Summary: President Xi Jinping held talks with U.S. President Trump at the White House, noting that their exchange of visits within less than half a year is unprecedented in China-U.S. relations. Xi stressed that the two sides should translate their new positioning of a constructive and strategically stable relationship into action, pursuing win-win cooperation, healthy competition, and proper handling of differences. He welcomed the new joint arrangement from the latest economic and trade consultations, urging both sides to move towards each other and promote stable development of bilateral trade ties. Xi also called for cooperation in artificial intelligence, reaffirmed China's clear position on safeguarding national unity and territorial integrity, and hoped the U.S. side would adhere to opposing "Taiwan independence" and handle the Taiwan issue prudently. Trump said Xi's state visit is a great one, that he is a good friend of Xi, and that the two sides should continue dialogue on trade and cooperate on AI; they also exchanged views on the Middle East, Ukraine, and the Korean Peninsula, and confirmed mutual support for hosting the 2026 APEC and G20 summits.
Summary: President Xi Jinping attended a grand welcome ceremony hosted by US President Trump at the White House on September 24, accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, with Trump and his wife Melania greeting them and posing for photographs. In his remarks, Xi conveyed greetings from over 1.4 billion Chinese people, congratulated the 250th anniversary of American independence, and stressed strengthening communication, sincere cooperation, and peaceful coexistence between China and the US, noting that the "Thucydides Trap" can be overcome. He announced China will invite 100,000 American youths for exchange in the next five years and that giant pandas "Ping Ping" and "Fu Shuang" will soon settle at Zoo Atlanta. Trump welcomed the historic visit, citing their friendship and plans for discussions on trade, security, artificial intelligence, and science, while recalling shared World War II history including the Flying Tigers. Cai Qi, Wang Yi, and He Lifeng participated in the event.
Summary: President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington on September 23 for a state visit to the US at the invitation of President Trump, who welcomed him and his wife Peng Liyuan at Andrews Air Force Base. Trump called the visit "drawing worldwide attention" and expressed anticipation for in-depth exchanges to advance bilateral relations. In a written speech, Xi emphasized that China and the US should be partners rather than rivals, and that China's rejuvenation and making America great again can proceed "coexisting without contradiction." He referenced the China-U.S. constructive strategic stability relationship agreed with Trump in May, urging both sides to "move towards each other in a common direction" to foster a stable relationship. Cai Qi, Wang Yi, and other accompanying personnel arrived on the same plane, while He Lifeng and Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng were also at the airport to welcome him.
Summary: Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered remarks at the White House welcoming ceremony during his state visit to the United States, thanking President Trump and the First Lady for their hospitality and congratulating the American people on the 250th anniversary of American independence. He emphasized that China and the United States should strengthen communication, cooperate in good faith, and coexist in peace, building on the constructive and stable strategic relationship agreed during President Trump's earlier visit to China. Xi stressed that healthy, bounded competition between the two major countries is acceptable, and that the "Thucydides Trap" can be transcended. He announced that China will invite 100,000 American youths to China for exchanges over the next five years and that giant pandas "Ping Ping" and "Fu Shuang" will soon arrive at Zoo Atlanta. Xi concluded by stating that China's rejuvenation and making America great again are two things proceeding together without contradiction.
Summary: Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping, visited the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington together with Melania, wife of U.S. President Trump, on September 24. During the tour, Peng Liyuan expressed appreciation for the United States' return of Chinese cultural relics and hoped for stronger cultural exchange and cooperation in cultural heritage protection between the two countries. After the tour, they watched American youth sing Chinese songs, and Peng Liyuan encouraged them to study Chinese language and culture and become envoys of China-U.S. friendship.
Summary: President Xi Jinping announced at a White House welcome ceremony hosted by U.S. President Trump that China will invite 100,000 American young people to China for exchange and study over the next five years, building on the earlier "50,000 in Five Years" initiative that was achieved two and a half years ahead of schedule. Xi emphasized that "the hope of China-U.S. relations lies in the people, and its future lies in the youth," and highlighted his personal engagement through reply letters and New Year cards to American students and friends, including those from Muscatine High School and Iowa. He recalled his 1985 visit to Iowa and urged youth from both countries to become "a new generation of envoys of friendship" and contribute to enhancing bilateral ties. The article frames the initiative as a people-centered effort to strengthen China-U.S. relations, with Xi stating that the desire for exchange and cooperation between the two peoples will not change despite shifts in the international situation.
Summary: At a September 24 press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Li Yang, spokesperson and vice minister of the Ministry of Transport, said transport departments at all levels are taking a variety of measures simultaneously to ensure safe and smooth travel during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, with cross-regional movement expected to reach 650 million and 2.13 billion person-trips respectively. Li Yang noted that new-energy vehicle traffic flow during the National Day holiday will average more than 1.6 times the usual level, peaking at 17.8 million vehicles on the first day, and that charging guarantee plans based on a "one area, one policy" approach will be implemented. Wang Qiming, spokesperson and deputy director of the National Railway Administration, said railway passenger volume is expected to reach 284 million, with an average of 13,000 passenger trains planned per day and added capacity on popular routes. Ma Bing, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said civil aviation is expected to transport 31.19 million passengers from September 25 to October 7, a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent, with a single-day peak exceeding 2.6 million passengers. The State Post Bureau will ensure the delivery network operates passing through smoothly without any obstacles and focus on creating an integrated "travel—shop—ship" scenario to support the cultural tourism industry.
Summary: The State Administration for Market Regulation reported that from January to August, China saw 15.502 million newly established business entities, including 6.001 million enterprises, 9.474 million individually owned businesses, and 27,000 farmers' professional cooperatives. The industrial structure continued to optimize, with the tertiary industry accounting for 13.788 million new entities, highlighting the service sector's role in employment, consumption, and transformation. New industries, business forms, models, and technologies are flourishing, with registered "four new" economy enterprises reaching 29.301 million by end-August, up 5.4% year-on-year and representing 44.0% of all enterprises. Innovation factors are accelerating aggregation, and the conversion of old and new growth drivers is speeding up.
Summary: The "2025 Statistical Bulletin on China's Outward Foreign Direct Investment," jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, shows that China's outward foreign direct investment flow reached US$213.58 billion in 2025, up 11.1 percent year-on-year, with the outward investment stock at US$3.4 trillion, maintaining a global top-three position for nine consecutive years and raising its global share to 7.4 percent. Outward investment covers 18 industry categories, mainly concentrated in leasing and business services, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, and finance. As of the end of 2025, China had established 58,000 enterprises overseas across 189 countries and regions, employing 4.761 million people, of whom 2.965 million were locally hired foreign staff.
Summary: President Xi Jinping attended a welcome ceremony hosted by U.S. President Trump at the White House on September 24 local time, stating his willingness to work with President Trump to guide the great ship of China-U.S. relations toward a steady and lasting voyage. Interviewees from both countries said the meeting helps carry forward friendship, expand cooperation, and inject new impetus into a constructive and stable strategic relationship. Xi announced that China will invite 100,000 American youths to China for exchange and study over the next five years, and that giant pandas "Ping Ping" and "Fu Shuang" will soon settle at Zoo Atlanta. Experts and officials quoted, including Zhao Suisheng, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, and Stephen Orlins, emphasized that stable, predictable head-of-state exchanges provide a global public good and send a positive signal of economic openness and stable relations. The article highlights that deepened cooperation and people-to-people exchanges will solidify the bilateral relationship's foundation and benefit global governance.
Summary: The article reports that American companies are optimistic about China's development prospects and will continue to deepen their presence in China, following the successful meeting between the Chinese and American heads of state. It cites data showing 78% of surveyed American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai members achieved profitability in 2025, and that American companies' investment in China grew by 7.8% year-on-year in the first half of this year. Executives from GE HealthCare, PepsiCo, Coach, Dow, Nike, Estée Lauder, Qualcomm, and other firms are quoted expressing confidence in the Chinese market and plans to expand investment and innovation there. The article emphasizes that the essence of China-U.S. economic and trade relations is mutually beneficial and win-win outcomes, and that the two countries should move towards each other in a common direction. It concludes that strengthening cooperation between the two sides can promote mutual benefit and benefit global economic growth.
Summary: President Xi Jinping is paying a state visit to the United States at the invitation of U.S. President Trump, marking his first visit in nearly three years and the second exchange of visits between the two heads of state within half a year. Kenneth Hammond, a professor at New Mexico State University, said the visit has drawn great attention from both peoples and the international community. Hammond praised China's clear vision under Communist Party leadership and its sharing of development experience with Global South countries, expressing hope that the U.S. and China can expand cooperation and reduce differences to promote a constructive and strategically stable bilateral relationship. He argued that the two economies are deeply integrated and cannot be "decoupled," citing recent economic and trade consultations in New York as proof, and stressed that confrontation leads nowhere while cooperation is the general trend. Hammond also highlighted the need for U.S.-China cooperation on artificial intelligence risks and expanded youth exchanges, concluding that Xi's visit will inject positive energy into bilateral relations.
Summary: The article highlights BeiDou's role as a core support for China's aerospace industry and a key driver of emerging pillar industries amid the 15th Five-Year Plan period. It reports that in 2025, the BeiDou industry's total output value exceeded 629 billion yuan, with over 30,000 enterprises and 2 million employees, and emphasizes achievements in domestic production of core components and widespread applications across transportation, agriculture, maritime, energy, and low-altitude economy sectors. The piece also notes BeiDou's international expansion, with products exported to more than 140 countries and regions, integrated into Belt and Road cooperation, and providing services such as dam monitoring in Tajikistan and flood warning in Pakistan. Looking ahead, it outlines plans to strengthen top-level design, optimize institutional safeguards, and deepen international cooperation to accelerate large-scale application. The article does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Premier Li Qiang attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou on September 24, stating that the expo has become an important platform for promoting cooperation in the global digital economy. He called on the international community to act in accordance with the prevailing trend, strengthen digital connectivity, bridge the digital divide, and improve digital governance, while opposing camp-based and exclusive arrangements. Li pledged that China will expand digital consumption demand, advance "AI + consumption," relax market access, and contribute Chinese solutions to improving international rules. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar, Kyrgyzstan's Prime Minister Kasymaliev, and UNIDO Director General Müller were among those who attended or delivered speeches. Li toured the exhibition halls with the foreign leaders before the ceremony, with Wu Zhenglong participating in the activities.
Summary: Premier Li Qiang met with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar in Hangzhou, who was in China for the 48th WorldSkills Competition and the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo. Li highlighted President Xi Jinping's state visit to Malaysia last year as opening a new "golden 50 years" in bilateral ties, and stressed China's commitment to deepening high-level strategic cooperation, including Belt and Road projects like the East Coast Rail Link and emerging sectors such as AI, new energy vehicles, and semiconductors. He called for opposing hegemonic bullying, upholding the multilateral trading system, and encouraging ASEAN cooperation with China. Anwar affirmed Malaysia's firm adherence to the One-China policy, support for Xi's AI governance proposal, and appreciation for China's role in global governance and defending the Global South's interests. Wu Zhenglong attended the meeting.
Summary: Premier Li Qiang signed a State Council decree promulgating the revised Regulations on the Implementation of the Audit Law of the People's Republic of China, effective December 1, 2026, comprising 7 chapters and 64 articles. The revision strengthens Party leadership by stipulating audit work shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China and implement the Party Central Committee's decisions. It refines audit supervision content, including audits of fiscal revenues and expenditures, draft final accounts, and state-owned resources and assets, while clarifying audit jurisdiction rules. The revision improves audit procedures by adding a registration and reporting system for interference with audit matters and refining procedures for inquiring into deposits. It also consolidates audit rectification responsibility, clarifying audited entities bear primary responsibility and requiring follow-up inspections and classified rectification requirements.
Summary: Zhao Leji, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, conducted research in Jilin and Heilongjiang from September 21 to 24, emphasizing the need to consciously practice whole-process people's democracy and do high-quality work in local people's congresses. He visited representative home stations, grassroots legislative contact points, communities, villages, and enterprises in Siping, Changchun, Harbin, and Qiqihar, exchanging views with deputies and the public. He stressed democratic and open-door legislation, deepening representative work through "two connections," and supporting deputies in performing duties according to law. At provincial and municipal people's congress organs, he reviewed legislative work, networked supervision of budget review, and county- and township-level elections, urging adherence to Party leadership and law-based governance. He also called for ensuring the new term elections proceed lawfully and in a clean political atmosphere, with positive publicity showcasing the people's role as masters of the country.
Summary: Wang Huning, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, presided over the 56th Chairperson's Meeting of the 14th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing on September 24 and delivered a speech. The meeting conveyed and studied the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's recent important speeches and instructions, with Wang stressing the need to implement them across areas including Party building, political achievements, advanced manufacturing, agriculture, education, and basic research. The meeting approved the agenda and schedule for the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th CPPCC National Committee, to be held in Beijing in early November. It also held its third collective study session of 2026 on higher education, with Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng delivering a report. Vice Chairpersons Shen Yueyue, Wang Yong, Su Hui, and Shao Hong spoke on implementing Xi's guiding principles, while Shi Taifeng and other vice chairpersons attended.
Summary: At a September 24 State Council Information Office press conference, Ministry of Culture and Tourism officials outlined plans for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with Vice Minister Wang Jianhua emphasizing deep integration of culture and tourism as the main thread. Priorities include strengthening art creation, systematic cultural heritage protection, optimizing public cultural facilities, invigorating cultural industry entities, and enriching cultural exchanges through inbound tourism promotion. Spokesperson Chen Binbin announced a three-year action plan for drama revitalization and a support mechanism for small and medium-sized plays. Miao Muyang, Director of the Department of Industrial Development, highlighted cultivating new drivers for the cultural industry, including original content support, consumption action plans, and accelerating exports of cultural products. Man Hongwei, Director of the Department of Resource Development, stressed tourism's role in benefiting livelihoods, refined services, and enhanced safety through joint supervision and market rectification.
Summary: Li Hongzhong, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over and addressed the second plenary meeting of the NPC Standing Committee's law enforcement inspection team on the Food Security Guarantee Law in Beijing on September 24. He stressed adherence to General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on national food security and focused on implementing the Party Central Committee's deployment goals for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. He noted that since the 18th National Congress, food security's role as a stabilizer for economic and social development has been consolidated, and the law's implementation has achieved phased results. He called for deepening implementation of laws including the Food Security Guarantee Law, resolving prominent problems in food security governance, strengthening cultivated land protection, agricultural disaster prevention systems, and scientific and technological support, while protecting the enthusiasm of local governments and farmers. Wu Weihua and Shohrat Zakir, Vice Chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the meeting.
Summary: The article reports on Hongjun Village in Chengkou County, Chongqing, the only administrative village in the city named after the Red Army, where the local economy now centers on cultivating Coptis chinensis. Li Ming, general manager of Chongqing Jiuzhi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., leads villagers in planting the herb, supported by Zhou Yiquan, president of the Chongqing Dabashan Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute, who provided technical guidance. Zhou Yuanzhi, Party secretary of Gaoyan Town, highlighted reforms in collective forest rights that enabled income-rights pledge financing, helping Li Ming secure a 5 million yuan loan. The village has expanded to 18,000 mu of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs with an annual output value of 30 million yuan, and Xie Zhengxue, Party branch secretary of Hongjun Village, led by planting 100 mu himself. The piece frames these efforts as revitalizing the old revolutionary base area through reform and innovation.
Summary: The NPC Standing Committee's law enforcement inspection team for the Barrier-Free Environment Construction Law held its second plenary meeting on September 24 to study the draft inspection report, attended by vice chairpersons Wang Dongming, Zheng Jianbang, and Cai Dafeng. Wang Dongming stressed the need to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on barrier-free environment construction and Party Central Committee decisions, refining the report based on statutory duties and legal provisions. He called for practical suggestions at the levels of legal systems and institutional mechanisms, and for follow-up work including the NPC Standing Committee's deliberation of the report and strengthened follow-up supervision. He urged using this inspection to address key implementation difficulties and the people's urgent needs, advancing barrier-free construction during the 15th Five-Year Plan period to provide a more convenient, accessible, warm, and caring environment.
Summary: Xiao Jie, Vice Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee, led a team to Xinjiang from September 19 to 24 to inspect the implementation of the Tourism Law, conducting on-site inspections in some cities, prefectures, and regions and hearing reports from the autonomous region. The inspection team fully affirmed the positive results achieved in Xinjiang's implementation of the Tourism Law. Xiao Jie pointed out that Xinjiang boasts abundant natural resources and a long history of cultural resources, and its tourism industry has great development potential. He emphasized the need to thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on tourism work and the Party Central Committee's decisions, fully implement all requirements of the Tourism Law, and promote high-quality development of the tourism industry on the track of the rule of law. He also called for adapting to the needs of building a strong tourism country, conscientiously revising and improving the Tourism Law, and extensively building legislative consensus.
Summary: The Chinese delegation won 32 gold medals on the fifth competition day of the Nagoya Asian Games, bringing its total to 80 gold, 30 silver, and 20 bronze medals, ranking first in both the gold and overall medal tables. Chinese swimmers collected 4 gold and 3 bronze medals, with Zhang Zhanshuo winning the men's 800-meter freestyle and helping defend the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay title while breaking the Asian record, becoming the first athlete to win 6 gold medals at the Games. In women's water polo, China defeated Japan in a penalty shootout to achieve a fifth consecutive Asian Games championship. In weightlifting, Yang Yang won gold in the men's 60 kg category, while He Yueji set a world record in the snatch with 152 kg but took silver in the men's 65 kg. The delegation also swept gold and silver in men's discus throw, won silver and bronze in women's triple jump, and collected 15 gold medals in rowing and wushu, along with team titles in badminton and table tennis.
Summary: The article reports on Xinhua's 2026 "Vibrant China Research Tour" and the 37th episode of the "China Economic Roundtable," which discussed new highlights in China's consumption. Experts including Lin Jian, Zhang Weihua, Zhang Dandan, and Chen Chunhui analyzed shifts from "buying goods" to "buying peace of mind" and from functional to experiential consumption, alongside supply-side innovations like first-launch stores and cultural empowerment. The piece highlights policy measures such as trade-in subsidies and the first release of "total retail sales of consumer goods and services," projecting growth in service consumption and "artificial intelligence + consumption" during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. It also notes China's status as the world's second-largest consumer market and discusses inbound tourism targets, including 190 million visits and spending exceeding 150 billion US dollars. The article concludes that sustainable consumption growth requires coordination between supply and demand sides, leveraging effective markets and a well-functioning government.
