere, most suited to painting a fine picture of "leaving blank space." For example, when Song Dynasty painters painted autumn lotus, they often took only half a withered leaf, a single dried lotus stem, and two or three lotus seed pods, bowing their heads over the vast water surface. Most of the picture is left blank, yet one can see the clear waves, the autumn mood, and the light of the sky and the shadows of the clouds. When Ni Zan of the Yuan Dynasty painted autumn scenery, in the foreground there was an empty pavilion and a few sparse trees, in the distance a faint touch of mountain, and in between, vast and bright, all was water — nothing superfluous, nothing congested. The large expanse of blank space is where the painter truly devoted his effort.
Nature best understands the beauty of leaving blank space. When the dense leaves fall, the fruit appears in the openness, and because of the emptiness all around, that fruit appears especially vivid and prominent. As for the light of the sky, the shadows of birds, and the sound of the wind among the sparse branches, all of these are also fully contained within it. Leaving blank space is not emptiness for its own sake, but rather leaving more story and imagination to the viewer. Therefore, the autumn of sparse branches retaining fruit truly holds little to be desolate or sorrowful about.
Plants have their one autumn; human beings have their one lifetime. When the spring blossoms are blazing, one always thinks of doing addition, reluctant to prune any branch or leaf, always believing that denser, more luxuriant, and more bustling is the only way to have lived vigorously. It is only when the harvest season arrives that one suddenly realizes (豁然明白, huo ran ming bai - "suddenly, understand") that true abundance often grows out of sparseness. The branches and leaves one discarded, the entanglements one let go of, and the blank space one deliberately kept — all of these later grow into heavy, solid fruit. Leaving blank space is for the sake of bringing to completion the fruit of life and reaping the fruit of one's life.
Return to TopOil painting Water Town, by Ma Changli, in the collection of the National Art Museum of China.
Return to TopBy: 张朝林
"Sister Jing, give our old man a haircut." An elderly woman pushed a wheelchair slowly over, and the old man seated in it had trembling hands.
"Auntie Wang, if you'd just give me a call, wouldn't it be fine for me to come to your home and cut Grandpa's hair?" Under the shade of the trees in the residential compound, a middle-aged woman with short hair at ear length was carefully cutting a customer's hair. She looked up and glanced at Auntie Wang, then said softly.
This was Sister Jing's regular haircutting spot, under a pine tree. Several other elderly people were waiting nearby.
"I'm just pushing this stubborn old man out for some fresh air, and might as well get his hair cut on the way, so you don't have to make an extra trip." The elderly woman smiled.
Sister Jing was a well-known barber in this area. She had once run a barbershop, and because of her superb skill and reasonable prices, business was brisk. I was one of her regular customers too. But later, her barbershop changed owners. When I asked where Sister Jing had gone, no one could say clearly.
Not long after, I ran into Sister Jing on the tree-lined path in the compound. A large canvas bag, a mirror, and a folding chair — that was all the equipment she had for haircutting. I was pleasantly surprised: "Sister Jing, I finally ran into you. My hair is in your hands again."
Sister Jing chuckled: "If everyone likes it, from now on this patch of shade will be my haircutting spot."
I asked her why she no longer ran the barbershop, and she only softly let out one sentence: "I have to take care of my mother-in-law." As she spoke, a faint trace of reluctance flashed across her face.
When it came to her haircutting career, she opened up: "You know, the shop wasn't big, but as soon as I opened the door, customers would flood in. There wasn't room for everyone inside, so people lined up outside the door. I was so busy that even my meals had to be squeezed in finding any available opportunity to do something (见缝插针, jian feng cha zhen - "see, gap, insert, needle"). I couldn't close up before 11 at night." A look of pride was written on her face.
Whenever a customer came in for a haircut, she would always ask whether they wanted to keep their original hairstyle or try something new. If it was the latter, she would have the guest stand up and walk a few steps, then carefully size up the guest's build, facial contours, walking posture, and hair texture, and she would have a plan in mind. After a round of fine trimming and careful styling, the guest would come out looking radiant and glowing with health (容光焕发, rong guang huan fa - "face, light, radiant, emit"), studying themselves repeatedly in the mirror, then walking a few more steps, and involuntarily giving her a thumbs-up.
"The barbershop was doing so well — didn't it hurt to sell it off?"
"It would be a lie to say it didn't hurt. But every time I saw my husband running back and forth between work and caring for his old mother, thin beyond recognition, my heart ached. That said, money can never be earned to the end. In the end I hardened my heart and sold it. Otherwise, if I stayed guarding the shop, I couldn't free myself up to care for my mother-in-law." At this point, a hint of sweet smile rippled across Sister Jing's face. "This counts as a kind of support for my husband's work too. He's an only son. His father passed away early, and his mother enduring great hardships and suffering (含辛茹苦, han xin ru ku - "contain, bitter, endure, bitter") raised him all by herself and put him through university. It wasn't easy. She should have been enjoying her old age in peace and comfort (安享晚年, an xiang wan nian - "peacefully, enjoy, late, years"), but instead she had a cerebral hemorrhage. Her life was saved, but she was paralyzed, and she needs someone to attend to her eating, drinking, and toileting. My husband works in a government department, stationed year-round in a town deep in the Qinling Mountains, and can barely make it home once in several months. My mother-in-law is also my mother." She narrated in a calm, even tone.
Just then, her phone rang. It was an elderly person bedridden with paralysis in another compound, asking her to make a home visit. She agreed, saying she would hurry over as soon as she finished cutting the hair of the people here.