Summary: The CPPCC National Committee's "Member Science Lecture Hall" held a popular science lecture at Beijing Forestry University on September 24, where Cui Lijuan, a CPPCC National Committee member and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, delivered a report titled "Understanding Wetlands, Practicing the Thought on Ecological Civilization" and interacted with the audience. Cui introduced the scientific definition and ecological functions of wetlands, analyzed challenges such as wetland shrinkage and pollution, and detailed China's achievements in wetland restoration. The lecture is part of the CPPCC's efforts to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's expositions on popular science work and to serve the people.
Summary: The Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government have designated the rectification of online food delivery food safety as a key project, with the Jiangsu Provincial Administration for Market Regulation carrying out a "100-Day Assault Campaign" to safeguard public health. Jiangsu established a "dual special task force" regulatory mechanism, with more than 54,000 food delivery merchants completing problem rectification and over 11,000 delivery riders participating in supervision through the "Food Safety Snap-and-Report" platform. The province has developed an online food delivery food safety monitoring system, bringing more than 200,000 enterprises under "Internet + AI regulation" and conducting over 16 million remote inspections. Jiangsu is also building a "1+N" institutional system for online food delivery food safety governance, issuing various regulatory documents and an implementation plan for whole-chain governance. The article does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: The article reflects on the cultural significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival, noting how the full moon has inspired countless classic works and shaped Chinese culture's gentle and affectionate foundation. It invites readers to explore Mid-Autumn memories in literary classics, guided by renowned writers, to appreciate themes of reunion, family and country, and broad-mindedness. The piece emphasizes that while the full moon remains unchanged, the cultural heritage endures, continuing to illuminate the present with its timeless meaning.
Summary: This article is an essay on Su Shi’s “Prelude to Water Melody,” written on the Mid-Autumn night of the ninth year of the Xining reign (1076), when Su Shi, prefect of Mizhou, drank until dawn and composed the lyric in remembrance of his brother Ziyou. The author, a professor at Beijing Normal University, analyzes how the poem reflects Su Shi’s honest acknowledgment of life’s imperfection, his choice to remain in the flawed yet warm human world rather than flee to the cold celestial realms, and his deep affection for brothers, wife, and country. The essay concludes that Su Shi’s romanticism, lucidity, serenity, and courage all stem from his profound love for the world, and that the Mid-Autumn moon illuminated his attitude toward the human world rather than mere solitude.
Summary: This article is a literary analysis of Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Jiuling's poem "Gazing at the Moon, Longing for the Far Away," arguing that it expresses not merely romantic longing but the poet's political aspirations. The author contends that Zhang Jiuling, who was demoted for criticizing superiors with integrity, used the poem to lodge his longing for the sovereign and serving the state. The analysis compares the poem to Qu Yuan's *Li Sao*, praising it as "the *Li Sao* among five-character regulated verse." The piece concludes that the poem is the artistic manifestation of "Jiuling's bearing," transforming hard resolve into soft, winding sentiment.
Summary: This article is a literary analysis of Liu Yuxi's Tang Dynasty poem "Poem on Autumn," which boldly declares that autumn surpasses spring. The author, a Peking University professor, highlights how Liu Yuxi breaks the traditional literary trope of autumn grief by infusing the season with heroic spirit and innovation. The analysis emphasizes the poem's structural brilliance, particularly its use of a striking image—a crane soaring through the clear sky—to fuse objective scenery with subjective feeling. The piece concludes that Liu Yuxi's bold emotion and novel imagery elevate the poem above mid- and late-Tang styles, approaching the grand atmosphere of the High Tang while retaining a unique individuality.
Summary: The article discusses the Mid-Autumn Festival scenes in *Dream of the Red Chamber*, highlighting how Cao Xueqin uses the festival as a structural juncture and a unique aesthetic to warn against illusions. It describes the Jia mansion's elaborate moon-worship rites, mooncakes, and watermelon offerings, as well as the Lady Dowager's flute appreciation that moved her to tears. Daiyu, Xiangyun, and Miaoyu compose linked verses by the water, forging a spiritual bond apart from the banquet. The piece concludes that the novel urges people to cherish everyday life and true feeling. The author is a professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China.
Summary: This article discusses Taiwanese writer Qi Jun's prose about the Mid-Autumn Festival and the moon, focusing on her piece "Moonlight Cake," which recalls a childhood memory of a hometown mooncake in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. The author, a professor at Fujian Normal University, analyzes how Qi Jun uses plain yet dense prose to depict the moonlight shining on the human world, including a quarrel with her cousin over a cake and their subsequent moon-worshipping reconciliation. The piece highlights Qi Jun's homesickness, as she contrasts the richer, oilier mooncakes of Taiwan with the fragrant, crisp moonlight cakes of her hometown, ending with the question, "When will I go home to eat moonlight cake?" The article also references Qi Jun's other prose, "Spending the Mid-Autumn Festival with a Cake," where her husband compares a Suzhou-style flaky mooncake to the moon, echoing the classical line "May we live long and share the beauty of the moon across vast distances." The moon serves as a symbol of separation and longing in Taiwanese literary imagination, reflecting the period when the two sides of the strait were cut off from each other.
Summary: The article reflects on the author's father Xiao Feng's *Long March Diary* entry for September 12, 1935, the Mid-Autumn Festival, which records only a march of eighty li with no mention of the moon or homesickness. The author notes that her father and his comrades had just emerged from the grasslands, and his diary emphasized leaving grain for the Third Army Corps behind, with receipts for borrowed grain to respect local customs. She recalls a night in 1988 when her father wept while sorting his diaries, explaining that he was a survivor who had crawled out of a pile of corpses, which helped her understand the brevity of his writings. Ninety-one years later, she retraces his route to Yan'an, where the Red Army's Long March achieved victory, and eats local mooncakes, reflecting that the sweetness of family reunion was walked out step by step along that arduous road. The piece concludes that this sweetness was earned by her father and countless others like him.
(People's Daily, Washington, September 24) (Reporters Yang Xuebo, Yang Qiaochu) On the morning of September 24 local time, President Xi Jinping held talks with U.S. President Trump at the White House.
Xi Jinping noted that the exchange of visits between the heads of state of China and the United States within less than half a year is unprecedented (前所未有, qian suo wei you - "before, has, not, have") in the history of China-U.S. relations. President Trump and I have maintained communication through various means, jointly steering the ship of China-U.S. relations. In May this year, President Trump and I agreed to build a constructive and strategically stable China-U.S. relationship. This new positioning reflects the reality of China-U.S. relations and embodies expectations for the future, marking an important step toward the right way for the two countries to get along. We must translate this vision into action, work toward a direction of cooperation as the mainstay, competition with limits, manageable differences, and a peaceful and promising future, and find the right way for two major countries to get along. China and the United States should and can achieve a win-win situation for all parties (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual, benefit, together, win") through practical cooperation, helping each other to succeed (彼此成就, bi ci cheng jiu - "each other, achieve, accomplish") through healthy competition, properly handling differences while seeking common ground while reserving differences (求同存异, qiu tong cun yi - "seek, same, preserve, different"), and building peace through accumulating mutual trust, so that the constructive and strategically stable China-U.S. relationship better benefits the people of both countries and people of all countries around the world.
Xi Jinping stressed that the economic and trade teams of both sides held a new round of consultations and reached a new joint arrangement, which is good news for the industries, the people, and even the global economy of both countries. Cooperation is a two-way street; the stability of China-U.S. economic and trade relations requires both lengthening the list of cooperation and compressing the list of problems. As long as we uphold the spirit of equality, respect, and mutual benefit, we can find a way out to solve problems. It is hoped that both sides will move towards each other in a common direction (相向而行, xiang xiang er xing - "towards, towards, each other, walk"), adhere to the orientation of a win-win situation for all parties, and promote the sustained, stable, and sound development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations.
Xi Jinping pointed out that both China and the United States are major countries in artificial intelligence. The two sides have competition, but there is even more room for cooperation. They should each play to their respective strengths (各展所长, ge zhan suo chang - "each, display, one's, strength") rather than guard against each other. The two sides can continue to conduct artificial intelligence dialogue, exchange views on its risks and benefits, and jointly prevent artificial intelligence from being abused or misused. It is necessary to maintain human control over artificial intelligence technology, uphold the concept of people-centeredness and striving for goodness and progress, and let artificial intelligence serve the progress of humanity.
Xi Jinping stressed that China's position on safeguarding national unity and territorial integrity is very clear. It is hoped that the U.S. side will adhere to the correct position of opposing "Taiwan independence," handle the Taiwan issue prudently, and lay a solid foundation for China-U.S. strategic cooperation and the development of bilateral relations.
Trump said that President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States is a great visit. Both the United States and China are major countries. I am a good friend of President Xi Jinping and maintain in-depth and close communication with him. Under our leadership, the U.S.-China relationship will surely be handled well. The economic and trade teams of the two countries achieved new results in the new round of consultations, and the two sides should continue dialogue and reach a better agreement. Artificial intelligence concerns the future of humanity, and the United States and China should maintain dialogue and strengthen cooperation on this issue.
The two heads of state also exchanged views on major international and regional issues such as the situation in the Middle East, the Ukraine crisis, and the Korean Peninsula.
The two heads of state confirmed that they will support each other in hosting the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the G20 Leaders' Summit.
Cai Qi, Wang Yi, and He Lifeng attended the talks.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Washington, September 24) (Reporters Li Zhiwei, Wang Yulin) On the morning of September 24 local time, US President Trump held a grand ceremony at the White House to warmly welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit to the United States.
Washington in September was blessed with pleasant autumn weather, with the national flags of China and the United States fluttering in the breeze. When Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan arrived at the White House by car, President Trump and his wife Melania warmly greeted them at the disembarkation point. The two heads of state and their spouses posed for photographs.
Accompanied by President Trump and his wife, Xi Jinping and his wife walked into the White House. Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan signed the guest book one after another.
To the stirring sound of military music, the two heads of state proceeded to the central hall. The military band played the national anthems of China and the United States.
After the national anthems concluded, Xi Jinping and Trump each delivered remarks.
On behalf of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, Xi Jinping extended sincere greetings to the American people and warmly congratulated the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Xi Jinping noted that he had come to the United States at the invitation of President Trump to carry forward friendship, to expand cooperation, and to enhance the well-being of the peoples of both countries. Facing the changes of the world, the changes of the times, and the changes of history, the two major countries of China and the United States shoulder the historic responsibility of promoting human development and progress. During President Trump's visit to China earlier this year, the two sides agreed to build a constructive and stable strategic relationship between China and the United States, which was widely welcomed by the peoples of both countries and the international community. I am willing to work together with President Trump to steer the great ship of China-US relations steadily toward a bright future.
Xi Jinping stressed that China and the United States should strengthen communication. The two countries have different national conditions, and through candid, in-depth, and sustained dialogue, they can enhance mutual understanding, seek common ground while reserving differences (求同存异, qiu tong cun yi - "seek same, preserve difference"), and accumulate mutual trust. China and the United States should cooperate sincerely. The interests of the two countries are deeply intertwined, and the space for cooperation is very broad. Although China-US cooperation cannot solve all problems in the world, without cooperation between the two countries, many problems in the world would be difficult to resolve. Both China and the United States are major countries in artificial intelligence, and both have the capability and the responsibility to develop and manage AI well, ensuring that AI development always remains under human control and benefits the people. China and the United States should coexist peacefully. For the two major countries of China and the United States, mutual benefit through cooperation (合则两利, he ze liang li - "join, then both benefit") and mutual harm through conflict (斗则俱伤, dou ze ju shang - "fight, then both suffer"). Both sides must hold the bottom line of no conflict and no confrontation. The "Thucydides Trap" can be overcome.
Xi Jinping noted that China and the United States once fought side by side against fascist aggression. The Chinese people will not forget this history, and neither have the American people. The hope of China-US relations lies in the people, and the future lies in the youth. In the next five years, China will invite 100,000 American youths to visit China for exchange and study. Giant pandas are envoys of friendship between the peoples of China and the United States. Giant pandas "Ping Ping" and "Fu Shuang" will soon settle at Zoo Atlanta to meet the American people.
Xi Jinping stressed that the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again are coexisting without contradiction (并行不悖, bing xing bu bei - "parallel walk, not conflict"), and both sides should uphold a people-centered sentiment, demonstrate historical initiative, continuously advance the cause of friendship between the peoples of China and the United States, and work together to build a better world.
Trump warmly welcomed Xi Jinping's historic state visit to the United States. He said that he and President Xi Jinping have built a great friendship on the basis of mutual respect, which serves the fundamental interests of the peoples of both countries. The United States and China crossed the ocean centuries ago to conduct trade and learn from each other. President Xi Jinping's visit comes at the 250th anniversary of American independence, and the two sides will continue to cooperate and contribute to the world. I will conduct in-depth discussions with President Xi Jinping on trade, security, artificial intelligence, science and technology, and other topics, laying a solid foundation for peace and prosperity in the world for decades to come. The United States and China once fought side by side and jointly won victory in World War II, and stories such as that of the Flying Tigers are still remembered by the peoples of both countries to this day. I look forward to continuing to work hand in hand with President Xi Jinping to create a better future for the United States and China.
After the remarks concluded, Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan, accompanied by President Trump and his wife, watched a performance by the Marine Corps, and the two heads of state and their spouses shook hands with each other's accompanying officials. Afterwards, the two heads of state and their spouses proceeded together to the White House Rose Garden to review the honor guard. The military band played the opening fanfare, the honor guards of the various US military services performed traditional drill and instrumental displays, and fighter jets flew over the White House to salute the two heads of state and their spouses.
After the welcome ceremony concluded, the two heads of state and their spouses moved to the Oval Office of the White House for a cordial and friendly exchange.
Cai Qi, Wang Yi, He Lifeng, and others participated.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Washington, September 23) (Reporters Huang Chao, Shen Mengzhe) On the afternoon of September 23 local time, President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington by special plane, paying a state visit to the United States at the invitation of U.S. President Trump.
When Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, Trump and his wife Melania gave them a warm welcome. Trump said he was very pleased to receive President Xi Jinping and Ms. Peng Liyuan in Washington, calling this a visit drawing worldwide attention (举世瞩目, ju shi zhu mu - "world, gaze, look at"). President Xi Jinping is a great leader, and this is a great moment. I look forward to in-depth exchanges of views with President Xi Jinping to advance the development of bilateral relations.
American children presented flowers to Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan. Honor guards stood in formation on both sides of the red carpet in salute, the military band played the national anthems of China and the United States, a 21-gun salute was fired on site, and fighter jets flew over in tribute.
Xi Jinping delivered a written speech, extending sincere greetings and good wishes to the American people on behalf of the Chinese people.
Xi Jinping noted that both China and the United States are great countries, and both the Chinese people and the American people are great peoples. The Chinese and American peoples have long enjoyed friendly exchanges, and the interests of both sides are deeply intertwined. The two countries should be partners rather than rivals, and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can fully proceed coexisting without contradiction (并行不悖, bing xing bu bei - "parallel, walk, not, conflict"), reinforcing each other, and benefiting the world. When President Trump visited China in May this year, we agreed to build a China-U.S. constructive strategic stability relationship, providing strategic guidance for the future development of bilateral relations. China and the United States should move towards each other in a common direction (相向而行, xiang xiang er xing - "each other, direction, towards, walk"), working to foster a stable relationship in which cooperation is primary, competition is measured, differences are manageable, and peace is foreseeable, blazing a proper path for the two major countries to get along in the new era.
Xi Jinping stressed that the world is developing and the times are changing, but the historical logic of peaceful coexistence between China and the United States has not changed, the good aspiration of the two peoples for friendly exchanges has not changed, and the common expectation of the international community for the two countries has not changed. I look forward to in-depth exchanges with President Trump on major issues concerning bilateral relations and the world situation, continuously enriching the connotation of the China-U.S. constructive strategic stability relationship and expanding the space for exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields. I also look forward to extensive contact with people from all walks of life in the United States to cultivate friendship. I believe that with the joint efforts of both sides, this visit will surely achieve fruitful results (丰硕成果, feng shuo cheng guo - "abundant, fruitful, achievement, fruit"), enhancing the well-being of the two peoples and adding hope for world peace.
Cai Qi, Wang Yi, and other accompanying personnel arrived on the same plane.
He Lifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, who arrived earlier, and Xie Feng, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, were also at the airport to welcome him.
On the way from the airport to the hotel where he was staying, representatives of overseas Chinese and Chinese students lined both sides of the road, waving the national flags of China and the United States, warmly welcoming President Xi Jinping's visit.
Return to TopBy: 中华人民共和国主席 习近平
The Honorable President Trump and Mrs. Melania,
Ladies and gentlemen, friends,
It gives me great pleasure to pay a state visit to the beautiful United States of America. I wish to thank President Trump and the First Lady for the warm hospitality they have extended to me and my wife. On behalf of over 1.4 billion Chinese people, I extend sincere greetings to the American people and warm congratulations on the 250th anniversary of American independence!
Both China and the United States are great countries, and both the Chinese and American peoples are great peoples. I have come to the United States at the invitation of President Trump to carry forward our friendship, expand our cooperation, and enhance the well-being of the two peoples.
Amidst the transformation of the world, of our times, and of history, China and the United States, as two major countries, shoulder the historic responsibility of advancing human development and progress.
During President Trump's visit to China earlier this year, we agreed to build a constructive and stable strategic relationship between China and the United States, which has been widely welcomed by the two peoples and the international community. I am ready to work with President Trump to steer the giant ship of China-U.S. relations toward a steady and enduring course.
— We should strengthen communication. China and the United States have different national conditions. Through candid, in-depth, and sustained dialogue, we can enhance mutual understanding, seek common ground while reserving differences (求同存异, qiu tong cun yi - "seek, same; exist, different"), and build up mutual trust. President Trump and I respect each other, have established a good relationship, and maintain regular communication. We encourage the foreign affairs, economic and trade, financial, law enforcement, and cultural and people-to-people departments of the two countries to strengthen communication, and support the legislative bodies of the two countries in expanding exchanges.
— We should cooperate in good faith. The interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined, and there is vast space for cooperation. While China-U.S. cooperation cannot solve all problems in the world, without cooperation between the two countries, many problems in the world would be difficult to resolve. China's door of opening-up is always open. We welcome American companies to invest and do business in China, and hope the U.S. side will treat Chinese companies fairly, so that together we can lengthen the list of cooperation and shorten the list of problems. Both China and the United States are major countries in artificial intelligence. We have both the capability and the responsibility to develop and manage AI well, ensuring that AI development remains under human control and benefits the people. China is ready to strengthen cooperation with the United States in areas such as drug control and law enforcement. The two sides can increase direct flights to make personnel and economic and trade exchanges between the two sides more convenient.
— We should coexist in peace. I have said on many occasions that for two major countries like China and the United States, mutual benefit through cooperation (合则两利, he ze liang li - "join, then; two, benefit") and mutual harm through conflict (斗则俱伤, dou ze ju shang - "fight, then; both, suffer injury"). China and the United States need not shy away from competition, but competition should be healthy and bounded—it should be a race of catching up with each other, not a gladiatorial contest of winner-takes-all. China and the United States must hold the bottom line of no conflict and no confrontation, and we will surely find a right way for two major countries to get along on this planet. The militaries of the two countries should maintain regular dialogue and improve crisis communication and prevention mechanisms. The "Thucydides Trap" can be transcended.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends!
During World War II, China and the United States fought side by side against fascist aggression. The Chinese people will not forget this history, and neither have the American people. The hope of China-U.S. relations lies in the people, and the future lies in the youth. Here, I wish to announce that in the next five years, China will invite 100,000 American youths to China for exchanges and study.
Giant pandas are envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples. Today, I would like to share a piece of good news: in a few days, giant pandas "Ping Ping" and "Fu Shuang" will settle in at Zoo Atlanta and meet the American people.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends!
The realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again are two things proceeding together without contradiction (并行不悖, bing xing bu bei - "parallel, walk; not, conflict"). Let us uphold a people-centered commitment, demonstrate historical initiative, continuously advance the cause of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples, and work hand in hand to build a better world!
Thank you all!
(Xinhua News Agency, Washington, September 24)
Return to Top(People's Daily, Washington, September 24) (Reporters Wang Rong, Bao Han) At noon on September 24 local time, Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, visited the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington together with Melania, wife of U.S. President Trump.
The two first ladies toured exhibition halls including the Peacock Room. Peng Liyuan expressed appreciation for the United States' return of Chinese cultural relics to China on multiple occasions in recent years, and expressed hope that China and the United States will continue to strengthen cultural exchange and cooperation in cultural heritage protection, enhancing the friendship between the two peoples.
After the tour, Peng Liyuan and Melania watched American youth sing Chinese songs together and had cordial exchanges with them. Peng Liyuan encouraged them to continue studying Chinese language and culture diligently and to become envoys of China-U.S. friendship.
The National Museum of Asian Art is a renowned American institution for the collection, research, and display of Asian art.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 黄 超
"Here, I wish to announce that in the next five years, China will invite 100,000 American young people to China for exchange and study." On the morning of September 24 local time, President Xi Jinping made these remarks while attending the welcome ceremony hosted by U.S. President Trump at the White House.
Amid the winds and waves of the Pacific, there is always a warm current flowing toward each other. At the scene, President Xi Jinping profoundly revealed the foundation of the development of bilateral relations — "The hope of China-U.S. relations lies in the people, and its future lies in the youth."
In November 2023, during his visit to the United States, President Xi Jinping announced that "China is willing to invite 50,000 American young people to China for exchange and study in the next five years"; in May 2026, in his reply letter to students from both countries who participated in the "Sailing the Blue Together: China-U.S. Youth Friendship Journey" activity, he noted that "the expected goal has been achieved two and a half years ahead of schedule"... In less than three years, the "50,000 in Five Years" initiative has painted a long scroll of youth spanning the ocean.
One still recalls that shortly after the initiative was proposed, a sincere letter from an old friend across the ocean allowed the seeds of friendship to take root and continue growing across mountains and seas.
Sarah Lande, an American friend who hosted Xi Jinping, then Secretary of the Zhengding County Party Committee of Hebei Province, during his visit to Muscatine, Iowa in 1985, wrote to President Xi, expressing her hope that Muscatine High School would also participate in this program.
With President Xi's care, in January 2024, as the first group of American middle school students to come to China under this project, more than 20 students from Muscatine High School visited Beijing, Hebei, Shanghai and other places for exchange.
"Grandpa Xi, we are here," when the delegation arrived in Beijing, they brought gifts to President Xi, including a school flag inscribed with Chinese characters. After the visit, the students wrote letters of thanks, expressing their joy.
"Personally experience a real, multi-dimensional, and comprehensive China, make heartfelt friends with Chinese youth, learning from each other and gaining mutual insight (互学互鉴, hu xue hu jian - "mutually, learn; mutually, examine"), and join hands to contribute to enhancing the friendship between the two peoples"... That year on the Lantern Festival, President Xi replied to the American "little guests" and sent New Year cards in return.
"Welcome more American young people to China for exchange and study," the youth route across the Pacific has set sail, and President Xi Jinping has always personally cared for and personally promoted this —
"Making greater contributions to a cause (添砖加瓦, tian zhuan jia wa - "add, brick; add, tile") to enhancing the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples, especially among the youth," President Xi Jinping and his wife sent New Year cards in return to the teachers and students of Lincoln High School, welcoming them to visit China more often;
President Xi sent a verbal message to the teachers and students of the Maryland Youth Pickleball Cultural Exchange Delegation to China, urging them to "become a new generation of envoys of friendship between the two countries and make greater contributions to enhancing the friendship between the two peoples";
"Make greater contributions to enhancing China-U.S. people-to-people and cultural exchanges and promoting the development of bilateral relations," President Xi replied to the teachers and students of the American Youth Education Exchange Delegation visiting China...
Letter after letter of reply, message after message, New Year card after New Year card — these have become "invitations" extended to American youth. As more young people take up the baton of the cause of friendship between the two countries, the future of China-U.S. relations gains a brighter outline.
The people are the writers of history.
No matter how the international situation changes, the living source of the development of relations between countries always lies in the people.
"The foundation of China-U.S. relations is built by the people, and its future is created by the youth." President Xi Jinping, reflecting on the past and present, used the unforgettable years of his first visit to the United States to inspire the youth of both countries —
"When I visited the beautiful state of Iowa 40 years ago, I received your warm hospitality, and I still remember it vividly. China and the United States share broad common interests and vast space for cooperation, and can be partners and friends, achieving mutual success and shared prosperity, benefiting both countries and the world"... In 2025, President Xi sent New Year cards in return to friends in Iowa. Previously, friends in Iowa, as well as teachers, students, and parent representatives from the state who participated in the "50,000 in Five Years" initiative and visited China, jointly sent New Year cards to President Xi.
Time tempers true feelings, and expectations illuminate the road ahead. From old friends looking back on their first meeting years ago, to the new generation's longing to understand China, the tree of friendship spanning the Pacific is flourishing.
Looking to the past to understand the future, the mirror of history is profound and clear:
"No matter how the situation changes, the desire of the Chinese and American peoples for exchange and cooperation will not change, and the bond of mutual understanding and friendship between the youth of the two countries will not change";
"Young people are the most energetic and the most dream-filled; they are the future and hope of China-U.S. relations, and also the future and hope of the world";
Fifty thousand young people are like 50,000 seeds of friendship. This initiative, which brings Chinese and American youth toward each other in a two-way journey, once again confirms this truth.
"Let us uphold a people-centered sentiment, demonstrate historical initiative, continuously advance the cause of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples, and join hands to build a better world!" President Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out.
Crossing mountains and seas, traveling ten thousand miles. Time will record the new historical journey of the two peoples walking forward hand in hand.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 韩 鑫
On September 24, the State Council Information Office held a press conference at which Li Yang, spokesperson and vice minister of the Ministry of Transport, and others introduced the situation regarding transport service guarantees during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays.
"This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays are separated by three working days, and some members of the public will adjust this into a 13-day extended holiday, bringing new changes in travel volume and modes of travel," Li Yang said. Transport departments at all levels are taking a variety of measures simultaneously (多措并举, duo cuo bing ju - "many, measures, together, act") to make every effort to ensure safe and smooth travel during the holidays.
According to assessment, passenger flow during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday will show moderate growth, while travel during the National Day holiday will operate at a high level. During the "two festivals" holiday period, the total cross-regional movement of people across society is expected to reach 650 million and 2.13 billion person-trips respectively.
"According to analysis, the average new-energy vehicle traffic flow during the National Day holiday will be more than 1.6 times the usual level. On the first day of the National Day holiday, it will reach a peak, with new-energy vehicle traffic flow reaching 17.8 million vehicles," Li Yang said. Through measures such as formulating charging guarantee plans based on a "one area, one policy" approach, coordinating and dispatching mobile charging equipment, and strengthening the release of charging information, the aim is to better meet the charging and energy replenishment needs of new-energy vehicle owners during the holidays.
"During the 'two festivals' holiday period, the number of railway passengers sent nationwide is expected to reach 284 million," said Wang Qiming, spokesperson and deputy director of the National Railway Administration. The railway sector will implement a peak-hour operation diagram, with an average of 13,000 passenger trains planned to operate per day, and will take measures such as adding trains and attaching extra carriages to increase capacity on popular routes.
The 13-day extended holiday made by combining leave makes long-distance travel more convenient. "Civil aviation passenger volume is expected to set a new record high for the same period in history," said Ma Bing, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. From September 25 to October 7, civil aviation nationwide is expected to transport 31.19 million passengers, an average of 2.4 million per day, a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent. The single-day peak is expected to exceed 2.6 million passengers, surpassing the level of the same period last year.
Express delivery services supporting the development of the cultural tourism industry are moving from "behind-the-scenes support" to "front-of-stage experience," becoming an important pillar for optimizing the cultural tourism experience.
Express parcel collection volume is currently rising steadily, having reached an average of 585 million parcels per day since September, with the peak value exceeding 610 million parcels in a single day. During the "two festivals" holiday period, the State Post Bureau will, while ensuring that the delivery network operates passing through smoothly without any obstacles (畅通无阻, chang tong wu zu - "smooth, pass, no, obstruct"), focus on creating an integrated "travel—shop—ship" scenario to help tourists travel light.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 24) (Reporter Lin Lili) The reporter learned from the State Administration for Market Regulation on the 24th: from January to August, the number of newly established business entities nationwide was 15.502 million. Among them, there were 6.001 million enterprises, 9.474 million individually owned businesses, and 27,000 farmers' professional cooperatives.
The industrial structure continued to optimize. From January to August, 565,000 new business entities were established in the primary industry, 1.149 million in the secondary industry, and 13.788 million in the tertiary industry. The service industry remains an important engine for absorbing employment, stimulating consumption, and promoting transformation.
New industries are breaking ground and growing, new business forms are iterating and updating, new models are emerging in large numbers (蓬勃涌现, peng bo yong xian - "flourishing, surge forth"), and new technologies are deeply empowering. As of the end of August, the number of registered "four new" economy enterprises nationwide was 29.301 million, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%, accounting for 44.0% of the total number of enterprises. Innovation factors are accelerating their aggregation, and the conversion of old and new growth drivers is accelerating.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 24) (Reporter Luo Shanshan) The "2025 Statistical Bulletin on China's Outward Foreign Direct Investment," jointly released recently by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, shows that in 2025, China's outward foreign direct investment flow reached US$213.58 billion, an increase of 11.1 percent over the previous year, and the outward investment stock stood at US$3.4 trillion, maintaining a global top-three position for nine consecutive years, with its share of global investment rising to 7.4 percent. The scale of outward foreign direct investment remains firmly at the forefront globally, showing a trend of diversified investment. Outward investment covers 18 industry categories of the national economy, mainly concentrated in four fields: leasing and business services, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, and finance.
A win-win situation for all parties involved (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual, benefit, together, win") has yielded notable results. As of the end of 2025, China had established 58,000 enterprises overseas, spread across 189 countries and regions, with a total of 4.761 million employees in overseas enterprises, of whom 2.965 million were locally hired foreign staff.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 宋亦然 张梦旭 刘玲玲
On the morning of September 24 local time, President Xi Jinping attended and delivered remarks at the welcome ceremony hosted by U.S. President Trump at the White House. President Xi Jinping pointed out that in the face of changes in the world, changes in the times, and changes in history, China and the United States, as two major countries, shoulder the historic responsibility of promoting human development and progress. "I am willing to work together with President Trump to guide the great ship of China-U.S. relations to move steadily and steadily toward a long-term goal (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk, steady; arrive, far")." People from both China and the United States interviewed by our reporter said that the meeting between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state not only helps to carry forward friendship and expand cooperation, but also injects new impetus into enhancing the well-being of the two peoples and promoting the implementation of a constructive and stable strategic relationship between China and the United States.
"Predictability itself is a global public good"
President Xi Jinping said that China and the United States have different national conditions, and that through candid, in-depth, and sustained dialogue, the two sides can enhance understanding, seek common ground while reserving differences (求同存异, qiu tong cun yi - "seek, same; exist, difference"), and build mutual trust.
"Maintaining direct communication and enhancing mutual understanding between the two heads of state is of great significance for properly handling differences and maintaining stable relations." Zhao Suisheng, director of the Center for China-U.S. Cooperation at the University of Denver in the United States, said that sustained exchanges at the head-of-state level between the two countries help keep communication channels open, effectively manage differences, and promote practical cooperation. "As the world's two largest economies, China and the United States have both the capability and the responsibility to provide more public goods to the international community." Zhao Suisheng believes that strengthening cooperation between the two countries can not only make positive contributions to addressing global challenges, but also provide a useful example for cooperation among other countries.
"Predictability itself is a global public good." Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation in the United States, said that the impact of the China-U.S. relationship extends far beyond the bilateral sphere, and that stable, predictable exchanges between heads of state help the two sides maintain continuous communication, accumulate cooperative achievements, and also provide more certainty to the global market. "As two major countries with important influence in the world, although China and the United States have competition and differences, the fact that they can still conduct dialogue in a positive and constructive manner in itself sends an important signal of stability to the world."
Wang Qiaorong, a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary China Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, China and the United States can fully seek consensus amid differences, expand cooperation in areas of common interest, hold the bottom line of no conflict and no confrontation, and find a proper way for two major countries to get along.
"At present, the interactions between the leaders of China and the United States have achieved positive results." Diao Daming, a professor at the School of International Studies of Renmin University of China, said that to push the China-U.S. relationship from "stabilizing and improving" to further moving steadily and steadily toward a long-term goal, the two sides need to continue moving toward each other in a cooperative manner (相向而行, xiang xiang er xing - "towards, towards, each other, walk") and honor their commitments, implementing the important consensus reached at the head-of-state level into more specific areas and concrete actions, continuously expanding space for cooperation and accumulating positive outcomes. Strengthened communication and coordination between China and the United States and expanded cooperation in areas of shared interests will provide important impetus for improving global governance.
"Sending a positive signal that both sides will maintain economic openness and preserve stable relations"
President Xi Jinping pointed out that the interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined and the space for cooperation is very broad. People from both China and the United States interviewed by our reporter believe that deepening mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the United States is conducive to fully leveraging the complementary economic advantages of the two countries, bringing more tangible benefits to business development and people's lives, and injecting more confidence and impetus into world economic development.
"The meeting between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state in Washington is one of the most important diplomatic events of this year. The two countries should seize the opportunity to build a more enduring economic and trade relationship." Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, said that the good interactions between the two heads of state provide an important opportunity for the two sides to further stabilize their economic and trade relations, and that the two sides should continue to expand mutually beneficial cooperation and promote the formation of a more stable and sustainable economic and trade relationship.
Craig Allen, senior fellow at the China Center of the Asia Society in the United States and former president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said that the U.S. business community pays close attention to the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism. He expressed the hope that through more stable and institutionalized communication, the two sides will continuously enhance the predictability of business operations and bilateral economic and trade relations, creating better conditions for long-term cooperation between enterprises.
"What businesses value most is certainty. The fact that the heads of state of China and the United States sat down together to communicate sends a positive signal that both sides will maintain economic openness and preserve stable relations." Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said that as two important economies in the world, it is very important for China and the United States to maintain stable relations and continue cooperation in economic, trade, and other fields. "Sound and healthy economic and trade exchanges will make both countries stronger."
"China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation should not only consolidate existing achievements, but also continuously expand new space for cooperation." Wang Qiaorong said that China and the United States have broad common interests in traditional economic and trade fields, and there is also room for cooperation in new areas such as artificial intelligence and technological innovation. Deepening practical cooperation between the two sides will help inject new impetus into the economic growth of both countries and also help enhance the stability and resilience of global industrial and supply chains.
"People-to-people exchanges provide a valuable opportunity for the peoples of the two countries, especially the younger generation, to understand each other"
The hope of the China-U.S. relationship lies in the people, and its future lies in the youth. President Xi Jinping announced that in the next five years, China will invite 100,000 American youths to China for exchange and study. In a few days, giant pandas "Ping Ping" and "Fu Shuang" will settle at Zoo Atlanta and meet the American people. The people from both China and the United States interviewed believe that every concrete exchange and cooperation project advanced will make the foundation of the bilateral relationship more solid.
"Relations between countries are gradually built through specific interpersonal relationships and people-to-people interactions. People-to-people exchanges provide a valuable opportunity for the peoples of the two countries, especially the younger generation, to understand each other." Jeffrey Sullivan, director of athletics at the Department of Education of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, said, "The positive interactions between the two heads of state have created favorable conditions for the development of bilateral relations and people-to-people exchanges. We look forward to more sports and cultural exchange activities for young people between the United States and China in the future."
Gu Minde, a non-resident fellow at the China Center of the Asia Society in the United States, said that understanding each other requires personally stepping into each other's society and life. Promoting two-way people-to-people exchanges between the two countries will help both sides understand each other more comprehensively and truthfully. "Both the United States and China have a responsibility to understand each other." Gu Minde believes that concrete and practical exchange programs, one after another, allow young people from the United States and China to continuously enhance understanding and build trust through joint study, exchange, and cooperation, and then gradually expand into broader cooperation.
"The more personnel exchanges and mutual visits between the United States and China, the better the bilateral relationship." Kenneth Quinn, honorary president of the World Food Prize Foundation, said that sustained and in-depth interactions between the peoples of the two countries can continuously enhance understanding and accumulate friendship, laying a more solid social foundation for the long-term stable development of bilateral relations.
Marlon Forrest, a lecturer at Harvard University who participated in the "2026 China-U.S. Youth Asia-Pacific Journey of Shared Aspirations" activity, said that face-to-face exchanges can help young people from the United States and China understand each other more directly and truthfully, and can also accumulate lasting people-to-people strength for the development of bilateral relations. "We look forward to the two countries creating more forms of exchange opportunities for young people, so that mutual understanding and friendship can continue."
(People's Daily, Washington, September 24; reporters Li Zhiwei, Bao Han, and Wang Hailin contributed to this report)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 王海林 刘玲玲 宋亦然
The successful meeting between the Chinese and American heads of state has injected new momentum into bilateral economic and trade cooperation and provided certainty for the world economy. The interests of China and the United States are deeply intertwined, and the space for cooperation is very broad. Representatives of American companies interviewed by our reporter said they are optimistic about China's development prospects, will continue to deepen their presence in China, and will firmly be long-term partners in China's development.