Many elderly people in the compound were Sister Jing's long-standing regulars, and they would only trust her. One haircut cost 7 yuan. The price was secondary; the key was that her skill was good, her attitude was good, and she made home visits — everyone was very satisfied. Elderly people whose hair had gone untended for a long time would look several years younger after Sister Jing tidied them up. There was another reason the elderly liked to have her cut their hair: she knew how to chat, and her talk of family and household matters was all heartwarming words. Whoever had worries in their family, once she talked them through it, the clouds of anxiety would scatter.
Auntie Wang said that several elderly people bedridden with paralysis in the compound were all recipients of Sister Jing's home-visit service. "Once the power went out in the compound, and my old man was making a fuss demanding a haircut. There was truly no way around it, so I had to call Sister Jing. Sister Jing insisted on climbing 28 floors, and was extremely out of breath (上气不接下气, shang qi bu jie xia qi - "rise, breath, not, connect, fall, breath") from exhaustion. My heart ached for her, and I hurriedly wiped her sweat and fanned her. Our stubborn old man was so moved his eyes turned red."
"Sis—Sister Jing—good—woman." The old man praised her in slurred speech, his trembling hand barely managing to form a not-quite-standard "thumbs-up."
Everyone laughed. The afterglow of the setting sun was just then bathing the little haircutting spot in a warm red light.
Return to TopBy: 和 谷
In the afternoon, strolling north along the machine-plowed main road at the head of the village, an electric bicycle stood by the roadside beside the prickly ash field, but no figure picking prickly ash was visible—they had disappeared deep into the thicket of trees. The loess cliff was bathed in the setting sun's glow like a translucent oil painting, the corn's green gauze curtain by the ditch was lush and tranquil, butterflies fluttered and birds sang, and the autumn sounds of the ancestral soil of Nan'ao were extraordinarily wonderful (妙不可言, miao bu ke yan - "wonderful, not can, be, spoken").
Climbing up the high slope, with distant mountains and nearby ridges, before my eyes lay a large apple orchard with bagged fruit, and within it stood a fairly new white building. Suddenly, several whinnying horse cries came. It was not the braying of cattle, donkeys, or mules—it was horses, a sound this fierce and bold that had not been heard in Nan'ao Village for many years. Agricultural mechanization had replaced livestock, and able-bodied young laborers had gone to work in the cities, residing in urban areas, returning to the countryside only during the busy farming season to tend to crops like prickly ash.
Where did this horse's cry come from?
Approaching the white building, it turned out to be a horse farm. Four horses—one white, three red—stood with heads lowered quietly grazing within the fence, occasionally letting out a few cries. This rustling horse neighing that pierced the silent countryside—was it calling for the white-haired elders living in the village to come and meet? The horses raised their heads to look at the stranger before them, then buried their heads in grazing again.
These fine horses, with calm eyes, well-proportioned limbs, long necks, and glossy coats—did they come from the northern grasslands? Years ago, I had traveled north to Ordos to write an article about the Kubuqi, galloping on horseback across the desertification-control worksite where meadow and desert alternated. The horses in my hometown's apple orchard looked very much like my former mount.
I heard that this area of several hundred mu of orchard was being cultivated and managed by a young man. The horses were purchased from the Inner Mongolia grasslands, tamed by old herders, and very well-behaved. The alfalfa the horses ate was also custom-ordered from the northern grasslands. The owner often rode a horse to patrol around the orchard. The scientifically managed apple trees were growing promisingly, each costing 0.8 yuan to produce, and reportedly bringing in tens of thousands of yuan per mu, already sold far overseas.
This sunny hollow beneath my feet had shifted from nomadic herding to farming over a thousand years ago. At the site of the former livestock shed, hitching posts still remained, one of which had been placed at the door of the village's reading room, with a crouching monkey on top, regarded as a treasure by the farming households. The stories of people and horses were recorded in both the county gazetteer and the clan genealogies. In the generation of my great-grandfathers, a youth who tended horses at home rode his family's white horse and followed the Eighth Route Army onto the anti-Japanese battlefield, leaving behind a heroic name.
The four seasons turn, and the rapid passage of time (流年似水, liu nian si shui - "flowing, years, like, water") passes like water; the older generation of farmers has turned to dust, and the new generation has left their native soil to make their way in the world. The land does not age—spring planting, summer weeding, autumn harvest, winter storage. Land has been transferred, operations scaled up, and outsiders have become the operators of this land, with rental income subsidizing the farmers' old-age support, more worthwhile than tending it themselves.
As the sun set in the west, I saw a van parked at the head of the village collecting prickly ash. This year had abundant rain and ample sunlight, so the Dahongpao prickly ash harvest was good. Although the price was not high, the old and young selling prickly ash were still beaming with smiles (笑容满面, xiao rong man mian - "smile, countenance, full, face"), as the fruits of their labor brought an ordinary yet solid livelihood.
Pausing to look into the distance, the lights on the high slope to the north were bright, and occasionally a few horse neighs came, spreading through the evening breeze of the countryside.
Return to TopIn the golden autumn season, the mountains and rivers are beautiful scenery and landscape (山河锦绣, shan he jin xiu - "mountain, river, brocade, beautiful"). During the National Day holiday, the People's Daily "Dadi" literary supplement plans to launch a special section titled "Our National Day Stories" within its "Dadi Fenghua" series, sincerely inviting readers to depict the new scenery, new life, and new experiences across the country during the National Day period in the form of prose, essays, or poetry.
Submissions should feature authentic and moving characters and stories, with literary merit and interest, with no restrictions on subject matter, and a preferred length of no more than 1,200 characters. Please send submissions to the supplement's email address dadi@peopledaily.cn and note "National Day Story Submission" in the subject line.
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