Against the backdrop of a tortuous global economic recovery and a complex and volatile external environment, American companies have cast a "vote of confidence" in the Chinese market through concrete actions. This once again confirms a simple truth: the essence of China-U.S. economic and trade relations is mutually beneficial and win-win outcomes (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual, benefit, together, win"), and strengthening cooperation is both an inherent need and the correct choice for both sides.
Deepening Presence in China Positioning for the Global Market
The "2026 China Business Report" recently released by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai shows that among 262 surveyed member companies, 78% achieved profitability in 2025, up 7 percentage points from the previous year, the highest level since 2019; 58% of companies are optimistic about the business outlook in China over the next five years, up 17 percentage points from the previous year; and 28% of companies expanded their investment in China last year, the highest level in four years. Data from China's Ministry of Commerce show that in the first half of this year, American companies' investment in China grew by 7.8% year-on-year.
From "rooted in China, serving China" to "rooted in China, serving the world," the shift in the operating strategies of many American companies in China reflects the continued elevation of the Chinese market's position in global production and supply chains.
Data from the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai show that among member companies with R&D operations in China, half plan to increase R&D investment this year, with R&D investment rising sharply compared with last year. "China is one of the world's most efficient manufacturing bases, and for our member companies it is also a strategically important market. These two factors underpin the rise in corporate confidence," said Eric Zheng, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Allan Gabor, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said: "Member companies have genuinely felt the Chinese government's efforts to improve the business environment. This year, the stabilizing U.S.-China relationship has further consolidated these achievements."
GE HealthCare has operated in China for more than 120 years and has established four R&D and innovation centers in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Wuxi, Jiangsu, employing more than 1,800 local engineers. "The stability of the Chinese market is predictable. We have great confidence in the Chinese market," said Zhang Xun, Global Executive Vice President of GE HealthCare and President and CEO of GE HealthCare China. Since 2011, GE HealthCare's local R&D team in China has successfully brought more than 170 locally developed innovative products to market, and the Quantum platform CT, developed under the leadership of the Chinese team, has entered Germany, Italy, Australia, and other countries. "In the past, innovation was mostly in China, for China; now much of it has become in China, for the world," Zhang said.
PepsiCo was among the first batch of foreign companies to enter the Chinese mainland market after reform and opening up in 1981. Over 45 years, it has built a business network in China covering more than 70 farms, over 50 beverage bottling plants, and 10 food factories. "China is one of the world's most dynamic consumer markets. Investing in China is not a multiple-choice question but a required one," said Xie Chang'an, CEO of PepsiCo Asia Pacific. PepsiCo will continue to firmly walk alongside China as a long-term partner, investor, and co-builder, investing here, innovating here, and growing here.
Tapestry, the parent company of Coach, reported in its latest fiscal year results that the group's global revenue reached $8 billion, with the China region contributing $1.4 billion, up 35% year-on-year, maintaining double-digit growth for multiple consecutive quarters and becoming one of the best-performing regional markets globally. "The Chinese market is not only an important growth engine but also a source of innovation and a training ground for capabilities," said Li Lian, President of Coach China.
Stimulating Vitality Driving Innovation and Development
China's vast market provides American companies with broad growth space and rich innovation scenarios, while the technology spillover effects, management experience, and global networks brought by foreign companies continue to drive the upgrading of China's industrial chains and the growth of local enterprises.
Dow Inc. of the United States has been deeply rooted in China for nearly 50 years and established a thermal management materials science laboratory in Shanghai last year. "The Chinese market is an extremely dynamic and irreplaceable platform for innovation practice on a global scale," said Huang Yingxue, President of Dow Greater China. "The capabilities in rapid response, collaborative innovation, and industrialization honed in the Chinese market help the company better serve global customers."
Nike recently appointed its first Vice President of Local Product Innovation for Greater China to integrate insights from the Chinese consumer market into product innovation. Shen Kaixi, Vice President of Nike Group and General Manager of Nike Greater China, strongly agrees with the role the Chinese market plays in forging corporate capabilities. "The consumer insights, local innovation practices, and operational experience accumulated in this process not only help Nike better serve Chinese athletes and consumers but also provide useful reference for other global markets, further enhancing the company's global competitiveness."
Cheng Dandan, Global Senior Vice President of cross-border payment platform Payoneer and President of Payoneer Greater China, observed that many service experiences, innovation practices, and operational insights accumulated in the Chinese market have subsequently been applied to other markets, helping companies enhance their competitiveness globally.
Approximately 30% of Estée Lauder Group's current global innovative products originate from China and serve the Chinese market, and in March this year the group officially launched its China supply chain intelligent operations center. "The Chinese market is full of vitality, consumer expectations are constantly advancing, and channels and technology are developing rapidly, all of which drive companies to continuously improve innovation speed, operational efficiency, and local relevance," said Fan Jiayu, President and CEO of Estée Lauder Group China.
"This is a very dynamic market with fast innovation and strong corporate technological capabilities. Collaborating with excellent Chinese companies naturally pushes us to continuously improve ourselves," said Chen Liren, President and CEO of American digital interconnection company Equinix. Through practice in the Chinese market, the company has continuously improved the quality of its research and deepened its understanding of industry and technology needs. "Chinese companies are important participants in the global standardization system, and the experience accumulated through long-term cooperation with them helps us maintain the industrial relevance of our R&D work and enhance our ability to carry out innovation cooperation with global partners."
Looking ahead, technological innovation is becoming an important area for further expanding cooperation between China and the United States. Meng Pu, Chairman of Qualcomm China, said that during this year's Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm reached a consensus on 6G development with nearly 60 industry partners worldwide, nearly 20 of which are from China, covering operators, terminal manufacturers, cloud service providers, and automotive companies. "The development of the technology industry cannot be separated from long-term investment and global collaboration," Meng said. From the "5G Pilot Program" to the "AI Acceleration Program" and on to jointly promoting 6G development, Qualcomm hopes to continue leveraging its technological accumulation in cloud computing and artificial intelligence to work with Chinese partners to drive technological innovation and industrial application.
Strengthening Confidence Expanding Cooperation
The essence of China-U.S. economic and trade relations is mutually beneficial and win-win outcomes. The two countries' economic and trade cooperation is large in scale, with extensive market and industrial linkages. Strengthening cooperation between the two sides can not only promote mutually beneficial and win-win outcomes but also benefit global economic growth.
"For multinational companies, what matters most is not short-term advantages but confidence in long-term investment and development," Huang Yingxue said. Dow looks forward to both the U.S. and Chinese sides maintaining open and constructive communication to foster a more stable, transparent, and predictable economic and trade environment. "China is Dow's second-largest market globally and its largest market outside the United States. In the future, Dow will continue to deepen its presence in China and seize opportunities brought by industrial upgrading and technological innovation with more partners."
"Whether companies are making customer planning or investment planning, they need a more stable and predictable environment," said Wu Guangyu, President of Dun & Bradstreet China. He believes the United States and China can carry out more cooperation in the digital economy, artificial intelligence, and the infrastructure supporting bilateral investment and trade. The confidence of American brands in China in the prospects for practical cooperation between the two countries is being translated into new investment and business layouts.
Zhang Jiayin, CEO of McDonald's China, said that in terms of the number of restaurants, China is currently McDonald's second-largest market globally and its fastest-growing market. "We look forward to a stable, open, and predictable economic and trade environment that supports companies and partners in long-term planning and also facilitates the sharing of experience and deepening of cooperation between different markets."
Shen Kaixi said that China is one of Nike's most important strategic markets globally, and the company looks forward to more cooperation between the two countries in areas such as youth and sports exchanges, using sports as a bond to enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of the two countries.
As the world's two largest economies, China and the United States should move towards each other in a common direction (相向而行, xiang xiang er xing - "towards, towards, each, walk"), take the lead in promoting openness and cooperation, properly handle and manage differences, safeguard bilateral economic and trade relations, strive for more practical results, and serve as forces for global stability and constructiveness.
(Bai Ziwei, reporter of People's Daily, contributed to this article)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 李志伟
At the invitation of U.S. President Trump, President Xi Jinping is paying a state visit to the United States. This is President Xi Jinping's first visit to the United States in nearly three years, and it marks the second exchange of visits between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state within half a year. Kenneth Hammond, a professor at New Mexico State University in the United States, said in a recent interview with a People's Daily reporter that this visit has drawn great attention from the peoples of both countries and has also captured the attention of the international community.
"Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, China has a clear vision and is committed to creating a prosperous future that benefits the Chinese people and the people of the world," Hammond said. China is a major country developing rapidly, and while improving the lives of its own people, it actively shares development experience with Global South countries. Speaking of this meeting between the two heads of state, he expressed hope that the United States and China can further expand cooperation, reduce differences, and jointly promote the continuous implementation and realization of a constructive and strategically stable U.S.-China relationship.
"One meeting will not resolve all issues between the two countries, but it is conducive to the development of bilateral relations in a stable, healthy, and sustainable direction," Hammond said. The two countries "maintaining dialogue and consultation is always better than being isolated from each other and falling into conflict."
Hammond believes that the U.S. and Chinese economies have long been deeply integrated and cannot be "decoupled." Recently, the economic and trade teams of the two countries held economic and trade consultations in New York, conducting candid, in-depth, and constructive exchanges on important economic and trade issues of mutual concern, including implementing the consensus reached in previous economic and trade consultations and promoting bilateral trade and investment. This once again proves that the two economies are deeply interconnected and interdependent (你中有我、我中有你, ni zhong you wo, wo zhong you ni - "you in me, me in you"). In his view, confrontation and antagonism between the United States and China lead nowhere, and both sides should take concrete actions to improve relations. U.S.-China cooperation is the direction in which people's hearts lean (人心所向, ren xin suo xiang - "people's hearts, what they aim for") and the general trend of the times (大势所趋, da shi suo qu - "great trend, what it follows"). In particular, in the face of global challenges concerning the future and destiny of humanity, such as climate change and sustainable development, the two sides urgently need candid communication and joint responses.
Both China and the United States are major powers in artificial intelligence. Hammond pays close attention to cooperation between the two countries in the field of artificial intelligence. He said that artificial intelligence is currently developing rapidly, but it also harbors many risks, such as energy consumption, environmental impact, and the loss of control of AI agents. Enhanced communication and coordination among major countries is particularly necessary. It is worth noting that during the U.S.-China economic and trade consultations held in New York, the two sides held a dialogue on artificial intelligence-related issues, which is a positive signal. Hammond emphasized that strengthened cooperation between the United States and China in AI research and development and regulation will help relevant technologies be applied in a positive and beneficial direction under reasonable oversight and safety mechanisms.
Hammond believes that youth exchanges between the United States and China are of vital importance. Although objective information about China in American society is limited, young Americans have still learned about the tremendous progress China has made in poverty reduction, renewable energy development, and the coordinated advancement of economic development and ecological protection. He hopes that youth exchange programs between the two countries can be further expanded, allowing more Americans to visit China and see for themselves, which is crucial for enhancing friendship between the peoples of the two countries. "I look forward to President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States, which will inject positive energy into the development of U.S.-China relations and build a bridge of friendship between the two countries," he said.
(People's Daily, Washington, September 24)
Return to TopBy: 金 轩
At present, changes unseen in a century are accelerating, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is vigorously emerging, and the global landscape of technological innovation and industrial competition is undergoing profound adjustment. China's economy has shifted to the stage of high-quality development, and the task of transitioning between old and new growth drivers is arduous. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, cultivating and strengthening emerging industries and future industries is both an important path for promoting the effective improvement of economic quality and reasonable growth of quantity, and a key move for seizing the initiative in future development and firmly grasping strategic advantage. Aerospace, as a newly cultivated emerging pillar industry in China, is triggering a trend-based adjustment of the global industrial structure, driving breakthroughs in high-end technology and upgrading of the industrial system. As an important national space infrastructure, the BeiDou System is the core support and typical representative of the aerospace industry.
The BeiDou System is a major national science and technology project implemented by decision of the Party Central Committee. General Secretary Xi Jinping has always been concerned about and cared for BeiDou, profoundly pointing out that the BeiDou System benefits the Chinese people and also benefits people of all countries in the world. After years of independent tackling of key problems, iterative cultivation, and empowerment across all domains, BeiDou has accelerated from the industrial cultivation stage of technological exploration and scenario piloting toward a new industrial engine of scale aggregation, ecosystem improvement, and overall empowerment, growing into a great instrument of the nation that takes root in the real economy, empowers all walks of life and various industries (千行百业, qian hang bai ye - "thousand, lines, hundred, industries"), and benefits every household and all families (千家万户, qian jia wan hu - "thousand, families, ten thousand, households").
Accumulating strength to achieve great things, empowering the overall situation, the BeiDou industry is surging forward with strong momentum
The BeiDou industry's level of development has leaped upward. In 2025, the total output value of China's BeiDou industry exceeded 629 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.24%. Domestic BeiDou industry enterprises and institutions exceed 30,000, with over 2 million employees.
Adhering to self-reliance and self-strengthening, BeiDou continues to consolidate its development foundation. The new era BeiDou spirit of "independent innovation, open integration, working together with one heart and mind (万众一心, wan zhong yi xin - "ten thousand, masses, one, heart"), and pursuit of excellence" guides generation after generation of researchers in overcoming great difficulties (攻坚克难, gong jian ke nan - "attack, key, overcome, difficulty") and forging a development path of independent innovation, iterative upgrading, and safe and controllable progress. The BeiDou-3 satellites have achieved 100% domestic production of core components and parts, overcoming more than 160 key core technologies such as inter-satellite links and high-precision atomic clocks. Through sustained deep cultivation, China has built a complete BeiDou industrial ecosystem covering chips, modules, terminals, platforms, and services across the entire chain. As of the end of 2025, cumulative shipments of domestically produced BeiDou-compatible chips and modules have approached 2.6 billion units, and the social stock of various BeiDou terminals exceeds 2.2 billion units, achieving full-chain independent and controllable iterative advancement from core component R&D to terminal product manufacturing, industrial supporting improvement, and standards system construction.
Taking root in all walks of life and various industries, BeiDou continues to release the value of its spatiotemporal foundation. On the transportation front line, more than 12 million operating vehicles nationwide are equipped with the BeiDou System, with high-precision lane-level navigation covering over 99% of urban and rural roads; unmanned operations at smart ports and autonomous driving of high-speed trains are widely implemented, effectively improving transportation operational efficiency and ensuring travel safety. On rural fertile land, more than 3.5 million sets of BeiDou terminal equipment have been applied in scenarios such as agricultural machinery assisted driving, agricultural machinery operations, and drone plant protection; agricultural machinery equipped with the BeiDou navigation system achieves centimeter-level precise autonomous driving, with operational efficiency improved by 30% to 50%. On the vast seas, 70,000 fishing vessels are equipped with BeiDou terminals, relying on distress alarm, emergency search and rescue, dynamic fishing vessel monitoring, and maritime short message communication services, having cumulatively rescued more than 10,000 people and safeguarding the safety of ocean-going production. At key energy supply positions, BeiDou provides timing services with precision better than 20 nanoseconds, widely applied in wind farm turbine attitude control, mine slope monitoring, and oil and gas pipeline inspection, consolidating the "time heart" of safe and stable power grid operation. On the new track of the low-altitude economy, relying on the "BeiDou + 5G" low-altitude intelligent network system, new business forms such as drone logistics and low-altitude inspection are accelerating their growth.
Entering every household and all families, BeiDou facilitates people's daily lives. At present, 1.4 billion smartphones, more than 50 million electric vehicles, and over 14 million shared bicycles in China are equipped with BeiDou positioning services; the stock of BeiDou-supported wearable devices has exceeded 160 million units, widely applied in preventing elderly people from getting lost and child safety monitoring. BeiDou's unique short message communication capability builds an emergency communication guarantee channel under scenarios of "road disruption, network disconnection, and power outage," allowing users to still call for help and communicate safely even when in areas without public network coverage. From daily travel navigation to emergency protection in special scenarios, BeiDou has long enabled the people to truly feel that "BeiDou is by our side" and "BeiDou safeguards safety."
Going global to all parts of the world, BeiDou continues to provide quality public services. Adhering to open integration and sharing of achievements, BeiDou's pace of internationalization is advancing steadily, and its international influence continues to rise. At present, BeiDou products have been exported to more than 140 countries and regions, deeply integrated into the cooperation system of high-quality Belt and Road Initiative co-construction. Overseas, BeiDou's technical solutions are being implemented in real scenarios one after another: the Sarez Lake Dam in Tajikistan has deployed a BeiDou deformation monitoring system to monitor dam displacement changes around the clock; in Egypt's "Mediterranean Pearl" project, BeiDou provides full-process support from foundation layout to tower measurement and control; the BeiDou-based flood early warning system covers 80% of Pakistan's floodplain areas. From technology export and product implementation to service sharing and ecosystem co-construction, BeiDou has always practiced the development philosophy of "China's BeiDou, the world's BeiDou, a first-class BeiDou," transforming China's scientific and technological development achievements into public goods shared by the world.
The time has come and the momentum has formed; the 15th Five-Year Plan period holds broad prospects for BeiDou development
Today's BeiDou has long transcended the definition of a single navigation tool, transforming into an all-domain spatiotemporal service foundation supporting the development of the digital economy. The total output value of the spatiotemporal industry formed by deep integration with remote sensing, geographic information, mobile communications, and other technologies has exceeded 1.3 trillion yuan. Relying on its integrated positioning, navigation, timing, and short message communication capabilities, BeiDou is accelerating integrated innovation with technologies such as artificial intelligence and satellite internet, continuously expanding industrial boundaries and enriching application formats. Application scenarios around us, such as intelligent mountain flood monitoring and early warning in Hebei, vehicle-road coordination at Meishan Port Area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang, power and communication in remote mountainous areas of Guizhou, and sea turtle scientific research and protection in Huidong, Guangdong, demonstrate BeiDou's spatiotemporal service capability that is present at all times, everywhere, and intelligently integrated.
As the large-scale application of BeiDou continues to advance in depth, an integrated spatiotemporal service system integrating space-air-ground, and combining communication, navigation, and remote sensing, is being accelerated in construction. BeiDou will continue to link together a number of trillion-yuan-level industrial clusters such as the low-altitude economy, marine economy, and smart manufacturing, continuously giving rise to new business forms, new models, and new growth drivers. Before 2035, China will build a more ubiquitous, more integrated, and more intelligent national comprehensive positioning, navigation, and timing system, and the 15th Five-Year Plan period is precisely the key five years connecting the past with the future (承前启后, cheng qian qi hou - "inherit, before, open, after").
Guiding things in a favorable direction (因势利导, yin shi li dao - "according to, trend, benefit, guide"), gathering strength for a leap forward, accelerating the large-scale application of BeiDou
The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly proposes "strengthening the innovative application of the BeiDou System," issuing a sincere invitation for all parties to use the BeiDou satellite navigation system, and accelerating new breakthroughs in the marketization, industrialization, and internationalization of BeiDou's large-scale application.
Strengthening top-level design and consolidating the spatiotemporal foundation. Coordinately advancing research on key core technologies such as high-end chips, key components, and fusion algorithms, accelerating the building of globally leading advantages in key technologies; strengthening integrated innovation between BeiDou and technologies such as artificial intelligence and satellite internet, optimizing the layout of space-ground infrastructure; cultivating and strengthening quality enterprises, continuing to carry out pilot cities for large-scale BeiDou application, advancing application in key industries and the mass consumer field, and strengthening spatiotemporal information operation and service capabilities.
Optimizing institutional safeguards and improving the industrial ecosystem. Promoting the promulgation and implementation of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Satellite Navigation, improving the policy and legal system to provide solid legal guarantees for the development of the BeiDou industry; improving the BeiDou standards system and testing and certification system, guiding increased adoption of certification results; improving supporting measures for application services, creating a fair, orderly, and vibrant market environment, and further consolidating the foundation of the industrial ecosystem.
Deepening openness and coordination and broadening development space. Relying on various multilateral cooperation mechanisms, continuously promoting practical cooperation in technology exchange, talent cultivation, and joint demonstration, advancing BeiDou international cooperation in all aspects; actively participating in global governance of satellite navigation, promoting the implementation and effectiveness of BeiDou international standards, promoting the diversification of channels for BeiDou products to go global, and enabling BeiDou products and services to benefit more countries and peoples.
The journey toward the stars and the sea is as magnificent as a rainbow. From serving China to serving the world, from "scale expansion" to "quality leap," BeiDou will surely achieve new breakthroughs in marketization, industrialization, and internationalization, supporting a solid pole of the emerging pillar industry and injecting an inexhaustible source of spatiotemporal momentum into Chinese modernization.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Hangzhou, September 24) (Reporters Yu Jinghao, Liu Junguo) Premier of the State Council Li Qiang attended the opening ceremony of the Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou on the morning of September 24 and delivered a speech.
Li Qiang stated that the Digital Trade Expo has become an important platform for promoting cooperation in the global digital economy. As President Xi Jinping pointed out, digital technology is increasingly integrated into all fields and the entire process of economic and social development, profoundly changing modes of production, ways of life, and methods of social governance. Where will global trade in the wave of digitalization head? How should the international community act in accordance with the prevailing trend (顺势而为, shun shi er wei - "follow, trend, then, act")? What role can China play in this process? I would like to share some thoughts with you.
First, gain insight into the new changes and new trends in international economic and trade development through digital trade. The vigorous rise of digital trade has brought new momentum and opportunities. The world economy has welcomed a vast blue ocean, market connections between countries have become more convenient, and global trade has accelerated innovative development. Along with this, new development disparities, new economic and trade barriers, and new gaps in rules — along with other problems and challenges — have become more prominent and more complex.
Second, promote the better development of global trade in the digital age with an open mind. In the face of the tide of economic globalization, the international community should work together with utmost sincerity (精诚协作, jing cheng xie zuo - "exquisite, sincere, collaborate, work"). We should strengthen digital connectivity and promote freer trade. Firmly advance the alignment and mutual recognition of standards and other matters, and promote the organic coordination of markets across countries. We should bridge the digital divide and promote more inclusive trade. Strengthen North-South cooperation in the field of digital trade, and increase support for developing countries in areas such as technology, infrastructure, and personnel training. We should improve digital governance and promote more orderly trade. Respect the realities of each country, better leverage the role of mechanisms such as the World Trade Organization, accelerate consultations on rules for digital trade and other matters, oppose camp-based and exclusive arrangements, strive to find the greatest common denominator, and build a fair and reasonable economic and trade order.
Third, China will contribute greater strength to global digital trade through concrete actions. We will continue to expand digital consumption demand, implement actions to enhance digital consumption, deeply advance "AI + consumption," further relax market access, optimize policies on cross-border e-commerce retail imports, and share market opportunities with all countries. We will continue to consolidate support from the digital industry, accelerate the building of a modern industrial system, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in the digital field, and empower the global digitalization process. China's development of technologies such as artificial intelligence adheres to an open-source and open approach, building a "digital ladder" that all countries can climb. We will continue to optimize the environment for digital development, strengthen the standardization of digital trade, improve foundational data systems and regulatory models, promote cooperation in digital trade and investment, and contribute Chinese solutions to improving international rules.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar, Kyrgyzstan's Prime Minister Kasymaliev, and others attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization Müller and others delivered video speeches. More than 1,200 representatives from various sectors from nearly 50 countries and regions and relevant international organizations attended the opening ceremony.
In their speeches, foreign leaders stated that the Digital Trade Expo has built a valuable platform for all countries to jointly discuss cooperation, jointly promote development, and jointly share achievements. They thanked China for sharing development achievements with all countries, expressed their expectation to work hand in hand with China to bridge the digital divide, jointly build a fair, beneficial, secure, and inclusive global digital trade order, and continuously inject new momentum into global sustainable development.
Before the opening ceremony, Li Qiang toured the exhibition halls together with the foreign leaders in attendance.
Wu Zhenglong participated in the above activities.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Hangzhou, September 24) (Reporter Liu Junguo) On the morning of September 24, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council met in Hangzhou with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar, who was in China to attend the 48th WorldSkills Competition and the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo.
Li Qiang stated that in April last year, President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Malaysia, opening a new "golden 50 years" in China-Malaysia relations. Since the beginning of this year, international conflicts and disturbances have increased, yet China and Malaysia have maintained close communication and sound coordination, adding certainty to the common development of the two countries. China has always regarded the development of relations with Malaysia as a priority direction of its neighborhood diplomacy. Facing the accelerated evolution of major changes unseen in a century, we are willing to work with the Malaysian side to carry forward the traditional friendship, consolidate political mutual trust, and push forward the building of a high-level strategic China-Malaysia community with a shared future in a deeper and more practical manner, so as to better benefit the peoples of both countries.
Li Qiang pointed out that China is willing to work with Malaysia to further leverage their complementary economic advantages, promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, advance the construction of major infrastructure projects such as the East Coast Rail Link, strengthen market connectivity and alignment, promote the expansion and quality improvement of bilateral trade, deepen cooperation in emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, new energy vehicles, and semiconductors, and strive to achieve a higher level of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. China encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest in Malaysia, and has consistently required e-commerce enterprises to operate in compliance with laws and regulations overseas, adhere to mutual benefit and win-win principles, integrate into local markets, and avoid disorderly and irrational competition. We believe the Malaysian side will continue to create a fair, stable, and predictable investment environment. The two sides should strengthen coordination of positions on major issues, deepen cooperation under the four major global initiatives, jointly oppose hegemonic bullying acts, uphold the multilateral trading system, and defend their legitimate rights and interests. We hope the Malaysian side will continue to exert its important influence, promote ASEAN countries to continuously deepen cooperation with China, and safeguard the common interests of the region.
Anwar stated that the friendship between Malaysia and China has existed for a long time (源远流长, yuan yuan liu chang - "source, far, flow, long"), and the two countries share similar policies and concepts, similar development agendas, solid political mutual trust, and fruitful cooperation results. The Malaysian side treasures the Malaysia-China comprehensive strategic partnership, firmly adheres to the One-China policy, and is willing to work with the Chinese side to jointly implement the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries, deepen practical cooperation in infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and other fields, and will continue to provide solid guarantees for Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in Malaysia. The Malaysian side supports the proposition put forward by President Xi Jinping on strengthening artificial intelligence governance, highly appreciates the responsible major-country role China has played in promoting the improvement of global governance, defending the legitimate rights and interests of the Global South, and promoting common prosperity for all countries, and is willing to join hands with the Chinese side to make greater contributions to peace and development in the region and the world.
Wu Zhenglong attended the meeting.
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 24) Premier Li Qiang of the State Council recently signed a State Council decree promulgating the revised "Regulations on the Implementation of the Audit Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which shall take effect on December 1, 2026. The Regulations consist of 7 chapters and 64 articles. The main contents of the revision are as follows.
First, strengthening the Party's leadership. It clearly stipulates that audit work shall adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China and comprehensively implement the Party's line, principles, policies, and the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee.
Second, refining and improving the content of audit supervision. It refines the scope and content of audits of fiscal revenues and expenditures; incorporates the audit of draft final accounts and the audit of the management and use of state-owned resources and state-owned assets into the audit results report; clarifies the scope of "other major public construction projects that concern national interests and public interests" in the Audit Law; incorporates the management and use of state-owned resources into the scope of special audit investigations, and improves the rules on audit jurisdiction.
Third, improving audit work procedures. It adds provisions for a registration and reporting system for acts of inquiring into or interfering with audit matters, ensuring that audit work is not disrupted; refines the requirements for audited entities and relevant authorities to assist audit institutions in carrying out their work; and further improves the procedures for inquiring into deposits of units and individuals in financial institutions related to audit matters.
Fourth, consolidating responsibility for audit rectification. It clarifies that audited entities bear the primary responsibility for audit rectification and refines the legal liability for inadequate rectification; stipulates that audit institutions shall, in audit reports, put forward classified rectification requirements for problems found in audits, conduct follow-up inspections of rectification progress, and promptly review and confirm the results; and stipulates that all departments of the State Council, local people's governments at all levels, and relevant competent authorities and units shall strengthen overall coordination, urge the rectification of problems found in audits, and establish and improve relevant systems.
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, Harbin, September 24) Zhao Leji, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, conducted research in Jilin and Heilongjiang from September 21 to 24. He emphasized that it is necessary to adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, more consciously and concretely practice whole-process people's democracy, uphold, improve, and implement the system of people's congresses, do high-quality work in local people's congresses, and make due contributions to implementing the 15th Five-Year Plan and promoting and safeguarding local reform, development, and stability.
Zhao Leji successively visited Siping, Changchun, Harbin, Qiqihar, and other places, going deep into representative home stations, grassroots legislative contact points, communities, villages, and enterprises, where he had face-to-face exchanges with people's congress deputies and the masses, listening to their opinions and suggestions. He emphasized that practicing whole-process people's democracy should be regarded as the key to maintaining the vitality of people's congress work, and that it is necessary to persist in seeking advice from the people (问计于民, wen ji yu min - "ask advice, from the people") and asking the people about their needs (问需于民, wen xu yu min - "ask needs, from the people"). It is necessary to carry out democratic legislation and open-door legislation, give full play to the role of mechanisms and platforms such as public solicitation of opinions and grassroots legislative contact points, broadly build consensus on legislation, and safeguard and realize the democratic rights and lawful interests of the people. It is necessary to take "two connections" as the starting point, deepen and expand representative work, and support and guarantee that deputies perform their duties according to law and maintain regular contact with the masses.
Zhao Leji conducted research at the Jilin Provincial People's Congress, the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Congress, and the Qiqihar Municipal People's Congress organs on legislative work, networked supervision of budget review, and elections for the new term of county- and township-level people's congresses, visited cadres of the organs, and presided over a symposium. He emphasized that local people's congresses should uphold the organic unity of the Party's leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and law-based governance, conscientiously implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, and, under the leadership of the Party committee at the same level, plan and advance all work based on their functions and responsibilities and in light of local realities, contributing to local economic and social development and the tasks of reform and tackling difficulties. It is necessary to follow the legislative authority of local people's congresses, grasp the functional positioning of being implementational, supplementary, and exploratory, adhere to the principles of non-contradiction with higher-level law, distinctive local features, and operability, and do solid and meticulous work in local legislation. It is necessary to carry out record review and regulation cleanup according to the scope of responsibilities, safeguarding the unity of the national legal system. It is necessary to adhere to correct supervision, effective supervision, and law-based supervision, focus on the central tasks, serve the overall situation, highlight key points, comprehensively use statutory supervision methods, embed support within supervision, and form a joint force for advancing work and solving problems. It is necessary to strengthen the self-construction of people's congresses in accordance with the requirements of the "four organs," pay attention to learning and accumulation, strengthen investigation and research, establish and practice a correct view of political achievements, and uphold fundamental principles and break new ground while advancing people's congress work with high-quality development through steady progress. It is necessary to thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building and promote the full and rigorous self-governance of the Party in people's congresses to develop in depth.
Zhao Leji emphasized that the elections for the new term of county- and township-level people's congresses are a major event in China's political life. It is necessary to uphold the Party's leadership, fully promote democracy, and strictly act according to law, doing solid work in all aspects such as voter registration and voting and election procedures, ensuring that the election work is lawful, orderly, and conducted in a clean and healthy political atmosphere (风清气正, feng qing qi zheng - "wind, clear; air, upright"), and achieves complete success. It is necessary to strengthen positive publicity and guidance, fully demonstrating the practice of the people being the masters of the country and the advantages of the system of people's congresses.
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 24) The 56th Chairperson's Meeting of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held in Beijing on the 24th. Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, presided over the meeting and delivered a speech.
The meeting conveyed and studied the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's recent important speeches and important instructions. Wang Huning stated that it is necessary to thoroughly study and implement the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech when he presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, and deeply understand the great significance of promoting full and rigorous self-governance of the Party with unswerving persistence (持之以恒, chi zhi yi heng - "hold on, with, continuously, persistent"). It is necessary to thoroughly study and implement the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on consolidating and expanding the learning and education achievements of establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, adhere to making political achievements for the people and through practical work, and fulfill duties and take on responsibilities in close alignment with the central tasks of the Party and the state. It is necessary to thoroughly study and implement the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on developing advanced manufacturing, and organize CPPCC members to offer suggestions and advice on key issues such as strengthening and expanding advanced manufacturing, enhancing the level of independent and controllable industrial chains, and developing advanced manufacturing clusters. It is necessary to thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on the work concerning "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" (三农) and the guiding principles from his important instructions congratulating the ninth "Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival," focus on the task deployments of accelerating the building of a strong agricultural country and advancing agricultural and rural modernization, and organize CPPCC members to research and put forward more valuable countermeasure suggestions. It is necessary to thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on education and the guiding principles from his important instructions congratulating the 42nd Teachers' Day and congratulating Jilin University on its 80th anniversary, organize CPPCC members to focus on task deployments such as implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, running education that satisfies the people, and advancing the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent, and do a good job of consultation and suggestion work. It is necessary to thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourses on strengthening basic research, and organize CPPCC members to put forward forward-looking, innovative, and operable opinions and suggestions on optimizing the systematic layout of basic research, expanding the talent team for basic research, strengthening support and guarantees for basic research, and expanding international cooperation in basic research.
The meeting deliberated and approved the agenda (draft) and schedule of the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC, and decided to hold the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing in early November.
The Chairperson's Meeting held its third collective study session of 2026, with the theme "Promoting the Improvement of Quality and Expansion of Capacity in Higher Education." Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng was invited to deliver a report.
Vice Chairpersons of the CPPCC National Committee Shen Yueyue, Wang Yong, Su Hui, and Shao Hong delivered speeches on studying and implementing the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's recent important speeches and important instructions. Wang Dongfeng, vice chairman and secretary-general of the CPPCC National Committee, and others gave explanations on relevant topics.
Shi Taifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, and vice chairpersons of the CPPCC National Committee Hu Chunhua, Zhou Qiang, Bater, Gao Yunlong, Mu Hong, Xian Hui, Jiang Xinzhi, Jiang Zuojun, He Baoxiang, Wang Guangqian, Qin Boyong, Zhu Yongxin, and Yang Zhen attended the meeting.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 王 珂
On September 24, the State Council Information Office held a themed press conference under the series "A Strong Start for the 15th Five-Year Plan," introducing the situation regarding efforts to advance high-quality development of culture and tourism. Wang Jianhua, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Vice Minister, said: "During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will take the deep integration of culture and tourism as the main thread, and coordinate efforts to promote high-quality development of cultural programs, cultural industries, and tourism."
Wang Jianhua stated that efforts will focus on five areas: implementing the New Era Art Creation Guidance Plan and the National Art Collection Plan, organizing major theatrical performances, and strengthening art creation on major themes; promoting systematic protection and unified supervision of cultural heritage, strengthening the inheritance and utilization of cultural heritage, and launching more cultural relic travel routes, intangible cultural heritage experiences, fine exhibitions, national-trend cultural and creative products, and immersive performances, so as to tell the stories of cultural heritage in a vivid and lively manner; continuously optimizing the network of public cultural facilities, implementing actions to improve the quality and efficiency of public cultural services, and constantly improving public service facilities such as tourist service centers, tourist toilets, parking lots, transportation networks, and signage; invigorating the vitality of business entities in the cultural and tourism industries, deepening "culture and tourism + all industries" and "all industries + culture and tourism," and promoting diversified integration of culture and tourism with sports events, commercial district renewal, and park upgrades; and enriching forms of cultural exchange, thoroughly implementing the inbound tourism promotion plan, and raising the level of convenience and internationalization of inbound tourism.
"During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will keep pace with the times, grasp the needs of the people, and guide the creation of more and better artistic works," said Chen Binbin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Director of the General Office. Starting this year, the three-year action plan for the revitalization of drama will be implemented, supporting the creation and performance of rare theatrical genres, and a special support mechanism for small and medium-sized plays will also be established.
Miao Muyang, Director of the Department of Industrial Development of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, introduced: "During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will cultivate new drivers of development and promote a leap in the scale, overall strength, and comprehensive benefits of the cultural industry."
Support for original content creation will be increased, and industries such as performing arts, animation, and creative design will be encouraged to enhance their original creation capabilities; the "Hundred Cities, Hundred Districts" and "Hundred Cities, Thousand Stations" cultural and tourism consumption action plans will continue to be implemented; active efforts will be made to nourish cities with culture and promote industries through culture, continuously advancing the empowerment of comprehensive rural revitalization by the cultural industry, and cultivating "small but beautiful" cultural and tourism business forms in rural areas in light of local conditions; and the export of Chinese quality goods such as trendy toys and cultural and creative products will be accelerated, achieving both quantitative and qualitative growth in cultural trade.
Man Hongwei, Director of the Department of Resource Development of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, stated that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, more people will be enabled to experience a sense of gain, happiness, and security through tourism. First, tourism's role in benefiting people's livelihoods will be strengthened. Localities will be encouraged to regularly carry out tourism consumption promotion activities, and support for training will be increased, so that people employed through tourism have platforms for entrepreneurship and guaranteed income growth. Second, refined services will be promoted. Efforts will focus on solving problems such as congestion and detention, parking and toilet access, sanitary conditions, and service quality, striving to improve the level of refined services, supporting popular scenic areas and cultural and museum venues in dynamically adjusting opening hours and optimizing reservation methods, doing a good job in pushing tourism information, and advancing age-friendly renovations. Third, tourism safety will be enhanced. Joint efforts with relevant departments will continuously strengthen the synergy of safety supervision related to tourism, regularly carry out investigation and rectification of potential risks and hazards, and conduct in-depth special rectification of the order of the national tourism market.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 24) (Reporter Ni Yi) Li Hongzhong, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over and addressed the second plenary meeting of the NPC Standing Committee's law enforcement inspection team on the Food Security Guarantee Law in Beijing on the 24th. He emphasized the need to adhere to and follow the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on national food security, focus on implementing the goals and tasks of the Party Central Committee's deployment on national food security for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, and promote the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Food Security Guarantee Law.
Li Hongzhong pointed out that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the role of food security as a stabilizer for economic and social development (压舱石, ya cang shi - "press, ship, stone") for the country's high-quality development has been continuously consolidated. In the more than two years since the implementation of the Food Security Guarantee Law, all departments and localities have conscientiously fulfilled their statutory duties, and the implementation of the law has achieved phased results.
Li Hongzhong emphasized the need to profoundly understand the decisive significance of the Two Establishments (两个确立), resolutely achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护), further raise the political positioning for safeguarding national food security, focus on key issues and critical links to deepen the implementation of laws including the Food Security Guarantee Law, lawfully promote the resolution of prominent problems in food security governance, do a solid job in cultivated land protection and quality improvement, strengthen the construction of agricultural disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief systems, reinforce the scientific and technological support for food security, and protect the enthusiasm of local governments in grasping grain production and farmers in growing grain. It is necessary to do a good job in the "second half of the article" of law enforcement inspection, strengthen follow-up supervision, and better leverage the important role of the rule of law in safeguarding national food security.
Wu Weihua and Shohrat Zakir, Vice Chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the meeting.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 姜 峰
Winding up the mountain, the forests are dyed in autumn colors and seas of clouds roll. The golden autumn of Houyan Mountain behind Hongjun Village, Gaoyan Town, Chengkou County, Chongqing, arrives with extraordinary grandeur.
This is the only administrative village in Chongqing named after the Red Army, with an average elevation of 1,400 meters. Below the mountain, the Ren River flows toward Shaanxi.
Chengkou County, located at the northernmost tip of Chongqing, is an important part of the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area. The Ninth Red Army and the Thirty-Third Red Army fought fierce battles with the enemy in Hongjun Village on multiple occasions. Local people enthusiastically joined the Red Army and participated in the Long March.
Today, the "spark" of industry in the old revolutionary base area is a medicinal herb — Coptis chinensis.
In the mist, Li Ming, general manager of Chongqing Jiuzhi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., leads villagers in spreading humus soil over patches of green seedlings no higher than their ankles beneath the trees. "Letting the rhizomes 'eat something good' can increase yields." At present, the company has planted 2,300 mu of Coptis chinensis in Hongjun Village.
With steep mountains, sloping fields, and deep ravines, Chengkou County has limited space for industrial development. In Gaoyan Town, where farmland is fragmented into "palm-sized plots and chicken-nest fields," per capita arable land is even less than 1 mu. Reform lit the "spark" — in 2023, Chongqing was designated as a national pilot zone for deepening the reform of collective forest rights, taking the lead in piloting and improving the operational mechanism for the "separation of three rights" — ownership, contracting rights, and management rights — over collective forest land.
"Vitalize the understory space, attract traditional Chinese medicine enterprises, develop the understory economy, and awaken the treasure house of the mountains that has been 'sleeping' for years!" said Zhou Yuanzhi, Party secretary of Gaoyan Town.
Li Ming knows well that industrial development depends on innovation. In 2023, Hongjun Village began trial cultivation of Coptis chinensis, but on some plots only leaves grew, and failing to adapt to local environmental conditions (水土不服, shui tu bu fu - "water, soil, not, adapt") left him panicked. Fortunately, Zhou Yiquan, president of the Chongqing Dabashan Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute, provided on-site guidance, analyzing rainfall, sunlight, and soil microbial communities, formulating organic fertilizer formulas in light of local conditions and preventing and controlling pests and diseases, resolving the difficulties of understory management and protection.
"This is a piece of red revolutionary land that needs frontline research to bring new vitality to the vast Bashan Mountains!" Zhou Yiquan has worked in Chengkou County for six years, constantly pondering how to use science and technology to support local industrial development. Today, the project has enabled 124 villagers in Hongjun Village to work locally on a long-term basis, with per capita annual income increasing by 5,000 yuan.
From selling raw materials to deep processing, the local area continues to promote the growth and strengthening of the Coptis chinensis industry. "Growing Coptis chinensis is physical labor. Only by expanding scale, processing locally, and increasing added value can the people of the old revolutionary base area enjoy more industrial dividends," Li Ming said.
"We have signed a tripartite agreement with the enterprise and the county forestry investment company to build a 10,000-mu Coptis chinensis planting base in the future, and construction of the processing plant will begin early next year," Zhou Yuanzhi introduced.
Coptis chinensis tea, Coptis chinensis toothpaste, Coptis chinensis soap... The market prospects are good, but insufficient funds have become a "stumbling block."
Facing the financing difficulties of agricultural enterprises, and riding the momentum of deepening the reform of the collective forest rights system, Chengkou County issued a management measure for the registration of forestry operating income rights, taking the lead in Chongqing in carrying out pledge financing based on income rights, leveraging financial support. Li Ming obtained the forestry operating income rights certificate issued by the government, and after a comprehensive bank assessment, received a 5 million yuan support loan. "We now have the confidence to accelerate industrial upgrading and quality improvement!" Li Ming said.
Reform and innovation unleash an inexhaustible driving force.
Gaoyan Town currently plants 18,000 mu of various traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, achieving an annual output value of 30 million yuan. Xie Zhengxue, 52, Party branch secretary of Hongjun Village, took the lead in planting 100 mu of Coptis chinensis and mobilized villagers to participate in industrial development. "In our old revolutionary base area, every nook and cranny of the mountains is a treasure!"
Standing atop the mountain and looking down, towering trees fill the view, and the unremarkable Coptis chinensis seedlings beneath them have taken deep root in the red earth, nurturing golden hopes.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 24) (Reporter Peng Bo) The NPC Standing Committee's law enforcement inspection team for the Barrier-Free Environment Construction Law held its second plenary meeting on the 24th to study and discuss the draft of the law enforcement inspection report. Wang Dongming, Zheng Jianbang, and Cai Dafeng, vice chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the meeting.
After hearing relevant reports and opinions and suggestions, Wang Dongming pointed out that it is necessary to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on barrier-free environment construction and the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, base ourselves on statutory duties and legal provisions, further revise and improve the law enforcement inspection report, and put forward practical and effective opinions and suggestions from the levels of legal systems and institutional mechanisms. Conscientiously do a good job of follow-up work such as the NPC Standing Committee hearing and deliberating the report, strengthen follow-up supervision, and effectively enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement inspections and people's congress supervision work. Take this law enforcement inspection as an opportunity, focus on the key and difficult points of law implementation and the urgent needs and difficulties of the people (急难愁盼, ji nan chou pan - "urgent, difficult, anxious, longing"), solidly advance the barrier-free environment construction work during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and provide the people with a more convenient, accessible, warm, and caring barrier-free environment.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Urumqi, September 24) (Reporter Qi Yukun) From September 19 to 24, Xiao Jie, Vice Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee, led a team to Xinjiang to carry out an inspection of the implementation of the Tourism Law. During this period, the inspection team conducted on-site inspections in some cities, prefectures, and regions, and heard reports from the autonomous region on the implementation of the Tourism Law and relevant opinions and suggestions.
The inspection team fully affirmed the positive results achieved in Xinjiang's implementation of the Tourism Law. Xiao Jie pointed out that Xinjiang boasts abundant natural resources and a long history of cultural resources, and its tourism industry has great development potential. It is necessary to thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on tourism work and the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, fully implement all requirements of the Tourism Law, consolidate legal responsibilities in all aspects, continuously improve the level of efficient governance of the tourism industry, effectively solve the problems constraining the development of the tourism industry, and promote the high-quality development of the tourism industry on the track of the rule of law, developing steadily and maintaining long-term progress (行稳致远, xing xian zhi yuan - "walk steadily, reach far"). It is necessary to adapt to the needs of building a strong tourism country, conscientiously revise and improve the Tourism Law, fully listen to opinions and suggestions from all sides, extensively build legislative consensus, and continuously improve the quality and efficiency of legislation.
Return to TopOn September 24 local time, the Nagoya Asian Games entered its fifth competition day after the opening ceremony. The Chinese delegation, striving bravely and vigorously (奋勇拼搏, fen yong pin bo - "brave, exert, struggle, fight"), performed excellently and collected a total of 32 gold medals. As of the end of competition on the 24th, the Chinese delegation had won a total of 80 gold, 30 silver, and 20 bronze medals at this Asian Games, ranking first in both the gold medal table and the overall medal table.
At the swimming venue of the Tokyo Aquatics Center, Chinese swimmers collected a total of 4 gold and 3 bronze medals. Among them, Zhang Zhanshuo won the gold medal in the men's 800-meter freestyle, and subsequently, together with his teammates, represented China in successfully defending the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay title, also breaking the Asian record. He also became the first athlete to win 6 gold medals at this Asian Games. In the women's water polo title match, the Chinese and Japanese teams, which had identical records after the first four rounds, met in the final round, and ultimately China defeated its opponent in a penalty shootout, achieving a fifth consecutive Asian Games championship.
In the men's 60 kg weightlifting competition, Chinese athlete Yang Yang succeeded in all six attempts, winning the gold medal with a total of 304 kg. In the men's 65 kg competition, He Yueji set a new world record in the snatch with 152 kg, ultimately winning the silver medal with a total of 327 kg. In the track and field competitions held at the Nagoya Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium, Abudouaini Turgun and Wu Nanjun swept the gold and silver medals in the men's discus throw. Huang Yingying and Li Yi won the silver and bronze medals in the women's triple jump, respectively.
In the rowing and wushu events, the Chinese delegation collected a total of 15 gold medals. In addition, the Chinese team won the women's team championships in both badminton and table tennis. In shooting, gymnastics, canoeing, and other events, the Chinese delegation also added gold medals to its tally.
(People's Daily reporters Liu Shuoyang, Sun Longfei, Gao Ji, Li Shuo, Wang Meihua)
Return to TopConsumption is linked on one end to the people's livelihood, and on the other end to economic development.
"Adhering to domestic demand-led development and building a strong domestic market" is the first of this year's key economic tasks. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Coordinate consumption promotion and investment expansion, and make good use of our country's advantages as a super-large market" and "Adapt to changes in the consumption structure, and expand the supply of quality goods and services."
Recently, Xinhua News Agency reporters, as part of the 2026 "Vibrant China Research Tour" themed interview activity, visited Hunan, Fujian, Shandong and other places, from ancient-style courtyard homestays to marine ranches, from first-launch stores and first-location flagship stores to nighttime markets, savoring the vibrant China in the midst of consumption transformation and upgrading, and experiencing the myriad scenes of the super-large market.
Based on the interview findings, Xinhua News Agency launched the 37th episode of the "China Economic Roundtable" large-scale all-media interview program on September 24, inviting Lin Jian, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce; Zhang Weihua, Deputy Director of the Culture and Tourism Department of Shandong Province; Zhang Dandan, President of the Changsha New Consumption Research Institute; and Chen Chunhui, Chairman of Xiamen International Cruise Home Port Group Co., Ltd., to discuss new highlights in China's consumption.
New demand promotes consumption quality improvement
The livelihood market best reveals the warmth of consumption.
In Zibo, Shandong, the Badaju Convenience Market, an old vegetable market deeply embedded in a residential area, unexpectedly went viral in 2023 due to a video by an anti-counterfeiting blogger titled "Ten consecutive checks, not one short in weight or measure." Relying on its "fair scales" to uphold honest business practices, "micro-renewals" to enhance the consumption experience, and "cultural cards" to activate consumption scenarios, it has remained popular to this day.
In Xuchang, Henan, at the Angel City store of Pangdonglai supermarket, people from all corners of the country flock there, scrolling through "Pangdonglai must-buy" posts on their phones. Its strictly quality-selected products with controllable supply chains, as well as services such as "peel-off" weighing and no-reason returns, have made "shopping at Pangdonglai" a "worry-free consumption" experience.
One is hailed as "the country's best 5A-level vegetable market," the other is called the "6A-level scenic spot" of the retail industry. People's word-of-mouth reflects a profound shift in the connotation of consumption—from "whether it exists" to "whether it is good," and from purely material satisfaction extending to emotional resonance, health management, and service experience.
Zhang Weihua said that consumers are shifting from "buying goods" to "buying peace of mind," placing greater value on integrity, fairness, safety, and good quality at reasonable prices; from "viewing the scenery" to "entering the scenery," preferring the flavor of everyday life, authenticity, cultural richness, and local characteristics; and from "functional consumption" to "experiential consumption," pursuing immersion, interaction, emotional value, and social sharing, valuing the "respected and cherished" service experience brought by refinement and human-centered design, and being more willing to pay for genuine products, sincere service, and quality experiences.
Basic livelihood consumption is improving in quality, while development-oriented and improvement-oriented consumption is expanding in scale.
Take cruise and yacht consumption as an example—it is moving from a niche experience to a daily staple for the masses, becoming a popular option for people's cultural and tourism travel. As one of the country's four national pilot demonstration ports for cruise transportation, Xiamen International Cruise Home Port saw a 33% year-on-year increase in the number of port-of-call cruise ship visits in the first half of this year, bringing a year-on-year increase of approximately 180% in domestic and international passengers. Chen Chunhui said that cruise consumption, from ship to shore, integrates food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment, matching current consumers' demand for composite experiences.
Traveling across the length and breadth of the country, from the immersive experience of nighttime tours of ancient alleys to deeper stays in museums, from the attentive care of in-home housekeeping services to professionally customized smart home renovations, the warmth of consumption is no longer marked solely by the price of goods, but is measured by the quality of services.
From January to August this year, total retail sales of consumer goods and services increased by 2.5% year-on-year, of which service retail sales grew by 4.9% and goods retail sales grew by 1.0%. The consumer market is stable with improving quality, and the consumption structure continues to optimize.
At present, China's consumer market has entered a development stage where "goods + services" are equally emphasized. Lin Jian said that in June this year, the National Bureau of Statistics released for the first time the indicator of "total retail sales of consumer goods and services," which is precisely a response to this change in the consumption structure and can more truthfully and comprehensively reflect the full picture of the consumer market. As per capita income levels rise, service consumption growth outpacing goods consumption is an objective law of economic development. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's service consumption is expected to accelerate its development further.
"The boundary between service consumption and goods consumption will become increasingly blurred, and the two will deeply integrate. But what remains unchanged is taking user needs as the starting point and continuously commercializing the genuine needs of target customer groups." Zhang Dandan said.
New supply drives market renewal
"Come to Xiamen, tour by sea" is becoming one of the ways to appreciate the charm of this "garden on the sea" city.
Over the past three years, "Yujian · Xiamen Sea Tour" has continued to heat up, receiving nearly one million visitors annually, behind which lies innovative exploration of ship-shore linkage. Chen Chunhui introduced: "On shore, Heping Pier has been upgraded into a 'city balcony' with diverse business formats injected into it—visitors can browse the market, check in at 'Red Bridge Coffee' to enjoy Xiamen's night view, and watch light shows; at sea, visitors take the 'Sea View of Kinmen' and 'Lujiang Night Cruise' tours, experience the country's first sea-based musical dining show 'Gulang Waves,' and savor the 'Sea Fujian Flavor Banquet Hall' and 'Lujiang Banquet.' Through continuous product iteration and innovation, we give visitors new experiences."
Demand leads supply, and supply creates demand. At present, cultivating new consumption business formats, new models, and new scenarios has become a key lever for boosting consumption across various regions.
Innovative supply gives traditional industries new vitality.
Colorful snacks form a dreamlike corridor, more than 70,000 lollipops are pieced together into a giant portrait, and oversized snack sculptures are scattered throughout... In the "Snack Kingdom" in Changsha, Hunan, a space of 13,000 square meters brings together more than 35,000 snack products from around the world, creating an exploratory experience integrating shopping, photo check-ins, and interaction, attracting many out-of-town visitors who come specifically for it.
As one of the national pilot cities for new consumption business formats, new models, and new scenarios, Changsha is building a highland for consumption innovation and development around "new consumption." Zhang Dandan said that new consumption revolves around consumers' new needs, using new technologies, new concepts, and new models as innovation points to continuously create products and services that truly match consumers' needs.
Cultural empowerment gives supply more soul.
From the nationwide craze for "Zibo barbecue," to the consumption renewal of century-old Tsingtao Beer, to the cultural breakout of Hanfu from Cao County, Shandong is forging a unique path from "viral traffic" to "long-lasting industry." "The commonality of these cases is that they carry consumers' demand for and expression of deep cultural experiences." In Zhang Weihua's view, only when culture establishes the foundation, demand is closely followed, services are upgraded, and industry reception works in coordination can online "traffic" truly become sustainable consumption "retention" and growth.
The "Yujian Minnan" scenic area focuses on Minnan culture and overseas Chinese culture. By creating an "experiential intangible cultural heritage museum," it attracts visitors to walk into the qiaopi museum to write family letters and sit under a floating piano to sing old Minnan-language songs, lingering in deepened emotional interaction. Chen Chunhui said that in promoting the first-launch economy and cultivating experiential consumption in light of local conditions, one must adhere to "culture as the soul, innovation as the key."
Acting in light of local conditions means each place should showcase its own beauty, rather than "a thousand cities with one flavor."
Lin Jian believes that since different regions have different resource endowments and consumption foundations, they should deeply explore their unique local historical, cultural, ecological, industrial and other resources to build distinctive regional consumption brands with recognizable identities. At the same time, they should promote the deep integration of commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and health, cultivate immersive and experiential new consumption scenarios, and create the unique advantage of "1 plus 1 greater than 2."
"Traffic comes from events, conversion depends on supply, and long-term popularity relies on the environment." Lin Jian believes that sustainable consumption conversion ultimately depends on systematic support from service quality, consumption facilities, and the business environment, transforming "visibility" into "reputation."
Smooth circulation releases consumption potential
Home appliances have shifted from tiered subsidies by energy efficiency rating to precise subsidies for top-tier energy-efficient products; automobiles have shifted from fixed-amount subsidies to subsidies proportional to vehicle price; and smart glasses have been included in the national unified subsidy scope for the first time...
Since the beginning of this year, the trade-in policy has guided demand to upgrade toward green and smart directions, with subsidy funds' leverage ratio rising from 1:7.8 in 2025 to 1:10.3.
In Lin Jian's view, whether consumption boosting is sustainable depends on whether a virtuous cycle can be fostered in which consumption upgrading and industrial upgrading reinforce each other.
Promoting smart home consumption, promoting the expansion and upgrading of goods consumption, expanding automobile consumption across the entire chain, and invigorating county-level consumption... Since the beginning of this year, on the basis of continuously optimizing the consumer goods trade-in policy, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments have successively introduced a series of measures to boost consumption, focusing on deeply tapping incremental space, with a clear orientation toward guiding consumption quality improvement and industry renewal.
"Automobile consumption policies are tilted toward new energy and intelligent connected models, and county-level consumption policies are tilted toward green smart products and emerging business formats. The essence is to use demand-side guidance to force the manufacturing industry to transform toward green and intelligent development, forming a positive cycle in which consumption upgrading drives industrial upgrading, which in turn acts on consumption expansion." Lin Jian said.
China is the world's second-largest consumer market, has the world's largest middle-income group, and contains enormous investment and consumption potential.
Looking ahead to 2030, the "15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption" proposes that total social goods and services consumption will grow at a relatively rapid pace, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching approximately 60 trillion yuan; the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Expansion and Upgrading of Goods Consumption" proposes cultivating green consumption, smart consumption, health consumption and other markets at the ten-trillion-yuan level; and the "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Strong Tourism Country" proposes that inbound tourism will reach 190 million visits with total spending exceeding 150 billion US dollars...
New technologies are becoming an important variable in expanding consumption space. Lin Jian believes that looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the biggest opportunity lies in the fact that new growth points such as "artificial intelligence + consumption" will continue to emerge and develop rapidly, with broad space for upgrading the consumption structure of goods and services. Zhang Weihua introduced that Shandong will issue an "artificial intelligence + tourism" action plan to promote AI empowerment of cultural and tourism resource development and product innovation.
Bulk consumption also contains new increments. Lin Jian said that taking automobiles as an example, China's automobile ownership has exceeded 370 million vehicles. "Expanding automobile consumption across the entire chain means promoting the extension of automobile consumption from one-time car purchases to full-lifecycle consumption, activating a trillion-yuan market increment."
Traveling in China and shopping in China are becoming international trends, which will leverage new increments in inbound consumption. "The development potential of maritime cultural tourism consumption is enormous and requires combining 'bringing in' and 'going out.'" Chen Chunhui said that China's inbound consumption is shifting from a stage dominated by sightseeing tourism to one of deep experience. Leveraging Xiamen's advantages as a port city connecting with the international community, developing maritime cultural tourism and international cruise tourism is timely.
Consumption is final demand, touching every aspect of economic operations. Consolidating the foundation for "being able to consume" through employment and income growth, strengthening confidence in "daring to consume" through optimizing the environment, matching the supply for "being willing to consume" through industrial upgrading, and securing the bottom line of "worry-free consumption" through social security... Lin Jian believes that to achieve the leap in consumption from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement, both supply and demand sides must work in coordination, continuously improving the long-term mechanism for expanding residents' consumption.
"Fully leveraging the role of an effective market and a well-functioning government, and cultivating the soil of the new consumption industrial ecosystem, innovation will thrive endlessly, and consumption potential will be continuously released." Zhang Dandan said.
(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 24, reporters Zhao Chao, Xie Xiyao, Pan Jie, Wang Yuhao)
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 24) (Reporter Jiang Jie) The CPPCC National Committee's "Member Science Lecture Hall" held a popular science lecture at Beijing Forestry University on September 24. Cui Lijuan (崔丽娟), a member of the CPPCC National Committee and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, delivered a report titled "Understanding Wetlands, Practicing the Thought on Ecological Civilization," and interacted with the audience on site.
Cui Lijuan began with the scientific definition and classification of wetlands, introduced the powerful ecological functions of wetlands as the "kidneys of the earth," and systematically sorted out the bloodline connection between wetlands and human civilization. While conducting an in-depth analysis of the severe challenges currently facing humanity, such as wetland area shrinkage and environmental pollution, she also provided a detailed introduction to the fruitful achievements (丰硕成果, feng shuo cheng gu - "abundant, fruitful, results") China has made in theoretical innovation and technical practice in wetland restoration, vividly demonstrating the key role of scientific and technological innovation in the construction of ecological civilization.
Carrying out the "Member Science Lecture Hall" activity is a practical action by the CPPCC National Committee to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on doing a good job in popular science work, and is an important part of the CPPCC National Committee members' "serving the people" performance of duties. It aims to give full play to the professional advantages of CPPCC members, and to play a positive role in improving the scientific literacy of the general public and forming a social trend of loving science and advocating science.
Return to TopOnline food delivery spans two ends: on one side it connects countless merchants, and on the other it is tied to the dining tables of ordinary people. Since the beginning of this year, the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government have designated the rectification of online food delivery food safety as one of the three key projects in the centralized rectification of unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems occurring around the masses. The Jiangsu Provincial Administration for Market Regulation has conscientiously implemented the work requirements of the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, carrying out centralized rectification through a "100-Day Assault Campaign" to make every effort to safeguard the "safety on the tip of the tongue" of the people.
In August this year, the Jiangsu Provincial 12315 Complaint and Report Center received a total of 5,349 complaints and reports concerning online food delivery, a decrease of 9.81 percent month-on-month. Behind these figures are visible results—
Strengthened Regulation: More Than 54,000 Food Delivery Merchants Completed Rectification
Food safety is the bottom line of people's livelihoods. The Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government have conducted multiple special studies and regular scheduling, advancing governance systematically through on-site supervision and field research, consolidating departmental responsibilities through high-level deployment, and promoting the detailed implementation and practical fulfillment of all work.
Jiangsu has established a "dual special task force" regulatory mechanism, conducted visits and research in food delivery concentration zones, transferred 28 issues to local authorities through "dual handover," and issued 3 reminder letters, urging the rectification of 780 problems through learning from one instance to derive multiple others (举一反三, ju yi fan san - "lift one, reflect three"). An information sharing and lead transfer mechanism has been established. Market regulation, health, and other departments across the province have carried out 3,198 joint operations, publicized more than 1,100 typical cases, and more than 54,000 food delivery merchants have completed problem rectification, forming a closed loop of "investigating one case, standardizing one category, and governing one domain."
Social Co-Governance: More Than 11,000 Delivery Riders Participating in Supervision
In Changzhou City, if a food delivery rider discovers that a merchant's back-of-house kitchen hygiene is poor when picking up an order, they can record and upload the lead through the "Food Safety Snap-and-Report" function on their mobile phone, and market regulation personnel will conduct an on-site inspection. With riders participating in supervision, merchants' operations have become increasingly standardized, order pickup and delivery efficiency has greatly improved, and negative reviews and complaints have correspondingly declined.
Relying on the 12315 and 12345 hotlines and the National Food Safety Insider Reporting System, Jiangsu has selected and appointed more than 11,000 rider supervisors. Through the "Food Safety Snap-and-Report" social co-governance platform for food safety, nearly 2,300 problem leads have been collected and more than 500 cases have been investigated and handled. As of August 20, market regulation departments across the province had carried out 3,221 social publicity activities, held 147 events such as "You and I Inspect Together" and "Experts Have Their Say," and invited experts, media reporters, and representatives of the masses to participate in 236 inspections; in conjunction with relevant departments, they guided food industry associations and learned societies to issue 351 self-discipline initiatives. The food safety supervision network in which everyone participates and everyone fulfills their responsibilities is being woven ever denser.
Platforms are the first line of defense in building a solid foundation for online food delivery food safety. Jiangsu has publicized the relevant provisions on primary responsibility for food safety to major mainstream food delivery platforms, promoted the opening of regulatory monitoring accounts, set up "no dine-in" and "bright kitchen, clear stove" labels on merchant homepages, and taken more than 17,000 problematic food delivery merchants offline in accordance with regulations, guarding the "admission gate" well.
Digital and Intelligent Empowerment: More Than 200,000 Enterprises Brought Under "Online Supervision"
In Huai'an City, "precision intelligent management" has drawn red lines for compliant operations for online food delivery merchants. Before unsealing their food, consumers can scan the QR code on the "food safety seal" to check merchant qualifications, daily inspection and food ingredient sampling test results, live kitchen broadcast footage, and ingredient information. The digital and intelligent supervision model of "watching the kitchen online" is being promoted across Jiangsu Province, building a bridge of trust between consumers and high-quality merchants.
"Precision intelligent management" has solved the difficult problem of "too few people handling too many tasks" on the front line of regulation. Jiangsu has developed and launched an online food delivery food safety monitoring system, breaking down data barriers among mainstream food delivery platforms, with a cumulative total of more than 960,000 data verifications, leaving "ghost food delivery" with nowhere to hide; it has guided all food delivery merchants in concentration zones to connect to the "Internet + bright kitchen, clear stove" system, with more than 64,000 newly certified merchants added this year; and it has brought more than 200,000 enterprises under "Internet + AI regulation," conducting more than 16 million remote inspections, achieving early detection, early warning, and early handling of 13 categories of risks and hidden dangers.
Establishing Systems and Rules: Striving to Build a "1+N" Institutional System
Centralized rectification provides strength, while establishing systems and rules provides long-term effectiveness.
In recent years, Jiangsu has accelerated the construction of a "1+N" institutional system focused on online food delivery food safety governance—it is drafting the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Management of Online Food Delivery Food Safety," and has issued in different fields a number of regulatory documents including the "Work Guidelines for Supervision and Sampling Inspection of Online Food Delivery Food Safety (Trial)," the "Work Guidelines for Law Enforcement and Case Handling of Online Food Delivery Food Safety (Trial)," the "Work Guidelines for Food Safety Management of No-Dine-In Food Delivery Concentration Zones (Trial)," the "Jiangsu Province Administrative Compliance Guidance List for Online Food Delivery Service Platforms," and the "Jiangsu Province Market Regulation Department Work Guidelines for Online Transaction Monitoring (Trial)," so that both regulation and law enforcement have rules and basis; at the same time, through flexible law enforcement and targeted assistance, it has safeguarded the bottom line of food safety while also accommodating the actual needs of business operators, earning widespread praise from merchants. At the beginning of 2025, Jiangsu formulated the "Implementation Plan for Whole-Chain Governance of Online Food Delivery Food Safety," providing a stronger basis for whole-chain, whole-cycle, and whole-factor governance.
Food safety is no trivial matter. Jiangsu will continue to improve the institutional system for online food delivery food safety, continuously expand the coverage of intelligent supervision, and promote the transformation of the achievements of centralized rectification into long-lasting governance effectiveness, so that the broad masses, while enjoying the convenience of food delivery, can order with confidence, eat with peace of mind, and live with comfort.
Data source: Jiangsu Provincial Administration for Market Regulation
Return to TopOn the night of the full moon at Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese people always look up at the sky. Over many hundreds of years (千百年来, qian bai nian lai - "thousand, hundred, years, come"), this autumn moon has stirred countless feelings across the ages, produced countless masterpieces still recited today, and laid a gentle and deeply affectionate foundation for Chinese culture.
Today, we invite you to enjoy together the Mid-Autumn memories found in the classics, to follow the interpretations of renowned writers, to draw closer to the longing for reunion, the feelings for family and country, and the broad-mindedness behind the written words, and to feel together the shifting autumn charm upon the land. The full moon remains the same, and the cultural heritage is passed on; this profound meaning that spans the years still shines brightly and clearly upon us.
—Editor
Return to TopBy: 康 震
Prelude to Water Melody
Su Shi, Song Dynasty
On the Mid-Autumn Festival of the bingchen year, I drank joyfully until dawn, became thoroughly drunk, and wrote this piece, also in remembrance of Ziyou.
When did the bright moon first appear? Raising my cup, I ask the azure sky. I do not know what year it is tonight in the celestial palaces above. I wish to ride the wind and return there, yet I fear the jade towers and crystal mansions, where the heights are too cold to bear. Rising to dance, I play with my clear shadow — how could this compare to the mortal world?
Turning around the crimson pavilion, lowering past the ornate windows, shining upon the sleepless. There should be no resentment — yet why does it always wax full at the time of parting? People have joys and sorrows, partings and reunions; the moon has its waxing and waning, its fullness and eclipse. This has never been perfect since ancient times. I only wish that we may both live long, and share the beauty of the moon across a thousand miles.
On the Mid-Autumn night of the ninth year of the Xining reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song (1076), it was destined to become a classic. On this night, Su Shi (courtesy name Zizhan), the prefect of Mizhou, drank until dawn, and in the depths of his intoxication wrote the "Prelude to Water Melody," whose origin lies in just three words: remembrance of Ziyou (Su Zhe, courtesy name Ziyou). After passing the imperial examination in the same year, the brothers Su Shi and Su Zhe spent increasingly long periods apart. Counting carefully, by this Mid-Autumn night of "joyful drinking until dawn," the brothers had not met for five years. The vicissitudes of life and the changing nature of the world (世事沧桑, shi shi cang sang - "world, affairs, vast, change") meeting with a bright full moon overhead triggered that famous question: "When did the bright moon first appear? Raising my cup, I ask the azure sky. I do not know what year it is tonight in the celestial palaces above." The question is innocent, even somewhat childlike, and the thoughts fly beyond the heavens, yet they cannot conceal the bleak mood of a middle-aged man: "I wish to ride the wind and return there, yet I fear the jade towers and crystal mansions, where the heights are too cold to bear." In truth, it is not that he does not wish to ascend and fly away, to escape this noisy mortal world — but how much of the chill of the jade towers can you really endure? Those who dare to ask are in fact all quite honest: repeated partings, hesitations, and disappointments are all hard to bear. Do you want to transcend these? And who can truly do so?
What is valuable is that in this Mid-Autumn lyric, Su Shi does not pretend to transcendence, nor does he strike the pose of a sage, but instead earnestly complains to the bright moon: There should be no resentment — yet why does it always wax full at the time of parting? Facing hardship and adversity, most people use "letting go" to escape, use "setting down" to numb themselves; in fact they have neither let go nor set down, but have only become more entangled. Su Shi, however, chooses to honestly admit: "People have joys and sorrows, partings and reunions; the moon has its waxing and waning, its fullness and eclipse. This has never been perfect since ancient times" — imperfection is itself the constant of this world, and the pursuit of perfection is merely futile human effort. Acknowledging the reality of incompleteness requires courage, and precisely because he has this courage, even knowing that "it has never been perfect since ancient times," Su Shi's life does not drift toward illusion, but becomes more lucid, more deeply affectionate, and more resolute: "Rising to dance, I play with my clear shadow — how could this compare to the mortal world?" — he of course will not flee to the ethereal heavens, but chooses to remain in the flawed yet warm, real human world. "I only wish that we may both live long, and share the beauty of the moon across a thousand miles" — since the world is inherently incomplete, then let us use our deep feeling to make up for this imperfection!
Su Shi's romanticism and lucidity, his serenity and courage, all stem from his deep affection for the world. Here there is the steadfast love of brothers: Ziyou was Dongpo's clearest voice of a kindred spirit amid the clamor of the mortal world: "May we be brothers in every life, and bind an unfinished bond in the life to come." Here there is the profound love of husband and wife: "In the night a fleeting dream suddenly carried me home; by the small window, she was just combing her hair." And there is the intense love of family and country: "I would draw my carved bow into a full moon, gaze northwest, and shoot at the Wolf of Heaven." It is precisely because he possesses such a rich emotional world that he can remain magnanimous in sorrow, steadfast in disappointment, sunny in melancholy, and confident even at the edge of despair.
On the Mid-Autumn of the ninth year of the Xining reign, though he missed his brother, he was not sorrowful; though he was wistful, he was not grief-stricken. Su Shi did not ride the wind and return; he remained in the human world, dancing beneath the moon, drinking and reveling with his shadow. He knew that the celestial palaces above were cold and lonely — how could they compare to the warmth of mortal lamplight; he understood that the world is inherently imperfect, but that deep feeling, experienced and possessed, can move toward completeness. The Mid-Autumn moon of that night illuminated not one man's solitude, but one man's attitude toward the human world.
(The author is a professor at the School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University)
Return to TopBy: 陈建森
Longing for someone far away while gazing at the moon (望月怀远, wang yue huai yuan - "gaze at moon, cherish far away")
Tang Dynasty · Zhang Jiuling
Over the sea a bright moon rises; at the ends of the earth, we share this moment.
Lovers resent the long night; all night long, longing for each other stirs.
I blow out the candle, cherishing the fullness of light; putting on my robe, I feel the dew moisten.
I cannot offer it to you filled in my hands; I return to bed to dream of a blessed meeting.
Since Zhang Ruoxu's "Spring River, Flower Moonlit Night" in the early Tang, the longing of a traveler under the moon at night gradually became a theme sung in Tang poetry. Zhang Jiuling's lines in this poem, "Over the sea a bright moon rises; at the ends of the earth, we share this moment," are clearly evolved from Zhang Ruoxu's "Spring river tide connects with the sea level; the bright moon over the sea rises with the tide" and "Whose tonight is the boat on the river? Where is the moonlit tower of longing?" The single character "share" (共) brings out "Lovers resent the long night; all night long, longing for each other stirs." The long night stretches on; the moon is full, yet people cannot be reunited — how could longing not arise? "I blow out the candle, cherishing the fullness of light; putting on my robe, I feel the dew moisten" — "cherish" (怜) means to love; because he cherishes the fullness of light, he blows out the candle and puts on his robe, steps out of the orchid chamber, walks into the courtyard, gazes at the moon and longs for the one far away, while the night dew gradually moistens his lapels. "I cannot offer it to you filled in my hands; I return to bed to dream of a blessed meeting" — since the moonlight cannot be offered in a full hand, and gazing at the moon cannot relieve the resentment of longing, better to return to bed and meet in a blessed dream.
For a thousand years, most readers have believed that "Gazing at the Moon, Longing for the Far Away" expresses the mutual longing of a pair of devoted lovers separated by vast distances, each gazing at the moon. If one considers Zhang Jiuling's official career, however, such an understanding may not exhaust the poem's meaning. Zhang Jiuling was a native of Qujiang in Lingnan during the Tang Dynasty. During the Kaiyuan reign, because of his elegant bearing, upright character, and outstanding talent and insight, he was greatly appreciated by Emperor Xuanzong and selected as chancellor. "Jiuling's bearing" (九龄风度) once became the standard by which the court selected high ministers. Yet he repeatedly criticized superiors with integrity (犯颜直谏, fan yan zhi jian - "offend face, straight advise"), and was successively demoted from a capital official to prefect of Hongzhou and later to chief clerk of Jingzhou. "Gazing at the Moon, Longing for the Far Away" should have been written during the period of his demotion to prefect of Hongzhou.
During this period, Zhang Jiuling was far from the court, leaving his hometown (背井离乡, bei jing li xiang - "leave well, depart home"), and so wrote many works gazing at the moon and longing for the far away. In his "Gazing at the Moon on an Autumn Evening," he says: "Clear and remote, the moon over the river city; its flowing light spans ten thousand li alike. What I think of seems like in a dream; we gaze at each other in the courtyard. Bright and pure, the dew on green moss; bleak and desolate, the yellow leaves in the wind. Full of feeling, yet unable to speak; time and again the osmanthus blossoms fall in vain." Gazing and longing under the moon in the courtyard, yellow leaves desolate in the autumn wind, osmanthus blossoms shaken down in the autumn wind — the one gazing at the moon's heart breaks along with them. Yet in "Gazing at the Moon, Longing for the Far Away," the poet's longing for the far away turns and winds with the moon's course; the deeper the "resentment," the more acute the "cherishing." The whole poem is like a spider releasing its gossamer thread — poured out in one breath, curling and unfurling with the wind, naturally assuming its form, with a mood more winding and profound than "Gazing at the Moon on an Autumn Evening," the language extremely shallow yet the feeling extremely deep.
The Qing scholar Yao Nai, in his Selected Poems of Modern-Style Verse (今体诗钞), praised this "Gazing at the Moon, Longing for the Far Away" as "the Li Sao among five-character regulated verse," a poem composed in emulation of the Li Sao's method of drawing on images and extended analogies — truly a kindred spirit across a thousand years. "Gazing at the Moon, Longing for the Far Away" is the artistic manifestation of "Jiuling's bearing"; the heartbroken man harbors a different aspiration. Qu Yuan, holding fast to loyalty and integrity, was slandered by the wicked; grieved and troubled in mind, not knowing to whom to pour out his heart, he composed the Li Sao. Zhang Jiuling, because he criticized superiors with integrity, was slandered and demoted, and so gazed at the moon and longed for the far away. Qu Yuan's Li Sao matched loyalty and integrity with fine birds and fragrant herbs, and matched the ruler with the spiritual cultivation and the beautiful one, expressing his feeling of "even if I die nine times, I still have no regret." Zhang Jiuling, by contrast, transformed something extremely hard into something extremely soft and flexible (百炼钢化为绕指柔, bai lian gang hua wei rao zhi rou - "hundred times tempered steel, transform into, wrap around finger, soft"), using the "lovers'" "all night" "longing" to lodge the scholar-official's feeling of longing for the sovereign and serving the state. A single thread of soft silk, rippling down to this very day.
(The author is a professor in the School of Chinese Language and Literature at South China Normal University)
Return to TopBy: 钱志熙
Poem on Autumn
Tang Dynasty · Liu Yuxi
Since ancient times, every autumn has brought grief and loneliness,
But I say the autumn day surpasses the spring morning.
In the clear sky, a single crane soars through the clouds,
And carries my poetic feeling up to the azure heavens.
Liu Yuxi's poetic feeling is bold and unrestrained; Bai Juyi called him the "hero of poetry." A hero of poetry is not only heroic in verse, but even more heroic in feeling. This poem is representative of that.
Ever since the Chu ci writer Song Yu wrote "How sad it is, the spirit of autumn! Bleak and drear, as plants and trees wither and decay" (from "Nine Arguments"), and the Jian'an-era Cao Pi intoned "The autumn wind is bleak, the weather turns cold" (from "Song of Yan"), the autumn in literati poetry has mostly been a tune of feeling sorrowful at the onset of autumn and the pain of separation (悲秋伤别, bei qiu shang bie - "grieve the autumn, hurt the parting"). Liu Yuxi's line "Since ancient times, every autumn has brought grief and loneliness" sums up the poetic history of autumn grief, and its syntax can be said to be extremely comprehensive and condensed. But this is only an opening; the following line, "But I say the autumn day surpasses the spring morning," is the truly startling line. In terms of the method of poetic construction, this line is called "reversing the case" — it turns out a new meaning. The life of artistic creation lies entirely in innovation. Innovation is not mere novelty for its own sake, but novelty that is also reasonable. This line breaks the millennia-old fixed mindset of autumn grief, yet it also speaks a truth of life: autumn can be grieved over, and it can also be rejoiced in — the key lies in the feeling of the human heart. A kind of heroic spirit can turn grief over autumn into joy in autumn. Such a line contains meanings that are truly too rich. Liu Yuxi said of writing poetry and prose that "a few words can illuminate a hundred meanings," and this poem of his own is an excellent example.
The first line, "Since ancient times, every autumn has brought grief and loneliness," is a comprehensive summary; the second line, "But I say the autumn day surpasses the spring morning," can be called a striking admonition. This is already a masterful stroke. But the even more brilliant part lies in the last two lines: "In the clear sky, a single crane soars through the clouds, / And carries my poetic feeling up to the azure heavens." People today may not be skilled at writing poetry, but they are skilled at writing papers. To put it in the manner of writing a paper, the first two lines propose the thesis. This thesis is extremely novel, but it needs evidence and argumentation, and that is exactly what the last two lines provide. The evidence of a paper requires comprehensiveness; that of a poem requires novelty. A paper must enumerate points one, two, three, four; a poem cannot do this — a poem can only create an image. The many manifestations of "the autumn day surpasses the spring morning" naturally cannot be laid out one by one by the poet, for if that were done, it would no longer be a poem rejoicing in autumn, but a rhapsody delighting in autumn. The poet needs to select images. Writing poetry, in the final analysis, is selecting images, and moreover the image must be new. From the many phenomena describing a clear autumn and a high autumn, Liu Yuxi chose "In the clear sky, a single crane soars through the clouds," which can be said to be both typical and highly individual. "And carries my poetic feeling up to the azure heavens" emerges as if from nowhere, fully explaining the reason for the earlier "the autumn day surpasses the spring morning." If "In the clear sky, a single crane soars through the clouds" is objective scenery, then "And carries my poetic feeling up to the azure heavens" is subjective feeling, and moreover this feeling is fully individualized. "Carries my poetic feeling" is a matter of the heart, while the three characters "up to the azure heavens" transform it into scenery before the eyes — feeling and scenery, heart and object, are thus fused together.
Such a poem has bold emotion, innovative imagery, and contains an upward spirit capable of elevating the realm of life. In terms of poetic style, it stands above the various masters of the mid- and late-Tang, approaching the grand atmosphere of the High Tang; yet its novel, striking, and startling style differs from the High Tang quatrain's "exclusive reliance on spirit and manner." Liu Yuxi is an extremely innovative poet, and this "Poem on Autumn" demonstrates the poet's unique individuality.
(The author is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University)
Return to TopBy: 蔡丹君
Excerpts from Dream of the Red Chamber
Qing Dynasty · Cao Xueqin
Here, the Lady Dowager still led the company in enjoying the osmanthus blossoms for a while, then returned to the feast to exchange for warm wine. Just as they were chatting idly, unexpectedly, from beneath the osmanthus tree over there, there came the sound of a flute, sobbing and wailing, rising and falling, drifting on the air. Set against the bright moon and clear breeze, with the sky vast and the earth clean, it truly caused one's troubled heart to be instantly relieved, all worries being simultaneously eliminated (万虑齐除, wan lv qi chu - "ten thousand, worries, all, remove"), and all sat upright and solemnly (肃然危坐, su ran wei zuo - "solemn, seriously, dangerous, sit"), silently appreciating the music.
Dream of the Red Chamber excels at using seasonal festivals as the warp and woof of its narrative. The entire book contains three Lantern Festivals and three Mid-Autumn Festivals, constituting a very important set of "six major structural junctures." The first eighty chapters actually depict two Mid-Autumn Festivals: one at Zhen Shiyin's home, and one in the Jia mansion in chapters seventy-five through seventy-six; had the later dozens of chapters not been lost, there would have been a third. In terms of structure, it first uses the Mid-Autumn Festival and Lantern Festival at Zhen Shiyin's home as an introduction, then takes the Lantern Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival in the Jia mansion as the main thread, reflecting the changes of the times within the rise and fall of the family.
Beyond serving this narrative function in Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin also created a unique Mid-Autumn aesthetic: using festival customs and worldly sentiments to write a deep feeling, and using imagery beneath the moon to warn against the illusions of the human world.
The Mid-Autumn Festival in the Jia mansion was observed with great ceremony. Before the moon rose, the main gate of the garden was thrown wide open, with large horn lanterns hung, and on the terrace before the Jiayin Hall, tower-shaped incense burners, candles, fruits, melons, and mooncakes were arranged in neat order, with worship mats and brocade cushions spread on the ground. The tower-shaped incense burner is made by binding bundles of incense into a pagoda shape, lit from the top, burning down layer by layer; one burner of incense can burn through an entire night—this is the display of a great household. According to the ancient rite of moon worship, "men do not worship the moon, women do not sacrifice to the stove," and those who worshipped the moon were the women of the household; the Jia mansion, a family of hereditary nobility, also observed these rites.
Mooncakes and watermelon are symbols of reunion. The day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Jia Zhen of the Ningguo mansion ordered these festival gifts to be sent to the Rongguo mansion. The mooncakes were "imperial-style pine-nut and walnut mooncakes," with flaky pastry made from Shandong fine flour, filled with pine nuts, walnut kernels, and melon seeds, lightly sweetened with rock sugar and lard—crisp and soft to the bite, sweet with a hint of nutty oiliness. When displayed, the watermelon would be cut into lotus-petal shapes, arranged in alternating layers, and offered beneath the moonlight.
After worshipping the moon, they went up the hill to enjoy the moonlight. When the moon reached its zenith, it became even more lovely. The Lady Dowager proposed enjoying the flute, ordered the flutist to be summoned, and further instructed that the music be played from a distance. The flute sound rose from beneath the osmanthus tree, drifting on the air between the bright moon and clear breeze, drawing everyone into its spell. The company sat upright and solemnly, silently appreciating the music. The flute sound evoked memories and quiet reflections, and the Lady Dowager, moved to the depths of feeling, unconsciously shed tears. As for the difference between the Jia mansion's past and present, she understood everything in her heart.
Over on the other side, Daiyu and Xiangyun quietly left the feast, descended the hillside, and went to the Aojing Pavilion, where they enjoyed the moon by the water and composed linked verses. Starting from the lines "On the fifteenth, the Mid-Autumn eve, / A carefree outing like the Lantern Festival," they sang on, elaborating the Mid-Autumn night in verse. Miaoyu emerged from the shadows, expressing boundless admiration, then offered her own views on poetics and completed the poem. These three "outsider" women of the Grand View Garden, apart from the boisterous banquet, forged a pure spiritual bond through poetry beneath the moonlit night.
Writing of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the bright moon, the flute sound, the laughter, and the linked verses composed apart from the feast by the daughters of the Red Chamber—within the lively reunion banquet, a different kind of profundity shines through. The trivial, authentic scenes of Mid-Autumn folk customs may be the fleeting reflections of Cao Xueqin's personal memories; the imagery of the flute sound, the cold pond, and the chill moon seems to be his attempt to awaken the dreamers of the Jia mansion. From this, we can better understand why Dream of the Red Chamber is a work that "warns against illusion"—it urges people to cherish the everyday, treasure what they have, and hold dear true feeling.
(The author is a professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China)
Return to TopBy: 袁勇麟
Excerpt from "Moonlight Cake"
Contemporary · Qi Jun
Moonlight cake may be a type of mooncake unique to my hometown. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, every household and every shop would thread a red silk ribbon through a moonlight cake larger than a washbasin and hang it under the eaves. Candies were laid out before the porch, incense and candles were lit, and together with the bright full moon in the sky, they complemented each other in a charming way (相映成趣, xiang ying cheng qu - "mutually, reflect, become, interest").
Taiwanese writers Qi Jun, Bai Xianyong, and others are all masters at writing about the moon. The "moon" as an image holds a special and enduring significance in the literary imagination of Taiwanese writers. It is both a contemporary echo of the classical literary line "sharing the beauty of the moon across vast distances" (千里共婵娟, qian li gong chan juan - "thousand, miles, together, beautiful moon") and the inexpressible pain of separation during the period when the two sides of the strait were cut off from each other.
When Qi Jun writes about the Mid-Autumn Festival and the moon, she rarely directly depicts the cold clarity and haziness of moonlight. She prefers to write about moonlight shining on the human world—shining on a cake, on a pair of hands holding the cake, and in the eyes of a husband and wife smiling at each other.
Qi Jun spent her childhood in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, every household would hang a "moonlight cake" under the eaves, complementing the bright moon in the sky in a charming way. In her prose piece "Moonlight Cake," Qi Jun unfolds an unforgettable childhood memory around this. She "was the first to grab more than half of it, and sat on the doorstep slowly breaking it apart, smelling it, and chewing it." "Grabbed" conveys urgency; "slowly" conveys the reluctance to finish it and the cherishing of it; "breaking, smelling, chewing" sequentially engages the hand, nose, and mouth—not just preserving the taste, but also preserving the memory. The colorful paper pictures on the cake were printed with images such as "Chang'e Flying to the Moon," "Liu Bei Marrying a Bride," and "Xi Shi Worshipping the Moon." She would pull the paper pictures off and save up a stack of them. Even after growing up, she "couldn't bear to throw them away, and would often take them out to look at them. She even bound them into a book to keep as a memento."
One detail in the piece is especially moving. She quarreled with her maternal aunt's daughter over a moonlight cake and, in a slip of the tongue, said two words mocking her cousin's appearance. Her cousin covered her face and wept, and she also stomped the cake into crumbs, "feeling in her heart both pained and regretful." Her mother brought over a new cake and said with a smile, "A girl changes eighteen times before womanhood, and will turn into a face like Guanyin's," urging her cousin to bow more to the moon so that she would grow up beautiful. The two little girls then went hand in hand to the backyard and respectfully bowed three times to the moon. Many years later, the freckles on her cousin's face had not faded, but she had given birth to a pair of daughters as lovely as roses, and she spoke with a smile about the moon-worshipping of those days. Here, the moonlight is a witness to childhood reconciliation and a repository of lifelong remembrance.
With plain yet dense prose, Qi Jun unfolds past events from stillness to motion, from the shallow to the deep, and finally lets her pen rest on the homesickness within flavor: "Taiwan is a place that produces sugar, and mooncakes with all kinds of fillings are made richer and oilier than those on the mainland. When I think of the moonlight cakes of my hometown, that fragrant and crisp taste still seems to linger at the corner of my mouth." The more the food of this place fails to reproduce the flavor of old days, the more unique the experience of one's hometown becomes. The closing line asks softly—"Mid-Autumn Festival, year after year, comes and goes. When will I go home to eat moonlight cake?" A low sigh gives homesickness a concrete shape and taste.
In another prose piece, "Spending the Mid-Autumn Festival with a Cake," Qi Jun writes about her husband bringing back a Suzhou-style flaky mooncake and saying, "What we are eating is the moon, not a cake. Look at this snow-white appearance—isn't it even more like the moon?" The moon connects the ancient and the modern, the concrete and the abstract, imagination and reality, precisely echoing that line of verse sung for a thousand years: "May we live long and share the beauty of the moon across vast distances." Moonlight gently envelops Qi Jun's writing and also reflects her outlook on life: some flavors, once tasted, are never forgotten; some moons, once seen, are forever fixed in the mind.
(The author is a professor at the College of Literature, Fujian Normal University)
Return to TopBy: 萧南溪
Excerpts from The Long March Diary
Contemporary · Xiao Feng
September 12, Clear
Set out at dawn, passing through Baladian, Anwa, and Nagao, arriving at Axiang Township to make camp, a march of eighty li.
Every Mid-Autumn Festival, I always think of one page from my father Xiao Feng's Long March Diary.
September 12, 1935, the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. After the date, my father wrote only one word, "Clear," followed by: "Set out at dawn, passing through Baladian, Anwa, and Nagao, arriving at Axiang Township to make camp, a march of eighty li." No moon, no mooncakes, and not a single word of homesickness.
The fifteenth day of the eighth month, a march of eighty li. These nine characters always make me pause for a long time. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion, but that year's Mid-Autumn Festival, my father and his comrades-in-arms had just emerged from the vast grasslands, with hunger and exhaustion close on the heels of the column. Fortunately, the highland barley grew well in this area, making grain collection somewhat more convenient. My father recorded one matter in his diary: the Third Army Corps was still behind, and "the spirit of fraternal mutual aid must be carried forward." Of the grain collected, one portion was for their own consumption, and the rest was left for the comrades following behind. Those who have crossed the grasslands know best the weight of grain — a handful of highland barley, a mouthful of fried flour, could determine the life or death of a person, of a column.
In ordinary households, by the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the lamps would already be lit and families seated together; on the Long March, the Mid-Autumn Festival meant marching by day, holding meetings by night, and at dawn the column would continue northward. The next day, they marched another seventy li. The day after that, overcast and rainy, the troops collected grain in the area of Maya Monastery in Axiang Township. To observe Red Army discipline and respect local customs, they bivouacked out in the open, and having borrowed grain, they also left behind receipts. My father wrote: "This borrowing of grain was a measure of last resort; we ate it, and our hearts ached all the while."
My father did not write whether there was a moon on those nights. His diary rarely indulged in elaborating in detail (铺陈, pu chen - "spread, elaborate"), and rarely in melancholy; the harder the times, the shorter the words. In the past I often could not understand why my father, who had personally experienced so much life and death, wrote only a few brief lines in his diary. It was not until one late night in the summer of 1988.
By then my father was past seventy, still sorting through his wartime field diaries. In the middle of the night, I woke up and saw that the light in my father's room downstairs was still on, so I went down to urge him: "Dad, it's the middle of the night, stop writing." My father looked up, and only then did I see that his face was covered in tears, and the manuscript paper bore tear stains as well. I had never seen my father weep so sorrowfully, and I hurriedly asked him what was wrong. He said that sorting through the diaries had brought back memories of the comrades who had sacrificed their lives: "Some of them were more capable than I, some were more educated than I, some were better at fighting than I, but they are all gone. I am a survivor who crawled out of a pile of corpses." It was that night that I came to understand that behind those brief, calm words lay the people and events he could never forget in his lifetime.
Ninety-one years later, following in my father's footsteps, I too am walking this road. The mountains, rivers, roads, and place names that I had previously only read about in his diary now came before my eyes one by one. Arriving in Yan'an, the Mid-Autumn Festival was also drawing near. Yan'an was the foothold where the Red Army's Long March achieved victory, and also an important starting point for the Chinese Communist Party's leadership of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Standing here, looking back at the road my father traveled, I again think of that Mid-Autumn Festival diary page that never mentioned the moon, and of the figure of my father weeping as he sorted through his diaries under the lamp.
In Yan'an, I ate the local old-style mooncakes. The mooncakes are sweet, and the day when ten thousand families reunite is sweet as well. This sweetness was walked out, step by step, along a long and arduous road, by my father and countless others like him.
(The author is Xiao Feng's daughter)
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